Mike Goodstein, one of the early leaders of Northeast Arc, reflects on the agency's growth over its 70 year history.
This year, Northeast Arc is celebrating 70 years of changing lives and discovering abilities. And to celebrate that anniversary we are speaking to the agency’s early leaders who helped pave the way for the work we do.
Our organization was founded by people who challenged the status quo for people with disabilities and pushed for inclusion in all facets of life.
In this episode, we're joined by one of those early leaders, Mike Goodstein, who served as the long-time treasurer of our organization, when it was known as the North Shore Arc.
[MUSIC PLAYING] I feel if you give back in your life, that you will have a great feeling of satisfaction when the end comes. And I think that's what it's all about. Giving back yourself, your money, your brains, whatever you can give. If you don't have money, give of yourself.
Hello, and welcome to All Things Disability, a podcast from Northeast Arc. I'm Jo Ann Simons, the president and CEO of the Northeast Arc. And today, I'm thrilled to bring you a special interview. This year, Northeast Arc is celebrating 70 years of changing lives and discovering abilities. And to celebrate that anniversary we're speaking to the agency's early leaders who helped pay the way for the work that we do now.
Our organization was founded by people who challenged the status quo for people with disabilities and pushed for inclusion in all facets of life. I'm excited today to be joined by one of those early leaders, Mike Goodstein, who served as the longtime treasurer of our organization when it was known then as the North Shore Arc.
Mike, it gives me such pleasure because you have been such a formidable force. And, of course, I was at the Arc in the early '80s when you were still very active as treasurer. And you not only had a physical presence because you're a tall man, but your intellectual presence was felt at every board meeting.
Thank you. I started with the Arc. I was very busy in my life in the years that I started with the Arc. I was on a lot of boards in the greater Boston area. And one day, Carol Rainer, who was a force not to be believed call me up-- she was a dear friend of ours-- and Arlene is my wife. May she rest in peace.
And Carol said to me, Mike-- Carol had a handicapped child, Lisa Rainer. And she said to me, Mike, we need help. I'm on the board of the Arc-- I had never heard of the Arc before-- and you help everybody in the community. In those days, I did. I helped everybody. And she said, I need help. Your dear friend needs help. I have a handicapped child.
And I said, what do you want me to do, Carol? She said, I want you to come on the board. I said, I'm on so many boards now. I don't know if I got the time to do this. I'm never home. And she said, please, Mike. And I said, for you, Carol, I would do anything. And so I went on the Arc board.
I just wanted to interject here because you, Mike Goodstein, and your wife, Arlene, your late wife who was not only your partner but in her own right a leader in this community and a beautiful woman as well. And you both had this presence about who you were. And what struck me as a very young parent, because I have a son now who's not so young, was that you were devoted and committed to an organization for which you didn't have a direct personal relationship with.
You were there because your good friends Carol Rainer, who was the president of the Arc board, and her husband, Ron, had a child with a disability. Those kinds of people don't come along every day. We're usually having to just rely on the people who have been impacted. So I don't know if you realize what your presence did not only to the Arc but to me as a new mother.
Well, I thank you for that. It was an unusual situation for me to sit on an Arc board. I did not have a handicapped kid. I was the only one on the board of directors in those years who did not have a handicapped kid. In fact, for the next 20 years, I was the only one on the board who didn't have a handicapped kid.
And I decided at the time that I'm going to take this-- I never did anything in my life that wasn't successful. And I said, I'm going to make this a very successful operation. So I started with the Arc and I saw the state did not contribute. They didn't care about kids who were handicapped. Most of the people on the board spent all their time at the state house trying to get the state to give them more money, and the state wouldn't do that. They didn't have the same feeling for handicapped kids as I did.
So what we did was I decided that I've got to do something to give them a way to get a halfway house. So I separated the budget so that the state would not see that we had halfway homes.
That we had group homes. That we had property that they could see as assets.
Yeah, the property. That's exactly right. So we had properties, and I separated with the accountants. And we started group homes. There wasn't a bank in America that would finance the group homes in those days. The North Shore Arc was not a very popular place for banks. They didn't think we could make payments, and we had no credit.
So I went to a banker that I was doing business with, and he said, Mike, we can't finance you. We will not finance a home. So I said, OK. I'll guarantee the homes, and I've guaranteed a lot of homes. They may still be there. I don't know.
Let's pause for a minute to really reflect on that that you personally guaranteed a loan. And to let you know how far we've come since those days when you got turned down by banks, we now because of your early leadership, we have banks that are vying for our business. They are competing for our business, and we never get turned away for a loan because we have been put in such a strong financial position, which started with you.
And I want to go back earlier to what you said which was in the early days, there was no state commitment. I think right now the state budget for the Department of Developmental Services is about $3 billion. So what has happened in the 50 years since you've been involved in the Arc, I think if we were doing this live, I'd say stand up and take a bow because what you started has been an extraordinarily successful endeavor.
And the other thing I wanted to point out is that for 20 years you were the only person on the board without a child with a disability. And we have also stood upon your shoulders because right now we also have people that are vying to be on our board because we are a strong, vibrant, important part of this community. And we do have parents who might be on the board, but they're there because they might be an accountant, or they're a lawyer, or some other have some other expertise.
So we started with Mike Goodstein and your expertise, and we've continued to build on it. We have a board that is second to none made up of people who contribute so vitally to the organization, and you were the pioneer. And so thank you again for that.
And so we were so lucky as a small grassroots organization to have your financial expertise that allowed us to grow. And let me just reminisce and mention that Shari, your daughter, remembers joining you when she was 10 years old for the grand opening of the Arc's first group home, which you talked about, that you financially guaranteed in Peabody, and how thrilling it was and how much of an impact it made for her. Is there a particular project or might that be the most exciting project that you were involved with at the Arc?
That was really-- these homes that we've started, I forget how many homes when I left the treasurership. There must have been 30 homes. I don't know how many homes I guaranteed. I don't remember that anymore. I will say this about the board of directors that you just talked about, for 20 years, I tried to get prominent people on the board. But the name, the Arc, they didn't want to get involved until it became a big organization. I could not get any people with any kind of financial expertise to join me.
And Ronald Rainer and I really we supported the Arc financially. Every year, Carol, his wife, did the big gifts. And Ronnie and I were the main big givers. We couldn't get anybody in the community to give to the Arc.
It was the biggest frustration of my life that I couldn't get-- I knew everybody in Boston, and I couldn't get them to give money to the North Shore Arc. It was taboo. They didn't want to give it like the banks didn't want to give loans. And Jo Ann just said now they're begging to give loans. We're an A1 rated company.
That's right. I get calls from bankers all the time. But that was a different time when people were-- you're right-- people with intellectual disabilities. And in those days, we used the R word. It was someone else's problem. People didn't want to acknowledge that people with disabilities existed. Because you got involved at a time when people like Carol and Ron Rainer and Barbara Remon and some of our other early leaders were defying the conventional wisdom to institutionalize their child.
So now they've said, no, we're not going to institutionalize our child. We're going to raise them at home until we can find an appropriate community-based setting for them. And people weren't ready for some of the things. And even to this day, I have to tell you that sometimes we try to buy a group home, and I think that we don't get the bid because somebody doesn't want us in the neighborhood.
I believe that.
And your comment about not being able to get people from Boston, or people in our community of prominence to join the board because they didn't see it as something that would add to their standing in the community was real. And I was touched, though, that you were part of the board as a young mother in this community. And I knew of you and Arlene's leadership. My parents knew who you were, Shep and Elaine Simons.
And I knew that you brought a panache to the board. And I understood that and that gave me hope as a parent. My son is now going to be 45 years old. But when I was involved at the Arc, he was just born, and you were there providing that kind of leadership. And so I just can't thank you enough. And 25 years is an incredible amount of service, which is what you gave to the board. And you said before that it was Lisa that was your inspiration.
She was my inspiration. And Carol, as I said before, was our dearest friend. And I was with Lisa an awful lot because of Carol's friendship. And she was an inspiration to Arlene and I. There's no question. And I gave all this time and money and whatever I had to help her.
And if you saw Lisa today, which I'm sure you hear from Shari all the time, Lisa is a confident, young woman-- not a young woman because middle age. We've all aged-- with a phenomenal job and a phenomenal life. And I know that if Carol and Ronnie were here today to be able to kvell in her accomplishments that they would be so proud of the woman that she's become.
But speaking of pride, you've got to be so proud of Shari, your daughter, and Julie and Rob Rainer. I mean, they followed in your and Carol's footsteps as board leaders. And I want to tell you that I get to work with Shari and Julie all the time. And again, I'm struck by the same things that I was struck by you is their selflessness.
They are doing this, especially Shari thinks of Lisa as her sister, her cousin. And while they're not blood related, they're probably closer than blood relatives. And I don't know if you're told often enough just what an extraordinary woman Shari is and how many contributions she makes to this organization. And she's not looking for credit. She's not looking for accolades. She's just doing it because of the leadership.
She's a fantastic girl. My daughter is an outstanding person. People come to her for help like they used to come to me to help their children get a job, to help their children go to college. She just puts herself out like that.
She is an awesome person. I was amazed when she took over for me. When I left the Arc, I never thought my daughter would fall in love with the Arc the way I was, and she is. And you just heard from Jo Ann what an extraordinary girl she is.
And she's not the kind of board member that shows up at a meeting and has an opinion. She's working every day. Every day that she has an opportunity to tell somebody about the Arc or share a story about the Arc, she's doing it. And if you know Shari, Shari is somebody who she'll talk to the person that's standing behind her at the register waiting to check out at the supermarket. And by the time they're through, they've become good friends, and they've been invited to join something at the Arc.
And so your legacy is such a joy to be able to have and witness. But you did all this. At the same time, you were raising a family, building your career, and being part of the Arc. What would you tell young professionals today about the rewards of making time to give back to their community?
I gave a speech once, a major speech, to a major organization. And the speech was the art of giving. I gave a whole speech on that. And I felt like if you give back in your life, that you will have a great feeling of satisfaction when the end comes. And I think that's what it's all about, Giving.
Giving back yourself, your money, your brains, whatever you can give. If you don't have money, give of yourself. There are plenty of people who don't have money who give so much to so many organizations without the fanfare and the naming of buildings or whatever. And I think that's what-- I love people.
That might be a good place for us to pause and again, to thank you. I have been in awe of you and Arlene's contributions. And it was wonderful to speak with you and have you share some of your memories about the Northeast Arc and its impact.
We want to thank Peabody TV for providing a wonderful recording studio and space. And All Things Disability is made possible through the financial support of the Changing Lives Fund which was created by a gift by Steven Rosenthal. To learn more about the Northeast Arc and to find past episodes of this podcast, please visit ne-arc.org.
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