Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Lindsay Crist with me. Hi, Lindsay.
Lindsay Crist: Hello.
Toni: How are you?
Lindsay: Great. Thank you for having me.
Toni: Absolutely. Lindsay, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Lindsay: I moved to Berks County about two-and-a-half years ago, and I started working at the Reading Public Museum. I first started as an intern in the Marketing Department, and a position opened up as the Event Manager handling the internal events at the Museum. I ended up falling into it, and it’s worked out great for me.
Toni: Congratulations.
Lindsay: Thank you.
Toni: Let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Lindsay: Inspiration can be a wide variety of things that just provide growth within yourself; whether it’s growing within your community or growing within your company that you work for or traveling. For me, inspiration comes from a lot of my travels. I’ve been in Korea. I just actually got back from Greece yesterday.
Toni: Wow!
Lindsay: Anything that inspires you to get out of bed in the morning and motivates you to be the best person that you can possibly be.
Toni: The word that you used in the beginning was growth. How does traveling do that for you? How does it inspire growth for you?
Lindsay: It inspires me to get to know another group of people, another culture, another history. If you’re only focused on yourself and your surroundings, you don’t get to grow as a person. You don’t get to grow emotionally, physically, and inspirationally.
Toni: Wow. I like that. How do you take all of these experiences and when you’re inspired to do something different with these experiences that you’ve had, how do you take all of that inspiration and put that into practice here in Berks County?
Lindsay: I try to just be involved. I try to take everything that I’ve learned from working in South Korea as a teacher and from living in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for all my life, from traveling to Greece and all over the world, China – just be able to communicate well with others and bring their inspiration, their different cultures into our community to broaden other people’s horizons. I try to be involved with everything. I do Girls on the Run and get involved with the girls there to inspire them to look outside their box here. Just anything that branches you out.
Toni: You said you were a teacher in South Korea, correct?
Lindsay: Yes.
Toni: What took you to South Korea?
Lindsay: Just the sheer will of saying that I could do it. I was actually working for a welding company at the time, and I was clearly not going to be a welder. I was an English major in college. I was working with a bunch of men who said, “You’re never going to do that.” I said, “Hmm … I guess I’ll do it!” It was a sheer jump of faith, and it worked out very well for me.
Toni: So what inspired you the most teaching in another country?
Lindsay: The language barrier, definitely. I had to come across a lot of goals. Each day I had to learn a new phrase. Each day I had to learn if I was going to like that food that I just ordered. Did I order the right thing? Getting to know other people and other cultures. It inspired me to grow and hopefully do more traveling, and hopefully get involved with other communities, just to work with others and get to know other people’s challenges and successes.
Toni: Does that allow you to pay that forward here in Berks County as well, that experience?
Lindsay: Before I moved to Berks County, I was a swim coach. Since then, I’ve taken a step back from coaching, but I try to put that into my Girls on the Run training and helping with those girls. Like I said before, just getting involved with the young people and inspiring them, and hopefully they inspire me as well to be the best, to do different things, and try different things. I knew nothing about Korea before I went, but I had a great time and I learned so many new things. I didn’t know any of the language, and now I can still say a few little phrases here and there. It’s just about learning new things.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Lindsay: Definitely I have to say my coworkers at the Museum. We’re a team of 30 people, maybe a little less, and we are able to create installations for exhibitions. We put out events. We can create some of the most beautiful weddings in Berks County, and we have such a limited staff. We’re a nonprofit, and we work with what we have. We always surpass our expectations, I feel.
Toni: That’s great. Anybody else you want to talk about?
Lindsay: I definitely have to give a shout out to Jess Prutzman. She has worked with me and I have worked with her on several projects through the Museum through our Fundraising and Event Committee. Every time I talk to her, she’s always involved with something else. She’s definitely an inspiration to me in Berks County, because she champions for everybody, whether it’s the Animal Rescue League or whether it’s the Cystic Fibrosis community. She’s just always involved with something and always trying to put awareness out for Berks County and anybody who needs help. She’s just so selfless and always involved. She’s definitely an inspiration.
Toni: Great. What do you want your legacy to be?
Lindsay: I think for my legacy, I just want to be involved. I want to raise awareness. That’s part of my job at the Museum, to raise awareness of the events that are going on, for what the Museum has to offer the Berks County community and outside of the community. I just want to be one of those people in the community, whether it’s through GRYP (Greater Reading Young Professionals) or through Girls on the Run or the Museum that are just raising awareness of all the great things that are possible in Berks County, and what the County has to offer.
Toni: Is there a personal issue that you would want to raise awareness to as part of your legacy, or is it just strictly getting involved?
Lindsay: I think for me it’s just getting involved and being part of a community that I wasn’t born and raised in. I came here two-and-a-half years ago and didn’t know anybody. It’s nice to come here, be involved, and know that I can step forward and be part of something new.
Toni: That’s fantastic – and what an inspiration you’ll be for others who may not have the courage to do that.
Lindsay: Thank you.
Toni: They can look at you and see that you did it and you survived it, and you’re thriving, and so is the community on behalf of the work that you’re doing. Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Lindsay: Thank you so much for having me.
