- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by Fedway Associates, Inc. Valley Bank.

The North Ward Center.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

Everyone deserves a healthy smile.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Moving the region through air, land, rail, and sea.

Atlantic Health System.

Making healthy easier.

And by the Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by ROI-NJ.

Informing and connecting businesses in New Jersey.

And by Meadowlands Media.

A print and digital business news network.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with our long time friend Tom Weatherall, who's the President and Chief Executive Officer of Make-A-Wish New Jersey, celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Good to see you, Tom.

- Great seeing you, Steve.

- You got it.

Hey, listen, website's up right now.

Tell everyone what Make-A-Wish is, and we'll also get into some of the misconceptions about what it is and what it's not.

- Sure.

Sure.

Thanks, Steve.

Yeah, it's simple.

It's our mission statement.

It's one sentence.

Together we create life changing wishes for children with critical illnesses together.

Steve, we can't do it without the community.

As you know, as a long time friend of ours, Steve, we don't charge our families any fees.

And we don't receive any government support, so we rely a hundred percent on the benevolence of the community.

And how fortunate are we to operate here in New Jersey with one of the most generous communities throughout the country.

- You know, we were talking about this Tom recently with our good friends up at Fedway.

We do a leadership academy there.

We coach and talk about leadership in the not-for-profit community and Tom came in to do a presentation with us, which was great.

But one of the things that struck me in that conversation, Tom, was, in celebrating the 40th anniversary of Make-A-Wish, the New Jersey chapter of Make-A-Wish has grown exponentially.

Describe where it was, where it is, and how the heck are you thriving as a not-for-profit in these incredibly challenging times?

- Yeah, I love that question, Steve.

I appreciate that.

So we're in our 40th anniversary, right?

And if we break it down to the first 30 years operating mostly out of Elizabeth New Jersey for the first eight or so, and the next 22 years out of Union, New Jersey.

And in these very small restrictive back office operations, that didn't lend themselves to our mission, to our brand, to the power of our mission, to engaging the community in deeper, more meaningful ways.

And it really did nothing to help our wish kids when we're conducting the wish interview for them to explore the possibilities of a wish.

And so back in 2012, we opened this beautiful castle, The Samuel & Josephine Plumeri Wishing Place.

- Describe the castle.

It's extraordinary, - It's been transformative for us, Steve.

When we break down our wish count over this time, just a little more than 12,000 wishes, in the first 30 years we granted roughly 6,500 of those wishes in our first 30, in the last 12 we've almost matched that count, just shy of 6,000 just here in a little more than a decade in the castle.

So we matched almost three decades of work in just one decade here out of the castle.

Had it not been for the pandemic, we would've blown those numbers away.

And how we've done it, Steve, is engaging, again, engaging the community.

We knew this castle, which is still first of its kind nationally within the Make-A-Wish Enterprise, Steve, the next one is coming online in South Florida in Miami later this year, in a few months, I believe by the end of this quarter.

But what it's done for us, it's allowed us to, we knew in the first three months when we had more visitors, more visitors in 2012, in the first three months of operating in the castle, more visitors than in the entire 18, 20 years out of the Union building.

And so it's now a destination, it's a place where our kids, our family, sometimes the living room or hospital room, Steve, is not the most conducive space to explore the power of a wish.

- Yeah, one of the things that struck me, we were down in Atlantic City and I told you, we've talked about this before.

You weren't able to be there that night I know that, we were in Atlantic City a couple years ago and there was a young woman, her wish was to go see the Rolling Stones.

And I remember she not only saw the Rolling Stones, but hung out with Mick Jagger and it was incredible.

That's just one thing and we had her on the air talking about that wish.

But give us a wish that really stands out in the last year that is representative of all the other wishes, the 12,000 plus wishes that have been granted.

Please, Tom.

- Sure Steve, and you've met so many of them.

And you were referencing Erin who brought down the room, brought down the house that night in Atlantic City, right?

But most recently, let me tell you about a milestone wish over the summer recently, our 12,000th wish.

And this was for a young man from South Jersey, battling thalassemia, it's a genetic blood disorder, Steve.

Judah, 18 years old, when we asked him if you could have one wish, Judah, what would it be?

He asked for a tractor, Steve, a tractor.

In all my years, I just started my 22nd year here, Steve.

I have to pinch myself sometimes, but I can tell you I don't recall us ever doing a tractor wish.

- That's the first tractor, Tom?

That was the first tractor wish?

- You and I didn't have these in Hudson and Essex counties growing up, Steve.

- No, they don't allow tractors, but go ahead.

So Judah wanted the tractor.

Go ahead.

- Judah and his family lived down in Salem.

They have a couple of acres and it was so important to Judah to help his father, help his father with, the family plants crops.

And they really are self-sustaining on the family property.

He's got seven siblings, eight kids, mom and dad.

Judah and a few of his sisters were adopted from China.

And one of his sisters also a wish child of ours, Josanna, who asked to go to Disney and brought the family to Disney.

But you know, in speaking with Judah and getting to know him, Steve, as we get to know these kids and their families, what his mom shared with us was so powerful to us that when he got the tractor home and after a couple of days with it, she said that he was talking about his future.

He wasn't talking about his illness anymore.

He was talking about his future and he was talking, you know, he's planting crops, Steve and crops take time.

And she said, really, for the first time in a long time, he was talking about he'll be here in six months or even a year from now when that next crop comes up.

And that's the power of a wish, huh?

- Before I let you go, Tom, I've asked you this privately a lot and I've asked you on the air, but for those who've never seen or heard Tom Weatherall, what has it done for you to see these wishes being granted to these children?

And it's life changing for so many of them, and some of them have not survived and most of them are thriving now.

What has it done for you?

30 seconds or less, go ahead.

- Steve, it's powerful.

It has changed my life.

It's left a profound effect on me.

But you know, Steve, it's on the entire team.

I watch as our team, as they come on, they come on board, they go through orientation or our board members, donors.

It resonates, our volunteers.

It resonates because, you know, Steve, this isn't a warm and fuzzy.

You know this from being so long, a friend of our mission and always loaning us this wonderful platform of yours, but that it's not just a warm and fuzzy.

Wishes have impact.

And they help children, studies tell us that a hundred percent of medical providers report that a wish improves a child's wellbeing.

90% say a child is more ready to accept treatment protocols.

And so, you know, we're working with children who are at the dawn of life and it's pretty profound when they're looking at their own mortality.

Even those who might not be aware of that, surely their parents are their family, their siblings are.

So how can it not affect us as well and lend perspective to our own lives?

- 40th anniversary of Make-A-Wish New Jersey, the leader, the CEO and President is Tom Weatherall.

Tom, this platform that you refer to us loaning to you is open so we can continue the conversation and make sure people understand what Make-A-Wish is and how they can be helpful.

All the best, Tom.

Thanks buddy.

- Thank you Steve.

Always grateful to you.

Bye-Bye.

- You got it.

Stay there, we'll be right back folks.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're now joined by Pam Donovan, who's the CEO and President of Ethan and the Bean.

Good to see you, Pam.

- Good to see you.

Thank you very much for having me.

- You got it, we're putting up the website for Ethan and the Bean right now.

Ethan is your 24-year-old son, correct?

- He is.

- Tell us more about Ethan and why it's Ethan and the Bean.

- Ethan is my son.

He's gonna be 25 this year.

He has intellectual and developmental disabilities along with a rare genetic chromosomal disorder known as CHIME.

It's actually spelled CHIME, it's pronounced "KIME".

But Ethan is definitely the face of Ethan and the Bean.

And we started this coffee shop in order to be able to provide employment opportunities and job readiness skills for individuals, you know, like him that are definitely, 80% of our population in the US is unemployed, and for our individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

And then Ethan and the Bean came along because, I don't know, it sorta seemed like, you know, "Jack and the Beanstalk," Ethan and the Bean.

Let's see how we can tame this dragon.

- So, hold on.

"Our coffee changes lives," on your shirt.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- Talk about that.

Talk about it.

- Our coffee definitely changes lives because it does provide that opportunity for job readiness skills and employment opportunities and also creating a connection between high school and, you know, aging out of the education process at the age of 21.

So you kind of just hanging there in sort of an abyss.

There's not a lot of opportunities, and quite honestly, there's not a lot of opportunities even when you're in that transition phase from like say age 16 to 21 to have the opportunity to be exposed to skillsets such as the hospitality world, which is very task oriented.

So our coffee is providing an opportunity and a conduit to change the lives of hopefully many, and not just within, you know, the state of our communities or the state of New Jersey, but hopefully we can reach further, you know, beyond these borders.

- You know, I was introduced to you by our good friend, Ira Robbins, the CEO over at Valley Bank.

And you just opened up, Ethan The Bean opened up their second location in Morristown right in that complex where Valley is.

- Yeah.

- But one of the things that Ira told me that I want you to talk about is, because we're into leadership, we do a lot of leadership coaching, and there's real leadership that goes on, leadership and innovation, leadership and creativity, leadership in frankly finding new and different ways of making a difference.

To what degree do you see yourself and in fact Ethan as real leaders?

- Oh, wow.

- At least innovative leaders, but that's leading in my book.

- It is.

It's definitely leading.

It's leading with a purpose, and hopefully, you know, that we're making a difference within not just our community, but other communities.

We have individuals that are employed, you know, with us that don't just come from the Morristown area or the Little Falls area.

So Ethan's making a difference.

He happens to be one of the oldest individuals with his diagnosis in the United States.

So having these opportunities and creating the opportunity for others like him to actually have meaningful or have job readiness skills provided is definitely a change in the cultural norm.

And hopefully, we continue to make a difference in that area.

And having just a model of employment, which is a little bit different than a typical corporate model to employ our individuals because they do need the support of others.

And without that support, it really is challenging for them to find opportunities.

And not only is it myself and Ethan, it's our entire board of directors, it's individuals like Ira Robbins and Valley Bank that make a difference in actually providing an opportunity and a place to be able to make these changes within our community and within our population of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

- Yeah, let me disclose that Valley Bank is one of the banks that underwrites our programming, to fully disclose.

But here's the other thing I'm curious about, the impact that Ethan and the Bean has on those who work there, and let's start with Ethan.

What impact on Ethan?

- Wow, on Ethan, you know, he's not a monetary type of individual.

He's more like a doer and a task oriented person.

It definitely gives him confidence.

It definitely provides him with self-esteem.

It definitely provides him with purpose and meaning, and it gives him a way to express himself where there may be other, you know, he has a tough time expressing like his happiness, his purposefulness.

When he's in Ethan and the Bean and he's doing tasks like he fills all of our K-Cups, he fills most of our online orders, our favors for individuals hosting events.

So this gives him just meaning and pride to get up every day and have a purposeful place to be engaged, not only with his peers, but with inside the community.

- What's it done for you, Pam?

Ethan and the Bean, what's it done for you?

- Ethan and the Bean is beyond a dream come true, 'cause to be honest with you, I really didn't know, you know, what opportunities would lie ahead for my son.

I do think that entrepreneurship and small business is definitely an avenue for parents to consider because you do have to look at the strengths and the skillsets that, you know, my son, Ethan, has, which they might be limited, but if you take a closer look and a harder look, you can find exactly where their strengths lies, and you can definitely modify and create opportunities if you just, I mean, I don't know it's just.

You definitely have to have that just do it attitude or, in order to make these things, you know, achievable.

If you sit around and wait for an opportunity to come, it may never happen.

So I do believe in the entrepreneurship of small business, and I am sincerely grateful for, you know, individuals and companies like Valley Bank and, you know, getting involved.

- Hey Pam, you know, I've been teaching writing, and I've been a student of leadership for a long time and I know a leader when I see a leader.

You're a terrific leader, and I wanna thank you for joining us.

Pam Donovan is the President and CEO of Ethan and the Bean.

Check them out.

Hey Pam, thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- All the best to you and your son and everyone up at Ethan and The Bean.

I look forward to seeing you in person up in Morristown the next few weeks.

- Okay, that coffee will be ready.

Thank you for having me.

- You got it.

Thank you.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- That's right.

He's back.

We got him back.

Christopher Kelly is Vice President of Content for NJ Advance Media.

Good to see you, Chris.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- Let's let everybody know what NJ Advance Media is.

It's a media platform.

Lots of platforms.

Go ahead.

- Lots of platforms.

NJ.Com, of course, is our flagship website.

And The Star-Ledger, one of our newspapers also includes South Jersey Times, Times of Trenton, but NJ Advance Media, sort of the umbrella for all of that.

- You know, you and I had a conversation last time, big picture conversation about media, where we are, the role of digital media, but I wanna be even more specific.

What do you see as the role of NJ Advance Media, particularly on the digital side, in promoting a healthy, vibrant, representative democracy that thrives because free media is critical in that.

Please.

- It's the question.

It's a big question, and it's the question that we face every day.

I think local media is in a privileged position in this fight, in this challenge in front of us because what local media can do is really help shore up people's confidence in media, because we report on the things that you see, that you go outside your door and you see, and you see the media is reflecting this accurately, honestly, objectively and that's what builds up trust.

And I think that's what we're in such danger of losing in this realm where, you know, people's opinions are formed on social media, are cemented by their echo chamber of friends and followers, are manipulated as AI gets into the equation and deep fakes and images you can't really trust.

You gotta take it back to local media and what local news can do, which is be honest and reflect honestly about what's going on outside your door, outside my door.

- Chris, go back to AI, the artificial intelligence issue.

The potential negative impact of AI on the information slash news business, particularly at NJ Advance Media.

- It's really unnerving.

And I worry less about, you know, are the robots coming for reporters jobs?

I don't think they are.

There's things that robots can't do.

Robots can't go to, you know, go and talk to people and you know, probe what's going on in their minds and their worlds.

They can't uncover wrongdoing and things like that.

Where I worry is the way that information can get out there that is false, that can be so easily manipulated and become, you know, narrative, become a kind of fact that we have to fight against.

You know, we've all seen the photos that are completely fake, but look unnervingly real.

There's countless variations of that that we're gonna have to run up against and really, really be prepared to fight against and educate people against.

And, I don't know what's coming.

It's a big, big, big brave new world - Truth.

Right?

I remember in a previous White House, the term alternative facts.

I think it was Kellyanne Conway said that, you know, we engage in alternative facts.

First of all, can we agree there's no such thing as alternative facts.

- I would like to agree with you on that.

Yes.

- Can we also agree that they're just alternative opinions?

- Yep.

But you know, I think the challenge for all of us right now is that people get to curate their narratives.

You know, Facebook- - Tell folks what that means.k When someone says, "I love Trump.

I'm in the MAGA movement and I see news all the time that shows me I'm right."

- And that news is being served directly by you, by an algorithm that knows the things that you're interested in engaging with, knows the directions of your ideology, knows what you're going to want to see.

And so it becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's the same thing that when you, you know, Google, I wanna buy a sweater from, you know, J.

Crew, you're suddenly getting dozens of ads for all different sweaters on your Facebook feed.

It's the same algorithm, but this time it's populating your feed with information that is, you know, designed to affirm your biases and affirm your very specific point of view.

And then, you know, when you add in the fact that there's not a lot of objective fact out there.

We're flooded with, you know, objective facts colored by opinion, by falsehoods, by manipulations.

It's really, really easy to decide something is true in that context and it's really, really hard to fight against.

- But it's also true for those who hate Donald Trump, who believe that those who support him are all racists, and MAGA is a racist, xenophobic group of people who are against anyone other than who they are.

They consume, those folks consume information that reinforces their point of view.

Is it any different, regardless of what your political ideology is?

Please.

- We talk about this all the time.

The confirmation biases goes on both sides of the ideological spectrum.

You know, we all have the tendency to surround ourselves with information and with people who are going to confirm our view of the world.

So where does that leave the news media?

And what that means we have to do is be as clear-eyed as possible, be as open-minded as possible to make sure we're listening to both sides and reporting thoughtfully.

Analytically we're not gonna, you know, pass off falsehoods as fact.

We're gonna challenge when one side says something we know objectively to be false.

But if our society doesn't have in the middle of all of this, the bulwark of an objective, clear-eyed media, we're in trouble.

We're in big trouble.

Before I let you go, lemme ask you this, the economics of your business.

For us, if we're not bringing in sponsors, underwriters, corporations, foundations, if we're not doing that, we can't do this.

The economics of public broadcasting has evolved, the economics of the newspaper.

Listen, I said to you before we got on the air, I looked for my Star-Ledger.

Yes, I'm one of the people who still gets newspapers.

Yes, I go on NJ.com and a whole range of other sites.

But the Star Ledger no longer prints on Saturdays, trying to save money.

LA Times has laid off 115 people today.

Today.

That being said, Chris, curious, how much can you just focus on content, or is it content with an eye towards economics?

Please.

- It has to be content with an eye towards economics.

And I think that goes for, you know, regardless of what your model is.

I mean, I think a lot of the nonprofits are facing the same challenges.

If you're doing work that no one's consuming, you know, it's really, really impossible to sustain that financially.

And if you're in a world where, you know, people want a very specific, you know, a very sort of atomized take on what they think the news can be, it's very, very, very hard.

You have to sort of have a firm faith and confidence in what I said at the top of this interview, which is that people ultimately, whether they realize it or not, need local sources of information that is objective, that is clear-eyed.

And you gotta stay true to that mission before you go down the rabbit hole of, you know, pandering to one side or the other, or one view.

Doing all this while keeping an eye on the balance sheets is no easy task.

And it's really, really worrisome.

Certainly as you look out at the landscape, you mentioned the LA Times, there's been, you know, probably a dozen others, Sports Illustrated, the Baltimore Banner.

I mean, this is just off the top of my Twitter feed in the last few days, you know.

So we're headed into some really, really challenging times.

I think we're also headed into a year where you're gonna see why, you know, an objective mainstream media still really, really matters - Now more than ever.

Hey, Chris, thank you.

Christopher Kelly is Vice President of Content NJ Advance Media.

Chris, I promise we'll continue this conversation with you and your colleagues because we're all in this together.

Thanks, Chris.

- Anytime.

Thanks, Steve.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Chris Kelly.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Fedway Associates, Inc. Valley Bank.

The North Ward Center.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Atlantic Health System.

And by the Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by ROI-NJ.

And by Meadowlands Media.

- Hello, I’m Donald Payne, Jr.

Congressman for New Jersey’s 10th District.

One organ and tissue donor can save as many as eight lives, and improve the health of another additional 75 people.

That is why I encourage everyone to register as an organ donor.

For more information about organ donation, please visit www.NJSharingNetwork.org