Always here for the pets and the softie in all of us, Nestor invites Tanya Keitz over to Costas Inn in Dundalk to discuss Show Your Soft Side and another awesome Pawject Runway on April 4th at CFG Bank Arena for the animals at BARCS.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cat, animals, dog, side, athletes, soft, soup, john, years, great, barks, bunch, founders, wife, charities, laurie, rollo, maryland, friends, arena
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Tanya Keitz
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:04
Welcome home to Dundalk. We are at Costas in we’re close to wrapping things up. It’s no longer 420 It’s 421. You can find me over here until five o’clock. We could find a cocoa if you want to donate Coco’s Wednesday. Thursday, State Fair Friday at Pappus. All day long starts at nine. So my sponsors don’t open at nine State Fair. We’ll have breakfast. Pappas is not open at nine Coco is not open at nine to come. Coming to normal hour and get some soup. Stop by bring us some canned goods for the Maryland food bank. And donate. And please help us support a cup of soup or bowl. It is a cup of soup or Bowl week. It is crabcake row today’s day two or Costas when I originally dreamed up this idea in like November into December and I realized the Ravens were going to be jerks and call the NFL and tell them I’m not legitimate anymore. That I was going to do something different. So thought radio row crabcake row, my son comes up with a sort of the soup ID and a cup of Super Bowl and I thought soup, food, kitchen hunger, my father, you know, like all this stuff. And I thought all right, I want to do a hunt. My original idea was do 100 charities this week, under some sort of umbrella. I didn’t really think of an overriding charity, like the Maryland Food Bank till my son came up the soup thing. But I wanted to have 100 local charities out. And when I think of 100 local charities first thing I said about my wife’s like, that’s a lot. I’m like, you understand, like, I have 100 charities I have worked with in the last 10 years alone, where I could find all 100 I could ask the same organizations to come back. And I wanted to do that because I feel like in some cases, update things things come to me. I get to show your soft side stuff for whatever reason on my Facebook because there’s so many athletes, Baltimore people, people I know, friends of mine and do things and obviously thing that happens at the arena every year. We just lost one of the founders from 90 rock I mean like there’s all this show yourself side stuff that came to me. So when I started making the list of like who I was going to invite, and I think I told the sacking against cancer folks this earlier. They were one of the people that I thought about there in my inbox. I’ve had them on once or twice 10 years ago, whatever. I’ve had the folks who show your soft side on a couple of times, but it’s been a long time and I think the last time I did anything was it Buffalo Wild Wings probably in 2016 17 with Danny Wiseman, Danny and I grew up adjacent neighborhoods Berkshire and Colgate Danny is a Hall of Fame bowler PBA champion and been my friend since we were 10 years old. And he always loved his animals and wore these wild shirts when he bowl. And so have you seen So show your soft side? Anywhere? At any time and pictures of my buddy John Rollo and God so many football players. I think Ryan Jensen participate. He just retired. And every time somebody does something, show yourself so I’ve always put something up to commemorate athletes and the things that they do so the founders couldn’t be here today baton Keats’s here and your Dundalk Is that correct? I’m
Tanya Keitz 03:05
married into Dundalk. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:07
guess that is Dundalk. Your pardon faint. Where are you from?
Tanya Keitz 03:10
I’m from Southern down. I did marry Dundalk. Yes. Oh, I have
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:15
a dream. You know what I’m saying? What can I say? So tell me about show yourself. So I talked about the fans talking about all because I know a lot about it. But I want to give you a chance because show yourself side was going to be invited. And I’m really pleased that you could be here because I know we had other issues with other folks who couldn’t be here,
Tanya Keitz 03:29
of course. So yeah, I call Sir, your soft side animal adjacent. So we are an anti cruelty campaign, we envision a world where there is no cruelty. And so our mission is to develop programs and support the most vulnerable to prevent that in the future. So we have a poster campaign is how we started, we would photograph gigantic athletes like John Rollo holding tiny kittens or tiny puppies. And our message was it’s, it’s cool to be kind to animals. So what is free when a child sees their favorite football player holding a small kitten, they say, well, maybe I shouldn’t be mean to kittens, then maybe I should actually like them. And over the years, we’ve been around for, gosh, since 2011. Now, and we’ve expanded into a bunch of other programs that just further facilitate that. So we have a street kitty medical fund that provides care for community cats. We have a Phoenix Fund, which provides grant money to rescues to help them take in abuse and neglect cases. We have an animal cruelty reward fund, we have probably six or seven different programs that just further that message in addition to continuing to photograph athletes, you know, artists, actors, all kinds of different people just to get that message out that you know, be nice to animals. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:38
such an effective thing and I I can’t believe that like hurting animals is a frickin thing. Yeah, I mean, I just I can’t believe that’s the thing. I do know having had to a cat or three cats in my adulthood, but like being afraid of cats and claws when you’re a kid. I am and anybody that knows me that really know Most people know this. I am more afraid of dogs and cats I’ve been bitten by dogs several times in my life so I I am very angry dogs I don’t go I don’t pet bar I don’t pet barking dogs
Tanya Keitz 05:14
and then less than that pets the angry dogs I am 100% there but I understand people who don’t well it’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:19
not even like that. It’s just like I am when I’m walking past a dog on the street. That’s a big dog that’s within leaping distance of eating me you get a little nervous I move away from big dog I freely admit that and that’s not a bias it’s a safety issue. It’s a personal safety issue for me to not know whether the dogs friendly or not, not ask. But I don’t want to hurt you know, like the notion that the animal might hurt me that that that’s possible, I guess but the most of the I’m gonna hurt the animal. There’s no chance Yeah, right. But you know, I remember my mom. My mom had a my son’s here I don’t make him cry. But his favorite dog was an Alaskan Eskimo when he was a boy that dog called snowball. Beautiful little white dog fluffy dog. And snowball got attacked by a dog off the leash. Yeah, in in Colgate. And it was just, it was a really bad day, you know, when you see an injured animal of any kind, and your message. I think it’s heard but it’s seen and people see this thing. And they they see. You see the athlete first and then you’re like, oh, what kind of animal I wonder if that’s their animal? I wonder if that’s just the picture. They told whether it’s really it’s really random? Well, most of the time, right some
Tanya Keitz 06:34
of the time. A lot of times we do partner with local shelters. So actually our greatest campaign as recent was with them the kicker for the Buffalo Bills we have he’s one of our softies, he took a photo with a bunch of kittens, and our partnership with that local shelter help get those kittens adopted. So we work with a lot of local shelters here to do some of our shoots. barks is always top of the list. Our feline rescue Association, we have a ton of different shelter partners that will bring animals in for those events. But then there are some people like John Rollo, who one of his favorite pictures is of him and his
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:05
cat when he starts with a story when he went and adopted the cat. So which
Tanya Keitz 07:09
cat Well, I’ve adopted a cafe videoed him
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:12
for a show Yeah, I think years ago, as well. I mean, I grew up with John me my Dad No, I don’t know world without John. I mean, John’s father used to drive his football practice. 1978 Right. So I know John forever. And there is some thing about being big and muscular and tattooed and all that about animals. I mean, people shocked that I like cats, right? And weird cat guy now because like, did you see Ed Sheeran singing to the cats in the Tokyo cat cafe? You should Google that. It’s it’s done the other day he was over there. I went into cat cafes in Asia because I missed my cat
Tanya Keitz 07:48
and saw John Mayer on New Year’s Eve. He had a blast and the cat cafes ever. That’s right. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:52
right. John Mayer did that with with Anderson Cooper. And yeah, I tried to keep your tell people how they can participate because you guys did the showcase thing that you would always do down at the arena with Frank remise. Yeah, I’m very aware that never been invited. My buddy John Allen. There’s John,
Tanya Keitz 08:08
do you want to come? Yeah, I can. I can hook you up. So our main event is called Project Runway. It’s sponsored by Petco love. And that’s a partnership with barks. So it’s a fashion show. We call it the cutest fashion show on four paws. And we pair our softies people that have posed and modeled with us with adoptable animals from barks. Every year, every animal that’s in that show gets adopted, which is amazing. They’re only available for adoption at the event, but it’s a giant event. It takes place at CFG Bank Arena, and we have general admission tickets on sale now that gets you access to the show. We have a ton of vendors that show up we have merged and then we also have the coolest VIP experience ever. Those tickets will go on show on sale shortly. And that has food from vendors such as Jimmy seafood, Capitol grill, we have a CBD bar in their shots point I know is another sponsor of that. So you can go eat, drink, be merry, and then watch this fashion show date, April 4, reminding me and again that’s at CFG Bank Arena.
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:05
Fourth, the Orioles are gonna win a World Series by that
Tanya Keitz 09:08
I’ve heard Yeah, exactly. The website for any information on that is Project PAWJECT runway.org. Or you can go to show your soft side.org And we have all the information there as well. But it really is. It’s a great event. We’ll have people like John Rolla we’ll be modeling Torian Chanel Smith are already confirmed. And if you’re deep into the cat lady archives, Sterling trap King Davis is one of my favorite cat ladies. He will be there too. He calls himself a cat lady. And so we just have a ton of people we’re hoping to add more athletes and celebrities to but we’ll have probably like 20 to 30 people walking the runway with a bunch of adorable cats and dogs.
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:41
I wish my wife were here right now because my wife and I were in Australia. We went twice we were pregnant. She had cancer in 14. And we went back again in 2017 16 after she had cancer early 70 And we’re in a town there I’m on the Gold Coast, which is really Beachy. It’s very beautiful Southern California. It’s almost like Santa Barbara with cliffs, not today with the mudslides but and we’re going up a hill and I’m driving the car on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car, right. So we’re driving along and we read a red light in this little beach community. It’s not like a lot of traffic or people. And I turn the corner and we stop and my wife starts screaming. Kathmandu, Kathmandu, Kathmandu and I’m like, What the hell she I gotta get out of the car. It was like she was possessed. She got out of the car. She ran up the hill. Jason this man with a cat. The cat’s name is didja Okay, di D J A GooglePlus. Good cat man do cat man to Cat man to man do one of the
Tanya Keitz 10:51
you’re gonna have to remind me this later. It’s in the segment. Okay.
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:54
It’s on tape. It’s on video. There we go. And my wife is such a crazy cat lady that she watches cat videos. This cat is a celebrity cat in Australia because this cat surfs. And this cat goes everywhere that this cat man do guy goes, That’s awesome. And he is a California guy who’s married to an Australian guy and moved to Australia. So he’s he’s American, but he lives in Australia. And my wife chased him up a hill like as a celebrity. In the middle of nowhere. I had no idea she lost her ish. Like she got out of the car at this side of the car because I’m on and she chased him and I didn’t know what the hell she’s just stay here and I’m like, okay, she came back and I’m like, I don’t know what that was. This is a Kevin Jr. Did you get to serve Cindy and then I had to come home and watch all these really cool live I don’t know if I did it was a special animal. And she took a picture and everything so so I think a crazy cat lady stuff my wife qualifies. That’s
Tanya Keitz 11:59
awesome. Oh, she’s all in well, except anybody will take you to.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:02
I have offered to pose as nasty Nester with my cat. It’s an open offer if I’m not cool enough, famous enough, large enough. If nasty nesters not awful enough
Tanya Keitz 12:12
and I don’t know the celebrity, but I will put in a good word for you. At
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:15
this point. If it happens, it’s meant to be Yeah. I want you to talk about the founders a little bit because it’s a really special. There’s special people who do special and obviously one couldn’t be here today. Because we lost her and I had I didn’t know her but apparently she knew me. And I had a bunch of her girlfriends that I went partying with this summer all the radio people Sarah Fleischer, Kathleen Timpson. Colleen Carew, who’s my friend, Stephanie cbord, midday all my radio, the chick mafia, and the Queen Sarah is the queen. And she just died. We were at the beach this summer. And I said, I didn’t really know her. And I mean, I know Tom Davis real well, and her her wife and but I want you I haven’t had anybody on from Sure, I want you to talk about the founders.
Tanya Keitz 13:06
So you know, backtrack a little bit in 2011, Baltimore had a rash of horrific animal abuse incidents. And that pissed some of the right people off. So Sandy and Caroline and Laurie so that Sandy rice that Caroline Griffin and Laurie Smith got together and created show your soft side. So it was initially thought up to just again push that message that it’s cool to be kind to animals, when they found out that the crimes were perpetrated by children. That was when it became a little bit more targeted that we have to get in there and explain to kids that we don’t torture animals, you need to treat them nicely. So what started as a almost an ad campaign of just hey, here’s some posters of giant guys being nice to tiny, you know, it was one of the originals. Yeah. The first guy. Yeah. And it’s become so much more than that. So we did unfortunately, lose Laurie last year to a very rare form of cancer. She fought as hard as she possibly could.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:00
Oh, it was unbelievable. I’ve already cried three and a half times today. Don’t
Tanya Keitz 14:04
make it. I’m not gonna do it. Yeah, not gonna do it. Like,
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:06
I mean, it hit me over the summer. And I didn’t know Lori and I, I wonder what is it? How do I not? I asked everybody like, How did I not know or they’re like, what she knew you and I’m like, Okay, it’s good enough for me. But I, I wish I knew her. But she seemed like such a gift to people. And everybody that loved her loved her so much.
Tanya Keitz 14:26
Oh, you had to. And that’s one of the coolest things for me about show yourself side is I’ve been with this group for since 2015. And we’re so transformative. So it started as posters it became something so much greater. And then with Lori’s unfortunate passing, we immediately sprung into action. So Laurie passed away and I think within weeks it was how do we do something for Lori, how do we make something Sasha
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:47
onwards are off and you guys were doing a match ramps and I saw stuff. Yeah. So
Tanya Keitz 14:50
we actually created an additional grant that we offer now. And it’s called the Laurie Smith award, and it’s given as a lifetime achievement award to someone that has had a proof Founded impact on animal welfare Animal Rescue. So this year, we had a great event in October where we gave away $5,000 to an awardee who ultimately paid it forward to the nonprofit of their choice. And RF and barks were actually the winners of that award. But it’s a great time to just honor people who have that same spark that Laurie had, who walk in a room and the room lights up who see a problem and they want to fix it, who just dedicate their lives to fixing things. I mean, Laurie was in radio, she had a bunch of dogs at home, but she didn’t have to have the impact that she had on animal welfare. And she did it. And so we we took that opportunity to kind of find a way to honor her with it and it seems to be really well received.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:37
Alright, look, I gotta take a break because I want to go home and hug my cat do that. Tell me how to get involved shoes outside the events. April 4.
Tanya Keitz 15:44
The event is April 4 at CFG Bank Arena. Oh, cats. Oh,
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:47
well, I’ll do anything you want. I’ll stand on the side. I’ll
Tanya Keitz 15:49
serve drinkin to wrangle the wild kittens.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:52
I’d be more about the kids but I love puppies.
Tanya Keitz 15:55
Good. You know, again, it’s in partnership with barks. We’ll have a bunch of animals there from barks. Tickets are on sale. Now we’ll have VIP tickets on sale shortly. You can go to Project runway.org Or show your soft side.org. And that will get you all the information that you need. And I really appreciate you having me here today.
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:12
Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s been a pleasure. We got one segment left. I say Santa Claus for the end your leg. We’ve already had St. John’s pantry folks on Maryland food banks out here collecting there’ll be doing it again tomorrow. Coco’s on Wednesday. Thursday, say fair Friday at Pappas. All of this will appear Believe it or not at Baltimore positive.com At some point for the end of the month. I was hoping to do 100 charities I’m probably gonna get stuck in the mid 60s this week. I think we’re somewhere around 48 or 32 days into this that’s pretty good. We’re getting there show yourself side I’m sure on my soft side here I’ve cried enough today in Costas and our tears that’s good song awesome yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m listening on the way home got that bass doing them. We’ll do that in honor Laurie from 90 Rock. So that’s a big thanks to Sandy for setting this up. Appreciate you appreciate all that you do all the people that you have crowd and my friends Mike my childhood friends like John Rollo and Danny Wiseman, who’ve supported what you guys have done. You do great work, of course. Tom keeps joining us here for show your soft side. So I’m brought to you by the Maryland lottery 10 times the cash you get a lottery ticket. It’s a lucky when I had a $10 bill people want 100 Dental tell me they sneak out the back door because they think I’m gonna get vague or something like that. I’m not sure Brian Marchetti is going to be here. I know it was Brian Marchetti. I know him as the brother of the woman who took great care of my mother before she passed, and you’re gonna get to know him. I think next. Yeah, right after this. Stay with us.
