This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive, reach for a sprite winter spice cranberry and put your twist on tradition. It's a refreshing way to shake things up this sip in season and only for a limited time. Sprite, obey your thirst.
This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.
Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com. This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company. Mm-hmm.
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IBM helps your AI access your data wherever it lives to change how you do business. Let's create Smarter Business, IBM. This is Rob Gronkowski from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules. For the second season in a row, I partnered with T-Mobile's Friday Night 5G Lights, powering up hometown football across America. This year, T-Mobile invested over $4 million in prizes to help schools take their Friday nights to the next level.
Now it's time to crown our $1 million grand prize winner. A huge congrats to Derricks High School in Derricks, Arkansas, home of the Outlaws and your 2025 T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights Champion. They scored a home field upgrade, Gronk Fitness Weight Room, a 2026 tailgate party, and an all-expense paid trip to the SEC Championship game. To every school that competed, posted, and rallied your communities. Thank you.
And a big thanks to T-Mobile for making it all possible and helping community shine under the Friday night lights. This season may be over, but the story isn't. Stay tuned for season three in 2026. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10? Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop.
Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Brand for 2025. Thin and ultra-lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere. And Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com/slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission.
All rights reserved. And we return to our American stories every year around Christmas. Countless people dress up as Santa Claus. donning the red costume just to spread some joy to kids eagerly anticipating good times. Today our own Monty Montgomery brings us the story of a man who does just that.
Take it away, Monty. John Rogers of McDonald County, Missouri plays Santa at his local VFW, but it wasn't something he set out to do. The Santa Claus they had died and uh they asked me if I would do it for them and that's how it all got started. It's been 18 years now. Actually, it's now 21 years since this was recorded in 2018.
21 years of going to hospitals to talk to sick kids. 21 years of providing some joy to kids whose parents are deployed overseas. But what did this Santa do when he wasn't being Santa? I was an operating engineer. I run heavy equipment.
I worked a lot in Springfield, Kansas City, Branson. Fayetteville. Mississippi. Arkansas, Little Rock. Yeah, I was on a I was on a road a lot.
And it was during his day job that he would meet a man who would lead him into one of his most memorable moments as Santa. I helped build a Lowe store in uh Marion, Mississippi, which is, and I stayed in Jackson, Mississippi, and one of my I ran a motor grader down there and he was called my grade checker. He was one on the ground that would tell me how much dirt to put in or how much to take out. And so I called ourselves Tono and the Lone Ranger. I was down there almost seven, eight months and he knew that I did Santa Claus 'cause it was getting it was that time of the year down there and of course closer to Christmas everybody that sees me they realize that for some reason I got the hair and I got the glasses and the beard so I'm I portray Santa to them and so uh That's how we got to know each other.
And welcome back. We continue to have this incredible surge coming up through Mobile Bay. That's right, of course, we are in storm alert here at the Weather Channel and good reason for it. Hurricane Katrina, still a major hurricane affecting parts of the lower Mississippi Valley. And Katrina.
came through and uh I'd been back here probably, oh, a year or two at least, and uh he called me and he told me what had happened down there and he wanted to know if I would come down there and be Santa Claus for at his church. because uh everybody down there had lost everything they had and I Said absolutely. I need a list of all the children from from a baby up to 13. I said, I'm cutting the date off at at 13. And I said, I need a list of all the children, male and female, and I want one major gift that they would like to have.
And I collaborated with his sister, because he was working down on the coast. Helping clean up from Hurricane Katrina. And so she sent me the letter with all the children's names and their ages and in what they wanted. And uh There were uh 44 kids on the list.
So when I got that, I said, oh my, now what am I gonna do?
So I went around town. and just talked to everybody that I knew and told them what I was gonna do. And would they care to... Uh give me some money. And some did, and some didn't, and I didn't, you know, I just went on my merry way and.
And then, uh, so I've got the money. And now I'm going, okay, now I gotta go shopping. And I go, man, this is gonna be so. I knew a school teacher by the name of Marcia Harlan who worked out at the golf course, and I've Played a lot of golf all my life, and I said, Marcia, I need help. I'm in over my head.
I can't buy all these presents and wrap them all and get them all ready to go. And so, uh, I think she got the uh It was a teen group, and I don't know. I think they were the Honor Society. I don't remember now. It's been a while, but.
There were about 10 or 12 of them, and we met at the golf course, and I gave them the list, and I gave them the money. And I said, You go to Walmart, I've got to run to Joplin, I've got to go to Toys R Us, come back to the golf course. We wrapped the presents, and we were done in about an hour. I couldn't have done it without the teens from Neosho High School at the time. Everybody, everybody that I just ran into was behind me 100%.
They trusted in me and knew that. I was for real and I I really appreciated that. This Santa needed a sleigh to carry his gifts down to the coast of Mississippi, though. and he found it in his dad's garage. I asked him if I could borrow the van because in that time of year, you know, 10 hours on the road, you can run into anything.
And he said, Well, sure and uh So as our conversation went on, he said, Can I go with you? And I thought, well, yeah, sure, I'd love to have somebody go with me. I've made that trip a dozen times by myself, and it's not that much fun.
So I said, under one circumstance, you're not getting behind the steering wheel. I'm driving this time. Because my dad always drove before. He was a driver for tri-state motor transportation when I was a boy. And he always drove on vacations and stuff.
So I said, Yeah, you can go, but you're not touching the steering wheel, so you can enjoy this trip.
So he made 50 bags of jerky for all of them down there. And. I smoked a couple of hams. I'm kind of known this time of year for smoking hams as well for other people, and I told her pretty good. Yeah.
The people in Mississippi didn't even know I was coming. The only ones that knew I was coming was my friend, his sister, and the pastor. They were totally shocked. They were practicing their Christmas carols. I could hear them, but yeah, they snuck me in the through the back in the kitchen.
With all the All the presents and set me all up there in front of the Christmas tree and everything, and they just put the Santa had on dad and they walked him through the front and the kid just Their eyes just opened up. They knew something was up. They didn't know what. And they followed him into the kitchen and then there I sat and then all chaos. I can still see it in my mind as plain as day.
The little two or three year old boy that was standing right there in line first was jumping up and down and jumping up and down and I just had their names on all the trash bags that were full of their presents because that's the way I transported them. And so I'd just reach and grab a bag and read their name off and they'd come and sit on my lap and I'd give it to them. And before I got to that little boy, he was in tears 'cause he thought he was going to be left out. It was uh it was kind of funny and sad at the same time. It was something I'll remember uh All my life.
Because he brought joy to a group of kids ten hours away from him who he didn't even know. For John, it gets to the essence of why he puts on the red suit every year. and he doesn't want it any other way. When I was down in Dallas one time with my daughter over Christmas. I talked to another Santa down there and he said, Manda, you need to come down here.
I can get you a job. You can make thirty thousand dollars and in a month easy. Two, three, four hundred dollars to pop and I'm busy all the time and And I told him, no, that's, you know, I'm not in, I don't do the mall scene. I just go where I want to go and and where my heart leads me. And uh That's the way I'm going to do it.
I'm not going to be. I'm not a commercial Santa. I hope that I make a difference to those children's lives that I see. I've got. Several repeat customers, I guess is what you want to call them, that call me every year, and they just say, You haven't retired yet, have you?
And I go, No, I'm still doing it because you're the best I've ever had. And that's what it's all about. It makes me feel good, it makes them. Feel good, and that's why I do it. It's a time of giving, and the most important thing you give is yourself.
And great work on the production by Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to Katrina Hein. for bringing us this story. And that poignant story he told about getting down to the area that was just battered by Hurricane Katrina. And taking care of kids and just volunteering at a church and driving 10 hours with his dad.
That's America. That's what Tocqueville saw, the great French prison reformer who came to America in the 19th century and saw Americans doing these beautiful and wonderful spontaneous things for each other, forming associations, volunteering. It's the heartbeat of this country. John Rogers Story. A Santa Story Here on Our American Story.
This is Eva Longoria from Hungry for History with Eva Longoria and Maite Gomez Rejon. Like the song says, it's the most wonderful time of the year, and also a wonderfully busy one. All that merriment can weigh down even Santa Slay.
So keep it wonderful by keeping yourself wonderful with a crisp, cold Coca-Cola. Ugh. Pause for fizzy joy. Look out for yourself and then look out for everyone else. And together we'll make this season as wonderful as it's meant to be.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola. Refresh your holidays. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10? Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop. Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Rand for 2025.
Thin and ultra lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere. And Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission. All rights reserved.
At CVS, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night. And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah, healthy snack. At CVS, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters.
So visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit.
Only one of you. Will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal.
Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled Basketball, Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, True TV, and HBO Max. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Mm-hmm.
