00;00;02;06 - 00;00;22;25
Joe Carr
Welcome to the Providence College podcast. My name is Joe Carr and our producer today is Chris Judge. If you want to feel even better about your association with Providence College, you've come to the right place. We're pleased today to share a conversation with Doug Kingsley, a 2016 PC graduate who exemplifies the commitment to service that is one of his core ideals.

00;00;23;21 - 00;00;44;15
Joe Carr
From a student leadership position in campus ministry and ROTC to service in the Army, to his work as a Sherburn Massachusetts police officer. Doug is walking the walk, and that's a cliché I'm using on purpose, because Doug recently completed a walk all the way across Massachusetts to raise money and awareness for a good cause. Doug, thank you for joining us today.

00;00;45;04 - 00;00;45;25
Doug Kingsley
Thank you for having me.

00;00;47;06 - 00;00;54;06
Joe Carr
Tell us more about your work as a police officer in that metro west town of Sherburn. How long have you been on the force there?

00;00;54;22 - 00;01;24;13
Doug Kingsley
So being on the job over in Sherburn for about three years or so right now. I joined back in 2019 as a dispatcher. Right off the bat was waiting for an opportunity to attend the police academy. When the opportunity came to go to police academy. I attended that for 22 weeks up in Redding, Massachusetts, and ever since I graduated from there, I have been an officer on the road student.

00;01;24;14 - 00;01;36;18
Doug Kingsley
It's your normal suburban town in Massachusetts. It's kind of a small farm town, about 5000 residents. But I've been working the job ever since, graduating the academy and loving every minute of it.

00;01;37;09 - 00;01;42;07
Joe Carr
And we're talking 1:00 on a Thursday afternoon. You're getting ready for your shift to begin in a couple of hours, right?

00;01;42;17 - 00;01;47;15
Doug Kingsley
Exactly. So I'm currently on the eve shift from 3 p.m. till 11:00 at night.

00;01;47;20 - 00;02;01;26
Joe Carr
So it's a beautiful town and it's the town you grew up in, right? So you get familiar with it. How does this connect with the the line from ROTC through your military service to the police force? Is there a thread there that you follow.

00;02;02;26 - 00;02;36;27
Doug Kingsley
A little bit? There's definitely a service to the community, service to the country, service to the state, which I tried to kind of keep in mind when I first joined ROTC, I thought I wanted to go full time Army, go active duty when that didn't become a reality, I decided to go to the National Guard, serve for Rhode Island, and then at the same time, I was able to start a civilian career in law enforcement so I could work the military one month, one week in the month, two weeks in the summer.

00;02;37;07 - 00;02;50;23
Doug Kingsley
At the same time that I'm doing civilian law enforcement. So there is a kind of an overlap in terms of training and whatnot, but they do have their differences as well, working in the military as well as working for your your local municipality.

00;02;50;23 - 00;02;54;16
Joe Carr
So and in your service in the Rhode Island National Guard continues, correct?

00;02;55;01 - 00;02;58;27
Doug Kingsley
Correct. So I just got my got my seventh year in the Rhode Island National Guard.

00;03;00;05 - 00;03;12;15
Joe Carr
When we talk with alumni or other people with a connection to PC, we often like to find out what brought our guests to the college in the first place. So how did you find your way here as a student so far?

00;03;12;19 - 00;03;38;02
Doug Kingsley
Feels like so long ago. Tell me about it. Yeah, I was attending a Catholic high school or something through 12, and when I was starting to look at colleges, I was looking at colleges that had the same values and the same feel as the high school I went to, the high school I went to as very as a classical education, very unapologetically Catholic.

00;03;38;07 - 00;04;02;28
Doug Kingsley
So as soon as I stepped foot on Providence, I remember the day I went for a tour. I spoke with Father Shanley. At the time, I fell in love with the place. It mimics the experience I already had from high school, but at a collegiate level. And I loved every minute of it. And I think I put my application in, you know, that that week in, you know, thank goodness I made it.

00;04;02;28 - 00;04;07;23
Doug Kingsley
And I love the four years of attending it. So perfect grades.

00;04;07;26 - 00;04;18;00
Joe Carr
And that high school, by the way, deserves a little credit and a little attention here at Saint Sebastian's, which has sent a number of people to Providence College over many, many years. So a great connection.

00;04;18;12 - 00;04;18;28
Doug Kingsley
Exactly.

00;04;19;12 - 00;04;21;21
Joe Carr
Did you get involved in campus ministry right away?

00;04;22;16 - 00;04;52;05
Doug Kingsley
Right off the bat, when I once I got the acceptance letter, I started looking at ways to kind of get my foot in the door and get acclimated to Providence. I did the first year of the FT Works program in August before the school year even started, which was a week long program where you're kind of immersed in the community, not just in Providence, but greater not just the PC, but the Greater Providence community did some community service around the city.

00;04;52;26 - 00;05;15;11
Doug Kingsley
On campus was a great way to meet freshmen right off the bat. So and then from there on, I was pretty involved with campus ministry, whether it's altar serving, training the altar service for a little while, leading a retreat my senior year and everything in between. So definitely I kind of tried to get into that, you know, full force.

00;05;16;02 - 00;05;40;10
Joe Carr
For any listeners who have been around PC or were around PC during the time when Doug was a student, you probably noticed him if you attend one of the masses because Doug was the tallest altar server I've ever seen. So it's a real presence on the altar, which is a great thing for sure. Obviously, your your faith life is a is a very important part of the way that you navigate through your life.

00;05;40;11 - 00;05;52;10
Joe Carr
And I'd like to ask you about how that developed when you were at PC. You had all these experiences and you clearly focused on and taking advantage of those opportunities to a significant extent.

00;05;53;16 - 00;06;27;11
Doug Kingsley
Well, I was raised in a very Irish-Catholic household, was I attended K through college and Catholic school. When I got to PC, it was it wasn't hard to keep up with my faith and practicing. It helped that they had math daily and it was right in the center of campus. And I was walking to it from class. I would duck into the chapel for mass or just to say some prayers, or I'd go into the history center and talk with the priests and some of my fellow classmates.

00;06;28;25 - 00;06;41;24
Doug Kingsley
So it was it was definitely great to have my say throughout college. And it was at the center of the college literally having the chapel right there and figuratively. I guess so.

00;06;42;17 - 00;06;51;07
Joe Carr
Yeah. Who are some of the people who we consider to be influences on you during your time at PC, especially with respect to the face development?

00;06;52;13 - 00;07;14;21
Doug Kingsley
I think the first priest who I put in contact with when I got to campus or before he even was accepted, was Father, Brother, Earl, God rest his soul. He was a great influence on me in the months leading up to attending as well as my time on campus. He was great. I had a very close relationship with Father cutting.

00;07;15;06 - 00;07;39;10
Doug Kingsley
He was he was a good friend of mine. I still talk to him every so often. So a bunch of the priests out there were really big influences on my time at PCC and then all of the the classmates and the students that I met through campus ministry, he went on retreats with or mentoring Faith Works. They were all big influences on me throughout my time at PC and then now.

00;07;39;26 - 00;07;57;14
Doug Kingsley
Since then, actually, I'm still in contact with all my classmates who I met day one day to day three so I could spend hours naming everyone, but that would take up way too much time. Off the top of my head, it was definitely those priests. And then all my classmates.

00;07;57;14 - 00;08;20;15
Joe Carr
So sure, it was Father Cutie, by the way, who connected me with you for the purposes of this podcast, especially to talk about your project over the summer, which we'll get to in just a minute or two. So it's obvious that there's, as we suggested earlier, a thread here where we talk about chemist, chemist, ministry, ROTC, military service, police work and that thread and service to others.

00;08;20;25 - 00;08;28;14
Joe Carr
What inspires you to that and where do you find the humility that it takes to be selfless in the service to other people?

00;08;29;21 - 00;09;00;04
Doug Kingsley
It was definitely I get to attribute too much to my family, my upbringing, like I said, going to the high school I went to and then going to Providence College. But they instilled in you the importance of service and giving back to those around you, your community, your country. But it started at a young age where, you know, my parents would tell me to give back to the community, whether it's through helping out of the church in the local soup kitchen or whatever the case may be.

00;09;00;21 - 00;09;20;28
Doug Kingsley
They really instilled in me a young age and that I tried to carry that through my life ever since. So when I got to call Providence College and had the opportunity to start ROTC, I jumped at the opportunity and I actually just started as just some way to stay active and kind of get acclimated to the college, but I fell in love with it.

00;09;20;28 - 00;09;45;13
Doug Kingsley
Just the ability to have some sort of structured my, you know, first couple of months on campus, but then also being able to to serve and have that the ability to kind of give back a little bit. And then when I was joining the National Guard, I chose to stay local. I stayed in Rhode Island. I could have gone to the Massachusetts National Guard, but Rhode Island means a lot to me.

00;09;45;13 - 00;10;12;11
Doug Kingsley
And I wanted to give back to that community as well, because it played a very pivotal role in my development as a young adult. And then joining the police department was another way to get back to the town that I grew up in and in the the people who I who I grew up with. So it's like I said, it started at a young age and I always tried to keep it, keep serving in one way or another.

00;10;12;16 - 00;10;35;00
Joe Carr
So great to hear you give credit to your parents there because we perceive we benefit happy speaking from their commitment to service because they are great supporters of the college. Your father also named Doug as a member of the board of trustees. Your brother John very involved, too. And they provide great leadership support and guidance to Father Sicard, Father Shanley before him in the college's senior leadership.

00;10;35;00 - 00;10;39;24
Joe Carr
So you brought a family to PC when you're when you came with IS. I did extra credit.

00;10;40;08 - 00;10;49;29
Doug Kingsley
I can tell you my parents always say that they wish they went to PC. They fell in love with it just as much as I did when I started going there. So they're very involved even to this day.

00;10;50;15 - 00;11;09;15
Joe Carr
Well, let's turn our attention now to Massachusetts COP, which is the project you undertook this summer of your own volition and inspiration, a 220 mile 12 day walk across the state, west to east in the month of October. What was it that inspired you to do this? And tell us about the cause that it was meant to support.

00;11;10;22 - 00;11;37;16
Doug Kingsley
So initially it started off as me wanting to just stay active. So policing can be a little bit of a sedentary job and but it developed into a way to raise awareness for a cause, which means a lot to me in law enforcement as well as in the military. There are a lot of stressors which can get to you and kind of affect you mentally, physically and spiritually.

00;11;37;16 - 00;12;14;02
Doug Kingsley
And I've seen it on a very personal level. I certainly had some close friends struggle with their mental health, and sadly, one or two of them took their lives because of that. So I wanted to raise awareness for first responder military suicide awareness and mental health. So I kind of paired up with an organization called First Help, which focuses on first responders in the mental health.

00;12;14;02 - 00;12;32;08
Doug Kingsley
And I wanted to get out into the community and speak with first responders. On a personal level, I can raise awareness very easily, you know, posting stuff to social media or or kind of doing things remotely. But I wanted to physically get out into the community and speak with first responders, walk with people and share my story and hear their story to raise awareness.

00;12;32;19 - 00;12;55;11
Doug Kingsley
So it kind of developed from I think August 1st was the first day I came up with this idea from August 1st until I stepped off on October 12th, I started planning. I started reaching out to these different departments, not just police, but fire, EMS dispatchers. Just to tell my story, explain why I was doing what I was doing, raise that awareness.

00;12;55;11 - 00;13;12;02
Doug Kingsley
And then it kind of snowballed from there. And it turned into this enormous thing where the media got wind of it and it did exactly what I wanted to do was raise the awareness and actually get out into the community and speak with these people face to face and walk people and share my story. So, absolutely unbelievable adventure.

00;13;12;02 - 00;13;15;25
Doug Kingsley
You know, considering doing it again next year. Great.

00;13;16;14 - 00;13;42;18
Joe Carr
And also raise some money, right? For Blue Hope, which is a subset of first time. I was doing some reading this morning about Blue Help and I thought to share the mission statement to help with the interesting it's net it's there to reduce mental health stigma through education advocate for benefits for those suffering from post-traumatic stress, acknowledged the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers.

00;13;42;18 - 00;14;05;25
Joe Carr
Officers we lost to suicide assist officers in their search for healing and to bring awareness to suicide and mental health issues. What a worthy cause and good for you for providing that support. We will share information in the show notes about how to find out more about that organization and its organization and in fact, support it, which would be great to build upon Doug's excellent work over the summer.

00;14;06;15 - 00;14;21;27
Joe Carr
What was it like walking across the state? You shared the story on Facebook and Instagram very well with pictures and and testimonials from people. But everywhere you went, you were greeted, escorted and really supported by so many people.

00;14;22;11 - 00;14;45;24
Doug Kingsley
It was, again, an unbelievable journey. Little emotional at times. I used it on a more personal level as kind of almost like a pilgrimage to kind of better myself mentally, spiritually and physically. But the reception I got was fantastic from start to finish. I thought when I first planned this that it was going to be me with my pack just walking down the road and kind of maybe bump into people here and there.

00;14;45;24 - 00;15;23;24
Doug Kingsley
But as people heard about what I was doing and why I was doing it, they came out of the woodwork. I think on the week leading up to my first day, a retired Massachusetts state trooper got wind of this out in western Mass and he worked his magic. And on day one, I had Massachusetts state troopers since I started the New York border and New York state troopers, sheriffs, local police, they all came out to wish me luck and wished me, you know, on my way or see me on my way and right off the bat, I had people walking with me, people supporting me.

00;15;24;04 - 00;15;56;05
Doug Kingsley
I would walk by police departments and they'd be out there in front of the station, you know, cheering me on or welcoming and giving me, you know, coffee or something. So and that started day one all the way through day 12. So the reception was fantastic. Being able to get out there and speak with these these individuals and talk to them, we didn't always talk about, you know, mental health and suicide awareness, but just having a genuine conversation with people, that's something that was lacking in in, you know, a sense in in the career and that that line of work.

00;15;56;11 - 00;16;00;10
Doug Kingsley
So being able to actually talk to these people is, is awesome and share stories.

00;16;00;23 - 00;16;10;15
Joe Carr
Is there a sense of fraternity among people who work in law enforcement? These are obviously very stressful jobs. You share experiences that nobody else can really understand or appreciate.

00;16;11;13 - 00;16;37;14
Doug Kingsley
There's definitely a fraternity. It's definitely a community. Both first responders and military. And we do we do have shared experiences. And sometimes those experiences aren't very, very good. We see things that the normal person's not supposed to are supposed to see. And there used to be the stigma are they used to be this, you know, unspoken rule that you don't talk about it.

00;16;37;14 - 00;16;58;14
Doug Kingsley
You don't bring up these things that you see. You kind of just keep it to yourself and just power through and keep working. But that's unhealthy and that's what I'm trying to bring to people's attention that it's not a sign of weakness to to, you know, say that you need help or bring up these, these, these, these things.

00;16;58;14 - 00;17;14;01
Doug Kingsley
It's actually a sign of strength to say, hey, I saw this, I saw this, I saw that. I'm struggling through it. I can use it, use a hand. And it definitely helps to have my faith as well to, you know, to fall back on as well and have a good faith community as well. So yeah.

00;17;14;21 - 00;17;26;20
Joe Carr
And those are ideals that we embrace here at Providence College, too. This is meant to be a place where people are supported. Welcome and embraced no matter where they are in their journey. Right.

00;17;27;06 - 00;17;39;26
Doug Kingsley
Exactly. Exactly. And I got a great reception from my classmates from Providence as well, when they heard what I was doing, reaching out to me. Wish me luck and good luck. And I love what you're doing. You know, the support is on the way.

00;17;39;28 - 00;17;47;08
Joe Carr
So what was it like when you reached out and touched the Atlantic Ocean in Chatham on October 23rd? What did that feel like?

00;17;48;08 - 00;18;14;17
Doug Kingsley
It was a little emotional, actually, especially since the turnout on that last day was so great. It's kind of an overcast day, but people came out of the woodwork. I had firefighters there, police officers there. My entire family was there, some close friends. See, it was it was a little emotional right off the bat. It didn't really click the extent of my journey or what it is that I had just accomplished.

00;18;15;13 - 00;18;33;24
Doug Kingsley
I it kind of sunk in over the next couple of days, but it was very cool feeling to think that I had just done that. I had just touched so many lives and I had just, you know, you know, accomplished my goal of raising awareness. And it was it was great. It was a great feeling.

00;18;34;23 - 00;18;57;02
Joe Carr
In addition to putting the link to the Blue Help website in the show notes, we'll also put the link to Doug's Instagram handle for his journey because really, I'll say it again. The social media was is excellent. So anybody can go back now and relive this with you through the pictures and videos. I love your daily updates. You looked into the camera and said, Here's what I did today.

00;18;57;03 - 00;19;15;02
Joe Carr
Here's what it felt like. It really it was real and it really made the story come alive. Great to have those channels right and ways to do the story and to build upon it. Logistics. This is about 20 miles a day, right almost here.

00;19;16;04 - 00;19;36;20
Doug Kingsley
When I was planning it out, I was I was talking to some people who done this sort of thing. I have a cousin who was military as well. And since he got out, he's he goes on walks, he's done the Camino, he's done the Appalachian Trail and the Continental Divide. He's like for a living. So I talked to people like him to kind of get, you know, what's realistic.

00;19;36;20 - 00;19;53;10
Doug Kingsley
How many miles can I walk? I mean, logistical, you know, speaking, which would be staying, which I be wearing, which I was packing, that sort of thing. Logistics was kind of a nightmare to begin with, but I had a good support group. I had my mom there with me, my dad, my brothers. They all supported me through the entire thing.

00;19;53;10 - 00;20;19;27
Doug Kingsley
And then the police departments, fire departments, they were offering places to stay, places to eat, you know, you know, something as simple as coffee. It all worked out. And I think it was, you know, also, you know, thank God, God was looking out for me, too. And there were some times where I was thinking myself, you know, is this really doable for 20 miles a day, every day, for 12 straight days?

00;20;21;23 - 00;20;25;17
Doug Kingsley
But it all worked out in the end. And, you know, here I am.

00;20;25;17 - 00;20;31;18
Joe Carr
So I remember having the thought, well, this is happening. This boy, Doug, is getting good weather.

00;20;32;17 - 00;20;33;02
Doug Kingsley
Thank goodness.

00;20;33;02 - 00;20;39;12
Joe Carr
And just there wasn't much rain at all, was there? I mean, I think just about every day was pretty nice.

00;20;39;12 - 00;21;07;24
Doug Kingsley
Maybe two days. It didn't rain all day. But when I was coming through the Springfield area the morning west Springfield or I started in Westfield through West Springfield, there was a couple of hours of rain. And then the day I was coming into Franklin down Route one, 140, there was a three hour block of rain as well. But it was a part of the journey is, you know, embracing the discomfort.

00;21;07;24 - 00;21;12;15
Doug Kingsley
And I had people there walking with me and it helped as well. So it was great.

00;21;12;23 - 00;21;22;06
Joe Carr
Now October is the ideal time of year to do something like this. So I'm sure you didn't pick that by by accident. You lived in New England long enough to figure that out so.

00;21;22;07 - 00;21;40;27
Doug Kingsley
Well, when I was training to it was, you know, August and September. And I was, you know, walking to get prepared. And it was 95 degrees and sunny. It was kind of miserable. But then when I actually started working out in the Berkshires and the foliage and it was, you know, cooler mornings, it was great. So it's a.

00;21;41;10 - 00;22;05;05
Joe Carr
Beautiful state, that's for sure. How would you characterize the level of success you had in reaching whatever goals you set for yourself? I love that broadly broad on purpose because that could be personal fulfillment, that could be money, that could be anything in that range too. Do you feel like it was everything you hoped it would be?

00;22;05;05 - 00;22;24;01
Doug Kingsley
I think it was much more than that. Like I said, I thought it was just going to be me with my back and walking along and it was so much more. I set a goal of on a financial level, I think it was $10,000 and I thought it might be tough to meet that goal. And we met it before I even started walking.

00;22;24;01 - 00;22;55;11
Doug Kingsley
But then once I started walking, the donations all came in. I think we I mean, I'm still getting donations today. I think we got about 27,000, which was great. But on a not so financial level, it was so much more than I expected. The turnout, the awareness that I raised, the fact that I was getting phone calls from these media outlets, from not just Massachusetts, but Providence was reaching out to me, a new station up in New Hampshire.

00;22;56;00 - 00;23;15;27
Doug Kingsley
So I thought it was going to be so a much smaller ordeal. And it turned into this. It snowballed into this, this, this big thing. And it did exactly what I wanted to do. It raised the awareness. I got out in the community. I spoke to these people. So it was a an unbelievable journey, to say the least.

00;23;17;02 - 00;23;40;22
Joe Carr
By the way, the Blue Help website is really great in many ways, and it's worth it to go there and hopefully to support Dennis cause to read some of the testimonials is incredible about what this organization has done for people who have lost family members to respond your family members to suicide. It's really an inspiring thing. So what a great cause you picked to support here.

00;23;41;29 - 00;23;46;25
Joe Carr
By the way, how many towns is this crossing? It's going to be close to 50.

00;23;47;21 - 00;24;06;01
Doug Kingsley
I think it is close to 50. I ended up cutting through a couple. So the bottom half of a couple that I didn't even realize I was going through, right, especially out near the Plymouth area, I saw the street sign and I didn't realize I was going to Kingston or something like that. And I so I think there are about 50 towns.

00;24;06;09 - 00;24;30;29
Joe Carr
Put it on the list that makes it the number up. That's that's a good thing it's so it's one step accounts that make sense one thing about Providence College people is that they learn quickly. I understand that you're considering repeating this sort of next summer, but instead of all the way across a horizontal state, west to east, you're thinking about, maybe you'll try it the other direction north, south or south, north.

00;24;31;12 - 00;25;05;06
Doug Kingsley
To be kind of cool to say that I've walked west, east across the state and then save that the next year I decide to walk, you know, south to north, north to south. But then somebody also brought up something that I'm considering as well. It's turning into almost like a relay to get more people involved and get more support as well, where a first responder walks, you know, one leg of the trip from one side of their town, the next from one side of the county to the next, and then passes off the the the torch, no matter speaking of the responsibility to somebody else.

00;25;05;06 - 00;25;13;12
Doug Kingsley
And they'll walk the next leg and then they pass off to somebody else, get the community more involved, get the word out there a little bit more. So that's also kind of on the table.

00;25;13;12 - 00;25;36;26
Joe Carr
But I think so. I mean, that makes a lot of sense because of the community involvement and the PR part of my brain thinks that it could also generate some more of that kind of interest because it would be it wouldn't involve people from that. The communities themselves. So people are known quantities. Good idea. That's why, Nancy, you see people adjust course and come up.

00;25;37;04 - 00;25;37;26
Doug Kingsley
Always thinking of.

00;25;37;27 - 00;25;55;00
Joe Carr
Ways to improve that that all sounds great. Well, this has been great conversation, Doug. I've been looking forward to this for a while. We're we're all really proud of what you've accomplished here. You're a credit to your alma mater, and this is a great cause. Thank you for for doing that and for taking the time to speak with us and for your service to your community.

00;25;55;00 - 00;25;56;22
Joe Carr
It's it's all all inspiring.

00;25;57;11 - 00;25;58;25
Doug Kingsley
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

00;25;59;02 - 00;26;08;20
Joe Carr
Our guest has been Doug Kingsley. You've been listening to the Providence College podcast. My name is Joe Carr. Our producer is Chris. Judge, thank you for joining us. Until next time.