Speaker 1: 0:08

Hi everybody. I'm Brian Licata with Marvel Consults, and I'm here today with Kathy Del Piore of the Grace Foundation. Nice to have you, kathy, thanks for I'm so happy to be here today at Grace. Well, I mean, yeah, that's kind of like a little inside joke. So we're actually here today filming at the Grace podcast studio, which means what? Do you walk about? 100 feet.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Just about outdoors A little scary, but I did it.

Speaker 1: 0:29

So I'm a guest at your place, but you're a guest on this podcast today. Love that Right. That's a little weird.

Speaker 2: 0:35

But it's good, it works. It works for me, so I'm glad we have a podcast to do this, so that's great.

Speaker 1: 0:40

It's nice to see the place get used.

Speaker 2: 0:42

It finally looks good. Needs to be vacuumed, but we're good.

Speaker 1: 0:47

We're good. So now, how long have you been at the Grace Foundation?

Speaker 2: 0:51

I have been at Grace eight years so you know it was funny because our chairman, michael Lonza, a friend for years, said to me you know there's an opening. Why don't you come to Grace? You'll love it? And I kept on saying no, it's like not, it's not for me. I don't know autism, I don't know. I don't know the business. I never. You know, it was never a nonprofit. It was always at Corporate USA, madison Square Garden, Radio City, doing big events. It scared me. But you know, eight years later I'm here.

Speaker 1: 1:24

It scared me, but you know, eight years later I'm here. So you went from Radio City Madison Square Garden, then to the Grace Foundation.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Yeah, I had you know, a little like consulting in between, yeah, but came here, was a little nervous, never did anything in Staten Island, you know, and knew no one really because I was always city bound. So getting to know people, getting to have relationships and realizing it really is fulfilling, I mean. I really mean that I was nervous at first because knew nothing about the diagnosis of autism. I obviously grew up with it but didn't know as much and you really basically have to be schooled on it, get to know the parents, get to know each kid and then realize what do we need, what do we need to do to grow it? We're Greece, but we're small. And how do I take my knowledge of what I've done in Madison Square Garden? And my expertise came from creating events, creating shows, creating people to get interested in what you're doing, not just selling tickets, but now it's actually selling services, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So when you came here, you came here as the event person.

Speaker 2: 2:31

As the event person Did. They have a lot of events back then. We had and the board did it. We had the gala and I think there was a picnic and that was it. And I think Barbara De Amora used to do a crop like scrapbooking, which was really successful, and she did a picnic and they had this yearly gala and nothing else.

Speaker 1: 2:51

So now most nonprofits literally spend all year long planning events, right Going from one event to the next event, to the next, and so back then Grace had one to two events.

Speaker 2: 3:03

Exactly, and they depended on the contracts and maybe small donations here and there. The board actually donated a lot and I remember coming in saying, hey, let's do like a Halloween event and let's get some sponsorship. Sponsorship what is sponsorship? We never asked anybody for money to sponsor an event and that's how it started, and I think my first person I reached out to was Phil at Empire and he said congratulations, finally, someone's asking me for money to sponsor an event. I thought that was crazy.

Speaker 1: 3:37

So most nonprofits run events because it's like that create awareness and bring in money, right, right. So I mean starting almost from scratch, you had a clean slate. It wasn't like you had all these people who had done years of an event and you couldn't touch it. Everything kind of became how you wanted it to go, right, exactly so. The Halloween was your first event.

Speaker 2: 3:58

It was my first. It was like a full picnic, you know. So calling Ari Emma's to get pumpkins donated. I full picnic, so calling Ari Emma's to get pumpkins donated. I was just calling everybody, I was on my own, I was a team of one, got some sponsors, dollars and created a great fun day and then we kind of built on it for Trunk or Treat Halloween experience. Then I went into other events and we just kept on growing that way.

Speaker 2: 4:20

So was there a golf outing? Back then we had somebody else supported us by doing a golf outing and we just showed up and, you know, just had lunch and did nothing. And then we said, why aren't we doing this? As you know, our own event, and that's how we did it, and Frank Biglione from our board loves golf, knew golf, helped us with that and we have a great yearly golf. I say always great lunch and, by the way, there's golf and that's how we do things. We do things to have fun. We make a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but we actually do for all the right reasons.

Speaker 1: 4:56

So, with the different events that you run, I mean, what's like the startup time, Like how much lead time do you need to actually plan an event?

Speaker 2: 5:03

Yeah Well, that's a good one Sometimes one day. Brian, you know the gala we always plan in our head. Next year it's April 4th or whatever, but there's some events. We just did the Christmas in July, I think. We had one month and we put it together. Was it a moneymaker? Probably not, but it was our first annual. Next year we'll get sponsors and that's how you grow it. You can't always expect every event to make money.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Did it build awareness. It did Right, so that's where it goes back and forth because hopefully from that awareness more money comes down the road. Right, exactly Right. But I mean, okay, so a monthly time to plan that event, right, but then during that time you have other things you have to do.

Speaker 2: 5:51

Right, exactly. I mean, I'm supposed to be running an organization Listen, I can't help it. Running events and doing events and working with the team that I have is the best part of it. But yeah, we you know, making dog biscuits, candles, podcast interviews, planning golf, planning a Halloween event, planning a holiday Christmas event all at the same time. So it's always busy.

Speaker 1: 6:18

So how many events do you think you have right now on the docket for a year?

Speaker 2: 6:21

Oh, I forgot the marathon. Two marathons, no. From now until the docket, for a year. Oh, I forgot the marathon. Two marathons, no, from now until the end of December.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Even if we did like 2024, all of 2024. Oh God, it ranges.

Speaker 2: 6:31

I think we would have at least 15 events. I mean, you have the small ones you talk about Raymar Flanagan. They'll call We'll do like a, we're going to do an art exhibit. That's new. We have the big ones, like the seasonal, the five or six, so, and we throw in other things and everything else in between.

Speaker 1: 6:47

And then you have all the smaller events, like the virtual bingo. Oh the bingo.

Speaker 2: 6:51

And we're going to do bingo again here. So, yeah, bingo is always. It's like a staple. We created our audience. We're going to continue because people love it, so we'll continue with it.

Speaker 1: 7:06

And then included in the events are like all these little things that you probably don't even consider, events Like you have the two, the web series Dan on the Street, grace 10314. And those have weekly or bi-weekly events going out to restaurants and doing other things. So we take it from 15 to like 50.

Speaker 2: 7:21

I think so, now that you say it that way, we do Every day there's something. Well, there's still a lot of planning that goes into it, right? Oh, so much planning because you have to say there could be a cancellation, we have to change the times, we have to make sure the video crew is there, we have to make sure sometimes our participants are okay to go that day. So there's always something and there's always obstacles and there's always something you have to figure out. But that's every day here at Grace. There's never downtime.

Speaker 1: 7:49

How do you pick events? I mean, I'm going to say be successful, but how do you pick an event? That's not something that everybody's doing.

Speaker 2: 7:57

Well, yeah, you just don't. You just don't do it here. I mean, yeah, I mean everybody's also golf outing. So we do our golf outing with a little bit more. You try to add more to it. Your golf outing is like something on every hole.

Speaker 2: 8:12

Right, exactly, you make it fun and this year it's like, okay, what could we do that we didn't do last year? It's great, you put creative minds together and you try it. You try it out Everybody's. It's great if somebody follows your lead and does something, so that means I guess you're doing something right. I have no problem saying I've looked at other things in the past that worked for me in a bigger situation like Madison Square Garden, and saying, well, how can we replicate that? Yeah, you know, we've had events like I talked about the ice skating outside and we did it. You know Rapachulo had his Gleiss people they call the ice people, but you try to create something that you. It's never.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Well, I mean. So Christmas in July that just passed you had the blow-up rides, you had the vendors, you had food, you had the Gleiss Right, and at different times there were people on the Gleiss and then other times there weren't Right, but you took a chance Right and I think that's part of having events, having fundraisers, trying something different that other people don't do Right, and sometimes almost hoping that you strike gold. You hope so.

Speaker 2: 9:15

And then sometimes you don't Right. And then sometimes you just do events for the kids. Yeah, you just do it because you know you're giving back something. And next year I'm going to say we'll take some deer and we'll create reindeer baby. We could do so many different things. To me, the sky's the limit. Whatever you can do within a budget, you help keep within that budget. Sometimes you don't.

Speaker 1: 9:38

But I mean some of the events are big, I mean like breaking the Guinness World Records. Those are big, big events, right, and I have to say that there's a lot more planning that goes into that than into trunk retreat.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Yeah, trunk retreat is candy and you know costumes. Breaking the world record is, uh, getting the adjudicator there. Making sure you have the people to break a record permits, uh, marketing. There's so much involved in that day. You just, you know, hold your breath until it's over so how do you build on trunk retreat?

Speaker 1: 10:12

What else can you add to it?

Speaker 2: 10:14

Well, I think this year we're doing something. We're adding something which will be fun. We're adding a haunted I don't want to say an adult, it's a scarier version. We're bringing in a haunted house, so during the day we have the trunk retreat for the kids, a sensory friendly type of walkthrough for the haunted house and later on be prepared, because I know I'll be screaming through that house and it's, I think, the first ever here in a non-profit that will do something like that. I think, I don't think I don't think there has been.

Speaker 1: 10:44

I know, um, what. You have the guy who does the haunted cemetery tours, right. Right, I've seen fairy walks did something, chrysler Mansion's done something, then there's just all the people who do things out of their houses. Right, that's true, but I don't think a nonprofit has done like a real haunted house or a scary trail or anything like that. Have you seen this property? Well, so years ago, literally like 20 years ago, I mean, I remember we came here for they did have something inside Colony Hall. They had a haunted thing in Colony Hall. But this campus is scary on a given day, any given day, Every day, Colony Hall.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Actually, if you talk to him there's like tunnels right under the stage, so like if you go through the tunnels and we should, or maybe we'll send someone we don't like to go through because I don't think you'll ever come out, but he said you could walk through. It was like years ago they used to bring in you know, I don't know what they used to bring through All the buildings were connected, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Right. So there was the crematorium when this was fully functional, even across the street, everything was connected. Even across the street, everything was connected. And I want to say that, whether it's the History Channel or A&E, they have actually filmed some like haunted Staten Island or ghost series on these locations, you know, because there are so many people who have died here.

Speaker 2: 12:06

Right, and yeah, that's true, we're in the tuberculosis center and basically everybody did go there to die. We have friendly spirits, we do. They close our doors. They there's orbs, there's things, there's sounds, there's, but we're kind of getting used to it. So why not bring it together for halloween and see what happens?

Speaker 1: 12:26

yeah, I mean across the street. I know people go in all the time with like gopros and other things in film. I've been in one or two of the buildings here that you know, I mean, are just creepy. You can feel it, yeah, yeah, the building next to you is just like oh, no, yeah, it's like a horror movie, right.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Yeah, I'm not doing it.

Speaker 1: 12:46

So you keep building on to the events that you have and with building on, you're inviting in more people, not just participants and the families but you get in the community involved.

Speaker 2: 12:56

Yeah, you hope so. I mean it's out open to the public. You always say it's sensory friendly for those you know with autism, but we want everybody to come here and and to get to know us and to spread the word. And you know, that's why we do different events during the year. So christmas should be open to everybody. Halloween, of course, the gala, yes, of course, all of those events. We want everybody to come to get to know us and to appreciate what we're doing.

Speaker 1: 13:20

So last year you did the first Christmas event here, right? I mean like true Christmas event. Yes, Tree lighting, everything else, How's that tree doing Tree's dead.

Speaker 2: 13:31

Tree's gone. Yeah, it didn't, it didn't. It's hard to say dug up the tree, we're gonna put another tree, but it's gonna work. We should plant it now, right.

Speaker 1: 13:42

I don't know if you plant a tree or if you just go fake. I mean, it would've, maybe would've worked, like if green thumb no, it's not happening.

Speaker 2: 13:51

So if we have to dig a hole every year and put a tree in, we'll do it.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Last year's event. You had a couple hundred people here. We did Right. So I mean, honestly, people come out. You know, if you're planting a tree, it's not going to be a hundred foot tree. It's not like you know, going to the city and seeing the tree. No, no, but this was still a really nice thing.

Speaker 2: 14:10

It was nice because the whole place is decorated. Yeah, you know, we have lights everywhere. This year we have this brand new outdoor. I don't know what we're going to call it Maybe you know the Grace House, whatever and we're going to decorate it like Terrace on, you know, Terrace on the Park, Terrace on the Green, which one is?

Speaker 1: 14:25

it. Terrace on the Green.

Speaker 2: 14:26

Yes, Candyland. So if we have an eight-foot tree, so be it. Maybe we'll get a 10-foot tree or a 12-foot tree.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Well, I mean, look, the property looked beautiful, I mean with all the Christmas lights and the people you know. I mean, like you said, you keep building on it, you keep adding other things. More people come in because they want to see it. Um, halloween and christmas are so weird you can never have enough things to do. Right, like, yeah, we go to duiker heights, we look at the lights. Uh, we drive around the island, we look at the lights, both halloween and christmas. Right, so you know, like people do want to see things they do. This is almost this weird area on the island where there's nothing.

Speaker 2: 15:10

There's nothing. It's yeah, really, we're in wood, so we're in the green, so you know. So we'll decorate now for Halloween soon I think and then we'll take it down and start decorating for Christmas, because it's still Thanksgiving, like right in between, you know. But people do drive by and they're curious because they see the lights, they see something happening. So that's a good thing, right.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Or a family member to spend to show up? No, right, and I think that's what kind of brings people in, where most of the places on the island are really only open for the participants' families. Uh-huh, you know, and with the exception of golf outings, golf outings are the only one event where everybody gets invited, right, but the more things you keep doing, you know, I mean, you've got the space, could you do a Valentine's dance now? Well, the space.

Speaker 2: 16:02

could you do a Valentine's dance now? I said, well, why not? We can Sure, really you could do anything. If you plan it right, anything could work out. There's always a market for something or a holiday, or we make up our own holiday. We could do it.

Speaker 1: 16:16

So if you keep looking at adding events, how soon? Until there's just no room to add more.

Speaker 2: 16:22

I don't know, maybe you have to eliminate one, add another, kind of rotate it see what works for everybody, or just keep it coming, you know. But no, there has to be a limit. You can't do too many things because I feel like then people might say, you know, is it going to be the same as the last? Or, oh, I wonder what they did. Maybe they did something different? I think they're. You know, we still have to, like, keep a limit on something but not even that.

Speaker 1: 16:48

I mean sponsors, yeah sure, going after the same people, right you know. Getting families to come to things is one thing, right you know I mean, there's a cost with everything that you do with everything yeah, so I mean, listen, I think a seasonal, if everybody knows four seasons, there's four major events.

Speaker 2: 17:05

people plan on it To me instead of going other places, other, you know Jersey, come here, you know, enjoy it here.

Speaker 1: 17:13

So the next two big events are going to be Halloween and then Christmas. Yes, so when is your tree lighting in Christmas Tree lighting?

Speaker 2: 17:23

is November 30th it's a Saturday, if I'm not mistaken Five o'clock. Here we're going to have Winter Wonderland, candyland, santa, santa, in here, the tree lighting probably. Well, we don't have igloos this year, but we'll have ice cream, maybe some vendors. It's a lot of fun. Do you have to go on to register? Do you just show up for that this year? Last year, I don't think we registered. Last year it was just showing up. But this year maybe we'll do some sort of registration. So we'll know, because maybe we'll have other things, maybe we'll have a line. I don't know. I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know if it should just be open to everybody and then see what happens, and then we could do a vendor day, sure, but everything will be on the website anyway.

Speaker 1: 18:10

What's the?

Speaker 2: 18:10

website. What is it? It's just go to graceofnyorg.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Okay, so graceofnyorg yes, and then Halloween is going to be what?

Speaker 2: 18:19

Halloween is going to be what Halloween is going to be October 19th, so that's Saturday. I think it's the 19th. Is the 19th a Saturday? Sounds right. Yes, during the day it'll be outside, trunk or treat, and then going into, like maybe 7 to 11, at night, we have our haunted Halloween. I'm going to call it a mansion, but we'll see what happens. And that's going to be a ticketed event. That will be. There'll be limited tickets.

Speaker 1: 18:42

So I think if you're planning something, plan it now, I think tickets are going on sale, probably this week or soon, so we're getting it out there, okay. So I mean lots of events, lots of things to do If you're looking for Halloween or if you're thinking ahead to Christmas. Visit graceofnyorg, check out their socials, get tickets, come to the event or just spread the word and reshare it.

Speaker 2: 19:07

Right, we're always on social. Every day there's something new.

Speaker 1: 19:16

So this is great. So if you have questions about Grace of NY, their services or how you can participate, visit their website. I'm sure there's ways they can contact you and your staff directly. Right, we will do that that of course we'll call you.

Speaker 2: 19:26

We always do you know and there's always information on all social. Give a call and we'll respond okay, well, this has been great. Thanks for having me on your podcast.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Has it been great? It has been great. It's always great to have you?

Speaker 2: 19:43

all of a sudden, you say things. Why did I just say that? That was like ridiculous. Well, that's why we edit yeah, but keep it in A blooper.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Put a blooper or you just throw those in. No, but I think bloopers are like people falling down.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Right or drop something or say something stupid.

Speaker 1: 20:02

I mean, who is it? I was watching Mike send me something the other day and I think he fell in front of his house. He always falls and it was captured on the ring camera. Yes, like those are fun. Those are good. Yeah, I like that. And he's good he puts it out before anybody gets it Right, get that.

Speaker 2: 20:18

He's like a walking, like parody of himself. Yeah, all poetry.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Okay, well, yeah, all right. Hopefully this has been helpful and people check out the website and get more people to come. I hope so.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Well, thank you.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Thank you.