2021 The Year of No Fear

In this episode Bob Dalton of Sackcloth and Ashes gets in the ring to tell is story. Bob Dalton is the CEO and founder of Sackcloth and Ashes , a mission driven company that gives a blanket to a homeless shelter for each one purchased. 

Bob Dalton is an activist and an entrepreneur.  Mr. Dalton travels across the United States bringing awareness to the issue of homelessness. 

Bob and Billy discuss the fact that our children are our future and we must focus on solutions. 

sackclothandashes.com

Transcript

Billy Moore: 0:51

Good morning, good morning. Good morning. Welcome. Welcome to being in the ring with Billy Moore, where we'll talk not only about boxing, but we'll talk about life in the ring. Because when a boxer is in the ring his whole life flashes through his mind at times. So welcome this morning.

Dwayne E. Shigg: 1:22

Anybody can use foundation teaches our youth to step off into life with their best foot forward without cowardice, but with courage and dignity. ABC was founded by legendary Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore in 1957. He had a heart and passion for helping the youth. He believed if we went into the business of prevention, we could save billions of dollars and millions of lives. He started ABC to teach us the basic ABCs of life. Are you concerned about the world today? Do you want to help train our youth to be the change needed in the world? Join us in the fight for equality in the fight for justice in the fight for our youth. If you would like to help, go to www dot ABC youth foundation.org. That's www dot ABC use foundation.org be well and be blessed.

Billy Moore: 2:12

You're welcome to say whatever you feel like saying that you think and react however you want to think and react and in lieu of a not a politician Not at all. But in lieu of, I'm not too happy today in lieu of the things that are going on in this country, what to but one of the things that is very enlightening is what you're doing in what you're doing. And what I'd like you to do is tell us about what you're doing and and give us your past and bring us up to now.

Bob Dalton: 2:53

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having this conversation. And, you know, like you i'm i'm also grieved at what is happening in this country. But I'm also very hopeful that there's things that can still be done to make it shift on focusing on the solutions in this country. And really getting back to what matters most which I believe is supporting and helping people that are boots on the ground, grassroot organizations, and supporting our children in this country, and really making a shift back to focusing on our kids because they're the future of this country. So I'm still very hopeful going into the new year, I'm saying that 2021 is the year of no fear. That is, that is what this year is going to be for me it's going to be a year of no fear. And and I look forward to moving forward on offense and what I believe is going to be really making a difference here in our in our society. So thank you so much for having me on. Background on me is I grew up in a little community on the Oregon coast called Coos Bay. And

Billy Moore: 4:15

kings Bay. Very familiar with What's up, so I'm very familiar with it.

Bob Dalton: 4:21

Oh, yeah. Yeah, little fisherman logging town. And it's a great little community man, I really loved growing up there. And you know, they were it was in the middle of nowhere, but we had we were on the beach, you know, we loved it. And, and I had, I grew up without a dad. And in high school, somebody took me under his wing, a mentor. And he really invested a lot of time and energy into showing you what it looks like to be a quality male figure and being a good husband, a good thing. family man, and somebody who really demonstrated a lifestyle that I can look toward and say, I want to be like that when I'm, you know, 4050 years old. And that's important as a young man, you want to have people in your life, you know, ideally, it's your dad. But if it's not your dad, somebody to be able to look toward and say, you know, I want to inspire to be like this person. And so my story really began when Todd tardy was his name, took me under his wing, mentored me and really cast a vision for who I wanted to be in the world, which was so foundational for my journey. And at 19 years old, from 19, to 24, I was part of leading and participating in a nonprofit called young life where I helped form of team, a team of leaders, and we would go into the high school and build relationships with kids. And I was passionate about that nonprofit, because that's exactly what happened with me, somebody came into my life when I was in high school and took me under their wing. And I wanted to be that for other high school kids that didn't have that kind of opportunity to have anybody in their life for nobody to go to their sporting events, you know, I really wanted to be the one that showed up at their, their games and supported them and really got behind whatever they were passionate about was I wanted to be passionate about. And so I did that for five years, I just build relationships with kids showed up in their lives, made them feel like they mattered. And after about five years of being in the nonprofit world, I got pretty tired of raising money 50% of my time, and I decided I wanted to go into the business world. So I could be self sustaining enough to where I could start supporting nonprofits rather than having to raise money all the time. And at that same time, my mom ended up going through a really difficult time in her journey where she had lost her mother and her brother. And during her journey, you know, as anybody as anybody can imagine, like, if you lose your your family members, it takes a huge toll on you. And she got to the point where she goes, she calls me up, she's in depression, she started drinking. And she said, You know what, I'm going to start my life over, and I'm going to move across the United States. So my mom moved across the United States, and ended up through a series of events becoming homeless. And it's not somebody that you would expect that would become homeless. And it changed my paradigm, in my view of how I viewed the homeless community, because my mom is the hardest working woman I know. And she ended up in that situation. So it destroyed my bias toward homelessness, which is, you know, they should work a little harder, they should make better choices with their life, whatever my biases were, my mom destroyed those biases. And she inspired me to actually do something about the homeless problem. And it and I started calling homeless shelters in my area and asked them what they needed. And they all said blankets. And so I came up with the idea that for every blanket that somebody buys from me, I'll donate a blanket to their local homeless shelter. And so in many ways to kind of tie that story all together. It was the foundational roots that Todd tardy invested in me and Castle division that it was possible to love the people around me and to love my community. It was through my mom's story that helped change my paradigm and understanding of what homelessness is and why it exists. And it inspired me to do something to make a difference in my local community. And so it came full circle, I ended up launching a blanket company, which was super random, and I never thought I'd get into the fabric business. But uh, but all to help local homeless shelters that needed blankets. And so that's the journey that I'm on now. And that's what I dedicate 100% of my time to that.

Billy Moore: 9:13

Will they did a brother Shigg and I, we've talked about it and talk about you and and I was reading the short bio there and do do you get a chance to talk with youth very much.

Bob Dalton: 9:32

Hear in there, I still get to talk with youth. It's always my greatest joy to be able to talk with you because that's where I started. You know, in my, my journey in my ministry, and I love speaking to the kids. You know, like I said in the beginning of this call, I believe that kids are the future of this, this country and the more focus that we have toward our children and invest in Kids, the better our world is going to be long term.

Billy Moore: 10:03

Because as well as you attend rolling over, that's one of the things that that's our motto here. I mean, the kids are our future. They are our future, that story that you just told about starting your company. more kids need to hear that story. That's just mildly disturbing. That's something I've been doing for almost 40 years. And it's, it's simple. It's very simple. And this is what, and this is what we need to give our kids is simplicity, simplicity. And when my dad started at ABC 60 plus years ago, and it's at the United States is headed for gang and a drug epidemic. He said, If we keep what we're doing, keep it simple. Keep it simple, and you won't lose them. I really liked that story about what you do and how you got started doing. And once we get beyond this COVID and get our kids to coming back in here and you wouldn't be nice. If you could stop by and spend a little time with us. 100 days. Okay, cool. Now, so now, where are you? Where are you located?

Bob Dalton: 11:28

I'm in North County, San Diego.

Billy Moore: 11:32

Okay, Carlsbad.

Bob Dalton: 11:34

I just moved down here about a year and a half ago from Oregon. And yeah, really loving it down here. I love being in Southern California. And it was it's been a great

Billy Moore: 11:46

Okay, I was I had a I had a fight in Oregon. a boxing match of a kid trying to think he was over on the water. And we fought outside it was freezing cold. freezing cold. I can't remember the name of the little town. His thing is right across. Right across the border after leave out of California. I can't remember where it was it man. I don't know if the

Bob Dalton: 12:17

guy here man said again. It's cold up there.

Billy Moore: 12:21

Yeah, I don't know if the cold got me that got to be more of the guy that was boxing got to be more. I really don't remember. But organism is a beautiful place. has spent a lot of quite a bit of time in Portland, Oregon. With some with some different guys up there. We had a little boxing team going on up in that area. Now. Okay, what's your? What's your plans for the future? As far as spreading what you do? I'm sure you plan on spreading it?

Bob Dalton: 12:59

Yeah, yeah. So in 2018, we launched our first major campaign called blanket the United States. And our goal with that campaign is to donate 1 million blankets to homeless shelters by 2024. And, and right now, we're about 20% of the way there, we have the opportunity, we partnered with a lot of different companies that are giving blankets as gifts to their employees or customers. And in doing so we're able to donate a second blanket to homeless shelters around the nation, we give to over 500 shelters in the United States. And so we have a really unique opportunity where we're not just donating blankets, but we're actually getting to connect with both incredible companies that are giving blankets as gifts, and grassroot organizations where we're donating the blankets. And so the blankets are just a third party object that's connecting us to some of the most powerful companies and the most powerful grassroot organizations. And we just get to be a bridge builder, we get to introduce some influential brands and celebrities to some of the best grassroots work that's gone on in the United States. And that's really where we're in our sweet spot. So our number one goal is to blanket the United States. But as we're blinking in the United States, we are making connections that I believe are going to be long, long lasting and where it gives companies and celebrities an opportunity to do that long term in their community and we get to be a small part of that.

Billy Moore: 14:41

Let's say if ABC if we wanted to get involved in that. How would we go about doing that? We always get our kids involved with helping others out helping other youngsters other families in this area. We have a lot of homeless families.

Bob Dalton: 14:59

Yeah. Yeah, I would say, you know, the most simple thing is that a, I would love to give blankets to all the kids that you work with just first and foremost, no strings attached and no other agenda other than I just want to support what you guys are doing and the blankets can serve as a is a simple gift to the kids. And then secondly, I think that there's always opportunities to where I do blanket drops at homeless shelters where I go and deliver the blankets in person. And it would be fun to have the kids involved in something like that to where they can come and learn about different community things that are going on in their local area, to where they can come and serve a meal. or pass out blankets with me at some point.

Billy Moore: 15:50

Know when you Okay, though, when you pass these blankets out? Yeah, for my understanding, there's a note in the bottom of their shopping.

Bob Dalton: 16:00

Yeah, when we pass the blankets out to homeless shelters, there's a note that comes with the actual blankets that says, thank you so much for the work that you're doing in the local community. And this is why you're receiving those blankets.

Billy Moore: 16:13

Oh, brother Shig was telling me but you have children's book

Bob Dalton: 16:17

Yeah. Yeah, we just launched it in November. And, you know, I always wanted to get involved. Communicating with kids, like you said, it has to be very simple. And it's got to be, it's got to be in the least common denominator when you're speaking to kids. And I've always wanted to master communication. And one of my friends challenged me and he said, Well, if you want to master communication, you got to read a kid's book. And so I took on the challenge. And maybe about eight months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, it was 3am. And I thought of this phrase, no matter how big no matter how small, everyone is someone we need to level. And I was like, Oh, that's such a weird thing. I felt it on a kind of dream, subconscious level, and I grabbed my phone, and I wrote it down. And then I just wrote the rest of it and kind of a stream of thought. And it's a really simple poem that I was looking at that next morning, and I was thinking, how, what's the medium that I want to deliver this message. And, and then I said, Oh, I think this might be a children's book. And so I partnered with an artist that I got connected to he lives in Scotland, and he hand painted every single page of the book. And he sent me all the originals. And, and he said, amazing artists that really brought the project life, his name is Richie Collins. And I just, we launched that book in November. And for every the books called everyone has someone for every book purchase, we donate a book to a child in foster care around the nation. And so we are our hope is to provide everyone is someone booked to every every kid in foster care. And that this will be the third party object that's connecting us to you know, similar to blink the United States, connecting us to influencers and companies and also connecting us to really good grassroot organizations that are doing amazing work. And I hope is that, you know, we can help form the conversation around the kids again, because I believe that if we got got to focus back on the kids, and if we're going to do that, we can't do it from a negative standpoint, where we're talking about all the negative statistics and how many of the foster care system is we got to do it in a strategic way, where we're highlighting solutions that are being created that are actually helping the kids and fully back in and similar to what you guys are doing I what I loved about getting connected with you guys, as you guys are, you've created a solution that is helping with this particular problem. And those are the type of organizations that we love to come across and support in any way that we can

Billy Moore: 19:17

give God the glory. There's a lady, she has 16 foster kids, you would never know that they were foster kids. They all have the same name. Last name, you would never know I think it's three of us graduated from college, and a couple of others that are on their way to college. And she's a part of ABC. And it's a I like what you just said a while ago about looking beyond the negative and going into the positive and focusing on the positive and I think that at some point in time I don't think would be good if you could, well, I'm sure you'll meet her at some point in time. Because apparently we'll own ABC and but sackcloth, and ashes, will be converging together. I really want to thank you for taking your time to come and set and share with us. Because you set up the right from the start. When you said our kids, they are our future. They are the future. There's no doubt about it is a an ABC, we teach our youngsters how to step up in life with their best foot forward without cowardice, but with courage and dignity, that we can teach them that at seven years old, then we can teach them start in, in drilling that into them at seven years old, it teaches them how to walk the straight and narrow, they may strain. But they'll always know how to come back. And we have to let them know that they are our future. And I thank you for saying that. Now you have a topic is your staff.

Bob Dalton: 21:17

You have 20 folks working with us. And I feel fortunate I just before I got on this call with you, I did all my team member reviews with with my team this morning, and I was just telling my wife, I'm like, man, we have such power house, all star team. And they I feel very fortunate because I get to brag a lot about the stuff that we get to be a part of and that we get to do and I get to share the story. But there's no way we could have pulled it off without such an amazing All Star team. And I feel like we're building a we're not just building a company. We're building a campaign. like as if we were building a political campaign, we're building a campaign for grassroot organizations around the United States that are representing both the homeless and the kids in foster care. And so I feel very fortunate to have the team I do and we're on a mission. I appreciate that. And thank you guys so much for the work you guys are doing and I look forward to meeting the kids one day here. Once things get a little bit back to normal.

Billy Moore: 22:30

Well, if you ever, if you guys ever run into anything where you figure that a BNC can be of help. Don't hesitate to say something, please. Yeah, please. Thank God bless you. And looking forward to meeting the rest of your team one day.

Bob Dalton: 22:47

Yeah, sounds good brother. Thank you.

Billy Moore: 22:49

Thank you so much. God bless.

Dwayne E. Shigg: 22:52

Let your legacy begin today drink mongoose water. mongoose water gets his name from legendary Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore. He was called the mongoose because of his agility and stamina. Do you have trouble staying hydrated and energized during your workouts? Does it always seem like you're thirsty, try mongoose water. It is refreshing and rejuvenating. It has an alkaline level of 8.5 to 9.5 train like the best drink the best mongoose water coming soon to a store near you go to WWW dot mongoose water.com that's www dot mongoose water.com