 died this week from a choice. We all have a choice, I understand that. But if someone wants to commit suicide, that's an individual choice. But when you commit suicide and you can also kill the person next to you, that's not, I just put my toe in the water being cautious all this year. I've only gone to a limited number of events. And now I'm getting ready to shelter back in place because people who want to think that it's in the Constitution for them not to wear a mask and not to get a vaccine. It's not. I'm so frustrated. My hair is curling and falling out at the same time. I am just so over. I saw it on national news yesterday that our own chans, whatever we call the name of now. UF Health, yeah. They made national news this week. They are vaccinated, 75 people out. People, I just don't understand the freedom versus death. I don't understand that model. And I'm just so frustrated. I just pray that this will cause people to turn, but I'm not sure. I just, I'm not sure. I know, Linda, let an event. I appreciate it, Linda. And I know of several other stories like that in my own life. And it's just heartbreaking that you could have gotten a free shot that would have protected you from all of this misery. And again, these vaccines are safe and highly effective. Tommy in St. Augustine. Go ahead, Tommy. Hello, thank you for taking my call. Sure. I just wanted to say this past two weeks I've been in the emergency room for blood pressure-related issues. I just want everyone to know that it is very real. There were so many people. There were COVID-like symptoms or suffering from COVID had been diagnosed. And they were really struggling. I went to Baptist South and Baptist Beaches. So it is very real. And I also wanted to know, not everyone who has not taken the shot or been vaccinated is political or cultural, believed or distrust. It may be that it's contraindicated for health issues such as myself. So some people just cannot take the vaccine. So for those of you who can, please help up those of us who can, who have compromised immune system and get the vaccine if you can. Tommy, thanks absolutely. Thank you for that. Lots of calls. Bill in Mandarin, go ahead, Bill. You're on the air. Yeah, just a couple of one-liners. I think those folks who haven't gotten vaccinated are walking tombstones, waiting for the date to be filled in. I think the leadership of our, by our governor is nicknamed should be governor graveyard. But I might suggest, I think there's a valid thought here about a third of these folks are probably just outright afraid of getting stabbed. I know when I've got my second shot, I had such fear about getting it because of the poke in the arm from what I've seen on TV. That's it, thank you. Okay, Bill. Hey, look, David Barrowline, nobody enjoys getting vaccinated. You know, you get a sore arm and you get some symptoms for a day or so. I did. I didn't feel very good, especially after the second Moderna shot, but I'm just so relieved that I got it early on and have some immunity to this. David Barrowline, what about the governor? He doubled down Thursday on his opposition to mass mandates for public school students. He says he'll call for a special legislative session. If the federal government moves toward requiring masks in schools, President Joe Biden has indicated they may do that in a week or two. I think there's a fundamental difference in between DeSantis and Biden in terms of whether masks work. Biden would argue that there is scientific basis that the wearing of masks can slow, not stop, but slow the spread of the virus by reducing how far the virus spreads when somebody is infected with it, coughs or even breeze, and then makes the zone around them smaller in terms of where people can then become infected by that person. And I think DeSantis' view is simply that the masks really don't work and that they're not effective and that it's just sort of a meaningless symbol gesture that really just causes more problems than it solves. And so, yeah, there would definitely be a showdown between the federal government and the state government if the federal government sought to impose a mask mandate nationally. I wish quite frankly the government that the federal level has not done so far. It's all been up to local governments and state governments. You know, he may be referring to some studies that show that there wasn't widespread transmission in schools in Florida of COVID. At the same time, most urban school districts did have kids masked up. Claire Goforth, the governor said, we're not doing that in Florida. We need our kids to breathe. And he said that there is not any science to support mask wearing slows the transmission of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising that kids younger than 12 should be wearing masks in schools. You know, Claire, we've heard from a lot of parents in the last few days of young children who feel that their kids are in limbo. They have to go back to school. They're not old enough to be vaccinated. They know that if they put a mask on their child, their child is going to be in the minority. They're worried about their kids being bullied if they are wearing masks, frankly. Yeah, and that's a fair concern. And I mean, one way that we could make it safer for kids to be able to go to school without masks is to get the adult population vaccinated. You know, I know that there are statistically, it's less likely for children to transmit the disease and less likely for them to have serious illness from it, but it's not impossible. We have seen, I don't know how many children across this country, certainly in the thousands, who have died from COVID, and that is a tragedy for every single family. And that's another thing that we need to think about. You know, for all of those people who may be listening who haven't had the vaccine yet, who are reticent to get it, you know, you're putting not just yourself at risk, but you're putting children at risk. And you're also putting people like your caller who said that she had blood pressure issues because when we have our emergency rooms in our hospitals completely overflowing with COVID patients, that provides less bandwidth for people with other conditions and people who need to get different types of procedures performed. It makes it so that the rest of us have less access to quality healthcare. And I know that our healthcare professionals are doing their very best under the most dire circumstances, but while making a choice not to get a vaccine, you are taking your own life into your own hands. You're also taking the lives of others. And that is very important to remember. Lots of calls. Let's get a few more of you on as you connect with our Friday Media Roundtable. Don in Jacksonville, hi Don, thanks for holding. Go ahead. Hi, as a 80 year old vaccinated stage four kidney patient who spent more than 40 years in healthcare journalism, I think we need to put this in perspective in the sense that about 37% of people got flu shots. So we start with a base of people, a huge majority of people who don't believe in vaccines or don't go to the trouble to get shots. So to blame this on the Santas or the politicians is a little bit of a reach. And I think what's important to understand is that we're gonna have COVID for the rest of our lives. We're gonna have to learn to distance. We're gonna have to learn to wear a mask if we feel vulnerable. And we have to learn to understand that there are people who are not like us and we cannot look down on people who disagree with us and who don't have our point of view. And we also have to look at the fact that like 15 to 20% of the population are impaired by addiction or a mental illness or what have you. So they are less likely to get healthcare. And then there are people who are just busy and then there are people who just don't believe in vaccines. And so to blame this on all the politicians. Well, I don't think, you know what, Don, I don't think we're blaming this on all of the politicians so much who's just trying to get the word out that people should get vaccinated since this is a uniquely deadly pandemic. That's all. But let's listen, Don, I appreciate your call. Yeah, and I just wanna keep the conversation moving. Charles Greggs, what about that? Hey, Charles, are you there? I have been competing. I'm here. Go ahead. I'm here. There certainly have been competing narratives around the vaccine and respecting Don's point. There are various variables there that keep people from wanting to get vaccinated. However, like I mentioned earlier, the science doesn't lie. We run the risk of giving an opportunity for additional variants to take hold in our community, not just the Delta but others. And our goal should be to work towards an acceptable number of vaccinations in our community to slow the spread and to slow the risk of symptoms of the disease. So that's what we're looking for. And we understand that there are people out there who cannot get the vaccine because of their health conditions. We understand that there are people out there that reluctant to do it for their children until they get more information. But we know that the children, based upon the way this Delta variant is operating, they're next in line. The starting to Delta variant is obviously having more impact on younger people than we saw with the original stages of this virus. And so our children are gonna be next in line. And we need to get a hold of this, to do whatever we can as a community and as a country to get a hold of this before we start seeing major impacts upon our children. When we have to wear masks or ask our children to wear masks in class, I'm willing to do that for my grandson. And I don't see if that's a big burden for him to do that or any other student. I don't see what the problem is. Don't even think it shouldn't have to be mandated. That should be something that parents will wanna do to protect their child. It's almost like making sure that they got clean shirt on in the way to school or their shoelaces are tied. It should be that simple to make sure that they protect their children in the process of trying to slow the spread of this virus. On our Facebook page, Teresa says, unvaccinated by choice people are keeping those who need operations from getting them. Cancer patients from getting care. Accident victims from getting prompt emergency care. And on and on, she's right. Because there are so many COVID patients now filling up local ICUs, that means people with other medical needs, including serious ones, are not getting the best level of care. So that is an important point to think about. If you are not getting vaccinated for whatever your reason is, you're impacting a lot of other people outside of the pandemic because this is putting such a strain on hospitals. Let's go to, we have a doctor on the line. It's Virgilio in Riverside, Virgilio. Good morning. Hi, good morning, Melissa. You're a huge fan. Thank you. Thanks for calling. So I'm a local doctor. I admit COVID patients. That's what I've been doing this whole time. It's been tough, of course. I think you've discussed that and covered that. Last week I was exposed to COVID and I became symptomatic. We use the term miles, but walking around the house with chills and muscle ache and a hoodie, that's hard, that's hard. Yeah. I just wanna acknowledge that. And you've been vaccinated? I have been vaccinated. I just wanna acknowledge that even as a doctor, a professional who takes care of patients on a daily basis, you know, finding out where to get tested, what to do with your loved ones who are at the house, how do they isolate? The life changes with your family and friends. It's really difficult. And I just wanna acknowledge that to people who are going through it, that how they're feeling is correct. Yeah. So how sick are you? Is it a kind of a mild case? I would call it a bad summer cold that just continues to trickle. Yeah. And so you're living proof then, we need to make sure people understand this, that you can be fully vaccinated and still get the disease, although you're, as you say, it's more likely to feel like a cold than needing ICU care. Absolutely. No respiratory symptoms. I wouldn't go to the ER. I don't feel that sick, but I also wanna acknowledge that, you know, what do you do once you're sick? Where do your loved one goes? Now they have to go get tested. It's a total life stopper. And I think that just takes an emotional toll in addition to the physical toll. 100%. And thank you so much for calling and thanks for all the work you're doing in the hospital. Chris in St. Augustine, hi, Chris, thanks for holding. Hi, thanks for having me on the show. Sure. I just wanted to ask, you know, of you and of the guests, you know, when does this become a legal issue? I mean, I know we're never gonna be able to chase down the, you know, the anonymous people online who are spewing garbage and misinformation about what's going on here, but you can very easily track down folks in media, politicians, et cetera, who know better and are propagating that misinformation. At some point, we're gonna be able to prove that the delay in vaccination because of all this hesitancy, et cetera, cost real lives. At what point do those folks get held accountable for knowingly spreading information that they know is gonna cost lives? Chris, I'm so glad you brought that up. Mike Mendenhall, Jack's Daily Record. There's been a lot of discussion about this in recent days and a lot of anger, particularly at the biggest spreaders of disinformation. Facebook at the top of the pile and also Fox News, frankly, and how they've tried to pivot in recent days and started to encourage vaccinations. There is a real cost to misinformation and it is in human life. And we can expect some major lawsuits, I think, if they haven't already been filed by those who are willfully putting out false information about the vaccination program. Yeah, most, I mean, they're likely will be lawsuits at some point. But I think for companies like Facebook, I mean, I really think the real, like, penalty would come from possible, an increased regulation from Congress, increased regulation from the federal government. I mean, that's really would probably be, I mean, it would probably be a quicker avenue to take care of some of this. You've already seen the federal government trying to encourage Facebook to change its algorithms to, and they did for a brief time around the time of the election as well, to stop misinformation, to put more credible news sources to show up toward the top of people's news feed, those kind of things. But I think that we've seen time and again that there are national news outlets, unfortunately, that, like you mentioned, particularly with Fox News, that are continuing to perpetuate misinformation. And I think it's mostly coming from that group's commentators from their prime time commentators. Yeah, their opinion hosts. So then their opinion hosts, more so than the journalists that are working in the newsrooms. That's right. Brian in Arlington. Hi, Brian, you wanna talk about the NFL? Is that right? Yeah, I'm Alyssa, I'm vaccinated and certainly the impact on human life is the number one issue. But I'm upset with this governor who thinks he can restrict businesses from checking whether people have vaccines. And with yesterday's announcement, I'm wondering if Governor Ron DeSantis is gonna be responsible for ending NFL football in the state of Florida this fall. Let's talk about that. David Bauerline, the NFL came out this week and said that this is a league-wide policy. If a national football league game cannot be resched and is canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, that team will have to forfeit and will be given a loss. That is a major incentive to players to get the vaccine and the NFL is a huge corporation. It will certainly have a ripple effect, I would think, among some other businesses. David. No doubt, actions are in actions will have consequences in that case in the win-loss column, which is what it all boils down to when you talk about NFL games. For other businesses, it's a hard one for other businesses to, does that mean that if there's a COVID-19 outbreak in the workplace and somebody was not vaccinated and traced back to them, that they then worth it pay while they're a month's pay or something? I mean, it becomes very difficult and I'm not sure it's quite so easy to translate that to the regular workforce, but certainly at the NFL level, I mean, they're getting them where it hurts. You also, I think, would not get paid for the game that's not played. So that's a financial impact as well. And it could have a symbolic, it certainly heightens the issue and shows the importance of what's going on. And that there is a price to be paid for not doing something that's really readily available. Yeah, Claire go forth. Most businesses have held back on a policy that strict. They've encouraged vaccination. They can enforce mask wearing on the property. For example, at here at WJCT Public Media, we've had a mask order in place for, gosh, it's almost a year and a half now. But forcing, saying that you can't come to work unless you're vaccinated or there will be real consequences if you're not vaccinated, it will be interesting to see if corporate America goes down that path if this continues at the level that we're at right now. Yeah, that is gonna be a difficult issue for companies to say I'm gonna force you to take a vaccine if you wanna work here. Although I think they should be well within their rights to do so, but that would be a very unpopular decision for them and they would get a lot of negative press and probably from some of those very same outlets that we've been speaking about today. I think we should also note that the ongoing war between the DeSantis administration and the cruise industry, which wants to require passengers to be vaccinated and the DeSantis and the Republican leadership in Florida doesn't want to allow them to do so. So they're fighting that out in court. That is something that people who go on cruises, whether or not they wanna get vaccinated, I think they'll change their tune if they're on a cruise ship with 5,000 people and there's a COVID outbreak and suddenly they're trapped on the ship and cannot get off like we saw last spring at the beginning of the pandemic. That's right. The cruise ship industry is also facing off against Florida's policies. We've been following that as well. Alan on the south side. Hi, Alan. I know you've been holding. Thanks for holding, go ahead. Hey Melissa, happy Friday. You too. I think everybody knows Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time, the worst possible way, blah, blah, blah. But there's a lesser known corollary to Murphy's Law called Hanlon's Razor. And while it comes in a lot of embodiments, my favorite goes like this, never attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by stupidity. Never attribute to conspiracy. You can't fix stupid, Alan, that's right. Yeah, I know it, I know it. Yeah, what can you do? You can't, you can present information, you can encourage, you can do all you can. But you're right, at the end of the day, it is what it is. Okay, Travis on the south side. Hi, Travis. Hey, Melissa. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I had a quick comment and then what I think is kind of an important question. The comment is shout out the healthcare workers who are still my heroes, my wife's a nurse. And thank you to everyone in healthcare who's been working for over a year now, during this pandemic, it's been crazy. And it's an interesting perspective to talk to a healthcare worker who sees this stuff on the front lines. I guess my question is, if COVID-19 was the dress rehearsal for what could be in the future, a worse pandemic, didn't we just kind of fail miserably? And what does that mean moving forward? How would we be impacted by an even worse pandemic if this is how our response was? I tell you what, Travis, you're absolutely right. And so many mistakes have been made. Charles Greggs, it's been a hundred years since this country went through the 1918 flu pandemic, which is sort of the closest historical analogy to this pandemic. We didn't learn the lessons of that pandemic. We repeated a lot of the same mistakes that Americans made a hundred years ago. That's really unfortunate. People don't know history. At the same time, as Travis pointed out, healthcare workers are heroes, and you really have to feel for them right now, as they're seeing all these unvaccinated people come in needing care. And right before they're intubated, they're crying and telling the nurses and doctors, I wish I'd gotten the vaccine. Can you give me the vaccine now? And they have to tell these folks it's too late. Yeah, Melissa, I would say that we did learn all lessons from previous pandemics. You know, I worked in public health for 12 years. And we rehearsed these scenarios over and over and over again, how to respond to events such as this, how to respond to pandemics, how to implement public health practices to prevent the spread and lower the risk, and what to do in cases of vaccine distribution and so on and on and on. And I would argue that the ball was fumbled from the very beginning, being stubborn, not to respond with using the science and using public health principles and practices in order to mitigate the situation from the very beginning. We were slow to the trigger on making sure that we do the things that we know we can do. And really based upon politics. And now we're paying the price. And that's just the way it is. Those things that we know would have worked, we didn't apply at the beginning. So what I hear you saying is all the people in the health world knew what to do. It was the political sphere that you think messed all this up. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, okay, let's take a few more calls, lots of calls with our Friday Media Roundtable as we talk about COVID-19 and the crisis situation in Jacksonville and surrounding counties. The Delta variant has devastated this community. ICUs are filling up with younger and unvaccinated people. As we speak with David Bauerlein, Claire Goforth, Charles Griggs and Mike Mendenhall from Local Media Outlets. We're taking lots of calls. Let's go to Nancy in Mandarin. Nancy, good morning. Good morning. Go ahead. I have to know why we don't have conversations about the real cause of this pandemic. We all know the shot is free from the federal government. But what is happening to little Mike if you go in and stay for 57 weeks in ICUs and the cause of medications? And of course, now we understand that the penalty on the human beings and nurses that they're exhausted and the doctors are exhausted and they just feel like they should give up because people just aren't touching their home. Yeah. Thank you, Nancy. I can't remember who's next in the queue. I'll go to Mike Mendenhall. What about this? As we noticed yesterday, a 33-year-old father in Jacksonville and a fitness coach in the peak of health was in the ICU for more than two weeks. He didn't get the vaccine. He's actually now set up a GoFundMe for help paying his medical bills. We don't know his insurance status or how much of his insurance covered his costs in the ICU, but it's sure to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. So the cost of all of this is staggering when you add it all up, the cost to this country, Mike. Absolutely, Melissa. I mean, you know, we've been trying to work on our insurance policy at the federal level and how we pay for healthcare in this country for decades. And I think that when you have a global pandemic of this scale, you really see which country's healthcare systems can financially grapple with it and which cannot. It really does kind of reveal a lot of those things. And as far as the emotional toll on healthcare workers, I mean, I have a couple of healthcare workers in my family, and I think there is some disillusionment for sure, you know, having to, you know, seeing these patients come in and out. And also trying to protect patients that are in there from, you know, for other needs, other issues from getting infected from those that are coming in. You know, so I definitely think there is some disillusionment, but there's also this frustration, I think, on the part of a lot of healthcare workers as well when, you know, they know very, very well that, you know, the shot, you know, could have protected these people. And I think it's, you know, I think they try, I know just from the healthcare workers that are in my life, I know they try very hard not to let that, let that allow them to think negatively of the patients that are coming in. They try really hard to remember that everyone has a unique, has a different perspective and different opinions and they're trying really hard to do their jobs. David Bauerlein, Florida Times Union, you know, we're going to see a big corporate push next week. Business leaders speaking out about this crisis, they see the cost to companies, to public health, to the city's reputation. This isn't a good look for Jacksonville to be getting all of this negative national attention because our vaccination rate isn't where it needs to be. David. Absolutely. No, it's the bad kind of publicity for the city. And, you know, just about every metric, the city is behind the rest of the state and then Florida is behind the rest of the country. So there is, Jacksonville is kind of becoming a poster child for this latest summertime resurgence, new wave of COVID-19 vaccinations. And, you know, Charles had a good point earlier, which is this attention on it is welcome. It's good to see that out there from people in the community where the local leaders are the most trusted people, probably in this case, but, you know, it would have probably been good just seeing this two or three months ago when there were all the daily news reports about all these vaccinations that were going unused at these big mega sites that were set up. And now we're seeing that that had some impact for every one of those vaccines that didn't get used or hundreds or thousands of vaccines that didn't get used. Now we do have this pandemic had been unvaccinated in Jacksonville and the Jacksonville area, unfortunately, it's the hotspot in the state and really in the country as well. Let's take one more call and then we'll do a quick lightning round with our panel, some other news and notes from the week. Paige in Arlington, hi Paige, good morning. Well, listen, thank you for taking my call. Hey listen, I'm listening to all of this and I'm a bit concerned. My reason being is one, I have elected officials, I have council people, I have senators, congressmen. What are they doing to dissent this? Who's saying, hey, I'm gonna outlaw these people who are trying to make people wear masks. I wear a mask because one, I don't trust other people. I wear a mask because I know that some people are not vaccinated and they're falling along the Trump campaign and they think this whole thing is closed until they get it. I'm wearing a mask because I'm trying to protect my grandchildren, I'm wearing a mask because I'm trying to protect my elderly brothers 72 and I got vaccinated. And I wanna know what are my elected public officials going to do? I mean, somebody can sue him. Somebody has standing to sue him because what he's doing is going to, you know, it's going against public health. And one other thing too is that I think that if Jacksonville remains a hot spot, I don't think they should play any games here. I think NFL should go just one step further. Any place where there's a hot spot. Yep, Paige, and we're out of time. Paige, I really appreciate your call. I know there's a lot of frustration out there. Unfortunately, we're out of time. We can't do a full lightning round, but shout out to Eddie Alvarez of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. He's gonna carry the US flag at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo during the opening ceremony, the first baseball player ever selected for that honor. Go Eddie Alvarez. And thank you so much to David Bauerlein, Claire Goforth, Charles Griggs and Mike Mendenhall. Always lending great insights to this program. Thank you so much, everybody, for being with us on audio and video stream. Good to see you all and have a great weekend. Thanks, Melissa. Thank you, Melissa. Thanks, everyone. In a moment, just like me, it's a special program for local teens in foster care and how the arts is helping them age out. That's next. 999. It's the biggest stories affecting the Sunshine State. Hi, I'm Melissa Ross. And I'm Tom Hudson. Join us Friday for the Florida Roundup. Each week at noon, we interview newsmakers and people from across the state discussing the stories and issues that affect your life. What's driving the conversation in Florida? Join the conversation on the Florida Roundup. Every Friday at noon on WJCT News 89.9. Crosswords in a Senate hearing. You do not know what you are talking about. Liz Cheney accuses the head of the House GOP of trying to sabotage an investigation into the January 6th riots. The idea that anybody would be playing politics with an attack on the United States Capitol is despicable and is disgraceful. The Friday News Roundup next time on 1A. Today starting at 10 on WJCT News 89.9. Welcome back. Just Like Me was developed for local teens in foster care preparing to age out of the system. And they use the arts as a means for self-expression, empathy, and social self-assurance. Next week is the 10th anniversary of the Just Like Me cultural arts exhibition coming up at the Florida Theater July 29th. This performance is free and open to the public. Katherine McAvoy is on the line. She's found our executive director of the Performers Academy, working with local kids, helping them gain skills and excitement through the arts. And it's always good to hear your voice, Katherine. Good morning. Good morning, Melissa. So tell us about the Just Like Me program coming up next week at the Florida Theater. We are so excited to celebrate our 10th anniversary. And the first camp we did, we didn't anticipate having an actual performance. But the kids that spent three weeks with us in this art camp for behavioral intervention and artistic expression, we realized that they really wanted to get on stage and share what they had done, which was to tell their own story and their own words through music, poetry, dance, rap, music production, and visual arts. And they wanted to get up and do that. We had put together at the last minute a performance for them that was, you know, attended by the case managers in the local foster community. And now, 10 years later, we're gonna be at the fabulous Florida Theater and be on stage. We've done it every year for 10 years, including last year. And we have got some really talented teens who come together and express themselves in ways they never knew was possible. It's a very exciting event. And I hope we can fill up the floor to theater. Sure. Now, let's talk about this program and how unique it is. It's one of the only programs offered for kids age 15 to 17. And it's the longest running program with family support services. And they work with local foster kids, right? Right, right. And for us to have a program that's been in existence and continually running for 10 years is, first of all, it's fabulous. The family support services, they don't have many opportunities to serve the teens. There are a lot of programs for little kids and the kids don't stay in foster care very long, typically, but the teens are, they're harder. I mean, my teens are hard, right? Aren't yours? My teens are harder, you know? And so it's difficult to find things that can engage them and keep them interested and then as well motivate them. So our camp is one of the few programs that offers that and offers it to, has that therapeutic component to it because arts is, after all, very therapeutic. I think we're the only program that has that therapeutic component. And the kids just blossom. It's amazing the changes in them from the day they come in to three weeks later, what they have established, what the bonds that they've established and the ways they've learned to express themselves and they never were able to before. So it's really a fabulous process that we go through. Yeah. Now you just had a mural festival at the Performers Academy. You are offering free after-school programs to kids in September funded by the Kids Hope Alliance. You're helping kids all over this community with the arts. We are, and I do have to tell you that I'm no longer the executive director that Ebony Payne English. Oh, that's right, Ebony Payne English. That's right. That's right. You're the founder, yeah. And she's, I'm the founder and I'm the board president. But she is the executive director doing a great job and we get support from the Kids Hope Alliance and the Cultural Council to give us year-round programming, all free to the community. And our goal is to be the source for behavioral intervention, academic motivation for teens to teach them coping mechanisms that are a healthy way to express themselves through the arts. And we've really seen a difference in the past 10 years. We've helped hundreds and hundreds of teens. And you ought to come see our building now that we had the mural festival, which was a fabulous success. And we had 14 muralists there, seven who were female, seven males, seven who were from out of town, seven who were local. And it was a great event and our building is beautiful, our campus is beautiful. So yes, encourage the teens to come after school to the free programming. And I really hope that people will come out and support these teens that are in foster care at the Florida Theater next Thursday. This is next Thursday, Florida Theater, 6.30 p.m., free and open to the public. Come on out for the 10th anniversary of the Just Like Me Cultural Arts Exhibition next Thursday night. And you can also learn more about the Performers Academy because Catherine, as you've talked about on this show before, a lot of kids don't have access to art and music programs the way they used to in schools. When I was in school, every school had a band, every school had an orchestra, every school had some kind of art programming, art or music programming. For some reason, people decided we needed to cut all of that that it wasn't essential to education. It is. And so your organization is filling that need. Yes, and we do use it in conjunction with the school programs as an academic motivator. So, I mean, if the kids can find something they're passionate about, they'll stay engaged. And they'll graduate high school if they can get that encouragement through a way to express themselves and understand that if they'll do the art and do the education, they can work together to get through high school. That is a big issue for us with them dropping arts out of the school program. Particularly the schools that are being used for kids that are at risk. Those are the ones that don't get any programming, any special programming. So we're fighting to try to get in Matty V and Grand Park and other places to get the arts program. Let us be the arts program for them because we can handle these kids. We do the trauma training and we know what to do with these kids when they need to de-escalate or have a moment. Sure. And the arts helps with all of that. It helps with all of that. In the meantime, check out Just Like Me next Thursday, 6.30 p.m. at the Florida Theater. It's free, open to the public, and learn more about the Performers Academy in Jacksonville. Founder Catherine McAvoy, thanks for all you do and have fun with it. Thank you so much, Melissa. Thank you, and that's our show. Thanks for listening. I'm Melissa Ross. Make sure to join us at noon for the Florida Roundup as we go across the state taking calls about the biggest news of the week. That's at noon. See you then. Support for First Coast Connect is