Echoes of Us: ‘Sons of Springfield’

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Echoes of Us. I'm Arata Odaya. And I'm Sarah Bien-Aimé. You know, Echoes of Us is all about those in the community who inspire us and the culture that shapes us. And today, a little different because we've got a lot of people in this. A full house. A full house. Let me remind you, first time having three guests. Hello to Ricky McKenzie, Sean Kennedy, and to Tashawn Gale. Welcome to the podcast, gentlemen. How are you today? Excellent. Excellent. How are you? Awesome. Great. Let's go in order. Let's start with you, Ricky. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what the people should know. I am a Commerce High School graduate, Red Raiders till I die. Yeah. Um... I also graduated from Hampshire College, Northampton, Mass. Born, raised, Springfield, 413 all day. Now I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm doing real estate and trying to make the world a better place. Nice, Sean. Oh, I'm on. So this is Springfield and Western Mass. That's what we're catering to. So in this area, I'm known as Lucille's son and Queen Esther's grandson. That's what I'm best known as. But Sean Kennedy, born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. Lucid. Had the opportunity to grow up here and I left here when I was 18 years old, went down south for college. But now I'm back to try to figure out how I can help in the community. For my career, I started out in retail. Actually, my third store I opened up was here in Springfield. And out of retail, I went into hospitality. For the last 10 years, I've been in real estate. And we specialize in developing attainable and affordable housing. And we also do impact development projects in Charlotte, North Carolina. All right. Wow. What's going on? And Sean? And Sean Gale here. Springfield, Mass. Got the start on Albemarle Street. Mm-hmm. I went to Cathedral High School, graduated from there. Had a little stint of playing collegiate football in the prep school for a year. Decided I no longer wanted to play. Ended up going to college in Boston. So I did my collegiate years in Boston. But while in Boston, I carried what I was doing in Springfield with my friends, and we were throwing parties. So in Boston, I was the guy that also threw parties in Boston and ended up working for a record company. So I became a college rep. So, you know, I became the cool kid on campus that was able to bring artists and arrange meet and greets and listening parties and so on and so forth in Boston. And then eventually led me to getting a full-time job. at the time my dream job, which was Def Jam Records, and, you know, continue to have a life in music. Love that. I love that. So you guys all have like similar roots growing up in Springfield, growing up in Western Mass. So what is like your found memory, your favorite memory from Western Mass? Yeah. You know what's so funny? I was just talking about it earlier. I don't know. You guys may be too young to remember this, but back in the days, UMass used to have these parties called the Funkathon and jeans and t-shirts. And I think for us, for me, I could be for myself, was just the time to be alive was the 90s, Macaras, Kokomos, Razzles, you know, just the nightlife in Springfield, just the things to do, So for me, that was it, you know, two friends emotions, me to Sean, my other best friend, Sean Waterburn. We threw a lot of parties and events. And I think just we just had like a really good time growing up right here in Springfield. I wish there was still a nightlife. You got to search. Yes, sir. Kid! What about you, Sean? Growing up in Springfield, I spent a lot of my time at Dunbar Community Center. So I have fond memories of being in the gym with Big Will, being in the gym with Coach Rocks, being in the gym with. Coach Anderson and really learning who I am and really learning from those men that poured into not just myself, but so many young men that came to me and the village that Springfield is. Springfield doesn't get enough credit for how much the community steps up to raise our children or used to. Again, that's what we're trying to find out now. But when I was growing up in Springfield in the 80s and 90s, the community really stepped up to help raise us. So I find memories of just Just all the amazing people that I had the opportunity to be around. Everything I learned from him. Aw, I love that. Deshawn. Oh, man. Really, to echo what my two brothers just said, like, listen, growing up in Springfield for me was really fun. Thank you, everyone. It taught me a path of entrepreneurship, right? Because, you know, my friends and I decided early on we was going to be the kids to throw parties in high school. And we was fortunate enough to have people actually pay to come to some house parties. And that just. sparked a bug that we could never stop doing so, you know, you know, and allow us to be even creative. So it went from just finding houses from friends, parents that we would just use to, you know, banquet halls to parks like we just try to find different creative places to. Have, like, experiential marketing and experiential experiences to have fun here in Springfield. And that's where it all started here. So, you know, blessed for that. If you guys think back to your childhood and growing up, did you think that you would land into the careers that you are now? I mean, Tashaun, you're working with big stars like Neo. Like, did you imagine, did you, is this something that you hoped for when you were younger? Funny enough, growing up, I wanted to be an air traffic controller. My parents are Jamaican. That's cool. They didn't care anything about There's foolishness out there, right? So, you know, I went to school knowing I needed to learn something, but always knew when we were kids. I didn't have a glass ceiling on how much money I could make because I was betting on myself to throw these parties. And depending on how successful we were promoting, the more money we made. And if we did a horrible job, we didn't make no money. So it just felt good to bet on yourself and bet. I mean, I kind of knew I was going to do something. I just didn't know it was going to be this. What about you, Tim? My whole life, well, if you asked me when I was 12 years old, I told you I was going to the NBA. But I stopped growing at 13, so that ---- happened. I don't have any problems. But being an entrepreneur has been in my blood. Mother's owned her own beauty shop here in Springfield my entire life. And at the age, if you went to Kiley Middle School, you knew me for selling candy. I used to sell candy at a very high level in seventh, eighth grade. I was making hundreds of dollars a week selling candy. And so entrepreneurship has been into me my entire life. Those roots started here in Springfield. If you would have asked me when I was 14, 15, I would have told you I've been blessed to follow my dream and chase it to adulthood. And Ricky, to end the segment off. Yeah. You know, that is a really good question because, no, I didn't know. I think that growing up in Springfield, like my brother Tashaun said, I think we just was throwing parties, right? And I didn't have, like, I didn't see being a club owner. I didn't see moving to Atlanta. I didn't see owning commercial buildings with my name on it. I didn't see traveling overseas because I'm from Springfield, right? I grew up on Colonial Avenue and Marble Street. So, you know, in our time, I didn't see nobody doing those things that I now do. I didn't see it growing up. So growing up for me, I don't even know if I had any ambition like that, for real, for real. I think the only ambition that I really had was to do bigger and better and more creative parties, more creative events. But then I think once I moved out of Springfield to Atlanta and then I started seeing things differently and it's like, oh, I might could do this because I've seen other people. And so just look like look like me doing those things. You know what I mean? But growing up in Springfield back in the days of the 90s or whatever, I just didn't see it. So I didn't really have no, I'm not going to say that I wanted to be like an air traffic controller or I was good at being an entrepreneur. I think maybe probably being a promoter. I think that's what I probably wanted to be. And then as I got older, I just can't hang no more. Thank But that's being an entrepreneur. So these brothers, I got to give them the flowers because I threw parties. And the reason I threw parties when I got to Atlanta was because these brothers had you showed me that a kid from Springfield could take over a city and throw parties. very So coming behind them a few years when I got to Atlanta, freshman year, a la Two Friends Promotions, I started throwing parties in Atlanta as Black Seas Entertainment. much. And that was pretty much my start to entrepreneurship in Atlanta, Georgia, where I started making my own parties. Cheers to you brothers, man. Thank you for sharing. I love the brotherhood. I know. The brotherhood. Thank you. Well, I just want to chime in and say this real quick. Because I said this, we just talked about this. There is really a lot of talent in Springfield. Yeah. Such as you two. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's just like. If you're listening and you're watching, you got to cultivate it. You have to cultivate it. Because this city, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. I love that. People say New York. Nah, it's Springfield. Because Springfield is a place that you have to create your opportunity. Yeah. It's not like a city like other bigger cities. That's right. Well, time flew by. We got to go on break. But we'll be right back. You're watching Echoes of Us, guys. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Echoes of Us. To your left, you have Ricky McKenzie. In the middle, you have Sean Kennedy. And to the right, you have Tashawn Gale, the sons of Springfield, which is their new nonprofit. First of all, congratulations on that. Thank you. Thank you. Let's talk more about your relationship and how this nonprofit kind of came about. Whoever wants to go first. You want to go first? Yeah. Yeah. I had the crazy idea, right? No, it came about because In our own right, all three of us have been blessed, right? And then what we have done also in the cities we live in, Tashawn, New York, and Los Angeles, Ricky, Atlanta, I mean, Charlotte, we have given back to the communities that we currently live in. But we haven't done much for Springfield. And maybe three years ago, Ricky was doing a great job of coming back to Springfield, but me and Tish really weren't giving back to Springfield. So we came together like Voltron to figure out what was something we could do in Springfield. We started brainstorming and figuring it out. And our first project came about a year ago with Auden Baptist Church. Auden Baptist was my mother's church from childhood, my grandmother's church. Even my great-grandmother attended Auden Baptist Church. And Auden had ran into some problems. We stepped in initially just to stabilize the church. But the ask for the church was, as we stabilized it, was to open the space up to the community. Auden is a 30,000-square-foot church with two sanctuaries, a commercial kitchen, an auditorium, a gym, and 20-plus classrooms. So the ask was, okay, what's stabilizing the church for you guys? And the ask is, can we open it up to a broader community? So that's what we're doing now, and that's part of the reason we're here in Springfield. The first reason we're in Springfield is to let the community know that Auden Baptist is now open for community organizations to come in and use the space. Whether you need classroom space, whether you need office space, whether you need gym space, whether you need an auditorium, whether you need a kitchen, Auden is available now for any nonprofits or any entrepreneurs that need to use the space. Nice. So wait, how do you guys balance this on top of your careers and managing all of this as well? Really. Really? Teamwork. Teamwork. I like that. Teamwork. I like that. We have an amazing support. My wife is definitely a part of this. She helps keep it running. Thank you, Tiff. Sean has a team. Ricky has a team. You know, without the support, you're right, it'll be really difficult to get this done. Yeah, and you guys have an event November 12th. Talk about maybe some of the future events you guys want to do, what people can look forward to in the community. So I want to chime in real quick. Just Sean spoke about it a little bit, but to Sean and I, for the past two years, we have given away over a thousand pairs of sneakers for back to school. Last year, we gave away a thousand pairs of sneakers, book bags, school supplies. Um... We did it strictly out of our own pocket. No grants, no funders, no nothing. We just did it on our own. And this year, early in the year, we did like 1,300, 1,400 pair of sneakers. This time we added uniforms and shorts and, again, book bags, school supplies, and so forth. And we just thought, give credit to SK, Sean, is like, instead of us just giving away stuff, right, what could we do that has more of an impact? than just giving somebody something and then you don't see them again. They walk out the park and be like, thank you. Thank you. So Sean, to his credit, giving him his flowers, he brought together Alden Baptist Street Church. He brought that to us, to me and to Sean. And he said, hey, I got this opportunity to have this 30 square foot church. And I think we can run some programs and do some things out of it. 30,000. 30,000, sorry. Sorry, 30,000 square foot, sorry. 30,000 square feet church that we can run some programs and have a real good community engagement. And that was our impact, right? Sneakers and backpacks. That's cool for the moment. But Alden Baptist Street Church is the beginning of our community engagement impact that we want to do as a stepping stone to other things. Sorry for being so long. Great point. That was great. So our goal isn't to give people a fish, it's to give them a chance to fish or give them a rod to fish with. So this is just the first community impact project. What we really want to focus on is workforce development, community engagement, and attainable housing. So again, we're here to work. We have a background in all three spaces. So we're here to learn how we can be involved with those three pillars. And at Springfield, For the information, like, tell us, what do you need? How can we fit in? How can we be of service? Yes. How can we be of service? So that's what we're here for. To really learn how we can be of service in those three pillars. And give people the opportunities to become the next Tishawn Gel or Ricky McKenzie. Or Sean Kennedy. I love that. Because when we have guests on, they're just pouring into Springfield. And I feel like when I moved here. To Western Mass, they're like Springfield, like crime, shootings. I'm like, and so when I got here, I'm like, what are they? Because now that I've been here, I'm like, what are they talking? The amount of people who are doing such great work. And it's not like Brockton. It's not like other places that you think are like, you know, I feel like people see Springfield and Brockton as like places you can't have a good time. You can't have people who are pouring into you. So I just love that you guys continue to give back to your community like that. Earlier today, I was thinking. Because you said where you were from. When I was in high school, we played a team from Brockton, Mass. They whooped us. I don't know what that is. That was the first time I ever experienced a high school football team that had a defense and an offense. Offense. Me, I'm playing both ways in high school. I never experienced a regional high school. That was cool for me to experience. Bulldogs, right? Um, I didn't pay too much attention. I was in my books. Yeah. So let's look ahead. So what, five years from now, where do you see Sons of Springfield? SK, where do we see? So again, to good question, our background, we are attainable developers, right? My company, Kitty Properties Development in the city of Charlotte, we're currently developing over 700 homes that are for sale, 80% AMI and below. So that's for our community heroes. That's for nurses, nurses, school teachers, policemen, firemen, and people working in hospitality jobs. Our goal is to come to Springfield and possibly do something similar. And we do great ways of creative capital stacks and down payment assistance for people to experience homeownership. So say in Charlotte, we're building three bedroom, three and a half bath homes for two hundred and fifty five thousand dollars. Right. You come back and say, Sean, that's not affordable. The way we make it affordable is we work with the city of Charlotte and a down payment assistance where if you go to a program and learn. How to own a home and maintain a home and get your credit where they need to get it. And they will help you get there. They give you $80,000 of down payment system, right? So now that house comes down to $170,000 for new construction. Wow. And if you are a school teacher in a Title I school, we have another deal with a bank out of North Carolina that will give you another $30,000. So you come into a home for 140 grand, brand new construction, three bedroom, three and a half bath with a mortgage of between $800 to $1,200. You can't rent for that, and you own your home. And the easiest way, the quickest way to gain wealth in this country is through homeownership. So we're giving those families and those community heroes who so much deserve the opportunity and have worked for the opportunity, but due to economic conditions, without these programs, would not have the chance to have homeownership. So we're looking for Springfield. We're looking for Massachusetts, the opportunity to step in and kind of do something similar here in Springfield. It gives so many people a chance. And that's how you uplift the community. Ownership. If families own their homes, things will change. I always say to people, they say, oh, that neighborhood is bad. And when people rent homes, they don't put the same thing. They don't care. They don't call the police. I always say, when's the last time you washed a rental car? You never watch the rental call. But if you own your home, you got to make sure things don't happen to your property. You got to take care of that home and that will give people not only the chance to build wealth, but also change communities here in the city of Spring. But residents have to take advantage of that. If the thing is there, they have to take advantage. I will say that I think that speaking for all of us, I will say, we want to be the change that we want to see. Right? So Tashawn, he's very humble. He doesn't say what he does, but Tashawn's been with Neo from the beginning of his career before Neo was even Neo when he was just Sheiffer Smith. He's also managed Shaggy for 10 years. So I think that Tashawn will love to pour into someone, you know, and be a creative influence to the next generation, to the next person. Because like Tashaun said, he's from Albemarle Street, but, you know, he grew up in Pine Point. He's from here. He's from Springfield. So we want to be. The change that we want to see, you know, and see in Springfield. I love that. Yeah. I love that. All right. Well, that's all we have for this segment. I will be back for one more. Are you watching Echoes of Us? Everyone, we are back with the sons of Springfield. That's what I'm going to call you guys. The sons of Springfield, our friends here. Let's talk about travel. I'm sure you guys are bouncing between trying to make it here to Springfield, but also you have other business in other areas. Talk about maybe your routine and how often are you kind of bouncing back? I'm just curious. Who wants to go first? Of course. Listen, I travel all the time, but also there's periods of the year or just the way how business is, I'm not traveling for a month at a time, but I usually try to catch the first thing out or the last thing, because I never want to miss the workday. Usually you fly first thing in the morning, you can land early enough in the morning, work, no problem, and the last thing out, so you still don't miss the workday. That's my travel advice. First in, last out. Well, I don't travel as much as him. I've been to Africa, Israel, a lot of different places. But what I will say this about traveling is that it changes your perspective. Oh, it does. It changes your perspective. Sure. America is one of the places where you can just go and get a passport and travel. A lot of countries are not as fortunate. You got to get a visa, you got to get approved, you got to get whatever. So what I will say to anybody is get a passport, travel even if it's once a year. Go out the country somewhere because traveling absolutely changes your perspective. I've been to a lot of different places. I did a 21-day European cruise, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, but there's nothing like seeing different cultures and different foods. I did a lot. Yeah, totally. get out there and see the world whether you just start out locally doing some stuff we get the chance to see the world i've been blessed just like both of these and this guy is too humble he's been traveling the world for the last three months on tour Or Africa. and everywhere else and um again same thing as rick you've Africa, blessed to see Europe, blessed to see South America. So see the world, that would change your perspective. been blessed to see you know It gives you a better understanding of who you are and the blessings you have. If someone who's watching wants to become an entrepreneur, wants to travel, wants to kind of follow in some of the footsteps that you guys have been doing, any advice to the young people or anyone who's watching right now? You want to become an entrepreneur. I think becoming an entrepreneur is definitely something that's in you, right? People may say, oh, I no longer want to be a mathematician and become an entrepreneur. Like, you have to have this innate thing in you that you have to create something, right, and create an opportunity for other people or something that's going to fuel you that you want to push out to the masses. I say my advice is control what you can control and don't worry about nothing else. Yeah. And that relieves all stress. I can't worry about it's raining today, but I can't control. I'm going to get up and go to work. I can't control. I'm going to get up and go to gym. Right. I can't control. I'm not going to go. But as long as you can control what you can control, I think everything will work out. I love that. Any, any, how can people keep up with you guys? What's our website? SonsofSpringfield.org No personal connects? No personal connects? Well, you know. It's Ricky at SonsofSpringfield.org Okay. I know we got to go over the last session, but I'd like to hear Sean, SK, your last perspective because you graduated from Morehouse and you was also in the The end of the BACP, right? I forgot what it's called. It's called Acolytes. No, love it. When you got there from college, what's the program that you was in? United New College Fund. Yes, sir. I don't think they have it no more, right? Yeah, it's still there. You can see it. They just don't call it United Negro College Fund anymore. Mm-hmm. So to Tisha's point, um, strive for your dreams, right? Shoot for the stars, land on the moon. Um, being an entrepreneur is a great thing. Being an entrepreneur helps your community, helps it grow, but also there's nothing wrong with having a job. There's nothing wrong with having a job and having a side hustle. Do what makes you happy. Um, the reason why I can chase my entrepreneurial dreams now is I have a wife with benefits, right? So, um, again, I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. The last job I had was an Enrolls internship. In Hartford, Connecticut at Aetna when I was 18 years old. Since then, I've always worked for myself. And then probably to the age of 30, when I settled down with my wife, I had no health insurance, right? That's not a cool thing, right? So being married gave me the stability with a wife with a job to make sure we had health insurance to do what we need for our children. So, again, entrepreneurship isn't for everybody, but it's in you. Chase your dreams. But there's nothing wrong with working a job and creating a stable life. Happiness isn't based on how much money you make. Happiness is based on how happy you are. Wealth isn't defined by dollars. I always say the most wealthiest person I've ever known in my life was my grandmother that lived on 174 King Street in Springfield. She was loved by all. She was mine. She had a third-grade education, and she worked at the laundry. But she was wealthy. So, again, do what makes you happy. Give back to your community. Love your family. And that's what matters more than anything else. Just be a good person. I love that. That's all right. Thanks to the sons of Springfield. That's why I wanted to go last. I know, we love it. Well, we just want to thank all three of you for coming on our podcast. We learned a lot and I hope that our viewers learned a lot. I hope to that event as well. Yes, keep up with the Sons of Springfield because they're going to be doing a lot of good stuff in the community. We're going to do a quick wide shot and then we're out of here if you guys want to say hello. Bye everyone. See you next time. Bye! Peace!