Latest / The Ric and Dan Show / "I get to see the beautiful side of people": Diane Dickerson of Bangor YMCA

Transcript

"I get to see the beautiful side of people": Diane Dickerson of Bangor YMCA · The Ric and Dan Show

• 0:01
  He is Ric Tyler and he's Dan Cashman.
• 0:03
  And I'm Diane Dickerson, proud CEO of the Bangal Region Y. And I am
• 0:09
  on the Ric and Dan Show in Maine.
• 0:11
  We often hear you can't get there from here.
• 0:14
  These are the stories of the risk takers, the trailblazers, those who
• 0:17
  turn obstacles into opportunities every day and found their way to get there.
• 0:22
  From here and today there on the Ric and Dan Show.
• 0:26
  I'm gonna come right out and say this, you are a showgirl.
• 0:29
  In Vegas.
• 0:30
  No, you made that up.
• 0:34
  You fib.
• 0:34
  There are no LS in gullible.
• 0:36
  My goodness.
• 0:38
  Oh my God.
• 0:38
  That's great.
• 0:40
  Of course I wasn't, I believed you when you said that in an email to us.
• 0:44
  Can we talk about when I was a girl in Vegas.
• 0:48
  But I thought, you know, something that makes absolute sense.
• 0:51
  She has confidence, she has poise.
• 0:53
  She, well, lemme just tell you what I don't have,
• 0:58
  lemme, should I start describing?
• 1:00
  No.
• 1:01
  Should I point this towards me?
• 1:04
  Start describing, oh my word, but, but you're from Vegas, right?
• 1:07
  Yes.
• 1:07
  What was it like growing up in Vegas?
• 1:09
  Completely different than what you would ever imagine.
• 1:12
  I have never to this day gambled a day in my life.
• 1:15
  They could have blown up the strip when I was young and it would not have
• 1:20
  phased me or my family whatsoever.
• 1:23
  Very.
• 1:23
  How far away from the strip were you living in Vegas?
• 1:26
  I don't, I don't have any idea.
• 1:28
  I'm the geograph region.
• 1:29
  So when I was young, there were only probably six to seven properties.
• 1:35
  Like you remember the old Desert Inn and the Sands and
• 1:38
  the Flamingo and the Rat Pack.
• 1:41
  Rat Pack days.
• 1:41
  Yeah, the day.
• 1:42
  So those were the casinos that were there, the dunes, those are all gone.
• 1:46
  And those used to be owned by individual families and be very spread apart.
• 1:52
  Okay.
• 1:53
  So that whole long strip, you had a lot of space between the properties.
• 1:58
  Nowadays, probably four people own all of the properties.
• 2:02
  They're conglomerates.
• 2:03
  Yeah, they're they're big companies.
• 2:05
  Big conglomerations.
• 2:06
  And there is literally no space.
• 2:09
  Yeah.
• 2:09
  I mean it is like built on top of each other.
• 2:11
  On top of each other.
• 2:12
  So how did you get from Vegas to here?
• 2:14
  Oh, many stops along the way.
• 2:17
  I left Vegas, um, when I graduated from high school and went to college
• 2:21
  and said that I was probably never gonna go back to Vegas, other than the
• 2:25
  fact that I wanted to live next door to my mom and dad my rest of my life.
• 2:28
  But I wanted them to come live where I was.
• 2:31
  It was a lovely place to be raised.
• 2:33
  You know, there were, I think when I left for college, there were 200,000
• 2:36
  people in Las Vegas at the time.
• 2:39
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:39
  Uh, but I still, I just didn't want to go back there.
• 2:42
  There were, there were bigger things for me.
• 2:44
  So I went to Utah to school after being signed up, signed, sealed, and delivered
• 2:50
  to University of Southern California.
• 2:52
  And last minute announced to my parents that I was changing my mind and I
• 2:58
  was gonna follow this boy to Utah.
• 3:00
  Huh.
• 3:01
  And I can still hear, oh, I can, that's always a good decision.
• 3:05
  I can still hear to this day the words that my dad used.
• 3:09
  Uh, could we broadcast those words or would we have to bleep those out?
• 3:12
  No, no.
• 3:13
  And I also don't wanna broadcast the guy's name either, so, but it was, you
• 3:17
  know, and so I went to school in Utah.
• 3:19
  Went from Utah to Washington, dc, worked for my senator, uh, then
• 3:24
  worked for the Senate Rules Committee.
• 3:27
  I didn't know you worked in dc.
• 3:28
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:28
  For years and then worked for, uh, and then covered congressional
• 3:32
  hearings for trade associations.
• 3:34
  So my major was broadcast journalism, public relations,
• 3:39
  marketing, advertising business.
• 3:41
  And then my minor was nutrition.
• 3:43
  Just 'cause I was a nutrition geek.
• 3:46
  Why not here?
• 3:48
  I didn't know that about in Washington.
• 3:49
  What were your years like in Washington?
• 3:50
  Oh, I loved it.
• 3:51
  I absolutely loved it, loved it.
• 3:54
  But the same boy I followed to Utah was there as well.
• 3:58
  Did he follow you this time or did you follow him?
• 4:00
  No, we, no, this was together, together decision.
• 4:02
  Okay.
• 4:03
  But I then made, I, you know, two times you make the same mistake.
• 4:07
  Actually, when we get to why I'm in Maine, that's a three time mistake.
• 4:14
  But, but, but that was, that's not a mistake.
• 4:17
  But, um, so then from DC to Denver, Colorado.
• 4:22
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:23
  And, uh, worked in advertising and marketing in Denver, and then
• 4:26
  was recruited by a large west coast based agency, advertising
• 4:31
  agency in la and then moved to LA.
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  And then from LA back to Las Vegas and opened up my own
• 4:39
  agency and the rest is history.
• 4:42
  That's a lot of spaces.
• 4:44
  And I have, uh, I would say in the past three years, fallen
• 4:47
  in love with Los Angeles.
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  What was it like when you were there?
• 4:51
  Did you have a love affair with LA or did you hate it and couldn't wait to get out?
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  I couldn't wait to get out.
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  Really?
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  Yeah.
• 4:57
  Why?
• 4:57
  Yeah.
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  I'm just not an LA girl, I don't think.
• 4:59
  Um, I am not an LA guy.
• 5:01
  I can tell you I'm a main girl.
• 5:02
  I'm a main girl.
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  I'm not an LA girl either.
• 5:04
  But I'm not an LA girl.
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  And, and, and I was, you know, in understanding that when you grow up in Las
• 5:09
  Vegas, you are going to LA all the time.
• 5:12
  Oh, yeah.
• 5:13
  I mean, when we were kids, I'm, I'm the youngest of three, and the only
• 5:17
  girl, and my dad would put us in the backseat of the station wagon and we
• 5:21
  would head down to Dodger Stadium for a Friday night game, a Saturday game,
• 5:26
  two on Sunday, and then head home.
• 5:29
  So we were down in la.
• 5:31
  All the time.
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  It was kind of like our backyard playground and Wow.
• 5:34
  But I just, after, you know, living there, I was in my, I was in my twenties.
• 5:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:39
  Um, it just wasn't the place for me at that time in my life.
• 5:45
  You would think that all of that big city life, whether or not you like LA
• 5:48
  or not, like la coming to something as relatively small as Bangor, Maine
• 5:54
  would be like an episode of Northern Exposure, if you know the reference.
• 5:58
  Yeah.
• 5:58
  Was it like that?
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  So, so I actually, so.
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  I was in Vegas, I, you know, the majority of those years, and I raised my kids.
• 6:05
  I went to Vegas, went back to Vegas from LA just because of a family illness.
• 6:09
  And I was only gonna stay for a few months.
• 6:11
  And I ended up staying 20 years, met my husband.
• 6:16
  Um, we became partners in an ad agency.
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  We had three children.
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  You should never work with your spouse in that agency.
• 6:24
  I don't wanna state that for the record.
• 6:25
  Guess actually, actually, you guys do a fabulous job at that.
• 6:29
  And we did too.
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  But those 20 years in Vegas and when, when my youngest, uh, was a senior in
• 6:36
  high school and she, well actually when she was younger than a senior in high
• 6:40
  school, um, she was a, a equestrian horse jumper and the other two kids were
• 6:45
  in college and she was recruited to be trained by this very famous equestrian
• 6:50
  teacher in California, in LA area.
• 6:53
  And so that's what took me back to la Wow.
• 6:56
  So, and that was just for a few years, but it was from l it was
• 6:58
  from that area to Bangor, Maine.
• 7:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:01
  So these, these are, as Ric said, big areas.
• 7:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:05
  La, Las Vegas, Denver, Washington.
• 7:08
  What was the appeal of Bang Gore?
• 7:09
  What brought you to Bangor and why do you, do you remember?
• 7:12
  I love Bangor, but why do you love it so much?
• 7:14
  Do you remember the.
• 7:16
  Stupid young girl that followed the boy to college.
• 7:19
  I heard something about this.
• 7:20
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:21
  Well now it's a stupid older woman that, um, met a man who lived in Bangor.
• 7:27
  His son and my son were college roommates in Boston.
• 7:30
  And so that's how we became friends and ultimately more than that.
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  And he would come out to California every two weeks to visit.
• 7:40
  And I never came here 'cause I still had a child at home.
• 7:44
  Yeah.
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  And, uh, finally after 18 months of this, he said, you know, we really
• 7:48
  need to live in the same town.
• 7:49
  And I'm thinking, yay, he's moving to California.
• 7:53
  We were, we were, we were on the beach in Malibu when he said this to me.
• 7:57
  Yeah.
• 7:58
  So I thought, aha, this is what I hooked him.
• 8:01
  And that's not what happened.
• 8:03
  I then, I then end up in Bang Gourmet, and on my first day here, I said, oh.
• 8:07
  Dear God, please tell me I don't have to die in Bangor, Maine
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  and now you can't get me out.
• 8:13
  Yeah, you can't get me out.
• 8:14
  You know, Susan Collins had, she introduced me at a, uh, I was
• 8:18
  testifying at a Senate hearing and she introduced me that, you know,
• 8:22
  I'd lived here, I'd lived here.
• 8:23
  I lived here, I lived here, and I finally found home in Maine.
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  And I think that is it.
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  I just love it.
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  I love the people.
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  I think also because of what I do for a living here.
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  The generosity that I see, the kindness of people.
• 8:39
  I really think that I get to see the, the beautiful side of people
• 8:44
  and the number of people that I get to help and serve every day.
• 8:48
  It's really is a gift.
• 8:49
  It's a blessing.
• 8:50
  Love it.
• 8:50
  Let's talk about your passion for the Y because it's, uh,
• 8:54
  it's infectious love in a way.
• 8:55
  It has to be where do you get your passion for what you do at the Y?
• 9:00
  So if you.
• 9:01
  Knew how I was raised by the two greatest human beings on the planet who literally
• 9:08
  believed that no matter what you did professionally in your life, that your
• 9:13
  real role was giving back to the community and serving the community and those
• 9:17
  people that were less fortunate than you.
• 9:20
  So I spent my entire childhood doing that and being shown how to do that
• 9:25
  by these two phenomenal human beings.
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  Uh, my dad was a lawyer.
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  My mom was a teacher who retired once.
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  She had all of us kids and they were just completely dedicated to the, this small
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  community, which it was at the time, a very small community in, uh, of Las Vegas.
• 9:44
  And I think that what I found with the y it was a culmination of my personal and
• 9:50
  my professional life coming together.
• 9:53
  My lifetime of coming together and just from the standpoint of all of that
• 9:59
  compassion for others and giving to others and serving others, and really
• 10:03
  identifying people who are in need and doing the right things for them.
• 10:07
  At the same time, I'm a business person, so I get to do that
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  while I am running a business.
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  I am a creative person, a marketing person.
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  I get to do that by running this business and working with
• 10:18
  these people in this community.
• 10:20
  I just, I think that it was just, um, I think it was just
• 10:24
  where I was supposed to be.
• 10:25
  I, I always, I always say that I think that the, yes, the reason I came
• 10:30
  here was for an individual and that didn't pan out the way that I think
• 10:35
  either one of us had hoped that it would, but I was meant to be here.
• 10:39
  I don't wanna get religious or spiritual with your audience, but
• 10:42
  I was brought here for a reason.
• 10:44
  I really do believe that.
• 10:45
  I think a group of us actually made sure that you met that individual and we
• 10:49
  all, it was, it was kind of a problem.
• 10:52
  It was, yeah, but we got you here.
• 10:53
  We showed him your picture and he said, I'm in.
• 10:55
  Okay.
• 10:56
  Yeah.
• 10:56
  Where do I sign?
• 10:58
  Well, that's 'cause you showed him the showgirl picture.
• 11:04
  There, there are some individuals that think that you must consume five to
• 11:10
  eight cups of espresso every day for the level of energy that you present.
• 11:15
  Yeah.
• 11:16
  I drink, uh, two cups of coffee in the morning.
• 11:18
  That's it.
• 11:19
  How big are those cups?
• 11:20
  Right.
• 11:20
  No, you're not big.
• 11:21
  But, but I, I, you know, I think, again, I'm gonna come back to
• 11:25
  the wonderful Dory and George Dickerson, who they had that energy.
• 11:29
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:29
  They had that love of life, and it's not just that enthusiasm and that passion.
• 11:34
  Now, I, I am passionate about those things.
• 11:36
  I'm passionate about.
• 11:38
  I'm not passionate about everything.
• 11:40
  You know, when you own your own ad agency, for example, I was
• 11:43
  able to pick and choose clients.
• 11:45
  Do you guys get to do that?
• 11:49
  I mean, I do.
• 11:50
  Is that we pick and what we pick and you know, I was able to do that
• 11:54
  and you know, I could never, ever, ever do marketing or advertising
• 11:58
  or public relations or anything for something I did not believe in.
• 12:03
  And that's the thing about the why is what can you not.
• 12:07
  Not believe in at the Y. I mean, it serves everybody from babies to older adults
• 12:13
  and in such positive waves, and it's such an asset for the whole community.
• 12:18
  So that energy, I wake up in the morning with that and I keep going.
• 12:22
  No, no, no, no.
• 12:22
  You stay up all night.
• 12:24
  I think you and I have swapped text messages in O dark 30.
• 12:27
  Yeah.
• 12:27
  'cause I'm getting up.
• 12:28
  I'm going to work in an early morning job.
• 12:30
  Yeah, you're just probably going to bed, Dan, but I'm just getting in.
• 12:32
  We don't think that you even sleep.
• 12:34
  You told me once that you wake up, maybe one 30 or two ideas
• 12:38
  come to you and you just don't.
• 12:40
  I write 'em down.
• 12:41
  Stop.
• 12:41
  You do.
• 12:41
  Yeah.
• 12:42
  You're like, buddy the elf, you get a fresh 40 minutes.
• 12:44
  Yeah.
• 12:44
  And you have time to build a rocking horse.
• 12:45
  Yeah.
• 12:46
  Yeah, yeah.
• 12:46
  Doesn't that come to catch up with you?
• 12:48
  Um, I'm a good sleeper now.
• 12:50
  My kids were most worried about that.
• 12:52
  So my son, I'm not wearing it now, but made me, he got me a whoop
• 12:57
  so that he actually can measure my, do you know what a whoop is?
• 13:00
  What's a whoop?
• 13:00
  There it is.
• 13:01
  It it, it measures your sleep.
• 13:05
  It measures your activity.
• 13:06
  Oh, so it's like, it's like one of these like, like an AA ring.
• 13:08
  It is, it's okay.
• 13:09
  And it's hooked up to his.
• 13:11
  So he sees it and so he knows they're tracking your sleep.
• 13:15
  They're tracking my, my sleep.
• 13:16
  Wow.
• 13:16
  Usually parents LoJack the kids.
• 13:18
  It's the other way around here.
• 13:19
  Why don't they just put a baby monitor in your room?
• 13:24
  Yeah, they, they are tracking my sleep.
• 13:26
  So, but you've got a nutrition background, so I wonder if,
• 13:29
  does that factor into this?
• 13:30
  Are you eating all healthy and everything?
• 13:31
  Oh, I do.
• 13:32
  Oh my gosh.
• 13:33
  I'm, I'm a green drink person every morning.
• 13:36
  That's what I do, do really well.
• 13:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 13:38
  Is nutrition.
• 13:39
  It's the sleep part.
• 13:40
  That issue, I think it alludes all of us an issue.
• 13:42
  Sleep.
• 13:42
  Yeah.
• 13:42
  Yeah.
• 13:43
  But with you, is it because you can't sleep or just because you're so full of
• 13:47
  enthusiasm and energy about what you do, that you just want to consume all of the
• 13:51
  daylight hours that you can awake, hours that you, well, it's also because I'm
• 13:55
  trying to build a $57.8 million building.
• 13:59
  I heard something about this.
• 14:00
  Yes.
• 14:00
  The sleep and the stress that goes with that.
• 14:03
  Sure.
• 14:03
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:04
  And the stress that even goes with running a nonprofit and to help
• 14:08
  have the funds to be able to serve the people that we need to serve.
• 14:11
  I mean, we, this year for example, we have more requests for financial assistance
• 14:16
  than any other year we've ever had before.
• 14:18
  Yeah.
• 14:19
  Tell us the joy that you must be experiencing when you drive on Main Street
• 14:23
  and you look and you see the crews that are clearing the land and getting ready to
• 14:27
  be what will be v and you, you say it for us, the Kathy Gerald Bingo region YMCA.
• 14:34
  It's a mouthful.
• 14:35
  Yes, it's It's a heartful too though.
• 14:36
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:37
  Yes it is.
• 14:37
  It's so exciting, but it's so every time I look at it, I just
• 14:41
  see such gratitude because.
• 14:43
  It could not happen without the support of this community.
• 14:48
  It just could not happen, and it couldn't happen without the hard work
• 14:53
  and the effort of people who have served this Y for years, much longer
• 14:58
  than I have who came before me and brought the Y to where it is today.
• 15:04
  And the staff that is so dedicated, the board of directors that are so dedicated.
• 15:08
  It really is a, it's a community effort to help make this happen and
• 15:13
  it will change this community for generations to come, which is really
• 15:17
  an exciting thing to be a part of.
• 15:19
  And it's kind of like my love letter to this community that
• 15:22
  adopted me and embraced me.
• 15:25
  And, um, I once wrote a. Op-ed from loss to love from a girl from away.
• 15:32
  And it was when my parents passed away, 'cause I had moved my parents
• 15:35
  here the last year of their life who had been in Vegas for 70 years.
• 15:39
  And you know, I'm a fifth generation Nevada and their
• 15:42
  entire roots are in in Nevada.
• 15:44
  So they came here thinking they were coming just for a little short vacation
• 15:49
  and ended up staying a year with me and.
• 15:51
  When I lost them 18 days apart from each other, it was this community
• 15:56
  that stepped up to really support me through that and to show love
• 16:01
  and show such compassion and caring.
• 16:05
  And I just think this is my way of saying thank you back to this community
• 16:09
  for embracing me the way that you did.
• 16:11
  Because when I first came here, no names, I'm not gonna mention any names, but
• 16:15
  somebody told me, oh, people will never work with you 'cause you're from away.
• 16:20
  So, so I really want us to get rid of that from away idea.
• 16:25
  Oh, I thought you were gonna say you wanted us to get rid of that person.
• 16:28
  Yeah, we can do that.
• 16:28
  And I are ready to go take care of that.
• 16:30
  Yeah.
• 16:31
  Get 'em Dan.
• 16:31
  Yeah.
• 16:32
  We got a car with no license plates, we can make it happen.
• 16:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:34
  I was at Shaw's today in downtown Bangor Uhhuh, and podcasts should
• 16:39
  be evergreen, so I'm not gonna say what the site looks like.
• 16:41
  I'll just say it looks a lot different than it did when I was
• 16:43
  downtown a few days ago, right?
• 16:44
  I'm downtown every day, but I sometimes I just take a look at it, a hard look at it.
• 16:48
  Does that rapid progress, does that excite you?
• 16:50
  Does it make you nervous, stressed?
• 16:52
  How does that C site.
• 16:54
  It feel for you.
• 16:55
  It makes me so incredibly excited and happy because it's taken a a long
• 17:01
  time for us to get here, and it may look like a lot of progress is being
• 17:05
  made, but boy, there is so much work that has to be done on that site.
• 17:09
  You know, God bless Chen bro, AZ corporation, SMRT.
• 17:13
  Haley Ward because they're all the experts behind making this happen.
• 17:18
  But, you know, this is a long process.
• 17:19
  We will not be in that new building.
• 17:22
  They will not be completed with that building until
• 17:24
  probably, um, late summer of 27.
• 17:28
  So someone is gonna end up listening to this podcast, uh,
• 17:31
  three years after we launch it.
• 17:33
  Hmm.
• 17:33
  And they're going to hear these comments, right.
• 17:36
  And they're gonna think back to when they drove by the pile of dirt, right.
• 17:39
  And the excitement that was around the Y And they're gonna say, wow.
• 17:42
  Now we have this.
• 17:44
  Yes.
• 17:45
  Yes.
• 17:45
  How does that feel to you to kind of envision once you're through all of the
• 17:51
  construction and then you have this.
• 17:54
  Oh, well, if whoever's listening to this three years after it has
• 17:59
  been opened and is running well and making such an impact, I actually
• 18:06
  will tell you guys, I'm hoping that.
• 18:09
  I will be sitting back and enjoying it, and maybe not as CEO, but as
• 18:17
  an active member and an active volunteer of the organization.
• 18:21
  I'm just so excited of what it's gonna bring to people of
• 18:24
  all ages, especially our kids.
• 18:26
  I mean, to have a basketball court back in the Y as it supposed to be.
• 18:31
  As it should be.
• 18:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 18:33
  That is a big deal in itself.
• 18:35
  And the fields outside.
• 18:36
  And the big fields outside, which has never been the case for a Y in Bangor.
• 18:41
  Yeah, for 158 years.
• 18:43
  So that's a big deal.
• 18:44
  And a teen center that's needed probably in this region more than ever.
• 18:47
  And a teen center.
• 18:49
  And a teen center that's critically needed, makes a difference every day.
• 18:52
  Places for seniors to come and not only to enjoy companionship, but to take part in
• 19:00
  physical activity that's gonna help them live a longer, a longer, more limb life.
• 19:04
  Longer healthy life.
• 19:05
  Life and, and even those that have already have chronic disease, that we get to
• 19:10
  work with them to help their lives, even with the disease that they might have.
• 19:15
  Live it in a happier, healthier way, and to live longer even with that
• 19:20
  disease, whether it be cancer, whether it be cardiac rehab issues, whether
• 19:24
  it be Alzheimer's, uh, or Parkinson's.
• 19:26
  So those are just wonderful things that we can help support a person's life.
• 19:31
  Members of your board have said to us, good luck trying to say no to Diane.
• 19:36
  It ain't gonna happen.
• 19:37
  I don't think they're wrong.
• 19:39
  Tell my kids that.
• 19:43
  Tell, tell the man I moved here to Bangor.
• 19:46
  That, okay.
• 19:47
  I don't know about that, but, but so many have said to us that you
• 19:51
  have a way, not of wearing people down, but winning people over.
• 19:56
  Now, if I'm wrong, you can tell me I'm wrong.
• 19:58
  I, I don't even know what that means.
• 20:00
  I am just who I am and when I love something, the way I love
• 20:06
  this, I, I am definitely somebody who's full of a lot of love.
• 20:09
  I will, I will say that.
• 20:11
  And when I dedicate myself to something, I love something so intensely.
• 20:15
  It has all of.
• 20:16
  Um, whether it be an organization, people, family, friends, whatever.
• 20:21
  So I don't look at it that somebody said at the gr at the groundbreaking, and you
• 20:26
  know, well, if she'll come at you this way, but if she doesn't get you that
• 20:29
  way, she's gonna come at you another way.
• 20:31
  And I don't see that.
• 20:32
  To me, it's all genuine.
• 20:35
  Passion and caring for the right thing.
• 20:39
  At least the right thing for for me.
• 20:41
  Can I diagnose?
• 20:42
  Can I get my doctor's jacket on here for a second?
• 20:43
  Yes, please.
• 20:44
  I'm gonna get the white jacket on.
• 20:45
  Excuse me.
• 20:45
  I'm just gonna, Dr. Cashman.
• 20:46
  Dr. Cashman, I get my stethoscope.
• 20:48
  Yep.
• 20:49
  I think it's a level of authenticity.
• 20:51
  I think Diane Dickerson is one of the most authentic people you're going to run into.
• 20:55
  Which is sort of funny because two of the places that you mentioned that you've
• 20:59
  lived so long are known for being fake.
• 21:02
  Fake, yeah.
• 21:02
  Los Angeles.
• 21:03
  And Las Vegas.
• 21:04
  And Las Vegas.
• 21:05
  And, and you know, and you can also say that a little bit about
• 21:07
  Washington dc DC I think that you possess a level of authenticity.
• 21:11
  So when you do exert the passion.
• 21:13
  We know it's real.
• 21:14
  When you, uh, bring out the love for what you do.
• 21:17
  We know it's real.
• 21:18
  When you make the ask, we know it's real.
• 21:20
  And I would say that the authenticity of Diane Dickerson is what makes you unique.
• 21:26
  I love your diagnosis.
• 21:28
  Thank you.
• 21:28
  I'm gonna take off the steps.
• 21:29
  Go now.
• 21:29
  I love your diagnosis.
• 21:30
  I want you off the jacket.
• 21:31
  I want you to make sure that goes on my tombstone somewhere.
• 21:35
  We'll have to condense it.
• 21:35
  There's a lot that's gonna have to be shorter.
• 21:37
  Yeah.
• 21:37
  But sharing that level of authenticity.
• 21:39
  Does not come without a commitment of energy.
• 21:42
  A hundred percent.
• 21:43
  And so that takes me back to, I don't understand where you find
• 21:46
  the energy to do all that you do.
• 21:49
  Maybe you're curling up and taking a 20 minute ca nap under the desk there at
• 21:52
  the, at the existing Why, boy is this the.
• 21:55
  Pot calling the kettle black when we look at him.
• 21:58
  I don't know what you're talking about.
• 22:00
  But anyway, the difference is Ric is just angry all day.
• 22:03
  Don't make me angry, Dan.
• 22:05
  You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
• 22:08
  Uh, good genes.
• 22:09
  Definitely.
• 22:09
  Good genes.
• 22:10
  Well, that's what I thought when you talked about mom and dad.
• 22:12
  Yeah.
• 22:12
  And probably the nutrition.
• 22:13
  A hundred percent nutrition.
• 22:15
  And getting the sleep you need.
• 22:16
  And, and I guess part of it is, is what you've described devoting your
• 22:20
  emotional and uh, mental capital toward what is actually your passion
• 22:25
  and, and, and what matters the most.
• 22:26
  Yes.
• 22:26
  I bet you, I, I bet you don't play Wordle.
• 22:28
  I do not.
• 22:29
  Okay.
• 22:29
  You see who's got time for that?
• 22:30
  And guess what else?
• 22:30
  I don't do what?
• 22:32
  I don't do Facebook.
• 22:33
  I'm sorry.
• 22:34
  There's a person that doesn't do Facebook.
• 22:36
  You're the one.
• 22:36
  Hmm.
• 22:37
  Yes.
• 22:38
  I don't do Facebook, and yes, I, because, you know, I, I really don't have time and
• 22:43
  I, I just think that becomes a full-time job after if you don't Facebook, how
• 22:47
  are you gonna know my score from Wordle?
• 22:51
  I'll call you every morning.
• 22:52
  Okay, that sounds good.
• 22:53
  At one in the morning.
• 22:54
  Yeah.
• 22:55
  I'll call you when she, when she and I are swapping text
• 22:57
  messages, Hey, what if we try this?
• 22:59
  I get a better idea.
• 23:00
  Let's do this.
• 23:01
  You got a great staff.
• 23:02
  I do love.
• 23:03
  I don't know if you could do what you do if you didn't have these people
• 23:06
  that are surrounding you and working with you in concert with you, Ric.
• 23:09
  100%. And I tell them this all the time.
• 23:13
  I tell the board this all the time.
• 23:15
  I tell anybody that will listen.
• 23:16
  That the staff of the Y. I get emotional about them.
• 23:20
  We are a family and many of them are young that have grown up with us.
• 23:24
  You know, even from before they became a staff person, they were
• 23:27
  part of our Y membership or on our swim team or at Camp Jordan, and
• 23:33
  they've just kind of rolled into it.
• 23:34
  So I've been able to watch them grow and now they evolve into these
• 23:38
  wonderful professional people who.
• 23:41
  Again, are so passionate and dedicated about what we get to do every day.
• 23:46
  We don't have to do what we do.
• 23:47
  We get to do what we do.
• 23:49
  You just mentioned Camp Jordan, and I feel like sometimes I forget that Camp
• 23:53
  Jordan is part of the Bangore y, but Camp Jordan is such a special place for
• 23:57
  my own kids, for generations of kids that have gone through the program.
• 24:03
  What makes Camp Jordan so special?
• 24:05
  It allows children and teens to be themselves and to be honored,
• 24:11
  supported, and truly worshiped for who they are as individuals.
• 24:16
  And it is such a place where acceptance and belonging is so beautiful
• 24:22
  from kids from all over the world.
• 24:24
  I mean, it's not just, you know, Bangor Brewer or even the region kids.
• 24:28
  They come from all over the states and, and, and people internationally.
• 24:32
  It's just a really beautiful melting pot of humanity, and
• 24:36
  I think kids appreciate that.
• 24:38
  It also gets them off of their electronics, and I love you for that.
• 24:43
  Yes, yes, yes.
• 24:45
  And you know, frankly, I think that's probably one of the healthiest things
• 24:48
  that we can do for kids and where they are just getting to be kids again and sharing
• 24:54
  with each other face to face rather than.
• 24:57
  On any sort of device and it makes a big difference.
• 25:00
  I will tell you, camp Jordan is life changing for kids.
• 25:02
  I mean, it has truly changed kids' future by attending Camp Jordan and being a part
• 25:08
  of, you know, not just from the younger years, but also then into leader school
• 25:13
  and just really learning how to become.
• 25:16
  The person that they are and respecting the person that they are
• 25:19
  and being committed to remain the person that they are at Camp Jordan.
• 25:24
  They wanna continue on once they leave.
• 25:27
  It's beautiful place to be.
• 25:29
  A moment ago, we asked you to cast your vision ahead for three
• 25:31
  years, for when the new Y is open.
• 25:33
  I'm gonna ask you a similar but different question.
• 25:36
  What would our region be like if we didn't have the why?
• 25:41
  Oh, goodness.
• 25:43
  What would our children do?
• 25:46
  Parents would not have a place to bring their child so they could work.
• 25:50
  From an economy standpoint.
• 25:52
  Just from an overall, if I put on my business hat from an
• 25:55
  overall economy standpoint, this community would be suffering.
• 25:58
  Without the why, we would not have as many happy children.
• 26:02
  We wouldn't have as many happy teens.
• 26:04
  We wouldn't be able to take a child through.
• 26:07
  From infancy to toddler to school age to teens, and help give to the world
• 26:13
  these wonderful human beings who really want to give back and do something good.
• 26:18
  We, we wouldn't have that camaraderie wouldn't, we wouldn't have people
• 26:22
  multi-generational coming together.
• 26:25
  I just can't even imagine.
• 26:27
  I, and I've heard this before, others before my time.
• 26:30
  I remember my first year here, I'd filmed.
• 26:32
  Cliff Eames and Sally Arata and some other people, and I remember them
• 26:37
  saying in this video is, what would this community ever be without A-Y-M-C-A?
• 26:43
  We've been doing this for 158 years in this community, and I believe.
• 26:48
  We are the community that we are today because we've always had a why, and as
• 26:53
  we grow and develop as a region, I just think the Y even becomes more vitally
• 26:59
  important, and I think it becomes more vitally important for our children
• 27:03
  who growing up today is much more difficult, certainly than it was when.
• 27:07
  I was growing up and probably you're so much younger than I am, so probably even
• 27:12
  when you're, you were growing up, and I think the Y is just a crucial place to be.
• 27:16
  It's a community asset.
• 27:18
  It brings this community together, it makes us stronger altogether,
• 27:22
  and it makes our economic picture of this community better and stronger.
• 27:27
  So I ask you the follow-up question with all seriousness.
• 27:31
  What would this region be like without Diane Dickerson?
• 27:33
  No, that's so nice.
• 27:35
  What would Diane Dickerson be without this community in this region?
• 27:40
  I count my blessings every day that I am here and that I came to Maine.
• 27:47
  You know, even though it was kicking and screaming in the first place, it
• 27:51
  is exactly where I am supposed to be.
• 27:53
  And I have met some of the most important people in my life in Maine, the ones
• 27:59
  who have just captured my heart so much.
• 28:02
  It's been a wonderful family spot for me.
• 28:04
  I've got three kids and now three grandsons.
• 28:08
  That love Maine.
• 28:10
  They just love Maine.
• 28:11
  I think that it's a healthier place to live.
• 28:15
  I think that I'm gonna, I'm, you know, my goal is to live to 110,
• 28:18
  and I think I'm going to reach that because I get to live in Maine.
• 28:24
  I wanna believe everything that you said to me, but you also said to me in an email
• 28:27
  that you were a showgirl in Las Vegas.
• 28:29
  So now I'm second guessing everything about our relationship.
• 28:33
  Diane.
• 28:33
  Oh my goodness.
• 28:34
  I just love the fact that you actually believe that.
• 28:37
  I mean, you can look at me.
• 28:39
  You know a ch I chubby.
• 28:41
  Chubby cheeks.
• 28:41
  No, you're not chubby, chubby cheeks, dimples, you know, and don't have the
• 28:45
  assets that some of those show girls have.
• 28:48
  Stop, stop, stop it.
• 28:49
  Thanks for listening to the Ric and Dan Show.
• 28:51
  Thanks Ric for making this a very entertaining, unique experience.
• 28:56
  Sarcasm, filter off.
• 28:58
  Oh man.
• 28:58
  If you like what you heard, don't suppose to click that subscribe
• 29:01
  button and maybe leave us a review on your favorite listening platform.
• 29:04
  Five stars are our favorite, and next time you hear someone say you can't
• 29:08
  get there from here, you tell 'em to listen to the Ric and Dan show.