It starts with a step. Then another. Pretty soon, you’re running (or at least walking), and you’re farther than you’d thought you’d go.
That’s the way it has worked for Erin Taylor. The owner of a communications and marketing consulting firm, co-owner of a running store and lifelong volunteer with a long list of charities and organizations, Taylor is an expert at putting herself out there. Her love of running and being outdoors has been a gateway to most of those opportunities.
“Throughout my life, I’ve always felt that you, as human beings, have to take care of others. I’ve always tried to lead by example … in my profession, my business, and most especially with my family. So my four children would realize that it’s part of your civic duty … but it can also be a lot of fun.”
For her, volunteer work always tends to run along a theme. “Everything I’ve been involved in in my life from a nonprofit standpoint usually has something to do with family and kids and healthy living.”
That’s particularly true of her current role on the board of Methodist Family Health.
Methodist Family Health was founded in 1899 as the Arkansas Methodist Orphanage. Over the years, it gradually changed to become Methodist Children’s Home and developed a residential treatment facility and series of youth group homes. In 2003, the Methodist Children’s Home combined with Methodist Behavioral Hospital, Inc. to become Methodist Family Health. Today, the organization provides behavioral care for children and families dealing with problems including addiction disorders and mental illness through outpatient counseling, emergency shelters, residential psychiatric care and therapeutic foster and group homes.
Methodist Family Health’s forthcoming Walk for Children and Families, in particular, works to Taylor’s strengths - health, events and communication. So, she “jumped right into that.” Scheduled for Aug. 2 at the North Little Rock side of the Big Dam Bridge, it is an all-ages event with food and music and the chance to get out in the fresh air for some exercise.
IN LOVE, IN ARKANSAS
The roots of Taylor’s passion for fitness and health go back to her childhood just outside Buffalo, N.Y., in a community she describes as “idyllic.” She was particularly drawn to running and eventually was offered a scholarship to attend the University of Arkansas as a distance runner under famed track coach John McDonnell.
“I visited the school and fell in love with Arkansas.” Then she met and fell in love with Gary Taylor, a runner from London who’d also been drawn to the state far from home.
“We got married and settled in Arkansas because we loved it here,” she says. “It’s got anything anyone could want, especially if you like the outdoors.”
The family lived in Northwest Arkansas, and while running was always a part of her life, Taylor settled into a career in marketing and communications, eventually co-owning an agency called Taylor Mack.
Then, in 2000, a job offer for Gary from Alltel and a desire for a change of scenery brought the family to Little Rock.
Erin Taylor also went to work for Alltel, eventually moving to Acxiom.
But there was something else that they dreamed about: their own running store. Then, something unexpected and, at first, unhappy, gave them the push they needed.
“When you say one door closes, another door opens, it was really like that for us with Alltel,” Taylor says.
Gary was still employed there when Verizon bought the company and the sale put his future in question.
“We were sad from the perspective of this incredible organization with such integrity that we loved going into a new phase,” Taylor says. “We just followed right down that path into a new phase ourselves. It just gave us an opportunity to open the store and we took it. We’ve never looked back.Happiest I’ve ever been.”
Taylor left her position at Acxiom and the couple opened Go! Running on North Grant Street in the Heights neighborhood in April 2010. Go! Running, which Taylor calls “a community running store,” sponsors about 30 community races each year and hosts a community run at 6 p.m. every Thursday.
“From the time we opened our doors, we’ve done that night. We regularly see 40-50 people of all ages, paces. Everyone is welcome.”‘THE EASIEST WAY … IS TO JOIN’
The store, she says, brings the Taylors’ lives full circle.
“When we were younger, where we found our passion and our ability, how that one simple thing of running completely transformed our lives. This store is also an opportunity for us to help others live a happy, healthy life. So it’s more than a store. There’s a mission tied to it.And we have a heckuva lot of fun.
“It really allows us to get out there and help people and make an impact and create a fun, loving environment.”
She may have left Acxiom, but she has stayed very much tied to marketing and, in fact, the store led her to start up her own firm. She handled the marketing for the store from the beginning and colleagues and customers, familiar with her background, began asking for help.
Now she has a consulting firm, Taylor’d Marketing, where, she says, she gets to work with companies of her choosing.
Her marketing skills come in handy with her volunteer work as well, and that’s especially true in her current work on the board with Methodist Family Health, a position she has held for about a year, ever since finishing up a term on the March of Dimes state board.
Whatever the cause or organization, for Taylor, being involved in the community and giving time and talents to help others is a vital, rewarding part of life.
“Find something in your life that pulls on your heartstrings and do not be afraid to take that first step forward. Sometimes the easiest way to do that is to join in on a benefit walk or run. Because you meet people when you’re there. And you feel it. It’s much more real. And it’s a very simple way to show your support and you never know where that will take you. It’s taken me pretty far.” The Walk for Children and Families starts at 6 p.m. Aug. 2 at the Big Dam Bridge, North Little Rock. Registration is $20 per person or $50 per family. Call (501) 661-0720, Extension 7301 or visit methodistfamily.org.
High Profile, Pages 35 on 07/21/2013