Listen to the interview here!
Regina Shade
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Regina Shade with me. Hi, Regina.
Regina Shade: Hello. How are you?
Toni: I’m great! Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Regina: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Toni: You’re welcome. Regina, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Regina: First of all, probably the most important thing is I’m a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. In addition to that, I am the Borough Manager of Sinking Spring Borough, but my passion is my gift shop in Hamburg called Gatherings and Blessings.
Toni: Thank you very much for being here. Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Regina: Wow. To me, inspiration is the feeling – actually, it’s more like a desire – to have a positive effect on people. That can be through words, actions, but to me personally, it should be done by example. I feel you need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
Toni: I have done the Get Inspired! Project for years, and I have had many answers to this question, but the word that you used there that I haven’t heard before is ‘desire.’ Can you give me another example of what you mean by inspiration meaning desire?
Regina: To me, you have to desire something. If you desire something, you can be an inspiration to someone. If you don’t have desire in whatever you’re doing, no one will see your inspiration, or you won't be an inspiration for someone.
Toni: So why bother doing it if you don’t desire to do it?
Regina: That’s a very good question. A lot of people walk through life, and I see that during my day job. They just go about their business, and there is really no passion. I think for you to be an inspiration, you have to have passion in what you do.
Toni: That’s a very, very good point. A lot of people don’t realize how important that is, do they?
Regina: No. Like I said, really when I opened Gatherings and Blessings, my passion wasn’t to earn a lot of money. I was given a blessing, and I decided that I need to pay it forward. When I opened Gatherings and Blessings, I was given something that nobody else would ever believe through a series of bizarre events, meetings and situations. Some were good, some weren’t so good. I was able to open Gatherings and Blessings. When I decided to pay it forward, my passion was to give others the gift I was given.
Toni: That leads us to the second question, which is, how do you put inspiration into practice here in Berks County? Where does that desire, passion, and inspiration come into play for you here?
Regina: I was given the gift of being able to stay home when my kids were little. I think I raised two pretty super kids – adults now. I’m showing my age. If I wasn’t able to stay home with them, not that they wouldn’t have turned out good, I don’t mean it that way, but I would have missed out on some important steps in their lives. I was very fortunate to be able to do that.
When I opened Gatherings and Blessings – I’m not even sure people know what it is – it’s a gift shop in Hamburg where actually most of our products, about 85% to 90%, are made by local artisans. A lot of them are moms, and we are able to give them the opportunity that I was given to stay home and raise their kids. I hope that my inspiration was to allow other women or men to stay at home and be stay-at-home parents and enjoy their kids like I was able to.
Toni: That’s how you put it into practice was to provide an opportunity for others to step into the type of world that you stepped into.
Regina: Correct.
Toni: Is there another example that you can give where you put that inspiration into practice, Regina? Something that just happens for you on a day-to-day basis where you stay passionate about something or you’re inspired about something?
Regina: I would have to say I’m probably inspired by reading the stories that I do on Facebook when people actually purchase one of our items and they put something to the effect of, “My Mom had one of these,” or, “Wow – this reminds me of my Aunt Sophie and what she used to have.” It brings back memories. We not only sell items, we hope to sell…I call them keepsakes. I don’t say they buy them – they adopt them, because you’re adopting someone else’s passion when they create things. Anytime that people buy what we sell, I hope we’re creating memories. That should be an inspiration to people just to remember where they came from.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Regina: There’s so many people. First, my parents. My parents are married 57 years. They were married on September 22nd, 1956, and they stuck through it. In this day and age, people get divorced and unfortunate things. They stuck through it, so they taught me perseverance. Owning your own business, you have to be pretty perseverant, because there are things that pop up every day.
My kids. My husband. My husband lost his job in 2008. He had to rethink everything. He was in the insurance industry for 25 years. He had to rediscover who he was. That’s an inspiration, to be able to find yourself after being in a job for so many years.
My kids inspire me every day. My daughter was born with a mild case of cerebral palsy. She works at Gatherings and Blessings with us. She also works at Charming Charlie’s, she works at Pier One, and she’s an elementary education major at Kutztown to be certified in special education. My son, he persevered in football at Wilson for years. He’s a broadcasting major. My sister, she every day plods through work. She never had the ability to stay home like I did. There’s so many people privately.
Then, in my political life working for the Borough of Sinking Spring, I come across firefighters, police officers, public officials – they all inspire me. Just to get up every day and put your life on the line, that’s inspiration in its own right.
Toni: My goodness. How wonderful the way you describe everybody that inspires you with such passion. What do you want your legacy to be?
Regina: I want people to know…that’s a really hard question. I have so much of what I want, but it’s not about what I want. It’s about how I treat other people. That’s the way I think about it. We’re put here only for a short time, and if I can do something nice for the guy next door, so be it. It’s not all about what I want. My legacy – I would hope people would say, “She was a really nice gal,” and that I always turned the other cheek when need be, stood up for the underdog, and just a nice person. I think that would be enough – and that I was a good parent and that I brought two kids in the world that made a difference, too.
Toni: Thank you so much for living your legacy, and also being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Regina: Thank you for having me. This was such an honor, and such an inspiration.
Toni: It was a pleasure to meet you. Take care.
Regina: Thank you.
