Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Linda Capozello with me. Hi, Linda.
Linda Capozello: Hi, Toni.
Toni: So, Linda, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. Take a moment and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Linda: I’d be happy to. I grew up in Northeast Reading. I’m proud to say that I went through the Reading school system, got away as far as Virginia to college, and then came home and met someone and got married. For the first 18 years of my marriage, my husband, Paul, and I owned a restaurant in the West Reading area. During that time, we raised two children. I have a son and a daughter and four grandchildren, all of whom are very easy to adore, and I do.
Several months ago my husband, Paul, passed away, and so I’m on a new journey trying to find my way forward without him right here by my side. I feel like I lived my life in Technicolor because of him, and so I’m working to find some of those bright hues once again.
Toni: That is amazing. Our condolences for your loss.
Linda: Thank you.
Toni: I do want to mention that you are the Director of Advancement and Communications for the Reading Public Library.
Linda: I am. In my mid-40s I began what was a 22-year career working for health-related nonprofit organizations. I worked for three different national organizations including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for 12 years. Much of that time I actually managed regional offices outside of the area. Although they included Berks County, I worked outside of Berks County, and I loved every day of my work, but I missed the connection that I had had with my community.
At the end of 2013 I retired, so I thought, for the first time I suppose, I’d spend some time volunteering back in the City of Reading. I found quickly that I missed the workplace, and so when the opportunity came along to work for the Reading Public Library, I was very, very pleased. For the past year, I’ve been serving in that capacity.
Toni: Well, they are very lucky to have you. Let’s go into the Project. Linda, tell me, what does inspiration mean to you?
Linda: So Toni, one of my favorite quotes is a popular quote that has been attributed to St. Augustine or St. Ignatius, and it’s, “Pray like everything depends on God, and work like everything depends on you.” I think to work hard day in and day out can be difficult. I am inspired by the people who surround me who show quiet courage. Every day I’m inspired to do my best by the folks who show quiet courage, even though they’re faced with obstacles far greater than anything I’ve had to face so far in my life.
I draw on that inspiration just to move me forward to work harder, to be open to change, to overcome obstacles, to recommit myself to be kinder, and I need to draw on them. That’s really very easy to do when you’ve done the kind of work that I’ve done and been surrounded by this type of example every day.
Toni: So inspiration equates to you that feeling of quiet courage. Can you see it? Can you see quiet courage, or is it something that you feel?
Linda: I see it in examples, because I’ve been surrounded by people, particularly working in health-related nonprofit work. I’ve been surrounded by people that you do, you see it. You clearly see it, and then it moves me. So I think the answer is both.
Toni: Absolutely. How do you take all of that that you see, you witness, you’ve been part of, and put that into practice here in Berks County?
Linda: I think right now I’m doing it mainly through my work. I see my work with the Reading Public Library as sort of two-fold, and one of them is to take the inspiration and to turn it into energy and enthusiasm to attract as many new friends to the Reading Public Library as we can, as quickly as we can do that.
I don’t do that alone. I have a great group of people that I work with, but it’s important work. The public funding for the library and all libraries in general continues to shrink. The gap between the public funding and our budgets continues to grow larger, so there’s a real urgency to what we do. I think that certainly being inspired by what I see in the library day in and day out helps us approach that work with the kind of urgency that it deserves.
Toni: I would imagine too that people that come into the Library and use the vast resources that are available in the Library system, they probably are going through something themselves and are looking for a resource to build up their own courage or move them or be inspired. How wonderful that must be to connect these resources to people that are looking for their own inspiration. That’s what I’m hearing.
Linda: Oh, absolutely. We have families who come into the library who it’s difficult for them to make sure that their children have access to books and to the Internet for their studies, and to safe spaces. They walk long distances with their family, or they take the bus to reach us, but they do it.
Toni: Right.
Linda: At the main library, we have a bank of 20 public computers, and we have folks who come day after day to use them for job searches, sometimes weeks on end until they find something. Absolutely, hopefully we’re giving them the tools they need to better their life, but they’re inspiring us at the same time.
Toni: I would imagine. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Linda: I think considering the fact that I’ve been a fundraiser for all these years I would say unabashedly that I am inspired by the number of philanthropists that we have in our community who not only give a significant percentage of their wealth, but who address their charitable giving in a very, very serious way. They’re looking at transformational ways to better our community for generations to come. We have a lot of those folks in our community, and we’re very fortunate to have them.
I can say that I’m inspired by the volunteer leaders that I work with at the Reading Public Library, many of whom don’t work or live in the City of Reading, but who understand the value of the Library and have chosen to take on serious and complex fiscal issues and other issues for a long time. That inspires me. I get paid for what I do – they don’t. I’m inspired by that.
I’m privileged to know some exceptional people in our community. When I was with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, I got to work with a young man, Nat, a young friend of mine with cystic fibrosis who at the age of 15 summited Mount Kilimanjaro together with his dad after a seven-day climb.
Toni: Wow!
Linda: It’s an accomplishment that’s unimaginable to me, regardless of the circumstances. I knew this young man from the time that he was three years old, so it wasn’t surprising.
I have a friend who’s a lifelong friend, my friend Kathy, who’s had multiple sclerosis since she was 21, and every step that she takes is an effort. She’s still walking. She’s still taking steps, which is astonishing. She works three days a week as a therapist in the Downtown Reading Counseling Center – long, extended days. Her smile and her laugh come so easily that it’s breathtaking to me.
Toni: Oh Linda, you’re bringing full circle what inspiration to means to you, which is that quiet courage, and those who inspire you display that quiet courage in the way that you describe them. How wonderful is that?
Linda: It is. It’s the fact that I’ve been able to see that for 23 years as part of my career and truly been surrounded by hundreds, probably thousands of examples. It’s a privilege.
Toni: So what do you want your legacy to be?
Linda: Professionally I know that I’ve raised the dollars that I’ve been asked to raise and those deliverables I’ve succeeded with, but I hope that I also represented the advancement profession, the fundraising profession well. It’s important work. Fine people are doing it, so I hope that I did that. I also hope that I represented the organizations and the institutions who I served well during the time I worked for them. Personally I think if my children and their families know that I willingly cared for people in our lives who needed me and that it was a service rather than a burden, I’ll be pleased.
Toni: That’s amazing. I don’t think there’s any hope there at all. I think it is absolutely a living legacy, the way that you are talking about what you do. That’s where I wish that these were videos at times, because you can see it all over your face. It’s amazing. Thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Linda: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Linda Capozello with me. Hi, Linda.
Linda Capozello: Hi, Toni.
Toni: So, Linda, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. Take a moment and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Linda: I’d be happy to. I grew up in Northeast Reading. I’m proud to say that I went through the Reading school system, got away as far as Virginia to college, and then came home and met someone and got married. For the first 18 years of my marriage, my husband, Paul, and I owned a restaurant in the West Reading area. During that time, we raised two children. I have a son and a daughter and four grandchildren, all of whom are very easy to adore, and I do.
Several months ago my husband, Paul, passed away, and so I’m on a new journey trying to find my way forward without him right here by my side. I feel like I lived my life in Technicolor because of him, and so I’m working to find some of those bright hues once again.
Toni: That is amazing. Our condolences for your loss.
Linda: Thank you.
Toni: I do want to mention that you are the Director of Advancement and Communications for the Reading Public Library.
Linda: I am. In my mid-40s I began what was a 22-year career working for health-related nonprofit organizations. I worked for three different national organizations including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for 12 years. Much of that time I actually managed regional offices outside of the area. Although they included Berks County, I worked outside of Berks County, and I loved every day of my work, but I missed the connection that I had had with my community.
At the end of 2013 I retired, so I thought, for the first time I suppose, I’d spend some time volunteering back in the City of Reading. I found quickly that I missed the workplace, and so when the opportunity came along to work for the Reading Public Library, I was very, very pleased. For the past year, I’ve been serving in that capacity.
Toni: Well, they are very lucky to have you. Let’s go into the Project. Linda, tell me, what does inspiration mean to you?
Linda: So Toni, one of my favorite quotes is a popular quote that has been attributed to St. Augustine or St. Ignatius, and it’s, “Pray like everything depends on God, and work like everything depends on you.” I think to work hard day in and day out can be difficult. I am inspired by the people who surround me who show quiet courage. Every day I’m inspired to do my best by the folks who show quiet courage, even though they’re faced with obstacles far greater than anything I’ve had to face so far in my life.
I draw on that inspiration just to move me forward to work harder, to be open to change, to overcome obstacles, to recommit myself to be kinder, and I need to draw on them. That’s really very easy to do when you’ve done the kind of work that I’ve done and been surrounded by this type of example every day.
Toni: So inspiration equates to you that feeling of quiet courage. Can you see it? Can you see quiet courage, or is it something that you feel?
Linda: I see it in examples, because I’ve been surrounded by people, particularly working in health-related nonprofit work. I’ve been surrounded by people that you do, you see it. You clearly see it, and then it moves me. So I think the answer is both.
Toni: Absolutely. How do you take all of that that you see, you witness, you’ve been part of, and put that into practice here in Berks County?
Linda: I think right now I’m doing it mainly through my work. I see my work with the Reading Public Library as sort of two-fold, and one of them is to take the inspiration and to turn it into energy and enthusiasm to attract as many new friends to the Reading Public Library as we can, as quickly as we can do that.
I don’t do that alone. I have a great group of people that I work with, but it’s important work. The public funding for the library and all libraries in general continues to shrink. The gap between the public funding and our budgets continues to grow larger, so there’s a real urgency to what we do. I think that certainly being inspired by what I see in the library day in and day out helps us approach that work with the kind of urgency that it deserves.
Toni: I would imagine too that people that come into the Library and use the vast resources that are available in the Library system, they probably are going through something themselves and are looking for a resource to build up their own courage or move them or be inspired. How wonderful that must be to connect these resources to people that are looking for their own inspiration. That’s what I’m hearing.
Linda: Oh, absolutely. We have families who come into the library who it’s difficult for them to make sure that their children have access to books and to the Internet for their studies, and to safe spaces. They walk long distances with their family, or they take the bus to reach us, but they do it.
Toni: Right.
Linda: At the main library, we have a bank of 20 public computers, and we have folks who come day after day to use them for job searches, sometimes weeks on end until they find something. Absolutely, hopefully we’re giving them the tools they need to better their life, but they’re inspiring us at the same time.
Toni: I would imagine. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Linda: I think considering the fact that I’ve been a fundraiser for all these years I would say unabashedly that I am inspired by the number of philanthropists that we have in our community who not only give a significant percentage of their wealth, but who address their charitable giving in a very, very serious way. They’re looking at transformational ways to better our community for generations to come. We have a lot of those folks in our community, and we’re very fortunate to have them.
I can say that I’m inspired by the volunteer leaders that I work with at the Reading Public Library, many of whom don’t work or live in the City of Reading, but who understand the value of the Library and have chosen to take on serious and complex fiscal issues and other issues for a long time. That inspires me. I get paid for what I do – they don’t. I’m inspired by that.
I’m privileged to know some exceptional people in our community. When I was with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, I got to work with a young man, Nat, a young friend of mine with cystic fibrosis who at the age of 15 summited Mount Kilimanjaro together with his dad after a seven-day climb.
Toni: Wow!
Linda: It’s an accomplishment that’s unimaginable to me, regardless of the circumstances. I knew this young man from the time that he was three years old, so it wasn’t surprising.
I have a friend who’s a lifelong friend, my friend Kathy, who’s had multiple sclerosis since she was 21, and every step that she takes is an effort. She’s still walking. She’s still taking steps, which is astonishing. She works three days a week as a therapist in the Downtown Reading Counseling Center – long, extended days. Her smile and her laugh come so easily that it’s breathtaking to me.
Toni: Oh Linda, you’re bringing full circle what inspiration to means to you, which is that quiet courage, and those who inspire you display that quiet courage in the way that you describe them. How wonderful is that?
Linda: It is. It’s the fact that I’ve been able to see that for 23 years as part of my career and truly been surrounded by hundreds, probably thousands of examples. It’s a privilege.
Toni: So what do you want your legacy to be?
Linda: Professionally I know that I’ve raised the dollars that I’ve been asked to raise and those deliverables I’ve succeeded with, but I hope that I also represented the advancement profession, the fundraising profession well. It’s important work. Fine people are doing it, so I hope that I did that. I also hope that I represented the organizations and the institutions who I served well during the time I worked for them. Personally I think if my children and their families know that I willingly cared for people in our lives who needed me and that it was a service rather than a burden, I’ll be pleased.
Toni: That’s amazing. I don’t think there’s any hope there at all. I think it is absolutely a living legacy, the way that you are talking about what you do. That’s where I wish that these were videos at times, because you can see it all over your face. It’s amazing. Thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Linda: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.
