Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 10:27.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-27 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. All right, KNCO Newstime, 90650 degrees, welcome to KNCO Insight, Tom Fitzsimmons here. Let's talk about today's show, because boy, over the years, when I've talked turkey trot for the last 20 years, Mike Bratton's always been part of the conversation. Depending who I was doing for football, when I was doing Nevada Union games, heck, he'd be part of the conversation at halftimes when I think about it, Mikey. Plenty of times we did halftime and getting people excited about the turkey trot and all that stuff, but this is the transition year of the turkey trot. It's officially not your turkey trot, or is it, or is it partially yours, or how's it going? Well, we're one of the sparks that's going to keep it going. We had put our 20 years in from the Bratton family, and now we've been able to transfer that over to a new group. Not a new group, a group that's been around and helped us over the years as well, so we've been able to partner with the Grass Valley Police Association, as well as A New Day, and they've always been involved anyway, and so it was just a wonderful blessing to us to feel comfortable, because we wanted to keep this going. It's just turned into such a wonderful, wonderful tradition in this community, and there's always a reason that we did this. Everybody knows that, but it's turned into so much more than that. It's just a family reunion, a way to open your heart up and start a wonderful Thanksgiving morning. Yeah. Well, it's been an incredible gift you've given to everybody, Mike, and your family, turning a tragedy in your family into what's become the family reunion time, right, on Thanksgiving Day. Because of that, some healing goes on, it seems like, during the run or walk. People get to talk. People just get to talk and walk, and you think about it. That is one of the most healing things you can do, and I don't know if that was meant to be that way, but it really has developed that way. I don't think any of us had the vision of what it was going to turn into when we started it 20 years ago, 21 years ago now. It was always about that healing message, about helping people with mental illness issues, with anxiety and depression, and always the message was, hey, most of us all go through something like that sometime in our life, and if we haven't, we probably will. I don't care what line of work you're in. I don't care whether you're a mom or a dad or a kid or a grandpa. There are times in our lives when tough things happen, and sometimes we have a hard way figuring out how to get out of them. Sometimes you let yourself allow yourself—I'm not sure I'm choosing the right words—but to get down inside that brown paper bag, and you can't find your way out. Sometimes that decision is made the wrong way to take your life. How we all know that that's just absolutely not the right decision, because there's always help. It may not seem to you at that moment, and that's the dangerous part that we don't want to get people to. We want to get to them before they get to that point. You're talking about conversation is right. The walk, the trot, the fresh air, the message that there's always somebody out there to help, the encouragement to other people for standing beside somebody and asking the tough questions, how you're really feeling, what's going on with you. You don't seem right today, or you don't look like you've been sleeping very well. What's going on, buddy? Because you're my friend. Yes. Yes. Then, go to a parent. Go to another friend. Go to a professional and get them help or make sure they get help. All right. Now, you have Brian Blakemore here. Brian, are you now the police chief of the Grass Valley Police Department? Let's get that right out in the open right now. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. I say that with a big smile on my face. We have interim police chief Steve Johnson stepping up into that role while our former chief gets situated as city manager and making that transition, but we couldn't be in better hands. How did that work for the morale of the department, if you don't mind me asking? Because obviously, Alex makes a great city manager, but he was police chief. I mean, did that affect morale at all or anything like that? I would say that it has tangible and obvious benefits right off the bat and benefits that are going to continue to develop and be found. It is, from the police department's perspective, having somebody that has dealt with those emergency calls in the middle of the night, dealt with the hairy situations that police can find themselves in, and knowing that at the very top echelon of city government and city leadership is never going to be a bad thing. There's a long list of neighboring and cities further out that have had successful transitions between police chief and city manager, and they really bring that perspective from usually a long-term ride in that seat into a new office where they can continue to get stuff done. That's one thing the police department is always good for, is there's no emergency that we can't see our way through. It's going to be an exciting time in Grass Valley. That's nice to hear. That is wonderful to hear. Now, Mike Bratton just mentioned the Grass Valley Police Association. Yeah, the Grass Valley Police Foundation. Foundation. Okay, so what is that? We had some local people that wanted to find a way to give back to the police department and didn't have a mechanism to do so. This is years in the making. We said, okay, we're shorting ourselves, we're shorting the department, the ability to have a good relationship with people that want to have a relationship with us. Partnering with a local attorney who gave all of his time and effort pro bono to our group, we initiated the 501c3 Grass Valley Police Foundation. Any proceeds that the police foundation gets goes directly to life-saving equipment and support for the officers in blue in the city of Grass Valley. That's very exciting stuff too. Yeah. All right. Taking on the turkey trot. Yes. That's exciting. It's also kind of a big responsibility at this point too, right? Yes, and that conversation happened at those early police foundation board meetings. That was my idea. I said, yeah, we're going to be fine. We can host an event of thousands of people in town. How much trouble can it be? How much trouble can it be, Mike? Yeah. It's been a lot of work, and yet so much of the work has been a great way of also connecting in a different manner with our different business owners. We have more sponsors this year than I think we had last year, according to the spreadsheets. We're adding new names, and Mike's relationship in this community has made it so easy for that to happen. Every sponsor from last year has returned, and we've brought on new ones. The Turkey Trot Foundation was a marriage between the police foundation and A New Day. They have some representatives on our new board, and the police foundation has some representatives as well. We created the child, which is the Nevada County, or the Turkey Trot Foundation. Believe it or not, that name was available when we put in for it. Again, attorney Cameron Brady stepped up and offered his free legal services for filing that entity as well for us, and brought our two groups together to create the Turkey Trot Foundation. Now, did you go to school with Cameron, by chance? I did. Yes, Mount St. Mary's class of 1998. Wow, Mount St. Mary's class, I should have pulled out my rosary. Cameron was class of 1999. He actually sent me a picture from the halls. His kids still go to school over there, and our class, the 98 class, is the oldest class represented when you first walk in the door in the old school class photos. But it wasn't Cameron, it was Buddy. Buddy at the time, yeah. It was Buddy. Yeah. That's what everybody knew him by. I thought his name was Buddy on his birth certificate for the longest time. Did he not like Cameron? Is that the thing? It was kind of a fancy name. My idea was that parents were calling him Buddy. Hey Buddy. Hey Buddy. Oh yeah, okay, there we go. I went to school with the kid named, ready for this, Flavius Gugliermo. Oh boy. We called him Buddy, because we couldn't spell his name. Yep. That works. That makes sense. Flavius Gugliermo. Yeah. That's what he's doing nowadays. All right. What's the Turkey Trot called? The Nevada County Turkey Trot, which can be found at NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com. That's what all of our branding is. The official entity with the IRS and the Franchise Tax Board is Turkey Trot Foundation. But everybody knows that Turkey Trot is Nevada County Turkey Trot. It's the trot. Yeah, it is the trot. That's for sure. The expertise of your daughter, that's what I think of right away, because she became so much involved with the chips and making this like a really well-run race. Is that expertise kind of transferring over? Yes, it is. We kind of tried to push Jennifer out a couple years ago, because it got maybe pretty intense and with her kids growing up and all the stuff going on with the kids and the schools and the sports. We had a couple of other people help us with that too. Jason, Jason's the one. Jason is the, you know, I'm the guy that gets on the radio and knows the community pretty well and Jason is the technician and he's on the board of the trot, of the Turkey Trot, as well as I am. So, we're transitioning through and we're at the meetings. In fact, we have a meeting today. We do. And so, we've been meeting regularly and we've got a group of people that are helping this transition and a lot of our friends that have been with us so long will be back as volunteers and we'll have a lot of new ones too. Matt, you know what? I was very impressed by Grass Valley Provisions. You know, it's funny about the show today, because it was Ari over there that contacted me about the show. It shows you how, what a world we live in, right Mike? I mean, over the years, I've been here 31 years, who would ever think that a place that's kind of a cannabis place, you know, in town, legitimate business, I think Cameron Breeze, my co-owner of it or one of the owners, is so involved in making sure that Turkey Trot happens. Has the police department involved? I mean, it's like a win-win. I cannot tell you how or where we would be without Ari's support from Provisions. It has been, he has developed and produced our entire website, all of the backend that people are interacting with as they register for the Trot and has never made it about their business. Mike has always donated his time with full support from the ownership over there. Cameron is one of the owners. And it has been a lifesaver. Looking at it from the perspective I have now, backwards, we wouldn't be in the same place without their support. And it's been instrumental, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. Yeah, that's kind of the magic of the Turkey Trot. But I want to tell them there'll still be some sleepless nights before Thanksgiving morning. Got that right. It's already tough. All right. Well, let's take our first break here as we're talking about the Nevada County Turkey Trot, the 2026 version. We're going to go through all the details, how you get signed up, what's involved. Who's going to watch the streets? Is it the cops? Is it the firemen at this point? We don't know. Anyway, quick break. We'll be right back. Hi there. This is Mimi Simmons, your hometown realtor, along with my wonderful team. We are so excited to welcome Johnny Houlihan back to Nevada County. Johnny, your music beautifully captures the spirit of our community, weaving your childhood memories and the places we love into your songs. Thank you for sharing your incredible talent, your music, and your heart with the world. From one local to another, welcome home, Johnny. I know you'll be embraced by the warmth and spirit that makes our community so special. You can catch Johnny's performance on November 11th at the Miner's Foundry in Nevada City. But hurry, as tickets are almost sold out. Go to knco.com for your tickets. From all of us at Team Simmons, thank you, Johnny, for coming home to perform for us. Navo & Sons is more than a plumbing and septic service. They're part of the community. For generations, their family has provided reliable service with a personal touch. 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They've been voted Nevada County's best for years. So, dinner by candlelight tonight? Only if it's romantic, and not because the power went out. All right, KNC Newstime at 923-51 degrees. Welcome back to KNC Insight, highlighting the Nevada County Turkey Trot, the MEB-2 Turkey Trot, giving way to Nevada County Turkey Trot. This is the transition year, and Brian Blakemore here talking about the Grass Valley Police Foundation, their help putting this together with the new day, and thanks to the Michael Bratton Foundation, led by, of course, Michael Bratton. Mikey from State Farm Insurance, Jake, as he's also got his nickname, Jake, seen with khaki pants and stuff. How tough is it going to be for you on Thanksgiving morning not to be doing this? He's going to be doing this. Okay. I'll pull my trailer over with the water jugs, and the tables, and the stuff that's in my storeroom that's going away. That'll make me smile. You know, I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to, again, some of those sleepless nights going away. I wake up right now even thinking about it. In fact, I almost got up last night to write down a few notes about that morning and what we need to have there, because this stuff just goes through. For so many years, it's been in our heads. These guys laugh at me when I bring my file folder that's got the last couple years of all of my notes in it. You're holding your hands apart by about four or five inches, like a big accordion folder. Exactly. It's what it is. This stuff has been in our heads, Jason and mine, and of course, Jennifer and my family. My wife is happy that this is moving on, so I'll have a smile on my face. With that being said, you've been around me enough to know that I'm a very emotional person, so there'll be some difficulties there, but I get to introduce these two, which is Brian and Gregory. Gregory from A New Day, and Brian is our president of the foundation. Gregory is a part of it, and A New Day is a part of it, and just some other new community members that have stepped up that are on the board, and even that guy named Lombardi. Love that Marty Lombardi guy. Yep. We've got a great board that's running this, and we've spread things out. I'm not a computer. Obviously, I'm on a computer all day long, but I'm not one to build graphs and put people's ... It's easy for me to write it down and stick it in there, and then I go back and go through my notes. They laugh at me when they see my file full of notes, and they ask a question, and I go through there, and I find an answer, and they all laugh, because now they're putting all this stuff on the computer, which is phenomenal, and Brian's been responsible and doing a fantastic job. Are you kind of nerdy, Brian? I didn't realize this about you. No, not at all. Okay. I'm a software engineer, and we have an outstanding team, both of board members and other community contributors that we just wouldn't have the trot in the shape that it's in right now. It would still go down, but it would be very rudimentary if you left it to my tech skills. All right. I went on that website without even Google searching, and I said, okay, Nevada County Turkey Trot. Let me see if that works, right? NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com. There it is. That's the website. That's the website. All right. One of the things I was excited about, and Mike might laugh about this, I saw the turkey logo, the little cartoon turkey and stuff. Is that staying? That is staying. That is our logo. Wonderful. That is the one that you will see on the posters, and the t-shirts, and all of the branding material. Yes, that is our logo, and it comes in a few different forms. Sometimes you'll see it round with Nevada County Turkey Trot, kind of circled around it. Sometimes it's more of a stretch, but that turkey, that's our main turkey. That was a decision that had to be a board decision, is this our turkey. That keeps it kind of special. It keeps your son's memory there, number 18 on that turkey, right? Correct. Still happening there. Is the t-shirt going to be long sleeve? We're not telling you. You won't know. You won't know. So they will be. Don't start with me. Have you ever seen a short sleeve Turkey Trot shirt? I have not. Okay. What do you think? I think we can tell. It will be long sleeve. People love those long sleeve shirts. I know they do. I love those shirts. It will be a shirt that you will be able to wear around, and as a new partner of the Turkey Trot, and a titled member of the board, to look around this community and see people walking down the sidewalk wearing their Turkey Trot shirt from 2018, or bumping into them at BNC or Hills Flat, or all of our sponsor companies that we have on the back of that shirt, that's the community. The community is there. They're representing. They're all part of it. It just gives me a feeling that I've never had before. It's wonderful to hear that. It's wonderful to hear that. Now, with the foundation, okay, because I was used to the MB2 Foundation, what it did helped out sports. Is there a whole list of things that are going to be happening between you and A New Day as far as where the money goes that's raised? Sort of, and I'll qualify that. We have a police foundation that is bound to receive a portion of the proceeds from the Turkey Trot. A New Day has received a lot of support from the Turkey Trot over the years, and so has the sports programs. I believe when I approached Mike and said, hey, the police foundation is really interested in taking over ownership of the Trot, one of the biggest things that we talked about right off the bat is continuing to support the community in the same way that it's supported the community for the last 20 years. So, the sports programs, the school programs will still see proceeds from the Turkey Trot. A New Day will still see proceeds from the Turkey Trot, and we will have the police foundation where money that we get from the Trot is going to go directly into the hands of law enforcement officers in the form of new and updated safety equipment, morale support for the officers considering their mental health, and it's really an incredible development of keeping that community reunion on Thanksgiving morning, turning around and continuing to support the community in exactly the same way. Wonderful. The message will still be mental health awareness, and that doesn't mean it won't change over the years, but going through this process, it was agreed by the board that the message will still have something to do with mental health issues and support, because we think that's probably one of the most valuable things we can do. And knowing that you've been very proactive in the Grass Valley Police Department for the mental health of your officers, the men and women there that are serving, just because of the PTSD and stuff that you see on a daily basis. Yeah, I can't cite the exact quote, but there was an element of a training I went to that said over the course of a 25-year law enforcement career, the amount of mental trauma and emotional trauma that we absorb wearing the badge and doing the job of law enforcement on the street is equivalent to about 12 or 13 military deployments. And that makes sense to me. They go over there for a year or so, and if you take out all of the weekends and holidays that you can squeeze off, our officers work about that many hours on the street. Now obviously there's tremendous differences between a police function and a military function, but the amount of secondary trauma that we're exposed to trying to help people through their worst day, you don't get out of that unscathed. It's nice to have a department that recognizes that, because the old macho days of, oh, I'll just work through it, like it's a sign of weakness to get help, when actually it's a sign of strength to get help. I would say that our divorce rate in the Grass Valley Police Department is extremely atypical. Our officers are coaching teams that their kids are on. We're volunteering in the community in a number of different ways, and I think that that turns around and can be attributed to supporting the officers both emotionally and in their job and their daily duties. When we come back, we're going to go through how to get signed up and stuff. Can you already sign up and register and all that stuff? Registration's open. All right. That's good to know. All right. So let's go through it here. We'll get a news update, weather forecast. We'll talk more Nevada County Turkey Trial when we come back. Good morning, I'm Paul Haas with a KNCO local news update. A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration's unprecedented attempt to set aside votes from 20,000 people it claims are non-citizens. That includes only 10 possible people in Nevada County. Before that ruling, a clerk-recorder Armando Salud-Ombres had said in a statement that they were confident the state and federal laws were being followed after investigating the list of names that had been flagged. California officials, including Governor Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, have condemned the claims as a political weapon and an attempt to disenfranchise eligible citizens. They also noted that similar federal lists have previously been shown to be inaccurate and unvetted. And with possible damaging and heavy storms, should Nevada County get significant impact from El Nino this winter, Nevada County's assessor is reminding residents about temporary property tax relief. Rolf Kleinhand says damage must result from a single natural disaster event and damage must exceed $10,000 with the claim being filed within a year. They can get a contractor's bid or an insurance estimate bid and come in and say, hey, this is how much damage has occurred and we will basically reduce the value of their assessment by an equivalent cost to correct or fix. And that remains in place until such time as the repairs are effective and it's back into the condition before the damage. Kleinhand says the kind of relief did come into play during the major snowstorms that occurred a few years ago when a number of roofs collapsed on homes and businesses. Claims are typically processed within 30 to 90 days and he has another reminder to folks who temporarily move out while repairs are being made. They just want to be aware that any mailings that we have related to property taxation, including the bills from the treasurer tax collector, will go to the address on file, which may be the subject property that they're not in. So if they do need to change their address, they want to do that separately and contact us about it. Kleinhand says when damaged property is reconstructed in a substantially similar manner, its original base year value is generally retained under Proposition 13. Adjustments to tax bills will most often be completed with a supplemental assessment. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour. For news, traffic and weather anytime, visit KNCO.com. I'm Paul Haas, KNCO News Talk 830. Escape the everyday and enjoy a little more time to relax with a weeknight getaway. 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Your place to feast. Great. Now I'm hungry. This from the KNCO B&C ACE Home and Garden Center Weather Center. ACE is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. Sunny today with a high in the upper 50s near 60 and a light southwest wind. It'll be clear and cooler overnight, Tarlow 39, then sunny and not as cool on Wednesday with a high in the low 60s. Wednesday night, Tarlow in the low 40s and the outlook for Thursday. Sunny with a high temperature 60 to 65. For weather anytime, click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Ann Holliday on KNCO News Talk 830. Alright, KNCO News Time on 930. It's 1152 degrees. Welcome back to KNCO Insight. We've been talking Nevada County turkey trot as of right now. And of course, we brought up the name Marty Lombardi. You bring up the name Marty Lombardi, you can expect a lot of things. It's kind of like Jake. It's sort of like Jake from State Farm. He just kind of shows up. Yeah, that's right. Like a bad penny. In a way, with that hair, he's almost like the Liberty Biberty crazy thing, whatever the heck that is. So I got that going for me. Which is nice. That's right. Which is nice. Making sure what that means. But you're on another board. We were talking about this. You're on the Nevada County turkey trot board. Listen, I'm merely ballast for these two guys. I mean, Brian Blakemore's been doing an absolutely incredible job. I mean, I've been on quite a few boards. And he's at the top of the list in terms of organization or whatever. I know that for years, Mike and the families kind of struggled with, how do we transition this? Yeah, how do you transition? You're right. Yeah. I'll tell you, it couldn't be any smoother or better transition than to have the association and led by Brian. You know, that's what I can say. It's one of the most lovely events any community's had. And I think one reason why is that it's rooted in the Bratton family. And how a tragedy out of that blossoms something so given to everybody. You know, I was going to say that. But you and I are always on the same wavelength. Yeah. We just have different hair. It's that all boys. Yes. All boys high school. High school thing. Yes. Right. Exactly. Desperately to see a girl. Yes. That's right. No, but, you know, Mike was just mentioning that he had been at three memorial services over the last couple of weeks and I the same. And just what you said, you know, out of these unspeakable tragedies, I mean, it's the gift that the Bratton family provides all of it. Because like we've said for many years, it's got to be so difficult. I mean, they want to honor the memory of Michael, but, you know, it's everything time you put it front and center and whatever. But that's a gift that they give us because when we come together on Thanksgiving morning, you bring the community together and everybody gets centered in what we appreciate, their families and what have you. We wouldn't be able to do this without, unfortunately, those centers. It happens to be Thanksgiving morning to boot when you're supposed to be thankful for the gifts that you get. Absolutely. So thankful for being in the community. Thankful for the, you know, for Mike, for years we've been thankful for the police helping out with traffic control and stuff. I remember you used to talk about the infancy of it, like how is it going to work out and all that stuff. And these guys be setting up cones at the bottom here, you know, to kind of protect the traffic from going up the hill. Community just absolutely comes together to support things like that. And they have. And it's been a gift to our family. You know, it's been a huge form of helping us grieve through it, especially early on. And the grieving never stops. With that being said, it's the community support that has just made such a difference and impact in our family. And seeing our kids participate and then my grandkids participate and see and learn and understand and that message going out to the whole community, it's huge. Can I share an interesting statistic with you guys? Please. I looked at our back end website yesterday afternoon. Our biggest demographic of registrants for the trot is under 18 years old. It's mostly parents registering their family with themselves and multiple kids. And the I hear kids from Mike and kids from Marty. And it's true. The community reunion and raising kids in the community and having them part of community events is manifesting right in front of my eyes as I watch the registrations come in. And in a day and age when, yes, families can, quote, be together, but they all have their phone. They all have a device. They're all being distracted. This is one that's literally just the opposite. It is coming together and holding hands and hugging each other and laughing because you're getting a little winded going up a hill, you know, and just enjoying the day on Thanksgiving morning. There's so much to be thankful for. Family photos, Christmas cards created, kids playing afterwards on the football field. And it's just, it's wonderful. If you haven't been there, I can't say this enough. If you haven't been there, you need to come. I don't care whether you walk, run, or show up and come and have a donut. You need to be there and experience the feeling of being thankful on Thanksgiving morning. I know who's thankful. And I don't mean to get kind of teary eyed or anything like that. I think about your son looking down in heaven, as cliche as that sounds for maybe some people out there. But I really do think this. He's probably so excited that you guys have figured it out, how to transition it. Because if I recall, the turkey trot was picked, Mike, because this is something your son wanted to do. Right. As a fundraiser for NU football. Yeah. And so you figured if he was around, he'd do it for a few years and hope somebody took it over. You guys, out of love and dedication, have done it for 20 years. And now it's being transitioned on. I think he'd be so excited that it's transitioned on, especially the way it is, having an organization like the Police Foundation doing it, New Day doing it, and kind of keeping it going for the county. Absolutely. Yeah. I think it's just a very sweet thing to think about. And all those names that we see on Thanksgiving morning, the Marty Lombardis and the Mike Brattons of the world, they're all still there. They all eagerly jumped in and offered to help and offered to bring their support and their years of institutional knowledge. But around the trot, their community connections, their school connections, all of these things are coming together with no roadblocks. There's been no entity that's given us a hard time with permits or with rentals or anything like that. Every business I've walked into, dozens of them, four or five dozen of them at this point, have all said, yes, absolutely. This is something we do every year. We wouldn't miss it. You have our support. What can we offer? How do I sign up as a volunteer? All of that can be done on the website too, NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com. But the tremendous love and support that we have gotten from the people that have loved and supported the turkey trot all these years is all right there. It's made the transition, as nice as Marty is, it's made the transition extremely easy for a new president. You know, the other thing that you have to also recognize is a couple of things. The volunteers that just show up and cut the donuts up and manage the t-shirt sales and are on the course. Many of these are behind the computers on the day of registration, which is just crazy because it's fast and furious. I always got pushed on by my family, Mike, you can't talk very long. There are guys out there that want to run. When I say, you know, we'll get to it. But there are these volunteers and a lot of those were Michael's close friends and still there supporting it and hard on their families. Because Thanksgiving weekend is a weekend that a lot of people have four full days and sometimes five to get away. And so the turkey trot comes right in there, but you know, they stay and they help. And so, it's just so many little things that come together because people love our community. But I also want to say this, and this is difficult and I'm not even sure I should say it, but he never wanted to glorify what Michael did. And that's a tough line not to cross because, you know, it's the MEB2 Foundation or the MEB2 Turkey Trot. Okay, well, who was he and why in the heck did he do what he did? The message is he made a mistake. He made a mistake that was irretangible. He made a mistake that could have been done differently. And he would be sitting here right now talking about the turkey trot because he'd probably be one of the coaches at NU because that was his directions. And so, glorifying what somebody does is not the right, never our intent. And that's been a hard thing for me to talk about and I really have never talked about it. But it's important because we don't want other people out there to get the idea that, wow, you know, the kid is famous. Well, he's not, you know. What he did was wrong. And the message is what you go down, so many people, I mean, if I ask for people to raise their hand when I'm standing up there looking at 4,000 people, how many people have considered trying suicide? I'm going to tell you that a third of them would raise their hand. Absolutely. You know, and so, but the message is wrong. That's the message of this whole thing that we have brought forth. And I'm just hoping that continues. And it's a slope. You don't often get there on day one of being depressed. And that's where entities like A New Day have on ramps for anxiety, depression, family strife. Having that low barrier mental health access in town where it's a safe and loving environment for people to go and try to see out of that paper bag that Mike mentioned earlier. It's right there, right in Nevada City at 650 Gold Flat Road. Yeah. I will say this. Your talk you give before each trot touches some person. It does, for sure. There's somebody in that crowd, it touches them. Because whether they're considering it, whether they knew that one of their kids were, yeah, it's really... The message needs to be continually told and not be afraid of or not be ashamed of. And I talk to the football team every year. And many other people have gone out and done things because of, well, the awareness is way up, which is wonderful. The feeling of embarrassment or too much pride is going down, but it's still there. And so there's still room to grow in making people, I think, like you said, strong enough to step up and say, I need help. Exactly right. And that's what it is right there. Yeah. But we got to help. Yeah. Oh, we were talking about the cops, just themselves. I mean, there's nobody more macho, tough exterior, right, than a law enforcement guy and stuff. But they have to be strong enough to know, you know what, I need some help, I need some mental help. The access that A New Day has given us to the first responder fund, which is supported by local businesses as well, there are many, many first responders, firefighters, police, EMT, ambulance workers, all of these folks that have their own struggles that manifest in different ways, and they're all accessing a law enforcement or a first responder fund through A New Day that is directly contributed to by some of our biggest supporters and the people that want to wrap their arms around first responders in Nevada County. And that stigma has gone away, or is going away. It is going away. It is going away. It is going away. Right. Exactly right. All right. Let's take our last break down the homestretch here of our KNCO Insight Show, talking about the Nevada County Turkey Tribe. We'll eventually get to how to register. We'll do that when we come back. 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KNC Newstime at 954-53 Degrees. Welcome back to KNC Insight. My friend during the break asked where my dog Ranger was. And my dog imitating my, I named him after my hockey team and that's how my hockey team played last night. He's snoring on the floor over here. He lost to the LA Kings last night. Anyway, we're talking Nevada County Turkey Trot today. Just having a great conversation and joined by Marty Lombardi halfway through. To get signed up for the Turkey Trot, is it going online? How do we do it, Brian? Is it really easy? Easy peasy? I think it's easy. It's easier, I've heard, from a computer. But you can register via your phone. In the coming week or so, you're going to see a lot of posters go up at pretty much any business you're going to walk into in western Nevada County. We take them to Truckee and we take them to Auburn. The list of sponsors is a road map to living in Nevada County. We have tremendous sponsor support and all those sponsors are going to get a sheet to put in their front window. There's a QR code on the sheet that you can open up your phone and scan it with your camera on your phone and it will prompt you to open a website. Go ahead and do that. You can register right there. You can also register through NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com. Our back end support is from a national race sign up platform called RunSignUp. Just go to NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com, scan the QR code if you see one of our posters, reach out to us at NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot at gmail.com if you have specific questions. We're right there. I'm monitoring that email from my desk at the police department too. We have a team of people that are ready to try and get people signed up. But now's the time, Tom. Now's the time to get on NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com and get registered. Get your family registered. You can buy extra shirts if you would like. Kids registration fee, $12. The cost of the shirt, I'll tell you right now, the cost of the shirt is right about $12 or $13. So we're not making a penny on the registration of kids. Bring your kids out. Sign yourselves up. Every dollar turns around and is supporting Nevada County. It sounds easy. All right. But talk about a team of people. It took a team of people to make this happen. Does your team transition to his? Do you have your own team? How's that working? Like you said, all these volunteers. I always think coming the day of that Saturday, or I should say Thursday, I mean the day before the race where you're getting your t-shirts, all those great ex-athletes that are out there and stuff. It's always kind of fun seeing those. Yeah. Thank you, Marty. And he's bringing them all again this year. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's making that happen, Marty? Right. You know what Marty is on the board? He is the chair of the Gratitude Committee. He's going to be reaching out to sponsors. He's going to be welcoming people that day. You'll see that Marty Lombardi branded smile and have him wrap his arms around you and let you know how loved you are in this community. The cheerleaders, Nevada Union cheerleaders are going to be greeting you when you come to the stadium. I'm not saying everybody's getting a hug from cheerleaders when they walk in. Football players are there. Basketball players are there. I just want to comment on though, remember, and this is important, not everybody gets a t-shirt. You have to sign up a week and a day prior to the trot. Okay. And so that's on all, it's in the information. So go online, get yourself signed up, be guaranteed a t-shirt because when that Wednesday prior, well, let's see, what's that date? If I'm not mistaken, the date is the 18th. If you don't register prior to the 18th, you probably will not get a t-shirt because we can't order a whole handful of t-shirts and pay $12 a piece for them or whatever and just have them sit there. So we do order a few extra so you can buy one, but they're going to be gone. And the day before you pick up your t-shirts or the morning of, and you can still register that week, but you won't be guaranteed a t-shirt. And we probably have 200 people that come that morning and register because I'm not missing this. All right. Is there a color for the t-shirt this year or is that secret still? It's very secret. That's very secret. It's a nice looking shirt, Tom. It's a nice looking shirt. It's a nice looking shirt. We're going to, kids get their kid's shirts, adults get their adult shirts. It's a real family thing. Yeah. We have people that buy them for Christmas presents and send them all over the place. Yeah. I mean, people wait for these shirts, but they're going to be long sleeve. We have confirmed that. Long sleeve. All right. Here's the thing about signing up right now. As Marty Lombardi was saying this up there, there's a lot of angst out there right now, you know? I think it's midterms. I work at a news talk station. Even though some of our news stories were kind of disturbing today and stuff, this is something that is so good for your soul to get signed up to do this on Thanksgiving morning. We have a lot to be thankful for. I even do it for myself. Even though I'm battling cancer and stuff, I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm looking forward to this battle, the next step I'm taking. NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com. Exactly. NevadaCountyTurkeyTrot.com is the website to get involved. Get signed up. Do it today. You'll feel better heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you, Tom. Yeah. Love you too. Marty, love you. And thank you for the biscotti. My pleasure. Am I ever going to get that recipe? Anytime. Anytime, Tom. Am I ever going to get that recipe? It's locked up with the shirt now. I'll take that as a no. All right. We've got ABC News coming up next. --- end of transcript ---