It was in the depths of hardship and struggle that an unlikely friendship was formed between Randy Brennan and Leo Reyes. Since 2007 these men have lived, learned, grown, failed, and celebrated many successes together behind the fences of several different prison facilities. Most incarcerated people hold the philosophy that ”I came to prison alone, and I’m going to leave alone” or ”I’m not here to make friends”. These two men also felt that way, but over the years Leo and Randy developed a brotherly bond, as well as what you could describe as a sibling rivalry.
Both of them are successful service dog trainers for the Summit Assistance Dogs / Monroe prison partnership Program. Summit recruited Leo and Randy to feature in fundraising videos, which have had thousands of views on YouTube. It was the sibling rivalry that ignited an ongoing competition that would lead to their current bet for which one of their videos will be the first to reach 20,000 views. So naturally, it became a daily taunting match between them. Before long, it progressed into a personal competition between them to see which of their dog videos would get the most views. Leo’s video had been out since 2016, so it had a significant number of views by 2018, when Summit posted Randy’s video. Cleverly, Randy contacted a very popular dog rescue company/TV show in 2019 and they shared his video throughout their network. Randy’s video shot up to 9,950 views on YouTube by 2020, while Leo’s hovered at around 6,400. Both of their YouTube views have grown significantly since then.
The bet between them is for whose video will reach 20,000 views first. To calculate this, they made a projection based off the current growth rate, using the formula d = rt as their guide, over the course of the last year.
Randy’s current view number is 10,900. Leo’s current view number is 7,800. To see how they did from 2020 to 2021, they subtracted their previous numbers from their current numbers.
• 10, 900 − 9, 950 = 950
• 7, 800 − 6, 400 = 1, 400
They divided these numbers by the number of months (12) to see how many views they got per month on average over the past year. Then they put these numbers into an equation to solve the unknown, (t).
Rate (monthly views) x Time (months) = Distance (views)
Randy 79.167 252.631 20,000
Leo 116.667 171.428 20,000
Randy Leo
79.167t = 20, 000 116.667t = 20, 000
t = 20, 000/79.167 t = 20, 000/116.667
t = 252.631 t = 171.428
252.631/12 = 21.05 years 171.428/12 = 14.29 years
At the current rate, it will take Randy 21 years to reach the goal, but Leo will reach it in a little over 14 years.
However, Randy still has some tricks up his sleeve and Leo has become wise to sharing his video as well. It is doubtful that the video views will continue to grow at the current rate, but what will remain the same is the unlikely friendship that they formed through commiseration during hard times. In addition, the competitive rivalry of their brotherhood will likely be with them for life. Therefore, the bet is on and the competition is unbending.
To see the videos for yourself, Please go to Summit Assistance Dogs Monroe Partnership@YouTube.com
(Leo’s is 2016 and Randy’s is 2018)