The Spark — Feb. 20, 2014

Just like having the right information is necessary to make solid hiring and lending decisions, being engaged in our community is important. Data Facts is proud to support the positives and be a presenting sponsor of "The Spark." State Systems is focused on protecting life and property. As a local privately owned company, our foundation was built on providing all businesses with complete fire security protection and infrastructure cabling. State Systems is proud to be a part of the Mid-South community and a presenting sponsor of "The Spark." Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance has been serving the Mid-South since 1954. We have always focused on supporting our community and believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement and leading by example. Lipscomb and Pitts is proud to be a presenting sponsor of "The Spark." Additional funding provided by Christian Brothers University and Baptist Memorial Healthcare. Get better with Baptist. This month on "The Spark" our theme is scouting. We'll explore two globally recognized organizations that provide programs for young people to build character, train them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship and develop personal fitness and entrepreneurship, along with a locally owned company that focuses on protecting life and property while giving back to scouting in our community. Have you ever been excited by a new idea? Inspired by watching someone lead by example? When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way so we can learn and do the same. This truth is the power behind this show which is focused on business and community leaders that are leading by example to give back, fuel change and create new opportunities for the Mid-South. I'm Jeremy Park and this is "The Spark". ♪♪♪ For over 100 years they've been helping girls discover themselves and their values, connect with others and take action by making a difference here in the Mid-South. I'm here with the C-E-O of Girl Scouts Heart of the South, Angela Woods. And for starters, give us some of the history and the mission for Girl Scouts Heart of the South. Sure, thank you for having us here. The mission of Girl Scouts is to build girls with confidence, courage and character who make the world a better place. It's a great big mission but our girls are up to the task. We currently serve about 1,300 -- 13,000. Excuse me -- girls over 59 counties. And we have about 4,000 volunteers that make that happen for us. So that's huge. I mean 13,500, 59 counties, 4,000 volunteers. So that's a lot of numbers that add up pretty big here. When you look out there, there's five key programs, correct? Right. There's five. And I'll highlight a couple of them for you. Leadership and advocacy is really critical for us. It's built on Girl Scout experiences built on leadership and teaching girls leadership. Financial entrepreneurship and career exploration, which is the cornerstone of our cookie program. Life skills -- we teach girls about character building. The other thing that we focus on is healthy living. Healthy living is a really critical issue for girls both from a self-esteem standpoint and from just the general physical health standpoint. And so the neat thing is ages five to 17 and you're really putting them through a very holistic experience. So they're learning about entreprenuership. They're learning about sales. They're learning about public speaking. They're having to public speak. In cases, knock on doors and be out in the public selling cookies, which is awesome. But also too, they're learning how to connect with others of diverse backgrounds. So different socio-economic levels, different face, different skin colors, you name it. Talk about the chemistry of bringing all of these different people together. Sure. Our 59 counties is hugely diverse with rural, suburban and urban. And so you have girls who have never traveled outside their city, never traveled outside their zip code. What we do is try to level the playing field and have girls just be girls and have fun and interact with each other. And so we try to make sure our programming appeals to everybody. And not only that, we try to make sure that it's fun, that it's interactive. And that's something they haven't done before. And so what we find at the end of those experiences is that girls have made new friends. They've gone to new places and they're willing to try things that they haven't tried before. I think that's what neat is they're going outside and they're experiencing the outdoors. They're going hiking and camping and swimming and all of those. But also too, they're doing all sorts of field trips and cultural experiences. And they're learning even in the corporate sector what it means to hold a professional job and the skills that go along with that. So very well rounded in any approach. What's the most rewarding for you? When you look at starting at age five and the maturity process that takes place to where they start realizing hey, wait a second. I can make a difference. I can step out and be my own person. But also too, I can make a real change here in the Mid-South. What's that like to you? It's magical really. There's so many stories about girls who have started with our program and they were scared to stand up in front of a group of people. We hear that all the time. There are a number of girls who say if it wasn't for Girl Scouting, I would never be where I am today and I would never be able to do the things that I am today. And so it's a wonderful experience to have invested in a girl's life and to have the volunteers grow from that experience as well. So building courage, building character, all the way around. And confidence. I love it. So let's go ahead and show viewers what we're talking about. Give you some perspective when we say that Girl Scouts Heart of the South and the work they're doing here in the community. The girls are making advertisements today to support their cookie sale here at Douglass Elementary and for the community. There are five skills associated with the cookie sale that are really life skills for the girls to learn. Goal setting is the first skill which involves them kind of going over what do I want out of this sale. What do we want as a Girl Scout troop? Decision making, making decisions. What are our advertisements gonna look like? What goal are we gonna settle on together as buisness ehtics, how to handle business. How do you present yourself to people? People skills, how do you approach people about selling cookies. How do you approach them about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Also, money management. What are we going to do with this money that we're earning from the cookie sale. We're gonna review those skills and hopefully those are things they can take along with them throughout their entire life. [in unison] Girl Scouts Heart of the South! So that gives us some perspective on what the Girl Scouts Heart of the South is doing here in the Mid-South and in our community. But a big part of this focuses on giving this educational experience, giving this enrichment experience to young women in the inner-cities and in different areas of the Mid-South here. So outreach. Share with us about your strategy and focus on outreach. Sure. As you know, Memphis has a lot of pockets of poverty. And even within our 59 area accounted, there's a lot of pockets of poverty. And so specifically, we wanted to target north and south Memphis because there's a lot of good activity that's going on. But there's not a lot of activity for girls. And so over the last three years, we've served over 400 girls a year. And we started with a small group and it's grown and it's been sustainable. We have a retention rate of 84.5% and about 35 to 45 participants who are parents that keep it going. And so we think it's a wonderful program and we want to continue to make that happen. Well that speaks to the retention rate to how much they enjoy it. And that's -- for a citizen's perspective or from the citizen's perspective -- it's amazing because you don't want these young women to go down the wrong path. And that's so easy to do unfortunately. And the reality is if you can come in and give them this experience and wrap around the support network and start showing them opportunities, all of a sudden you see them blossom. And it's amazing to watch. And these are our future leaders. And so it is very important for us as a community to really embrace this and give them these opportunities. Talk about Be a Friend First. Sure. As you know that bullying is a big issue. It's in epidemic preportions. And we've been looking at this issue and have been doing some programming around bullying for the last three years. Be a Friend First is a new program that's a joint project between ourselves and Girl Scouts U-S-A. And basically, it's a two-tier program. It's directed at parents as well as the girls, age specific. Girls get to interact. They get to learn about cyber-bullying, the social media impact. They learn some specific skills on how to address bullying, how to talk about it. And the parents learn the same thing. And each of those sessions that we've had this year have been sold out. And so we're gonna continue to do that because it is an issue and it's a critical issue. And parents need the tools to support their girls. I love that you're focusing on. So we have to talk about cookies. So I think everybody has a favorite cookie for sure. But share with us. You alluded to earlier on in terms of the entrepreneurship, the salesmanship that goes in to, the financial component in terms of learning how to balance the money and such. But there's a lot more to it. So share with us overall just what does a cookie mean? What does Girl Scout cookies mean to you? Well cookies are our integral program. And the financial entrpreneurship and the career exploration is really the cornerstone of the cookie program. And what it does is teach girls about how to run their own business. How do they manage money? And so when they sell the cookies, they use those funds and invest them in themselves and in their communities and in projects. In many cases, they may pick a charity to donate the proceeds to. Or they may, you know, support or they may go travel with that money. It's really girl-driven decision making. And so the cookie is kind of a wonderful tasty kind of thing. But it's the gas for the engine of the experience of Girl Scouts. Is it an average of 400? Is that right? How many boxes do each one sell? Well we have the average-- one of the highest averages in the country. It's 200 per girl. Wow, that's awesome! Well I love everything you're doing from the cookies obviously that taste so delicious to everything you're doing to help these young girls have a successful path for their future. So thank you very much for coming on the show. Well thank you for having me. I appreciate it. [theme music] ♪♪♪ Their mission is protecting life and property. I'm here with the president of State Systems Incorporated, Bob McBride. And for starters, give us some context. So describe State Systems. Jeremy, we're a multi-divisional fire protection and security company. Anything from your test inspection of fire extinguishers, fire alarm, fire sprinkler systems. And then we do structured cabling which is your voice, data and video. This security system, which includes access, control, security, burglar alarm systems and then our newest venture, which is hosted video. Nice. So obviously it covers a very wide spectrum. You mentioned the hosted video and that's S-S-Eye -- E-Y-E. Very clever. And I love that it's high definition cameras. But you know many times for a business, that's the area you forget to check. Obviously next thing you know, something bad happens. Then you go to check the camera and they don't work. And so on your end, you have the ability off-site remotely to not only store the footage but also, too, to be able to check remotely in to make sure that everything's running properly. And so describe S-S-Eye overall and what it means to a business. Sure. It's a third party monitering. And we are off site with that. Everything's hosted in the cloud. So the servers are off-site. How many times do we have a need to go in and check out and the camera's not working and the time stamp is wrong or something else has gone wrong? Well this assures that that's not going to happen. One of the other things using technology is barcoding, which is very innovative. You have the ability to barcode everything to where you can go in in real time and check, for instance, the extinguishers and see when was the last inspection date, what needs to happen in terms of the next steps. And so someone can pull up in real time that inspection report to show somebody. Overall, talk about the barcoding and what that means to a business. It's one of the hallmarks of our company. We'll barcode a fire extinguisher, a fire alarm system component, the pull stations, smoke detectors, the sprinkler, the sprinkler heads. Then when our technicians do the annual inspection, test inspection on those facilities, everything is barcoded so it tells us the time it took to inspect that device. It tells us if it's going out of warantee, if there's additional inspections or additional service that needs to be done on that device. Nice. And one of the things.. I know you don't open it to the public but you have a discharge room where you actually pull the extinguishers, blow them out and then repurposely package them. I just think it's really neat to see that all that's done right here in the Mid-South, right here in Memphis. Being a family-owned local company heavily engaged in the community and when you talk about philanthropically, the efforts of State Systems, what's your kind of mission? What's your philosophy in terms of giving back? We've been so blessed. We always want to give back to the community. So we look for ways to do that. And we look for things that are -- affect our daily lives. Many years ago, over 30 years ago I joined the Germantown Exchange Club. And their mission and focus is to prevent child abuse and domestic violence. So we do that through the Exchange Club Family Center down on Union avenue. That's a perfect segue in to let's go ahead and show viewers exactly what we're talking about with the Exchange Club Family Center. Our focus is absolutely on children and on children who've been abused or neglected or have been forced to witness repeated sever domestic violence in their homes. All of these children have been through very traumatic events. And it's very much a case of following them the rest of their life if they're not given the intervention they need in a warm andnurturing environment and they're able to talk about what's happened, enabled to then to feel safer, to make sure they are safe. It is assumed that only about 20% of child abuse cases are ever reported. Domestic violence -- maybe 10%, if that. We are literally hitting the tip of the iceberg. All of the children we work with are so traumatized and have been through so much and seen so much in this community. We're trying to help them heal from all of this, to help them realize this is not how it has to be, help them not repeat this behavior and give them a reason for hope and a reason to know it doesn't have to be like this, that everyone doesn't live like this. And so that's our mission and I know we're accomplishing it. So that gives us some perspective on the Exchange Club Family Center. I know that you said you have been heavily involved for over 30 years with the organization through their Exchange Club. And you know one of the other things is you're a Mile mentor with the University of Memphis and their Mile program. And here's your chance to do a little spotlight on your protege and what that is. But basically, you're pairing a mentor with a student -- a junior or a senior. And it's an opportunity throughout the year to really go through some leadership opportunities but also too, to be able to share from your insight what it means to be a business leader and kind of open up that door for that relationship. What's been your kind of takeaway of being a mentor with the Mile program. Also a great program. This is my second year in doing it. This year my protege is Wesley. And he's a marketing major. He has the opportunity to come to my office and look around. And we mentor, talk about business, discuss some of the things that I've been doing. We've had lunches together where we help answer questions that he may have. He's got another year and a half left at the University. But he's just a fine young man. It's exciting to see the students that the University's producing and how well they are doing. What would be something that you would take away as a mentor? Obviously on our end, we're trying to get more business leaders actively engaged. What's something that you've taken away from the experience so far? I'd love to see these young people stay in Memphis, work in Memphis, contribute back to the Memphis community. We're a very vibrant community. We have so much to offer. If we can keep them in Memphis where they're earning a living and giving back, its going to be that much better of a community. And Serves is another one that's enar and dear to your heart. Explain your relationship with Serves. It started several years ago. I have a son who's now in his thirties and he has cerebral palsy. And we were looking for an opportunity for him to be more independent. And he wanted to move out the home. And so through a chance meeting with the director of Serve at the time, provided conversation for us to look for ways that he could do that. And Serves allowed him to move out and provide a care for him where he still works full time. Then they provide care after work and first thing in the mornings. And we're saying serves and that's S-R-V-S, amazing organization here in the Mid-South. And Scouts obviously is the theme today. That's the central thread for this. And you yourself are involved with Scouts. Your son was an Eagle Scout or is an Eagle Scout. You're always an Eagle Scout. And you have daughters, too, that were a part of the Girl Scouts Heart of the South. So Scouts is near and dear to you. And I know you're on the board with the Chickasaw Council, the Boy Scouts here as well. Share your overall experience with the Scouts. Well my wife and I are proud of our five children. And I've had both girls in the girl scout program and sons in the boy scout program. What we get out of scouting is what they become. So it's more than just a program. Scouting changes lives. And it helps them to give them a strong foundation and gives them goals to work on and helps them learn things that they'll use later in life. It really prepares a young girl and a young man for their future. And one of the neat things is so much of it is focused on leadership, entrepreneurialism but community service. And just from your personal perspective and seeing your children mature and grow up and be a part of the Mid-South fabric in terms of not only leading a business leaders but giving back, what does that mean to you as a father but also too, a business owner? Obviously one thing that my wife and I always try to do is to give back. And when our children are involved in doing that too, it always makes us feel great. So we love to see them take that opportunity as they're raising their children to do the same thing. Well Bob, love what you're doing on the business front but also too, love what you're doing on the community front. Thank you very much for being on the show. It's a great city we live in. ♪♪♪ Founded in 1911, this organization is globally known but making a huge impact right here in the Mid-South. I'm here with the director of cool stuff. I love that title. Richard Fisher with Chickasaw Council Boy Scouts of America. And Boy Scouts of America -- obviously a rich tradition. Amazing impact here in terms of the lives of the youth. And it starts with the Tiger Cubs and goes all the way through to adventure and explorer and you name it. But walk us through the different phases of boy scouting. Okay, the youngest entry point is age seven or have graduated from kindergarten. That's our Tiger Cubs. And they move through the cub scouting program and through the Webelows and transition to Boy Scouts at age 11 or have completed the fifth grade. They can stay in the Boy Scouts until they're 18 years old. And while they're in there, they also have a couple of other options as being an adventurer or going to the exploring program. Both these programs are co-ed. The venturing program is a high adventure, white water rafting, repelling, shooting sports -- the fun stuff. And the exploring program is really career based. So whether it's in the hospitals or law enforcement or what have you, they get an in-depth look at what it takes to be in a particular field. I have to brag on my brother. He's an Eagle Scout. Explain the significance of being an Eagle Scout. Well I guess the major significance is only four-percent of all the scouts that participate earn that award. And it is an award that's recognized at universities. It's recognized in the military. And most importantly, when people start looking for jobs, it's a great resume builder. Randy Ponch once wrote a book about the only award that you earn as a kid and can use as an adult is the Eagle Award. It's well-respected in the business community. There are many community leaders in this town that are Eagle Scouts and they recognize what that means when they see it on a resume. And so starting with the Tiger Cubs, it's a lot of family involvement by strategy. And so it's in a way, bringing the family together and kind of teaching the fun of being prepared. And so one of the first phases is, you know, picking a safe place in the case of a fire. So it's really going through these experiences that obviously develop the youth but also too, the family. And then it kind of carries forward to create more independence and leadership. So you talked about the phases, the technical phases. But talk about the progression in development of the character and the integrity and the leadership skills. Well I think the main thing with the family is it gives them some real quality time in addition to some of the skills that they learn. It has given the parents an opportunity to really work with their children at a very young age and watching them grow. So that by the time they leave the Cub Scouting program, they see a changed young person, a person that's ready to start being a leader for themselves. So they get an opportunity to practice leading on other boys their age and become their own leadership structure within the troop. Because that's the neat thing is is they mature along the way. The leadership honed kind of goes more toward the youth. And so on my end, you know, it's swimming and hiking and it's adventure and it's exposing kids to new opportunities and to dream big. But it's also too, very applicable life lessons and skill sets that carry over in adulthood. And talk about from a merit badge perspective, the tie back to academics. Sure. The tie back is significant. Seventy-percent of our merit badge is tied directly to what these kids are learning in school whether it's through our citizenship badge series that ties in to history and civics lessons or biology or recyclable materials and labor laws and all of those kinds of things that typically kids don't get an opportunity to study. So it's exposing them. Explain Scout Reach. Scout Reach is a tool that we use to offer scouting to familes that can't typically afford it. And that's a great launchpad in. Let's show viewers a little bit more about Scout Reach. The Scout Promise is on my honor, I do my best to do my duty to guide my country to help other people and obey the law of the pack. That's what Cub Scouts -- we want them to live that. We do it every meeting. And here for Springdale and some other units that I have, I want the kids to know those words as well as they know the alphabet. When these kids learn those words and they've come to six consecutive meetings, they've earned their Boy Scout badge. Boy Scouts is age specific, okay, and grade appropriate. And what we're trying to do is we teach them that lessons plans is important to their age. You're never at the top until you reach back to help someone else. You know that's how you get there, you know, by helping. And these boys are learning that. And that's what's going to carry them, you know, through the rest of their lives. They're always going to look back and remember this time. It's one of your most fun times that they would have had. So that gives us some perspective on Scout Reach. And the whole idea is to be able to offer scouting, this opportunity to expand horizons and opportunities to learn and discover an experience to kids that might not be able to afford it otherwise. But the neat thing is they're skimming the game and there's a lot of strategy to this. So share behind-the-scenes what's going on with Scout Reach. Well the idea is that scouting builds leaders. And the way that we do that is to not offer entitlement but to have some goals and have kids work for what they want. So we require things like the community service projects and product sales, whether the popcorn or camp cards and actually earning rank advancement before uniforms are given so that they understand that there are rewards for hard work. So a lot of it is is building this platform so that they can earn the opportunity and not necessarily just have to financially be able to step up and afford it in that regard, correct? I just think that's neat and especially in terms of the future base of leaders that you're hoping to create here because of it. So the next phase of that is the capital campaign that you're undertaking right now, you're in the middle of. And it's to be able to build out the infrastructure for the camp grounds. Where are we in that process? We have raised about $7 million on a $12 million goal and have started things coming out the ground already. We have shooting sports ranges and archery range, a pistol range with the shotgun range soon to follow. The exciting stuff is our cope course and the high ropes course where we have zip lines that run 750 feet and 100 feet off the ground. I still remember jumping for the ring. What.. So many just amazing experiences all the way around. But when you look at overall the impact -- one, how many kids are in scouting here in the Mid-South? Fourteen-thousand. What to me stands out as you're building this future base of leaders. You're opening their eyes and their ears and all these new experiences that are coming full circle. What makes you the most proud? Most proud is seeing the kids grow and becoming leaders and to have their parents participating with them. We have 14,000 kids but we also have 4,000 adults volunteering their time to make sure that we have a quality program for our kids. Well there ya go. Absolutely love the impact you're having. The fact that you're changing live but also too, you're doing it right here in the Mid-South. So thank you very much for coming on the show. Thank you, Jeremy. [theme music] ♪♪♪ Growing up, scouting was a huge part of my life. It was more than camping, swimming, challenge courses, learning knots, earning merit badges and selling popcorn. It was learning how to lead by example and understanding the responsibility of community service. It was exposure to a world of possibilities where you can dream big and try new adventures discovering more about yourself and the world we live in in the process. My brother is an Eagle Scout and now proudly serves our country as a marine. My parents are still active in scouting to this day because they see the impact that it has on our youth. Whether it's with our local Chickasaw Council Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts Heart of the South or even business leaders and other volunteers that are pitching in like Bob McBride and his family, scouting is truly changing lives here in the Mid-South and across the nation as well. Thank you for watching "The Spark." To learn more about each individual guest and to interact and hear stories of others leading by example, visit ThesparkTV-dot-org. We look forward to seeing you next month and we hope that you'll join with us in creating a spark for the Mid-South. Just like having the right information is necessary to make solid hring and lending decisions, being engaged in our community is important. Data Facts is proud to support the positives and be a presenting sponsor of "The Spark." State Systems is focused on protecting life and property. As a local privately owned company, our foundation was built on providing all businesses with complete fire security protection and infrastructure cabling. State Systems is proud to be a part of the Mid-South community and a presenting sponsor of "The Spark." Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance has been serving the Mid-South since 1954. We have always focused on supporting our community and believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement and leading by example. Lipscomb and Pitts is proud to be a presenting sponsor of "The Spark." CLOSED CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY WKNO - MEMPHIS