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In this episode of Main Street Moxie, Keith Moon shares stories about his longstanding involvement with Special Olympics, an organization with moxie built into its DNA.

Keith’s secret moxie sauce is recognizing a need and then finding a way to use his talents and skills to make a difference. He enjoys bringing people and organizations together to accomplish a larger goal.

Keith's involvement in Special Olympics began when he read an appeal in the Hartford Courant to raise needed funds for the organization. His response: “I can do that.” Using his position as the boys’ swim coach at the Hotchkiss School, he organized a swimathon that raised $4,000. That was 30 years ago, and he’s organized one every year since; to date, the Swimathon has raised over $250,000 for Special Olympics. Working with colleagues, students, and the local community, he has expanded the reach of the Swimathon and branched out into athletic competitions in other sports.

Keith has remained an enthusiastic supporter of the Special Olympics mission of creating athletic competitions that promote the development of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their inclusion in society. Keith’s nine-year tenure on the board of Special Olympics Connecticut has also given him insight into the moxie of the athletes and their families. The athletes' determination, competitive joy, and focus on what they can do–not their limitations–fuel his dedication to the Special Olympians.

In 2022, after Russia attacked Ukraine, he helped form a partnership between Special Olympics Connecticut and Special Olympics Slovakia, to create a Dream Day Center for Ukrainian refugee children born with intellectual disabilities and their families. At this year’s 30th annual Hotchkiss Swimathon, four Slovakian coaches and four Special Olympics Slovakia athletes will make the swim across Lake Wononscopomuc and back on September 7, 2024.

Keith has been an instructor of Russian history and literature at the Hotchkiss School since 1989 and a volunteer instructor in those subjects for Noble Horizons Retirement Community since 2012. In 2019, he was awarded the school’s Lufkin Prize, which honors faculty for their excellence, commitment, moral leadership, and service to the community.

If you’d like to learn more about Swimathon and how you can get involved and contribute, email kmoon@hotchkiss.org.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate.

Resources
Special Olympics Connecticut
Special Olympics
NobleHorizons Blog: Keith Moon: Raising People Up
Lufkin Prize Speech

Social Media
Special Olympics Connecticut Facebook
Special Olympics Connecticut Instagram
Special Olympics Connecticut YouTube
Special Olympics Connecticut LinkedIn
Hotchkiss School Instagram

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Bill Johnson believes moxie is essential for pursuing purpose, which he defines as becoming one's best self in service of at least one thing larger than oneself. This self-knowledge and action directed outward are why we’re here—and why he’s here, too.

Known as the “Dream Dean,” Bill continues to refine his Life Design Catalyst program, immersing himself in it to gain deeper insight into his own “why.” This place of deeper understanding and a growth mindset on steroids fuels Bill’s work. His own journey inspires him to be one percent better each day. He believes in surrounding himself with people–his tribe–who challenge and support him.

After 34 years in higher education, he retired in June 2023 to pursue his true love—empowering people to initiate the self-discovery process to explore, express, and embrace purpose and possibilities to transform their lives and the lives of others. In short, he helps people find purpose and meaning in their lives to help others do the same.

Bill has held workshops that have trained thousands of people and worked with hundreds of institutions within and outside higher education to use the Life Design Catalyst curriculum to create workshops, programs, and courses that change the lives of those they employ and serve.

In his academic career, Bill worked extensively with students, faculty, and staff in various capacities at Davidson-Davie Community College, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, the College of William and Mary, the College of New Jersey, and the University of Delaware. Bill has a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreation and Parks Administration and a Master of Science Degree in Physical Education, both from the University of Delaware. He is also a certified Dream Coach, Spiritual Group Coach, and Wellness Coach with extensive Purpose and Life Coaching training.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Meadowscapes and Elyse Harney Real Estate.

Resources

Dream Dean Website
Life Design Catalyst Program

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Pieter Lefferts is a visual artist, author, and musician who draws deeply from the natural world for creative inspiration and moxie. Over the years he has sought deeper communion with Nature to find balance and better understand himself and the world around him. In this work, he eschews perfection and instead embraces authenticity and intentionality, wherein perfection unfolds as the sum of the parts of an idea explored and life lived.

Pieter is a student of shamanism, indigenous wisdom, science, and natural history, which, in combination, inform his artistic process. He is a lover of stories and people and strives to live his life with humor, grace, and a reliable Adirondack guide boat from which to paint.

His award-winning artwork is in national and international collections. He has received numerous awards for his artistry and as an arts educator. Litchfield Magazine named him one of Litchfield County's 50 Most Influential People of 2012.

Widely collected, his work has been juried into the renowned Pastel Society of America's annual 'Enduring Brilliance' exhibition in New York City and the Northeast National Pastel Exhibition in Old Forge, NY, in which he received the Lee Award for artistic excellence. He exhibits in group shows throughout the region, including Keene Arts in Keene, NY. His recent solo exhibit at the DM Hunt Library in Falls Village, CT, included an Earth Day reading from his award-winning novel, What The Kek Kek Saw, a fable published by UnCollected Press in 2022 and chosen as a Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner for Young Adult Fiction in 2023.

Pieter is the founder of Northlight Art Center, located in Amenia, NY, a venue for aspiring artists to study with him in a professional atelier environment. He is a master teaching artist whose knowledge of techniques and materials, coupled with his wit and wisdom, encourages students of all backgrounds to pursue their personal discovery through making art.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Meadowscapes and Elyse Harney Real Estate.

Resources

Pieter Lefferts Website

The Raw Art Review

Social Media

Pieter Lefferts Instagram

Pieter Lefferts Facebook

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In this Moxie by Proxy episode, we discuss the moxie of the women of Iceland through the camera lens of Pamela Hogan, Emmy award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and media executive.

In her latest documentary, The Day Iceland Stood Still, Pamela, and her collaborator, acclaimed Icelandic filmmaker Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, take us back to October 24, 1975, and the months leading up to that historic moment when 90 percent of Iceland’s women took the “day off,” bringing the country to a standstill and catapulting Iceland to the world’s superpower of gender equality. The story comes to life through interviews with the unstoppable women who planned and lived that day, interwoven with playful animation and evocative archival footage.

Seven years in the making, the documentary is evidence of Pamela’s filmmaking moxie and her belief in a riveting story. The film’s release in 2024 celebrates the 50th anniversary of that day. Pamela describes the joy, grit, and determination of a diverse group of women as they sought to change the status quo, open up career opportunities, and promote wage parity. It’s a fascinating examination of compromise, unifying messaging around social change, and grassroots organization. Ultimately, it’s a story of how ordinary women managed to do the extraordinary.

Pamela also describes the roots of her moxie in being raised by a single mother who was deeply involved in the women’s equal rights movement in the 1970s United States. She is drawn to fascinating and often overlooked stories of women. It is like whether a tree falling in the forest with no one around makes a sound; she believes if no one tells a person’s story, it doesn’t exist.

Pamela’s body of work includes Looks Like Laury Sounds Like Laury, Women, War & Peace series and its kick-off episode, I Came to Testify, and Wide Angle series on PBS. At Wide Angle, she was the Executive Producer working with global filmmakers on 70 hours of character-driven documentaries illuminating under-reported stories. While there, she developed Ladies First, an Emmy-award-winning film about women’s leadership in post-genocide Rwanda, and Time for School, a longitudinal series that followed seven children in seven countries fighting the odds for a basic education. Pamela is recognized with the National Council for Research on Women Making a Difference for Women award. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and on the board of the International Center for Transitional Justice.

This episode of Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Meadowscapes.

The Day Iceland Stood Still Film Trailer
Fork Films

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Craig Peterson’s moxie is a well-conditioned muscle, one of the many that he’s developed as a professional athlete in the Arena Football League (AFL), Indoor Football League (IFL), and the National Arena League (NAL).

Craig’s moxie has been built by long hours of doing the work and responding to setbacks with a can-do mindset, mental toughness, consistency, adhering to his routine, teamwork, and listening to his trainers and coaches. He believes in competition—against himself and others—accompanied by fun. For Craig, without the fun to accompany the hard work, what’s the point?

Known in football as “Craig the Leg,” he has turned rejection into motivation, a signature trait of Craig’s career, in which he’s won four Arena championships, along with two Special Teams Player of the Year designations and two First Team All-NAL accolades.

Craig doesn’t take well to being told he can’t do something. Such was the case with football; when being told he couldn't play by his college team's head coach, he doubled down and tried even harder.

Fast forward the tape reels, and he’s just been re-signed with IFL’s 2023 Champions, the Bay Area Panthers, for the 2024 season as their kicker. He’s also the Specialists football coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Craig took up track and field during his early college years at Herkimer County Community College. What began as a way to get back into shape after burnout from an ultra-competitive high school soccer career became an unexpected rejuvenation to his athletic trajectory. He became an All-American in the decathlon, an extremely gratifying achievement.

His professional football career began in 2014, several years out of college. Without the benefit of playing college football, he single-mindedly dedicated himself to training and tryouts and started his career as a kicker.

The rest is Craig's moxie history.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Meadowscapes and Elyse Harney Real Estate.

Resources and Social Media

Craig Peterson Instagram

Craig Peterson Facebook

Craig Peterson X (formerly known as Twitter)

Craig Peterson YouTube

Craig the Leg Trailer

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Another moxie-filled year has passed with fascinating guests from all walks of life. In our monthly episodes, our guests joined the ranks of Honorary Agents of Moxie. We hope you found their stories as interesting and inspiring as we did.

We are incredibly grateful to you, our listeners, for tuning in to hear the inspiring and honest stories of our guests--people like you who have embraced courage, learned from failure, and evolved as humans.

In our 2023 episodes, you can listen as:

• Leo Marzen flexes financial moxie muscle
• Nadim Sadek brings moxie to his entrepreneurial spirit and pursuits
• Jenny Hansell grows into her moxie through leadership
• Clem Loew recounts the moxie of his mother and how that example paved the way for his own life of moxie
• Kelley Vickery looks for places where an unfilled need exists and then fills it
• Michael Kevin Baldwin uses acting and theater as a platform for developing moxie
• Faye Hess cooks her way to living life her way with grace and moxie
• Janine Gordon senses her moxie muscle as a young adult and looks for opportunities to keep strengthening it
• Simon Critchley backs his moxie up with philosophy, thought, and action
• Pano Koukopoulos hikes and climbs his way to higher moxie summits

Thank you to all of our 2023 sponsors who have made this podcast possible. We couldn't do it without them. Support them whenever possible.

• Elyse Harney Real Estate
• Kindred Property Care
• North East Ford
• Hammertown
• Associated Lightening Rod
• Thorunn Designs

Over and out, 2023! Bring it on, 2024! We'll be scouting for moxie and bringing it right to you!

Have a healthy and joyful holiday season and a 2024 filled with all good things—including moxie!

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Pano believes that we earn moxie through putting in the work and paying the price, not instant gratification. As a lover of the outdoors and wild places, he finds opportunities to cultivate moxie and apply the lessons of nature to his life and the lives of those he encounters through his work, teaching, and volunteer commitments.

Pano is the director of Emergency Management and Environmental Health and Safety Programs for Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT, where he oversaw the University’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He teaches in the University’s Department of Biology and the Kathwari Honors Program and is the faculty advisor to the WCSU Adventure Club. If that’s not enough, he’s a volunteer firefighter for the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department, a certified EMT, a steadfastly loyal Liverpool FC fan, and a bread baker. He has been an instructor at the Connecticut Fire Academy and the Technology Management program at Central Connecticut State University.

Pano’s understanding of risk and how to assess and manage it provides a foundation for moving through the world with less worry and more empowerment. He observes that nothing we do in life is 100 percent risk-free–our job is to identify risk, minimize it, and understand that there are some parts of life we can’t plan for or control.

His time outdoors allows him to hurl expletives into the ruthless ascents of the trail, literal and figurative. But by immersing in forests and canyons, he finds the confidence to know that whatever life throws at him, he has the inner resources and moxie to get through it.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Kindred Property Care.

Resources

Emergency Management – Western Connecticut State University

Get Help | Emergency Preparedness | Red Cross

Ready.gov

Emergency Preparedness and Response | CDC

Community Safety Resources - National Safety Council (nsc.org)

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Simon Critchley's curiosity is on steroids, and that curiosity, love of learning, and genuine interest in other people fuel his moxie. In this episode, we explore with Simon the role of philosophy in creating moxie. He shares his wisdom on how we have more in common than we think and how forming alliances and relationships based on those commonalities allows us to learn from others rather than judge them.

He explains that to philosophize is to take time and resist busyness. It’s about looking up and taking in the spaciousness around us with openness and without judgment. Cultivating a curious mindset is worthwhile work; putting down our tech and forming connections is imperative to our humanity.

Simon is the Hans Jonas Professor at The New School in New York City, where he teaches philosophy.

He writes prolifically on a wide range of topics. His books include Very Little…Almost Nothing (1997), Infinitely Demanding (2007), The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009), and The Faith of the Faithless (2012). Simon has also written a novella, Memory Theatre (2015), a book-length essay, Notes on Suicide (2020), and studies of David Bowie, Football, and Apply-Degger (Onassis, 2020). More recent books are Tragedy, The Greeks and Us (Pantheon, 2019), and Bald (Yale, 2021).

Simon was the series moderator of ‘The Stone,’ a philosophy column in The New York Times, and co-editor of three volumes connected to the series, most recently Question Everything (2022).

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation and also 50 percent of an obscure musical combo called Critchley & Simmons. A book called Mysticism will be published by The New York Review of Books in 2024.

An ardent lover of the Beautiful Game, Simon is a dedicated fan of Liverpool FC.

This episode of Main Street Moxie is proudly sponsored by Elyse Harney Real Estate and Kindred Property Care.

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