Forward Janesville - TheReport - Fall 2017

JOHN Favorite Book: The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria JOHN Favorite Quote: All is relative: to a worm, digging in the dirt sure beats goin’ fishing. DAN What is your ideal day off? To be left completely alone and to my own designs. Anyone who has kids understands what this means. DAN First Job: BusBoy at Acheson Family Buffet; Rocky Mount, NC. Grossest job ever. DAN Favorite childhood memory? Going on annual summer vacations to Atlantic Beach, NC JENNY Interesting Fact about you: This won’t shock anyone who knows me, but I am the daughter of a preacher! Yes that is a true fact but don’t tell anyone else. It’s our secret. JENNY What is your ideal day off? Taking a drive without any specific place to go. Just pack a picnic and drive. RUTH First Job: My first job was washing beans and detasseling corn….we lived in the country, so not many options! RUTH Best piece of advice? Always, choose to be kind. It IS YOUR choice and it costs nothing! JOLYNN Favorite Book: I am a single mom working full time and raising teenagers, so (unfortunately!) there isn’t much down time for novels! JOLYNN Family: 15 year old son, Booker, and 13 year old daughter, Callie. 3 golden retrievers (Kobe, Kash & Honey), plus my foster dogs through Paddys Paws Rescue! JENNY First Job: Receptionist at Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wisconsin and at a local grocery store at the same time. DAN What did you want to be when you grew up? Truck driver! DAN Passion outside of Forward Janesville? Kids and family stuff! JOLYNN Favorite childhood memory? Sundays were family time – church, watching football, eating popcorn and finishing it off with pork steaks on the grill every Sunday evening!! JOHN Best piece of advice? You will become a combination of what you read, what you listen to, and who you choose to spend time with. Choose carefully. JOHN What is one thing someone doesn’t know about you? I can make a 3-course meal with nothing more than a butter knife, a salad shooter, and a toaster oven. Also, using only a hoe and a bucket of water, I defended a group of students in Jamaica from an attack of ferocious army ants. JOHN First Job: Clearing a chicken house of 100,000 chickens at night with only the light from blue light bulbs (chickens can’t see blue). DAN Name some of your mentors along your career path (they do not need to be local or recent): U.S. Congressman Bob Etheridge (now retired); Julie Dwyer, Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (Missouri); and naturally, John Beckord! JOLYNN Most memorable job: Pearl Lake – I learned early on about respect, working hard and the passion behind a family business. The owners treated me like a family member and taught me about their business. I cleaned toilets, picked up trash from the beach, flipped burgers and was the head lifeguard. I worked when the weather was good, so some summers that was 7 days a week and 10+ hours a day. JENNY Favorite Book: This is a book from my youth “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia,” by C.S. Lewis. When I read that book I was instantly transformed into the wardrobe and it opened up my imagination like a colorful and fantastic motion picture. I can still see images of it in my mind today. I was a guest at a house in Beloit, Wis. that had a wardrobe in the attic that reminded me of the book and I thought if I opened it, I would realize that the story was not a figment of my imagination, but very real. I definitely opened up the wardrobe and discovered . . . .well, that will remain a secret! JOLYNN Interesting Fact about you: Heights are not my fan, but I found a way to bungee jump when I was around 20. On top of a crane, I was fastened by my feet so I jumped head first over a lake and even got to dip my hands/head in the water! FALL 2017 • 15 Get to Know Your Staff ... Who would of guessed ?