The Jason Los Foundation: Putting sudden tragedy into action with friendship and purpose

The Smalltimore story of a local friend suddenly lost inspired a connected group of community-minded folks to surround a widow and her children by honoring his legacy through The Jason Los Foundation, powering up a special bond of friends into local action and love. And. of course, the best stories are told over tasty Pizza John’s in Essex on “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” with a whole cheering section for Cynthia Los, who made her debut in telling tales of her late husband.

The Jason Los Foundation was established in memory of Jason Los, who passed away suddenly from pneumonia and meningitis in June 2024. Cynthia Los, Josh Straub, and CJ Gerbes discussed the foundation’s mission to provide grief support and scholarships, having raised over $70,000 in a year. The foundation has 400 members and hosts events like golf tournaments and a butterfly release. They emphasize the importance of community support and have a membership model where members receive discounts at participating vendors. The foundation aims to help those experiencing sudden loss and honor Jason’s legacy through community engagement and support.

• [ ] Manage financial stewardship for the foundation, including handling donations, event proceeds, and disbursements as treasurer
• [ ] Grow membership (target increasing the current membership base) and maintain the digital membership offering that provides access to vendor discounts and challenge coins
• [ ] Lead the Grief Support Team and implement grief support services (including coordinating certified volunteers, therapists, and financial assistance for funerals) for members experiencing sudden loss
• [ ] Conduct outreach to local businesses to recruit vendor partners and create mutually beneficial sponsorship and discount relationships for members
• [ ] Produce and distribute the foundation newsletter and maintain communications content and schedule
• [ ] Organize and run the second annual golf tournament scheduled for June 12, including logistics, fundraising targets, and participant coordination

Jason Los Foundation Introduction and Initial Reactions

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the Jason Los Foundation and the purpose of the meeting, mentioning the support from various sponsors and community members.
• Nestor Aparicio lists the panel members, including Cynthia Los, Josh Straub, and CJ Gerbis, and acknowledges the presence of other community members.
• Cynthia Los shares the tragic story of her husband Jason’s sudden death from necrotizing pneumonia and meningitis, which occurred on the last day of her children’s school.
• Cynthia Los expresses her initial shock and disbelief, and how Josh and CJ approached her to start a foundation in Jason’s honor.

Formation and Initial Challenges of the Foundation

• Cynthia Los explains the formation of the Jason Los Foundation with the help of Josh, CJ, and other board members, including her cousin Nick, brother Raymond, and friends Brooks and Danny.
• Nestor Aparicio shares his personal experiences with community events and the importance of honoring loved ones through foundations.
• CJ Gerbis describes Jason’s impact on the community and how his sudden death motivated them to start the foundation.
• Josh Straub recounts the initial steps taken to start the foundation, including researching how to create a 501(c)(3) organization and seeking guidance from the Maryland nonprofit organization.

Community Support and Initial Activities

• Cynthia Los emphasizes the importance of community support in the foundation’s success, especially for those who have experienced sudden loss.
• Josh Straub and CJ Gerbes discuss the foundation’s initial activities, including fundraising through golf tournaments and community events.
• Nestor Aparicio highlights the strong community support from schools like Calvert Hall and the importance of alumni networks in fundraising efforts.
• Cynthia Los shares her resilience and the support she received from the community, which helped her and her children cope with their loss.

Grief Support and Future Plans

• Josh Straub and CJ Gerbes discuss the foundation’s focus on providing grief support and scholarships for local schools.
• Cynthia Los talks about the importance of having a community to support those who have experienced sudden loss, similar to the support she received.
• Josh Straub mentions the foundation’s efforts to provide grief support therapy and the training of grief support members.
• Nestor Aparicio asks about the personal impact of Jason’s loss on Cynthia and how the foundation has helped her and her children cope.

Membership and Community Involvement

• CJ Gerbes explains the foundation’s membership model and the benefits of becoming a member, including discounts at participating vendors.
• Josh Straub and CJ Gerbes discuss the foundation’s financial transparency and the importance of using donations effectively.
• Nestor Aparicio highlights the foundation’s efforts to involve the community and the importance of community support in achieving their goals.
• Cynthia Los shares her appreciation for the community’s support and the positive impact it has had on her and her family.

Final Thoughts and Call to Action

• Nestor Aparicio thanks the panel members and the community for their support and encourages people to get involved with the Jason Los Foundation.
• Josh Straub and CJ Gerbes emphasize the importance of becoming a member and the various ways people can support the foundation.
• Cynthia Los shares her gratitude for the community’s support and the positive impact it has had on her and her family.
• Nestor Aparicio concludes the meeting by expressing his admiration for the foundation’s efforts and encouraging people to join and support the cause.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Jason Los Foundation, grief support, sudden loss, community events, scholarships, golf tournaments, membership drive, vendor network, emotional resilience, nonprofit organization, fundraising, therapy support, Calvert Hall, family legacy, volunteer work.

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SPEAKERS

C.J. Gerbes, Josh Straub, Cynthia Los, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome all. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. We’re wrapping things up here in pizza John’s. I got one pizza, two pizza, three uneaten pizzas, and some cheesesteaks, probably some fries and some gravy to go. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the candy cane cash and the Maryland lottery. GBMC put us out on the road. We call it a cup of soup or bowl. We’re telling community stories, charity stories, awareness stories, and I put this a pub out on LinkedIn and out on Facebook and Instagram and everywhere that we travel, and people send me notes and say, This is the organization you need to be promoting. And then I invite people, and everybody knows everybody, because it’s Essex and Dundalk. So I’m going to ask everybody here on the panel, and they’ve all written their names down for me. They’re here for the Jason loss Foundation, adjacent loss foundation.org,

Nestor Aparicio  00:50

Cynthia loss is here. Josh strob is here. CJ gerbis, is that correct? That’s correct. All right. And I got all the microphones on. Everybody’s crowding. We got people in the back here. Zandra’s husband’s here, fixed my phone years ago. The quiet lady in the back with the beer and the pizza’s here, and everybody’s here. How are you guys doing? Thanks for coming out. Thanks for having us. There’s a lot of you who’s gonna tell the story for I’m voting on you, and I think you’re Cynthia. Hi, Cynthia, thank you. Thanks for having us. Tell us about the Jason loss foundation. Yes. So unfortunately, in June of 2024 my husband, Jason Lohse, my husband of 20 years, actually passed away very suddenly from what was a rare necrotizing pneumonia and a meningitis. So this actually occurred on the very last day of my kids’ school. I have two sons. One was a seventh grader at St Joseph’s school, and the other one was just a freshman finishing up his freshman year at Calvert Hall. So what was supposed to be, you know, the last day of school fun for the summer. I mean, our lives were just changed in an instant. So the weeks following the service, I was still extremely in shock. My kids were too, and Josh and CJ actually approached me and said that they really wanted to honor Jason, just because he meant so much to so many people, and they wanted to start a foundation. And at the time, I obviously could not get out of bed. I was still reeling. I’m like, there’s no possible way it was so overwhelming to start a foundation. And they were both like, we’re going to do it. You can come in and help whenever you want to. But you know, with the help of those two and then our amazing board, my cousin Nick, my brother Raymond, and two of Jason’s best friends, Brooks and Danny, we started the Jason Lewis Foundation, and now we do have a woman, thank God, a strong woman on the board now she’ll be there, who has just started with us, and that’s really how it got started.

Nestor Aparicio  02:43

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I’m very courageous. I start with that. You know, my wife’s two time leukemia survivor, and this is sort of my homage to her in doing community events, because she can’t come out and talk about it, you know, people LLS, people have changed her name, and she said, I don’t want to put her under it. You know what? I mean, she it’s behind her. Now, to some degree, we did swabbing, we did all sorts of things. And I’ve often thought like, I mean, she came, my wife came very close to dying Christmas time in the 2015 and for anybody that comes out in a survivor mode, honor people. I mean, I’ve, I’ve had friends, dude, friends of mine, that have passed away from things. I’m 57 golf tournaments, always year after year. Today’s our day. We’re gonna honor our friend Ed, who passed away, or my friend John. I got names, you know, businesses all over town, and I see their golf tournament every April, May all their friends get together. They party in their honor. I, you know, I, um, it’s a beautiful thing, but I think it’s very difficult at very at various points, especially to drag you out of here to eat pizza years later. I think your husband be proud of all that, but it is hard, difficult work, and once you start it, then I don’t say you feel obligated, but you feel it’s important to grow it and important to keep it alive, important to get new people out every year for all the things you’re doing. And I get shirts. I got hats. They’re gonna lead me one and an army energy fellas. Tell me about Jason a little bit. Tell me about your involvement the CJ, start with you because I know

C.J. Gerbes  04:07

you’re going to talk more Well, I’ll say this. I mean, Jason was a good friend of mine, and it kind of hit home. You know, when, when someone you know, like you said, Nestor, there’s a lot of people that pass and you do golf tournaments, and there’s a lot of foundations out there. But when you have something that hits so close to home, and somebody that, you know, I tell people, if you put Jason in the room with us, he was the one in the, you know, best shape, you know, he was the one that you’d be like, he’s gonna outlive all of us, you know. And that’s coming off the heels of my mom passing away kind of suddenly as well. So I think that was that hit me the most. So, you know, Josh had came and said, Hey, let’s do something for this. And you know, I’ve been involved in nonprofits, in some sorts, in, you know, over the past years. But this is different. You know, this feels different. One thing about Jason is he had an army of friends, and you

Nestor Aparicio  04:56

can’t you’re activating them right this minute, right? Literally every minute. It right? Absolutely, and you can’t do this without that.

C.J. Gerbes  05:02

You know you need, you know, we’re just the board, you know, we’re just the people that kind of make the decisions, but we have literally hundreds of people that will step up and help out when we need them, and that’s amazing. I mean, the community that’s come together on behalf of Jason is, is what keeps us motivated. You know, we wanted, we started this to kind of honor Jason, but now it’s we realize it’s a community that we built, and it’s amazing.

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Nestor Aparicio  05:26

Well, you have wine and pizza here tonight, and I got my my leader here, Josh in putting together Foundation, thinking, all right, what did he like? What were we going to do? How to honor, how to raise money, how to raise awareness, how to make it just beyond, about a name, about a movement, right? Yeah.

Josh Straub  05:45

I mean, none of us are experts, that’s for sure. I think when it happened, and everybody has gone through something that that tragic, like this, and I think one of the best parts about it, if there is, you know, something that shines through is everyone can relate to this, whether it’s sibling, a parent, a co worker, a coach, somebody you know you’ve lost tragically and suddenly. And so with that emotion, that jarring event, comes a lot of nervous energy. And so I found myself like staring at the ceiling, going, Wow, we were just several hours, maybe days, before watching our children in one of their, you know, best moments of their life. They’ll look back on winning the state championship in soccer, standing shoulder to shoulder, and the next thing you know, they’re gone. And so I googled, not knowing what else to do, how to start a 501, c3, organization without any background or knowledge. Didn’t even have a friend to ask, huh? Nobody. Luckily got that is real inspiration. Yeah, I don’t know where it came from, but luckily got hooked up with the Maryland nonprofit organization. They were godsend in terms of advice and guidance to activate the work stream. And then, you know, again, I think expertise is conquered by investment and emotion, and so that made it easy, honestly, for us, to get together forge the infrastructure. We’re 400 strong now, looking to become 400,400

Nestor Aparicio  07:20

Yeah, 400 members. How many years has this been? Since? Years has it

Josh Straub  07:23

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spent since we lost Jason

Nestor Aparicio  07:25

a little over one, June, 2024 this

C.J. Gerbes  07:28

is really started in September of 2024 so this

Nestor Aparicio  07:32

is really, this is in its infancy. For sure. We even know what it is yet, or what it’s going to be like, you know, growing into, because I’m thinking three years from now, you’ll have more ideas, right?

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C.J. Gerbes  07:41

I mean, I’ll say this. We didn’t think it was going to be this successful. We kind of thought that when we started this out, it was like, Hey, we could do this. We could help out with sudden death. We can help out with community projects and service that stuff that Jason promoted. It quickly became we realized how many people wanted to get behind us. So at that point, we’re like, wow, this is bigger than we thought. So it’s kind of guided itself into, you know, we’re part of the community, you know, and that’s like Josh said, we want to, we have a membership based model where we have 400 strong members and we, that’s how we do things, you know, that’s the money that comes in. We fundraise. We also have donations that come in. We do golf tournaments. We do the annual event for Jason’s birthday. That’s in November, correct? That’s the end of, yep, end of November. And we that’s his birthday, so we want to honor him that day. And then also the golf tournament’s a big fundraiser for us as well. We’ve what is that June 12 this year? Okay, it’s going to be our second annual and big props to Nick in the back there.

Nestor Aparicio  08:42

Mountain branch. Mountain branch, are you going Harford County? I like that county, close to home. Yeah, the Calvert Hall, part of this capital, guy, capital, my kid, went to the hall, Perry Hall. I went to Dundalk. But I would just say you walked into Essex right we’re in pizza John’s here. I’m from Dundalk. She grew up with me in Essex. Her friend was here, teaches at Kenwood. Dundalk, I’m sorry. Dundalk, we’re in Essex other. We’re from Dundalk, but the Calvert Hall thing, I live near Calvert Hall in in my audience right now that I don’t think there would ever be a minute of my day where somebody’s not listening to me who’s a Calvert Hall person because of where my tower is, because of how many years Calvert Hall has been out, because how duty it is. Last I checked it was all guys. They’re all sports people, they’re all soccer people, they’re all football people, basketball people, sports people. So the Calvert Hall part of this. When I think of Calvert Hall, and I’m not a part of the family, but I’m not a part of Loyola either, although they invite me over more often those schools and throw Gilman, throw, say, put that any McDonough, any of those private school things, there’s such a there’s already community built in there that everybody signed up to be there, everybody pays to be there, everybody contributes, everybody shows up, and then they take the alumni part of that seriously as well. I. Um, I would say you were in a position to be able to put together a hell of a foundation just because you had the foundation of the foundation. Am I right in

Cynthia Los  10:07

saying that absolutely? Yeah, no, that’s, that’s really what the backbone of our foundation has been so far. I mean, we haven’t even gotten into our mission, but our mission has evolved because of the community that we’ve been able to build, especially with my kids school. I mean, they Josh and CJ said, What do you want this foundation to be about? And I remember thinking that the community here was so strong for me and came out for me and still do. And I said, there’s probably so many people in my position who have gone through sudden loss like me and did not have that community. So we wanted this place to be a place where somebody who has experienced sudden loss could come and be supported just the same way that the entire community, like you said, Calvert Hall was one of them to support to support

Nestor Aparicio  10:51

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me. How worried were you about her?

Josh Straub  10:53

Two of you guys? Very, extremely worried. And that’s why it was an option as to how active, and you know how much of a participant she wanted to be from day one, gradually, she’s really taken a lot of ownership. You know, it’s her personality. She’s very resilient, very strong, very impressive. Honestly, that’s first

Nestor Aparicio  11:13

thing I said. I’m like, it’s this is tough. This tough work. This is

Nestor Aparicio  11:16

the first time I’ve actually been talking about it, talked about it in person. Look, I

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Nestor Aparicio  11:19

haven’t cried in four days, I’ve done 921, segments now, and I usually cry at least a dozen times this week. So I’m holding on. Don’t push me. Don’t push me. I got to get on a yoga mat here. No, I did want to ask you about this, because you mentioned pneumonia and I had my wife’s cousin passed away. Oh, man, 15 years ago. He was 51 years old. It was November. He got sick up in New Hampshire, and he died. He went to hospital, then a week later, was dead. I don’t know what I sold all these years later, I know he died of pneumonia, and we’ve all had a bronchial we’ve all had a chest cold. We’ve all felt that gasp, but we can’t breathe. I watch my mom, who was 98 years of age, you know, have COPD have those issues at the end of her life. But I think about pneumonia being and every time I see that damn commercial pneumococcal, I don’t know the whole pneumococcal. I don’t know what the hell that is. I don’t even know how to spell it. Probably begins with a P. I don’t even know. I don’t know how to Google it. But I mean, in all sincerity, I see these ads and I see kind of scare shit out of me a little bit like, you know, do you have your shot and all they’re designed to do all of that, but you’re now somebody else I’ve seen that tells me you had a young, strong, beautiful husband who had this happen. I don’t want to be the guy for whatever the name of the shot is, or whatever that thing is, but let’s talk about how you lost your husband, and maybe part of the awareness is whatever could have kept him alive, or is there anything you don’t even know he got sick? Is that basically what happened? Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  12:51

I mean, yeah, that’s basically what happened. And there’s, you know, not much that part’s still very difficult for me to grasp.

Josh Straub  12:56

But I think the message is, you know, life is fleeting, and not to take any moment for granted. You know, to CJs point earlier, Jason was the healthiest out of all of us. So it’s, it’s jarring in the moment, but even looking back, it’s like, wow. You know, there’s, there’s just a time and place, then things happen. And you know, you have to be resilient and move on and make the most of it. And so, you know. I think you know, when I when I look at what we’ve done so far in the mission moving forward, I know Jason’s looking down smiling, and that’s the best part. Too many times today. You know, we’re looking to tear each other down and be divisive and point out differences. Jason was the opposite. He found something in common with everyone. He’s the easiest person in the room, find some way to communicate and find, you know, a way to connect with everyone. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to, in his legacy, create positivity, create this ecosystem of tangible impact for good in the community. And so it’s easy, it’s fun, it’s therapeutic. And as much as the emotions still raw, it’s a way, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s therapy, literally, to see what we’ve been able to accomplish for people that are going through those things, because the resources aren’t easy, that to find, and they we didn’t know they existed. So now I’m doing

Nestor Aparicio  14:16

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this week to try to educate people about things like this, maybe inspire somebody else to do something you know, or you get involved with you guys join, right? Guys. Join right, involved with you and give me what is our goal? What are we trying to do besides drink some beer, hit some golf balls, raise some money? What are we gonna do

C.J. Gerbes  14:30

with all that’s I mean, ultimately, we want to provide grief support for members in our community that have lost a loved one, especially sudden loss. Because, as as Cynthia has pointed out, and Josh mentioned, I mean, there’s we, there’s no playbook for that. You know, there’s no textbook, no and what do you do? I mean, I can’t imagine to be in that situation. And you know, we point out how strong Cynthia is, and it’s a true testament to how she can deal with this and be productive with her role here. I. But it’s, I mean, we want to get we want to build membership. We want to get money into our foundation and help out and grief support. And also, we do work in the school systems. We do scholarships locally with different high schools. We do support some Calvert Hall. We have a we have a soccer scholarship. Soccer, they do pretty well soccer.

Nestor Aparicio  15:21

Tower has always done good at soccer. Yeah, I go back to car provisions. Currently days, girly guys don’t hear sorry guys. But you know, it happens, you know, yeah, I pick on them all because I went to Dundalk. Okay, I had my chance to go to curly there were no girls there. Same thing with Calvert Hall, and there was a bus to go there. I ain’t going there. I’m going to Dundalk. So, you know, no offensive you can only go to one high school. Support other high schools. We only go to one. Calvert Hall is one that, you know, my parents could have afforded it, I guess I would have had this a different kind of experience, right, in the community, and how it comes together, right? That’s why you said your child there, right? Absolutely, it worked out, all right.

C.J. Gerbes  15:54

You said it’s a brotherhood, and it’s not like, it’s not just Calvert Hall, it’s, currently, it’s Loyola, it’s, it’s a brotherhood of alumni. And, you know, we’ve been fortunate, thanks.

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Nestor Aparicio  16:03

Eve, I’ve seen that, believe me, with those, you know, all those schools get together, they’re, you know, it’s, it’s fun fighting. We’re all in the brown the beltway together, right?

C.J. Gerbes  16:11

Yeah, the older you get, the more camaraderie you have. And you know, you you drink beers together, rather than,

Nestor Aparicio  16:16

we got one more glass of wine and a pizza, I’m throw down and make the Loyola people come over and help you. You know,

C.J. Gerbes  16:22

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I have a PhD, a poly high school diploma with the poly. I had some

Nestor Aparicio  16:25

poly people on yesterday. We were talking about their robotics program, something I would not have qualified. I don’t think I would know I was not, I wasn’t the a course. I wouldn’t, you know, I didn’t have any of that going on, but, but Calvert Hall and and the tentacles of all of that getting involved there golf. Party in November. What else is? I mean, I’m asking people that just dealing with grief new you’re, you don’t even, I mean, you’re gonna do a lot of things you don’t even know you’re gonna do yet. I bet I with 400 people, people are gonna come to you an idea to say, let’s have a polo match. Let’s have a bowling night. Let’s go to the Orioles game, you’re gonna have the opportunity to do all

Josh Straub  17:02

those things? Yeah. I mean, it takes an army, and so we have a good representation of our core board, but there are so many other people that are investing their time, blood, sweat and tears and hours upon hours on behalf of the organization. We have multiple sub teams. Cynthia leads the Grief Support Team, and that takes all shapes. We pay for costs associated with funerals and things like that, for people that are in financial need. We provide therapists for Grief Support therapy. We have a team of people that are licensed

Nestor Aparicio  17:39

about that because that therapy that you’re raising money for, I’m not a therapist. I don’t know if any of you were trained for any of this, and obviously you’ve gone through it. And did you reach the therapist? Have you met with therapists in the aftermath that then can become someone that can help someone in the same circumstance?

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Nestor Aparicio  17:57

Cynthia, yeah, of course. I mean, everybody grieves differently, right? So that’s why we put this in place, because we want to make sure that we’re reaching the people and the right way. So that’s why we’re putting a lot of our resources from the foundation towards that. In fact, three of our grief support members just recently went through an intense eight week training to get grief certified. They just finished this week, and so now that’s just another, you know, another thing that we have that we can present to people who really need it.

Nestor Aparicio  18:26

So what would that represent? I don’t put you in that bad space, but the moment that happens, someone reaches to you and said, I knew Jason. I know Cynthia. I know, see, I know somebody I’m going to reach. What is the mechanism that happens and and on a personal level, what? What has helped you, besides the love all these people putting this foundation together, this isn’t every minute of every day. You’re still missing your husband, you have your children, your home. At night, they’re asleep. What the The grief part of that, as you were counseled, what has empowered you?

Nestor Aparicio  18:58

Yeah, I mean every day is different, right? I mean, you can be happy one day today because you got wine and peach. That’s true. Very, very true. Wine always makes me happy, but, yeah, I mean, everybody grieves differently. That’s just the message. So we just have to walk the path that, you know with somebody, you can’t tell somebody that they’re they’re grieving differently. So that’s why we really, it’s really important for us, for our committee to have these certifications so that they know how to deal with different grief, you know, on every level. Yeah, what’s been most helpful for you? I mean, this foundation has been amazing, this community has been amazing, like I said. I mean, it’s always people, right? That’s always people, yeah, I said, there’s so many people that didn’t, weren’t, that are in my situation, like I said before, and didn’t have that support. I just think that the support of the community has has been amazing, and it’s been great for my kids too, because they see how much Jason meant to so many people and the legacy that he’s left, and I think that that also has helped them, because, you know, kids don’t like this grief support stuff, especially boys. So I think just having the support of the community, it really. Really has helped them in their journey. Kids doing good. I think so. Hope so. How old are they now? They’re a freshman and junior at Calvert Hall.

Josh Straub  20:09

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Very impressive young men, amazing kids. And I think the beauty of the safe, kind of umbrella environment, the ecosystem that we’ve achieved, is we meet you where you are. You know when you’re ready, we’re ready. And so there’s no defined approach. We’re not going to force you to be uncomfortable. It’s about when, when you’re looking for support, we’ll provide it.

Nestor Aparicio  20:30

What did you do in the real world that you guys are all such grown ups here? Like, what?

Josh Straub  20:33

Seriously, I’m in biotech by trade, deal with academic institutions. No wonder

Nestor Aparicio  20:39

you want to do this. This is the little beer drinking some fun here. And get people together, and let’s relax, loving each other up a little bit here, right? What line of work are you in?

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C.J. Gerbes  20:47

TJ, sales, done sales, pretty much my whole life. So, and this my brother in law. So that’s the connection there.

Nestor Aparicio  20:53

Well, I met zandra’s husband back here, and that’s the reason I got a cell phone. My cousin. It is small to more I’m telling you. I mean, I’m five minutes away from anger and somebody at Loyola back Calvert hall here, but I’ll get him involved. So how can people be involved? That’s why we roll deep. That’s why you gave me the hat. You know what I’m saying. So what can we do to get people, obviously, the golf tournament, obviously coming in November, volunteering, but just more than that, just hitting the website, right, learning about it?

C.J. Gerbes  21:18

Yeah, absolutely. I’d say the website. Ultimately we want members. Membership drives a lot of what we do. You ask, what we do otherwise with some of our money, you know, we are. We’re a very lean Foundation. We don’t take salaries. Every money that, every dollar that comes to us, goes back to the community. We do. For instance, we’ve given out just over $70,000 in a little over a year, about 30,000 these are rough numbers, about 30,000 plus into schools, whether that be through scholarships or through club grants. We had a program where we had a grant for different clubs, and it was a $300 grant for each grant for each school. We also have given out about 30,000 plus into the grief support community, and then just getting started, and we’re just getting started, then that’s still and we’ve also done like community support. So if someone reaches out and say, Hey, we’re a like minded foundation and we’re having a golf tournament, you know, can you donate a basket? Or can you help us out? Can you sponsor a whole can you so we’ve done that as well. So we want to partner with other foundations that do similar work. But ultimately, for us, we, like members, drives everything. So we’ve done we next, I think it’s actually wrote the date down here is it’s a butterfly event where they release butterflies for real butterflies, real

Josh Straub  22:36

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butterflies, youth that have we’ve lost tragically.

C.J. Gerbes  22:40

Yes, and that’s the third annual. Is coming. What is this? Somewhere may 17 Park. Where’s Angel Park? Perry Hall, yes, right off of honey go.

Nestor Aparicio  22:48

Ever been a Butterfly World in Florida, it’s fantastic. Right outside of Boca. North Side. Highly recommend you say butterflies. I’m like, my wife would want to come.

Josh Straub  22:57

Yeah, it’s really cool. We release a butterfly in honor. And there’s a spokesperson for each of the children that were lost.

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Nestor Aparicio  23:05

Unfortunately, would you have to get touching? A shout out to the organization that’s the reflections grief and wellness organization that puts that

Nestor Aparicio  23:11

on Well, I guess my message in getting all this is somebody’s out there listening. You want to come, you want to party, get money, but if somebody has a tragedy and needs your help. I think that that’s, you know, that’s where the rubber meets the road. If somebody doesn’t know where to reach, I wouldn’t know what I would have done. Literally, I can’t even think about it. Start talking about, I’ll be a mess. But, like, I could have been you in an instant, in an instant, and I thought about it when it was going on, like, what am I going to do? How would I handle it? I don’t know that I could have started a foundation and run around if I lost my wife. It was, it was a lot easier running around when my wife was a survivor and doing all that, and now it’s harder for her as a survivor. I mean, you notice I’m not doing a hero segment this week and having her sitting here and telling the whole Her story’s told. You want to go read about it. Read about it. She’s trying to move toward not thinking about it so much anymore, but she it, but I have such admiration respect, especially so soon thereafter. But it feels like it’s empowering you and lifting you up. And that’s

Nestor Aparicio  24:13

kind of neat. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t have even fathomed to start something like this, so the fact that they took the initiative to do this is pretty in the beginning or no, say, maybe not or not. I mean, I didn’t fight anything. I didn’t know what I was doing.

Nestor Aparicio  24:26

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You want to honor him? Okay? We’ll do it right? Total

C.J. Gerbes  24:29

blur. We didn’t know how big this was going to be, so, you know, we didn’t know what commitment level it was. So, you know, it’s still evolving, you know, it’s kind of, you know, we know what we’re doing, and now we’re trying to just, kind of, you know, Josh had said earlier, we have different committees for each. So we have a committee of volunteer work for the grave side. We have a committee for scholarship size. So we’re trying to help delegate some work. We like to get take stuff off of Cynthia’s plate, where, where we can, but it’s still, it’s

Nestor Aparicio  24:57

the scholarship side. What’s that encompass? So I can educate folks on that. Yeah, I

Josh Straub  25:01

think, you know, we reach, we do proactive outreach. My daughter’s at St Paul’s, and we’re in conversation with them. So we’re with a lot of the public and private schools. You know, there’s usually a point of contact that has those discussions with entities like ours to coordinate how it makes sense. Like, what does it look like? You know, I think if we leave you with with with two things. Number one, thank you for the opportunity to socialize the concept and, you know,

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Nestor Aparicio  25:28

get the words out there for you guys. But I appreciate you coming out. But the calls to

Josh Straub  25:31

action are really simple. Become a member if you have have experienced something like this, or you just have empathy for the situations that people face, reach out. We’re very active on social media. You can go to Jason Lewis foundation.org, to become a member, build, become a part of a positive part of this universe and make a tangible difference in your community. And then, number two, if you’re a local business owner, whether you’re a small mom and pop shop, large corporation, anything in between, give us a call. We’ll find a way to forge a mutually beneficially beneficial relationship. We can provide examples. Thank you to all of our current vendor partners, who are, you know, helping our members with discounts and opportunities to leverage their membership and then for the business, building new patronage to another, different set of community members, 400

Nestor Aparicio  26:23

strong and growing, right? Yeah.

C.J. Gerbes  26:24

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And if I could touch on that too, a membership is $40 so we charge $40 what that gives you is we have vendor network where restaurants and places will give, you, know, a percentage back if you just show your Jason los membership. So we have a digital membership, or you could even show one of the things we came out with was a with a challenge coin. It’s pretty cool. Hold on it. So if you show that where you’re at one of the participating vendor locations, they’ll give you say 10% off depends on what the negotiated deal is.

Nestor Aparicio  26:59

That mountains on there. What is all that I see that that logo there? What is who drew that?

Nestor Aparicio  27:04

Yeah, by Mark. Jason’s very good friend, our neighbor, Tom doxanis, came up with this logo.

Nestor Aparicio  27:09

What is it? I’m trying to figure out exactly, because it’s,

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Josh Straub  27:13

it’s so Jason was referred to, I see a son. Yeah, Jason was referred to as the buffalo by his family members, because he was kind of a staunch point of contact that you can always count on be there. It’s better looking buffalo than the Buffalo Bills. He also loved the out of doors, and so the there’s a little ski slope going down. He liked to snowboard.

Nestor Aparicio  27:33

It looks like mountains. That’s why I didn’t know what the heck it was, because it’s part mountains. Yeah, it’s

Josh Straub  27:37

part and so it represents the outdoors, you know the the ability to be depended on and always be supportive. Do you recognize the font?

C.J. Gerbes  27:50

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The font is a it’s heavy metal.

Josh Straub  27:52

Wu Tang. Wu Tang, yeah, okay,

Nestor Aparicio  27:54

music. I looked at it. I’m like, I’ve seen it before.

Josh Straub  27:58

So we had an event at the Wu Tang concert where we all had Viva loves shirts, and we had a large group of people that went to see Wu Tang and for their last concert. Los, yep, yep, but yeah, I think we kind of nailed it. The the obvious things are, just do something positive, become a part of this commute, growing community make a difference in people’s lives and feel good, you know. And what came out of a really rough time, the emotions are raw. Listening to Cynthia was, was this first time I heard her. So it was, you know, difficult to hear those words coming out. But at the same time, tragedy spawned a very productive and positive work stream, and so we’re very proud of it.

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Nestor Aparicio  28:43

All right? Well, I’ve got a very courageous race from here since you Cynthia los Josh straps here, CJ gerbis is here. The group in the back, identify everybody back here, because I want to make sure they get a shout out. I only had three mics for Mike’s. This guy here’s wife saved my life with digitally back when I got my first phone. I was the most complicated MFR she’s ever met in her life. Text her, trust me, my contacts. Nobody listened to this show, but I got 4 million people in my phone, names we give me. Everybody back here. This is shuler’s brother.

Nestor Aparicio  29:14

He’s our treasurer. That’s Brooke. Is the treasurer of our foundation, Nick Raver, he is one of our board members, and he does all the events. And then Katie Maskell is actually brand new to our board, but she’s been amazing. She actually is the driving force behind our newsletter. We do a

Speaker 1  29:30

pretty face, is what they told that too. She is a pretty face, but she’s also a badass.

Nestor Aparicio  29:35

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Well, we got 1236, badasses here. They’re all here on behalf of Jason Lohse and the Jason Lois Foundation, very courageous folks. They’re based right here at Towson, right here at Calvert Hall and throughout the community, even st, Paul’s. So I get it. Did I leave any other schools out? I don’t want to anger. St, Joe. St, Joe, sorry, I get that in. Did I miss any that left everybody out the Hereford zone? We leave them in or no, they’re public.

Josh Straub  29:58

I have a son at fallston High School. That’s Harford County.

Nestor Aparicio  30:01

We’re down here in Essex. All right. My thanks to everybody that made this awesome this week. I These people want to party. I can see they want to eat pizza, drink beer. You know, I’ve never had a milkshake here. I’m not getting one tonight because I’m yoga mat, but I’ve been inspired to eat more different things here this week. So everybody’s eating food. We got plenty of pizza. We’re pizza John’s. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. By the way, you guys even know this, but today is your lucky day. Candy Cane cash for you. Candy Cane cash for you. I feel like Oprah here, I’ll give three back to Schuler’s brother, and since he’s handling the money, I’m sure he’ll take two out of three of them. By the way, your brother’s coming on the show tomorrow with Bill Cole tomorrow, we’re gonna be at Costas in Timonium, because shulers brother likes to bet the ponies. It was his idea, even though he runs a damn good law firm right on Eastern Avenue. Damn good lawyers. Damn good lawyers, is what I understand. And Mark Miller was fighting and winning money today. Blondell Miller Schuler right here in Essex. One day, I’ll get Todd over here and have some more pizza. My thanks to you. Thank you and strength to you as of course, and you guys for coming out amazing stuff you’re doing to support your friend, to support your deceased friend, and the family and everybody. I hope you guys raised a ton of money. And I hope you get great weather on your golf tournament. And I hope that when I see you next year for a couple Super Bowl, you’ll say, Oh, we have 828 members. We had 400,000 All right, man, ambition, greed or just a big dream, it’s good to think big. All right, yeah, pretty good job of that. Thanks a lot. I appreciate y’all take a break. We’re gonna come back. Luke, will keep you informed of anything that happens or does not happen with the Orioles. You’ll get all that first on the wnst Tech Services brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy and Billy Cole will be with us tomorrow, along with Todd Schuler. We’re gonna be out at Costas and Timonium. Stop by say hello, get a crab cake. Get a lottery ticket that I gave you guys tickets, right? Did anybody win yet? All right, I’ll put it on the internet if you you already scanned it. I had $100 winner the other day. Maryland lottery people win back for more from Essex. Right after this, you.