 Good evening. We are so excited to be here and we are cutting into the Essex Select Board tonight to bring you a special edition of the Spectrum Sleep Out Strength in Slumbers. So we'll be back to the Essex Select Board at 9.30 but until then we are going to be with the people camping out sleeping out and sleeping over in Franklin and Chittenden County. So stay tuned we'll be on any minute now. Welcome to CCTV where we are celebrating Spectrum Sleep Out 2022 Strength in Slumbers and we are producing this show with a Spectrum team in order to connect all of us who are camping out even we have our coats on here we have the windows wide open because we're sleeping out sleeping over camping out for Spectrum for the youth in Chittenden and Franklin County who deserve our support and Spectrum provides that support and this Sleep Out is our opportunity. More than 500 people are sleeping out tonight to raise money to support homeless youth in Chittenden Franklin County. We're live on YouTube so feel free to share this link with people that you know because we're still working to meet our goal. This important financial opportunity this time of the year where we raise money for Spectrum this great event and we're also on town meeting TV 1087 on Comcast and 17 on Burlington Telecom. Now if you're out there and sleeping out and you have any questions you need any support Charlotte and the team are ready to help you you just email them at events at SpectrumVT.org but more importantly we want you to chat and share what's happening so you can chat on YouTube and you can share at this hashtag Spectrum Sleep Out where you are what you're doing what it looks like who's with you and we hope that you will post either on Facebook or Instagram or email us at social at SpectrumVT.org. Of course there's still time to donate and that's at SpectrumSleepOut.org and tomorrow morning just especially for you to know we're having coffee over Zoom so after a night out this beautiful spring night actually it's a nice night to be sleeping out that after you wake up and you have your hot coffee and you have your you want to talk about how your night was please join us and we're gonna be doing Zoom over coffee coffee over Zoom so without further ado let's go to Mark Redmond executive director of Spectrum who's at the Burlington Surf Club tonight. Hello everyone thank you for joining the Spectrum Sleep Out this year and for tuning in to our virtual program my name is Mark Redmond I am the executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services we are thrilled to have the sleep out for the 11th year in a row our goal this year is four hundred thousand dollars to support our work with homeless and at-risk youth we are very very close to reaching that goal hope we hit it by the end of the night it's been a record-setting year we have almost 550 people sleeping outside tonight in the cold can you imagine we started 11 years ago with 40 people so to go from 40 to 550 is pretty incredible I am here at the Burlington Surf Club with some of the people who will be sleeping out there's a group of us who's sleeping out of the surf club tonight it is the rain's holding off 50% chance of rain later on so we're gonna hope that holds off it's in the 30s so it's cold but not too cold so I think it's perfect for a sleep out there are a lot of people who I want to thank who made tonight possible first our presenting sponsor Food Science LLC thank you Food Science second year in a row our leader sponsor is dealer.com our advocate sponsors national life group PC construction steward construction and we have our friend sponsors VSECU Denise Casey and Neil Lunderville otherwise known as Lunder Casey farmhouse group city market co-op and Rose computers thank you David Rose and all of your workers we have many other sponsors and donors who supported this event with monetary and in kind donations thank you to the volunteers we couldn't do this without our volunteers and the amazing spectrum staff who put this together and we have spectrum staff who are sleeping out as part of the their own spectrum team and then we have other spectrum staff who are working this event tonight and they have there's a lot of work to put this together I want to thank we have a youth speaker tonight you're gonna see him on video later on his name is Moe and I think you'll be very moved by what Moe has to say there's tons of teams who are sleeping out tonight so many this year you will see them on the screen later on I can't tell you how incredible the effort has been this year I am truly grateful to all the friends families co-workers supporters who put this together the 11th annual spectrum sleep out it was something I saw on Facebook 11 years ago it was kind of a lark and now it's grown into this and it's a big support for our mission at spectrum so thank you all very much and stay warm mark thanks so much so great to hear from you and now let's hear from our lead sponsor my name is Tammy Johnson and I am from food science it's an absolute pleasure to be with you here this evening food science is the presenting sponsor for the sleep out it's our second year being involved in this event and we are just absolutely thrilled to be supporting spectrum the work that is done by spectrum and all of you every single day makes a significant difference and it aligns with food sciences mission our mission is to help people and pets live healthier lives we're an employer in Williston we have over 200 employees that work alongside one another every day of the year in Williston and we are a provider of supplements that help people and pets live healthier lives guys I hope you have a great night keep fun at raising I have no doubt that this year is going to be better than ever take care Tammy thank you so much it's just great to hear from you and thank you so much for food science to food science for your lead sponsorship and all of our sponsors it's a beautiful night it's a perfect night for a sleep out and we have more than 500 people sleeping out across Chittenden and Franklin County these teams are amazing we have dozens of teams who have helped raise money and raise awareness about the work and important work that spectrum does with homeless youth and Chittenden and Franklin counties so we're so grateful to these teams they're they're companies they're school students school children students who are very excited about being able to participate in the community in this way and then we have teams like the Red Hot Chili Dippers that we'll be speaking with in a moment who I saw camping out at the surf club so they're they're in the water and at the surf club and we really are very excited to be able to show a little bit about them in a minute but first I just want to remind you tomorrow morning at seven there's coffee over zoom and we hope that you'll make some time to join us and tell us about your night and now let's go to the Chili Dippers earlier this week these fantastic women who dip their toes and bodies in the cold water and the warm water all year long but it's especially impressive that they're in Lake Champlain in the month of March and February and January and they are using their their love of cold water and their love of the lake to raise awareness about spectrum and to raise money for spectrum so let's join them as we we did earlier this week the spectrum sleep value is so important to support because we've seen how it works with youth facing homelessness in Burlington and Northern Vermont and the the difference is so huge it's not just a bed and food but it's housing and and support in a way that I couldn't imagine so I'm so happy to support them I fully support it I actually went to the housing program myself and I just I can't say enough about the support they provided me and the access to resources and they're still here supporting me years after I'm out of the housing program so yeah well spectrum is just the most tremendous organization here in Burlington and there aren't very many organizations that can help teenagers and so that ability to give them housing and food and support mentally and emotionally as they transition from whatever situation that they're struggling in is just life giving so we are incredibly supportive of spectrum and are here doing our dips and raising money so please help us to support spectrum are they guilty me into it I have to do it Catherine called me a year ago right I was in the car she was like I know we have to sleep out a thing but we're doing this dipping thing why don't we combine the two so I was like all right so here we are so I'm grateful to Catherine and all the people who've been dipping for us it's a it's a great thing I'm really grateful to all of them so a chance to be a nature a chance to feel alive a chance to be completely present and then hang out with the finest women in town and men of course how to prepare wake up in the morning and say I'm just gonna do it I'm gonna call my lady friends or my male friends and you know get some warm clothes on get some warm water for your hands after have a great attitude take a deep breath and head on in thank you so much chili dippers we love you we just love watching you and I want to especially thank Kath Mondstream and Tia and Barry and Ilka Prichard and of course my friend Marty Churchill for hosting such a wonderful event this earlier this week it was a great way to start start the week although I wasn't actually in the water however we have another great couple of teams that we want to talk to at Browns River Middle School and these young people are so inspiring they've raised over $30,000 and a hundred plus of them have collaborated to support spectrum let's hear from them everybody say hello I'm participating to sleep out because I want to help people who and kids who are dealing with homelessness in Vermont I just thought it was a really cool activity and really liked what spectrum did and so how many people here are gonna participate in the sleepover all of you and how many people in the school are gonna participate in the sleepover hand the microphone to her um I think it's a lot I think probably at least more than half the school is definitely gonna be sleeping out for this event as a school we've raised over $25,000 I guess why I want to like help spectrum out is because there's a lot of kids who don't kids and adults who don't have homes and they deserve them because living out in the streets or in the woods just that sucks a lot I really wanted to help with spectrum because thinking about that kids have to live on the streets just makes me uncomfortable and they're probably uncomfortable too so raising money just makes me feel so much better I want to help the homeless people because I feel like everyone should have a home I think it's just like a good thing to do because like a lot of like people our age they don't really get a chance to help like they don't get a chance to make a big change in the world and like I think that's what we're doing here I think like we're trying we're making a change and now I just think that's a really good thing to do I raised almost $2,500 this year for a spectrum a lot of it was from my family and so I'm really grateful for them I emailed Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray and she donated to my page for a spectrum and I also did a hot cocoa stand earlier in March and that helped a lot too I just think that this is a really good thing to do for the people who don't have a home and have to sleep out in cardboard boxes in like the middle of winter when it's like in the negatives and just I just think it's really hard for them so I'm trying to help and give them a chance to actually have a home and yeah thank you Browns River Middle School what an extraordinary educational community every one of you fantastic students and the faculty and administration they're supporting spectrum understanding the value of this kind of work that spectrum does to support homeless youth in Chittenden Franklin County's we just were it's very very inspiring so let's just take a look at Facebook hopefully you are posting and sharing where you are in this virtual sleepout all over all over the region we want to see you and we want to connect with you so don't forget that's hashtag spectrum sleepout VT so that's Facebook and also Instagram and we want to see your posts on Instagram and of course don't forget there's still time to give at spectrumsleepout.com because we still have our goal to make and now coming up we're going to have our really the centerpiece of this program which is the presentation by Mo one of the young young men that spectrum serves so thank you so much let's go to Mo I'm Mo a church for Muhammad I'm 20 I grew up all my life in Lebanon to two Palestinian parents and I was a refugee in Lebanon and now in an asylum process I came here for like a university but I didn't really like like it I was trying to finalize which country I want to apply the asylum in like the reason why I'm in New England is because I was actually trying to get to Canada but COVID stopped me the taxi driver that was supposed to take me through the border but he was like oh I can't take you they will like arrest you or like it's COVID so nobody's allowed to enter and then he just left me at the Platsburg Airport and then I was like I don't want to go back home I want to like become a comedian I've never seen anyone more supportive of my choice of career than people who work at spectrum they were like oh yeah you should do it like the Vermont community club is gonna open soon you should sign up for classes if you wanted to they have improv they have stand up everyone was like oh you can do it many of us have had parents that don't support their life choices our life choices and what I realized is most of the people who live at spectrum with me have parents issues but what spectrum helped me find was lawyers place to sleep friends job healthcare food I always knew I wanted to do comment since I was like seven as a refugee asylume guy with an accent it's kind of it makes it more difficult but I kind of like enjoy the challenge I think people should be able to understand that poverty race homelessness any of like dark stuff in your life any trauma that you have makes you like a certain kind of jokes so basically in a kind of way like back home we understood those jokes I joke about my little brother getting bombed at 10 a lot because I don't want to like go dark on it I want to like make it snappy I won't like just put it in a conversation and move on from it so nobody asks me about the fact that everyone says oh I'm a bit of an edgy comedian kind of makes me feel like who I am I do a lot of warzone jokes I do a lot of like a lot of like dark stuff that makes me feel better about myself and makes other people unnecessarily feel like uncomfortable with it but it's like you don't know how hard it is to live in those places I remember I saw a video of a guy and while the bombs were going on he was making his daughter like telling his daughter jokes after that like in an hour his daughter died and they asked him oh why were you making her laugh and he was like I thought she was gonna be alive and I wanted her to know what laughter feels like as opposed to crying and that's why I like talking to people about comedy a lot because they didn't know how it how change how life-changing it was for me in order to be successful you need to be able to stand on your feet and all of that is at Spectrum one of the most important freedoms that I think someone should have as freedom of speech because I'd rather have someone express their feelings towards me with words than like weapons oh thank you so much for sharing your story I hope all of you out there watching are as inspired and moved as I am here and that you'll share this video with your friends and your family and ask them to support Spectrum if they haven't already I know it's been an enormous effort to get the support for the sleepout this year so let's hear from Mark as we start to wrap up the program Mark Redmond at the Burlington Serve Club so I want to thank Moe for his appearance there I know Moe a little bit from seeing him in drop-in and he lives in our housing as well and it's such an inspirational story right especially when you listen to what he talks about being in the Middle East with bombings and especially what's going on with Ukraine right now and the terror that is for young person to live like that in wartime and I'm grateful he found his way to Spectrum when you when you listen to him talking about being dropped off at Plattsburgh Airport right I can't tell you how many times young people have told me stories like that they got dropped off at the hospital they got dropped one young woman I was coming from Canada and came through the United States and literally customs said to her there's this place called Spectrum in Burlington you can go there so it must be an unbelievably frightening thing to be 18 or 19 and have to face circumstances like that but Moe has a lot of resilience he has a lot of direction in his life he knows what he wants to do and he's somebody who I really really admire so I'm grateful that we'll be sleeping out tonight for Moe and for there's 25 other young people Moe is one of them who live with us tonight who don't have to sleep in the woods who don't have to sleep in a laundromat who don't have to sleep outside they'll have a nice comfortable bed to sleep in so that's why we're doing the sleep out for Moe and for the young people like him so thank you for everyone and have a good try and have a good sleep tonight I know I'm going to try my best and I'm grateful to everyone doing the sleep out and people who donated to the sleep out so thank you so much and have a good one thank you so much mark I hope you're having fun out there I know is a good group a good group that was starting to gather there at the Burlington Surf Club tonight we want to announce the top fundraisers tonight and we do this for fun because we're so grateful for each and every one of you who have made this enormous effort together we're making a huge difference for the young people that Spectrum serves the top fundraiser for this 2022 Spectrum Sleep Out is Ray Racine of Hallam ICS who raised 17,250 dollars and the top team is from dealer.com and they raised 27,000 dollars the top student team wait for it Browns River Middle School with 30,810 dollars collected and the top crowd sourcers the most number of donations goes to Eric Hoekstra with 65 donors and so far we've raised 343,554 dollars I think mark mentioned maybe on the video that this spectrum sleep out started 11 years ago with 40 people sleeping out and now there's 550 it's amazing it's a great idea it's a great event and we're very grateful to be part of it so thanks to all of you for sharing spectrum sleep out hashtag spectrum sleep out here we've got the instagram feed it's great to see you all there getting ready and getting cozy and we are really grateful again I just can't say thank you enough and I want to remind you that tomorrow at 7 a.m is coffee over zoom and we think you probably as one of the participants have this link already but if you don't there it is and we hope to see you tomorrow morning after a cozy night sleep so for now we want you to get tucked in know that you are part of something bigger all over the county all over chitin and and frankly counties and the spectrum staff wants to close by giving you a very very special thank you so good night sleep tight thank you for your support thank you so much for your support thank you so much from Riverstone Counseling we really really appreciate your support and thank you again thank you thank you thank you thank you thanks for sleeping