Toni Reece: Hi there. I’m Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have a very special guest with me, Marcy Tocker. Hi.
Marcy Tocker: Hello.
Toni: How are you?
Marcy: Good. How are you?
Toni: I’m great. We’re going to get into a little bit later, but you have a guest in your lap there, too.
Marcy: I do. It’s hard to end up being able to go somewhere by myself, so thank you for letting the guest come.
Toni: Absolutely. He wants to be heard. Marcy, thank you for coming to the Project. Take a moment, and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Marcy: My name is Marcy. I will be 31 in a couple of weeks.
Toni: Oh, you poor thing.
Marcy: I don’t know when that happened. I feel most days like I’m 8 years old; 10 or 11 on a good day. I am finishing my Master’s in clinical mental health counseling, and had been working in social services, which I absolutely loved. Also, I am the founder — I have to get used to saying that — of Grey Muzzle Manor in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania.
Toni: Take just a couple seconds and just briefly describe Grey Muzzle Manor.
Marcy: Grey Muzzle Manor is a place really that promotes a couple different things through a variety of ways. It’s not very specific. Things like peace, acceptance, non-judgment. We do that by a couple of things. One is I do senior dog rescue and hospice care. It’s a very case-by-case basis. I have a couple dogs in foster homes, a couple dogs up for adoption in foster care. Some are hospice foster dogs. Some stay at the Manor, as it’s been coined. Some of the dogs in foster care are actually going to be reunified with their families. There’s some community outreach pieces drawn in there to try to keep animals from entering the shelter system in the first place. There’s that.
The other half is providing animal-assisted therapy and equine-assisted therapy. I have chickens. I have cats. I have potbellied pigs that live inside. One of them is still allowed to live inside; the other two got evicted. Six dogs, two horses, one mini-horse, two goats. I think that’s it. They are my co-therapists.
Toni: Okay. And, before we jump into the Project, let’s just, in case there’s some strange noises that happen in this interview, tell us who your guest is.
Marcy: Yeah, because sometimes he starts snoring. This is Harry Houdini. He has a vet appointment after this, so that’s why he’s with, and he is an almost 6-pound, 16-year-old chihuahua whose dad was in hospice care, actually, and it was just too much for the family. He’s my little buddy. He’s like a mass that’s attached to me. We’re together 23 hours out of the day. You have to go on the page and look at him, because he doesn’t have a lower jaw or any teeth, so his tongue hangs out, and his lip is out. He has this huge bow tie because…of course he has a bow tie. Yeah, he has a quite a fan base, this little fellow.
Toni: And he’s absolutely very handsome. We gotta check him out. Alright. Let’s get into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Marcy: Inspiration is I’m not going to stop. I purposely didn’t want to prepare answers, because I don’t do well that way, so we’ll see what comes out of my mouth.
Toni: That’s fine.
Marcy: Inspiration for me is a feeling. It’s something similar to passion that runs through your veins like your blood does. It’s not stopping because of that inspired feeling.
Toni: Do you know when you’re inspired?
Marcy: Yeah.
Toni: You do?
Marcy: I think I do. Yeah.
Toni: What’s it feel like?
Marcy: Like I’m on top of the world, or that I’m chasing something. I’m just excited. People say, “How do you do it?” I’m like, “I have no idea.” Recently, I realized it’s because I’m so passionate. At 2:00 in the morning, I’m thinking about fundraising projects and promotions I want to do, projects I want to do, and folks I want to contact. It’s just always, always going.
Toni: It motivates you. It’s like an engine, almost is what it sounds like. An engine.
Marcy: Yes.
Toni: Okay. Fantastic. So, when you get that feeling of passion and this moving forward and just going, going, going, how have you used that inspired feeling to put that into practice here in Berks County?
Marcy: I figure it out. I don’t know. It sounds kind of silly. I’ve lived in Berks County for almost 13 years, and I’ve met so many amazing people. I think I’m very lucky to have this foundation of a wonderful community that are doing all these really neat things in the community. I see something that somebody else is doing and I think, “Oh my gosh, that’s so cool. I want to learn how to do that.” Or, “I gotta be a part of that.” Then, I try to have them teach me everything they know, and then I can apply it, and hoping that it works.
Toni: You take that inspired feeling, and you’ll learn or mentor from somebody else and then put an action together.
Marcy: I think that’s the recipe. There’s been quite a few times where I feel like I’m making a choice and I’m jumping off a cliff, and either I’m going to fall into rocks, or I’m going to fall into pillows. You just have to jump.
Toni: That takes courage.
Marcy: Or insanity.
Toni: Or inspiration.
Marcy: Inspiration. Okay, I like that better. I have so many neat people around me that I’ve gotten to meet. Maybe they don’t even know me, but they’re doing things that I think is really cool, and that’s where I’m able to learn stuff from.
Toni: So, the way you’re putting it into practice too is by developing and creating and working on Grey Muzzle Manor, right?
Marcy: Yes.
Toni: Yes. That probably took a lot of inspiration.
Marcy: Yes, and it’s grown before my eyes. I don’t know when it happened. It was almost like, “Oh my gosh. People are watching this that I don’t know personally.” It’s cool, because Grey Muzzle Manor is not Marcy Tocker’s. Grey Muzzle Manor is the community’s. Grey Muzzle Manor belongs to Berks County. We have folks in Australia and all over the country, but it’s our organization. That’s what I want people to feel: that they’re part of all of it, so when I see that I’m somehow accomplishing that, then it’s very cool.
Toni: Well, that’s inspiration in overdrive, isn’t it?
Marcy: Yeah, I guess.
Toni: So, who in Berks County inspires you?
Marcy: This isn’t so that you’ll have me on again, but I’ve known you for a couple of years, and all I knew was that you did these shows, and I thought that was so cool. How cool it would be if one day I could be on. I would have to say one would be you.
Toni: Thank you.
Marcy: I love your outlook and positivity. You post these things that my brain has been searching for a way to word it, and you post them at exactly the right time. Also, Harry Brown. Harry’s like a father to me from the Animal Rescue League. He guided me in the baby days of just being an adult and how to treat people, really.
Corey DiLella of DiLella Veterinary Services has become a friend and a mentor. I’ve known her for a couple of years, but she wanted her own practice. She did it. She didn’t have a sign for the longest time, because all the money went into the practice. Just watching her take that leap. I go to her often, “What am I doing?” She’s the one — and I tell this as part of my story — I had this screen chat. I was deciding whether or not I should leave my most recent job in social services to pursue my business, and I asked her, “Weren’t you scared?” She said, “Well, yeah, but how else would I know how awesome I could be?” I was like, “Oh, okay.” So many people. Jenn Fry did the same thing. Lots of people.
Toni: Well, thank you very much for the kind words. It’s amazing, what you’re doing. It is amazing. So, final question of the Project. What do you want your legacy to be?
Marcy: I want people to remember that we’re all the same. I want people to leave feeling good and like they belong, and I want them to get that from interacting with me, if that makes sense.
Toni: It makes perfect sense.
Marcy: I just want us all to accept each other and support each other.
Toni: Marcy, I said this before we went into the interview. You are an inspiration, and your legacy is what you’re living right now, so stay brave. Stay brave and do what you do. It’s awesome.
Marcy: Thank you.
Toni: Thank you for showing up for the Project.
Marcy: Thank you for having me.
Toni: You’re welcome.
