An extraordinary 4 years. A letter on my 44th Birthday

This isn’t edited, but I say done is better than perfect. It is also long, but hey, that is my style and who I am. I am sure I left things/people out our didn’t put the proper emphasis on certain things, but if you love me, know me or respect me, I  would love for you to read the whole thing, so please find/make time to read this as my birthday wish! I love you. Dan(ny) Clarke  

The last 4 years of my life have been extraordinary (a. : “going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary”.) For my 40th birthday I was planning on having a huge party. A party that was a direct copy of my wonderful Uncle Bernie’s 70th. A party where all my friends and family would come to a rented bar (The Walnut Room in Rhino). First, I would play guitar and sing the songs I know (and perform beautifully). And everyone I love would be together celebrating this wonderful milestone with me. I was really excited about the event and we had our deposit money down for a long time to rent the venue. Covid hit in late march and that birthday turned into a porch drive by (which was lovely and a surprise to me as my wife coordinated everything). I think I was the first one of those I had experienced. Ourselves and the people we loved stayed healthy, and the lock down slowed things down in the world and our house. I got to spend a lot of extra time with our wonderful and most importantly healthy children (at that time 5 and 3 year olds). Wow, when I write that I realize just how long 4 years truly is. I forget they were that young at the time. 

Mamabird Interviews: The pandemic made me reflect on a lot of things. The most glaring one was the difference in the life I was able to live in the lockdown (playing in the alley, still getting paid, getting stimulus checks on top of being paid). And the life of my students from Montbello. Working front line jobs. Their parents working frontline jobs. I wanted to do something to support the young people I had fallen in love with over the past 10 years teaching. So I started to reach out to some of my former top students and tried to find ways to put money in their pockets. Initially, we had a student work with our kids tutoring them in spanish. Then I thought, we made a really cool school news program for years at our school. Maybe I could work with our students to do something like that for the world. So I reached out to some of my top former students (who all turned out to be young women), and I started paying them with my own money to brainstorm ideas about what we could do. The idea we kept coming back to was one my father has 40 years prior. Interviewing family elders for posterity. He had done an interview with my Grandfather before he had passed away from Cancer. It was an invaluable family heirloom, and the only way I was able to hear my grandfathers voice. Realize so quickly how sharp his memory was (as he recounts the scores of middle school basketball games) and most importantly hear his wisdom. “It is important to be parts of adult groups that develop and grow together.” When the time is right I will share this video with my children and they will get to meet their great grandfather. So Mamabird Interviews was born. The name Mamabird was one I just couldn’t get out of my head. It is very difficult to name an organization. But I love the name Mamabird. It symbolizes the power of women. It symbolizes that concept of Mamabirds supporting and preparing their young and then one day pushing them out of the nest to live their own beautiful lives. 

Our first interview was with Veronica who was an office manager I had worked with for years. We never worked closely, but after she left our school years prior I saw through facebook that she had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. I knew she had 2 teenage daughters, and she had a very loving husband that posted about her consistently. I reached out to her and told her our goal for Mamabird was to empower young women from Montbello by recording online Wisdom interviews for families loved ones and she loved the idea. Janine was nervous to conduct the interview, but did such a beautiful job. It was so much more of a guided conversation than an interview. Janine asked about how she was doing/feeling in the moment. She documented Veronica’s deep faith in religion. Her hopes and dreams for her children. Her love for her parents, and all that they taught her. Her love for her husband, and their love story (meeting in a dating app a few years prior). She shared so much wisdom and it was so obvious to me in that moment that we were doing something so important and so special. Veronica passed away less than a year after our interview, and her recording instantly became priceless. What a gift. What a beautiful gift. I really believe that if Steven Speilberg made a documentary about Veronica’s life it would barely be better than this Zoom recording. It is having something or nothing that makes up the lions share of value here. I could not have been more proud of Janine and I could not have been more proud of the important work we were doing. 

What I realized quickly as we did more interviews (friends, family, community connections) was that this wasn’t just about capturing families loved ones wisdom and stories, but it was also such an amazing way for our women to get paid to learn from that same wisdom. What a gift to the world. Every single interview was beautiful, and I have been fortunite enough to also learn from each one. We started doing interviews for anniversaries, for engagements, retirements and for graduations. For graduations we interview both the graduate and then their parents separately. So often young people (and I guess older for that matter), will be more open to say such beautiful and caring things behind your back than to your face. We are providing such a wonderful service. Our current* most exciting moment for Mamabird came when we were featured on a 30 minute segment of Colorado Matters on CPR news. I got to drive around Denver at night in my little miata listening to the amazing women I mentor tell their amazing stories and have it be broadcast all over the entire city. I thought after that exposure we would launch to the moon. But I learned once again that overnight success takes 10 years. Other quick Mamabird highlights before I move on. We have interviewed 6 people who have passed away now. One of them the grandfather of a current Northfield student who after the first day of class asked to talk to me after school. She asked if I did Mamabird, and said that she has a recording of her beloved grandfather that she is not ready to watch yet at 15, but thank you so much as one day she will watch it and it is an incredible gift. I sat in awe of the Universe working things out in such mysterious ways. We also interviewed my beloved Uncle Dave Stevens with his wife my beloved Aunt Mary Stevens. Dave did not want to do an Interview. But after I made him an amazing birthday video he relented and said he would. His kids had purchased the video to support us, and it was the interview I needed to happen the most, for myself personally and for his family. When the day came for the interview Yusura one of our interviewers stayed up all night to prepare and then slept through the time she was supposed to conduct the interview on Zoom. I was devastated, embarrassed etc. As I look back, I think this is a wonderful (mostly) low stakes ways for our women to learn about messing up and moving forward. I called Dave and begged him to re-schedule. He said he thought the ship had sailed. When I kept pleading he said lets come back to it later in the year. Finally with a lot of persistence (something I am sure he used to get as far as he did in life), I won him over and we rescheduled. Lorena did the interview and when I watched it, I saw that on that day Dave talked about how his daughter called him and they had a wonderful and long conversation. His son had a big sold out gig with his band, and the timing worked out beautifully. Dave said it was a good experience, but after watching his interview he said he wouldn’t be watching it again and didn’t see the value I do. He then went and emailed all his friends and share the video with them and said that they should look into doing one too. He was always so supportive. I was able to base the video I made for his celebration of life off of the beautiful comments he made in the interview about the love of his kids and how to handle tough situations and what is really important in life. I think he would see the value now. We interviewed a 99 year old Mr. Trujillo who lived to be 101 and has 30-50 grandkids+great+greatgreat grandkids. We have put over $73,000 in the pockets of young people through sales, grants, and my personal money ($12,000+) . I could not believe more in our work, or all the amazing women from marginalized communities like Montbello that just need doors opened to them and then they will make the world a better place for themselves and all of us. 

Our family year in Poland - I can remember the exact day we decided to spend a year in Poland. My wonderful mother was visiting from Carlsbad, CA and watching our kids so we were able to go for a hike (recommended years ago by Uncle Paul). I was telling my wife about my dream life that would have us living in a new place for 1 year every 5 years or so with Denver as our home the other 4 years. I had Hawaii and Spain on my dream list. I also would love to live in Poland for a year I told her. She said to me if we live in Poland we should do it while the kids are young. On the hike she called her cousin to get a feel for the cost of living in Poland (spoiler alert, it is much less expensive (our rent for a 350 sq foot apartment was $250 a month). We planned to do this in 2 years, and we made it happen. Our year in Poland was amazing. Most importantly we got to spend so much time with my in laws. They got to spend so much quality time with our kids (including watching them while we came home to America for my brothers wedding) and for our trips to Iceland, Lithuania and Latvia. We ate dinner (2-3pm ish) every day with my in laws, and they cooked for us 5 days a week and we did 2. I did not love Polish food but it has grown on me. My favorite was the corner store hot dogs from Zabka. I loved Polish life. You walk everywhere for living, school, store, library, sports, and my wife's hometown of Dzialdowo is just beautiful. On top of this Europe is so small and accessible and they have great discount airlines. We went to 16 countries including watching my broncos play in London, visiting the Swiss Alps, Portugal and Spain which I loved, Rome, Venice, Croatia, and so so much more. I started watching Casey Neistats Vlogs on Youtube and it inspired me to use my video skills to document our life and journeys and in January of 2023 I started my Vlog. As of today i have made over 80 videos that have been watched over 37,000 times for over 1,600 hours (you could do this if you watched 24 hours for 66 days straight). A lot of that watching is my own, as I love being able to relive the moments. I was inspired to try to help others make their own videos as well so I made a youtube tutorial on how to make videos as it is really simple. One of my favorite moments of the past year was my little cousin Hilary showing me a video she made using my tutorial of her honeymoon. She did such a great job and it brought me so much joy. 

My videos. On top of the Vlogs I have made, In the last 2 years I have really tried hard to create videos for the people I love more and more. I was able to make a wedding video for Hilary that captured our families love in the moment so beautifully. I have 2 amazing families and married into 2 other amazing families and feel so blessed. I was able to make a rehearsal video for my brother using Mamabird Interviews as the base. My brother's wife Genevie lost her mother when she was young and this video captured her love for her and her strength she carries from her and the love from her father as they navigated and grew closer through the impossible experience. It also captured the love she has for my brother and vice versa. I am so proud of this video. Also I had the honor to document my cousin Ali’s wedding that turned out to be just a few short months before her father my uncle Dave passed away. Capturing him walking her down the aisle. Their first dance. And all the love shared by the family that day was also incredible. I am very conscious that these videos have value in the moment, but there is so much more value in the future. If only for me they would be worth it as I love to look back. But for the families even more. We became huge swifties this last year and I used a beautiful taylor swift song for a thanksgiving video called never grow up. I love this one showing my cousins as parents, their kids at wonderful and still little ages. I know this will be a beautiful heirloom. If you have an interest in making videos, check out my tutorial! It is easy and it is important work! 

The Badass Women of Central Park Podcast. When we started Mamabird I connected with so many amazing women from the community we live in to talk to our women and do 1 on 1 mentoring sessions (Mamabird Mentors). The conversations were all awesome and the women were all so fascinating. It planted the seed to want to share their stories with the community. So in summer 2022 I started interviewing amazing women from our community. To this day I have interviewed over 35 women from our community. I am very proud of this work. 

Northfield High School: I loved my kids in Montbello and looked to go back when we returned from Poland. I had connected with a assistant principal however from Northfield and had talked to them many years ago about working at the school. It turned out to be a perfect fit for this time in my life. I am biking to work (7 min), biking home during lunch to let out our puppy copernicus, I use the gym to lift weights and prioritize my health. I love the kids. I have a great partner teacher (something I have NEVER had in my career) and it is just all good things. I have been able to make a lot of great videos for the school (something that is not part of my job, but something I value greatly), including sports videos for soccer, basketball and baseball. Videos of the plays we have done and events the school does like the Senior 14er. I look forward to working here a long time and it has been such a blessing in my life. For the first time at a school it feels sustainable. The only thing I don’t love about it is I can see first hand the privileges the students have of going to this school and the teachers have of working here. 

I am the luckiest person alive and I love and appreciate every minute of my life. The last 4 years have been wild, and I know the next will be too. Saying all this… 

My birthday ask/wish/plea… 

I am obviously into a lot of endeavors. But they are really good endeavors. The best and most impactful thing I can do is help the world through Mamabird. So here is my birthday ask. 

Do a Mamabird Interview (please). Buy one for yourself ($100 and all that money goes directly to the interviewer. Who is an amazing young woman from Montbello and will benefit greatly from the money and more importantly from the wisdom and experience). If you are family, do it for me, do it for your nephews and nieces, your kids). If you are a friend, please let our women learn from your wisdom and experience. You are a badass. Let’s document you for your family, but also lets use your experiences and wisdom to help teach the next generation of amazing young women. I am now doing an interview on every birthday. I will be having our son do one on his 10th. I have done a couple interview with my lovely wife capturing our love story and thoughts in the moment. It is not as scary as it sounds. It is a private recording and it is always a beautiful experience. The way we change the world is making this a thing to do. It becomes a thing with your early support. Every person does have wisdom and stories. They need to be documented. There are so many amazing young women from marginalized communities that need doors opened. This opens doors, and then the next and the net. 

www.mamabirdinterviews.org