The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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This is a KU envy studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Titan you've learned again, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me.

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Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

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Good morning, Las Vegas and welcome to another edition of the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan, thank you for getting up once again on this beautiful Sunday morning. And joining me on the show it is Mother's Day. So I want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms, to the sisters, to the aunts to the friends to the garden mothers to anyone who has a connection to a child and makes a difference in that child's life or feels a special connection to any particular child that changes your life and gives you some joy. So to all of the women who pour into children everywhere, whether you are the biological mom or a mother figure or role model, I want to wish you a Happy Mother's Day to day, I lost my mother when I was 29. So I know how dear and precious that relationship is. And I miss her all the time. We never don't miss them. So to those who have gone on, we pay tribute to you as well. And for those of you that had maybe a difficult day today, I know that there are those around you who love you to give you a hug and to encourage you and hopefully to put a little smile on your face. This morning. I am in the studio with some people that I've had in the studio before so my friends are back Tommy Francis is here with me this morning barbers arc barbers acts of Random Kindness they've been on the show before. So we're going to be here today talking about the organization and what it does. And this morning we're blessed to have a couple of other people in the studio with us to talk about barbers acts of random kindness. So first, I want to welcome Tommy and Letty and Jr. to the show, we're gonna give you some full introductions. Before we get going. Tommy, you want to kick us off with the intro. Tell us who you are, where you from, let's say it's Mother's Day, what fun thing, who you are, where you're from, and something cool that you just love about. I don't know, Mother's Day, or don't love about Mother's Day. Okay.

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My name is Tommy. Free is and I'm part of barbers arc. I'm from originally from Greeley, Colorado.

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One thing I love about Mother's Day is you know, just to be able to, you know, call my mom and, you know, thank her for

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putting up with me.

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And, you know, just just give her thanks. And, you know, and let her know where I'm at and just, you know, shower with my love. And also, you know, my significant other and let her know that I appreciate her on that day and you know, give her them give her her roses that she deserves. So yeah, that's what Mother's Day is all about from me.

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Lady,

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I want you to introduce yourself and tell us you know where you're from and what you love about Mother's Day, where you are. My name is Melody. I'm from Greeley, Colorado also. And I'm part of barbers arc.

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And what I like about Mother's Day is I actually enjoy getting the gifts from my kids, the little hands and the little the hand drawn pictures and stuff. I really enjoy those. And I save all of them. And I like to look back on him. Cute. So yeah. Precious milestones, because they take the time to do it. So simple, right? Yeah. So from the hardest thing. Yes. It's small thing that creates like that permanent joy and like later in life, you look back and you still keep them. Yeah, I remember I think I made my mother a handkerchief when I was like We decorated this handkerchief and women would have handkerchiefs. And so we decorated one and I still have it somewhere that I gave to my mom. Well, thank you for being here, Jr. Rodriguez. Good morning, everybody.

Unknown Speaker 4:26
Good morning to all the mothers out there. I am from Los Angeles, California born and raised. i The one thing that I like about Mother's day that I get to go back and think of all the happy moments I had with my mother because she passed away. And so I gave her a lot of headaches. So I get to remember the good times and the bad times. And now that she's now no longer with us. I use these days to just embrace her in spirit.

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I can appreciate

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At the

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end, like I said, What I like most about Mother's Day, it's,

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I will say the first one that I didn't have or was like probably the most if I thought I was gonna be okay, like, the very first one to me is always after you lose your mom, craziest one, and I thought I'm gonna be okay, I'm just gonna, like go to church, I'm going to be, I'm just gonna stay home, right? And kind of isolate. I woke up, my feet hit the floor, I became coherent. And I immediately started to cry. Like, I just instantly was like, I don't have my mom, she's gone. And so that was probably the hardest one. But I think what I, I was blessed to have such a great mom, we I believe our mothers are, are the greatest people on Earth, and they truly are. But she was awesome. And so she was my best friend. We did a bunch of stuff, almost everything together. So just, I guess the memories and the opportunity to acknowledge others who have been special in my life and like a mom is probably where you know, what makes it cool now? Well, this morning, we are talking about barbers are barbers acts of random kindness is a newly established nonprofit. It's been here for a while, but the nonprofit factor is a newly established component. We are all together as important members for this organization. And I'll let Tommy dig into the details of it. But

Unknown Speaker 6:24
what it does is on the surface, there's just so much to peel back when you get into the layers is to provide haircuts to children in disadvantaged circumstances, who otherwise might have difficulty getting a haircut. Just kidding, it sounds so simple, but it's part of your your self esteem. When we look in the mirror, we want to like what we see when we go out. To be in the world to present ourselves in different spaces. We want to be proud of who we are and appearance as part of that for most of us. And I thought it was really cool when I first learned about barbers arc through Tom through you, Tommy and Osiris. And what you do. And we recently had an event in March, where we did free haircuts for kids in the community over off of MLK, where it turns into Camino del Norte, and Craig. So just a super cool organization that on the surface provides haircuts but allows the opportunity to touch kids lives that are in trouble spaces and have conversations with them. And so

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now that I've kind of laid the foundation of what it does, Tommy are doing your Leddy more about the why and some other aspects that I might have left out of the out of that component, that story just now. Okay. Um, like Tonya said, we try to be of service to, you know, the kids, the preteens, the teenagers, and, you know, just in them trying circumstances where, you know, they're figuring life out on their own or live in a single parent house. And, you know, I remember growing up

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and, you know, living with my father and having, you know, multiple, like, my siblings and stuff, and, you know, you want to look fresh, you want to be presentable at school, and sometimes it's not always in the budget. And so I remember, you know, we used to learn how to cut each other's hair. And I mean, I think half of the 90s I had like a bowl cut.

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My brother's been who grew up, my dad put a bow on their head, and they said it and cut their hair. And they were just like, Yeah, we got good, where we started eyeing it all the way around, and it was even so, um, but that's what it was, you know, and

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that's where it kind of sparked, you know, like, I always wanted to look fresh, I always wanted to refresh and put didn't always had the mean, so we kind of had to make the means. And I know what it's like that with other families, you know, like they do with what they have. And

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that's where we come in, you know, we try to be of service to the community.

Unknown Speaker 9:13
You know, to help, and I love it, you know, the, like Tony said, but it's different events. The last one in March, you know, it was just magnificent. You see, you see the kids running around, you know, there was there was event there was raffles.

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There was families and just making memories and to be able to be part of that, you know, it was

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my heart was happy. And I know, I know, I've seen you all there so I mean, you know, it was it was amazing. And there was a memory for myself and I absolutely love it. And so yeah, we focus we focus on with the kids, but also you know, we work with the different recoveries, sober living

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and stuff like that. And

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yeah.

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Anyone can talk about this how? Because someone probably I'm asking the question, and wanting people to know the connection between recovery and haircuts or like why the two are combining for for barbers or like where did that passion come from to combine the two can I,

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when I was asked to be part of this organization, at the very beginning, and they said that we were going to be helping kids, it took me back to my childhood, because my mom came from Cuba back in 69, to give me a better life out here in the United States. And I have a father, and my mom was mom and pop.

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And so at the end of the day, she could only give me so much. And I remember going to school. And some kids had nice shoes, and I didn't have nice shoes, and I didn't have a nice haircut. And I didn't have nice clothes, like the other ones. And they made fun of me and stuff. And so what that did to me is that it pushed me into

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getting involved with gangs.

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being made fun of because I didn't have a father.

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And so then I look at how many other kids out there are in that same predicament. Struggling, don't have any, any money, their family are still there. Inflation keeps going up. But work keep going down. You know, the money has not right. And so at that time, I was like, What can we do to help and, and give back. And so at that,

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I turn around and I look at

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what kids are going out there. They're doing out there right now. And

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they don't have a father, they don't have order, or they do have a father, but he's involved in drugs. And so that's where all the money is going into the drugs. They're not getting what they need. They don't get

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books for school, clothes, haircuts. And so when they get to school, imagine how they feel when they get to school and their hair looks all nappy or not combed. Or however that is right.

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How does that make that that kid feel at that particular time. And that's exactly what happened to me. And what happens is

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when you can change that when you can do something to change that. Right? Because they say, if you can, if you look better, you feel better. And if we can start to do that and do other things, while we're doing haircuts, we can talk to these kids, we can give them that word of encouragement to let them know at the same time, you don't have to go that way. You don't have to do those things. That's what made me part of barbers arc.

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I love that. I want to make sure each one of our perspectives is here. Letty, tell us a little bit I did you got to like you can't I know you ladies here you guys for emotional support for all of our emotional support. But I just welcome your perspective, you know, the sincerity of what drew you to Barbara's art, because what Jr just said is so powerful. Like, I can see all of that, that kid that the family, the struggle, the community, you know, we used to always say it takes a village to raise a child. But as we've evolved at times, we've got in some ways we're holding on to it. And yet at the same time, we're getting away from it and life in the world pulls on you every day. And

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it's scarier than it used to be a lot. A lot of the traumas that kids face nowadays. I didn't see any of that as a kid, right? Like, I don't know if you'd say I had a sheltered life. There was trauma around me, but it I hadn't, you know, my I had a mom and dad household. They were both there all the time. And so there was a lot of feeling and I was a girl and I was the youngest of three children. So there were a lot of protections that were just in your some insulation, but Jr painted a picture that is just so vivid and so powerful.

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What's your space on how you came to Barbara's Ark? Why for you? Well, um, to be honest, I came to Barbara's Ark to be emotional support for Tommy. And, and I ended up being like, I gave my input on. So I wanted to be part of it because we still like you said we work with recovery and recovery setting. And what I like is we go and give them haircuts. And what I really enjoyed was seeing when after somebody would get a haircut, how it brought up their confidence and what it did for them because it just it just, it was just just a haircut to us. But to them. It meant so much to them. And I liked that and I liked seeing them happy. And that's why like I wanted to be part of barbers

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Sark is to go in there and help people get their hair cut, get ready for an interview, or even go out into the houses a sober living houses in

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getting them haircuts because paying $40 for a haircut is outrageous.

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And there's people out there that can afford that. Like, it's just crazy.

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I don't have a problem with haircuts because I don't have to cut my hair, I'll just throw it out, you know?

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Yeah, but you mean, I think for me, once I learned what barbers are does,

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what I loved about it was the simplicity of the message or the simplicity of the of the cause, right, because a lot of times we work on events, community service based projects, this one is just it's so straightforward. It's so simple. And that's what I love about the simplicity of the delivery. The hardest part is lining where we're going to do it, where they you know, to do it on how to get the kids there. But the mission is, we had cut hair for kids who otherwise cannot afford to do this, who are in disadvantaged spaces, where self esteem is attacked, or under attack, or, you know, at risk.

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And I just love the simplicity of your kid, and your family struggling or whatever the case may be, maybe you're in foster care. And this is something that we can do that can help you. And it's very simple. And that's what I love about it, the simplicity of it. The nonprofit status is new. And getting the word out that you now are nonprofit, is something that your work that we're working on. And there's a big event coming up on May 23. Because I'm sure there's someone out there saying, Oh, I like that, how can I get involved and support this organization that this random act of kindness, which is to give haircuts to needy children? And teenagers and families? How can I get involved? So how can they so we are having a fundraising mixer, and kind of just showcasing who we are. And

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you know, we welcome everyone to come to the space. And it's called the classic jewel.

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And the addresses

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353 East Bonneville app, suite 111 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101. And it's on Thursday, May 23, may 23, may 23 636 30, to 9:30pm. And you know, when you leave, we'll be family. And, you know, we had we're gonna have different things going on. And I think we have a comedian come in different stuff raffles and whatnot. So and have a good time. It's gonna be a fun time. I mean, if you haven't come downtown, and while downtown is a really fun place to be classic jewel is great. Cherian and Jerome own classic jewel. And they're just really great parts of the community. Their daughters, Orion is also a member, we remembered the same sorority and just a great family that also just believes in. I mean, she met us the first time she met you, she said, I would love to do something to support, you know, what you do, and what this program is all about. So to the community, excited to extend an invitation come down on the 23rd of May this month, I think it's a Thursday,

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I believe, and come down and have some fun, have some listen to some music, hear some stories made the great people who are involved?

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What are some of the things that are planned going forward in the future with care? Do you see it evolving? Because I know it's that you know, during your brought up, it's not just about haircuts, and we had a conversation with another member of the board recently. And we talked about how this is the draw. So how do you see it?

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Three, five years from now, what do you hope barbers are doing in the Las Vegas community? And how do you engage with other barbers? Um, I think they engage with the other barbers part would, you know, just hosting different all over just all the different locations, there's barber shops on every corner, and just, you know, hoping that they get involved and also want to be at service because I know barbershops can get so busy and you know, but every barbershop has a neighborhood. And, you know, there's there's children in that neighborhood and no matter you know, how busy the barbershop is, you know, I know that

Unknown Speaker 19:29
you know, I've been a barber for 10 years and there's always a part of me that wanted to give back and you know, because we've all been in their shoes and sometimes the struggle is real so I'm you know, we're gonna host ICM us hosting it throughout different neighborhoods, neighborhoods in the in the city, and kind of just dialing that in and see what that looks like, you know, whether it's once a month, twice a month, and kind of just get that format going and, you know, just being able to help you know, hopefully with the school

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all districts that foster homes, and, you know, one day maybe have a mobile or mobile shop to where we can just pull up to the school districts, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the why. And you know, just being a service, you know, making our own little block party. And I think that'd be amazing. And yeah, I love that I really do. I really love the journey. What do you think about that? That's amazing. That's, that's a good idea. Now. I received a phone call today by our president. And he thinks

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outside the box, right? And so he just came and gave me a phone call. And he was like, I have an idea.

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What do you think about not only helping the kids, but also going into treatment centers and helping the parents of those kids. So now it's like, Oh, my God. And so it's not all the way through. But just just the help just giving back, you know, just giving back, it's so much. Because if you can help the entire family some way somehow that that puts a huge impact. And so now he made my wheels turn, now I'm thinking about how can we do more, like what Tommy said, with, you know, having a mobile

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barbershop? Who does that a barbershop that would come into a neighborhood and just help out. And while you're helping those people out, you're giving them a message. Because why we come from there. We're recovering addicts, ourselves, we come from there. And so at that time, you know, we want to show them, how we did it, and how we got to the next level, and how we're helping people and then how your life can change and how you can make a difference. And, you know,

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when when an addict talks to another addict, and helps that addict, that addict is the is the father or mother of that child. And if you can help, that evolves into something huge. That's how I look at it, that's how I see it. And so one of the things is that,

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I just sit back, and just let the Spirit guide me on what I'm going to do. And when he told me that, I started to think and I was like, Man, this is this is something good. This is something big, something that's going to happen. Because we're going one thing that I was always taught,

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you know, it's like a wheel inside of us, right. And that wheel is as is, as you give. It comes back to you, as you give, it comes back to you. But if you hold on to your to whatever blessings have been given to you, it clutters all the things that are coming to you, and it doesn't keep revolving, so you don't get anything else coming to you. But if you receive and you give it back and you receive and you give it back, you'll see how your blessings are going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. So that's I mean, that's what I feel in my heart. You know, it goes to the principle, the biblical saying, it's better to give than to receive, you know, and your blessings, the cup runneth over.

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I just see the organization doing great things, you know, going forward. I know we've also had some conversations before disclosure, I recently became a member of the board. So I'm very excited about that.

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conversations about helping seniors, you know, I recently was in and before I go down that path, I was wrapping up a lunch meeting the other day and looked up and I thought, You know what, let me go and it was a barbershop. I was downtown.

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And I said, I'm out these barbers and we go in here and talk to them about barbers arc. And anytime I talk to someone about barbers are they are ready. Oh, I'm down with it. I'm ready to get on board. I will open up because we open up on Sundays folks, right when barbers because you know, Fridays, and Saturdays are busy days for that business. So we don't cut into the actual income of barbers. They have families and stuff to feed to, but they come back out on a Sunday and give the free time it was a cut above the rest barbershop with Tim Mike and Curt downtown. And Mike was immediately like, Tim was at Grace. Oh God, every last one of them was in the shop that day I walked

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all of them. And years ago when I was a reporter, I did an article on them that talked about what they were trying to do to expand barbershops and make the service available and they were immediately on board and say I'm absolutely ready to talk about how to do some things together. So anytime I walk through the door and talk to people, they are ready to partner and to do things that are great to help exponentially grow. You know what barbers acts of Random Kindness barbers Ark is doing. And I love the idea of not one left behind you know the Ark and bringing in the bible he brought to have everything to make sure there was the continuation and

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Is the idea of the Ark holds. And so we're reaching out to bring kids and families and people in to hold on to them, to nurture to speak to them to teach. And when you have these events, when we have these events, it's about bringing community together and having activities and resources and having fun. You know, it is as JR has said, it is the draw is the key. But then the community is the glue. You know, you get people in and then it's like you're ministering and you work with them. We're getting into like the the homestretch is, I want to make sure people know how to learn more, and know where to find everyone. So any social media handles, website, Instagram, Twitter, whatever

Unknown Speaker 25:47
you do, make sure it's out there so people can learn more, and tap in especially with the May 23 event that's coming up a class of jewel downtown at Bonneville and third, social media, phone numbers, websites. So we're on Instagram, underscore barbers arc. And we have our own.org it's barbers arc.org. And it showcases our nonprofit and what we do in the community. And yeah, like she said, the fundraisers may 23.

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January, anything you want to add about where people can find or just

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get anything more you is you're welcome to you know, if you have personal handles that also, you know, talk about Bob Lazar, can you feel comfortable with that? Don't hesitate, you can share that with the listening audience, as well.

Unknown Speaker 26:38
At this time, I just would like for everyone to come out and support us at our event, because that won't be the last event that we have. It'll be one after another after another. That's my vision with barbers arc. I'm calling it into existence right now. It's not Hi, it hasn't happened. We haven't planned it. But it's kind of happened some way somehow. Yeah, I love the energy. I love the mobile barbers. I love that I like can you just imagine like a mobile home unit, right? Our bus, right. So like a charter bus. And you customize this, you know, bus and you take the seats out, or you have some seats for waiting areas, and you have the setup. And for it to be able to drive around and surface communities and have music, food or some games such as you know, you bring everything that you need to the community for a day or afternoon or whatever. And you get out and you do what you have to do, to

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do haircuts to have sessions where there's conversations about, you know, bullying or

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peer pressure or, you know, community service or extracurricular activities that you partner with organizations that do that are tutorial services, to help kids with reading with math with science would be, you know, so cool. I think that there's just so much here that I look forward to what happens in the future. And I look forward to who's going to come into focus to become a part of the mission and the movement of barbers aren't going what you're doing.

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Thank you.

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Well, we're down to our last less than a couple of minutes, I want to say and once again, thank you for joining me here on the scoop on this beautiful Mother's Day. It's beautiful day in May. Thank you, Lady Happy Mother's Day to

Unknown Speaker 28:31
Day. Happy Mother's Day. Thank you for having us. It was a pleasure to have you. I am having a thrilling time getting to know each and every one of you. It's like family.

Unknown Speaker 28:42
It's like having extended family. So I mean, I love you. So it's just we love it. I have a good time. I'm everywhere I go. I'm like, oh wait, let me tell you about this. Yeah, yeah, everywhere I go. I'm like, Oh, wait, let me tell you.

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And if anyone knows me,

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when you say kids, I'm all about what I can do to help someone do something for a kid, or really anyone but I'm all about connecting people to resources and opportunities. So with that, I want to say to the listening audience, have a wonderful week. Have a great day to the moms and thank you for tuning in to the school with me Tonya Flanagan here, k u and v 91.5. Jazz and more. And we're out. Have a great week.

Unknown Speaker 29:30
I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tanya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFL a na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to Tanya dad flanagan@unlv.edu. Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai