Two friends. One stranger. And a chance encounter on a sailboat.

Three men, including George Floyd, on a sailboat.
Vikas Narula (left), George Floyd and Alvin Manago take a ride on a sailboat in Bde Maka Ska in August 2019.
Courtesy of Vikas Narula

Last summer, avid sailor Vikas Narula was at Bde Maka Ska trying to invite people to sail with him. 

He’d been rejected a few times when he met Alvin Manago and his friend George Floyd. They agreed to join Narula, a total stranger, and spent the next hour talking about Floyd’s life in Houston and their respective families, and even took a few selfies.

Narula lost touch with Manago and Floyd, and didn’t think about that day until a few days after Memorial Day when Floyd’s face was everywhere.

Use the audio player above to listen to Manago and Narula recount their stories about knowing and meeting Floyd, and their time on the lake. 

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Guests:

  • Vikas Narula is the co-founder of a software company and an avid sailor. 

  • Alvin Manago was one of Floyd’s housemates and worked with Floyd at Conga Latin Bistro. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to help with living expenses.


Later in the program we heard from a Fortune 500 company and a vocational training center on how they’re teaming up support racial equity in Minnesota.

Target Corp. announced it will provide Summit Academy OIC, a longtime player in workforce development in north Minneapolis, low-cost space to expand its operations and open a new information technology learning and training center, called North Star Innovation Center.

Guests:

  • Laysha Ward is the executive vice president and chief external engagement officer at Target.

  • Louis King is the president and CEO of Summit Academy, a vocational training center located in north Minneapolis.

Use the audio player above to listen to the program.

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