Paying a 2nd Chance Forward with Charities with Deputy Sheriff Alonzo Montanya

Stephen J: (00:12)
Welcome to behind the tin, a podcast that introduces you to the heroic men and women who wear the tin while protecting our community and hearing about the extra things they're doing when their badge is in their locker. I'd like to thank our sponsors, those guys, print.com. Those guys for all your custom apparel needs. Visit those guys. print.com. Steven J the good Lieutenant here with Justin, the civilian producer. Good day, sir. Good day to you, my friend. And guess what? Today's another day where we get to talk to someone extraordinary, so excited about it. We're gonna talk to a young man, uh, younger than us, who, who has taken a second chance and really become a pillar of the community. Someone that has just went out and I don't think there's a charity, he says no to. Absolutely.

Justin: (00:58)
And you know, I think we all, everyone makes mistakes in at some point. Uh, and I think you are ultimately judged on what you do to make well on the

Stephen J: (01:07)
Mistakes that you make. Well, this guy is open. He's open about what's happened. He's open about what he's done and he's open about the charities that are benefiting from his exuberance in the community, just being out there. And then he, and then I think we're gonna hear about something him and his wife started. Oh yeah. Great project, great project, great project. It's very exciting. And, and with that, let's get started. Let's bring them in. All right. So, uh, Alan, so welcome.

Alonzo: (01:36)
Hey, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate this opportunity. We we're so

Stephen J: (01:40)
Happy to have you here and the things that you've done, the experiences that you had and, and that's the kind of people we wanna bring into this podcast behind the tin with just the producer again, I'm I'm Steven, Jay, the good Lieutenant. We got Alonzo here. Who's a deputy sheriff from the Hudson valley and Alonzo how'd you become a deputy sheriff. What led you to that profession?

Alonzo: (01:58)
Uh, so ironically, I had gone to college to become a teacher. I was actually elementary education, uh, concentration in Spanish. So I got into my third year of college and I, I was like, not really sure if this is the route that I want to go. So, um, I had had, I had always had an interest in law enforcement, you know, being exposed to movies and TV as a kid and the way it was portrayed during that timeframe. And, um, one of my good friends at the time, his father was a police officer. So we'd have some conversations and he's like, Hey, if this is an area that you really want to explore, you know, we ha we have the ability to maybe get you into a local police department dispatching part-time. So while I was going to college, I got into, uh, a smaller village ality as a part-time, uh, police dispatcher. And I really liked it. So then I exactly like

Stephen J: (02:49)
On TV. Yeah,

Alonzo: (02:50)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm sure. Yeah. So, um, you know, then the conversation came up with my friend's father. It was like, well, what's the next step? And, you know, you developed those professional relationships with people that you were working with at, at the smaller police department and you got that input. So my next biggest hurdle after I knew that I had to, you know, pay to take a civil service test and there would be a potentially a physical fitness test and all the things that would come along with that was going home and tell my parents, Hey, I want to drop outta college to pursue a career in law enforcement. And, uh, you know, that, that took, um, it took like a couple days to build up the must because, uh, you know, my father old school raised old school. So you, you knew there was gonna be some abrasiveness to the conversation, not be is of disappointment, but it was just like, Hey, I, I want you to better your life and to my parents that was going to college and getting a job. And I don't think that they really understood that in law enforcement wasn't necessarily going to college, but you would go to that, develop that professional trade. And then what came along with that? So I had that with my parents and I took it a step further. And I said, because I recognize that I'm dropping out, I'm willing to take over my student loans and I wanna pay off that debt. And I wanna prove to you that I'm serious about

Stephen J: (04:10)
This because police dispatchers at this point are making a lot of money to be able to do that. yeah.

Alonzo: (04:14)
Yeah. So with that too, I was also working a full-time job. So I was balancing a, full-time working part-time as a dispatcher and going to school full-time so, uh, you know, I did have some ability to do that, but, uh, you know, after some discussion that we had, we basically came up with this plan where it was like, right, we're open to that idea, but we're gonna give you a timetable and you have X amount of time to get this. And then if it doesn't happen, you know, you're, you're either on your own or you have the option to go back to school and we'll, we'll pick up from there. And we'll, we'll, recontinue that journey to potentially becoming a teacher.

Stephen J: (04:52)
So you're a little different than most people that we talked to your goal as a child wasn't necessarily be a police officer. Correct.

Alonzo: (04:59)
Now,

Stephen J: (04:59)
When you were in school, you get to the point where you were student teaching.

Alonzo: (05:03)
Uh, yeah. So I went in for, for a few, uh, uh, I had a friend that I played baseball with in a, in a men's league. That was a school teacher in the, uh, city of Newberg school district and gone in a couple times. I mean, I liked it, but I just, I think with all that I was putting on my plate, it was just, school was becoming mundane for me. And I just wanted something a little bit more challenging. And, you know, I saw the ability, um, from dispatching that you had to really be a positive impact in lies in a different way than a teacher, because it wasn't just kids. It was like all ages. Mm-hmm, , you know, you have that ability to you interact with, you know, a hundred different people in one day. And that was even just in like a small village that I think like three, four square miles. So

Stephen J: (05:50)
You had no problems when you were student teaching, there was no issues. Nope. Okay. Cuz when I was in college, they were allowing college students to come in and substitute teach. Yep. So I'm like, ah, I could make a couple bucks easy enough. My, uh, former teacher was now a principal of a local junior high. He made sure that I got right in there. I get called the student and teach, uh, or substitute teacher rather. And I go in there and I'm in an art class and anybody who knows me knows I'm not artistic at all. You I'm trying to follow this lesson plan. This teacher leaves for me and it's some kind of sewing project. And if you've ever taken that kind of class with sewing or these little needles, now here we are to junior high school. I got junior high school boys who I remember myself being that age and the things I was involved in and I'm just trying to keep their attention.

Stephen J: (06:32)
I'm just trying to make sure they don't mess around. And next thing you know, I'm getting called to the principals office here. I am the sub teacher, as the, as the teacher, I, I hear, you know, Steven, Jay come down to the principal's office and I walked down and they said, Steve, do you know what your kids are doing? I said, they're doing great. We're having a great time. I'm keeping 'em busy, go see how many pins are left in your classroom. all the pins were gone. The were taking the pins and sticking in their hands. And I get called down to the principles. I didn't, I didn't substitute teach again after that. So, you know, to go from one profession to another, to make that transition, you've wanted to be a teacher now this kind of parlays into what you're doing now. Yep. And what a great fit. Cause I'm not sure, you know, I don't know how old you are. Uh, but we didn't have this program when I was in school. Yep. And I'm not sure if that was something you said, Hey, I'll be a police officer. Maybe I'll do this. So why don't you explain what you're doing now? Cause it's, it's very interesting to me. Yeah.

Alonzo: (07:27)
So to go into that with, uh, with, uh, Lieutenant Steve here is, uh, referencing is, uh, I'm a school resource officer. I, I work for the Dutchess county Sheriff's office. I've been fortunate enough to be in that program for five years and uh, full time, the last four years I've been in two of the largest districts in the county, if not the largest. And they're also, uh, some of the largest districts in orange ster, Duches Putnam and, uh, Westchester.

Stephen J: (07:52)
Yeah. I think the one here now is probably the state. Yeah.

Alonzo: (07:54)
Yeah. Uh, one of the bigger ones. Um,

Stephen J: (07:56)
It's enormous. It's like a small village. Yeah. I mean two producers, very, very familiar with this school issue.

Alonzo: (08:01)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean it could yeah. Small village, you know, not to put the school out there, but to give people an idea of the number of people I deal with on a daily basis when we were rocking and rolling and had everybody there on a daily basis, I, I, one person responsible for almost 4,000 people. It's a village. So yeah, yeah's a village Essent.

Stephen J: (08:20)
We say it takes a village to raise a child, right? Yeah. Yeah. I guess this district actually believes in that by putting all these kids in, in one spot. Well, it's funny. I mean, I've been in law enforcement for over 20 years now and I've dealt with, uh, a bunch of school resource officers that have gone on to be detectives and I've dealt with a lot of violent crimes and we go to violent crime scenes and I'll tell you more often than not the eyes. There were SROs that have transcended to a different, uh, job, a detective or, uh, an investigator. Boy, I, I see these guys now 18, 19, 25 years old, they'll walk up to that guy. They knew from that relationship they had in the school and say, Hey, can I talk to you? Meanwhile, they would've never ever approached any other person in law enforcement because that relationship that was built maybe five or 10 years ago, they have that, uh, comfortableness that familiarity with that person where they're comfortable enough to walk up and usually give them some good information about what's going, yep.

Alonzo: (09:15)
Dutchess county is diverse in what we have to offer. You go from, you know, urban city area to Cal farms out in the middle of nowhere. And you, you have to be able to connect with everybody. And that's a very important part of this job. Yeah. And

Stephen J: (09:29)
So kind of brings us while we're here. Right? Yep. So, you know, there's a lot of police officers out in the world, but there's a only a few, uh, that are really digging it to another level. And that's what we wanna highlight. Uh you're you're here, you're wearing a Hudson valley, polar plunge shirt that, uh, went towards the special Olympics, a fundraiser recently. Yep. I know that you have a business that's going towards the mental health of police officers and, and really, I want to, uh, just look at those couple things. Why'd you get involved in those, like what you you're, you're working eight hours a day. You're helping kids now. Uh, you got your own family yet. We're still doing more. We're still going out. We're doing special Olympics. We're still going out and raising money for sparrows. Best. I know you've done that. Absolutely. You're helping the, I McAuley children's cancer foundation and, and chip McRoy has been a guest of ours. Yep. You're doing all of these things. Why

Alonzo: (10:15)
You, I think, um, for me, for everybody, it's gonna be a different reason. And uh, you know, um, going back, I, I know, you know, my back story and, and I'll just preface by saying, keeping it short and sweet and saying to people we're all human beings, we're all susceptible to mistakes and tragedies in life. And one of the tough things for law enforcement members and especially like when I got hired, I was like 21 years old. I was starting fresh out. You know, didn't go away to college. I went local, you know, didn't really get a lot of experiences. And you found yourselves in these positions where you're getting on a job you're young and you're helping people that are like twice your age and you're supposed to have all the answers for them. And you're learning on the fly. You don't necessarily have the life experience. You don't have the work work experience. And, and you, you adapt and you

Stephen J: (11:09)
Grow. I once had a guy, I went to a domestic between a father and daughter. The daughter was 13 years old. I also started very young. I was 21 when I started and, and he says, I wasn't trained for this. Yep. I looked at him. I said, sir, I'm 21 years old. I physically can't even have a daughter. I don't even have kids years old. Yep. And you're asking me what to do. Yeah, exactly. And you're supposed to have those answers. Exactly. So I, I completely understand what you're saying. It's a difficult position to be put in. So,

Alonzo: (11:35)
You know, when you, when, when you work on that, it it's E because you're connecting with these people, but you don't really have ties to them. Right. Like other than they're in your community and you're there to help them. And you're there to do things for them, but very rarely do you deal with these intricacies with your own families. So when it does happen, and I think, you know, like for me, like when you go back and you say where we started, you know, 15, 20 years ago, law enforcement completely different now. Sure is. So when you had these issues, there were certain ways that you, you, you dealt with them or you were encouraged to, you know, not discuss them or, you know, whatever it was, it was very old school mentality to, to the dealing process. So, you know, like I said, we're susceptible to mistakes, you know, bad decisions, we're human.

Alonzo: (12:24)
And, you know, I, I live that and, you know, uh, adding into, to dealing with those mistakes, when throw in that you're maybe going through a divorce, you have kids in the picture. And one of the things that really hit me hard when, when I was going through what I was going through was that we lost a family member. My, my uncle, his son, uh, passed away from a heroin overdose. And that's when heroin was really picking up, um, 2012, that was like the year for me. So we had all these answers for everybody else. But when it came to us, didn't know how to handle it, you know? And where did you go? And what did you do went to the bottle?

Stephen J: (13:04)
Well, you, you know, you went to the bottle, that's where we all went in the early days. And that's, we encouragement, went to, you, went to the bottle you got together. And that was our, uh, our mental health mm-hmm , uh, what we got, that's what we got. We sat down together. You commiserated with your partners. Yep. And with your brothers in blue, you had a few jinx and you know what, that was it. We put it in the back burner, you

Alonzo: (13:23)
Bonded, you BS, you got it all out. And that was supposed to be it. Well, as we all know, with PTSD or what now, what they recognize in law enforcement as career cumulative, post trauma, addict, stress disorder. Cause that's not always the case. Right. It's always there. It's how you deal with it moving forward. So, you know, I'm just thankful for the position I was in that the only person that really like dealt with consequence was me. Nobody got hurt. Everybody was good, you know? And it was a growth and development, uh, point in my life. I was very young. So with that, you know, you have you now, all these other, um, doorways open up and it's like, well, where do you want? Where are you gonna go in life? Just

Stephen J: (14:04)
To go back one step though. Mm-hmm you had an issue mm-hmm an incident presented itself. Mm-hmm you owned it. Yep, absolutely.

Alonzo: (14:11)
You owned it responsibility.

Stephen J: (14:12)
I think that was the biggest thing you owned it. And you know what people recognize that. Absolutely. And you get another chance because no one did get hurt. It wasn't a serious incident. Yep. It was just, it was a bump in the road. Yep. You owned it. And next thing you know, here you are, we're, you know, 10 years later, almost we're sitting down, we're talking, which I don't think 10 years ago we have this kind of conversation. Now. I don't think we highlight what police officers and law enforcement firefighters and military are doing outside of their job. Yeah. And I think we're now in a society where, you know what it's recognized what we're doing. We're trying to highlight it even more here. But I think we didn't have those opportunities 10, 20 years, not at ago, not at all.

Alonzo: (14:49)
And you didn't, and you didn't feel comfortable when they were like, go talk to someone and you're like, well, that's not, you know, like going and talking to that person, people come to me. Yeah. Like I, and like, you don't feel comfortable in that. Like you, you know, I think, you know, you're, you know, you're a part of a, a C response team, right? So crisis critical incident, stress management, I'm sorry. Critical incident, stress management team. And like, that's like, those are the connections. Like we, you know, those are tools that available are available now. So what, like, like you hit the nail in the head. So I got a second chance. There's no beating around that Bush. I've never, you know, I'm not one to sugarcoat things. I've always put that out there to people. And so when I got that second chance, it's like, well, what do you want to with it?

Alonzo: (15:31)
So I got this second chance. And I started dealing with all these like different, uh, circumstances in the county and like opportunities starting presenting themselves. So, uh, special Olympics, no brainer. Tor run always came up, you know, uh, we said I'm wearing the polar plunge sweatshirt. Now that, that was like this year because the torch runs got canceled, that it kind of got like coaxed in. They like, well, you always do the torch runs. So why not do this jump into a frozen lake? Yeah. And I was like, same thing. Yeah. And I'm like, you're crazy. Like, there's nothing that appeals about jumping in cold water to me, but the cause do does so I'll do it. So why do I do that again? Going back to family? Um, my sister, another person always been there for me. My brother-in-law always there for me and, and my niece.

Alonzo: (16:16)
So their daughter, my niece, uh, sir, who's super important to us. She, she has, uh, down syndrome and she's a special Olympics athlete. As she's gotten older, she's been more involved in the, uh, local games. And you know, who knows, maybe she'll be representing the region in the New York state games soon. So like, that was a no-brainer to me. Then it was just kind of doing, you know, uh, little things. Like we started the DUS county girl for a good at the Sheriff's office, which was like this, this dumb idea to be like, you think the sheriff would support us growing facial hair for November if we all paid for it. But we donated the money to, and you know, thankfully, uh, the administration was great. Sheriff Anderson was great about that and he supported it and I'm like one of the most charitable people you ever meet in your life.

Alonzo: (17:02)
Yeah. And, and, and I know it's a tough one for him cuz I know he does not like facial hair um, but I, you know, talk about a guy that sees the bigger picture. Yeah. He like checks, checks his emotions on that one and he says, well, let, let's see where this goes. Well, we've done it for three years and we've raised over $35,000. Amazing just from employees wanting to pay to grow facial hair. So now you're like, man, like you start being a part of these things. And then like we said, well, what, what do we do with this money? And we started reaching out to like local charities. And then you said, you had mentioned chip. We had met, I meet chip through the office and to hear his family's story. And you're like, children's cancer, like all of these things. And I think it's, as you grow older and mortality becomes like more resonant in your head, like, you know, things can happen and you're not super human.

Alonzo: (17:51)
You're not gonna outlive life. Like one day it's gonna catch up with you. So to me having the second chance was like, listen, I've recognized that I've done some stupid things in life. Now it's time to atone for them. And like, you know, is it gonna ultimately write the, what I did? I don't know, but I'm gonna sure work my butt off to try and find out, you know, it, it wouldn't even have to do with that. I guess it's just seeing all the good that it, you have the ability to do, seeing the smiles, the families you impact. And then in the process, like, yeah, you, you know, you forget like PBA, right. And benevolence and you know, you hit on like your, you take the uniform off, but you're always a part of your community. Well, people see that stuff. And then like you said before, like you tell 'em, oh yeah, you work for the Sheriff's office and people that haven't met you before and their jaws just drop they're like what? You're not

Stephen J: (18:50)
What I thought a cop would be.

Alonzo: (18:51)
Yeah. Yeah. And the, and you know, uh, you hear the, the people that push this now, like the humanizing, the, the badge. Right. And I think that that's important. So you meet these charities and like Sparrow's nest was a great one. And, and like the small little story, I didn't know anything about Sparrow's nest. They had helped to people at our office. Right. I still didn't know anything about 'em. I happened to be working, uh, perimeter detail one day and I had the radio on and I heard them on one of the local, local radio stations talking about what the charity was. And they're like, Hey, we're four women. Um, we're cancer survivors. We have people that were impacted by it. We created this charity and we deliver meals to, to women and their families as they're going through chemo. And I'm like, man, like, and then you hear like the numbers they do. And you talk to these people and you get to meet them and you realize the sacrifices they're making. And you're like, wow, that is like tremendous. And all because you had the radio you on, like, that's the connection you make. And you know, you, you have the ability to talk with these people and you see what they're doing and then you see how they're impacting the community. And you're like, I wanna be a part of that. Well,

Stephen J: (20:06)
You are a part of it. Yeah. And he goes, let's go back to you having dinner at the diner Uhhuh when your work even nights and you hear, Hey Montana. Yep. Right. From a bunch of kids probably screwing around late at night. Right. What, what are you doing out in middle of the night? You're 1890

Alonzo: (20:19)
Months. They're right. They were coming back from the gym. Yeah. They were going to the gym at night. Right. I mean, you know what? The gym at night

Stephen J: (20:25)
Looks like don't, don't fool around with me, but here you are. You're being recognized for, for your personality, for your relationship with these kids. Right. And then you, you take it and now we're doing charity work, right? Yep. And you, you have that same feeling of, Hey man, I'm helping out these kids know those kids knew me because of how I was and my personality. And now you're going into this charity work. Yep. And it's the same feeling, cuz I'll tell, tell you right now, if anybody doesn't understand law enforcement, 9% of the stuff we deal with is tragedy. Yeah. We're getting called because they don't know who else to call. Absolutely. They can't call their dad. They can't call their mom. They can't call their grandmother, brother, their sister, their grandpa. They're not available. They call you. And it's not because they wanna say happy birthday.

Stephen J: (21:04)
Yeah. It's not because they got an extra interplay at the table and they want to make sure the food's not wasted. It's cuz they're in dire straits. Absolutely. And they need help. Absolutely. And let me tell you, it gets tiring. It mentally gets tiring of every interaction you have with people it's negative and you're helping, you gotta have the answers and you're helping, you gotta have the answers. I got involved in charities to just relief my relieve myself of that. Yeah. And to make sure that I see positive. I yep. So I actually see the outcome cuz we don't usually get to see the outcome in law enforcement. Right.

Alonzo: (21:30)
And, and it's funny you bring that up because I think one of my first tastes of that positivity was being a part of the guns and hoses, baseball game with you and like a, a

Stephen J: (21:40)
Tremendous organization, Hudson valley guns and

Alonzo: (21:42)
Hoses. Fantastic. I mean, so like I got to see that from you. And I caught that on a little small scale and that kind of like planted the seed. Right. It was like, man, these guys are like, these men and women are giving up time in doing things. So then again, like I said, so you meet like sparrows nests and all this stuff starts growing. And, and I will tell you, people will talk about like, you know, I guess this, maybe this isn't the best analogy, but they say like opioids, the most addicting drug that's out there. That's. It positivity is the most addicting drug that's out there because when you see the positive changes that you can do and the lives that you can impact, whether it be that you're helping someone through a time where, you know, their loved ones are still there or you're helping someone that lost their loved ones.

Alonzo: (22:24)
And they're trying to overcome that tragedy that they've exp. So you let them know that they're supported and they're not alone. And you have a positive experience from that. That's like the most addicting thing because you want that all the time. You wanna see those smiles, you want to see people happy. You know, like that's huge. And my wife and I are talking one day, my wife's a school teacher down in Westchester. Um, she's an art teacher we're sitting around and, and you know, because she was a ceramics teacher, you know, we have all of this homemade pottery that just kind of sits around and we're like, you know, just takes up space and I'm drinking my coffee. And she made me this mug and she's like, you know, I kind of did this mug themed after like police work kind of like a blue line type thing and I was like, wow, this is, this is great.

Alonzo: (23:12)
Like, it looks great. She's like, yeah, you, you know, so we're sitting there and we're talking and we're, you know, we're having our morning coffee and then she's like, do you think like people would buy these? And I was like, I, you know, I love getting the mugs from my kids that like our dad is, is the best from like the school fairs. But I'm like, you know, how many of those can you see? Like gimme something different? You know, I want like a good quality, um, mug. So I'm like I said, I'm sure there's a market for this. I'm like, cops always love like cop stuff, you know? So, so she's like you think if I'm, if I did like a police theme, like maybe, maybe it would, it would work. And I was like, I mean, we wouldn't know unless we try. So when she had said that, I'm like, yeah.

Alonzo: (24:02)
And I go, but I go to take it a stepping him further. I'm like, what if we raised money for charity in the process? Because I think like marketing it as something that would, would go that route, like you'd have a better return. So up to this point, um, you know, we, we didn't even touch on this, but I had been big on, uh, website called, uh, blue help.org, uh, the track Sue suicide statistics in law enforcement. Um, you know, when I went through like crisis negotiations and I went to another training about like suicide prevention, uh, a few years before that, you know, you always heard like, the cliche was like, oh, you, you could have been a statistic. And like that kind of hit home with me. I'm like, I don't have that, you know, and not a disrespect to anybody whose life was taken by suicide.

Alonzo: (24:49)
But like, in my mind, like that was never a thought, like I never came across my mind, but you hear people say that and you look on paper and you're like, wow. You know? So, uh, we at the Sheriff's office have the Explorer program and you know, another thing which you helped start. Yeah. So, uh, the list here, we'll throw out Joe, Ozaki Jeff Cohen. They've been tremendous with the process and to have them come to me and allow me to be a part of it just has been awesome. And in that we always did, like, you know, I felt like when, when I went to police academy and maybe it was the same for you, you always read like the end of watch, you know, officer under watch and you paid tribute at the, then we would do that. And one of the statistics that I would put up for the kids would be like year to date suicides.

Alonzo: (25:33)
So we got involved monitoring blue help, and then I would like follow them and they would do like these great, like Facebook lives. And I, I would sit down and I'd watch them. And I would be like, wow, they have a lot of great people there. So I said to my wife, I'm like, well, if we're gonna, if, if you're gonna do this, I'm like, why don't we look at like, donating some of the proceeds to blue help. They were just getting like, uh, they, I think like last year, the year before they got like their first unofficial invite to like police week and Washington DC and, um, the CEO, the president, uh, Karen Salman, she was getting like all this, um, attention to go and speak at these, uh, federal hearings. And now she's a part of like an FBI data collection project for that.

Alonzo: (26:24)
So like they're really going in the right direction with that. And, um, we, you know, she's like, yeah, that's great. So we just, we took a picture of the mug that she had made me and we put it up on Facebook just to like friends and family. And it was like, Hey, if we did this, you know, would people be willing to purchase these mugs, knowing that a portion of the profits would go to blue help.org? Um, and again, it's not just, uh, police suicide, uh, prevention, education. They also do like family wellness or they're there to help families cope with the tragedy of, of police suicide. So we had a lot of like great positive feedback and unbeknownst to us, one of our friends who's like locally does like, um, uh, like web design and stuff like that. She shared the, she like wrote up a little article and then she it to blue help.

Alonzo: (27:21)
So here we are. And I wanna say maybe is like in the summer, like July, so it's like eight 30 in the morning, nine in the morning. Well, now we're at like nine or 10 at night. We see that it's been shared the blue help. And then the next thing we know, there's like almost a thousand comments on there. So, uh, we didn't realize how much went into a business. So all of the summer, or she spent like producing, um, as much as she could. And then we finally were established, well, she was finally established as a sole proprietorship LLC with, uh, SoPo pottery. If you want check us out Facebook, Instagram, we do have a website, uh, SoPo pottery.com. Um, but we, uh, we typically keep the, that, uh, locked until we do a sales. But again, SoPo pottery S O P O and then another word pottery, P O T T E R Y. We are on Facebook and Instagram.

Stephen J: (28:15)
Um, and we're gonna post every single charity we've mentioned. Perfect. Absolutely. Every business we've mentioned is gonna be going up on our social media and our website, uh, to mention everything. So when, when people hear this, they saw just search us out behind the tin. Yeah. And, and you'll be able to

Alonzo: (28:31)
Get all that. Perfect. Awesome. Thank you guys. That's out there, but they see what we're doing and what we're trying to accomplish. And they're supporting us

Stephen J: (28:37)
Out of your little ghost studio. Yeah. Yeah. Where your wife and you had the idea to do this. Yeah. And next thing you know, and, and then boom,

Alonzo: (28:44)
All over the country. Yeah.

Stephen J: (28:46)
And you're right. It is a community. People don't understand that, you know, they say every profession we all have, they all have the fraternal. No, no police environment. And military are probably the most fraternal groups you're gonna find. Yep. Agreed. And you know, so, so creating that and going directly, I mean, it wasn't even that you guys sold some mugs and you're like, Hey, we got this money. Yep. We donate it back. It was, no, this is the preface. We're gonna make these mugs. We're gonna start this conversation. We're gonna donate. And not only are we gonna get our name out there with soap P pottery, we're gonna get their organization out there at the same time

Alonzo: (29:17)
Messages, you know, and amazing. And like you hear on the personal level, like people messaging, you, hearing their stories and, you know, complete strangers, like, but they know that connections there. So like we had one family, um, they own a, uh, a deli outside of Boston and they lost their son to, uh, police suicide. And they like told us this story. And this goes to our, our, the second release that, that, uh, my wife had done just before Christmas time. Everybody's like, you gotta get stuff out before Christmas time so we can get, get no pressure. Yeah. No pressure. Right. Well now take it a step further. We're getting like these messages and it's you. So she, this individual takes the time to tell us this story. And I'm like, oh my God, like, you feel like she's like, I've been trying to get stuff.

Alonzo: (30:08)
I appreciate what you're doing. She's like, I missed out. I'm hopeful. I get something. And that was like the message we had got in a, in a personal message. But she had also posted something up on the page. So of them are going through like the invoices, because when I do volunteer, I do a lot of like, I help out with the shipping and stuff. So I'm going through and I, and I see her name pop up there and I'm like, I thought she said she didn't get anything. So I was gonna go and post something. And then I go, and something just said to me, go check your inbox. So check my wife's inbox for any messages. And it was from this woman's daughter. And she's like, we know how important this is to her. You know, we've been, we know that she's been doing it.

Alonzo: (30:50)
I was on, my sister was on, we got two mugs. We want him to go to her. Like, this is her everything. And, you know, you hear about their brother who, who took his own life. And you're like, man, like, like you're hearing this and it's just really hitting home. Yeah. Like you're like, so, you know, we took it a step further. We had thrown in a couple, we had some testers that we were trying out for like ornaments. And, uh, we were gonna put 'em on archery and we put 'em in the box and we, you know, I wrote a message to them. And it was just, you know, that knowing that, you know, I obviously we have our family and the experience with our kids on Christmas, it's like phenomenal, but like hearing those stories and then the calls that came after that and the messages and the emails.

Alonzo: (31:40)
And you're just like, man, like this, this is like, so like, it's so unfortunate to know what they have gone through. Mm-hmm , but the fact that they want their message shared because they don't want anybody else to be in a position like their family is in and their openness to talk about it and to share that message and to allow all us to allow my wife as a business, to, to go out and to be able to talk about that with people. I mean, that's when you start seeing these, like I said, that bigger picture and, uh, to, to date, you know, with all the sales that she's done for blue help alone, um, we have done, uh, over $1,200 in donations, um, off of only three sales, we've only had three sales up to this point. Um, and when I talk about the business for her, she has a line of, uh, coffee mugs that we call, uh, the blue line collection and they they're color schemed with the GLS.

Alonzo: (32:42)
Um, and then, you know, we, we had help from another charity during that time, which was police wives of America. Um, they were phenomenal and we did a giveaway with them and we heard about what they did and they're out of Texas, but they're all over the us too. And you start, like I said, it just does, like, you're just, you want more of that positivity, you know, you're, you're just reaching out to anybody that you can, because just from something that you think is so small on your end, you don't realize how big it can be on the other one. Well, you're taking an

Stephen J: (33:20)
Inanimate object. Yeah. A piece of clay that you're turning into a mug and you've, you've added this connotation, um, of someone's loved one mm-hmm , you know, the people that are supporting this it's usually cuz they've been touched by something yep. By this tragedy. And especially for this woman, you're mentioning, you know, every time she probably drinks in that mug, she's thinking about her son. Yep. You got, and you can't plan that. You can imagine that. And you, you, you, you just smile and you probably get that tingly feeling over your body of how much you've made a difference for that woman. Yeah. And what that, that mug has become for

Alonzo: (33:51)
Her. Exactly. Like you, you, you start to see this symbolism to, to, to what, you know, I, I see day in out like the work my wife puts in the studio and the sacrifice that she's willing to, to, to make. And you know, we work it out. So we balance family time. We make sure we always have like time on the weekend that we're doing something as a family, but a, she enjoys it. And B now she sees, she gets to see how that law enforcement and community is. And, you know, we connected, like I said, we had connected with police wives of America and now we're working with them. Um, we created, she, my wife created a lady's series on the blue line mugs. Um, so, uh, police, wives of America, another, they have like over 40,000 members all over and it's just like spousal support group for law enforcement. And they, they do a lot of lives too. And they're great. And they do end of, uh, end of watch widow penance, Donna recognizes how important or so PO first time you said her name, by the way. Yeah. Sorry. I, you know what, my wife,

Stephen J: (35:00)
My wife, my wife, Donna, finally, we get a shout out to Donna. Thank you, Donna.

Alonzo: (35:04)
You know, she's, she is not one for attention. And she tells me to try and keep

Stephen J: (35:11)
It low key. And one of the questions we always ask every guest is if you could go back and tell your 21 year old self, some great advice and how to succeed in life now, you're, you're basically, you're looking at a bunch of kids that basically are your 21 year old self now. Yeah. What, what are you telling those kids? You know, in a nutshell, uh, how to be successful

Alonzo: (35:29)
For those kids, specifically, the ones, you know, they're all getting feelers on. What if they want to do law enforcement as a career? And if they do what aspect, you know, so, you know, a big thing that we get across is always be open to change because of how this job has changed in the last 15 years. But I wanna be a detective. Yeah, those are my favorite. I'm gonna SW well, Hey, you gotta start out low. You gotta go, you gotta climb. You, you gotta do some work. First pal, you gotta climb the mountain. So, you know, part of that is, uh, being open to change and having the, the ability to, uh, never wanna stop learning because on this job, when that happens, you're not gonna succeed anymore. You're gonna fall behind in the times. Um, so I think that's an important aspect that we, we, um, , we make sure we get out there to the kids.

Alonzo: (36:20)
So last question we ask everyone, how do you define a hero? It's a great question. So, um, I, I'm gonna answer this twofold, uh, because I think there is a, to me, and this is me personally, there's a, a, a broad definition of a hero is, is someone that puts others before themselves, uh, for, for the better of, of mankind or humankind. However you wanna word it. Um, to me, that's a hero and that can be being at the grocery store and being in lie. And the person in front of you can't afford what they're paying for. And you, you know, you say, Hey, I can do that. Or I can put back this item and do that. You know, it's as simple as that it's doing what's right. Um, but then I separate it for first responders and mil, um, firefighters police, uh, because not only are you required to do that, that first definition of being a hero that I gave, but you have to do that under the guise of, uh, you may not come home at the end of the day. So I wanna say like, going back to before, like my 21 year old self, like, I don't think I realized that.

Alonzo: (37:54)
And maybe that was a good thing for growth and development, but now you realize that, and it's not just that you making that decision. It's, you know, all the countless others that make that decision on a daily basis. And I just, I I'll pose the question out to whoever may be listening to this is if you knew every day that you were going to work because of what you did, regardless of how good the potential could be for other people that you might not walk back through that door in eight hours, you might not be coming home. Would you be willing to do that?

Alonzo: (38:38)
And that's a tough weight to swallow for some people. I, I like to think that because of what I've lived through and having a second chance that I, I always, I try I to get my family to understand it is to say like, I, I shouldn't ha I shouldn't have gotten that second chance, but I did. So if it means that this happens, I love you guys tremendously. I am always, I will do whatever I can to make sure that you are set up for success in the future. But like, I got this second chance and if I can give it to someone else, but it means that I might not come home here. Like, I don't want that to happen. Like, none of us want that to happen, but I recognize that that's a part of what, what I do. And I'm okay with that. Like I accept

Stephen J: (39:34)
That. I always say, especially law enforcement are superheroes. Mm-hmm , you know, you basically leveled it out, man. You put two levels on hero, right? Yeah. Law enforcement, maybe firefighters. I like to pick on fires, but probably firefighters, certainly military our superheroes.

Alonzo: (39:51)
I mean, can we call 'em hoses? Can we, well, we call 'em a lot of things.

Stephen J: (39:54)
Hose haulers, you know, sleepy heads, but here are people, men and women, all walks of life. Some came from very rich backgrounds. Some came very poor backgrounds, education levels vary. Yeah. As long as they meet the minimal requirement, they come into this job and they put on their costume. Yeah. We call it a uniform, but they put it on and it has nice little shiny badge. And that's why we're all behind the tin, cuz that's what they put on. And that's where people recognize them. They recognize 'em when they're wearing that costume, that badge, that uniform. But when they take it off, they're still that superhero and that's, you're a superhero to me. I appreciate that because you're willing to go out there to complete strangers who are in stressful situations, no matter what it is and, and you're willing to help them. Yep. So thank you for what you've done. Thank you for being a part of this podcast. And, and we look forward to watching what you're gonna do even more in the future with SOPA pottery and with Sparrow's nest and Hudson valley guns and hoses and special Olympics and the polar plunge and the list goes on and on the Explorer program. Yeah. Uh, and, and just straight up that

Stephen J: (41:02)
We just had some great time with Alonzo. Yeah. That was absolutely amazing. He was, he was just a, a pleasure to have on this show, the things he's doing with the community. And let me tell you the Explorer program, the thing that he was involved in starting is like a boy Scouts for young men and women who be police officers. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I know you'd mentioned that. I wasn't sure what that was about it, it it's an amazing, it, it gives, 'em just a taste into law enforcement and really solidifies their belief in what law enforcement is doing and the desire to become law enforcement in their future. So it lines him up. Yeah. He's

Justin: (41:33)
Got so many things going on.

Stephen J: (41:34)
I, I don't know how you're talking. Spar nest, polar plunge, SoPo pottery, uh, guns and hoses. I'm probably missing 10 things that he's involved in. Right. Um, but every single one of 'em is gonna be in our social media. So if you visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, wherever you find us behind the ten.com, the ten.com, it will find everything we're listening. Every charity that allows us involved in. And if you choose to support, 'em, we'd appreciate that. Cause that's what this is all about.

Justin: (42:01)
Yeah. They do such a great job, all these charities and, and, and we we'd be in a much different place without them.

Stephen J: (42:07)
So one of the goals of behind the tin is to show off these men and women that are doing so more for their communities than just wearing the uniform, serving and protecting, but doing these charity work, creating their businesses or, or whatever they're doing that we're finding just amazing. And we're gonna show it off. That's what this, this, this platform's

Justin: (42:25)
For. Yeah. It's fantastic. It's great to see that, uh, he's out there helping people. So

Stephen J: (42:29)
If you visit behind the tin.com, visit us on any of the social media platforms, you'll get that information. Uh, and until next time be safe, take care of each other. We'll see you next time.