SuperTalk Media JT Show 2021-07-15

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
You're listening to the Palmer Home for Children Radio-Thon here on SuperTalk Mississippi. Go to supertalk.fm slash Palmer Home to help rescue and restore a child in need. Now, here's Gerard Gibert.

**Gerard Gibert** (0:27)
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the JT Show, SuperTalk Mississippi. The 2021 Palmer Home for Children Radio-Thon continues. Great job this morning by Paul Perez and the crew. And we continue the good work here on SuperTalk supporting the Palmer Home for Children. Joining us now, Karen Carlile, Board Vice Chair. Good morning, Karen.

**Karen Carlile** (0:55)
Good morning, Gerard. How are you today?

**Gerard Gibert** (0:57)
Doing great. Thanks so much for joining us. Great to have you on this annual Radio-Thon day.

**Karen Carlile** (1:02)
Oh, I'm honored to be here. This is a super special day for all of us. We're excited to have this opportunity with you all and to raise money for Palmer Home.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:10)
And just need to get this out there. And we'll be saying this a lot during the program. FM 662-469-5533.
That's the number to call to help out. Make a donation to Palmer Home. And then supertalk.fm slash Palmer Home. 662-469-5533. All right, $50,000. That's our next big milestone. $50K. Come on, folks. We need your help. So, Karen, how long have you served on the board at Palmer Home?

**Karen Carlile** (1:46)
Oh, my gosh, you're going to embarrass me, because I've been around a long time.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:49)
That's great.

**Karen Carlile** (1:50)
I've been around since the early 90s. We used to do a golf tournament. Yeah, yeah, with the Wendy's Company. So it has really been a long-term commitment for our family.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:01)
That is so awesome. So what sort of exciting things you guys got in the works at Palmer Home to even further expand and improve the organization and its services?

**Karen Carlile** (2:14)
Well, there's so many wonderful things going on. We've got the Wellness Center under construction. And that has been a long-time dream of ours for the Hugh Francis, who was one of our board members who's no longer with us. But he had such a vision for this organization. And this facility helps take care of the services for our children, for counseling suites, for art and therapy play, gym, nasion pool. And it also gives us an opportunity to connect with the children in the community through events that we'll have in that facility. So we're slated to open that facility in spring of 2021, hopefully. That should probably be spring of 2022, sorry.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:56)
Wow. So I heard Drake on with Paul earlier talking about, I think he just ridden by the facility under construction. It is. Yeah. So that's really exciting stuff. Again, 662-469-5533.
That is the number to call. So Karen, what about the services provided by Palmer Home? Are those expanding?

**Karen Carlile** (3:21)
You know, we continue to position ourselves to take care of more and more children through foster care, transitional care. There are just wonderful, wonderful ways for us to help children in the community, in the southeast, and really kind of sometimes even farther beyond that. We're able to serve really the United States, depending on where children are in need.

**Gerard Gibert** (3:45)
Well, I didn't know that. So children that are in need might find their way to the Palmer Home because there's a match for their needs and what Palmer Home delivers.

**Karen Carlile** (3:56)
Yes. You know, we pride ourselves in keeping large sibling groups together. And that sometimes makes it easier for people to find us for foster care because we have children that may come in in sibling groups of five or more. So it's really nice to have the ability to keep them together.

**Gerard Gibert** (4:15)
Wow. That is incredible. So is the organization, it's then known throughout the nation for its services?

**Karen Carlile** (4:24)
It is. It is. There are a lot of different places we go for all types of conventions and such.
And we get to share the word of Palmer throughout the United States. And folks know we're here and that we're committed to children and have been since 1895 So that's a pretty decent amount of time.

**Gerard Gibert** (4:42)
Wow. That is truly incredible. So how many are on the board, Karen?

**Karen Carlile** (4:48)
I think we have about 12, 16 on the board. 16 on the board. Yeah. Yeah.

**Gerard Gibert** (4:55)
Well, do we have a challenge for them?

**Karen Carlile** (4:58)
We do. We do. I'm here to announce the Board of Director Challenge. I believe it's between 10 and 12 today. The board will match $28,500. We have 100 percent commitment from all of our board members for this. So if we can raise that $28,500 between 10 and 12 today, it's matched.