Live Event: MorningStar at Hillsboro Opens, with Matt Ryan

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Welcome to the answers for elders radio show. meet the trusted experts who will give you straight answers and we’ll health guide you on the path of later life care. Now here’s your host, founder, caregiver and CEO, Susan Newman, and welcome everyone to answers for elder’s radio network once again. And we’re here at this amazingly beautiful community and called Morning Star of Hillsboro, Oregon and fielsborough is is a suburb right outside of Portland and it’s kind of in the backyard of Nike and Intel and there’s a wonderful shopping and it’s Beaverton, Oregon is near here, to Wallatan’s kind of near. Yeah, I’m Nike yet Nike, did I not say Ni? Don’t know, but I like all right in the backyard. Yeah, and we’re here with the executive director. We’re very excited, Mr Matt Ryan, and I remember talking to you before saying you’re the not Maddie ice, right, but you know, I know the name. That’s easy for me because I’m such a football plan that’s good. Yeah, go falcons, there you go. So, Matt, thanks for sitting down with me. I know you guys are really busy. It’s been great having sitting here where we are, because we’re in the library area and people walk through and it’s been so amazing because I’ve had a chance like, what do you think in they’re calling like this. This is amazing. So, and it’s more than just the building, it’s the people and I’ve had an opportunity today to have, you know, the pleasure of interviewing many of your staff members and hope to finish out with a couple more before we’re done today. And so thank you for having us here. Yeah, absolutely. So, Matt, you’re the executive director and I want to just back up a little bit. How did you get into see other thing? Oh my goodness, that’s that might be a whole show on itself. Well, first I’ll tell you I was in telecommunications and the entertainment area for about twenty years really. So I started with a small company called US West. Oh, and then, yeah, awesome, I was a crazy salesperson. Okay, Yep, I was right at right up there in a manager and everything else. But so I did that in a cell phones were booming, so I moved into work for wireless companies and then after that I work for small companies like Microsoft and, my goodness, come cast and so Europe in Seattle. I know I was here, but we did a lot of things between Seattle and here. Yeah, and Kur and Kirkland, you know, well, red noma cows up there. Yeah, all that. So so one day I sat down and I said I really want to do occur. It’s time to grow up, it’s time to find a career that I can make a different sin. And you know, before I was making a difference in people’s lives with wireless and being able to bring people together in my management skill set led me to do an online test that no one’s been able to find since I’ve done this through, indeed, and linked in. So linkedin had this thing. You put all your your items down of what you’ve done and it’s going to match you with a company. Yeah, and so I did this and nobody’s and I’ve told people about this and nobody’s heard of it, nobody’s seen it or anything. So it took me a good hour and a half. I answered all these questions and it popped up and it said this company is who you would match with, and it was in the senior housing and I’ve never and I thought, okay, well, morning start it was. It was a different organization but same thing, and so I applied and I said I’m never going to hear from anybody because I don’t have any experience in senior housing. And I got I got you was surprised. I got a call and it I got declined on a couple and then finally they said we’re going to give you a shot, and here I am now for almost four and a half years later. That’s and I’m with the company that I should have started with, and that is morning start and it is morning star. Senior living is everything that they talked about and tell you, and there’s a lot of companies out there that will tell you what their mission statements are and everything else, but I want to tell you, and I really want your listeners to know that morning star it comes from the heart and everything we do comes from the heart. And I just got done doing a tour with a family member, or you know, family member that lost their husband recently and it was you know. So she’s going through a lot of change and a lot of questions and can I can’t do the house on my own. I know that, but now I got a transition and make all these choices and changes and I need help in figuring that out. And so she brought her friend with her. We went on a wonderful tour of the community. Like you said, it is absolutely beautiful and studying, and that is what morning star does with all of their buildings. But it’s not about the building, it is about the people and it’s about the heart. And when you have somebody who can give you a hug and tell you that you answered a lot of their questions and you help them and sort out things, HMM, you know you’re making a difference. Yeah, and I’m telling you that is why I love this job and being the executive director is about having all of these people under your roof, not only your employees but your residence and I have to care for pretty soon over a hundred and sixty seven residents. We have a hundred forty two units, but with couples. You know, you had that in. And then I have right now a staff of about twenty, which will max out out about about thirty five when when we’re up and running fully. You know, we’re here with everything, but I’m in charge of all those lives. I’m in charge of all of those experiences, and I have to tell you, that is the best job. Yeah, that is the best job, and so I would like to thank Linkedin, yeah, for that tast right of kind of pointing me in the right direction, but also for really, you know, people believing in me, yeah, and giving me a shot. That doesn’t happen that often now. It doesn’t. And I think the other thing that you when you said something about you were surprised at senior living would want you. I think one of the things it’s so again, it’s a misnomer, but you know, those of us that came from other industries, just like I did, we were kind of the outsiders. But what the outsiders have done, they’ve made a difference in an impact on what it is today. Yeah, and I think that’s the thing that’s so phenomenal about, you know, we’re senior living is today. It’s like, when I walked in here, it was interesting because it’s kind of a gloomy day today. Yeah, you know, welcome to Oregon, go you know, Pacific northwest. But the beauty of it was was that we when I walked in, it was like this fresh, friendly environment in the in the front door and you know, Sandra was such a love to greet everyone and she’s so you know, like she got up around the table to bring people in. You know, she just stayed behind the dusk. It was just this welcoming environment that makes you feel like, wow, I’m really appreciated that somebody really saw me, and I think that’s something that people are free of not being, quote unquote, seen. Yeah, you know, if they go into a senior living they think of institutional sure things. Well, and that’s how I but that’s how I used to. You know, I used to senior living was the end. Yeah, and and now, you know, independent living is just the beginning of senior reving. And you know, people tell me I feel like I’m on a cruise ship. You know, I mean, you hear that all the time. I feel like I’m on a cruise ship where everything’s inclusive and it’s party all the time and great. That’s that’s the environment that we want to do. What’s life is supposed to be? Yeah, we want to celebrate and, yeah, and to have that opportunity to walk in and see the calendar posted of all the great things that are happening and, you know, walk into you know, I see TV’s all over the place and it’s like I can envision right away, like Seahawks Games and Blazers game. Look at that hundred inch TV. Yes, you know, I mean it has a hundred inch TV and they’re living room. You know, it’s, if we do, amazing. Yeah, it’s amazing. and to see that kind of, you know, the energy around here, where everything is lively and there’s things to do in games and and activities and different kinds of things like that. I think it’s just so important in this whole picture to be able to understand that the world is different, as you know, it’s different than what we knew of it before, right, and that’s the thing that is so great about it. And, of course, Morning Star, I had been so thrilled to be working with your organization and have worked with Silver Lake for a little well, and of course Kirkland and now Hillsboro and hopefully more communities in the future. I am very much looking forward to having, you know, just bringing the heart, like we talked about, to the world, because I think one of the things that people don’t realize is that we’re in it because we we’re not. It’s not about the money it’s not about it’s about the mission. It’s about a calling, you know, and I think that’s the thing that a lot of us have been through during the pandemic. You know, you guys are the heroes. Yeah, when we think about you know, like somebody told me during the pandemic, you know, there’s only so many days a week you can play hall Bingo with seniors that we’re stuck in their apartment’s right. That was a horrible time, and yet you guys persevered and came out the other end just amazingly well. You still have so many happy, you know, residents and all over. Yeah, and it’s that it’s just because of who you are. Yeah, I think that’s the thing that’s really interesting. And of course, I had the privilege of interviewing John Yes, yeah, yeah, and he talked a little bit about your foundation. So you guys are really about again, it’s a calling, right, it is. It truly is a calling. It is, you know, it’s not just doing good here, it’s also doing good internationally. I’m in throughout the world and so you know, John Yeager taught will talk to you about the philanthropy that we do, and we don’t just talk about it. We do it and he’s been doing it since he was a kiss. Amazing, you know, and he’s grown up with children that were in the orphanage that are now, you know, they’re they’re more than teenagers. So they’re going you know, I think one of them is actually even going to college. Well, and one of them is wanting to come to work for Morning Star. Yeah, what a blessing. He told me that story and I just thought like this is amazing. So Morning Star just as a whole has communities all throughout where, I say the Western suctor good way to lessay. Yeah, so I think the farthest East is Iowa. I know you have a new community going in and Houston. Is that correct? That wee. We do have a new a new community, yeah, coming in. So tell us a little bit about just overall. I know that they’re’s a lot of mission, you know, in your organization, but how do people eat you? Yeah, so well. So let me just clarify so you’re get what with the question you’re asking me directly is I want to know about Hillsborough, but also about morning starts a whole. Y. If somebody’s want you know, listening in Texas, sure, how do they reach morning start? Yeah, yeah, so you can reach a morning star and there’s if you just googled morning star by itself, you’re going to get lost. So it’s morning star senior living. Correct. I’m so you gotta definitely do that. But on our website it will guide you through not only what morning star senior living is doing as a whole, as a company, but also our individual locations and then you can see the amenities and everything they’re the other part of it is is the giving back part. So each community has a local nonprofit that they will choose. So we have chosen to go with a Oregon Food Bank and it don’t work in food bank. It just does amazing things with just the local community. But the reason why I chose it is because I was giving back and there was this teenager working next to me eight o’clock in the morning, filling bags of food with me at Oregon Food Bank and I’m like, Oh, why are you here, and he said, well, because I benefited from this food as a child because my parents parts were poverty and I’m giving back to someone else who’s going to be in there and I thought, wow, I want to stay and be just as impactful as a teenager. And so we’ve chosen the Organ Food Bank for Hillsboro and we go to local churches, we help build food bags, we help meet families that are in need and give back to them, and so those are just, you know, some of the local things that we do. And then you know each individual, we call them, you know, houses, will find something that is important to their local chapter, whatever it is, and be able to do that. So when you look at when you’re looking for the specifics on what is this place stand for, what’s this all about, and diving into that, the website will give you a lot of good information. It gives you some good information as far as who to contact, but also as the community. I think it’s really important. If you live near an orderize, you know, live near morning start community and if you’re in the Portland area, just come see this community. And if you’re not in the market, I mean come and have lunch. I’m inviting everybody. Yeah, that’s all. I have a million people at your door step, but this is an incredible place and we certainly are. It’s real to be heres and thank you for inviting us. Yeah, I’m glad to have you actually physically here. I know we were just talking about how we see each other virtually all the time, but I definitely please. You’re a listener’s definitely, by all means, please come check out the community, the the one that’s closest to you. You may not be looking for yourself, which you may know somebody correct, but ultimately, every our doors are open for everyone, and I would just want to stop and tell you are. We look at our core values and we preach them every day and we live by them every day, and that’s the goodness, the kindness, honesty, the respect, the fairness, and we live by that and I just want people to come in and be able to experience what you were able to experience today. It’s amazing, and see the difference, because it’s not just senior housing, it’s not just another marketing technique, it is literally real life here in Hillsborough. Yeah, I can. I feel it absolutely. Thank you again, and for everyone, go to mordern, start senior livingcom forward slash hillsborough, yes, and you will learn all about this community, as well as look at the other communities that you’re in another area. And we’re going to be back with more interviews right after this. We it answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website and discover our decision guides. That will help you also navigate decision making. Find US AT ANSWERS FOR ELDERS DOCUMENT