QC Forum - 2-25-24

None

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 Quad City Forum, PatLuke and Denny Lynn Howe speaking with Stephen
Garrington. I'm not sure exactly.I feel like I should salute in some

(00:20):
ways because he's retired US Army,and of course when we talk about the
Honor Flight of the Quad Cities,he's a director for that too, and
just stuff for the Salvation Army too, So we could we could actually talk
about him in about We could havenine interviews with Stephen if we wanted to
do. You're so involved with ittoo, I can tell you that.

(00:45):
Well, let's talk about guardians forthe Vets first. I mean, that's
sort of a I think when wetalk about the Honor Flight. The guardians
play such a big role in this. Yes they do, and uh and
and by the and they're volunteers asis and all almost all the real work
is done by the volunteers. Ijust you know, I just stand up
here and try to coordinate things.But the real work is done by those

(01:07):
volunteers. And the guardians are especiallyimportant because they get to spend a whole
day with a veteran, you know, really focusing in on that veteran and
their their needs and their stories andtheir history. I mean, the last
time anybody spent a whole day focusedto me was my honeymoon. I mean
that was that was a long timeago. But and I remember your wife

(01:32):
was crying at the end of thatnight there, Steve, When was that
true at that honeymoon? Is thatthere? Okay, then I understand,
okay, but the guardians have sucha wonderful time. Now they do pay
four hundred dollars, but it isit is well worth it. I've had
some of the guardians who have doneit four or five times. They have
such a wonderful experience and to bewith a veteran for a whole day and

(01:55):
everything's taken care of, so allthey have to do really is just you
know, be with the veteran,walk with them through the monuments, talk
to them about what happened to themin their lives. It is a wonderful,
wonderful thing, and we need alot of people who can. Well,
if you're pushing one in the wheelchair. Somebody did a fitbit thing and
they said it's about four miles forthe day, So we didn't even with

(02:19):
who can push a wheelchair for aboutfour miles and put in an application from
our on our flight website because weneed a lot of guardians, probably because
when we say okay, we're goingto fly out on April twenty third,
oh well, half of the peoplesay, oh I'm working that day,

(02:39):
my kids got something else. Sowe have to have a lot of guardians
in the list so we can fillit up. Now, when we talk
about the veterans that are going tobe going on the sound or flight,
a lot of times, Steven,it seems like, and we've talked about
this before, where a lot oftimes Vetsy there will be very all I

(03:00):
don't deserve this guy. There's otherpeople that need to go or they just
don't want to even get involved inthis. And sometimes too there maybe not
as tech savvy as they need tobe. But there is a way to
help a vet get his application in, isn't there? Yeah? Well,
one of the one lady I know, Grabb, went through the website downloaded

(03:22):
a couple of applications, a coupleof applications for veterans. She went over
to her neighbor's house, said,sit down at the table, and she
filled out the thing, hadn't signedhis name, and sent it in and
he went on the honor flight.Oh basically she did all the work for
him. As matter of fact,I think she sent it in. You
we they go to the vets andsay you deserve to go because you you

(03:46):
know, you signed up, andthe guy might say, well, I
was just a mechanic. Hey,you know what, I've got news for
you. When you sign up,you're signing a blank check with the government.
I'm going to tell you that rightnow. We're all those promises are
pie cross promises, easily made andeasily broken. So we know that the
veterans, even though they may nothave even gone to Vietnam, and they

(04:11):
may not have gone to Korea,they still deserve to go on the honor
flight. So if you know someonewho's been there, downloaded application from our
website, print it out and takeit over and say let's fload this out
together, and you're on your way. And I just want to bring in
when we talk about how so manyvets will like, oh, well,

(04:31):
my job wasn't important. I hada brother that served in the Coastguard.
Now get this, he served inthe Coast Guard Vietnam War, and he
was stationed in Hawaii and then thatpart of his last part of his hitch
or his stint, was in OklahomaCity as he was ready to kind of
farm it out. I know thatI've talked to him more than a few
times and he just feels like,no, I didn't, and I want

(04:55):
to. I keep telling him thesacrifice that you made, you, Bill
could have you put yourself in harm'sway, even if it was just a
job that was one thousand miles awayfrom anything, you're still you sacrifice something
and you deserve to at least seethis. And that's where the Honor Flight
really does their job. Sure,and if he was in Hawaii and all

(05:16):
of a sudden the orders came down, You're going to Vietnam, Yep,
he would have gone yep. Imean, that's that's all there is.
But that's where we end up fightingwith all of our vets, where they
just don't want they don't want therecognition. And this is something that especially
when you start talking about the greatwork that not only the Honor Flight does
here in the Quad Cities, butwith high v You guys are just such

(05:41):
a great team making this such agreat, a fantastic event. We have
wonderful people who really help us.Now it's expensive to do one of the
honor fly, but we have somegroups that really really help us out.
And you mentioned IV and in nextautumn they will be sponsoring one of our
flights. The spring flight is beingsponsored by rock on the Arsenal Federal Credit

(06:03):
Union. So we have some peoplewho are really putting forth some big money
to make it possible for us tofly. But also we have lots of
small groups that you know, doone thousand dollars here, five hundred dollars
here, our twenty seven cents there. All this adds up and for the

(06:25):
I probably could list two hundred differentgroups in the Quad Cities who do money
making projects for us. Some dothose trivia nights, or they may do
a pie sale and auction it offor something like this. There're at and
we don't even know about it untilwe get a check. Hey we did
this, and here's your check.Well, thank you, God bless you.

(06:46):
But that's really nice. So we'realways happy to have any group help
us out and sponsors. Yes,Iria Federal Credit Union in HEIV are really
wonderful sponsors. Even the smallest GirlScout group there there, they mean a
lot to us. So you kindof mentioned, but we should really highlight

(07:09):
the fact that now when are theflights? What are the flights looking like?
Next year? Next year? Thisyear? Well, yeah, we
just turned over the calendars. Iforget you started talking next year, and
I'm going, wait a minute,are we talking about next year too?
Wow? Well next year is alwaysthe next flight? I guess yeah.
We Well, we've got one comingup in April. We're doing three flights,

(07:33):
one in the spring and two inthe fall. We tried to get
two in the spring. We hadsome problems with the dates. There have
the Cherry Blossom festival over in inthe spring and you can't get a bus
during that time. I mean,all the bus companies are full with tour

(07:54):
groups going out, and so wehad a little trouble get on timing and
that. So we're doing in oneof the spring uh in the end of
April, and then two of themin the fall, and we'll be we'll
be having people from all over theQuad city areas going on both of those
flights, and uh, all threeof those flights. Uh, some from

(08:15):
as far away as I don't know, Peru, Illinois, uh I near
the Iowa City area, clear downin Gaalsburg. You know, they're they're
from all over and we and ofcourse a lot of people from here in
the Quad Cities as well. Uh. But they're we're just we're just really
thrilled that we're going to have threeof them this year and we hope to

(08:39):
get almost three hundred veterans on theway to to d C this year.
Now, is it possible time?Is it possible now that we've had any
of the World War Two vets thathaven't gone if they wanted to go,
do we that's still open right Ifsomebody wants to go again, they can
go again. But are there qualificationsor what does the veteran have to do

(09:01):
first other than the application? Orwhere can they go if they want to
do this by themselves to get thatapp? They can go to Honor Flight
QC dot org or just google HonorFlight Quad Cities will come up and then
you can the app is there forthe veteran you put it down? Yes,
there are anybody who was basically inthe service before nineteen seventy five.

(09:26):
We're taking it, doesn't you knowwe have Vietnam wor wark. We did
have World War Two guy on ourlast light, ninety six years old.
Wow. On the flight he gaveme his Navy separation paperwork and I said,
wow, he still had it isthe honorable discharge and it said former
occupation musician. I said, youwere World War II as a musician.

(09:50):
I said, did you play inthe navy band? He said no,
I was a pharmacist mate. Maybewouldn't put a musician in. I said,
well banda play for and it's it'son my paperwork. Yeah, Lawrence
Welks band, he was. Heplayed trumpet, Lawrence Welk Band. That's
crazy. Maybe decide to do We'regoing to take this wonderful trumpeter from Lawrence

(10:11):
well Band and we're gonna make hima pharmacist mate. Of course they did.
Naturally, he had. He hadwonderful stories to tell and we just
love it when we find these WorldWar two vents and we'll take we take
care of him. And his guardianwas on him, you know, just
hovering nearby, taking care of openingup his his uh water bottle. You

(10:37):
know, sometimes a little tough toopen those water bottles, and so the
guardian was doing all these things.We trained the guardians. Guardians will have
to go to a training or orientationsession, but we'll train them and give
him some questions to ask and oh, they'll have a wonderful, wonderful time.
I'll tell you, those guys allcome back and say it was the
best day of my life. Soyou're talking about well, veterans that are

(11:01):
pre like nineteen seventy five, butdoes that include women? I mean,
we often are talking about the guys, but have you taken any gals over?
We have taken a lot of womenover, and we whenever we have
a woman that comes up on ourlist, we make a special f to
go to the women's memorial. Thereis a women's memorial, although it's called

(11:24):
something else, but it is thememorial for women. And it is right
next to the opening to Art InternationalCemetery. I mean, how out there,
how powerful that has to be.That wow, and it is wonderful
and we all they have in therea computer, big computer with all the
women who are in the service.And we always make sure that our person

(11:46):
is entered in so that when theycan go in they can see their name
on the computer as a veteran.So we just have a little special for
women and we just have a wonderfultime with them. We've had a lot
of them go and they see picturesand it really brings them back. It's
a beautiful, beautiful museum and awonderful thing for women veterans to go to.

(12:11):
Yeah, we often don't think aboutthe role that women did play in
all the wars, not just inactive service stateside, and the role was
was just as important. Yeah,Oh, absolutely they were. They were
nothing that a wounded soldier wanted tosee more than a female nurse. I
can tell you that. Actually itwasn't just wounded soldiers, all the sold

(12:35):
nothing wrong with that. Now whenwe talk about one of our notes here
too, and I would think thiscould play off not only leading up to
a flight heading out to DC,but having speakers available. Oh yeah,
and this is a really great thing. If anybody, any group, any
club organization would like to have someonecome and talk to them about Honor flight,

(13:01):
we we have we can send aspeaker out there. And I'm I
I either I Will or Mike Haneyor any one of the six or eight
people at Honor Flight will be gladto come out and give you a program,
tell you a little bit about what'sgoing on, tell you a few
stories that I we have no storiesto keep you busy. Only we do

(13:26):
is kind of a short thing.And then we have questions and answers,
and then that always adds up toanother twenty five thirty minutes because we just
can go on and on. Thereare so many wonderful stories that we have
that are that are just a blessingto us and of course to the veterans
as well. We get some wonderfulletters back saying thank you and they're they're

(13:50):
really some of those stories are youknow, really touch your hearts. Well,
Stephen Garrington, we're so always excitedto have you here at talking about
the Honor Flight of the Quad Cities. Just to wrap things up, where
can people go if they want toget in touch with you, maybe to
get somebody as a speaker, orto find that application. Just how can

(14:11):
we get a hold of the HonorFlight. Well, you can go to
our website and or you can callRidgecrest Village and say I want to talk
to the Honor Flight office and you'llprobably get a message machine. But you
just do that and we'll get backto you and we can set that up
our honor Flight QC dot org.You can find it there and there'll be

(14:33):
a place to you can type ina message to us and we'll be glad
to do it. You can justcall me, you know, hey,
where's Steve Gerrington. I'll call himup and let them know and we'll just
be glad to send out a speakerfor you and well a little good time.
I can promise you that if youor your organization would like to be

(14:54):
featured on Quad City Forum, pleasevisit the contact page and our station website.
Now back to Bat Luke and DannyLinnell. We've got Lexi Bowl back
to talk to us. Lexi Bowlfrom Guilda's Club. She's the development and
events manager at Gilda's Club and alot of stuff going on as usual with
Gilda's Club. Lexi, thanks fortaking some time to talk to us today

(15:16):
in our quat City Forum. Oneof the events just want to talk about
right away that I you know,I kind of I noticed just the name
in the title makes me think ofa football, a Quad City football grade.
But it's a little bit more thanthat Angerer Eats tell us a little
bit about that. Yeah, sowe're really excited about this new partnership.

(15:39):
So this has been in the worksince about November. Mary Ainger, she's
a local meal prepper. She helpedus provide group dinner prior to our Family
Nights on Tuesdays every Tuesday in October, and then at the end of the
month, she kind of felt likeshe could still do more to support our
mission, so she had the ideaof bringing in a freezer to our clubhouse

(16:03):
so that she could put all ofher extra meals in the freezer so that
people could just come in and graba meal if they're, you know,
having a hard time facing food insecurity. A lot of the times with
cancer treatment, we do hear thatthere's so many who face food in security
and getting nourishment. So when shehad the idea, we were like,

(16:23):
that is a fantastic idea. Wewere very excited, and she actually put
a link out to her clients andthey raised over almost three thousand dollars in
like forty eight hours, which wasamazing. Wow. So she not only
fund raised for the freezer, butshe's committed to bringing meals in weekly to

(16:44):
help us feed those who are youknow, facing those food and securities during
treatment. And when I hear thatname, when I hear Angerer, I
think of Pat Angerer, so theremust be a connection back in there too.
Yes, she's a Pat's wife.Well, she probably had to provide
a lot of food anyway, becausePat for a long time would be eating

(17:04):
seeing enough for a whole city.So they had to keep going. And
that is so great. And GuildessClub, you guys do so many great
things, but so much of ityou would you wouldn't be able to do
as much without an incredible volunteer base. Yeah, volunteers in the community really
make what we do possible because youknow, everything we do is at no

(17:26):
cost, so all the funding comesfrom donors, grants, and then of
course generous community partners like Inger Eatsand more, and they're you know,
each each day you can probably addto that list on all the great things.
So if people, even though that'san impressive total, when you can
talk about any anything over three thousanddollars just in a two day span,

(17:49):
I would gather if people when theyhear this interview, now, are there
ways that they can be a partof this and help out with angerer Eats
and Guildess Club. Yeah yeah,they can actually go on her website.
It's just anger eats dot com.They can go on there and she has
a button set up where they candonate a meal so that that meal will
go straight into our freezer and thenshe We also are doing a collaborative shirt

(18:15):
fundraiser that's open until Sunday at midnight, and it just says cancer Angers Me.
We thought it was a fun spinon you know her last name in
the yeah business name, Yeah youdo. I love that. It is
a good way to collaborate. Lovethat. Now for a lot of people,
we're going to hear more about thisin March. You're gonna have a
like a big ribbon cutting March twentysecond. But for people, since this

(18:38):
interview will air this this coming Sunday, probably, we want to make sure
that people know that they can bea part of the deadline to be a
part of that. The shirt promotionis this Sunday, and that's February what
twenty fifth, But that's not theonly thing that is going on with Gilda's
Club. We're talking super fun eventthat not only will you be able to

(19:03):
support Guildless Club. But you're gonnahave a smash up time. You'll laugh
your butt off. It is livefrom Q It's Saturday Night. Yeah,
and I know we talked about ita little earlier. How are things going
for Josh Blue coming in good?We're getting really excited. We're still soliciting
for our silent auction and all thatgood stuff that we're gonna have going on.

(19:27):
So we'll have a line pole,silent auction, all that stuff.
But then you know, Josh Blueis gonna be our headlining act for the
evening. We're really working to sellour tickets. So if anyone listening is
interested in attending, it's a greatevent and it's a great reason to get
out of the house for the night. Plus, Josh Blue is hilarious.

(19:49):
If you haven't seen him, youneed to look him up. He has
to Rebrol Paldy and he actually justbrings light to his disability in a way
that you know, makes people laughand he's he's hilarious. Now, I
still I hate to be on aone track mine, But once you said
wine poll, I'm like, okay, wait a minute, let's go back

(20:11):
to that and exactly what happens witha wine pole. I've never really been
a part of one of those,but it sounds like it's a lot of
fun too. Yeah. So essentially, we get bottles of wine that are
donated to us, and usually wehave about forty to fifty bottles and then
it's twenty five dollars. It's kindof like a a roulette, like the

(20:33):
bottles are wrapped, so you knowyou're getting a bottle that's at least a
twenty five dollars value for making adonation to us of twenty five dollars.
It's kind of a win win andit's fun because you don't know what you're
gonna get, but it could besomething really good. Yeah, well even
for twenty five bucks, it's reallygood. Well, and I'm loving the
idea there where unlike when you watchsome game shows where behind door number three

(20:59):
is a a bad prize, thesewill all be fantastic things and you'll be
helping out build this club and it'syou know, if you don't aren't much
of a drinker. We do havean option where you could even just sponsor
a chemo bag for twenty five dollars. That's the event. So those are
our chemo care bags that go intothe hand of any hands of anybody going
into treatment for the very first time. So we go through about one hundred

(21:22):
and fifty of those monthly, sothat that's also a big fundraising initiative at
the event that we do. Yeah, and if you are fund the need
right right and if you want tobe a part of this event, and
who doesn't want to be a partof this event? How fun is this?
Live from QC. It's Saturday nightand it's April sixth, yes at
Rhythm City Rhythm City, So ifyou want to get tickets, website,

(21:45):
phone number, give us all thosepertinents so that people can be a part
of it. Now you can visitGildas Club QC dot org, slash live,
or you can give us a callat five six three three two six
seven five zero four and we canat you set up over the phone so
you don't even have to deal withpurchasing them online. Love that. Thank

(22:06):
you so much for just keeping usup to date and thanks for what Gilda's
Club does here for the Quad Cities. Yes, thank you. If you
or your organization would like to befeatured on Quad City Forum, please visit
the contact page and our station website. Now back to bat Luke and Danny
linnowe talking to Jennifer Davis with SpecialOlympics Illinois. Of course we have a

(22:30):
very big event coming up. ButJennifer, welcome to QC Forum. Thank
you for having me. Oh,it's our pleasure. And of course when
we talk about Special Olympics, wedo want to like kind of preview what
is Special Olympics. Special Olympics isa nonprofit organization in Illinois that provides year

(22:52):
round sports training and competitions, aswell as kilth screenings for children and adults
with intellectual disc abilities, as wellas unified programming for local school districts.
So we're not talking just I calleverybody kids, but we're not really talking
like you know, young kids.We're talking like all age groups, not

(23:14):
not just young kids, right correct. We start young athletes age three,
and then we have athletes up toI think eighty five right now participating in
a variety of different sports. That'sso fun. And of course Special Olympics
isn't just limited to our small areahere in the Quad Cities. It actually
builds. We give athletes an opportunityto compete in World Games too, right,

(23:38):
So what are the levels here?Correct? We do regional competitions,
district competitions that usually involve more thanone region, and then state level.
We also have USA Games and thenWorld Games too, and we've had athletes
compete at all levels. It's kindof cool. I've been out at several

(23:59):
events and it's just so much funto see the athletes, the Olympians having
a great time, and really it'slike inclusion and they do appreciate it,
they really do. And I saythat our volunteers get just as much out
of the events as our athletes.Everyone seems to have a great time.
I know, really we do.And when we're talking about all the programs

(24:26):
that you provide, these are notfree. I mean, people can donate
if they want, but really,this is why you have some of these
special events. And of course thefirst part of the year we do a
lot of plunging for Special Olympics andSpecial Olympics Illinois. You're talking right now,
region F correct. Yes, ourPolar Plunge does provide the free sports

(24:49):
programming for our athletes. So we'resuper grateful for the local community that gets
out and supports the Polar plunges.It's really what keeps our p going.
And when we're talking Region F,like where where does Region F really reach?
Not just the quad Cities? Right, Yes, so we serve ten
counties on the Illinois side, RockIsland, Henry, Stark, Mercer,

(25:11):
Knox, Laurren, Fulton, Henderson, McDonald, and Hancott County. So
there are several different plunges. Butthe one we're going to be talking about,
of course, is coming up nextweekend that will be the third of
March, and this will be basicallymost of the people who will be involved
will be around here in the QuadCities. But what what can we expect?

(25:33):
This is a polar plunge, andso far we're having really great weather,
so I don't know why we wouldcall it polar this year. Well,
the water still will be cold.That's set up on the back taddio
at Bali's Casino, So no matterwhat the air temperature is, I guarantee
it will still be a little chili. But we are hopeful for a sixty
sixty five degree in sunny day.So again you're talking about it being at

(25:57):
Valley's and then well, what's allinvolved in that day? So Registration on
March third starts at twelve thirty.Plungers can come and drop off any cash
and check donations that they've collected.We hand out plunger sweatshirts and additional incentives,

(26:18):
and then we do a costume contestand then start plunging at two pm.
We go through all of the teamsthat plunge, and then we come
inside and have a big party andlate lunch afterwards. I love it.
I've been involved for several years,and mostly probably because we're friends and so
I like to come up. ButI've gotten hooked on this because it's so

(26:38):
much fun to see everybody having fun, and the costume contests are really fun.
You never know what you're going toget. Yes, the costume contest
really can be the highlight of theplunge, in addition to the fun entries
into the water. So registration,you'd love to know how many people are
going to be there, So preregistration is very important. Even though you

(27:02):
can still register, You could stilljust show up and register right correct.
Yes, you can just walk upon Sunday with at least one hundred dollars
in donations and we'll let you plunge. But we do like to have a
good count of who's going to attendso we can plan ahead for food.
Okay, so how would people dothat? What could they do? Right
now? They're like, oh,I want to do this? How can

(27:23):
I register? You can visit Plungeellinoisdot com and register, or if you're
too chicken to plunge, you canpick up plunger and make a donation and
all of that stays here locally,and I will have a team kind of.
I mean, you can register underme and then if you want to
get in the water, that's allgood. But again, what you're talking

(27:45):
about is being able to plunge.You're looking for each person to raise one
hundred bucks to be able to getin the water, right, correct,
Yeah, each plunger needs to raisea minimum of one hundred dollars. We
do have additional incentive prizes to fifefive hundred, one thousand, and twenty
five hundred, and then they doreceive incentive prizes at those levels. If

(28:07):
you raise two hundred and fifty thisyear, you'll receive that prize on the
day of the plunge as well,in addition to your sweatshirt that you get
on Plunge day. If somebody wantsto volunteer, I mean, do you
have that covered or would you lovefor someone to come out and volunteer to
help. We could still use afew more volunteers to help as well with
registration and sweatshirt distribution and souvenir sales. And if they're interested in volunteering or

(28:32):
they just want more information about theplunge, they can call me at three
zero nine three three seven nine threetwo six. And as we wrap up
today's Quad City form, remember comingup next Saturday, this is March second,
Self Help Enterprises having a pancake breakfast. They'll have a bake sale and
a craft sale and vendor show andthey'll also have some other drawings too,

(28:55):
big fundraiser for self Help and ifyou want to help them out, it's
Saturday March second, from seven amto noon twenty three hundred West Lefever Road
in Sterling. Again, that's nextSaturday, March second. Help out itself
Help if you can, and thankyou, and you know there's only just
a few more days of this,but Hearts for Humility their hygiene drive is

(29:15):
going on just through the end ofthe month, so again you still have
a few more days that you canhelp them out with hygiene items. They
have a whole list at their website, drop off locations at their website.
If you want to check out humilityhomesdot org. They can help you out
with all of that and thank youfor helping out. From your iHeartRadio stations,

(29:36):
you've been listening to Quad City Forum, a weekly community service program produced
by iHeartRadio. If you were yournonprofit organization would like to be featured,
please visit the contact page in ourstation website or contact quad City Forum and
carab iHeartMedia. Quad Cities three fivethree five East Kimberly Road, Davin Fords,
Iowa five two eight zero seven