QC Forum - 2-11-24

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Quad City Forum, aweekly community service program produced by iHeartMedia to
look at the issues and opportunities thatexist in our community. Now here's your
hosts for a Quad City Forum,Dot Luke and Denny Linnhowe. Josh Gray's
director of marketing development at Humility Homes, talking to us under Quad City Forum

(00:21):
here this morning, and Josh,big stuff happening with Humility Homes, A
big drive that's happening right now.We do want to get into that as
soon as we can, but beforeyou know, we generally like to start
all of our interviews with what theorganization's all about. So, Josh,
the balls in your court. So, Humility Homes and Services are really our

(00:44):
big mission is to try to endhelpless this in the Quad Cities through supportive
services and housing opportunities. And wedo that in a variety of ways,
but we have that's really our mission. It's just to really support those people
in our community that have experienced homelessnessor have recently transitioned into stable housing.

(01:04):
And so this hygiene drive is oneof the biggest ways to provide those essential
items that people really need and reallyhelp them to focus on other things like
education and their career and really beable to take like you know, really
have those those essential needs that theyneed to focus on everything else. When

(01:25):
we talk about the great work thatyour organization does, we also think about
a certain part of the population thatreally can fall between the crack sometimes.
And that's certainly when we talk aboutsome of our veterans. Yes, yes,
that's correct, and part of thepeople some of the people that we
serve our veterans. And you know, it's been great to be able to

(01:46):
serve those people that have served ourcountry. And so a lot of those
people come back from serving and youknow, they don't have what they need.
They don't have you know, theymay have may or may not have
some mental health issues, and soour goal is just to get them back
on their feet, get them somewhereto live. And at Humility, our
philosophy is really housing first, andso if you don't have somewhere to live,

(02:08):
all of those other issues that youmay have really just kind of fall
on the cracks. And so wetry to put housing first, and that's
kind of how we try to helppeople around here and with Humility homes and
services. If there's somebody out thereright now who is saying, Okay,
well I'm needing some help, Ineed a hand up, and you're there

(02:31):
for him. How can they geta hold of you? Yeah, so
you can call twenty four to seventhree sixty five days a year. You
can call five six three three twotwo eight zero six five for immediate assistance.
And then on top of that,we also have a list of resources

(02:53):
on our website if you go tohumilityhomes dot org slash resources that lists all
the community resources, whether it beshelters or crisis hotlines, rent or utility
assistance, any of those things wecan help through there. So, and
one of the things that you're reallyhelping the population with here in the Quad

(03:13):
Cities in the surrounding area is thebig hygiene drive that's going on right now.
Yeah. So this is one ofour big needs that it's really ongoing
throughout the year. It doesn't reallyhave a season or it doesn't really have
you know, a particular time whereit's higher than others. This is a
constant need, you know, likethe things like the orderant and soap and

(03:35):
toothpaste, cleaning supplies for our house, even toilet paper and razors and more.
I mean and a lot more.Those are things that really, you
know, if you have to decidebetween paying your rent or feeding your children,
those are the kind of things thatare like first the first things that
kind of get lost in in intranslation when you're in need. And so

(03:57):
what we do at our Corner ClosetDonation Center is that we allow participants to
come to our facility once a monthand get the things that they need as
well as we open it up tothe public once a month as well for
anybody in need is to come andget these items. And so this drive
helps fulfill that need. And we'rereally excited about how many drop off locations

(04:21):
and how how much of the entireQuad city has been involved. You know,
usually you get Davenport, or youget Rock Island, or you get
one of the cities you know thatare in our area. But we're getting
you know, a broad area ofdrop off locations, which really makes it
a lot easier for people no matterwhere they live. So yeah, we're

(04:43):
excited. Now you talked about Fillmoreand of course that's right kind of the
right by the hub there, that'sfive twenty five Fillmore Street where they can
stop by the corner closet, Butwhy don't you talk about some of the
other locations and then maybe going throughmaybe the list it would seem like it's
basic, but kind of go throughsome of the list of items that people

(05:03):
can help out with the drive.But first things first, some of those
other locations along with fillmore that peoplecan drop things off at. Yeah,
some of our great partners on thisdrive are ray Gun downtown Davenport on Second
Street, pre Emption Methodist Church outin Preemption Atland. Wow. So that's

(05:26):
great too, just and I guessit also shows how this does affect everybody.
This isn't a Davenport or a RockIsland issue. Everybody knows somebody or
everybody wants to help. So yeah, pre Emption, okay, And then
we have Inspired Design Jewelry in RockIsland. We also have Oak Street Health

(05:49):
as a lesson Davenport as well.We have Starbucks and Moline off of forty
first Avenue. Two men in atruck and we offer will have a few
others that are joining scooters, andthen we have another Starbucks that's joining us.
So we just we have a lotof people that are just really participating

(06:12):
in this drive, and we kindof anticipate more donations from individuals as well
to come and be and dropped offat our corner closet. And so some
of the items that we're accepting ournew and used personal care items, like
I said, toothbrushes, toothpaste,soap, shampoo, de orderant, you
know, menstrual hygiene products. Andwe also want to make sure to remember

(06:36):
like different hair products for people thatare you know, my ethnic hair products
and baby wipes and some of thesome of the things we also have needs
for are like coffee and coffee,coffee creamer and things like that. A
lot of the people that come intoour emergency shelter, the first thing that
they want when they come into buildingis a cup of coffee. Yeah,

(07:01):
I mean especially yeah, we're andwe're not We're I'm laughing, because yeah,
that's it's for a lot of us. Coffee is important. And that's
great that you have the time withStarbucks helping out too now for some of
these things. But some of theselike the locations or the drop off points,
I mean you you did a greatjob of pointing them all out in

(07:23):
the list, but maybe some ofthe somebody missed some of those locations.
So instead of repeating them again.How can they website and phone number if
they want to find out some moreinformation. Yeah, definitely so. Our
website for this is www. Humilityhomesdot org slash hearts for humility okay,

(07:45):
and we have all the locations listedthere. We also have some downloadable resources
such as a supply Drive toolkit thatincludes tips, communications, samples, and
a checklist to ensure success of individualsor companies running their own drive to support

(08:05):
Humility Homes. You can also downloadthe flyer there and then if you have
any other support or have any questionsthat you need, you can reach out
to Madelin Bevlearn. She's our volunteerand events coordinator. You can call her
at five sixty three three two threethirteen thirty Extension one oh five and she'd

(08:28):
be able to help you and answerany questions you may have. And when
we talk about you had brought upa good point here too with this hygiene
drive, how it's going to beimportant all year long. But the immediacy
here February is, even though weget the leap here and we get the
extra day, it still is theshortest of all the months. So by

(08:50):
the time this interview airs, we'realready a few days into the month,
So for people there's an immediacy tomake sure that you help out. And
also, like is the case withmost of the drives or fundraisers, people
think, once the date's done,we don't have to worry about it anymore.
Always have humility homes in the topof mind because the work you do

(09:11):
is twenty four to seven, threesixty five. Occasionally in the leap,
here's a three sixty six, rightright, yeah, exactly. I mean
a lot of these things that peoplecontribute to these drives, you know,
they're not just items. They reallyare being helpful and rebuilding individuals and families'
lives that may have experienced homelessness.And so you know, this can make

(09:35):
a big difference in person in aperson's life that may you know, they
may wake up and have a jobinterview, or they may have something signing
or happening, or they may havejust moved into a new place and not
have those things that they need tomake it feel like home. And so
this drive is essential to really givingthose people, you know, the things
that they need to feel dignified andfeel stable. I love what you're doing

(10:00):
Josh Graves Humility Homes and Services.It's an awesome resource that I think people
don't know enough about. So thankyou for being here today on our Quad
City Forum and letting us know aboutthat Hearts for Humility Hygiene Drive. It
just means so much to so many. Yeah, thank you for having me.
I appreciate it. If you oryour organization would like to be featured

(10:20):
on Quad City Forum, please visitthe contact page and our station website.
Now back to bat Luke and DannyLinnhowe. Excited to talk to Becky buckerp
program coordinator and marketing and development guruwith the University of Illinois Extension. Becky,
we know you have big stuff doyou want to talk about That's coming

(10:41):
up here fairly quick. But beforewe get into that, by the time
this interview airs, the nursery schoolevent that you had over I've never seen.
That's the biggest nursery school I've everseen over at the Byron Arena that
just wrapped up. How did thenumbers work out for that one? Yeah,
it's a great day, twenty fifthyear for it, So it's been
a popular event for twenty five years. Yeah, almost two hundred people explore

(11:05):
to learn all about gardening from localand regional experts and University of Illinois horticulture
educators. Yeah, it's one ofour best long running events and it gets
people inspired and ready for spring andwell and certainly with the weather the way
the weather has been so warm herelately. Now I think we're going to
go into a little bit of adownturn, but still just gets people outside

(11:26):
or at least thinking about the warmerweather. That's a good thing. And
certainly we can't get through a wholewinter without at least a couple of cold
stretches. And this kind of worksout for what you've got coming up next
week, Yeah, the Winter WellnessFree Family Event, and it's going to
take place at Watchtower Lodge there atBlackhowk State Historic Site at Blackhawk Park.

(11:48):
It'll be from ten to one nextSaturday, and it's a free event and
we do it in conjunction with BlackhokState Historic Site. And it's a great
perfect winter day escape into the worldof health and fits and health and wellness,
I mean. And this year we'regoing to focus on lessons learned from
the Blue Zones, and those areregions of the world where people are known

(12:09):
to live longer and experience higher ratesof well being. And so one of
the things we're going to do ishave blue zones have diets rich in fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, lagoons andthings like that. So we're going
to have these Mediterranean bowls that peoplecan come and build their own bowl and
it'll have the proteins and the veggiesand different sauces and they can, you

(12:31):
know, example, and build theirown bowl to see like some of the
good healthful things to eat. We'llhave hot chocolate and tea, and we'll
have some different oatmeal cookies that breakfastbiscuits or something like that for folcus to
taste. And then we'll have activitystations that you can go visit. Our
master gardeners will be on hand.We'll have a station where they can learn

(12:54):
about birds. We're going to haveways to reduce food waste and create eco
friendly cleaning products and can take asample of that home. We'll also have
blue Zone lessons, some information thatpeople can grab on that well no wait,
wait, wait a minute. Iknow Danny's got a question here.
I know Danny's got a question toadd on, but I got to tell
you, I'm wondering this says it'sfrom like ten to one. This sounds

(13:15):
think it's going to be like aweak thing that you're going to keep them
there. Well, we hope tohave enough activities to come and like,
yeah, spend a lot of timewith us. Social connections are another big
thing for the Blue Zones, andso you know, we have these tables,
they'll be set up and we'll havecraft stations so they can come and
relax with us, and we're goingto do We're gonna have like stained glass

(13:37):
type, you know, a littleproject they can do to take that home
and shine it in the lights.They'll be making paintings and the crafts for
kids too, and we'll have someclassical guitar music playing in the room and
so people can come and hang outand just relax in the big room.
There'll be kids' activities, will havean obstacle course and some different things they
can do. So yeah, thatpart. It's just a really fun,

(14:00):
relaxing way to come and just spenda few hours. And it's situated at
the Black Hawk Park, so it'sbeautiful. You can take a stroll through
the park when you're done, andthe Hobbard Museum will be open, so
you can go and check that out. That's to learn about the socc and
the squawky Fox Indians. So itwas one of our favorite events. Yeah.
Well, Becky, it feels like, as I'm looking at all this

(14:22):
that it probably would not be agood idea for me to bring my bag
of Eminem's to share with everybody.That was good. That was a good
question, Danny. I was worriedabout thinking about Eminem's. Oh my goodness.
But but I do like the factthat for people who might think,
oh, yeah, well I'm doingI'm doing mostly the right things. You're
going to have health screenings too.Yes, there will be some nurses from

(14:46):
Unity Point Health there and so youcan come and get a diabetes assessment,
blood pressure screening, and pick upother health resources from them. This is
February's Heart Health months, so it'sgood to like, you know, concentrate
on that and out some different thingsyou can do for your heart health.
And so these kind of this eventis perfect for that to pick up resources

(15:07):
there and then pick up stuff aboutthe Blue Zone Mediterranean diet that's also one
of the best diets for heart health. So we'll have resources on that to
our nutritional wellness educator will be thereoffering that. So it's exciting and we
can hear the energy and your voicesyou're bringing it up and if you're just
catching us right now. This isBecky Backrop from the University of Illinois Extension.

(15:30):
She's programmed coordinator. There does alot of other things too, but
this big event is there. Youhave to sign up or get reservations or
walk ups. Welcome. How canthey be a part of this? Yeah,
they can just come right over andit's from ten to one and it's
right at black Hawk State Historic Siteat Watchtower Lodge. It's that beautiful lodge

(15:50):
right in the same building as themuseum is in. And we do have
more in all the details you canget at go dot Illinois dot edu backslah
Winter Wellness, so they could lookthere. But yeah, it's just from
ten to one on Saturday, Februaryseventeenth. Well, I do think that
I'm just going to say, beckI do think that the admission freeze the

(16:11):
exact right price for families free.Yeah, it's good and we do have
support from the Rock Island County Extensionand for its Education Foundation to help us
offer that free event for everybody.Well, I love it. It's like
touching all the bases here too,because not only yeah, we just had
the nursery school let out, butyet still being able to think about warmer

(16:33):
things because in some of these bluezones that you're talking about, you know,
growing your own stuff is also importantto It can save you a lot
of money, and it can alsoif you're picking the right stuff, starting
it from a seed all the wayto where it becomes some sort of a
food item on your table, there'sa better shot that you're going to be
eating healthier. And even though wejoked about the m and ms, which

(16:56):
I don't believe Danny owns any mand ms in our house. Maybe your
husband does. But the main thingis just getting good choices and being educated
on making those right choices. Thisis a perfect event for families or just
somebody all by themselves. Yeah,and we'll have resources too about some other
programs that are coming up. Wedo have some Growing Great Vegetable webinar that'll

(17:21):
be coming up later in the monthof February, so folks are interested in
doing some home gardening. We'll havea lot of resources about that as well
to hand out and if they dowant to go to the website again,
handyway to find out more with theUniversity of Illinois Extension. Yeah, go
dot Illinois dot edu backslash Winter Wellnessand I can check it out there.

(17:44):
Becky Buckrop with the Illinois Extension,thank you so much for talking about this
today. It's good to get peopleout and busy. Yeah, thanks so
much for letting us share it.If you or your organization would like to
be featured on Quad City Forum,please visit the contact our station website.
Now back to Pat Luke and DennyLinnewe for our Quad City Forum. Here

(18:07):
this morning, we're getting a chanceto talk to Sydney Osfolk, the mid
Mississippi Valley Ducks Unlimited treasurer and inSydney. What is amazing to me is
how Ducks Unlimited has not only grown, but it is thrived. This is
great with the amount of money thatDucks Unlimited is sending over to Scott County
alone, Yeah, super exciting forus this year. Do you received a

(18:33):
large grant here in Iowa for eightmillion dollars and I'm specifically going to go
to projects in Scott County. It'spart of funding from the USDA, and
so they designated eight million dollars toScott County, Iowa working Lands for Resilient
Communities. It sounds like they're planningto use those dollars to install climate smart

(18:56):
conservation practices such as infield and edgeof field wetland restoration to prove water availabilities,
water quality, soil health, andwildlife habitats. So we're super excited
about that. When you get thiseight million dollars, what kind of process
do you go through? You're notjust hoping, hey, can you make

(19:18):
sure you send some money our way? We would imagine there were some steps
involved to be able to get thisfunding. So there's fire up d us
in obviously, volunteers like myself thatare you know, paid staff members of
Ducks Unlimited and they work with legislators, you know, to apply for these

(19:40):
grants that kind of stuff. Soit's been it's been a work of heart,
for sure for many years to getto this place. When we talk
about the mid Mississippi Valley Ducks Unlimitedchapter, when you talk about volunteers,
is there any I mean, therehas to be a very few amount of
people that are really even getting paid. This is mostly passion that's helping you

(20:03):
take care of conservation in the environmentaround Scott County. Right, None of
our Mississippi Valley Chapter participants are paid, paid members. We're all volunteers.
So there's about a dozen of usthat work to host star events and that
kind of thing. So I thinkthat's really neat. Yeah, it's amazing

(20:25):
to me. And when we lookat some of the places that will get
the funding, these are places thatpeople probably drive by all the time.
Talk about maybe the Wapsi Wetlands,Green Island, Goose Lake and one place
it still amazes me. Most peopledrive over the I two eighty or the
John Baker Bridge every day or atleast once a week. They drive over

(20:47):
that, and they drive right overNyhant Marsh. That has become such a
it's such a big draw and it'sall it's all pretty much. The reason
why it's there is because of alot of the work that you guys do,
and you're probably not the only onesinvolved, but a lot of that
work is on display every day whenwe're driving over that bridge. Obviously we

(21:10):
work with a lot of other agenciestoo that provide funding and resources to large
projects, But do you've had ahand in all of those local projects here
to us is all of North Americaand beyond and Sydney. When I hear
ducks and lemoned, do you youknow? I always think, oh,
well, you're out there protecting theducks. Guess that's what. But we

(21:32):
know now from talking with you thatit really is a nationwide nonprofit wetland conservation
restoration organization, and so you're reallydoing a lot of things to make sure
that nature in itself, whether it'shelping the birds or the fish, or
the turtles or whatever is in andnative to those wetlands, actually thrive and
survive. Do you. Obviously isn'tjust about the ducks, It's about conservation

(21:56):
as a whole. Wetland management helpsthat we have cutting water sources, erosion
management, and habitat for all kindsof wildlife and so much more. And
I'm thinking with that eight million,even though that's a large sum of money,
there's still a lot of work thathas to be done by volunteers and
it's NonStop right Sydney. There's alwayssomething eat something happening with the U somewhere,

(22:21):
whether it's in the state of Iowaor somewhere else in the country.
Well, and the eight million dollarsand the eight million dollars is great,
but there still has to be fundraisingmechanisms out there. And you've got a
big one that's good, that's alwaysbeen successful, huge and magnetic. Yeah,
especially and we're not even going toget to the Village in Pies yet,
but well we will, We're goingto touch on it. But that

(22:45):
big events happening at the Mississippi ValleyFairgrounds at the Starlight Ballroom at the Misissippi
Valley fair on February seventeenth. Startwetting our appetite on all the great food
and they and the fantastic time thewhole family's going to have next month.
Uh yeah, So it's our goshis it maybe our fifty third annual Midsissippi

(23:08):
Valley Banquet. The Starlight Ballroom.Jeff's Market will be catering for us a
Rabbi steak dinner. We have liveauction, silent auction games for the kids,
games for adults. Just it's justa good night out for the whole
family. I love the fact thatyou don't have to be a Ducks unlimited

(23:30):
member to go and you know,to buy a ticket and go. But
when you buy a ticket and go, you become a member. So with
your ticket you will get dinner inthe door, and then obviously you get
a Ducks unlimited membership for a year. There's various benefits with those with the

(23:51):
membership, but one of the mainones is a magazine subscription that talks about
local projects and all that kind ofthing. And then it also if it's
a child membership, they get aan interactive do you membership as well with
a magazine, you know, withgames and fun stuff in there too,

(24:12):
So it's not just that night thatyou're you know, you gain access to
our stuff. It's for that wholenext year as well. Again it's a
family friendly event. But now I'vewaited long enough, tell me about the
village in pile. This is goodstuff. Yeah, so it's kind of

(24:34):
blossomed over the last few years.Gosh, it's probably been ten years or
so now that we've been doing thevillage and pie auction. So basically we
auction off between let's say eight totwelve pies. One of the pies is
like essentially the winner and that personwill win a gun. I'm not sure

(24:56):
which one, and it will bethis year, but we usually are able
to raise a lot of money becausewho doesn't love Village in Pies? And
that's crazy great price you can win. So if people want to be a
part of it, there's a coupleof different ways, website and a phone
number. Why don't you the firstof many times you're going to give it?

(25:17):
Why don't you start with that processagain so people can get involved.
Yeah, And so you can purchasetickets online at Ducks Dugks dot org or
you can simply give us a callat five six three three seven zero nine
five two one. Then we'd behappy to get tickets to you either way.
Well, why don't you give thatnumber in the website again one more

(25:40):
time? Yeah, so you canpurchase tickets online at Ducks dot org or
by calling us that five six threethree seven zero nine five two one.
Now. I hate to keep goingback to the Village in Pie auction,
but I am sorry, but Igot to. I do want to now
with the auction exactly? Is thisjust like a straight out bid for it?

(26:03):
Or do you take a is therelike a raffle or how does that
whole process go. Yeah, Infactly it's a bedding process. So we
kind of work it into our liveauction and so you bid what you want
for the pie. Usually we youknow, this is a cherry pie,
this is a banana cream pie,and then people bid what they want.

(26:25):
Well, the pumpkin pie is goingto go for astronomical. Man, it's
all going to be good. AndI don't want to I don't want to
talk any more about the village inpie auction, but I am excited about
that. But again, for peoplejust tuning in now, we are talking
to Sydney Ostfolk, the mid MississippiValley Ducks Unlimited treasurer, And even though
she's relatively young, she's she's beeninvolved with Ducks Unlimited her whole life.

(26:49):
It seems like it's kind of afamily affair. But again, for people
that want to go February seventeenth,what are some of the things that they
might be able to see If it'smaybe the first time Danny was talking about
a little bit ago. You're nota member yet, you want to see
what's going on or have an idea. Let's you give him a rundown again
of what they're going to be ableto expect. Yeah, so once you

(27:11):
come in the door, you know, we'll have lots of raffle game type
things, we sell merchandise, Wewill have games for the kids. And
then we have as silent auction thatalways includes tons of great items from local
businesses here in the Quad Cities.And then we have our biggest event within

(27:34):
the event, I guess is ourlive auction, and that features artwork,
home decor just all kinds of goodstuff and it's family friendly and it literally
you've been a part of it withthe whole family thing for a long time.

(27:55):
Yeah, for sure. My entirefamily has been involved. I think
my dad's going on maybe thirty fiveor forty years now volunteering with Stuffs Unlimited,
and so we all of us kidshave been grandfathered in as volunteers as
well. One more time, Sydney, let us know how we can purchase

(28:15):
tickets and be a part of thisgreat event. Yeah, so you can
purchase tickets online at Ducks dot orgor simply by Colleen or even texteen five
six three three seven zero ninety fivetwo one. And as we wrap up
this edition of Quad Citi Forum thismorning, remember Guilda's Club has their big

(28:37):
comedy fundraiser are happening in April livefrom QC. It's Saturday Night. To
grab your tickets while you still can. This will probably be a sellout fairly
soon. Here go to Gilda's website. Also coming up next Saturday, that's
February seventeenth, Sharard Fire Departments havinga Taco supper at the Fire Department right

(29:00):
there in Chirard. It's from fourto seven. Support them if you can,
and thank you from your iHeartRadio stationsof the Quad Cities. You've been
listening to Quad City Forum, aweekly community service program produced by iHeartRadio.
If you were your nonprofit organization wouldlike to be featured fleas, visit the
contact page in our station website orcontact Quad City Forum in carab iHeartMedia,

(29:23):
Quad Cities three five three five EastKimberly Road, Davenports, Iowa five two
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