Toys! I think we all love them, no matter what age we are.
For the young ones, toys are hard to escape, with stores promoting the “must-have” items before the Halloween decorations have even been put away. So imagine how tough it must be for a kid whose family can’t afford much. That’s where you and the LGBT community come in, with the annual Delaware Valley Legacy Fund TOY event. It’s a fundraiser for the organization but it’s also a toy drive for the kids at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In addition to the music and merriment, this year some of the region’s most talented designers have been asked to design and create a special holiday ornament that showcases their unique talents and perspectives. Yours truly has been asked to participate and TOY attendees will have the opportunity to bid on the ornaments as part of the event’s silent auction.
One of the event organizers, Mark Beyerle from SpecialtyUSA, took a little time from his busy schedule to talk to me about TOY, his company and the philosophy of giving. PGN: Thanks for meeting with me. MB: Of course! I have a little time before I’m off to emcee a scrapple fest. There’s always something that has to be done. PGN: So let’s jump right in. Tell me a little about yourself. MB: I was born a small child … Ha. No, what do you want to know? PGN: Well, you are Mr. Philadelphia with your tours and events. Are you actually from here? MB: I was born and raised in Delran, N.J., but we spent a considerable amount of time in our summer home in Surf City on Long Beach Island. The essence of my growing up was there. My folks live there full-time now. PGN: So you’re a beach boy! MB: Yup, blond hair, green eyes and all. PGN: What was your favorite Beach Boy song? MB: Oh jeez, I’m not that old. I don’t know. PGN: [Laughs.] OK then, your favorite beach activity? MB: Reading. Sitting on the beach with a good book and letting the hours tick by. PGN: What was your favorite book as a kid? MB: Probably something from the Hardy Boys series. We had a book mobile that came to our neighborhood once a month. It was important to my folks that we read, so when that book mobile came, my brother and I had to march over there and check out two or three books. PGN: And what did the folks do? MB: My father was a self-made businessman. He ran a very successful auto-parts business long before the big stores like Napa and Advance Auto took over. The days when Bob’s hardware was actually run by Bob. His was Bill’s Auto Supply. My mother sold real estate when we were growing up because it afforded her the ability to be flexible with her hours. PGN: What’s a fun memory with your brother? MB: Playing at the beach. We were in the water so much we would turn into prunes. We’d spend the day on rafts riding the waves. PGN: What sort of things were you involved in at school? MB: Well, in college I was the editor of the yearbook for three years. I was involved in student government and social affairs, which was putting on events! And I worked, so I kept pretty busy. PGN: Which school and what study? MB: Widener University and business with a concentration in hotel management. I always knew that I wasn’t going to be a manufacturer or produce widgets; I knew that I would be in the service business. Right after college, I went to Atlantic City and joined the hospitality industry. I spent five years at Harrah’s. As other casinos were opening and people were leaving for the new fancy casinos, I stayed at Harrah’s and worked my way up until I was in charge of 11 departments with a $4-million budget. PGN: And how old were you? MB: Twenty-four. They were good times. That led to my job in Philadelphia with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. I stayed there for 17 years. I was the director of our city’s visitors center, so I welcomed millions of visitors throughout my career and made sure they knew where to go and what to do so that they would stay longer and spend more in our city. Then I moved to the sales side and traveled the country promoting Philadelphia. PGN: What was a surprise favorite spot? I think mine was Saugatuck, Mich. MB: Usually my favorite places were determined by the people I dealt with. I still have friends all over, but a serendipitous moment was when I had to stay overnight in Rochester and went to the Lilac Festival. It was beautiful. PGN: My ex was from Rochester and always raved about it. MB: Yeah, the best times were when we had great hosts for the conventions. I had the pleasure of being in Disney World at night with the entire park opened for just us. You could go on any ride without a wait as many times as you wanted. And I’m a ride junkie so it was great! PGN: Nice perk! MB: Yeah, I traveled six days a week, six months a year, so it was kind of grueling — wash and pack, wash and pack — but yeah, there were some nice perks in between. And it felt good to know that my job was helping Philadelphia’s economy. I was responsible for booking $6-million- worth of hotel rooms each year. That created work for housekeepers and bellmen and desk people. PGN: Not to mention the local restaurants, gift shops, tour guides, museums, etc. MB: Yes, the ripple effect of tourism is amazing. And I’m still in the business today. I opened a tour company called SpecialtyUSA and we started out doing private specialty tours, murals of Philly, the Amish Country, etc. We started getting groups asking us to arrange lunch on a Spirit of Philadelphia cruise or tickets to the Phillies game. Those aren’t tours so we changed our name to SpecialtyUSA Tours and Events. Next thing you know, our phone started to ring with people calling us to produce events. So we started in the production business and now most people know us for parties and events like TOY. PGN: [The office is full of props and bar materials.] What are the lava lamps for? MB: They were from a ’60s party we just did. We had lava lamps, costumes and a Beatles tribute band! It was fun. PGN: What party was the most fun? MB: That’s hard because for us they’re all work. It’s 15-plus hours on your feet. I just did the Miss America Parade in Atlantic City and we were up 31 hours making sure everything went right. I like the annual events, where each year you have a unique challenge to make it fun and interesting. One of my favorites is the annual Valentine event for the Reading Terminal Market. We’ve about to do a party on Boathouse Row; we do the hospitality party at Eastern State Penitentiary; which is really cool. We get to help with themes like when they first decided to open seven days a week — we threw a ’70s party with seven food stations and the signature drink was a 7&7. The next year, when they decided to open in the evening, we did a “Boogie Nights” theme. It’s fun, I love what I do. Despite the long hours, I’m in the happiness business. I’m not selling caskets or giving people bad news — I throw parties and make people happy. I get excited on Sunday nights knowing that I get to go to work the next day. PGN: So in all your free time, what do you like to do? MB: Nothing brings me more pleasure than to spend time with family and friends. Just having dinner and a bottle of wine one on one, or with a small group. I enjoy reading too, but I don’t spend enough time to call it a hobby. PGN: What would we find on your bedstand? MB: Most likely a biography. I find people absolutely fascinating. I read Gladys Knight’s biography, “Between the Lines of Pain and Glory,” which was a line from one of her songs. She didn’t have it easy and it was a fascinating book. There were casinos where she performed and then wasn’t allowed to stay in. It was how I felt about seeing the movie “The Butler.” Moving. PGN: What were some of the best and worst celebrity encounters? MB: I had the honor of being selected to be on the nonpartisan host committee for the city for the 2000 Republican Convention. I was assigned to George and Barbara Bush. They were lovely and gracious. I’ve worked with Pavarotti. The biggest diva was Aretha Franklin. Among other things, she didn’t want to do a sound check. It was like, “But you have to, you’re doing a concert and your voice is very unique.” It’s not like we could go to the corner and grab someone who sounded like Aretha to stand in. PGN: Any pets? MB: Yes, my dog just passed away seven weeks ago, and I have a cat named Bobby. PGN: Do you do a lot of nonprofit work? MB: Yes, I love getting involved in the community. You asked what I do in my spare time and that’s really it. I love giving back. At the company level, we do as well. Each employee is given 100 hours of pro-bono time to give to the community and everyone is expected to support them. It’s about $50,000 of pro-bono time each year that we give back to the community on top of what we each personally do. I just want to help, whether I’m sitting on a committee at William Way or on the board of DVLF or helping Mazzoni with Elixir. And, of course, we’re all excited about TOY! PGN: Tell me a little about TOY. MB: It’s the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund’s annual holiday fundraising event. In addition to raising money, we also collect toys for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It’s happening Dec. 7 at the Reading Terminal Market and there will be music and food and great fun for a good cause. It’s so important to raise money to keep DVLF alive and moving forward to build LGBT philanthropy in our community. To raise the money to achieve the mission — which is to raise money! To build a community fund for people and organizations that we don’t even know of yet. We are planning for people 70, 80, 100 years from now. We can’t count on the government, we can’t count on companies; this way, we can do it for ourselves and fund what matters to our community. If someone had only done this 100 years ago, we would be sitting here with a pool of money to give to the important charities and service organizations in our community. They’d have the money to actually do their work instead of spending all their time trying to raise money to stay afloat! Sorry, it gets me all riled up when I think about how underfunded our charities are. It makes me mad how apathetic some in our community are. They go around all day with their head in the clouds not even thinking of giving back. PGN: Where do you get your altruism? MB: Definitely my family. We were middle-class and were always taught that we were very blessed. My parents are very philanthropic; they really put their money where their mouths are [laughs] or maybe it’s the other way around. Anyone can write a check — and that’s very important — but they give sweat equity as well. I saw that growing up. In fact, they’re both retired now and busier than ever volunteering for different charities. They inspired both my brother and me to leave the world a better place than it was given to us. PGN: An item from your bucket list? MB: Ha. I so want to go zip-lining. I’m a thrillseeker, adventure-y kind of guy. I’m a roller-coaster junkie. I’ve gone on a hot-air balloon and I’ve bungee-jumped. I’m a member of the broken-bone club from skiing. I love anything having to do with the water — boating, water-skiing, you name it. I definitely like being adventurous. PGN: Who knew you were such an outdoorsman? MB: And yet I’m a city guy! I’ve been very blessed in that I’ve been to 22 countries and 45 states. I’ve had amazing experiences in Russia, South America and all over the world. I like going to the city where I can learn about the culture, learn about the people, not just sit my butt on the beach. As much as I like to do that, I can do that here. PGN: Craziest travel adventure? MB: Going to the Ukraine. The plane was, shall we say, old. Not all the seats wanted to stay upright, so you had to keep trying to find a new seat that wouldn’t fall backwards. When I finally found one, I had to tie the seatbelt because it wouldn’t clasp! When we landed we blew out a tire. PGN: Yikes! Any hidden talents? MB: I’m a pretty good cook. Single and a good cook, make that the headline! PGN: Who inspires you? MB: Someone like Princess Diana. She didn’t have to lead a life of service but she took advantage of her privilege and used it to do good and help others. But my biggest inspiration is my father. PGN: What’s a historical event you wished you could have witnessed? MB: Actually I did witness a pretty important one. I was in Germany three days after reunification, when the wall had come down. It was pretty amazing — to see the newfound wealth from the East Germans who all of a sudden found their money was worth so much more than before. In an instant, they became wealthier than they imagined and they were literally dancing in the street. If I had to go back in time, it would be for something joyous. Perhaps landing on the moon for the first time, that would be amazing to witness first-hand. PGN: Any notable relatives? MB: No, I think we had someone who fought in the Civil War, but I don’t consider fighting notable. I’m pretty opposed to it. PGN: What is Beyerle? MB: German. Anything with an “le” on the end means “little” or “son of” so it’s “little Beyer.” PGN: Favorite piece of clothing? MB: When I travel I like to bring back a piece of clothing, a tie or shirt. My favorite is a blue-and-white summer shirt I brought back from Colombia. PGN: Describe a word that begins with the first letter of your name that sums you up? MB: Meticulous. n For more information or to purchase tickets for TOY, visit www.dvlf.org To suggest a community member for Family Portrait, email [email protected].