77. JC Clapsaddle: An American in the Ukraine

Bob Rivard [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Big City Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Rivard. This week's guest is JC Clapsaddle, a retired US Air Force Colonel and medical administration officer with a background in Pentagon assignments involving human rights and many humanitarian efforts around the globe. Our interest in being with the retired colonel Clapsaddle today is hearing about JC's multiple missions to aid Ukraine in its defense against Vladimir Putin and Russia, whose forces invaded the Ukraine in 2022, '8 years after that country's invasion and occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine. JC's singular efforts have resulted in $46,000,000 in medical supplies, emergency evacuation vehicles, and other materials being sent from United States to Ukrainian forces. He is about to make his fifth trip there next month in November. It's an extraordinary story of one San Antonian making an enormous difference in defense of the Ukrainian people and its frontline military forces. JC Clapsaddle, welcome to Big City Small Town.

JC Clapsaddle [00:01:14]:
Thanks, Bob. It's a pleasure to be here.

Bob Rivard [00:01:16]:
Well, let's introduce you first to our audience who may have never heard your unique last name, which I think there must be a story behind that you can share. But tell us about your background and what drew you to the military and the Air Force and your wife to the Air Force for a career of twenty nine years and how the two of you came to San Antonio.

JC Clapsaddle [00:01:36]:
Sure. So I was born and raised in Iowa and I am a convert to San Antonio. Now you mentioned my name, Clapsaddle. Originally, it was German and it meant Klebesaddle. And, you know, when you come to America, they change the name to make it sound more local. But in Iowa, that's something that got me bullied as a little kid. I went to, twelve years of Catholic school in a real small town. And, boy, I got picked on for the name Clapsaddle.

JC Clapsaddle [00:02:00]:
But I remember coming to Texas. I moved here in February, '15. And I'm at a store buying something and some lady looks at me and sees my credit card and says, Clapsaddle. That's a great name. Do you know what a great Texas name that is? And I looked at her and I realized I must be home. This is I love this woman. I love Texas. So Clapsaddle has served me well in Texas, not so much in Iowa.

JC Clapsaddle [00:02:21]:
But I went I went to school in Iowa, went to college in Iowa, and, didn't wanna live the rest of my life in Iowa as much as I appreciate it. And I joined the military after I had already gone through college to get a master's degree. So when you join the military with a master's degree, they don't give you the six months basic training or anything like that. They stick you right into your job. And, I, they I wanted to fly with the Berlin Wall and just come down recently. And, of course, since the Berlin Wall was coming down, there was gonna be peace in our day and no need for pilots anymore. I mean, it was gonna be easy to go. So we thought.

JC Clapsaddle [00:02:59]:
You're right. So they banked all the pilots and people like me who, scored really low on the pilot entrance exam didn't even have a shot at it. They said I could stay in. I could be a logistician or I could be a healthcare administrator. I thought healthcare administrator sounded pretty noble and good. So I literally it was one of those kind of choices, but it paid off really well. It's given me quite a background in logistics, healthcare, and the you know, we'll talk about it a little bit, the humanitarian relief efforts that are going on in Ukraine. My background has really aided me for that.

Bob Rivard [00:03:31]:
Well, we're eager to hear more about that, JC. But tell us first about your wife's career for twenty nine years in the Air Force, what she did and what I assume one of you must have been assigned here and that introduced you to the city.

JC Clapsaddle [00:03:44]:
That's exactly right. I was almost twenty four years. She was twenty nine years in. So, Andre, Andre Clamsaddle, we met at our very first base, which was Norton Air Force Base, San Antonio, California. Or excuse me, San Bernardino, California. There you go. Yeah. And, oh my gosh, I can remember the exact moment because it was 12/17/1990 at 8AM in the morning.

JC Clapsaddle [00:04:10]:
And, she was walking into the, weapons lanes. We were doing weapons training on that morning and there she was. And, she got the lane next to me and, she was definitely the most beautiful person on that lane. She was the only female, so that may have mattered a lot. And she also outshot me. So I think it was all good things. So, you know, I went to California from Iowa thinking I was gonna be a surfer boy and play around in the world and be worldly. And then I met my wife right away as soon as I got there, you know, like within my first week or two.

JC Clapsaddle [00:04:47]:
And it has turned out to be wonderful. So she did twenty nine years. She retired a couple of years before me and it was her final job to come here to San Antonio. She is a civil and combat engineer and she took over a command here and I followed her. And that's how we ended up in San Antonio.

Bob Rivard [00:05:06]:
Was that at Lackland Air Force Base?

JC Clapsaddle [00:05:08]:
It ended up being at Kelly. One was Joint Base Kelly. There's still Air Force there.

Bob Rivard [00:05:14]:
Okay. Well, that's the first love story from a shooting range we've ever heard here on Big City Small Town. We'll we'll bank that one. Did you both know at the time that you were in for career service and that that was both of you had the mass same master plan that

JC Clapsaddle [00:05:29]:
We did not. I especially did not. I think it was more a matter of everywhere we went, it just ended up being exciting. So when I would think, hey, this is my last tour and then I'm getting out, it just kept getting more fascinating and we were seeing more of the world. I mean, we were in California, then we moved to Alaska, then Germany, then Portugal, then Texas, then Washington, DC. And of course, mixed in there was Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, South America, Panama. I mean, there's a lot of that kind of stuff too. And it was never together.

JC Clapsaddle [00:06:03]:
I mean, if you go we had an instance where she was in Saudi Arabia. She spent seven months there, came back. A week or two later, they sent me to Iraq. I'm in Iraq for six months. I come back and then they move us to Germany. I'm in Germany. They sent her to Pakistan for six months. She gets back.

JC Clapsaddle [00:06:23]:
I go to Qatar. So we had a lot of that and we were afraid that when we retired and spent all day in the same home together, that things may not work out, but they have worked out wonderfully. And, not not that we're home bodies, but being together all the time has proved an enhancement to the marriage, not a detriment to it.

Bob Rivard [00:06:41]:
We're so delighted to have you guys in San Antonio. You're a great example, in my opinion, of brain gain in the city. And, I want you to talk about what drew you to think as a retired Air Force colonel and an individual without a deep network of resources in San Antonio, I assume. What made you think that you could make a difference over there in Ukraine and how did you go about that? Starts back when

JC Clapsaddle [00:07:06]:
I first moved here and you hit the nail on the head. I did not know anybody. Mine didn't have a network. I was the new guy. And I wanted to dive in and do nonprofit. Number one, it's it's a good thing to do. Number two, being on a board of directors or being volunteer somewhere, it's a great way to get to know your community and give back at the same time. I joined Rotary.

JC Clapsaddle [00:07:29]:
Now Rotary, me growing up in Iowa in the 60s and 70s, I always thought of Rotary as old white guys sitting in a restaurant together in the backroom

Bob Rivard [00:07:39]:
smoking- That's not even accurate.

JC Clapsaddle [00:07:41]:
Well, no. For the day. Now, I think most of that is gone. So I walked into the aptly named Rotary Club of San Antonio, very generic name, but that's what it is. And I look around the room and there's people ages 20 up until the 80s. There was maybe a third or more were female. There was definitely people representing the culture of San Antonio. And I realized that everything I may have thought about it back in the day, it was wrong.

JC Clapsaddle [00:08:10]:
Well, it may not have been, as you say, wrong back in the day, but it was definitely not what I was experiencing. But one thing about this rotary is they have international connections. There's 30,000 of these clubs around the world. So I got involved with rotary international activities. And then when the war kicked off in February of twenty twenty two, I had friends in England and Poland and, Portugal, Scotland that were all talking about the Rotary supporting Ukrainian refugees. So we went to raise money for them. Had a big international Zoom call. Had the people from Poland talk about the 500,000 people that have just flooded Warsaw.

JC Clapsaddle [00:08:56]:
Every hospital bed, every school, every hotel room, everything was full and maxed out. Still people walking along the streets, sleeping outdoors. We raised in just a matter of weeks, a quarter million dollars to help them health refugees. But over time, we started to realize once the refugees are there, they've got a roof over their head, they're going to get food, they're going to get health care. It may not be luxurious, but they've made it. And we probably start need to start to move our efforts east where the war front is, where the people are immediately being injured, where the refugees are immediately being displaced. And so that changed the focus on the fundraising and the mission. And as we started pumping money into those more confusing areas, the war zone, it gets harder to trace that money, harder to trace the vehicles, the equipment, the supplies.

JC Clapsaddle [00:09:48]:
My wife and I decided that instead of cutting a check and hoping it makes it to its location, let's take that money and go into the war zone. Let's go check it out.

Bob Rivard [00:10:01]:
I think that was smart, JC, because you know better than any of us here probably what a tradition of corruption, official corruption exists in Ukraine, much like our neighbor in Mexico. It's just embedded in the culture, and it's hard to avoid.

JC Clapsaddle [00:10:16]:
Was in Iraq for a while and David Petraeus was the general. And I remember one of his first speeches is you're not gonna end corruption. You just have to get it down to a socially acceptable level of corruption for those people. We've got corruption. Holy cow. And Mexico may have more. Ukraine, being a former Soviet nation, has generations of it. But the reason why they're in war right now is because they tried to fight it.

JC Clapsaddle [00:10:41]:
I mean, they elected presidents and got rid of elected a president that would get rid of corruption. And they pushed out bad judges and they pushed out corrupt companies and that limited Putin's influence in Ukraine. And so he invaded. So the very fact that they're trying not to be corrupt is why they're in this war right now. Now, you go to war. You elect a president that's on an anti corruption campaign that doesn't end corruption. It's a generational thing and it's gonna take time to get it down to a socially acceptable level. But anyway

Bob Rivard [00:11:11]:
But you found you and your wife found it yourselves able to instead of just passing money into Ukraine to raise funds for vehicles, medical supplies, other materials, and get those actually delivered to the people that needed them on the front lines.

JC Clapsaddle [00:11:27]:
We do. So we've got two customers, if you want to call it that. We've got the people on the front lines. And I should be really careful in saying that when Rotary raises money for assets to go into Ukraine, it's not guns and bullets. They're not buying lethal materials. They're buying humanitarian aid, ambulances, vehicles like that, refugee retrieval vehicles, things like that. That's a big part of our effort. There are private investors and private donors here in Texas that do prefer the not weapons, but vehicle platforms and supplies, generators, radios, drones get to the front lines.

JC Clapsaddle [00:12:04]:
That's we also do some of that. That's not rotary, but we're in country. We have those assets and we know how to make the delivery. But we saw when we were there what worked and what did not work. And we shut off a lot of money flows to things that we saw were ineffective and really not helping the war effort. And we turned on the spigots to programs that we thought were more noble and much more needed.

Bob Rivard [00:12:27]:
Joshua Foer: Have you established relationships with government or military officials over there? You just don't show up as an American citizen, do you, in Kiev saying, I want to help and I have resources.

JC Clapsaddle [00:12:38]:
So the very first time I showed up, you're right. You need a reason to go in. You have to be sponsored by the government or by a humanitarian international nonprofit organization. Well, Rotary is an international nonprofit humanitarian organization. So I show up my very first time, I hadn't met anybody and I'm on the border at 03:00 in the morning and you see the headlights of the convoy. We had agreed where to meet. Both me and my wife weren't the first time. And they pull over, doors open, we jump in, we get across the border.

JC Clapsaddle [00:13:10]:
My papers say that I am an expert in infant incubator technology. So that's how I got into the country. Now we were carrying infant incubators and I don't know much about them. I think they're probably similar to an air fryer or something like that. But if asked, I could probably put on a good show as a headache. So that's how I got in the first time. Once you're in the first time, you're established, and I don't get questioned

Bob Rivard [00:13:34]:
when I go back. Interesting. I've never heard thirdhand of, you or anyone associated with you raising money. So you're based in San Antonio. But is this like an international effort? Or are you raising this money statewide? How are you doing it?

JC Clapsaddle [00:13:50]:
It's word-of-mouth. We don't advertise or hold any big fundraisers. Usually, the people that are aware of the conflict or and I should say Rotarians. Rotarians in the area are very generous in cont contributing to the humanitarian aid mission. So we get quite a bit of money through them. But then when people hear that we can get stuff directly to almost the front lines. A couple of weeks ago, I was 10 miles away from the front lines. I was on East Of Kharkiv delivering equipment and a vehicle to a medical unit that were defending Kharkiv against the Russians.

JC Clapsaddle [00:14:24]:
So people hear that you can do that and we'll take pictures and we've got all the documentation, even the recorded the videos of us handing it off. And that sense of confidence allows them to donate to us. Now, I'm the only American in our unit. Everybody else is a Brit, Scottish, Wales. You know, they all seem to be UK people and I'm the American connection.

Bob Rivard [00:14:48]:
And do you guys have an official name? Do you have a social media?

JC Clapsaddle [00:14:51]:
We do not. And as a matter of fact, we we agree not to post on social media, until we're forty eight hours removed from wherever we just were. We're not the only unit that does this. There's a lot of these taking place and they're getting sabotaged and trucks are getting firebombed. So when they find out who you are, we've we've got pictures of grenades wired below our other unit's vehicle. So, we call it doing pushups. We get down on our vehicles on our like we're doing a pushup and we check all around all four corners to make sure there's no grenades beneath it. They do a grenade, a little wire from the pin to the axle.

JC Clapsaddle [00:15:30]:
As the car starts to move, it pops through grenade and three or four seconds later, boom. And none of our people have suffered from it, but we have caught a couple of grenades.

Bob Rivard [00:15:38]:
I would think security is a growing concern for people like yourself that don't have an official role but are in the middle of things nonetheless?

JC Clapsaddle [00:15:48]:
I've I've never felt, in trouble or danger. I think there's so many people doing what we do that if you just keep your head down and don't publicize your activities, you're good to go. Nonetheless, I have friends that it's their life. You can go out on, on the internet and see their Facebook pages. They're posting every single day where they are, what they're doing, and what their efforts are going to be.

Bob Rivard [00:16:13]:
It must be a little discouraging for you, JC, to come back to The United States from a trip like that and doing the work you do and seeing the extreme right of the Republican Party both in Congress and voters saying we shouldn't be over in Ukraine, seeing Donald Trump say he could end the war with one phone call to Putin, many people turning against our sustained efforts over a number of years. It's an unusual thing. In my own experience, most military officers as a journalist that I encountered over the years might be described as politically conservative, but I describe them less as conservative and more pragmatic. Yeah. I find military officers that have to be pragmatic because they're mission driven. And as a consequence, it must be difficult to come back and see people questioning our commitment to this country fighting for its sovereignty and democracy. Joshua Foer: It's jaw dropping.

JC Clapsaddle [00:17:09]:
So I tried to come in in 1989, Berlin Wall. It was 1990 before I actually put my uniform on. And I spent all my time and all of us have practicing against the Russian or the SovietRussian threat. Our our weaponry, our tactics, our strategies, our operations plans, we knew this day was coming whether or not it's under a Soviet flag or a Russian flag. We know it. My wife, as part of her activities, was part of what was called the European Reassurance Initiative. And that's where she would go around us, some of the former Soviet states, work with them on beefing up their military, their defenses, etcetera, etcetera. Because they knew once they're away from the Soviets, it's only a matter of time before the Soviets try to get them back, the Russians try to get them back.

JC Clapsaddle [00:17:56]:
So we did a little bit of travels all around the perimeter of Russia. And this is fifteen years ago. We knew it was coming. So when you've spent your career and your life training for this moment and everybody above you and around you knows it's coming. To hear a politician, running for president, belittle it or be able to change a whole party's philosophy on this is just dumbfounding. I have many very conservative friends, and I know how they're gonna vote, but I know they are frustrated with what's happening with our lack of support for Ukraine.

Bob Rivard [00:18:31]:
We have quite a concentration of retired military officers here in San Antonio. Four star generals on down. And I'm sure in in your, the world you and your wife live in that you probably encounter other retired military officers here. A lot of them, air force officers. And I wonder if they question you and what you're doing and your mission or if they're in sync with you and understand what you're doing and its importance.

JC Clapsaddle [00:18:59]:
There was a small gathering a week or two ago, probably about 10 people. But if you count the stars that were sitting around the table, retired and active duty, there were probably 14 stars, which means there was a lot of two, three star people there. And, of course, they're talking about Ukraine and hardly nothing else but not a one of them thinks that we should stay out of this fight. Not a one. And I perceive that they're gonna be on the more conservative end of the spectrum, but they are convinced that we're misplaying this opportunity. Now it's tricky. There's some logic why we don't give certain weapons. We can send a rocket or a missile, and it's a $14,000,000 per item missile, and it'll knock down a $2,000 Shaheed drone coming from Iran.

JC Clapsaddle [00:19:47]:
You can go broke real fast doing that, but there's other opportunities. I mean, some of our some of our artillery, long reach artillery, or basically just whatever the Ukrainians have of ours now, permit them to use it inside Russia. I was right at the Russian border a couple weeks ago. And to think that 10 miles away from where these Ukrainians are piling into Russia, they are not allowed to use certain weapons because of, well, because of America. That's frustrating. I hear other countries are now starting to loosen up those restrictions, and I hope that we're following soon.

Bob Rivard [00:20:22]:
There is pressure from our European allies on the Biden administration to do just that and allow particularly the, you know, some of the smarter missile systems that we've given the Ukrainians to use them deeper into Russian territory. There's a fear on the other side of that argument that Putin could be, serious about his threats to use tactical nuclear devices. I wonder when you're in a room with all of those retired stars and others, whether they think that's just rhetoric that's empty and that the Russian military high command could prevent such insanity or is there a fear that that really could, given the Ukrainians a green light to do as they please, could trigger a nuclear incident?

JC Clapsaddle [00:21:06]:
It's a fear, of course, but if he were to, I think most people feel that it would so polarize the sides that it would be injurious to Putin and his cause. So he could throw that out there, but I think then Europe would be so united against him that well, right now, you know, we talk about is Putin serious? He looks at us and I don't think he thinks we're serious. You know, he invaded Georgia, twelve, fifteen years ago. We didn't do anything. He invaded the Crimea in 2014. We really didn't do anything. Resolve and that matters. That emboldens him and he gives him power in Russia.

JC Clapsaddle [00:21:52]:
And now here he is, it's a European war and we're using Iranians, not friends of America. Iranian missiles and drones are being thrown in Europe. Chinese technology and Chinese advisors helping them with that. North Korean missile technology and now 10,000 North Korean forces in Ukraine. Europe needs to pony up. America needs to pony up. Look at this little nation of Ukraine and how it stood up to Russia and now Russia is having to bring in its allies. I see the sides dividing here.

JC Clapsaddle [00:22:27]:
It's polarizing and we need to probably be more contributive to this effort. Daniel Schumacher

Bob Rivard [00:22:32]:
Well, I think there's a calculation that Putin and others are awaiting the outcome of November 5 and they believe that a Trump victory will ease the pressure on them and their allies and that a Harris victory would mean more of the current policy.

JC Clapsaddle [00:22:50]:
I have donors that are waiting to see what happens. I have donors that will probably start to withdraw if it's a Trump victory because they're gonna see the writing on the wall. I've got some very generous donors, but I think that may dry up after the first week of November, depending on this election.

Bob Rivard [00:23:08]:
Well, regardless of what happens on the fifth, you have plans to go back in November, don't you?

JC Clapsaddle [00:23:12]:
I am. We have convoy already ready to roll. It's, you know, our convoys aren't huge. They're eight vehicles, but these vehicles are so critically needed that the previous minister of defense, when he he gave a list of things that they sorely need. Of course, they need weapons. They need air support. They need humanitarian aid, but they also needed casualty retrieval vehicles. Joshua

Bob Rivard [00:23:34]:
Foer: So we're talking off the assembly line four wheel drive trucks, that kind of thing? Or?

JC Clapsaddle [00:23:39]:
Joshua Foer: We are, but these are used four by fours, you know, like Pathfinders and Ninjas and, you know, name that Pathfinder four wheel drive. Used. Every one of these things is used. They're coming from England, not from America. It costs too much to buy something in The States and ship it there. So I get X amount of money. I know I can buy X amount of vehicles. We have people in England that will go usually around London to get these big diesel guzzling four by fours that are now being taxed pretty heavily by the Brits to get rid of them.

JC Clapsaddle [00:24:14]:
And they're not allowed in Downtown London anymore. If you've got a private diesel truck, you can't drive it down there anymore. You've got special tags. So it's prohibitively expensive to own these, but that's exactly the vehicles we need. So I can grab one of those for $3,000 to $5,000 a good one. We assemble them all. We have a little, yard near Dover. And at the same time, we're buying medical equipment or taking donated stuff and stuffing it into those and shipping pallets off before the convoy.

JC Clapsaddle [00:24:44]:
And then, usually, it happens at night around, you know, eight, 09:00 at night. We just start showing up, the convoy drivers, kind of like, Ocean's 10, kind of reminds me of one of those movies. We get assigned our vehicles. We do safety checks, shake hands, get in, and we drive to the ferry In England. In England. So I'm an American. I'm in there, right side drive vehicle on the wrong side of the road. And I've lost a few mirrors, left side mirrors here and there, but they still keep me.

Bob Rivard [00:25:17]:
So you're driving over to the continent from England via via the channel. And Yeah. And then what happens?

JC Clapsaddle [00:25:24]:
So get across the channel and then we usually drive until we hit Middle of Germany and then we'll grab a place to sleep. Then we'll drive all the way to the Polish Ukrainian border. We usually get in probably 10:11 o'clock at night. We grab four or five hours of sleep. At 03:00, we're up. We check all the vehicles, safety checks, all that. Get in and we drive to the border and we're there 04:00 in the morning just as the shift is happening. We know those people on that shift.

JC Clapsaddle [00:25:53]:
We're beating the day's traffic and we can usually get our full convoy in in ninety minutes. They know who we are. The paperwork is all done. And, you

Bob Rivard [00:26:01]:
know You don't encounter any resistance along the way at all? Everybody knows what you're doing and why?

JC Clapsaddle [00:26:08]:
It's we're real quiet about what we're doing. They know when they see a fleet of British

Bob Rivard [00:26:12]:
See a truck filled with medical supplies and other materials. It's pretty obvious where you're heading.

JC Clapsaddle [00:26:17]:
And we don't put Red Crosses on our vehicles. We don't advertise who we are. Now they're gonna know, but but we don't advertise it. We keep our heads down pretty low. Once we get into the Ukraine and it's always stunningly beautiful. I mean, we're hitting it and we're driving east into Ukraine. The sun's coming up and it's just a beautiful, beautiful land. And then we have our first warehouse, usually around 09:00.

JC Clapsaddle [00:26:43]:
And the logistics behind this. So being a military officer, I love, you know, logistics is how an army travels. It's how anybody moves, right? As we're offloading and they're making the records and the documentation, Rotarians from across Ukraine are all already pulling up in their vehicles and military units are pulling up in their vehicles. We check it in, check it right out. There's no dust in that warehouse. Everything must have, maybe a 100% turnaround within forty eight hours. It's really impressive. So that tells me two things.

JC Clapsaddle [00:27:15]:
It tells me they're absolutely organized and that the need is great. Nothing sets. Turnit, go ahead.

Bob Rivard [00:27:20]:
Well, and I was thinking maybe, you don't want full warehouses attracting Russian attention.

JC Clapsaddle [00:27:26]:
When we pulled in the very first time, 09/19/2022, We were in our warehouse and a few miles away, the Russians took out a warehouse that had 300 metric tons of humanitarian aid. So they knew what they were hitting. We're lucky. We're really small. You know, our warehouse is maybe, you know, 150 feet by 150 feet. And if we stack it up and they hit it with a missile, it's probably not worth what the missile is. But they really scored across town. And we we were there unloading our trucks.

JC Clapsaddle [00:28:00]:
We're seeing this column of smoke in the sky miles away knowing that the other warehouse had been hit.

Bob Rivard [00:28:06]:
JC, does your wife, support your continuing return to, to Ukraine?

JC Clapsaddle [00:28:12]:
Absolutely. She may, depending on what happens, she may even go back. She So she's a civil and combat engineer. She knows how to build things. And when she was in the military, that's why she was in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan. She was working with their militaries on building facilities and bases and such. So when she goes into Ukraine, they found out what her background was and they took us to cities that had been destroyed. Bucha, Monchon, areas near the airport the Russians had taken.

JC Clapsaddle [00:28:43]:
We're walking through these crumbled beautiful cities at one point. Now it's just bricks all over the place. So she's looking at it. And when you build a building or a neighborhood or a city, probably 10% of the cost of that is just the planning and the administration at a minimum. So that's a hundred million dollar project right there. Just think of the many millions that it's going to take just in the end. She is gathering internationally, retired civil engineers from the different militaries and including our own air force and assembling a team that, we'll go over. And so they're working with the Ukrainians to go over.

JC Clapsaddle [00:29:24]:
And when there's a lull in this or maybe there's peace declared, they'll take a look at these different cities and they'll come up with the first drafts of plans. Whether or not they're used to their fulfillment, I don't know. But it's going to save them a lot of money and it shows that there's a lot of people involved in the rebuilding. So you got to have confidence in the rebuilding.

Bob Rivard [00:29:46]:
Your efforts in Ukraine and we might share that with readers in future weeks if you get to a point maybe after your November trip to where you're raising funds again to- Joshua Foer: Absolutely. To go.

JC Clapsaddle [00:29:57]:
Joshua Foer: Absolutely. We have the Rotary Club of San Antonio has a website and, up at the top bar there, there's a little link that can take you to, if you wanted to donate to the Ukraine effort. And, I tell you every nothing sets. And I have the ability that once something is donated, for instance, tourniquets, the amount of traumatic amputations in this war. There are more people missing arms and legs and eyes in two years of this war in Ukraine than there were in the entirety of America during World War II. So this is a generation of limbless and eyeless people. Tourniquets are of such a value there that they just there's no such thing as a dusty tourniquet. We show up and we open a box of tourniquets and people just they're grabbing them by the handfuls because they're going to use them.

JC Clapsaddle [00:30:55]:
And so there are organizations here in San Antonio that do nothing but raise money for tourniquets. And we we deliver those tourniquets for them too. So and I mentioned tourniquets because they're not that pricey. Right? They're $20.30 bucks, but they're drastically needed. So any small donation.

Bob Rivard [00:31:14]:
Okay. And just to repeat that, people can go to the Rotary Club of San Antonio's website and donate there. Right. And they can they specify that it's for efforts in Ukraine?

JC Clapsaddle [00:31:22]:
Yes. There's an actual link there that you can click for Ukraine.

Bob Rivard [00:31:26]:
Well, JC, before my post COVID voice completely gives out, let's talk about other, activities of yours besides Ukraine here in San Antonio. I think I first heard about you, correct me if I'm wrong, for your involvement with Guide Dogs of San Antonio. Is that possible? Absolutely.

JC Clapsaddle [00:31:44]:
I wish I would have brought my dog with me today. I'm not blind, but I helped raise and train guide dogs for Guide Dogs of Texas. And, it's just this beautiful organization. There's so many visually impaired and blind people in Texas, but there's just not enough Guide Dogs to meet the need. You know, there's probably 5,000 people that would take one, but they don't place 5,000 in all of North America. You know, all the different guide dog agencies together can't produce that much. So Guide Dogs of Texas raises and trains these beautiful animals just for Texans who might need one. And, I'm on their board of directors, but I got involved because I was a puppy sitter.

JC Clapsaddle [00:32:24]:
And if you can believe this, we are actually seeking volunteers that will do nothing but babysit little puppies. And when you

Bob Rivard [00:32:32]:
Are they baby rescues?

JC Clapsaddle [00:32:34]:
No, we raise and breed all of our own dogs. We have an international network of breeders that do nothing but raise and train guide dogs and special service dogs. And you have to. These genetically, these dogs have been bred for generations to be calm, smart, loving, obedient. So when we when when you babysit one of these as a volunteer, we want you to take it to the H E B with you. And it's got a little blue vest on it and it follows you around and you can take it to the wineries or Home Depot. And we need volunteers sometimes just for an afternoon because somebody's gotta go to their kids recital, sometimes for a week or two because somebody's sick or somebody's on vacation.

Bob Rivard [00:33:20]:
Alright. We have a lot of dog lovers in our audience. What are they where do they reach out as their nurses?

JC Clapsaddle [00:33:25]:
Texas website. And it's a brand new website, so there might be some kinks in it, but you'll see pictures of puppies. And, you know, if you're ever interested in just puppy sitting or even raising one of these beautiful things for a year, it is the most joyous and adorable way to volunteer.

Bob Rivard [00:33:41]:
But you can't fall in love with that dog and keep it, can you?

JC Clapsaddle [00:33:44]:
You do. You can't.

Bob Rivard [00:33:46]:
You can't. You can fall in love.

JC Clapsaddle [00:33:48]:
You do. But then then you see that dog out with its new family or that blind person and you realize you just put love into the universe. It's just a great organization.

Bob Rivard [00:33:58]:
Well, that's a great place to end it. JC Clapsaddle, thank you so much for coming on to Big City Small Town. Thank you, Bob. Pleasure. Welcome to The Last Word, my weekly commentary on life and work in San Antonio and Texas. Four years and $133,000,000 later, not to mention countless street closures and detours, Lower Broadway reopened Saturday, October 25. And because this is San Antonio, Lower Broadway will reopen with a party, a block party. You are invited.

Bob Rivard [00:34:34]:
I expect a significant number of my fellow cyclists to show up on their bikes to join the festivities. The event will begin with a 01:30 press conference featuring mayor Ron Nirenberg and city manager Eric Walsh. The block party featuring bikes, brews and bites, music, kids' activities, face painting, vintage automobiles, and more will be staged from two to six PM and is free and open to the public. Residents from all parts of the city are invited to join a host of RiverNorth District residents and business owners who will be on hand. For those of us who have worked for years to see a revitalized Broadway, Saturday will showcase the long awaited results of a project first seriously promised a decade ago. The city's decision to include $56,900,000 in the 2,017 bond was the decisive first big step in the project with an additional $76,000,000 coming from the Midtown TIRS, that's the taxing entity, SAWS, CPS Energy, AT and T, and the San Antonio River Authority. Infrastructure improvements include ADA compliant wheelchair ramps on sidewalks and crosswalks, improved lighting and on street parking, and wider sidewalks. Last year, the cycle tracks or the protected bike lanes were opened on Avenue B and North Alamo Street on each side of Broadway.

Bob Rivard [00:36:00]:
The River North District is now a 375 acre transit oriented development first envisioned decades ago in what eventually was adopted as the RiverNorth master plan. The district reaches north of downtown and East Houston Street, north along Broadway just South of The Pearl, 1 of the country's most recognized adaptive reuse projects and the catalyst for much of what has since taken place along and near Broadway and in River North. The Lower Broadway project is not to be confused with city bond funds that voters approved for the redesign of Upper Broadway, a project that originally was going to be done in partnership with the city of Alamo Heights, reaching from that municipality south to the area that includes the Witte Museum, access to Brackenridge Park, and the San Antonio Botanical Garden among other cultural destinations. That ambitious project to reduce traffic lanes and add wide sidewalks, landscaping, and protected bike lanes was undone when the Texas Department of Transportation, chaired by San Antonio Businessman, Bruce Bugg Junior, acted on orders from governor Greg Abbott and rescinded a state commitment to transfer title of Upper Broadway from the state to the city. State and city officials had worked together in good faith for several years on the project before political considerations upended the project without warning. Subsequent efforts to reach a suitable compromise with state officials have failed, and the bond money remains unspent and the project unrealized. It was a cynical political mover by Abbott and Bugg, underscoring the governor's continuing war with the state's big city mayors over local control. In this instance, we citizens are the losers.

Bob Rivard [00:37:49]:
I still recall the Build Your Own Broadway event that the Revard Report in Central San Antonio, in partnership with The Pearl, organized in 02/2016 that drew more than 90 creative entries showcasing proposed ways to improve Broadway that were submitted by architects, designers, urban planners, and others who competed for $25,000 in prize money. The event drew hundreds to the Pearl Stable where the entries were displayed and the winners brought to the stage for presentations. Readers can still peruse the many creative ideas by searching for that coverage in the San Antonio report archive. Fast forward to the present. While many of us did not see the complete street vision for all of Broadway realized, there is much to celebrate with the completion of the long running Public Works Project. Citizens can send a message to Austin by turning out in force for Saturday's Lower Broadway reopening and celebration, signaling broad public support demonstrated in the last two bond elections for revitalization of Broadway. I'm looking forward to serving as emcee of the Saturday event. I'll be there, of course, on my bike.

Bob Rivard [00:39:04]:
Please join me. That's my last word for this week. Thanks to Ashley Bird of Blooming with Bertie and Maura Bobbitt for production of Big City Small Town, and to Erica Rimpel for video support, and to Alfie de la Garza of Sound Crane Audio for engineering and editing. Please share this episode with friends and colleagues and on social media, and then go vote. Let's vote to uphold democracy in The United States, and let's vote to turn Texas back into a two party state in statewide races. We will see you next week.