Here is the final installment in the 3 part series KLTV did on ESOAL.
My Thoughts: Clearly, rolling the hill until the point of vomiting is NOT something that Teen Mania leadership regrets. They have done it every year for the past decade.
Dave Hasz emailed the reporter to say that cat food has never been served at ESOAL. This 2002 video, as well as the testimony of many interns, proves that is a lie. Take a look at these clips an alumnus just put together in the last few minutes, right after watching tonight’s broadcast. Trust me, you will want to watch this until the end.
UPDATE: An alumnus from 2002 sent me this email:
I was at ESOAL as a facilitator in 2002. At aprox 5:58 it shows me eating a twix in front of someone eating gross food. i was told by a another staff member to act like I enjoyed my twix. At that event I know for a fact cat food was served because I helped take it out of the sealed cans, place it in Styrofoam bowls and the bowls were never out of my sight. An indeterminate time later the interns were eating the same cat food that I had taken out of the cans. I mentioned to some of the other facilitators that the cat food was not a very good choice and didn’t think it was a good idea. A staff member told me that it was fine because if dogs and cats could eat it so could humans. It was never swapped for refried beans. The smell of cat food cans when opened is very distinct. There are several shots of me in these videos. Including aprox 21-22 min. I have not watched the entire video but I know there is more of myself in that. Thank you.
42 comments:
If you fast forward to 2:55 in the video you’ll see me in my blue long-sleeved shirt and bandanna. I ate the cat food and trust me… it was definitely cat food. Let me just ask you this, are there tiny bones in refried beans? Those were in no way, shape, or form refried beans. My group backed away like 10 feet when I ran back to them because they caught a whiff of my fishy breath. Eeeewwww. So, Dave Hasz, you are a liar. Big time. If you truly wrote an email to the news station saying that cat food was never served at ESOAL, then you are seriously sick. Do you know how many former interns witnessed the cat food being eaten at the table? Hopefully they will all know you now for the liar that you are. There really are no excuses for this.
I am about to change the video. You can see the original that she is referring to here:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/RecoveringAlum/videos/11/
Right the friskies was refried beans. I wonder what the pickles were.
Maybe I’m dumb and naive, but I really didn’t expect for Hasz to bail on the interview.
Can somebody summarize the video? Sorry, I tried to watch it, but ummm within like a minute somebody started throwing up. Emetophobe here!
Lol that’s a big part of why I rang out of ESOAL by the way- panic attacks cause everyone was throwing up, lol. And yes, I was dumb enough to write that down in the survey before the event, when they ask you what your biggest fear is.
NH – There is a text version at the KLTV website.
Also, “I can attest to ESOAL’s Biblical soundness…”
WTF.
wow, I never though I’d see the day TM s#!t their pants, but here we are. Awesome.
omg. is that tom gill in the video showing us what foods they’re making people eat?
recovering alumni & company- seriously, omg catfood?! who cares?! there is much worse, like not eating at all in the mission field. grow a pair
Anon – So you don’t mind that Dave Hasz flat out lied?
Once again I make this statement. It isn’t about the cat food, and it is a fact that they did eat it. It is that once again the truth is left out while we argue over semantics. The truth is the truth and a lie is a lie. Dave lied. End of discussion.
I seem to remember something about a core value…what was it…Oh yeah:
Integrity: We are who we say we are, and we always do the right thing, regardless of expediency.
Source: Core Values from Honor Academy Website
It’s not about the catfood Mr. Pious Know-It-All Anonymous 7:46.
It’s about the fact that Dave Hasz sent an email to a news organization claiming that cat food was never served. It is not refried beans in a cat food can – it is fresh cat food going into a white bowl and fed to interns. Look at the intern gag on those “refried beans.” Funny. I always gag and vomit every time I go to a Mexican restaurant.
Mr. Integrity at all costs lied. He made a false statement. That is what this post is about. If he lied about this small insignificant detail – what else is he lying about? Sounds like you need to grow a brain.
That video brings back horrible memories. I wish I had that weekend back. Im so sorry if i hurt anyone. Look me up on the alumni site and email/call me if you want to talk to me about it. Im sorry. Brian A.
Point! We need to make sure some of us who personally experienced the cat food point out that it was cat food. That it tasted like fish (or chicken or beef) that it made interns that ate it gag and in no way it was beans. They are taking quotes from the website, if enough separate people that had the experience testify that it was indeed cat food with first hand experience they would be more able to show his lie for a lie.
Brian, your comment means the world to me, and I’m sure many others.
Thanks for your vulnerability. 🙂
I just watched the video.
I’d be one thing if Hasz said that there was never cat food, if maybe it had slipped his mind and he had no part in it.
But in this video, he looks PROUD of the fact that they’re serving it. You’d think he’d remember showing it off to a camera.
Wow.
Mindscrew.
Wow. Sad…
But you’re all better Christians for eating it, right?
What I don’t get is if he believes in his process why he would deny it.
@ Drea- Cause he’s insane and a total manipulating jackass.
Drea… You are right. Why not make a statement to support the cat food and its purpose. Why hide???
Wow, just watched the updated video (there’s no way I was making it through an hour long ESOAL video). The smugness is seriously disturbing.
HS’s shirt for ESOAL Major has “It Pays to be a winner”
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=435114751827&ref=mf
I honestly think I had repressed most of these memories. Wow. I feel sick after my wife watched these videos.
Again, If I hurt anyone. let me know personally and I will make amends.
Brian
Brian, that means a lot you’re saying that. I know the pain is something we’re all fighting through. For real. It took me like a year.
But I want to say, you’re forgive. We all took part in the game. You weren’t the only one that hurt someone and you werent the only one that got hurt.
A 2010 Participant states-
HA’S standard, i didnt finish
My standard, i failed
Gods standard, i finished with EXCELLENCE
What is wrong with this comment?
This guy on the KLTV discussion board is cracking me up…
“Look…all I’m saying is, where I’m from, we’re rough and we’re tough and we do things most people call us INSANE for. After seeing what all the fuss was about with this thing called “ESOAL”…I nearly broke out in laughter! Basically, a bunch of young people…BEING YOUNG PEOPLE….doing some things that push them to the limits that’s supposed to be “oh so hard”. Puh-lease! Are you kidding me? Where I’m from that’s just our typical weekend fun! What in the world did you do for fun when you were growing up?????? Play with your Barbies and GI Joes???? Those who are tough….Play tough! Just sayin…..”
If these people keep it up, we won’t have much left to do…
Snow ball… Rolling down hill… Getting bigger… Moving faster.
Glad to see the TM Alumni Forum is buzzing a bit again-
http://www.haalumni.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4074
http://www.haalumni.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4075
All of the comments being made on the message board about the local churches just loving Teen Mania and its interns are so irritating.
At my church, interns have been stigmatized over the years. They have a reputation for being lazy free-loaders. They’ve been known to get up in the middle of sermons and prayer meetings to share a “Special Word” from the Lord, to the dismay of our pastor and other leaders. They’re excellent at “volunteering” for events (that normally require a paid admission) and then magically disappearing once their help is actually needed.
Every Tyler church is not in love with Teen Mania. Which gives me hope.
This was the first video that really gave me a painful flashback. Watching the interns dance made me remember my ESOAL: I was woken up in the night, amid hundreds of sleeping interns, to dance for one of the facilitators. That was one of the most humiliating and sickening parts of my ESOAL experience. Being foced to dance alone for someone is feels icky.
Reminds me of the song “Satan Said Dance” by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah… it’s fun until you HAVE to do it, over and over.
What are they trying to prove by making people eat cat food? WTF?!
I don’t know what year this video was from but I was in ESOAL in 209 and we did not get anything but disappointment from our entire group if we rang the bell. These people are getting talked to by Dave Hasz but I don’t think I ever got to personally talk to him the whole time I was at TMM. You had the choice to stay out of ESOAL but if you did you were egged on by others in your core and friends, so I tried it. I ended up dislocating both of my hips out of place, had a really bad infection on pretty much my whole body, and I felt like complete and utter crap about myself because I had to ring out. All ESOAL does is dumb your emotions down so that you just don’t feel anything anymore and I personally do not think that is the way to get through hard situations later in life. I had some definate good and bad times at the HA but I would have to probably say I had more bad then I had good. It’s just a bummer that my parents helped me pay for most of the internship only to not be able to pay for the last couple months and be financially dismissed while I was home going to the doctor for heart problems I was having while I was there. On top of all of that, because I couldn’t come up with the money for my stuff to be shipped from Texas to California all of my belongings were either thrown away or thrown on the free pile. That’s hundreds of dollars on top of the money spent to go there thrown away or given away that my family could not afford to lose….
@anon, that’s terrible and heartless of HA, I’m sorry that you were treated that way. Shame on them!
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