MorningStar Foundation: Lifewater International

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Welcome to the answers for elders radio show. meet the trusted experts who will give you straight answers and will health guide you on the path of later life care. Now here’s your host, founder, caregiver and CEO, Susan Newman, and welcome back everyone to the answers for elder’s radio network. And we are here with John Yeager, who’s the operation specialist at Morning Star senior living, and we’re talking about the power to do something greater in the world and I think that is something that we’ve really been excited I’ve been really looking forward to talking to you about your foundation and certainly this is a wonderful opportunity to do so. And so, John, we talked about it in general of your philosophy and our last segment. Tell us a little bit about I know you do a program I think it’s called quent for Lifecom for those that are listening. Tell me a little bit about that program yeah, absolutely. So we created a Morning Star Foundation in two thousand and nineteen and serving others in our local communities and are on the world has always been near and dear to our heart from the very beginning. But we really formalized in two thousand and nineteen and under the umbrella of the Morning Star Foundation. We have local nonprofits that we serve alongside, but they’re also international nonprofits that we serve with on the international side. The first organization is called lifewater International, so they’re base out of the US and they are doing some of the most incredible work in the world today. They serve in East Africa and Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia and they’re also in southeast Asia in camel hat. They have a phenomenal holistic program to water development that starts with an education program and then they bring that clean water access. So our our and of experience in our in our time serving with them has been some of the most incredible experiences in my life and it’s our it’s our heart to tie our teams, to tie our residents into the work that life water is doing around the world. That’s incredible. Now, what made you choose to partner with life water? That’s a really a unique thing for our industry and I love it. Yeah, absolutely. The story kind of starts with our managing partner, Matt Turner, who works from morning start out of Denver. He had a friend invite him to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on as little life water trip was a big fundraiser for life water and he went on this trip and ever since then he’s been the biggest champions, such an incredible ambassador for life water. And after that trip I had the opportunity to travel with life water to Ethiopia and one of the most powerful trips of my entire life. We flew into add US Ababa, the capital, we drove deep, deep into the Bush of Ethiopia and it was there that I came facetoface with the water crisis. You know, it is a reality in the world today that I don’t think a lot of us truly are don’t. Yeah, we don’t see too much about it, you know, and even if we do see something on the TV, it’s easy to change that channel and if it’s on the other side of the world, it doesn’t really, you know, wreck and grab your heart like it does when your facetoface with it. And that’s why I saw, when I was in Ethiopia with life water, just the sickness and and the pain, the suffering and the death that comes from simply not having clean water. It just blew my mind and when I was facetoface with that, I knew there was something that we could do about it as a company, and that’s why, you know, we we’ve decided to make that strategic decision to partner with life water and do everything in our power to come alongside them and support that life saving, life transforming work that they’re doing around the world. Sure well, and you know, I it’s really true that we are so fortunate in this country. You know, we don’t think about what things are like on the other side of the world. And I know for me personally, the long time ago I went to Spain and I decided to take this hydrofoil across the Straits of Gibraltar into Tangier and I had my first and of course I can’t even imagine Tangiers light compared to where you went right, but I remember walking through the CAS Ba right, which is you know it. We’ve heard of the CASBA, but the thing was is that they were so proudly displaying their produce out on the tables and seriously, their oranges were the size of golf balls. HMM, you know that the the you know, nothing was fresh. You know apples are. You know, we’re really old and they were just not there wasn’t anything. That what we’re used to in this country and we are so spoiled in so many ways of the quality of things that we have in this in this country that we don’t necessarily realize. You know what you know. That’s about, and I think about water. Is the source of everything, right. It’s the source of how everything grows. You know, the kind of food that is produced everything. So you know, to think about what you’re doing is phenomenal. And you do so, John, through a special event. Do you not? Do not do that? That’s yeah, several years back we were brainstorming. We had some leaders around the table and we were trying to come up with some new ideas to really do some fun raising for lifelong and I’m a huge Golfer and a lot of people who are on our team are huge golfers. So we decided to put together a golf current tournament called that Wench, and so we started that and just for example, last year, we host it here in Denver every August and we invite anyone from our communities, are community teams, any venders, any relationships that we have. We invite them to come to the golf course, come support life water through this tournament. Last year we were able to raise a hundred and twenty thousand dollars from this golf tournament. That is not all went to the life transforming work that life waters doing an Ethiopia. We’re able to do some pretty incredible things in specific region and it’s all about, you know, engaging the local community here in Denver with the community in Ethiopia and it we have a really, really beautiful thing to see that come together. Remind me, because you have a former Denver Bronco that is very much into fitness and in but he lives in Seattle and that’s Mr Hilary Butler and he was went to the University of Washington and he played for the Denver broncos on their Super Bowl team like ten fifteen years ago, something like that. But Anyway, I’m he’s an avid golfer to you should connect with him. He might be a good resource for you. Oh, absolutely, that would be special. And you get he’s a dear French mins. Yes, awesome. Yeah, he’s trying to kind of work together with life water. We’d love to make that around absolutely, absolutely well, you know, and and certainly just hilary knows, all of the of the legends you know that are from Denver. So I don’t love it be a great they would be a great draw for a lot of people to participate, for sure. And since you took our quarterback, you know. All right, we sorry about that. Yeah, we’re going to turn on Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos Open. Yeah, so tell me a little bit about you know, you do your event, you do your Golf Tournament and it’s the ninth of August, like it is. Our people invited. Do they sign up for it, to participate on and how many participants can you actually have through this process? Yeah, we just launched our registration last week. So at quench for life, the number for you can go on read about the tournament, get some great information about life water and then also register or sponsor. We’re looking for major sponsors. You want to come out and be a part of the day. It’s just incredible and we’re hoping to raise a hundred and FIFTYZERO dollars this year to support life watering that and their work. So we’re honored to be able to share that with our residents, with our team members, with venders, any supporters who come alongside Morningstar. We invite them to be a part of it absolutely and and certainly to just have that fee awareness that it’s happening. I’m sure you have an ability to just people send in a donation as well, do you not? Yeah, absolutely, that’s one of the you know, until the day when we can get on a plane together and go to Ethiopia and exactly participate in some of the work. Yeah, financially supporting it is an incredible way into your point, you know, just the the perspective and the understanding into the developing world. How how life is not like you know, the world is not like America. America is such an anomaly the resources and opportunities that we have. But when we are able to take that kind of leap of faith and give a financial contribution or make that sacrifice to giving something as simple as clean water, I mean it is the most impactful, the most transformative. It is truly, truly, you know, bringing incredible opportunities to thousands of people. That is so incredible, John, and I certainly I think about again the going back to that sense of purpose. Wow, to raise that much money in such a short period of time that you’ve been in the existence since two thousand and nineteen, since you started this. That’s amazing and it’s certainly shows to the commitment and the testimony to, you know, what you guys are willing to step up to do, and no wonder you’re inspiring people across the country and certainly in all of your communities. And how do you do that? Do you put that out to the the ten states that you serve, or how, specifically for your people, do you invite vendors who all usually shows up for this tournament? Yeah, I mean that’s the first thing that I will speak to when I’m in one of our communities. I’ve, you know, been able to experience it and see it firsthand and I love nothing more than connecting our teams, connecting our residents, our family members, you know, to our heart to serve those throughout the world. Yeah, well, I will absolutely preach that every single time and I’m in a community. But we also send out kind of flyers, we do all kinds of you know, kind of advertising and marketing and trying to spread the word to those, you know, specifically in Denver, but from time to time. There are those in other states who hear about it and want to get, you know, be in a position to participate in it and absolutely, absolutely welcome. Absolutely well, we’re excited to talk about it and and certainly we love to have you, as we get little closer to the event, kind of give us an update of how it’s going and love to do a couple more podcasts on this and man, so good. Well, will greatly appreciate it. Okay, John. So how do we reach you? Yeah, you can pull up quench for the number for a lifecom. There’s contact information right there. Learn more about the tournament, learn more about life water and that is the best way right and certainly for those of you that are wanting more information, we are here with John figger from morning stars senior living, and to get more information about morning star you can go to morning star senior Livingcom and John and I are going to come back and talk about another really amazing outreach program that Morning Star does and will be right back right after this. We at answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website and discover our decision guides that will help you also navigate decision making. Find US AT ANSWERS FOR ELDERS DOCUM