OpusX, Chateau Fuente, Julius Caeser, Cuesta-Rey, shall we go on? You wouldn't have Dominican cigars without the Dominican people.The mountainous agricultural Bonao region of the Dominican Republic, however, suffers from extreme poverty, an inadequate educational system, and poor water quality, which greatly affects people's health. Two giants in premium cigars—Carlos “Carlito” P. Fuente, Jr., chairman of Arturo Fuente Cigars and Eric Newman, president of J.C. Newman Cigar Company—set out to change all that.

In the D.R., the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation (CFCF) has funded the creation of a 23-acre campus with a K-12 school, community kitchen, medical and dental clinics, sports facilities, an organic farm and fishery, and local infrastructure improvements for the region.

Tony Kattengell, vice president of sales and marketing for The LEAGUE and Dellas Edmisten Jr, global technical manager for Infinera represent CFCF in this interview with Boveda's Drew Emmer.

Learn how to give your time, talents, and tax deductible donations to improve the lives of people who create your cigars, visit https://cf-cf.org/ways-to-donate/. Boveda is a proud contributor to the CFCF.

What is Boveda? Luxury and craft cigars brands protect their blends with Boveda 2-way humidity control—that brown pack that you find in the box with your cigars. Boveda preserves the flavor and character of premium cigars by keeping them at ideal humidity. At home, continue to use Boveda in your humidor to keep cigars well-humidified or they can be hard to light, burn to too fast or get moldy. With Boveda in your humidor, you'll enjoy full flavor and a perfect smoke from every cigar.

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00:00 Never risk your cigars, use Boveda

00:30 This is Box Press

02:14 Bring two rival communities together in the D.R.

02:45 First step to help children in need—educate their parents

03:11 Happy Montesino Monday!

07:12 We're changing lives by breaking the chain of poverty

09:07 The first thing CFFC worked on was providing clean water

12:41 It's not about the cigars, it's about the people

13:13 Arturo Sandoval heading musical arts

14:21 Motivation gets you started, discipline keeps you going

14:49 We're building leaders, not followers

15:12 How to contribute talent, time, and money to the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation

(upbeat music)

- [Drew] There's a story

inside every smoke shop,

with every cigar, and with every person.

Come be a part of the

cigar lifestyle at Boveda.

This is "Box Press."

Contextualize for our viewers

what the scope and

impact of the charity is.

- [Tony] Dellas?

- [Dellas] Yeah, so this region,

it's right next to the farm in Caribe,

and there's five close communities.

And the majority of that

community works, you know,

their families have worked

at Chateau de La Fuente.

And there's rivalries, there was gangs.

I mean, you're in a very

small, they call it a "campo",

which means, I mean, it's a small town.

- [Tony] Yeah, let's say for instance,

the two communities,

let's talk about them.

- [Dellas] Yeah.

- [Tony] One is near Chateau

de la Fuente, which is Caribe,

and the other is El Verde,

which is a few kilometers away.

They hated each other.

They hated each other.

And Carlito told me this

when I first lived in the Dominican,

when I made it my choice

for the last 20 years to live there.

I lived in Caribe and he says,

"Tony, you gotta be careful.

You don't,

this is not like being

in the United States."

"Look, Carlito, I got to know the feeling.

I have to live among

the people to know what,

why we're here.

It's not just building the school,

but the social services as well."

And he says, "Okay, you're

gonna stay here. All right."

And he told me, "Be careful

because these two communities,

the rivalry is crazy.

Don't turn your back on them."

These are kids

that might stick you in

the back with a knife."

I said, "Well, we need to

change that mentality."

- [Dellas] Yeah. 100 percent.

- [Tony] And the fearful

thing with David Luther,

who was a part of the

Dominican foundation,

he said, he told Carlos one time, he goes,

"These guys have kill

each other at the school.

We gotta be careful."

But the change,

what Cigar Family Charitable

Foundation has done,

is build

these two rival communities

to bring them together to

love each other, right?

- Yeah. A hundred percent.

- And now

they're just like, they're-

you know, somebody from El Verde

is marrying somebody in Caribe,

and it's just a wonderful thing.

Now, it's just this brotherly love,

this sisterly love,

and it's just incredible, man,

what Cigar Family has

done in these communities.

- [Tony] Yeah. David

Luther was instrumental on

awareness that we had to, you

know, educate the parents.

Because the mentality then,

when you were eight or nine or 10,

you no longer, don't

bring home a school book,

because it wasn't putting

food on the table.

So there was a mentality,

and we had to help

cultivate that and pivot,

you know, 20, 23 years ago.

- [Drew] Yeah.

- [Dellas] Yeah. Happy Montesino Monday.

- [Tony] Montesino Monday for

my sister Cynthia!

- Yes, Cynthia.

(laughing)

- [Drew] So is this

significant to the foundation,

or is this just your Monday?

- [Tony] It's a brand that

they've had for many years.

And Cynthia just wants to

bring it back to life again.

Because as you know, they're in Nicaragua.

And Finca de Montesino

- Yeah.

- [Tony] is from, because of the cigar.

So Cynthia's wanted to promote

a livestream show called

"Montesino Mondays" with Cynthia Fuente.

- [Drew] Well, and Dellas has been

talking about it since Thursday.

- [Tony] It's a fabulous cigar, isn't it?

- [Drew] Yeah. It's a lovely,

- [Dellas] It's an old Cuban brand that,

the old man, Don Carlos

brought back to life,

and it was one of my first Fuentes.

And we always enjoy celebrating.

- Montesino Monday.

- Especially on a Monday.

- [Dellas] Yeah, absolutely.

- [Drew] So it's the

Montesino Diplomatico?

- [Dellas] Yes. Connecticut Broadleaf,

Dominican filler, Dominican binder.

And there's some Nicaraguan

in there as well.

- [Drew] So it sounds like the

influence of the Fuente family,

the notion of family,

I've heard Carlito say it a

number of different times.

"No, no, that's family."

"No, no, they're family".

"No, no, no, that's family."

He refers to people from

the far corners of the industry

that he's known over the years as family.

He's treated Sean [Knutsen]

and Tim [Swail] like family.

He treats you like family.

- Absolutely. Absolutely.

So this family foundation,

and the altruism of being about

something bigger than

industry

- Yes.

It's remarkable.

- [Tony] You know, I'm

glad you brought that up,

because this is what brought

us all together first,

was the cigar.

- [Dellas] 100 percent. Absolutely.

- [Tony] But it's not about the cigar,

it's about the people.

And that's his mission.

It's not about the cigars,

it's about the people, guys.

And this, through the love of this leaf,

we have all become family members

and long life, you know,

watching your kids grow

And it's like,

man, you know,

being married, right?

- [Dellas] Yeah. 100 percent.

- And

- We talk about it a lot.

- [Dellas] It's the equalizer, regardless

of where you're from,

- it's deep.

- [Tony] Regardless.

- Right? It's not about us.

- All walks of life.

- [Tony] It doesn't matter, man.

But it's just that,

this brought us all together.

But it's much more than that.

- [Dellas] 100 percent.

- [Drew] And as long as it's about that,

it's foolproof.

It's eternal.

It goes beyond the

ability of the individual

or the ego or the, you

know, it's enduring.

These are enduring relationships

when you're training

a young man or a young woman.

That self discipline in your craft,

and, you know, that's the

same thing that you're doing

with these communities.

- [Dellas] Yeah, no, 100 percent.

What you just talked about is legacy.

You know, Tony and I,

we didn't have a dad,

so we didn't understand how to establish

that foundation, how to be a young man.

Right? How to cultivate a legacy.

And Carlito has mentored us through

that process.

Taking ownership.

- [Drew] I can see it in your eyes.

- [Dellas] Yeah.

- [Tony] You know what's

remarkable is this is a

one man's dream.

But he shared it with all of us.

It's a lifetime commitment for me.

- [Drew] Well, and you caught on.

You caught it like a virus, and it stuck.

And it's been a part of your life.

And you probably couldn't

imagine your life without it.

- [Tony] No! I couldn't!

Oh, no. Until the end of the days,

this is what I'm doing.

I'm not a retailer.

I'm not in the tobacco industry.

I'm a martial artist.

I enjoy cigars.

But because of this one man's

dream, he shared with us all,

we are changing lives.

We're breaking the chains of poverty.

- [Dellas] Amen.

- [Tony] In the Dominican Republic.

Now that we have graduates

that are from universities

that are architects,

lawyers,

engineers,

doctors, nurses.

We have our polytech school,

which we have I.T.

you know, I mean, information technology

and nursing program.

- [Dellas] And teachers

that are now coming back

and teaching the students

to continue that passion,

that commitment and legacy,

- [Drew] Have conditions improved?

- [Dellas] Oh, immensely.

When we first went down there,

they had a parade, and

the kids had a uniform.

This was the first time they had shoes.

And you could see them

walking pretentiously,

like they had a pebble

or a stone in their shoe.

And Carlito asked them,

"Why were you walking that way?"

They said,

"These are the first pair

of sneakers we ever had.

We're afraid for them to

break or get damaged."

- [Tony] That's deep.

- [Dellas] You know,

those types of simple,

easy things that we take for granted.

And they always think

that we get more than we-

we receive more than what we give.

- [Tony] Oh, no, absolutely.

I love it.

I wouldn't change it for anything.

- [Dellas] No, absolutely. And we had to-

David Luther was instrumental because he-

and that's a good story as well

that you need to tell that,

but just helping us understand how we had

to change that culture. Right?

If you were gonna-

"Begin with the end in mind."

that's what Stephen Covey says, right?

So, we had to change the mindset

of, obviously the parents,

and the older generation

as we poured into them.

Because what we were teaching

there at the school, we needed

to be backed up with what

they were experiencing

and living at the home.

And the first thing before even the school

came, what did we work on?

We worked on the water.

They didn't have good water.

- The filtration system.

- [Dellas] The kids had bloated stomachs.

Right? And had all those diseases there.

- [Tony] And when we first had

people to come out, you know,

come out to the farm and,

and see these kids, "Oh,

they're healthy, they got-"

No, Carlito said, "They're not healthy."

"Well, their bellies are full."

Yeah. Full of parasites.

I mean, think about that.

- [Dellas] Yeah. That was the first-

because at Cigar Family,

we were doing charities

for the American Heart Foundation,

- St. Jude's.

- St. Jude's.

- [Dellas] And that

was during the PC time.

I think it was during the

Clinton administration to

where the charities

wouldn't take tobacco money.

And Fuente family would do big charities

at The Grand Havana Room.

And then I think it was

Rosie, his wife said,

"You know what, we need to get back to-"

- [Tony] Maybe your own country,

the country where you have your factory

- No, 100 percent

- and your tobacco.

- [Tony] And I'm gonna bring something up,

when I first met Carlito, this was in '98,

and they had the Cigar Family celebration.

And I didn't spend a lot of time with him.

because he had, there was 50

of us at the, at the event.

And I spent a lot of time

with Wayne and Cynthia

and Carlito came up to

me, he goes, "Hey, sorry,

I haven't had, you know

enough time to spend with you,

but I need to say something to you."

I said, "Okay."

He says, "You know, I know we just met,

but there's something about you."

And I'm thinking, "Okay."

And he goes, "I don't know

where, I don't know when,

and I don't know how, but we're gonna do

something together in the future."

I'm like, "What are you

talking about, I just came here

to meet all the Cigar Family

members and smoke cigars!"

And then you bringing it up, you know,

let's raise some money for the foundation.

And in 2001, he changed it.

We did do one year, I think St. Jude's.

And he says, "Let's build a

wing on the elementary school

that's already there in

Caribe so more kids can go."

I said, "Yeah!"

All of us Cigar Family

members donated cigars,

Carlito threw in some cigars,

and we raised, I don't know, $50,000.

In 2001, he says, "Okay,

we got this check.

Take this check and go to Santo Domingo."

And this is where David Luther comes in.

"I want you to meet this gentleman

and you're gonna present the check."

I said, "Well, nah, just take the check.

You know, give it to the

construction guy, whatever,

you know, build the wing on the school."

He says, "No, no, no,

I need you to take it.

I said, "Man, all right."

So I go to Santo Domingo,

they pick me up and they

drive me to the office of

where IDDI [Instituto Dominicano

de Desarrollo Integral]

and the Dominican Foundation is.

So I meet this gentleman, David Luther,

it's an American, been living

in the country for 30 years.

And he goes, "You know why you're here?"

I go, "Yes, sir.

I got a $50,000 check

that we raised on cigarfamily.com

from cigar smokers from

all over the United States.

And here it is. So you can

build a wing on the school."

He says, "No."

(Dellas laughing)

He goes, "No."

Next thing the press is there

And I'm like, "What the

hell's going on here?

Well, here's the check."

He says, "No, no, no.

Let me show you what's happening."

He bought 26 acres.

I go, "To grow tobacco?"

"No, he's building a complex.

A Cigar Family charitable

complex to serve the community

that are surrounding

Chateau de la Fuente."

I said, "This is crazy."

I didn't know what was going on.

Next thing you know, Carlito

was in the office on the other

side listening, "Hey, bro!

Look at what we're gonna do!"

I'm like, "You're crazy, man!

You and the [J.C.] Newmans

are gonna build a complex?

You're a cigar roller.

I mean, not a roller,

but you're a cigar maker

of fine cigars.

What what are you doing, man?

You know, you say you're a

humble cigar maker but-".

He says, "That's what it's all about.

It's not about the cigars,

it's about the people."

And I said, "Okay."

And they showed the plans

and it was just an incredible thing.

And all it was was just to

build a wing on a school

so a few more kids can go to, you know,

get educated.

And now we have a primary school,

a preschool

a junior high,

a high school,

the polytech university

and the new Pueblo-

Pueblo

- Pueblo.

Academy of Arts

and Arturo Sandoval, Grammy Award winner,

multi Grammy Award winner,

is gonna be heading the musical,

art-

- Beautiful.

- [Tony] I mean, it's incredible.

And not only that,

the Johnson C. Maxwell, we're bringing in,

you know, I introduced something

before the pandemic about

bringing cinematography.

I don't know a lot about it,

but I learned a lot on YouTube.

But we're bringing in, you know,

how the kids could do their

own social media podcasts

just as what we're doing here.

- [Dellas] No, 100 percent.

- [Tony] You know?

- [Dellas] You know, we knew we had

to shake things up post pandemic,

like Tony shared with you.

I had a dream, I have a passion, you know,

with leadership development.

You know, to piggyback off

what Tony was doing with

the martial arts, you know,

giving people life skills.

- [Drew] Sure.

And I've been blessed as

a United States Marine

and in the corporate

world, you know, being

that mentor to them that we

didn't have as kids, as fathers.

And just taking that

culture to another level.

And the most effective way

is to keep equipping them

with self-awareness,

leadership skills,

mentality,

commitment.

Motivation gets you started,

discipline keeps you going.

- [Tony] It does.

- [Dellas] Yeah. 100 percent.

- [Tony] And it's incredible

now that you know this

short amount of time, but now

the teachers are involved.

The students are involved.

They're taking control.

We're not building...

you know what, this is unique

because everybody says,

we're building leaders, not followers.

That's one thing.

- [Dellas] Absolutely. A hundred percent.

- [Tony] And that's the

most important thing.

We don't want followers, we want leaders.

We want them to be the

leaders of their community,

the leaders of their country,

and these are the future leaders

of the Dominican Republic,

giving back

through Cigar Family

Charitable Foundation.

- [Dellas] Yeah. 100 percent.

- [Drew] Speaking of giving to the

Cigar Family Charitable

Foundation, if someone wanted

to give, what would they do?

- [Tony] Well, there's a website,

and it's www.cf-cf.org.

And any amount, it could be a dollar,

it could be $10,

it could be $1,000,000.

But any amount goes a long ways

in whatever they could do.

And even if you have some

type of expertise, some type

of trade, we welcome teachers from other

countries to come and give back.

They wanna spend a week,

such as Arturo did with the music,

such as what I've done

with the martial arts,

what you're doing with John C.

Maxwell's Leadership Program.

We welcome everybody. If

they want to give back,

Let's do it.

- [Dellas] And that's part of-

so, Tony mentioned about

the poly-technical building.

So, last year, Tony had this idea

before the pandemic to begin

implementing a social podcast.

And I said, "Well, I wanna

piggyback on that and

let's launch a leadership

development program.

And we need a strong,

powerful internet connection.

We needed multimedia."

So I could continue to do that

remotely utilizing technology,

but continue that continuity of

mentoring and helping them grow.

- [Tony] And we're just

getting started with that.

You know, there's a lot of gear

and equipment that's still needed,

but the remote training's incredible, huh?

- [Dellas] Absolutely.

- [Tony] With Ecamm Live,

and the streaming software.

It's just-

- [Dellas] And they're sponges.

They want an opportunity.

They see it, because now

we've created awareness,

situational awareness.

And Boveda's been a huge partner

of the foundation since the beginning.

Tim and Sean helping with the

Toast Across America packs.

- [Tony] Oh, we're gonna

take another level.

We're gonna have a

meeting with Tim and Sean,

and I'll tell you, I

love these two gentlemen.

They changed the industry.

And they believe in giving back

- [Dellas] 100 percent.

- [Tony] And I just found out,

my wife was here just a few days.

She just left this morning and

she barely just told me this.

She remembers Tim and Sean.

- [Dellas] Yeah. Tell that story.

- [Tony] In 2001, when Little

Carlito was born. The Third.

And it was the start of Boveda.

- [Dellas] Yeah. Humidipak at that time.

- [Tony] Yeah, Humidipak.

Yeah, you're right.

And Carlito was, you know,

they were visiting Carlito,

they had a meeting.

My wife was there, this was 2001,

and I didn't know this

until the other day.

And I went to Sean, I said,

"My wife remembers you."

He goes, "I remember that."

I go, "This is when you first started,

I mean, the whole concept."

And now look.

Look what it has done, you know,

I mean, for the industry.

- [Drew] Yeah, that year was, I think,

the transition from the Humidipak

branding to the Boveda branding.

So that was the birth of the Boveda brand.

So that's significant that

it mirrors the life of

Carlito...

- The Third

- The Third.

- [Tony] Yeah. It all started

just visiting, going to Miami,

visiting, you know, the birth of the son,

but a meeting about,

you know, bringing this

wonderful product.

- It's a beautiful thing.

- [Drew] And so we bring it all

full circle to Montesino Monday.

- [Dellas] Yeah.

- [Drew] And to say Tony's last name?

- Kattengell.

- Kattengell.

- Kattengell.

- Kattengell.

- [Drew] Yeah! It's

not as difficult as you

said it was gonna be earlier.

(Tony laughing)

The martial artist Tony,

the leadership trainer,

and US Marine, Dellas Edmisten.

Family guys.

The Charitable Family Foundation.

Changing the culture

of optimism in the Dominican Republic.

- Yes.

- Yes. Wow.

- [Dellas] 100 percent.

(whimsical music plays)

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- [Tony] It's not about

cigars, it's about the people.

- [Drew] Beautiful.

- [Tony] Yes.

- [Drew] Anything else

you wanna talk about?

- [Tony] No, Drew, thank you very much.

Thank you very much,

you know, for having us.

- [Drew] It's a celebration

of a friendship though.

It really comes down

- That's my brother!

- [Drew] to the love between you guys,

and I wish we had an extra camera

so we could have watched Dellas weep.

- [Tony] Were you weeping?

- He got all misty.

- You're too emotional.

- Yeah, he gets-

- I love this guy.

(all laughing)

- [Drew] Cheers. This was great, Tony.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Drew.

I appreciate it.

- It was cool!

- Absolutely. 100 percent.

- I love it!

- [Drew] Yeah.