Episode 98 - Tod Peavy

This month on The Cannon Curve, Phil welcomes Tod Peavy, a visionary entrepreneur and skilled pilot who played a crucial role in orchestrating hurricane relief efforts through general aviation during Helene and Katrina. As the owner and CEO of North Georgia LED Lights, Tod leads the charge in revolutionizing corporate events nationwide with state-of-the-art LED technology. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about how people from all walks of life can come together to create powerful connections and make a lasting impact in times of need.

Resources:

Phil Buchanan: LinkedIn

Tod Peavy: LinkedIn

https://www.northgeorgialed.co...

Facebook Ga Pilot Group: https://www.facebook.com/group...

Opposing Bases podcast: https://opposingbases.libsyn.c...

Please send comments, questions, and feedback to: mojo@cannonfinancial.com

Please send First Friday Feedback submissions to: mojo@cannonfinancial.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, everyone. It's Phil here. Today, we're speaking with Todd Peavy, an entrepreneur and general aviation pilot who played a pivotal role in coordinating Hurricane Helene relief efforts through General Aviation in Western North Carolina and Southern Georgia. Todd is the owner and CEO of North Georgia LED.

He is at the forefront of delivering cutting edge LED technology to corporations across the United States. But today we're going to explore how a community came together through general aviation to help those in need after the hurricane. [00:01:00] So let's start with this. Tell me a little bit about you personally, about your company.

Who is normal everyday Todd? The guy that never stops, you know, get up in the morning, hit the ground with your feet running. And work all day until it's late at night works more and go to bed. No, but I'm 58. My company is a small company. We do led walls and churches, schools, hospitals, financial institutions, and super high res outdoor signage, which you don't see much of because a lot of people want to go to the cheaper route.

I hate to say it, but unfortunately we don't sell the cheap stuff. But anyway, I love helping others. There's, there's, there's You know, sometimes it sounds horrible because the greatest reward is knowing that you could brighten someone's day. And I'll just give you a real short synopsis of that. We had a pilot come in and he could only carry 150 pounds of goods and he was apologizing because he had a really small one seater airplane.

And I said, sir, I said, if I'm the person on the ground and I get this toothbrush and toothpaste that I had in my hand, and I said, I get these diapers that you have in your [00:02:00] backseat and that toilet paper over there. And that baby food over there. Do you think I care whether or not you carried 150 pounds?

And it, the light went off in his head and he realized how important his contribution was. Though it may be small, it was going to make a difference in someone's life. And it was going to do it in the next three hours. Not six weeks later or two days later, it's going to do it in the next three hours.

That's the thing that I enjoy is when you can help someone. Whether it's through something like this or a neighbor calls and says, I need help with something on my house or. So, you know, a restaurant called it. Hey, we need help with the oven. We can't get anybody to come do it Can you come help us?

Whatever it is It's always more enjoyable to help people in my mind when they need help. It's more rewarding. It's more satisfying. You can provide a good or service that you know that someone needs and they truly appreciate. And that's what I enjoy doing. Gotcha. How long have you been flying? 20 plus years started right at, well, I think 2019 years started right at 2005.

What got you into aviation? [00:03:00] I just, you know, had always kind of wanted to fly. I'm standing in my front yard one day and I look at my neighbor and there's a plane because where I live don't like linear. Planes are always circling up there practicing. And I said, man, I'd really like to learn how to fly. I said, well, you know, we have an airport in Gainesville.

So I hopped in the truck and drove to Gainesville and signed up and started flying and, uh, got my private license and right about then Katrina hit. And that's when I really got a lot of pilot time and worked on my next level of training was flying back and forth for Katrina. I flew nurses, policemen, medical supplies, food, you know, kind of the same thing as Helene as far as resources that we were taking down there.

But in that particular case, you know, there was some, some banks and different people that provided the food and brought it to me and people provided fuel, you know, money for the fuel for the airplane and stuff like that. So it wasn't on the level of what I did on the Helene efforts, which was much more ramped up, but it was very rewarding, very fun to be able to help people.

And the amount of community. That we experienced [00:04:00] and it's interesting. I wouldn't want anybody to hear this and think wrong of it, but the community when we did Katrina. You'd land at an airport, and it's like going to grandma's house. All these elderly ladies would be in there, and they'd have food for, you know, the National Reserve, pilots, whatever.

At every little airport you landed at on the way out to Louisiana, Mississippi, and everywhere, they had food and stuff, and they're handing you food to take with you. You know, here's a piece of cake, here's a meal. I mean, they literally were sending you out the door with food. It was like grandma's house at every airport.

And so the community outreach, even in Alabama, where they weren't impacted all the way down to where we had to go with amazing. And it's funny because when we did this, we saw that same community outreach that was so satisfying in North Carolina on the edge of North Carolina and Tennessee, um, that pilots just wanted to go back over and over and over.

When you landed up there, I mean, we had, there was a group of 150 [00:05:00] teenagers, 15 to 24, that when you landed your plane, they formed a human conveyor. I've got a picture of it somewhere. And your goods would be off your plane and on a trailer in two minutes time through that human conveyor. All volunteers, you know, community.

The Western North Carolina football team, I think it was, or baseball team, they never could figure out which one it was, backpacked a full trailer load of goods over a mountain to a community that couldn't get any help. I mean, just the community you saw was amazing and again, the food and the resources and appreciation that you saw in these airports, you know, from from everyone there helped trying to help the community was such that pilots couldn't get enough of it.

They came back when they were originally going to do one flight and go, man, I got to do another. I got to do another. And, you know, what can I do to help? And so it was just, it's that it's not just me. It's that sense of being beneficial and being able to help someone in need. And it strikes a hunger up in you to do more.

I totally get that. I got a call that Sunday from a pal of mine, whose daughter, son in law and [00:06:00] two grandsons were stuck in Asheville. And he wanted to know if I could, I could go get them. And I was like, sure, let me, let me figure all this out. Now, you know, I knew that the storm had been bad, you know, obviously I had seen some pictures.

And so I called the actual airport. I said, you know, are you open? I come in, you know, everything okay. And he's like, well, no, it's not okay. But yes, it's okay for you to come in. So I went, I was in this small little town that I grew up in. And I live in Athens, Georgia now, but, uh, I grew up a little town called Manchester and they have a roses store.

And when I explained to folks what a roses store is, I said, think about dollar general and think about four or five scales down from that. And that's a roses. I went in and I grabbed some stuff, you know, basically paper goods, because he said that, you know, GA was, you know, landing and delivering goods.

And so, you know, I filled up backseat of the plane and I flew up there and, you know, Got them out, [00:07:00] but saw what was going on and I went back and our head of digital marketing is now on the line with a Sarah Jones. And I told her, I said, Hey, this thing's going on, you know, we, we ought to, we ought to rally the, the, the company to, to put some goods together, you know, the next morning we had 350 pounds of stuff.

And I was like, Hey, Hey, okay. You know, we're, we're, we're good. As far as what we can take. And we went to Asheville. And drop that off again. I'll, I'll brag on Sarah here. You know, she's, she's got the camera out. She's filming as we, we go in and I go in to check in with, with Signature and all that type stuff.

And I come back out and I can't find her. And I'm like, where in the hell did she go? And I see her over there. She's unloading somebody else's plane. You know, they're all, you know, exactly what it was. I mean, you know, it was just this, this whole deal. I was on business. The rest of that week and then Sunday I flew a mission with you guys went up to Gainesville and I know exactly what you're talking about.

I went, went down to South Georgia, went to Douglas. It was awesome. Yeah. Now I will tell you that when they came back from South Georgia, the comments they [00:08:00] made was the devastation. They could see the devastation versus when they flew into North Carolina, we usually couldn't see it. And we just, we talked a little, um, we'd heard about it.

Uh, extensively. Well, you saw the you saw the pond in South Georgia. You saw the pine tree snapped off 15 20 ft above the ground and you know, mobile homes just it was I had to go. It was a mess. I had to fly into Valdosta last week to work on some signs there at the university that were damaged from the storm.

And the campus is just littered all around it, everywhere. And the funny thing is, is I was there a year ago, September a year ago, when we had another storm the same way down and it wiped out hundreds of trees on campus. And I'm going to look at it going, y'all, one more year, y'all aren't going to have any pine trees.

I mean, It's the second year in a row. And when I saw that, that's when I realized, you know, that was my, cause I didn't make any South Georgia trips, but anyway, we heard about the devastation when we were in, you know, Western North Carolina, [00:09:00] we heard about it and the stories were heartbreaking. It was just heartbreaking.

In our next section, we examine community mobilization and impact. We're going to look at the growth, the relief effort, the role both fixed wing aircraft and helicopters play. We're going to get into the stories of volunteer involvement in the impact on specific communities. What was it that, that, that got you focused on Coordinating all of all of this out of Gainesville.

I mean, obviously it's something close to home. You've, you've done this kind of stuff before, but, you know, you were, you were all over Georgia pilots. You were all over, you know, lots of different places telling the story, you know, soliciting pilots to come fly. What was it about this one that just, you know, Just ramped you up.

You know, when I flew in up there and talk to Dave and I'll have to get the exact airport name, it's either 64 a or 24. I [00:10:00] can't remember which, but and he's telling us how and he's in tears how we saved thousands of lives in his city because we were able to get in there and no one else got in there. And his story was that, you know, well, people said, well, why did you call for help?

He said to quote him, he said, hell, how am I going to call for help? We didn't have phones. We didn't have internet. We didn't have power. He said, how and who am I going to call? And, you know, he's very excited, very excited about Starlink. You know, and it just, it made me aware. And initially I wasn't even aware we had a customer come down from Spartanburg on Sunday.

And he's like, well, do y'all have power? Do y'all have any? I'm like, what are you talking about? I mean, I know there was a storm, but you know, we got, it missed us that Saturday, Friday, whatever it was. Sure. And like, dude, we got nothing. And I'm like, really, you know? And so for me, it was about the fourth day when I realized.

Oh my gosh, these people are in trouble. But what got me into this was just when I realized how [00:11:00] bad it was and I'm like, I can do something about this. I can help somebody, you know, I can make sure that they're getting coats and stuff like that. So Kylie, who works for me and Wes, his wife, you know, they came in that weekend and, and I put them to work.

I'm like, they started calling FBOs, they started calling EMS and city managers and fire departments in South Georgia and in North Carolina, Tennessee. And I said, I need to know what they need. And I said, let's build a list and let's update this list for the next two or three days. And let's solicit what we need for these people because we don't want to be taking them stuff they don't need.

And then we started soliciting stuff online and people found out about it. And again, most people want to make a difference. And yeah, there were a few people that wrote checks because, you know, they came to me and says, Todd, I want to give you money. And I would say, I don't want your money. I don't need you.

That's not about that. I need your goods because I don't have time to go to Sam's and look for this stuff. And so [00:12:00] most 99 percent of the people would go and get stuff for solicits from the neighborhoods. And we had people coming from noon in and almost down near making bringing stuff up here when it needs to be going to south Georgia.

It was really amazing. But I'm like, I need goods. And so then we started coordinating that with the airports and we started updating it every single day. And I said, you know, I figured two to three days. I figured, you know, we'll be done with this. Right. And then I realized, Oh, my God, this isn't we need more stuff.

You know, we've got what happened was. The city managers and the E. M. S. S. And the fire department people started calling us every day. You know, they were calling from south Georgia for a while. They're going. Um, you told us we're gonna get stuff and we haven't got anything. We haven't seen any of your airplanes.

And I'm like, I'm really sorry. You know, the immediate need seems to be more north. But we're gonna send stuff to you. And so we, you know, we started sending stuff down there. That's about the 3rd or 4th day. And these people are calling you and you start, you start realizing, you know, They're [00:13:00] hurting. They need goods.

They need things. I mean, we're not having to call them anymore. They're calling and texting us. And so then I started soliciting online. I'm like, you know what? I've got the internet here. I'm gonna search for pilots. I'm gonna search for, you know, people to bring goods. And that's why I went to Facebook and just started pushing it.

Georgia pilots and the local Gainesville pilot page. Just saying, look, we need help. We need goods. We need food. And, you know, I tried to do it through showing what we were doing. The pilots were participating with the pictures and as we loaded the planes. And as well as, you know, hey, me personally going, hey, I need your help.

These people need your help. Here are my cries for help. And it worked. I mean, people listened. And they were, we had people that brought three and four trips to stuff. One wasn't enough. They'd go back to their neighborhood. And it's solicit, you know, stuff from the neighborhood. And one lady came three different times in a day.

And you know, what do you need? She'd say, what do you need? And then she'd leave and come back with it. Some people would go, Hey, I understand you need diapers. And next thing I know, they show up with [00:14:00] diapers. The human spirit is, is amazing. It is really amazing. People really do want to help. I think, I think most people are really good and really do want to make a difference.

Were you surprised at the number of aviators that had helicopters, particularly up in the North Carolina mountains? Did that did that surprise you? And that was that was part of what got me going was when I saw what the helicopters were doing up there. You know, there was one particular day where there were between, I'm, I'm, 140 to 150 helicopters that were all general aviation.

None of them were military, all general aviation. And they're hopping in and out. And when I landed at Ash, North Carolina, there were a general aviation helicopters, even then coming in and out, there was one guy, he owned a private twin turbo, you know, twin turbine helicopter. It looked like air Wolf every 15 minutes.

He was landing, picking up stuff and taking off. I mean, I was there for an [00:15:00] hour and he came four times while I was there. Uh, the National Guard there, they were, they came twice, uh, the National Guard would load it up. It took them a little longer to load and get out. There were several general aviation helicopters that were coming and going out of there.

I mean, they were up in that top part of North Carolina. And they were servicing Hickory and, you know, all those areas around Ashe. It was kind of like a distribution hub. People would bring stuff in there and then pilots would pick stuff up from there and take it to the other airports around there. And so that was what was happening with that.

And it was, it was amazing. I mean, and in that airport lady up there, I used to be an air marshal and she actually kicked FEMA out for, for about four days when FEMA, she let him back in towards the end there, but it was, it was amazing how she ran that airport. It was all volunteers, hundreds of volunteers directing the airplanes and helicopters loading unloading.

It was just, it was a, it was a well oiled machine. You would never guess. These people have been doing this for three [00:16:00] days, four days. It was so highly organized and it was all community. Nobody was getting paid. Everyone was volunteer. Everyone. So what is it about general aviation that sparks that that that community?

I mean, I've got my I've got my theories on it, but you know, I mean, Literally any of my buddies that have their own plane flew, flew something relative to Helene. Whether it was getting people out, whether it was delivering goods, you know, all that type stuff. And, you know, I mean, we've not, I've not sat down and had that conversation.

You know, what was it that motivated you to go do it? Was it, was it FOMO? Was it you just wanted to help? Why do you think so many pilots got involved in this? One, pilots love to fly. I think, I think that, you know, so many times the pilot will get up and go fly for a 100 hamburger [00:17:00] and it's called a 100 hamburger.

You know what I mean? Oh, I do. It's a 250 hamburger now, but. 250 plus the landing fee. Right. So I think one, it's a, it's a great way to get up and get to go fly and do something that you automatically already love doing. So what, what better way to do something than doing something you love? You know, if you love cooking, then you want to go out and cook for people.

You know, it's just, if you love flying, then you want to go out and use your gift, your talent, the blessing that you have of having that airplane. And use it to help other people. And I think it's, you know, you start out with that love of flying, you add to it an equal amounts, the love to help other people, and in fact, on the top of that, you've got a resource that can be mobilized in literally minutes.

Uh, where guys can go, you know what? I can, I can take off work or I can, I can skip this or I can skip that. I'll take my airplane, take those supplies and run them where people need them and make a [00:18:00] difference. And, you know, a lot of the guys that I talked to. Have done things before, whether it's pilots and Paul's, you know, where we buy to pick up dogs and keep them from kill shelters method.

We picked up 13 from Athens a few years ago and flew him to Lynchburg, Virginia. They were adopted in a day. Or if it's fine people who need medical medical treatment with, you know, some of the the rescue organizations that are out there. But I think it's just a general love of flying and I love to help one another and the ability to do it and do it when it needs to be done.

It's just not everybody can do that. And, and, and it had not been for Jim creation, there wasn't a lot of people that might not have made it through that. And, and I don't want to say general aviation deserves all the credit because I don't think it does. As I told Dave at that airport, I said we couldn't have done this if the community hadn't brought us stuff to do.

We're just, we are just a vessel. We're a tool. We're a mode of transportation to get the goods from point A to point B [00:19:00] and effectively and quickly. And obviously, you know, about the ninth day we, we shut down because what we noticed was most places were full and it was no longer effective. I did not want to waste.

Um, money and effort when there were other methods and roads were opening and things can be done. So we were very cognizant and careful about that. Not deviated from your question there. But I think again, it's, it's a desire to fly, desire to help other people that really make the difference on that. We had, we had two guys that didn't own airplanes that went and rented.

So keep in mind, no three. Three guys paid to rent airplanes because they could fly with their own money and then came here and picked up goods and flew the goods to where they needed to go. That's amazing. That, that says even more. They didn't own airplanes. And I can't tell you how many comments I had on, on Facebook and, and, and different organizations, different places on Facebook.

People said, well, if I had a plane, I would come. I'm a pilot. [00:20:00] Do you need a second pilot? You know? And I'm like, no, because if I take a second pilot, I can't take as much goods. I need to take goods, not people. And that was the hard part that there were so many people that wanted to fly that didn't have planes, uh, and, and, and they were disappointed.

They wanted to help with their talent. Well, you know, I had, uh, as I told you, Sarah Jones, our marketing group, she made a trip with me. The nice thing about her is I think she weighs 75 pounds soaking wet. So, uh, that really didn't displace much weight there. Let's think about that, that whole, you know, purpose driven deal, you know, I think all of us as, as humans, you know, have a, a desire to be impactful.

And, you know, you, you, you learn to fly and, you know, you do the pattern, the pattern, the pattern, and, you know, then you do go for the. 150 hamburger or whatever, but you know this, this was very much a, a, a purpose driven deal. It was, it was [00:21:00] an honorable mission. You saw by the look on the faces of the people as you were delivering that, you know, they were, they were grateful.

I mean it, it, it, it was a, You know, it checks all of the human emotion boxes that that are important in life. I was, I was tickled to death to be able to do what, what little I did, but then, you know, watching what, what others like you contributed, it's just, it's a very powerful thing. It was, it was the best nine days I've had.

And Years and years and years. Even though you hit the ground running every day and work hard in your business, you were probably more exhausted at the end of that nine days than any other thing, but probably more grateful in your own heart, right? Absolutely. I mean, we put, we put the business on hold. I put.

I told Kylie, I said, and she wanted to, she wanted to volunteer her time. And I said, you know, she's a young college student. I said, you can't do that. I'm paying you. Um, and so she worked right through it. I will tell you that Saturday and [00:22:00] Sunday, she worked, it was, it was 16 hours on Saturday and 14 hours on Sunday, and she's not used to that level and she was exhausted, but she said, I have never felt so important, so involved, so worthwhile, because I really don't want to be paid.

I feel like it takes away from what I did. And I said, No, I said, That's not it. I said, Don't think of it that way. What you did was help coordinate and we couldn't have done it. You know, we couldn't do anything to my young lady that works with you. We couldn't have done it without her and Wes's wife, Morgan, making all those phone calls and coordinating and helping load those flights and helping getting things done and organizing and weighing out every single item that went out the door.

You know, we couldn't have done it without that sense of love and dedication that those two had. Help other people. They were a huge part of it. It was just to impact to go back and get what you said. It was just that they felt very, very blessed to [00:23:00] have been able to even do it to be able to help. And I think that's how most every pilot I spoke to felt.

You did the same thing how I felt. And yeah, it was exhausting at times. But man, oh, man, was it rewarding, especially when you're hearing stories and you're gonna much they appreciate it and you just, you know, You see how much everyone else is, is really excited to be a part of it. It's way bigger than just me.

It's way bigger. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I always remind people that are in, in, in chairs like you are in there. People rally around ideas, but they follow the leader that is focused on the execution. That is, that, that's exactly what you did in that case. No, I appreciate it. It was a pleasure and thanks for flying with us.

It was a lot of fun. It had been a while since I'd flown into Gainesville. I had forgotten how circuitous it could be when you're crossing runways and all of that. Is your other runway back open now? It is back [00:24:00] open and we got lights so we can fly at night again because, you know, that was another thing.

We had to get everybody back in here that they were here. They had to get in here by nighttime. Right. But we're back up. Did you get to see the final video where I did all the stats of what all we flew and how much we flew? I have not seen that. Did you post that to George pilots? I did. There's a video and I recap.

There were 79 flights with 57 pilots, 23, 871 pounds. And again, we're underestimating on all this because there were one day when I couldn't be here and Kylie couldn't keep up with everything. And she said there were tons of planes that came and went that she didn't get to take pictures of, keep up with.

So We went into, uh, Vidalia, Coffey, Douglas, Cook, Swainsboro, and Baxley. In North Carolina, Tennessee, it was Johnson City, Johnson County, Banner Elk, Ash, and Wilkes. We had volunteers with, you know, work logistics. That was Kylie and Morgan with the mayor's AM churches doing daily updates, sorting, weighing, and loading.

That's 57 [00:25:00] pilots that donated their planes, their gas, and their time, and then other pilots that obviously went and rented one, and it was over a course of nine days that we did all that. That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. We'll make sure to link that video in the show notes. Now we're going to examine the human element and lessons learned, including the personal impact on volunteers and coordinators, the great stories of unexpected generosity, and the statistical impact general aviation had in the disaster response, and perhaps some lessons we can learn for future responses.

What would you, what would be your counsel, your advice to other pilots who maybe didn't participate in this one, but may have the opportunity in the future? What, what would your counsel, what would your advice be to other pilots? Get involved. Don't be afraid to ask for help from the community. Don't be afraid to ask for help from your fellow pilot.

Reach out to those people. Let them know what you're doing. You'll [00:26:00] be amazed. By the amount of response, you'll get a people actually wanting to help you and be a part of what you're doing. I can tell you that I won't lie. The second day when the hanger was full and I mean full, I was scared that we weren't gonna get everything out of here and get it where it needed to go.

I mean, I was truly concerned. And then I come back the next afternoon and everything was gone and they'd already started taking in more stuff because so many had responded and at that point, I was no longer fearful of getting the goods out. I became fearful of getting enough goods to go out, right? My, my fear completely changed.

And, and of course, on day eight, my fear became totally different is in. I want to make sure that we don't take things we don't need, and that we don't waste people's time and money, and, and, and that, you know, just being cognizant of what we're doing, because we've reached the end of General Aviation's time, and now it's time for trucks and other things to go and do their part.

[00:27:00] So, yeah, my fear has changed, you know, three different fears over the course of nine days, but the biggest one of not getting enough people to participate on both donations and flying was an unfounded fear. people wanted to and we had to slow them down and we had to throttle them back. And you know, what else was really cool though, was I ended up helping coordinate with two other guys, you know, a guy and a girl actually at two other airports where we started coordinating with them, help them coordinate.

They started collecting goods and air hangers and flying things out with pilots around them. So that was kind of cool. You mentioned, you know, what to tell other pilots. Like I said, there were two of them that we helped get that going on their end. And so we were communicating daily with them as well.

Hey, what do you need? Is there something you need to come by here and get? Like one time we had a guy bring us a whole plane load of coats and blankets that they'd picked up in South Georgia. And then we had those go to North Carolina. [00:28:00] So we started coordinating with another group. We also had a pilot who unaffiliated with anything was stuck down in Valdosta, somewhere down that way.

And we ended up being able to get him back all the way up into Tri Cities. He came and landed somewhere in this area. One of the guys dropped him off here. And then another guy picked him up and took him on up to where he needed to go. So we were able to do some interesting things through the course of all this by helping others in different ways that we didn't even expect.

From helping other pilots get their organizations, you know, their volunteers going and get things going with them, to helping a pilot who was stranded and getting him back home. It's just absolutely amazing. You know, Most people have a good heart and giving heart. And then when you couple that with the

love of aviation, I don't know very many pilots that I could pick up the phone and call and say, Hey, you want to go fly that are going to laugh in my face?

They're going to be, yeah, let's go fly. So, you know, to your, your earlier point, pilots love a mission. They love to, they love to give both the aviation community and [00:29:00] the broader community overall really rallied in this case. I don't know if you listened to the podcast, Opposing Bases. Do you? Do you listen to that?

I know, but I need to apparently. Okay. Yeah. It's a, it's a fantastic podcast. It started out with two guys that are controllers up in the triad area. One of them has gone back to work. He was originally with Comair and then with air traffic control, he's gone back to work as a FO with United, but they still do this podcast every week.

The one that is still a controller of the triad, his mother. Has set up a foundation to collect money and toys for families in North Carolina for Christmas, folks who, you know, lost everything, you know, they announced it the first week on that deal. By the end of that week, they had raised 15, 000 just like that from just donations from folks that listen to the podcast.

Of course, it's aviation, mostly mostly [00:30:00] pilots are listening to that. And it. You know, that just speaks to the nature. A lot of people say that we pilots are quirky folks, and I wouldn't disagree that there are some quirks among most of us that are pilots, but at the same time, it is a, a giving group of people.

And so yeah, you, uh, you ought to check those guys out. It's a, it's a really, really good podcast. Well, I will. And you tell me that. Sparked something else in my head. And, and, and, and so I, I, I gotta get this out. We had a guy working on our hangar door, 'cause our hangar door was messed up. He's with the city and he's this kind of, you know, rough, rough kind of looking guy, you know, and you just, you, you, you look at him and you think this guy doesn't care about anybody, you know,

I mean, it just, he just, I don't mean it, it sounds horrible to say it, but I mean, he just has that look, you know? Sure. He's like, he's not softie. He, there's no way that guy's a softie. So I'm fussing because I'm like, there's kids up there who have nothing. I'm like, if we can get a girl, a Barbie doll or a kid, a little football, or just, you know, and [00:31:00] so I'm fussing about the fact we need toys and I'm not fussing to anybody except for Kylie and somebody else was in here, volunteering Kelly, who was both, you know, working for me.

Well, dad gum it. He comes back the next morning. with two huge trash bags filled with toys. He says, I listened to you fuss about kids with toys. And he says, I just couldn't sleep last night. He said, so I went out and got you two big bags of toys for kids. I need you to get them up there. I said, done, done, man.

And I even called the city manager and said, I just want you to know, this guy's got a heart of gold. You know, and the city got involved, uh, this, you know, when I talked to them, they actually put together 350 little goodie bags that had toilet paper, toothbrush, chapstick, some lifesavers, and just different stuff like that that they made and put notes in from the city of Gainesville.

That's awesome. I mean, when you let people know, And it's a righteous cause. It's a worthy cause. And, [00:32:00] you know, if you're genuine in your efforts, and your heart is in the right place, people are gonna see it. And they're gonna, good people are gonna respond. And that's exactly what happened here. I had one video I put up, and I said, I was, I was crying.

I mean, I was like, man, I'm, I was overwhelmed at just all the goodness that had happened. And I'm like, man, should I put that up? And next thing you know, people are just like overwhelming me with, with, with donations and phone calls and emails. And if you, if you're sincere and it's a worthy cause, people are going to help.

Whether you're driving down the road in a car, flying an airplane or, you know, You're in stuff over a mountain, people are going to help. People will help. Todd, you're an inspiration. Yeah, I know you're a great entrepreneur, a great business guy, great pilot. What you and your, your extended team were able to do in this situation.

Hats off to you, my friend. I'm proud to say, I know you're proud to say that I was able to play [00:33:00] a very, very small part in that with you. I hope it's not a next time, but if there is a next time, not only, you know, will you have our support, but that I know that support will grow. So thanks for what you've done.

Oh, it was a pleasure. Thanks for being a part of it. And, you know, just, it was just, it was, it was an honor. It really was. And I just want to say, just like I said in the video. It wasn't me. You know, there were 57 plus other pilots. There were communities that donated. There were volunteers that came in here and donated.

I mean, it was, it was a group community effort, and we couldn't have done it without any of them. You take any of those cogs out of that wheel, and that wheel's broken. So, you know, without the pilots, without the planes, without the volunteers, without the people working in the F. B. O. S. And the cities and the ladies and grandmas provided food.

And, you know, when you land and and and people just all the different things you couldn't have done it. I mean, you just it couldn't have been done. People step up. Do they not? Amen. Do they do, sir? They absolutely do. Todd. It's been a [00:34:00] pleasure, pal. Thank you for this. Anytime. Call me anytime. Glad to help.

Look, I'm gonna look forward to hearing it. And like I said, we'll all be there on the next one. There will be one. There you go. You're right. Todd Peavy's experience coordinating these massive relief efforts show how general aviation can be a powerful force for good in times of crisis. The combination of willing pilots, community support, and effective coordination created a rapid response system that helped thousands of people when they needed it most.

Thank you for joining us on The Cannon Curve, and we hope each of you have a fantastic Thanksgiving. The Cannon Curve is the production of Cannon Financial Institute. Executive producer of the Cannon Curve is Sarah Jones. Managing producer is McCall Chamberlain. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner.

On behalf of all the faculty and staff of Cannon Financial Institute, this is Phil Buchanan thanking you for staying ahead of the [00:35:00] curve.