Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Taking the Lead podcast where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christina Heppner with my co-host Timothy Kuo and guest host Alyssa Otis. Alyssa, thanks again so much for joining us as a guest host While Leslie's often joining a nice vacation.
Alyssa: No problem. I love doing these, uh,
Christina: podcasts here.
Yes. And we love having you on. And Timothy, you are doing some traveling right now. Do you wanna tell us about what you're traveling?
Timothy: Yeah, we, uh, we've been traveling, uh, we're speaking at the Lions, uh, meetings and some of the conventions here. I was in Maryland Thursday and Friday, and now I'm in Delaware for another big one tonight.
And we're raising money for Leader Dog and it's great to be on the road, uh, spreading the word and. being a good AM ambassador for Leader Dog and I'm enjoying ourselves. I'm eating too much though guys. I'm
Hayden: enjoying
the
Christina: food. Too much . Oh, I am sure they are feeding you tons. I am a little jealous. . [00:01:00] Yeah.
Alyssa: The lions never let you go hungry.
Yes.
Christina: Well, and worse
Hayden: I bet.
Timothy: Ate so much crab this week. Oh, .
Christina: Hey, that sounds great to me. And it's probably fresh because you're the coast on the coast. Right by the oceans.
Hayden: Yeah. It's all
Katie: fresh. Oh,
Christina: so jealous. Plenty of it. Thank God. . Yes. Well, Timothy, thank you so much for all you do and we could not do what we do without the support of our alliance clubs and it's so awesome that you get to connect with them and, um, you know, speak to them about your experience and it's awesome.
We so appreciate everything you do and all the time you give to. Well, I've
Timothy: been given plugs for the podcast. I'm give shout out to North Maryland and Southern District Maryland and tonight Delaware. So let's go. Let's get some more
Hayden: money for Leader
Katie: Dog. Yes.
Alyssa: I love the little shout outs. That's great.
Christina: Yes.
Well, we haven't. . An exciting, yeah, some exciting guests [00:02:00] today.
Alyssa: Some very exciting guests today. Our guests actually are a couple that met at Leader Dog.
Christina: Yes. Today we are talking to Hayden and Katie Preston, and they live in Louisiana and they're celebrating their one year anniversary.
Timothy: Wow. Congratulations Hayden and Katie and welcome to the podcast.
So can you mind mind telling us a little about yourselves and how that was like when you first two met? What was that moment like? Was it love at first
Katie: time?
thank you for having us. This is Katie. It was. I'd say it was crush at first sight. Yeah. . It was, um, like, but you know, it's, we met at the experienced summer camp, um, when we were both still in high school. And, um, I don't know. You, you know, like there's that summer camp bubble. Like I've, I've been to camps all my life and you never go home without a little crush on somebody.
But when we [00:03:00] left, you know, when we met at Summer Experience Camp, and then we went home after. . Um, we definitely stayed in touch a lot and stayed friends. We never really talked about any, you know, catching feelings just because, you know, I was in Michigan, um, I lived about 10 minutes from Lit Dog's campus and he was in Louisiana.
So, you know, we're like, we're 16, 17, there's no point. Like this is not gonna work long distance. Um, but then, you know, time went on and when Hayden came back to get his leader Dog Sawyer a month at Michigan in August of 21. Is that right? Yeah, the 21. Yeah. August 21. Yeah. We um, he called me and was just like, do you wanna, you know, we were like, do you wanna meet up and hang out?
And we did. And it was like no time had passed. And then, Three months later we were engaged and then about six months after that we were married. It was very fast. Oh, I have chill, melt.
Alyssa: I'm, I'm sitting here. Christina's clutching her heart and I've got chills. .
Christina: Yeah, Hayden. [00:04:00] So what was that like for you?
Because you, you initiated when you came back to meet up with Katie. So tell us like about that. Were you like expecting you guys would get together and. Be married six months later, ,
Hayden: you know, I didn't really, um, you know, I, I still definit. Thought I had some, some feelings for her at the time. And of course, you know, we're both, we're both old school enough that I was gonna have to be the one to ask
Um, and frankly, if I hadn't been, I would've been embarrassed myself, . But, um, I did not expect the timeline window to go as fast as it did. I remember I introduced Katie to a friend of ours, or a friend of mine rather, and he was like, yeah. So I I, I'm thinking, I, I don't think y'all will last any more than a year, a year and a half before y'all will get.
Aw. And well, we kind of shattered that timeline as it as it worked out, right? Um, yeah, and actually Katie was a little generous with her timeline in terms of the engagement too. , it was a little bit faster than three months. Oh my God. Oh man,
Alyssa: this has been Leslie's dream. Dream.
Christina: She was dying. She was [00:05:00] telling me she could not be here.
That's what she told us. Yeah. She could not be here today. And she was like, I am so upset that I can't, she's devastated here because she's always wanted a camp wedding. We all know how much Leslie loves summer camp and, um, to have you two meet there. So, you know, you guys are coming on a year of marriage.
Katie, I'll start with you first. How has you know marriage life been did. Were you, I guess, when did you move down to Louisiana? .
Katie: So when I moved down south, just in general, um, Hayden was actually working in Houston at the time, so like two days after our wedding, which was March 26th. We actually had our one year yesterday.
Crazy. Oh, it was just day. Yes. It's insane. No, it's literally crazy. Like we're, we're in Kansas City, we are still in Kansas City celebrating, um, and we're going, um, back to Louisiana today, but um, two days after the wedding I moved down to Houston and I had been moving stuff. I'd flown down a few times, you know, just to visit in the interim.
So I was like [00:06:00] cramming as much as I could into my suitcases to get down there. Um, just so we didn't have to do like a crazy long distance move. Um, and then about two months after that, Hayden actually got a job in Lafayette, Louisiana, and we moved, uh, there it at the end of May. . Wow. And, um, we've been there ever since.
It has been amazing. Um, Tim, I related to your saying, you know, I've been eating a lot in travel. Cajun food is very new to me. Oh. So I have been, um, I, I've never eaten so much good food in my life like that. Truly, like marriage has been wonderful, but honestly, the food experience down there, that's really why she's still here.
Alyssa: that's, that's
Hayden: the determining
Timothy: factor. Good. Jui is really good, isn't it? Oh my
Hayden: gosh, it's, it's ridiculous. I'm gonna say you, you wanna talk about Marilyn Crab? I think we might have you beat down here, but maybe I'm biased to say that if you haven't tried it, I recommend it at some point.
Timothy: Sumaya is good. Jim.
Katie: [00:07:00] Mm-hmm. . Yes. But, but other than that, like Mary Married life has been amazing. Um, I've really taken up, like I've, I've tried to take up cooking before we got married. I'd always tell people like, I'm just gonna have to marry someone that likes to cook. I don't like, that's what I did.
Hayden: I mean, she, she kinda did too.
So there is that. I did.
Katie: I did. But that's great. I feel like that's, yeah. So you know a lot. Cooking adventures. Um, we're both really big readers and music listeners, so we're never bored. It was a blur and then all of a sudden it felt like things kind of caught up with how fast we went, and then everything just kinda, I guess, evened out and now it's, it's just, it's been amazing.
Like it's, I've, I love it, . So,
Christina: Hayden, what about you? I mean, you, you guys have done a couple of recent moves then. Um, what's it like getting married, moving, doing all this stuff together? Well,
Hayden: well, let's, let's start with the moves, because Katie left out. Was that the move? In, into [00:08:00] Louisiana actually occurred on her birthday.
It was May 21st that Saturday, and I can't really think of a worse way to spend one's birthday. Honestly, , you're probably right, but that, that week was we, , you know, I found out I got my job like the Saturday before and then we got up, we, we got back to Texas cuz we, we had like a reception, uh, on the 14th, uh, that my parents threw kind of for family.
They couldn't make it up to Michigan where we got married. And, um, you know, we get back to Texas and we're, we're kind of looking around. We've got our lease figured out and we're like, you know what? We're just gonna, originally my parents were gonna help us pack and then we're like, Get this done and outta here quickly.
We started packing, I think like Thursday at. . We went to bed at like 4:00 AM the next morning. Got up and still had a great, uh, plenty more to do. We got home that night at like three, and then got up the next morning at like seven and we're off to Lafayette to move into our apartment. Oh my gosh. It was gosh, not the greatest weekend you've ever [00:09:00] spent.
Yeah. I mean that's
Alyssa: literally, that is a blur.
Katie: A blur. But I got a new apartment for my birthday, so I can't complain. .
Hayden: Yeah, I think we can agree. We learned to divide and conquer is, is probably the better way to take this next time though, with the packing.
Alyssa: I feel like that has to be a good marriage skill.
Divide and conquer .
Hayden: It is that, that that'll
Timothy: be the west from now on. Hayden just get used to
Hayden: it. . But, um, marriage as a whole has been, it, it, you know, it has been a little bit of a blur. I mean, this came up on us very fast. We had started planning, we wanted to see, uh, Hamilton and we. We found out it was in KC for our anniversary.
So Katie's dad got tickets, uh, that was our Christmas present from him. Mm-hmm. , which was, uh, tickets to the matinee performance, uh, yesterday. And, and it just kind of, it, it flew up and crept up on us very quickly. Um, but it has been a great, a lot of fun. It has been a. . Uh, and there are days I still pinch myself cuz it's, it's, [00:10:00] I'm still a little surprised we're here.
Oh
yeah.
Christina: It's, it's pretty great. I love what a journey to meet at Leader Dog. Mm-hmm and then to still stay in contact and be married. Now, I mean, we have to talk about both of your experiences at Leader Dog. Um, Katie, let's start with you again. You know, what was, what have you come to Leader Dog for and what was your experience like at Leader
Katie: Dog?
I grew up in the Rochester area, so I was always around leader. and I would do, you know, like I'd come visit the puppies as a kid and I would, you know, go to like the, like in June there was always like the outdoor like little carnival, um, that I would go to. But I'd never really done any actual programs until I did summer experience camp after my sophomore year in high school.
And after that I got hooked. And then, um, I mean, cuz Summer France camp is just a blast and I, um, came back the next year and did it. . And then I also did the accelerated, um, mobility program, um, over my [00:11:00] spring break of my junior year. And that was really awesome. And, um, I don't know, after that my whole family's been involved with 'em.
Like my dad was a puppy, uh, walker for, he, you know, he volunteered as puppy walker for a while. My sister was a, she volunteered too. We'd all always do like the bark and brew and stuff like that. And it was always just like a really big part of the community for us, I guess, cuz there are so. . I dunno. It's, it's kind of like a, it's a pillar in Rochester for sure.
Christina: Yeah. And Katie, um, if you don't mind me asking, how much vision do you have or what do you have? Um, what's your journey there?
Katie: Oh, sure. So I have light perception and nothing else really. I was born with a little bit of vision. Um, I have retinal detachment, microso and optic neuroco. , I don't know what about two thirds of that means, but it pretty much just equates light production,
And, um, I was born again just with a little bit of vision. I could see color and some shape. Um, but just as I got older, I think around the [00:12:00] time I was about one, um, I'd lost all of that vision except for the light perception. So
Alyssa: Hayden, you came for not only camp, but more recently to come and get a guide dog.
I did. How's that been going? What was that
Hayden: decision like? You know, I had, I kind of, you know, I, I'd always thought about the dog and it was really a case for me of, I mean, , there's a lot of schools. I'm not really well equipped as an outsider to judge one from another. But, you know, I came up for the summer experience camp.
I did it twice, uh, 2012 and then 13. And I just, I fell in love with the facility, the people, um, the dogs. I mean, you spend a couple hours with them and it's kind of hard to say goodbye afterwards. It, it really is. Um, and so it just made sense to me to do that. I graduated from, you know, law school in 20.
And then I said, well, I'm done with school now. I don't have that to worry about. I don't have a tiny on-campus apartment, which I did for a while. It was, uh, on my own, but still very small. And so I said, okay, now I, I feel okay about [00:13:00] bringing a fairly large animal into my, into my house. I always loved animals anyway.
Sure. And so I, I said, well, let's, you know this makes sense. So I started applying that summer and I found out. That I was, uh, accepted, uh, and had a spot in August while we're on vacation, actually in Florida that year. So, Kind of great . Yeah. Worked perfectly. Um, and I mean, as, as to actually having the dog, I mean, I just, you know, I, I gotta start by saying I haven't met anyone.
I have met very few people at least, who don't just love this dog, like on site . Um, yeah. So the challenge is keeping him, you know, Kind of focused and people off of him sometimes. I mean, he is just the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Um, but he, he's a good boy. He, he's always very, he's very helpful. He's really good at little tight interior spaces, that kind of thing.
Um, he, he's been, he's been great and we've had a good, it's a year and a half now, I guess. Yeah, since I got Sawyer. It's been very, very good. You
Alyssa: were lucky you got to come in the warm. to, I [00:14:00]
Hayden: know. To get on. I'm now. I, I'm gonna tell you, I, I, you know, I'm, I'm married a, a North Midwestern girl, which is great cuz I love the cold.
Anyway, I hate this weather down in Louisiana. Oh. Um, and so it was good. I mean, I came up there, I'd walk outside in the mornings and it was like 50 degrees. , you knows, to park Sawyer and, and everything. And it was just like, this is, I just wanna bottle this and take it with me. . Well, you guys can always
Alyssa: move back to Michigan
Hayden: Well, you know, it's, it's not out of the question. I've, I've said that to my mom. I've given her, I think, I think she said a couple of small heart attacks every time I tell her that. But I'm
Alyssa: sure you can't promise
Hayden: those things. . It's not outta the
Katie: question though. You need to get a summer place in Michigan.
There you go. Mm-hmm. , there you go. It sounds beautiful and I love Louisiana, but summer down there, it can be a bit, it's terrible. . Yeah.
Alyssa: Yeah, a little summer, summer vacation home up in the north.
Hayden: When she first came to visit me in Houston, it was um, end of, or end of September of 21 and I told her, I said, you can say you understand the heat all you want, but what you don't understand until you walk in it is
You can be [00:15:00] totally normally breathing, not outta breath at all, and just soaked in sweat after a walk because of the humidity . And she didn't understand it until she came down here. Oh, I'm sure she does. Sounds like a good Georgia
Timothy: Summer where I'm from. So, Katie, is there a dog in your future? Are you gonna go back and get a dog?
I'm not sure.
Katie: I've, I love getting to work with them and walk with them during experience camp. It was amazing. Um, so I don't know. It's, it's not out of the question right now. I'm, I'm just a typical. User. Um, and I don't, I don't know if it would change anytime super soon, but, um, I do have a dog right now that looks like a liter dog.
She's a white lab, or I guess she's a yellow lab, but she's like all, she's all white. And, um, I don't know. I don't know if we can deal with three dogs in unless , it's a, it's a big
Alyssa: decision for sure. Yeah,
Hayden: it's a big decision. Her and Sawyer are the funniest thing to watch because. She, he just kinda lets her do whatever she wants [00:16:00] to him.
It, it's, it's adorable , but I don't know if we can do three either. .
Christina: Yeah. So you have a pet dog and then you have a liter dog. So I guess what is that dynamic like when you guys are, you know, going out together, you, Hayden, you have the guide dog, and then Kitty. Do you just use your can, I guess what is that experience like when you guys go places?
And do you take your guide dog everywhere? I
Hayden: take him most places. I will tell you, he didn't come with us this weekend. He stayed home for this. Just cuz. And, and as it happened, we, you know, we got to this show yesterday and, and, um, I don't know where I would've put him. The, the the space between the, the rows of seats was very small and he would've had a problem.
So, you know, it probably worked out for the best. But he, he pretty much goes over with me except for church. Church. He's just kind of, In my face if I'm kneeling down. It's just kind of hard to keep him outta my face that way, . Sure. Otherwise, he comes to most places with me
Katie: and then normally I do, yeah. I just bring my cane and um, we'll kind of walk along together.
I try not to hit poor, so pause with my cane . Yeah. Um, but he's, he's the [00:17:00] nicest. So I get like, I, um, I know he's not mine because, you know, hay and have. Hayden, this dog, the way he loves Hayden is crazy. Like, um, my mother-in-law texted us, you know, I texted yesterday, just asked like, oh, how are the dogs doing?
And she sent a picture and so she said, Sawyer's just been moping by the garage door, waiting for Hayden to come home. Aww. And he loves him so much and he's so. . That being said, I, I sort of think, not as my leader dog, but I think of him as my dog as well. And he is, he's the best buddy and he is so, like, like Hayden said, we can.
I mean we, of course we try not to and it's not awesome, but like if, you know, if he's lying on the floor being dead silent, if we're walking by him, we might trip on him a little bit. Sure. And he just lies there. Like, whatever. I still love you guys. Like thank you for tripping on me. He's so funny. I totally
Alyssa: understand that.
And the two dogs get along really well. [00:18:00]
Hayden: They are, oh my God. Funny to watch.
Katie: Funny. Are they they're They're good friends. They are. Um, , you'll see them play together and you insist like, oh my God, are they fighting? But it's like, no, they're, this is just how they play. And then at night, like they curl up together and it's so, it's just really cute.
Like Sawyer, um, you can always see some of my, uh, the other dog is Riley. You can always see some of her fur on Sawyer cuz they're always. So close. It's really funny. little
Hayden: camouflage and the contrast is pretty stark, right? Yes. He's, I mean, he's pure black and she's white, so it's, you know, it shows at that
Alyssa: point.
What color carpet do you get? You've got dog hair of all colors. .
Hayden: What color, what clothes do you wear? What color clothes do you wear? That's exactly it. It's terrible.
Katie: It's doesn't matter anymore. . Yeah, it's a good way to look
Alyssa: at it. It really just doesn't.
Katie: We try so hard. I was like, maybe I can wear gray and it won't show up.
Then both show up .
Hayden: Yeah. Okay. I mean, I, I am blessed to be an attorney that works at a firm where the managing director shows up and is flip [00:19:00] flops. They don't really care what I wear so long as I'm not in court, and of course, sure. don't wait with that. Thank goodness. And I don't have to worry about the dog hair as much.
Alyssa: Well, I guess a black dog with like a black suit or black slacks for court would be, yeah. Would be
Christina: appropriate. Yeah. Right. No,
Hayden: that, that doesn't work. So that, that's
Christina: okay. . Yeah. So, you know, since you guys met at summer camp, um, you know, tell us, you know, what advice would you give to any student right now who might be debating if they wanna go to camp or not.
You know, just from your, both of your experience. Um, Katie, if you wanna go first for this one again, if you have any advice to give,
Katie: my advice is do it. Just go , because you, I don't even know how to put this. It's. especially, you know, if people are debating it because they haven't spent any time away from home before or aren't sure they'll like it, there's something at Summer camp for everybody.
Um, it's not, you know, the, the mobility is great and the, um, like getting to experience leader dogs is wonderful, but the activities you [00:20:00] get to do with other people are there, there is truly something for everybody and it's just, I don't know. I've always been a big proponent of summer camps. It's, it's a free.
Experience. It's, it's, it's like your, it's like a breath of fresh air. It's, it's amazing. Just, just go, just do it. Pull the plug.
Alyssa: I love that. And Hayden, what about you?
Any
Hayden: advice? Yeah, I was, I was gonna say in, in my typical sort of snarky way, why are you debating it at all? Just go. I mean, I you know, it, it's funny, I, I wasn't this the camp kid that Katie was, it just wasn't part of my summers as much.
And I think y'all had a rep originally that ended up down at um, L S V I, Louisiana School for the visually impaired, uh, which is where I heard about. The, the camp and everything. Got to walk with one of the dogs, bless her heart. I remember her name was Kibble, and I just remember thinking, who would do that to a dog?
What Puppy Razor did that? . That's a cute name. Oh my goodness. But, but it, you know what, I was, I was a smidge apprehensive. I [00:21:00] mean, it's like, I mean, this is across the country. I don't know. I, I've got family up in Michigan as it happens. My, my godmother is a travel nurse and she ended up moving up there and having a kid up there, so she's, Living up near y'all.
Uh, so it wasn't something I was totally unfamiliar with, but it, it was just kind of weird to me at the time. But I mean, I had the best time both years. I went, it was awesome. I was a, you know, I got to be a junior counselor the second year, which was really cool. I, I just, I had so much fun. And like Katie said, there's something for everyone.
The facilities are amazing. The people are wonderful. The dogs are just fantastic and there's. All the reasons in the
Christina: world to go. Yeah. And you never know You can meet your soulmate. You could.
Timothy: That's right. Could be love at
Katie: the leader dog . Yeah. It's like we'll start our own dating
Hayden: app. Yeah.
Christina: Leader Dog Matchmaker.
There we go. We
Alyssa: match dogs to people and people to people.
Hayden: You know, we, we've joked about how Hallmark our story is and we've kind of tried to come up with movie names for the channel, for our story. We've come, I think we've come with led into [00:22:00] love, guiding into love, et cetera, et cetera. It kind of, it works.
Yeah. You
Alyssa: should promote that to Hallmark, right? Get some good Hallmark movie on it. Right. ?
Hayden: Absolutely. Well,
Christina: we absolutely. Thank you guys both so much for joining us for the podcast today. This was so great to hear your story and congratulations on a one year that's so exciting and we can't wait. I'm sure so many people are going to want to cure more.
You know, we're gonna have you on, we're gonna
Alyssa: your second anniversary.
Hayden: Oh my gosh. This is an annual thing now. On Valentine's Day. There you go. There you go. Well, you know our second, you know, if you have us on, it would be the, if you had us on a Monday, it would actually be our second anniversary too. Oh, see.
Oh, there we go. All right.
Alyssa: I'm putting it in the calendar
Christina: next year. Yeah, we usually record on Monday, so there we go. Yeah. . Yes. Well, thank you guys both so much, and thank you to our listeners for listening to the Taking the Lead podcast. I'm Christina Hepner with host Timothy Kunu and [00:23:00] guest host Alyssa O.
And we hope you enjoyed learning about Hayden and Katie and their leader Dog Journeys. And please join us next week as we continue to dive into the world of blindness.
Alyssa: And if you'd like to learn more about applying for Leader Dogs in our services, you can head to leader dog.org or you can call us at (888) 777-5332.
Don't forget you can also reach us at taking the lead@leaderdog.org with any questions or ideas that you might. And if you'd like today's podcast, make sure to hit that subscribe button and check us out wherever Podcasts
Christina: Stream. This season of the Taking the Lead podcast is brought to you by a longtime supporter of Leader Dog, the Mary p Delani Halloran Foundation.
As you may know, generous donors like this one make it possible to achieve our. The Mary P DOL Halloran Foundation supports the study of mathematics and mathematics education. For more information about our generous sponsor, visit their website at [00:24:00]
Katie: www.dolhalleranfoundation.org.