Listen to the interview here!
Kirsten Keim-Shendge
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am honored to be in front of Kirsten Keim-Shendge. Kirsten, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Kirsten Keim-Shendge: Thank you for having me. It was a bit of a shock. I guess no one thinks they’re that inspiring.
Toni: Oh, everybody is inspiring. Let’s first start with you telling us a little bit about yourself.
Kirsten: Okay. In my professional life, I am the Marketing Manager at Bellco Federal Credit Union here in Berks County. Personally, I am the mother of two beautiful daughters, Willow and Chloe. My husband Win and I live in Birdsboro with our little group of animals. We have everything from fish and dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, and anything that shows up in our backyard since we live in the woods.
Toni: Oh my gosh! Let’s go into the first question of the Project, okay?
Kirsten: Okay.
Toni: What does inspiration mean to you?
Kirsten: Inspiration to me doesn’t have to be a single moment of enlightenment or an amazing act of creativity. Inspiration comes from the everyday things around me. It comes from my friends, my family, my travels, maybe something I read on the Internet or see in a magazine. Inspiration to me is working out in my gardens or playing with my children, and today that could manifest itself in my outfit, or what I’m cooking for dinner, or what ad I’m designing for my company at work. You never know where you’re going to find your next great idea.
Toni: How do you know you’re inspired?
Kirsten: I think when something just clicks for me, and then it seems right to me, and then other people affirm that. If it’s something I do, or have done, or have said, and people just take notice, to me, that’s what’s inspirational.
Toni: So you see something or something hits you, and then you take action on it, probably immediately, wouldn’t you?
Kirsten: Yes. I’m kind of impulsive.
Toni: Okay. So how do you put that impulsiveness as far as when you’re inspired into practice here in Berks County?
Kirsten: In Berks County, adding my own flair to my marketing for my company.
Toni: Okay.
Kirsten: It could also be my home and gardens, or what I’m wearing, what I’m doing. My favorite act of inspiration right now is volunteering for Goodwill Keystone area’s Redesign Contest.
Toni: What is that? What is a Redesign Contest?
Kirsten: A redesign contest is part of the Goodwill Runway Show, which is April 18th at the VF Factory Outlets. What you do is you take items from a Goodwill store – any item that fits into their categories, and they have three categories – one of them is the Men’s Shirt Redesign Contest, the Accessories, and the Avant Garde. This year I have designed kind of a poufy type colorful skirt for the Men’s Shirt Redesign Contest, and for the Accessories category, I have taken some glass plates and smashed them up into a statement necklace.
Toni: Wow! That is so cool. So you find these items at Goodwill, and then you totally just do something crazy with them.
Kirsten: Yes. You can do whatever you want, as long as it fits in the category.
Toni: What’s an Avant Garde category?
Kirsten: I can talk about my girlfriend, who’s entered that category.
Toni: That would be great.
Kirsten: She has taken maybe these 70s style brocade drapes and turned them into an evening gown, so they have the lace and the color, and she’s just made them into this really unusual gown and cape combination.
Toni: So now, when you see people doing things like that, does that also inspire you?
Kirsten: Oh my goodness, yes. One of the first people that inspired me again for fashion was Susan Golembiski. She was one of the designers on the first Goodwill Runway Show, and she’s doing her fashion and her art here in Berks County.
Toni: This is a great lead-in to the third question – who in Berks County inspires you?
Kirsten: Besides Susan and my friends, lately my volunteering has really shown me what inspires me. There’s people on the different committees I serve on. I’m also on a Souper Bowl committee for Opportunity House. I’m on my township’s Parks and Rec department, and also I’ve been helping with the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce. I’ve met people there who are busier than me, but they find more time to give, and they still do great things with their family and their lives and their jobs, but they give so much back, and they really believe in what they do.
Toni: Does that inspire you to volunteer as well? Earlier in the interview, you said that it doesn’t take one single act for you to be enlightened or to be inspired, but it sounds like it’s just something that hits you. When you witness this selflessness, it sounds like that inspires you.
Kirsten: Oh, definitely. I think when you just sit back and you think, “Oh, I’ve got nothing to give to the community,” I think you’re wrong. I think that you see these other people and they’re doing things and donating their time and talents, and that just inspires you to do more for the committees you’re involved on or even your children’s school, or the animal rescue league. Whatever you find interesting, I think that inspires you to help others.
Toni: So it’s those types of organizations that also inspire you in Berks County.
Kirsten: Oh, definitely. I would always choose some kind of committee that I feel strongly for. Not that I wouldn’t help others, but I want to help where I feel that I can best serve people.
Toni: So one is Goodwill – give me another example.
Kirsten: Let’s see – I’m on the Souper Bowl committee for Opportunity House.
Toni: What is that?
Kirsten: That is an amazing event where hundreds of people come to get a handcrafted bowl, and these bowls are made by students, by everyday people. I made a bowl and donated it. You go there, and they wrap up this beautiful bowl for you to take home, and then you go and have soup that you can't imagine from 40 to 50 of the area’s best restaurants. You just walk around. It’s at Body Zone on May 6th. You just can't imagine how much soup there is in Berks County. I think I only get to try about maybe 15 or 20 soups before I’m full. It’s delicious items. It’s just helping Opportunity House.
Toni: Well, I’ll tell you, just listening to you and what inspires you, but how you put it into practice, the way you’ve led into the third question, which is who in Berks County inspires you, you’ve managed that into this volunteerism and what you do, but it’s also you’re putting your own inspiration back into practice – so those that inspire you, you’re turning around and paying it forward and putting that into practice. That’s very cool.
Kirsten: Thank you.
Toni: So what do you want your legacy to be?
Kirsten: I’d want my legacy to be remembered as the best person I can be to my children, my husband, my family, and my friends. I’d want to be remembered as a creative, artistic person who added color and life to those around her. In the end, it’s not what you have or what you’ve done, but whose life you touched or changed. When I was researching a little bit for this interview, I found this quote, and it said, “Aspire to inspire before you expire.”
Toni: Thank you so much for sharing your gifts around Berks County, and also for being part of this wonderful Project. Thank you very, very much.
Kirsten: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Toni: You’re welcome. Take care.
Kirsten: Thanks.
