Larry Abrams and Jim Hardy

[00:00] LARRY ABRAMS: Hi, my name is Larry Abrams. I am 53 years old. It's Tuesday, June 15, 2021. I'm speaking from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. My partner's name is Jim Hardy, and he is a brother teacher. He is also a founder of a nonprofit, as I am a founder of a nonprofit, and it's something that we have in common. So about five years ago, I started to collect.

[00:26] JIM HARDY: I got. I got to introduce myself.

[00:27] LARRY ABRAMS: Oh, sorry.

[00:28] JIM HARDY: Sorry to interrupt you, Larry.

[00:29] LARRY ABRAMS: No problem, man.

[00:31] JIM HARDY: My name is Jim hardy, and I'm 44 years old. Today is Tuesday, June 15, 2021, and I'm in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I'm talking to Larry Abrams. And Larry's a partner in trying to make a difference in the world. Consider him a, you know, an inspiration, a collaborator, and a partner in trying to do something positive for our students and our communities.

[01:01] LARRY ABRAMS: Okay, Sue. About five years ago, I started to obsessively collect gently used children's books because I, for the last 20 years, have been teaching in a school district, a very scrappy, working class school district. A lot of underserved kids, a lot of need, a lot of just amazing kids who lack the skills that. Not skills, but they lack the good things that their counterparts in the suburbs have. And so five years ago, my classroom started to overflow with children's books. They were everywhere. Then the clutter started to creep into my garage, and it soon became like an episode of Hoarders, because I would keep collecting thousands of gently used children's books to give them the way, way to kids who need them. So I am a newspaper reader, and I was just looking in the newspaper one day and boom, here's this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about a guy named Jim Hardy, who was a teacher, high school teacher, just like me. And I had an inkling that, you know, I wanted to start a nonprofit. I think I had just given it a name, and I needed a place to distribute these children's books that were beginning to overtake my home. And he ran a soccer clinic, a soccer club in Kensington or Kensington? Kensington, Philadelphia. And I reached out and he immediately said, yeah, we'd love to have your books and come on over. We're having an award ceremony. And then I went over the bridge into Philly, and I saw what he had. He had a facility, you know, a complex. He was renting room from a church, and it was vast, and there were tables and action, and there were kids all over the place. And I brought my books and we took a picture Together. And I walked away so impressed that another teacher actually started this thing that had wheels, man, like real wheels. And it was there I decided that I too could take this to the next level. I could find the money and I could find a means to develop my nonprofit called Book Smiles. And in so many ways, I have many inspirations. But Jim Hardy is a guy who jumped out of the plane first. And I'm so glad, Jim, that I am able to, that I was able to meet you. And we've maintained this connection and we're going to do great things together.

[03:43] JIM HARDY: Absolutely. You know, I have. I want to share a memory of like that day also, because I remember vividly when that article came out was huge for us because we've been grinding away for eight years doing the work of what, youth soccer in Kensington. And then boom, all of a sudden we're getting attention. But a lot of good things came from that. And you're right up there at the top of the list because every season we're trying to find a way to do more than soccer. And one of the main things we want to do is get books in our kids hands and give them a chance to read and celebrate reading and learning as part of our programs. And then here you come saying, like, I have books. I love what you guys are doing. We're going to come to you. You don't have to go out and like scrounge around for books or raise the money to buy books. This is what, this is what we do. And I had no idea, really, that you were just starting out because you seem to have your stuff. So together. You had your banner, you had your operation, you came out like, really ready to go. Right.

[04:44] LARRY ABRAMS: You know, I was doing what I always tell my students, fake it till you make it. And some of my students have graduated a long time ago and they'll come back. Hey, Mr. Abrams. Yeah. Fake it till you make it. That's what I do. So, yeah. I am curious though, Jim, how you even got into this. I mean, we are probably rare. I don't know of any other working teachers who actively start a nonprofit that encompasses so many hundreds of people and families. And we're kind of doing the same thing. And you gave me, like the confidence, the wherewithal to really go out and build it, you know, Field of dreams, baby. So. But I'm interested in like, what ignited you? What started you doing this thing? Because as I said, we teachers, we're in the trenches, we teach. And to start a non profit, man, is just different. How did you go about doing this?

[05:45] JIM HARDY: Well, for me, I mean, a lot of it does go back to why I wanted to be a teacher in the, in the first place. My background is in my more in kind of grassroots community organizing, trying to work with and bringing neighbors together, bringing people together to make a difference in our communities and advocate for political change. And I met some teachers who were activists and teachers who really inspired me to get my education degree. So I didn't start teaching until I was 30. And that, that was my original vision for myself was be a teacher, be work, work with the community in Kensington while putting my energies outside of teaching into trying to advocate for changes in education policy. And I was doing that. But the first few years of teaching changed my priorities completely. And it's kind of hard to talk about because it's an emotional experience, but I still believe strongly in the need for like, political and systemic change. But that personal connection with students and became. Just took over for me and became everything to me. And so I had, you know, just so many wonderful young people that I got a chance to know. And one of the first ones that had an impact on me was a student named Christian. Actually started out as a part time ESL tutor. And he was my student working with me. And he dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player. And his father was from China, his mother was from Mexico, and all he could talk about was playing soccer. So I thought, let me find a soccer team for him to play on. And I called around and there's, there's a team nearby us, but they didn't go as high as high school. I called around to some other teams and they said, sure, come on out. Come like, come for a tryout. And it was just across Philly and Fairmount Park. And I told him about it and he was like, oh, that's great, but I don't have a way to get there. So I figure, okay, you know, I can like make the, I can facilitate, I can help make it happen for him. And I talked to his parents. I picked them up and took him to the tryout. And the team loved him, ready to have him on the team. I talked to the team, the coach, about a scholarship because I knew his family wouldn't be able to afford this really expensive team. And they said they could work that out. And then it came time to figure out how he was going to get to practices and get to games. And they're playing games all over the city, they're playing games in the suburbs, they're going to tournaments and There was no one on the team that could pick him up. And for me, just remembering, like, having to talk to him, and he thought he had this chance to play, and then it just fell away, it fell apart because, you know, even. Just even getting to practices, let alone these tournaments, was just going to be impossible for him. And that's, that's what really started me thinking about, you know, maybe I should give up my. My Saturdays playing soccer, just, you know, playing the rec adult leagues, and try to create something for our kids to be able to play where they live instead of facing all these barriers of transportation and cost. But I'll be honest, I didn't. Like I was thinking about it, but I did. I didn't start moving on it right away. But then I think it was about a year and a half later at the end of my summer after my first full year teaching full time. And I got to know most students a little while. Like it was overwhelming that first year didn't connect with too many students. But there was this one student. I didn't even teach him, but he was just like, positive, friendly kid. We'll see him in the hallways, talk to other teachers about him. And over that summer, he got in a fight in the, in the park and he. And he was killed. And that really shook me. And I still think about him and his name. His name is Eric. Eric Dixon. And yeah, it still breaks my heart thinking about him. And that really pushed me to really rearrange my priorities.

[11:05] LARRY ABRAMS: And that was your wake up. You know, like a, like a wake up is too mild a word. But there, that was your, like, it's an imperative to get out there and not just like, teach, you know, like, okay, we teach 7:30 to 2:30 every day, but to go out and to truly do stuff. And man, and I relate to it in a couple of ways. What got me to start book smiles really was a conversation that I had with one of my students. She was one of my seniors and she had a baby girl at home. And I was like, towards the end of the year, I was just making small talk with her, like, so what are you reading to your baby girl? And she said, oh, Mr. Abrams, I'm not reading to her. Well, why aren't you reading to her? Well, she's too little. She's a baby. She doesn't understand. And I said, no, no, no, man. Like, she does understand. Like, I'm a dad, you know, And I. Here I am, Jim, going into parent to parent mode with my student. Right? Because that's how it is sometimes. And I said no. She, you know, when my kids were little, we read to them and I read right out of the womb, you know. And she said, well, Mr. Abrams, that's nice, but that's not part of my culture. Boom. Like what. And I needed then to do something. Like I needed some way to give my student books to take to her baby girl. Books are expensive and I get it. And we, I'm, you know, there's a lot of poverty where I teach and I didn't have any books to give her. So then I put a call out among family and friends. I've long since donated my kids children's books to the public library. I put out a call to my kids friends and to family and you know what? A thousand books just fell into my lap. They were everywhere. And so not only was I could I give books to my student, but then I started to give books to other young moms and pregnant moms. And I went and like that was my thing. And then, then it started to spread and then there's an elementary school across the street and I've got all these books. Let me, let me set up a pop up book fair because in my district there are a lot of kids who cannot afford Scholastic when Scholastic comes around with those shiny books. And I get it. Scholastic is amazing. I loved Scholastic when I was a kid. I don't want kids feeling less than.

[13:49] JIM HARDY: Yeah.

[13:51] LARRY ABRAMS: Do you hear me? You, you once mentioned to me something about equality of opportunity. Yeah, like what's your, like what exactly is that? What is equality of opportunity? I mean, I get equity, but I really like the phrase that you put together, Jim.

[14:09] JIM HARDY: I don't know, I don't know why that just came to me to think of it that way, but I think essentially it's the same idea, but it's really just about, you know, that you see how I think people really need to be challenged about their assumptions. And even like the most well intentioned people will look at someone's circumstances and like subconsciously think that somehow, like they deserved it somehow or didn't work as hard or.

[14:46] LARRY ABRAMS: Right. You're poor, you're lazy, you don't, you know, you're too lazy to do this and that. And they. Right.

[14:53] JIM HARDY: I mean we know and we know there's, there's some people who will come right out and say that and there's other people who will think it would not say it. But I, I think, you know, even maybe like amongst people who wouldn't consciously think that it. There's still a complacency about the lack of. The lack of equality and not willing to really wrestle with, like, what does it mean? The fact that the levels of opportunities are so different for different people and that we're nowhere near equality. And so, you know, we're just. I feel like we're just. We're trying to change the playing field to make it a little more fair, even in just small ways. But even that's a huge lift where we're talking about the ability to have your own books at home without. And have it accessible and have that right.

[15:40] LARRY ABRAMS: And the same thing goes to soccer. I mean, here, you know, where I live in Cherry Hill, a kid wants a soccer league. Boom. My. My kids were both in it. In a league, it's. Right. A little drive down the road, boom. There's a youth soccer league, you know, when they were like four, like. And it's there and it's easy and I could afford the spikes and all of that stuff.

[16:02] JIM HARDY: Yeah. Because, I mean, there's so many things. There's so many things like that. And just. Even. Just that access that's so often denied, whether it's, you know, not just a league to play in, but for soccer, a safe place to play, ability to afford it, the ability to, you know, have the. Have the support you need if your circumstances at home with your parents or working or whatever your circumstances are at home. You. Even if there's something that maybe is free, if your parents can't take you there, then it's not really accessible to you. Or, you know, if you have a library in your town, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have equal access to right to books. So we need to really, like, push to, you know, question, like, push ourselves and push each other and talk to our communities about how we can try to. What does it. What does it mean to have real equality? And it goes far beyond what you and I are doing, but at least we can hope to have that in the realm of, like, access to books to read, in the realm of abilities to be a part of a team and.

[17:12] LARRY ABRAMS: Right, right, right. You know, I mean, when people think about patriotism, they often think, okay, there's the flag waving and, you know, America's number one. And I look at it as a different thing. I believe that to be truly patriotic is to just be aware that there are others around who may not have, like, the great things and to share, to help people, to help elevate people, to help elevate people to read, to be active consumers. Of the news, you know, to be. And you on your end, you know, certainly you infuse books into what you do. It's not just all about sports and athleticism, but it's also developing scholars as well, like athlete slash scholars. I just do the scholar part, man. Like, I'm like, we don't run. We give a lot. You know, we give away tens of thousands of books away. So far, we've given away 535,000 books in four years. We're just getting started. There's so much work to do. But getting back to what it does it mean to be, you know, you know, like patriotism. And I think true patriotism means developing really great citizens, all citizens of all different backgrounds, you know, and to give everyone a chance. I believe that so strongly. Like, it just.

[18:40] JIM HARDY: Yeah, I think, I think about, you know, I think about the youth that we, that we work with, you know, and. Well, I'm thinking about a couple things. One, you know what you were saying about the people who came forward when you put out the call for help. And then I think, you know, I had a similar experience where when I decided, okay, like I'm stressed out and exhausted every day, but, you know, we shouldn't be in this situation. But I felt like person personally, I felt like I just had no choice but to, to try to find a way to do more. And, and starting the soccer, soccer club was my. One of the many things I tried. But you know, just when I put out the word to my colleagues, to my friends, the volunteers came out of the woodwork, people. That's exactly a chance to help. Yeah.

[19:43] LARRY ABRAMS: Or there are other. And there are other teachers who've gotten involved too, right?

[19:47] JIM HARDY: Yeah, yeah.

[19:48] LARRY ABRAMS: So we had other teachers and coaches and so you're not doing this on your own. And I have the same thing too. I mean, at Book Smiles we have had nearly about a thousand teachers from Philly from all over New Jersey come to the book bank to pick up books, to take them directly back to their kids and they even handpick them. We always say at Book Smiles it's, you know, you take an all you can eat buffet and you combine it with a used bookstore. That's what we've got. And you know, it's a glorious and beautiful thing to get other teachers, other do gooders, like people want to help. And that's what I think is very cool that you and I both have this forum sometimes. I just wonder though, like what you said, teaching is exhausting, you know, and it's early Hours and grading papers and lesson plans and it is so freaking, emotionally exhausting. You know, if you want to be good, you know, and be on point, just, you know, you're performing and then, you know, to come out of teaching and then do this non profit stuff like, I don't know about you, I don't get paid. I don't think you do either. Like, I don't do this. I get paid in other ways.

[21:02] JIM HARDY: Yeah.

[21:03] LARRY ABRAMS: And you know, it's, it's good and pure and it just, and it is tiring, but it's so energizing, you know, it's like tenor tiring and energizing at the same point. Okay, yeah. So Jim, but tell us a little bit more about the people who, you know, support you and.

[21:26] JIM HARDY: Yeah, yeah.

[21:27] LARRY ABRAMS: So yeah, it's like your town, like talk about your town, talk about Kensington, people that support you.

[21:33] JIM HARDY: Yeah, Kensington. I so, you know, I teach at Kensington Health Sciences Academy. It's one of the, it's a neighborhood public school in Kensington. And you know, in Philadelphia, it's Kensington mostly make makes the news as like a center of opioid epidemic, unfortunately. And it's been a part of the city that has been where the people haven't been given the same opportunities and for generations. And so I started teaching, I think I'm now 14 years in and teaching Spanish as I bounced around from subject to subject. But when I know when I decided, okay, let's give soccer a try. Let's see if soccer will be something that our children will be able to do outside of school. Because the experience of my student passing away made me think about like your experience did. There's a lot we can do inside the classroom. But if we can, you know, outside the classroom is just as important. And if we can use our position as teachers to have the impact be outside of the school, then we're. There's just so much potential there. And so I put out the word to my fellow teachers. We're a small school because there's a few neighborhood schools in the same neighborhood. And at the time I think we had like 20, 25 teachers in my school and like eight of them volunteered. And they're helping me make phone calls, they're helping me set up tables to get information out in the neighborhood. They help coach, they help fundraise, you know, also really, you know, busy folks. I don't have my own family, but you know, most of them did. But they still found time to help out and decided to make it an organization. Kensington Soccer Club. And we started in January, January 2010, with just a few. Few high schoolers playing on a Sunday in. In the local, local rec center gym. And what hit me there was the younger kids. Younger kids from the neighborhood would keep coming by and asking if they could play. And I was just thinking, do something with my. With my teenagers. And. But it was their younger siblings and younger friends and just kids from the neighborhood that. That wanted it even more. And so every time we would add another season, I would find a way to include younger and younger kids. But the real magic for me happened when I realized the potential of the youth themselves to be leaders in the organization, to be leaders in making change happen. And a couple years in, we got our first. First grant and decided to use it to hire the teenagers to be putting them to work.

[24:44] LARRY ABRAMS: First job for a lot of the kids.

[24:47] JIM HARDY: Yeah, well, and the opportunity to feel, to like. Yeah.

[24:50] LARRY ABRAMS: And to mentor and coach and make a difference.

[24:52] JIM HARDY: And I know you, I know you have that similar.

[24:55] LARRY ABRAMS: You know, we at book smiles, we're 300 535,000 books into this thing. And I am not just content with giving books to kids and. Okay, here you go, kids. Here are these wonderful books. And I think we've served probably about 75,000 students so far. Probably a little more. How many kids have you touched, do.

[25:23] JIM HARDY: You know, these years? Like, the past five years, up until this year, it's been about, like, between 1200 and 1500 in our programs each year.

[25:31] LARRY ABRAMS: Whoa.

[25:32] JIM HARDY: That's when we've gotten pretty, pretty big.

[25:34] LARRY ABRAMS: You're looking at several, easily several thousand kids in Kensington have been affected. I'm an English teacher. I'm a high school English teacher and have been for some time. And I noticed where I teach, a lot of kids come to me in the ninth grade and they really struggle with just writing, like, literally writing three sentences. They will make some egregious grammar mistake. And, you know, I thought to myself, what is going on here? Like, I. I would never blame the middle school teachers or elementary school teachers, but, you know, what's the formula? What's the secret sauce? And then it hit me. I did a poll once, and I asked my students, you know, silent poll, how many of you were read to when you were babies? How many of you own books when you were babies? And the only kids that raised their hands who had, you know, There were just two kids in this one class of 25 that raised their hands. Guess which kids had the A's and the B plus? It was the kids who had books and who were Read to. All right. And like, boom. Like, it is such a solvable problem. Just giving, like, the little ones, like the equipment, the tools, the books. I'm telling you, it's. It's not magic. You know, I. This is a solvable problem and it needs to happen in more, more cities. But right now I'm just obsessed with Philadelphia, New Jersey, and that's as big as we want to go. Like, we have a lot of work to do, but, you know. Yeah, go ahead.

[27:15] JIM HARDY: Okay, Well, I wanted to ask you. How do you. All right, so the books are getting into going out from the teachers to the, to the children. And, you know, I, I remember you talking one time about the, like the role that the older siblings can play with their younger siblings. Yeah, you know, you tell me more about that.

[27:40] LARRY ABRAMS: Well, you talked before about mentors and how it's important to empower kids to go back to their neighborhoods, go back to their families and to the little ones, and show them the way. Well, we do the same thing with books. We're not just content to give books to students. But if you're a third grader and you receive a Judy B. Jones or a Magic Tree House, we are really good at giving books like Goodnight Moon, you know, like the baby board, the Chunky baby board, books that are kind of like toys. And so we're really good at giving those to students and having them be emissaries. Take it back to your baby brother and sister. And if they're, if your parents aren't reading to your baby brother or sister, hey, man, it's on you. You have to do it. They need to see you reading.

[28:30] JIM HARDY: Yep.

[28:30] LARRY ABRAMS: And that is the stuff that breaks, that will help break the cycle of poverty where kids grow up feeling academic. Like, you know what I'm talking about. When you have kids who are. Achieve academic success. Right. There are the kids who are not going to be getting into trouble as much. You know, those are the kids who will make it through high school. And believe me, man, I see a lot of dropouts. And I know you see it too, and it's heartbreaking, but kids with higher skills are going to be less likely to drop out. And that, That's, I think, what you're giving them, you know, like, hey, keep it up. What I'm giving them, hopefully that's a way to really keep kids in school. But we have to go outside of the school to keep the kids in school. You know, like, we have to think as educators. Okay, we got this. I got teaching, but what can we do? To affect change outside. And it's glorious and it's good.

[29:28] JIM HARDY: You know, I love the way you talk about it. I love your passion for it. Always makes me smile. I think about, like, I want to talk, you know, more about that mentorship piece and that role of, like, our children and our youth and really, like, you know, saving themselves. It's not like, I feel like our role is just as a facilitator. And like, the real credit is with the, like, you know, the parents and the youth who really, like, take ownership of their opportunity, unit of their. Of their lives. And I mean, people just gravitate towards and. And really do take advantage of the right that are there once that. Once they. Once they have them, once they're not having to jump over a million hurdles and, like, dodge bullets just to be able to have something. The. The thing with our. With our teenagers is, you know, we effort at first. We just had a little bit of money and we said, like, come, you know, come hang out all day, coach the younger kids. We'll give you, like, a few bucks to stipend. We'll buy a pizza. And there's some of them that were, like, okay, you know, they weren't really that into it, but some of the teens immediately, immediately took ownership over it. Like, this is my team. I'm the. I'm the coach. And they love so much the opportunity to be. To make a difference with the younger kids. To be looked up, to be role models, to be leaders.

[31:02] LARRY ABRAMS: Exactly. And it's the kids who are doing the heavy lifting, you know, as it should be. I'm not doing the heavy lifting. You know, it's. It's empowering the kids to do the heavy lifting and to. To go out there and make it happen and, you know, give. So. Yeah. What else did I want to talk to you about? Well, just follow up on that.

[31:30] JIM HARDY: I was thinking about some similarities between, like, what you and I do. Like, I mean, something we touched on a little bit before was just that removing of barriers, but that parallel of not having to, you know, having. Having your own resources. And, you know, we working with communities that are, like, deprived of resources so. Well, facilitating that. Yeah, that. Trying to break down those barriers so that people have their. Have their own resources, have ownership over of it themselves.

[32:11] LARRY ABRAMS: I hear you. You know, I. We at Book Smiles, we say that we irrigate book deserts. You've heard of food deserts? Well, there are book deserts. And so what we do is we irrigate book deserts. We let it flow. You do the same Giving opportunity to get involved in quality soccer with quality equipment. Of course it costs and it's cool that people see what we do and, you know, yeah, we're teachers. I mean, one. Another similarity that you and I have is we're teachers, but we're also fundraisers. You have to be like executive director. So, you know, figuring out how to attract money and convince people, hey, you know, we're doing good stuff here. It only costs for US 25 cents a book. A quality hardcover book that goes for 18 in Barnes and Noble. We can give to kids for 25 cents. But certainly getting funding will give us legs. We can help, you know, hire more people and help more kids.

[33:09] JIM HARDY: But. Yeah, so where would you see yourself, like, you know, in the organization in.

[33:13] LARRY ABRAMS: 10 years, probably stepping out, having someone else be executive director. And we're not going to stop until every child in Philadelphia and in New Jersey, every child living in a book desert has at least 50 books of their own. We want our kids to become book donors themselves. Talk about empowerment is what we were just talking about. Hey, kid, I get it. You live in a one, you know, two bedroom, three generations in one in a two bedroom apartment. Well, look, you have books and other boys and girls in your area in your family may not have them. You need to pay it forward, donate it, and you know, share what we call the book wealth, you know. Yeah, and share it. So.

[34:03] JIM HARDY: That'S a, that's the vision. You know, I, I feel kind of the same ambitious vision really for, for soccer in Kensington, where I made a map of all the schools, parks, community centers and rec centers everywhere. I mean, we, we folk, we're focused on Kensington, but we're looking at. Okay, there's a lot of children nearby. They're not that far away. So really everywhere in like North Philly. From everywhere. From like the northern edge of Center City up towards like the boulevard, from river to river. Like we have children to come and play and even further away and if we could, you know, with enough support, we have, we have the, you know, passionate teenagers who just love to coach the younger kids. And a lot of now our young adults are former teen, former players, former teen coaches and you know, like you said, getting books into every family, every kid having their own books. I've, I dream of like every of those schools and rec centers having their own after school programs in school. Learn to play the soccer in school, get your own equipment. Exactly.

[35:11] LARRY ABRAMS: Like. So, yeah, you know what? Maybe Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in Philly. Maybe you in Germantown, you know, and you Know, West Philly, you know, you can do this, too, but it just, It. You're only one guy, and it just takes other people to do it and share great ideas. And it's all about the kids, man, and improving and improving, you know, getting them out there.

[35:38] JIM HARDY: So I do get a lot of inspiration. There's. There's other soccer organizations in Philly that are doing great work. You know, we have, like, some other folks we work with a lot from AC Fairhill at German Town Soccer. There's some. There's some great fair amount. You know, there's. We're not. We're not alone out there. It's great to be part of, like, a community of organizations that are really trying to make soccer accessible.

[36:00] LARRY ABRAMS: That's good. It's good not to be alone. And we. There are other book agencies that redistribute book wealth. Keeping books away from the big box bookstore, Big box thrift stores. Once a book goes to a big box thrift store, it's gone. And you, my friend and I, this summer, we are going to have a book drive and a soccer equipment drive. We are going to make that happen. We are going to go to those neighborhoods where that stuff is all over the place, man, and it's just redistributing the tools. That's all it is, you know, like, paying it forward. So I want to, you know, it was so much fun talking to you today, you know, and it really. I'm fortified. I really am after talking to you.

[36:44] JIM HARDY: Well, I feel the same way, and I really thank you for that. But before we wrap up, I wondered if you, like, wanted to share, you know, if any of your community, your supporters, your kids that your students were to hear this, like, what? Would you have a message? Not to put you on the spot, but would you have a message for them?

[37:05] LARRY ABRAMS: Listen, now that the pandemic is hopefully wrapping up and we're going to start a new school year, we've been kind of idle in the district, in my particular district for a bit, and I just can't wait to irrigate the district where I teach in Lindenwold and.

[37:28] JIM HARDY: You.

[37:28] LARRY ABRAMS: Know, I just want to inspire others to redistribute book wealth. You know, again, it's not rocket scientists. What about you? Like, what do you want your folks to know?

[37:38] JIM HARDY: I guess I mostly just want to thank them because, you know, we. We wouldn't be able to do anything with soccer as a team sport the way it is. And, you know, we really. We're talking 1500 kids who might have like 80 coaches in a year. So they're really just people of Kensington and the surrounding neighborhoods that they mean so much to me. I'm just feel blessed to be able to know them and to work with them.

[38:07] LARRY ABRAMS: I gotcha. And when teachers come to the Book bank, it's magic, baby. Like, I have teachers coming in on Sunday morning. Like their time off, they come in after school on Wednesday. And a lot of them drive big distances. Like, we have teachers coming from all over the state, sometimes driving an hour and a half to come to the Book bank to fill up on books. And doing a three hour round trip like that always inspires me when I have teachers coming across Ben Franklin Bridge, paying that five bucks and driving in to pick up books to get loaded into their minivans and cars to give to those precious children. And then once, you know, again when the big box, when the, you know, glossy book fair books are there, it's not so bad because it's like, hey, here you go. Here's some books. Yeah, yeah. So it's a great thing, and we're going to be doing great things together.

[39:03] JIM HARDY: Absolutely. I always, I always love a chance to talk, to talk with you. And it's great to be able to have a, you know, a partner in doing this work.

[39:12] LARRY ABRAMS: All right, let's go get it, my friend.

[39:14] JIM HARDY: All right, Larry, let's go.

[39:15] LARRY ABRAMS: All right.