Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Rebekah Burke with me. Welcome, Rebekah.
Rebekah Burke: Hi, Toni. Thank you for having me.
Toni: Absolutely. So, Rebekah, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Rebekah: I’d love to. I’m in my mid-20s. I work in advancement and marketing for Reading Public Library, and I’m also a freelance writer for Berks County Living. I’m originally from a small town called Danville, about two hours north of Reading. I came to Berks County to attend Kutztown, where I graduated in 2014. During my last semester, I moved into West Reading, and I’ve been in the area ever since. My husband actually grew up here, so we settled in after college.
While I was at Kutztown, I became passionate about nonprofit work after being a part of some art classes at the Salvation Army’s afterschool program in Reading. I actually changed my major after that. It just felt so purposeful to me to work in that environment. I got my feet wet in fundraising, working at the Salvation Army for about a year before I accepted the position I hold at Reading Public Library now. I feel very thankful for the perspective working in nonprofits has given me.
I love freelance writing for BCL as well, because I get to talk to so many different people, and just learn so much about our community through the articles that I cover. I think writing has become the place where I channel a lot of creativity now.
Toni: Wow. Well, it sounds like you’ve been on quite a journey, and you have one journey yet to tackle. You’re just at the beginning of it, right?
Rebekah: Yeah, definitely.
Toni: That’s awesome. Let’s get into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Rebekah: Toni, I really relate inspiration to feeling alive. When I’m inspired, I have so much energy, and I think it’s crazy how huge of a motivator inspiration can be for us. It also just takes so many different forms and it can be so different for everybody, and I think that’s really fascinating. Ultimately, I think inspiration is how we grow. I think it’s the driving force that leads us to change.
A lot of different ways that we can be inspired—we can be inspired to do something for ourselves. We can be inspired to do something for others. It can mean so many different things creatively or philanthropically. I think personally, I’m really inspired just by good conversations and positive interactions with people, or reading old National Geographic magazines or poetry, or just listening to music and hearing one of those songs that just gets a part of you you didn’t know was there. Getting to know people deeply. I think those are the things. That’s where life is for me. That’s where inspiration is.
Toni: You use words like “alive” and “energy” and reaching places that normally maybe aren’t reached. Do you recall the last time you were inspired?
Rebekah: I do. I think I try to seek out ways to be inspired every day. I know that that’s something I really need to keep growing and keep moving. My husband is a musician, and I think probably the most recent time I was inspired…he just wrote a new song recently. I’ll be just in the kitchen and I’ll hear him playing, and I love that. I love those moments where it kind of creeps up on you and it’s exactly what you need.
Toni: And it makes you pay attention.
Rebekah: It does.
Toni: In that moment, where maybe in the past you might not have.
Rebekah: Right.
Toni: That’s pretty cool. How do you take all of that—that feeling of alive, that when it creeps up on you and spills over inside of you—how do you take that inspiration and put it into practice here in Berks County?
Rebekah: I think being early in my career, just connecting inspiration to how it leads us to grow. I’m really going to understand my place in my work, and the places where I really want to invest my time. Working at the Library really pushes me to stay inspired and stay outside of the box, because libraries are in a changing world. They’re modernizing, and keeping things fresh and relevant takes a lot of thought and inspiration.
Ultimately, I think in Berks County, being inspired is a really good connecting force. I think inspiration leads to passion, and I think passionate people can connect and change communities. There’s a lot of people within Berks County who have that passion and are looking to connect, and who really care about their community. It’s just that type of place where when you’re here, you feel like you’re home. I think just working on carrying that inspiration into connecting with people is ultimately the main thing.
Toni: Can you give me an example of a connection that’s happened through being inspired by something?
Rebekah: Sure. I think there’s just caring deeply about the community and the wellbeing. I think in my work world, I’ve had so many good conversations just because of that, and just really learning from the different people I’ve worked with. I know at the Salvation Army, I’ve worked with a lot of social workers, of course, and just talking to them was so inspiring. It was like you really could see the possibility for change within our community and within people’s lives. I mean, I don’t know what’s more inspiring than that, really.
Toni: I have to agree with you. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Rebekah: So many people. I think about our community, and I love how diverse it is. I’ve been able to see so many donors give to nonprofits and organizations through the work that I’ve began doing, and just volunteers, the people working in those organizations. They have such an impact, and they create such positive change. They don’t do it for themselves, and that’s the most beautiful part I; it’s really not about them. I think that is so inspiring, because it’s really just about seeing the change in others, and just caring deeply for other people.
I also am really inspired by the people attending those programs where the people go into these services that these nonprofits offer, and reading books at the Library and applying for jobs on the computers at the Library. Just overcoming the obstacles that they have, and working to make their lives better for them and their families; their daily struggle and how they’re working to overcome it. I really admire that effort. I think that’s so inspirational.
Also, I live in West Reading, and I go to a lot of the small businesses there. I find that so inspiring, because it’s just these people that are pursuing their passions and sharing their passions. I love just the diversity in Berks County. It has so much to offer.
Toni: Wouldn’t it be incredible, the people that you find or you are inspired by probably have no idea that they’re inspiring you—the people that you serve at the Library, the people that you’ve worked with at the Salvation Army, the shop owners in West Reading—wouldn’t it be amazing if they knew how their simple acts of daily living inspire others?
Rebekah: Absolutely.
Toni: Yeah. That’s why this Project is so important, because maybe they’ll get to hear that.
Rebekah: Yeah.
Toni: So, what would you like your legacy to be, Rebekah?
Rebekah: I think for my legacy, I kind of struggled. I feel so early on to really reflect on this, but I think that I would want it to be that I loved deeply and freely, that I was always seeking, and I didn’t get to this point where I was finished, but instead just always continuing to learn all my life. I think ultimately our legacy is a success when it’s something beyond ourselves. We all create a ripple effect of some type, and my wish would just be that mine is positive and just speaks of all the things I worked for and believed in.
Toni: One step at a time, and letting people know that they inspire you and connect, and move you to action. That’s pretty powerful.
Rebekah: Yeah. It definitely is, Toni.
Toni: Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project today.
Rebekah: Yeah, thank you, Toni. This is an awesome opportunity.
Toni: Thank you.
