[John Petrella]: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Medford Happenings, a show for and about the city of Medford. I am John Petrella, and the purpose of this program is to give Medford citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices. and to discover city services or businesses that you may not have been aware of. And our guests today are Marie Cassidy and Irina Shumway, who are from the Method Family Network. And I want to welcome Thank you for your leadership and all the efforts that you both do for the city of Medford. So thank you for joining us. Welcome to Medford Happenings.
[Marie Cassidy]: Thank you.
[John Petrella]: You're welcome. We're going to get right into it, okay? Most people know you from your work with the Family Network. But we always like for you to share a little bit about yourselves with our listeners. So the question is, we'll start with you, Marie. Who is Marie Cassidy? And who is Irina Shumway? Just tell us a little bit about yourselves.
[Marie Cassidy]: Thank you, John. Thank you again for having us be here today. It's great to be here. That's the question. Who is Marie Cassidy? Well, I'm born and raised, I'm a MEFA girl. I'm a MEFA girl, born and raised in Medford. Attended St. Francis School and Matanon and loved that. I had a wonderful opportunity to become one of the first Park Department leaders in Medford. And what happened to me was I, it was called the Waite School at the time, up at the top of Fall? Yes. A very small school, but I was given the opportunity to start this whole new program. I was 16, and I had a bunch of parents and children came, and I immediately fell in love and I knew from then on what I wanted to do with my life. It was an amazing time to be with those kids and those families and enjoying and creating programs for them and having them engage with each other and build all anew. So I just loved that piece of that and that kind of motivated me to go through the rest parts of my life, which I ended up being a teacher. the Head Start director, Head Start teacher, a social worker, and worked with the Office for Children, doing a lot of work for families and children, and I've always just loved doing that. And I've always loved to do it with passion, and with laughter.
[John Petrella]: Right, you gotta have that.
[Marie Cassidy]: Gotta have that, and positivity, and getting through it all. So it's been, that's what interests me, gets me motivated, gets me up in the morning every day, is knowing I'll have these opportunities to hopefully make a difference. And one thing I think about myself is more of a vehicle or a vessel as opposed to anything. I want to be the place you come to to get to where you want to go, need to go, and that's a role I like to play a lot in my life. That's wonderful.
[John Petrella]: No, that's a great story. I mean, that's what it's all about. It's nice to know at that age.
[Marie Cassidy]: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Just quickly say I'm also the stepmother of four children and the grandmother of seven.
[John Petrella]: Nice, nice. You have a busy life and we appreciate all you do, believe me. Irina, you want to step to the plate?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, yeah. Thank you for having us. So professionally, sort of my background is social work, and that's something that I kind of came to also a little bit early in life. When I was in high school and in college, did a lot of internships and kind of figured out what I wanted to do, and this seemed to have stuck. And sort of the same thing as Marie said, you know, what kind of gets me up in the morning? and interests me still to this day. You know, when I even think about, like, would I want another career? And like, nope, this still is it. And, you know, my background has been in different social service settings, schools, things like that. And then when this opportunity came up to work at MFN, it kind of came as a full circle moment for me in part because I started out as a parent participating in services at MFN 21 years ago. I have a 21-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter. And my 21-year-old, he was three months old at that time. And I was home and felt alone and just in need of meeting other parents and seeing, you know, just making connections in Medford. I was fairly new to Medford as well. And somebody mentioned Medford Family Network to me. And so I called. And from then on, I met amazing people. I joined playgroups. I joined parent education programs. Some of the people I met 21 years ago I am still friends with to this day. Our children are still friends. So when this job opportunity came up about five years ago, it just became such a full circle moment for me that to be on both sides of that, knowing what it feels like to be a participant in the program, but then to now be on the on the side of being able to provide those services has been really great. It's awesome.
[John Petrella]: Awesome stories. And the whole city of Medford, really, they appreciate what you do. We need people like you. We really do. It's a great story. And thank you for doing what you do. Believe me, it's appreciated. All right, so the next question, similar to, I think you answered part of it, but we're going to ask it. You know, how did you get involved? I mean, really get involved? And, you know, the other backup to that is why did you get involved with the Medford Family Network? You know, we'll start with Marie again. We'll go to Irena. I mean, what was it that,
[Marie Cassidy]: This is a great story. This is a really interesting story. It really is.
[John Petrella]: I'm sure it is.
[Marie Cassidy]: We had worked in the social work field, and I was working as a social worker in the Malden DSS office at that time, now called DCF. And I'm sitting in my unit with my supervisor, and a call came in from a person by the name of Roy Belson. And he wanted to talk with someone about starting this new program. And my supervisor said to me, Marie, you're always talking about parenting classes and family work. Can you take this call? And I took the call. And he just had said, I got some ideas about how we could run a program in Medford like this. And I said, well, I have a few ideas, sure. And so I told him about my ideas, and that was the end of that.
[Unidentified]: Wow.
[Marie Cassidy]: And then, about three months later, he called back and said, Marie, why haven't you applied for the job? I said, what job? He said, we got the grant. It was the first one in the state back in 1993. Wow. And so I said, why don't you apply for the job? So I went in and applied for the job. And I got it. And you got it. And it was history being made. It was amazing how that happened and so many people that I had known in other parts of my works and life all came around this and I was able to draw upon my relationships with them to start building this program. And it took a long time to build. I just want to quickly say it wasn't a welcome program at the time, only because it was so new and people really didn't know what this was about. And I being a social worker wondering, oh, it's for those people. who can't maybe parent well. I'm not that person. So those kinds of things really were articulated, and I had to get through that and offer up a real positive way to be belongingness to each other, as Irina says. To be a parent and know it's all good. That we're here to learn together and grow together. So it's a wild time how that happened.
[John Petrella]: So you really get in on the ground floor. You were there from the very beginning. I was a founder, yeah.
[Marie Cassidy]: And then was able to hire some wonderful people who I met very quickly who are with us to this day.
[John Petrella]: Right. That's great. That's a great story. Thank you. Irina.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, I can't. I don't know if I can match that. One of my babies. But I think just to you know, I just needed support. I needed other parents and other people who were sort of in my position. And, you know, I was a first time mom and didn't know what to do. And and that and MFN offered that so that, you know, by being involved and participating and meeting people, With that, after a few years, I went into a parent leadership role, and so MFN has a couple of boards. We have Friends of Medford Family Network, which is our fundraising arm, and then we have a parent advisory board, and so I became part of both. introduced me to other areas and where I could, now I had some confidence as a parent, now I could kind of lead and do other things at MFN. So that really, you know, built my confidence as a parent, but also allowed me to give back a little bit at the time. So, yeah.
[John Petrella]: Two great stories, what can I say? That's nice, so nice. You know, since I knew you were coming on the show, I did things, I try to learn all about what goes on, and you do do a lot of great work. I just want to throw that in there. So your website, okay, offers, I was like, wow, offers a lot of programs and services for families I mean, you know, find support, help children grow. You know, can you give us a brief overview? And I know it's a lot, but, you know, the services you provide. I was, you know, I was pretty impressed. It's a great website. So, I had no idea what all the, everything that's involved. So, can you give us a quick overview?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, yeah. I think we like to kind of talk about MFN as a very comprehensive program. you know, we offer services that are free. We don't ask any questions. Um, we don't have anybody fill anything out to, to qualify for anything we offer. The only criteria is they have to live or work in Medford and to have at least one child from birth to eight. And that's because of our, uh, grant sponsors. And so some of the things that we offer, we offer, uh, play and learn groups. And a lot of them are, play and learn groups that are curriculum-based, that are age-specific, but they're also, a lot of them are school readiness type of programs, so they prepare the kids to then go into kindergarten. And what's important about that, too, is we prioritize kids who are not currently in a preschool environment, not in a structured setting, so that gives them a leg up, hopefully, by the time they go and register and enter kindergarten. That's awesome. A lot of parent education classes we offer also curriculum-based, evidence-based, and we offer those throughout the whole year. We have a lot of community partnerships. We are at a lot of different events. We're pretty much at we I think we counted it up and it was like, what, 34 locations in the city that we there. We're at.
[John Petrella]: That's incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's incredible. Between library, Medford Recreation Department, City Hall, different parks are pretty much everywhere. The other thing that we do that we're very proud of is the concrete supports that we offer and something that we actually started this this last summer is we call it a day per plus day. and once a month we have anywhere between 75 to 80 to about 95 people come through and they receive diapers, wipes, they receive toiletry items, they receive Kind of whatever we have on hand like we we got a generous donation of Girl Scout cookies from a troop Yeah, and we you know, we offer food bags for people Clothing we have partnerships with organizations like cradles to crayons and I neighborhood villages and different sort of, you know, places that help us out and that we're able to offer clothing, we're able to offer coats in the wintertime, school supplies, hygiene items. So yeah, so it's really That's what we kind of mean in terms of comprehensive.
[John Petrella]: Very comprehensive. That's incredible, it really is.
[Marie Cassidy]: And we also go out to the homes, too. If you can't come to us, we'll go to you. And we really focus on engagement. We go to every family, where they are, and try to find out what is going to best support them and their families. So I like to say it's a meal. You can get your dessert first, you can get your salad first, you can get whatever you want. It's got the full meal of programs and services. You take what you need when you need it. Because we don't know how your life is going to go, but we will be there for you whatever part of your life. And as Irina said earlier, we serve families with children birth to age eight. Well, that's great because as your children get older and you have another child, You stay with us throughout. We can now serve and help with an older child as we bring you on to the next child. So we're in this family's lives long-term. It's not a short-term visit. Unless you want it to be, of course.
[John Petrella]: No, no, I'm saying that's great.
[Marie Cassidy]: We're there for quite a while and we listen. I think our evolution, Irene, has been great. We're changing how we do things. say we'll do a six-part curriculum, and that may not quite work, so we'll do a four-part curriculum, we'll do it on Saturdays, we'll do it in the evenings. We keep listening to our families to see how we're going to get the message of belonging and support to you in a way that you will hear it and be able to live it.
[John Petrella]: I'm just going to guess that the, you know, and I'm, but the need is probably pretty strong out there now, right? I can only imagine.
[Marie Cassidy]: So many things have happened in COVID. COVID is one of the things I think that has resulted in some really challenging behaviors for so many families. So we get right in there and do as we can.
[John Petrella]: Much needed, much needed. I know, you know, can you talk about, obviously, a lot of successes, okay? And I'm sure there's been setbacks, too, you know? Can you discuss some of the things you've had? I mean, this is incredible, but, you know, some of the things that have happened. you know, as far as success, setbacks, there's gotta be great stories, there's gotta be frustrations, I mean.
[Marie Cassidy]: Yeah. I think one of the successes, many of our successes that Irene articulated, is in our continual support for our families, but also, you know, we have been, I must say, how many awards have we received over the course of years from the state at large?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[Marie Cassidy]: Not just the city, but from the state, recognizing the work that we've done. Irina calculated recently the number of referrals that we had done, and we had the largest in the state of referrals, serving one city. And we're so proud of that. And we're proud of how we've been that way. And I think another measure of success is how your parents then go out to the world for you and talk about it. So they'll say, oh, Marie, Irina, I've got a new baby coming on the street. I'm going to tell them all about the MFN. That's a very different story from what it was three years ago when no one wanted that because it reflected badly on them, they thought. So now, a huge success, and I'd like to say this term, is we made a cultural difference in this city. We changed this city culturally. all for the better in a way that is for everyone. We don't care what your politics are. We don't care any of the other PSWs, but that you want to do the best for your family, and we'll find the way. We'll find it. I love to also say we have resources, referrals, and relationships. We make the resources we can create. We'll find the referrals. If we can't do it, we're going to find it for you. And we will. And get you all the correct information, who to call, and we'll make an entree call for you so you don't feel alone by reaching out to that person. And thirdly, relationships. We relate to our families. We're just them to each other. them to the cities and organizations around us, us to them, them to us, and then our organizations to each other as well. Because we don't want to duplicate, replicate, you know, we want to fill those gaps and be meaningful in every way we can. So I think those are major successes that we've done. We take very serious regard of our work. I can tell. We have a lot of fun too.
[John Petrella]: No, you have them, that's part of it.
[Marie Cassidy]: Oh, we love them. But we take it very seriously, and so does all of our wonderful staff. Now to the flip side. So the setback, many of you may have heard this, but we just learned recently that one of our major funders will no longer be with us as of July 1st. It's devastating because it's one half of our budget. So we've been in Medford for 33 years, happily so, and we've been running this particular grant for 26 of those 33 years. That is now gone. And so we now have to make up for it. So we are looking for ways to look to the city, look to the school department, look for ways to support us in that, to fulfill those positions. That's a huge setback It doesn't stop us Right doesn't stop us, but it gives us a new affirmation and a strong as even stronger possible affirmation We need to be here and we're looking to our families have been with us to let everyone they know in the city who can help us to to tell them that
[John Petrella]: Yeah, no, that's tough, I know, yeah, when you lose someone like that. So, you know, I was looking at everything, you know, next question really. And I, you know, we understand, you know, the Friends of the Family Network, okay? It is a funding source, right? Okay. So, can you tell us about them, and I'm glad you brought that up, because, you know, what about other, you know, funding sources? I mean, it's got to be, no one likes to talk about where the money comes from, but, I mean, that's got to be important, and it's got to be a difficult task or part of the work, right, to get the funding.
[Marie Cassidy]: So do you take this? Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I know where, as Marie said, where we're solely grant funded and have been from day one. OK, so losing this particular grant, which Marie mentioned, half is half of our budget. Wow. Is is quite quite a blow to the program. And over the last 33 years, you know, it has grown so much with all the things that we mentioned, all the different things we're able to offer and we want to do more. So losing that funding is making it really hard to kind of look to the future and see how we can, at this point, even sustain what we have, not even looking at growth right now, but just to sustain what we've been able to provide. And we're open seven days a week, we're open on weekends, we're providing so many different services to so many different families that it would be quite a loss to have to look at cutting that or getting, yeah. And sort of the nature of being grant funded is that year to year, you really don't know what the future is going to look like, right? And so it's hard. I mean, I know as Marie as a director, every year, you know, you're writing grants, renewing grants. We kind of have, you know, some bigger grants that are supporting us, and so, and then there's a lot of smaller grants that we go for. There might be for lesser amounts, but they might cover a particular program or some project that we really want to expand on. And so we do try to kind of expand, you know, what we're looking at and try to, you know, we work closely with Tufts University on different things and they have, you know, they have a Tufts community grant that comes out every year that we apply for every year. Yeah, so things like that, we definitely try to leverage who we know, our partnerships, who's in the community that wants to support us and help us. Um, you know, we've applied for things like the Cummings grant and, uh, so different, different, different sources. And, you know, as we mentioned about having different partnerships like cradles to crayons, we work with the city of Medford, the office of prevention and outreach closely. So, you know, there, there are ways where they're able to, to help us out when they have some funding and they're, you know, there are sometimes they've purchased toiletry items that we then give out to families during that day for plus day that I mentioned. Um, So we try to work really closely with our partners where we can, but those are sort of small pieces, right? So when we lose a huge chunk like that, what we're looking for is really It's hard to supplement that with those smaller grants.
[Marie Cassidy]: And the Friends of the Family Network, we've done that 23 years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[Marie Cassidy]: We've been doing it for 23, to raise the funds, so it gives us capacity. Right. You know what I mean? It gives us capacity we wouldn't have otherwise because it was a grant funded program. Other organizations like Suffolk has paid for our concerts, all of us. So that piece was so helpful. Gibson Southerby Realtors, they've helped us to do things, to fund different things. And as Irina said, Tufts and Cummings. So we have that capacity to do those things as well. And we feel confident that we use that capacity well for the smaller pieces that we have. And yeah.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, and I don't think people understand. Writing grants is not easy. You know, applying and writing them up, it's work, right? I mean, that's a lot of work in itself to apply for them and actually get them. So, yeah, I know a little about that. Not as much as you guys, but a little bit. So, now that, you know, you said all this, so now let's get the word out. Someone wants to help you guys out, right? You know, I don't care how big, how small. Someone wants to help out. You know, how do they join the friends of the, you know, Method Filming Network? How do they, you know, what can they do to help you, our audience? if somebody wants to help?
[Marie Cassidy]: That's a great question, John. Thank you very much, because there are a lot of ways that can happen.
[John Petrella]: Okay.
[Marie Cassidy]: As Irina mentioned, donations. You know, diapers, toiletries. We have people coming in all the time. We have what we call a freebie foyer. Okay. We have people come in every single day to select a gently used clothing of all sizes and give them back if their children have outgrown them. So donations are always accepted. the Friends accepts monetary donations for us and do fundraisers on our behalf all the time. As Irina mentioned, we have an advisory board of leadership and we have friends of the Medford Family Network. We are looking for more people who would join that wonderful group to support us, who love doing event planning, who love seeking other business partners with us and putting on galas, having some opportunities for that. We love that. We also have, well, we do a lot of holiday help. We spend a lot of time in November and December sending out Thanksgiving baskets, holiday help to lots of our families in Bedford who need them. And so those are the kinds of people who would love to step up and help us to serve those families. and deliver them. You know, help us deliver them. Help us, you know, do that when families who don't have capacity to come to us. We'll go to them. We'll help them out. And we have many parents who have done stepping up like that.
[John Petrella]: So you have a good group of people that are from the city of Medford working with you and everything else. So in order to make it grow, that's what you're basically looking to do, right? To get it to grow. So if I wanted to help out, if I wanted to drop off donations, where do I go? How do I, who do I call? What do I do?
[Marie Cassidy]: We have, we're called the Purple Door.
[John Petrella]: Purple Door!
[Marie Cassidy]: We're located at Medford High School. If anyone goes to Medford High School knows it's A105 is our number, for right now anyway. So we are at the high school, 489 Winthrop Street. Our number was posted there, 781-393-2106. Call us and any of us will answer and we'll welcome you. And we are out of our calendar. You can look at our calendar to see when we're open, every day of those seven days. Come on down and set up a meeting with Irina or I or Heather or Andrea, any of our staff, to sit down and talk about those opportunities. We welcome that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if somebody is not able to donate, we do a lot of events where we need people to help. So there's opportunities, different opportunities for people.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. I just want to get the word out. We'll be spreading the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good question.
[John Petrella]: The more the merrier. That's the way it's supposed to be. Yep. All right. So, I mean, you mentioned about the community and interacting. So do you interact? you know, with other method organizations. I mean, they help out or you work with them.
[Marie Cassidy]: Oh, absolutely. We do. It's been a great, great support in our community. And as we have grown over 33 years, so have other organizations in the city. So as they grow, we grow with them. We, as Irina mentioned, the Office of Prevention and Outreach at the City Hall, an amazing group who helps us serve our families who speak the five languages that are mainly spoken in Medford, which are Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian, Creole, Arabic, and English. We work with those called Medford Connectors, and they help us work with those families to help us better understand them and their needs and how we can best work together with them. We work with the Medford Housing Authority very closely with all the families there and their staff there. We work with housing, there are many scattered sites in Medford where there are homeless families living, and you don't know that because they're living in apartments. They're not in, and there's a shelter, heading home shelter. We work with those seven families who are on Central Avenue, that shelter. We're working with all the scattered site families. We're working with all the early intervention programs. serving children who are in speech therapy or OT or PT. We work with all the schools, of course, our elementary schools, all the family child care providers in Medford and the homes. We are the ones who have the updated list of all the child care centers in Medford. Everyone needs to know that we have that list always updated. We work with the ESOL Council. There's an ESOL Council in Medford. We've had English classes for the past at least 15 years for families with child care provided. We're the only one in the city that offers ESO classes with childcare, which is incredible. And we have MBTA cards on occasion to get those families to us if they can't. Or we would go to different schools. And so we work with DCF, Department of Children and Families, where we hailed from years ago, so we get very close with them.
[John Petrella]: Nice.
[Marie Cassidy]: Uh, we are together on the tilt team, T I L T, which trauma informed leadership team, leadership team in this area to really look at the, uh, trauma, look at trauma, how it affects children and families and seek programs and services that can help us to help ameliorate all that through our work individually with families and through our programs and our teamwork. So, um, that's another place we, um, we, we focus on. I did talk about the Medford Connectors, the five languages I was speaking. And of course, the high school. We have loved working with the vocational school, with their departments. Oh, they've been the graphic arts department.
[John Petrella]: They are terrific.
[Marie Cassidy]: We never thought we would when we first came here, but we use them so much in different ways. It's great to have that team. Can't say enough about those people.
[John Petrella]: I know some favors they did for people in this city. It was incredible. It's been great to be in the same building. We use the graphic arts for a lot of our printing. We actually have a van that we acquired three years ago now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we use the auto shop for all the needs, you know, oil changes, inspections, things like that. It's been great to just have this right here. No, it is.
[John Petrella]: It's great, yeah, because there was programs. I mean, actually, I have to throw Rick Caraviello's name out there. I don't know if you know Rick, but... Very well, yes.
[Marie Cassidy]: Rick was one of our main church deliverers.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, I'm telling you. Yeah, no, he really knows the ins and outs, you know. He really helped my brother, you know. He helped get a ramp built for my brother my brother Peter. Okay his wife. Yeah She passed away, but she needed was like Wow need the ramp the whole nine yards and you know You don't know who to turn to and boom, you know, that's why those guys did a great job. It's incredible Yeah, and and we you know, you just can't thank them enough. It's no really when you It's nice to know, and that's why I love having you guys here today, that when people need something, there's always, there's somebody there. And that makes me feel good about living here, too. It's a great, great, great story.
[Marie Cassidy]: And the MIT, too, the Mass Invitational Tournament with Ron, has been, does an amazing job with a golf tournament once a year.
[Unidentified]: Ron, yeah.
[Marie Cassidy]: Yes, and then utilizing that funding to help us with a holiday party that they put on with us for our children with autism. So, and it's another group that we have, parents with children with autism, dad's groups, mom's groups. So, yeah, you're right. So, a lot of.
[John Petrella]: No, it's just so nice. There's a lot of great groups out there and it's like, you know, it's, I mean, I'm just thrilled to have you. have you, I'm going to say guys because that's how I always talk, but it's great to have you ladies here and and you know get this like information out because what you do is incredible and people need to know people need to know where to turn to when they're uh when they're having some trouble, whatever, whatever the situation is. And feel safe. And feel safe. And feel welcome. And that's the key, yeah. And we had Jason Stone on. He's another one. Oh, Jason. Unbelievable. We love working with Jason.
[Marie Cassidy]: We just had him on our council meeting, right, last week?
[John Petrella]: Yeah, he's another great one. He really is. Ollie is incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what's kind of nice about Medford Family Network and what The, you know, what Marie has grown it into, it's become like a household name.
[John Petrella]: And it's become a safe place for people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because no matter who you are, what your needs are, where you come from, you can come to MFN and feel like you're going to get taken care of.
[John Petrella]: That's why I love it. There's nothing involved here. It doesn't make a difference who you are, what you are, politics, nothing. And that's great. It's good to hear that. No, I appreciate it. And, you know, I'm going to come to the last question now. But we honestly, you know, I feel the same way. I don't want to let you out of the studio. I want to keep going because this is like, you know, it's great. Really, it makes me feel, you know, God bless you both. It makes me feel great. It really does. It does. I love doing these shows. And we will have you back. Of course. Oh, believe me, we will. So the last question I have is we know, you know, we know you're having your 33rd. Yes. Which is big, 33 years.
[Marie Cassidy]: And I'm only 29, so I don't know how that happens.
[John Petrella]: I don't know. It was like yesterday. Yes, you know, 33 years, you know, of a lot of hard work and effort and everything else. So I guess, you know, the final question. I don't want it to be. I want to keep going, but do you have anything planned? I mean, is there things you're going to be doing for your 30, you know, coming up?
[Marie Cassidy]: Well, we have a dance-a-thon. There you go. We have a potential dance-a-thon coming up in June. I love to dance, so there's going to be some dancing.
[John Petrella]: That's good.
[Marie Cassidy]: That's good. We have our teddy bear picnic on June 5th at the Victory Park. That's a lot of fun. We invite our city council and school committee and mayor and legislative delegation to come every year. It's a wonderful event for our families.
[John Petrella]: Put them all to work, right? Absolutely.
[Marie Cassidy]: Put them all to work. Absolutely. We have our concerts coming up this summer. In July we'll be at Wright's Pond, and in August we'll be at the McGlynn Playground, which is wonderful. And for children who have special needs, it's a wonderful place, a safe place to be. It's just wonderful. And as Irene has said, sustainability is our battle cry right now. Sustainability. And we hope to continue that and build upon the relationships that we've already built. I think we have a good way of creatively thinking of, okay, we work with Jason this way, maybe we work with Jason that way. Let's do this differently, or in addition to, let's bring our partners together in different ways. Get creative, but continue on and build upon.
[John Petrella]: I sit here, it's just like, you know, we talk like 33 years. It is, it's incredible when you think about it. 33 years. Well, we're looking for 33 more. Yeah, there you go, there you go. There you go, 33 more. Unfortunately, it's that time again. No, I know, I know, I feel the same way, I could really. I just hope, you know, a lot of people, we have been having A lot of people watch the show, and I just hope it gets out there. And I know, really, a lot of people are aware of you, but there's a lot of people, I'm sure, that... Absolutely. Yeah.
[Marie Cassidy]: We always say, who have we not reached?
[John Petrella]: Right, yeah. We don't assume anything. How can we make sure? Right, yeah. I love that. Because you don't know. You don't know. Incredible ladies. Method, we're lucky we have them. I got to get that out there. Very, very incredible. Thank you. I want to thank Marie Cassidy. And Irina Shumway, it's been my honor to meet you. It really has been. So thank you for joining us on Method Happenings. And we really do wish you continued success. Another 33 years. Continued success to the Method Family Network. I also want to take a minute, you know, to thank everyone who has been watching the show. You know, I want to thank you for your feedback. You know, we're getting all good stuff happening in Medford and with us and shows like this, I'm so proud to put these on. If you would like to appear on the show, you can contact us at MedfordHappenings02155 at gmail.com. I want to thank everyone. We have a lot of people contacting us, and we try and get back to you as soon as possible. Got a lot of great shows coming up. And I want to remind everyone, you'll be able to watch replays of this program on Medford Community Media Access Channel. And also, please check out our website, methodhappenings.com. The show will be available there, along with all the other shows. I believe this is show number 39, I'm pretty sure. I lose track, you know? Not like 33 years, but I lose track. So you can now either view or listen to podcasts of this program and you can find all of our shows on YouTube as well. Just go to youtube.com method happenings at youtube.com search for method happenings. So please like and subscribe to our channel. So we can continue to bring you great programs like this. And, you know, you can also find us on Facebook. That site is being worked on now. Facebook at Method Happenings. It should be ready for the weekend, the upcoming weekend. So for the Method Happenings team, Marco, Paul, Bruce, Margaret, James. I'm John Petrella. And remember, Method, stay informed. Thank you, ladies. Thank you. Great show.
[Marie Cassidy]: Thank you so much.
[John Petrella]: Ta-da!
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