Carolyn Hunter
The T. A. Barron Podcast.

T. A. Barron
As many of you know, I founded an award 20-plus years ago that does exactly one thing. It honors outstanding, public-spirited young people from all diverse backgrounds across the continent. The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, which I named after my dear mom, who was really one of those quiet heroes who holds our world together. A dedicated mother, dedicated teacher. I named the prize after her because probably the most important thing she taught us was that every life can make a difference. So that marvelous quote by the Buddha, “Make of your life a light,” really was how she lived.

Now, since the beginning, this prize has honored literally hundreds of inspiring, spectacular young leaders who are making the world a better place in their own individual ways. Sometimes small, sometimes larger than small. And last year, you’ll remember in season 1 of this podcast, episode 10 is a deep dive into why I believe we need heroes in our lives. And that’s followed by two more episodes that are devoted to interviews with some winners of the prize.

This year, I am thrilled to welcome two more wonderful people who are part of the Barron Prize family. One, Michaella Gallina, who is a former winner and a bright, shining, radiant person, as well as a lover of horses. And one who is the mother of a winner, Elise Strong, and who is equally radiant and bright and just plain fun to be around. So we’re going to talk about the prize from slightly different angles than we’ve done before. And let me start with you, Michaella. Tell us about your Exceptional Rodeo, the project you created that inspired us to give you the prize back then. What led you to come up with that idea? What were the challenges, the obstacles that you faced? And above all, what kept you going?

Michaella Gallina
When I think about how this all began, I think the context of how I was raised in my family is really important. I was so grateful to be the product of two public school teachers, and so learning was always really important to us. And one step beyond that was my own mother, who added so much value to the world beyond the home. And I watched her teach blind and visually impaired children. And she not only had an incredible sense of empathy working with them, but she had an amazing way about her that empowered them to overcome the challenges that they had to go out and do the things in the world that any other normal child could do. And so that kind of set up a really wonderful foundation for me.

And as you mentioned earlier, I’ve always had a love for horses. I was the horse-crazy little girl that never grew out of it. But when I was in the third grade, I asked my parents if I could bring my horse to school for show and tell, as any third grader might do. And I had one classmate, his name was Michael, and he suffered from a really terrible disease. And as I was out there riding my horse around the playground and letting all the other kids pet him and touch him, and I was on cloud nine that I got to show off the thing I love to do most. I couldn’t help but notice that Michael, who was wrapped from head-to-toe because of his condition, it was understood his lifespan was not going to be very long. And as I was out there parading my horse around and letting everyone pet him and touch him, and I was showing off all the tricks he could do, it was very apparent to me that Michael would never get to enjoy the same things that I got to.

And so, with the help of my 4H club, we made a rodeo and altered it with all the regular events that would be in a rodeo, so that handicapped and mentally ill children could enjoy the same types of activities that a normal person could enjoy. And it was absolutely rewarding to see families come together on that day and enjoy a day as a normal family unit, participating in these activities that we all would go do every single day and not think twice about and just go out and have fun and do it. And so watching those children get to have experiences that they wouldn’t otherwise do was really life changing at that point.

T. A. Barron
How did it make you feel?

Michaella Gallina
Almost indescribable. It’s hard to put into words to be that age and all of a sudden realize all the wonderful things you have in your life and the world is your oyster and there’s so much in front of you, you’ve never had to think about not being able to do anything you want to do. And to see these children light up, to have an experience they would have never otherwise had, is, frankly, life changing.

And so we had a number of challenges to overcome. But I think once people saw it firsthand and they saw the looks on these children’s faces, they saw a boy who had never spoken words before try to talk about his experience. They saw a child who had severe motor skills tie his shoe for the first time after he had tied a ribbon on a goat’s tail. I mean, those are just things you can’t replicate in any other form or fashion unless you’ve seen it yourself. And I think that led to just an amazing feeling of being grateful for what you had. And once you’ve helped someone, and once you’ve seen that firsthand, it really lights a fire in you and you want to just keep doing it. It’s as selfish as it is selfless, because it helps you really understand the impact you can have on just one other life.

T. A. Barron
And that fire continues to burn and warm all of us. And Elise, from your perspective, you are the mom of a wonderful young hero named Josiah, and he founded the Save the Nautilus, which is all about protecting those ancient, wonderful creatures in the sea that are part of the earliest forms of life on the planet and very much endangered. Could you share with us some of your thoughts and experiences about how you encouraged him as a young boy to follow this passion that he had for these beautiful, fragile, and almost otherworldly little creatures that were so different from what he was experiencing every day at school and with his friends and the rest of life?

Elise Strong
Well, I’m a little ashamed to say that I feel like I came very close to missing my opportunity. Josiah got a newspaper article, The New York Times. And when he first read about the nautilus and the perils that it was facing and the overfishing and how it was almost extinct and that it would be if we continued on our path he was so upset. And so passionate. And I was cooking and I was busy and I was thinking about ten other things I had to do and planning my day for tomorrow and the end of the week. And he said, Mom, I have to do something. And I was sort of half listening to him, and I said, oh, great, honey. What is… oh, it’s the nautilus. Okay, well, you can just go look online, figure something. We can donate some money or something. And he was insistent, and he said, no, it has to be the nautilus. We have to do something. And so I was still not really paying attention to him, and I said, okay, well, just go maybe look up people in the article and contact them. And I sort of was like, all right, that’s done…

T. A. Barron
Onto the spaghetti…

Elise Strong
And off he went. So first he looked online, and there was nothing that was protecting the nautilus. There was actually very little mention of the nautilus at all. And so then he came back and said, there’s nothing. There’s nothing. And then he sent an email to the professor who was interviewed in the article. And to my absolute shock and surprise, the professor responded in about 25 minutes. And Josiah had said, I read the article and I want to help, and what can I do? How can I help? And the professor said, “There is no charity. I’m one of the few people that are researching the nautilus. You should start a charity. You should do something.”

And so Josiah took that as his charge, and he came back and said, mom, he says I have to help, that I have to start something. And I said, okay. Good. And at this point, I started to pay a little more attention because it wasn’t just going away. He wasn’t when I said, oh, just give it to the Nature Conservancy. Just give it to Ocean Conservancy, someone. And he was very clear. It had to be the nautilus, and it had to be him taking the action because no one else was.

And so we were very fortunate. We had a friend that was spending the night with us who said, I can show you how to start a website. And so they sat down in the corner and in about 20 minutes he showed him how to drag and drop pictures. And Josiah filled all of the completely misspelled words in. And I think somebody put in a PayPal. And then at that point, still, I thought, well, isn’t that great he did that and now we’re done. But we were far from done.

T. A. Barron
Aren’t our kids our best teachers?

Elise Strong
Oh, my gosh, yeah. When I just, I think I could have missed it, in my busy life.

T. A. Barron
You were a devoted, distracted, hardworking parent. That’s what was going on. But you did let his voice get into your head there.

Elise Strong
There was a moment I stopped and I saw him and I realized, oh, this is big. These are those moments you see them filled with… they’re moved. You see that something has touched them so deeply and you actually see the motion inside them and it needed a place to go. I could tell that was that moment of Josiah was so moved and so inspired, and he felt the power within him and he just didn’t know how to take the next step. And that was essential. That next step sort of helping him understand. He’s eleven years old, so he has no idea how to navigate the world.

T. A. Barron
But that was the tipping point for you, as his mom, to say, well, this is real. How can I help this happen? And so, what did you do to help encourage him on this path?

Elise Strong
Well, our friend thankfully stepped right in and started that first step of let’s do a website. So I helped Josiah, slowly. Well, you know, sort of, oh, let’s check it over, and is that what you want to say? And, how do you want to do this? And asking some questions. And then I just kept coming back to him to ask him, well, what do you think? What do you want to do next? What do you think would be the most important thing? And then really, I feel like the world just rose up to meet us.

And Josiah reached out to a friend. He had an idea that, oh, maybe we could sell something and t-shirts. And so his good friend Ridgley, who was an artist, was super excited about drawing a nautilus. So they did that, and then Ridgley’s mother had them made into cards. And so it began.

T. A. Barron
But the world rose up to meet you because you helped Josiah walk into the world that he was passionate about. I think that’s just so beautiful. It’s really remarkable, that moment, isn’t it? We’ve all been blessed to have that moment, either from a parent’s standpoint or from being a child and feeling really strongly about something and having one caring adult there to encourage that.

Michaella Gallina
Without a doubt. I think if you can get the flywheel spinning, people want to be a part of doing good things. And once they’re involved, that typically just spirals. And whether it’s the help of a mother like yours or like mine. Family, a teacher, a mentor in your life, someone can spark a really small change. And I think sometimes we take for granted the impact you can make from just one gentle and encouraging interaction for someone who wants to take action.

[Music Plays]

T. A. Barron
So taking it up a level, how do we encourage more young people to have that sense of their own power? Because that’s really what we’re talking about here. With Josiah, with young Michaella, there was a moment of, oh, I can’t make a difference. I’m just a little person. I’m not even able to drive a car or vote or anything adults do. But actually, I do have some power. Actually, maybe I can make a little difference. How do we convey that awareness to more people?

Elise Strong
With Josiah specifically, I mean, he was eleven years old and he had all this passion, but he didn’t know how to navigate the world. He obviously didn’t have a credit card. He didn’t know how to drive himself to the library to give speeches.

And so I think it was just stepping in and sort of assisting him in the ways that were necessary and helping him connect with people who had skills and wanted so much to give. Like our friend who could make websites. He had never thought of doing it in this capacity, in something that could give back to – just his job or hobby. And his friend Ridgley, who was a little artist like, to all of a sudden have a purpose.

And so many people came together around this. We had people volunteering to have him take him to the library so he could speak there and show him how to prepare a PowerPoint. I think just really giving them the skills and helping them understand how to walk through the world and to navigate the hoops and ladders.

T. A. Barron
Especially if it’s driven by something they care about. That seems to me that’s the match that strikes and then you can light the candle and then you can light the campfire, right? That keeps burning as it does in you, Michaella, how would you answer that question?

Michaella Gallina
The whole time you guys have been talking, I’ve just been thinking to myself, it’s passion. If you can really find that spark and get it lit in someone, they can make real meaningful change. And I think without encouragement, like you did with your son Elise, without fostering that we can miss those moments. But for example, my parents, who saw my love of horses and also coupled with the ability to see my mother helping people so much. They saw that I cared about that, and they saw that that was important to me, and they nourished that. And that has taken me down my entire life path in so many different ways. So I think finding that initial spark in young people and encouraging it is just so important.

T. A. Barron
How about you, Elise?

Elise Strong
I think skills are an important piece that can often get left out, and it can be the bridge from something that’s just a dream to what actually happens in the world. So I think as parents, that can be an important job for us, is to listen to our child. And when we see that fire and we hear that passion in their voice, to kind of sit with them and say, okay, what next? Ask them and ask yourself and talk it through with them, okay, so you want to do this? How would we go about doing that? And do we know how to do that? Well, if we don’t, how would we learn? And it’s been amazing for me to see how many people have shown up and stepped in and showed us what we didn’t know how to do.

Michaella Gallina
And I think each of those interactions builds confidence. And as soon as a child can see that they’re making progress, they can look to the next milestone. And that can really get the brain flowing and the mind flowing to have really big dreams. And if you don’t have the big dreams, you’re never going to achieve the big things.

T. A. Barron
Right. It’s walking on that path that gives a young person a sense of, wow, I actually did something there that made a difference to someone else or to a different kind of creature or to a place that I love. And then, subliminally, they’re realizing that means that my choices matter, that I matter in the world, and maybe I actually can be a force for something good. But it all started with a parent or a teacher or some caring someone who saw that kid.

I actually think that the job of a parent boils down to listening to your kid and as you were saying, Elise, really hearing their passion, hearing who they are, and then doing everything possible to try to encourage that person to emerge and become their best self, whoever that is. And that’s maybe by imparting skills, it may be giving encouragement, it may be taking them to someplace where they can shine. That’s what we do.

[Music Plays]

T. A. Barron
This is a troubled time in our lives. This is a troubled time in our world. And so, all of this that we’re talking about here has more importance than ever. The idea that each person does have some personal power, some ability to help even in the smallest of ways. Sometimes that’s all we can do, and it’s more than enough.

Elise Strong
I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more. And I think just the very ideas of big and small sometimes can stop us if we think, oh, this is so small, it won’t make a difference. But we have no idea once we take that step. We have no idea of all the ripples, of how far out something can go. And I’ve just been amazed to watch Josiah’s project and how many people it reached and it continues. I’m always surprised it’s still living its own life.

And also can be so intimidating. You have a huge idea and you don’t know where to start, and that can seem overwhelming as well. And that’s where just taking those little steps, just taking one little step at a time matters. And as you take that and you have a little… if you meet another person along the road, you get a little more energy, a little more fuel for the path.

T. A. Barron
There’s a wonderful quote that Michaella knows from Mother Teresa. At the end of her life, some journalist asked her, how have you done so many great things? And she immediately shook her head and she said, ah, I have done no great things, none. But I’ve done many small things with great love.

Michaella Gallina
And how we all underestimate all the little things. And life is in the detail. It is in the little things. And they add up over time.

Elise Strong
One step at a time, one person at a time. I’m just thinking how grateful I am to you, Tom, for seeing these people and how important that is to know that they’re appreciated and that their contribution matters. That we all matter.

T. A. Barron
Elise, what fills your heart? What elements of life really make you feel your fullest and best self?

Elise Strong
My immediate response is the natural world, the sacredness and the magic of those pure places, and the animals and the water and the air, trees. And I think we all feel that even if we don’t know that we do. So my reverence to that. Also, my mother was my hero. My mother lives inside my heart. And so I think that I try to honor and be true to what she taught me and to the way that she lived and the aspirations that she had that I want to carry forward.

T. A. Barron
We’re both so blessed that way, and so is Carolyn, my co-host. And so are you, Michaella. Michaella, what fills your heart and keeps you going in the more difficult times?

Michaella Gallina
Definitely. I would say by nature I’m actually a really positive person, but I think below the surface of that, I’ve always said life is a lot of suffering in many different ways. And I think it only gets harder and more complex as you move through phases of life. But for me, what keeps me going is just always trying to do the right thing. If you can have that kind of contentment in your heart, I think you can overcome all the really difficult times.

And I think if you map out your life, there’s usually this natural progression of peaks and then valleys. And if you think about all the different peaks and valleys you’ve had across your life, for me it’s been those valleys, those really dark times, those moments of suffering, those setbacks and challenges that have made me dig down deep. And actually, when I look back, those are the catalysts that propel you to the next peak for whatever reason that valley might have given you.

So I try to remember that. When you’re in the darkest of times, that’s how you really, you know you can always persevere because it’s going to teach you something. It’s going to make you stronger. It’s going to make you dig in and you know there’s another peak and another amazing view for you once you get through it. And you’ll be better because of it.

T. A. Barron
Now, you’ve been inspired by the writings of Seneca and by the Stoics of ancient times. Could you speak about that a little bit? How that philosophy from more than 2000 years ago informs your life today?

Michaella Gallina
Absolutely. I love this topic and it’s a topic I wish I would have discovered much earlier in my life than really only a few years ago. But the main philosophy is the idea that you can really only control your own emotions and your own self when faced with whatever situation you might be in. And so it just really helps ground you, right? Because if you can be in control of your emotions and in control of the way you act or react to a situation, you have all the power. You suddenly realize that you have all the power.

And I’ve always thought having self-discipline is incredibly important to make it through different phases of life and to achieve the goals that you’re going after. So if you can be self-disciplined in controlling your emotions and controlling how you treat other people rather than just being a mirror of it, it can really change the tone. And that’s everything from your family interactions, your interactions with children, to interactions you have with top executives. Right? And I think it can really bring the conversation back to really what you’re trying to get at. If you can master those emotions and you can say, doesn’t matter what noise is going on in the world, I know I’m true to myself and I’ll handle myself in a certain way.

Easier said than done, by the way. Right, but that idea gives you a lot of power to really control how you react and in turn that can help take you from those valleys to those peaks.

T. A. Barron
So we can’t control a lot of life, we can’t control what happens to us. But we can control how we respond to it and how we think about it, what our attitude is going forward.

Michaella Gallina
That to me is the definition of perseverance in so many different ways, which is so important. I mean, when we think about how your son’s project was started, to where it is now. It’s because he had this perseverance and tenacity in the face of all of these challenges. And he said, okay, no one’s doing research. I’m going to. How do we do that? I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to do a website. Okay, we have a family friend that can help. And moving through those cycles is so important.

T. A. Barron
And what we learn from those young environmentalists, right, Elise? It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Elise Strong
One of the things I saw with Josiah that allowed him to keep moving forward was he didn’t seem to be taking things personally. His cause seemed so much larger than himself. He was devoted to a purpose that was bigger than him. And so when he would walk into a closed door, it didn’t occur to him to turn around and walk away. He was going to try another door and another door because this was so important to him. And he let that be the driving force. Not the fact that people would say that what he was doing was unimportant or question his motives, even sometimes. That just seemed to roll right off his back, and he just kept going forward to the bigger purpose.

T. A. Barron
How great. Well, the world is a better place because of it. Thank you both so much for joining us here and for adding your light to this room and this conversation. It’s been a delight.

Michaella Gallina
Well, Tom, thank you for your validation, your support, your nourishment to us who have a very personal connection to you in the room and all of the young heroes that you’re doing the same with every single year to make the world a better place.

T. A. Barron
Thanks, Michaella. You know, it’s a delight. It’s an honor. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.

Elise Strong
Thank you so much.

T. A. Barron
Thanks, Elise. Bless you both.

T. A. Barron
Well, folks, that concludes season 2 of Magic & Mountains. We’ve journeyed far and wide this season to the minds of people as wonderful as Jane Goodall, Isabel Allende, and more. To the bizarre tales of my book tours as a wandering bard and to the light found in stars and in a loved one’s eyes. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have, and if so, stay tuned for more to come in the future. And meanwhile, may you have magical days.

Carolyn Hunter
We hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of Magic & Mountains: The T. A. Barron Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share this podcast with your family and friends. For more information and to find all of T. A.’s books, visit tabarron.com. Have a magical week.