Whenever I get new assignments for BizVoice® magazine, I get excited about the stories I’ll get to research and share with our readers; particularly when it’s time to interview our Chamber Volunteers of the Year.
So far, I’ve gotten to speak to some of the most earnest, humble people and each time I’ve come away from those interviews with such an excitement to share the passion and drive these Chamber volunteers possess.
This year was no exception. I’ve actually been using the term “salt of the Earth” to describe her to my co-workers. And we had so much to discuss, that I only got to put a fraction of her story into our November-December edition, which you can read online.
Marci Crozier has been involved with the Wellness Council of Indiana since its onset in the early 1980s. She’s well-known as one of Indiana’s Biggest Losers from the popular NBC television show and is regional director of marketing and sales for Franciscan Omni 41 Health and Fitness Connection in northwestern Indiana.
Here are just a few other things Marci had to say about volunteerism, life and health and wellness:
“Fifty percent of the people that write us and talk to us about personal things are about weight and fitness, but the other 50% is about everything from gambling, to alcoholism, to especially relationships issues. They can’t figure out why they have these problems. I try to tell them, ‘I’m not a doctor, I’m not a therapist. But I will tell you from my own experience that you have to love yourself before you’re going to be able to be in a good relationship.’ ”
A story about her mother’s philanthropic spirit:
“She worked in a deli and she told me this story just before she died and she said ‘There was this lady that used to come to the deli and she couldn’t cook and her in-laws thought she could cook. She would come to me and I made this banana pudding…and I said to this lady, I could make this great thing; I’ll make it for you. I didn’t make it at the deli; I made it at home because I didn’t want her to pay for it.
“…She doesn’t pay me with money; she pays me by her thankfulness. That helps me to feel good about life. I’m able to do for other people because I can; God gave me the gift to cook and this lady can’t do that. But she has other things and I make her promise to do something good, something that’s a gift for somebody else.’
“That’s the kind of stuff I try to teach my kids. It doesn’t have to be money especially; people always think of money. But sometimes it’s just about being there for somebody.”
On what wellness really is:
“I didn’t even know what wellness was. I really thought it was fitness. I thought, if we can get people moving, it’ll make all the difference in the world. But it’s not all the difference in the world. People need to know how to invest their money. People need to know that if you want to have wellness, you need to surround yourself in your social life with the people that have your same kind of interests. People need to know that family relationships are probably the most important things and how can they work through those.
“…One thing people are always afraid of talking about and I think that’s why I love working for this organization as much as I do, is the spiritual aspect of wellness. Religion means different things to a lot of different people. When you talk spirituality with people you can speak their language. Sometimes when I talk spirituality with people it’s about centering themselves – not knowing that there’s a God; I don’t really care who their God is, they can believe whatever they want to believe. But they have to know there’s something greater than them, that they’re serving a purpose, a greater good that is way better than them.”