In this episode of As the Clown Turns, Mike Wagstaff sits down with Amber Ferry, managing director of the Wagstaff Legacy Foundation, and Rob Adams, founder of Thanksgiving Heroes, to explore Holiday Oil’s longstanding commitment to community service. Rob shares the powerful story behind the organization he built after a childhood of hardship and a promise to his mother, along with the practical logistics of feeding thousands of families each year through volunteers, partners like Associated Foods, and a growing national network. The conversation highlights themes of integrity, paying it forward, leadership through service, and how small acts of generosity can create lasting ripples of hope and connection.

Holiday Oil is leaning into food, and this episode introduces Chef Brad Bosley, the company’s first director of food, alongside president James Peterson. Brad traces the path from a Northern Michigan farm kitchen to Johnson & Wales, product development, and convenience, then lays out how Holiday can leave stereotypical gas-station food behind with fresher, assembled-on-site breakfast and a drive-thru that can compete with quick-serve restaurants. James and Mike talk through Cottonwood distribution, store-level training, and a longer bet on owning more of what they sell so the brand is less dependent on fuel.

Mike Wagstaff sits down with his Uncle Steve—Jerry’s little brother by twelve years—for a family-eye view of how the Wagstaffs got into gasoline and how Holiday Oil actually started. Steve walks the map from King Street and educated nightcrawlers at a three-pump Frontier station to Magna, Beeline and Husky leases, a bobtail truck stuck on the railroad tracks, and the day a nineteen-year-old bought his first stop on a handshake and a ten-thousand-dollar down payment. The result is equal parts origin story and cautionary tale: the clown on the sign has deep roots, family and fuel make a high-octane mix, and the little brother who lived it still tells it better than anyone.