Listen to the interview here!
Jennifer Quick
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Jennifer Quick with me. Hi, Jennifer.
Jennifer Quick: Hi, Toni.
Toni: How are you?
Jennifer: I’m fantastic.
Toni: Jennifer, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Jennifer: I am a mother of two kids. I’ve got a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old son. I’ve been married for 13 years to Denton Quick. I’m the Director of Sales at the Courtyard by Marriott, Wyomissing.
Toni: Thank you for being part of the Project. Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Jennifer: Inspiration is that sense of wanting just to be a better person. It can come from things that I hear or see, positive or negative. It’s the whole world around me – my family, my friends, my coworkers. Everyone is inspiring in their own way. I believe in trying to live positive. I try to inspire others through my actions, not just my words. I believe that if you’re truly able to inspire someone you do it for a lifetime, not just for a moment, because those that have inspired me have done it for my lifetime.
Toni: I love that. It’s the power of positive, and putting that power of positive into action for you.
Jennifer: Correct.
Toni: How have you put that into practice here in Berks County?
Jennifer: Mainly through my kids. I want to guide them in a positive direction and make sure they’re surrounded by positive, inspiring people. I want to see them see a mom who is able to have a successful career and who is able to be involved in the community, plus just be a wonderful wife to my husband. We try to go to church every Sunday. We try to be that traditional family even though I work every day.
I’ve been involved with so many wonderful groups in Berks County and Lancaster County since we moved here in 2006 from Leadership Berks to Junior Achievement to the Gilmore Henne Foundation and Greater Reading Young Professionals. I’ve recently become more focused with our church, West Lawn United Methodist Church, trying to get a little bit more involved with that. I also recently joined the West Reading/Wyomissing Rotary Club. They’re such a great crew. They sing to the new members every time. It’s that warm and fuzzy feeling that you get when you’re with them. I still stay involved with the Greater Reading Economic Partnership marketing crew.
I like to believe that my little part with these groups all helps Berks County become a better place. Down the road, I hope that with my part that my kids will see that I was a positive impact on this community, and it will help them in the next generation.
Toni: When you put this into practice, you’re part of these community organizations. I know that you’re setting this wonderful example, but you’re also doing great work, and that’s very inspirational in itself. Can you give a specific example that your children have witnessed, or you know something is going on that is community-based that inspires you, that you think is positive, and you say, “I’m so happy my children got a chance to see that!”?
Jennifer: A few years ago with the Gilmore Henne playground project at the West Lawn Playground. We live a few blocks away from there. They were calling for volunteers to help clean it up, redo it, make it just a little more refreshing, and I was active with the group. I was helping with the events, but not hands on, not getting dirty. I decided to take my daughter with me, and we went to the playground cleanup and did everything. She got to paint the fence. We volunteered. We were mulching and painting.
Seeing my daughter have the opportunity to paint, I didn’t realize how it would make an impact on her. We go to church across the street, and still to this day when we’re done with church we go across the street to the playground and let the kids play and she always says, “Look, Mommy! I painted that!” The fact that we still get to go to that playground, my kids get to enjoy it, and my daughter was able to do something little when she was 3 years old, to help make that impact, it’s really neat to see.
Toni: Right there, you went full circle for me, because you had said earlier in the first question that it should be an inspiration that lasts more than a moment; it should be a lifetime. You gave that gift to your daughter. How cool is that?
Jennifer: It’s very neat.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Jennifer: There’s so many amazing individuals here in Berks County from my kids, my husband, my in-laws, those that I work with, those that I volunteer with. It’s the everyday people that inspire me, from the guests at our hotel that come in and have a story. It’s my kids’ teachers that take good care of my kids every day. It’s the third shift housemen at my hotel who make sure that the hotel stays clean. It’s my trainer who gives me a hard time if I’m not up in the morning to work out. It’s the police force that protects us. It’s everybody who is doing their part. It’s inspiring to me. If they’re doing their part, why shouldn’t I? We’re all part of this big puzzle, and I need to keep my part going.
Toni: That’s fantastic. I love that. What a great shout out to just the everyday person who is just doing what they need to do in order to get just get it done?
Jennifer: Exactly.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Jennifer: That’s a tough one. Recently my grandmother passed away, and my husband’s grandmother passed away as well. When I think of legacy, I think of these two amazing women. They were both amazing wives, they were great mothers, great friends. They were active in their community, and they did it without a hidden agenda. They just did it. They just wanted to be good people. They wanted to make a positive impact on all those around them without another agenda. I hope that I can accomplish that in some small manner.
Toni: Don’t you think you already have started that living legacy by giving the gift of community service to one of your children who gets to see that gift every single day and everything that you’re giving back to the community? That’s a legacy you’re already living.
Jennifer: I’m trying.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Jennifer: Thank you, Toni. I appreciate it.
