The QBS Express

QBS_Ep30_RinnJohnsonMader
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Scott Heidner: [00:00:00] Welcome listeners to the ACEC Kansas podcast the QBS Express I'm your host the executive director of ACEC Scott Heidner, and I have got a Very unique show for you today. Normally we are talking about Everything from clients to public policy to what have you but today is a lot more personal and I think maybe celebratory really of what ACEC members are and do.

~I'm going to introduce my guests or ask my guests to introduce themselves to you here in a moment, but ~I'm going to start off. With a little background on how we got to today, today's topic is roughly all the good in the world that our ACEC community is doing, specifically, you know, overseas projects, impoverished communities, that kind of thing.

Several ACEC Kansas members [00:01:00] were at the ~event. ~ACEC National Conference in DC this year and heard from Justin Wren. Justin was ~a, like ~a mixed martial arts fighter ~and one of, ~of a fairly high level of success. His career was going well. But his personal life, not so much. And he kind of had an epiphany and rededicated his life to working with impoverished communities to provide clean drinking water.

And it was a powerful, powerful story and presentation. And we were all talking about it after and you know, somebody remarked, well, ~you know, ~we've got people right in our ACEC Kansas community that are doing extraordinary things. ~Like that, ~and before long, we all thought, well, why don't we get them on a podcast and celebrate that?

So that brings us to where we are today. ~And, and goodness knows, ~ACEC Kansas has, ~you know, ~numerous people that would be worthy and eligible to come on and talk [00:02:00] about what they do. But gentlemen, I will say uh, uh, no good deed goes unpunished. Your names rose fairly quickly to ~the ~the top of the suggestion list of who we might want to have.

So with that I'm going to ask you all before we get in to the philanthropy that you do in your organizations, just to tell your own story briefly to our listeners. And then we'll dive into the substance. Jerry, you want to go first?

Jerry Johnson: Sure. I'd love to, Scott. My name is Jerry Johnson. I grew up in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

My dad was an engineer, so that's how I became an engineer. ~And following in his footsteps~ I grew up with three brothers. And went to KU for my undergraduate degree where I met my wife, who gave us two sons and five grandkids. All the grandkids are in the metro area, so, besides what I do on the golf course and for Agua Viva, I do for the grandkids, and it's a wonderful life.

I started my career at AC Kirkwood Associates [00:03:00] with a gentleman Tom Kirkwood. Who was very involved with ACEC, both on the Kansas and Missouri sides, ~and, ~and a mentor to me. AC Kirkwood merged with Schaefer, Kline, and Warren. So, I can proudly say, I only had one employer from 1972 to 2015.

So, in excess of 45 years and very blessed. And that is my career journey. I did not mention though, that I did get a master's degree from MU. And a lot of people give me some static for that. So, with that, that's my life story.

Scott Heidner: 45 years with one company. That is extraordinary. ~Not~ not many can make that claim.

Jerry Johnson: And 54 with the same wife.

Scott Heidner: I will not speculate on which one is more impressive or more rare. Both are mighty impressive. Thank you, Scott. That's amazing. ~Yeah, I had this has nothing to do with today's podcast, but I have another client that who shares with me out, it's not ACEC, that his, the gentleman that hired him and mentored him said the best advice I can ever give you is this one spouse, one house, one job.~

~He's like, if you can do that for your career, you will be. You'll be happy and successful. ~Curt, why don't you go next?

Curt Mader: Oh, hi, thanks, [00:04:00] Scott. Curt Mader. I'm currently employed with Alfred Binnish. ~And my, I guess where I, ~I moved up to Kansas city in 1964, born in Oklahoma and came up in 64 ~and, ~and have been a lifelong resident ~of ~of Kansas City area all my life.

~And all, ~Unlike my other brothers, they all Went East my other three brothers I guess ~the, ~the thing that got me, ~you know, ~into engineering was my dad. My dad was a mechanical draftsman ~and and he grew up ~and I grew up on a drafting board ~and, and and, ~and when I was getting ready to get out of high school, he told me I was going to be an engineer.

And I said, what's that? And he goes, you're going to be an electrical engineer. And I said, what's that? So I went over to Mizzou in 78, and I went over there with the goal of trying to make a baseball team and realized real quick that there are a lot of better baseball players than me. So I ended up coming home and I ended up going to UMKC and spent, you know, struggled through that and finally got through that.

And then once I got out of that, ~I went to, ~I went to work for the Missouri highway department and their construction side, just Building bridges in [00:05:00] downtown Kansas City. A couple of older gentlemen that I worked with on a daily basis, inspectors, Burt Walters, Mac Powell. ~They ~they showed me the ropes and, and they're some of the best people ever had in my career, those, those inspection guys.

~And, ~And then after that, I ended up going to work for JBM. Johnson Brickell Mulcahy and Associates, ~which, ~which is now Trans Systems, which they merged with Boyd, Brown, Studi, and Cameron back in 94, 95. And then I spent, ~you know, ~13 and a half years with them. ~And then ~then I moved on and went to work for Olson ~and, ~and I spent~ two ~20 years with Olsen, all these years just being in the construction side.

Never been in the design side, but the construction side. And then three years ago, an opportunity came up with Binnish to work on ~the system. ~The New Kansas City Streetcar Extension Project. So I have been involved in that for the last three years. And~ and so, yeah, and, and that's, ~that's my career ~for my dad.~

I wouldn't be where I'm at right now. That's awesome.

Scott Heidner: That's [00:06:00] very cool. I didn't, Jerry, I didn't mention it when you started it, but my dad was a PE also, and I didn't follow and actually become a PE, but~ it's, yeah, it's, ~It's amazing the influence they have and how you wind up.

Jerry Johnson: And talking about that, Scott, ~I did not mention, but ~my son, one of my sons is an engineer at Kiewit.

Scott Heidner: How cool is that? Curt, you didn't mention his name, but I'll bet you a nickel. He was an influence on you. It's amazing when I talked to folks in the industry. You mentioned being a JBM, Ed Mulcahy is when we talk about who influenced your career God bless him. That man's name comes up.

Curt Mader: He, he just encouraged you no matter what.

He was such an encourager.

Scott Heidner: He made everybody better. Yes. ~And, ~and focused on making everybody great. Well,

Jerry Johnson: Ed, Ted and Jack were all solid. Yeah. That whole group.

Scott Heidner: Well, Mr. Williams, how about you, sir?

Mark Williams: All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate being here and being in this esteemed group of people. It's interesting hearing your stories, how [00:07:00] much we actually have in common.

~You, ~You mentioned going to college to play baseball. That's why I ended up at Kansas State, same type of deal and soon realized after eight weeks that I couldn't hit a slider and ~So I ~had to focus on engineering. ~So, but yeah ~how did I get to engineering? Grew up in Western Kansas out in Garden City.

And uh, you know, it's quasi embarrassing story, but I can laugh, look back and laugh, but basically I,~ I, I, ~couldn't comprehend~ you know, ~stories I read in the English language. So I tested very poorly in the ACT when it came to English and social. But the math and science, I scored very well. And counselor basically looked at the results and said, you need to be an engineer, Mark.

And ~like, ~like you, I was like, what is an engineer? ~I'm not, ~I'm not out to drive trains, but I want to play baseball. And anyway, ~so ~ended up going to Kansas State and get my degree in civil engineering there. And went on into the [00:08:00] aviation civil side was a construction engineer for the first five years with Bucher, Willis, and Ratliff, which is now owned by Lochner.

And then from there went my wife and I, ~who you, ~who I met in college, we had kids and I needed to get off the road ~and, ~and be home for a couple of years. Our daughter, well, she's still our daughter, but our daughter at the time. And so I went to work for HNTB and 15 years in their aviation design world, and I think that's where~ you know, ~a gentleman by the name of Chris Price was a big influence on me and really got me involved in KSPE and ACEC while I was there.

Was privileged and honored to be state president of KSPE at one point. Ironically, it was when I was the KSP president that an opportunity to open an office for Garver here in Kansas City was presented. So I opened Garver's offices. [00:09:00] And yeah, that was just something I knew I could never do working for a company like HNTB.

~You're just starting something from scratch, you know. ~The first day on the job was go find a place to work and buy office supplies. And so that was a unique experience that I enjoyed. And then after 10 years there and basically the majority of that being spent on the new Kansas City International Airport, ~it was ~It was time to take a little break from the engineering side, so Burns Mac offered me the opportunity to be business development.

So, I get to go out and sell the good things that we as engineers do to the clients that we have around the country for Burns McDonald.

Scott Heidner: Very cool. And I know you didn't intend it, but what a perfect segue when you talk about selling the great things engineers do, because that'll get us into the heart of the podcast and why we're here today.

Folks, ~we're, ~we're here today to talk about and recognize and celebrate all that the engineering community gives back. And the three of you have done that not only at a high [00:10:00] level, but ~at an, ~at an organizational level. You know, it's not just showing up here or there, but being part of an organization that does this very intentionally.

Next question, I'd love to give readers just the thumbnail, the short sketch of how you got into the philanthropy world. ~Be, you know, did you have a role model? ~What led you to it? And then after that we'll get a little bit into the organizations themselves. Curt, you wanna go first?

Curt Mader: Sure. Well, for me, ~it ~it all kind of happened in 2002~ through, ~through somebody.

I recognized that Colonial Presbyterian Church here in Kansas City, and I was just started working for Olson at 85th and State Line. I saw him in a parking lot one day and I introduced myself to him. And, ~and he, ~you know, we continued to talk at church at times, and he asked me if I wanted to be in an ACECountability group.

And I thought, what? ~And and, ~but as time went on, I said, yes. ~And, and ~when that happened, a lot of things started happening. Jim~ he ~right after that he went down during Hurricane Katrina and [00:11:00] met a guy by the name of Jeff Rommel. ~And and ~Then we all three started meeting together, and ~then ~he ended up going in 2007 on a missions trip with Colonial Prez into Cantel, Guatemala, at a school there that's Clay Hill Mark, ~and and ~he was there with a team of dentists and doctors, and there was one doctor there, Bruce Fitzy, that made Jim goes, well, what's wrong with all these kids down here, what's going on? He goes, Jim, they're all sick because of the water they drink. ~And and, ~and the light bulb went on in his head. ~And, and ~and Jim's a pretty good leader. ~I'm a, ~I'm more of a follower, but he came back to our group and said, Hey, there's a problem. Do we want to solve it?

~And ~how can we solve it? ~And and so ~that was in about 2007, 2008, we explored ~this, ~this treatment system, which we just looked at a little bit ago. ~And it came, ~it was put together by an organization called Living Waters for the World. ~And so ~we keyed in on that particular system. It's a filtration, ozonation disinfecting and bottling system.

So we worked. We [00:12:00] did that and then we worked on a contract to get a well driller in. We worked with a guy by the name of Ruben Nogueira who was with KDOT at the time. And he's a Guatemalan. He splits his time between Kansas City and Guatemala. And helped us work on a drilling contract with a drilling contractor in Guatemala.

To drill the well and to get the piping set up to go into a room that we were going to make the bottling room and, ~and and that's ~you know, that was in 2009. We did that first installation ~and, and And ~and then after that, ~it's just, ~it kind of just took off. ~There was Jim, ~Jim Allen, again, he was on an airplane ~in, in ~in 2010.

He was working down at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, got ~on, ~on an airplane ~and sat and, ~and traded seats with a husband and wife so they could sit together. ~And ~he sat down next to a lady called Maritza Yanez and she was on Fulbright at KU. ~At the time, and, and ~she lived in Rio Bamba, Ecuador, and, ~and and so she ~she was doing a water, of all things, working on a water [00:13:00] treatment system, as a Fulbright at KU, and that clicked, and that's what then got us into Ecuador in 2012, and so, you know, that's kind of where ~this, ~this whole thing started for me, ~is like we, ~and ~then it was, ~then we caught fire and just, you know, Ran strong for 10 years.

Scott Heidner: ~And ~Isn't it amazing? ~It's so, it's common and yet ~it's extraordinary, you know, changing seats on a plane, sitting next to a Fulbright scholar~ the, ~the ways it comes to fruition ~are, ~are pretty magical. Well, Mark, what about you?

Mark Williams: Looking back on, ~you know, ~I could say first and foremost, my parents, ~you know, I, you know, ~it's hindsight's always 20, 20, the things that they drug me ~to ~to, that were volunteer activities that ~I, ~I hated to go, ~you know, ~but ~they, ~they obviously planted a seed that~ didn't, ~didn't start to germinate till I was much older.

And ~and, you know, ~my involvement, ~I give them a ~I gotta give my credit, credit to my daughter. She she basically volun It's one of those, I guess I was voluntold for the ~first, ~first time when I was [00:14:00] invited to go on a mission trip~ through, ~through our church that we attend and ~and that, ~that first trip was to Chicago and~ you know, I, ~I kinda caught the bug and, ~you know, ~an ironic situation was at was when I, it was when I just transitioned to Garber from HNTB. So I mentioned about, you know, starting something from scratch. Well, at least one benefit at the time was, ~you know, you know, you guys know what it's like. ~You, we get, deep into projects and it just seems like there's no time for extracurricular activities.

I was blessed, you know, that it was easy to say yes ~that, ~that summer because just, you know, I was three months at Garber. Your work doesn't just magically appear as much as we like it to hope. ~And so, so that, that kind of kicked me off and ~And then it was two years later sitting in church one day, and Callie my daughter, gets up and walks out, and obviously I wasn't paying attention to what was being said in church, ~so, ~but she comes back and she's like, I just signed us up to go to Honduras, and I was like, okay.[00:15:00]

How old was Callie at the time? She would have been about 15 or so. ~And so yeah, that that started it all about. Yeah, I guess she'd have been 17. ~This was the year 10 for me going down there. So, she's 27 now.

Scott Heidner: Isn't it interesting how you know, a lot of times you get brought into this, or whatever you're passionate about, from a top down, you know, somebody senior and experienced and involved recruits you.

Sometimes it's bottom up. ~Yeah. Yeah. Your own daughter, that's pretty cool. Yeah. That's awesome. ~Yeah. Well, Jerry, oh, Jerry, what about you, sir?

Jerry Johnson: Well, like Mark, and also Curt, you know, parents shape a lot, but then all of a sudden work gets in the way, family gets in the way, and so I was really a late bloomer with regard to Totally outside service, mission oriented type trips, abroad type trips.

But where I first found out about Agua Viva is one of my passions is mountain hiking. And I've hiked a lot of the [00:16:00] 14ers in Colorado. ~And ~Jim Allen, the founder with Curt of Agua Viva, put out an email back in 20, oh I'm going to say maybe 2014, something like that, to the Minicolonial Mountain Group, because he had gone to Ecuador to look for potential sites to build water systems.

And one of the persons he took could not stand the elevation and got sick. And they had to send him back. And that does not stop Jim from building water systems, he just needs to get new people. So, he put out a feeler to the menoclonial. And I saw it, and I had no idea who Jim Allen was, but two of my hiking buddies said, you know, I think I'd like to do that.

So they started volunteering their time for Agua Viva, and I stayed [00:17:00] back in the wings. And watched, and watched, and I said, you know what they're doing is really cool. I want to be a part of that. So in 2016, Curt Mader took me to Pomachaca, Ecuador, and we had a great time.

Curt Mader: Yeah.

Jerry Johnson: Yeah. ~It was. ~It was a great time.

Very fulfilling. ~The, ~the people are just awesome. But what we do is we provide purified water systems. And there's a lot of people that need purified water systems. So that's my introduction. I'll talk about Agua Viva later, but I've had 18 trips since 2016 abroad to Guatemala, Honduras, and Ecuador.

And everyone, I come back. Refreshed and ready to go for the next one.

Scott Heidner: Well, you say we'll talk about it later. Why don't we just talk about it now? You know, maybe the most important part of the whole podcast, we're going to get to in a minute, which is, [00:18:00] I'm going to ask you kind of the last. Real substantive question, but the most important one is what impact has this made on the lives of people in those communities?

But before we get to that, Jerry, you crack the seal on this. Tell us about the organizations for which you work and volunteer. Give us the brief on what their mission is. You know, some folks are focused on water, some on buildings, some on whatever and the parts of the world ~that. ~That they do that work in.

You just covered some of that, Jerry, but go ahead. And between Jerry and Curt, ~Jerry, do you, because I know you guys are involved in the same organization, Jerry, ~do you want to do the Agua Viva debrief and then Mark we'll come to you?

Jerry Johnson: Sure. Agua Viva International our mission is to create partnerships to provide purified water for communities in need.

~It's very simple. ~We do that by offering a water purification system that combines filtration and ozone for disinfection and provides drinking water. Right now, 1 in 3 people in the world do not [00:19:00] have access to drinking water. ~Restricted, limited access. ~

Curt Mader: Clean drinking water.

Jerry Johnson: Well, ~yeah. ~Yeah. A little less than 500, 000 kids younger than 5 die each year because of water and malnutrition.

So, we are a small organization, but we are doing our part to try to turn those numbers around a little bit, and certainly 100 percent in the communities that we serve. We have been doing this, as Curt said, our first install was 2009. This year we, we've installed 48 and by the end of the year we should be up around 51.

So, ~what, ~what is so satisfying is, the engineering aspect does hit what we do. You know, we do a pumped system, we do a gravity system, we do filtration, we do ozone, and we manage the system, but then we [00:20:00] become teachers of how to operate the system for the communities that we serve. And a big part of what we do is an education program, because people don't know how to use clean water as a precious commodity.

You know, ~don't, ~don't put it out for the dogs, don't water the plants, because this is what you drink, this is what you brush your teeth with, this is what you cook with, this is anything that you do with a baby, you use this. Everything else, use other water. after Curt retired, ~he, ~he allowed me to be the CEO, and as I was telling Mark earlier, growth is good in an organization, and you gotta have the first one, the second one, the third one, and then you start multiplying.

Your donor base gets bigger, your volunteer base gets bigger, but what also happens ~is ~is our name is out there in those communities and [00:21:00] we are getting bigger because there's other communities that say, we want a purified water system too. Come visit us. So, it's a good thing that we are growing. It's still a bad thing that there's a lot of restricted access to water out there, but we want growth so that we can serve where we can.

Scott Heidner: No matter how big you get, you never overcome the need. ~Yeah, yeah. Correct. Yeah. ~Mark, what about you and your organization?

Mark Williams: Yeah. So, I've been serving in Honduras through the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection since 2016. ~We, ~We sponsor two churches in Honduras, one in Ciudad España, but community that I serve is in El Abraje.

And, a proud recipient of a Aquavita water system. So, I've actually helped deliver some of ~their, ~their byproduct around the community. So it's a wonderful village that's benefiting by the work of these two. [00:22:00] I'm a civil engineer, like all of us sitting around the table here, so I just go down and ~I ~do construction, ~you know, ~serve those with the skills that I've been given, a little bit of engineering talent goes into it.

But it's basically to commute improve the quality of life ~in, ~in small ways. I mean, if we dig a ditch ~and, ~and put in a, a concrete line ditch, it's to prevent runoff going through somebody's home that for years has done that. We're intercepting storm water flow or. Last few years, we've been building what they call PILAs, which are water basins, about 3 foot wide, 6 foot long, 4 foot tall, ~to, ~for them to be able to store, you know, not the Aquavita water, but their natural water for just cleaning bathing small children if they need to it's just for them.

You know, hygiene really, but as you get, these guys are [00:23:00] aware in that area. If you know, you can be cleaner, you can be healthier ~in, ~in one small way. And so, so yeah, most, you know, as mentioned before, I put in concrete floors in people's homes, you know, that had a dirt floor, you know, once again, prove quality of life, ~their, ~their lung issues, ~you know, ~improve when you're not walking around on a dusty floor.

Computer Lab, we've built a computer lab at a school which has helped, you know, just, A, the learning, the academics, but also actually just help them connect to the world a little bit and improve their learning, so. A lot of projects throughout the years it's just been a blast. You know, I it's all done by hand.

And these guys know it too. We mix concrete by hand. It's a shovel at a time. Maybe some days we get a five gallon bucket. Some days we get a wheelbarrow. And so you just do what you can with the materials you can. ~And share a story. ~I got a shout out to [00:24:00] my 2021 team, which would I was able to recruit a lot of our engineering brethren from here in the Kansas City area, and it was right after COVID, so a lot of people were hesitant to travel international, but a lot of engineers stepped up that year, and the one thing I had to tell them was like, just, we gotta ~put, ~put behind ~the, ~the standards that we have here in Kansas ~and, ~and in Missouri, and~ they, ~they do things different there it's the same basic principles of concrete, you know, sand, gravel, water, cement, but it's, Just not to our, ~the ~quality.

And so just bite your tongue, go with the flow. And and probably gentlemen, we all know Todd Lattarello with the Concrete Pavers Association. Probably he struggled with that for a little bit. You know, we got through the first day and then he, he learned that, yeah, we weren't going to do slump, slump tests and air tests.

And Some of the, there's no gradations in the rock. We just, we just go with the flow. So

Scott Heidner: I really, really hope Todd [00:25:00] ends up listening to this podcast.

Oh, well, that's awesome. That's very cool. Well, let me change gears, this is the question that I've been most excited to ask all along and really it's the, it's the wow of the whole thing, at least it is for me. So we've talked about, you know, how you got here, we've talked about your organizations, we've talked about the mission, we've talked about the type of, you know, infrastructure projects you work on.

Tell me all of that, for me at least, leads up to this. Tell me about the impact you've seen. You know, whether it's, you know, a community that ~You know, ~couldn't even get people to go to school because their health was so bad. And now by fixing their drinking water, they're thriving or whether it was you know, you mentioned, ~you know, ~crops failing for whatever reason, and just by relining a ditch.

I mean, the impact, you guys see this in all your projects. I mean, those are just examples I made [00:26:00] up. Tell me, A story or a couple of stories that you see that just impact you and touch your heart and those moments, because I know you all have them where you're like, if nothing else ever happened, this is why I do this right here.

Like this sustained me for the next five trips, you know, just seeing this~ Mark, you want to go, I know we were just with you, but you want to go first on this one?~

Mark Williams: Yeah,

~You know, the, you know, I, ~the most tangible thing that it's easy to say is ~like ~when ~you've, ~you've built ~some, ~something in a person's home ~and, ~and then you walk by it the next year you go back and ~you just, you know, ~See, ~you know, ~the joy, ~you know, ~when ~they, ~they recognize the face and hopefully remember a name.

You know, and I talked about this home that we're basically, stormwater was just running, running through their yard ~where, you know, you know, ~when I first went there in 2016, that was basically pallets with some corrugated metal, all kind of like a lean to, basically. This year when I went back, I mean, [00:27:00] they've been able to improve their property and therefore their quality of life where it's a cinder block home, it's got a real nice fence around it now, that was impressive~ and ~And you could just see the families thriving, ~you know, ~their quality of life.

In essence, we kind of Just from just digging a, I don't know, 150 foot of ditch and which for those that aren't aware, that's not the easiest thing to do in Honduras. It's a lot of big boulders, mountainous country, but yeah, ~they're, they're, ~they're, it's going from blight to, you know, I want gentrified's the closest term I can come.

It's not, but it's just an improved. And ~But you know, the, the, ~quite honestly though, the thing that and I, I'm living in that, I was just telling this story yesterday, like I'm still living in the euphoria from coming back about a month ago from Honduras. ~And, ~and I don't know, ~I, ~I'm sure these gentlemen know the exact same thing, right?

It's the bigger change is in me. You know, you can see the improvements you made, [00:28:00] but it's just You don't, I don't sweat the small things anymore. ~You, ~you see how happy people are with nothing, or very little, except a family. ~And you ~and that's what ~I, ~I was telling ~the, ~some friends I was visiting with about this yesterday.

It's like, The best part about going back multiple times is that euphoria lasts longer. Where the first time I went, maybe it's after a month that wore off. And you know, I'm just hoping I can go enough to where that euphoria lasts the whole 12 months between trips, but I'm not there yet, ~but ~but that, I think that's the greatest thing.

And then just building relationships. ~I I'm lucky. ~I go to the same place every year. So 10 years, ~I've, ~I've been there. ~You know, ~The ~first little, you know, ~first day on a construction site, ~we had a, you know, there, ~people walk around, especially the kids, ~just, you know, you guys know it too, right, they're, if they're supposed to be in school, they're out of school, or, you know, when, ~when the white people come to town, it's kind of like a rock star showing up, and they all want to see us, ~and, but ~a little boy named Memphis, he was three years old at the time, ~you know, ~and ~this, ~this year I'm back, and he's, ~you 12 year, you know, ~12 going on 13 and in 7th grade, ~you know, and it's, and ~I can show him the pictures of every year, how [00:29:00] he's grown and, and my wife was with me on this trip and ~she's, ~she actually sat down with his mom and showed him pictures of him ~through the, ~and she was like, ~we don't, ~we don't have pictures of him, ~you know.~

Cell phones in Ella Brahe weren't a thing in 2016 and so just being able to show her. The evolution of her own son and memories. So ~we, ~we worked through a common friend that we all have and named Rigo to ~get, ~get the picture sent ~to, ~to her. ~So~

Scott Heidner: that's amazing. I think I will confess I was not ready for it.

Really struck me. The most powerful thing you said was got the, probably the biggest changes I see aren't in the community. They're in me. Wow. That is. Yeah, that's pretty powerful. Curt, what about you?

Curt Mader: I have to exactly say that because you go on these trips and you think, I'm going to go down there and I'm going to change somebody.

I'm going to change something. But what ends up happening is that [00:30:00] it changes you. And like I said, that euphoria that's there, that mountaintop feeling, right? It's, it's there. And it's just, just being around kids ~and, you know, and, and, ~and people just, and then going there so many times ~you, ~you know, that you're almost family, you know, ~you're, ~you're like family.

You know, some days you get asked to preach in church, so you can come up here and talk, and I'm going, oh gosh, okay, so, you know, you just gotta, you gotta be ready to do whatever you gotta do, but, you know, the Agua Viva system that Jerry has talked about, and I've talked about a little bit, you know, those, those will support a town or a community of a couple thousand people, but, you know, the impact But there is the children, primarily the children, because the children when they grow up in Guatemala and Ecuador, these are indigenous communities, and they don't have clean water to drink, but what they do drink is they drink coffee, their parents will make them coffee and they'll put lots of sugar in it, because at least it's boiled, [00:31:00] right?

And these kids ~end up, they ~end up, their teeth rot out because of the sugar. ~Err. Err. And, and, ~and so ~they you know, so, you know, ~they just need some clean water to drink, ~and you know, it, it, and, ~and one of the best impact things I, it was the very first trip we did ~at, ~at Callejo, Mark, in Cantuck, Guatemala, and ~you know, we ended up taking a we ended up taking a ~We got water fountains, like water fountains you see in a building donated to us.

~And, ~and when I talked earlier about ~the ~the contract we had for drilling, they also built ~this~ this row of sinks~ in, in the, ~in the play ~area in the court ~area outside the school and then covered it and and it gives the kids every day the kids come to school and they they brush their teeth there they they they can get clean water out of because of Jim Jim Allen developed it.

A pressurized system. ~So we took a prep, ~we had a pressure vessel on an airplane once ~and and, and and, ~and took that down there and Jim made all the controls for it. ~And, and, and ~the system ~itself ~feeds water into ~this, this, ~this pressurized vessel, and it delivers water to these outside fountains and drinking fountains.

~And, ~and just ~when we, ~when we did it, that install that day, just seeing children [00:32:00] just like. Look at this, I can go up to a drinking fountain, push a button and get a drink of clean water out of it. Just something that simple. ~And it's so, you know, it's just, you know, that's, that's what they do. ~That's what these systems do.

They, ~they, they're there to ~improve the lives of men and women, but particularly children who are in those developmental stages of life. And you know, ~that's what that's, ~that's what keeps me going.

Scott Heidner: That's awesome. That's very cool. Jerry, what about you?

Jerry Johnson: Again, ~with, ~with CURT and Agua Viva there's just immeasurable impacts, you know, not only individually, but what we're doing around the world.

Agua Viva serves Tanzania and Kenya. We have installations there Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras. ~Point out just a couple of things, you know, ~COVID really impacted everybody. But it also made us make adjustments on how we delivered our mission. We have always had translators transportation people in country to assist us.

And we have a good group. And they would be with [00:33:00] us year after year after year. And all of a sudden, the COVID hit, and we couldn't fulfill our mission because we couldn't travel. And we said, how do we do this? So we said, well, let's ask our translators and transportation people. If they thought they could build a system and provide the health and hygiene education.

And to a T in all five countries, they said, bring it on, that we can do it. So, we empowered people within that country to step up. And they stepped up to the plate. ~Yeah. ~So, that's one impact. We have teams in five different countries. That if we could get them materials, they'll build a system and they'll build it for a community of 2, 000 and we'll impact 2, 000 people.

~And that's, that's a win.~

Curt Mader: Yeah. That's a win

Jerry Johnson: ~win. ~A win and a wow moment.

Curt Mader: Can you [00:34:00] take the 48 systems, ~you know, ~times a couple thousand people and they're talking, the impact is, just gets larger every year.

Jerry Johnson: Yeah. ~Well, let me, oh, I'm sorry. So, yeah, let me so, so, ~so that's one another place, you know, the different impacts, most of.

Our clientele, if that's what you want to call them, schools, orphanages, churches. In orphanages, a good example is with the water systems, they could provide it to their kids within the school, their orphanage school, within the orphanage, within their dormitories. And what it does is it saves them.

Instead of buying multiple 5 gallon bottles, they're having it free. So that allows them to take that money that was being spent on buying purified water from a retailer [00:35:00] to put back into the kids program and in the orphanage program. So that's another win win for our systems. The last one that I'll tell ya, we had a guy, one of our volunteers went to a school as a stewardship.

We like to stay in touch with all of the systems that we install. And he went to a school in Guatemala. And with a straight face, this operator says, you know, we have a problem here at the school now. Because of your water system. And he says, what is the problem? He says, we have to build a bigger school because our kids are not sick anymore.

Scott Heidner: Oh, wow. Wow. That, well, there you go.

Jerry Johnson: There we go.

Scott Heidner: ~There's your, there's your, ~there's your reason and your wow and all the rest too. Well, ~that's, ~that's amazing stuff, gentlemen. It really is. Let me ask you, This is something that you have all mentioned in your other answers already, but I want to [00:36:00] focus on it just for a minute and we're in stretch run.

I've had you guys on the clock here for an hour already. But I get to see from my desk, working for the association, working for the AEC community, I get to see what you do. I mentioned earlier my dad was a P. E. I grew up in the AEC community, so I've been exposed my entire life to ~how ~Just how selfless and how virtuous, if I can use that word, I think the majority of the people in the community are.

All of which is just leading me to this question. I'd like to give each of you just a minute. ~I know what the answer is going to be, but let me phrase the question. I'd love to give each of you a minute to respond to the question. ~Do you think you're unique in the AEC community with your desire to give back?

Or does this just really reflect the culture and the character of the people in the AEC world? Curt, you want to go first?

Curt Mader: Yeah, ~I, for, ~for me, ~you know, as, ~as a construction ~person, as a ~person who builds [00:37:00] things and has for 40 years, right? You, you, you know, you, I, for, I, I'm a steward of people's money, right?

Public money's private money. Federal money. It's just people's money. And for me, ~it's, it's, you know, it's, ~it's a stewardship thing to be able to use money wisely on wise things ~and ~building stuff correctly and ~getting, ~getting your client what it needs. ~Right. And, and ~and for me, ~I think that kind of, ~that stewardship thing ~for me ~kind of leads into this.

I mean, ~I'm a, ~I'm a steward ~of, of, you know, ~of people's donations, right? ~And, and, and I, ~and it's up to me ~to, ~to use that and to effectively make change where I can, you know? ~And, ~And so ~it's, it's, ~it's unlike anything for me that I ever thought would ever happen to me. I don't know if I'm even really answering the question, but I

Scott Heidner: ~might ask you this again.~

I think the real thrust of the question is, do you think ~You know, ~you're unique~ you know, ~full cards on the table. I see this sort of giving mentality in this sort of ethical [00:38:00] way of life and decision making. I see it throughout the industry. ~You know, my, ~my point ~I think ~really is that it's not just a handful of you ~and Was going to give you all a chance to opine on whether or not, you know, you see that too.~

Is it~ you know, ~part of the culture, part of the ethos? ~Almost, ~

Curt Mader: I think it has been for, ~you know, ~the engineers ~who, who, ~who have, ~we've, who've ~gotten involved ~in, ~in what we do, you know. I don't know how many engineers we've taken with us on trips, ~but, ~but yeah, ~I think, ~I think that for me being an engineer, you ought to have that mindset.

Scott Heidner: Yeah. And you know, ~it goes, this is just my two cents here, but ~it goes beyond, well beyond, ~you know, ~actually putting yourself in a position to go on a mission trip or something very structural like that. ~I ~The quality and the care that our members take with making sure something is done right. And when I say something is done right, I don't just mean a public works project.

I mean ~the, ~the minutes from whatever committee they're chairing. I mean, it is part ~of the, ~of the culture. It's part of ~the, ~the mindset ~and, and. ~The virtue and the ethics, I mean, those are big words, but I think [00:39:00] they're appropriate of what I see in the AEC industry to take great care to do the job well and to benefit other people.

Now, ~now I've just given my own answer to the question I was trying to give to you. ~Mark, I'm going to come to you You know, you touched on this earlier when you said, Hey, it's during COVID and I need bodies to go down and it's not easy. It's unprecedented times. There's health risk. And who answers a call?

And you had 10 engineers. What, what's your reaction to my question? You know, do you think you guys are more unique or are you just sort of emblematic of the industry?

Mark Williams: I think we're emblematic. You know, we all take a. Oath, if you want to say that right, but you know, like, Engineer's Creed, right? It's serving the best interests of the public welfare and safety and you know, so, so we live that day in and day out.

Our jobs, the, we, everything we do is for the betterment of the public ~and ~I think we just take it from our professional [00:40:00] life to our personal life ~and ~and extend the definition of public to beyond our borders and to those that probably can't afford to pay the bill that need our help just as much as those in our community do.

So, yeah, and I think Engineers and I'm biased when I ~say this you know, cause but I know it's going to an engineering crowd. So I'm going to ~say this, but ~we're, ~we're better ~at, ~at leading teams ~and, and going down ~and solving these problems. First of all, because a lot of it's our education and our experience, ~we're, we're going down and using our strengths, ~but man, Everything, it never goes as planned.

Maybe, maybe these guys can say that, but it never goes as planned. ~And you, it's, ~it's like being a project manager. It's like, okay, ~we, you know, ~we didn't get this and now we go do this. ~And so, ~the engineering profession is very ~edgy or ~skilled ~at, at, ~at going down and doing this.

Scott Heidner: People will often.

And well, I say often when it comes up, you know, that I work for engineers and they say, Oh, what's that like? I describe them. The first term of art I always use is they are problem [00:41:00] solvers, you know, that's what they do. That's who they are. It's in the DNA. ~Is exactly that. ~Well, Jerry, what about you?

Jerry Johnson: Besides my participation during my career with KES, and ACEC Kansas, and MSPE, and I was fortunate enough to have run through the chairs of the Kansas City Chapter American Public Works Association which is a cross section of not only engineers, but construction people, and contractors, and sales, and everything.

But what I would say with regard to the engineers, And the groups, is if you look at all of the committees that are formed, there's a small percentage of committees that are actually technical based. A lot more are social based, and a lot more are giving back based. I mean, everybody has scholarship programs, that's giving back.

~You know, ~[00:42:00] Everybody maybe has a golf outing that raises money for a charitable cause. So, I think it's just in our metabolism that we are givers.

Scott Heidner: I couldn't agree more. I think that's well said. And you know, shamelessly, that was the answer I was really driving towards with the question. You know, I'll give the last answer to my own question, but I see it every day.

I mean, this community And it's awesome. It makes it awesome to get to work in and for this community, but they just take great care in everything they do. I truly believe it's part of the culture. Maybe ~it, ~it calls to people that are wired that way. I don't know. That's a deeper question than I'm qualified for.

But what I do know is that the, it gets extraordinary people and, you know, growing up watching my dad and his other. P. E. [00:43:00] Buddies, you know, ~every ~Every weekend and half the week nights, it was, you know, who's got a project that needs to be done, you know, who's old car needs to be fixed today, who's building a porch this weekend.

I mean, it's just, that's just how it always was. And I think, you know, it's certainly not like that doesn't exist outside of the design. Community, but I would say with a touch of pride, I think it exists in greater concentration here. I really do. Well, let me offer this because we need to wrap this up.

I want to give each of you again, Jerry and Curt, I know you're really affiliated with the same organization, so Jerry, I might just ask you and then Mark If folks have listened to this and have an interest either in getting involved or supporting the organizations do you want to just tell us briefly how they might make contact ~and, ~and facilitate that if they're interested?

Jerry Johnson: Certainly. We are Agua Viva. International. Our website is AguaVivaInternational. org. Come [00:44:00] visit us on the website. And hopefully what you see is a lot of what we've talked about today, our projects. What it is that we do. How you can volunteer. And how you can donate, because we don't exist if we don't have donations and volunteers.

So, talking again about volunteers, I didn't say it earlier, but if you look at our board of volunteers Schaefer, Kline, and Warren has had several people. McClure now. Burns and McDonald. A lot of people from Burns and McDonald are with us. Olson Associates leads trips to Africa. Bartlett and West have come visited us at our office.

A lot of interest in the engineering community for what we do, and we appreciate that.

Scott Heidner: Very cool. Mark, what about you?

Mark Williams: You bet. Like mentioned [00:45:00] earlier, it's through the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, COR. org. And I think they have a tab that's serve and plenty of other mission trips as well.

~But you know, I will say this, right? ~You don't have to be a member of the church. You don't have to even be Methodist. I think you just have to have a heart for serving. I've gone down there with folks from numerous denominations, and you don't even have to live in Kansas City to go. The trip I went with Just last month there was 18 of us that went down, but 5 were from Milwaukee.

We met in Miami and headed to Honduras together. So, you know, ~it's ~don't limit yourself. ~And ~I would encourage anybody, just be willing to say yes. ~One thing. ~

Scott Heidner: ~Every this is true of ~every not for profit organization, ~but ~and you guys maybe heard this somebody told me years ago He called it the three T's He said we need three things We need your time your talent or your treasure and he said and you if you can just bring one of the three you can make a difference.

He said if you are [00:46:00] Not a person of means and you have no time, but you have a talent you may be able to contribute, you know, conversely, if you're you know, whatever, if, if you can, if you can accomplish one of the three T's, you can provide value. And most people can bring at least one of those to the table.

Well, gentlemen, I appreciate you all saying yes to today's podcast. If I'm being honest, it gives me a particular. Kind of a warm feeling because of how I feel about the ACEC community, and I think a chance to celebrate that is highly appropriate, and you are all great ambassadors for that, so I appreciate that.

Now the hard question. We always close with what we call the lightning round, just to learn a little bit more about our guests in no particular order. Let's start with you, Jerry. Hi, I'm Jerry. If you weren't chasing one of your multiple grandkids or playing 18 rounds of golf, what would you do on a free day that might surprise our listeners?

Jerry Johnson: And [00:47:00] obviously I am very blessed from a standpoint of being able to golf and chasing grandkids. ~And. ~Doing what I do for Agua Viva. I mean, that's another blessing for me. I'm a mountain climber. I have hiked all of the 58 peaks in Colorado. I get up to that thin space, which is very nice. And at 74 years old, I did my, I think it was the 78th climb about a month ago.

Holy cow. to another 14er. So, again, very blessed,

Scott Heidner: very blessed.

That's gentlemen, that's humbling, is it not? Wow, that's amazing. Okay, well, Curt, what about you? If we were to get into your car, What kind of music is streaming on your speakers as you speak? I think,

Curt Mader: Christian Radio.

Scott Heidner: Huh.

Curt Mader: ~88. 5. ~I'm a regular donor to them.

I use my treasures to help them to spread the gospel [00:48:00] to the Kansas City area. So, that's what I listen to most all the time.

Scott Heidner: And Mark, we'll close with you. Your random question of the day is you've got people coming in from out of town and they ask you, I get to go to one or two or three restaurants and I want to have the most magical Kansas City cuisine experience.

Where do you point them? ~Well, it always~

Mark Williams: starts with Jackstack and boy, you're talking to a carnivore through and through, so, it might be yeah, tour de barbecue, so pick, pick your poison, so, with a, with a steakhouse mixed in there, ~so, you know, I hate to see what they went through. ~Hereford House was always a favorite steakhouse.

Hate for what happened to them. So, but I guess now looking back on it, I would have to say taking them down to the Golden Ox, even my dad, when he was started his career in [00:49:00] Kansas city before moving out to Western Kansas, that was his place of choice and I guess where we still take him when he comes to town.

~So my humble opinion,~

Scott Heidner: Gates and yeah, your answers are. A plus, as far as I'm concerned. That's awesome. ~And full disclosure to listeners, we all gorged on barbecue before we recorded this podcast today. ~Well, with that, one more time, gentlemen thank you all so much for being part of this, and for all that you do for the engineering community and for the world at large.

You guys are truly making a difference and it's been my pleasure to spend the day with you. Thanks, Scott. Thanks, Scott. Listeners, thank you for tuning in and we look forward to catching you on the next episode of the QBS Express.