Atlanta syndicated radio host Bert Weiss last month took a dozen families to Orlando’s Disney World for his 21st Bert’s Big Adventure outing for chronic or terminally ill children.
His first Disney trip happened in 2003, and he has now taken more than 260 families there, with only one year off (2021) due to the pandemic.
“Our mission has always been to keep it small and keep it intimate,” said Weiss at the sendoff party for the families at the Hilton Atlanta airport before a private jet from Delta regional airline Endeavor Air took them to Disney.
He now has 35 sponsors. “It’s like a NASCAR stock car here,” he said. “All those sponsors show up to our reunions and other events and help out and volunteer.”
And he gives each family a special gift. In one case, Atrium Health Floyd gave an Atlanta mother La Toya Wallace a full ride scholarship to Georgia Highlands College after she had to postpone her career choice to take care of her child Journee, now, five, who had T cell lymphoma. The school is also offering her five-year-old daughter a free scholarship if she wants one when the time comes. “I was overwhelmed,” Wallace said when the Bert Show gave her the news.
Katlynn Stowe of Sugar Hill, whose son Griffin has Down’s syndrome and a congenital heart condition, said she has never been to Disney, having grown up in a family that couldn’t afford it. “Griffin doesn’t speak much but I know he will freak out when he meets Mickey for the first time,” she said.
He said this entire non profit stems in part from the fact his family didn’t value vacations when he was a kid. “I’m providing something for these families I didn’t get from my family so it makes sense,” he said.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Weiss’ non-profit, run by Molly Darby since 2017, raised more than $1.4 million in fiscal year 2022 and appears financially healthy, according to the 990 form it files with the federal government. They missed only one Disney trip in 2021 due to the pandemic.
“We can really service the families the way we want to,” Darby said, noting that they are still in touch with 80% of the families from past years. “Some have grown up and have their own kids. And some remain super active, which is a compliment.”
Darby started working with Bert’s Big Adventure so long ago in 2007, they were giving the kids DVD players to entertain them since tablets and smartphones were still in their infancy.
What has kept her in her job, Darby said, is learning how resilient these families are in the face of so much adversity. “While working with them,” she said, “my own world disappears. Nothing is more important than these kids at that moment. We also really want the parents to let go and be present and enjoy themselves.”
And she is happy to bring families together who have experienced similar traumas and heartache. And everyone bonds by the time the four-day trip is over. Darby said she cries plenty of times on the trip and they’re usually happy tears.
“The older I get, the easier it is for me to lose it,” she said. “It’s so embarrassing!”
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Credit: V-103
Credit: V-103
Jazzy McBee is a hometown gal made good, landing recently as a new morning co-host with veteran host Big Tigger on V-103.
The Decatur native started her career at hip-hop station Hot 107.9, then spent a decade as mid-day host at Streetz 94.5.
“It’s good to be wanted,” McBee said in a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Working for a big station like V-103 has been one of my dreams. I didn’t think it would ever happen. I prayed and worked hard and now I’m here! They saw something in me I didn’t necessarily see in myself.”
McBee initially had plans to be a teacher, but she landed an internship at Hot while in college and fell in love. She studied the radio personalities there and learned how to work the radio boards. She credits former local DJ Mami Chula for providing her guidance and encouragement.
She practiced airchecks on her own time, and when then Radio One operations manager Steve Hegwood heard them, he decided to put her on the air. “He believed in me when nobody else would,” she said. Hegwood would later start his own station Streetz and hire her as the mid-day host.
Doing a morning show now vs. a mid-day show, she said, “is an embellishment, a little more razzle dazzle from what I’ve already done. Tigger is a great person to learn from. It’s a transition I’m getting used to. His mentorship is unbelievable.”
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Credit: Euan Cherry/Peacock
Credit: Euan Cherry/Peacock
Atlanta reality star Phaedra Parks was named a hidden Traitor at the start of season two of Peacock’s delectably addictive reality show “The Traitors” hosted by Alan Cumming. For nine episodes, she managed to evade capture by the more numerous Faithfuls.
But the remaining crew of Faithful eventually sussed Parks out and unanimously booted her Thursday night, costing her a large pot of money that currently exceeds $150,000. Even her “Real Housewives” brethren saw the writing on the wall, including fellow Atlanta buddy Shereé Whitfield, who earlier in the tenth episode said, “If she was a traitor, I’d be sick.” The one remaining Traitor Kate Chastain (”Below Deck,” season one of “The Traitors”) also felt no choice but to vote for her as well.
Parks, an attorney and mortuary owner by trade, can be saucy, salty and seductive with her words and actions, which helped make her a star on “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” So in many ways, playing a game of deceit and lies was right up her alley, and she appeared to enjoy every minute of it. She kept her cool for much of her time as she “killed” off several Faithfuls week in and week out.
Her name wasn’t even on anyone’s tongue until episode six, when her fellow Traitor Dan Gheesling, back against the wall, placed her name out there before he was banished. Trishelle Cannatella (”The Real World”) noticed Gheesling’s words and began building a case against Parks, even as others like University of Georgia grad, “Survivor” winner and fellow Traitor Parvati Shallow was kicked off.
Parks almost got booted during episode nine, which came out Feb. 23, but managed to throw enough shade at hard-playing Faithful Peter Weber (”The Bachelorette’), who ended up getting five votes vs. four votes for her.
As Molly Fitzpatrick of Vulture wrote in her recap about Parks: “In the circle of truth, she calls it the ‘best experience ever,’ which is certainly what she made this season for us. There’s rarely been a better match of personality and show. Honestly, as much as I love Parvati and Kate, Phaedra kind of was ‘The Traitors’ for me — everything from here on out is just denouement. Wherever you are, Elton John, I hope you’re hard at work on a third version of ‘Candle in the Wind.’”
This has been quite the resurrection for Parks, who largely disappeared for several years from the reality show landscape after unfairly smearing fellow “Real Housewives” cast member Kandi Burruss in 2017 and getting fired from that show. She also began dating a doctor, meriting her return to the Bravo network on “Married to Medicine,” which just concluded its 10th season.
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