And let me start by saying welcome and thank you so very much for everyone who is here and able to join us today. We are thrilled to have the CEO and the development director with us today and they are going to talk to us about how they work together. So Rita Sorennan is the president and CEO and Jill Krombacher joins us as well as the senior VP marketing and development. We are excited to have you to with us. Again, this is nonprofit power week. So Dave Thomas foundation for adoption is with us each and every day this week. If you missed any previous episodes. Don't worry, you can still access them and we will have a couple of more remaining this week. So do stay tuned. And before we jump into the conversation which I cannot wait to get started. We of course want to extend our gratitude to each and every one of our presenting sponsors. You see their logos on the screen.  So if you have not checked them out. Don't do it now, but do it soon, because we want to make sure that you hear everything that we have to say in this episode. Julia Patrick, thanks to her we have this wonderful episode and platform, Julia is the CEO of the American nonprofit Academy.  And again, we are so excited for this nonprofit power week, dedicated with Dave Thomas foundation for adoption. And today, I mentioned a little earlier, Rita sorenin joins us again, and Jill Krumbacher is right by her side as I'm sure you are each and every day Jill. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. It's great to be here again. I'm excited Jill. You are a new face for us this week and I would love to learn a little bit about you as we begin into our episode but tell us a little bit about your journey if you would and how long you've been with the Dave Thomas foundation for adoption and just so we have a little bit of background. Sure, I'd be happy to professionally I spent a lot of years in the for profit world, specifically working for American manufacturers, both marketing their products and selling their products into retail so I spent a lot of years, doing that great work but was able to join the foundation about seven years ago. And I really joined because it's a personal passion of mine, I am an adoptive mother. I adopted both internationally and I, my husband and I were foster parents, we fostered nine children, and we adopted a team boy as well through that experience so that was already a passion of mine, and I was really wanting to get into work and live down my passion and thankfully, there was an opening and I need the foundation and, and really believe I can do the work so here I am. What a story. So you, you live this each and every day and so now I'm, I'm more of a fangirl because I cannot. You know, you're like a lot of different forms right like professionally but personally and how it all relates to one another. Wow Rita, you are lucky and I can imagine the two of you work so well together and I'm excited to learn a little bit about that. you know, would kick us off with this. What does it look like working so closely as the CEO with the development director when it comes to setting and translating goals for the foundation? Yeah, I can't even imagine not having someone like Joe who works hand in hand, arm in arm on all of the aspects of the foundation from setting the annual budget to determining how we're going to not only spread the message of the mission but get the resources that we need to continue to grow the mission. And I'm just really lucky with Jill by my side because she's not only a dedicated and skilled professional but she's passionate as you heard about this cause. And she's a very, she's a unique strategic thinker as well. And so that is so critical particularly for an organization like the Daytona Foundation for adoption that's continued to grow. But if you just take it down to that piece about fundraising, it's that's what, you know nonprofits are all about ultimately getting dollars in the door to spread the mission. So it's so important for us. And I think for any nonprofit to have that kind of relationship with their, the development team but particularly the development leader. Yeah, you know, I agree.  And Jill, I would love to hear from you kind of what does it look like from the development director side or sorry, we really should say senior VP. That's quite all right. It's the person in charge of fundraising either way. And you know what you learn early on is you don't fundraise by yourself. And clearly the CEO and the president of the organization has a critical role in that. And you have to work together because number one, you're trying to set growth goals so that you can meet your mission objectives. You have to set them so that they are aggressive and so that you're continually building year over year and so you can advance your mission but you also have to make them realistic. And so it really takes the two of us together and our board, right? Sitting down and saying, we wanna aim high but we have to be realistic. And so we work together and do that. Our organization in particular also has marketing and the development mix with which further sort of makes us all one team. We're going for brand awareness because without brand awareness you can't have fundraising. If they don't know who you are then they're never gonna be able to give to you, right? And so I think those things having those functions together and then being so leader to Rita because you know how it is if you've got a major donor they're gonna wanna meet with the CEO and they should meet with the CEO, right? And so her role of coming in and being able to talk to those real high end, high value donors is critical to doing the work that we do. So really that collaboration and cohesiveness really helps to set to, you know again set the goals and learn truly how to translate them as it comes to your day to day operations and functions. And it sounds like the two of you work so well together. So how do you determine roles? When, you know, there's a lot to fundraise and I'd said earlier, I would love to know if you would be open and willing to be so transparent to share with us. You know, what is the operating budget so we can see in relation what we are looking to do together and accomplish and how it comes to determining the roles for each. Sure, absolutely. And no worries, we're very transparent about our finances. We wanna make sure that those who choose to invest in us understand how we use our dollars and where they go. Currently we have an operating budget and we're on a fiscal year, July 1 to June 30. Our fiscal year budget is just at about 38.5 million and that covers not only, you know the staff of about 54 individuals but significant dollars going out the door in grant making to organizations all across the United States. So it's a significant and robust budget. When I started here a few years ago we were just about a $2 million budget with five staff. So we've grown significantly but you have to imagine, of course your leadership team has to be really unified in what that growth looks like and that it's reasonable growth that we're not stumbling all over ourselves just to grow. And again, the marketing and development teams that Jill leads are absolutely critical to that process of determining the budget, determining those annual goals both in terms of fundraising goals but strategic goals of who we are as an organization and what our outreach looks like. So it's an exciting time for the Dave Thomas Foundation production but I think that can be translated to any organization large or small that working together is really to the benefit of the organization. Rita, that is significant growth. I didn't realize that it was such a vast increase of operational budget, wow. Yeah, it's been an exciting time and some of that has been our outreach with our program side in scaling a specific program across the United States and looking at creative co-investment relationships public-private partnerships. That's all baked into that, the growth that we've had but it's not in absence of looking at traditional fundraising and new methods of traditional fundraising as well. Jill, I would love to know and I kind of planted the seed earlier. I would love to hear when it comes to determining roles if we could talk about leadership and what leadership does and plays when it comes to determining roles within the organization itself but between the two of you and I would love to hear from you and then Rita, you're next because I wanna hear from you as well when it comes to, again, just working together. Sure, and I think as far as roles go when you're the leader in terms of the fundraiser organization your job is to be looking out ahead. Your job is to figure out, okay, we have aggressive goals how are we gonna get from point A to B to C to D and grow this one year out, five years out, 10 years out and so my role is to peer out and to find the leverage to pull to determine the initiatives that we need to build as a fundraising team in order to get there and then I need to take those to her to get feedback on and we've been through this journey a lot over the last five years. All of that growth that Rita was talking about took incredible fundraising. We're not talking 3% year over year growth here. We're talking 10%, 20%, 25% year over year growth in order to climb this really steep hill and so some of the initiatives and the things that we brought in as a fundraising practice were new. Every year we're doing something new we're pulling that next lever and so my job is to bring those to her and make sure she's comfortable with those and then she really champions those. I can't do those without her. I think the other part of the leadership so first is to be that strategic looking out and how do I build it but that communication point is so important as well that we have to be linked in everything that we're doing because often if something's out there and something's public she's gonna be the one that gets the phone call, not me. Right? She needs to know every step of everything that we're doing. So I think our style together has been I think she expects me to go out and look and to bring her ideas. She also has her own which she'll bring to the table but that I'm communicating with her on a regular basis and her to me as well. As people reach out to her she brings me into them. So there's just this constant circle I think between us of linking each other in to things that are happening. Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And Jeremy, you know, it's interesting it's a constant toggle of the CEO's table between consensus and decision-making, right? And my style frankly is much more let's get consensus but I also appreciate and understand that at the end of the day I've gotta make decisions on major initiatives on major strategies and goals. But it's critically important to me that my leadership team is fully involved in the conversations that lead to decisions that if there's disagreement at the table we hear it. We talk it out. And it's rare that a decision is made at this organization that's contrary to what leadership believes in. So I think that constant communication is exactly what Jill said is critical and probably to Jill's disadvantage a little too much communication at times. Well, it seems like you figured out some work habits that are working and I would love to just expand on this because you had mentioned Rita that or maybe it was Jill and I apologize that everyone is a fundraiser the board, the staff, everyone's really a part of this. So what are some of these work habits that have helped you Jill like year after year not just look at a 3% increase but you had mentioned up to about a 25% increase year after year. What's the secret? Oh, if there was only a secret there are things that we do that we have in place good technology that helps us keep ourselves organized great databases of donors and having some of those basics in place are really important to a fundraising strategy. I think making sure that you're educated yourself I came from a marketing and sales background and so I went back to school Indiana University, Lilly's School of Fundraising I took all those courses, right? I made sure that I was gonna have that solid foundation but also we are not shy to reach out to other organizations who might be ahead of us. We are all looking to do good work and we all have a lot of great causes that we're working at. Donors are gonna give to what they truly have a passion for and so none of us need to compete with each other and what I have found in the nonprofit world is that I can help give advice to organizations who might be smaller than me at this moment or beginning their fundraising practice and tell them and help coach them up to what they need likewise. Our team has not at all been shy to reach out to other organizations who might be ahead of us in their own fundraising growth and you know what we have found? We get on the phone and we ask for a conversation and they give it every time. And so we learn from our own studies, we learn from watching the landscape but we learn from other organizations and we have just found people being so gracious in giving up their time to listen and say, okay, you've got this, this is, yeah, this is what's next, right? And so we do that for others and we get that for others. So I think those are a few of the things that we've done to really help set us up for rapid growth because that's what we needed. We needed rapid growth. Give and receive mentality. And I so commend you and applaud you Jill and the entire team for having that approach because I really do see that we're all in this to help one another. And when we can share best practices and lean and learn from one another, it helps our community grow stronger. And so that's probably a work habit that works as well. Rita, I'm gonna ask you a little COVID related work habit. We've all been a little shaken and stirred over the last couple of years but what have been some of the work habits that have really helped you continue to lead the team towards these goals that you've set? You know, the day that we pivoted to working from home, I realized that although I was good at communicating with staff, typically it was a quick email here and there, it had to be face to face. Well, it couldn't be, you know, real face to face. It had to be virtual face to face but I put in place at least monthly one-on-ones with everyone on the staff. We had already had in place weekly team meetings and weekly one-on-one leadership meetings but I wasn't doing it with the entire staff. So making sure that there was absolute clarity of communication, transparency, what's happening, sharing, you know, the challenges that we were all experiencing. We didn't know what was gonna happen the next day much less the next week or month. So number one was that absolute face to face communication whether it's across the camera or in person was critically important. But that also that sense of transparency with our donors, we weren't sure what was going to happen in March of 2020 versus what's happening now. There were, there's such profound need out there. We very quickly, and again, this was quick communication and strategizing with Jill and her team. How do we need, do we need to pivot some of our strategies that we had in place that were very successful? What did we need to pivot very quickly to make sure the public understood the needs of our children in foster care are profound. They were even more so during COVID. So strategies that we already had in place about how we communicated the need had to change a little bit. We had to change on a dime and we had to make sure that it was resonating with the public. So, you know, constant assessment is something we do very well here too. We actually have literal scorecards for marketing and fundraising and compare ourselves against goals on a quarterly basis that we share with the board so that the board can hold us accountable to those goals. Well, that kind of got a little bit elevated during COVID. Everyone understood, no one knows what's happening. If the budget goes down, if fundraising goes down, we get it. But we needed to be able to explain where and how that was happening. So I think all of those bits and pieces really just were highlighted more during COVID in the way that responded to the mission's needs during COVID.  Yeah, absolutely. It is both internally and externally. We've got, you know, the only way that we can develop trust is with transparency to ensure trust is with transparency. And quite honestly, the child welfare system feels so closed to the public. I think unless you're involved in it, issues of confidentiality and it happens in courts and it happens in child welfare agencies and those just aren't familiar places to people. Our job is to open those doors up to illuminate what happens to these children, the experiences that they have. And so that has to translate into who we are here as an organization and with each other. One of the things that I've taken away from previous conversations with you this week, Rita, is really about the perception of others when it comes to foster and adoption. And those children, that it's at no fault of theirs that they are in this situation. And so really changing that perception and do go through transparency and storytelling. And I know that you are very committed to research and data sets and really gathering that information. So all of those are great work habits that are obviously working quite well. Let's talk about how we can make improvements to build and continue this machine in a better space or better way. What are some things, Jill? I'm curious if you could start us out with this conversation. I of course want to hear from you, Rita. What are some improvements that you have put into place not only when it comes to working together with Rita but really overall in the fundraising space that has made your organization and your foundation a better functioning machine? Sure, well, I think that an important piece of that is as a fundraising practice, you can learn best practices all day long, but there are things about each unique audience that it may work with this audience that cares about this topic, but it might not work with this audience that cares about another topic. So one really important improvement that I think you have to seek to make is to test different things, watch for the results and then go with the one that works the best. So this AB testing sort of concept, whether it's direct mail, whether it's digital ads, we test different colors on the give button. Does the red work better than the yellow? And believe me, it's not a standard answer across nonprofits. What does your community respond to? And so you only know what to improve if you know what's wrong and in order to know what's wrong, you have to sort of test things. So in that space in direct mail and digitally, we know that way, but also we send out surveys to our donors, we ask questions, we find out why they're giving, we have found out what the people look like who are giving versus the people, what are the attributes of the people who are following along, but maybe they're not giving and what can we change, what can we improve? What are they telling us? What separates those two groups of people and how can we get them in another bucket? So I think analysis, testing, all of those things may not be what first comes to mind when you think about fundraising and you think a lot about relationship and all of that is true, but I think that analytical look for us has opened our eyes to maybe what needs to be changed, what needs to be improved in what we're doing. No, I wanna know, which color button was it? Actually it was a yellow button. It was a yellow give button, yes. And that changes on if it's a digital ad that just appears, if you're out on a website and there's a digital ad that pops up the yellow button works the best, if it's on our website, you'll notice there's a red button. That is so interesting. And I again, applaud you for putting what may seem a simple test into place because I know too many of us think about we just have to get the work done. We just have to implement, we have to execute and we don't have time to do any A-B testing. Yes, it's on our list, but it's on the back burner and who knows when we will get there, but as simple as playing with the colors on those donate buttons obviously helps to make a better machine. Rita, what would you say when it comes to some improvements that you've seen your team do as well as you yourself have led your team to do that have helped the organization? A couple of things quickly come to mind, specifically with fundraising is really looking at those platforms and consultants that can help us get to the next level and not being afraid as Jill said, not only reaching out, but sometimes coming out some of your budget for a consultant that's going to help you get there quicker. And we've done that in order to transform a lot of our work to digital work because that's where quite honestly the donors are deciding right now. We still do absolutely traditional face-to-face write a check, have an event kind of fundraising, but to skip the digital approach to fundraising is a big miss right now. But we have to get consultants to help us figure out how to get there and what's the best platform and what's the best way of doing it. Even now looking at cryptocurrency and how that impacts organizations we're right at the midst of that conversation as well. Part of us hesitates and says, no, no, we're not going to go there, but we have to go there because that's where the donors are but sometimes with pretty large amounts of gifts as well. So allowing I think encouraging and allowing that part of the budget that nonprofits are hesitant to do we're hesitant to spend money on research, we're hesitant to spend money on consultants, we're hesitant to spend money on the bigger different platform that might make us more efficient in the long-term, but in the near term it's expensive. I think that's it, but also this notion, Jill is the senior vice president of marketing and development. We have tangled back and forth over the years. Do we pull those apart or do we keep them aligned? What's the value of pulling them apart and having a different leader for marketing and a different leader for development and what's the value for keeping them glued together? And I think we finally ended that conversation a few years ago and said, no, they are so late. There is no way to pull them apart. We've got to keep them together. And so I think that was one of those improvements. We're just going to stop insisting that we think about this more and let's go forward and have this unified team and it has been absolutely to our benefit both in terms of marketing and fundraising. So I think those are just some examples, I think of improvements that we champion, that we encourage talking about and ultimately when we finally make a decision, it's hosting my head. If I had to vote, Jill, I would have voted to keep it together as well. It's where we landed, yeah. It is what you said earlier, Jill. It's really about creating that brand awareness. And one of the things that I would love, Jill, for you to talk about, because Rita mentioned it earlier and we don't have too much time, but I would like to talk about this because I feel that everyone, everyone is a very broad statement, thinks that the Dave Thomas Foundation is fully funded by Wendy's, right? And so there's really not a lot, I dare say this, a lot of work that goes into the fundraising, but there is clearly a lot of work. And I would love for you to just share a little bit about what it looks like being tied to this brand, but not being fully dependent on it either. Right, great question. Yes, we are where we are today because of the Wendy's company. There's no doubt about that. And they're not going anywhere, right? They are very committed to this cause and they continue to be a major funder of ours. However, the situation with children waiting in foster care in the United States and in Canada is so dire and the numbers are so high that one organization cannot finance that solution for the entire country and for Canada, right? It's simply not feasible. And so that's where we understood we are continually going to be linked to the Wendy's company. We love them. They have done so much for us and continue to do so, but we have to move beyond that. And they agree with that, right? We have to move beyond that for a couple of reasons. People across the country need to know about this cause. They need to know about children waiting for adoptive families in this country and in Canada. And they can care and they can help as well. Not everyone can foster or adopt, but this is a way. Giving is a way for everyone to get involved and only when we open it up to everyone and let them know that we need them, that we need them to come to the table and to share in this work of awareness and sharing this work of donating their hard-earned dollars, only then can we begin to fully scale our work in the way we need to and make sure that we have enough recruiters nationwide and in Canada to be able to get these children, those forever homes that they deserve. So really it's a beautiful relationship and we need both. And we're on a growth path to make sure that everybody can learn about the foundation. Thank you for sharing that cause I wanted to reiterate that, especially with you on our show today because again, when it comes back to that transparency, that is a big piece of the foundation. The two of you have been phenomenal, Rita Sornan and Jill Krumbacher. And again, we have selected this nonprofit Power Week with Dave Thomas Foundation for adoption because this month that we are in November is the National Adoption Awareness Month. And so we wanted to make sure that we brought this topic to light. And then Rita, tell me again what November 15th is because I know it as National Philanthropy Day. It's also the anniversary of the first Wendy's Restaurant opening in Columbus, Ohio November 15th, 1969. Wow, what a phenomenal story. We are so grateful to have the two of you on to talk about working together, having these relationships.  I love how the two of you and your leadership styles really mesh with one another. We have Dave Thomas Foundation for adoption and Rita herself with us each and every day this week. These are episodes we do not want you to miss, but if you do, they are recorded. So if you also wanna go back and replay, I know there's quite a few episodes that I wanna make sure that I heard all of the nuggets of information. So these are the topics that we have for this nonprofit Power Week. So grateful to have the two of you with us. And Julia Patrick again is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. She let me have full reign and control today to have this conversation.  I'm Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. And we are so grateful again to have this week dedicated to the Dave Thomas Foundation. And we are ever so grateful as well for our continued investment from our presenting sponsors that you see on the screen. Now would be a great time to check them out. So if you have not checked them out, please make sure that you do. We are just really excited to have their continued support to continue these conversation with thought leaders like Rita and Jill. Thank you both so very much for your time and for your dedication to the great work that you do. Again, I have learned so much through these conversations. And I will now look at the adoption and foster care differently and be a little bit more educated. So thank you both for joining us. Thanks to everyone that joined us live or watch the recording. And as we sign off every episode, we do like to ask you to stay well so you can do well. Thanks again everyone. And I hope you'll join us back here tomorrow.


Hi, everyone. Joe for Jaspy's casebreaks.com, coming at you with 2022 Bowman Baseball. This is Jumbo Edition. It's only eight boxes. Pick your team number three, eight boxes, but some more cards per pack. A lot of great stuff. Jumbo, you get three autographs per box. Brand new release just dropped yesterday. And big thanks to everybody here for making it happen. Appreciate it. And it was Andrew with Last Spot Mojo. And if you have a little rooftop next to your name, that means you won that spot in the filler. So this is eight box Jumbo. Pick your team number three. All right, here's the Jumbo case right there. Eight 12 count. Eight boxes, 12 packs per box. Jumbo. All right, three autographs per box. On average, I guess. Although I think it's rare that we've seen extra autographs or rare that we've seen fewer autographs. So I think three is just about right. All right, boys and girls. Good luck. All right, I think all the scores in baseball are finals, ladies and gentlemen, here on May the 5th, 2022. Angels shut out the Red Sox. Eight nothing, Shoyo Tani. Double digit strikeouts, had an RBI off the monster too in Boston. Brewers beat the lowly Reds, 10 to five poor Reds. They fall to three in 22. Colorado just wins in overtime. The Avalanche that is. Rockies also won today. So the state of Colorado is happy. Rockies nine, national seven. In a game that featured 25 total hits, everyone had the over, right? Blue Jays fell to the Guardians, six to five. In Philadelphia, Phillies were up seven-one going into the top of the ninth. Met scored seven runs in the top of the ninth to lead eight-seven going to the bottom of the ninth and that was that. In Baltimore, Orioles beat the twins five-three in Houston. Astros beat the Tigers three to two. Looks like a walk-off situation too. It was tied. No, Astros are leading two-nothing to the top of the ninth. Tigers scored two runs in the top of the ninth and then Astros got the walk-off. I was on the Mariners tonight, but they lost four to three. Yeah, they did. Padres beat the Marlins two-one. I was on the Padres and the Cardinals beat the Giants seven-one. Every series is tied minus this one and I think Florida or Carolinas. Like everybody either got destroyed in the first game and then lost the second game and got destroyed themselves except this one and Hurricanes. They're the only two games that are up to everybody else is one more. Nothing more exciting than game seven in sports. I'd like to see some of that. Is Benny Montgomery blue for the Rockies? Eighth overall pick, top 10 pick there for the Rocks. Andrew with the Rockies. Was it the largest ninth inning combat? I don't think so, but I did see during that game, I did see a crazy stat where the Mets were 0 and 330 games when going into the ninth inning down by at least six runs. So that made it seem like there's been, you know, which the announcers anyway, I didn't get any context. I don't know if that's the same for a lot of teams or if it's not, they made it seem like it was not that the Mets were outliers. So that thing, I think that was dating back to like the mid 90s. The Mets, if they were down by six, going into the ninth inning, they hadn't made a comeback until tonight. Which is kind of crazy to think about because in that time span, you know, there's been a couple of different areas of great Mets teams. I don't know what the biggest ninth inning comeback is. That's a, that would be an interesting thing to look up. There's our second autograph, Darren Baker, that's Dusty Baker's kid. That is 006 out of 100, Atomic Refractor Autograph. He had a walk-off home run for his, he was the kid that was pulled from the field by JT Snow. He had a walk-off home run the night his dad won his 2000th game as a manager. I think that was just a couple of nights ago. There's a lava parallel, Braylon Minier to 399. Is there another game still happening? They're doing the post-game show on TPS. Actually, maybe a little, maybe since starting this baseball break, we can have a little MLB network on the background. Little quick pitch, great, great, great whip around show. And there's Dorn Lawler to 250, Purple Chrome for Andrew and the Diamondbacks. Should be one more autograph. Oh, there it is. There's Garrett Mitchell, Fuchsia for the Brew Crew, Fuchsia Paper, that'll be for Mark Bassett and the Brewers. There's our third and final autograph of the box, Ronnie Henriques, Henriques for the Rangers mark with that one as well. Ooh, nice, thanks Gilo, Gilo looked it up for us. Biggest ninth inning comeback. I guess the Mets were close. Mets scored seven runs in the top of the ninth to win the game. The Phillies have the largest ninth inning comeback, scoring nine runs in the ninth inning. They did it back in 1990. Who would they be? Oh, they beat the Dodgers. Some of those early 90s Dodgers seems really bad. After there, it was just, yeah, there was some lean years for the Dodgers in the 90s. I feel like the Lakers and the Dodgers both had a lot of success in the 80s, Lakers especially, but after that kind of generation of players there, then it was some lean times in the 90s. My tips and go Giants. Rough couple games for the Giants. Didn't look too good against the Dodgers. I think they're missing a lot of players, but they fell seven-one to the Cardinals today. I think they're getting some guys back. I think the Ostromskis back, getting a little healthier. Anthony saying they should have held on to the Pedro Martinez way back when, yeah, they really should have. Who was the, that was for Delano De Shields, right? You got to convert Joe into a Giants fan. How do you think you're going to do that? It's going to be pretty difficult considering a lifelong Dodgers fan. My earliest childhood memories is going to the Dodgers games. You shouldn't trust anybody who converts from their favorite lifelong team to your rival team. That's suspect. I'm not that kind of person. Saying that is almost, thinking you can even do that sounds almost insulting. And you think I'm weak-minded enough to convert like that? And calling my character into question at this point. And that's not a bad card to have. A little Kershaw, Linsicum, Duel, Otto, Duel, Rookie, Otto to five. Delano De Shields I think was the trade, right, Anthony? I'm a good guy, I should be a Giants fan. That's how I'm a Dodgers fan. I'm the good guys. I think the Dodgers traded Pedro Martinez, was Ramon Martinez's brother. Some of you may remember Ramon Martinez. There's Martín Jimenez. And they said Pedro Martinez was too small. You'd get injured often. And I think they traded him for Delano De Shields. Who's all right? Maybe some other players, but that was pretty much the bulk of the deal. And then he went on to be one of the most durable pitchers in baseball, for the most part. What is your, everyone has their teams, their teams bad trade. What was your team's bad trade? There's Ian Lewis to 150, Blue Paper for Mark N and the Marlins. Dodgers did another kind of poor trade. They traded away, remember the Paul Canerco trade, which at the time, I think, no, at the time, Paul Canerco didn't end up being what he ended up being, but they traded him for a closer, I think, Jeff Shaw. And that, and then Canerco turned out to be a pretty solid first baseman. Maybe in recent memory, I don't want Red Sox fans being like, well, the babe, like the last maybe, last few decades or so. For Rex, Eloy Jimenez, that's right. Eloy Jimenez, although he's not being able to say healthy, so there's Andre Lara, 75 out of 4.99 for Han and the Nationals, won that team in the filler. For Greg, the Giants got getting rid of Joe Nathan or Duvall, maybe not keeping Brian Reynolds more recently. There's Luis Rodriguez to 150. Do the Brewers have a bell in there and they're dug out? All right, next box, another three autographs and of course, as always, with any break that's, usually I do this, any break that's over like 35, 40 minutes. Do a little recap at the end. Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a good one. I think, speaking of Bowman Baseball, I think Tetease, Fernando Tetease Junior's first, I think is actually a, is a White Sox card. Tetease for James Shields was the trade. That's a, that's a rough one. So don't feel so bad, Rex. The White Sox have giveth and taketh away. I remember Greg Maddox as a dodger for a little bit. I don't remember that. I didn't remember that as a trade for Cesar's Tourist. I don't remember the Wheeler for Beltran deal. There was the classic, the Jeff Bagwell deal, Red Sox to, Red Sox to Houston. Wait, did the Pirates trade Berry Bonds to the Giants? I actually don't remember that. Was that a, I thought that was a free agent thing. Maybe it wasn't true. Yeah, that would be, that would be a bad trade on the Pirates part. And we're talking, we're talking about, oh, you don't know. Tim, we're talking about trades, like what were like the bad trades of whatever team you support. But yeah, if you're a White Sox guy, I think Anthony's right, that's a more recent memory. That's gotta be one of the, one of the bad trades. Right, yeah, the Cubs will find out if trading away Bryant Rizzo and Baez, whoever they got from those trades, they turn out to be something, 27 out of 150. Yacin Santana, speaking of the Cubs, that's for Anhel. That was in the Eudarvish trade. So this is one of the guys to look out for Cubs fans. See if that trade, how that trade pays off in the end. Sean, what's up, any good Yankee cards yet? Not yet, not in this break, in previous breaks, yes. But not yet here, but we're not even halfway through this one. There's Alexander Ramirez for the Halos, blue, sorry, check that Aqua shimmer to 125. That'll be for Mark B, James Wood, and we've got a gold autograph. Dore Lorenzo, 32 out of 50 for the Stroze. That'll be for Mike. I don't remember the, who had Luis Castillo? Bonds was a free agent, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. This might have been a bad trade. Austin Martin, let's see how that works out for the Blue Jays, going down the line. Oh, the giant had Luis Castillo? There's Elijah Cabell for St. Louis. That'll be for Andrew, last spot, Mojo. Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I'm thinking more like, more like I guess teams that have traded away future stars, like, or future stars early in the career when they're prospects, like to teach junior or Luis Castillo's a good example, Pedro Martinez, Jeff Bagwell. But Gilo saying when the Royals created Giant Damon Beltran, they got pretty much nothing for them. Wade Wright for Drew and Marrero. All these transactions bringing back some memories. My guy, Diego Rincones, 280 out of 399, lime green paper for my rivals, the Giants. Number 24, organizational prospect. That'll be for Fred and the Giants. Fred won that team in a filler. There is Alan Serta, 166 out 250, Purple Lava. Yeah, the one that sticks in Greg's Craw would be trading Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano for AJ Prasinski. Is this guy playing? Mojo? Gilo has a Johnny Damon Royals auto that you're oddly fond of. I feel like Johnny Damon was always a, always a very fan favorite for any team that he seemed to be on, seemed to be an instant fan favorite. Oh, but he's not called up yet. We've been hearing about Marco Luciano for a little while. Yeah, that's a good one, Tim. Yellich. I think the Marlins moved Yellich thinking that this was like pre, before Yellich kind of discovered power, I want to say. But yeah, Yellich being traded from the Marlins maybe a year or two earlier than the Marlins would have liked because they kept him around for a couple more years. That could have been a different story. Greg's thinking to demonstrate ever maybe Expo's getting rid of Randy Johnson and then the Mariners then getting rid of Randy. Did the Mariners trade Randy Johnson? I know that was a free agent deal, but we got Willman Candelario, Andrew, and the Royals, Bowman first autograph. Gilo is a Royals fan. Tell us a little bit about Willman Candelario. Now he signed when he was 17. And there he's got Freddie Garcia and some other young players. I didn't realize that was a trade. Got Blaise Jordan, purple paper to $199 for Boston. That's gonna be for Mike. Randy Johnson for Freddie Garcia and Carlos Guine. And then the Diamondbacks won a World Series. There he is, there's Marco again. Shortstop, huh? Is he playing to play at shortstop? I mean, these days, I feel like a lot of players can play multiple positions. So, there's Jose Fermin for Mark Basette. Cleveland, this is for you. I guess Brandon Krover's not getting any younger. There's Jose Rodriguez, Aqua Shimmer to $125. Gilo has nothing about Willman, that's okay. I don't think I know too much about the Dodgers draftees that are here too. But this is why I enjoy breaking this because it's a good chance to learn about all these guys. Wait, he went to the Astros before Arizona? So that Mariner's deals with the Schroes? Astros first. A's gave up some shortstop ads in Russell to the Cubs. John Lester, they got Lester back. Well, the A's mostly out of financial necessity. I mean, you could build an all-star team of the players that they've traded away over the last couple of decades, few decades. It's Francisco Alvarez to $50. I think the Padres too, I think the Padres, especially in the 80s, I think Padres traded away. They could have had, I feel like they could have had Ozzy Smith and Dave Winfield on the same team, and Tony Gwynn or something like that in the 80s, but they've traded away a lot of guys early in their career. I think the A's, same thing with the A's, they've traded away, but again, maybe this was out of financial necessity for the Padres too, but the A's in recent decades have had to do that too. There's Alejandro Hidalgo, Purple Chrome Otto, 153 out of 250 for Mark B and the Angels. All right, we are halfway through this jumbo case break, ladies and gentlemen. So we are doing the next four boxes here, good luck. Yeah, rough times for the Reds, that's for sure. I think they've only got three wins so far. I think if everybody was healthy, they'd be a little more competitive, but I think the problem is, is that the team was a little thin to begin with.  I think Luis Castillo's been on the Isle. I think they put Joey Vado on the Isle. I think Jonathan India is on the Isle. Yeah, Hunter Green gave up five homers today. He's got some electric stuff, but location might be a bit of an issue for him. And you got Andrew Benintendi, he's been hitting well.  You got for the Phillies, Fuchsia Lava to 199, Yossar Garcia. And there is Brian Bello, woman first autograph for the Bow Sox, Mike. Mike C with the Red Sox. Number six, Red Sox prospect. There's Michael Triana, 102 out of 2.99. Speckle autograph for the Reds Mark with the Red Legs. And there's Kevin Alcantara to 2.99.  Came over in the Rizzo trade. And your third autograph of this box is for my Dodgers, Jose Ramos. 126 out of 4.99. That's Jeff with my Dodgers. Won that in a filler. See what he's about. Rated number 16 prospect in the Dodgers chain. Capable of awe-inspiring homers, okay. Terrific arm, all right. There you go, Jeff. All right, and there's Jose Ramos again. 80 out of 3.99 green paper. A little bit of a dent on the bottom there, Jeff. But a lime green paper going your way. I like that question, Greg. Every team has, every fan has someone in the bullpen that they absolutely hate. Who is it for you? Greg's like, man, there's so many options. Sam Long, Tyler Beattie. I think for me was recent Dodgers middle reliever, Pedro Baez, I think his name was, he always was frustrating, Joe Kelly, too. Joe Kelly seems to be great pitching against the Dodgers, but when he was on the Dodgers, I mean, even if the numbers say otherwise, it was always just hard to convince me. Next box, Bowman Baseball. Eight box jumbo, pick your team three. Good luck, everybody. Onwards, Greg Cantstan, Jake McGee or Rodgers. Rodgers is the guy that has the twin brother on the Padres, right? That orange angle is crazy, though. I feel like that's got to jam people up, even if he doesn't have the velocity, though. For the Reyes, there's Alberto Hernandez, 368 out of 499, Tampa Bay Reyes, Timoia. You got some green paper, right? Calvin DeCastro to 99, for Fred and the Blue Jakes. There's Garrett Cole and an autograph. Garrett Cole, green paper to 99, for Anthony and the Yankees. You got some green paper to 99, for Fred and the Blue Jakes. There's Garrett Cole and an autograph. Garrett Cole, green paper to 99, for Anthony and the Yankees. I like how full the green color looks this year. I feel like the colors are a lot more bold in the parallel. Then there's Larry Ernesto for Mark B and the Brew Crew. Anthony and Ron, and then we have specials in the tickets. Here's how it goes down there. The cardinal's in the third, and nothing happened here. Amalena gets it out to a deep left field. This ball is gone, out of here, Amalena. I'm about to turn this camera around to the desk again. And the center, two lines will score. And Tyler O'Neill delivers a two-out, yeah. And we've got Eddie's Leonard. He's got to learn how to use the canvas a little bit more here. Eddie's just goes to the Dodgers. Jeff, but he's the number 18 Dodgers prospect, though. Yeah, Jansen kind of fell off for a season and a half, and looked pretty bad for a little bit, but actually had a really great season last year. Kind of, I think, kind of priced himself out of the Dodgers, believe it or not, and took that deal with the Braves. Kind of rediscovered his, not as light as he used to be, but I think he kind of rediscovered his cutter last year. It was pretty effective. I think his number's been pretty good for the Braves. Last I checked this season. And there's James Triantos, 486 out of 499.  Number 11 Cubs prospect according to mlv.com. All right, next jumbo box coming up. And again, we'll do an autograph recap. I don't know why I top loaded that one, but we'll do an autograph recap at the end, of course. Next box. Otani had a pretty incredible day. Carlos Aguirre, Aguiar maybe. Speckle, 267 out of 299 for Darren and the Twins. You've got Tyler Sorcery, paper to 499. And we've got Christian Roa for the Reds, Mark with the Reds. Kind of looks like a little face right here, right? I think, is he intentionally doing that? Noel de Marte, and the third auto of the box is Adam Mako, 37 out of 250. Purple Chrome auto for the Mariners. That's going to go to Derek. Number 12 Mariners prospect. Nice. All right, so those are your three autos of the box. Let's see if we've got any parallels. Nice Zach Veen, Magenta, Fuchsia, Lava. Top 10 pick right there for the Rocks. That'll be for Andrew. Lays Jordan. Noel de Marte, Red. High five futures, four out of five. Nice one, Mariners. Derek Gordon with the spot that he won from the filler for the filler. Gets randomized the Mariners. Gets the out of five and under. That's a train whistle. All aboard the Big Hit Express. Woo-hoo. Nice. Selentia Super Fractor yet, but we have seen a number of out of fives in these cases that we've done. We've got a Torkelson speckle to 299 for Brian and the Tigers. All right, not a bad box. Got the out of five, speckle, purple. And here comes the final box of 2022 Bowen baseball. Eight box jumbo, pick your team number three. Appreciate everybody making this happen. Who's my least favorite Dodger of all time? That's a good question. Yeah, it's got to be one of those relievers that we were talking about earlier, like Pedro Baez that always frustrated me. You know, Joe Kelly. I know he put up some good numbers like one year, but Joe Kelly's always bothered me. Hanley Ramirez. No, I like Hanley Ramirez. I just didn't like that he had that error that prevented Kershaw from having a perfect game, which is also a game that I passed on. I could have gone to that game. No, I don't mind Machado. Like, you know, I mean, I wouldn't put him up as my favorite player. But I didn't really hate him. I mean, he got traded from the only PV knew, got put into a situation, got thrown into the Dodgers, and he was supposed to be like this offensive savior for the Dodgers and blah, blah, blah. There's just a weird situation. I mean, overall, the Dodgers, the recent Dodgers from the office has been really good with trades, but that was one of the misses. You can't win them all. Oh, and Oscar Colas. Chrome Prospect Autograph Redemption for the White Sox, Dale, with the White Sox. First of the three autos, the final three autos. There's Robbie Martin, Jr. to 4.99. Refractor for the Rockies, Andrew. Yeah, Mookie was a trade. They traded Alex Redugo, Big Prospect Jeter Downs, and a couple other players to get Mookie bets. Trey Turner was a trade too. That was for Kiebert Ruiz and Josiah Gray. There's Ed Howard to 2.99. Yeah, most of the guys on the Dodgers have been farm grown, or from trades, or like reclamation projects that have turned out to be starters. There's Jose Rodriguez to 2.50. Used to really hate Jeff Kent for going to the Dodgers. You know, yeah, the Jeff Kent Dodgers experience was interesting. When the McCorts owned the Dodgers, there was a weird phase with the Dodgers after the early 90s. And there was a family business, and they got sold to Fox, and then it got sold to the McCorts. So there was a good chunk of time where there's just two bad owners in a row. There's Easton Santana, 86 out of 2.99 for the Cubs, Purple Chrome. Thankfully, the new ownership has really done a good job. Angel Lozano, Blaze Jordan, Purple Paper to 2.50. There needs to be a 30 for 30, Greg, on Jeff Kent and Barry Bond and their relationship in those years. I want to see a 30 for 30 on that. And the last autograph of the break, 10 out of 100. Atomic, Yosua Garcia, last one of here. Last one here. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. Brains fried. Last auto of the break. Eight box jumbo. Pick your team number three. More Bowman in the store, folks. Gaspyscasebreaks.com. Yeah, Greg would want to see that, too. I'd want to see that. Corey Seger looking weird in her egg. This actually looks OK in a Ranger's uniform. Goes to Mark. I don't know. Barry should give the people what they want, the full story. I want Jeff Kent and Barry Bond's interviewed. And that, my friends, is that. The break is over. I think it was a nice, let's do a recap. I think it was a nice one, too. Sometimes you lose track during an hour-long break. Hey, what did we actually pull? It got some Atomic, a lot of color. The out of five. Pretty good stuff here, ladies and gentlemen. So thanks, everybody, for watching, for breaking with us. I'm Joe for Gaspyscasebreaks.com. And I'll see you next time for the next break. Bye-bye.


After 9-11, it became clear that the country was off balance, its center was missing. It felt like we were in a kind of free-flow, tumbling, rolling thing. And I had this image of sagebrush. I didn't conceive of the exact piece at the moment that 9-11 was happening. But I knew as I watched 9-11 unfold on television that it was... If artists were ever needed, now is going to be the time. And I thought I have to start to find some kind of way of giving some voice, some form to this horrific experience. 9-11 was a monumental tragedy in which 3,000 people died. And we saw no bodies. And so it was a surreal experience for us. It was like a disappearance. All of a sudden they were gone, like the buildings were gone. It was just a hole. And the mourning language turned very quickly to the loss of architecture. And over a short period of time, the references, the way of understanding the real loss, which is the human loss, had disappeared almost. So it was important to bring back the figure saying, this is at the center of our problem. This is at the center of our pain. This is at the center of our meaningfulness right here. The sculpture is not a commentary. It's an experience. And it's meant to bring people once again into a fragile and frightening moment. To open them up to a kind of vulnerability that allows the emotional aftershock of 9-11 to be present while at the same time empathizing with the loss. And also recognizing that they've survived it. And so that to me is what the grieving process is. It's one in which you deal with the pain of loss until you begin to realize that you have survived that loss, even though the absence will always be present.


Summer Magic by Leslie Pinkney Hill Red for LibriVox.org by Alan Clare So many cares to vex the day, so many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet-nature-weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies, her days were bowers rife with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. Or on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. This recording is in the public domain. The summer came, announced by June. With beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet-nature-weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies, her days were bowers rife with song, and many a scheme she did devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. This recording is in the public domain. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet-nature-weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies, her days were bowers rife with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. This recording is in the public domain. Summer Magic by Leslie Pinkney Hill, read for LibriVox.org by Ezoa. So many cares to vex the day, so many fears to haunt the night, my heart was all but weaned away from every yore of all delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my silent blood, and weaked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread, the softest carpet nature-weaves, and deathly arch above my head, a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jewel skies, her days were bows rife with song, and many a-skimmed it she devised to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. The sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my silent blood, and weaked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread, the softest carpet nature-weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies, her days were bows rife with song, and many a-skimmed it she devised to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness over breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Summer Magic by Leslie Pinkney Hill. Read for LibriVox.org by Jessica A. C. Snyder. So many cares to vex the day, so many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet nature weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies, her days were bowers rife with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and sooth the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Summer Magic by Leslie Pinkfield. Read for LibraVox.org by Gemma Bloth. So many guests of ex-the-day, so many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June. With beauty, miracle, and mirth she hung aloft the rounded moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred against my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread. The softest carpet nature weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. The knots were dreams of jewel skies. The days were bowels rife with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hut and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dale, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden weed or pitted rye. I felt your heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of a breath till all the caulk of time had flown and I was lord of life and death. And a poem. This recording is in the public domain. Summer Magic by Leslie Picney Hill. Read for Librevox.org by J. C. Guan. Shenyang, July 2007. So many cares to vex the day. So many fears to hound the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of all delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread, the softest carpet nature weaves. And deathly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies. Her days were bowers rife with song. And many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields with surgeons swell was golden wheat or bearded brigh. I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the caulk of time had flown and I was lured of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The night was a miracle in mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread, the softest carpet nature weaves. And deathly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies. Her days were bowers rife with song. And many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields with surgeons swell was golden wheat or bearded brigh. I felt her heart against my own.  And I was lured of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Summer Magic by Leslie Pinkney Hill. Read for LibraVox.org by Leanne Howlett. So many cares to bex the day, so many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet nature weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies, her days were bowers rife with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. So many cares to vex the day, so many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by dune, with beauty, miracle and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bug. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet nature weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of dual skies, her days were bowers writhe with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. In the morning, the sun was shining bright, and my heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bug. She poured again my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread, the softest carpet, nature weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of dual skies, her days were bowers writhe with song, and many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye. I felt her heart against my own, I breathed the sweetness of her breath, till all the carc of time had flown, and I was lord of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. So many cares to vex the day, so many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap, and broke the bud. She set the crimson rows of fire. She stirred again my sullen blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet nature weaves, and deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of dual skies. Her days were bowers rife with song. And many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt, and soothe the wrong. For on the hill, or in the dell, or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell, with golden wheat or bearded rye. I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath, till all the carc of time had flown. And I was lord of life and death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libervox.org. Summer Magic by Leslie Pinkney Hill. Read for Libervox.org by Tim Gregory of Seattle, Washington. So many cares to vex the day. So many fears to haunt the night. My heart was all but weaned away from every lure of old delight. Then summer came, announced by June, with beauty, miracle, and mirth. She hung aloft the rounding moon. She poured her sunshine on the earth. She drove the sap and broke the bud. She set the crimson rose afire. She stirred again my sill and blood, and waked in me a new desire. Before my cottage door she spread the softest carpet-nature-weaves, deftly arched above my head a canopy of shady leaves. Her nights were dreams of jeweled skies. Her days were bowers rife with song. And many a scheme did she devise to heal the hurt and soothe the wrong. For on the hill or in the dell or where the brook went leaping by, or where the fields would surge and swell with golden wheat or bearded rye, I felt her heart against my own. I breathed the sweetness of her breath till all the carc of time had flown, and I was Lord of life and death. End of poem.