(bright music) - Will you consider this?

You don't think about allergies in young children.

You don't really think about allergies unless something happens and you have some kind of a reaction.

And this gentleman, Chris Horan, he is with the Red Sneakers chapter in Peoria, and you know that this is impacting people of all ages.

- That's right, it's impacting a lot of people.

Over 33 million Americans have food allergies.

6 million of those are children.

- That's just crazy.

And are there any studies that tell us why there are so many food allergies today for 33 million people, let alone 6,000 children?

- Yeah, we're still looking into it.

There's a lot of research being done, and that's one of the things we're raising money for, is to try to figure out the root cause.

- So, let's talk Red Sneakers.

Where did that all come about?

- Red Sneakers for Oakley was started nine years ago in Florida when the Debbs unfortunately lost their son Oakley to an anaphylactic reaction.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm.

They really felt that if they were properly trained on food allergies and knew what they should do to react if something were to happen, that they could have saved his life.

So, their charge was really to go out and educate about food allergies, let people understand that they're out there and what to look for.

So- - And he had a delayed reaction.

Is that- - He had a delayed reaction.

That's right.

- Okay, so, is that common?

- That can happen.

And I think they just didn't understand the seriousness of it.

They didn't understand that he could actually have an anaphylactic reaction and die from it.

And I think they would've, you know, probably prepared a little bit differently if they'd kind of understood all that.

So that's one of the things they want people to understand, is that, you know, you can have a mild reaction, let's say, but then the next one could be anaphylactic, so they're really unpredictable, the reactions.

- And the name of the organization became Red Sneakers 'cause he loved his Chuck Taylors right?

- Yeah, he loved the red sneakers.

He was a big athlete, and so he liked to wear the red sneakers, and so they thought that that would be a powerful symbol.

You know, I've got it right here on my shirt, "Ask me-" - In his memory.

- Yeah, "Ask me why I wear red sneakers."

And so, it's a conversation starter because a lot of people don't know about food allergies, so it's an icebreaker to start the conversation.

- So, how did you, and Lindsey, you're the co-founders of this local chapter, how did that all come about?

She's also got children with food allergies?

- Yeah, she has a child with a food allergy too.

You know, a couple years ago, when our children were first diagnosed with food allergies, we both were actually working with an organization called FARE, Food Allergy Research & Education, and trying to form just a support group.

So, we had other families that we could talk to.

And so, we both were reaching out to FARE actually within about the same week of each other, and the nice people at FARE connected us.

And so, Lindsey and I got together and we formed a support group to start with.

And then as we got together with our support group and started talking about all the things that needed to happen to make this community safe for our young children, we realized that there was just a huge need.

And we came across Red Sneakers for Oakley and we saw what they were doing, and we said, "This is where we wanna be in a couple of years.

Let's not reinvent the wheel."

I'm an architect and I've been in the architectural nonprofits, and they have chapter structures.

- Mm-hmm.

- And there's a lot of benefit to a chapter structure for a nonprofit because you get to collaborate, get some efficiencies, but then you've got a lot of different ideas that come up too.

So, we approached Red Sneakers for Oakley and said, "Hey, we wanna start a chapter, but, you know, we wanna do it with you.

We don't wanna start from scratch."

And they were really interested in the idea, so we worked with them for a while.

And just over a year ago, we formed our own 501(c)(3) and became their first affiliate chapter.

- Mm-hmm.

So, what kinds of things do you do to raise money and awareness?

I mean, you're out there in the community, that's for sure.

- We do a lot.

The biggest thing we do is we go out in August to the schools and we educate the teachers about food allergies, 'cause a lot of these reactions are happening in schools in a lot of young kids.

- Mm-hmm.

- When the food allergies first develop, it's usually at the younger ages, and that's the ages that we need people to be educated about it.

So, we start with the schools and educating them and they can actually get epinephrine from the state, and so we help them with all that.

And then we use that educational piece to then promote our event in the fall.

We do a Walk/Run and a Teal Pumpkin event in the fall.

That's our big fundraiser.

We've got the teal pumpkin right here.

- In case you're wondering why we have a teal-colored pumpkin here.

Yes, right now.

- So, the Teal Pumpkin is about food allergy-friendly Halloween.

So, because we're talking about food allergies, well, what do you give out at Halloween, right?

- Right.

- Food.

(Christine chuckles) So, the Teal Pumpkin concept is to put a teal pumpkin on your porch, get yourself on the Teal Pumpkin map, and let other families that are food allergy families know that you've got to offer something besides food.

You can offer little trinkets, you know, coloring books, just things that aren't food that- - Stamps.

- Yeah, that kids enjoy.

So, we promote that initiative as our community outreach event.

And then we use the Walk/Run as a fundraiser to raise funds to fund all our different initiatives.

- Okay, so let's go back to Halloween.

So, where do you get this Teal Pumpkin map?

Or do they go online?

Do you have a web address?

- Yeah, so, they can go online, fare.org.

They can go on and sign up there, or you can come to our event and we actually have, like, a physical map that we fill out.

- Oh.

- And we show people how to get in there and put their house on there.

And then we give out the buckets so that you can have a bucket.

And we also actually get pumpkins and paint kits, and the kids get to sit there and paint pumpkins teal.

And so, they have a lot of fun with that.

- Oh, okay, and then that makes it safe houses for them to go to.

- That's right.

- Oh, wow, wow.

And you've had to just think of all these things or somebody has.

- Right, yeah.

Actually, when we first started out, I went to every house on my street and told 'em about the Teal Pumpkin project, and everyone, you know, followed along, and, you know, I educated them on what things they could do.

And the kids just love it 'cause they get all these different trinkets, and they've even play with them still today, you know, and they've had 'em for a couple years now.

And it's just another good way to just to make it safe and inclusive, but then also, to start the conversations about food allergies.

- Right.

Well, knowledge is definitely power.

And in this situation, it's lifesaving power.

- [Chris] Right.

- Okay, so now, tell me about this, you have partnered with the Civic Center, Peoria Civic Center, and with Dozer Park for, I'll let you pick this up because it's kinda heavy- - Sure.

- And I don't wanna fall out of the chair.

But tell me about that.

- So, this right here, it's a company called Belay, and it's what's called a MedLocker, so med is for medicine.

- Right.

- So, the concept here is, in the state of Illinois and in other states in the country, you're allowed to carry what's called undesignated epinephrine as an entity.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, anybody can do this.

There's a good Samaritan law that protects you when you act.

All you've got to do is be trained.

So, Red Sneakers Peoria, what we've been doing with the Civic Center and Dozer Park is we go provide the training, we can provide the epinephrine, and we can provide a case like this.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, the nice thing- - [Christine] Just like an AED.

- Just like an AED.

And in fact, you wanna put them right next to your AEDs.

That's a good location to typically put them.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And so, conceptually, you put your epinephrine inside.

And when there's an emergency, someone opens the door and they can access the epinephrine.

- So, something like that.

- Yeah, something like that.

And then they can save a life.

- Mm-hmm.

- The nice thing about this product is, there's a lot of technology built into it.

So, you can see that there's a camera inside.

So, if you were concerned about theft, someone just taking the epinephrine unnecessarily, there's a camera in there.

And the reason the camera's in there and there's technology is because you don't want this to be locked up.

You want anybody who needs to react- - Who needs it immediately.

- Right, to come in and be able to utilize it.

- Mm-hmm.

- The other thing that they do technology-wise is, there's an app that's built into the phones.

So, anyone who is in a facility would get a message right away that says, "Hey, your MedLocker has been opened up."

- Okay, - "There's been an event."

One, so you can go react and help with whatever's happening, but two, just so you know that it's been accessed and you may need to replenish it at some point.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm - There's a local alarm that would, you know, scare off anyone who was trying to break in and steal something.

- So, it's hardwired, obviously.

- [Chris] There's a battery pack on the back.

- Okay, all right.

And then it says, "Break the seal to the cabinet.

You've got the medication, and call 911 also immediately."

- That's correct.

- I mean, you're taking that immediate response, you're making it, but then you have backup that way.

- Right, and you made a good point.

So, the first thing you wanna do is access the epinephrine and treat the individual, then you're calling 911 because time matters in an allergic reaction.

And that's why we need to have these on-site at facilities because in some cases, not all our first responders are actually carrying epinephrine with them.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, whoever gets there first may not have epinephrine.

And so, more time may go by until a responder comes with epinephrine and the reaction can get pretty severe pretty quick.

- Mm-hmm.

So, how do you know...

I mean, that looks like a big EpiPen to me.

You don't give the whole thing to a child, or do you?

How do you know the dosage?

- That's right, so there's different dosage sizes.

So, the weights and ages are typically listed with the epinephrine pens.

- [Christine] Okay.

- So, yeah, you would give, like, a child dose to a certain weight or a certain aged child or an adult dose to an older individual.

So, this is the more traditional one that most people are familiar with, is the EpiPen.

- Mm-hmm, here.

- The next one we have here is, this one's kinda cool.

We've been doing this one in some facility just because it actually talks to you.

So, the neat thing about this one is, I won't do it just 'cause it's a little bit annoying, but if you open it up, there's a digital voice and it tells you what to do.

- Mm!

- Walks you through the steps.

- [Christine] Okay.

- So, we did this at one of our restaurants and other facilities where, you know, maybe a more of a lay person in an emergency, just might kinda want some simple steps to listen to and walk through as they're utilizing it.

- Right, right.

Okay, and then you have this one.

- This is the newest one.

This one just came on the market for really young children.

My four-year-old just qualified for it, so we jumped on getting it.

This one's called neffy, and so the revolutionary thing about this is this one's needle-free.

So, what they found in their studies is that there can be a pretty high percentage, almost 50% of people, that are afraid to give the needles- - [Christine] Right.

- For valid reason.

And then there can be a 40% of the population that will delay administering because of that hesitation.

- And people have fear of needles also, so.

- [Chris] Right.

- And if they need it and they have that fear, then there's double trouble.

- Right, so this one, you stick it up your nose and spray it.

Sort of like a Narcan, which I think a lot of people are probably familiar with that.

- Mm-hmm.- And so, it's gonna be really nice to have around.

We can't quite get it in Illinois yet.

We're working on it with our legislators.

There's just some silly things with the language, where it says epinephrine autoinjector, and this is a different type of device, so we just need to- - So you have have to- - Clean up the language to allow it to be- - Legalize that language.

- Right.

- Right, but we're working on that and hope to have that revised this summer.

- Okay, wow.

Okay, so...

Here, I'll take this little guy, put it back here.

And then you have this other food allergy safety and you're trying to get these more places.

This is really very interesting.

- Yeah, so we did this at Clink Bar & Events, the first one we did here in Peoria.

They were our first allergy-friendly restaurant.

And so, what this lets them do is it's just a kit.

So, we've gone through all the protocols with them when someone comes into their facility in terms of how they should address a food allergen with someone when they order.

So, when someone comes in and orders an allergy-friendly meal and says, "I have a peanut allergy," then that all goes back to the back of the house.

Well, they go grab one of these kits.

And this kit is all contained, everything in here is clean and allergy free.

And they can prepare the entire meal with this kit without having to worry about what's called cross-contact.

And cross-contact means if you have peanuts in the building and a utensil touches the peanuts and then touches the food you're preparing, that individual could potentially have a reaction.

- It's just crazy.

I hope they do finally figure out exactly what causes all this.

So, let's take a look real quick.

So, this is all your cutlery and your cutting board and all that, right?

- Yeah.

- Do they have a separate pan that is specific for this then, or?

- No, they would have to do that on their own.

This just kind of gives the most common spots that you would transfer.

- Okay.

- So like your cutting boards, it's got a knife in here.

I think we can kinda tilt this up.

- Some tongs, right.

- A knife, some tongs, and a spatula.

So this is the most common way you may transfer.

And so, we train the entire staff too.

So, the kits aren't necessary, but we think it's a nice redundancy and a nice additional safety beyond just the training to have the kits where, you know, someone can just go to the kit and know that that meal's been prepared completely safe.

- Right, wow.

So, what haven't you thought of yet?

(Christine laughs) (Chris laughs) Or you haven't thought of it yet?

- Yeah, well, that's how come we're trying to expand.

You know, ourselves and Red Sneakers for Oakley have been really happy with the partnership so far, but we know that there's more cool ideas out there and more opportunities, so we want to continue to get these other chapters up and running so that we can get additional ideas and think of more things that are safe.

- Well, and then it's all that feedback, and then you will turn over another stone and figure out.

Right.

So now, tell me about this book.

This is all about educating people.

This is your son's book 'cause your son has his allergies.

- Yeah, this is my son, Brody.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so, this book is called "The Land of Not," so, you know, it's intentionally all negative, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- The boy, he can't eat nuts.

He can't be around nuts, you know, and so there's a lot of negativity built into the start of the book.

And at the end of the book, it kinda talks about, well, what are the things you can do?

- Right.

- Let's not focus on all the negatives.

- There's fruit.

- Right.

(Christine laughs) And, you know, what else can you do?

You can play soccer, you can, you know, play the drums.

So, Red Sneakers for Oakley, they actually worked with this group to brand this book with their selves.

And so, it's a food allergy education book.

And so, when we go out to those schools in August and we talk to 'em about food allergy education, we donate some of these books too, so they've got in their library so that every kid in the school can learn about food allergies, not just the ones that have them.

- Are you going to get to the point where perhaps you wanna put one of these other kits in every school?

- We do wanna do that.

We wanna get these kits everywhere that we can.

We're starting with the highest risk facilities first, so we're starting with the largest facilities and then also, the early education in school facilities, 'cause those have the highest risk.

And then of course, restaurants.

- Mm-hmm.

- But there's no reason that every entity couldn't have these.

If you have an ADD, you can have an epinephrine kit.

- Right.

So... And Brody likes this book and he's okay with it because it has a positive spin for his life, the difficulty in his life.

- Yeah, and what's really cool is, you know, one of the reasons we like Red Sneakers for Oakley was they had a powerful symbol that was recognizable.

And he's almost five, he's starting to recognize the symbology, "Oh, the Red Sneakers means this and the Teal Pumpkin means this."

So, he's starting to get it and communicate it with his cohort and his friends.

And they're starting to get the message too.

- Well, and you gotta start early, you gotta start young, which is really important because, you know, at five years old, he'll be teaching his friends, yeah.

- That's right.

- All right, now then, tell me about this one.

This is "The Anaphylaxis Strike!"

- Yeah, this one's really cool - Oh, right, a superhero.

- This is cool 'cause it's superheroes, and so the kids love this one too, both of my kids.

So, I mentioned, you know, my oldest son has a food allergy.

My youngest son has severe asthma.

And so, the cool thing about this book is, it has messages for both of them and because it talks about food allergies and asthma, which are typically adjacent.

And if you have a family member with food allergies, you're likely to have another family member that has asthma.

- [Christine] Hmm.

- So, you know, we've got both in our family, so this one's a neat for us.

And the cool thing about this book is, the gentleman who wrote this, Thomas Silvera, he's a huge advocate for putting epinephrine, undesignated epinephrine and proper training into early learning centers.

He unfortunately lost a child in early learning center that wasn't properly trained on what to do in an allergic reaction and how to prevent one.

So, his motivation is to get out there and to require those facilities to be properly trained and to carry the undesignated epinephrine.

This book is, you know, something that we are gonna give out to our schools, but then also, because his message is so powerful, we wanna bring him here to our community and let him educate our community, so he's gonna come and actually sign these books- - Really?

- And talk at our event in October.

- October, what is the date on that?

- [Chris] October 11th.

- And where will it be?

- We're at Tower Park in Peoria Heights.

- [Christine] Uh-huh.

- We start there.

He's gonna be speaking just before our Walk/Run.

Our Walk/Run is at nine.

We go out to Grandview Drive and back.

So, you can run it or you can walk it, depending on your ability.

And then when we get back to Tower Park, that's when we have our Teal Pumpkin fall festival.

- Mm-hmm.

- That all starts at 10.

And, you know, Lindsey and I both have young children, so we've got things like bouncy houses and fun activities from other partners in the community that are gonna be coming.

So, we've made the event fun for our children, so it's really a family-friendly event for everyone.

- Right.

And any vendors that you have there, you have to make sure that they're properly vetted so that they don't have any cross-contamination as well?

- Yeah, that's a good point.

So, our event is actually allergy-friendly too, so we don't really have any food at our event.

We have it from nine to noon intentionally so you can eat before you come, go home and have- - And eat afterwards.

- Lunch afterwards.

- Right.

- But what we found, what's been really interesting to learn from these other families is, a lot of these families, they haven't been able to go to an event before because of the fear of food, so our event may be the first one they've ever been able to go to.

- Wow.

What an opportunity you're creating for these families.

Bring 'em together and do this fun stuff.

So, when you go into the schools, how are the teachers responding to the training?

Are they fearful?

Are they asking the right kind of questions?

What are you finding?

Are they fearful?

I mean, they might be afraid of needles as well.

- Yeah, there's definitely some fear.

So, what we do is we take in oranges and actual expired epinephrine pens, and let them feel what it's physically like to use a real EpiPen.

- Mm-hmm.

- We've got the trainers too, so they can practice.

But, you know, the practice gets the apprehension away, right?

So, the more you practice, the more you're involved, the more you're educated, the easier it's gonna be.

So, yeah, that's one way we break down that barrier.

And then a lot of what we get is just really good feedback in terms of like, "Thank you for doing this.

It's so good that you could come in and really share this information with us because we didn't know or we didn't know enough."

- Mm-hmm.

And you were saying earlier that, so they have one of these kits at Dozer Park.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- But you need another one for the suite level.

And what about the Civic Center?

There's one, but there's a nursing station at the Civic center as well.

- Yeah.

So, the way the Civic Center currently works is they have go bags, and so their go bags are outfitted with epinephrine pens so their responders can go to, if they have multiple events, can go to wherever they are.

But the reason we're educating people about having these kits available in public is that, you know, you just never know it's gonna happen and you want people to be able to access it and you don't want it behind locked doors.

So, a lot of what we found with schools in different facilities is they may have epinephrine, but it's in a locked room.

- Right.

- And that doesn't do you any good if, one, no one has the key or, two, it delays the response.

So, what this kit does is allows you to have it in a public space where there's a lot of fear of vandalism and theft.

Protects, you know, your investment, but then also provides that emergency resource right where you need it.

- Right.

And there was a big brouhaha years ago about the price of epinephrine just going through the roof, so you definitely wanna take care of that.

- Right.

- And use it only when you have to.

All right, now, we have a soccer ball up here.

Tell me about your soccer connection then.

- Yeah, so, our co-founder, Lindsey Spangler, she used to play collegiate soccer for Tennessee.

- Mm-hmm.

- And the people that she played collegiate soccer with, one of her teammates now runs an organization called TeamFirst.

And so, TeamFirst is with Mia Hamm and other professional soccer players, and they go and do camps all over the country and invite a small amount of children to participate.

And conceptually, they want children that are either doing it for nonprofit reasons or the child themselves is raising money for a good cause.

So, we approached them and said, "Hey, we've got this nonprofit.

We would love to do a soccer game 'cause Oakley loves soccer."

That's actually, you know, that they have the soccer balls that they give out for their swag.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm.

- We just think it'd be really cool.

So Lindsey was able to work with her connections there and get, just this past May, get a soccer camp in Florida where Oakley used to play, and it is available to food allergy families all over the country to come.

- Mm-hmm.

- And in addition to it, just being a camp for a non-profit and raising money for food allergies, we made it allergy friendly too.

- Okay.

- She went to the extra extent to make sure that there was food there because, you know, you're doing athletics and there needs to be food.

But she checked with every family in terms of what their allergens were and what their safety, comfort, was and made sure that they had specific food that was either free of their allergen or free of the top nine allergens available.

- Well, so, the peanut allergy, is that the most severe?

I don't know because some people, you know, are gluten sensitive and that kinda thing.

Is that included in this or?

- Yeah, there's some overlap with some gluten in this just because, you know, the difference is that, you know, a food allergy, you can be anaphylactic and die from it.

And some of the other gluten intolerances, you know, maybe don't have that degree, but the conversations are similar in the sense that you're talking about food and you're talking- - And reaction.

- And reaction and tailoring food and being careful about ingredients.

So, that's where the overlap is.

Yeah.

- Okay.

So, you're gonna have a big event in October.

You're just gearing up.

You're gearing up to grow from Peoria.

Yes, Red Sneakers for Oakley in Florida, but depending on you to really help them lift this to the next level.

- Right, we've already been in some conversations with some individuals out in California.

That's one area we wanna grow, and then we've got other conversations over in New York.

So, if we can kind of grow to those corners of the country, then we can really make an impact all over.

- [Christine] Work your way back in.

- And we can start to have this soccer camp we're talking about.

We wanna bring it to Peoria next, to the next place, but then we can start to rotate it around the country because we want everyone to have access to it.

But some people, you know, with planes and transport, could be an obstacle for them.

So, if we can have it more regional, that'd be nice.

- Mm-hmm, okay.

All right, so, that's next or is there something before that being next?

- So, yeah, the Chiefs event (Christine chuckles) is the next thing we have coming up.

That'll be July 25th.

And not only are we gonna have stock epinephrine on site, but we're also going to have top nine-free vending area.

So, you know, one of the other restrictions food allergy families have is you may be able to go out but you may not be able to eat.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, they may feel comfortable going to the ball game, but they can't go up to the concession stand.

- Right.

- So we wanted to give them that experience, so we're gonna have a top nine-free area for anyone to go to and get concessions.

We also have specialized seating there where they're gonna have an entire section where there's no food allowed.

- Mm-hmm.

- And that just makes it simple because, you know, the top nine, that's where 90% of the reactions happen, is the top nine, but anyone can have a reaction- - So, what's top nine?

- Top nine is it's the top nine allergens.

- Okay.

- So, you mentioned peanuts.

- Right.

- You mentioned shellfish, and then there's seven more.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so, those just happen to be the ones that statistically have the most reactions.

But for instance, our co-founder, her child has an allergen that's outside of the top nine.

So, a top nine-free may not do her any good.

But it does cover 90% of people, and so that's why we talk about top nine.

- Okay.

Well, thank you very much, you educated me.

I still have a lot more work to do.

And I think our audience is going to benefit as well.

- Thank you.

- Thanks so much for being here.

Thanks for joining us.

Be well.

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