He was successful, too, setting a couple of records, though they have both since been broken. But it all left him feeling that something was missing.

“I was like, if I ever do something like that again, it would be great to do it with a cause,” he said.

Watts, who lives in Centerville, has decided fighting food insecurity is that cause.

On June 10, Watts provided entertainment during the Davis Education Foundation’s gala at Megaplex Centerville at Legacy Crossing. The foundation was using the event to raise money to help eliminate school lunch debt. On Aug. 8, Watts has an event planned where he will attempt to break a Guinness World Record for what’s called the longest soap bubble carousels chain. Watts described each carousel as including two bubbles, a ring of five bubbles and a bubble with smoke inside it in the middle of the ring.

Photo supplied

“That’s one carousel, and I have to do at least six of those,” he said.

He said a donation site, www.4the1.net, has been programmed so people can dictate which school district their funds go to.

“Somebody lives in Murray School District, they can select that. If somebody lives in Alpine, or if somebody lives clear down in Washington School District … they could say, I want my donation to go to this school district,” he said. “And Granite (School District) has agreed to then send checks for the total amounts to each of the different districts. So it really is statewide.”

Watts emphasized that the money is specifically earmarked to feed hungry kids and won’t go to anything else like books or backpacks.

“Whatever hunger initiative you want to do, whether it’s eliminate some school lunch debt, you want to provide more pantry packs for kids … whatever it is you want to do, it has to be for feeding kids. That is what it’s for,” he said.

The Aug. 8 event will be held at Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City, with the attempt happening at 8 p.m. The attempt is open to the public, he said.

Watts said he has 41 free shows scheduled for the mall starting July 14, and he also has eight shows scheduled for Layton Hills Mall.

A calendar is available on Watts’ website to find all scheduled events.

Philanthropic interest

Watts said he’s always been inspired by philanthropy and that his mother instilled that in him. He said when he graduated from high school, his mom gifted him a card that had a starfish story on it.

“There are lots of versions of it, but in the card, an old man is on the beach and there are thousands and thousands of stranded starfish because the tide washed them in and now they’re just stranded on the beach and they’re going to dry out and die if they don’t get back in the water,” he said. “So this old gentleman’s on the beach, picking them up one at a time, throwing them back into the ocean to help save their lives. This young boy comes walking up to him, and he sees all these starfish, like, literally thousands and thousands of them, and he says to the old man, ‘What are you doing?’ He says, ‘I’m saving starfish,’ and he throws one in the ocean. The boy says, ‘Why, though? You can’t possibly save every single one of these starfish. It won’t even make a difference.’ And he picks up another starfish and throws it in the ocean and says, ‘It made a difference to that one.’

“And so the point of this story is it does feel daunting. There are so many issues going on in the world and sometimes people don’t do anything about it because they’re just like, ‘What difference would it make if I did anything?’ If I were to do this fundraising project and only raise a dollar, what difference would that make? Well it would make a difference to someone. It would make a difference to one person.”

Why hunger

Watts is specifically motivated to help fight food insecurity because of an experience he had in 2017.

“I’d made the most money I’d ever made in my career up to that point,” he said. “We sold a house that we had. I had finished my master’s degree. I was working at a good job. I made all this money. … And then a year later, I found myself having to stand in line at a food bank to provide for my family because of the trials that I went through, like losing my job, being out of work, and it hit me even harder at that point. Hunger is an ongoing thing. Even people who maybe a year ago or even a month ago were like, ‘Hey, I’m OK’ end up not being OK.

“Think about government furloughs or people who lose their jobs. So many things that can happen to people that can instantly change their situation where they used to be able to provide for their family and now they can’t. So, I think for me, hunger has hit home really hard.”

Watts said there are a lot of wonderful causes that people can raise money for, like fighting cancer and homelessness, but he said it’s “a really basic necessity” for people to eat.

“If you don’t have food to eat, shelter, so many other things don’t matter because you’re not going to live very long,” he said.

Self-funded through plasma donation

Watts said he has donated plasma for about five years to help fund whatever costs he incurs. He does that so he can avoid needing a sponsor or a cut of any donations. He said he has all his expenses covered so that 100% of what is raised goes to feeding kids.

“I’ll admit, there were times that I didn’t want to go,” he said about donating plasma. “There were times that I’m on the machine and it hurts because it didn’t hit the vein right and you feel like this pressure in your arm, or they didn’t get the vein and the flow stops and they have to poke the other arm, so you have needles that have been poked in both arms. And I think what kept me going with it was just reminding myself, ‘Well, why am I doing this?’ It’s not like I’m making a ton of money doing this.

“And … you’re helping save lives. They use this for making life-saving medicines for people, and there’s a shortage of it. They need people to donate. And so I would remind myself I am helping people with the actual plasma that’s donated, but then the money I’m earning is helping me do this project, and I just have to remind myself this is bigger than myself.”

Davis Education Foundation

Davis Education Foundation Executive Director Kara Toone said when she first learned about what Watts was doing, it astonished her that he didn’t want a cut.

“I do fundraising for a living, and so I have a lot of outreach from fundraising vendors, and they’re running a business,” she said. “Their model is, ‘Hey, I’m going to help and do this fundraiser at this school, and I get my cut and the school gets its cut. … So … I was like, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t understand. What’s your cut?’ And he’s like, ‘No, I don’t have a cut of it.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not understanding … Why are you doing this? What is the benefit to you?’ And he’s like, ‘No, I just feel like it’s important. I feel like I need to do it.’ And I’m like, ‘I’ve never heard this before.’ I’ve never heard of anything like this before.

“The fact that he’s giving plasma to generate the funds to be able to buy his equipment and supplies so that he can come out and try to do a cool thing in setting a record, but at the same time, bring awareness to something that’s a big issue for a lot of our families, and especially right now when people are struggling with affordability, I’ve just never seen anything like it before. And I’ve been in this game for a while.”

In highlighting the need for donations, Toone said the Legislature passed a law that said students who qualified for reduced lunch would also qualify for free lunch, but that does not apply to breakfast.

“There are students who really do depend on the meals that they’re getting at school for breakfast and lunch,” she said. “And so even if they are in households that … qualify for free lunch, the breakfast is still racking up the debt. And if they don’t fill out the paperwork at all … then they’re accruing it for lunch and for breakfast. And so it’s a problem.”

She said at her last look, which she thought was in February, Davis School District had $550,000 in unpaid lunch balances.

Toone said the campaign to help pay the balances will continue throughout the year.

Contact Standard-Examiner editor Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.