Dorothy: [00:00:00] Today you’re going to hear the story of Max Gerall and his founding of an organization called REACH. But you’re going to hear more than just a founder talking about a program he started to help people. You’re going to hear what happens when a young man finds himself stranded in a world that there is no one that he knows and no one that is there to help him.
He says, let’s this beautiful human who did not look like me, didn’t sound like me, didn’t come from a similar background as I did, but soon I learned that she cared more about me than anyone else in the entire campus. That was the start of Max seeing people who now are called Essential Aggies and learning about the problems they had in accessing housing, healthcare, and all the other issues that so many of our essential workers face. Hear his story and what he’s doing to change the world, one essential worker at [00:01:00] a time.
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So tell us something about Max and tell us why in the world someone so young would have started a non profit that is impacting what? 3,000 people right now. Oh my gosh, that is incredible.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Well, not sure what to say about Max per se, but
Dorothy: Oh, there’s much [00:02:00] to say about Max. You know you you were on one path, but you weren’t sure.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: If I’m understanding the story, right? And then it was like something opened up for you.
Max: Yes, ma’am. It all really started my true freshman year of college. I actually went to University of Tampa out in Florida, and my goals were to play basketball out there. And so while I was there, that was my sole focus until early November.
I woke up with some severe tingling in the bottom of my feet that throughout the day progressed up through my ankles, my shins, my thighs. Uh, by 5 o’clock that night, I was completely paralyzed at the, uh, Tampa Hospital, um, and two and a half weeks later, I was diagnosed with something called Guillain Barré.
And during that time period, I, I kind of thought my whole world paradigm was shifted. I, I kind of thought I’d move back home with my dad. I would continue to maintain the hospital presence that needed to get me back on track and that was going to kind of be my new life. But my dad had much different [00:03:00] plans.
He actually went on to my Apply Texas and submitted my A& M application for me, uh, when he realized that I wasn’t going to do it. And that transition of, you know, moving home, being sick, and then having to kind of restart in that college environment created an incredible amount of anxiety and fear and dissonance.
I remember vividly calling my dad every night, crying, begging him to come and save me, come and get me out of this place. And my dad basically told me time and time again, it ain’t happening. You know, our family, you’re going to go to college, you’re going to graduate college, but he did say the best way to overcome that anxiety is to go and meet people.
And granted, it took me quite some time to take his advice, uh, but once I did, uh, the first person that stuck out that olive branch was Miss Melissa Martinez, a food service employee at Sbisa Dining Hall on the Texas A& M campus, and I’ll never forget walking into the cafeteria that day and her beautiful smile and bright blue hair. I could see it [00:04:00] through the tears that were rolling down my face, uh, but she noticed that and she put out that olive branch and instead of asking the traditional dining dollars for meal swipes, she asked, Sweetie, what’s wrong and how are you doing? And that’s really where it all began. This beautiful human who didn’t look like me, didn’t sound like me, didn’t come from a similar background as I did, but cared about me than anyone else in the entire campus. And that’s how REACH got started. I couldn’t stop thinking about Mama Mel. And all she did, I say she was the beacon of light that led me through undergrad and and quite frankly opened my eyes to the much bigger universe that’s all around us.
Dorothy: Alright, I’m going to back a minute. Because you kind of jumped over your illness. Is it still around? It’s gone?
Max: So, I still have neuropathies, uh, pretty substantial neuropathies. Um, unfortunately, I’ll probably never be able to be in the same basketball shape that I was in, uh, constantly kind of working through that fatigue and those neuropathies more than anything. But the beautiful thing is every year that it doesn’t come back, it’s [00:05:00] exponentially less likely for it to come back. So I feel better and better every day, uh, that I don’t have to deal with that again.
Dorothy: Well, we, we certainly wish the same for you. My goodness. So you’ve gone through this terrible illness. You have this strong father who’s not gonna let you stop.
Max: Yeah.
Dorothy: And you talked about how you’re, you’re in a very elite school. I mean, you know, and you have to be pretty smart to do that. And you have to have a certain amount of privilege.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: And yet it was this person serving you who brought, who really brought you around.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: Tell us what REACH is.
Max: REACH is a recognition that these service employees at Texas A& M, and quite frankly, across the country, have stories to tell and have needs that need to be met. It’s a marriage of how do we empower the university student to serve [00:06:00] those who serve us on a daily basis so that those families get that privilege and that access to resources that can and will change lives, uh, but also help expand and build empathy for our future leaders, these college kids. And to me, that marriage is extremely important in this day and age.
How do we build bridges between communities that don’t look alike, that don’t sound alike, that don’t have similar backgrounds or ideologies, but we all live together and we all need to coexist together. And how do we work together to make a better world? And so that’s really what reach is all about at the core. Uh, our mission and theory of change is all around relationships. Building Bridges, Making Relationships, and Sharing That Privilege.
Dorothy: How’d you figure that out?
Max: I stumbled into it, quite frankly. Mama Mel was the person who opened my eyes to an incredible amount. I remember in 2016, after I’d been at school for a few years, and, uh, Mama Mel told me that she wanted to introduce me to someone, and she pulls me over, uh, to the lady who worked at the omelet line.
And at this [00:07:00] point, I only knew the lady as the best omelet maker. The ham, onion, and cheese every day, that was the best. But it was on that day that I learned her name and her story. I learned that she and her 10 year old daughter slept on Mama Mel’s couch the night before and the weeks preceding that, uh, because that summer her mother passed away.
When her mother passed away, she could no longer afford the mortgage of the family home that she grew up in and that she raised her daughter in. And so she had a decision to make. Am I going to continue to work at the only job I’ve ever had? Am I going to allow my daughter to continue at the only elementary school she’s ever attended? Or am I going to pick up my life and move somewhere else and start fresh in a more affordable community? And for Ms. Fernandez, that decision was easy. A decision was being homeless and working that job and sending her daughter to that school. And that shook my world, shook my world. I had no idea how someone who took care of me and served thousands of others on a daily basis seemingly was invisible and no one knew what was happening behind the scenes in her world. And that’s [00:08:00] really what broke this all open and made me realize, wow, everyone has a story. Everyone has something going on in their lives. And the simple effort of being present and listening and, and being someone who cares can make a world of difference.
And that’s what really inspired it all was that realization and, you know, the hundreds of families that Mama Mel introduced me to after that because, once I heard that story I had to know was there more? Was this more widespread, was this more isolated? And so we went on a journey and heard beautiful stories. Ladies working in jobs that their grandmothers worked in. People meeting their husbands and getting married and having kids and their kids being the first person to go to college and going to A& M. I heard stories of ladies who had dreams of being able to take home Corps of Cadets to serve them during the holidays because that’s what her grandmother did and her grandfather did.
And that’s the only reason she took the job. So I heard beautiful stories. But then I also started to hear some pretty shocking ones [00:09:00] like Ms. Hernandez that really really, was a call to action for me.
Dorothy: What was the first thing you had reached to?
Max: The first thing we did was actually a health fair. I met many ladies that were walking around feeling lightheaded and dizzy. Having to take a seat in between cleaning rooms or taking out trash and not really sure why, but also recognizing that they lost their health insurance about ten years earlier because of a decision, a business decision, and basically succumbing to that this was their new reality, and that didn’t sit right.
I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew something was wrong. And so, I went to the School of Public Health, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Nursing, and asked for their help. And luckily, students were all on board, so we hosted a health fair. And at that health fair, we diagnosed 61 cases. 61 cases of diabetes. Ladies who had no idea they had it.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh.
Max: Yes, ma’am. And that was it. When that happened, it was like, okay, full force, [00:10:00] whatever we got to do, I know there’s more and I know we’re just barely scraping the surface.
Dorothy: How did you, how did you get them into some kind of health care for that?
Max: Yes, ma’am. So what we were able to do through a partnership with the School of Nursing and the School of Pharmacy is we were able to test, then we were able to purchase a year’s worth of strips and glucometers, and then we started to go out and look for low income or non insured clinics in the Brazos Valley and started doing referrals from there.
It wasn’t long before I met this beautiful human named Dr. Regina Beard, who was over the health science system at that time. And she saw the passion, knew the need already, quite frankly, and dove in full force and really helped building out structures. And one of the structures she built is what we call Clint Teams, where, uh, we help families not only navigate the healthcare landscape through interdisciplinary student teams, uh, but we help, you know, get on Medicare, Medicaid, but we also help goal set and we help live and learn how to live with [00:11:00] diabetes.
So students help you learn how to cook, how to work out, how to check your insulin. Uh, and, and this is all done through, uh, students and quite frankly, the vision of Dr. Beard. So, uh, it’s been a, it’s been a kind of a mesh of overlaying ideas from—
Dorothy: But they’re all volunteers.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: Wow. What a way to care for a community.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: Oh my goodness. You know, that’s just so extraordinary because you’re really not only finding it, but providing care. And that’s, you know, throughout my career, I’ve seen many times where, where you can diagnose someone, you can tell them there’s something going on, but if you don’t have a way to treat, then, what did you do?
You really didn’t do very much. Right. So, that is, that is so incredible. Now, I know it’s more than healthcare, but that was how we came into the REACH’s community, I guess, or family. Now, I think, [00:12:00] was it you, or who, who was it that found out about the mobile?
Max: So, it’s actually very interesting. About four years ago, I stumbled into a mobile clinic that y’all were hosting and was lucky enough to be told that I could refer, I could send patients over so long as they met those needs.
So, about four years ago, we had not an official relationship, uh, but there was a beautiful story that came from it that you actually might have heard in the TED talk, um, that, uh, First introduced me to the idea, helped me understand the importance of not just giving a diagnosis, but providing a pathway and, and helping through the process. Uh, but it wasn’t until this past year when a, a close friend, Ms. Tanja Mooring, she was a community member and advisor on my board, um, passed away from undiagnosed breast cancer due to lack of health insurance that it re-invigorated, I guess you could say, the passion to make sure that no one else suffers and no other family loses a loved one like Ms. Tanja. And, um, [00:13:00] reached out to our friends at the health district and they reminded me of The Rose. And so there’s this beautiful human named Ms. Emily, uh, out in the Brazos Valley who, uh, we’ve reached out and it’s been beautiful ever since. We’ve posted three, uh, pre checks and then actual screening days, um, we’ve, and our last one I believe there was seven out of eighteen that, uh, needed to be referred to further care, um, and it’s just been truly beautiful and we’re hoping to get to a quarterly opportunity with Ms. Emily on the Brazos Valley.
Dorothy: Oh, well, with your passion and Emily’s. Emily is our Community Uh, Engagement Navigator, which simply means somebody who lives in the community, knows the community, and works for The Rose to be sure that folks know that there is a place like this that a woman can go. But Max, you’ve touched death and really sad stories over and over again. Did that change you more than you [00:14:00] ever expected?
Max: It has, most definitely. Unfortunately, this past year I knew five essential Aggies that died from breast cancer because of undiagnosed and lack of health insurance.
Dorothy: Five?
Max: Five. Out of a population of 3,000. And that’s just by That’s just barely scraping the surface because I don’t have that type of relationship with everyone to truly know what has happened. But that was shocking. That was extremely humbling. And when Ms. Tonja passed, Ms. Tonja is near and dear to my heart. She was a community member who believed in me at the beginning. She went door to door with me, making introductions and helping me accept it into her community. And so when that happened, it was devastating.
I still get choked up. She passed on August 27th. This coming Tuesday will be one year. And so it’s still, uh, it’s still hard. Um. Um. Um. But it’s given me a passion and a drive to make sure that no one else in our community has undiagnosed breast cancer and has that lack of hope. And so we’ve relaunched this program in her honor. I’m [00:15:00] lucky to work with her mother, her sister, and her niece, uh, to be in the community and spreading into corners that I wouldn’t be able to reach, quite frankly.
Dorothy: That’s, that is so, I need to talk to them.
Max: We would love to.
Dorothy: Oh, my goodness. That, and that is so similar to The Rose, you know, there, there’s places I can’t go and we, we have the people that can, the volunteers or the ambassadors. I want you to go back a minute though, because you and I are talking about things we kind of halfway know. I know a little bit about, you know, a lot about. But tell me what the essential worker, I mean, who’s involved in that?
Max: Yes, ma’am. So the Essential Aggies, um, they are a population of 3,000 service workers on the Texas A& M campus and really on all college campuses and healthcare systems. Uh, but they are your food service employees, your maintenance, your grounds, your custodial, uh, your parking attendants. Uh, this population has about, Uh, 2 [00:16:00] years ago was outsourced, so from a state employment opportunity, to a contractual, for profit relationship if you will. And with that change which is a nationwide phenomenon, it’s not just the Texas A& M thing, I want to be clear about that.
There was a loss of healthcare, there was a loss of retirement. And that, uh, those, those are the things that really created a huge paradigm shift in the lives of these families and in the community. And quite frankly, is what’s leading to a lot of these health issues and lack of, uh, uh, screening capabilities and whatnot for this population.
Dorothy: Oh my goodness. And it’s nationwide.
Max: Yes, ma’am. This, uh, outsourcing is a nationwide trend, and I, I, I understand the, the business aspect of it, and quite frankly, I respect it. Because the goal of the university is to educate students and if there’s a way to get better teachers, have better facilities, provide better resources, I understand that. I understand that and I respect that. Uh, but we just can’t ignore. The [00:17:00] realistic negative ripples that have come from that business decision. And that’s where reach comes in. We look to fill in those holes in infrastructure. Whether it be healthcare, whether it be food assistance, whether it be adult education, ESL, GED, financial Literacy.
We’ve recently been able to even further sophisticate and we do entrepreneurship programming. We’ve helped launch 92 black owned businesses in the Brazos Valley. And we do homeownership. We’ve helped 11 custodians buy homes. Some of which used to drive. 55 miles each way every day in a carpool with three other custodians just to get to work, then walk another mile to get to where they park to where they actually work. And now, Miss Kathy has a home in College Station. She does not have to make that trip anymore. We’re very, very proud of that.
Dorothy: Oh, you should be. Congratulations. So I have so many questions. One of them is, REACH is replicable. I mean, anyone, not anyone, I mean, you have to have a [00:18:00] passion here, but it could be replicated throughout all the colleges, right? Because it is so two fold. Students have a chance to see the real world. And I know their world is real, but this is the other real world.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: And, uh, to start early, knowing what volunteering means and how important it is. You know, we have so many gaps in so many places in our nation, that they are actually changing and filling. And then the other part of it is the people you serve, my goodness. Have you had people approach you about come and do one here?
Max: Actually, yes. We, uh, very excited to say that we’ve been approached by a few groups in, uh, South Texas, uh, the Rio Grande Valley, uh, and as well as New Orleans, um, which is a really exciting opportunity there. The idea of pulling together about five universities in the New Orleans district. To be able to create a hub, a central hub, that would serve their campuses [00:19:00] and their students in one centralized place. Recognize the honest devastation that’s happened in New Orleans since all the hurricanes and, the no, rain drain that happened and how much good can be done. So that is part of our aspirational goals. Uh, and proud to say we’re working with A& M on that as well. One of those campuses in South Texas is an A& M campus, and they recognize the value we’re providing to the university. We help research dollars be used. We help build relationships in the community. We help students practice technical skills, build soft skills, build empathy, but also help protect the bottom line of the university, happier, healthier employees. Cleaner buildings, better food, higher retention rates. So I think A& M is starting to understand that we’re a huge value add and we want to be on the same side and the same team.
Dorothy: I bet that took a while though. Oh, it, believe me, always. And, and so many times the worlds are so closed that they, there’s just none of that being able to look outside that box.
Max: Yes, [00:20:00] ma’am.
Dorothy: So is this gonna be your career forever and ever?
Max: I sure hope so. I say that I found my life’s purpose. I wake up every morning thinking about this and go to bed every night thinking about this. And, uh, quite frankly, I, I. I plan on doing nothing else but this. Some capacity, I mean, we’ll see where the world takes me, but I’m very content and very energized to keep serving.
Dorothy: And that was never your goal to go in? No.
Max: I thought I wanted to be a doctor.
Dorothy: Oh, a long way off, yes. Well, and I think that’s just a tiny part of life that I think more people need to know about. I was never going to be in a non profit. I mean, non profit, what? Once you’re in, it, it is the most rewarding, um, and challenging career you could ever have and yet I, I never have a day I’m not ready to go to work. [00:21:00] I know that’s the same for you. I can hear it.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Yes. I always think, you know, the nonprofit environment is so interesting because the decisions we make on a daily basis affect lives, potentially save lives. Yet as a business entity, we’re constantly fighting with one arm behind our back. And so it’s, it’s interesting and it’s hard. Uh, but I think that trial and tribulation and being able to overcome that and still serve is what is beautiful about the industry. There are things that I hope change, right? Like the idea of marketing dollars, the idea of restricted gifts. I think there’s some things that would make our lives as non profit leaders easier.
Dorothy: Right.
Max: But—
Dorothy: And you know, uh, the talent that we need is often we’re not able to afford.
Max: Yes, exactly.
Dorothy: And you wouldn’t expect that in any other business, you know, but Because of our restrictions, it does show up. Max, go back a minute for your Essential Aggies.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: Am I saying it [00:22:00] right? Um, I was so surprised when we started serving the school districts and I would have people say to us, well, why is The Rose going to the school district and why do you need funds to serve people in the school district? And I said, because so many are part time and don’t have insurance, the bus drivers. Cafeteria Workers. It’s again, that non understanding that the uninsured are everywhere. You had an incredible expression that you used, and I thought, oh, I should have still that, where you said, you, once you saw them, tell, tell me it again. I don’t want to get it wrong.
Max: Oh no, I’m not sure what it was. You’re making me all nervous now.
Dorothy: You said, you said right under our eyes, or right, the, they are right there.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: And we don’t see them. It’s like you said.
Max: Hard to see and easy to overlook.
Dorothy: Yes.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: Say it again.
Max: Hard to see and easy to overlook.
Dorothy: And that is so true.
Max: Yes, ma’am. By design, by [00:23:00] design, and I think it’s important to underscore that because when you think about a custodian or a food service employee, right, let’s focus on a custodian first. If I’m a college student and I’m in my dorm taking a nap, do you want the custodian to come in and start changing the trash or cleaning out the bathroom? Or if you’re in a classroom and you’re taking a test, do you want them to come in and start sweeping? No, by design, they’re supposed to be there when we’re not there.
And so it creates this class of invisible population. And what ends up happening over time is the students begin to believe that that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That they’re supposed to be here to serve and they’re supposed to be here to be clean, but not when I’m here. And so there’s this lack of empathy there.
Right? And that’s what we try to break, is we try to help them see this person as a very valuable member of our community. And they are right underneath our noses, and they are hard to see by design. And it is up to us to ensure we don’t overlook them, because they are essential. [00:24:00] That’s literally the best way to describe that population is essential.
I mean, what are we going to do if we don’t have clean bathrooms, if we don’t have mowed lawns, if we don’t have individuals that, quite frankly, make life possible, right? And so I think it is a decision comes from the easy to overlook part. That’s, that’s where we all need to take a second to step back and Identify and appreciate that population.
Dorothy: Wow, I’ve never heard it described like that. Honest, Max. It’s by design. It is.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: Absolutely.
Max: Yes, ma’am. And you can continue to tether that out. I mean, maintenance men fixing projectors during a lecture? No. You know, like, and you just continue to work down. And I don’t think it’s the fault of us or the college kids, uh, but there is that opportunity to make sure that they aren’t overlooked.
Dorothy: Tell us something else about REACH. How, how do you, do people just know about you or do you do marketing to make sure they know about you? I know how hard [00:25:00] it is to do that kind of thing.
Max: Yes, ma’am. We have done, um, is that what we’ve tried to do is create what we call a program funnel. And so what we spend a lot of time doing at that front end of the funnel, the awareness portion of the funnel, is helping the students identify and appreciate the population while building trust and respect with that population.
And so we spend a lot of time on campus passing out waters, passing out fruit, going into break rooms, sharing a meal, breaking bread. We get a college student’s organization to adopt a custodial break room. Every month, they bring them a full meal and they go in there and show them all the attention that they deserve.
And in those moments, those relationships start to build, that respect and that trust starts to grow. And that’s how we’re able to continue to expand our reach, if you will. And we’ve been blessed by word of mouth. Uh, we are a small organization at this point in time, and so we don’t have a marketing budget.
Uh, but all of our programs, we have waiting lists into the [00:26:00] hundreds, and it’s because of the impact we’ve had and the intentionality behind our outreach and relationship building that quite frankly, our, our families are eager to spread it to their communities and their families and their neighbors so they can come in and benefit from our resources as well.
So, it’s a grassroots beating the pavement, showing people love, opening doors, passing out waters, uh, that’s how we’re able to really build that population and build that empathy in those college students.
Dorothy: And you know, I want to tell you something, you’ll never have a marketing budget. You will always, always depend on word of mouth, and what better way, because someone has experienced it. Someone knows what you’re doing. I used to say, there’s no better endorsement. You know, don’t, I can’t take an ad out that would mean as much as, as that.
Max: No one’s mother or sister or brother. You’re 100 percent right. Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: So what other dreams do you have for REACH?
Max: [00:27:00] Wow. Um, I’m a dreamer, so we could be here for a little while.
Dorothy: That’s okay.
Max: Well, I think that the two that come to mind for me, first is I want to be nationwide. There’s a paradigm shift in higher education where students are wanting to learn with their hands. Students are wanting to be out in the community. I recognize there’s a need for the classroom setting, but the appetite for getting out in the real world, getting their hands dirty, and being able to actually be a part of something bigger themselves, we have seen is overwhelming.
And so that paradigm, I think, really works well for the REACH Project to come in and provide those hands on experiential learning opportunities. Like our entrepreneurship class, we have a group of fellows that not only lead the communication, that do some of the TA, the grading, but work hand in hand as business mentors for our families going through the class, helping them build their budget, their marketing plan.
So I think that paradigm shift in higher education, coupled with this contractual [00:28:00] relationship that most universities are going into, creates the perfect storm for REACH to come in and start filling those holes. And so, I have a passion and a determination to bring this nationwide, but before that, what I also want to bring along with us is what we call a Reach for Home Village.
A lot of this started around the recognition that the population we wanted to serve can’t afford to live in the communities that they’re serving. Driving 51 miles daily, each direction, when you’re getting paid 8.30 an hour. It’s unconscionable. So what I wanted to do was to create a built environment where families could live closer to where they work and regain that 51 miles each direction and reinvest into themselves with onsite resources that go through the entire funnel.
In an ideal world in five years, we’ll be able to bring you in, we’ll be able to help you get your GED, learn English, we’ll help repair your credit, teach you financial literacy, but hopefully by the [00:29:00] end you’ll either graduate as a homeowner or an entrepreneur. This built environment will not only affect the adults in this situation, but the kids as well. They’re going to be surrounded by aspiring individuals who are working towards a common goal. They’re going to be supported by the university and their students and the resources that they bring with them, opening their eyes and breaking that cycle of poverty that we see day in and day out.
What blows my mind is the number of communities where the upstairs neighbor, the downstairs neighbor, to the left, to the right, they’re all custodians. How do you expect a young person to change their perspective, go and achieve something else, if that’s all they’ve ever been exposed to. And so I think that village concept is not only a wonderful solution for the adults, for the college kids, but also our future generation as well.
So, um, we would use that as a hub. We’d bring in all other nonprofits, right? So that there’s a central hub to serve. That’s another big complaint we’re hearing. Uh, the access is hard.
Dorothy: It is hard. That [00:30:00] is such a valuable, valuable idea.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Kind of like a community resource center. Be the hub of it with housing all around it, in essence.
Dorothy: How far along are you on this?
Max: I have property that’s been donated to me.
Dorothy: You’re kidding!
Max: I have an architect from the School of Architecture. His name is James Michael Tate. He is phenomenal. He’s already started designs. He’s already come up with some land plans. We’re in this process of actually looking for people to donors, grants, looking for some money to be able to actually get this off the ground, uh, because this model we believe, especially in college towns, is innovative and the solution that it’s needed.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh, Max, that is so exciting. I am so proud for you. Oh my goodness.
Max: Thank you.
Dorothy: You will, not five years, you’ll have that in two.
Max: I hope so. That’d be awesome.
Dorothy: You will, yes. I love it. Well, good luck in everything and you know, The Rose is here to be part of all that.
Max: Thank you.
Dorothy: We’ll, we’ll bring our mobile or whatever.
Max: That would be awesome.
Dorothy: Oh, [00:31:00] great story, Max. Great stories. Reminders that we’re all in this together.
Max: Yes, ma’am, very much so.
Dorothy: We’re connected some way or another and we, we’re going to have to do more.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. You actually inspired a story I want to tell you real quick, if that’s okay.
Dorothy: Sure.
Max: At the beginning years of the REACH project, I was really focusing on health and I told you I stumbled into The Rose at the Brazos County Health District and they told me I could refer patients and they told me I had about 15 patients to refer and so I go on a mission on campus, I put on my straw hat, my pink shirt, bring my wagon with some waters and I’m finding these custodians everywhere I could look and I find a custodian named Miss Patricia and I tell Miss Patricia about this opportunity and I recognize that Miss Patricia is over like a crew supervisor so she has a couple other custodians that she had some influence with so I go to Miss Patricia and I beg her to help me spread the word within her staff to be able to fill these spots and get women mammograms.
Patricia did a wonderful job. She filled up all the spots. But I think it was [00:32:00] about four or five days before she calls me, and she’s devastated. She told me that Miss Cynthia couldn’t do it. She had to drop out and she really, really wanted to fill the spot. She didn’t wanna let me down. She didn’t wanna let The Rose down. Like that’s a spot, that’s a mammogram. We have to get that out there. And the passion was so beautiful, and I had this aha moment I asked. Miss Patricia, well, have you had a mammogram? Oh, no, honey, I’ve never had a mammogram. There’s no breast cancer in my family. I’m not worried about it. I’m going to go find someone. Don’t worry about it. I said, okay, Miss Patricia, I’ll give you two days. If you can’t find anyone, I’m going to nominate you and I want you to do it. She said, okay, honey, I’ll take your bet. I’ll do it. So she goes off and unfortunately she couldn’t find anyone. To be honest, thank God she didn’t because Miss Patricia got her first mammogram that day. And guess what? Unfortunately, she was diagnosed. The Rose did take care of her. The Rose did save her life.
Ms. Patricia is a single mom of three kids. She lives in Hearn, Texas. She drives 35 miles to work every day. If it wasn’t for The Rose, [00:33:00] she would not be here and her kids would be in a completely different place all by themselves.
And that has just really opened my eyes to what’s possible and made me realize how important it is that we all play our part. Even when we find someone like a Miss Patricia who’s wanting to push it off into someone else, it’s important that we ask Miss Patricia and the other Miss Patricias, how about you?
Dorothy: Oh Max, what a great story.
Max: Miss Patricia’s very special to me. I still talk to her on a weekly basis. I got to see her daughter graduate from high school, her son’s over at Stephen F. Austin, first person in the family to go to college, and she was there to see all of it.
Dorothy: Wow. That’s a story.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: And it’s a story of the rose that we hear often, but it’s so special.
Max: Yes, ma’am. I couldn’t agree more.
Dorothy: Thank you for that.
Max: Of course. Thank you for allowing me to share that with you.
Dorothy: Oh, yeah. Well, Max, I think we’re probably going to have you back to hear more about the village when you have it all done. [00:34:00] And, um, we just thank you for being our voice in the community.
Max: Yes, ma’am.
Dorothy: It, it makes such a difference when people trust someone. And you’ve built that trust. Wow. So much to be proud of.
Max: Thank you. Well, I also want to thank The Rose. Y’all provided the trust and the confidence that allowed me to be able to provide these services. And you taught me a very important lesson. It’s more important what happens after the diagnosis than the diagnosis. You can’t just tell someone something’s wrong and then tell them good luck. And I didn’t realize the impact that had until that relationship with Ms. Patricia and The Rose. So, uh, y’all have been a part of my life. And the Reach Project in more ways than one and definitely appreciate that.
Dorothy: Thank you so much. Well, you know, another story about what people are doing to help other people. Thank you, Max. We’re going to have you back.
Max: Yes, ma’am. Thank you.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is produced by Speke Podcasting and brought to you by The [00:35:00] Rose. Visit therose.org to learn more about our organization. Subscribe to our podcast, share episodes with friends, and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember, self care is not selfish, it’s essential.
