Transcription of Home in Maine, #89
Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast. Recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Download past shows and become a podcast subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.
Lisa: It’s really remarkable how far we’ve come. I knew the insulin pump was the size of my head at some point, and then now, it’s just so small and so seamless. People are able to really take control. We started out as a research organization. We’re also focusing on prevention and management because we don’t know when there’s going to be that cure for type 2 and type 1. We really need to take all facets into consideration.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary by Design, Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Show #89, Home in Maine, airing for the first time on Sunday, May 26th 2013. On today’s show, we speak with guests who have ideas about what it is to have home in Maine. Our guests include Chris Lynch, President of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty and Mike LePage, owner/agent from Re/Max Heritage in Yarmouth, also, Rick Toronto, a business owner and home owner in Kennebunkport and Lisa Medina, the Event Manager of Tour de Cure – Kennebunks.
I have called Maine home since 1977. My parents, both Maine natives, wanted their children to know their extended family. Having been born in Vermont during my father’s final year of medical school, I spent my early years near the navy bases in Virginia and Florida where my dad completed his family medicine training.
When my parents suggested that we would be moving north, I was intrigued. A January baby, I had experienced snow on my birthday only once during a freak Jacksonville storm. I wanted to enjoy winter white so I readily agreed to our family’s journey back to the motherland.
In retrospect, this may have been shortsighted. I have since seen plenty Maine winters begin to seem pretty long by March. What I could not have known as a Florida first grader was that Maine would become my home indefinitely or that it would ultimately become a home of choice rather than destiny.
Maine is a complicated, often cantankerous state. It is not for the faint of heart. In addition to endless winters, we have our share of poverty and social woes, but we who live here also have an accepting and indomitable spirit. We know what we have gotten ourselves into. We accept equally the challenges and the rewards. We relish the intensity of the short Maine summers and the beauty inherent in the landscape year round. We understand our good fortune.
I came to Maine in 1977. I have traveled and lived elsewhere but I choose to live in this great state. Maine is and will always be my home. We hope you enjoy our Home in Maine conversations with Chris Lynch, Mike LePage, Lisa Medina and Rick Toronto.
Dr. Lisa: Today on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour, we’re explaining the importance of homes and why people choose to make a home here in Maine. I couldn’t think of two better people to come in and talk about this notion than Christopher Lynch, who is the president of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty and Mike LePage, broker/owner of Re/Max Heritage. Thank you for coming in and having this conversation with me. It’s good to see you both.
Mike: Good to see you.
Chris: Thanks.
Dr. Lisa: Our longtime listeners will know that Mike LePage has been on previously, I believe it was a year ago in January talking about your very personal story and struggles with cancer and overcoming SIDS deaths and all these very interesting things that make you this wonderful person that I’ve loved to have in my life for a long time, not only as my own personal real estate broker but also my friend. I hope people who are listening go back and listen to that show from January of 2012.
Mike: That show ironically called Joy.
Dr. Lisa: It’s called Joy, right. That’s the idea is that you … actually, you’ve had these things happened and you’ve managed to find joy in your life. Chris has also managed to find joy in his life because I had a conversation with Chris just yesterday talking about choices he’s made to go from Wall Street, many hours, not that much time being able to at least spend with your family and your kids and just one day saying, “You know what, I got to change my priorities. I’ve done what I need to do over here and I’m going to move to Maine and I’m going to do things differently.”
It’s interesting to have you here as people in the real estate field but it’s more interesting to have you here as people. Is it unusual for two people who are owners of their own agencies to sit together in a room and have a conversation like this?
Chris: Not at all. Mike and I spend time together in a number of different venues in real estate and frankly, outside of real estate.
Mike: One of the things that people forget is that real estate transactions typically have two people coming together to either buy or sell a home and usually, there’s a broker on either side of that and the better that we know each other, the more we cooperate, the better it goes for both of our clients. That’s really been true with Chris in my experience.
Dr. Lisa: Real estate strikes me as a very unique sales situation because you aren’t just selling a product and you’re not just selling something that is impermanent. You’re selling a very real part of a person’s upcoming life. You’re selling them possibly a piece of their dream. Does that present challenges at times?
Mike: I don’t even think of it as sales. I had been in sales in my life before. I really believe what we’re in now is the service industry because we are really trying to help while we’re working with a buyer. We’re trying to help them find what’s right for them. That’s a process. It’s a psychological … it’s an emotional process and one where the better you get to know your clients, the better that you can represent them.
Chris: We find that the emotional attachment that so many sellers have to their home is where they raise their kids. It’s where they had their daughter’s wedding. It’s where they had their son’s graduation parties. It’s where their whole life is wrapped up and all those memories on every corner of the house.
They attach a tremendous amount of value to that including financial value, where the buyer coming in doesn’t have that. They’re looking to clear that space and make their own memories going forward. Early on, it’s very, very difficult.
Mike: For the seller, too, that emotional value of leaving a house is very real. Once over the financial aspect of it, if they’ve lived there for 20, 30 years, their kids have grown up there, the little marks are on the wall where they grew another inch, those things are very emotional for people. It’s a tough process to go through for them but at the end of the day, I think it’s part of our role to make it as smooth and seamless as it can be.
Dr. Lisa: I can attest to this because as I said, I’ve done a lot of buying and selling of houses with you, Mike. I know that you and I spend a lot of time, I guess, driving around cars and looking at various places. I think you’re making an enormous decision about something that isn’t always completely rational. It’s a hard thing to try to bring both your brain and your heart together to make a decision that could have a really significant impact not only emotionally but financially.
Mike: The bigger challenge sometimes is there’s two brains and two hearts involved in the decision so helping them find that match too is part of that creativity, I think.
Chris: The moving process brings out a lot of that emotion. They’re in the attic cleaning out boxes that they haven’t opened in 25 years. One of my agents was just with a couple and they pulled out a box that had their … their daughter is 40 years old, 41 years old, pulled out a mask that she wore on her third grade play. They were arguing over whether to keep the mask or not and it brought back all those memories of the times in the house.
Really is it’s that getting the two people on the same page to begin with and helping them understand that where they’re going is probably going to be simpler, likely cheaper. There’s a sustainability element for their lives to moving on, but it’s very hard to cut the cord.
Dr. Lisa: Do you have to help people with the idea of letting go?
Mike: Yeah, that’s a big part of it. Listening to Chris talk about that experience reminds me. I was with my sister. I grew up in Bath. I was with my sister this week and visiting my parents. We drove by the first house we ever lived in. It’s a tiny little ranch in Bath, Maine.
It just struck me how everybody needs four bedrooms, two and a half baths. We grew up very happily for the first eight years of my life before we moved to only a slightly bigger house and this tiny little three-bedroom house in a little neighborhood in Bath. That was really grabbed me as a perspective that I hadn’t had in a while.
Dr. Lisa: Mike, as you said, you grew up in Maine. You grew up in Bath. I know you went away and you came back. Chris, you grew up in Andover, Mass. You spent time on Wall Street and made this big decision to change. There’s something about Maine for the two of you that caused you to come back here. What was it?
Chris: For me, it just seemed like a perfect place to raise kids. Working on Wall Street, I was there for 17 years, typically, left the house at 5, 5:15 in the morning, got home between 9 and 10 at night on a good day, traveled quite a lot both domestically and internationally. We had three kids at home, my wife, who I very rarely saw, most of the weekends were either working or recovering from the workweek.
A month after my 38th birthday came home and said, “Let’s go do something different. Let’s take the kids. Let’s go someplace where they can grow up a little more slowly, where we can enjoy ourselves, enjoy our kids, enjoy our family.” The Greater Portland area was one of the few spots as you go up and down the Eastern seaboard that has … we were also looking for more vacation element, as well, outdoor lifestyle element, an oceanfront element that they have the school systems, and the Greater Portland area, with the access to the ocean, was really relatively unique. The Greater Portland area frankly was substantially less expensive from an entry price point in places like Marblehead, Massachusetts, which would have been high on that list or Annapolis, Maryland, which would have been on that list. It was also much less crowded. We just felt it was going to create opportunities. Our kids at the time were going to fourth grade, second grade, kindergarten. We just had a one-year-old. It was a really neat time for us as a family to do something very different.
Mike: How did Maine hit your radar in the first place?
Chris: I was a Bates grad. I came from Massachusetts to Bates, Bates to New York. I knew Maine. I knew the Greater Portland area. I loved my time at Bates, the lifestyle here, the fact that there’s very little crime, very little traffic, easy access. It had always been on my radar screen as a possible resting stop.
Mike: I think that’s pretty common for a lot of people. Lisa and I were talking earlier about what first attracts people to Maine? Why do people return here after they’ve done some things in life? In Maine in particular, there are a lot of touch points like Bates, Bowdoin, Colby. Historically, the Naval Air Station in Brunswick is one of those places where people maybe only spent a year here, maybe two years but something grabbed them.
To me, in that Brunswick area, it’s that drive out to Bailey’s Island. In my mind, that’s what people think of when they think, what is Maine like? It is like that but it’s of course so many other things too.
Chris: Summer camps. I had lunch yesterday with someone who was a camp counselor at one of the Maine camps back in late ‘60s or early ‘70s. He left the state. He wasn’t living in the state at the time, just here for the summer and met his wife, then fiancé and the verbal prenup was that at some point they would have to live in Maine.
It’s that connection through being a summer camper and a summer camp counselor. We hear that a lot, that connection with just with some of the fantastic times in their lives, largely due to the outdoors, just the fantastically beautiful lakes, ocean, mountains, hiking, woods. It’s just really special.
Mike: I worked for seven summers at one of those summer camps. None of the campers were from Maine. It’s a camp that still exists. It celebrated its 95th anniversary last year and I went. It was this great celebration. A number of those campers were now in their 50s, like I am, have a summer home in Maine on a lake, just taking it in, exactly what you were talking about. There were so many camps in Maine. It’s just a real draw and it’s their first experience. They keep coming back.
Dr. Lisa: One of the reasons that we wanted to have you in today is because the Kennebunkport Festival is coming up very soon. I know that Legacy as a big sponsor of the Kennebunkport Festival and Mike as someone from Re/Max and Re/Max has sponsored the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is very much affiliated with the Kennebunkport Festival.
Mike: All coming together.
Dr. Lisa: Yeah, I made all those connections work. We wanted to talk about specifically why that part of the world? Why that part of the state? Why Kennebunk had such a draw? You have Walker Point. You have the Bushes who live there, still live there. It just seems to have become this great spot of activity and energy.
Mike: Chris really touched on it when he was talking about his story of moving to Maine. Part of it is, I think, a lot of people, if they had the opportunity, would love to live in a home that looks at the ocean. Maine has more waterfront than California and …
Chris: Florida combined.
Mike: … Florida combined, right?
Chris: Combined.
Mike: I was quoting you from last week.
Chris: 3,500 miles.
Mike: Over 3,000 miles of waterfront. That makes it affordable. It’s also as far as north as you can go in the United States and our population is low. There’s real opportunity for people to live for half price even less than that compared to what it would be in Massachusetts, even New Hampshire. That’s the first point, but I think it’s more than that.
Chris: I don’t know what brought the Bush’s to Kennebunkport originally. Maybe it was before my time. Maybe it was always a great destination. Clearly, it’s become very, very, very popular. It’s probably what we see in our business is probably the biggest feeder market for potential buyers. Not everybody buys on that market but they come. They enjoy it. Maybe they’re looking for something a little different, something a little more remote, a little more private, more peaceful, less expensive. It also happens to be one of the more expensive marketplaces in the state. It really is a fantastic draw for people from all over the world to come and dine and play and go on whale watches and harbor cruises and see the Bush estate and meet all kinds of interesting people, not just in the summer anymore but year round now.
Mike: It’s also, too, those people that spend some time in Kennebunkport. It doesn’t take them very long before they go to a place and then they’re known already. It’s such an intimate place that relationships are built quickly. There’s a familiarity that happens. It’s much faster in a place like Kennebunkport. That dock square area is just so small. You walk around twice, you start to see people that look familiar because you just saw them yesterday. Mapleton, Alison’s Restaurant and all of those places are just really great spots.
Dr. Lisa: We’ll return to our program in a moment. On the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we’ve long understood the important link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the subject is Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
Tom: Maine is my home. My home is in Maine. What does it take to feel at home in Maine? Do you know what to do, where to go and who to go there with? When you do and it feels natural, then you’ll know that you have made a home in Maine. First, Maine wants you to discover what she has to offer and then make a place to create.
There’s more drama in this pattern of life here in Maine than some other places. That is what makes Maine a harder place to live and work, but in the end, a place that is far more rewarding. There is no auto road to the top of our tallest mountain, just a knife edge. It surely can be said of this place if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. That is why I chose to make Maine my home, not because I’m an idiot but because I find more value in feeling the journey.
If you need help designing your home in Maine, send us an e-mail to [email protected].
Speaker 1: Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC. Investment advice offered through Flagship Harbor Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Flagship Harbor Advisors and Shepard Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
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Mike: Maine Association of Realtors has a campaign ongoing called Pinch Me. It’s got a lobster on the advertisement for it. Pinch Me because a second home in Maine is affordable and mortgage interest reduction is one of those things that threatens the real estate business and the privilege of homeownership and working hard to maintain that through our contacts in Washington, D.C. and locally. That whole piece of having a part of Maine in your portfolio as inexpensive as it is becomes really important to people.
Chris: I travel the country and making presentations on Maine and what Maine has to … to real estate agents in different markets. I’ve been in New York, in Boston, Washington, D. C., Montreal, down to Florida, across to California. I meet with agents. I usually start the presentation by saying, “I’m going to guess …” In Montreal, I’m going to say, “I’m going to guess that everybody has a connection in Maine in Montreal.” About 50 or 60 agents in the room and I could all see that they were all nodding their heads, “Yes, yes, yes.” I hosted a gathering afterward. There was one woman who came up to me and said, “I don’t have a connection.” I said, “I’m sure you do.”
Mike: You do now.
Chris: You do now. It turns out as we talk through for about five minutes, her brother and sister-in-law summered in Ogunquit for five years going back about 10 years ago. She had sort of forgotten. From time to time, they still talk about coming back, renting and possibly even buying a place in Ogunquit. I said, “See.”
Connection to Maine is really very deep and it’s broad in all these cities. The feeder markets to Maine that everybody knows someone here. They’ve all been here to visit. They’ve all left with this feeling, “What a special place.”
Mike: It’s notion on second homes, many people think that someone from out of state is coming and buying a fairly expensive second home. A very high percentage of the second homes in Maine are in the middle of the woods for taking advantage of that asset or on a lake, on a river …
Chris: On a pond.
Mike: On a pond. It’s sort of a getaway. What do they call it a staycation? Stay in May for your vacation because a lot of people haven’t really explored all that Maine is. Depending on where you are, there’s just some spots in Maine like Katahdin. I don’t know what percentage of Maine have ever taken the trip out to Mount Katahdin. One of those really special places that needs to be seen before you go to Boston.
Chris: My wife hiked it last year. I canoed around it the year before but I haven’t gone to the top.
Mike: Let’s do that.
Chris: I know. We should do that before you get too old.
Dr. Lisa: All right. I feel like the inmates are ruling the asylum a little bit here. I think that you’ve provided this really broad idea of why it is that people come to Maine, why it is that people stay in Maine. Both of you have children who are on the older side. I guess, Mike, your kids are all … you have your final ones in college now.
Mike: Two seniors.
Dr. Lisa: Chris, you have a few more years. You have an eleven-year-old.
Chris: I have an eleven-year-old. He’s at fifth grade.
Dr. Lisa: Do you think that you will stay in Maine once that you’ve … you’re in these great school systems, all of those things we just talked about. Will you stay in Maine once you’re done raising your kids?
Mike: I don’t know. I’ll always have a place in Maine. I don’t ever anticipate leaving Maine permanently. With four kids, if they’re in a central play. I have two kids in Denver right now. Where is the ocean there? I could see moving somewhere else but always having an anchor here. That’s so far in the future. That’s at least 10 years away.
Chris: Same with us. To answer your earlier question a different way, so much of what drives that second home purchase is where their kids and grandkids are. That attraction is when you see a number of buyers who are buying homes today in hopes and expectations that their kids will come for the summer. If they’re too busy working all summer, they’ll send their grandkids for the summer. They’ll get to enjoy Maine in a different way with their grandparents who now own a place on a lake, in the woods, on the ocean in Maine.
Mike: Really, we need to turn this around to you. You’re one of 10 children who grew up in Yarmouth, Maine. Your parents are still there. What’s the story with your siblings? What percentage of them are around and your nieces and nephews and such? What do you think?
Dr. Lisa: Mike, that’s an interesting question. We’ve had … most of my siblings have gone away, and many of them have come back. The big draw is that my parents are still here. My parents made a conscious decision to stay here. They actually bought a big enough house so that all the grandkids can come stay. I do think there’s something very special about Maine. It keeps families here, and it keeps them coming back.
Mike: That was part of our experience is when I first married my wife, Megan and I moved to Seattle where she worked as a lawyer. We loved it. It was just a great city. The irony of it all was we came back here the fourth summer that we’re in Seattle just for a vacation.
As we were on the plane heading back, we were like, “Wow, what a tiny little place Maine is.” That was in August. In October, we sat around the dinner table and said with our two-year-old, “Will we ever move back to Maine?” The answer that was yes. On December 27th, we got in a car and drove back to Maine.
My wife started working at law firm with 21 other first year associates. One of those is still in Seattle today. We just felt really lucky that when we moved back to what we considered home, it was Maine. For some of them, it was other places that I find less appealing.
Dr. Lisa: I really appreciate the support that both of you have offered. Maine Magazine, Maine Home Design have offered at the Kennebunkport Festival upcoming and have offered the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and actually, the support that Mike has personally offered me and my houses and the support I know, Chris, that you’ve offered Kevin Thomas, the publisher of Maine Magazine. What you do is really important. People who are listening, it’s really, really important and it’s so much more than as we said about sales. It really is helping build the community. You’re doing really good work. I’m glad you took the time to come in and talk to me today.
Chris: Thank you for inviting us.
Mike: It was fun.
Dr. Lisa: We’ve been talking with Christopher Lynch, who is the President of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty and Mike LePage, broker/owner of Re/Max Heritage.
The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.
Ted: This morning as I was walking my dog as I do every morning, bright and early, the birds are out, the sun is just coming up, my landscape is coming alive where I can see it again. I was very interested to see the goose flying east. It was actually two geese. They were flying east. I went into my meditation room to check what that really meant.
Mother goose is all about childhood fairytales, the story of our childhood or the stories in our childhood, communication through the use of stories. Something fun about a natural storyteller is a real gift in life. You might know storytellers. There really bring a depth and resonance to our lives that is really quite remarkable.
The geese, their incessant honking seems to call to us to follow them on a great spiritual quest. Their return is the harbinger of spring and the harbinger of new beginning. When we see geese showing up on the springtime, it reminds us that, yes, spring us here because they are not around in the wintertime.
The V-formation is symbolic as its shape reflects an openness to new ideas, much like an arrowhead pointing in a new direction. These are things to pay attention to in nature. They bring more meaning to our lives. When you’re in your landscape, be aware, be present. Know what’s out there and understand what they’re trying to teach you and tell you.
I am Ted Carter. If you’d like, you can contact me at [email protected].
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Dr. Lisa: I knew our next guest before he knew me. I actually stayed in his house before he even realized who I was. I was very fortunate to do so because our guest, Rick Toronto, lives in arguably one of the more beautiful houses and one of the more unique houses in Kennebunk. It’s Kennebunk, right?
Rick: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Not Kennebunkport, yes? I always get those confused but you live on a beautifully designed house right near the beach. The doors open out to the ocean. It’s such a special place. We thought we’d have you come in and talk to us today because clearly you were drawn to this very special place. You were drawn to Kennebunk. You’ve been a big supporter of the Kennebunkport Festival for the past few years. We said, “You know what, if anybody can tell us what it is about Maine that’s magical, Rick Toronto can do that.”
Rick: Why thank you.
Dr. Lisa: Thanks for coming in.
Rick: Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: Rick, you’re not a Maine boy. You’re from elsewhere. You’re from away. Tell me about where you’ve come from.
Rick: Sure. I grew up in Burlington, Mass and had been living in Boston for the last eight or nine years. Then three years ago, I came up to visit some friends, wasn’t looking for a home. They were convinced that it was something that I needed to have. We went for a quick viewing and immediately fell in love with the spot. As you mentioned, it is extremely unique. I love the architectural interest of it. It looks like a beach house from the outside but inside, it feels like a much more modern open space. We bought in May of 2010 and have just grown to enjoy more and more our time that we spend up here in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport.
Dr. Lisa: What was it about Maine that initially brought you to the state before you even saw this beautiful house that you now live in? Why did you come to Maine?
Rick: I visited Maine often as a child visiting friends and York Beach but really haven’t been back in quite some time. It was after some friends relocated to Kennebunkport that we started to come up a little bit more often and just really started to feel like this was a place where we’d be very comfortable and really just want to live.
Dr. Lisa: I believe you used to have a place in Fort Lauderdale. You had the chance to live this exciting life, this glamorous life. You’ve lived near Boston. You could have chosen any of these more urban locales to lay your head for the rest of your life but that’s not what you did. Why, as you’re moving into, I know you’re going into an important birthday, why as you’re going into this important birthday, why was it important that you be in Maine?
Rick: I think Maine picked us. I don’t necessarily think that we picked it. We had been in Fort Lauderdale for a few years. It was a nice getaway but it was more of an escape. It wasn’t a place that we felt like we’d really grow any roots. After spending just a little bit of time here, this really seemed like the place where we’d be able to establish roots and really just start to build a new life for ourselves.
Honestly, after we saw the house and moved in, it very quickly became comfortable. Maine was the place that we wanted to be spending more time than Boston. Boston is where work happens. I think Maine is where our life really happens.
Dr. Lisa: You have a daughter, Olivia. I believe you told me she’s turning 11.
Rick: She will be, yeah.
Dr. Lisa: How does she feel about Maine?
Rick: She loves it. She keeps asking, “Daddy, why don’t we live here all the time as well?” We had some life back in Massachusetts but eventually this will be full time home.
Dr. Lisa: In addition to making Maine, transitioning into Maine being your more full time home, you’ve also had some transitions in your work life.
Rick: Sure, I think some very exciting changes personally. For the last 15 years, I’ve been working in clinical research in Boston in a number of different roles, in sales and marketing and executive management. It was certainly a great learning opportunity, not only professionally but personally.
Looking towards my 40th birthday and trying to figure out, “Is this what I’ll be doing for the next 10 years or is it time to shake things up?” Decided that it was time to start something completely new. Just established a new company in Kennebunkport in December, Details Event Staging, so focusing more on weddings and events in providing unique furniture, tabletop and accessories. It’s a very exciting transition time.
Dr. Lisa: One of the things that I noticed when I stayed in the house, because you were gracious enough to rent it out to Kevin Thomas who initially was the person who built this house, you rented it back to him for the first year that I was there at the Kennebunkport Festival, it’s not your classic Maine cottage, with the whitewashed walls and To the Beach sign. It’s got a very distinctive feel to it.
Rick: It does.
Dr. Lisa: Can you describe that feeling?
Rick: Since that we get … when we’re in the spaces, certainly, it’s a much more open ground. It’s not light and airy. I think it’s a bit more masculine in the design. What we are hoping to do soon is redecorate and take it to I think the house really has speaks to a midcentury modern type feel so really trying to bring that out in the house a little bit more. Hopefully, we’ll be making some updates this season.
Dr. Lisa: That’s was really working with a different part of your brain. You said you’ve done clinical research for 15 years. In your 20s, you started doing this job, which you’ve been doing for a long time. Now you’re going to this other thing, this events, Details Event Staging. You’re trying to bring beauty into people’s special occasions. That’s so interesting that you’ve gone from one to the other. You’re using these different parts of your brain.
Rick: Trying to tap into more of what I find myself gravitating towards in my downtime. We certainly love to entertain. Designing events has always been something that I’ve gravitated towards. We were married in October of 2011. That really started to bring out, I think, a lot of the interest and excitement in that, in using that part of my brain and now just really trying to focus on it and make that my business.
Dr. Lisa: I think anybody who goes back and looks at the wedding issue from Maine Magazine, the most recent wedding issue, we’ll see you in there, you and your partner, your husband now. The fact that you would want to get married in Maine even is also very telling of your love of place, that you would bring the love of your life up here, that you would bring your daughter up here, that you would bring yourself up here, that you would bring your entire life up here.
There’s so much of a draw to other places. Still, it’s the magic and the mystery that I just wonder about. Can you speak to that at all?
Rick: Sure. When we were initially planning and trying to figure out where would be the right spot for our wedding in Massachusetts certainly seemed like the obvious choice since at that time, it was not yet … same sex marriage was not yet legal here in Maine but after thinking about it and really fitting into that Boston’s where we work, Maine’s where we live. This was the logical place to celebrate such an exciting milestone in our life together.
I initially had some apprehension. Wondering as I started calling vendors, would people be receptive, welcoming, want to work with us? After just a few phone calls, realized that so many people here in Maine just are open-minded, welcoming and really just wanted to work with us and did such an amazing job helping us execute what I think was a really great weekend.
Dr. Lisa: That’s something that not every couple has to deal with. Not every couple has to think about the fact that maybe people won’t be accepting of their marriage. That actually took me aback for a minute because I’m thinking, “Gosh.” Usually, people just think routinely weddings. It’s a wedding. It’s so wonderful. It’s so nice. Everybody is going to be accepting of this.
You actually had to get to a place where you said, “Okay. We’re a little different than many people who are trying to married.”
Rick: John was very encouraging of pushing me to start planning everything up here. I’m so grateful that we did. Now certainly, I’m excited that other loving couples, all loving couples here in Maine now have the opportunity to get married. I’m excited to be working with a few same sex couples and helping them plan their future weddings.
Dr. Lisa: Is that part of this, deciding to do Details Event Staging is that you really want to bring the same joy to other people’s lives that you have felt in your own life?
Rick: Absolutely. I’ve always thought that life is in the details. It’s those small moments, those small things, that one tiny little perfect element that you carry with you. I think remembering it makes something so much more special. I’m excited to have the opportunity to be working with clients and help them figure out what is that detail? What’s the feeling that you’re going to create in that environment to make it a special wedding, special event, whatever it is for you and your guests.
Dr. Lisa: What about the Kennebunkport Festival? That’s coming right up.
Rick: It is.
Dr. Lisa: You’re hosting another dinner this year.
Rick: Yes, absolutely. We had such a great time. Last year was the first year that we participated in the festival. We were fortunate to have Rob Evans, who’s going to be coming back as our chef this year. It’s such a great week to be in Kennebunk. It’s great to reconnect with people that are just starting to come back for the summer season, meeting new friends that are in town that you haven’t had a chance to meet out and about before and just all the people that come in from out of town and travel to Kennebunkport as a destination. I think it’s such a great experience to be able to share Kennebunkport with those people.
Dr. Lisa: This is one of the private dinners so people will come to your house and Rob Evans, who used to be the head chef and owner at Hugo’s and now he’s at Duck Fat, he’ll be actually in your house preparing food in your beautiful kitchen where I’ve been and it’s really quite wonderful. I’ve actually eaten dinner on a private dinner at your house. This is what people get to experience as part of the Kennebunkport Festival.
Rick: Absolutely. It’s such a great opportunity to have a really intimate setting with such a great chef. Last year, everything was just flawless, not only the quality of the food but the execution. It was enjoyable to see Rob get very involved in it too. Meaning, he was excited to be sharing with all of the guests what was the inspiration for the meal. The whole environment, I think, it’s very special. It’s also great to be able to open your home up to people in support of great cause for Share Our Strength.
Dr. Lisa: What else will you being doing during the Kennebunkport Festival?
Rick: We’re definitely attending a few other private dinners at friends’ homes and then Pop the Kennebunks.
Dr. Lisa: I will see you there and I appreciate your coming in and talking to us about your love of Maine and your second home, which is probably rapidly becoming your only home at some point in the future.
Rick: Absolutely. Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Dr. Lisa: How can people find about your new venture about details?
Rick: Sure. I have a website Details Event Staging, also, a Facebook page and I’m on Twitter. I look forward to posting more and more photos of events that we are involved in through the summer.
Dr. Lisa: Thank you so much for coming in and talking to us today. We have been talking with Rick Toronto, who is the founder of Details Event Staging and also a longtime supporter of the Kennebunkport Festival. Thank you for being part of that as well.
Rick: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: We in the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast hope that our listeners enjoy their own work lives to the same extent we do and fully embrace everyday. As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marci Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: Did you ever wonder why geese fly in a V-formation when they head south for the winter? Amazingly, they know that a V pattern increases their speed by more than 70% versus flying in another pattern or alone. When in formation, they share the leadership and have a mutual respect for their common goal, which is to arrive safely at their destination. They equally divide the hardest tasks, gather their faculties and combine their resources and talents. This unified effort, their formation makes the journey easier. Less energy is expended because they are all working together for a common cause.
When the leader tires, he goes backed to the end of the formation and another team member takes the lead. Each goose or a member of the team uses their voice or clack to encourage the leader to stay focused and to keep organized.
How does the V-formation of migrating geese apply to running your business or your household? In a word, team, a group working together to accomplish and achieve the same goal with mutual respect and understanding. Those teams will always come out ahead. Unlike the lonely seagull who scavenges and shouts mine, only looking out for its own best interest without ever seeming to get anywhere, geese are unified and always looking out for each other, applying the law of least effort and gaining the most. It’s a lesson we all could learn.
I’m Marci Booth. Let’s talk about the changes you need, boothmaine.com.
Speaker 1: This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is brought to you by the following generous sponsors: Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With Re/Max Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at rheritage.com.
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Dr. Lisa: We are fortunate here in Maine to have many people who love to ride their bikes. This time of year is a perfect time of year to be riding bikes and especially a perfect time of year to be participating in events such as the Kennebunk’s Tour de Cure, which is coming up right here in June. With us today, we have Lisa Medina, who is the Event Manager for the Kennebunk’s Tour de Cure.
You’ve not ridden your bike up but you’ve driven your car up from Boston this morning to be with us. Thank you so much for doing that.
Lisa: I’m happy to be here.
Dr. Lisa: Tell us about the Tour de Cure.
Lisa: The Tour de Cure, it’s one of the largest cycling events raising money for the American Diabetes Association, which has a three-prong approach where we have our money go which is diabetes research, information and advocacy. Right now, I’m doing a large chunk of that research money comes because of Boston being the epicenter for the medical community. We love to see that all the money really does, from nationwide, comes back into New England.
The cycling event, we have five different events in New England. I run the Kennebunk’s Tour de Cure out of Wells, Maine. We also have a ride in Rhode Island, the Ocean State Tour de Cure, in Connecticut, the Connecticut Tour de Cure, in Massachusetts, the North Shore Tour de Cure and our multistate ride, which is a 150/550 plus which is a multistate ride coming out of Woburn, either looping back up to Bideford for the 150 and then looping all through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and back to Woburn in Massachusetts.
All different kinds of rides, there’s really something for everyone. The Kennebunk’s Tour de Cure specifically we have five different routes. If you’re not an avid cyclist, we have something for everyone. We have a 5K, which is our three-mile family fun ride. We have a 25K, a 50K, 100K and a 100-mile century ride. We have anything from serious cyclist to someone who just wants to get on the bike and really support the cause.
Dr. Lisa: Why did somebody decide that biking would be a good event to participate in when it came to diabetes?
Lisa: The thing with diabetes is really having an active lifestyle really helps you turn and take control of the disease rather than it controlling you. We have a very unique program, similar to some of the breast cancer events. We have a Red Rider Program. Our Red Rider Program is any participant living with type 1, type 2 or gestational diabetes, they get a free recognition sort of gift, day of event. It’s a jersey that says, “Red Rider and I ride with Diabetes.”
These are the people that are really letting, taking exercise, really taking control of their diabetes because some people, even with type 2, don’t even need to take medication because they’re revamping their lifestyle through either meal planning and exercise. Diabetes is progressive of a disease so later on, while they may be able to prolong without medication, sometimes later on they may have to but exercising really delays that process.
With the bike ride, we used to have some walk events in the area but we consolidated our events. We have a walk event for those people that aren’t cyclists in Boston. Some people really do come from Maine. Walgreens is one of our supporters nationally. They come down to the Boston Walk.
The thing with cycling is that we get out there together. We have some fun. We have rest stops all along the coastline of Maine, which is really beautiful. It’s a nice something to look forward to. It’s not just your everyday walk around a loop. It’s really about the experience.
Dr. Lisa: What I like about the Tour De Cure Kennebunks is that … or the Kennebunk’s, excuse me, Tour de Cure is that it’s affiliated with the Kennebunkport Festival, which is all about going out and living your life, eating good food and going dancing with the Pop the Kennebunks and really embracing this very active lifestyle on the one hand but then it’s also paired with a bike riding event where you can go out and you can do what you need to do after you’ve eaten all that good food and really enjoyed your life. This is the first year, I think, that you’ve had that association.
Lisa: Exactly, yeah. This is the first year we’ve been associated with Maine Magazine. It’s really great because so far we’ve had a few teams come from our partnership. It’s really great because people that embrace the Kennebunkport Festival embrace the beautiful coastline of Maine and embrace the outdoor lifestyle. It’s just a really nice pairing.
Dr. Lisa: It’s also interesting because the Kennebunkport Festival, a large portion of the proceeds goes to benefit Share Our Strength, which of course is a hunger relief organization. You have Share Our Strength over here with hunger relief and then you have Tour de Cure, which is diabetes education, advocacy and …
Lisa: And research.
Dr. Lisa: … and research. It’s just an interesting … it’s all about you eat good food. You help other people who don’t have as much to eat and then you’re also helping other people who are trying to live healthy, active lifestyles.
Lisa: Exactly.
Dr. Lisa: What have you noticed about the need for diabetes research and advocacy over the last 10, 15 years or so?
Lisa: The thing is that the incidence of diabetes has really started to increase in the past couple of years, whether it be through obesity, epidemic or through any family history. Our population is really aging right now. It’s really increasing, especially with type 2 diabetes.
About 26.8 million people have diabetes and about 90 to 95% of those people have type 2. With the incidence increasing, our government funding is decreasing. We’re just trying to fill in that void where there is a lack of funding in diabetes research and trying to support type 1, type 1 and gestational.
We’re a really unique organization because we support all of those facets of diabetes. While they are very different, you still deal with the same kind of pain associated with that, whether it be like pricking your finger 10 to 15 times a day and checking your blood sugars. It’s not something you can really take a break from. It’s really starting to increase. I feel like it’s something we should be really aware about.
A lot of people, because it’s a silent disease, we don’t really think it’s something serious. You can’t visibly see the consequences of diabetes. When people aren’t taking care of it, some of the complications could be nerve damage, heart disease, kidney failure, all of those things.
A lot of times, you hear people passing away in all that things. People don’t realize that its complications from their diabetes. My grandfather passed away and he had diabetes but it was through kidney failure. That’s what we attribute that to. The more and more that I’ve been involved with this organization, the more and more I see how many people have been touched with this disease. I think just about everyone knows at least one to two people that have been affected by type 1, type 2 or gestational.
Dr. Lisa: Now, you have degrees from the University of Delaware. You have a master’s degree from Emerson in Communication Management. You chose to go into …
Lisa: Nonprofit, yes.
Dr. Lisa: … nonprofit and you specifically chose to go into something that was health related and had a family connection for you.
Lisa: Exactly.
Dr. Lisa: Was that on purpose?
Lisa: I would say it is on purpose. I did when I started working, I actually started interning here. I focused my degree on public relations. I ended up really focusing on the health communication side. I picked the American Diabetes Association because not only my grandfather was affected but my mother is living with type 2. It’s something very personal to me.
I have the family history. It’s something that I could be at risk for. It’s a little nerve-wrecking because it’s a drastic change from having not to manage something on a daily basis on an hourly basis to really shifting and really having to take care of yourself because there are some serious complications if you don’t.
It wasn’t an accident. It’s definitely … it was the right move to do. Even though I’ve been affected personally, I meet so many people that have been affected just by the ride. We even have a cyclist who works at KeyBanc. He really used the Tour to really embrace the active lifestyle. When he had started, he was around 245 pounds. He could barely get through the 25K. Right now, he’s lost 150 pounds and uses the Tour as the training goal year round. This is his third year of doing it. Now he’s all the way down to the 100 mile.
It’s really something you could really look forward to and you could use to embrace meal planning, just being healthy because it can really take over you if you don’t embrace and take control of it.
Dr. Lisa: I want to give you a lot of credit because clearly, you are young. You’re accomplished. You have a master’s degree. You’re young enough so that you could just say, “Oh, this will never happen to me. I don’t have to worry about this.” Instead, you are doing what you’ve just said. You’re being very mindful. You’re saying, “My family has this. I don’t know what my future looks like but I’m certainly not going to just roll over and not do anything about it.”
Lisa: Right. I’m very hopeful because a lot of the research going on right now makes me hopeful that there could be a cure in the near future. Right now, a former coworker of mine did the bionic pancreas study where essentially she was a week free without type 1 diabetes, which is something that I had never thought that would happen this soon. They might even potentially have it by 2017 out commercially, which is something that’s really remarkable to how far we’ve come.
I knew the insulin pump was like the size of my head at some point and then now it’s just so small and so seamless. People are able to really take control. That’s a lot because we started out as a research organization. We’ve really taken it … we’re also focusing on prevention and management because we don’t know when there’s going to be that cure for type 2 and type 1. We really need to take all facets into consideration.
Dr. Lisa: It is an interesting challenge because diabetes is something that people live with. It is something that has what they call end-organ damage. You can have a nerve problem. You can end up getting amputations of your feet because of nerve damage, kidney failure, all these things you’ve talked about and yet, it’s not like cancer where people get it and they could potentially die and it seems so much more dire.
Lisa: People control it. People just figure it’s not that bad. If you don’t see it, you don’t see the consequences, unless it gets really serious where someone loses a foot or loses a leg or ends up in a hospital, you just think they’re fine. You just think it’s just they’re pricking their finger, they’re working through it. I just don’t think people can visually see that could be very serious. It is quite the grind to go through all of that on a daily basis. I don’t know how people do it. I really don’t.
Dr. Lisa: Is this something that you think causes sometimes a little bit more of a challenge for the Diabetes Association when it comes to having people don’t make donations or …?
Lisa: Yeah, I think sometimes people associate with the type 2 organization and they feel that people are … they’re letting themselves go. They did this to themselves. There’s the family history. There’s things in the food and all these things. Quite frankly, you don’t need to be obese to have diabetes. It could happen to anyone. I’ve seen it happen to anyone.
I think we need to treat diabetes as a whole and not just separate type 1 versus type 2. We’re here to help everyone. We’re here to prevent the disease. We’re here to manage the disease. That’s why we’re doing this. We’re doing it to support the 25.8 million people living with diabetes.
That’s what the ride’s all about. We have like with the Red Riders, we have a little thing. We say, “Go Red Rider,” when you see someone with that jersey. It’s about the courage that it takes to live with this disease and today is your day. You’re the hero of our event because you put on that smile day-by-day. This is the day that you can look forward to.
Dr. Lisa: Lisa, how do people find out about the Kennebunk’s Tour de Cure, any of the Tour de Cures associated with the Diabetes Association?
Lisa: You can see us on our website at diabetes.org/tour. You check the dropdown menu. We have five rides in New England. We have 87 rides throughout the nation. There’s something for everybody. I really hope everybody will join us. It’s going to be a fun day. I’m really excited. We’re expecting about 900 to 1,000 people. I hope I can see everyone there.
Dr. Lisa: Lisa, it has really been my pleasure to spend time with you talking today. We’ve been talking with Lisa Medina, who is the Kennebunk’s Tour de Cure Event Manager. Thank you for all the work you’re doing for diabetes.
Lisa: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Show #89, Home in Maine. Our guests have included Chris Lynch, Mike LePage, Lisa Medina and Rick Toronto. For more information on our guests, visit doctorlisa.org.
We also recommend that you get involved in the upcoming Kennebunkport Festival 2013, which is taking place between June 4th and 9th in Kennebunkport, Maine. This is Maine Magazine’s six-day festival which celebrates the finest food, wine and art in Maine. All the major events will take place in downtown Kennebunkport this year providing festival guests the opportunity to really explore this beautiful oceanfront town. For more information on the Kennebunkport Festival, visit kennebunkportfestival.com. Please note, the proceeds from the Art of Dining Dinners of the Kennebunkport Festival go to Share Our Strength.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and wellbeing on the Bountiful Blog.
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This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our show, Home in Maine. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary by Design, Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street in Portland, Maine. Our Executive Producers are Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle, audio Production and original music by John C. McCain. Become a subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details. Summaries of all our past shows can be found at doctorlisa.org.