Transcription:
Speaker1 0:02
Welcome to the Comfort Keepers Evansville podcast where we elevate the human spirit. Here's your host, Kristi Gurule.
Jeremy 0:12
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first episode of The Comfort Keepers Evansville podcast. I'm your co-host, Jeremy Wolf. And I'm also the producer of the show. And I'd like to welcome to the stage and introduce your host, Kristi Gurule, Kristi, how you doing today?
Kristi 0:31
I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. I'm so excited about this.
Jeremy 0:34
Yes, very, very exciting. Congratulations, by the way on the show. It's super exciting to be here. And, you know, learn all about Comfort Keepers and what you're doing for our great community down here. So, let's get right into it. Why don't you share with us, for those that don't know a little bit about Comfort Keepers. And what you guys do for great communities around? Everywhere. Go ahead.
Kristi 0:56
I'd be excited to talk about it. Okay, so Comfort Keepers. We're just celebrating our 25th year, we're all over the United States. But we are now here in Davie, we're locally, locally owned by a family, my family. So, we come into your home or into any individual's home that requires assistance and we provide in home care. And home care can be anything from daily living activities that would include helping people with grooming with bathing, helping them cook and light housekeeping, definitely providing companionship and ensuring safety so they can remain in their home. That's a So, brief overview. But what we do is so personalized for each person that we fortunately get to meet and become a part of their family, and they become a part of our family too.
Jeremy 1:48
Yeah, could just feel the passion coming out as you speak about what you do and what so I understand Comfort Keepers is a larger organization. And you and your family, own three locations in different parts of the country. Tell us a little bit about how you guys got into this business. And you know, your vision for the future moving forward.
Kristi 2:11
Yeah. So, our family, we started out in Indiana, that's where I was born and raised. And very proud of that. Our two locations outside of Florida are both one in northern Indiana and the other in southern Indiana. And we started almost a decade ago. Our story into this is such a personal story. Because we were at a crossroad in our family's life on both sides of the family, my dad and my mom and we had elderly, migrant parents, and they needed assistance and assistance outside of what us I mean, I'm from a huge family, and we all pitched in for all the needs that were required. But we just we got to a point where we needed extra hands. And so, we had different experiences on both sides. But what we ultimately came out of this was, we truly were blessed by the people that came in. And it wasn't just a service they were providing for our loved ones that we were so, so sad about where they were in their life and where it was for us like that guilty feeling of, oh, we're losing a loved one. But we had this person come in, and they loved our loved one like we do. And they provided just as much service to us as they did our family member. And it was after this incredible change, you know of life that we had that we decided as a family, we could do this, we absolutely could do this. And we wanted to do it. Knowing the relationship that we made with the person that was with us, even for a short period of time was so impactful. We knew that we absolutely could come in and be a blessing to others. And that's really been our mission. So, we so, became a part of Comfort Keepers and Comfort Keepers has the same ideas and really the foundation we were on board with and being that we are owned ourselves, our franchise, the three locations, we have the ability to further personalize and set ourselves apart from other Comfort Keepers. And we do that wholeheartedly. So as a large family, like I said, I oversee all three of our locations. And I'm very much tied into everything. And I have brothers who work alongside me and of course my parents too. So, when I say like we sit down at the dinner table and have family conversation, it's really our passion to talk about what it is that we're doing outside of our homes because everything that we do is just an extension of where our roots are from.
Jeremy 4:58
Yeah, that's just awesome. So, tell us a little bit about, I know you're just 2 4:58 getting started here in Davie, but you have your two other locations. And obviously you're doing great work at all the locations as well as all the other comfort keeper locations throughout the country. Talk a little bit about your vision moving forward for the Davie location. In terms of I know, you mentioned that in your other locations in Indiana, you guys do a lot of charity type work for the community. Tell us a little bit about what you've done out there. And what you plan on doing down here and Davie and our great community?
Kristi 5:34
Absolutely, I'm really excited about that. It's all about relationships, right, which is why I'm on this podcast why I wanted to do this because everything we do is relational. So, in both of our Indiana locations, we've partnered with a lot of local resources, a lot of local groups, anywhere from food pantries to Boys and Girls Club, we have partnerships with mentor mentorship programs to and we give back we give in our time, we have our own caregivers who also volunteer for some of these projects. As a company, one of the things that I just truly love every year is around Christmas time, right? We always think about Christmas and all the festivities that happen and so, what we realize is that around Christmas, not everyone has family near them, but we are their family. So last year in both of our locations, we had prepared meals, we so prepared meals and we had a caravan and we Christmas curled our way around and we handled livered, you know Christmas meals, and just that extra little step of being able to give outside of what our requirements and what we've agreed to do was so meaningful. I can't wait to do those things. And Davey, and it's all about meeting people and seeing where the needs are and then figuring out a plan. How can we do this. So, I have an amazing team and amazing team Florida who's currently laying the groundwork with the Chamber of Commerce with all these other networking groups, century village, a lot of other great so organizations and places. So those foundations are being laid and plans are being set to say how can we serve? How can we serve outside of what we're doing in our patient’s homes? What can we do to make an impact locally in our community.
Jeremy 7:28
I can't wait to see it unfold. I mean, this is this is my home. This is my neck of the woods. And it's so nice to see a new business such as yourself come into the community with aspirations of doing all this good. So, Christy, you mentioned this briefly, but I want you to tell us a little bit more about this. So, and you kind of answered my question from earlier. But please elaborate, like, why are you doing I know you're? You're busy. You're super busy. You're running three locations; you have a family? Why? Why take the time out of your schedule to do a podcast? Right? Why do this?
Kristi 8:03
Well, because I, one thing that I wish I could do is I wish I could be in every place every day, all the time with all my teams. And it's just not logistically possible. I want to be a real face a real person behind the services that are being offered. I don't want to just be a pamphlet a billboard, a website that says this is who we are, this is what we do, because it's true. But I want to be more than just a voice. Yeah, you may get me on the phone, and I love talking on the phone. But there's something about being able to see somebody and if it's not face to face in this kind of a format here. There's an ability to be able to put a realness behind it. And that's what I want to be. I want people to know we are real people are real family. We laugh, we have fun, we hear and talk about hard things. We address hard things. But we are here to come alongside you to help you to provide services for you or for your loved one. And there's 3 8:03 a lot of anxiety that goes into that. So being able to provide peace and reassurance is a huge thing. And that's really my hope for this podcast is that you get to see the inside the realness of what it is that we do and hear it hear it from me.
Jeremy 9:22
Christy, I'm so excited to be on this journey with you and to have this platform for you to share and educate the public and really tell everybody about important things related to your business, you know, your industry and all that kind of stuff. And I'm really looking forward to moving forward with this project. So, thanks, everyone for tuning in. And we'll see you on future episodes of the Comfort Keepers Davie podcast. Everyone have a wonderful day.
Thank you have a great day. All right. Bye.
Speaker1 9:53
Thank you for listening to the Comfort Keepers Evansville podcast. For more information, visit comfortkeepers.com or call (812) 370-4956
