In this special 9/11 episode Brett has Nick from Recycled Idaho and United Metals on where they discuss the importance of our troops and what Patriot Day means to them. Brett also signs a check for The Semper Fi Fund. Listen and follow along on Rev.com Here or play the youtube video and follow along with the text below.
Audio:
Welcome to A Scrap Life, a podcast solely focused on the hustlers, grinders, operators and business owners who live and breathe the scrap metal industry every day. We are the original recyclers. No suits required, just guts and hard work. Here is your host, Brett Ekart.
Brett Ekart:
Welcome everybody to another quick episode of A Scrap Life. It's not even truly an episode. It's a passion project that we've done on the side of doing the podcast. So, I'm sitting here with Nick Snyder from Recycled Idaho, but more importantly from United Metals. So, how are you doing man?
Nick Snyder:
I'm good, man. How you doing bro?
Brett Ekart:
I'm doing well. So, Nick and I came up with the idea with another guy, Jay Milligan from our company of creating the T-shirts that we could help promote our podcast, but also help promote a charitable cause at the same time. So we reached out to the LinkedIn community and they said "Hey, we want to donate money to an organization that promotes and helps our veterans."
Nick Snyder:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Brett Ekart:
We got a lot of awesome feedback from people out in the community and we had a couple of pretty good charitable causes that we thought were worth our time, effort and money, but we ended up settling on the Semper Fi Fund. Do you want to give us just a quick background on Semper Fi Fund and what they do?
Nick Snyder:
They work with veterans. They do a lot of great programs for them. All the money that is going to go to them, it goes back to the veterans and today, the day we're filming this is the day we're going to post this since it's 9/11.
Brett Ekart:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
So it just made sense.
Brett Ekart:
It's a big day, it's big. I saw an awesome deal that Chad Crickey posted this morning about what 9/11 meant to him. And just a day of being American, and the right and the left and the center all coming together and just being one again, even if it's for a day around a good cause just around what we went through that day. And also, all the people that are out there every day, still to this day, fighting for us, to allow us to have the freedom, to do podcasts, to run our business, to make money when the markets are good and lose money when the markets are bad. I mean, that's what our country's about.
Nick Snyder:
And just supporting the troops has been a personal thing that I've always taken to heart. Both my grandfathers were in World War (II). I wear their dog tags every single day, and it just hits close to home. And both our companies, A Scrap Life, Recycled Idaho and United Metals. [crosstalk 00:03:13]
Nick Snyder:
It all really hits home for all of us. Because we have so many people, not that way back in world war (II), like now they're just still continuing to fight. And that's just so important to myself and to everyone that is close to me.
Brett Ekart:
For sure. So, we sold these shirts, the scrap life shirts. They have the American flag on the background with a material handler handling a pile of scrap. It's what we do. We're an American company. We handle scrap. We love the scrap industry and the scrap industry as a whole loves America and other countries that they operate in. So Nick's got the tally, I'm writing the cheque to the Semper Fi Fund right now. And we are just extatic and we are super appreciative of everybody that donated, bought a shirt.
Nick Snyder:
We did this for a little over a month?
Brett Ekart:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
The first run, for this first shirt.
Brett Ekart:
And this just shows how generous the scrap industry is.
Nick Snyder:
And that's what we did in a month. We were able to raise more than $2,000 and he's writing the cheque now. And honestly, those first two weeks, I was scared we couldn't get enough shirts in here, and then it kept going. We got 10 today. 10 shirts were ordered today. And all that money has gone to Semper Fi. So we're going to get this cheque out to them when I try to reach out to them and chat with them. And hopefully, they get it here soon.
Brett Ekart:
And without the scrap community being so generous, we're not even able to do this. We donate the shirts, United Metals. But I read this quote and if anybody knows me, knows my posts, you know I'm a big quote guy. And it was Henry Ford that said, if the only thing your company makes is money, then that's not a great company. And from my perspective is, we are going to make some money. We're going to lose some money, but if we can also create and give back to our communities and to different charitable organizations that have done a lot for our country, I now want to be a part of it.
Nick Snyder:
I agree. Well,
Brett Ekart:
I appreciate it, Nick. Thanks for sitting down and everybody have a great day, thankful for everything we got, that we live, where we live and have a great day.
Nick Snyder:
Thank you.
Brett Ekart:
Thanks.