"Everything SNASY"

Dale Jackson’s love for Auburn University spans decades.

As a youngster, the LaGrange, Georgia native would spend afternoon’s tossing around the pigskin on Auburn’s campus before jetting to Jordan-Hare Stadium to watch the Tigers battle on the gridiron.

It’s a memory Jackson cherishes.  

“I wanted to be in the action,” recalled Jackson. “I was crazy. I wore an orange wig, screamed my head off. I was an insane fan.” 

But when his son Colin, now 16, was born and diagnosed with autism, Dale wasn’t sure going to Auburn football games was something he’d be able to pass down to the next generation.  That is, until the father of five and owner of Jackson (HVAC) Services came up with an idea of providing those with special needs a cool spot to call home before kickoff. 

Driven by Jackson and his family’s passion to provide a helpful resource for those with special needs, SNASY was introduced in 2023 in partnership with Jackson Services and Carrier, official partners of Auburn Athletics. SNASY is an acronym that stands for Special Needs Assistance Stations For You. SNASY provides comfortable and inclusive climate-controlled tailgates and tents with privacy areas at all Auburn home football games.

Along with a helping hand from Auburn College of Nursing, East Alabama Health, a handful of sponsors, and Auburn Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl, SNASY’s concept has caught on.  This year, the organization is giving countless families a chance to experience gameday like they never thought possible. 

But the mission is bigger than just a game.

“It’s not about a football game,” said Jackson. “It’s about bringing forth knowledge, exposure, understanding, and access back to families. We’re using this platform to really change lives.”

It’s a great example of the Auburn Creed in action.    

Take a listen as Jackson tells Everything Auburn’s co-hosts Carter Gustin and Dalton Odom the touching story of how his son inspired the start of SNASY, plus learn about SNASY’s mission to take the concept across the SEC and beyond.

If you’d like to sign up for a SNASY gameday experience or volunteer for the organization, please visit https://snasy.vip/.

Transcript

0:05

Welcome to everything, Auburn. My name is Carter, and I'm so glad that you are here. From the WEGL studio here in the student center from the campus of Auburn University. Thank you for coming and take some time with us today. I am very thankful you're here and sitting next to me. He's 50% of a cinnamon stick but he's my personal mic man. It’s Dalton Odom. Hey, everybody. How's it going? Welcome back. Dalton had a here. It's always been torturing me in the office with a cinnamon broom. Yeah. Yeah. On his door. I hate cinnamon, so that's awful. Carter, hates things that are filled with joy. That's me. He, He's not a fan of it. I thought was my favorite season. It's just my favorite season. Okay, but you don't. I love Auburn campus, the university. It's beautiful. The trees are turning. It's great. I smell cinnamon, I crown a whole and die. Okay, well, it's I like it. I'm gonna keep it there. Keep it in my office. Just don't come there. That's why you look like cinnamon. It's just like, you know. You know, I, I saw the temperature right below 80. I said, we're going to out the flannel. I might sweat to death, but, you know, it's just you do what you gotta do. It's what it is. It is what it is. So here with us today, we have a very special guest. We have mister Dale Jackson joining us all the way far away from LaGrange Georgia. Big hike. The big hike from LaGrange Down 85, down 85. Dale, thanks for have coming in today. I'm thrilled to be here. I have basically lived my life across the river, and I started, as an Auburn fan as a young eight year old kid having no idea where in the world Auburn University was. But I was an Auburn fan, and then I grew up as an adult and realized, hey, it's 32 minutes away, just like I do. So how do you become of eight years old then? Well, that's kind of a funny story, and hopefully my mom's family is not listening to this podcast. Perfect. But we'll send it. I grew up traveling, three hours every Christmas morning to go visit my family that happened to live about 15 minutes away from Athens, Georgia, and they were all Georgia fans. I'm sorry. And needless to say, I might not have gotten along the best. Yeah, that's fair. And so I determined as an eight nine year old kid that, well, you know, I'm just going to be an Auburn fan. I had no idea. I live 32 minutes away from Auburn because, you know, as a eight year old kid, you don't have a clue where you live geographically. That could have been a thousand miles. It could have been. And I wouldn't have cared. I still would have been an Auburn fan. And so now my entire family, my dad, my brothers, my sisters, my nephews, everybody are now Auburn fans. You did that. And yeah, because I just wasn't. Anyway, I wanted to gravitate toward Auburn and I just I've loved it ever since I was born, so that's awesome. Hey, you and me both. I know before I know anything else, I know being an Auburn fan. So I. I'm the same way. I just, I think I remember coming to games a little kid and getting like, confused by when my dad was red in the face and couldn't talk and was angry, you know, it's like, yeah, it's just he seems intense about it and likes it. So sign me up. Yeah. I, I grew up in a divided house my entire life. My dad was Alabama, mom was Auburn. Not everyone's perfect. Not everyone's perfect. But it's weird. He's like the black sheep of his family. Everybody on his side of the family, both sides. They're all auburn. At least on the immediate family, he just. I think he just likes Bear Bryant. But, you know, so we all kind of forget we can. Hey. And you know what? And I'm proud to report now that he bleeds orange and blue. Once I started cheering, he, That'll help. He. Well, he was forced to come down here all the time, so he was like, hey, I kind of love this place. This place is great. He, he got rid of every piece of Alabama clothing in the house. I feel like I'm inadequate at this point now because you've turned your whole family fan converted. An Alabama fan did. And I just come from a family of Auburn fans. They're still Auburn fans. But you was perfect to begin with. Then. You know, I'm glad you said that. Yeah, yeah, I did more of that. But the tone well it's pop. There you go. Yeah. But so you've been coming to games for your whole life. Is that, well, obviously since I was about 8 or 9, matter of fact, my very first game, I say I've been a fan since 8 or 9. My, again, this is just the providence of God, really? That my dad and his best friend, again, like my dad's not a college football fan, but he had some of the best beagles in the entire southeast, and coach Pat dye wanted to get into beguiling. And so he bought all of his dogs from my dad. And so my very first game that I ever attended, this was after I went rabbit hunting with coach Pat dye as like a eight and nine and ten year old little kid. Oh my gosh, with all the journalists. And like, it blew my mind. As a ten year old kid, I'm used to going with my dad and all his friends, like five of us. And then you go rabbit hunting with 70 people, and we're just praying that nobody gets shot. And just to hear the stories of coach Pat that I told was just hilarious. And he I still have the letter framed that coach Pat sent me my very first two tickets to the Auburn, Georgia game in 1992, which was his last game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. And and that was the my very first college football game, which happened to be his last in Jordan-Hare Stadium. And, so that's a very first memory I have. So have the two tickets still have the letter that he sent me. So that's kind of where I got started going to games. The very first game I went to by myself. It was right after I turned 16, in 1996. Guess what? It was the LSU game where the frickin gymnasium burned down. Literally flames coming up behind me by myself there in the upper deck on the east side. And, so that was my very first game by myself. Wow. That's like royalty. Everything match. Yeah. The first game I ever came to as a kid, Auburn lost, I think was like 32 to nothing. USC came to town number one in the nation that ‘02, because I was at a somewhere around ’02 or ‘03, somewhere on their very first game of the year. All I remember some of us bad, some of it from memory, some of it's from my my my dad. Tell me his story. But it was it was right after Jim Fyffe had passed. Yeah. And the whole stadium did their best. Jim Jim Fyffe impersonation. Touchdown Auburn before the game. And Auburn responded by not scoring a touchdown for like the first eight quarters of the season. Gosh it was brutal. Yeah that was my first. That was my first Auburn game. So you've done better than me. Yeah. Good job. Well, and then as a kid or I will say as an adult and kind of leading in to where we're going today with, with SNASY my whole entire life growing up, kind of wanting to come to games, but then as a very young adult, and having a special needs child that tends to change directions in life. And so, as I mentioned, as an eight, nine year old kid, as a fan growing up, then as a young adult, 16, 18 years old, coming to games like my idea of being a dad was coming to an Auburn game and tailgating with my son. But then when you have your first son and you realize life is not going to be normal, life is not going to be easy. Life is not going to be what you thought it was going to be. And so the hard part and really what kind of formed a lot of my future and this is a very important piece to special needs families in general. And because because I'm not going to lie, like when it comes to fanatics, like I am a fanatic, I am a literally a lunatic. I believe, like you, you know, the truck that drives around Auburn's campus with the big haul, the wagon, the war wagon. Okay, so I followed him for like ten years in my company pickup truck with a ten foot Auburn flag. I followed him every game day, every morning from like 8 a.m. until 10 a.m.. And that was me. I had season tickets. Well, it would be row one. It was the physical row one, but technically it was row two in the north end zone, right on the N of Auburn. And like I was, I wanted to bend over and touch the grass like I wanted the players to jump up into the stands where I was. That I was literally there wearing an orange wig into my 20s until I had my first son. Nothing wrong with that. Absolutely wrong with that. So. So that's where I started at. And so and so maybe you can kind of grasp where I'm kind of going to. So that's where I start at. And then I spend the next eight years after I realized once my son is born and I realized this is not going to be easy, and chances are I'm not going to be able to attend games like I had dreamed. And so I spent the next eight, eight years convincing myself that I was not even an Auburn fan. Oh my gosh. Because I knew I would never be able to attend a game like I had dreamed. Because to me, being a dad literally meant the picture of throwing the football to your five year old, seven year old, ten year old son in the shadows of Jordan-Hare Stadium, and my son's 16 today and still wears a diaper and so I don't know if you've ever had to deal with an adult wearing a diaper, whether it be your 80 year old grandparents or your 70 year old parents that have recently had a stroke, or your 16 year old special needs son that still wears a diaper, it can completely change your life. Yeah, and and what you're able to do. And, it was really an epiphany that I had back in 2017 because my company, Jackson Services, back in Troup County, across the state lines, we were sponsoring the fireworks for our entire community. And so I had literally prepared for 6000 people to show up in this big, huge open field. I had prepared for 300 of my staff and their family members to show up in a 100ft, air conditioned tent, because I own a heating and air company, so I'm not going to invite my my staff and my guests to show up in an on air conditioned tent in the middle of a field in July the 4th. I always trust the fat chef, always trust the air conditioning guy to get a air conditioner tent. I'm not going anywhere without air conditioning. You can't, you can't. But it was literally on July the 3rd night. I was there by myself. And. I never will forget surveying this 100ft tent that was just now air conditioned because we. And it was not that easy, to makeshift air conditioning for a 100ft tent. And I kind of looked out over the entire space, and I've envisioned the 6000 people showing up the next day. And I realized that I had literally prepared for the entire county to show up, except for my own family. Oh my gosh. Because at that point, my son was now eight, going on nine and when when you have a son that's past that point of taking them to the 30 inch Chick-Fil-A, you know, changing table in the bathroom there, beyond taking them to the back seat of the car and changing their diaper. They're past the point of laying them out in the grass in front of 6000 people and changing their diaper, like, what do you do with that? Yeah. And and that's when I kind of had this epiphany that, hey, we have this air conditioned tent. And because it's air conditioned, we could put another tent inside of this tent, you know, just a standard $100 Walmart pop up tent with a privacy curtain around it. And we put a $53 Walmart cot inside that tent. And now all of a sudden, I have a location to take my son and change his diaper with a little bit of privacy and most importantly, a little bit of dignity. Yeah, yeah. And so from 2017, from July 4th, 2017, my company, we set up a 40ft air conditioned tent at over 700 events. Wow. And the whole time I was doing this really because and I don't even know what was recorded and what was, was captured. But, you know, that time that I spent those eight years convincing myself that I wasn't even an Auburn fan anymore, and I did that because I didn't want to endure the pain. Of not being able to go to the game with my son. And so from from July the 4th, 2017, I set off on a mission. To get inside the stadium with my son. And, God did a lot of things to, to make that happen. One of those things that I'm most grateful for is here. He connected me with, Coach Bruce Pearl, who, And, we had been lucky enough to do the heating and air, in the house that Coach Bruce Pearl had purchased. And I won't go into the details because I was involved in when it was built. So the general contractor who built it, he decided to design the heating and air himself against my wish. Would you advise that to not advise? Quite the opposite. Public service announcement, but, hey, he built it. He owned it. Whatever. Sure. Coach Pearl bought it ten years later, and he's like, hey, you need to come in here to fix on this. And so literally, it was the summer that coach Pearl was over in Israel at the basketball tournament. And we literally spent a month inside Coach Bruce Pearl's house and really developed a good relationship with him and really learned of the many, many ways that he and his entire family support special needs. Matter of fact, just this past weekend we volunteered at the basketball camp and that my son participated in with Coach Bruce Pearl. That's awesome. For, the, down syndrome families of Alabama. Wow. And, we volunteered at that basketball camp in 2022. And right after that camp, I sent coach Pearl a text and just, basically begged him. To, to help me, get my tent on campus. So that I could attend the game with my son. And in a bigger way, I wanted to provide an avenue for other families that have been told their entire life that not literally told, but just physically told. You're not welcome here. Yeah, it's one thing if you believe that, you know, it's. You might as well be told, right? Right. Because it is so difficult for special needs families that have children that are either in wheelchairs or that make loud noises or that are wearing diapers, I mean, every one of your listeners, I would like to ask you right now, and you in this room, if just imagine for just one second that you're 78 year old. Fill in the blank. Grandmother. Grandfather. Parent. Mother. Dad, whatever. They're in this room right now and they poop their pants. Where do you take them to deal with that situation? Yeah. Now imagine you're in a restaurant. Imagine that you try to act normal for one night and go out to a restaurant, and that happens. That's a reality that I live with every single day of my life. Yeah. My family, my extended family lives with that. When when my parents went to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, they have to think about my 16 year old son. When right now I'm trying to figure out I'm actually communicating with the president of Delta and trying to design a method so that I can fly with my son. Yeah, because now imagine you're on a 3.5 hour flight to Pennsylvania, which my nephew's getting married on November the 3rd, and I have to figure out how to get my entire family to Pennsylvania. And yet I've got a 16 year old son with a diaper. Yeah, and what happens when I'm flying with him and he poops his pants? Yeah, I think that's the. That's the thing with, you know, challenges, like, it's I don't think about because I'm someone has to deal with every day. It's something youth. It's very easy for people who aren't having to deal with it every day to just it doesn't. Why would it cross my brain, my mind? It's not something I have to think about. So it's very easy for there to not be a competition. Accommodations. Because most people setting up the accommodations aren't thinking about it either. Yeah, right. And there's so many blind spots that you kind of just found yourself in. But can I just props to you for doing something about it. You know, it'd be so easy to just not it'd be so easy. Just like you said, eight years. You just. This is going to be my life. I convinced myself I was not even an Auburn fan. That makes that. That's. And I think, you know, we're joking. It's like our favorite memories to Auburn football games. But like, that's that's the spirit of Auburn is that. Yeah it's more it's you know it's it's yeah it's a football game. Congrats. But it's it's your it it's who you are in my core you know and getting to that's what makes going the game so special. It's the people sit next to me I mean that's my best friend. I have no idea what the person's name is with my best friend. And we're all there together. And to be able to. You want to do that with your family. Like there's. Yeah, that's there's nothing more genuine than that feeling. Yeah. And that's, that's what that night that I was there looking out over that field on July the 3rd, in 2017, I envisioned all of the families that have been told for years, you can't come. You're not welcome. So, so now, as a business owner, how many people am I not able to serve who want to come? And so that that kind of sparked my desire to I want to enable our families to get to come to an Auburn game. But more importantly than getting just getting them here is I want to do it in a way that supports businesses and create an opportunity for businesses to partner together to provide a service at Auburn University. And I wanted it to be something that was not a handout. So I don't even know if you're familiar or aware of this, but have you noticed the carrier logo in the backdrop though? Yeah. Okay. Well, that carrier logo is there 100% because of SNASY carrier is the corporate sponsor that is sponsoring, well, SNASY. We created a three and a half year pilot program. Okay. Because Coach Bruce Pearl got my tent on campus and then I like, took things way too far and started advertising like, we're the official blah, blah, blah. Well, let me tell you, like, Auburn is a institution and anything that you do here, I mean, we got to work out the details. I am not one that's good for details. I'm from I same, same. And I'm familiar with company. Yeah. The big machine that is this university. Yeah. No, you're that's, you know, so they, they they had a very serious talk with me that following Monday morning. But but that's but that's why I love Auburn is because play fly came and sit down with my with me Brant Moore from 9 a.m. until nearly 12. And for three hours we literally sit down and we brainstormed. What is it going to take to create an official program at Auburn University, and then how are we going to include corporate sponsorship in that so that it's beneficial for Auburn University? But it's also beneficial for my families because they get this all for free. Sure. And it's also now beneficial for a corporation like carrier who I buy my air conditioners from. You know, it's a win win win. And that's what Auburn is all about, because that is the number one thing. And when you want to talk about Auburn and people ask me all the time why Auburn? Why listen to the Creed, the creed of Auburn I believe in Auburn. I believe in work. I believe in hard work. And that is what SNASY is. SNASY is not just a sponsorship. SNASY is a service. SNASY is doing something. SNASY is helping families that have been told for years that it. I'm sorry that you've been an Auburn alum, and I'm sorry that you had a stroke ten years ago, but we just don't know how to help you get into the stadium. But now we do. Yeah. And that's what we're now just starting this year because we officially started this back last year. But it was kind of still kind of in its infancy. And we were just kind of figuring out what we didn't know. Yeah. And so the Auburn University really didn't want to publicize it too much, because we were afraid that like a thousand people were going to show up and we were going to be able take care of them. Sure. We just wanted to figure out what would this look like. So we set up a tent there at the ROTC building at the corner of War Eagle Way and South Donahue. And this year we've been able to really formalize it into a program where people are able to go to the website at Auburn University, they're able to register at sansy.org for this specific game that they want to come to. We are able to give them university parking passes in the parking lot, direct across from our tents. Incredible. So now we have families that in because this if you can hear one thing and one thing only okay. This is what I want you to walk away with this SNASY’s job is to. Visually help a family understand what is it going to look like to come to a game? Yep. Because I can assure you, those special needs families. And this is this is a typical scenario that happens every single football season as you've got some single mother, more than likely with two children. One of them is a special needs child like myself, 16 year old son wearing a diaper, who has a 13 year old little brother or a 19 year old older brother, and that older brother or younger brother isn't allowed to come to a football game because his brother can't come with him, means his mom can't come with him. And so what we want to do is help that mother see, hey, this is where you're going to park. You're going to walk across the street and you're going to tailgate in our tent with air conditioning, with a special room to change your son's diaper, and you're going to have all the food and drinks you can handle and dessert. We've got a golf cart that's going to take you from our tent into the stadium. And then when you get to the stadium, we have a now special pod outside gate number one that is set up for autistic children, for nursing mothers, for veterans that are dealing with PTSD or older individuals that are dealing with Alzheimer's, a stroke, Parkinson's. Whatever the case may be, everyone is welcome inside. We've actually partnered with the nursing program here at Auburn to help facilitate that with the Tiger Babies, and with the sound room that they have. And we've really taken that to the next level. We've also partnered with East Alabama Health. If you've noticed, every single, first aid station in Jordan-Hare Stadium has a SNASY logo on the outside of it. So every nurse inside those first aid stations, they're aware that, hey, there might be a special needs family or just simply someone that 78 years old that needs to come in here and lay their loved one down on a hospital bed? Yeah, pull this curtain over. Need some help and just change their diet? Yeah, like this. Not a life or death situation, but it's all about that communication to let that family know that. Look, you can go in this first aid station and you don't have to be almost dead. Yeah. Like if you just need to change your loved ones diaper, if you need to deal with a feeding tube issue, it's okay. You're welcome here. And then we've got the golf cart service to get them back to our tent. And that is my favorite part of this of an entire weekend is when everybody leaves the game and they come back to our tent and, you know, obviously anytime you have 50,000 people leaving the stadium at one time, there's going to be lines left for the shuttle bus and everything. And that's when I love getting to communicate and talk to all of our families. And they literally hang out in our tent that's air conditioned or soon to be heated. Yeah. You know, for an hour after the game and we give them, Momma Goldbergs subs, sandwiches and cookies and drinks and everything, and just get to talk to them and get to share with them that that this is they're really on the cutting edge of what we're doing to serve families again, whether they be military veterans, whether they be special needs families, or just simply whether they be someone that's 73 years old, it needs a little bit of extra help getting in and out of the football stadium. Yeah. What an incredible memories that like. Yeah, you're able to I mean you're creating you know, you're creating those memories and you've allowed those to be created. I can't help but wonder like, how would you that's, you know, if the tables were turned and you didn't, you hadn't create that someone else had. But you got to experience, you know, you had this dream that you get something. I just wonder how you would feel and your family would feel getting to take advantage of this, having had the dream of taking, you know, your son to a game and you get to experience this and have that memory that you're creating for so many people. I appreciate you. Sensing that because that is the essence of why this is going to be successful. Because society normal. And no offense, but normal people have no idea what it feels like. As a. As a a special needs family to not only feel and sense being welcome. Everyone is deserving of a memory 100%. And it's just maybe a few people might need a little bit more help making it. Yeah. And so let me. And there again I have no idea if we've gone way too long at this point. I don't even know. But you're fine. But but let me tell you, this is the heart of SNASY And this is the heart of why this is important at Auburn University. And this is the reason why it has to start at Auburn University. Because if we circle back around to what we started talking about, I believe in work hard work, and that's what we're doing with this SNASY program. And the reason my carrier has sponsored it is they are building an infrastructure here at Auburn University. So that and that's the important thing that I want your listeners to understand. The finished product is not here at Auburn University. It's not here at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It's not here at Neville Arena. The finished product is what we're building here. Okay. But we're going to take it to downtown Auburn, Opelika, Columbus, LaGrange, Newnan, Carrollton, Mobile. Atlanta. Birmingham. Tuscaloosa. Okay, cause see, I want to take my son to a football game, but hey, look, I'm a lunatic, but only I want to take my son to maybe 1 or 2 games a year. All right, that's 1 or 2 Saturdays a year. Yeah. All right, but guess what I need to do. Guess what I need to do? I need to take my son to dinner every single week. That's 52 weeks a year. Yeah. And so if we can build a system that can show a special needs family, a military veteran, any individual over the age of 70, if we can show them how they can attend a football game at Jordan-Hare stadium and we can show them where to park and we can show them where to tailgate, and we can give them a golf cart to the stadium. We can show them how they can take care of their loved one at the game. We can get them back to the tailgate after the game. We can get them to the parking lot and get them home safe. Well, guess what we also can do? And this is where it changes someone's life for real. If we can get them to a restaurant

on a Tuesday night, 7: 30:21

00, that is how you change a life. And that is what Auburn is doing right now, is we are building the infrastructure because that SNASY station that we have outside gate one, the second football season is over. That SNASY station is going to go somewhere downtown Auburn or downtown Opelika. And so that's what is so important about what we're doing at Auburn is we're building the infrastructure to allow families to get out in their community, not just Auburn University, not just the big fancy football game. Yeah, but everyday life. And that's where you change lives. I, I just want to say, I think it's, And I'm going to try not to get emotional. I get emotional whenever I talk about the Creed. I think it's really, really cool. Whenever we see Auburn men and women, Auburn men or women genuinely living out the creed and, man, you're doing it. And, I keep I keep think going back to the the line about human touch and, as you get as you were talking, I kept thinking about how all these families can come to these games. And and now that I'm thinking about to. I think I met you last year out of ten, out on the ROTC field, the cheerleaders come out there every week. And I'm pretty sure I got the opportunity to meet you last year, but, anyway, those families are meeting other families. You know exactly what y'all were going through. And just having being able to see other people and just knowing that they're not alone. That is the Auburn family coming together and working it. It's such a beautiful and powerful thing. And, I think what you're doing is absolutely incredible. That's the whole point. That's all point. I mean, that's what makes me so proud is knowing that you're here at Auburn games and Auburn University is helping you, and you're helping Auburn University to make the world that we live in, the community that we live in and beyond a better place. And that's the whole point. Yeah. And I'm not even a alum. I just love Auburn that much. Yeah. And I since I knew that Auburn would respond when I asked them for this. Yeah. And that's what I'm so proud of Auburn that they are living out the creed on a daily basis. And that's why I'm here. And that's why I love SNASY And that's the reason why once we build this out, our dream is to take it to the entire SEC. And that's what so many people. Because I'm in business. Yeah. And guess what? I served Georgia fans and I serve Alabama fans. And initially they see what we're doing at Auburn with Jackson's services and SNASY And they say, whoa. Well, I'm a Georgia fan or I'm in Alabama fan. I say, great, because guess what? Guess what? Who SNASY is there to serve? Again, I've told you, I've been coming to games for a very long time. I know how to go to a game even with my son. But guess what? What about that family that happens to live in Columbus and some business owner knows that this family is Auburn fan. Or maybe they are a Georgia fan. Maybe Georgia's playing Auburn at Auburn this year, and that business owner gives that mother tickets to the Auburn, Georgia game. She's never been to a game before. She's a Georgia fan. Her boys are Georgia fans. She's never been to Jordan-Hare Stadium. She is who we need to help. Yeah. Know how to navigate Jordan-Hare Stadium. It's the Alabama fans and the Georgia fans, the Georgia Tech fans that are traveling to Auburn. They're the ones that need help. And so I want to then transplant this in Tuscaloosa, in Athens, because guess what? I want Auburn fans to be able to go to games in Tuscaloosa and go to games in Athens and know how to do that now. So it's not just about serving Auburn fans, it's about serving any individual that needs assistance. Going to an event on campus at Auburn University, that event might be graduation. That event might be a basketball game or a volleyball game or a softball game. And that is why Auburn is making a difference, because they see that and they want to play a part in making that happen across the entire SEC. Do you mind, going just briefly about how did the, partnership with the College of Nursing start? How did that happen? So, I reached out, started the conversation last year and really finalized it this year. Because they have the nursing mother pods around the stadium and even around Auburn's campus and around Auburn and forever, I have been seeing these nursing mother pods. And the problem with them not not a problem, but just a limitation on them, is that they are designed to go kind of in quasi conditioned space, like it has to be kind of in the shade. And so I realize all that, well, if this little nursing mother pod was a foot wider and a little bit deeper and it had a full six foot cord in there, well guess what? Not only can a nursing mother go in there and nurse her or baby, but I could take my son in there and lay him down on a full size table and change his diaper. So how much more of a service would that be to the people coming to a game is if SNASY and Tiger Babies and the nursing school could partner together. And as soon as I had that conversation with a an and Morgan at the school, like they just fell in love with the idea. And so now that's why outside gate one, we now have a full service set up with nurses where if you're at the game, you can actually go outside the stadium and come in to either the Tiger Babies Little Sounds pod or the SNASY pod, and you can change an adult diaper. You can you can have your autistic child just kind of desensitize in there, or you can nurse your baby. Yeah. And it's just a perfect partnership. And the nursing school, and even the VCOM school has, has bought into SNASY 100%. So any volunteers that we have, they get free parking passes at the VCOM lot and they get to ride the shuttle to our tent. They get to serve families all day long. And so it's just been a beautiful partnership with Auburn University, the School of Nursing, and the VCOM school. And we're really looking forward to a soon to be, kind of ribbon cutting that we're going to have, to kind of announce the whole entire program. That's awesome. Well, I just want to, you know, before you, I just thank you, you know, it's it's it's it's incredible to see people doing things for other. It's so easy to just ignore the world. Yeah. And just look out for yourself. It's hard. It's work we should do, but it's hard work to do to help other people and to sacrifice time, effort, energy for other people to have good experiences and good memories. And I'm very proud that Auburn is being a part of that, and you're a part of that. And I just want to say thank you. Yeah. To to the from from the world to you. Thank you. Because that's a I can only imagine how difficult and a thankless job that is sometimes. But it's important work, you know, and it's powerful work. Yeah. And every, every I've been blown away with the Auburn fans that they see the work that that right now me and my wife Lindsay are we're we're catering the tent. We're showing up and we're setting everything up. They literally are bringing us donations. They're bringing us anniversary gifts for me and Lindsay like they are because they appreciate it. Yeah. And and I'm like, look, we don't need your. No, no, we want the donations. But we're not set up that way. That's not what we're here for. So I just but it's the Auburn people are living out the Creed every game, and they're appreciating what we're doing. And they're the reason why this is going to work. I know it is. Yeah. They are just here to wrap up. If there is anybody who's listening to this, watching this, that, they want to get involved, they have more questions about it. Where can they find that up? Yeah. So, matter of fact, I just posted a video on my TikTok account this morning. Heck, yeah, I love TikTok down here. Because, someone who attended the Auburn, Alabama game last year and they took down our name and number and our website and they're like, look, we're wanting to make a donation, but there is no place to make a donation. And so I made a video and I said, look, I appreciate you wanting to give us a donation, but that's not what SNASY is about. And by the way, SNASY Let's slow it down a little bit. S N A S Y it stands for I appreciate you going slow for me because I needed that. But everybody wants to add an extra s in there when you just say SNASY But it stands for Special Needs Assistance Station for You the for silent. But the point is, is that SNASY is designed to be a free market service for people. Now, I say that because we, we, we appreciate sponsorships. And so instead of donating to SNASY, this is what we need you to do. And I'm going to provide a link to our Linktree. And now we've we've enhanced it a little bit so that you can volunteer. We need volunteers to show up and help us on game day. Right now it is me and my wife and whatever kids we have with us that weekend. And, you know, they're ten and 11 and seven, you know, not that much help, but, we're teaching them how to serve others. Yeah, but so one with our link tree, you have the opportunity to volunteer. But what we're really asking you to do, if you really want to help SNASY is I would ask you to visit Auburn University and let Auburn University know how much you appreciate SNASY being on campus and how we're living out the Auburn Creed with SNASY, because what I'm really looking forward to doing is when we're able to harness the power of Auburn University and raise money. Not for SNASY I'm not looking to raise money to pay some executive director $100,000. What I want to do is I want to do something that's never been done before. I want to develop a process and in a way, for people at Jordan-Hare Stadium, at Neville Arena to donate money and then give it directly to families. Now, can you imagine that family in Columbus, Georgia, or Coweta County in Newnan or Lagrange or Auburn in Opelika? Not only do they get to go to a restaurant and have the services that we're building at Auburn University via SNASY but what if they also got an allowance once a month for a $20 discount to go to a restaurant? Yeah. Oh man, it's awesome. Now that's powerful. Yeah. Now, not only do you give them the ability to go eat at that restaurant, but you give them a $20 discount. Yeah, because I don't want that restaurant to have to give them a $20 discount. I don't want that business owner to suffer. I want them to learn. What does it feel like to actually make money by serving special needs families? Yeah, and that's what I'm looking forward to. So anyway, long story short, I'll, I'll I'll send you the link tree. You can volunteer or you can visit one of our sponsors and just say thank you. Okay. Awesome. Well, once again, we just wanted to say thank you, for being on this episode of Everything Auburn. We we really appreciate it. Not just us, but honestly, I think the whole Auburn family and beyond is just very grateful and thankful for what you're doing. And if you enjoyed this episode of Everything Auburn, make sure you tune in every month for new episodes. And if you want to check out all the incredible podcasts that are going on across campus, make sure you visit our our podcast hub War Eagle, War Eagle, War Eagle!