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Giving gratitude is not just a feeling, but is actively communicating your appreciation through words or actions.

Tonight, our guests express gratitude by inviting over 500 active military and veterans to celebrate the biggest game of the year.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to Everybody with Angela Williamson and Innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody, with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

Gary Crisp is our guest.

And he brought a friend.

Gary, thank you so much.

Introduce your friend.

Well, this is my very close friend, Manny Martanez And Manny.

Manny and I go back about 20 years, so we've been, brothers for a while, and, he's the real hero here.

I'm the one that gets to throw the party.

So.

Well, I think you both are heroes.

And that's the reason why you're here today.

So what I like to hear from you is why was it important for you to show gratitude to our military?

And, Gary, you can start in the.

Manny if you want to fill in.

You can, because I think that's important.

That is the theme here of why you do what you do.

Yeah, it's to me, it's, it's really a privilege and an honor to.

It's very humbling to give.

And you feel good when you give and you make the world a better place.

Going back to when we started Krisp imaging, which is the company I run, that we wanted this one to have a signature event.

And at the time we live down encoded a Cosa and gentlemen down the street had about 20 Marines over for Thanksgiving.

I was sitting up in this nice house and I go, what am I doing here?

I need to really do something special.

So that was back in 2006, and we started our first event that year, and we brought in about 120.

And my wife was amazing, truly, for allowing us to do that.

And it's just grown to 14 years, a year or two in, this real war hero here, joined us and helped us get it a lot bigger.

And, and we were at home for about seven years, our home.

And then we moved to Corona del Mar and 13. the last seven years we've been at Newport Beach, post 291.

And it's gotten big, and we'll have 5 or 600 people there this year.

So, anyway, it's been just a special event, and that, Dana, that I want to say Dana Point to, but it's Newport Beach Post 291.

They are a friend of ours as well too.

We were able to talk to them.

Yeah, last season.

So it's so great to see how many things are happening there.

But before we move on, you mentioned something that we are not going to gloss over.

Manny is a war hero.

And so, Manny, I want you just to tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

And then what were you thinking when your friend Gary comes over to you and says, okay, I think I want to throw a party for 500 of our closest friends.

Well, it talk about heartwarming.

Being a Vietnam veteran adds a little, a little more.

History to this because, Gary is all about love.

Gary and his family.

They're such giving family.

And I heard about it.

And Coto de Casa, where my wife and I live in our family and our kids are grown now, but we've been out there 25 years.

Gary put this party together, brought in about 120 Marines.

And it just it just made me feel so warm that there was someone in the community doing this for the military, active military.

And Gary and I believe it or not, we were both prisoners at the same parish, there in the area.

And we started talking and before I knew it, I was helping Gary and supporting this event, by not only doing this for active military Marines, but adding veterans to the to the, the event.

And I think that's really important because a lot of times we support our active military and that's so important.

But then our veterans, they need that love too right.

That's what's made this so special.

Like for the first several years when we had a lot more World War Two veterans, you know, they would come to the house and you see them with an 18, 19, 20 year old marine, guy or gal and an 89 year old World War two vet.

And so it was just such a special, thing to see and just so much love there.

And this this is what this is all about.

It's it's about love.

It's about, just honoring my.

My father was a 17th airborne operation varsity.

He got wounded in World War two.

One of my brothers, Brian.

So, the colonel and the army physician, my other brother who's passed was a Vietnam vet like Manny.

And, you know, I get to throw a party.

This is fun for me.

I love to throw parties.

I love to see joy create big events for people and for my company.

It's a signature event.

And it's.

And, you know, yes, I host it, but at the end of the day, it's a whole group of people that donate, you know, the Dana Point fifth Regiment group gets a check every year from this event.

And so we're honored to do that.

But, you know, it's the perfect day.

You know, you got barbecue, Massachusetts cigars, boat rides, haircuts, TV, haircuts, you name it.

I used to do everything I could think of in so people would just have a time.

We have 500 donuts, ice cream, fabulous food, you know, delicious saw, prime rib.

You had it.

Yeah.

And so it's just fun.

You know, we have, lucha libre wrestling.

So we have the Marines go crazy for that.

And it's so fun.

It is the WWE.

In fact, my son Carter and I just went to raw, recently last week and into a dome and and that's a trip.

So your your last guest was fabulous to talk to.

Thank you.

I am so glad you got to meet him.

Yeah.

Hank Garrett.

So our audience knows Hank Garrett is all about what the two of you are doing as well is making sure that you are giving back to not only show gratitude, but to support our military.

Right?

Right.

Absolutely.

And and the Vietnam vets, for me, are special with a brother who was very, very special guy.

And, you know, they didn't get the credit.

I mean, he came back and got spit on basically for doing what he was asked to do.

You know, Manny almost lost his life in that war.

And, you know, we've been to Southeast Asia and and seen the places they were.

And it's just an amazing sacrifice that these men and women made for our country.

And, you know, here we get to live a certain way.

We have our freedoms, we get to create businesses.

And, you know, we're so, so fortunate and so much of the world doesn't get to live like that.

And these guys are dying for so do anything for us.

So, I mean, that's special to me.

you are bringing active military personnel into one event with veterans, and they are learning from each other, because now we're talking about learning from across generations.

That's right.

Well, exactly.

And to that point, I was able to invite two of my old platoon members.

One of them didn't even know I was still alive.

He thought I had passed the day that I was wounded, because it was a major firefight that we were in, and we were reunited at the Chris Super Bowl party.

And talk about a heartwarming event, both crying in each other's arms because thinking.

And he helped load me on the chopper when I was wounded.

And, there's so much history that and the legacy of this crisp Super Bowl event that warms so many hearts.

And it's you can't put a value on that stuff.

And it's been so fun.

His group, you know, several hadn't seen each other for since 40, 50 years.

Yeah.

And I remember years ago when the first time they all came together again.

I mean, we're talking about a bunch of guys who were basically their tank blew up.

He lost his life.

You know, it was a traumatic event for them to come together in the spirit of love and fun.

For me, it was just, so great to see, and so special and, and that's that's what this is.

This is this is nothing more than just honoring and thanking and creating a day of fun that the community can get behind, and the city of Newport Beach has been fabulous to work with.

And, you know, all the groups that are involved in this event, and it sounds like the American Legion, the Newport Beach Post 291 has been along the way with helping you plan and get this.

So basically what I'm hearing here is that it started in your home because started my kids wrong.

Let me share it.

Let me share a little bit about it.

Because if you want to listen to me tell this story, you tell this story.

We, Gary and Julie, have the biggest hearts in Orange County and, I think Julie said to Gary, Gary, this has gotten bigger than we've ever anticipated.

In fact, when the busses line up to take the Marines home because they're all bussed in, these are not recruits.

These are Marines that have been deployed or are going to be deployed.

So they're responsible.

We've never had an issue.

They are gentlemen and women Marines as well.

And the bus was running late.

We were missing one marine and out in Coto de Caza.

It's dark out there, and we were about to call the sheriff to bring in the helicopter.

And I think Julie said, maybe we should check each room and closet in the house.

And they had a huge house.

And, somebody went up to the second floor and opened a closet.

And there was a screen.

Yeah.

He's sleeping.

He was sleeping all by himself.

Just fell asleep.

Perfect time to get a nap.

Right.

So I think that was so many stories.

And Gary said, Manny, we need another venue.

And I happen to have a dear friend who was supposed commander of the American Legion.

His name's Doug Nye.

He's also a Vietnam veteran and a Purple Heart recipient like me.

And we're very dear friends and he asked, I asked him, I said, how is your Super Bowl Sunday?

He said, it's dead.

Everybody's home watching the Super Bowl.

And I introduced him to Gary and they talked.

And here we are today and we got it going and the stories go on.

we have fun stories.

It's always been good stuff, you know, but all good endings.

But, we've had, you know, Eddie Money, we've had famous rappers, we've had the dog pound, we've had just the Doobie Brothers.

Just great groups have been.

I missed the Doobie Brothers.

Well, the members of the members, that's okay.

And, just a whole host of wonderful people have played for us.

We had, corrupt, multiple times.

The Marines love rap.

And this year we have an American Idol finalist who's carry on.

Wow.

Who was fabulous.

And so we, you know, we're excited about, the event every year.

And, we're thankful that we can do it.

Well, believe it or not, we are almost done with our first segment.

When I come back, I want to hear what goes into planning this event.

And you talked about the evolution of how you outgrew your space.

But I also want to talk about the evolution of how this event has changed over the years as well.

Sure.

And then last but not least, we are not finishing up our conversation until you let us know how we can support you.

Thank you.

So as you move into doing this the following year, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

You come back to hear more from Gary and Manny.

I'm Belinda, and this is Willard.

And we were adopted in 2021.

When we first met Tom.

He was singing a song, and I was like, wow, look at this kid with the biggest smile.

And he has a big heart to match the energy you give Todd.

You get it back from Todd.

Todd's a joy.

Yes.

Hearts really is a great joy.

I love you and you learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

You can't imagine the reward.

Visit Adopt Us kids talk.

My early Alzheimer's diagnosis gave us time to adapt as a family.

Welcome back.

That was a fantastic first segment.

Thank you both for just giving us a little bit of a history of this event, but also two in our conversation.

There's more to come.

So tell us, how does this all come together?

So what happens is, you know, about midway through the year, we think about it and said, you know, there's been a couple of years we've taken a break and, you know, are we going to do this?

And by September, were we usually locked in to do it, move forward.

I want to give a lot of credit to Eric Monroe, who's one of our vice presidents, who basically is the producer director of the event.

And then my son, Carter Crisp is vice president marketing at Crisp Imaging.

He is the creative side of it.

So the wrestling, a lot of the real fun stuff, the stills, the things that you wouldn't think have come out of him was he's really brilliant in that way.

But really what we do is we have multiple meetings, we have a small team, and Manny is part of that team.

Doug is myself and several core members who help fundraise for the event.

And so we meet at the American Legion, usually 3 or 4 times prior to the event where we've we're not turnkey, but we're close enough.

Okay.

We've done it enough times.

So, so and then of course, the, the Dana Point FIS Marine Regiment support group, who is, who we write the check to and who has been just an amazing, supporter of this, you know, helps us make sure we have full busses and because, you know, there's a, there's an investment in this party to make it happen, as we move closer and closer to the event, we do our checks and make sure everything's on board.

And then it's the it starts on Thursday before the Sunday and we start to load up.

We rent the park because we got to put up the wrestling and the all the events around that, the stilt walkers and the celebrity rooms and the Vegas rooms and the cigar rooms and the massage rooms and the boats get ready to go.

And so we're so grateful for everybody, the food, you know.

So it's quite a, quite an undertaking.

Well, it's an undertaking.

And what amazes me, and I'm just in awe, is that you do it with a small team of people and you're not just all volunteering.

You have your day jobs too, and you have your families.

Yeah, they're well put.

Further adds and helps and assists a great deal because initially it was the Chris family, Gary and Julie that initiated this and funded it.

And the first few years you could see it just starting to take off.

When he said signature event.

Yes, he was baptized by this signature event and it's grown to levels beyond comprehension because we have we're both we know a lot of folks and we reach out and they're very supportive.

And when you mention we're supporting our military, you would you would believe this.

Angela, the number of people that are are willing to give and not just of their funds but of their time and volunteer on site.

I mean, they spend the whole day.

It's it's it's a tremendous day and a tremendous feat that wouldn't get done with just a handful of people.

Well, and you're offering different services to you.

I mean, I saw something where there is massage therapists, they donate their time.

They do 180 massages last year, for free.

They, you know, Diane, it's just an amazing lady from the Pacific Club.

And she brings, her masseuse is over, and services and training and all day they're doing that.

And you're talking about folks that have been potentially already there and back a few times and a whole range of things going on.

We have a chiropractor out there.

We've got, you know, they just had barbers get their haircuts and we got three of them going.

And the barbers are donating their time don't they.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And some of it some folks we we give them some money too you know.

So so it all makes sense.

But you know at the end of the day it's just about having a whole lot of fun.

And when they go off in the bus, you know, we finish off with this, this fire dance that just blows their mind.

The whole party is over now.

It's 8:00 and they're ready to get on the bus, and then a whole nother show erupts.

So.

So we want to have a big impact at the beginning, have the day of their life and then a bigger impact at the end.

It's also fun too, because we give away a lot of cash and memorabilia, and we have a, a raffle at at halftime.

And then we need they go some place called top dollar coca Coca-Cola.

Yes.

Yeah.

Vicky Ono, our good friend, she ono monster monster's been amazing.

Nominal, extreme, with Stephen Silverstein.

And I could go on and on about the people.

You know, Chris, our good friend Chris Furman and the different people.

And, you know, it just we couldn't do it without all of them.

But.

So at this point, what I'm hearing both of you tell me is that this has become an entire community event where most of Orange County people who are prominent in Orange County come together to make sure that we are taking care of our active military and veterans by giving them.

I call now, I'm going to call it a day of extravaganza or something.

Yeah, it's the perfect day is, I wanted to create a perfect day.

And and I would say, you know, that the folks that support the event, a lot of them are our personal friends and our networks and the communities were involved.

For example, USC has been and we love Bruins, too.

But USC has been just terrific.

I mean, their band, their cheerleaders come out.

We've had NFL trailers cheerleaders too, but USC has been special here and a lot of our donors.

So it's just a it's it's everybody who wants to play and participate.

You know, my brother in law, Scott Burnham, he's been a good donated donator.

And but just just folks that want to play and, have a lot of fun, you know, our, our all the TVs are donated and we're talking about 7 or 8 TVs with on board people all, all day.

So it's a special day and it's really fun.

And, you know, and we do other things like, you know, we go down to the donut place and we order 500 of the best donuts, apple fritters, butter mouth, you name it.

So it's crawling and we have the ice cream company come over and there's 500 sundaes and there's it's just all things.

You just get to have a fun day and do your thing.

And folks that are on big yachts, big boats that take the Marines out on the ocean and bring them back, and just something that that they can't enjoy in the military because they're fully they're fully armed, uniform armed here.

They're casually they're enjoying a beer, a glass of wine, what have you.

And looking at the scenery.

But it's it's probably competing with Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth for one day.

Yeah.

The American Legion Post 291 crisp Super Bowl party is phenomenal.

And that's the one word that keeps saying in my mind is phenomenal.

But also to when I see in my mind.

One takeaway is that this is also therapeutic for people as well too.

And that all sides of that fence.

Yeah.

Yes, it is it.

I mean, people who are volunteering, but then also the people who are you're showing gratitude to.

So here's my question for both of you.

What out of all these years of doing this, what is like your one, like, big memory?

I got one there.

There's there's so many.

But the one thing I'll never forget was early on when we started it, we had a young man who had had gone over three times, and he was he was suffering from PTSD.

A young guy, I want to say, you know, 21 or something, 20.

And, I'll never forget in our coda, the cause a home.

He was sitting on a rock just looking out, out in the, you know, in the sky.

And I could just feel his peace and his.

You know, this person's a young kid.

Has been off to this war three different times.

And so that was a very powerful there's always the fun things, but that for me was more of a spiritual event.

And I felt like, yeah, this is good.

What we're doing here.

My, my experience was, having been wounded in combat, knowing the feeling, coming back to the hospital, the base hospital and coming back to the world.

But a young marine was in the corner, a Hispanic marine and he was crying.

And he said, I've never felt so much appreciation and so much love.

And he said, I can't wait to share this with my family down in Texas.

That to me said this was worth it.

If one person can share that example of love, that's what we do.

It and you both have done it so well, and it sounds like you've done it well with your wife as well.

So we want to pay honor to them, because it sounds like they've done just wonderful work.

Before we end our conversation today, I want you to tell us how we can help you continue to bring that peace and help that person feel honored.

How can we continue to help you do this?

Yeah.

If you the data point, fifth Marine Regiment support group, Dan, Dana point, they, they do the real work, the ground work that, Terry is, Rifkin is the CEO.

She's just an incredible lady.

You can just send donations to to them and just specify the Marine Super Bowl event.

Crisp, crisp marine Super Bowl event.

And it would be part of this, but they do real good work.

And they've been there for years and they're an amazing group of people.

So and the website is Dana Point five marine.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

It's Dana Point and fifth marine veteran marine Dana Point, fifth marines.com.

We'll make sure to have a lower third there for our audience.

But you talk financial donations anything else I would I would like to say that that the economy in Orange County, Los Angeles space and Las Vegas, even Northern California and Washington remember the name Crisp Imaging because they wanted to create a signature event to give back.

And if people will look for crisp imaging and see if there's any way they can contribute to help their company continue to grow, which has grown phenomenally.

But when a company gives back, that's an investment in the community before we end our time together, for both of you, I would love to hear what you would like your legacy to be with this event.

So it's just a legacy of love for me.

You know, this is one of, this is our signature event, but we've been fortunate it was on the Ross Air Board at USC.

So to support public education, doctor, Pedro Noguera, a great friend, has done great things over there.

The Catholic schools, too, we've supported through Cristo Rey and other, schools for Open day and Saint John Bosco, which is the Selezione school.

But anything that's good, you know, the American Family Housing's been important to us for homeless, and we just want to do good in the world.

And at the end of the day, the marine event's a special event.

But it's one of several things that we're humbled to do and feel good about.

And so I think that's that would be the legacy that that I would like to leave is that, you know, it was a it was a good guy.

And he he tried to try his best to do good.

Wonderful legacy.

Manny, for me, I would say that there are four parts to my life.

It's my faith, my family, community and career.

And everyone in our community is involved.

And I would like them to always remember the fact that there are people out there that care.

We shouldn't be so divisive, events, so combative, and but more importantly, understand that in this world there are people that care.

And that's and that's our legacy we want people to know, especially our military, are active, is that we care, that we care.

Families know that families know that their son or daughter who's in the military, whether they're stationed here or abroad, that there are those individuals within the communities that they are that care for them.

That is a perfect way to end our conversation.

Gary and Manny, thank you.

I am so honored to talk to both of you.

But how you've been able just to continue this event and show love and honor those that serve in our military, especially with what you both have going on.

I so appreciate that.

So we are going to make sure our audience knows everything about what you're doing.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson.

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