Goodwill Industries of Dallas President and CEO Tim Heis was happy.
Not only had Goodwill recently partnered with the University of North Texas to jump-start Goodwill’s Empowerment Works job program for people with disabilities, Heis told MySweetCharity. But the non-profit had just attracted 700 guests including Jan and Fred Hegi with son Peter Hegi, Kate and Willing Ryan, Kathy and Larry Helm, Laura Downing, Katherine Wyker, Jill Smith, Robin Robinson, Barb and Steve Durham with daughter Julie Durham Rado to its marquee fundraising event called The Lunch at the Omni Dallas Hotel.
Presented by JPMorgan Chase and Co. with the theme, “Risk Boldly And Live Fully,” The Lunch took place on Friday, October 3.
Olympic gold and bronze medalist Lindsey Vonn was the event’s featured speaker, holding the crowd in thrall during a long conversation with moderator Hannah Davis.
Luncheon Chair Kathryn Cassidy, vice chair of the Goodwill Dallas board, kicked off the luncheon by welcoming the guests and thanking JPMorgan Chase for its sponsorship. She explained that Goodwill fulfills its mission in two ways — through its donated goods business and through its workforce development programs — and that all of The Lunch proceeds go to those programs. She then introduced the Rev. Paul Robertson, senior minister of Highland Park United Methodist Church, who gave the invocation.
As the guests tucked into their meal — spinach salad and honey-glazed chicken with risotto and vegetables followed by a fruit tart or turtle cheesecake with fudge sauce — they heard from Tim as well as JPMorgan’s Jake Masso. Jake introduced a special video about Natasha, a Goodwill employee who clocks in at work every morning at 7:30. Natasha discovered Goodwill in 2015 and recently participated in the UNT program, helping her secure a new position at Goodwill as a “tagger.”
Kyle Miller, Goodwill’s board chair, took the stage next. He said the non-profit employs more than 900 people with disabilities and barriers to employment, and also serves more than 2,000 people with career and job placement services. He then introduced Hannah and keynote speaker Lindsey, whose career he said epitomizes the day’s theme, “Risk Boldly And Live Fully.”
A recently retired, Olympic-winning alpine ski racer, Lindsey holds four World Cup titles, making her one of only six women to win World Cup races in all five disciplines of Alpine skiing. She’s also a best-selling author and an NBC Sports broadcast analyst.
Here are a few of Lindsey’s insights from the conversation:
- On the connection between preparation and taking risks: “When you are prepared to take risks, it doesn’t feel like as big a risk. When I ski down a mountain at 85 miles an hour, I’ve worked my entire life to be prepared mentally and physically to be in that moment. No matter who I’m talking to, or what room I’m in, there’s always something to be learned. And that prepares me for whatever is to come in the future.”
- On the importance of learning from failure: “Failures are what teaches us most in life. I didn’t really learn anything from winning. I learned from when I fell. Why did I fall? What could I do better — how much stronger could I be? If I fall, I’ll learn something from it. I’ll be stronger — mentally, if not always physically. And the next time, hopefully I don’t fall.”
- On balancing confidence and humility: “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I think you can have both. You do have to be confident in what you’re doing. Does that mean you can’t be nice to someone? Does that mean you can’t accept failure or criticism? You should always be willing to learn. It’s a combination of believing in yourself and your skill but knowing that I could always be better and I respect the people that I’m around and knowing I’m not better than anyone just because I want to race. Under Armour has a saying: ‘Stay humble and hungry,’ and I love that. That epitomizes how I approach life. I want to be confident and hungry and always searching for that next challenge, but I’m also very humble. I’m from Minnesota, and I want to make my grandparents proud!”
- On how her confidence was bolstered by her parents: “I went to my dad after meeting [Olympic gold medalist] Picabo Street at a ski shop in Minnesota and I said, ‘I want to be in the Olympics, like Picabo.” He didn’t laugh; he didn’t second-guess me. He said, ‘OK, we’re going to need a plan. Are you ready to work hard?’ So, we literally made a 10-year plan, and that made me feel so empowered. Like: Yes, my dad believes in me, and I’m going to do this! My parents never wavered. My whole family moved to Colorado when I was 12 so that I could ski race. That’s how much confidence my parents had in me. It was that true confidence — that my parents really believed that I was going to make it — that’s allowed me to go through life with that sort of confidence.”
- On her Lindsey Vonn Foundation, whose purpose is empowering young girls: “I started my foundation with the premise of, what can I do to inspire kids the way Picabo inspired me? We have empowerment camps, we have scholarship programs. We have 50% education, 50% sports. I’ve seen so many amazing kids come through the program, and [we’ve] given out over a million dollars in scholarships. We have some incredible young women who are changing the world. One of them made it to the Olympics; one of them is working for NASA. It’s really inspiring to see what you can do with just a little bit of time and energy.”
- On her future plans: “I’m probably going to be like my grandfather, who wanted to work until he died. I don’t see myself slowing down, but I know it probably would be healthy to eventually slow down a little bit. Hopefully I’ll have kids someday, and that’ll probably take up the majority of my time. But, I face every day with an open mind. I try to make the best choices every day and find new challenges that I have passion towards. That’s kind of the great thing about life. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m excited about that.”
* Photo provided by Goodwill Industries of Dallas