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- [00:00]
A
My son comes in with his look on his face and says, mom, I need to see you outside. And I said, okay. He goes, right now. So I walk with him and I'm immediately thinking, oh, he crashed one of Jeremy's cars and he doesn't know what to do. Jeremy's gonna be so mad at him. That's all I'm thinking as I'm going out, I'm like, I'll be calm and I'll walk him through it, right? No, he looks at me and he says, jeremy's on the way to the hospital. It was really bad, Mom. His eye was coming out of his head. He wasn't talking. He's bleeding everywhere. He got run over by the snowcat.
- [00:29]
B
Welcome to the PM Podcast, brought to you by Evertru Studios, the show that takes you inside the lives of thought leaders, innovators and change makers in fundraising, philanthropy and civil society. I'm your host, Jay Frost. In this episode, we speak with Kim Renner, career public servant and sister of actor Jeremy Renner, about her journey from a small town childhood in Modesto to a life devoted to child welfare and and social impact. She shares stories of growing up with Jeremy, witnessing his rise to global fame, and living through the trauma of his near fatal snowplow accident, an experience that reshaped their family and strengthened their commitment to foster youth. She explains how they co founded Renovation foundation in Nevada and built the Pave your way program to support young people aging out of foster care with housing, life skills and a real path to adulthood. And she reflects candidly on the pressures of visibility, the limits of celebrity philanthropy, and why lasting change depends on sustained, community driven support long after the headlines fade.
- [01:39]
C
Maybe I'll just begin by asking you to tell me about yourself.
- [01:45]
A
Great. Very wide open question. So you know, my name is Kim Renner and I often am associated in my life through. Well, it began with my father, Lee Renner, and I was always Lee's daughter. And then quickly I became Jeremy's sister. But I like to think of myself as Kim. And so a big part of I think who I am and a little bit about me is I'm a mom of three wonderful children. And I did have two of my kids very young. So I have a 33 year old and a 31 year old and I have one teenager left, you know, rocking out the high school years. She's 16 and she's going to be a force that we're all going to get to enjoy seeing her. But, you know, the, the most interesting part, I think about me is that my brother is actor Jeremy Renner. And of course, you know, many people know his amazing work through all of the years and everything that he's done that's kind of led up to today, but some don't know. But I'm a. I'm a proud fan of his work. I love watching, you know, what he does and what he's brought to the table. My background was never really, you know, in the movie industry or anything like that. I. I chose a different path to work in the public sector. So I started with getting my master's in public administration and went right into working in human resources for child welfare. I started in a town called Modesto, California, which is Central Valley area, Northern California, and eventually made my way down to Southern California. And now I work in Los Angeles county as an executive with Department of Children and Family Services. And after about 24 years and working in child welfare, I really knew, like, I wanted to show up in a different way. And combined with my brother's passion for kids and his platform, you know, as an actor and a global movie star, we decided to open up a nonprofit together and call it the Renovation Foundation. And we serve foster youth in Nevada.
- [04:16]
C
That's a very specific kind of thing to do, and it's an extension of your own work. Before you started to do this, where did that interest come from? Take us way back. So growing up at home, did you have kind of an awareness about the needs that you're addressing now through the work you've been doing professionally and now with the foundation?
- [04:38]
A
Well, I will say that I probably learned through my work to gain an awareness because my childhood was pretty great. We were humble family, middle class, if that's what it was called back then. I feel like now it would probably not be the same as the middle class back in the 80s, but it was. You know, we ate at home every night. I had a mom and a dad. They were separated, but, you know, we shared time. We went back and forth. Jeremy and I would pack our bags and go to our dad's house for the weekend sort of thing. And we had friends and played in the yard and, you know, just had dreams of doing something there in town, you know, getting a career or a job. Like, we really didn't think beyond our. Our home and our. But our home life was. Was pretty great. We were, I would say, unaware of, like, the foster care system, unaware of underprivileged, you know, so to speak, you know, communities, just because of, like, our own experiences. It was. It was Almost like you were sheltered back then. You only knew who was on your street. You didn't really see things beyond that unless you really tried, because it was all pre Internet days. So I would say that the family life that we had really helped me to establish what the assumptions I had that everybody did. And when I found out everyone didn't, through going to college and exploring and leaving the nest a bit, it really became kind of a calling for me to want to give those that didn't have the same things that I was able to have as a kid.
- [06:38]
C
Now, if the two of you were kind of shuttling back and forth a little bit between parents, as many kids do, but it sounds like you were doing that kind of as a twosome. So not all siblings are close. When they're siblings and then end up working together. Take us back there a little bit. Are you pretty close in age?
- [06:56]
A
We're about two years apart. And he, you know, I laugh because he was kind of a, you know, a little jerky older brother. He was always being mean to me and making fun of me. But I was just the younger sister that loved him. So I constantly forgave, like, anything. Cause I just wanted to hang out with him. And when his friends were gone, he would hang out with me, and we'd play games together, and we, you know, have a lot of fun. But when his friends came over, of course, then I was, you know, the goofy little sister. And he'd make fun of me. But I knew deep down, like, when everybody's gone, we're gonna hang out again. So I hung onto that a lot. And I, you know, he was the older brother, and he had the cute, you know, friends that came over. And, you know, he had a band, right? And his friends, you know, he played drums, and they had a band. They called it Hot Ice. And they'd play in the garage. And he had, like three or four friends.
- [07:52]
C
An actual garage band.
- [07:53]
A
An actual garage band. And I still remember some of the songs. I was their biggest fan. I'd sit there and just sing all their songs with them. And, you know, we had a really good time. I would have girlfriends come over and spend the night, and they're like, who is the band playing? So I think as we got older, they. They all liked and appreciated that, you know, a bit more than I probably recognized at the time.
- [08:16]
C
It sounds like he was pretty extrovert if he was playing drums in a band. Did you compliment one another in that way or. No, not at all.
- [08:24]
A
I was the extrovert. He Was the introvert really? Yeah. And a lot of, even to this day, he's a painful introvert. He's painfully introverted. He really is in his head a lot. He likes his alone time, his own space. The public limelight has always been a bit of a challenge for him to navigate because I don't think he thinks he deserves to have eyes on him all the time. But you know, eyes are because of his work. Right. And he doesn't quite always know how to navigate being on, so to speak, all the time. And so, you know, he struggles with how to be comfortable in an environment where, you know, you're a public facing figure. And back in the high school days, he had a core group of like four friends. And mind you, the garage band never performed for anyone. They performed for themselves. So it wasn't like they were on a stage anywhere. They were just. They loved music and they loved creating music. So it was a really big surprise to us as a family when he decided this was something that he was going to explore because he was so introverted and so kind of withdrawn in terms of sharing anything that was going on in his head. He more was a jokester. You know, he would make fun and tease and you know, laugh about stuff, but, you know, that was everything else he kind of kept in his heart.
- [09:55]
C
So not the drama kid necessarily, but you were the extrovert. What was your life like at that point? And then how did you, you know, I know we all, if we go off to college, that can have a transformative effect in different ways. But what kind of transformative effect did it have for you because you've gone, your whole career really has been in some way shape or form social service. That's a very specific kind of direction. What happened that you went that way?
- [10:22]
A
Yeah, so I, my goal was to be in law enforcement. When I went to college, I got a criminal justice bachelor's degree. I was going to be a police officer. I was going to be a, a public defender. I was going to get my law degree. I was going to, you know, you know, save the world. And that just came from a place of. I really love the kind of the concrete idea of protecting and serving and the rules around it like that. Like that was this altruistic motivator that made me feel good. I wasn't excited about going and making a company a bunch of money right like that. There was, I was, I didn't want to make a big huge paycheck and go buy a bunch of houses and I just wasn't motivated by money, I was more motivated by what it felt like at the end of my day, if I was doing something that made the world better, if I was making an impact and really serving. And then when I got pregnant while I was in college and had kids, I realized, oh, I don't think I want to be on the other end of a gun. I need to come home. I need to see my children, so I have to figure out what I'm going to do now. And so it took me a little while to, you know, bounce around in a few different private sector positions. I did really well. I worked in the temporary staffing industry, moving up the chain and being in leadership positions, making money, but just the satisfaction just wasn't there for me. And I knew I needed to get into a public sector position, so I went and applied to work at the county after I got my master's, and it's never been the same since.
- [12:06]
C
So has all this been kind of in the same area? I mean, where you grew up?
- [12:09]
B
I didn't know where you grew up.
- [12:11]
A
Yeah. Modesto.
- [12:14]
C
That kind of tied to the community does inform a lot of the way we feel about the world, too. I mean, if you walk down the street that you knew as a kid, you probably run into some people you knew as a kid.
- [12:25]
A
That's right. That's right. It's a. You know, our community was rooted in a lot of farming. It was the kind of town that had rules that wouldn't let you put signs higher than a certain amount of feet. So they wanted to keep everything. I don't know what the. There's probably a term for that, but it's this very, like, home, like, feel to it. You did know people, and you knew people for a long time. I personally didn't think I'd ever leave. I didn't leave till I was 40. I thought I'd probably be there forever. And I was motivated to move because most of my family moved down to Southern California, where I ended up making new routes. But there's something about being born and raised somewhere and, you know, loving so much of who it is, but then seeing it change and mold and trying to make sure, like, you're changing and molding with it. And, I mean, I just love the community so much, and I miss, you know, Modesto. Like, that'll always be my home in my heart for sure.
- [13:37]
C
Where's home now?
- [13:39]
A
Now I live in Marina del Rey.
- [13:40]
C
Okay.
- [13:41]
B
Yeah.
- [13:41]
A
In Los Angeles. Yeah. So I'm. I'm here and rooted, and I get to see a lot of sunshine and, you know, smell the ocean breeze coming in, which is lovely. I wouldn't necessarily say I have the same roots here because it's hard in a big metropolitan area to find. Find a community and find a friends and, you know, all of that. I will say in Reno, where, like our non profit is in Nevada, it reminds both Jeremy and I a lot of Modesto, and I think it's probably why he chose to move and make that his new home.
- [14:19]
C
Yeah, I did want to ask you about that, how you chose a location like that. But before we go there, one of the parts of this story that I think is so interesting is that again, we have these lives and sometimes they parallel one another and sometimes they don't, or maybe we come back together at a certain point. So with you and your brother. Your brother was off at some point. I guess he was acting. I mean, that's what he chose to do. I know he can do other things, but that's what he was doing that most of us know. And then you were doing what you did as he became better known in his field. I mean, that happens slowly for the person, but all at once for the public, I guess.
- [15:01]
A
Right, right.
- [15:02]
C
How was that for you? Were you still very close at that point that that sort of thing started to happen? And then people reflect a lot on people who are known. Was that also happening to you and your family? How did that impact your dynamics as a family?
- [15:20]
A
Yeah, so just kind of going to the beginning when he first decided to move. I remember getting in the car and I think my. My daughter was six months at the time. I was pretty young. And the three of us drove down with one other friend and we thought, let's just go check it out. We'd never been like, let's go see some places and do some things. And I think we went to the Arsenio hall show. While we were there, we were so excited to the dog pound. And I think we saw a walk by shooting, which was so weird, you know, you think drive by, but no, they were like. And we decided, oh, let's chase him and catch the bad guy. So stupid. We were young, not smart. We drove onto Hollywood Boulevard and we saw all the sparkles, you know, the glitter and of course, you know, glitter gold, the whole thing. It was just enamored. But he was adamant that this was where he wanted to be. And he actually. We actually looked for apartments and was just. In a few months after that, he had found an apartment, moved, got a couch off the street that was right in front of the house. He's like, oh, this is perfect. We'll take this. Yeah, there was a garage sale. Like, as we were driving around, he's like, look, I can get those chairs. And let's just get that blow up mattress. We'll put it on the ground. It was back in the day when the blow up mattresses didn't stay, you know, so, like, by the time he woke up, he was completely. But, you know, you do what you're gonna do. And he spent probably a good 10 years. And I'm sure I have this wrong. He'll probably say, no, it's 14 years, but at least a good decade working and grinding. He would tell me so many different stories because we, you know, we chatted on the phone all the time. He'd sing me songs. That was a lot of our. Because he'd write new music and he'd get his guitar and he'd just call and we'd stay on the phone for two, three hours. Back then, you had to pay for your minutes on your cell phone, right? We would coordinate it when we were actually at home on landline, so we could just sit and he know, sing me songs. And of course, then I would just fall in love with the songs and I write down all the lyrics so I could learn myself because, like I said, I was his biggest fan. And then he told me about all of his auditions, right? Like, oh, a Durasil commercial is coming out during the Super Bowl. Oh, my gosh, it's running of the Bulls. And we're like, duracell, let's go, Duracel. Then he was in, you know, like the Budweiser, or not Budweiser, but it was Bud Light series when they had really cool super bowl commercials and they had like a three part series. He's gonna be in three of them. And then he got this lead role for his first time in a National Lampoon senior trip. It was a silly little goofy movie. And he was like the lead goofy guy. And we were jumping up and down screaming like, you know, he won the lottery. Like, it was so adorable and so cute and, you know, just. It was so exciting. And of course, when the movie came out, we made a makeshift premiere in Modesto. And so he drove home, we would set up this thing, we had this whole red carpet. The whole community came out, you know, to see the show. And. And then from there on out, anytime he was in a movie, we'd do a Modesto premiere, and we'd work with the Local theater. We put out like, you know, little red carpet. We'd have the media come just to, like, celebrate with the community. Like, look at. He's really doing something here. So he was in like, swat. We did it. North country man. I can't remember all. Or right now, I can't remember all of the movies, but, you know, there's definitely a handful up until, I think, the first Avengers. And then his schedule became crazy and he was just not able to really commit to, you know, that level of excitement anymore. And then a lot of us ended up moving. So the coordination efforts really, you know, kind of dissipated a bit. But it was really, really fun kind of watching that growth. So we grew together. And it was until he got his first nomination that it really hit us that, oh, he's a global movie star. Like, this is, you know, the pole vaulting. And his nomination for. For best. For Best Actor in a Motion Picture, I think is what that one was. And then he got nominated for Best Supporting Actor and emotion Picture. And I think those were back to back years maybe. We were so excited. We were up at like 6am making pancakes. Everybody came over, the news crew came over to watch our live reactions to his nomination because we kind of had an idea it was coming. So of course everybody's there to see is he going to make it? And of course, you know, his nomination did. And we jump all over each other and it was so exciting. But it was like this like, fun thing you're all watching together as it like, grows together. And of course, there's a lot to learn, you know, like, you don't talk to the media, you don't share things, you know, about his private life anymore because now he's a public figure and that comes with a lot of roles.
- [20:26]
C
Now, you know, if you don't mind talking about that for just a minute more from your perspective, because a lot of the people who listen to this are in this social good sector. They're all trying to do good work like you are with the foundation. And a lot of them will think, wow, if we could just partner up with people who had visibility, it would make all the difference. But it's also good to know how difficult it might be for people who have that kind of visibility, because they have to be careful. Can you talk about that a bit so people have some insight into what it's like for. For your whole family when someone's on this big stage?
- [21:05]
A
Yeah, I mean, there's a fine line between I want to put things out there in the world to do good. And no good deed goes unpunished, right? And it's just true. No one wants to think that's the case. But sometimes it's like, why even try? Or why, why am I doing this? Like, do I really need to do this? Because the exposure that comes from, you know, being out there doing things, there's public judgment, right? There's opinions. People want things from you. Oh, you're giving over here. Can you give over here too? You're doing this. Can you do this too? Why are you picking that and why are you not picking this? And that's where I think the world sometimes shows up and can be critical, whether it's, if you decided to help this population, why aren't you helping all populations? It's hard. And that could be the noise that you have to manage. And then it makes one feel or question, well, maybe I shouldn't do anything because then I won't get criticized at all. And I think that's why sometimes we see people that could be doing things maybe choose not to because it could actually create a bigger struggle that they have to kind of work through. What my brother said to me recently, because I reflected back to him, boy, being with the foundation, I really didn't. You get to now experience a bit of what you've experienced because people come and they may, they, they might want to partner with us, but they don't really want to help the kids. They want to partner with us because they want his name attached to something. So they, they're, you know, they might be thinking about, yeah, we don't really understand foster care, but could Jeremy come and speak at this event with us? Could Jeremy come and do you know this XYZ event? And we really try to keep the non profit about the kids and not about him. We really try to do that. It's a delicate balance and it's a combined thing. And it's understandable why people would want to amplify other platforms. But what I realize is I don't really have a very good radar for detecting. Wait, are they trying to help us or are they trained to just see if he can do like, I don't really know how to do that very well. That's not my expertise. And I shared with him, I go, it must be hard for you because you're probably always trying to figure out, do they want to help me or do they want something from me, right? And he started crying and he said, it's the first time anyone has seen me in my family this way that they actually understand what it's been like. Because the last thing he's ever going to do is complain, because he feels like it's a privilege to be in the role that he's in. It's a huge privilege and an honor to carry this platform that he has. And not very many actors get to that level. Not very many people have a platform. And so he would never complain or wither away at that. But to be seen and to be understood in a nice, quiet moment between brother and sister, I think it just felt really good. And I was like, I didn't realize that you weren't seen. And I. And I. So I've taken the time now to spend a little bit of time. One other quick story I'll share. When Covid started and all of us got kind of relegated to our homes, he would say, now, you guys, now we're living the lifestyle I love to live, or I don't love to live, but I do live, which is I hibernate in my house just because it's a lot of pressure to leave, you know, your house. And so he spends a lot of time, and he always has. He's always spent a lot of time at home. And if we're going to do something, like, we'll come to him versus, you know, the opposite. And so when Covid happened and we were all in our homes, he goes, okay, now, you guys know, like, this is. Isn't it great? We're like, no, it's not great. He's like, no, it's great. Like, I don't know what you're talking about, but, you know, it's, you know, perspectives, you know, I would. Wouldn't understand because I don't walk in his shoes.
- [25:34]
C
Oh, well, that. That really does get us, I guess, closer to the founding of the foundation in so many ways. So, first of all, what year was it that that give us the origin story when it started, but also how this all came together, how you decided to work together on this and to do this one very specific thing and to do it in Reno.
- [25:54]
A
Yeah, well, just a little precursor. So Jeremy lived in Los Angeles for many, many years, built a lot of homes here, and kind of, you know, had a little side passion that he did with our brother Christopher. But when he finally realized, I think I'm missing my roots of the mountains, you know, we used to spend a lot of times in the mountains with our dad up in Yosemite and the northern Sierra Nevada area, He really realized I needed to have a second home. Base. And he. He found a wonderful property that's basically situated right between Lake Tahoe and Reno up at the top of this mountain, like 7,000ft or something. Crazy. So the snow really dumps. It's crazy amount of snow. So he found his home, and he's been kind of building and refining his love until he decided about two years ago to sell all of his California home and make Reno his 100% home base. So he lives there full time. We, as a family, started coming and attending all of these different events that we would have together because the home that he built housed us all. So we would have 4th of July there, and we'd have Christmas, New Year's there. Every year we go up twice a year, and we're still doing it to this day. It's just our traditions now. And so, little by little, a lot of us have fallen in love with the Reno and Tahoe communities because we've been coming, and that's like our roots coming back to. Coming back to us a bit during that time. Every time Jeremy would be there, we have a friend, Shana Rogers, who works in child welfare in Nevada as well, would take him out to different community events to help foster kids. And he would do it quietly, and he would just do it in these really small communities, and he just loved it. And honestly, he's always loved kids, and so the passion grew for him, and he knew that he wanted to do something. He just wasn't sure how and when. So it was always there. It was percolating. The plan, after several years of it, was that him and I were going to run a foundation, a nonprofit, after I retired, which was still going to be a few years from now after the accident, when he.
- [28:15]
C
Not everybody knows about this accident. I know it's quite famous in some quarters, but this was quite terrible. And now that you're mentioning where he lives, I guess I can better understand why.
- [28:26]
A
The top of that mountain.
- [28:29]
C
I mean, as much as you want to share about that.
- [28:32]
A
Yeah.
- [28:33]
C
But also how it impacted you. You two are very close. That's clear through this whole conversation. So, foundation aside, to see what happened to your brother must have just been heartrending for you.
- [28:45]
A
Yeah. If I. You know, to be honest, it impacted it. The secondary trauma and the trauma that I experienced is. Has changed me forever. Like, I'm different today because of it. And Jeremy will say that. He goes, I wasn't the only one who went through this. We all went through this. And he'll share that with everyone. He wrote that in his Book.
- [29:10]
B
We.
- [29:10]
A
We did this. You know, we went through this together. It was. It was a New Year's morning when it happened. And like I said, our family all comes together for, like, the New Year's time. So we were all there. It was a crazy storm, and we lost power several times the evening before. So we were all kind of hunkered down. And Jeremy knew that, you know, because the next morning was sunny, and he knew that people are going to need to get in, get out, do different things. And so him and several of the men in the family got up and went to go dig cars out and to plow the road and to get it into condition because he was adamant. We're going skiing today. We're going skiing. I'm going to get everybody up and we're going skiing. So I don't know what time they got up. It must have been at least 6, maybe 6:30. I was up. I would say normal time, like 8, something like that. Maybe it was 8:30. And I remember hearing helicopter outside. And I thought, oh, man, this storm must have been terrible. They're taking video everywhere. Little did I know that was him in the helicopter being flown away. And I go downstairs, everybody's just hanging out. It's all very peaceful. You know, people are playing. Like, the kids are playing quietly. A few people are making coffee. And probably three or four minutes later, I'm trying to wrestle around. My son comes in with his look on his face and says, mom, I need to see you outside. And I said, okay. He goes, right now? So I walk with him. And I'm immediately thinking, oh, he crashed one of Jeremy's cars. And he doesn't know what to do. Jeremy's gonna be so mad at him. That's all I'm thinking is he crashed one of his. Because Jeremy has, like, a lot of different, like, equipment and stuff. I'm like, oh, no. How much did this thing cost? What are we gonna do? Jeremy's gonna be mad as I'm going out. I'm like, I'll be calm and I'll walk him through it. Right? No, Right. He looks at me and he says, jeremy's on the way to the hospital. It was really bad, Mom. His eye was coming out of his head. He wasn't talking. He's bleeding everywhere. He got run over by the Snowcat. And as I'm interjecting and pelting questions at him, because I'm immediately in this, like, I need to know everything. And he looked at me and he said, mom, just let me get it out. Because he was so. He had just come from sitting with him for 45 minutes in the snow, and nobody knew. We were all in the house, just warm and cozy, sleeping, and. And then that began. Like all of the events that took place after. I had to call my mother. I had to call my dad. They then enacted the family chain of phone calls, and everybody's now descending upon Reno to get to the hospital, fighting
- [31:55]
C
through terrible, intense to process. When you're in mother mode, you know, in sister mode at all, you're just trying to figure it out and then relay information and be calm. I don't know.
- [32:08]
A
Yeah. My then fiance, now husband said to me that. I said, I don't remember this, but he said, I said, I need to get my bra on. I need my charger. I need to go advocate for my brother. So I must have been getting dressed, getting what I needed, because I do remember mumbling, and he didn't know what was going on. And I said, do not tell the kids because Jeremy's daughter's here. I don't know what condition he's in. Do not tell the kids. You guys are going to need to rally up and get out of this house. Everybody get together and figure it out quietly, and we'll talk soon. I'll let you know as soon as I get to the hospital. I'm putting my shoes on. I'm running out the door. I get on a snowmobile that's waiting for me to get to the firemen who are going to drive me to the hospital. Apparently, as we drove out, all the. The blood is still out. And so they take me around intentionally so I wouldn't see it. I had no idea. But there's a scene. There's like 25 different, like, firefighters and ambulance, because it all took them so long to get to him because all the roads were closed and everything was down. So I think people were being dispatched from different places while the person was on the 911 call, trying to get to him because he was going in and out of consciousness because his lung was collapsed and he wasn't breathing. So I guess on the scene, they did some sort of medical thing where they punctured him and got something going. The people that treated him and got him on the metaflight told our friend, who's a firefighter, we did the best we could. And apparently that usually means something other than he's going to be okay. I don't want to speak for firefighters, but we did the best we could. So when I spoke to that friend, his name's Jesse. He's our family friend, but he's also a firefighter. We were on our way down and he said, they're getting him there, they're working on him. We'll hear as soon as we know. I met him at the entrance to the emergency room, and when I went in, I was the family. So I was the one to say, like, I'm here to see Jeremy, and I've got like four firefighters with me in anticipation, wanting to know what's going on. And she says, oh, one minute, let me get you the social worker.
- [34:38]
C
Her.
- [34:41]
A
And I'll never forget that moment because I thought they were coming to tell me, like, he didn't make it. I looked over at Jesse and he goes, kim, that's not what that means. You. You don't know what that means. Let's just hold on. Even though in his mind he had heard from his friend, so quickly after the social worker comes out and says, we've got the. I'm sorry. The doctor calls me and from the ER saying, we got him stable and we've moved him to icu and he's in a warming blanket and everybody's assessing him now because we don't know the extent of his injuries. I get whisked up there and then I get to see him finally, and he looks awful. He looks awful. So I'm, of course now calling my family with FaceTime so everyone can talk to him because we don't know if he's going to wake up. We don't know if they're going to make it in time. So I'm getting everybody an opportunity to talk into his little ear, you know, and so my mom, my dad. But of course not Eva, because that would have been too much for her. But thankfully, everything went really well. And all the wonderful doctors at Renown Hospital in Reno, Nevada, were absolutely incredible, you know, to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. 36 broken bones.
- [36:10]
C
Yeah.
- [36:11]
A
Yeah.
- [36:13]
C
This must hang with you in a big way. You said you changed.
- [36:17]
A
Yeah.
- [36:19]
C
How have you changed? How has it changed you?
- [36:22]
A
Well, for a long time, I didn't have any ability to have feelings. I was a bit of a robot. It was. It was hard to get out of fix it mode, you know, Like, I was always, like, problem solving and advocating and troubleshooting, like, with the doctors and all of his surgeries after, and, you know, like his. His after care. He also, you know, know, really struggled mentally with the injuries and the pain, like, there. That was a big ordeal, you know, for him. But he was always determined that there was a reason, right, that he came back because, you know, he recalls, you know, dying on the ice and what that experience is like, and having that to be able to bring back and do something really good. Which, of course, is why he elevated his timelines to opening the foundation. He's like, life's too short and we don't know how long we have, and we've got to help these kids. It was like six months after the accident. He's still barely walking, and he has his first community event telling people that what he wants to do.
- [37:40]
C
And had you two decided you were doing this together at that point? I mean, that part of it already come together? Or was it more conceptual? Because you were probably still looking at your brother, wondering if he was going to be able to walk again, if he was the same person again.
- [37:55]
A
I didn't know about these community events at all. I was not aware of the things that he was necessarily kind of putting out in the world in those first couple of months. And then, you know, he comes to let me know, like, hey, we're gonna do this thing for Christmas, and I'm gonna need you there. And I'm like, oh, what's going on? What are we doing? Well, you know, we're gonna invite all these foster kids up, we're gonna launch this thing, and I need you front center on this. And I'm like, wait, what, wait, what are we doing? How. Has anybody here yet? Like, what are you doing? You know, and he. He was in his recovery mode, and he was in a lot of pain back then. He. His pain has subsided because he does really great, like, alternative treatments. He does a lot of peptides and a lot of therapy, a lot of exercising. Like, he says his job now is his body is to keep his body moving, keep his body lubricated to keep it healthy, because it's the only thing that he has that he can, you know, really have control over. Right. So he spends a lot of time, you know, just kind of taking care of himself and self care and. But I will say something like that messes with your head. It really does. And, you know, kind of affects all of us. So we. We've had a really an amazing growth as a family unit. Like, we've come together in a much closer way. And for that I just think, okay, well, there's wonderful outcomes then from something so tragic that we won't take for granted.
- [39:41]
C
So he's making these public announcements and he says, hey, you need to come in Essentially to run this thing or to be the center post of it, because otherwise, you know, the tent doesn't rise without that, that kind of figure in this whole thing.
- [39:54]
A
Right.
- [39:55]
C
And so then take us from that to today as well as the vision for tomorrow. Because there's a lot that you were going through at that time in order to build an organization. There's a lot you go through to do that now. It's all on you. I mean, I know that he's your partner in all this and a lot of this was originally his vision, but it's your vision together now. What is that like? Because it sounds like the younger sister took on kind of a bigger role in this particular context. I mean, am I over reading?
- [40:30]
A
I actually think that, you know, part of that's like a symbiotic. Right. He's always been the older brother. And so maybe it was my turn to step in and you know, find, find my way to make sure his voice was heard. When he didn't have a voice, you know, his jaw was wired shut. His, you know, he was under the influence of, you know, being what, in a coma? I think. What is it, a medically induced coma, whatever that is. He was on all kinds of pain medication and I mean, for a while, especially like his second week in the hospital, like he wasn't sleeping for two, three days at a time. And so he was in this like, had to have been like a psychosis of lack of sleep. So we like, you know, put an army guard. I'm just kidding. It was, it was our, my brother in law, but put our, put our family guard at the front door of his hospital room is like, nobody's coming in. You don't need to take his, his blood pressure tonight. You don't need to check anything. It's 2 in the morning. Let him sleep, you know, and, and it's just like, I think something that you just do, like it came natural for me. And it's also just in my nature to just jump in and, you know, kind of take care of stuff and make it happen, you know.
- [41:49]
B
Yeah.
- [41:49]
C
And so then with the organization, was it the same? I mean, what, what are you, what, what have you built since that time? And where are you going with it?
- [41:59]
A
Yeah. So we started at the beginning of 2024. We had one employee, we had some seed money, and we're like gonna run a camp in the summer and we're gonna have 100 foster youth come to this overnight summer camp for a week.
- [42:16]
B
Yeah.
- [42:17]
A
And so we did everything we needed to do to make that happen. We learned along the way. We learned lessons and, you know, we thought, let's go do a big fundraiser in Vegas and try to make some money and, you know, make a splash. And we ended up not doing so well with that fundraiser. It's like, oh, kick me in the belly. It's like, okay. Our first year was, you know, a bit of trial by fire, but we've. We found our feet. You know, we did a really great job in 2025. We've delivered two summer camps to kids, tons of tangible support to foster parents. We do Christmas events. We now have a home housing project where we support the housing and the services and the needs of foster youth that are aging out of the system and they're on their own and trying to help them learn how to become adults. So that program launched. We have four young people in apartments, and we're hoping to grow, to get more. We've been working quite a bit with the local community, with other foster youth and caregiving communities to raise funds and raise awareness to what we're doing and some of our really cool national partners. Now we're thinking we could really scale our housing model and bring that to other communities. Because transition age youth is, what we call it, 16 to 24. Such a vulnerable time if we don't get in and support them because they have no one. Right?
- [43:50]
C
Yeah. Talk about that a bit. Because people who aren't aware of the foster care system and particularly what it's like for those youth in transition, the people who are aging out of the system is kind of an old, horrible expression for it, but they may not have any place to go. Right?
- [44:07]
A
Right. What I try to say to people is when you went to your high school graduation and you put your clothes on, your cap and gown, you even had like, a little rehearsal, right? And you went. You knew your name was going to get called, and then there would be somebody out there. Imagine now walking the stage and not one person is clapping for you. Nobody is out there waiting to come and see your diploma afterwards. You are basically going through the motions with your own diploma, and the only person you really have to show is yourself. That's real. That's heavy. I say foster youth don't have a network when they age out, if they weren't adopted, if they aren't with, you know, like, the lucky ones, to be with a really great foster family. That's saying, you can stay with us no matter even if the money's ended. But the money ends at 18. But kids aren't grown at 18. How many of us knew at 18 how to go get your first car or how to get your first apartment or how to get a job or where to apply to college all on
- [45:14]
C
your own and all at once.
- [45:17]
A
All at once. It shouldn't be a cliff, right? It should not be a cliff.
- [45:23]
C
Right.
- [45:24]
A
And that's a bit of the struggle with the system, is there are some jurisdictions in America that have recognized kids need more time. They call it extended foster care. So some kids are able to receive like a stipend, but the stipend is like sometimes $500, sometimes $1,000 a month. But it doesn't come with housing, it doesn't come with a job. It doesn't come with, hey, don't go blow that all on video games, coaching and guiding and mentorship. There are some jurisdictions that also will take these youth and actually provide housing, and LA county is one of them. In fact, California does a really great job at this. They've tons and tons of really profound research went into how much you are preventing future concerns by taking care of those pivotal years. Future concerns like drug abuse. Right. Homelessness. These kids are very vulnerable to sex trafficking, gangs. Right. They're looking for a community and a family because they're lost and they don't know where to go. So we can shore up some of those, you know, vulnerabilities in their life. Their opportunities to be successful as an adult are profoundly impacted. And so I really loved the model that we have in LA and said, why don't we do that in Reno and let's start it in Nevada where they don't have it. And that's what our pave your way model is. It's independent apartment housing where they can live on their own with lots of bubble wrap around them.
- [47:04]
C
And you were saying that you're getting expressions of interest from other organizations, I guess, around the country, not just government, but. But organizations who might be able to deploy these in the same way that there are other charities, national charities, that have, I guess, chapters.
- [47:18]
A
Right.
- [47:18]
C
And so what is that conversation like? Do you see more than an opportunity here to actually make this possible for foster kids, foster youth all across the country? There are so many. I mean, I don't know if you have an idea of the scope. I don't have that number in my head, but it's quite large.
- [47:39]
A
Yeah, there's just under 400,000 foster youth in America. And of course that number fluctuates, but that's about an average number. You know that if you just kind of try to sink your teeth into that. That's almost a half a million children that are living with a system as their parents rather than people, rather than. Rather than their parents as their parents. And sometimes, you know, like, decisions, difficult decisions are made to remove a child from their parents to ensure the safety. Right.
- [48:13]
B
And that.
- [48:14]
A
That really should be the ultimate goal, is to ensure safety. The ultimate way to do that is to build up a family and keep that family together by building that family up. But when it's not safe to do so, or when opportunities, you know, really don't allow for that to occur, then a child has to enter foster care and the system has to step in. So what I say is, why don't we ensure that the system has all the tools that it needs and the community comes together to fill in the gaps so that a child is receiving a childhood.
- [48:51]
C
Right. And somebody's there to applaud them on graduation day.
- [48:57]
A
Yes. Or share the soccer goals. Right. Or the basketball. Those aren't goals. What are those points? Basketball. Sorry, bad analogy. If I didn't know how to score. Yeah. Like, they need the cheerleader. They need that lifelong connection, that positive adult in their life.
- [49:20]
C
Right. So you've described kind of a. What do you imagine in terms of being able to spread this message out? It must require more support than you've been able to get to date. So do you have, like, a plan in mind for, you know, essentially more fundraising activity or growth of the board, or. What do you imagine is going to be the secret to being able to really make sure that this pilot that you've done successfully is available everywhere?
- [49:53]
A
I think that we. We have to find and ensure we have sustainable funding. And that really does take a community. You know, we currently, right now, fundraise, you know, through, like, private foundations and corporate grants and corporate sponsorships, and we haven't yet been able to really find a federal or state revenue stream. But I think what. What we need to do is, you know, really lock in a sustainable funding so this lives forever because this is what is needed to fill the gaps. Right. That. That every young person that is exiting foster care through no fault of their own should have the same opportunities as any other kid to launch into adulthood. You know, have somebody teach them how to keep a house clean and how often should you shower and, you know, what kind of friends should you invite over and should you have your own rules? You know, just life skills. Right. Those. Those really important life skills. And it shouldn't take them another decade of bad decisions to learn the hard way. And a lot of time that decade of bad decisions might be the wrong, bad decision that takes their life in a permanent wrong direction. So sustainable funding is, is critical. And then, of course, the scalability of this model is, I mean, I think, really, really kind of an easy lift. The way that we refined it, we're still refining it even a bit more, but it's an easy lift. It's easy to understand once, once people understand this population, because it's, it's, it's, it seems like it should be the right of any young person that is brought into this world to not only have a childhood, but also to be able to go in to an adulthood situation and kind of decide what they want to do with their lives. It doesn't mean they need a silver spoon. Right? You don't have to have every privilege that every family has, but you got to at least have a level playing field. And that's what we're trying to write is all those wrongs.
- [52:14]
C
I got to ask you how you're doing at this point. You've had a lot of things happen in a short amount of time, and you've built this really extraordinary thing together. And I know you have bigger dreams for it than you've already achieved, but how are you doing?
- [52:30]
A
I think I'm doing pretty good. I'm living the dream. I'm doing the things I love to do. I feel like I'm making an impact. And then once in a while, I get to go and play golf with my friends, which I love to do, and enjoy the sun and get to see my kids grow up. I think my life is good. I really love doing this with my brother. I really do. He's. He's fun to, to do this with. He's, you know, him and I have little different brains, so his creative brain and my, like, execution brain, I think blend really well together. And for that, I feel super honored that I get to do it. As long as, you know, we feel like we can and, I don't know, it's great to be me, I think.
- [53:23]
B
Well, that's it for this episode of the PM Podcast. You can learn more about Kim's work with renovation foundation@renovationfoundation.org Our thanks to our sponsor, Evertrue, the leader in donor engagement and fundraising intelligence, helping nonprofits find, engage and inspire their supporters. Our producer is Jack Frost, and our theme music is Moving Out, Moving in by Jay Taylor provided courtesy of Epidemic Sound. If you found this conversation valuable, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And don't forget to check out our sister shows, Front Lines of Social Good and How to Raise. All part of the Philanthropy Mastermind series. Until next time. I'm Jay Frost.
- [54:05]
C
Thanks for joining me.