The Wrap Chat: Episode 2 – Interview with Kevin, Noah and Executive Director Jim Forbes

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hello everybody. I’m Mike Noren, and welcome to the Wrap Chat, where you’ll get a sneak peek into the lives, interests, and hobbies of the staff and people we support at New Hope Community. On this episode, we’re joined by Kevin Stenson Noah Ingber, and Executive Director Jim Forbes. All right. We are here with Kevin Stenson from New Hope Community. How you doing today, Kevin?

Speaker 2 (00:22):

Fine, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:24):

All right, Kevin. Um, so let’s ask a few questions. Um, first off, who is your role model? Do you have someone you look up to?

Speaker 2 (00:34):

Uh, I’ll actually, I’ll tell you Louis Hendrickson.

Speaker 1 (00:38):

Okay, cool. Um, also, are you, you’ve been watching baseball lately? Yes. I know you’re a Mets fan, right? Yep. Yeah. How they doing this year?

Speaker 2 (00:48):

Uh, they’re getting better.

Speaker 1 (00:49):

They’re getting better? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:50):

Five, five or six games back, but hopefully they’ll do it.

Speaker 1 (00:56):

Do you have a favorite player for the Mets?

Speaker 2 (01:00):

Mike Piazzza.

Speaker 1 (01:01):

He’s one of your favorites. All right, cool.

Speaker 2 (01:04):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05):

All right. Yeah, I know who Mike Piazza is. All right. Um, also, I know that you’re a movie guy. Uh, what kind of movies you into?

Speaker 2 (01:13):

Uh, westerns.

Speaker 1 (01:14):

Westerns? Yeah. Who’s your favorite Western Clint Eastwood or, uh, John Wayne. Who’s your favorite? John Wayne. You’re a John Wayne kind of guy? Yeah. Yeah, I think I like, I don’t know. It’s a good tie for me.

Speaker 2 (01:24):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:25):

I, I like, uh, what the heck was it called? True Grit. That’s a good, John Wayne?

Speaker 2 (01:32):

I have the movie.

Speaker 1 (01:33):

Oh, yeah. Did you see the new one?

Speaker 2 (01:35):

Not yet.

Speaker 1 (01:35):

Yeah. With Jeff Bridges, it wasn’t that good. Not as good as the original. Yeah. All right. Um, also, what kind of music do you like?

Speaker 2 (01:47):

I like something like this, that I like singing to

Speaker 1 (01:53):

Something you can catchy tune, you can sing along with.

Speaker 2 (01:56):

Well,

Speaker 1 (02:00):

Are you a good singer? You like Lady Gaga?

Speaker 2 (02:04):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:04):

She’s cool. Right?

Speaker 2 (02:05):

I like Lady Gaga.

Speaker 1 (02:07):

Yeah. You like her costumes?

Speaker 2 (02:09):

Yeah, I’m way out. <laugh>. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:12):

Do you remember that meat costume she made that one time?

Speaker 2 (02:15):

I’m not sure

Speaker 1 (02:16):

It was a dress made of meat,

Speaker 2 (02:18):

Huh? <laugh>?

Speaker 1 (02:20):

Yeah. What do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (02:23):

Um, pretty good

Speaker 1 (02:23):

Yeah. Would you wear something like that, like a tuxedo made of meat? No. Why not?

Speaker 2 (02:27):

<laugh>?

Speaker 1 (02:29):

I think you look pretty flashy in it.

Speaker 2 (02:31):

Maybe <laugh>? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:34):

All right. Uh, what kind of hobbies do you do when you’re not working? What’s something you’d like to do?

Speaker 2 (02:41):

Needle point.

Speaker 1 (02:42):

Needle point. I never knew that. Yep. You’ve been doing that a long time, or is a new hobby? Yep. Yeah. You’ve been doing it a long time. Yep. Yeah. What kind of things you make?

Speaker 2 (02:52):

I’m making like the flags of different countries

Speaker 1 (02:56):

Really. Do you have designs you go with and or do you have something you just go by memory?

Speaker 2 (03:03):

Uh, actually I speak to the, um, the staff in Rose Valley.

Speaker 1 (03:09):

Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:12):

And they, they usually help me when I get stuck.

Speaker 1 (03:17):

Oh, really?

Speaker 2 (03:18):

No, like a, if I have like a knot or something.

Speaker 1 (03:23):

Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:24):

In, in the material wheel or whatever, they help me, they get me out of it, you know?

Speaker 1 (03:31):

Really? I never knew he did. Needle point.

Speaker 2 (03:33):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:34):

And, and it’s must be relaxing for you to you, right? Yep. Cool. Do you all right on any vacations lately or anything?

Speaker 2 (03:40):

Well, I’m, I’m going to,

Speaker 1 (03:43):

Oh yeah. Where can you say

Speaker 2 (03:44):

Dominican Republic.

Speaker 1 (03:46):

Really? With who?

Speaker 2 (03:47):

Martha?

Speaker 1 (03:49):

Nice

Speaker 2 (03:49):

And Samantha.

Speaker 1 (03:52):

Awesome. It’s gonna be fun. Yep. Yeah. You got any big plans way down there? Have you got anything like set in stone what you’re gonna do?

Speaker 2 (04:00):

No.

Speaker 1 (04:01):

No? You’re just gonna go chill Republic. Have you ever gone anywhere like that before? No. No? You, have you ever gone out of the country? First timeout out of the country? It does. Outta a country, you think, right? Yeah. Is it you had a passport and everything? I’m

Speaker 2 (04:16):

That, that’s gonna Martha taking care of.

Speaker 1 (04:18):

Oh, okay. Cool. That’s a pain in the butt to do. I had to do mine a couple years ago.

Speaker 2 (04:23):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:24):

Lot of paperwork. All right. So going on. Do you have any, uh, goals in the future? Like anything that you want to do? Like what’s one thing or more than one thing that you want to accomplish in the next few years?

Speaker 2 (04:39):

Uh, if it ever happens, get married.

Speaker 1 (04:42):

Really? That’s a good goal. Yep. Yeah. What about a dream vacation? If were, if you had a choice, you know, other than Dominican Republic, is there any other place you’d like to go?

Speaker 2 (04:53):

Uh, Ireland

Speaker 1 (04:54):

An island. Really? Yeah. Tropical island?

Speaker 2 (04:57):

No, not, not the island. Ireland.

Speaker 1 (05:01):

Oh, Ireland. I think he’s an, well, Ireland’s kind of an island, but Ireland. Really? Yeah. Any particular reason or just like it there?

Speaker 2 (05:07):

Because I’m Irish.

Speaker 1 (05:09):

Oh, okay. You’re Irish. Yeah. So go back to homeland.

Speaker 2 (05:12):

My sister, my sisters. That’s when on a trip with each other.

Speaker 1 (05:20):

Okay. Pat?

Speaker 2 (05:22):

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (05:22):

<affirmative>

Speaker 2 (05:23):

And Rose. They went to Israel. They went to I Ireland. They went all over the place.

Speaker 1 (05:35):

Really? And that’s something you wanna do

Speaker 2 (05:36):

Israel?

Speaker 1 (05:39):

Israel that’s out there? Yeah. Probably hot this time of year also. Yeah. Well, Ireland’s your destination you wanna go to one day? Yeah. That’s all right. What am I going there?

Speaker 2 (05:50):

What? Another favorite spot? I can’t forget Italy.

Speaker 1 (05:53):

Italy? Okay. I wouldn’t mind going to Italy either. Yeah. I think actually that’s two places I’d wanna go to is Italy and Ireland. Yep. So if you go, you know, and need a staff to take you.

Speaker 2 (06:06):

Yeah. You know, you can take me, I got the right one right

Speaker 1 (06:09):

Here. What? Not me.

Speaker 2 (06:10):

Uh, I didn’t know you were Italian.

Speaker 1 (06:13):

No, I’m not, but I, I’d still go Uhuh. I could use a good vacation.

Speaker 2 (06:17):

Yep.

Speaker 1 (06:19):

Yep. All right. So you said, uh, earlier we talked about your favorite movies, right? Your favorite music, dream vacation. Is there any other things you would wanna talk about?

Speaker 2 (06:32):

Um,

Speaker 1 (06:32):

I got a question for you. What is your favorite song of all time? God, I know, that’s why I asked you got you thinking now?

Speaker 2 (06:41):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:43):

A song that you could listen to every single day of the week. Never get old.

Speaker 2 (06:49):

Neil Diamond.

Speaker 1 (06:50):

Neil Diamond. One of his songs.

Speaker 2 (06:53):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:54):

Neil’s better. I like Neil Young. Better than Neil Diamond though. Yeah. You know when Neil Young? No. Yeah. Last episode. Jon, Jon and I were talking about Neil Young, because Jon, Jon likes Neil Young.

Speaker 2 (07:04):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:04):

Yeah. But Neil Neil Diamond’s still cool

Speaker 2 (07:07):

Though. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:10):

Okay, Kevin, so I want you to describe what new hope means to you using one word.

Speaker 2 (07:15):

I’m gonna say a wonderful person. 

Speaker 1 (07:19):

Right. All right. That’s good, Kevin. Um, so, alright. Wonderful. That’s a good word, Kevin. Um, so I want to thank you for coming on the show tonight. It was a good time else tonight now, because you know, we’re recording at nighttime, but, uh, you know, it was great to have you on and hope we can have you on again.

Speaker 2 (07:40):

Okay. I would love that.

Speaker 1 (07:42):

All right. Once again, thanks for coming on, Kevin.

Speaker 2 (07:44):

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (07:47):

We’re at a Hope Around the World event today. I got Noah Ingber with me. How you doing today, Noah? 

Speaker 3 (07:54):

Pretty good.

Speaker 1 (07:55):

All right. Um, so what kind of dish did you your house make today?

Speaker 3 (07:57):

Curry chicken and stir fry.

Speaker 1 (07:59):

Oh, yeah. From where, what country? China. China, okay. Uh, what made you decide, was it your idea to make that?

Speaker 3 (08:06):

Pretty much my staff when we all decided to do it.

Speaker 1 (08:09):

Okay, cool. Interesting. Um, so, uh, did you help cook it at all?

Speaker 3 (08:14):

A little bit, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:15):

All right. So, uh, did, what all did you do today and did you try, what’s, uh, what kind of interesting foods did you have? Something you haven’t had before?

Speaker 3 (08:24):

Uh, the eggplant were pretty good.

Speaker 1 (08:26):

Eggplant was good. I don’t know who made it though.

Speaker 3 (08:28):

And the meatballs were pretty good.

Speaker 1 (08:30):

Yep. Did you try the, uh, the hotdogs that someone brought the Canadian hotdogs?

Speaker 3 (08:34):

No, I did not. 

Speaker 1 (08:35):

They were good. I don’t know what was on them, but they were crunchy. It’s pretty good. Um, yeah. And I also, you played in the game today? Yes,

Speaker 3 (08:42):

I did.

Speaker 1 (08:43):

Yeah. How’d you do in that?

Speaker 3 (08:44):

Pretty good. It was fun.

Speaker 1 (08:45):

Yeah. Did you win?

Speaker 3 (08:46):

Yes, we did.

Speaker 1 (08:47):

All right. What, uh, what games did you participate in?

Speaker 3 (08:50):

The egg toss, the hula hoops and the shaving cream contest and, uh, bucket. They had set the ball in

Speaker 1 (08:58):

There. Awesome. Nice job. All right, so, uh, maybe we’ll get somebody else on you. You know, anybody else you want should get on today. Uh, okay. Now we have Marsha with us. Uh, Marsha wants to tell you about her Zumba class.

Speaker 4 (09:16):

Yes, this is Marsha. Um, Zumba is fun. It’s musical. If you love music, you could come. If you don’t like music, it still can come. It goes towards a healthy and healthy condition within your body. You sweat, you enjoy yourself. It’s not a bad thing. I want everyone to please come on out every Tuesday at six 30, New Hope Building in the gym, and also on Sunday with Jesse, who’s part of it. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (09:43):

All right. Thank you. Marsha <laugh>

Speaker 5 (09:47):

Fire away…

Speaker 1 (09:48):

All right. We’re here with Jim Forbes, Director of New Hope Community. How are you today? Uh, Jim?

Speaker 5 (09:53):

Uh, good morning everybody. Glad to be here, and I’m nice to share some thoughts with, uh, everyone through this wonderful medium of podcast. Thanks, Mike. And thanks, uh, uh, Karen for setting it up.

Speaker 1 (10:05):

No problem. So, we’re gonna go to a few questions we have. Um, first would be what made you come to New Hope Community?

Speaker 5 (10:12):

Well, I’ve long been interested in, in, uh, really optimizing the lives of people that, uh, uh, have disabilities. It’s in my background. Ever since I left corporate America in 1995, I spent a lot of time in, in, uh, nonprofits. Uh, working with organizations where human rights, disabilities, uh, and expanding resources for people around the world was very, very important to me. And I see that opportunity here at New Hope.

Speaker 1 (10:42):

That’s wonderful. So obviously people see you here, you around here quite a bit now. Um, question is, what do you do when you’re not working? Do you have a hobby or are you a collector of anything?

Speaker 5 (10:53):

My passion is woodworking. I do, uh, uh, woodworking. Uh, nothing that I sell, but stuff that I make for our home. Furniture, uh, things for our children, grandchildren, uh, legacy type woodworking.

Speaker 1 (11:09):

That’s very interesting. Um, it’s known that you, um, wrote a book. Uh, can you tell us anything about your book?

Speaker 5 (11:15):

Well, I’ve, I’ve written a couple of, uh, various, uh, essays and books over time. Uh, one of them that I’m, uh, most pleased is with an essay on how, on an international basis and in a US basis, how the private sector, the public sector, and the government can work together towards the betterment of society. Uh, that essay is inside of a, a larger series of books on issues on global health. I’m presently writing, co-writing a book on life’s transitions, uh, something we all experience in our lives, which is very important, of course, towards, um, how we progress successfully into our, our later years in life and towards optimizing the possibilities that life presents for all of us.

Speaker 1 (12:01):

Another question is, um, talking about books. Do you have a favorite book? And if so, also, do you have a favorite author?

Speaker 5 (12:09):

I have a favorite author. I, I read a lot of, uh, Walter Isaacson. Uh, I like Walter’s, uh, books. Uh, they’re written in, uh, they’re very cogent. They have a certain, uh, element of adventure when you look at the, uh, his topics. They cover politics, creativity on the technology side, and history. Uh, Kissinger, uh, Steve Jobs. I’m currently reading Einstein, and that’s, uh, uh, something that is, when I read it, there’s a lot of learnings in there, learning from the past, prologues for the future.

Speaker 1 (12:45):

Very nice. Um, alright, so also, I’ll ask another question. When, uh, new orientees come in to work for New Hope Community, what is some advice you give them

Speaker 5 (12:56):

Besides greeting them and welcoming, uh, all of our new people? The general advice I give is don’t just look at our individuals as people with disabilities, but look at the potential. Consider them the great potential that they have. Consider their gifts and talents. And many of our gifts and talents are exi-. Many of the gifts and talents are exhibited in our people that we, uh, serve and support here at New Hope.

Speaker 1 (13:30):

Interesting. Now, before you wrap things up, Jim, could you, uh, would you, uh, describe New Hope in one word?

Speaker 5 (13:37):

Possibilities. Optimizing the possibilities that all human beings have to make a positive contribution for their own lives and the lives of others.

Speaker 1 (13:48):

Wonderful. Wonderfully put. Well, uh, Jim, uh, thanks for coming on today. Is there any other thing you would like to share with us or say before we go?

Speaker 5 (13:59):

Well, Mike, I think the, uh, one of the more important things to mention is that we are all here for a common, a common reason, and that’s to make a difference in the lives of people, to optimize their potential, their possibilities, as I said before. And, and my door is always open to anyone who wishes to speak with me at any time about anything. It may be a, it, it may appear to be a, a crazy idea, a crazy thought, but we are here to, uh, listen. I am your servant leader and, uh, that’s what servant leaders too.

Speaker 1 (14:35):

Awesome. Thanks for coming on, Jim. You’re welcome. Thank you. Thank you. All right, everybody. That’s a wrap for this episode. Once again, I want to thank Kevin, Noah, and Jim from being a part of this episode For Mike Noren, I’m Mike Noren, and have a wonderful week.