Stacy Brinkley, The Doorways

Join us for Episode 11 of the Richmond Leadership Lab. In this episode, co-hosts Christian Mosier and Taylor Quinn engage in a heartfelt and insightful conversation with Stacy Brinkley, President of The Doorways. This episode is essential viewing for anyone interested in nonprofit leadership, community support, and the power of empathy. Episode Highlights: Meet Stacy Brinkley: Discover Stacy's journey from corporate marketing to leading The Doorways, a nonprofit providing a home away from home for patients and families in Richmond. The Doorways' Mission: Learn about the unique services offered by The Doorways, including lodging, community support, and partnerships with local hospitals. Adapting Through Challenges: Explore how The Doorways navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining essential services and community connections. Building a Supportive Culture: Insights into fostering a mission-driven team and the importance of empathy and collaboration in nonprofit work. Fundraising and Volunteer Engagement: Stacy shares strategies for effective fundraising and the role of volunteers in sustaining The Doorways' mission. Vision for the Future: Hear about the plans for expanding The Doorways' facilities and services to better serve the community. Don't forget to subscribe, like, and share! Tune in for more enlightening discussions on leadership, entrepreneurship, and community empowerment. To learn more about The Doorways, visit https://www.thedoorways.org. Connect with Stacy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacybrinkley/ Richmond Leadership Lab is Produced and Co-Hosted by: Taylor Quinn, CEO - Filmspirehttps://www.filmspirevideo.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-quinn-filmspire/ Christian Mosier, President - BenX https://benxconsulting.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-mosier/ To learn more about RLL visit our site: https://www.richmondleadershiplab.com This podcast was produced and recorded by Richmond Podcast Studio. Do you want to start a podcast but don't want to deal with the hassle of the tech? With Richmond Podcast Studio, you get your professional video podcast the same day you record. To learn more, visit https://www.richmondpodcaststudio.com

• 0:01Speaker 01

  Welcome to the Richmond Leadership Lab, featuring business and nonprofit leaders across Richmond, Virginia. Produced and hosted by FilmSpire and Ben X.

• 0:14Speaker 03

  Friends, welcome back to another episode of the Richmond Leadership Lab, Richmond's number one podcast. Don't look it up. It's a fact. Trust me. You don't need to look anywhere else. We are here in recording in Richmond Podcast Studio. And if you need a podcast, want to start a podcast just like this, please reach out. We'd love to be of service to you. Again, I'm Taylor Quinn, owner of FilmSpire in Richmond Podcast Studio, and I'm joined as always by my lovely, beautiful, handsome co host, Christian Moser, Ben X Consulting. Benjamin Christian, how are we doing, man?

• 0:46Speaker 02

  I'm feeling good.

• 0:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 0:47Speaker 02

  You know, it's it's I feel like the weather's turning a little bit.

• 0:50Speaker 03

  It is.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  And uh I fall in Richmond is just a great it's just a great season.

• 0:54Speaker 03

  I was out um driving to church on Sunday, and our church is like right at the end of on Monument Avenue, Monument and um uh and Allen, and just everyone was out there taking selfies on Monument with all the leaves and things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that time of year. Um this is number 11.

• 1:14Speaker 02

  Eleven.

• 1:15Speaker 03

  11 episode.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:16Speaker 03

  Which is crazy. And we're really fortunate today to have an amazing guest for episode 11. She is a actually longtime friend and client of FilmSpire's over the years, and we are joined by Stacy Brinkley, president of The Doorways. Stacy, thank you for joining us.

• 1:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35Speaker 00

  Thanks for having me.

• 1:36Speaker 03

  Absolutely. How are you doing?

• 1:38Speaker 00

  Doing great.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  You were just in the DR you were saying earlier.

• 1:41Speaker 00

  Yes, was uh had a week's vacation with my husband and two of our three daughters. We had a great time, a little worried about the hurricane. Um passed us by, um, had a few days of clouds, but the rest was sunny and yeah, fabulous time, very relaxing.

• 1:56Speaker 02

  Heck yeah.

• 1:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Sometimes you need that, you know? You need a week.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. Absolutely.

• 2:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:02Speaker 03

  Stacy, we um I was try I remember it was like earlier this summer, because we started working together again this kind of this past year on a on a contract and a retainer together. And when that one of those early meetings onboarding that we're trying to figure out how do we know each other, but you dug through your emails and it was like almost ten years ago, because I've been in business ten years now. And

• 2:23Speaker 02

  It was

• 2:23Speaker 03

  it was random like workshop I was speaking at that you saw basically and that we decided to start working together on a few projects between now and then. But that was so it was like the captain's

• 2:35Speaker 00

  Oh, Captain's Table.

• 2:36Speaker 03

  captain's table.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:38Speaker 03

  I don't even know if that still exists or not.

• 2:39Speaker 00

  It's a little bit different, a lot it's a lot more virtual, but um, and I haven't been as active in that, but it's a great resource for um CEOs, executive directors of nonprofits.

• 2:50Speaker 03

  Right.

• 2:51Speaker 00

  Um and they have different speakers um that might be, you know, um helpful to the nonprofit leader.

• 2:57Speaker 03

  Who runs that again?

• 2:58Speaker 00

  It's run by um Sans Anderson

• 3:02Speaker 03

  Okay, yeah, yeah.

• 3:03Speaker 02

  yeah.

• 3:03Speaker 03

  Right.

• 3:03Speaker 00

  and Atlantic Union Bank.

• 3:05Speaker 03

  Okay. Okay. That

• 3:06Speaker 00

  Um so they do a great job.

• 3:08Speaker 03

  okay. That's awesome. Um well, Stacey, why don't you tell us? We're gonna get into um your story a little bit, but you're obviously here with the doorways and things like that. Can you tell people for um who've never heard of the doorways here in Richmond what what is the doorways? Give us kind of the the elevator pitch if you will.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  Sure, yes. Well, we say we're the best kept secret in Richmond, which we don't like because we'd like to be well more well known. But we are a uh guest house for patients and families that travel to Richmond for life-saving medical care, for care that's not available in their hometowns. Um we are downtown at the corner of 7th and Marshall, um, right near the lovely Coliseum, but that's another story.

• 3:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:49Speaker 00

  Um and we're in an Old Days Inn hotel, so it's an eight-story hotel, 117 guest rooms. We serve about 10,000 guests each year and provide about 60,000 nights of lodging. So guests come from um about 75% of the guests are from Virginia across the state, um, but then other states um and even some different countries. Um VCU Health, our great strategic partner, is our primary source of referrals. We get referrals from our um partners. You don't just um call up and make a reservation like you would in a hotel, but you get a referral. Um we serve the VA hospital. Um we serve probably about nine to ten percent of our guests are veterans.

• 4:32Speaker 00

  Um every year. So it's a broad range. You know, we have people that are there for um one or two nights for tests or checkups. And then we'll have people there that are about half of our rooms at any one time, half of our guests are there for a month or more. So think cancer treatments, transplants. Um again, this becomes their home away from home.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  Yeah. And like that's such a need because if you don't have the doorways you're and you live far away, that means you're probably s spending a lot of money at a hotel for a month basically. Like and that's a huge cost besides the medical bills that they're already having to pay for the procedures or the therapy or whatever that they're doing for their loved one.

• 5:18Speaker 00

  Right, right.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:20Speaker 00

  Um we do a exit survey and ask a series of you know questions at the end, and um anywhere from forty to fifty percent of our guests say that without being able to stay at the doorways, they would not have been able to get the care they needed.

• 5:33Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 5:33Speaker 00

  Um, and you think, you know, some people will say, well, they'd figure it out. You know, we might figure it out if we had to go to Boston or New York or um, you know, MD Anderson,

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  um, even though it's a big chunk out of our budget, we could figure it out. But a lot of our guests can't. Um, they're, you know, below the poverty line. We obviously welcome all walks of life because it's not just lodging that we provide, but the support um of you know home cooked meals by volunteers and social workers and just the um family, the community of other people going through what you're going through.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:07Speaker 00

  They really get to the long-term guests especially get to know each other and a lot of our testimonials say it's like family and they keep in touch with you know their fellow guests for years after they leave.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  Oh wow.

• 6:19Speaker 00

  So that's right. So

• 6:21Speaker 02

  I tell you one of the things I just love about Richmond, I mean hence the Richmond Leadership Lab podcast, is just all the richness of non profits.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  yes.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  And just some great organizations and a lot of secrets.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Without doing digging or or having someone that's uh in a situation like that or someone you know that's in a situation like that, sometimes it it is easy to be a little kept secret.

• 6:42Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. It is a very philanthropic town and we are so fortunate because m many of our donors, most of our donors come from the Richmond area. Even though the doorways doesn't serve them. Typically our guests live 30 miles away or further.

• 6:55Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:55Speaker 00

  Um with the thought that if you lived, you know, fifteen minutes away, you'd want to go home, you know, and spend the night in your own bed.

• 7:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  Um but yeah, it's a very philanthropic town.

• 7:04Speaker 02

  Yeah,

• 7:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  it really is.

• 7:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:06Speaker 02

  So tell us a little bit about um I guess where you grew up

• 7:10Speaker 00

  Oh gosh, yeah.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  and and uh I guess how you got to be at the doorway.

• 7:14Speaker 03

  Get to know the real Stacey.

• 7:15Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. Authentic me. Um right. Um well I was born in uh Toledo, Ohio. That's going way back.

• 7:24Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 7:25Speaker 00

  And lived for um through junior high in Defiance, Ohio, tiny town.

• 7:30Speaker 02

  Where's that near?

• 7:31Speaker 00

  Uh it's in the upper northwest corner

• 7:33Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 7:33Speaker 00

  of

• 7:34Speaker 02

  By like Cleveland,

• 7:35Speaker 00

  oh further west.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  farther west.

• 7:37Speaker 00

  Further west, yes. Up near, yeah, like

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  almost you know, Michigan, that type of thing. Okay.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  I visited Ohio once and

• 7:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, once

• 7:45Speaker 02

  I know the landscape.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  yes. So that was great. We moved in the middle of high school to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which was not so great to move, time to move in the middle of high school, but it you know, it teaches you resilience. Um, as we always told our kids, based on especially my experience moving, that you don't want to peak in high school, right? You don't want those to be your best year. So that's, you know, you get have resilience, you move on, you've learned from it. And uh yeah, then you know, went to college. My first job out of college was um um for a nonprofit, actually, um, the American Red Cross. At the time I was thinking, should I go to medical school? Should I go to business school? I did the MCAT, took the MCATs and the GMATs, and then decided.

• 8:29Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 8:30Speaker 00

  Two years of debt would be a lot more preferable than four plus of that meta of medical school. But um yeah, it was again it's a crossroads. I went right instead of left.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:41Speaker 00

  Um after I went to um the Darden School at UVA, which was a great experience. Um from there went to New York and worked for American Express. Um a great sort of postgraduate education, if you will, big corporate um Big corporate um company and uh just you know but very very well run. So it taught me a lot. Yes,

• 9:05Speaker 02

  I have an AMX.

• 9:07Speaker 00

  yeah, me too. Me too. Yeah, moving to New York, you know, from a small town in Ohio to small town sort of Lancaster is not that big. Um to to Manhattan was, you know, eye opening for me, but I a lot of friends there, which was great. And um

• 9:22Speaker 03

  What was the job you were doing there specifically?

• 9:24Speaker 00

  I was uh marketing.

• 9:26Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 9:26Speaker 00

  Um I was in marketing for what they call at the time called company card, which was their corporate card for small businesses. So yeah, learned a lot. Um

• 9:36Speaker 03

  What did marketing look like back then?

• 9:37Speaker 00

  oh gosh, yes, yes, you know, back then there was not a computer on every desk.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:43Speaker 00

  Um, you know, it was a lot of paper. Um there were shared computers. Um, but yeah, back in the day it

• 9:51Speaker 02

  There's still AI though, right?

• 9:51Speaker 00

  was Yeah, definitely. But yeah, it was Great experience. And I loved being in New York. I um then we met my husband one day on a you know on a Friday night in Manhattan when he was living in Richmond. We knew each other at business school, but he was a year ahead of me and moved back to Richmond and I moved to New York and we ran into each other in a restaurant on the upper west side and uh started seeing each other and then all of a sudden I'm moving to Richmond.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 10:20Speaker 00

  So here yeah, gosh, a long time ago. Don't ask me how long ago that was.

• 10:23Speaker 03

  What

• 10:25Speaker 03

  and what prompted the move to Richmond?

• 10:27Speaker 00

  Well he was here, so good question. He was here. He was from Richmond and moved, came here after business school. So he was working here. So I, you know, now looking for a job and I um called up because there really wasn't email back then,

• 10:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:42Speaker 00

  uh, a darden professor and just asked him for guidance and um, you know, moving to Virginia. Um, and he was great. He was on the board at the time of what was Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia,

• 10:53Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 10:53Speaker 00

  so connected me there and several other places that I interviewed, but um ended up at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia um in Um sort of project management,

• 11:06Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 11:07Speaker 00

  um, marketing, that type of thing.

• 11:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:09Speaker 00

  Um, yeah, and was there for 20 years.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 11:12Speaker 00

  Gosh, yes, through all the iterations, Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Virginia, Trigon, Anthem, Well Point.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  And that's sort of where my career started in marketing. Um and then sort of morphed, you know, just for Virginia and then larger areas. Um I then became a what they called a um I was a VP of regional accounts, meaning where I ran a business unit, a PL. So companies bes between the um sizes of fifty and no, a hundred and and nine ninety-nine.

• 11:46Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 11:46Speaker 00

  So ran that as a business unit. So the marketing, the underwriting, the sales, operations, which was a great experience.

• 11:55Speaker 00

  And from there evolved into um they had a health and wellness subsidiary at the time, um, HMC, a health management corpse. So I moved over there to do Purely marketing at that point, which was great fun at the time, health and wellness. You know, everybody was on the wellness kick and

• 12:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:10Speaker 00

  selling to other large corporations, and just, you know, there were it's a big company, so much deeper pockets than the marketing dollars we have at the doorways. Um, but learned a lot, worked, you know, with agencies and different consultants, uh, and that was great.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:26Speaker 00

  Um, so I was there until the um they decided to sort of reabsorb that subsidiary back into corporate.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 12:34Speaker 00

  Um and by then Anthem had merged merged with Wellpoint. And you know, it was just a different company. It was evolving. Um and I th I was 20 years in. So I decided that was a good time to maybe to take a break and um look for something else.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:50Speaker 00

  And at that point I was really, you know, wanted to be more mission driven in in my work and not just always worried about, you know, the next, you know.

• 12:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:59Speaker 00

  The PL or the results and that type of thing. So not that you can't work you have to worry about results in a PNL, a broad nonprofit. But yeah, ended up at the doorways, which at the time was the Hospital Hospitality House of Richmond,

• 13:13Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 13:13Speaker 00

  which was a mouthful.

• 13:14Speaker 03

  I was about to say, yeah.

• 13:15Speaker 00

  Yeah. So it got frequently called HHH or the House.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:20Speaker 00

  Again, great organization. And they had started looking before I got there at just sort of maybe a branding refresh. But it it really was probably not going the direction I thought it should go. So we switched agencies. Um and not only you know refresh the look but rebrand it as the doorways. Um and so that was fun. If um if you see our logo, it's a it's an overlap of the cross, which is sort of the medical cross

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 13:48Speaker 00

  overlapping with the outline of a house.

• 13:50Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 13:51Speaker 00

  So between healing and home, and then the overlap is the door, the doorways.

• 13:55Speaker 02

  Oh cool.

• 13:56Speaker 00

  Um so um when we were rebranding, we worked with um Big River Marketing.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Oh yeah.

• 14:01Speaker 00

  Um great, great um organization. Freddie Moore and Jan Crable, who's no longer there, she's retired, but they were fabulous. It was between the doorways and the other one we'd still chuckle about, but I thought was funny was the Quiet Rooster as a potential name.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  Wow. That is so quirky.

• 14:18Speaker 00

  I said if you know, if it doesn't work, it becomes a bar, you know, or something. It becomes something else.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  It does become a bar.

• 14:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 14:25Speaker 03

  It sounds like a band name all the time.

• 14:26Speaker 00

  Exactly. Exactly. But you know, as you look at our building because it's a you know it's an old days in.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:32Speaker 00

  So it's all external walkways, so you see all the doors. And we like to say bet behind every door is another story.

• 14:38Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  So we um rebranded as the doorways and uh yeah, here I am almost twelve years later.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  Wow. How and how did you get to the doorways originally?

• 14:49Speaker 00

  How did I go? So great question. I was, you know, in the job market, um, and you know, again, it's sometimes it's not what you know, but who you know. I would have probably never heard of that opportunity. Um, but the person who was doing the search had been the um former head of HR. For um Trigon Anthem.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  Okay, gotcha.

• 15:11Speaker 00

  And the um Vicky Snead was on the board of the doorways, and she's the wife of Tom Snead, who was the CEO of Trigon Anthem.

• 15:20Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:21Speaker 00

  Um, and they just knew I was, you know, looking. So they reached out to say would I be interested in talking to them and uh so went through the process.

• 15:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:29Speaker 00

  So yeah, it was it was great.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. That's great. How would how have you I mean twelve years? I'm sure that you've seen it grow and develop. And can you paint us a little bit of a picture of what it was like twelve years ago and then we can kind of talk about a little bit how it's changed and how it is today?

• 15:47Speaker 00

  Well, you know, it's always been a great organization. Um, but I think everyone's philosophies are different. Um, when I got there, it was it was fine. It was well loved, I like to say. Um, but probably hadn't been invested in as much as you know, I think it should have been. I, you know, I really wanted everyone to be comfortable there, all walks of life, so that if one of us wanted to stay, we were comfortable. As someone who was, you know, from the rural areas, they were comfortable. Um so we slowly started just upgrading the the property. Um, it was cute back in the day. If you sponsored a room as a donor, you got to decorate the room.

• 16:27Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  So you can imagine they were great, right? So it felt home like, which was the goal, which was awesome.

• 16:34Speaker 02

  But everyone was different.

• 16:35Speaker 00

  Everyone was different. So you can imagine for our housekeeping team, every time the room turned over, I needed to get the purple bedspreads back in room 410, and I need the pink ones over here. And um, it was yeah, it was challenging. Um, but they they were charming.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Um, but um It was it was yeah, an an an efficient process. So

• 16:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  like slowly over time, we've done things like just standardized rooms, upgraded, you know, all the amenities, the finishing finishings. Um we'd always received all of our furniture was sort of donated as other hotels um renovated, they would donate their furniture because it wasn't bad. Um but our most recent round, we hadn't gotten any of those donations in a while. So um The last two years we had gotten a very lovely and generous gift that was not necessarily expected. So we've been slowly upgrading the rooms with new furniture, headboards, those types of things. I will say that the mattresses were always turned over, so those were not uh those were not old,

• 17:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:37Speaker 00

  but furniture wise. So it's you know, it's just been um trying to um upgrade the the property, upgrade our staff, invest in our staff, um, you know, really I think s um just making sure people were were comfortable and that the staff is happy.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:55Speaker 00

  And have the resources that they need?

• 17:57Speaker 02

  How many employees did you guys have twelve years ago when you first started?

• 18:00Speaker 00

  That's a good question.

• 18:03Speaker 00

  Now we are a nonprofit, so we don't grow that fast in staff. But um we do probably have right now we have um I think twenty-five full time staff and um maybe eleven part time staff. So that's not a big group when you think we're open twenty four seven, three sixty five.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  Right.

• 18:21Speaker 00

  Um and we, you know, there always has to be two people in the building even overnight.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:26Speaker 00

  Even though they, you know, may not have that much to do, but just for safety perspective. So we've probably grown over the last um we used to have actually more part-time and fewer full-time. Um, but as the you know, job market has changed and you know, post COVID things are very different. So we've actually added a few f actual full time employees, staff members, instead of instead of and then had fewer um part time.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 18:51Speaker 00

  But yeah.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  I'm so it's so probably the transition was so interesting going from obviously for profit, right? Especially in health insurance. And health insurance has evolved you know a lot and in many different ways. But going from that to because you were obviously in leadership capac in leadership capacity before. So you you had some of the leadership qualities, but jumping from there to running a nonprofit is just a different, I would imagine, a different skill set a little bit.

• 19:18Speaker 00

  It is and it isn't. You know, you still need to meet your goals. You still need to, you know, work with people and with your staff, committees, boards, that type of thing. I I was fortunate not only, you know, running a marketing team, if you will, so having a staff as a marketing focus, but also the whole PL experience I think was really valuable to me. You know, not just worried about marketing, but about sales and underwriting and what is the you know the bottom line say for this this month, this quarter. Well, how do we need to change our rates? You know, all those types of things. So it was much more broad-based and and um which really helped in

• 19:59Speaker 00

  turn switching over to the nonprofit side. I think the biggest difference is, you know, if you're in a big corporation and you have an issue, you pick up the phone and you call legal, you pick up the phone and you call IT, you pick up the phone and you know, call the marketing department. Um when you're in a small nonprofit, you don't have those resources, so you rely heavily on your board. And then other partnerships and relationships that you just develop, you know, as being in the community. But the board is critical. So the board becomes your boss instead of, you know, the guy down the hall

• 20:31Speaker 02

  Yeah

• 20:32Speaker 00

  or Gail. So yeah. So it wasn't it was, I think bigger change going from a large corporation to a smaller company. Um, not so much

• 20:42Speaker 02

  the leadership.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  the leader, the leadership is very similar.

• 20:45Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Um I I'm curious uh b number one about just the logistics for what COVID was like for you guys. 'Cause I mean when you talk about like everyone was impacted by COVID, but when when the work you do at hospitality and housing people and feeding people, like that's you gotta do that in person.

• 21:05Speaker 02

  Yes, yes.

• 21:05Speaker 03

  There's no virtual housing, there's no virtual feeding, no virtual meals. So how how was that for you guys? But then more so also from a leadership question, how did you how did you work to just kind of rally your team and keep people like focused on the mission? And um I'm sure it could have been a really scary, doubtful time. How did you kind of keep morale up? What was that like for you, Stacy?

• 21:28Speaker 00

  Great, great question. Um it was a scary time, you know, especially at the beginning. None of us really knew, right? People were Cloroxing their groceries and you know, wearing gloves. Yes, yes. So and you're right. I mean, those guests that could go home went home. Or a lot of the elective surgeries and elective, you know, appointments um didn't happen or they were done virtually. So current typically we're 150 guests or a little bit more each night. And during COVID, we were probably down to say 60. But there's still sixty people that you Are responsible for. And a lot of our food and meals are provided by volunteers.

• 22:06Speaker 00

  So the volunteer program obviously went away. So it was challenging to figure out how to, you know, how to provide meals because we don't have a budget for food. It was it's typically always donated. But I have to say, our staff, they were amazing.

• 22:24Speaker 00

  Really, our CFO and our advancement team worked remotely for maybe a couple of months. Um, because they could. But pretty much everyone else had to show up to your point, right? The housekeepers, their front desk staff, maintenance, um, their management. Um, and I thought, well, gosh, if they have to show up, I should show up. And quite frankly, a little selfishly because I had my husband at home, daughters at home working remotely. Um, it just was it was, you know, easier for me to go to work. We have offices, um, so it was safe. But the staff just incredible. Um, and then you know, figuring out just collectively, um, collaboratively, you know, how do we do things differently? You know, obviously the spacing,

• 23:08Speaker 00

  we took tables out of the dining room to keep people sort of spread out. But invariably, you know, again, these people that get to know each other become family, they're pushing them back together.

• 23:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:17Speaker 00

  Um, but you know, all the different types of technology, what could we do differently? We added air purifiers and the HVAC units, we had different cleaning products.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 00

  Um, if you did get a COVID case, someone comes down with COVID, how do you clean that room? Um so we got the UV light machine. Um but our housekeepers didn't bat an eye.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 23:39Speaker 00

  I mean, again, it was collaboratively trying to figure out the best and safest,

• 23:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:43Speaker 00

  but they they did a stellar job.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  Mm.

• 23:46Speaker 00

  And the whole team, really. I mean, the front desk staff, they had to be there checking people in and out, maintenance, you know, that toilet overflows or air conditioning goes out, you really have to you still be there.

• 23:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:58Speaker 00

  And just a great management team. The you know, the house manager, our guest liaison manager.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  You know, they were they just were dedicated and did a fabulous job.

• 24:09Speaker 02

  It's

• 24:10Speaker 03

  Go ahead.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  got no. You got it.

• 24:12Speaker 03

  I was gonna regress um that's very kind of you.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  Um

• 24:16Speaker 02

  I'm just so kind.

• 24:16Speaker 03

  you're just the kindest. Um speaking of the team, in my experience, personal experience with the doorways, everyone there is just amazing. And like that sounds very cliche, but they they are, and that's not just from like you and your executive team, all the way down to like the housekeepers and the maintenance people and things like that. Like they all have this shared sense of purpose and understanding of who they're serving at the end of the day and how they show up. How'd you how'd you do that? How'd you make a

• 24:48Speaker 00

  You know, it's um it's finding people that are mission driven, right? You if you come for a tour and anyone out there who would like to come for a tour, we always like to show off our mission. Um you see the magnitude, you see the people you're helping. That's I think what makes the Drawway special is you know, there are a lot of great nonprofits, as we say, but we get to see our mission in action every day.

• 25:11Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  Um, our team members interact with our guests, especially those long term guests. They get to know them, they become family. Um if if you're not mission driven, you you probably don't stay long. But we have a lot of long tenured um staff members that just believe in you know what we're doing and and and it's it's just lovely.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, we do have our core values that we um that we try to live by. We have a brand mantra that's on our wall about the things we believe, which is um really special. Um we had great values, then we did uh update to our strategic plan, and the new consultant tried to tweak them and nobody could remember them, you know, because it didn't spell anything. So we changed, we tweak them back, and so our values sort of spell care. Um, so collaborative, accountable. Restorative and empathetic.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:05Speaker 00

  So we have recently instituted our new director of operations came up with this great idea called the Care Champions. So and our fabulous maintenance tech built a little house, so a little wooden house that looks like the door, painted like the doorways. And so guests and staff can do a shout out to one of our employees

• 26:28Speaker 02

  Oh that's

• 26:28Speaker 00

  for living the missions.

• 26:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:31Speaker 00

  It's keeps it front and center.

• 26:33Speaker 02

  yeah.

• 26:33Speaker 00

  So this is only our third month doing it, but we just had our, you know, we do a drawing at the end of the month, and the the winner gets um a little prize, if you will. But each staff member gets to a copy of their shout outs.

• 26:46Speaker 02

  Oh that's

• 26:47Speaker 00

  And it's so nice to see that guests are even doing it. The guests are noticing,

• 26:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:51Speaker 00

  staff members are noticing. Um it's been it's been really special. Um

• 26:57Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  well, I feel like it's so important too A to have a good team around you, but also the culture.

• 27:01Speaker 00

  yes, you know, and that's something you you know you have to continue to work at.

• 27:04Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:05Speaker 00

  Um, especially as employees come and go. Um right now we have a fabulous team and people believe in the mission and believe in our values, um, which is, you know, which makes life a whole lot easier. You know, it hasn't it's not always that way, right? You know, you make a hire and it's just not a good fit. It's a great person,

• 27:25Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:25Speaker 00

  um, but it's just not a good fit for whatever reason. It's not the job they really want, or you know, and so trying to make sure you sort of nip any negativity in the bud. I mean, there's you know, just I think always working at it and being aware um and trying, you know, new things and just um

• 27:43Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  yeah.

• 27:45Speaker 03

  Have you all developed a a process for like how you find the right people and kind of

• 27:49Speaker 00

  You know, the

• 27:49Speaker 03

  sniffing that out if you can?

• 27:51Speaker 00

  um

• 27:52Speaker 03

  That's the million dollar question.

• 27:53Speaker 00

  million dollar question. You know, and it's different if you're hiring like what we the admin team versus front of house.

• 28:00Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:00Speaker 00

  Um and if it's part-time or full time. Um we have not got it down to a science. I'm the first to say. I think if you're you know looking for someone in Marketing or development or more administrative.

• 28:17Speaker 00

  One book that I really liked, Patrick Buncioni, I think that's how you say his name,

• 28:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:22Speaker 00

  The Ideal Candidate, or something. And he talks about people being um humble, hungry, and smart. And if you have that, you can sort of teach to almost anything.

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:33Speaker 00

  So I think of that when I'm hiring more of a professional person.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:38Speaker 00

  Um, and then you know, there's just how do you suss out, if you will, other qualities that are going to make someone a good fit. You know, staffing is the hardest thing, um, I think for most people, um, especially when you're trying to hire front frontline staff, um, because there's can be a lot of turnover, you get a lot of resumes, you do a lot of screening,

• 29:00Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:01Speaker 00

  you schedule an interview, and they know show. I mean, probably, especially some of those frontlines, you know, probably more than 50%.

• 29:07Speaker 03

  Yeah. Wow.

• 29:09Speaker 00

  Which is just crazy to me. Like why do you go to all that effort to be screened and to be called and

• 29:11Speaker 03

  Right?

• 29:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  and uh schedule time? But um but I feel like, you know, again, our team right now is great and um just you know, you sort of hold your breath

• 29:23Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 29:23Speaker 00

  as a leader that you know things continue and

• 29:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:26Speaker 00

  somebody doesn't get some great offer or something needs to move away or what have you.

• 29:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. As we've talked about, there's uh obviously a lot of nonprofits and rich in it. Is there any specific advice you would give some of them, you know, around building a great culture or a great leadership team?

• 29:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's a good question. I think, you know, again, building a great leadership team is where it starts. Um I'm always of the mind you hire people better, smarter than you are, because then they make you look good. Um hire the best and let them do their job. You know, just be there to get make sure they have the resources they need and any obstacles you can get out of their way. Um I think again, just being aware of the culture and being focused on your staff. Um, you know, one of our um values is empathy, being empathetic. Um obviously that makes sense with our guests who are there, you know, during tough times who want to be empathetic, especially, you know, you think everybody's on their best behavior all the time, but after

• 30:27Speaker 00

  a month or two or six in some place you get comfortable and you're having a bad day and

• 30:31Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  you know things don't go well. But I think our staff is really good at being empathetic and understanding that. But we also have to be empathetic with our staff, you know, from the frontline housekeepers

• 30:42Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 30:42Speaker 00

  um all the way, you know, to the CFO. Everybody's got different things in their lives that you just you may or may not be aware of. And how do you, you know Balance that. Obviously, you got to get the job done, but being aware that you know life is is well beyond just the nine to five

• 30:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:00Speaker 00

  and what's happening within our four walls. But yeah, I think we've got a great team and really just trying to have opportunities to you know get to know each other, um, interact. We do we do weekly staff meetings with the admin team, but we do um all staff meetings, we do quarterly celebrations with the whole team, um, and just finding ways to you know spend time together. Um and potlucks. We have a our Thanksgiving potluck coming up. Um so you know, just being aware and trying to, you know, give it the t attention it needs,

• 31:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:34Speaker 00

  not just, you know, worrying about the next project.

• 31:37Speaker 03

  Yeah. We'll be right back after this short message.

• 31:41Speaker 02

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• 32:03Speaker 03

  Your story is powerful, but is it reaching the right audience? At FilmSpire, we create compelling videos and provide marketing strategies to make sure they drive real results. From crafting your message to amplifying it, we help you connect with your audience like never before. Ready to inspire? Let's tell your story. And now back to the show. What is something we mentioned boards earlier and things like that, but like what's a piece of advice you'd give, you know, maybe a um uh an executive director who's just starting out and like working with a board and what what how do they get the most of that or make the best of that kind of relationship?

• 32:42Speaker 00

  Yeah. Great question. Um because the board is your boss, um, but it's also one of your biggest resources. So, you know, again, typically Like many nonprofits, we have our board matrix. So we look at who we currently have and what skill sets they bring. Are there skill sets that we're missing? Um, which is always helpful. But it really goes beyond just a skill set. You know, again, as you're looking at telling your story, fundraising, um uh uh you know, being introduced to new audiences. You don't want a board that all looks the same. Um, so making sure it's diverse, different populations, um, not just different companies, et cetera. Um, but I think again

• 33:24Speaker 00

  board stewardship takes time, just like stewarding donors, major donors. You need to make sure you spend time collectively with your board members, but also individually. You know, every nonprofit has their board expectations of what you expect when you join a board. Um, and then there are you know things happen in a board member's life, and so they start missing a meeting or two or more. And so again, that might be fine if they're then active and engaged, you know. And other ways. But if you know people are missing, you know, reaching out, just um touching base.

• 34:00Speaker 00

  We try to do every year, probably every 18 months. The board chair and I um will sit try to schedule individual coffees or lunches with each board member.

• 34:10Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  We have a large board, so that um is it can be time consuming. Um currently we have 24.

• 34:16Speaker 03

  Wow, that is large.

• 34:17Speaker 00

  That is big. Yes, yes. So um we've talked about downsizing, etc. Um But we have a great it's a great board, so you don't wanna, you know, let any we don't want anyone to leave other than typical rotation. Um and I'm always of the mind there's a sort of an adage, it's a third, a third, a third on a board.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  A third don't do anything. Um but they may donate, so that's good. A third, um, you know, will do something if you ask, and a third are actively engaged in. So I've always been worried if it's too small, you don't have enough of those people that are gonna do

• 34:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:50Speaker 00

  things.

• 34:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:51Speaker 00

  But I think at this point, even though there's varying degrees of engagement on our board at this point, um everybody on the board believes in the mission and contributes in some way. Maybe not in all the typical ways that you might think or be looking for. But the board I think is is critical. And getting a board you can work with has got that relationship between the executive director, president, CEO is critical. Um because they just, you know, they can pave the way for the organization and really help in ways you know you again to typically don't think about in a large company.

• 35:29Speaker 02

  What are like how how would you say that you could use a board strategically or use a board um I guess practically? Like if you have twenty four members, is there Sir, obviously you you said the one-on-one coffees and and um meetings between you and the board chair. Is there anything else that that really stands out to you that you've learned in the last twelve years, like hey, here's how we can really take this board and and advance the mission?

• 35:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, great. And we're always looking at you know how to become more of a there's different types of board, a strategic board, a more hands on sort of operational board, a fiscal board. So our board, you know, again, making sure the finances are in order. We have a great CFO, so that makes it easy for our board to To ensure that's true. But different typically committees. So we we have a finance committee, we have an operations committee, an advancement committee, and of course governance committee, which helps find new board members, but also make sure that the board members are doing what they need to do. So every board member serves on at least one committee. Some do more, which is great.

• 36:34Speaker 00

  And we hope that all will help you know introduce the doorways to new members. Um right now we're doing some um coffee and tours with board members. So we've scheduled certain um dates for coffees and uh asking our board members to bring someone for a tour just to again expand expand our awareness, which has been great. Um so yeah. The board, I think just providing opportunities um through committees, board meetings, but also again, if you have if you've looked at your board members and what you need, you know, you've got people on there that can provide something. Um we um, for example, we had one lawyer who's a litigator and it's always slammed and he's great. He does an awesome job.

• 37:18Speaker 00

  But we thought, gosh, wouldn't it be great to have a second lawyer? Because in the small nonprofit, if you've got a legal question, you call a board member and say, you know,

• 37:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:25Speaker 00

  what about this? Um so looking at things like that, we didn't have anyone from hospitality. um industry on our board. We do now, and that's been great. Marketing and PR, you know, looking just at again, even if there's not we don't necessarily have a marketing committee, but having a marketing resource, she was able to take a look at, for example, our elevator pitch and um tweak it. And now she's gonna teach it to the board at our November meeting.

• 37:53Speaker 03

  Cool.

• 37:53Speaker 00

  So, you know, again, that's not a specific committee, but it's an expertise that that um she brings. So it's you know finding

• 38:01Speaker 02

  Good ideas.

• 38:02Speaker 00

  finding different people that can sort of shore you up as an organization.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  Yeah. That's cool. Uh I'm curious about how things have been at the doorways. I'm thinking back to fundraising and revenue and grants in particular. This was a hard year for

• 38:17Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  a lot of nonprofits

• 38:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  with grants and Them hoping to get money and they didn't get money, things like that. How how did how has that been for you guys and how have you pivoted or been creative to kind of work around that? I'm not sure how much that kind of affected your you all this year or like what that's been like.

• 38:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, we don't get government funding or any of those types of things. But um and our last, you know, our fiscal year ended um June 30th. So we're, you know, now into the next. But our last year, we actually were had one of our most successful years ever from fundraising. Um our special events exceeded goal, which was great. Um we had several large um unexpected donations, which is always nice. Um you can't count on those, but it's awesome when it happens and it allows you to do some of the things like buy new furniture that you might not have been able to do.

• 39:07Speaker 00

  Um so from a fundraising perspective, you know, always looking for new sources, both individuals, companies, um, foundations, that type of thing. We have a part-time grant writer who's excellent and keeps that train on the tracks. Um and a big source, you know, again of Because we rely so heavily on volunteers since we're a small staff, a lot of companies have that philanthropic arm to their sort of workforce, their culture. And it's a great introduction to the doorways, is to get a company coming over to volunteer. We have a lot of groups that do that. One of our most popular opportunities is what we call Windex parties because all of our windows face out to outdoor walkways.

• 39:53Speaker 00

  They get quite dirty in downtown Richmond.

• 39:55Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:55Speaker 00

  And it's very satisfying, you know, to we give them a bottle of Windex and a big old squeegee.

• 40:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:01Speaker 00

  And it's just very therapy therapeutic. People love it. Um, so yeah, we have pretty clean windows during the at least uh spring, summer, and fall months. Um

• 40:09Speaker 03

  It's amazing.

• 40:10Speaker 00

  so you know, you get a group there volunteering and then you know they start to you know potentially donate or sponsor an event.

• 40:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:18Speaker 00

  Um another opportunity is um groups come in and make dinner again for our guests, and that's a great group activity uh to cook in the kitchen um or just to bring it and serve it, you know, heat it up and serve it.

• 40:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:31Speaker 00

  Um so we have a lot of volunteer opportunities which really help um sort of again. Keep that sort of awareness going in the community.

• 40:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. I think so many nonprofits would love to have Better relationships with the corporate world and things like that, like corporate sponsors being a huge thing for a lot of organizations or nonprofits wanting that. Like, how have you guys gone about to kind of build those relationships in the corporate world and getting like volunteer groups from a corporation or corporate sponsors and things like that? How what does that outreach strategy look like for you guys at the doorways?

• 41:05Speaker 00

  Well, some through board members. You know, if you happen to have a board member from a company, that always helps. Um, but just you know, outreach, you know, when CoStar came to town, everybody wanted CoStar. Um, and they've been a great supporter from the very beginning of the doorways, just coming down and volunteering. So again, it's an easier ask to you know, someone's philanthropic department to come volunteer because a lot of times they are looking for group activities.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 41:29Speaker 00

  Um so that's helpful to us and that that can then you know evolve the relationship. Um it's absolutely, as you're right, hard with to cold call a company and say, Will you be a ten thousand dollar sponsor to my, you know, whatever XYZ event?

• 41:42Speaker 02

  We'll give you a whole thing of Windex.

• 41:43Speaker 00

  Yes, exactly. Exactly. So, you know, always looking for opportunities, you know, staying aware of what's happening in the community. Um, just like you know, networking is important as you're looking for a job or in sales or what have you, it's the same with a nonprofit. It's just networking, being out, being seen.

• 42:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:02Speaker 00

  Um going to events and just, you know, meeting people um and then sort of reeling them in.

• 42:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, so surely.

• 42:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:11Speaker 00

  Yeah. Sarah Melvin, who's our chief advancement officer, she is she is the queen of that. She can talk to anyone,

• 42:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  strike up a conversation, and the next thing you know they're coming for a tour.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:22Speaker 00

  Which is great.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  They're volunteer or not.

• 42:23Speaker 00

  And they're volunteering. Yeah. So we have a five year old volunteer manager who Sh our actually, you know, obviously COVID killed our program, the volunteer program. And um Kelly Lynn Quist, who's our volunteer manager, amazing. Um she has been there just about a year, I think, um, a little over a year. And I mean our it's grown by leaps and bounds, just having someone in with a focus,

• 42:46Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:46Speaker 00

  like 30% year over year type thing. So um again, and we rely heavily on volunteers that do really everything from helping stock and organize our pantry, you know, in kind donations. Um we have two fabulous women that come um once a week and help clean the community kitchen. You know, our housekeeping staff does that, but you know, you some you need a deep clean and reorganize and

• 43:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:10Speaker 00

  How many pots do we have and where do the pans go? And you know, our kitchen on the first floor is four individual kitchen units. So four families could be cooking at once or a big group could come in. So as you can imagine, you know, stuff goes everywhere once it gets cleaned and put away. We also have um a kitchen on our fifth floor for our transplant patients, and then two kitchens on the eighth floor, one for pediatric patients and one for our stem cell patients. So There is always something to do. Again, our housekeeping team is amazing.

• 43:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:40Speaker 00

  But those things are, you know, kitchens are being used pretty much twenty four seven. So it's it's always nice to have extra hands trying to keep it in shape.

• 43:47Speaker 02

  Yeah. Absolutely.

• 43:48Speaker 00

  But yeah, corpor the corporate world is you know, I think corporate sponsorships has evolved and there aren't as as many, I think, as they used to be five, ten years ago. So it really does um you really need a relationship.

• 44:01Speaker 03

  That makes a lot of sense.

• 44:03Speaker 02

  Or someone at that company that's on the board or something.

• 44:06Speaker 00

  Right.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:06Speaker 00

  Or has a connection to you, right? That believes in your mission, that

• 44:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:11Speaker 00

  had to travel for medical care or you know, what have you.

• 44:14Speaker 03

  In in what ways have you found, I mean, being a marketer, like a big part of I feel like Your role is to tell the story of the doorways and things like that. How how have you guys worked to continue to tell the doorways, to tell the story to kind of get exposure? What ways have you worked to try and be c you know help to not be the best kept secret in retreat? What ways have you found to be really helpful or maybe successful?

• 44:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. I would say the last um, gosh, four years put more of an emphasis on marketing. We redid our website. Um, we worked for a while um with Red Orange um studios, and they did a great job with our website's group. Yes, yeah, absolutely. Um and they got us to a certain point where like, well, our budgets aren't big enough, so let's we took a step back. But we've been doing, you know, again, a lot of social media.

• 44:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:00Speaker 00

  Working with Bread Orange helped us with that. And Lewis Media Partners. So again, trying to do things that are more affordable for a smaller organization. We did do several years ago some TV ads, which you know, who's watching Jeopardy and the Wheel of Fortune. But that's where we were.

• 45:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly, right? Um but um or Good Morning America. So trying to be on when people were watching, but obviously that's an expensive endeavor. So really just trying to keep um all opportunities, you know, sort of uh be available, speaking at, you know, organizations. Um we worked with a PR consultant for a while trying to get, you know, placements um just in in papers and magazines, et cetera. Um We haven't we did a billboard once when we changed our name, but we haven't done a billboard in a while. So, you know. Again, smaller dollars. Yeah, okay. It's time. Yeah. So um, you know, a lot of it is digital, digital marketing, which again has been helpful. Um and we, you know, track all those, you know,

• 46:08Speaker 00

  all those statistics very uh very closely. Um we aren't currently sort of obviously in the market now because of the election, but after the first of the year thinking back about, you know, again, trying to do some more digital ads and trying to just continually raise awareness.

• 46:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:23Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:23Speaker 00

  But we're always open to come speak to groups and talk about the doorways, host tours. Um, yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 00

  Just keep plugging away at the message.

• 46:33Speaker 02

  I enjoyed the uh tour a few months ago. It it's it's really cool to see like the the impact too when you're on the tour. Right? Because it's it a lot of people, you know, uh obviously words are one thing, but being able to see it

• 46:44Speaker 00

  See it. Yeah.

• 46:45Speaker 02

  is just another

• 46:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:45Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 46:46Speaker 02

  thing.

• 46:47Speaker 00

  Yeah. Our last uh video that um filmspire did for us, A Day in the Life of the Doorways, is amazing. You you guys did a great job.

• 46:55Speaker 03

  Premiere that soon.

• 46:56Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, yes. And we're starting to work on another one, right?

• 47:00Speaker 03

  We're going over tomorrow

• 47:02Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 47:02Speaker 03

  actually to film um a woman by the name of Dorian who she has been a regular recurring guest at the doorways.

• 47:09Speaker 00

  Amazing.

• 47:10Speaker 03

  lives in Hampton Roads, I think. But even in her own time when she's not staying at the Doris for the care for her husband, she'll drive up from like Hampton Roads to cook dinner for

• 47:19Speaker 02

  Really.

• 47:20Speaker 03

  fifty people.

• 47:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, right. And as a guest, she has done that when we know I think it started because we had a group have to cancel at the last minute.

• 47:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  And she's like, Well, I can do it. And so she just pulls stuff out of our, you know, donated food

• 47:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:31Speaker 00

  and puts on a spread. She is amazing. Yes. So

• 47:35Speaker 03

  And it is amazing like 'cause when you're feeding, it's it's a lot of people having to feed. Like

• 47:40Speaker 00

  we have 150 typically at night, but it you're probably feeding more like 50 because other people, you know, they're still at the hospital, they're doing other things. But still,

• 47:49Speaker 03

  still is the lot

• 47:49Speaker 00

  that's a lot.

• 47:52Speaker 03

  it is amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

• 47:54Speaker 00

  And the groups do an amazing job, you know, in terms of and I guess Kelly, uh um, our um volunteer manager, so we don't have spaghetti five nights in a row.

• 48:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. I'm sure people can get sick of like spaghetti again. Yeah.

• 48:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, or tacos.

• 48:06Speaker 00

  Tacos, baked potato bars, breakfast for dinner, yeah.

• 48:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:13Speaker 03

  Actually, that sounds great.

• 48:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:17Speaker 03

  Stacy, over your over your like, you know, uh twelve years at being at the doorways, is there like a uh a moment that stands up from a great um like leadership you know accomplishment or thing that you're like really proud of that you guys you guys you you you know you implemented or you did as a leader and and thought that was that was a milestone thing for us at the doorways.

• 48:39Speaker 00

  Wow, great question. Um, you know, you we talked about it before COVID. I think that was just such a life changing moment. Um, and to really see how everyone pulled together um to really still deliver on our mission. Um and I think, you know, again, it takes Knowing each other as as teammates and understanding sort of uh any issues that might be, being empathetic to that. But the whole mission driven is just something that I'm so proud of that our team has, um, that that they believe in that every day. Um and yeah, hiring the right people and letting them do their jobs,

• 49:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Staying out of the way.

• 49:22Speaker 00

  staying out of the way. Yeah.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:24Speaker 02

  One of my favorite questions to ask guests is well essentially what would you tell yourself? So you started doorways 12 years ago. Knowing what you know today, in this, you know, in the chair you do today, what are, you know, maybe a couple pieces of advice you would give Stacy 12 years ago who's just walking into the doorways for the first time?

• 49:46Speaker 00

  Gosh, yeah. Um, good question. Um You know, be patient.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 49:53Speaker 00

  Change takes time,

• 49:57Speaker 00

  especially as you're trying to continually improve the organization, raise the bar, do better, be better. Um, you know, sometimes with especially long term um associates, the change is hard. Um so you have to be patient as, you know, again, we're continuing to drive for, you know, just all always improving.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:18Speaker 00

  Um,

• 50:20Speaker 00

  you know, uh gosh, how many years ago? Five, six years ago, when um Navy Hill was a thing.

• 50:28Speaker 00

  They came to us before it was even public and said, What do you think about this idea? Would you like a new building down the street? Like, heck yeah, sure. Um, so we worked very closely with them and with city council trying to get all that approved. Um, sadly for us, it was not approved.

• 50:45Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:45Speaker 00

  Then it pivoted to sort of the Clay Street project. Um And so working with the team, you know, to and SMBW, the architect, who are they were are amazing and helped us, you know, with those drawings until um at the very end that did not go through. But just again, trying to balance with the team of

• 51:06Speaker 00

  being optimistic for the future for a new building, things are happening. Um, you know, again, our building is is built in the late 50s, early 60s, it is well past its prime, but still functional and still solid. Um we just need more rooms, bigger rooms, you know, just laid out differently. So really trying to balance the sort of the highs and the lows of you know, we're gonna have a new building and um based on the last Gantt chart, it would have been we would have moved in last December.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:36Speaker 00

  Um, and so here we are still. So just, you know, again from a leadership perspective, trying to keep everyone um hopeful,

• 51:44Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm. Yeah.

• 51:44Speaker 00

  but not, you know, I kept saying, Oh, in three to five years, three to five years. No, we're still not sure where those three to five years are.

• 51:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:50Speaker 00

  But um but again it will be patient, it will happen, um and you know, just continue to do the best that we can with what we have. Um

• 52:00Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:01Speaker 00

  yeah, so it twelve years ago Navy Hill or a new building wasn't even on the horizon.

• 52:06Speaker 02

  Right. Right.

• 52:06Speaker 00

  Um and then you get all excited about it and then you know again, like many things in life, it doesn't it's not just it doesn't just show up. Yeah.

• 52:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  Timing is everything and being patient.

• 52:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:16Speaker 00

  And yeah, just being patient with change while you continue to try and improve. You know what you do on a day-to-day basis.

• 52:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:23Speaker 02

  I love that.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:24Speaker 02

  That got me fired up a little bit.

• 52:26Speaker 03

  Yeah. Patience.

• 52:28Speaker 00

  Patience. Yeah.

• 52:29Speaker 03

  Cow down, Christian. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

• 52:31Speaker 02

  But it's not true, because there's always so many things you can control. You know, we think that we have all this control, but really,

• 52:37Speaker 00

  Right.

• 52:37Speaker 02

  you just hope to kind of, you know, do good work and and whatever you do. And the rest, a lot of the stuff is just outside of your control.

• 52:44Speaker 00

  Right. Yeah.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  So whether it happens in twelve months or three years or five years or you know

• 52:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:49Speaker 02

  won't be for lack of effort.

• 52:50Speaker 00

  Right. Exactly. Exactly.

• 52:52Speaker 03

  What is your hope for the doorways in the next ten, twenty, twenty five years? What's what is what's the vision? What's the big goal that you guys are striving for?

• 52:59Speaker 00

  Goal at some point will be a new building. Um we, you know, again, we need it. It's, you know, we're at capacity most nights. We can't have to stop taking referrals. Um We're sp you know, spending a uh s uh just an awful lot of money on um upgrading sort of infrastructure. Um we're completing our IFIS project or EFIS. Uh uh everybody says it differently, but the outside of our building on the corners um had water infiltration and first we thought it was gonna be like a simple repair on one corner and it turned into a full replacement of you know all corners.

• 53:35Speaker 02

  Oh

• 53:35Speaker 00

  Um so you know, million dollars here, million dollars there. Um yeah, exactly. But again, life safety comes first and um the building is solid. Um but you know I think our vision is a new building, being able to serve more people. Being able to serve them better, if you will. Um right now we have six extended stay suites for stem cell patients, um, those folks that are the most immune suppressed and need to really limit their exposure. Um so they have two six extended stays where we took two rooms and made one so they have their own kitchen and living area and then a separate sleeping area. Um but when we were doing the planning for the new building, we would have had fifty five extended stay suites, not just for stem cell patients, but for anyone staying longer than a month.

• 54:18Speaker 02

  yeah.

• 54:19Speaker 00

  So we you know we need different configurations. Our rooms are small, um two double beds, um not queens. I don't know many people that are still sleeping two to a double bed. Um but you know, just w uh bigger bigger and better, if you will.

• 54:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:34Speaker 00

  Um we based on our numbers, it was fifty five extended stays, forty five studios, and then forty five sort of standard rooms for people that stay less than a week.

• 54:42Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 54:43Speaker 00

  But that's the vision, just being able to serve our guests better.

• 54:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:46Speaker 00

  We're always looking, you know, again for um ways to, you know, amenities to bring in. You know, we have a volunteer that will come in periodically and do haircuts

• 54:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:55Speaker 00

  um for guests. You know, again, you're in a new town, you don't you you probably don't have the money anyway to do it, but even if you did, where do you go? What do you do?

• 55:02Speaker 02

  Right.

• 55:03Speaker 00

  Um, you know, um we have people that come in and play um games with guests, musicians that will come in. So looking for different, you know. Uh those opportunities take different types of spaces. And so how do we, when we plan for that new building, you know, being up being able to think, you know, brainstorm and sky is the limit. Um but yes, I mean, we've um had our 40th anniversary two years ago.

• 55:28Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 55:28Speaker 00

  Um, so we hope for 40 more. And just, you know, it's important also to stay close to our referring partners.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:35Speaker 00

  The health system, VCU Health, um, they are amazing. The VA hospital um with their heart and liver transplants and all the other um veterans that they send over.

• 55:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:44Speaker 00

  And just try again, um Collaborating with them

• 55:47Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:47Speaker 00

  to make sure that, you know, again, we can meet their needs. Um one of the new programs at the hospital, or I guess not so new, is called something hospital at home, where you would be you're considered inpatient, but you're at home with um nurses coming in and telemedicine and all those types of things. And um it makes sense within a certain um circumference, if you will, of Richmond for efficient for them to do it. But if someone's outside that, it doesn't make sense. So they asked us, could you could we put some of our hospital at home patients at the doorways? Like, sure.

• 56:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:21Speaker 00

  Um, which which was great. Yeah. Um, except the at first, you know, again, there's a lot of um telemedicine and face timing and that type of thing, and our Wi Fi is not so great. Was not so great. Um, so they started asking, could we have room six oh one? you know, because that had better Wi Fi signal and I'm like,

• 56:38Speaker 03

  Oh okay.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  Well, it doesn't really work that way.

• 56:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:41Speaker 00

  But what we were able to do then, because that was a need that they had, is you know, tap into a different sort of Wi-Fi channel, if you will, that our IT um person helped us figure out. So, you know, staying and collaborating with our partners.

• 56:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:55Speaker 00

  Um, we work with sheltering arms and some of their patients who need to be here long term, even though they're not nearby. But you know, what can we do for someone who's you know has an orthopedic need, if you will. So um just you know, staying, collaborating um and and continuing to communicate.

• 57:11Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Well you mind if we ask you a couple fun questions?

• 57:16Speaker 00

  Oh gosh.

• 57:17Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 57:19Speaker 02

  We like kind of tying it to Richmond as well in general. And uh what is your favorite Richmond restaurant? Or one of them? Don't have to be your favorite, but but what is like one or two restaurants that

• 57:29Speaker 00

  There are so many.

• 57:30Speaker 02

  I know.

• 57:31Speaker 00

  I have to say uh when I first um came to the doorways and we um our big event um fundraising event is called Savor. And it's a big foodie event where you're bringing in chefs from you know, sometimes across the country. We've had Marcus Samuelson and Kat Cora and Manice Shawan, but we also have the best of the local and regional chefs. So that first meeting, I didn't know what I was doing. I was like writing down whatever they name they would say sort of phonetically and I'd go back and look it up, like, who is this? Well, it's gotten me now tuned in to the chefs in Richmond, and I'm like, I know where all the new restaurants are.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  That's cool.

• 58:07Speaker 00

  And um, you know, I don't get to them all as frequently as I would like, but I love Richmond restaurant scene. Um there are so many. I would say, well, if I'm gonna have a steak, it's gotta be a bucket.

• 58:19Speaker 02

  Yeah. Buckheads.

• 58:20Speaker 00

  Um Cafe Adera is amazing.

• 58:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, I've heard.

• 58:25Speaker 02

  I've never been.

• 58:25Speaker 00

  Um Alewife

• 58:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 58:28Speaker 00

  and Churchill.

• 58:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:30Speaker 00

  Um oh gosh. Um

• 58:35Speaker 00

  where else have we been lately? Uh Grissette,

• 58:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh.

• 58:41Speaker 00

  Gercy,

• 58:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 58:43Speaker 00

  uh Grissette, Olivetto, um,

• 58:47Speaker 03

  I was dropped last time.

• 58:48Speaker 00

  yeah,

• 58:48Speaker 03

  Brian.

• 58:49Speaker 00

  yeah.

• 58:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:50Speaker 00

  There's always the Edo Squid and Dynamo. I mean, there's so many. There's so many cool restaurants. I I feel bad I'm forgetting a lot of my favorites, but yeah,

• 58:58Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 58:59Speaker 00

  it's delicious.

• 59:00Speaker 02

  I even so I I went to grassette for the first time, I don't know, maybe a little over a year ago. Oh my gosh. I was just blown away.

• 59:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:08Speaker 02

  I had I got the duck. Oh my gosh.

• 59:12Speaker 00

  The Roosevelt, that's also

• 59:13Speaker 03

  Oh yeah. I love the Rosemary.

• 59:15Speaker 00

  and a lot of these um chefs have participated in Savor, which is

• 59:18Speaker 03

  Cool.

• 59:18Speaker 02

  Oh that's cool. With them a little bit.

• 59:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 59:22Speaker 03

  That's awesome.

• 59:23Speaker 02

  Heck yeah.

• 59:24Speaker 03

  I'm curious, how do you like I'm sure you're tied into a lot of other um non profit executive directors, things like that. Like why do you think like Richmond has such a great nonprofit community and scene? And what do you think has why why do you think that is? What's been the the reason

• 59:41Speaker 00

  I think it's the community, Richmond. I mean, if you think about what started the doorways forty years ago, was what was then the ladies' auxiliary at the hospital. Notice that pati their family members of the patients, because if the patients were all inpatient at the time,

• 59:54Speaker 03

  yeah?

• 59:54Speaker 00

  family members were sleeping in the waiting rooms, right? They didn't have a place to go. And so just this intrepid group of women.

• 1:00:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:02Speaker 00

  Said, gosh, we need to do something about this. And this the whole concept of hospitality houses we're just starting. So I think that's one example for the doorways. But I think just the community enrichment is again so philanthropic, generous with

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:14Speaker 00

  time, talent, and treasure. Um and that, you know, again, if there's a need, someone steps up to fill it. Um and that, you know, makes it a f a fun place to be, you know, a leader of a nonprofit

• 1:00:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:27Speaker 00

  because you have great colleagues and you have other great missions and um, you know, easy to collaborate. Um people would always ask, Do you compete with the Ronald McDonald House? And I'm like, No, we don't compete. You know, I said, except for the philanthropic dollar.

• 1:00:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, sure, yeah.

• 1:00:42Speaker 00

  Because everybody wants to give to kids, which is great. Which is great. So, you know, we have a pediatric floor. Um, you know, they have a their house, they're building a new house, which is amazing. And then we probably won't need our pediatric floor. We can repurpose that for something else, because you know, right now they're in a smaller house on Monument Avenue. But great organization, collaborate with them.

• 1:01:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:01:03Speaker 00

  Um so yeah, it's it's just a very collaborative community.

• 1:01:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:01:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:08Speaker 03

  I have another, you know, former executive director friend, and she's like, Yeah, it's hard to compete against kids and puppies, basically. It's like

• 1:01:15Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, yes. Oh my gosh, the SPCA I think just raised like over eight hundred thousand dollars of their fur bomb. Like seriously?

• 1:01:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  And good for them because all of our puppies have come from the SPCA.

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:01:29Speaker 00

  But

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:01:30Speaker 02

  Kids and that's fine.

• 1:01:31Speaker 00

  that's absolutely right. Kids and puppies.

• 1:01:33Speaker 03

  It is tough.

• 1:01:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:34Speaker 03

  How do you what are what do you like to do to kind of stay sharp or like engage with other executive directors or like you know honing your skills and leadership skills and things like that? Podcasts or books or anything like that you

• 1:01:45Speaker 00

  Uh

• 1:01:45Speaker 03

  you recommend or anything like that?

• 1:01:46Speaker 02

  Events. Yeah.

• 1:01:47Speaker 00

  events my commute is so short that I don't really do podcasts because I feel like I barely get first five minutes in and I'm almost at work. So I don't do podcasts, although I should probably for longer trips.

• 1:02:01Speaker 03

  Right. I recommend the Richmond Leadership.

• 1:02:03Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, yes, yes. I have looked at those some of those podcasts. Yes, yes. Um yeah, just you know, again, um events, meeting with other directors, um, chronicle of philanthropy, obviously for you know, fundraising. Um Um gosh, you know, just you know, people like Brene Brown, you know, the classics, you know, always, you know, have read books and those types of things. One I don't know when I started getting this magazine, and it was uh years ago because I still this believe it or not, there's still a paper version, um, but called Fast Company.

• 1:02:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:38Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:38Speaker 00

  And so a lot of it now is digital and they have different newsletters. So sometimes it's design, sometimes it's leadership, sometimes it's and there's always fascinating things in there. I I feel like that keeps me sort of more current. Um that in my people magazine.

• 1:02:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, there you go. Guilty pleasure.

• 1:02:57Speaker 00

  But yeah, just you know, tr a lot of newsletters and news feeds, um, you know, that just you get from a nonprofit world trying to stay sharp and open to new ideas.

• 1:02:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:07Speaker 02

  Yeah. Heck yeah. Well you want to do the uh non profit?

• 1:03:10Speaker 03

  Sure. So one thing we always do for every guest, we ask them to shout out a nonprofit that they support, and then we'll make a small donation to that. We'd obviously love to give to the doorways, so we're happy to do that and and give to you guys if that's great. But if there's also anyone else you'd like to specifically mention too,

• 1:03:28Speaker 00

  Oh gosh,

• 1:03:29Speaker 03

  shout out or anything.

• 1:03:29Speaker 00

  many good ones.

• 1:03:31Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:03:33Speaker 00

  Well, just because we were talking about them, Ron McDonald has

• 1:03:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:36Speaker 00

  kids. There you go, kids, gotta love 'em.

• 1:03:39Speaker 03

  Yeah. They're great.

• 1:03:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:41Speaker 00

  There are so many great, great ones.

• 1:03:42Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:03:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. So

• 1:03:45Speaker 03

  We have another final question that we kind of do before we kind of ask how people can kind of volunteer, get in touch with you guys, but Christian's got that for us.

• 1:03:52Speaker 02

  it's uh this question is actually presented by the Virginia Council of CEOs.

• 1:03:56Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:03:57Speaker 02

  And they wonder, or we have actually we've asked this question to every guest so far, all eleven. And it's as a leader, it can be lonely at the top. How do you deal with that potential struggle?

• 1:04:11Speaker 00

  Well, since I'm a member of the Virginia Council of CEOs, I will say I rely heavily on my round table,

• 1:04:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:04:17Speaker 00

  um, which is great. And then, you know, again, I would say board members. Um and um because you can't obviously talk about a lot of things to your current staff. Um but you know again, my leadership team, sort of a team one concept, if you will, from um again, Patrick Lancioni's book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Um, this whole concept of Team One, we try to sort of really believe in that. So if there are things I can discuss, um, it's a very collaborative group. Um and um

• 1:04:51Speaker 00

  so I do a lot of you know discussing there when I can and then otherwise again the round table at the Virginia Council of CEOs is very helpful um because you get other perspectives, you can it's sort of that safe zone zone of you know c or whatever uh of silence. So you get nothing which says in the room stays in the room, which is very helpful. Stays and I guess yeah. Yeah, and I you know again would recommend that anybody again at the like you say at the top you know f has somebody that they can talk to because otherwise it's very tough. Um and I don't usually agree with what my husband says, so he's not a good person to no, just kidding. You know, husbands they try to then help you figure it out. I'm like, I don't want you to help me figure it out, I just want you to listen.

• 1:05:35Speaker 03

  Guilty of that. Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:05:37Speaker 00

  Just listen. But yeah. And then, you know, the board chair, you know, incoming board chair, previous board chair. So yeah.

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Heck yeah.

• 1:05:45Speaker 00

  But I put in a plug for the Virginia Council CEO.

• 1:05:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, well they put in a plug anyway.

• 1:05:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, there you go. There you go.

• 1:05:51Speaker 02

  Two for two. It's like the Dodgers.

• 1:05:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:53Speaker 02

  Uh

• 1:05:55Speaker 00

  Wow, that was some serious.

• 1:05:56Speaker 02

  there it was.

• 1:05:56Speaker 00

  Not that I watched a lot of it.

• 1:05:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:58Speaker 00

  Whoa.

• 1:05:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, I know. Oh my gosh. I watched game seven. I I watched kind of the other stuff sparingly. Yeah, that was game uh game three. I think seven also dex training style went to eleven, which was insane.

• 1:06:12Speaker 00

  Oh yes, seven. Seven. Yeah, so I'm thinking yeah. Seven was the last one.

• 1:06:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it was nuts. So to wrap it up, how can people get a hold of the doorways? Learn more about doorways?

• 1:06:21Speaker 03

  So many volunteer opportunities, like you said, like the meals, the Windex parties. I mean you you have people who come in and sing and perform. You have like counselors, you have

• 1:06:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:06:30Speaker 00

  Everything.

• 1:06:30Speaker 03

  I mean everything. Yeah. How can

• 1:06:32Speaker 00

  Individuals, groups. Um yeah. Well, we have a great website. Um www.thedhedorways.org. Um, so that is great. And all you know, you can find all the information there.

• 1:06:42Speaker 03

  we

• 1:06:43Speaker 00

  Um you can call us up. Um yeah, we've got a great, as I said, volunteer manager that can get you started. Um anyone wants to come for a tour, you know, feel free to reach out to me through the website. Um yeah, somebody will be back in touch.

• 1:06:56Speaker 03

  events coming up soon or next year?

• 1:06:59Speaker 00

  Just had um our um Gilbane restaurant walk.

• 1:07:03Speaker 03

  Oh cool.

• 1:07:03Speaker 00

  Um it was the twelfth, I think, tenth year, twelfth year. Um Gilbane construction company been a great partner of the doorways for all these years. And it started out as a r well, they called it a restaurant walk, which was really sort of a pub crawl. But we didn't call it that. Down in Shaco Slip. And then it's evolved to co even COVID. We were able to do it because we did it at Bramley Park.

• 1:07:24Speaker 03

  Oh

• 1:07:25Speaker 00

  And so we were outside. And so what everybody what they realized, it was great to keep their group all together as opposed to rotating through different restaurants. So we um had a lovely and fabulous, the highest um raising um event ever through Gilbang. Um and the Gilbane does a again great job. They invite all of their subs and and their colleagues and um different companies to sponsor.

• 1:07:50Speaker 02

  Yeah,

• 1:07:50Speaker 00

  Um and then it's just, you know, it's a it's a um it's just a great night um of drinking some beer and listening to music. So that was fun. Oh, that just happened. So our next event is our big savor event, you know, the foodie event, um, March twenty eighth.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 1:08:06Speaker 00

  Um last year we did it for the first time ever. Um what we had been at at the Jefferson. Lovely place for 10 years and they did a fabulous job. But the committee said, Gosh, we want to shake it up. And so one of the founders of Savor, Leslie Stack, who's amazing and still in the committee, she said, You know, I've always wanted to do an event in a in an airplane hangar. And she had said that the year before, and we were like, Yeah. Okay. But anyway, it came up again. We're like, okay, well, let's try it.

• 1:08:36Speaker 02

  yeah.

• 1:08:37Speaker 00

  So Sarah Melvin, our advancement um chief lines advancement officer, reached out. Um To Whit Baldwin at Hilo Air. And Wit said, Yeah, I'll do it. Anyway.

• 1:08:49Speaker 02

  Cool.

• 1:08:50Speaker 00

  That was last year. So we thought, okay, one and done, right? There's a lot of work, heavy lifting. You gotta bring in every fork, every spoon, every table, every chair.

• 1:08:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:57Speaker 00

  Um, but it was so much fun, huge success. And even at the end, Wit said, You could do it again here if you want. And so

• 1:09:05Speaker 03

  that's amazing.

• 1:09:05Speaker 00

  um the committee's like, Well, let's do it.

• 1:09:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:08Speaker 00

  Um, because you know, not everybody was able to come and it's it was

• 1:09:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:11Speaker 00

  Kind of crazy. The the the really cool red helicopter in the corner. Everybody was taking selfies with. So we're it's back at Hilo Air on March twenty eighth. Um coming up. So we're working on chefs and working on layouts and all that good stuff, auction items. But

• 1:09:27Speaker 03

  That's awesome.

• 1:09:28Speaker 00

  yeah, so

• 1:09:28Speaker 02

  That's

• 1:09:29Speaker 00

  yeah, that'll be on our website as well.

• 1:09:30Speaker 03

  That's great.

• 1:09:31Speaker 02

  yeah.

• 1:09:31Speaker 03

  Stacey, how can people get in touch with you if you want LinkedIn or anything?

• 1:09:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, on LinkedIn or again through the um doorways website. Um yeah. Put my email out there a sprinkly at the doorways.org.

• 1:09:45Speaker 03

  Perfect.

• 1:09:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, right.

• 1:09:46Speaker 03

  Be prepared for the flood of volunteer emails coming.

• 1:09:48Speaker 00

  Absolutely. Come on, we'll take it. Volunteers, donations,

• 1:09:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:52Speaker 00

  in kind donations,

• 1:09:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. All of it.

• 1:09:54Speaker 00

  breakfast cereals, paper. We take it all.

• 1:09:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. Stacy, thank you again for coming. We really appreciate it.

• 1:10:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a lot of fun.

• 1:10:05Speaker 03

  Thank you.