Meri Kimura is the Assistant to the Head of the Morven Campus at Collingwood School in West Vancouver, BC. As an alumnus of the school, she has a deep connection and love for her old high school and its past and future teachers and students. Although life took a sharp left turn after art school in Toronto, Ontario, she enjoys helping nurture and guide young students towards their potential futures.

Today my guest is ROBERT SPENCE who has spent most of his life as a health administrator but also as a Medic and Operating Room Technician during the height of the Vietnam War. In 1967, Robert was drafted twice into the US Army, getting a deferment for college in March but finally drafted in December 1967 before he had even finished his semester. In those days, not everyone could get college deferments like Clinton, Howard Dean or even Trump. For over a year during 1969-1970, Robert served his country in the 3rd Surgical Hospital in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. When he returned from the war, he obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Health Administration from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974. Robert worked as an OR Tech at the hospital for 5 years, and then spent over 28 years in NYS DOCS as Health Administrator in Clinton CF, a 2800 inmate maximum security prison... After 7-8 years at the facility, he was promoted to Asst. Director of Health Services for all of NY State’s 70 prisons in 1989 (which meant that 19 of his 28 years in Corrections were spent as the Asst. Director of Health Services)

TIFF (To Inform Families First) was founded by Christine Olson, the mother of Tiffiany, a young woman killed in a traffic accident in 2005. Christine did not learn of this tragedy until 6 and a half hours after the accident happened.

Reflecting on Tiffiany’s accident and the agony it caused inspired Christine to ensure other families never need suffer the same situation. Christine dedicated her efforts to design an emergency contact database system that would allow law enforcement officers to instantly retrieve information needed to notify loved ones upon an emergency.

With the support of then Florida State Representative Bill Galvano (currently president of the Florida Senate), The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and law enforcement agencies, a voluntary Emergency Contact Information program went into effect on October 2, 2006 in the state of Florida.

This Emergency Contact Information program is a highly effective way to enhance the lives of people, by providing contact information to law enforcement officers during critical emergencies, when every second counts.

The TIFF initiative is highly recognized outside the State of Florida and has received several awards. The Ash Institute at Harvard voted the ECI program one of the top 50 best government innovations.

Christine has recently undertaken a new initiative as part of TIFF. She is currently working on adding an emergency contact section to TIFF’s initiative to have contact information available for pet caregivers in the event of a medical emergency or accident so pets are taken care of.

BIO

Born in Milwaukee, WI Christine moved to Bradenton, FL in August, 2000 and has worked at the Rod and Reel Pier for the last nine years. She served on the board of directors for the Children's Memorial and Gardens, and volunteered at the Mote Marine Aquarium and Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch. She is a mother to Derek James Olson and Tiffiany, who went home to be with Jesus. On October 2nd, 2006 she founded TIFF's Initiative.

Aimee Vaerewyck is a salon owner, licensed esthetician and Hello Gorgeous Executive Team Member. She loves to make people feel good about themselves. When she isn't working she enjoys spending time with her family.

This segment attempts to clarify the difference between personality and behavior. Personality is static while behavior is fluid and amendable. You don’t teach an introvert to become an introvert, instead you teach the principles and skills associated with community and how to deal with large gatherings of humans.

Lauren is a master in makeup artistry. She is trained in the fine arts who strives in perfecting works of art. She specializes and is certified in moulage injury simulation. She is also highly skilled in special effects, body painting and beauty. She has worked for multiple high-brands within the cosmetic field and has completed many works in NYFW, photoshoots, SPFX contests, Lauren has been selected for Brightside Tavern Film festival for her makeup concept and work.. With her background degree in the arts, she has created her makeup company LBB Artistry & Fx to show her abilities of using any surface to create her artwork

Richard Bonte is a Bradenton resident and a native-born New Yorker.  He has lived much of his life in Canada,

California and Western Europe.  He has worn many hats in his life including playwright, bi-coastal actor, teacher, writer,

linguist and phonetician.  He has advanced degrees from Berkeley, UCLA and the Sorbonne.  Richard has written ten

novels (including ‘Curmudgeonly Yours’ (2017), been given the FAPA (Florida Authors and Publishers Association) 2018

Silver Award for Humor), several plays and screenplays.  He is right now co-writing a new novel set in 1930’s Los Angeles.