August 17, 2023 • 9 mins
Concern Hotline's Executive Director Rusty Holland, a longtime friend of the show, sits down with us to tell us about everything we can expect from this year's biggest fundraiser for Concern Hotline!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Well, here at the Q oneO two community microphone. It's my buddy
Rusty Holland everybody knows Rusty. Welcomeback, Rusty. It's good to see
you, man. Man Chris,always great to be in the studio with
you, my friend. Every timeyou come. There's something fun going on,
something great, And I know whatit is this time of year.
Everybody's probably figured it out by nowhearing your voice. It's the Friday Fish
(00:21):
Fry. Tell us about it.When's it happening? Friday, September one?
Back at the Frederick County Fairgrounds forour third year in a row.
Wow, it's that big. Itamazes me. It's grown and it just
keeps out growing every place that we'vehad it year after year, and all
of the places has been gracious tous and letting us put up this big,
fun event. But now I thinkit's gonna be a long time before
we fill up the fairgrounds completely.Chris, you are totally right. We
(00:45):
left Groves Harley Davidson three years agoand we were home forever. It grows,
Yeah, and then we were averagingabout twelve hundred people, and then
it went to about fourteen. Thenit went to about sixteen, and then
it was like, we can't fitanybody here, we don't have a parking.
One of our sponsors, Navy Federal, which is right out there across
from Groves, even let us parkon their property. And wow, from
(01:07):
for someone like you that knows alittle bit about Navy Federal. Yeah,
that's no easy tasks. We needeveryone in their parking spaces. But that
was very generous for them to givethat up. The biggest thing about being
the Frederick County Fairgrounds is all theparking. The parking is easy, it's
easy in, it's easy out.We're just blessed that Frederick County Fairgrounds is
working with us and and we're youknow, the stage, the grounds,
(01:30):
everything is just amazing. Well,there's a reason why all these people are
coming to the Friday Fish Friday.So there are a bunch of folks who've
never been there, are a bunchof folks brand new to the area.
Let's tell them what this is allabout. Well, about twenty three years
ago, we decided that Concern Hotline, which is your community crisis and support
hotline, needed a major fundraiser.We needed to put all of our effort
(01:53):
into one fundraiser. A year thatwe could count on. So we started
in downtown Winchester on the same yearthat they started First Fridays, you know,
First Fridays downtown. They wanted ananchor event, and we said,
okay, and buy into restaurant downthere at the time, and there were
several other restaurant owners and so wecan do this for you, and we
(02:13):
did it in two years. Downtownwas saying we all need you as well.
We want you to go away becauseyou're drawing all of our people over
there to the fish fry. Sowe started with two main premises. We
want to fill your plate full ofwonderful food and we want you to have
a good time. And here weare twenty four years later, we are
(02:35):
filling a plate with food. Themenus kind of evolved over the years,
but we fill your plate with wonderfulfood. We have great music and entertainment.
We have great beverages, we havegreat kids activities, we have plenty
of room. People come that haven'tseen each other all year, and they
talk and they have fun and theymingle and it's just a wonderful opportunity.
And that opportunity gives us the opportunityto keep the phones ringing in the valley
(03:00):
for our neighbors when they're struggling.How many calls you had typically, Well,
this year actually has trended up alittle bit over last year. We
are averaging about eight and a halfphone calls a day. And the issue
is people say, well, that'snot many phone calls. You know,
I get eight phone calls a day. Well, how many of your phone
calls are someone in distress, someonewho is struggling, someone who's lonely or
(03:23):
depressed or anxious even to the pointof thinking about suicide. Those are eight
big calls a day, right,big calls. Some of our calls we
call them compassionate listening calls because allwe do is listen, and we're all
trained listeners. We take our trainingseriously. We make sure that we have
the best listeners in the valley onthe hotline, and we listen and we
(03:46):
care, and when they get offthe phone, they're feeling a little bit
better. And that's the way Iwant you to feel when you come to
the fish front. I want youto come to the fish fry. When
you leave, I want you tofeel a little bit better. I guarantee
you you will. It's always suchgreat food music. This year, junk
Food's back. Junk Food is comingback. We decided when we moved to
the fair Grounds that move. Whenyou move a venue, and this is
(04:08):
our fourth move, it's really hardto get people to follow you. And
so because we had a good following, a core following, we knew that
we'd get them, but we neededto maintain high level of entertainment. So
junk Food, for those of youthat don't know junk Food. Junk Food
comes us from Northern Virginia. Oneof the hottest bands in Northern Virginia.
They play a mix of eighties,nineties originals, two thousands, and you
(04:30):
can dance, you can sing,you can just have fun with junk Food.
They're going to do an acoustic setto start us off to kind of
let people eat, and then they'regonna rock and roll until about nine o'clock.
And of course DJ Skyhigh is goingto be there spinning tunes between in
sets, and we're gonna keep itrolling, gonna be fun food. You
gotta get tickets, right, Howis the best way to grab tickets?
(04:53):
You can buy them at the door, can't you at the gate? You
can, but you can also getthem in advance, which is probably the
best way. Well, there's acouple of ways to get tickets, Chris.
You know, we have some ticketoutlets, our ticket outlets, our
licens Car Practic overall of the seededGreek grade because our Nicky, good friend
Nicky and she she it's the licensCar Practic. Fishfrey stage at Junk Food
(05:14):
will be playing on Jonathan B.Hayes, which is the Tobacconist down on
Piccadilly Streets. So one in downtownWinchester and then over in front Royal we
have two fat butchers, and thenyou can get them at the Concern hot
line office. That's great. Didyou know just let me just note this.
Did you notice how all of theseare local businesses. I love that
local businesses are coming together to helpmake this possible. But you also have
(05:35):
tied in some national brands to Costco. Costco was tied in you know.
We you know, I did leaveout our online ticket sales, which I'll
get too at the end. Butwe have a new sponsor, and it's
our lead sponsor, Maine Drilling inBlasting. Maine drilling In Blasting. People
don't really see that out there it'snot a big, you know, well
known business in the Winchester area.Well, that's because they just moved here.
(05:57):
Okay, they bought out another drillingand blasting business. They're the largest
drill hid and blasting business on theEast Coast. And they chose us to
be their entry into philanthropy in thisarea. Great, and they are our
title sponsor, and I'm so proudof that, I can't tell you.
And just working with them and knowingthat their employees they have over a hundred
(06:17):
employees, knowing that their employees aregoing to be able to come out and
enjoy and have a picnic and theyget to have the energy in the karma
of Concern Hotline. But we broughtsome good people back. Navy Federal is
a huge supporter, a lot oflocal restaurants Cork Street here, I am,
I've got so many. I wantyou to look for these posters around
(06:39):
town. Yeah, and I wantyou to look at how many sponsors are
on the bottom. Most we've everhad, is most we've ever had.
And you know it's it's a lotof work, and we work really hard
to Concern hot Line to take yourcalls, but we also work really hard
on this fistfront. I say whenI get up on stage at any event,
it always takes spots to make eventshappen. You can't put anything on
(07:02):
without them. Things are so expensivethese days, so we really need to
appreciate them and make sure that we'dtake care of them and do our shopping
at the sponsors. Let me letme just run through this list. Tell
me how many these businesses you know? Cork Street Tavern, Perry Engineering,
Cafe, del Sold, the WineMill, two Fat Butchers in Front,
Royal Shenandoah University, Bonnie Blue,Valley Health, Glory Days Costco, Johnny
(07:23):
Blue Rots, Pharmacy, Doctor Pepper, Old Town Side Areas, Scutcheon Brewery,
Quarrels Patroleum, Northwestern Community Services,Frogale, Lumber, Wow Flavors By
Sedexo, City National Bank, VirginiaEagle f and M Bank, Liken s
Chiropractic, Claudio's Pizza, Navy FederalCheers to Charity, another five O one
C three partner this year for thefirst time, Berry Hill Logistics, And
(07:46):
let me get to some important ones. Q one O two, the nine
three, The Fox Kiss ninety eightthree, iHeartRadio, First Bank, Mono
Flow International, te Bones, restaurantand who can forget the inflatables from five
alarm funds for the kids always fun. So those coupled with main jooling and
blasting are helping us bring this eventto you this year. And we couldn't
(08:09):
do it without them. And youknow, I got ahead of myself when
we were playing this year. I'mlike, it's the twenty fifth year.
It's the twenty fifth year, andI'm like, it's the twenty fourth year.
So I'm already excited about year twentyfive. Well, you got a
lot of growth this year. You'regonna be set to tee off the twenty
five. But twenty four is gonnabe great. Man, It's gonna be
awesome. And it's rain er shineand we have plenty of tents, plenty
(08:31):
of cover, have some fun,see your friends, listen to some great
music, and above all, eatsome great food. You got that right,
and talk to some people about ConcernHotline and how important we are in
the community. I think it's amazing. You've got people who just love to
come and support this, support youguys, and we'll be there Friday.
Fish Fry is the first of September. September one get it on your calendar.
(08:54):
Get your tickets right now. There'sone more way they can get them,
and that's going to your websites.That right, you can go to
our website or you can hit theQR code on one of our posters as
you pass by it. There wasone here in Chris's studio. If you
want to pop in and say helloto Chris, that's all right. Bring
some donuts, bring some some coffeein donuts, Chris, buy some tickets.
We're looking forward to seeing you outthere at the fair grounds and we
(09:16):
can't wait to serve you. Andyou know we have over one hundred volunteers
out there waiting on your hand andfoot. So come on out. Rusty
Holland with Concern Hotline. The FridayFish Friday is the first of September.
Rusty, thank you so much forjoining us, buddy. Always good to
see you, always
Well, here at the Q oneO two community microphone. It's my buddy
Rusty Holland everybody knows Rusty. Welcomeback, Rusty. It's good to see
you, man. Man Chris,always great to be in the studio with
you, my friend. Every timeyou come. There's something fun going on,
something great, And I know whatit is this time of year.
Everybody's probably figured it out by nowhearing your voice. It's the Friday Fish
(00:21):
Fry. Tell us about it.When's it happening? Friday, September one?
Back at the Frederick County Fairgrounds forour third year in a row.
Wow, it's that big. Itamazes me. It's grown and it just
keeps out growing every place that we'vehad it year after year, and all
of the places has been gracious tous and letting us put up this big,
fun event. But now I thinkit's gonna be a long time before
we fill up the fairgrounds completely.Chris, you are totally right. We
(00:45):
left Groves Harley Davidson three years agoand we were home forever. It grows,
Yeah, and then we were averagingabout twelve hundred people, and then
it went to about fourteen. Thenit went to about sixteen, and then
it was like, we can't fitanybody here, we don't have a parking.
One of our sponsors, Navy Federal, which is right out there across
from Groves, even let us parkon their property. And wow, from
(01:07):
for someone like you that knows alittle bit about Navy Federal. Yeah,
that's no easy tasks. We needeveryone in their parking spaces. But that
was very generous for them to givethat up. The biggest thing about being
the Frederick County Fairgrounds is all theparking. The parking is easy, it's
easy in, it's easy out.We're just blessed that Frederick County Fairgrounds is
working with us and and we're youknow, the stage, the grounds,
(01:30):
everything is just amazing. Well,there's a reason why all these people are
coming to the Friday Fish Friday.So there are a bunch of folks who've
never been there, are a bunchof folks brand new to the area.
Let's tell them what this is allabout. Well, about twenty three years
ago, we decided that Concern Hotline, which is your community crisis and support
hotline, needed a major fundraiser.We needed to put all of our effort
(01:53):
into one fundraiser. A year thatwe could count on. So we started
in downtown Winchester on the same yearthat they started First Fridays, you know,
First Fridays downtown. They wanted ananchor event, and we said,
okay, and buy into restaurant downthere at the time, and there were
several other restaurant owners and so wecan do this for you, and we
(02:13):
did it in two years. Downtownwas saying we all need you as well.
We want you to go away becauseyou're drawing all of our people over
there to the fish fry. Sowe started with two main premises. We
want to fill your plate full ofwonderful food and we want you to have
a good time. And here weare twenty four years later, we are
(02:35):
filling a plate with food. Themenus kind of evolved over the years,
but we fill your plate with wonderfulfood. We have great music and entertainment.
We have great beverages, we havegreat kids activities, we have plenty
of room. People come that haven'tseen each other all year, and they
talk and they have fun and theymingle and it's just a wonderful opportunity.
And that opportunity gives us the opportunityto keep the phones ringing in the valley
(03:00):
for our neighbors when they're struggling.How many calls you had typically, Well,
this year actually has trended up alittle bit over last year. We
are averaging about eight and a halfphone calls a day. And the issue
is people say, well, that'snot many phone calls. You know,
I get eight phone calls a day. Well, how many of your phone
calls are someone in distress, someonewho is struggling, someone who's lonely or
(03:23):
depressed or anxious even to the pointof thinking about suicide. Those are eight
big calls a day, right,big calls. Some of our calls we
call them compassionate listening calls because allwe do is listen, and we're all
trained listeners. We take our trainingseriously. We make sure that we have
the best listeners in the valley onthe hotline, and we listen and we
(03:46):
care, and when they get offthe phone, they're feeling a little bit
better. And that's the way Iwant you to feel when you come to
the fish front. I want youto come to the fish fry. When
you leave, I want you tofeel a little bit better. I guarantee
you you will. It's always suchgreat food music. This year, junk
Food's back. Junk Food is comingback. We decided when we moved to
the fair Grounds that move. Whenyou move a venue, and this is
(04:08):
our fourth move, it's really hardto get people to follow you. And
so because we had a good following, a core following, we knew that
we'd get them, but we neededto maintain high level of entertainment. So
junk Food, for those of youthat don't know junk Food. Junk Food
comes us from Northern Virginia. Oneof the hottest bands in Northern Virginia.
They play a mix of eighties,nineties originals, two thousands, and you
(04:30):
can dance, you can sing,you can just have fun with junk Food.
They're going to do an acoustic setto start us off to kind of
let people eat, and then they'regonna rock and roll until about nine o'clock.
And of course DJ Skyhigh is goingto be there spinning tunes between in
sets, and we're gonna keep itrolling, gonna be fun food. You
gotta get tickets, right, Howis the best way to grab tickets?
(04:53):
You can buy them at the door, can't you at the gate? You
can, but you can also getthem in advance, which is probably the
best way. Well, there's acouple of ways to get tickets, Chris.
You know, we have some ticketoutlets, our ticket outlets, our
licens Car Practic overall of the seededGreek grade because our Nicky, good friend
Nicky and she she it's the licensCar Practic. Fishfrey stage at Junk Food
(05:14):
will be playing on Jonathan B.Hayes, which is the Tobacconist down on
Piccadilly Streets. So one in downtownWinchester and then over in front Royal we
have two fat butchers, and thenyou can get them at the Concern hot
line office. That's great. Didyou know just let me just note this.
Did you notice how all of theseare local businesses. I love that
local businesses are coming together to helpmake this possible. But you also have
(05:35):
tied in some national brands to Costco. Costco was tied in you know.
We you know, I did leaveout our online ticket sales, which I'll
get too at the end. Butwe have a new sponsor, and it's
our lead sponsor, Maine Drilling inBlasting. Maine drilling In Blasting. People
don't really see that out there it'snot a big, you know, well
known business in the Winchester area.Well, that's because they just moved here.
(05:57):
Okay, they bought out another drillingand blasting business. They're the largest
drill hid and blasting business on theEast Coast. And they chose us to
be their entry into philanthropy in thisarea. Great, and they are our
title sponsor, and I'm so proudof that, I can't tell you.
And just working with them and knowingthat their employees they have over a hundred
(06:17):
employees, knowing that their employees aregoing to be able to come out and
enjoy and have a picnic and theyget to have the energy in the karma
of Concern Hotline. But we broughtsome good people back. Navy Federal is
a huge supporter, a lot oflocal restaurants Cork Street here, I am,
I've got so many. I wantyou to look for these posters around
(06:39):
town. Yeah, and I wantyou to look at how many sponsors are
on the bottom. Most we've everhad, is most we've ever had.
And you know it's it's a lotof work, and we work really hard
to Concern hot Line to take yourcalls, but we also work really hard
on this fistfront. I say whenI get up on stage at any event,
it always takes spots to make eventshappen. You can't put anything on
(07:02):
without them. Things are so expensivethese days, so we really need to
appreciate them and make sure that we'dtake care of them and do our shopping
at the sponsors. Let me letme just run through this list. Tell
me how many these businesses you know? Cork Street Tavern, Perry Engineering,
Cafe, del Sold, the WineMill, two Fat Butchers in Front,
Royal Shenandoah University, Bonnie Blue,Valley Health, Glory Days Costco, Johnny
(07:23):
Blue Rots, Pharmacy, Doctor Pepper, Old Town Side Areas, Scutcheon Brewery,
Quarrels Patroleum, Northwestern Community Services,Frogale, Lumber, Wow Flavors By
Sedexo, City National Bank, VirginiaEagle f and M Bank, Liken s
Chiropractic, Claudio's Pizza, Navy FederalCheers to Charity, another five O one
C three partner this year for thefirst time, Berry Hill Logistics, And
(07:46):
let me get to some important ones. Q one O two, the nine
three, The Fox Kiss ninety eightthree, iHeartRadio, First Bank, Mono
Flow International, te Bones, restaurantand who can forget the inflatables from five
alarm funds for the kids always fun. So those coupled with main jooling and
blasting are helping us bring this eventto you this year. And we couldn't
(08:09):
do it without them. And youknow, I got ahead of myself when
we were playing this year. I'mlike, it's the twenty fifth year.
It's the twenty fifth year, andI'm like, it's the twenty fourth year.
So I'm already excited about year twentyfive. Well, you got a
lot of growth this year. You'regonna be set to tee off the twenty
five. But twenty four is gonnabe great. Man, It's gonna be
awesome. And it's rain er shineand we have plenty of tents, plenty
(08:31):
of cover, have some fun,see your friends, listen to some great
music, and above all, eatsome great food. You got that right,
and talk to some people about ConcernHotline and how important we are in
the community. I think it's amazing. You've got people who just love to
come and support this, support youguys, and we'll be there Friday.
Fish Fry is the first of September. September one get it on your calendar.
(08:54):
Get your tickets right now. There'sone more way they can get them,
and that's going to your websites.That right, you can go to
our website or you can hit theQR code on one of our posters as
you pass by it. There wasone here in Chris's studio. If you
want to pop in and say helloto Chris, that's all right. Bring
some donuts, bring some some coffeein donuts, Chris, buy some tickets.
We're looking forward to seeing you outthere at the fair grounds and we
(09:16):
can't wait to serve you. Andyou know we have over one hundred volunteers
out there waiting on your hand andfoot. So come on out. Rusty
Holland with Concern Hotline. The FridayFish Friday is the first of September.
Rusty, thank you so much forjoining us, buddy. Always good to
see you, always
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