Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Steve Bobick with me. Welcome, Steve.
Steve Bobick: Thank you. Nice to be here on this chilly day.
Toni: Very chilly day. Alright Steve, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Steve: I moved to Berks County 44 years ago. I’m still not considered a native. I’m still kind of an outsider, but I’ve managed to work my way through a little bit. About 10 years ago, I sold my business and retired, and since then my passion has been volunteering at not-for-profits.
Toni: Then you know what? This interview is just right for you. Let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Steve: I looked it up. I don’t have a dictionary anymore, of course, so I Googled it and got some interesting definitions of inspiration. What it means to me is when I see somebody or hear somebody doing or having done something that’s truly different and warms your heart or makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up; it inspires me to want to do a little bit more.
Toni: Are you inspired by the nonprofit work that you do?
Steve: I guess so, or I wouldn’t be doing it.
Toni: Right.
Steve: Yeah. To see the results of what happened to some of those not-for-profits, when you see the growth in kids at the Olivet Boys and Girls Club, or Bethany Children’s Home, or the South Mountain YMCA camps, it’s extraordinary. They’re all a little bit different. For example, at South Mountain when you see a child who has never been to camp and spends a week or two there, they come out of that being a different person. I mean, the growth is amazing.
We have counselors there from literally all over the globe. We have one gentleman who lives in Australia who takes eight weeks of vacation every summer from his job and travels from Australia to little old Wernersville and is a counselor for these kids. He keeps coming back year after year. Of course, the kids love him and we love him, and I honestly, I think he’d probably do it for free, but he gets so much out of it and the kids get so much out of it. He’ll tell you that even in just a week of a kid being at camp, he can see the growth in that child.
Toni: And that inspires you.
Steve: It sure does.
Toni: So, how do you take that feeling of inspiration in other ways — I mean, you’ve spoke a little bit about the nonprofit and being involved with that — but how do you take that feeling when you are inspired and apply it here in Berks County?
Steve: For me, it would be probably getting more involved or doing something more for one or more of the not-for-profits; the challenge being that I think a lot of my friends and business associates, when they see my phone number coming in on their phone, they hang it up, because they know I’m going to be asking them to have a foursome for a golf tournament or sponsor this, or give me money for this. Unfortunately, that’s what board members do. That’s one of our major jobs is to raise money for the not-for-profit. It is challenging, but I’ve signed on for it, so I do it.
Toni: So, even though it might be uncomfortable and you have to keep reaching back into the well, the work is important, and you’re inspired to keep doing that work.
Steve: Absolutely. Sometimes it is really uncomfortable, because that’s probably the worst skill I have as far as providing volunteer work for not-for-profits.
Toni: But again, somebody’s got to do it, right?
Steve: Exactly right. Someone has to do it.
Toni: Somebody has to do it.
Steve: People ask me, because I get asked all the time from other not-for-profits that I’m involved with. Sometimes it’s hard to say ‘no’ when you consider the cause and what they’re doing for the public.
Toni: Do you find it easy to share your inspiration?
Steve: Wow. That’s a good question. I haven't even thought about that. Hopefully other people will get inspired by my actions, by what I do, just like other people who inspire me.
Toni: That’s what I would believe.
Steve: Kind of indirect, although I do recruit. It’s another one of our jobs. I do recruit new board members and committee members.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Steve: Do you have time? I actually made a list so I wouldn’t forget. I’d start with my family. My wife, my son and daughter, and my two wonderful grandsons. I mean, honestly, hopefully we all combined can make the world a little bit of a better place for them, because I worry about what it’s going to be like for someone who’s six or three years old right now, when they grow up. I’ve met so many wonderful people by being on boards. Take people like Nathan Brant, Lori Schermerhorn, Albert and Jim Boscov, David Thun, Steve Finkel, Charlie Sullivan…the list goes on and on. I was blessed to be on boards and committees with them. I learned a lot, and they inspired me.
Toni: I know you have that list there, and that is an amazing list you’ve already given. Do you think there’s a common thread with all of those folks that inspire you, and what would that common thread be?
Steve: They care. They care to give their time, their talent, and also their treasure. Very philanthropic. I mean, every name I mentioned there, and others. The challenge as I see it though is that that’s a generation that’s kind of going away. What we really need to do is inspire some of the younger people and maybe your program that you’re doing here will help do that. I’m not saying it’s lost on this next generation, but it’s not as profound as it has been with the silent generation or the baby boomers.
Toni: Maybe we just need to dig a little bit deeper.
Steve: Perhaps. Yeah.
Toni: There’s probably people out there doing great work, and we just don’t know about it.
Steve: We just don’t know. I’d love to know that.
Toni: Absolutely. What would you like your legacy to be?
Steve: There’s another word I had to look up — legacy. I don’t know, that’s a pretty strong word for someone like me. I don’t really have a legacy. Really, I’d like to leave this place a little bit better than how I found it. With me, it all starts with treating people like I would like to be treated, and I think that kind of would push out from there.
Toni: Steve, I’ve said this hundreds of times in these interviews that people believe that legacy kind of trips them up, this question, because it’s how you want people to think when you’re gone. But, it’s really how we live our legacy. You volunteer your time and talent and treasure, I would imagine, on all of these nonprofit boards, and just the way you carry yourself as a citizen. So, you’re already living a legacy, and that’s the most amazing thing to witness. Thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Steve: Oh, you’re very welcome. That’s very kind of you, what you said. Thank you very much.
Toni: You’re welcome.
