#1906 In Memoriam: Kent Schnakenberg
In Memoriam: Kent Schnakenberg
Remembering Kent Schnakenberg, founder of Team Schneck Strong, whose logoed truck, 26,000 t-shirts, and one-man mission to spread type 1 diabetes awareness saved lives across the country.
Jump to a moment
- Kent Schnakenberg turned a single JDRF ride for his newly diagnosed niece into Team Schneck Strong — a decade-long mission that raised roughly $1.2 million and put the symptoms of type 1 diabetes on the backs of 26,000 t-shirts.
- His core belief was simple: awareness saves lives. Printing the signs of type 1 where people will actually read them — a shirt, a truck, a school assembly — can be the difference between a diagnosis and a senseless death from being undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
- The school-visit model worked because it handed kids with type 1 the microphone — like the sixth-grader who stood up unprompted to tell her class why she wears her devices, and earned a standing ovation.
- Team Schneck Strong was built to outlast one person: 175+ camp scholarships to Camp Discovery, direct financial aid to families, and a legacy fund through the Emporia Community Foundation designed to keep giving after Kent was gone.
- Kent’s throughline, from a stranger in a wheelchair to 400 riders in Tucson: “Your moment in life comes — don’t miss it.”
- Skin Grip — This episode's sponsor — skin-safe adhesive patches that keep CGMs and pumps secure. Juicebox listeners get 20% off a first order.
- Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) — The organization whose cross-country rides launched Kent's mission; rebranded from JDRF in 2024.
- ADA Camp Discovery — The American Diabetes Association diabetes camp in Kansas where Team Schneck Strong sends dozens of kids on scholarship each year.
- Camp Sweeney — The Texas diabetes camp Scott mentions; the podcast helped send several kids there in 2025.
- Emporia Community Foundation — Home of the Team Schneck Strong fund, which provides family financial aid and camp scholarships across a seven-county area of Kansas.
Every word of the conversation
Remembering Kent0:00
Before we begin today, I'd like to take a moment to remember Kent Schneckenberg who passed away sadly on June 11 at the age of 71. Kent appeared on this podcast twice, most recently in 2025. I think that you'll find that his story and the work he did through Team Schneck to support children and families living with type one diabetes were beyond laudable. My deepest condolences to Ken's family and the people who loved him. Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Welcome.
Hi. This is Kent Snackenburg. I started team snacks strong, you know, back in 2014, and I'm very, very excited to be back on your podcast. It's amazing to me how you've grown this thing, and I'm so proud of you and how many people continue each year to say they listen to that podcast and reach out to me. So I'm excited to be back on, Scott.
This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by Skin Grip, durable, skin safe adhesive that lasts. Your diabetes devices, they can fall off easily sometimes, especially when you're bathing or very active. When those devices fall off, your life is disrupted, and it costs you money. But Skin Grip patches, they keep your devices secure. Skin Grip was founded by a family directly impacted by type one, and it's trusted by hundreds of thousands of individuals living with diabetes.
Juice Box podcast listeners are gonna get 20% off of their first order by visiting skingrip.com/juicebox. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by US Med, usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514. Get your supplies the same way we do from US Med.
This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox. At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and conditions apply.
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Hi. This is Kent Snackenberg. I started Team Snack Strong, you know, back in 2014, and I'm very, very excited to be back on your podcast. It's amazing to me how you've grown this thing, and I'm so proud of you and how many people continue each year to say they listen that podcast and reach out to me. So I'm excited to be back on, Scott.
Is that true, Kent? You were on episode 76, which, I mean, maybe is the second year with would that have been 2016 maybe?
Well, I just thought it was ten years ago. So it's probably 2015 or 2016, and that first year just was I started getting messages and emails and stuff on Facebook for people all over the country. And when I was doing, you know, the rides all over the country that year, that's how I started meeting people and going to their houses and taking out these. So you obviously have a big following, and that's why I'm excited to get another chance to kinda give you a ten year a ten year recap of what's gone on since then.
Yeah. No. That's awesome. I'm I'm trying to look up the episode right now.
I think it was '76.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm just seeing that now. So but I'm trying to figure out what year it was. See if I can't find it.
Like, it's it's been so long ago. Oh, I know what the problem is. When I search for '76
Mhmm.
There's been 41 other episodes with the number '76 in them. That's why I'm getting so that's why I'm getting so many returns. I
really think it was 2016 for some reason.
2016. Okay. Well, that's really great. Oh, I appreciate. I do wanna kinda start from the beginning even though, you know, it's gonna be something you said in the past.
Tell me again how this all started, what your connection was to it, and then we'll we'll pick through.
A niece, a diagnosis, and a ride around Lake Tahoe4:18
Okay. Well, I mean, in 2014, my connection is, you know, my niece, Michelle. And she was diagnosed when she was 14, and obviously that's quite a while ago. And she's doing amazing. She's now a pediatric nurse.
She went through Texas A and M with full collars. Now she's helping kids and giving back that way. I just decided, my brothers and I decided to go to Lake Tahoe, for a JDRF ride, which I had no idea what JDRF was or nothing about type one diabetes at the time, but my brother said that'd be fine. So my twin brother and my younger brother Mike, who's Michelle's father, we went to Lake Tahoe and rode 73 miles around that lake. Met a lot of people and really did enjoy it.
And I got back on my shuttle bus to go back to the airport. I sat by a young lady. Her name was there. CGM on her arms.
Ken, tell me again. I I you dropped out there. Her name was what?
Her name was Erin.
Erin. You know what, Ken? I'm gonna stop you for half a second. I think I figured something out because
Okay.
You remarked to me that the first time we did this, we had audio trouble.
Right.
And just now, I don't I think I think there's something about the resonance. I I know this is gonna sound crazy for a second, but I think it's something about the deepness and the resonance of your voice. Uh-huh. When you're talking and you don't modulate, you start to I don't know how to describe it, but your voice starts to disappear. And then the minute you modulate, your voice can get a little higher, a little lower, it comes right back again.
I wonder if you're speaking at a at a frequency that the phone gets confused by.
Do you know? It's pretty low. Yeah.
Tell me, when you're on the phone with people regularly, do they ever ask you to repeat yourself?
Oh, you know, I talk so fast most of the time. I think they just let me go. But do you want me to try the speakerphone? Would that maybe help?
I'm fascinated by this because you got right to the part where you you'd gone on the ride and you were on the bus coming back. And as you were talking, your voice just disappeared. And I realized now it's not the headset you have.
Last set that last that happened in the last time we did this too when you relistened to it.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. So I don't know if the speakerphone would change anything. Actually, I'm gonna tell you something.
What?
Slow down a little bit. Okay. And I wonder what that's gonna change. And lee and and Okay. Guy that's editing this, Rob, leave this all in.
I think it's really interesting. I'm gonna recap just to make sure.
Okay.
Your niece gets type one. She's, like, 14 years old. She's a full on adult now. Right. You got you and your brother wanna support, you know, your family.
Right.
You head out. You do this JDRF ride together. On the way back from the ride, you meet somebody on a bus. Start there.
Erin on the bus — and a calling6:52
Right. So after the ride, I got on the bus to go back to the airport, and I sat next to a young lady named Erin, and I noticed a CGM on her arm. And so we started talking, and I asked her when she was diagnosed. I expect her to say, you know, like six or eight or 10, because at that point I thought all people just it was all kids that got, you know, type one diabetes.
Right.
And she said she was 42. And so it just amazed me, and she started talking, and then I she said, you know, real realistically, half the people that get this disease every day are kids and half of them are young adults or adults. And so that led to a lot of interest and a great talk all the way back, and that's when I decided I wanted to do another ride. There's something inside of me. He told me to do another ride.
Tucson, the Spirit Jersey, and a blue candle7:38
And so I signed up for the last ride of the year, which was in Tucson, Arizona. And I flew out there by myself. I didn't know anybody at all. I just got to meeting some people and stuff, and I think it was a 104 mile ride. And that night, on a Saturday night at the awards banquet, I was awarded the spirit jersey.
And I really didn't even know what it meant at that point. And so they asked me to come up and talk and I was up there speaking. And to all these people, there's like 400 people in the room. Right. I noticed everybody's eyes were right on me.
And I just I just at the end of the at the end of my speech, I said, okay. I'm doing all seven rides next year. It was like something came over me at that moment. I don't know if God came into me or what. And just it was just a big deal at that point, and I decided just to go full bore on this thing.
I got back to my room that night and somebody had sent me a message on Facebook that showed a picture of a blue candle. And I didn't really know what a blue candle meant, but I've come to realize it's never good. And there was a 12 year old boy that had passed away that day, the same day I won this award for misdiagnosis of this disease. And that's when I decided I didn't know anything about the disease. And I thought, well, it's time to start spreading awareness.
Building the T1 Destroyer8:49
So that's when all of this started coming to me, like, on the plane ride home, you know, if I'm gonna go to all the rides next year, I wanna try to visit all 48 lower states, get a truck, and logo it out, and have the symptoms on it, and all our information on it. And so I got that done, and the same girl named Erin that I'd met, I contacted her and she hooked me up with this man named Matt Fisher who had lived with type one his whole life and he was a graphic art artist, very talented guy. And so he, without even meeting him, helped me design the truck just through emails and stuff and a guy at the local bike shop. And, you know, that's that's kinda what started the truck, that's when we decided to try to do you know, go to all the 50 states and visit all 50 states for over. Had this, you know, this idea about trying to do 50 rides someday.
It's kinda went from there.
Kent, I wanna stop you. First of all, the talking speaking more slowly thing is the perfect fix for this. So Okay. Yeah. So per keep going the way you're going.
You're doing great. I think it it would be helpful for people to understand, like, you just got this motivation. It's not like you I mean, yes, your niece is a connection, but still, like, I think for most of us, like, I went and did the ride. I supported my niece. Like, I'm good.
I'm going home now. Something motivated you. And you said you don't know what you know, if it's god that put it in your ear or but, I mean, I wanna understand more about you. Like, because how old were you when that happened? When you when you go on that first ride with your niece, how old are you?
60 years old. 60. Okay. And you're were you retired or you were working?
No. I'm still working part time. And to this day, you know, it's still the whole Northeast Kansas thing where my territory is, I'm a salesman. Mhmm. You know, I'm just doing it part time now, but that's where, you know, I started raising all the money, and that's where I learned about going yes.
When I started my going to school program, That's when I started learning about Camp Discovery and all. Everything kinda ties into that, I guess.
So what I'm saying is you're sixty years old. You're still working. It's not like you're looking for something to do. Right? You're not at home, like, bored.
Right? Would you call this just a calling?
No. I do. It it was my mission. It was my moment moment in life, and I that's why the last story I'll tell kinda explains that. But it was just that moment in life when God came into my soul or whatever and just said, you know, this is your deal.
You can help these people.
You can't really explain the motivation that you found for. Just you really got struck by something.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've always been a, you know, a generous person. I've always been a person that looked out to help other people, but this was just something that happened. Looking in those 400 eyes sets of eyes Mhmm.
And knowing all these people who had a connection to type one diabetes, and they were, like, looking at me like, we need your help, I guess, is the way I would put it, I guess. So
because you're kind of an outsider that just showed up. And, I mean, you got the award because you have I'm assuming you had so much enthusiasm. They were like, who is this guy? And why is he so excited about all this? Right.
And especially without a direct connection. You have your own children?
Yeah. I got, two children and five grandchildren.
Okay. So you you have your own family. My point is you have things you could be doing, you know, and you and you're giving a lot of time to something else. So along the way, over the last I mean, what year was this?
It was 2014. It's when I, did the first ride that I did the two rides. Then then when I committed to do the seven, that started in 2015.
Okay. So you started doing this literally the year before I started making this pod I started making the podcast in 2035. Okay. So our timelines kind of match up that way. So at first, you say there's well, I guess the idea was there were seven JDRF rides around the country the next year?
Correct. Yes. Did you actually make it to all of them?
Yeah. I did. But one time, my point didn't did 25 in a row. I just, finished my forty ninth, and I'll do number 50 on Florida in December.
Oh my gosh. You started oh, sorry. My phone's not muted. Had pancakes a little while ago. That's what that is.
Okay.
I guess you mentioned the truck earlier, but for people who don't know, you decided, like, I'm gonna take a pickup truck and deck it out. And what did you end up calling your your ride team?
You mean the truck?
Yeah. The truck.
Truck's called the t one destroyer. We had a national contest, and, people sent in names. And the person that wanted said you are the t one destroyer, so that's what you need to call your truck.
Awesome. And so I can picture it in my head. Black with, like, yellow graphics. Right?
Correct.
Yep. Yep. As a matter of fact, growing up, Arden slept in a t shirt that it was yours for years. Like, it was one of her sleeping t shirts. And That's great.
That's amazing. It's funny. I don't know if she knows what it is, but it's one of her she has a Dexcom sleeping t shirt, that one, and another one, and they they just went through the like, she was constantly using them. Nevertheless, like so you've got the truck because you're gonna go to your idea is I'm gonna go to all these different places and Correct. Raise awareness.
Like, that's really just your goal. Right? Like, I just wanna try to find people and teach them about type one diabetes?
The mission: stopping senseless deaths13:31
Yeah. I mean, to stop senseless deaths from these kids that have passed away from being undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. You know, I've been in several homes. It's the worst thing I've done in all these years is homes that have lost their kids and listened to them and Yeah. Say, I wish I had known it.
Somebody would have told me.
Mhmm.
Just I wanna stop that. And, you know, raising awareness has obviously helped me raise so much money. It's been incredible how much easier it is if you let people know what you're trying to raise money for.
Well, was my next question is, like, now you you're saying you're about to go on your fiftieth ride. Like, how does this like, how do you fund it? Like, are you you independently wealthy, or is there like, I mean, because you're yeah.
You know I mean? I work, you know, I worked a long time and made a nice living, but, we've raised a lot of money. I mean, since we started all this, I mean, we probably raised between what we've given a JDRF, which is now called breakthrough t one d. They just rebranded last year. Yeah.
And, you know, our team snack strong fund, we can talk about. Hopefully, we've raised, like, $1,200,000 since we started.
That's insane, Kent. That's really wonderful. And so some of that money gets donated off, and some of it funds your traveling and your awareness raising. Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. It might sound crazy to say, but summertime is right around the corner.
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No. The funny travel and everything. My wife and I found ourselves.
Oh.
I mean, it's all we've always just paid for all that ourselves now.
Oh my gosh.
You know, we yeah. And the T shirts, obviously, we've given out a lot of T shirts over the years. I mean, we just celebrated with the company that does our T shirts. They've just printed their 26,000 t shirts. So we've given out over 26,000 t shirts since we started it.
And we funded most of that for a long time, but the last few years, we've had some people step up and say, hey. We wanna help you pay for the t shirts when you come to our school, that type of thing. So
26,000 t shirts?
Yeah. And all of them have our team sacks over on the front, and they have the symptoms of type one on the back. And they're the key to this whole thing about creating this whole army of kids, you know, to help us all over the country. Actually, we've sent these shirts all over the world, and people wear them. They love to wear them.
And, you know, that's my theory is if they're standing there at McDonald's in line or on vacation or whatever, because you see these shirts everywhere all over Northeast Kansas and around the country, you know, people are gonna read some of those symptoms, and hopefully they'll remember the top four or five of them. Then they'll remember that if somebody in their family says something or you know, about their kids or their granddaughter or whatever and, you know, help them say and help them know to say you need to get to the hospital right now and do your blood check. You just need to get to the hospital right now. You can't wait.
So the simplicity of your motivation really is that you have that experience in front of those 400 people, and then that evening, someone tells you about a young child who passed away from not getting diagnosed.
Yeah. Somebody sent me the message. Yeah. You know, since then, it's just that's I've just always been very driven. You know, I'm a salesman by trade.
Right. You know, selling and fundraising and all this is kinda all the same thing. You just you have to let people know what you're fundraising for. You let have to let people know that you're serious. You know, when they see my truck and they, you know, they they see me go into a school, you know, people just they realize this guy is serious.
I mean, nothing is more exciting to me than walking into a school of 400 kids or 600 kids or 800 kids, whatever it is. I mean, I've done, like, 75 of these school visits and assemblies over these years, and they all have a bright yellow teak snack shirt on. And right away, they're bought in because they know this guy's serious. He's given us a t shirt. We need to listen.
Yeah. You know, I just That's simple. You're not just wandering and talking. You're saying there there's clearly a structure around what you're doing. And when you show that to people, they think, oh, this is a real thing.
And let me take a minute here to find out. How did you start that? The so you have a school awareness program where you you go around and speak. Even how does that begin? Like, how do you where does that idea come from, and then how do you grow it?
Into the schools — an army of kids in yellow shirts19:19
Well, I mean, through my territory, which is Northeast Kansas, you know, that's where I've done a lot of these. I've done them obviously here in I've done them all over the country now as I'm traveling and stuff. But I just decided one day, like I said, that if I'm gonna have, you know, kids to help me, I could create an army of people out there spreading awareness because you don't see anything on TV about type one diabetes except now some CGM commercials. Yeah. You don't ever see anybody talking about symptoms.
It's not national organizations don't talk as much about awareness as I wish they did. I mean, they're they're great at raising money and doing the research, but I just thought, I'm just gonna try to do this on a grassroots level, and and it it's worked and it continues to work and it's the proven, you know, it's a proven mission, it's a proven theory that by doing that it's helped us raise all this money and this money has done so much good. But, know, I just when I started going to the schools, the first thing I ever did, it was in two thousand and fifteen. I one of the I was reading a book to the second graders up in Nemo Central Elementary School because the teachers had asked me to come in and read, I'd given all the kids a t shirt Mhmm. Because they knew they'd seen my truck.
And I saw the teachers in the back room, you know, talking back of the room talking, and they came up to me said, we've got an idea for a fundraiser. And so before I knew it, we were gonna do a bike ride with the second graders from that school and a Catholic school. So if you've ever done anything crazy in your life, try taking seventy five second graders on a four mile bike ride. And it was just the coolest thing. We got there in the morning at the elementary school, and everybody was wearing their shirts, they all had their bikes.
I think four or five kids didn't have bikes. And then around the corner, here comes the kids from the other school, they're just, you know, pedaling their little bikes. The priest from the school came and rode with us, and it was four laps around, you know, this school, and each lap was about a mile. The first lap, I said, okay, everybody behind the big guy. Everybody stay behind me.
Line up. And then we had the teachers. We had people staggered through there. Yeah. Went all around the first time and it worked out pretty good.
Then all of sudden, kids started going faster and faster. They wanted to pass me. We got back around halfway the second time. I heard man down in the back and I looked back and there was a pile of them back there. The teachers got to them real quick and they I went back there.
Was all worried. They said, can't hurt a second grader. You're fine. So we rode one more lap and then by the fourth lap, was so nervous. There were some kids that were running the whole time.
I said, let's just all park our bikes and walk. I said, nothing can go wrong. You know? So we all held hands, and we started around this big one mile block area. And I looked over in the tree, there's two kids in the tree, two kids in the street.
And, I mean, it was That's one of the craziest things I've ever done. But at the end of it, they gave me a check for, like, $3,300 they had raised just through that school that day within what a huge surprise. And that's when I decided to start going to schools. And I just every chance I get, I go to schools to talk. It's amazing.
Yeah. So when you speak to them, what do you give them, like, signs and symptoms to look for, or is it more about the opportunity to make their parents aware and the teachers aware? What is it what's your goal when you're doing that?
You know, it's about a thirty to forty five minute thing depending on, you know, how big the school is and stuff. But we just start talking about team snack and why I started it. Then we get into what is type one diabetes. I explain to them that it's an autoimmune disease and anybody can get it. And your classmates that have this disease didn't do anything wrong.
It's not what they eat, it's not how much they exercise, and it's not contagious. You know, just try to make everybody feel more comfortable. Yeah. And then, you know, we talk a little bit about bike safety, but the highlight of the whole thing is when I give the kids that live with Taekwon a chance to come up and speak. And, you know, in some schools there might be one kid, in schools, there might be 12 kids.
And, you know, the smallest school I've ever done is, a 178 kids, k through 12, and the largest I've ever done was 1,100 high school kids in Painesville, Kentucky. Mhmm. Everyone is different, and, you know, they just it's amazing how brave these kids are when they get up and talk. And it just empowers them for the first time in their life. They could go up there and we could talk about the CGMs and insulin pumps and why they're wearing these things on their body and why they get to go to the school nurse more often.
The girl who took the microphone23:23
It's just very empowering. And some of the things they say and some of the things that come out of that are things, you know, I'll always remember. There was this one little girl at a very small school I went to, and it's Casey twelve, and there was a third grader there that had been just diagnosed and her parents got ahold of me and asked me if I'd come do a school assembly, which I always say yes if I can. And we got there and the principal said, This is great what you're here for, but I wanted to let you know that we have a sixth grade girl that has type one also, but she never wants to be recognized. She doesn't wanna talk about it.
Right. And don't ask if there's anybody else. I mean, and I would never do that. If kids don't wanna come up, I never I never make them. But we got the you know, through the through this thing and towards the end of the assembly, and this little girl and her parents were up there speaking, and they were just so so great.
And she went to sit down, and all of a sudden, I see this girl stand up. And she just walks right out of her out of the stands and right up to me, and she says, I really need to say something. And right then, I thought, well, this is that other girl. Yeah. And she took that microphone from me, and she walked over in front of the sixth graders.
And she just said, you know, I want you to know the reason I don't wear a two piece swimming suit or tank tops is because I'm embarrassed with all the spots in my body and all the bruises from having to give myself shots, but I have to have those shots to live every day. Wow. She walked back over to me and handed me the microphone, and she said, thank you. And as she was going to sit down, you know, I'll never forget the whole place stood up and gave her a standing ovation. Mhmm.
And the next day, her mom called me and said, you know, I don't know what you did or who you are, but you changed my life. She went to school that day and took her bag and showed everybody what was going on. Oh, jeez. And there's just so many things that happened like that. You know, over the years, these kids, they're just it gives them a chance to not have to hide not to have to hide it anymore.
Right. That's the whole gist of the school program, and it just continues to grow.
No. I mean, if you didn't do anything else, just that story alone is is probably worth the whole thing. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. I just yeah. And even with even when we're traveling across the country and I'm speaking at rhetoric clubs or, you know, I get to stay in some people's houses now because I've met in my rides and stuff. Know, they're just we became I became good friends with so many people through JDRF, and it's pretty it's pretty amazing.
The Rose Jersey and a promise kept25:39
You know, when the JDRF rides, I've done all these rides now, and I've won that Spirit Jersey, and then I won two Green jerseys, which is man, I've raised the most of that particular ride. And last year, in December, Bellevue Island, I think it was my forty seventh ride. But I was awarded the Rose jersey, and the Rose jersey is something that I always wanted to win. It's the jersey that's given out to a person that doesn't have type one diabetes but has done so much to help people that live with type one diabetes spread awareness and raising money. Rose was a lady that passed away from a horrible disease that was riding for her daughter.
The Rose jersey was just because she made everybody promise to keep the journey going after she was gone. Wow. You know, last year in Amelia Island, this is how this whole thing kinda keeps coming back around. I was in the morning, was dressing. I walked downstairs and I had my Rose jersey on.
This young man walks up to me and he goes, mister Snakenberg, you're not gonna remember this. But in 2015, you had a booth set up in Wichita, Kansas at the JDRF Walk, and you had your bike there and your truck. And I came up, and I was just so small. And I just looked at you and I said, someday, I wanna do a JDRF ride like you. But if you ever do one, I promise I'll be there.
And he was he was there at Amelia Island, you know, ten years later. And he said, you know, you just you kept your promise. Things like that that just know, I get tired, you know, I'm 70 years old now. I'll be 71 in January, but things like that just motivate me to continue on.
And Yeah.
I can't keep doing it at the same pace. I just never wanna stop. I never wanna quit on these kids because I know today, tomorrow, the next day, there's gonna be another two hundred, two fifty people that are gonna be diagnosed, and most of them don't know the symptoms, and they need to know that. They just need to know that. Just walking into people's homes, speaking at the couple of funerals I have, it's just no fun, and they're just senseless deaths.
And I try to get national organizations to buy more into it and talk about awareness, put the symptoms on the back of their shirts and stuff, but at this point, I still haven't been successful with that. So I'll just keep doing it myself and with my family and my wife who is an unbelievable partner in all this. She's she's just so great and has let me do so many things. I mean, you gotta realize that I've probably been gone two hundred and fifty more nights away from home traveling just doing this, and she's just all about it. And she knows I'm doing good things, and she loves helping people like I do.
Yeah. Well, Kent, how long you've been married?
Forty five years.
Yeah. She'd probably thrilled when you leave. I gotta be honest with you. Well,
I mean, can you imagine what's like being married to me? It's not always fun, but but she's just you know, and our kids and our grandkids Yeah. Yeah. They love it. And, it's it takes some you know, not very many people would be able to do that.
It takes somebody strong like that. And, you know, she's done, like, six or seven rides herself, and she actually did her first 100 mile ride a few years ago on LaCrosse, and I'm so proud of her. She's always there to support me.
Do you ever have the feeling that you've given something away in your own life for these other for these strangers and that it's a thing you can't get back? I mean, have you ever missed time with your own family over this? Or and how do you handle that?
I mean, I've obviously missed some things I probably shouldn't have, but I think my family I don't think that I've ever given anything away, and I think my family understands how important this is. It'd be one thing if I was just out there golfing or traveling, know, going to football games with guys. You know, they have a lot of connections now with these families and stuff, and they know that this is my mission and they're part of this mission. We call it Team Snack Strong and we're all Team Snack. It's part of our family name and it's our nickname and it's just something we continue to do.
I wouldn't say that I regret anything at this point in my life. I may look back on it someday, but we've made life long friends all over The United States. And we connect we stay connected with these people. And, you know, it's just it's very seldom that know, within a week or I'm not getting two or three messages, you know, would you please send us a T shirt? And I always try to send a note with it.
I'm always at the post office sending out shirts and Yeah. You know, just continue to go to school. So I have five schools up in Northeast Kansas that their eighth grade classes every year is part of their class. Mhmm. And I do this at Emporia State University too with a class that I go in and talk, I hand out T shirts, and I go back several times a year.
And, you know, that's culminated into we have our own Northeast Kansas team snack diabetes awareness walk for the last several years. And each year, that thing raises 10 to $15,000, and we have three or 400 people show up.
Scott's ASL project: a day well spent30:00
I asked you, Kent, because yesterday I mean, it's a it's a good example. Like, I'm gonna go back maybe nine months ago. I interviewed this person. She's type one. She was a young girl.
And as we were talking, I realized that she was an American sign language interpreter.
Uh-huh.
And I said, wouldn't it be interesting if I took one of the series from the podcast, you know, the one for newly diagnosed people, Bold Beginnings? And what if I got it translated into into American Sign Language? I paid somebody to stand in front of a camera and translate the entire thing, which is a huge undertaking. Right? And I first thought, like, well, maybe I could get a a sponsor to pay for that.
Then I realized this is gonna help a handful of people, and it's gonna be really valuable for the people it finds. But it's not gonna find, I don't imagine, thousands of people. Right? It's gonna find tens of people or maybe a 100 people. It's gonna be really helpful for those people, but nobody's gonna wanna put money down.
So I didn't even bother asking it. I said to the girl afterwards, I was like, Mikayla, what would it cost me to have you do that? And she gave me a very fair number, and I reached into my pocket, and I paid her. Right? And it took probably months and months and months for us to get it together and for her to, like, figure out how best to do it.
And and also, there's 26 episodes of this thing. And just recently, she finished. It's awesome. Right? And as I was paying her account, I thought, this is not enough money.
For the amount of work she put into this, I'm not paying her enough. And I felt bad about that. And then I had the videos, but I didn't have the time to put them together. I had to make a website for them. I had to get them onto YouTube.
Like, it's a lot of back end work that's kinda boring. But then if maybe four or five days ago, someone on the Facebook group asked, does anyone know where somebody who, you know, needs ASL can get diabetes information? And I thought, I have that on my hard drive. Wow. And what a great opportunity.
So I spent the last few days making a website, uploading stuff, like, you know, making sure everything on the back end was done. I got up yesterday. I recorded at 9AM. At 10AM, I thought to make myself breakfast, but started to work on the ASL stuff instead. And then I finished it last night at 11:30.
And I put it online, and I put a post up, and I was like, hey. Here you guys go. It's you know, I was really giving it to this one person. I was like, here. This is for you or for your brother.
Wow. And I don't feel like I wasted my day. But there are a lot of things I meant to do yesterday, and one of them would have been, like, exercising. And, you know, on the very simple and basic level, there's I skipped my workout yesterday. I didn't do a lot of things yesterday, and instead, I worked on this thing for the entire time.
I was wondering what your answer was because if somebody asked me, hey. You feel like you gave your whole day away yesterday for for nothing? I would say, no. I I I don't think so at all. Like, it it feels really valuable to me.
I don't know a lot of people who get to go to work and feel that way, I guess, is my point.
No. Every day is a new opportunity, you know, to help somebody, whether it's with type one diabetes or anything. And what you did there was so commendable because, you know, you didn't just help one person. You helped the family. You helped other families.
And you really can't waste your day. I mean, you can exercise later today. You can exercise tomorrow. I mean, I could ride my bike. When you give something to somebody that needs you and doesn't have what you have to give, then it's well worth it.
And, that's that's kinda the way I feel.
I've heard you. It's it was really hard because your voice is very deep. But, like, I've heard you be emotional twice while we're talking. Right? And the little girl saying to you, like, can I have the microphone?
I have something I need to say. Like, that made me cry. I got emotional when you said that. Her words, it is because it's the bigger picture. It's like she's there.
She's she's got some energy, and she's like, I've been holding this thing inside. I'm miserable holding this thing inside. Yeah. And I need to get rid of it. If you can be a a little part of helping somebody do something like that, I really think it reverberates around the world.
I'm sitting here thinking about these kids who sat through your program at school and will ten years later be in college, and some kid's gonna get sick. And they're gonna think, like, oh, that's probably diabetes, and maybe help that person. And and that thing, like, that on that first night that you wanted to do Yeah. You'll do it so many times in your life and beyond your life, you won't even you'll never know how many people you touched, don't believe.
Well, you know, I got a card once a few years ago from a second grade teacher that I had been at their school two years before, and she said, you know, I listened to what you had to say. Normally, during assemblies, you know, I'm grading papers or whatever. But she said, you know, you gave us all these shirts, and you were very interesting to listen to. And I listened to everything you said. She said, two years later, my son started showing the symptoms of type one.
And so right away, we got him, you know, to the hospital, and his blood sugar was, like, six or 700. And she goes, I know in my heart, you saved my son's life.
Well, I mean, at the very least, saved him from, like, a a terrible bout with DKA and all the things that might have come with it and her having to feel like she missed it. Like, I talk to people every day who, you know, carry a a terrible burden around with themselves, like, because Right. Because they missed something. And and their children didn't pass even. They went through a thing that they just wished terribly they would have understood better so that they didn't have to have this experience.
Yeah. No. I mean, Ken, it's it's it really is awesome what you're doing.
Camp scholarships and the Team Schneck fund35:10
Well, you know, when when, like, when I was at diabetes camp last year and, you know, I'd wanna talk a little bit more about that maybe in a minute. Please. You know, they have they have doctors and nurses there, obviously, from this one is close to Wichita, Kansas You know, I walked I went in there and they just said, you just need to know that you have you're making it possible now for kids to just walk into the room and just say with their parents, say, I need a blood sugar test. She goes, the worst thing is when we get a type one child that's, you know, in an ambulance or worse yet on a helicopter. She said there's just so many kids that could benefit from these programs.
And so that's another reason to keep motivated because just think of all the kids all over the world that hold this inside, like you said, and don't wanna talk about it or scared to talk about it. It's only because nobody's given them a chance. Yeah. You know, that's I just wanna give them a chance to open up and let the other kids around them know, you know, it's not weird for them to be wearing these things on their arms, at their legs. They're they're things that keep them alive.
They have to have them to keep alive every day. There's a reason they carry Skittles. It's not because they love candy. It keeps it's a chance to keep them alive every day. And that's why we'll continue to do even if I can't do the rides and travel around the country as much, I'll continue to talk to groups, I'll continue to help people in this area and all over the state of Kansas and go to as many schools as I can.
I mean, you know, we have a team snack strong fund. We actually started right after I talked to you. I think even I mentioned that we were getting ready to start it, and it's under the Emporia Committee Foundation. And so for any child that lives, you know, in the 7 County area with type one diabetes, you know, each year they can get $1,500 a year from us, you know, for scholarships and for me, $1,500 a year from us to help pay expenses of the disease. And there's another foundation for you that's tacked on another thousand dollars to that for the same kid.
You know, also, plus that, if they wanna go to Camp Discovery, you know, we're gonna send them on a full ride scholarship. And I think the average price now to camp is, like, a thousand dollars. And since we started, I think the first year we did ten ten kids. It was in Junction City, Kansas at that point, and it was 73 miles from here. I'd ride my bike up there with a friend early in the morning to get there, you know, around noon, the kids would be waiting for me.
And so now every year when we go to camp, they have a team snack day, and it's on Wednesday, usually, and we can you know, there's a 100 kids there. It's an unbelievable experience. I don't know if your daughter's ever gone, but we give all the kids a shirt, and I get to go down there and talk. And think we've given now now a 175 scholarships since we started. And last year, we sent 36 kids, and this year, we're gonna send 40 more.
And it's just the camps are one of the best thing that I ever hooked up with. I mean, it's just so empowering. They get lifelong friends. They get to talk. And, you know, when they have their meals, they're all together in this big room, and they get up at each cabin, talks about who changed their pump and who did this.
And it's just it's so cool. And they come out of there, their lives are changed forever. We wanna definitely continue that program.
Yeah. For sure. So this year, I had the director of Camp Sweeney on the podcast. Mhmm. And while he was on, he said, I'd like to give away, you know, to the listeners, I'd like to give away a spot at Camp Sweeney.
And Camp Sweeney's, it's pricey. I think it's over I I literally think it's, $4,000. Right? And it's a Wow. Three week camp.
They go for three weeks.
Oh, wow.
And I said, oh, that that'd be great. You know, I'll I'll give it away. We got off got off the call, and I said, let me let me reach out to a sponsor and see if I can get somebody to, like you give one away, and, we can get a sponsor to give one away. Right? And I think I'm pretty sure US Med did it.
So it's one of my sponsors. So we get we gave way too. And then, you know, they were so excited about it, and it it did good buzz for the for the the camps. They said, listen. We have benefactor who would like to give away another one.
I said, let me go ask another sponsor. And I got I got Omnipod to give away another one. And before I knew it, the 2025 was, you know, camp time was coming up. And I think we sent, like, I I've lost count. Think we it was six or eight kids we sent to to camp.
Wow. Just random drawings. Like, people just sent in, like, here's why I want my kid to come. I randomly picked names, and the kids went off. And I got a video a month or two ago, and I was like, what is this?
Like, it was I was tagged on Instagram, and I jumped and looked at it. And it's just this giant group of children and this one little kid up front. And he's like, hey. You know, thank you so much to Juice Box podcast for sending me to camp. I'm having such a great time.
And, like, just countless kids behind him, like, screaming thank you. And I sat there and I thought, my whole life should be sending kids to camp. Like, I should, you know, I should I should quit everything else I'm doing and try to find a way to send more kid. What a lovely experience. It was new for me.
Yeah. Yeah. And then I just recently had one of the kids on to talk about it, and and he had such a great time and experience just like you you described. So I can't imagine how it must feel to send 40 kids. That's
Well just
this Amazing.
It's empowering. And, you know, it's we we try to obviously, we pick kids from Emporia area first, and then we pick kids in Northeast Kansas because that's where we still continue to raise so much of our money in so many of the schools I go to and stuff. And then we but we've sent kids from all over Kansas. And Yeah. The camp at ADA has been great to work with us.
I mean, Camp Discovery is great and, you know, gave us an opportunity to do the scholarship program. And I think it's helped fill all their beds, now they have a waiting list. And it's I promote that camp anytime I get a chance to because and I'm sure the we sent a girl in Arizona to camp out in Arizona. I sent a girl in Colorado to camp at Colorado just I mean, I walk in a bike store last year in Green Valley, Arizona. We go out there and visit friends.
You know, the guy out in the under the bike store saw my truck. He goes, you know, my daughter was just diagnosed. And I said, well, can I meet her? And he called her home. She came down there, and before I knew it, gave her t shirts and talked to her about what we did.
I said, have you ever been to camp? And she goes, no. Said, well, if you wanna go, well, you know, I'll help pay for it. And so a few days later, they got ahold of me, and I she just got back from camp, and she had an unbelievable experience. It's only because I needed to fix a flat on my tire and my bike.
I mean, it's
just Yeah.
It's not very many days go by where something cool doesn't happen to me, but I try to reach out all the time. You know, I've got my shirts. I got the trucks, so I'm always visible. But I just don't wanna miss an opportunity if I can to to meet a kid.
I'm jealous that you get to do it in person because I think I have your experiences. I and I might have them with more frequency, but mine are all virtual, you know, for the most part. Yeah. You know?
Look how many people you're reaching. I mean, you're I have no idea how many subscribers you have, but it's gotta be a lot because, like I said, that first year you were getting started, I was getting started ten years ago where just people continue. It was last year somebody reached out, and Ryan walked up, said, I remember you from the Juice Box podcast. And thank you for everything you do. I just I mean, you're doing what you know, you're doing what you were meant to do, and I think I'm doing what I was meant to do.
I mean, it takes
I agree.
All sides to do that. And we have so much support from our community and from schools in this area and from people all over the country. I mean, when we raised money for it's called match day at Emporia Community Foundation, it's in November, and we started, like, I think it's six years ago with this match day thing. And each year, we've led in a you know, each year, continued to grow. And last year, you know, we received a check for a $106,000.
Jesus. And that money, you know, that money helped so much. And I think since we started this with them, we raised over 600,000 just for our foundation and, you know, for a fund there. But each year, we're paying out, you know, 30 to 40 to $50,000, you know, to kids with the financial aid and and going to camp and stuff. So we need to continue to work hard to raise money because I really wanna have one of those legacy fund when I'm gone and to continue to do this program and, you know, not only help kids with the expenses necessary, but, you know, continue to raise awareness with what we do.
And, you know, I don't know if I told you this, but now I have two team snack trucks. And, you know, the first one is a 2014, the one you had the picture of.
Yes.
You know, it took all over the country, and now it's got 430,000 miles on it. Wow. So two years ago, three years ago, decided I better get another case system. So I bought a 2022, and the same lady that logoed out the first one had all the designs and logoed out this one just the same. So I've got two of them sitting at my house.
I've been driving the newer one to the longer rides like Wisconsin and Florida and some of those. But, otherwise, I just drive my old one Everybody at the Ford dealership here and everybody all over the I hate to say it. What's your goal? I said, I wanna get to half million miles. You know, want Ford Motor Company someday to recognize this and do a national commercial about this guy that's driving all over the country in a Ford f one fifty, you know, to raise awareness, saving lives, raising money.
And I know that Ford's a big sponsor of breakthrough t one d, and that hasn't happened yet, but I always hold out hope.
Yeah. That's really wonderful. You know, you said something a second ago that really because I I think about it too about, like, keeping it going. Like, when you're talking about all these people that you're helping and, I mean, what did you just say? Like, 30 to $50,000 of just, like, financial aid to people who are, you know, just struggling to pay for stuff.
And you think, well, when I stop doing this, like, I mean, it's not a giant organization, Ken. Right? It's you. So, like, you get too old or too sick or too tired or whatever. Like, what happens to all of it?
Like, how are you trying to I know you're planning for it, but what is it you're doing to try to keep that alive?
Well, I'll be setting up soon a legacy fund with the community foundation to where, you know, when you try and I'm trying to get it to a certain amount of money to where they manage, you know, they manage the money, and it it has a very good return on the investment through this community foundation. I think there's, 300 funds. We're very lucky and important to have that. And, you know, the legacy fund means once I'm gone, that they'll continue as their board and, you know, their directors to to manage the fund and, you know, and and still give out the money. And, you know, it probably will lessen as far as the camp thing, as far as, you know, kids from around the state that are going to camp.
But, also, I have other people now that are trying to figure ways to send more kids to camp because they didn't realize what the need was. You know, people from other places, and I've had parents that reach out and said, you know, this year, we could just pay her own way. Why don't you send another child this year? So there's a lot of people on board. We won't let it die.
It'll continue to grow in some fashion and, you know, help as many people as we can.
Somebody has to be the center of it, the beating heart, because that's you right now. So someone along the way is gonna have to pick the mantle up and decide that they wanna carry it the way you did.
Yeah. But I'm telling you, this community foundation, the two ladies there, I mean, they're all in on this. And, you know, they do these legacy funds, and they love what we do, and we love what they do. And so it'll it'll continue. But I'm also hoping that's a long time down the road too.
Mean It's like, I ain't looking to stop down. But You know,
The health scare: AFib and three stents45:30
I've I've had had some health issues the last two, obviously, but that's gonna limit me from, you know, doing as much in the future, but I can still do a lot.
I
mean, I was doing a lot a lot for a while. And this you know, two but two years ago when things were just really going strong, I was doing a ride in La Crosse, Wisconsin. You know? I had noticed that, you know, I had some issues with going up steep stairs and stuff, but I just figured that was from being 70, you know, or 68, I guess, at that time.
What ended up being the problem?
Well, anyway, I I I did 40 mile ride that day, but, you know, I felt pretty good. But I'd already I tried to go up this bluff. Everybody just kinda does it in lacrosse. It's a really cool area. It's called Grandpa's Bluff, I believe.
And we got a couple 100 yards up there, and my heart just started pounding. And I thought, this isn't right. So I came back down, and luckily, I had had a physical setup for the you know, I got back on Sunday. I had a physical on Monday, my yearly physical. And they'd already set up a stress test because it's been ten years since I've done one.
Mhmm. And, you know, I went physical, and everything was fine. I get to the stress test the next day, give me the shot to put the stuff inside my veins, they take the pictures, and I go back in there and sit down and, you know, they're getting ready to hook me up to all these you know, to the monitors and stuff and get on the treadmill, and the lady looks at me and she goes, you know, you got AFib. I said, man, I don't even know what AFib is. I've just heard it on the radio.
And she goes, well, it's not good. Then I guess the picture started coming back in and they were just staring at the screen. And when they're both looking at the screen and not talking to me, I know it's not good. And so they actually didn't even let me get on the treadmill and they called, you know, the cardiologists here in Emporia. Have Neumann Regional Health, which we're blessed to have, and they have a full time cardiologist and department in Cath Lab.
You know, within a half hour he was down there and he drew a picture of my heart and he goes, Kent, you have three blockages in, you know, your heart. One of them is 80%, one of is 90%, one of them is 95%. At that point, my wife wasn't even there. My wife was in Kansas City because I she just you know, I just told her, I'm just gonna go do the stress test. And so she he said, you might wanna call your wife.
He said, within about two hours, we're gonna have you in surgery. And I looked at him. I said, do I need to get a second opinion? Do I need to do anything else? I mean, you know, your mind is just racing at that point because this all came out of nowhere, basically.
And he said, you know, we can fix this here, Kent. And if it's something I can't fix, I'll send you on to Topeka or to Kansas City. And just the way he said it, I trusted him very much. And they got me ready. He took me up to the surgery, and the cath team was there, and they were unbelievable.
It was just a great experience for whatever an experience could be like that. But I had three stents put in. Get down to recovery, and, you know, your heart's still in AFib. And so that's something I've been dealing with and will continue to deal with. I have a double procedure in January that hopefully will take care of that, get me off some of these blood thinners and stuff because that's limited me in the riding by myself and doing a lot of things.
But but I've been able to continue on. I mean, I did three rides last year, I've done two this year. Gonna do the one in four in December before my Right. You know, before my surgery. So I'm just I was very lucky that I actually tried to ride up that bluff, which made me decide I gotta go ahead through this stress test.
People have been very understanding and, you know, sending me a lot of cards and well wishes. It just slowed me down. It hasn't stopped me, but I don't believe you'll be seeing me do any more 100 mile bike rides anywhere.
Well, can I ask a guy? Because I just had a guy on that was talking about heart issues.
But Yeah. Correct.
You're not a I'm I'm guessing you're not a smoker. Right?
No. No. Just my dad had heart issues, so it's, like, in my family.
It's familial. Okay. I was gonna say because, I mean, you're you're as active as anybody could be. Yeah. You know, you're moving constantly and and and the rides and everything else.
Right?
Yeah. It just wouldn't you know, things just happen to people. Yeah. When I was 60, I really felt 25. And now that I'm 70, kinda sometimes feel 70.
But most of the times really feel like when we get in front of kids and go to schools and talk, I'm back in the forties and fifties. But I've got a lot of good years left. I you know, ahead of me, I hope. And for as many time you know, as much as I I can do this, I wanna keep going. I wanna keep doing this.
And I'll tell these kids all the time, you know, I wake up every day trying to think of things to make your life better, and that's kinda what I try to do. And I said I won't quit as long as I'm physically able to. And they they believe that, and I believe that.
I tell people all the time when they they thank me for the podcast. I was like, I really have to thank you because the way they support it and listen to it and keep the said you you don't know how many people have heard it, and I I almost hesitated to tell you at the time, but I'm getting ready to celebrate 20,000,000 downloads, like, total downloads and a lot. You know? Yeah. Then that's because people they listen to it.
They enjoy it enough to share it with somebody else. That keeps it going. And maybe one of the unforeseen things that they don't see that I hear when I'm talking to you is that allows me to get up in the morning and think about, like, I wonder what people need. Like, you know, I've I've heard you say a couple of times, like, I can't get big organizations to put signs and symptoms on their t shirts or their stuff. And, I mean, I probably understand that it's it probably feels like a bummer to them, and that's not what how they wanna present.
They want everything to be upbeat, and we're we're working towards something, that kind of feeling all the time. But, you know, I brought that ASL thing up to you earlier. Like, no one else is doing that, Kent. Like, no one's going to put the time or the effort or the money that it takes into creating helpful start out information for people with type one diabetes who are deaf or hard of hearing. They're gonna tell you, like, there's just not enough of them.
Like, the juice isn't gonna be worth the squeeze. Like, the amount of effort they're gonna put into it, they're not gonna see the return, especially in this digital age where people wanna see tens of thousands of clicks on something. They wanna see hundreds of thousands of downloads. They're not looking for you to reach five people anymore. You try to show something to them and say, like, try to imagine this.
Like, I don't it's hard to get them to imagine it. But I think that now that I've done it, I don't think it'll be as difficult to reach out to them and say, hey. Look. Here's how much money it would take to, you know, fund this to do for this kind of information or this. Like and now there's a place and you can see people getting to it and using it.
You can get them a little more excited to to keep going. But Yeah. I hear all your frustration. Like, I mean, what a no brainer for Ford to send somebody with a camera out to talk to you for an hour and put some They
are just following. You know, send somebody with me for a day. And, you know, I would think there'd be they'd sell so many more f one fifty drugs to people that live with type one diabetes if they saw this drug going out doing all these things. And it's just sometimes the big organizations are real busy. And I you know, JDRF, which is now breakthrough and the American Diabetes Association, have been nothing but great parts of my life.
I just thought if if they would just do simply print the the T shirts, you know, with the symptoms on the back, it's gonna help them raise more money. And that's the hardest thing is to let to make them understand that the more people know about this Right. The more people are gonna donate money. And the only way to tell them to do that is by telling them. And along the way, you're gonna save lives.
I mean, you know, you said something about only reaching so many people with, you know, with the program you were on recently. But if I you know, if we could say five kids a year, two kids a year, I mean, what would be the price on that? Because you know that a lot of people are diagnosed today and most of them don't know what's coming and some of them are gonna end up in ambulances and some of them on helicopters and they just need to know. I mean, you can't stop the disease, but you can stop people from dying from senseless deaths of being undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. You gotta tell people.
Using Ford as an example, they would get great social media out of it, and it wouldn't cost them anything. And like you said, it would be a good video of a of a a 12 year old truck chugging along with 400,000 miles on it, which you would think is, you know, good for sales. I haven't done I'm not gonna ask you the number, but 26,000 t shirts, even if you're paying $34 apiece for them, means you've spent a $100,000 in t shirts. That's a lot of effort from you. Like, if that's the only thing you had ever done, that would have been really impressive.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah. Well, I got three orders on my desk right now. One, I'm gonna speak to a girl scout troop, and then I and I just sent a ninety ninth church to a preschool that I'm gonna go speak at. Like I said, this guy, his name's Tom Wrong, and it's one eight hundred t shirts as his company in Dubuque, Iowa. I mean, it's crazy.
I was at a JDRF ride in 2016 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, sitting there in on Saturday night in a bar with a bunch of crazy people from Iowa, which are great people we met over the years. He walks up to me and goes, Hannah, I see you guys do t shirts. He said, Both my brothers are type one diabetic and I own one of the largest t shirt companies in the Midwest. I want to be your guy also. I'm too cheaper than anybody.
And since then, it's just been a it's perfect relationship. I mean, I they do such great work, their quality. Yeah. I call them. I I send them the order.
They send them right to the school. I mean, and it's just then when we went by there last week, you know, they're all wearing team Snack shirts. There's 30 some employees, and they were so excited to hit that number of T shirts. And we just I gotta talk to him a little bit and take pictures, and and nothing probably would have happened if I wouldn't have been earn a team snack shirt in that bar at that time. So Yeah.
I just feel like I've been put in certain places and certain things over all these years to make all this grow like this and come together and, you know, just have relationships with a company like that and have relationships with, you know, Matt Fisher who helped me design my truck. And now he's got his own ride team called Team Fish, and we're really close, and we ride. And he's done so much for the Breakthrough Ride program, and we're just great friends. And I just I wanna keep going for things like that because I know there's people I could still reach every day, and there's people that hopefully will hear this podcast and understand that, you know, you could do something like this in your area just to go to the schools and talk in front of people and to go to rotary clubs. You know, I can't go all over the country.
I get messages when you come to this school or that. I can't I think that, hopefully, it's what people understand how I do it that it's really simple. It's just giving somebody your time to try to help kids save lives, you know, and just give kids that empowerment that they're not different. They were they got a bad hand in court to dealt to with this disease, but they got to deal with it. And they want people you know, they're just looking for hope.
I don't know how many times I've heard parents say, You give us hope. And God, what's more powerful than that? You know, with all the medicine in the world sometimes, just knowing that somebody cares. There's a guy in Kansas that you don't even know, but look at him. He's driving a truck around the country, and he's trying to do everything not only to help kids there, but kids everywhere, including yourself.
It's another way to help people feel less alone, really.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a crappy disease. You know, it can make you feel really bad and just the stories I hear are about. But when I get a kids a chance to talk, give them a chance to just speak their mind and just see their smiles and see their kids, you know, and all their peers in the audience and the teachers.
You know, when we do this, we give shirts to the cooks and the bus drivers and everybody's there. Right. And it's just they know that they're there for them. They they're there for them to support them. And when I drive through these towns on that truck, I go by school and everybody's waving and the kids recognize the truck.
There's shirts everywhere, and there's no reason not to keep doing it. I mean, as long as I'm being able to I feel like gonna be of great support.
You're a you're a lovely person. This is this is an uplifting conversation. Do you even have a website that I could send people to? Or how do they No.
I don't have a website. I mean, I really try to do everything the old fashioned way. It seems to work for me. I mean, we've got I've got my personal Kent Snackenberg Facebook page, which I don't know. I have a lot of brands, I guess, on there, I try to post a lot on it.
I have a Team Snack page still, but, you know, it's one of those pages where they you have to give a money to Facebook to promote things. And so I don't do a lot on that, but I just try you know, I usually email a lot and people call me and stuff. But it works for me, and I think I'm too old to change much, to be honest with you.
That's okay. Think that's awesome. I think Facebook's a great way for them to find you. Right? It's just your it's just your name?
Yeah. My name, just personal name. It's Kent Snackenburg. And if you go to the TeamSnack page, I think you can get to the the other page by doing that.
You made me think. I have the same thought you just have all the time. Like, I have a private Facebook group that has 73, 74,000 people in it right now. And Bro. It's insane.
Right? And yet, if you post something, Facebook doesn't show it to most of them.
No. Yeah. No. No.
They want you to pay them to actually deliver your your posts to the people that you've gathered up who have said, I'd like to know what this guy is saying. Yeah. No. It's it's really something. And can I get a I gotta tell you now?
We're we're done, but I I I wanna tell you that I'm so impressed by what you're doing that I have not brought up the, incredible thrashing that my Eagles gave your Chiefs in the Super Bowl. I just let that go, and we don't even talk about it. Yeah. Because you're
gonna beat us in two weeks too.
Because you're a good man, Kent, and you don't deserve that. Okay? Yeah. I keep that to myself.
Well, I'd I'd like to tell you this one story
Please.
And and and see if you can fit it in towards the end.
Absolutely. This you keep going. Please.
Your moment comes — don't miss it58:12
So this was, like, in 2015 or '16, I was starting out doing my seven rides for the year, I was traveling to the Northeast part of the country. But at that point in time, I was still trying to hit all these states. I think the first day I drove all the way to Houston, Texas from Kansas, and the next day I drove to Jacksonville, Florida, then up to Hershey, Pennsylvania. And I the next day I drove into the town where the ride was. And, you know, it was early in the day.
I I didn't really know how to recognize how many days it would take to get through the way I was doing it. Because when I'm riding, I'm stop or driving, I'm stopping and talking to people and giving out information. Of course. So I got there early, and I decided to just explore the town a little bit. And I went around the town and, you know, came and got some some of their places.
They're famous landmarks and stuff, and I'm heading back to the hotel. And I come to this, you know, red light. It was a pretty busy street, and I looked over to my right, and there's this young man sitting in a wheelchair. And sitting next to it was a lady in a folding chair, and I come to find out, you know, that was his caretaker. And I know this young man had some real health issues because his neck was, like, lean weight to the right and his body was kind of leaned over.
You know, I could see in his wheelchair, was kind of custom made where he had his left hand really clenched tightly on this tray, but with his right hand, he was reaching down and put something in his mouth. But the whole time, both of them were just staring at me. So it was one of those red lights that seems like it goes on forever, you know? And it finally turned green. I didn't know what else to do.
So as I was driving away, I smiled and waved really big, and he just stared straight at me. But she waved and smiled, but, you know, it was kind of a sad smile like, you know, everybody's seen. And I got up the road two or three blocks and something and saw this, you know, inside of me just said, Kent, you need to go back. You need to go back. So I turned into Office Street, and I came up behind this building.
I think it was a church, I parked and I walked around the corner and I just said, Hey, getting snack program here to do a bike ride to help kids with type one diabetes. Tell me your story. And the lady looked at me and she said, Well, this young man was diagnosed early in life with a very severe muscle disease and he'll never be able to walk and he'll never be able to talk, and he needs twenty four hour daycare. But he likes doing nice days, and we sit out here and look at traffic. And he must have really loved your truck because he made this really loud.
And the whole time, he's still staring at traffic. And so I just looked at her and I'm set. Know, what can I do to make your day better? What do you guys like to do? And she thought for a moment, and she said, well, when his dad comes to pick him up at night, we love to go out to eat.
Nothing fancy, just different places. And she looked at me, and I was wearing a bright yellow team snack shirt, and she said, and he really likes bright colored shirts. And I said, well, just wait right here. And I ran back to my truck, I could just tell and my heart was just thumping, you know. I knew something was gonna happen special that day.
And came back around the corner, and I gave her $60. I said, here, you just go out to your favorite place to eat tonight on me, and I said, just to really enjoy yourself. And I said, here's a shirt for him to wear. And she held up that yellow shirt. And, yeah, she held up the shirt and said, look what this man gave you.
And for the very first time, you know, his head tilted up towards me, and this kind of a smile, I think, came across his face. And he lifted that left hand up that had been clenched in that fist, he opened it up, and I put three fingers in there, and he squeezed him really, really hard. And he made this really loud noise that I always think he was just saying thank you at that point, you know, and then he released my hand, and he started looking back at the traffic. And I just gave her one of my cards, and I said, just wanna tell you I loved you guys. You If you ever need me for anything else, anything, I said, please just get ahold of me.
And as I turned and walked away, she said, you already have. And I looked back at her and she goes, we've been sitting here for two years. She said, two years, and you're the first person that's ever stopped to check on us. And she said, you know, that's gonna make me that's gonna make his father so happy. And she just said, thanks for what you do.
And I left, and, you know, then her father or his father called me that night and just said, you know, I don't know who you are, but you made my family's day and you did something today nobody's ever done for us. And, you know, I like to tell that story when I'm talking to kids and because I always feel like, you know, every story should have a good message to it. And so the message to that story is, you know, your moment in life comes, you know, and you will have a moment when you have this opportunity. Just don't miss it. Right.
And I said, my moment came in 2015 and standing in front of 400 people in Tucson Tucson, Arizona. And I said, and your bubble come, and I said, just don't mess it. So
Oh, Kent. I have to tell you, that story is so lovely that I didn't make the joke I was gonna make when you said my heart was thumping that I knew something was gonna happen that day, I thought, yeah, those are the blockages, Kent.
Yeah. Well, luckily, that was ten years ago. So I it was doing pretty good then.
I think you've probably, by putting yourself out into the world like this, had more incredible experiences than a 100 people combined. And just by putting yourself in situations where you may or may not have an experience like that, but a little uncommon nowadays. Right? Like, people don't think to do that as much as you do. And I I I I hope everybody's hearing what it's given back to you, and maybe they'll they'll do a little bit of of it themselves too.
Yeah. You know, you were talking about clicks earlier and stuff, and I'm not interested in, you know, the number of clicks. I'm just interested in the amount of people I can reach, the amount of kids I can save,
Yeah.
How many kids we could send at camp, and how many kids we can help with expenses because that's that's what's really important to me in life. I know that they talk about social influencers. They talk about all these things, but I got a feeling that some of that's a pretty empty feeling. But when you, you know, can walk in a house and a family's happy to see you after they just got from home from the hospital three days ago and just start telling them what you can do for them and just let them know they're not alone. I mean, that's worth so that's worth everything to me.
No. I believe that, and I and I agree. You what you're doing, I mean, you're an angel out in the world for sure. I hope your family is as proud of you as I imagine that I am. You know, your kids are probably older now, right, and your grand they probably don't really know.
I mean, to one of your grandchildren, you've gotta be there, like, I don't know. Grandpop's got a weird truck and he goes on a lot of bike rides. Right?
Like No. They just they just say I mean, everything to them is team snack, you know. Team snack truck, team snack shirts.
Know about it.
They're you know, the oldest is 12 and the youngest is, like, I think, nine. And so there's you know, we have three in Kansas City, which is a couple hours from here, two in Denver, which is eight hours from here. So we don't get to see them as often as some people do, but we definitely make a lot of trips both places and we're really proud of our grandkids. I'm just thankful that, you know, they're proud of me and what we do and and my wife. Nobody's ever said anything like, you know, you missed this, you shouldn't have missed this.
They're just they know I'm helping kids and
Yeah.
I try to install and install in them and everybody else that, you know, that's the secret to life is helping others when you have an opportunity to.
Can I ask a last question? Sure. Prior to all this happening to you and, you know, just kind of the randomness of your, you know, of your niece being diagnosed
Right.
Were you doing stuff like this prior to that, or was this just a departure for you?
A lifetime of giving: the train, Santa, and his father1:05:03
No. No. I mean, I've always tried to help people. My dad was really big with charities and clubs. He was ran a cancer golf tournament here for years, and I took over for him then.
And he passed away when he was 80, and I ran it for several years.
So
and we, you know, we have a Saratoga Club here in town with a miniature train that runs, and it's very It's been given, I think, 1955. It started, and it holds, like, 20 kids and parents. And so it runs, like, three or four nights a week in the summer. And my wife and I pay for all the rides for all the kids and parents, you know, all summer long for that. And we just had the last ride of the summer last Sunday night, and I think they gave 253 rides out that night.
And so that's just money that those families can save, but they love the train. I mean, it reminds me when I was little when I was riding in it. Just a really special place for me, and and I want it to be special for a lot of the people. And this club is filled with, you know, men and women that are in their sixties, seventies, and eighties, and they continue to do this. And so it's a little better just for us to support them with 2,500 donation to pay for all the free rides all It's been great.
Jeez. Yeah, Kent. Yeah. You might you really might be an angel, man. I can't thank you enough.
I'm gonna call this episode Kent has something to say.
Okay.
It's a great message. Like, I don't I don't know another way to say it. Like, I I felt the same way when I I told you I had Ernie on from from Cam Sweeney, he was talking about it. And I just kept thinking, he's been doing this for decades. And he's an older man.
Like, why does he keep doing this? You know? Like like, what what what keeps him going? You know? And, there's something about the his conversation and the conversations I've had with you that I don't know.
I I hear a, a fire and a motivation inside that is not, in any way that I can tell, not ego motivated. Like, it it really is about, like, just seeing other people do better. I mean, just I mean, Ken, what's what's a ride on the train cost?
Well, it's only a dollar. But it and but if they have eight kids, that's $8. And if they wanna ride four times, that's $32, and that's money they could just save, you know, and It's a
really thoughtful approach. Like, these people's kids have a nice time and they and they have eight more dollars in their pocket. And Yeah. And your thought is they can go put that into something else and and still have had this good time
to see them an ice cream on the way home.
It's just you spreading joy around is what it is.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was Santa Claus for eighteen years out front of our house, and we used to do it in in neighborhood, and we raised somebody, you know, toys for the Salvation Army. And so I mean, that was, like I know how many years ago that was, but and they're still doing that today forty years later in this neighborhood that we moved away from. And so that's kinda cool that they're continuing to the tradition.
I mean, we live in a very giving town. People are very nice here. Yeah. Just I mean, it's like, I almost have to have one of those hands in front of my truck waving, you know, the dashboard because so many people know the truck could wave and honk and
And you just
It's just a great feeling.
Spotting back. Well, listen. It sounds to me like you're still Santa Claus. So Well Yeah. I don't know, man.
You're you're really lovely, and this is fantastic. I appreciate you jumping back on and and sharing this with me again. I hope that, I hope you hear about people enjoying this conversation for ten more years.
Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm sure that it'll whenever you put it on, let me know, and then I can share it to him.
I will.
Yeah. It's I shared the that first episode last night, and a lot of people called me and called me and stuff, said we'd forgot about everything you're doing and stuff.
So Yeah. No. It's cool. Well, it'll be out. I'll tell you about it when we we'll finish up here.
Say goodbye, and I'll tell you about the timeline.
Okay.
So thank you so much. I really do appreciate this.
You bet.
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