Listen to the interview here!
Marge Johnson
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am talking to Marge Johnson. Hi, Marge.
Marge Johnson: Hello, Toni.
Toni: Welcome to the Project.
Marge: Thank you very much. I’m pleased to be here.
Toni: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Marge: I am a grandmother of seven; five grandsons and two granddaughters, the youngest being Madeline. The oldest granddaughter is a sophomore in college.
Toni: Oh my goodness! Welcome. Let’s go into the first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Marge: Inspiration means getting ideas, getting a good feeling from others that you are involved with, whether they’re women, children, grandparents, older people, younger people – it’s just the people in my community.
Toni: So you’re inspired by what other people do?
Marge: I am.
Toni: Can you give me an example?
Marge: My example would be that probably 15-20 years ago I joined the Women’s Club of Spring Township, and I met the most amazing group of ladies. Mostly retired teachers, and some just from every walk of life – bookkeepers, community housewives, women of all kinds. We all came together and we all do many things that we put back into the community. It’s a nonprofit organization of which we all just join hands and do what we can do to help whoever we can help with scholarships, with international mosquito netting from Kenya – many, many things.
Everything that we do, we raise the money and we have a wonderful time doing it because we’re sharing with each other, and we’re all just doing what we can do, whether we want to be there for that meeting. We’re not forced to be there. We just come and go as we please, but we all come together in unity, and that is to put back into our community which has given so much to us.
Toni: That is a wonderful example of being inspired. It’s being inspired by the work that this organization does, it’s being part of the organization, and it’s watching, sharing and doing.
Marge: That I have to agree. It’s just knowing there’s a need. They feed the community. We have Festival of Arts, which is involving the children of the schools and their artwork, which is judged and then it’s passed on to districts, and then it’s judged again and passed on to states where it’s judged again. The first three winners are given a monetary value of their work. It’s not much, but…
Toni: It’s recognition.
Marge: It’s recognition, which is so important for these young people. It all starts with pennies. We put our extra change in the pot, and it all adds up for the Festival for the Arts to go towards the kitty to return back to these children.
Toni: You’ve given this great example of how you’re inspired by this community that you’re part of. How have you put that type of inspiration into practice for yourself?
Marge: It made me realize that I am not of myself. I am of everyone. We are all together in this community. Fortunately, there are some who have much, and unfortunately some who do not have much at all. They’re the ones that everybody has to reach out and help, whether it’s the foster children who are phasing out of foster homes, which is the Pennsylvania President’s issue for the year. All the clubs join together and they all do a project to enforce her need. We’ve had showers. We’ve had kitchen showers for them. We’ve contributed extra toasters, extra linens, whatever to help these children phase out of the foster home and into their own apartment so they can understand what it’s like to be living on their own without the guidance of whoever is in charge of Bethany Orphanage.
Toni: How have you put this into practice? I know this is part of the community and the Women’s Club that you’ve done this work with. Is there anything that you have done when you’ve taken that type of inspiration that you’ve learned from and put it into practice yourself here in Berks County?
Marge: I’ve learned that I can do a little bit. I have chosen my cause as autism, only because it affects our family. My youngest granddaughter is on the spectrum. I was introduced to making mittens, and I realized at that time that these mittens are all different, and they’re all made from recycled wool, woolen sweaters. They are felted and then cut, and then hopefully sold, and a percentage of the profits goes back to the Berks Autism Society so they can do things with their children such as go to the movies, go roller-skating, or whatever. All of their funds are put together to do family picnics and many, many things that are necessary to encourage the family unit with these children. I have made my mittens, and I realized, like I said, that they are all different just as these children are all different. I don’t know what else to say about that, Toni.
Toni: I’m listening. I’m hanging on your every word here, Marge. Just so that we understand what you’ve done – you are sewing mittens, and you do this every winter. You’ve done it for three years, I think you’ve told me? This is your third year.
Marge: Yes.
Toni: And you were doing this as a craft.
Marge: Right. I started out with making …
Toni: You were thinking, “I’ll just do this as a craft.”
Marge: Right.
Toni: And then all of a sudden you think, “Oh my gosh – these two mittens will never be exactly the same,” and that’s what inspired you about your granddaughter. They’re called Madeline’s Mittens, and you make them and sell them, and the proceeds go to a charity of choice.
Marge: Correct.
Toni: Amazing.
Marge: The first year went to Lancaster IU13, which is where once she was diagnosed as being on the spectrum. She was being taught by these wonderful, wonderful teachers that have brought her so far in just four years; it’s incredible. I felt I wanted to pay them back. That was what I did. As I sold the mittens, I just put a percentage of it aside and I sent them a check and received a very gracious letter from them.
That inspired me to continue to do this. Last year, unfortunately, it was a very mild winter, and then I thought perhaps I should be contributing to my own community. Of course, the Berks Autism Society is what I chose. Then again, this year I chose them as well. Who knows – it will be something related to autism again next year, whether it’s this society or whether it’s our BIU. I don’t know at this time.
Toni: I think that’s amazing. It’s a great example of how you’ve put your own inspiration into practice here in Berks County. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Marge: All the volunteers. All those wonderful caregivers who have anything to do with a special needs child, especially our Women’s Club of Spring Township, which I am very gratefully a member of and have been for the past 15-20 years. It’s totally nonprofit. Every penny that we raise and make…and if you ever see us out, please support us, because those funds go back into your community. We’re one of probably four in Berks County. Then of course there’s the districts and on to states, and I think every state has their Women’s Clubs, but I know that I’m very proud of ours. We do wonderful works, and they’re just a wonderful, grand bunch of ladies. Most are grandmothers, and some are not.
Toni: I know you weren’t looking forward to this question, but it needs to be asked, and I believe earlier for me you have answered it, and I think you know the answer. What do you want your legacy to be? People get a little hung up on this question, because they think it’s a legacy after they’re gone, but it’s also a living legacy of what you want people to learn from you, or how you’re living your life today. What would you want your legacy to be?
Marge: Every one of us has worth. Every one of us has talents. Some knit, some talk a lot, and some just reach out and hold somebody else’s hand that is in need. We have the wonderful philanthropists, that are in Berks County, but it’s also the non-philanthropists that have given to the community. It doesn’t matter how bad off you are, there’s always somebody worse. There’s always somebody you can smile at, somebody you can reach out and touch, whether it’s with a …
Toni: A pair of mittens?
Marge: A pair of mittens. Exactly. When you wear the mittens, they’re warm and they’re fuzzy inside, and they send whoever is wearing them love. That’s what we need. We need to give back that love to the community, to those that we know, to those that don’t have as much. We just need to share. We need to share what we have.
Toni: Well, Marge, you are living your legacy. Thank you so very much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Marge: Thank you, Toni, for asking me.
