The Chief Press Foundation | with Charles R. Press, Town of Surfside's New Police Chief
Welcome to Key Biscayne Stories, where neighbors meet neighbors. Today we have Charles Press, Chief of Police of the town of Surfside and former Chief of Police of Key Biscayne for seventeen years. I'm very excited because Chief Press, he's very well known here in the community and very well loved as well, so it's pretty cool because when I first started getting into this world of podcasting, you had already left, I think, and then I didn't really know about you until I started with the podcast and getting to know about how huge the Key Biscayne philanthropic spirit is, which we're going to talk about today about the Chief Press Foundation, But before we do that, we're going to talk a little bit about your background. So welcome on the show, Chief.
Chief Press:Thanks. I really appreciate it.
Alejandro:So let's start at the beginning. What inspired you to become a police officer?
Chief Press:A really unique situation growing up. My father was a Miami Beach police officer. My older brother was a police officer with Miami Dade County. Police did not pay that well back then, and I wanted to make money, so I got my degree in accounting. I took an accounting job right out of Miami Dade College, and lasted about three weeks until my boss came in, told me I was fired, and told me I was the worst accountant she had ever met, suggesting that I find a new career.
Chief Press:I went home that day, and I remember talking to my father and my brother, And I was really down in the dumps. And my father, of course, being a cop, suggested I become a police officer. My brother, my older brother, kind of rubbing it in a little bit, saying, Why don't you just go for a ride with me one night? Which I did because I had nothing else to do. Well, knowing my brother, great cop, there was this crazy call that went out, two cars shooting at each other.
Chief Press:He found the cars, and as he approached the cars, he pulled the shotgun out of the rack, handed it to me, and told me if God forbid he got shot, I needed to just keep firing the weapon toward the cars. Scared the hell out of me, to be real honest with you, but it was so exciting that I decided to give it a try. I loved the idea of being a Miami Beach police officer at that point, and kind of following my dad's footsteps. So I figured the worst that could happen is if I was lousy at that, they would fire me and I'd have to be something else. That was forty nine years ago.
Alejandro:Was that like with your brother? Is that what they call now a ride along?
Chief Press:It was a ride along, and it was you know, my older brother and I, we had this thing, you know, brothers, and he was always just trying to better me a little bit and this, that, and the other, and kind of rubbing it in. So I figured I would do that ride along, and it changed my life.
Alejandro:Now do all ride alongs go like that?
Chief Press:No, no, no, they don't. It was very unique. It was a rough part of town, very South end of Miami Dade County. And it just so happened that it was crazy that night, and you get this fightflight syndrome, And I had both of them. I wanted to run like a mad dog, and I wanted to engage at the same time.
Chief Press:So the excitement of it gave me the impetus to at least try the profession, and here I am.
Alejandro:And was his a younger brother, older brother?
Chief Press:He's my older brother.
Alejandro:Oh, yeah. Okay. And he was a police officer?
Chief Press:With Miami Dade County Sheriff's Office. And so was your dad? My dad was with Miami Beach Police. Okay.
Alejandro:What a story. Because I know that you can request a ride along nowadays, right? Correct. I don't know if every police department offer it, but I know that some do, and then, you know, it's like you get to experience it inside the vehicle, and then watch the cops do what they do. You know, we've always offered it to people.
Alejandro:It's very unique. You have to sign a waiver,
Chief Press:obviously. Now, I did it a couple times with people who wanted to do a ride along with me, and at one point, we did have a call where I was gonna have to engage in something very extreme, and I kicked him out of the car and just told him to wait on the side of the road. I wasn't gonna put him in jeopardy.
Alejandro:You're not gonna hand him a shotgun? No,
Chief Press:my brother was pretty crazy, but we're brothers, and that's you know.
Alejandro:Yeah, of course, of course. No, was pretty cool. So how did that journey take you to Key Biscayne?
Chief Press:So thirty years of Miami Beach Police, and I steadily rose through the ranks. I, at the time, was an assistant chief in Miami Beach, and waiting my turn to be chief as it was, and I was next in line. But to be real honest with you, I saw the Police Department of Miami Beach as an extremely great organization. We went through a lot went through the Cocaine Cowboys and the Mariel Boatlift and the crazy times, and I had done my job. And somebody had told me that there was an opening for Chief and Keep Escape.
Chief Press:I talked to my chief on the beach about it, and I remember him telling me, Well, you're young, it's a really big deal job, and you probably won't make it. You've got about a 10% chance of getting that job. He said, But it's always good to go through the process so you learn what it's like.
Alejandro:That's what they all say, Just do the interview so you get the interview experience. Exactly.
Chief Press:And I did. And I went up against 75 contestants from around the country. They did a national search, and it came down to who I thought would definitely take it. He was the public safety director for the city of Indianapolis, and he was in charge of 5,000 people. And there I was, an assistant chief on Miami Beach, and I thought, There's no way they're gonna choose me.
Chief Press:Well, they did, and it was seventeen magnificent years here on Key Biscayne.
Alejandro:Now, I don't know if you know, they tell you why you stood out out of the 75? Why were you chosen, Wednesday Nourer, that?
Chief Press:A lot of it had to do with the fact that I knew this community so well, born and raised in Kendall, and growing up a Miami Beach police officer, my connections with every chief in this community and other cops and the way we actually conducted business here in South Florida, I think that was the game changing for me. And I was really good at what I did, and that helped, too.
Alejandro:It makes sense. Sometimes you could have a lot of experience in this space, but if you know the community that you're serving, I think it's that thing that makes you different
Chief Press:It's than only the the partnerships you have and you've already developed, so that's what makes it unique to staying in your own community if you want to be at the level of Police Chief.
Alejandro:Awesome. Awesome. Well, so seventeen years,
Chief Press:right? Seventeen years.
Alejandro:Mean, I don't even know how to Almost start day. Can you tell us something? I mean, what can you share about your time as Chief? If I knew, if I would have experienced it, I would have more to ask, but I'm just gonna, you know, leave it blank here.
Chief Press:It was very unique. It was a police department that was going through a transition, obviously, and that's the reason they were looking for a new police chief. And when I first got there, after having served in such a magnificent police department, I had a lot of experience in putting things together, seeing the challenges an organization and a community may have. And it needed a lot of work. I could tell you for the first five years, if I took three weeks of time off in those first five years, that was a lot.
Chief Press:It was a twenty four hour a day, seven day a week job, literally rebuilding it from the ground up, restructuring the organization. We had quite a bit of turnover of personnel during those first five years. I have a certain way of doing business. I have great expectations for the people who wear this uniform. I'm very proud of it.
Chief Press:I love this profession, And I wanted us to be a part of the community, not just serving the community, but to actually engage with the community. Now, people talk about community policing all the time. It's a general concept that most police departments don't really understand, and so they may have a unit, a couple of officers that are your community police unit. That's not the way I work. I wanted the organization, I wanted everybody to be a part of this beautiful place called Keep Escape.
Chief Press:And so I started creating opportunities for our cops to go out into the community, to engage with the community, the way we police, the way we talk to people. Just for a small example, tinted windows on a police car. It drove people crazy. They would talk about the fact that you couldn't see the police officer inside. So if they would wave to the officer, they couldn't tell if the officer would wave back.
Chief Press:This didn't just come across my table once or twice. This was a huge demand by this community. Now, cops, on the other hand, they're thinking safety. They don't want people seeing where they are sitting in a police car. But like I told the cops, at the end of the day, if you're driving down the street, somebody is sitting behind the wheel of that police car.
Chief Press:So it's pretty obvious, tense or not. Those were some of the small things, that really bothered the people here at Key Biscayne, I saw that. I understood that. And it was kind of a catfight with the officers at first, but I think eventually they came to understand the reasoning behind it, and, it's really not a big deal. Take the tents off, smile at people, be kind to people, be professional, serve this occupation and this profession like you love it.
Chief Press:And that changes the way the town or the village looks at its police department.
Alejandro:And I think also, you know, a lot of people say that, you know, that we no, no, no, no. Think it's also on both sides, you know, like the residents have to also get used to, at least I recommend residents that to just say hello to their officers when they see them. I I like to do that when I see them here at the Golden Hog or we are within a reasonable distance. I say, hello officers, or how are you, or good morning, you know, and it's nice to be able to have that rapport. Mean, before being in government, other than getting pulled over, that was my experience.
Alejandro:So it's like, it's a little tense, you know? So I get it, but at the end of the day, you know, I've met a lot of wonderful police officers doing a lot of great work. So now when I see a police officer or firefighter, it's like, Good morning, good afternoon, good night. I think it's super important for the community to feel connected that the services that we have and folks that are working at are super approachable. Mean, they should be, right?
Chief Press:I have to be honest with you. It wasn't that way when I got here. There wasn't a lot of, I would say, connected love for the police officers from the community. How that came about, I'm not quite sure. They wanted their own police department, but they had a vision of what they wanted out of the officers who worked here.
Chief Press:And I'm certain that that vision was not met on both sides, so when I got here, the idea of diving into the community and really getting to know them and making my police officers do the same thing, I believe that was the connectivity to being reciprocated by the citizens here in Keep Escape, and that's how it all came about. Somebody has to take that first step. And we are the professionals, that's what we get paid to do, So it was our job to walk up and say hello and good morning and introduce ourselves and just be human beings instead of just a person with a uniform and a badge and a glove.
Alejandro:Yeah, now it's great. Think it's come a long way. And now I see the police officers at the events, they're walking around, I see their social as well. They're visiting schools, they're very out there, so think
Chief Press:we worked real hard to establish that. -Yeah. -The other side of my life here in Key Biscayne was my father I need to keep going back to my father, other than being the greatest man I've ever known. He started the first Police Athletic League in the state of Florida. That is an organization involving police officers that actually works with kids, playgrounds, building playgrounds, not jails, and establishes relationships with kids at a young age, so kids grow up not being afraid of the profession.
Chief Press:And so I was a PAL kid growing up. I understood how unique it was to go beyond the badge and to do things in the community that served not just the people you work for, but served the community as a whole, the South Florida community. So I created this Christmas giveaway fund, and I reached out to Key Biscayne Stories, and I asked them if they would be good enough to provide funds for my small little group, and on Christmas, I would take that money, buy a bunch of toys, and believe it or not, head out of Key Biscayne and into the neediest community here in South Florida. And that was Liberty City. Still is.
Chief Press:So we started doing that, and to be honest with you, the first couple of Christmases and the giveaways, I went into the what they considered the most dangerous part of that community. They had been through an awful lot. They had been through the riots of the '80s, and I remember being there back then and seeing, like, a lot of distrust of the cops, a lot of anger at the cops. So I thought if I was gonna start doing this, I was gonna go right into the heart and soul of where people were angry. And it didn't work out real well for me the first couple years.
Chief Press:You would have a long line of kids, and they would come up, they would take their gift, they'd turn around, they wouldn't smile. There was no understanding of cops and kids and what it really meant for me and for our officers, to engage, in this community. But what I noticed was the more often I went there, and I started going there just to meet with people, and there was a small organization called MCI, the Miami Children's Initiative, and it was right in the heart of that. And they were kind of the community service group that helped out in every aspect of helping Liberty City kids grow up. So I engaged with them and became a frequent flyer into Liberty City when I wasn't here.
Chief Press:And as I was doing that, and I was attending their programs and things, people started to see me more often. And they started seeing that I was not just there one day a year handing out a toy anybody could do that. But I was committed to changing this conversation between police officers and a community that kind of grew up not trusting us for a lot of reasons, a lot of them our own reasons. And so as it started developing and getting better, I decided to do things a little bit differently here in Keep Us Game. Instead of just asking people to donate, I wanted them to first go with me to Liberty City and to see it firsthand.
Chief Press:And there was some unique pushback. I could tell you that the bubble of Key Biscayne and I say that in a nice way, but at the same time, it's a little difficult to understand that they have this beautiful little community here. A lot of people don't leave the Key. They've got everything they need here. So I was taking them to actually meet some of the young people, see what the organization does, see what I do.
Chief Press:And once they started doing that, they understood the needs that were so prevalent over there, and therefore they started getting involved in it. And the key to the whole game was one person: Melissa White. She is my hero of heroes. She's the most wonderful philanthropist, you know, foundation leader I have ever met. And I brought her there when she was about nine months pregnant on a Christmas trip, and it was rainy, and it was miserable, and she went anyway.
Chief Press:And when she saw it, I get goosebumps talking about it, she knew that that was my passion and that we could do something together. So we morphed from this just Christmas giveaway to the Chief Press Foundation, and we started bringing many people into it. And as Melissa talked about it, because she's so well loved here in Keepersgate, They all started to see that this was more than just a cop or two going over there and helping. This was a game changer. So we started having these major events, back to school events, where we would give 400, 500 kids we called it Christmas in July everything they needed for going back to school, from clothes to shoes to backpacks to hygiene products, things that we all take for granted that those kids just didn't have.
Chief Press:And so it started to grow larger. So then I took this really big step of bringing 400, 500 young African American children and their families right into the heart of Key Biscayne, right into the village green. And to be perfectly honest with you, the first time I did it, it caught people. Even though I told them we were gonna do this, people were a little bit surprised. People didn't quite understand why.
Chief Press:And if I have the chance to, and I'll take a couple minutes for this one story, there was this first time I brought it there, and I'm standing there, and I'm just feeling great because these kids, most of them had never left Liberty City. They came over that bridge, and it was shocking to them to see the beauty of what's out there in Miami that they had never seen. And so, there's two unique things to this story. For the first time in probably most of their lives, they could run around, play games, and not have to worry about somebody doing a drive by shooting. Their whole attitude shifted.
Chief Press:They were happy, they were carefree. But there was also a bit of an attitude here in Key Biscayne, and this one man came up to me, didn't know who I was, and he said, To be honest with you, who the hell brought all these people here? And I just smiled and I said, Well, that would be that stupid Chief of Police, Chuck Press. And he goes, Why are they here? And I said, Well, first of all, nice to meet you.
Chief Press:I'm Chuck Press. And he looked at me a little taken aback, and I spent the next probably twenty, thirty minutes explaining to him the reason behind it all and bringing two communities together. He told me, Will you be here for another twenty minutes? I said, Yes, sir. He said, I'll see you in a little bit.
Chief Press:He came back and he handed me a check for $5,000 and he said, Chief, keep doing what you're doing. I get goosebumps talking about that, too. That led to the most unique part of this Chief Press Foundation thing. We actually convinced the village of Key Biscayne to make Liberty City their sister city. When you think about governments and sister cities, a place like Key Biscayne would normally have Paris or, you know, some beautiful, lovely place.
Chief Press:They could all kumbaya together and fly back and forth and create business opportunities. Well, they went from the wealthiest community in South Florida to the most needy community. And that bond to this day still exists. We still have a sister city relationship between Key Biscayne and Liberty City. And in the past twenty two years now that the foundation has been around, we have raised in excess of $700,000 $800,000 We have given away thousands of gifts.
Chief Press:We have given away thousands of backpacks. We do scholarships for kids. I had the opportunity, thanks to Key Biscayne, to take 10 young men in, I think it was, 2016 or 'fifteen, all the way to Oakland to see President Obama's My Brother's Keeper. It was the first time he put together that organization for himself. And, these kids had never been out of Florida.
Chief Press:They had never been on an airplane. And to be able to take these 10 young men, it wasn't just a game changer for those young men, it changed my life, because I saw things that just took me to another level of understanding of sometimes the hell that people go through, and things that I take for granted. And I started seeing things through their eyes instead of my eyes thinking I'm seeing the way things are. And it was unique, and it was wonderful for them, and an experience that I'll never forget. The biggest impact I had for that trip for me was sitting in this group of almost 2,000 young African American kids.
Chief Press:I was the white guy in the room. I was not just the white guy in the room, I was the cop in the room. And one of the speakers, I forgot who, they were not really praising the relationship with the African American community and police officers. And I was feeling extremely uncomfortable. And all of a sudden, this big arm goes wraps around my shoulder.
Chief Press:And I look over and here is this young, strong, big African American kid with dreads, tattoos on his arm, and he just smiled at me and said, Don't worry, Chief. We love you, and we've got you. That that's all I needed to know about the work that we were doing with the Foundation and the folks at Liberty City. Said it all. And now to this day, we have opened two food pantries.
Chief Press:We originally opened a food pantry in Liberty City at the Tecolse Center, where we provide food for people who are in need. But just three, four months ago, because of a lot of the I hate to use a word, but I'm going to gentrification of Liberty City, Most of the people have shifted their new lives to Homestead, so there's a great need of there's a food desert in Homestead also. And so I just opened my second food pantry down in Homestead, right on the Homestead, Florida city line. And that has, to me, just given me another opportunity to serve, you know, the neediest of communities, and show people, most of all, more than anything, it's not about Chuck Press, not about it's about this profession, that we do give a damn, we do care. And that's been my goal the entire time.
Chief Press:And it shifts the police officers' mindset, so I get a win win. I get a community that actually loves the idea of interacting in a positive way, and then I get the cops who are told when they're in the academy, If you go into this neighborhood, you gotta be really careful because it's really dangerous. When cops start to humanize the people that they serve, and even people that they don't serve but that they come across, think about it. They become better cops, and they're not just robots going out there answering calls, getting back in their car, and thinking, I just want to go home at night. We all want to go home.
Chief Press:Us, they want to go home at the end of the day, these people in the communities. So it's it's it's a game changer. I wish every police department did it. I wish every police chief did it, but it doesn't always happen. It just happened to be the right place, right time, and a generous community called Keep Us Gain that supported this idea of how do we change the conversation.
Alejandro:Can you explain to us a little bit about why these experiences are good for these kids to come out of Liberty City and experience other communities and connect with other folks?
Chief Press:Well, when you think about growing up in America, in a world that was segregated for so many years, and a lot of these communities throughout the country, such as Liberty City, it's very difficult for them to get out of that cycle of poverty. And part of that cycle is they really don't have the chance to see the other side of the world, and to see how there is opportunity out there, that you can get out of there, you can make it, you can work hard. And so bringing them to Key Biscayne was a game changer for them, because they saw a universe that they had a chance at maybe having for themselves. Because we didn't just bring them over here, We talked about how people were able to achieve the things they did: going to school, you know, working hard, getting jobs, getting professions. And this is your possibility, that not everybody in Key Biscayne grew up with a golden spoon.
Chief Press:They worked really hard, they got there by doing the things that you need to do in America as a capitalist country to succeed. So as they would see that, what that morphed into, and the really unique part of this, was Key Biscayne started bringing their children to these events. And it allowed their children to see a different community, and not from the newspapers, not from the negativity, not from the garbage that they hear in school, but to actually interact with them and learn their names and talk to them and laugh with them and play with them things like that. So in my mind, the transition was even greater for the children to keep us gained because realizing that we're all equal, skin be damned, you know, we're all in this little universe together, we breathe the same air, It's a wonderful way to teach without being in a teaching kind of atmosphere. And that was the true growth of my vision of what my foundation was going to do.
Chief Press:And I could tell you that you go back to that story about that gentleman who at first was negative about bringing in people from outside of Key Biscayne, and then couldn't wait to go home and donate to the Foundation. These are the stories that this is all real, this isn't just some fantasy of mine. This actually happened. And, again, without the generosity of the people at Key Biscayne. I didn't get grants.
Chief Press:It was only very much later in our foundation, and I have to again put my arms around Melissa White, that we were able to work with the Children's Trust and started to get these larger grants that would provide schools and opportunities and things that we couldn't do just on a grassroots foundation, you know, attempt to raise money. So, it just it just all morphed into this beautiful thing. And I'll I'll I'll say this about police work. Being a cop in the days I was a real cop, I call it, before I became a chief, and going through the cocaine cowboy days and the crime fighting days and losing friends of mine in the line of duty and and the insanity of that was uniquely exciting, frightening, everything you could imagine. And I thought that's what policing was all about.
Chief Press:But the best part of policing is serving. And the game changer in my life, and the best part of my life, has been the Chief Press Foundation and to be able to change the lives of others, including, believe it or not, my own kids. My kids grew up knowing that it's good to give back, And all three of my children all give back to the community in different ways now. And they worked with me in Liberty City. My oldest daughter, blonde haired, blue eyed girl, beautiful girl, and when she would go into Liberty City to help out, they would call her Blondie.
Chief Press:Here comes Blondie. You know? And then there was my middle daughter who would just laugh and get people engaged and talk, and she just had that personality. And my youngest daughter actually convinced her K-eight to start doing a back to school program every year at their school. It started one year, and now it's become that school's mantra that come summertime and get ready to go back to school, they're going to raise enough money or just donate backpacks filled with supplies for kids in Liberty City.
Chief Press:This year, I had to take two large SUVs just to fill all of them, and that was an idea that my little seventh grader had, she told people, You have to give. You know, there's people who need things. So it's affected my own family, it's affected children throughout South Florida, and it shows that policing is not just putting people in jail or giving people tickets. That is the difficult part of our job. If we all bought into the idea that service feels better than anything in the world, and changing conversations, and enjoying humanity, and not being fearful of humanity, if we could get this profession to do that, it would be a game changer forever.
Alejandro:Awesome. I mean, I love the work that you've done with the Chief Press Foundation and the impact you've created. Like I mentioned, when I first started in this space, I learned a lot about the Chief Press Foundation. I think I met you more through the foundation first and then I met you in person.
Chief Press:Wow, that is wonderful. That's great to hear.
Alejandro:I have to ask because you retired, right? You left us. Naturally, of course, you retired. You've served seventeen years, which is amazing and thank you for your service. I haven't asked.
Alejandro:Haven't I appreciate that. Thank you for your service to the community of Key Biscayne. You retired and then it was funny, I was in my day job just distributing some things. I ended up at the town of Surfside and then I was waiting to be received so I can do the drop off and I'm looking at this little booklet, right?
Chief Press:The Gazette.
Alejandro:The Gazette and I'm like, I see your face. And I was like, What? No way. So, I called and then you came out and we had a great conversation. So tell us, from retirement to the Town of Surfside.
Chief Press:Okay, so when I retired, I figured, you know, the average lifespan of a chief in America is two to three years, the national average. I made it seventeen years, and I wanted to leave at the top. You know, a lot of police chiefs go out the hard way. I wanted to go out the right way. And I just felt it was time.
Chief Press:I was tired, and it had been a hell of a career, but I thought it was just the right time. And so, being retired, I was still doing foundation work. Foundation work never stopped. I did a little bit of consulting here and there. And to be truly honest with you, I wasn't enjoying it as much as I wanted to.
Chief Press:I had this vision that when you retire, you play golf, you're going fishing, you're doing all these things. I still had a young girl, daughter in school, so I wasn't traveling and I wasn't doing those things because my focus was getting her through school with my wife, or our focus, I should say. And then I got this phone call about two years after I left Keepersgate, and the phone call came from the mayor of Surfside. Now, this mayor, I knew from my Miami Beach days. He grew up, on Miami Beach.
Chief Press:He was a wild kid, so we knew him from his wilder days and our days as cop versus, you know, people who were doing some sensationally wild things. And he became a magnificent developer, and we had a friendship. And it was one of those friendships where you don't see each other for ten years, and when you do, it's all good. So I was surprised to hear from Charlie. And he asked me if I could help him out.
Chief Press:He said, The Surfside Police Department was going through many difficult changes. They had, after the collapse of the Champlain Towers, they had gone through five or six different chiefs for whatever reason. The turnover was huge. The department was in discord, and asked me if I would help. Well, I wasn't really interested in becoming a police chief again.
Chief Press:So with my consulting job, I told him I would help the chief who was there, and maybe help him to grow. He was a young chief, first time chief. And, so I started out as a consultant. And about four or five months later, I found out from the, town manager that, the perception was that I was the de facto chief, and that the real chief was not getting the support that he needed. And so I was offered the job of Chief of Police.
Chief Press:At first, I did not want to do it, and I thought about it, and the current Chief of Police at the time said, I still need to learn a lot, so if you take that job, I'll be your number two, and I'll learn from you. And so that's how it came about. That was about sixteen months ago. He's since decided that he just wanted to move away from police work altogether, and I remained. And here I am, the Surfside Chief.
Chief Press:Very difficult job. It's kind of like when I first got to the Key. You know, it's a cultural shift, and trying to change a police culture, at best, is difficult, at worst, is almost impossible in a short period of time. But we've been slowly shifting the mindset over there and transitioning them back into the really, really good police department they were before the tower collapsed. I think that changed a lot of people, and it really hurt, their psyche.
Chief Press:And for whatever reason, here I am, back in the saddle. And I can tell you that, when I retire again, it'll be for good, and I might be able to enjoy some of those things, as my daughter will be a senior next year, and once she goes to college, that'll change the age for me.
Alejandro:Amazing. Amazing story, Chief. Thank you. So thank you so much, Chief, for coming on the show and telling us your story. I like to always ask, you know, one question to all my guests.
Alejandro:What is your favorite part of Key Biscayne?
Chief Press:The people. And the opportunity to grow as a human being myself and to meet some of the finest people I have ever known. They're friends to this day. And, between myself and them, we changed the lives of thousands of people. And how is that not the best thing in the world?
Chief Press:Awesome. Gag change.
Alejandro:Chief, thank you so much for for jumping on the show and and, taking this this Sunday to come to all the way up here for this for this interview. Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Chief Press:I just wanna thank you for it. It's it's been great talking about it. Every time I think back, I just I'm thrilled at the chances I've had all because I was the worst accountant in the world. Appreciate you.
Alejandro:Awesome. Thank you, Chief.
