Listen to the interview here!
Rachel Wenger
Toni Reece: Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. I’m Toni Reece, and today I am with Rachel Wenger. Hi, Rachel.
Rachel Wenger: Hi, how are you?
Toni: I’m great. Rachel, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Rachel: I’m Rachel, and I just graduated college not too long ago, and I’ve been working full time at Weaver’s Orchard. I love anything outdoors, and love volunteering at my church, and being with my family.
Toni: Thank you for being here, and congratulations on your graduation.
Rachel: Thank you.
Toni: Let’s go to the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Rachel: At first thought, when I was thinking about inspiration, I almost thought “motivation” seemed to fit, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that motivation is doing the things that you have to do. Nine times out of 10, you motivate yourself to do things you don’t always want to do, but inspiration is something a little different. Inspiration really is what internally feels best for you. What is it in your life that really lights you up? For me, my mom is one of the most compassionate people I know, and it is by her example that my inspiration and I think compassion is really what drives me and just really inspires me.
Toni: I can tell you I’ve been doing this a long time, and I haven’t heard inspiration correlated with compassion. I like that. How do you put that into practice here in Berks County?
Rachel: I think that’s something that can be put into practice in every area of your life with the people you meet, whether it’s working … I get to deliver to different businesses, so you may see the security guard when I’m dropping off things, or I may run into someone at the store, and I think that’s something where it’s just caring, taking the time to be all there in what you’re doing, and really care for people and talk to them.
Toni: So it’s compassion, it’s care.
Rachel: Yes, absolutely.
Toni: How would you define compassion? Tell me what that means to you.
Rachel: Compassion to me is taking the things you truly care about. Caring for people that may not always care for themselves, that may need help. Maybe they don’t – maybe they just need a friendly “hello.” You never know their story, that’s the crazy thing. You never know if they’re having a good day or a bad day, but it’s just showing who I am to them and just showing them that I care. I care how their day is going.
Toni: So it’s really showing up and letting them know that you actually see them.
Rachel: Exactly – that they’re there, and that I’m all there, too, that I’m focused on them at that time.
Toni: Does that surprise you sometimes that some people do not do that on a regular basis, that people do feel as though they’re invisible?
Rachel: I think so, and I think it’s one of those things in the crazy world we live in with technology where you can really remove yourself from any situation. Sometimes people feel like, “Oh, here I am hanging out with a friend,” but we find ourselves on our phones. I think it’s something that people just are taken aback sometimes how much you may care.
Toni: So the personal connection for you, caring, drives that compassion.
Rachel: Exactly.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Rachel: For me in Berks County, it has to be my boss and the owner of Weaver’s Orchard. He shares a similar compassion towards his employees, towards his family. It’s a fourth generation orchard, so family is a very big aspect of it. You have the son working there, the daughters. He’s someone that really shows he cares about his employees. He wants to know, “How was your day? How are you enjoying working at the Orchard since you first started?” I started at the Orchard eight years ago and I’ve been there ever since and I feel like family too, even though I’m not related in any way. I think it is through his example that you see other managers and other bosses that take the same care and compassion, and that’s then what in turn we want to show our customers when they come in.
Toni: Can you give me an example of the last time you were moved by something that you witnessed during that exchange at your workplace, whether it was with an employee, whether it was with a customer, where you thought, “Yeah, that’s cool; that’s compassion.”?
Rachel: I think one of the most recent examples is one of our employees had to have surgery. We gathered and rallied behind her and took her some meals. It was our secretary that set that up, that we were able to be there for her and take her meals. The employee relationships, if ever there’s somebody struggling, you see your fellow employees coming beside you, and that’s where the compassion really shows.
Toni: And the demonstrated care.
Rachel: Yes.
Toni: Do you think that’s contagious?
Rachel: I think it’s absolutely contagious, and I would love to be described as ‘contagious.’ I think everyone thinks ‘contagious’ in a bad way, but contagious is such a good thing that if someone sees that act … maybe it’s the way you helped a customer to her car, but if someone sees that, it could be very contagious, and the next person helps someone at the store or a different store or helps someone at home or takes that time to pick up something someone dropped. I think that’s the contagious act.
Toni: Wouldn’t that be cool to be standing in a parking lot and to witness something like that, and be inspired enough by that act to do it yourself?
Rachel: Exactly.
Toni: So Rachel, what would you like your legacy to be?
Rachel: I think it was Ronald Reagan who once said, “You can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” For me, I hope my legacy would be one of showing compassion and care to everyone that I meet.
Toni: Fantastic. Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Rachel: Thank you for having me.
