Meet Hank

Brian 0:00

Well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. I'm Brian.

Shawna 0:02

And I'm Shauna.

Brian 0:03

And today we are sitting uh with a special young man. His name is Hank from Hank's Heroes. Is that correct?

Hank 0:10

Yes, sir.

Brian 0:10

Hank, we're so excited to have you on the podcast. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah. We love we love having you. You're our, I would say you are our youngest guest. Definitely. Really? So I guess we should ask. How old are you, Hank? I'm 15. He's 15? All right. Wow.

Shawna 0:23

And yeah, so by a lot. You're the youngest by a lot, I think.

Brian 0:26

Well, okay. Well, actually, let's see. Let's let's go ahead and get into a little bit of story behind you. Tell us a little bit about who Hank is.

Hank 0:33

So I am a cheerleader and a dancer. Uh I cheer at my local high school. Uh and um I cheer at a local gym as well. And then I do dance at a local studio. That's amazing. I'm on the elite team at the studio and I'm on uh I'm on the senior team at the gyms. That is so it's really fun. And um, you know, volunteer at church and stuff.

Shawna 0:54

But I was a cheerleader and a dancer too, but not elite level. I was amateur level.

Brian 1:00

That's I did not cheer and uh and you say and you're a dancer too, and I am not a dancer, ballet tap, and jazz. Wow, that's amazing. It's lots of fun. Wow.

Shawna 1:08

I bet that's awesome.

Brian 1:10

So okay, so

The Mission Behind Hank’s Heroes

Brian 1:11

tell us a little bit about Hank's Heroes, like so that we just a little bit about it so the audience knows, like, what are we even talking about?

Hank 1:17

So Hank's Heroes is dedicated. We try to make people smile. That's pretty much all we do. So people who have just gone through something in their life, like um, maybe they just maybe they're they're going through their parents are going through a divorce, maybe they just lost a family member or a friend, or they're or they're medically incapable of like living life. Like maybe they just need someone to put a smile on their face. That's kind of what I'm there for. So I've been I've been to people with disabilities, I've been to people, I've been to P PEC in Vero, which is um it's a medical daycare. I've been there, I was dressed as Spider-Man and the kids loved it.

Shawna 1:57

I'm sure it was amazing.

Hank 1:58

And I I've been to schools just for orientation. I was dressed as a pirate up in um up in uh Malabar. That was really fun. Um, so that's that's that's it. I just try to make people laugh.

Shawna 2:10

I love that. And what gave

The Inspiration Behind Hank's Heroes

Shawna 2:12

you the inspiration to start doing this?

Hank 2:14

So two years ago, we just had our anniversary, actually.

Shawna 2:17

Oh, congratulations.

Hank 2:18

So two years ago, Halloween, I was dressed as Spider-Man and the kids loved it. And I was like, how can I make this something that affects the community? And it's pretty much just gone from there.

Shawna 2:27

Yeah. Oh, wow, that is so awesome. So do you ever do dancing with your characters?

Hank 2:33

So I haven't like done like a ballroom with anyone, like as a character, but uh we are in the works, there's a gala that we want to do, and we're it's gonna be 40s themed, so we're gonna have certain patriots. That's patriot heroes, you know. Um, but I haven't I haven't danced with any characters. I kind of tend to keep things separate or sure, like delegated to each thing. So like cheer stays in cheer, dance, dance, work, work, stuff like that. But um no, no dancing yet. Okay.

Brian 3:06

What like when it comes to the word hero, what does that specifically mean to you?

Hank 3:11

A leader.

Brian 3:11

A leader.

Hank 3:12

Someone it doesn't obviously it's not like strong super serum super soldier, but a hero is kind of someone who you can look to in times of need or trouble.

Brian 3:25

I think that's that's it's interesting that you pointed out that too, because like when we were like sitting down and we were looking at your website and stuff, I kept saying superhero, and Sean's like, it's not about a superhero, it's about a necessarily, yeah, exactly.

Shawna 3:38

Because obviously that's a part of what you're doing.

Brian 3:40

Yes, but yeah, I was like, Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, you're right. She's always she's correcting me and grammar and all that stuff all the time. So uh if there's made up words, it's usually coming from me, it's rarely coming from her. So it's my it's my superhero power. Just call it that. So I I love the whole hero's approach to it, and it's cool. Like,

Characters & Costumes

Brian 4:01

how what okay? So, what are all the different types of characters do you do? Like you said, pirates, Spider-Man.

Hank 4:06

So pirate, Spider-Man, Loki, Captain America, Wolverine, Batman, Iron Man. That's kind of it. I'm working on my own, my own hero. Oh. I'm like designing my own stuff. That's kind of under wraps. It'll probably not be ready for a very long time. Yeah. But it's kind of it's I know it's my own personal project that I'm working on. That's cool. That's gonna be my own superhero. That's pretty much it. Just those seven.

Shawna 4:34

I want to talk about one that I saw on your Facebook. Oh, and Deadpool. So yeah. The Deadpool Santa.

Hank 4:40

Yes, that was so much fun. That was so much fun. So it was at a local restaurant sandwich shack on the river. Shout out to them. They have amazing food. But um, I dressed up as Santa Claus with a Deadpool mask, and I just sat and just took pictures with everybody and just had a great time. It was amazing. And we made, and it was it was a fundraiser, so we made some money. But that wasn't that obviously wasn't the reason we did it.

Shawna 5:04

But sure, sure.

Hank 5:05

It was so great.

Shawna 5:06

I when I saw the pictures, I could not help but laugh. I was like, that is such a fun idea.

Hank 5:10

Yeah, it was amazing.

Shawna 5:11

Yeah, and I'm sure people were just like so thrilled to see you because I mean, Santa's great, everybody knows Santa's great, but like, what did you call it? Said something not. Santa Pool. Santa Pool, yeah, exactly. I was like, that is just so hilarious, and I bet everyone's just like so excited to see you.

Hank 5:28

Oh, we uh we also have um these aren't heroes per se, but we have um Willy Wonka and Davy Crockett.

Brian 5:36

Oh yeah, okay, wow.

Shawna 5:38

Yeah, I really see you pulling off Willy Wonka, especially you have a picture.

Hank 5:43

See that up there? That's the top of the cane. Oh no. We took we took that and I have this I have this clear thing full of sprinkles. Oh, and that's the cane I use for it. Oh, it's amazing.

Brian 5:54

So people aren't people that aren't, they're like, what is he pointing at? He's pointing at their their curtain rod. Yeah, we're looking at it in their house, and you can tell that it's painted ink painted in a like a black and white spiral.

Shawna 6:06

That is hilarious. We were so creative.

Brian 6:08

So, okay, so when you're when you're doing these events, like what are some of the things that you're you're doing at the events?

Hank 6:13

We recently I was at I was holding a table for um Tunnels of Towers. I was dressed as Captain America, which is one of my favorite costumes because it's so like built up. I stood by my table, I would talk to people, they would ask, you know, I get pictures with stuff, but then I'd also walk around, and the people as they were running to the finish line, I was standing close to the finish line, you know, saluting to the firefighters and waving to everybody else, uh stuff like that. It's just great. Oh, that's fun. That's what it that's what it looks like for something like that. Um, obviously, birthday parties are gonna be a little bit more into it. Um I first got my Batman costume, it was it was not the best. It was I looked like I was wearing my dad's Batman costume. Like it was pretty bad. But um, but it was the kid was four years old and he loved it. So I was so it was amazing, you know. I just hung out with him.

Brian 7:10

Well, Batman's costumes have evolved over time anyway. So you gotta start somewhere, right?

Hank 7:14

Now it's much better. I have dirt bike armor underneath it, and it is it just looks

Community Events

Hank 7:19

so much better.

Brian 7:19

What would you say has been the uh one of the most special events that that you've been a part of?

Hank 7:25

Um probably Pek or uh Tunnels to Towers was great. Um I liked Peepek the most because the kids were just so into Spider-Man, it was amazing. And even the kids who weren't there, like the kids of the workers who were my age, yeah, they didn't they didn't want to show it on their faces, but they were definitely into it. I got pictures with them at the end, it was amazing.

Shawna 7:54

Oh my gosh, that's so cute.

Hank 7:56

So I think PPEC has been my favorite so far.

Brian 7:59

So I I would you know,

What's Your Biggest Villian

Brian 8:01

we usually ask people when we're doing these interviews as business owners, we normally ask them like what are some of the challenges you face and stuff like that. And I thought, well, probably be good to ask you, like, if you look at what you've learned in these last two years, what has been your biggest villain? I'm like, we gotta throw a villain in there because every every hero's story's gotta have a villain.

Hank 8:22

Not following through with things, especially people who reach out to us saying that they want to do something with us, but then we don't get anything back from them. That's been something that's kind of been a a null in our in our uh work. But the people who have reached out and followed through, it's been amazing. So I'm I think we've overcome that for the most part.

Brian 8:48

That's awesome.

Hank's Superpower

Brian 8:49

One of the things I put on here to ask you was if you had a superpower, what would it be?

Hank 8:54

Like what would I want it to be? What would you want it to be?

Brian 8:56

Like I mean, mine is making up words. So that's not a real superpower. It can be pretty cool. I think it would be it's like a distraction. It's like like you know, what do they call that? Like where you make like the uh like the uh the hologram of yourself. Like a projection. Yeah, but mine's just confusing words, and they're like, what? And they're like, he's gone, you know.

Shawna 9:16

Oh my goodness.

Hank 9:17

I think mine would be if I watched any sort of fight scene, like let's say I'm watching Batman, I can instantly be able to do all the things that he's doing.

Shawna 9:27

Wow, it's really smart power.

Brian 9:29

It's kind of like a chameleon or something like that, but you could absorb the power.

Shawna 9:32

Absorb, yeah, absorb the skills.

Brian 9:34

Interesting. Okay, so

Hank's Favorite Super Hero

Brian 9:36

and when it comes to superheroes, who is your favorite superhero?

Hank 9:38

Ooh, that's a loaded question. Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. The favorite superhero that I have to dress up as is Batman. That's my favorite. That's his favorite too. Yep. My favorite superhero overall is Iron Man. And the crowd's favorite is Captain America. Ah, I think Batman's one of the coolest because you know he's Batman. Yeah, but he's he was literally at rock bottom and then he built his way back up, just like Iron Man.

Brian 10:07

Yes.

Hank 10:08

And they they they share a very, very similar, you know, origin story. They both were abandoned, left for nothing, then they built themselves up as this heir to the the world in the form of getting what hasn't been done, done. Like getting like what the government or what in their worlds, what the city is afraid to do, they stepped up and did it.

Shawna 10:36

Yeah, filling a need there, yeah, totally.

Vigilante vs Super Hero

Shawna 10:38

So, where do you fall on the side of the argument? Uh, you know, some people say Batman's not a superhero, he's vigilante. Have you ever heard people talk about that?

Hank 10:47

Definitely. Once you have your own signal in the sky, you're a superhero.

Shawna 10:54

I like that. I like that. I've always tried to figure out because I mean, I mean, I'm actually fine with vigilante. I like vigilante. But I I've always tried to think like, because I mean, obviously, he's a superhero, so yeah, yeah. I like that argument. I'm gonna um borrow that.

Hank 11:08

That oh, that's fine for sure. I think that Captain America is like the first superhero because he was enlisted by the government to be a superhero. Sure. Um I think Iron Man is the best vigilante without being a vigilante because he's the most esque of a vigilante. Because he was he built everything private and kept it to himself. He doesn't work with the government, uh except for when he would like work with Shield in the late in the later movies. But Batman worked with Gotham PD. He works with these uh monumental figures in society, but Iron Man kind of keeps it to himself. In the movies, he says that it's all for himself, he's the one keeping America safe, and that's the reason that they aren't going under. So I think vigilante versus hero really depends on how much you're willing to share your abilities with the world.

Brian 12:06

Interesting.

Shawna 12:07

That is that is a deep question, isn't it?

The Voices Behind The Heroes

Brian 12:10

Now, do you do the voices too?

Hank 12:12

Well, obviously for Batman, you gotta go like this. Yes, you've gotta be the face of justice, you've gotta be the arm of darkness, you have to reach out and grab crime by the throat. That almost surprised me.

Shawna 12:26

You're really good at that.

Hank 12:28

It's usually not like that. I I'm a little hoarse right now, so it's usually a little bit better, but I thought it was great. You know, for Iron Man, you gotta go like this. You gotta go, you gotta project. You gotta you gotta be the billionaire playboy they all want you to be. And for Captain America, you have to talk like you're leading the nation.

Brian 12:44

Wow. Hello, Spider-Man.

Hank 12:45

Spider-Man kind of talks like this, you know? Spider-Man's kind of like this this bouncy ADHD kind of kid, you know? He's bouncing off the walls, you know. He's he's he's an inventor, he's a tinkerer, he's he's I'm I'm swinging through buildings, you know. I'm I'm bouncing. I'm re I'm just ready to go, ready to fight, Mr. Stark, you know? I love it.

Shawna 13:02

So impressive. That is awesome. That's seriously impressive. So,

Who Is Your Favorite Spiderman

Shawna 13:06

okay, well, let's just ask you this and get this off the table. Should have asked this first off, so that I would know if we should go forward with this interview, but it's okay. We'll talk about it now. Who is your favorite Spider-Man?

Hank 13:16

Ooh, uh Spider-Man, Tom Holland. Peter Parker, wait, no, no, no. I got that backward. Peter Parker, Tom Holland. No, hold on.

Brian 13:26

Hold on. You're talking like Spider-Man right now. Yeah, I'm so sorry.

Hank 13:29

Let's get I get in depth with this.

Shawna 13:31

And also, I'm like going like he hasn't gotten out of the character yet.

Brian 13:35

He's gonna let him get out of the character first.

Hank 13:37

So favorite Peter Parker is Toby Maguire. Favorite Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield. Favorite of both is Tom Holland. Tom Holland kind of blends.

Shawna 13:48

Let's just do high five. I'm just happy you picked Tom Holland somewhere in there.

Hank 13:52

The movies of um Toby Maguire the best. I think they're the most interesting uh after him, since he was like the first Spider-Man. He wasn't the first, but he was the Spider-Man. After that, they all kind of follow the same thing, but I they all had their own unique twists on it. But Andrew Garfield was definitely the best, like in like physique and the way he presented himself to the villains. Like he was very self-confident, but he was also, you know, he was a teenager. Yeah. And then Tom Holland, he looked, he just looks so young. So it really portrays the comic book deck definition of Spider-Man better than anyone else did.

Shawna 14:30

See, I should know these questions are gonna have some real thought put behind the answers. I like that.

Brian 14:35

See, I would

Who Is Your Favorite Batman

Brian 14:36

ask which Batman, but I don't know any of their names, anyways.

Hank 14:39

Uh well, there's Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, then you have Kerr. Oh, what's his name? Christian Bale, um Robert Pattinson.

Shawna 14:48

Oh yeah. I haven't seen his yet.

Hank 14:49

It's that's three hours long.

Brian 14:52

I was surprised he did it in my life.

Hank 14:53

Oh my gosh, that one was so good. Yeah. Not gonna lie, favorite is probably Christian Bale, because he's he just portrays you know the the essence of vengeance so well. But Robert Pattinson is my second favorite, just on the level of Batman is the world's greatest detective, and Robert Pattinson really just with all the just him going against the Riddler in his movie, was so good. Like the way he put the clues together.

Shawna 15:22

We forgot Ben Affleck, too.

Hank 15:24

Yep, that's a movie.

Shawna 15:27

It just popped in my head. He only did one movie, right?

Hank 15:29

Uh Ben Affleck, yeah. I think like everyone hated him. It was Batman versus Superman. Oh, that was the movie he did. He was the armored Batman. Honestly, that suit was really cool. Not my favorite, but it was really cool.

Shawna 15:41

I don't think I actually saw that one either. I've kind of stopped going to the superhero movies because it's like Brian and Ashton's thing. Yeah, and then I'll go read a book somewhere. But I I uh well, I I might get back into the Batman's at least though, because I do I miss the Batman movies. They're so good.

Hank 15:59

We'll got what's his name again? Robert Pattinson. Yeah, right. Like I was there's a that was so that one's two and three hours long, basically, and there's another one coming.

Shawna 16:07

Is there okay? So I should watch the first one.

Brian 16:09

I literally thought he's not gonna be a good Batman, but we went and saw it at the theater. I'm like, he was was like amazing. I told Sean, I was like, you have to see that Batman. That was probably one of the best Batman's I've seen as I got. It was so great.

Hank 16:22

And the filming was amazing too. Like the camera angle was so good about it.

Shawna 16:26

Yeah, that is what's funny, is when they were getting ready to go to the movie, both he and our son were like, This is gonna be terrible. Like he well, when they first announced it, well, it was so shocking. You're like, what?

Hank 16:37

He's literally the star of Twilight, so you can't get much from Twilight, but then oh my gosh, they did such a great job. They did. They did.

Shawna 16:44

I think I I love it when they can turn around a perception like that.

The Hank's Heroes Goal & Experience

Brian 16:48

So, Hank, what do you uh what do you hope people feel after your exp after their experience with you?

Hank 16:53

Happy. I hope they feel like I just met a superhero. I hope they feel like, oh my gosh, that was so cool. Like, I want them to remember that. I want them to think that that's something that doesn't happen every day.

Brian 17:12

Absolutely. Yeah, that I think I I mean I love your whole your heart behind what you're doing and stuff like that. I I think I love that at 15 yeah, your your goals behind this is to put a smile on people's face. Like that's rare these days. And and it makes sense too that you said you're homeschooled, our son's homeschooled, and we've noticed there's difference with kids that's homeschooled uh sometimes.

Shawna 17:35

Specifically just that you a lot of times, not always I'm sure, but you like figure out what you want to do aside from what you know ever all your other peers think about it, you know, you're just willing to like kind of make your own path a little, I think.

Brian 17:49

Yeah,

How To Connect with Hank's Heroes

Brian 17:50

good and let our listeners know like how they can find out more about bring you know, reaching out to you as well.

Hank 17:56

So um reaching out via our email, um, that's pretty direct. We have a we have a PO box. So if you were to like mail an invitation, if you wanted to do that, which kudos to you because who does that nowadays?

Brian 18:12

Yeah, but um unless you send it through the flash.

Hank 18:16

Yeah the website is hanksh heroes.com.

Brian 18:22

Okay.

Hank 18:23

There's a website out there. I don't know if you're listening, I don't know who you are, but um, you have the same title of our business, and you're also a nonprofit, but you are a dog rescue facility. That's Hanks Heroes Rescue. Um, we are hanks dash heroes.com, not hanksheroes.com. Okay, gotcha. Okay, that's good to clear out of it.

Shawna 18:45

Yeah, it's good to clear, yeah, good to clarify that. Everyone will be like, oh, he also has dogs as part of it.

Hank 18:51

You gotta put that dash in between the words or else you just go somewhere.

Local Spots to Unwind & Reflect

Brian 18:55

All right. So let's transition here for a minute as we get closer to wrapping up. Like, we want to know a little bit about, as I was mentioned, about where you like to kind of like go into your secret identity and uh put on your glasses. He's really pushing this on hard. I'm pushing it. But yeah, where where do you like to uh go locally, like in the Treasure Coast area, to to to unwind, to spend time to reflect and stuff like that at your age?

Hank 19:21

On Wednesdays, I go to a youth group. Uh I spend time with friends there. On Sundays, I have practice. I really practice is like practice and youth group and outings like that are gonna be like the best decompression of just what I've been doing throughout the week. Um dance, dance is it's two hours long. So is so is cheer. So I get to talk to my friends, I get to spend time with them, but also doing something I like to do. Um, I like skateboarding, I like going out, you know. I'll just go around the neighborhood or I'll go to I'll go um I haven't gotten the chance to, but I want to go to the Sebastian skate park just down the road on um on Barber. But um I you know, just simple things.

Shawna 20:04

Yeah. Do you have any um favorite like restaurants in town or uh Sandwich Shack is definitely one of my favorites?

Brian 20:11

And you know if they're open on Mondays? Um, we're gonna go after here to eat. I was like, I'll find somewhere around Sebastian and try it out.

Hope for Hank's Heroes

Shawna 20:19

What are your hopes for the future of Hank's Heroes?

Hank 20:22

So I I would like I would love to have a team of heroes, and we're also trying to put together a $500 scholarship for uh, you know, people who would who maybe they're disabled, maybe they've gone through something, maybe they or maybe they support people who've gone through something. Maybe they're a sibling of someone who is physically disabled, and they're sometimes they're kind of put aside when it comes to the attention or when it comes to the parents having to support the disabled child, the children who they but they kind of end up becoming like a second set of parents. They really do. They're always they're always there and they just kind of shut off. So I wanna I want to support them as well as supporting the people who qualify as well.

Shawna 21:10

That's so beautiful. That is so true that we've seen that happen a lot of times too. You're so that's cool that you're thinking about that because usually, you know, that is the sibling that's kind of like forgotten, like, you know, falls through the cracks a little bit.

Brian 21:24

So Hank, we've loved having you on the podcast. This has been great. Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah. I mean, we don't it's not every day we get to have a hero or a superhero on the podcast.

Hank's Advice For Hard Days

Brian 21:33

Well, okay, so I I want to wrap up with one question. And I just feel like this is so important with the position that you're in. As a hero, there's always like a word of wisdom or inspiration that you want to give people. So for those people that might be listening and maybe are walking around in life that don't feel like they have the power to smile today and they're needing that that extra encouragement. What would you want to say to them?

Hank 22:00

Talk to someone. It it doesn't matter, like literally just have a conversation with a person. It doesn't matter maybe they're just the cashier at Wendy's as you go through the drive-thru, but just say, Hey, how are you doing? Good to see you. Uh I've been going through the drive-thru before. I like your hat. Just really, it's as simple as just uh saying a couple words and just driving away. And really, if you're someone who wants to help people like that, maybe you just support, just listen. Listening oftentimes will gain you more knowledge than trying to get it out of someone if you just let it happen.

Brian 22:47

So, like what I hear from all that is be present in the moment. Like the people that that's been put around you. It's not by accident. Uh, and uh enjoy those moments. So uh thank you so much, Hank, for being on the podcast. Yeah. All right. Well, listen, we've really enjoyed having you on. Uh again, if you guys make sure you check out his website to learn more about Hank's heroes. And uh with that, we want to ask you guys if you guys are enjoying this local podcast, make sure you leave us a review. That'll help others find your super vero beach podcast.

Shawna 23:19

Uh and with that, catch you next time, neighbor. Can we come back next week and talk again?

Brian 23:29

Well, it's the same uh same bat channel, same bat. Yeah.