Full Transcript
Stephen Letnes:
There are protocols in place and of course there are some protocols in place, but not for hundreds of thousands who do not drive. There are none.
Jeff Thompson:
Please welcome Stephen Letnes, film composer, producer and concert pianist.
Stephen Letnes:
How as a sight challenged individual, how would I get tested without putting any risk on friends or family? They said, “Oh, we have plenty of protocols set up.” Like really? What are they? They couldn’t answer them and I said, “Are you telling me you don’t have any protocols?” They said, “Well, just tell your driver.”
Jeff Thompson:
Asking the big question who and what form of transportation will bring you to the doctor?
Stephen Letnes:
I’m sure your state has something called Medi-Cabs, which is another word for medical transport or non-emergency medical transportation.
Jeff Thompson:
Make a difference in your state. Make a difference in your community.
Stephen Letnes:
Who knows? What if Tesla said, “Hey, let’s use these as test cases. Let’s put some automated vehicles in this city and just to test this out for COVID 19 testing.”
Jeff Thompson:
Steve is also the founder of Able Artists Foundation, ableartists.org.
Stephen Letnes:
Because what my hope is that when you call your doctor, your doctor says, “Here’s the phone number that you call to give to this 800 number for them to then dispatch to your location to pick you up.”
Jeff Thompson:
Encouraging all of us to contact our legislators, our governors, our departments of health to ensure that our voices and challenges are considered and heard.
Stephen Letnes:
There is a hotline that people can call for the Minnesota Department of Health, which is (651) 201-3920. It’s a place to start. Let’s get this question trending. If you can reach out to your legislators to raise the question, if listeners can do that or would like to do that, getting the word out there I think that’ll help. That’s how we do it. That’s how we got to do it.
Jeff Thompson:
We encourage you to contact your state’s corona hotline and get your voice heard.
Stephen Letnes:
We should put the head of department of transportation, the head of metro mobility, the head of medi-transport, the head of the EMS into a round table and to bring in people from the community to discuss these challenges to identify a solution that we can implement in the next couple of weeks.
Jeff Thompson:
Now without further ado, please welcome Steven Letnes.
Stephen Letnes:
You and I do and your listeners do because we’ve been through the muck. We have experienced a ton of garbage. We know how systems work because we have to figure out our own systems to survive and thrive in whatever we’re looking to do to lead fulfilling lives. ‘.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. In the studio today, we got a returning guest, Steven Letnes. He’s a film composer, producer, music score writer, very accomplished. He’s here today. We’re talking about the coronavirus, and what happens if you think you have it? How are you going to get someplace, transportation? What’s set up in our locale, Minneapolis, St. Paul area and across the nation? It’s a concern that some of us have and Stephen has dug in and asked the big questions to a lot of places and got some answers. How are you doing, Stephen?
Stephen Letnes:
Hey. I’m doing all right. Thanks for inviting me onto your show to dive a little deeper into what I thought I was going to be a somewhat easily solvable question, but oh no, this rabbit hole goes deep.
Jeff Thompson:
You just called to find out a simple question because you didn’t want to endanger your friends, your family or anybody else.
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah. When this started going down really in the state of Minnesota maybe almost two weeks ago I was thinking, “Oh yeah, testing.” Because they said, “Here are the protocols that you go through and don’t go to the emergency room. Don’t go directly to your doctor. First, call your doctor and if your doctor says, ‘Yep, you should get tested,’ come on in and get tested.” I thought, “Wait a minute. Yeah, I’m healthy now. I exercise. I eat right. I mean I do what I need to do. I’m not really that concerned for my own health really. But what would I do?” Because I live in the heart of downtown Minneapolis in a high rise, and I’m visually impaired. So I’ve always had to rely on other people to get me to where I need to go. But here’s the first instance that I can really think of. Oh my gosh, if I need to get tested, how do I protect the driver who would take me to and from testing? Of course that leads to whether you just bring the test to you. Well that’s a whole other can of worms to figure out.
Stephen Letnes:
But just from that one question, how as a sight challenged individual, how would I get tested without putting any risk on friends or family? So I called my physician. I said, “Hey, I’m just curious. I’m doing fine. I’m healthy.” This was maybe 10, 11 days ago. “What would I do? If you said, ‘Yeah, you have enough symptoms to warrant getting a test, come on in.'” I said, “What are your protocols for helping people? Because you see a lot of patients. What are your protocols for people who don’t drive to come and get tested?” The gal was floored. She’s like, “I’ve never been asked that before.” I thought, “Oh my, okay, well?” She’s like, “Let me look into that.” Which then made me think well if our physicians don’t have anything set up, I mean aside from coronavirus, but just for anything in general, for infectious diseases at all, what would you do?
Stephen Letnes:
I then proceeded to figure out and go down the list of anybody and everybody I could speak to, and that list included the Minnesota Department of Health, the Department of Emergency Preparedness, Minnesota Council on Independent Living, Minnesota Council on Disabilities, my healthcare providers, my insurance companies, medi transport companies around town. Nobody has an answer. No one.
Stephen Letnes:
Here’s a scenario. I called up my insurance company and I said, “Hey, if I need testing, what are your protocols to get me from my place to the doctor to get tested?” They said, “Oh yeah, we arrange transport for you.” For a second my heart was lifted. I’m like, oh, sweet. Of course insurance companies have this set up to protect themselves and to protect their clients. I’m like, “Oh, great. Well what does that look like?” “Yeah. Well, we put you on the calendar and if you need to get over there, we’ll just send transportation for you.” I’m like, “Oh, cool. Well, what’s that transportation?” He said, “Oh, we just call you a cab.”
Jeff Thompson:
If it was that easy.
Stephen Letnes:
If it were that easy. I said, “Wait a minute. Wait, you’d call a cab?” He said, Yeah, just any of the local cab companies, we arrange the time and we send you over.” I’m like, “No, no, no. You’re not getting my question.” I said, “If I were a potentially infected person presenting with symptoms for COVID 19 and I have been told by my doctor to come in and get tested, you’re telling me you’re going to send a cab over?” They said, “Well, yeah. Or you get on public transportation. I mean, that’s how you would get over there.” I said, “Well, I can’t take public transportation. That’s why I’m calling you.” They said, “Well, here’s the other thing. If you can’t take public transportation, Steve, you have to have your doctor submit a form to us that says you should not take public transportation. Once we receive that form, we can then arrange a ride for you, which is the aforementioned cab.”
Stephen Letnes:
I’m laughing with the guy on the other line. He was a super cool guy and he’s like, “Nobody’s ever called about this before.” And I said, “Can you see how this is a problem?” Not only is there a delay in getting tested once your primary physician says, “Yep, you need to come and get tested.” There’s a delay that might be days, but then you’re also telling me the testing transportation is a cab, which then of course, guess what I did next, Jeff? I called those cab companies and I said, “Hey, cab companies around Minneapolis, St. Paul, what do you do? What are your protocols if somebody needs to go get tested for COVID 19?” They said, “Oh, we have plenty of protocols set up.” I’m like, “Really? What are they?” They couldn’t answer them. I said, “Are you telling me you don’t have any protocols?” They said, “Well, just tell your driver. When your driver picks you up, just tell your driver.”
Jeff Thompson:
We’re laughing, but it’s not that funny really.
Stephen Letnes:
It’s ridiculous. Every place I called, every person I spoke to, no one had brought it up. Insurance companies, councils, anybody. Nobody had brought it up yet until I called the Minnesota Department of Health hotline that anybody could call for any reason whatsoever. I said, “Has anybody called about this? Presenting needing transportation but wanting to reduce risk to family or friends or Uber drivers or public transportation by getting a different kind of transportation?” They said, “Well, no. I mean we’ve had some people call and generally ask if there are rides that they could get. But nobody’s really asked the way you’re asking.” I thought this is ridiculous.
Stephen Letnes:
I know I’m talking a lot here. I talked to a friend of mine who does helicopter medicine. She’s a flight nurse, so she travels all over California in helicopters to people in need in distress to perform an emergency heart whatevers to fix them. She said, “Oh you mean Medi-Cabs?” I’m like, “What are those?” She’s like, “I’m sure your state has something called Medi-Cabs.” Which is another word for medical transport or non-emergency medical transportation. It is the nexus in between pedestrian vehicle, like a minivan or public transportation or any kind of vehicle and an ambulance. Because if you’re going to get tested for COVID 19, you don’t want to call EMS, you don’t want to call 911. I mean unless you’re really ill, right? You’re under emergency circumstances. But the Department of Health here is saying, do not call 911. Do not just show up to your doctor’s office to get a test. There are protocols in place. Of course there are some protocols in place, but not for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans who do not drive. There are none.
Stephen Letnes:
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the word out, how to discuss it. I was able to get on WCCO radio the other day to talk about it. I’m going on channel five to talk about it because this doesn’t just apply to people with disabilities. This just doesn’t apply to the 100,000 Minnesotans who are blind. This applies to hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans who may otherwise be healthy because Jeff, you and me, we’re vision impaired. We may be blind, visually impaired but we are otherwise healthy. There are hundreds of thousands of healthy people who happen to have some type of disability or people in general, not even just people with disabilities, but people who don’t drive for whatever reason. They can’t drive. But if they need testing, what is the logistical solution to this problem that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans might want to know about if they start presenting with very bad symptoms enough for the doctor to say, “Yep. You’ve got to come in, you got to get tested.” I’ll stop there. I just laid a lot on you.
Jeff Thompson:
You just answered. I was going to ask you what you’ve been doing since you’ve been self isolating.
Stephen Letnes:
Oh, well sipping a lot of coffee and calling a lot of people and thinking of a lot of solutions.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great because that’s something that came up in a conversation I was having. I just ended it with, “Well then you call your doctor and they’ll tell you how to get in there.” And it ended there, but in the back of my mind I was wondering, well, family, friends, Uber. I was going through the list. I’m like, “Wow.” Then I heard you on WCCO when you talked about the Medi-Cab. That made sense. How does the system get educated on what you’re pursuing?
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah. What it comes down to is the way to solve a problem, if you are somewhat powerless, like I’m kind of powerless, I’m just a guy living downtown. I don’t have any power within the system. I don’t work within the system. The way to find a solution is to identify how the system works itself and then work within that system. What I learned is the way the system works to get anything up the chain is to call the hotline and get a topic trending. Getting people to call the Department of Health hotline to say, “Hey, what about medical transport?” These vehicles in between a minivan and an ambulance that is easily cleanable with drivers that have the six foot distance between you and the driver. The drivers have the protective equipment on and when you’re in and out of the place, they can clean the vehicle ready for the next person.
Stephen Letnes:
These medical transports, is getting that to trend on this hotline so that the Department of Health can make a recommendation to legislators, to the governor’s office to say, “Hey look, we need to put a task force on this particular issue because it’s not just for blind low vision people.” Blind low vision people are calling to say, “Hey, this is an issue that affects many more people than this 5% of Minnesota. This affects 15, 20, 25% of Minnesotans and you should at least begin having a conversation about it, identify a solution, and then put the message out there like you are doing with what testing drive throughs there are now, the problems you’re having. Get messaging out into the community for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans that have been asking but haven’t had the luxury of getting to go on TV, on radio, on podcasts, ask this question to elevate it up through the ranks.”
Stephen Letnes:
Jeff, this is what I feel I can do. How do I help my community? How do I help Minnesota? Since I have a lot more time on my hands, because right now, Jeff, working in the film industry, because of COVID 19 I am not in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the Marshall Islands producing a documentary. That’s what I should be doing right now. But instead I am at home and I’m like, “Well, what can I do? What can I control?” I’m like, “Well, what are the problems that need to be solved?” Apparently, this is what I’ve been spending the last 10, 11 days thinking about.
Jeff Thompson:
This is a really great question that needs to get answered and I’m glad you’re doing it because we’re just talking about Minneapolis, St. Paul, some big metropolis in the middle of the Midwest. But what’s happening in New York? What’s happening in California? What’s happening in Florida? This is a question that other people should be asking and getting on their hotlines so they can move it up the chain as well.
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah. I think what it speaks to honestly, Jeff, is a greater question about transportation in general in the United States because until Google and Tesla and all the other companies come out with automated vehicles where they can stick us in a box and press go to your doctor, there is this risk. Between now and five years from now, who knows? What if Tesla said, “Hey, let’s use these as test cases. Let’s put some automated vehicles in this city in Arizona or the city in Minnesota just to test this out for COVID 19 testing. Let’s just try this out. How can we bend the rules to see if we can get things moving a little faster?” Because they are bending the rules in a lot of areas right now, so there is a lot of opportunity for innovation. But again, how do you reduce risk to people? I’m hoping that this question that at least we can get the ball rolling on the conversation might lead to other answers in how to streamline transportation in general.
Stephen Letnes:
I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t drive. I’ve never driven. I have no idea what goes into vehicles, the Department of Transportation, how metro mobility works. I’m just asking the question to hopefully get people much smarter than I am to discuss, “Oh well here’s what I know in this area and here’s what you know in this area. When we put those together, oh, here’s the solution and then here’s a phone number.” Because what my hope is that when you call your doctor, your doctor says, “You need to come in testing. But let me ask you a question first. Are you able to get to the doctor’s office on your own?” If they say no, they ask a couple more questions to identify who you are and if you can drive.
Stephen Letnes:
They say, “Oh you cannot drive, you are incapable of driving yourself. Here’s the phone number that you call and here is your visitor ID number.” Not your HIPAA patient ID number because that’s private, but here’s your visit ID that I’m giving you to give to this 800 number for them to then dispatch to your location to pick you up to get you tested and back home again. I would like it to be some type of system like that. Or if there were to one day be self-administered cases, they could send a kit to your house and then they just have medi transports or EMS people who just do routes like post office workers. “Oh yeah, we’ll pick it up tomorrow.”
Stephen Letnes:
But we’re not there yet, but at least get the conversation started. The way to do that is to call hotlines, to call legislators. I’ve reached out to legislators that I’m acquainted with. They haven’t been able to get back to me because they’re already busy doing their own thing. But calling your legislators, calling the hotline, tweeting the governor, tweeting your legislators and saying, “Hey, this is a real issue. This isn’t just about me. This is a large percentage of our population that you should be paying attention about with transportation, again, to reduce risks to others.” If we’re all in this together, people with disabilities and people who can’t drive are also looking for ways to help their neighbors too. We are not invalids. We are not the truly vulnerable population. As I’ve said many times before, Jeff, we are natural problem solvers. So this is what we can do with our time to help our fellow neighbors.
Stephen Letnes:
I hope this will get some of your listeners to call up and just present the question or calling your legislators say, “Hey, I heard this question on the radio today. I’ve kind of been thinking about this too actually. Here’s a way that I think that we can solve this.” That’s what I hope will happen. Get it trending so they take notice that, “Oh my goodness, there are quite a few Minnesotans who are asking this question. Maybe we should put the head of Department of Transportation, the head of metro mobility, the head of medi transport, the head of the EMS into a round table and to bring in people from the community to discuss these challenges to identify a solution that we can implement in the next couple of weeks because this is going to be with us for months, if not years.
Jeff Thompson:
Exactly. Because we need it. Definitely need it. I’m glad you’re not in the Marshall Islands right now because you’re doing a good thing for so many people. Well, how many hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities in Minnesota and if this trickles across to the other states, you’ll be helping everyone. Because this is very new for a lot of people and I’m just so surprised that every phone call you made, no one had an answer. Nothing. Except for the gal in California, the flight nurse. She had the solution there.
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah, she is fantastic. It’s really frustrating too because I reached out to some people in the media when I was first presenting this question and they completely misunderstood the purpose of the question. They just glossed over said, “Oh look, transportation won’t be a problem at all. What are you talking about?” And they had dismissed it altogether and yet with persistence. I think this is also a lesson to everybody out there too, at least that I’ve learned that I would like to share, is just because you get a no, just because you get dismissed, that doesn’t mean you stop. Once you got a yes on whatever you’re doing, you don’t stop. That’s when your actual job starts.
Stephen Letnes:
I’ve worked for 10 or 11 days off and on. I’m not doing this 24/7, but I’m thinking about this here and there and reaching out to people. After 10 or 11 days, I finally got a yes to go on WCCO. All right now, I’ve gone to WCCO. Then I reached out to you and then now I’ve got other news agencies reaching out to me. This is where the work now starts. In other words, I am not dismayed. I’m frustrated, but I am not disillusioned that there isn’t a solution. This just means we’re… Because Jeff you just said you had thought about it too. You’re like, “Oh yeah, I was thinking about this. Yeah, I guess I’m not sure what the solution might be.” But you’re already thinking about it, which tells me there are tons of people already thinking about this. So the question is out there. We just got to raise our voices like many of us with disabilities have had to do many times before in advocating for ourselves.
Stephen Letnes:
We just get to happen to advocate for something that not only will help ourselves but will help Minnesota at large because here’s how you make it self-serving for the government. The government keeps talking about, well we can’t quite test everybody, but we need testing to define models to get data to create models for spread. Well, if you’re not testing people in a population that cannot drive, you are going to predict inaccurate models based on the data that you are only getting because the system that society has set up is only getting this type of data. There’s far more valuable data out there if you can broaden the system to include people, and in this example, people with disabilities or people who cannot drive in general. If you can get that data, you will have a better informed model to then identify future outbreaks and also importantly where your resources can go, which counties, where your resources can go in those counties because counties will then come back to say, “Look, here’s the resources we’ve spent. Hey, we need some money in these areas because you’ve sent resources here.”
Stephen Letnes:
It’s all intertwined with paybacks, with loans. By asking this question to solve the problem with transportation like we’re trying to do, that will inform what the state needs, which is data to make these models. I do believe this is a way to help the state and to help all Minnesotans. Yeah, you’re right Jeff. Maybe it would help other people in other states if they could figure out the solution. But we are Minnesotans, we are ingenious people. We solve a lot of problems. We are very creative. We could think of many great products. Maybe this is one other we can put on the board of things maybe all of us working together can solve.
Jeff Thompson:
I think this really too stems from the point that you were thinking of people offering, oh I could bring you, but you would not want to jeopardize friends, family, other people. And even to the people that you didn’t even know. The taxi driver, the Uber driver, the mass transportation. Out of your concern, how do you do this without infecting or jeopardizing someone else’s health?
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah, because what wouldn’t families do for one another? I think, and this is something that I can’t really talk about on the news, is when people think about vulnerable populations, if they’re not thinking about people with disabilities, we are almost automatically put into that category of vulnerable population. When people think of vulnerable populations, they think of weakness and helpless. That is precisely what we are not. We happen to have a disability, but we are very resourceful people. It’s pejorative. It’s like the soft bigotry of low expectations. “Steve, well, you’re blind. Look, I’ll put myself at risk because you need help, so I’ll help you. It’s okay.” It’s polite condescension. I’m like, “No, I’m looking out for you. Just because I’m blind doesn’t remove me. It doesn’t excuse me from practicing social stewardship. How can I help you?”
Stephen Letnes:
That is also what it is. That’s digging into the weeds into something that the “normal” people out there probably might not understand the nuances of that conversation, but you and I do and your listeners do because we’ve been through the muck. We have experienced a ton of garbage. We know how systems work because we have to figure out our own systems to survive and thrive in whatever we’re looking to do to lead fulfilling lives. Just right now, leading fulfilling lives means looking out for our brothers and sisters out in our community. We have plenty of solutions that we can think of right now. We just need to elevate them to people in power to implement whatever solutions there are so that we can help ourselves, help our community and help Minnesota and others at large if possible.
Jeff Thompson:
And especially since we’re contributing citizens to Minnesota and we have a voice and you’ve been exercising your voice and so many people don’t know what’s going on. They may not have even thought about it, but I really want to thank you from myself and the listeners. You’re taking on the initiative, taking charge, and going to that next question. Getting no, getting no, getting no, and then getting a yes and moving forward with it because you are going to make a difference for all of us.
Stephen Letnes:
Well, thank you for saying so. As a Minnesota, I will admit I feel a little bashful when you say it that way but I hope it starts a conversation. I do appreciate you saying it, but I’m just really hoping it sparks a conversation that leads to a solution.
Jeff Thompson:
There’s no bigger radio station than WCCO and now you’re going on KCMP. I mean that’s the big channel here. You’re going to get, I don’t know how many hundreds, thousands of people are going to be tuned in. Even Wisconsin will be tuned in and hear this. At least the people will start thinking about it and cocking their head and thinking about it. Like you said, get the conversation started, bring awareness to it.
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah, and that’s where it starts. Actually while I have you, the hotline number. If people want to call and raise their concerns about this or have a solution, there is a hotline that people can call for the Minnesota Department of Health, which is (651) 201-3920. Again, that is (651) 201-3920. It’s a place to start. Let’s get this question trending. If you can reach out to your legislators to raise the question. If listeners can do that or would like to do that, I think that would help. If you can tweet our governor, Governor Tim Walz and your legislators in general, getting the word out there, I think that’ll help. That’s how we do it. That’s how we got to do it.
Jeff Thompson:
You’re helping so many people with this initiative and what you’re doing with the Able Artist, the foundation that you have. It’s a great opportunity for people in the music industry. You’re into film, music and you reached out and started a foundation to help people with disabilities get an opportunity to strive in music.
Stephen Letnes:
Yeah. The Able Artist Foundation, ableartist.org. We have several programs. As a sight challenged composer now producer in the film industry, I want to find ways to support and empower people like me, people like us. We have three different programs. One, we’re actually launching a new program, but the first one is discounts. If you’re a musician, you can become a member of our foundation, which is free. It’s private, and you get 50% discounts on every partner product and that’s hundreds of products of music, software products. It’s a big deal. We’ve given out over $50,000 in scholarships for these products in the last two years. We have a grant program, which may or may not change. It’s just like what you think. You apply for a grant $2,000 to $3,000 grant from music to go into a studio to record. But in the world that we’re in right now, we may be delaying the grants just for now until things clear up with COVID 19. We’ll see. We’re still evaluating.
Stephen Letnes:
But the other program that we have that we’re starting this year is a music contest. In a month or two, we’re going to launch a contest where any musician in the world, it doesn’t matter what your disability is, if you have a disability, send us your music.
Jeff Thompson:
You’re limiting it to just the world, huh?
Stephen Letnes:
Only the world. I think we’ll be okay. There’s over a billion people in the world with a disability. Anybody with a disability can send us their music and we have it evaluated. If you win, there’s going to be three winners, the main winner gets a piece of software from every participating partner that we have, which could be $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 for the products. The runner ups will get one software product from one of our participating partners, which could be $200 to $500 product. Not bad for just sending in a couple of MP3s.
Stephen Letnes:
But here’s the best part. Here’s what I think is great about it because not only will the winners get some free schwag, get some software, but I have created a partnership with a company here in Minneapolis St. Paul called Hit List Music, and they are a music licensing company, sync licensing, S-Y-N-C. Sync licensing. They take music and put it into commercials. They take music and put it into TV shows and films. I have an agreement with Hit List Music to listen and evaluate the winner’s music for possible sync licensing into advertising, film and television, which means money. Which means additional supplemental income because we’re trying to elevate people’s living status. Especially now with COVID 19. I’ll be very candid. I’ve lost half my annual income because of COVID 19. All of my film projects that I was traveling for to do this year are done. They are gone. I’ve lost half my income.
Stephen Letnes:
It is important more than ever to support musicians with disabilities or to support musicians, but in my case, I’m supporting musicians with disabilities. The best way I know how to do that is sync licensing, music licensing. This contest that we will be launching in the next month or two people again submit their music. If they win, they get some free software and the music will be evaluated by a music licensing company, possibly be put into commercials or other advertising or film or television to generate some more income so we can elevate their standard of living. Those are a few things that Able Artist Foundation does. We’re going to be getting creative this year as the world changes day to day.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s ableartist.org is where they can find that. Stephen Letnes, I want to thank you for you’re doing on all accounts of everything you’re doing and especially what you’re doing right now during your time away from the Marshall Islands and working with the system. The system, trying to work it up the chain, bring awareness to transportation for people who can’t drive. So thank you very much Stephen.
Stephen Letnes:
Well, you’re welcome. Thank you for having me on your show and getting to spread the word, share what at least my experiences have been. If people have suggestions, they’re welcome to email me at Steve@ableartist.org. Steve@abelartist.org. If you have questions or thoughts, I’d love to hear them. But again, thank you for inviting me on your show to share my experience with what I’m trying to figure out. Let’s all work together. Let’s all find a solution and do our part to help our communities during this COVID 19 crisis.
Jeff Thompson:
I’m glad you put your email out there because I hope people do contact you and let you know their thoughts because you got the tenacity to bring this forward and take a few nos and take a few hits here and there, but you’re making airwaves now. Literally making airwaves with it. So thank you.
Stephen Letnes:
You bet. Thanks for having me on, Jeff. You take care.
Jeff Thompson:
All right. Thank you so much for taking the time and coming on and good luck with your interview at KSTP.
Stephen Letnes:
Thank you so much, Jeff.
Jeff Thompson:
So grateful for what Steve Letnes is doing. And you too can be an advocate for your own state. I put a link in the show notes hotlines for across the state. Just check out the chart. You can find your hotline number so you can call and advocate as well. As mentioned in the podcast, if you’re an inspiring musician with a disability, be sure to contact Ableartist.org. The Able Artist Foundation. A lot of great opportunities. With that said, stay well. Be kind, be gracious, and together we can do this. Thank you Chee Chau for your beautiful music. Hope you and the family are doing well and you can find Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau. Thanks for listening, and until next time, bye-bye.
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Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency.
Contact:
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