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< Back Holly's Story 00:00 / 03:38 When I went to college, I had to pay for my own education. So, I worked full time all through undergraduate school, and I was very fortunate to work in an experimental program that was trying to salvage the life of kids in a low-income African American ghetto in Washington, DC. And I loved what I was doing, so I just went to social work school at Columbia. And so, then I was a social worker for twenty-eight years. Mostly, I, I'd always wanted to live in New Orleans. And when I finished social work school, I moved to New Orleans. And I worked in, I have a very strong belief in the power of different professions working together. So, I tried to do interdisciplinary things with law and medicine, and I started public interest law firms. So, I did that kind of thing until I was asked to go to Boston University and teach in the social work school. And they wanted me to be part of beginning to develop international perspectives in social work. And as part of that, I went on a faculty exchange to Cuba, and Cuba fascinated me so much that I stopped doing social work, and I just was spending all my time reading about Cuba and getting to know the people in Latin American studies at in Boston and the different universities. They have a collective there. And so, they all started saying, you need to go back and get a PhD in Latin American studies. So, in my forties, I went back to the University of Miami, and I got a PhD in international studies, with a focus on Latin America. And so, I went from being a social worker to being a professor of Latin American studies, But I needed, for family reasons, to be in Miami, and no one was ever gonna hire me to teach Cuban studies in Miami because there are 2,000 Cubans who are better qualified. And so, I thought, you know, they'll hire me to be the librarian for Latin American studies maybe. And there was a postdoc in Latin American librarianship at Duke University. So, I did that one year, and then sure enough, they hired me in Miami to be the Latin American studies librarian. So, I really had three careers. First as a social worker, then as a professor of Latin American studies, and then as a librarian in Latin American studies. And then I retired. But somehow, there's just something in me that that if if all of us aren't protected, if all of us aren't somehow safe and having a way to develop, if if you're having to just put all your energy into survival and you have no support and encouragement, then that's what produces dysfunction, personal dysfunction and societal dysfunction. And I sort of have always seen a connection between individual difficulty and group difficulty and societal difficulty, and I can't divorce myself from it. Previous Next

< Back Vicki's Story Vicki talks about how her parent's decision to move from Long Island to Western Massachusetts when she was a senior in high school and how it impacted her life and her future trajectory. Scroll to listen 00:00 / 03:41 Right before my senior year of high school my parents decided to make this huge move. We lived on Long Island in a very suburban, busy community. It’s all I’d ever know is living on Long Island since I’d been born. And my Dad at the time was commuting to a job in New Jersey and sitting in horrible traffic going through New York City everyday and my Mother was going some of the time with him. And it was very very stressful, just, you know, not a sustainable lifestyle. So they just all of a sudden had this dream that they were going to open a craft store in the Berkshires. And amazingly, when I look back, I think what a big deal it was now, they made it happen. So, they sold their house, they bought a house in Otis Massachusetts which is this teeny little town. So, we had acreage, we lived across from a lake. I did my senior year in high school up in, you know, Western Massachusetts just everything different from anything I had done my entire life. It motivated me through college I was a super good student, and maybe I would have been anyway, I don’t know, but I feel like it just kind of kicked in my motivation. I also, because here we had this craft shop and we had a workshop next to it where my parents were making things and they were bringing things in on consignment from other artists, it motivated me to try some different things. It allowed me to explore the creative side of myself. And I think, obviously, it pushed me to make new friends which is hard when your 18 years old and you’re leaving your best buddies. It’s like that stage of life where it’s really hard to leave friends just like going to college is. So, it pushed me to make new friends they were very different than the people I had been friends with or grown up with, so it was eye-opening for me. Also, I think more than anything it exposed me to nature in a way that I had never been exposed. To me nature was going to the beach for the day, you know, the ocean, because I lived close to it. And not that we never went away to pretty places but this was every day of my life, you know, that I could walk into the woods and take a hike and I could swim across the street in a lake. So, I think it gave me a new appreciation of nature and being outside that I’ve maintained my whole life. I eventually met my future husband out there so, obviously, if I didn’t meet him, I wouldn’t have the daughter I have, you know all of that, just everything would have been different. I always wonder who I would’ve married. “Are you glad that your parents made the decision to move at such a pivotal age?” I really am, I really am. Yeah, you know I just think it changed everything, mostly for the better obviously I can’t know what my life would’ve looked like if I didn’t do that, but I feel like most of the things that I can look at feel better. I’m grateful, you know, that I love nature. I’m grateful for the career path I followed which may or may not have been the same. I’m grateful that I got in touch with that more academic side of myself. Yeah, I’m really grateful that they did it, and now I live in Massachusetts, and I love Western Massachusetts! I can’t imagine ever living on Long Island. I still have family there, and I go back sometimes and its crowded and there’s terrible traffic and I just think, yeah, I’m really glad I live here. Previous Next

< Back Carol's Story Carol talks about her experience traveling to Europe her junior year of college after realizing that she needs to go out of her comfort zone. With support from her friend and her parents, this trip changes her perspective on the kind of person she wants to strive to be, for her career but mostly for herself. The European mindset is what influences her to do things that make herself feel whole like slowing down her day with journaling and yoga. This trip has inspired her to travel for nursing and even ignite the courage to solo trip alone someday. 00:00 / 03:22 Interviewer: Can you tell me about an experience that influenced your life a lot that you felt that you learned something? Carol: I went a trip abroad last year during the spring and before going on a trip abroad I never thought I could do anything like that just because I'm a homebody, I like my own friends and family. And it was a fall semester of my junior year. I realized that I really needed to go out of my comfort zone in order to grow just because I've been so used to being surrounded by my friends and not really branching out. So I decided mid fall to go and before that I was absolutely not going anywhere. I was just going to stay at UMass Amherst and something came over me. One of my friends said to me, you will never be this young and be able to travel the world again and I decided that I really should be able to do that and if I have the opportunity to I would be stupid not to take it. I got on my flight to Barcelona, it was January 11th, and I was so nervous. I remember the week before that, I was crying to my mom and dad. They just kept saying, you are going to have the time of your life. When you come back, you are gonna be a changed person. And I was just like, oh my God, they're not being serious. Like, I'm not gonna be a changed person. But they were right. I was with my two friends, which I know it's not really out of my comfort zone, but it's the best I could get. And we went to 11 different countries and we just traveled the world together and experienced all these different cultures, new friends, and the lifestyle there is quite different than here. It's really relaxed and laid back. There was a saying that I read that people here work to live, but in Europe, people live to work. I think that is so true. When I was there, people were on the street at 12pm, people would be out drinking coffee, enjoying their time with their friends and family. And here, you never really see anybody drinking coffee. They're mostly running to work, getting coffee for work or running back to work. And I really realized that I need to enjoy my life and I don't need to constantly be working, constantly be doing something that leads to work. I need to enjoy it. And these experiences are really what shaped me to who I am. Work won't shape me to who I am. Only the experiences do. So when I came back from abroad, I really decided to live my life and look at my life in a different perspective. I decided to do new things every day that I enjoyed. I tried to put more time for myself into my day-to-day life. And before that, I was just working, constantly doing homework, constantly doing something that will help my future. Even now, I still obviously do that, but now I do more things for myself. Like I meditate each morning. I go to yoga, I journal. And I realized that definitely helped me a lot to become a happier person, just because I saved more time for myself. And I also have gotten more out of my comfort zone. Like now I wanna do a trip alone. I also am going to travel nursing. So I would love to travel alone and work in a different hospital all by myself. I think exposing myself to a different culture and exposing myself to a different country all alone has definitely helped me get out of my comfort zone and try new things. Previous Next

< Back David's Story, 2023 David talks about his experience with coming out during the 70s and 80s to his parents and how people’s perceptions of what it means to be gay was different then compared to today. He also talks about what it was like to finally be able to marry his partner Todd and what that meant to him. 00:00 / 03:06 Well, when I was a teenager I knew that I felt differently. But um, back in the um late 60s or late 70s there was really no place to go for information and stuff. So I had really no one that I could talk with or um, and you know you couldn’t go to the library and get a book or anything. It was, it was hard because its not like now where you know there’s social media. There’s just so much on television or movies or whatever. And, um I told myself that I was bisexual for a while and this sounds really horrible to say and I don’t mean it that way but I was telling myself that I was at least half normal but I was kidding myself cause I wasn’t. When I was in college, I finally accepted that I was gay. And that was when I decided to you know come out to my parents and I did it by letter. Which I guess some people would say is very cowardice. They were like typical republicans. Upstate New York. It’s not like Republicans now. But I knew that they would freak out and be crying and stuff like that. And I didn’t want to be there to have to deal with that because I want them to be able to have their honest reactions on their own. And I got a phone call from my parents and they said that they would always love me no matter what. They didn’t understand because back then nobody talked about it. That was kind of an important thing cause I know it still happens now, but back then I had a lot of friends that were disowned by their families and stuff like that, so. It was a worry. I moved here with my partner at the time and from Idaho and had never been here before. The reason we came here was because we read about the five colleges and we figured well that should at least help to make the area somewhat more progressive. And we found at that point, we’re talking 1977, that it was to a point but there was still the old you know bastions of conservatives and everything. I met my now husband in 1983 and we got married in 2006, so um and it was funny because that was I think a year or so after marriage was legalized in Massachusetts. And um, my mother and Todd’s mother were here to give us away and I was so glad that we did it then because my mom passed away the Christmas of that year. It was interesting how being married does make a difference. It makes the relationship more legitimate. It was very, I thought it was more empowering than I knew it would be before. Previous Next

< Back Aidan's Story Aidan talks about his family heritage and some of their memories. During this interview Aidan shares about his tattoos and their significance to his family, life and goals. 00:00 / 05:00 So, my dad is from Ireland and my mom's parents are from Ireland, so most of my extended family, close family, is still back in Ireland, I actually got that flag when I was in Ireland myself, it just reminds me of my family, and I am very close with my family. So, tell me about your family, who's in your family? I have one younger brother his name is Patrick; I also have a younger sister named Orla and an older sister named Emma. We all have Irish names in the sense besides my older sister Emma, Emma is not really an Irish name, I think its German if I am correct. But my older sister is named, my mom used to go to Ireland almost every summer, and my older sister was named after one of my mom's childhood friends who was in Ireland, they were very close but unfortunately my mom's friend Emma passed away from childhood cancer, so my mom wanted to name my older sister after her to honor her. I know you have more than one tattoo, tell me about them! So, my first one I ever got was actually for my grandfather, I didn't think I would ever get a tattoo, but it just so happened that was the first one which it's his birthday and I got it on his birthday about 10 years after he passed. His birthday, which I find interesting is 12/34/1934 and that always seemed very cool to me. But the reason I got it was because my grandfather and I were very close, he was and still is one of my biggest role models growing up, it's kinda just the little things that he would do that always stuck with me. I always think about it from time to time. This one time I fell asleep in the living room of his house, and I could hear him coming down the hall and I thought he heard me being up late at night and I thought he would get mad or something, so I just pretended to be asleep. And he came over with a blanket and he tucked me in because he saw me without a blanket and it was just those acts of caring, compassion they just always stuck with me, you know. He always took such great care of me that I kinda wanna do the same for him, when I'm back home, not at school, I try to go take care of him at his grave. It's on my left arm, which when I put my arms down its first thing touching where my heart is, so he is always with my heart in that sense. So, tell me about some of the others, do they also relate to your family? Ya so I have coordinates that go back to Ireland, to a family home in Ireland, actually where my grandfather was born. One of the relatively new one is a pocket watch. The reason why I got a pocket watch was originally for my father, when my dad grew up it was a thing down the family line of them passing down a pocket watch from son to son. When my grandfather passed away and my dad went to Ireland, he could never find the pocket watch. So, for Christmas 2 years ago we actually got him one. Seeing my father tear up, from this pocket watch, I saw how much it meant to him so that’s where I got the idea, and I was like okay that’s what I'm going to get him. So, when I went to go get it, I had the opportunity to set the time, I wanted something directly for my mom as well, so I set the time on the clock for the time my mom was born. It was also around the time I finished my associate degree, so it had a symbol of new time, new beginnings, new chapters. The reason I got the map wasn’t for a family member, it was really for myself because I always had a love for maps and globes, it felt like the right fit for me. I always had a globe when I was growing up and I loved looking at it I eventually lost it at some point or it broke and now I actually have my grandfather's one because my mom was going through his stuff and she found it and gave it to me which was very nice and I try to take care of it now. I also have another one that I recently got, it’s a molecule for insulin, because my little brother has type 1 diabetes. That was very difficult for him because he was 16 at the time and that just changes your whole life. I wanted him to know even though I don't have it, we are in it together, I will always be here for you, if you ever need help with it or need a ride to the doctors I'm here for you, he had so many needles poked at him I figured I could get a few myself. So that is why I got the molecule because that is the molecule that keeps him healthy. Previous Next

< Back Bert's Story, Spring 2022 Roberta Liebman shares with Alisson Aleman the remarkable role that neighborhood organizations have played in some of the most significant moments of her life. They have provided her and her family with support and companionship through some of the most challenging moments. 00:00 / 04:15 I think my story began about fifteen years ago, my son and his wife who lived in California, they both by a bizarre coincidence were diagnosed with brain tumors. They were different types but they were serious. And my son Jamie recognized that they were going to be in big trouble. They didn’t have a lot of resources to help them and they were both needing brain surgery. So Jamie spoke to some friends and said we’re gonna need help and the friends said, okay, we’ll do it. And they made sure that whenever food was needed, whenever a ride was needed to the doctor someone was there to help them. Someone was even there to help them sort through the pile of mail. And all of that was incredibly helpful to a family that was in terrible shape. It was this neighborhood that took care of them. When it was over, we were struck by how extraordinary it was that people just rallied around to help and lend support. And about that time, some of our neighbors began saying you know we can have an organization and we would help eachother, are you interested? And we had just had this extraordinary demonstration of how effective it could be so we said of course, yes we would. And my husband Ernie was on the board and he helped deal with some of the finances. I helped with a number of volunteer things, I had been a volunteer in many other situations and it was beautiful. And then the organization grew, people began really recognizing what a fine thing this was. Unfortunately, Ernie’s health was not great and our house was not safe so we had to move. We moved here to Northampton, our son and daughter in-law made us comfortable, they were living upstairs. But people here began saying you know have you heard of this village-to-village network maybe we should have something like Northampton Neighbors. Well, we had already seen this was a really good idea. So, of course we said yes. And we both prepared to be volunteers, except Ernie wasn’t doing very well and I fell down. I had to say I need some help. My arm is broken, I can’t drive to therapy. And boom, Northampton Neighbors was there and it turned out to be the nicest possible way to meet people in my community as well as to receive the help I desperately needed. I think it’s very easy to offer help, it’s really fun to be a volunteer. The thing that's hard are to learn to accept is to ask for help, we’re expected to be independent and to take care of ourselves. And to recognize that it is okay to say I need help. You know there is a certain level of isolation that older people experience, and making it possible for people to join a group where there all kind of social activities, there’s physical activities, there’s even a group called, I think it’s called FIG for food information group. But, I think it broadens the whole sense of how we all work together and how we all need each other. Previous Next

Marcia's Story Marcia explains how the simple act of being friendly and saying hi dramatically changed her world and formed life long relationships in the summer of 1968. Scroll to Listen Marcia's Story 00:00 / 06:42 Marcia: My world dramatically changed by being friendly and saying hi to several people one summer. It was the summer of 1968. It was after my sophomore year at University of Wisconsin Madison, and I was looking forward to an exchange program with Warwick University in England. But in order to help pay for everything I had a job working in K Sandwich Shop which was at 18th Street in downtown DC. And the location of that sandwich shop was really critical to what happened next. There was a stretch of time where I guess was working a late shift, so it was relatively empty, but I noticed in another section there was this fellow who kept coming in who looked to be about my age. What looked different about him was that every time he came in he was wearing a shirt that was pastel colored, small flowers, and he had kind of longish hair. The more I looked at him, I thought, “that looks like Carnaby Street, he’s got to be British.” So, I just decided to go over one day and chat him up, which I did. It turned out, indeed, he did just graduate from the London School of Economics and he was on his way to what he called Barkley—which was Berkley for a law degree. But he was staying with very close friend of his family who lived in London, and I immediately thought, “Oh my god, this poor guy he’s just with grown ups all the time, maybe he would really like to find out what its like not to be a grown up.” So, I asked him if he wanted to come over to my house for dinner the next night. Now I have to put that in a little context, my father had a gift store and there were lots of traveling salesmen, and when I was growing up it was not unusual at all to sit at the dinner table and to find a stranger there. So, I picked him up where he was staying, and we just a had a really fun dinner together. I remember just sitting in our living room on the floor with our backs supported by this sofa, and I had my little important notebook with me, and he gave me all sorts of information about England, about London in particular. And then he gave me the name and the phone number of a very good friend of his in London in case I wanted to get in touch with him. And also, he gave me the name of his parents and their phone number. So that was really lovely, and then he went on his way, and I continued to work. I went to Paris for that month, and the night before I was to leave for Paris, I got one of those really wretched 24-hour stomach bugs. I felt really terrible, but I had to leave the next day. So—I just had to do that so I did it. I ended up in the center of London at bustling Victoria Station and really wasn’t feeling that great and wasn’t sure what I was going to do until I decided I guess I should really call his friend. So, I did, I figure out how to use a phone and called his friend. I introduced myself and to my utter amazement he went, “Oh Marcia! I have been expecting to hear from you.” I went, “Oh my gosh”—that mean Alex had to have gotten in touch with his friend. So, he said, “Look, I actually can’t give you a place to stay but come here and we’ll figure out what to do.” So, he gave me the directions, I followed them, I got to his place, and he said, “I’ve been thinking about this, and I think you have to call his parents.” And I’m like, what? That was so bizarre to me, I was just—really? So, I picked up the phone and I called them, and the same thing happened. I introduced myself and they went, “Oh Marcia! We’ve been expecting to hear from you. Yes, come over. Nick is having a dinner party but I’m sure he would just be thrilled to have you join.” They were so nice and interesting, and everyone was just terrific. And then, I told them what my plans were. I had a friend from Wisconsin who was in Norwich. We had talked about in the Spring to go to England, and he said, “Why don’t you come out and spend some time there?” Okay. I stayed there for three days or so, enjoyed myself, and then I was ready for the next chapter which was going to be going to Coventry to work where I was going to be for that semester. I started putting my thumb out, getting ready to hitch; and I tried and I tried and I tried. It went on for quite awhile and I was having absolutely no success. What I didn’t know was that it was impossible to hitch in that direction, what I really needed to do was go back to the hub. I needed to go to back London and then I needed to go north. When I did figure out and I was back in London, it was already getting kind of late, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get to Coventry in time before it got dark. I also remembered how wonderful that family was, and I thought, “I just wonder if I could just stay there one more night” so I called and they went, “Oh yes! Come, we’re having a dinner party tonight, but we would love for you to join.” So that was that. I decided—It was just a semester exchange program, but I just didn’t think it was enough time. I really wanted to be immersed in another culture, but the complication was where I would live. I did find a place in a little village, Kenilworth, and overtime that actually didn’t work out. In the end, because I had classes only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I could do research in London. I could go to the British Museum every day and I could live with the Finers. Which is what I did. Maurice would drive me to Euston Station on Tuesday mornings, I would take the train up, I would go to my classes, I would spend one night in Kenilworth, and then I would hitch back. And I did for months and months and months, and I just became an integral part of the family.

Jonathan's Story Jonathan talks with Julia about the importance of his family network during the pandemic. Likewise, he is thankful for social media and zoom technology because it enabled him to stay in touch with his family. Scroll to Listen Jonathan's Story 00:00 / 03:46 Again the family network was very, very important. Your children, where are they currently living? Where are they living? Two of them are in Northampton Massachusetts, which is where I am now. Which explains one hundred percent why once we were both retired why we moved here. My daughter said cheerfully, I am quite happy to look after you when you are a Gaga but I am not driving up and down 91. And that seemed pretty reasonable. She's been, she's been wonderful. During the pandemic, you know before we all got vaccinated and all that, she would go shopping for us. We didn’t feel this way but we pretty much lived an isolated life in our house. And she wouldn’t let us go anywhere and it was wonderful. And she was very cheerful about it, never complained. That's a great relationship to have too, and very selfless of her. Yeah, oh yeah, I mean she's, all three of them are very very caring about these old folks that report to be their parents. Would you say, I know you mentioned that now looking back on it, during COVID you were isolated, but would you say that that isolation translated to feeling lonely or would you say on the contrary, being able to use zoom and connect with your brothers all over the country and also with your son in California and having your daughter around, would you say you actually still felt very connected? Yeah, I know that people who lived on their, who lived on their own, have had to cope with learning, there is no question about it. Which means both our sons, so child number one, child number three, are on their own, and different times it’s been very hard. We have a nephew too who lives in Ottawa and he’s on his own, he's talked about that. I think that for people who are partners and who get on with their spouses, some of course are partners but wish they weren’t, but we are not in that category. It's been, it's been much easier. I felt, right at the beginning of the pandemic when it was totally unexpected and we had no idea what was happening, I suppose I felt a little bit, alone. But, having a spouse, having children and grandchildren who didn't come into the house for months but we would walk up and down the street. You know, and chat with them. And having zoom and being a voracious reader, I don’t think that was an issue for me.

< Back Annabel's Story Annabel, who recently uprooted her life in North Carolina and moved to Northampton, MA, discusses how she ended up living in the city and her close familial relationships that led her there. 00:00 / 03:21 Stephanie: Speaking of Northampton, how did you even end up here? Like, how did you know this town? Because it is so small. Annabel: It is so small. I had been visiting here for a number of years because my daughter, who is a writer, and her husband is a publisher, they were living in Northampton and were - and Amherst and Northampton both have a huge community of writers. I ended up visiting frequently, and then 12 years ago, almost 13 years ago, they had a child who was born four months early. And she only weighed a pound and a half, and ended up having a lot of medical crises. She had a feeding tube and a trach. Stephanie: Oh, my God… Annabel: And, ended up spending four hundred and [sic] days in three different hospitals. Thank God she was in Massachusetts because she had some fabulous care here. Stephanie: Yeah. Annabel: She is doing really really well now. Um, and if you didn’t know, if you didn’t see the scar in her neck you wouldn’t know she had a trach. And, ironically, as a two year old, I had a trach… Stephanie: Oh… Annabel: Because of a really bad case of bronchial pneumonia, and ended up with a trach. So, we may be the only grandmother team… Stephanie: Yeah, that has… Annabel: that have the trach scars. Anyway, so I came up here a great deal while she was in the hospital - or, those 3 hospitals. And finally, I just thought, “I want to move there. I want to be near her,” so that was the reason I ended up here. And I’m so glad. I’m almost 75, and if you had told me I would make friends as good as any friends I’ve ever had I would not have believed it. So, I count my blessings that I ended up here. Stephanie: Yeah, that sounds really, that everything worked out, basically. Annabel: It did. It really did. Stephanie: Yeah. And was it hard making friends here? Annabel: I think at first, because I didn’t think that I could ever make friends like the ones I left behind, particularly back in North Carolina, I wasn’t reaching out. But finally, my daughter is best friends with another writer, whose mother moved here from California, and both of them kept saying “You’ll love each other if you get together!” and we instantly did. And then, I joined a church at the same time as another friend and we’ve become best friends. So I'm just amazed. I did not expect - I knew I would be happy here because of my daughter’s family. And there’s another family, they’re very close to me and I love them. I didn’t think I’d have peers as friends, but I do, and I’m so glad. Yeah. Previous Next

< Back Barry's Story 00:00 / 05:14 One of the most defining moments happened when I was 53. Summer of 2004, a good friend of mine invited me to do the Canadian ski marathon. So, he said it's 100 kilometers and it's 2 days, and I we're both avid cross-country skiers. So, I said yes. At the time, I probably misunderstood because it's actually 100 miles, not 100 kilometers. But it gave me roughly half a year to start training for it, and I did. The big day comes February 12, 2, 2004. It's a 2-day thing, and each year the race changes direction. The year we did it, it went from La Choute to Gatunau going from east to west. And we start at 6 in the morning. It's pitch black on February 12th. And they took us in a school bus to the start of the race, and there were thousands of people that did it. It's a big event. And I remember so I did a lot of training. I had no idea whether I could last for 100 miles over 2 days. I skied and skied as much as I've ever skied. They have 5 stages each day, and you have to get to the 40th mile marker by 3:15 each of the 2 days where they don't let you continue. So, I skied my brains out, and I got to the 4th checkpoint at 3:13 with 2 minutes to spare. And so, it was a minor success big success because 2 of the buddies that I went with, not AJ. AJ was way ahead of me. 2 other guys from town that went didn't make the cut, so they got turned back. Anyway, I finished probably one of the last people to finish that day. It was at least 6 o'clock, so I skied for 12 hours. It was pitch black. I was exhausted. And then, of course, you have to do it the next day too. Same thing. But here's what made it the most powerful experience for me, a defining moment, really. Before I went, I started the thing, I realized in advance that I should use it as a fundraiser, and so it wasn't such a selfish experience. So, I sent letters to everybody that I knew and said, hey. Would you consider pledging 25¢ a mile doing this Canadian ski marathon? I want to I'm trying to help build a school in a small village in El Porvenir in Nicaragua. 125 people said yes. They gave me money. They gave me, like, 41,100 and something dollars. They pledged that amount of money. And so, what happened during the race, and this is really the powerful thing to me is that when my tank was empty it felt like my tank was empty and I'm skiing late in the day. I had written all 125 names on a piece of paper, and I had it in my breast pocket inside my jacket. And I didn't pull the list up, but I mentally went down the list of all of those people who I asked to pledge. So, what happened was I inspired them and then as I went down the list mentally and thought of them supporting me, they inspired me. And so, I got energy from who knows where, you know, from them, from God, from the universe, from whatever. And so that was truly a powerful experience. Day 2 was more the same, but I was able I got to the checkpoint, the 4th and final checkpoint with 15 minutes to spare. So, when I finished, it was I mean, it was I could've cried. It was such an amazing feeling. And it was a defining moment in many ways because I realized I think quite a bit after that one of the blessings in my life is that I have enduring energy. And so, I've yeah. I wrote a book about energy and my kids gave me a license plate that says energy guy. And so that became me and so it defined me. The race was far and away. I've run a marathon. I've biked a couple 100 miles, but this Canadian ski marathon really defined me and made me realize what I really am endowed with. And it was I I've never had a more powerful experience in my life. And to this day, at 3:13 on February 12th every year, I even set an alarm. An alarm goes off, and I'm reminded that on at that moment in 2005, I had the most amazing experience. And so, I'm able to relive it in many ways and remind myself of what a powerful experience it was and what a defining moment and experience it was too Previous Next

< Back Nikki's Story Nikki describes her travels to Manzanillo Cuba where she and her fellow volunteers created and conducted a Kids Camp for the children of Manzanillo and its surrounding villages. She expresses the importance of perspective taking, treating others with compassion and understanding the true impact one seemingly small act can have on the lives of others. 00:00 / 02:38 As a kid in highschool I started getting involved in community outreach programs initially starting with the youth perish in my local town so there I kind of learned to have a greater appreciation for volunteering and just people in general so I think that when it came to getting a worldly kind of perspective the first time I really experienced that was when I was chosen to go on an outreach trip to Manzanillo Cuba so the basis of the whole trip was to put on a kids camp is what we called it we ran a bunch of donation sports drives in the US and then brought all of those sports equipment over to Cuba and in Ramonas we were in electricity was kind of hard to come by and in ther individual home one of the things that we brought with us to Cuba my dad had actually donated and one of the things he had always told me growing up was to leave a frisbee in the back of your car in case you get stuck somewhere and your bored or its a nice day and you want to do something fun so one thing he found online was these glow in the dark frisbees you press the button and these neon light start popping up and when you threw it it spiraled in the air and it looked really cool and so we had a couple of them growing up and I had always loved them so he had bought a bunch and donated them to the cause and I remember our first night in Ramonas we broke out the glow in the dark frisbees and me and one of the other volunteers stood out and threw it across one of the open fields it was like lightning had struck and these people had never seen anything like it before children, adults, everyone flooded over to where we were and everyone wanted a turn throwing the magical light up frisbee through the night sky and I remember hearing these whoops and hollars and screams just joyful cheers of such a small kind of thing in my mind something that I had grown up with and now I wouldnt really think os as too monumental but for someone who has never seen something like that before I think that it again brought that blissful sense of innocence back into my perspective and not only for myself reflective back on it but I hope to think that those people who volunteered and locals can think back to that beautiful starry night in Cuba, seeing that beautiful rainbow frisbee flying across the night sky for the first time and yeah that was definitely one of the most prominent kind of visual memories that I have Previous Next

< Back Edie's Story Edie Kirk shares stories with Elise Boehm about her mother. She starts off by talking about her family’s background and her mother growing up. She then shares a story about how her mother became a nurse and shares other stories that show why she admires her mother so much. 00:00 / 04:18 Previous Next