This and more coming up on The Whitney Reynolds show.

I kept hearing more people, "He's so gay."

It was my dad who like, lit that fire of bettering the world that we're in today.

We're catching them right while they're young and say, "Look, you can be anything you want to be in life."

I became a father at first when I was 17.

It was very scary.

The narrative certainly was of deadbeat dads.

I certainly didn't want that as a relationship with my son.

Announcer: The Whitney Reynolds Show is funded by Yates Protect, a minority owned business focused on protecting communities and providing solutions to safety problems for public and private institutions, including air purification, metal detectors, thermal detection, and more; Together at Peace: a community lifting you from coping to hoping; O'Connor Law Firm: when it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Xtreme Xperience: making the world's supercars accessible, so you can experience being in the driver's seat on the race tracks and back roads of our country; Theraderm Clinical Skincare: committed to developing skin care products designed to restore skin health and promote natural beauty.

And by 10 West Real Estate Group, UFC Gym Lakeview, Ella's Bubbles, Hi-Five Sport Chicago, Fresh Dental, Kevin Kelly Real Estate Agent, Concierge Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery, Deluxe Cleaning Services, Mid-West Moving & Storage, TuTu School Chicago, Goldfish Swim School Roscoe Village, and by these funders: Today is a show all about amazing fathers.

A reminder that good guys are still out there and they are ready to step in for not only their family but also their communities.

[theme music] I kept hearing more people and more people and more people like, "He's so gay."

We're like, not accepted for like doing the stuff we love.

I was like, really disappointed in society.

I was actually there the night that Dance On started.

I heard people laughing at me, Jimmy or Sam.

Like, "Oh these these guys are boys and they're dancing."

And I know that I've encountered something like that before with my other friends and it just-- made me feel really horrible to hear other people I didn't even know say something like that.

To them it was just something weird and they were scared of it.

So that was just their first reaction was to just bash it and harass everybody about it.

Dancer: And that really was the moment that just kind of sparked this ignition in me and the other boy dancers of wanting change.

And just seeing it grow so quickly and seeing how many people were supporting this movement, it meant so much to me as a boy dancer to see how many people really were there for me and through all the things that me and the other boy dancers have been through.

Jimmy: It was my dad who like, lit that fire of bringing change and like, bettering the world that we're in today.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me, Whitney.

As a parent seeing what we just watched, it makes kind of the goosebumps rise up, and I can't imagine what that moment was like for you.

Having all eight or nine of those dancers including some boys and certainly some girls recount what they had just experienced: the jeering and the homophobia and the slurs, my head certainly did a pivot.

And in my mind, "Okay, what's my next step?"

And it actually gave me a moment to take a breath and to think about okay, there's a learning moment going on here.

And me parking the car and doing something that probably would not have reflected well on me.

That was a good teachable moment for kids to be like, okay, we can we can work this out verbally.

Wow, what were the things they were saying as they were trying to process what did happen?

So the three boys in the car, which included my son, almost had this bewildered hang dog look.

Like, they just couldn't fathom that this was the reaction to something that they love to do.

The girls were defiant.

They were sticking up for them.

"How dare they?

I can't believe they said it."

And it was in that rear view mirror look when I saw these boys that were considering at that very moment "Do I need this in my life?

Do I need this?"

And that's kind of what triggered me into thinking, okay, how can I support this in a way?

Never did I think I'd be sitting in front of you here four years later, Whitney, but that was the impetus.

As we've learned on the show over the years, bullying is happening young.

What I have found social media has done, it has definitely educated our kids on political issues, economic issues, the environment, a lot of positives, but what it has done is it's put bullying on steroids.

Now, they can hide behind their phone and what bullying has actually transformed into in my experience is not so much the aggressiveness, it's the exclusion.

Do you think it planted any seeds of like, "Am I?

"Am I a certain way?

Am I different because I dance?"

When you do suburban competitive dance, the boys dressing room has three kids in it, six boys.

Meanwhile, there's 200 in the girls room, so it can be a very lonely existence.

I think Jimmy has embraced that.

I think the other boys who travel as far as he does age-wise, 16, 17, have come to understand that that's going to be their life.

So, I said, well, I'm going to tell the story.

And every year I make a t-shirt supporting him and his team.

And so this phrase just came to me.

You know what, we're going to get past this.

We're going to "dance on."

The reaction was overwhelming.

We are now three and a half, four years later.

We've probably sold about five or six thousand t-shirts.

We've had master classes all from one negative event that we shined the light on.

Dance on.

That's exactly what you're doing.

And what is the mission?

So, we saw that this had a little bit of legs.

We formulated a 501c3, and it just hasn't stopped.

So to date we've given out 82 scholarships, have expanded our mission statement to include basically all at-need artists.

So we've done-- always a sweet spot for the boys, but we've done special needs groups, theater kids.

We've even given money to organizations just who help in a more direct way some of these artists.

And I love the slogan "dance on."

Now, is Jimmy going to dance on?

Is he going to continue dancing?

We actually did some college tours.

Jimmy has absolutely said that this is what he wants to do in his life.

And I think that was an awesome statement to hear as a parent, especially four years ago he had every reason not to pursue this, right?

So I think dance will always be in his life.

We're going to hopefully pursue some art schools and we'll see where that takes him.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much, Whitney, for allowing me to tell the story.

I appreciate it.

Dance on.

That's right.

[theme music] Whitney: One gesture that sparked a movement.

Joseph Williams was brought to his daughter's class to help supervise.

He decided to read them a book.

And that book actually opened his eyes.

His eyes were opened to the needs in the community and the needs for fathers to be present with the kids, and that formed a club, and that club is transforming lives across the community.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me today.

You are changing the lives for the next generation.

Let's talk about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It just started with me volunteering at my children's school.

And from volunteering at lunchroom duty, the teacher just coming in one day saying, "Hey, can you help me out in class" as she grades papers.

And I went in there and I read a book to the classroom.

From reading that one book, the class loved it and they wanted me to come back.

I kept coming every week by week, and fathers started coming in.

They started coming in like, "What's going on here?

"You guys are reading books.

How can we join?"

And before you knew it, we had 150 dads part of our membership to do our father's Carnival.

Twenty dads on a regular basis just to come in throughout the week to just read to children.

You actually made it a club now.

Yeah, it's called Mr. Dad's Father's Club.

We go all around to different Chicago Public Schools, part districts, libraries.

How important is the role of a father?

And I want to say, it doesn't mean like you have to be the kid's father, but the role of a father figure.

To have a positive figure in a child's life makes a huge difference and you see it.

A lot of the times when we're going to these schools and we have our fathers reading to the children, some children may say, "I don't have my dad."

If we can be that father figure or just help give them some guidance, and help shape and mold them and encourage them, then we got a brighter future ahead of us.

Where did this come from for you?

Did you have that beaming role model in your life?

No, I didn't.

I didn't.

Actually, no.

I love my father.

I know my father.

But he wasn't involved in my life, you know.

So, I grew up without that experience.

Which when I started to have my children with my wife I said, "You know why I got to be something different than what I went through."

But now, how can I also take what I went through and turn it into something where I can help more people?

Do you think this will help lower the young kids getting into gangs?

Absolutely.

With no doubt about it.

Because we're giving them something to do and we're giving them something positive and a good direction to move in.

Whereas a lot of children, they enter gangs and go into street violence and things like that, it's because they didn't have that care.

They didn't have that love or someone to think about them and work with them, And that's what our program is serving that purpose of.

If you give them that, it might be a less likely a chance you're going to go join a gang because the ones that join the gang is because they're not getting the love and attention and they don't have their support system.

Well, I love it because when you think about the analogy of a gang, it's like you belong to something.

Joseph: Absolutely.

And that's exactly what you created with the club.

They are belonging.

We're catching them right while they're young and say, "Look, you could be anything you want to be in life."

We're bringing judges in, we're bringing lawyers in.

They get to see policemen.

They get to see regular fathers just come in and read.

And right now we're in 10 Chicago Public Schools, but one day I hope that we can grow to even be in more schools and states all around the world.

What do you say for the person that's watching this outside of Chicago and they've never seen anything like this in their community?

What would you say to get started?

If you got a heart to do something positive for children and to build them up, you start there.

Then you go out there and you recruit.

You get more fathers to be a part of your mission.

Before you know it, you got a core group to go into these schools and start doing the work.

But a lot of folks don't know, so you got to make your flyers.

You've got to get out there and promote yourself.

You got to let folks know what's happening and how they can get involved.

Before we go, I want to leave this on a really high note.

I want to hear your favorite success story.

A father's march event that we host every year.

That is a huge success for me because that event was an event in the Englewood Community to bring peace and just bring families together.

This year I actually got a budget to order and get artists and have dunk tanks and everything that you could think of out there for the babies and families.

It's a completely free event.

So amazing.

Well, thank you so much for coming.

Thank you.

I appreciate you having me on here today.

[theme music] Next up, we sat down with Amazon's Reacher star, and we found out how he's not only saving the world on screen, but also helping others around him.

The road seems winding, you know, getting here, but when you look back you realize this was a straight line to prepare me for this moment.

Whitney: Alan Ritchson is a dad who has become the new face of Jack Reacher.

He plays a military veteran turned vigilante on a mission to fight injustice.

Alan: If people are out there that haven't read the Jack Reacher books, you're in the minority now and I suggest you pick them up because they're great.

I myself have read them all.

It's surreal to be such a large fan of something like this and then also, you know, be a part of it, let alone Reacher himself.

So, it's been fun.

Whitney: Alan takes his role of fatherhood a little farther, helping more than just his own children.

And beyond the television screen, he also works to encourage the conversation about mental health.

I had sort of an early midlife crisis.

I had this sort of mental breakdown but not for the reasons that you'd think.

I was purely exhausted.

I was chasing that sort of capitalistic dream of get yourself to the top at all costs.

I realized there's nothing there.

There's nothing at the top.

I had this existential crisis of do I just regurgitate what I've been doing because I'm exhausted.

I have nothing left for life.

I also don't know what other purpose there is and so I really had to find what that is.

And that struggle with mental health was something that I never thought-- I'd never thought I'd be the guy that was suicidal.

And I realize now what depression can do to people.

I've found that conversation is sort of become more prevalent in my life due to Heart and Armor, this organization that I'm a part.

The veteran community is the one percent that serves the 99 percent.

They're sort of forgotten about.

We don't do enough to help that demographic.

So, Heart and Armor is a place where they serve veterans needs but in the best way because they're doing scientific research to better understand everything from food insecurity to the kind of PTSD that both women might experience in the military, that men experience in the military and nobody else is doing this.

I want my legacy to be that I was a person that helped other people realize their needs and wants.

[theme music] Yo, what's up?

It's your favorite neighborhood historian, Dilla.

And infamously Chicago is known as the most segregated city in the country.

Pretty impossible to discuss the history of Cabrini Green in 60 seconds.

I'm going to give it a try.

My favorite Chicagoan ever is Earl B. Dickerson.

Whitney: Our next dad is making history because he's sharing history.

Shermann "Dilla" Thomas also known as a TikTok viral star has almost reached 100,000 followers by making educational videos on the history of his city.

Now, let's find out why.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me, Whitney.

Well, this has been amazing because we've been talking with dads that are all bringing different stuff to the table.

And yours, actually, you're teaching history but in a unique way.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

My eight-year-old daughter convinced me to get on TikTok to do like those TikTok dances.

And I tried but I'm not a really good dancer.

I thought her and I could bond but I could also convince her to make history videos right?

I'm a Chicago historian.

And I couldn't convince her to make the videos, but I started making them and it's been real fun.

I mean, when you think about the history of Chicago, it is one of those cities that has seen a lot and also the narrative that's out there for the city is sometimes just headlines, one-liners.

You're going beyond that.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Chicago has seen a lot.

It's been an incorporated city since 1837, but I say it often and proudly, every single thing dope about America comes from Chicago.

We've set the timezone.

Chocolate brownies come from Chicago.

The car radio comes from Chicago.

Chicago is one of the main reasons baseball got integrated because of the Negro Leagues and the All-Star games that were played here.

That's where the Dodgers first saw Jackie Robinson.

Oh, wow.

Were you always like this as a kid?

Like, you've always been able to just understand and love history.

I think it comes from bonding with my father, which is I guess what I'm doing, passing that down.

My dad was a Chicago police officer for 32 years.

They understand the subculture of those neighborhoods too and he would teach it to us as we drove by them.

Yeah, and now brings me to my next point.

You are actually starting these tours in neighborhoods.

Again, that what we see on the news, they aren't telling the same story you are.

The South Side in particular holds the most Chicago history.

The architecture there is the oldest in the city.

You're not going to find it anywhere else, and it's still standing.

Also on the South Side, there was a lot of disinvestment.

There was redlining.

There was restrictive racial covenants that prohibited 80% of Black people from living anywhere but the Black Belt.

What made you say, "I'm going to really change the narrative here."

What I thought would be interesting is that if people like the videos of the history, maybe they would want to come see the real thing.

But I get people who want their children to see that the places that they live are aren't necessarily being depicted.

And so I love when people who live in the neighborhood jump on the tour.

It's like, "Hey man, I walk pass this building every day, "and I didn't know that happened there or this person owned it."

Do you think your daughter is proud of you?

I sure hope so.

I became a father at first when I was 17.

It was very scary.

And in 1998, the narrative certainly was of deadbeat dads and Black dudes aren't good pops.

And I certainly didn't want that as a relationship with my son and I didn't want that for the children to follow.

So, I'm very public with my fatherhood journey.

All along the journey, I've learned that if your integrity is good and your intentions are just the best for your children, they're going to forgive you for your mistakes.

You don't have to beat yourself up about it.

And just enjoy it because man, does that time go by.

It really does.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

It's been awesome.

[theme music] Now we want to introduce you to a story of a dad that's working hard every day to regain his life back.

A very full circle moment you must see.

Graduation announcer: Spencer Brown.

[applause] Whitney: This is a moment, a moment that Spencer had to work hard for.

Harder than any test.

Also one that involved prayers.

The walk that you are watching changed his life.

I had just graduated from New York University in cyber security, so that was good.

Because of COVID there was no graduation, so my wife, she decided to throw me a graduation party.

I jumped off the diving board.

You dove in.

Yeah, I dove in and immediately hit my head on the bottom of the pool.

First I'm like, ouch that hurt.

Ellis' father came over and start yelling my name and I didn't respond.

And so my wife jumped in, he jumped in and everyone pulled me out to the shallow, called the paramedics.

I really thought like, okay, this is the end.

Like, I graduated, I made it in life.

Like, okay.

I'll see you all on the other side I guess.

Spencer-- I will make this point-- Spencer is miraculously calm in any stressful situation.

Whitney: While trying to believe the best, Spencer was now faced with a life altering spinal injury.

Spencer: I suffered a D6 spinal cord injury.

That's in the cervical in the neck.

So anything from, you know, shoulders down was and is impacted and not able to have mobility or sensation.

Therapy every day.

A number of hours of therapy and getting comfortable with with my new body that I have.

Early on in the hospital, the first time I was able to move my big toe, that, I think, gave me a lot of confidence that okay, if the nerves are traveling all the way to my toe then like maybe my legs will move.

Yeah, that's when you push and push and push to regain all that you can.

Whitney: Not only focused on regaining track of his own life, Spencer and Ellis were now getting ready to bring a new life into the world.

I was only eight weeks along when his accident happened.

About six months prior, we had lost a baby and that was really, really hard.

And I had never realized how heartbreaking that was until we went through it.

So, I just felt such an honor to be a mother again to this new baby.

I remember one day in the ICU, I was there so much for Spencer and just wanting to make sure that he was okay that I wasn't-- I mean, I didn't have time to take care of myself.

I wasn't eating right.

I wasn't sleeping.

It got to a point I couldn't really feel my legs and they were so tingly and shaky.

Oh, you got paralyzed.

And so, I remember telling Spencer and he kind of laughed and he's like, "You can't feel your legs either?

Like, are you paralyzed too?"

And that's his good humor, sense of humor as he lightens things up.

It is sweet seeing our little girls with him.

They really don't see him differently at all.

They just love him and adore him.

Maybe it was a month or so that he had to wear a neck brace.

It had a little yellow button on it right here and our little girls, they thought that was the coolest thing.

They thought it was a necklace with a jewel on it.

It's been really sweet seeing how it's taught them how to to see beauty in disabilities.

And how even though Spencer can't do as much as he normally would be able to prior to the injury, they just care that he loves them and that he reads them stories and sings them songs and kisses them on the forehead.

You know, those are the things that matter.

Whitney: In addition to being a great dad, Spencer is also focused on his original goal.

The one that was formed in the hardest time of his life: walking across the stage.

Spencer: I didn't walk.

I didn't go graduation because of COVID, however NYU is holding graduation in like, 15 days in New York city, so I've been chatting with them.

And Ellis and I, we're flying out and I'm going to walk across the stage and get my diploma in a walker or however we're going to do it.

Ellis will be next to me helping me do that.

So, it's kind of full circle from hey, this accident happened because of graduation and not having that and so forth, and now we're going to go back and get that.

So, we're really excited.

Ellis: We always say we have hard moments, but every day it's a good day.

We try and end the day feeling grateful and happy.

There's those hard moments, but there's a lot of blessings.

There's a lot of blessings.

Leading by example and listening to the voices that say you can make change.

That's what today's fathers have done.

And we want you to meet one more before we go.

I really needed to help out.

I couldn't just observe knowing what's happening on the eastern border of Poland.

I check in with the people first thing and try to find out what they need and the needs vary.

I decided to be a helper and try to be on the ground and really try to help however I can, the millions of refugees that have entered Poland.

That full interview can be found on our site.

Remember your story matters.

[theme music] Announcer: The Whitney Reynolds Show is funded by Yates Protect, a minority owned business focused on protecting communities and providing solutions to safety problems for public and private institutions, including air purification, metal detectors, thermal detection, and more; Together at Peace: a community lifting you from coping to hoping; O'Connor Law Firm: when it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Xtreme Xperience: making the world's supercars accessible, so you can experience being in the driver's seat on the race tracks and back roads of our country; Theraderm Clinical Skin Care: committed to developing skin care products designed to restore skin health and promote natural beauty.

And by 10 West Real Estate Group, UFC Gym Lakeview, Ella's Bubbles, Hi-Five Sport Chicago, Fresh Dental, Kevin Kelly Real Estate Agent, Concierge Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery, Deluxe Cleaning Services, Mid-West Moving & Storage, TuTu School Chicago, Goldfish Swim School Roscoe Village, and by these funders: Announcer: For more information on today's program visit www.whitneyreynolds.com or get social with us.

Facebook: @WhitneyReynoldsShow Twitter: @whitneyreynolds or on TikTok and Instagram: @whitneyó_reynolds.

Kids: Our mommy!