Fremont

We're gonna recap a lot of it today.

Of course, the two major stories that came out this week, brand new ACLJ case, if you've not, you know, followed what's been going on, it was a, a homeschooled graduate, 22-year-old, so not a kid, certified EMT, rookie of the year volunteer firefighter in his hometown in Fremont, Nebraska, and was told, "You know what? There's a job opening.

Why don't you apply to become a full-time paid career fireman?" He thought, "You know, this is it.

This is gonna be my time.

He is currently working on his associate's degree in what? Fire science.

He is rookie of the year firefighter.

But what was it? It was that homeschool diploma doesn't hold up to the rigorous test, I guess, of what needs to be the qualifications to be a firefighter in Fremont, Nebraska.

But you know what? The ACLJ jumped in and said, "No, no, no.

You've been disqualified." Of course, the ACLJ jumped into action only after, by the way, someone tagged me on social media and said, "Logan, we need to get involved in this." We caused an uproar of the century over the last 24 hours, made it a national news story, and last night at a city council meeting, they had some, uh, reckoning to deal with as even the citizens, not so happy that they were drug into a national news story.

And there is some confusion in the chat 'cause people said, "Well, of course, it's in California." This is not Fremont, California.

This is in Nebraska This is happening everywhere throughout the country.

I want you to hear from some of the citizens.

But this is the work of the ACLJ that we're doing domestically.

Let's talk a little bit about that, and then we will go back and, uh, get you some-- We actually have some new video and new footage for you to see from that, um, a-attempted terrorist attack that happened in the skies over Tel Aviv.

But let's go to, again, this is from a Fremont citizen.

I think it's important to see some of the chaos that was unfolding last night as they had to answer, and they had to answer for this.

My name's Ethan Blair.

I'm a head coach at a NAIA school in Fremont, Nebraska.

I got a few questions for you guys I think you would appreciate and, and enjoy answering.

So obviously being a college golf coach you, you come against a lot of really high-level players.

We're going to A&W.

We're gonna stop at A&W in Fremont.

Oh.

Don't make that face, Mike.

No, no, no.

Sure.

Listen, if we're going to Lee, everyone knows you go to the A&W in Fremont.

[laughs] That's what, that's what everyone says.

What

did you say, Shane? Fremont.

Fremont's one.

Oh, that makes sense.

I was going to say like St. Joseph's, Missouri.

I think there's just too many other options.

You know what I mean? We should take a trip to

Fremont.

So by way of example, you know, the market in, um, Omaha, there's gonna be a lot of REITs there, right? Real estate investment trusts are gonna be investing, and we don't want to compete against them.

So as opposed to Omaha, which is a very established, very compet- more competitive market, we're in Fremont, Nebraska, which is 35 minutes away in a, in a car.

And there you have a lot of mom and pop operators, much less sophistication, much less technology, you know, uh, much easier way to pick your market and how to compete.

And then we find the right partners to work within those markets.

The reason it's on my mind, aside from hearing it yesterday at a ball game, is that our guest today is Tim Benson.

He is the CEO of the Fremont family YMCA in Fremont, Nebraska, just outside of Omaha.

Now, you might be thinking, YMCA? that's not an attraction well you might change your mind by the end of this interview uh but also tim's been a close contact of ours and you in particular have uh have worked with him in the past over over the past several years he's been in the attractions industry he was at the omaha children's museum for about seven years or so uh prior to joining the fremont family ymca so we get to hear I would say that the mindset that we hear in the attractions industry very much is playing out at the YMCA in terms of, I would say, guest experience and leadership and culture and particularly with his background in nonprofit cultural attractions of balancing things like donor and philanthropic aspect of it, combined with earned revenue and the profitable side of what we consider to be in the industry.

Absolutely.

I'm wondering if you can share with our audience a little bit about your background and what it is that you do now.

Yeah.

I'm the CEO of the Fremont family of YMCA.

So Fremont's just outside of the Omaha Metro.