This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we're back with our American stories.

And up next, the story of Joel Wegener, an educator and fundraiser who

lives in Cincinnati with a beautiful story of facing the unexpected challenges life throws our way.

Here's Joel.

So I grew up in southeast Kansas, went to college there and became a teacher. I taught in Kansas for a few years.

Then I moved to Cincinnati right after I was married for one year.

Then we moved from Cincinnati to the St. Louis area

and took a teaching position there. We stayed there about 16 years. Many of our 10 children

were born in St. Louis area and we still have friends back there and one of my daughters is also living back in that area.

Then in 2002, we moved to Cincinnati.

I started a fundraising business and was also doing some teaching at a local Christian school.

Now, while I was in education and then also now that I'm doing the fundraising business,

most of my time was filled up during the school year, and I had time during the summers

to do other activities and try to make a little extra money

to support my family. I've done a lot of different things in the summers. One of the most

interesting things that I have done before the ice cream truck was I ran a fireworks business in

Missouri, a tent along Highway 61. My children

helped me do that and we have a lot of stories, a lot of fun, a lot of hard work and on

a good year made some pretty good money doing that. I sold that business several years ago,

so over the last few years I've been looking for something

...