Q&A Season 2

Abbey Edwards-Hill

Founder/Director/Mom

Abbey left her career in teaching middle school after 15 years in 2020, during the height of the pandemic after realizing how much her students were struggling with mental and physical health conditions while being stuck indoors and online only. She had the idea to start an outdoor enrichment, fitness and adventure program for kids in order to re-engage them in the outdoors, with their own bodies, to create friendships, connection and confidence.

RADKidz is the perfect combo of fitness challenges, adventure, hiking, STEM, art, relays, obstacle courses, teamwork, sports, music, inventions, creations, explorations, friendship and more! The goal is for every kid to feel connected and excited to try something new! RADKidz is a launching pad for a Childs natural abilities and passions in actives and in life!

Our RADLeaderz are local middle and high school kids who come to volunteer their time to lead and engage the younger kids! This part of the program allow the teens and tweens to not only give back, but supports their own confidence, mental and physical health!

The program has been growing steadily ever since and is serving communities in southern California, but her goal and dream is to serve as many communities as she can with RADKidz.

Abbey is a wife and a mom of two busy boys. She has a passion for Ultra Running and this inspires her to keep active and move others to find their active passions!

Jenny Guenther

Mom

Mom of two kids age 13 and 10. Worked as a pediatric physical therapist for over 20 years. Volunteer with Moms Demand Action for 4 years.

Lisa Sugarman

Author | Syndicated Columnist | Podcast Host | Mental Health Advocate

Lisa Sugarman is a mom, a parenting author, a nationally syndicated humor columnist, and a podcast host, creating content that helps empower parents, especially moms, by giving them permission to embrace their perfectly imperfectness. She’s also a survivor of suicide loss, losing her father at age ten. Lisa writes the syndicated opinion column It Is What It Is and is the author of How To Raise Perfectly Imperfect Kids And Be Ok With It, Untying Parent Anxiety, and LIFE: It Is What It Is, available on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and everywhere books are sold. Sugarman is also the co-host of the podcast LIFE Unfiltered on iTunes and iHeartRadio, and a regular contributor on Healthline Parenthood, GrownAndFlown, TODAY Parents, Thrive Global, Care.com, LittleThings, and More Content Now. Lisa lives with her husband and two daughters just north of Boston. Visit her online at www.lisasugarman.com. She digs company.

Nicole Dillon

I am the mother of two boys who, along with my husband, made the decision to relocate during the pandemic. The boys and I moved 650 miles away, to a small town, where I opened my bakery, Pickle and Chip's Field Trip. My husband stayed in the big city to continue with his career. We have a very untraditional arrangement, but it's working for us. I'm living my dream, running my bakery, and my boys are in a great, tight knit community; where it's safe to run and play outside and just be kids. It is super hard at times and scary to be traveling this unique road, but we are glad we made this decision. My husband comes up to be with us every couple of weeks for 4-5 days and will eventually switch into a remote position, but now just is not the right time for him. Getting the kids out of the big city was a priority for us as they were approaching middle school age. The opportunity to open a bakery presented itself in the prime of the pandemic, in the small village where we vacationed each summer. My husband and I decided that I just needed to go for it and we did it!

Dawn Friedman

Parent Educator

Dawn has been working with kids and families for more than thirty years as a preschool teacher, family case manager, and psychotherapist. She has her masters in clinical mental health counseling and has additional post-graduate training in infant-toddler mental health, postpartum mood disorders, and child anxiety treatment.

Julie & Millie

Moms

Julie and Millie are the hosts of the podcast This Is Not For You, reading funny reviews of movies and TV shows they find online. Julie is an assistant teacher and mom to a 5 year old. Millie is in her 7th year of teaching and is mom to a 1 year old. They have been friends since junior high school.