Hi, everyone. I have a very special story to share with you today, a story I stumbled upon

unexpectedly on social media as one does these days. But when I saw it, I instantly felt compelled to

follow the trail. It's a story of hope and tenacity and perseverance and determination during the toughest of times.

In recent weeks, we've all seen the images of Hurricane Helene and Milton.

For some of you, you've done more than seen it. You've lived it. And I've so appreciated hearing

from you and learning about your experiences. For those of us on the outside, it's been heartbreaking

to watch and to feel so far

away. And there's this pervasive feeling that comes up in times like these of wanting to reach

through the screen and help. Well, we have found a way to do that today through one family's story.

Justin James and his wife Amanda started a shoe company called Opie Way.

This shoe company does something few others do.

They manufacture the coolest sneakers right here in the United States, in North Carolina, in fact, that's Justin and Amanda's home state.

The company was the realization of a lifelong dream and years and years of hard work, and now an unexpected turn

of events that has left the future uncertain. Now that you have the basics, I want you to hear

the rest from Justin, Justin James, the founder of Opie Way. Justin, of all businesses that you

could launch, of the many different products that you could

produce, why shoes? What was it about shoes that you said, you know what? This might be where I need to go.

Well, I tell this story all the time, but if you were to ask me when I was in middle school, what I was

going to do as a kid, I would tell you I was going to design shoes for Nike.

I was just way too infatuated with footwear from the time that I was a kid really.

So I followed that path, you know, all the way through school, went to college to design

shoes and got out of college and kind of realized, man, the mass manufacturing piece of footwear is something that really kind of took the breath out of me.

...