00:00My name is Mark Raffone. I'm with Forensic Technology. We're based out of Largo, Florida.
00:04This is Leanna Pham. She's the office manager for Forensic Technology.
00:09I'm the Global Customer Service Manager.
00:11So over the years, Forensic Technology and the Mason-Dixon Christmas Wish program
00:17have seemed to manage to link up on a couple different fundraising efforts.
00:22And I think we're very successful with our warehouse of horrors.
00:25We raised more money probably than you guys had expected.
00:29Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, right, with COVID,
00:32we ran into some serious issues there where we couldn't perform the warehouse of horrors.
00:38And then this year, we were all set to go. We ran into some insurance problems.
00:43So we managed to still do an event at Snapper's Comedy Club.
00:48Leanna and her assistant, Rachel Dudley, put that together.
00:52I know you guys attended. I'm glad to see you got some laughs out of that.
00:56Oh, did we ever. And we needed it.
00:58Yeah, very good.
01:00So we raised, Leanna, correct me if I'm wrong, somewhere around $1,500 or something like that.
01:06And then we thought, you know what, we heard about our parent company, Ultra Electronics.
01:12They're actually in the UK.
01:12That they had this corporate match.
01:16And we thought, well, let's apply.
01:18I mean, the worst they can do is say no.
01:21Okay.
01:21So I went, I met Pat here at Mason maybe about two months ago when we were talking about the Snapper's event.
01:28And I don't know if you remember this, Pat, but I got here before Mason and you took me to his office.
01:36That's where we thought we were going to meet.
01:39What I saw on Mason's wall was a copy of the prior checks that we had delivered.
01:43And that kind of struck me, you know, like, wow, okay, that's, I didn't know that, you know.
01:48We were very proud of that.
01:49And to see it without even asking for it, you know, that kind of stuck with me.
01:53And I don't think you guys remember, but, and you kind of said it under your low voices that a couple of years ago you guys ran into some, you know, shortfalls.
02:06And out of the graciousness of your own hearts and wallets, you contributed your own money to the effort to kind of, you know, get the Christmas wish money where it need to be.
02:18Whatever it takes.
02:19Help all the kids.
02:20That's exactly what you said as I was walking out the door there.
02:23So when I went back to Leanna and Rachel, I said, look, look, let's, let's see if we can get our, our corporate company to match what we did at Snapper's.
02:32So I'm here to tell you today they did that.
02:34Okay.
02:35So we do have a small check to present to you.
02:39In addition to that, what Leanna and Rachel did, they said, well, that's really good.
02:46But maybe we should tell them about what happened the last couple of years.
02:50Well, Leanna, how's it?
02:51So Mason, Pat, we'd like to present you with a check for $26,153.
02:59What?
02:59What they did, what they did is they matched the two years that we did, don't do that, that they matched our efforts.
03:10They matched the whole thing over the last two years.
03:12And I know this year with the car wash, Mother Nature didn't cooperate the right way.
03:18They sent in the clouds and the, and the chilly temperatures that probably knocked down your crowd.
03:25We had about 30 or 40 brave souls.
03:28I saw, I saw.
03:29But, you know, thinking that didn't work out well, you know, we hit you with bad news about our own warehouse of horrors meeting its demise.
03:37We didn't want to see that happen to you guys again.
03:40So hopefully this will stop you from writing your own checks.
03:43Okay.
03:44And as I mentioned, Pat, we did kind of, we brought you here under the pretense that we would, you know, like to talk to you a little bit about next year.
03:53Well, we really don't want to talk about that just yet.
03:56At least we'll, maybe on the way out the door, we'll do that.
03:59We wanted to present you this to you, maybe catch you a little bit off guard.
04:03So, uh, off guard?
04:05Yeah, yeah.
04:05You don't know how off guard and how much this means.
04:10Excellent.
04:10For what you guys have done.
04:11God bless you.
04:13You're quite welcome.
04:14Yeah.
04:14We'll pass on your, your, your appreciation to the folks over in the UK too.
04:18Okay.
04:18Oh, especially to the folks over at UK and all the folks here at Q105 that have continued to work with us
04:24and help us get these things done and promote these events.
04:27And, and, uh, with the unfortunate circumstances, we still are working together.
04:33We're still moving forward and, uh, uh, still working together to get things like this done for the community.
04:39Good.
04:40Uh, and other events.
04:41So, oh my goodness, I need a Kleenex.
04:43And you can't imagine the number of letters that are just pouring in.
04:47Yeah.
04:48It's staggering.
04:49And now we can, now we can work those letters.
04:52So, to be honest, this is part of my urgent messages to you.
04:55Like, we, hey, we need to get together right away.
04:57We need you to know that you had this and we didn't want you to make plans thinking that,
05:04you know, you might be $26,000 less in the, in the bank.
05:07So that's why it was important for us to be as soon as possible.
05:10Okay.
05:11God bless you.
05:12We got work to do between now and then.
05:14Fortunately, we've made, we have moved from our house to, uh, our new place and gotten squared away somewhat,
05:20except for all the boxes that are stacked up to the ceiling.
05:22But, the first thing Pat and I were talking about today is, as long as you can get to your desk,
05:29where we can get to the letters, print the letters, and round up some individuals to help us begin to make these donations possible
05:38and get them out to the people, it's all worth it.
05:42You have my number, Pat, for that.
05:43Remember, I'm, I'm, I'm willing to help.
05:45If you need me to make, drive somewhere, I'll be more happy about that.
05:48And we're going to put you to work.
05:49Good.
05:49And don't think you're not going to get out of this either.
05:52Oh my gosh, thank you so much.
