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It’s quite possible that service runs through Joel Smith’s veins.
“My dad was the Disaster Chairman for the Red Cross in West Virginia. There was always a lot of flooding so literally as an 8-year-old kid, I had a Red Cross hardhat which I thought was the coolest thing. My dad would be coordinating these responses and I would always tag along with him.”
The West Virginia native would tag along on responses with his father well into his teenage years, something that helped to shape his philosophy on life as an adult.
“I was raised in a household where we were literally taught that we’re here to serve, not be served. And as a young kid, that’s really annoying,” Smith laughed. “But I found as an adult that if you can maintain an attitude of ‘I’m here to serve’ it improves your every day, because on the days where you’re feeling sorry for yourself, you stop when you take care of somebody else.”
