QC Forum - 3-10-24

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,Pt. Luke and Denny Linhowe, Lexi
Bull, who is becoming a frequentcustomer here on our Quad City Forum talking

(00:22):
to us today. Lexi Bowl,development and event manager at Gilda's Club.
And Lexi as usual, and webring this up each time, whether we
talk to you or Kelly Kraft.It's amazing how much activity. It's like
a beehive at Gilda's Club. Everythinghappening, something different every day. But
one of them, one of theitems that we had talked about a couple

(00:46):
of weeks ago was angerer each andit was something that just really seemingly popped
up with Gilder's Club. How isthat program going with the work that Mary
is doing for you guys, it'sgoing great so far. We're still just
trying to get the word out sothat families know that it's a resource available
to them. So it's really nicebecause she fundraised for the freezer which is

(01:08):
now in the clubhouse and it's packedfull of free meals for anyone being impacted
by cancer. So whether somebody's havinga bad day after treatment and they just
really don't feel like cooking, oryou know, life's just hectic, they
can just stop in, grab ameal or two and take them home and
have them ready to cook. Now, how did Mary and Mary had been

(01:30):
working with Gilda's Club in the past, or was this just something where she
said, Hey, I got somethingfor you, how about this? Or
how did that all come to be? When she first started providing stuff with
Guildess, we had actually been hada company, Modern Woman insurance person reach
out to us because they do matchingdollars and Mary's a client of theirs,

(01:53):
and she wanted to do something forbreast cancer in October, so she fundraised
to help provide our group dinner priorto our Tuesday night groups. And then
at the end of the month,she had raised so much to provide every
week in October for our support groups. But then she felt like she could

(02:15):
do more. So she's like,hey, I always have a lot of
extra meals. Is there any waythat you guys would put them to use?
If we got a freezer and Icould just bring them in every week
instead of selling them at a discount. So really she's been the inspiration behind
this. Her and all of herclients really made this happen. Well that

(02:37):
seemingly has. That's part of thatnetwork the Guilder's Club has built up since
it first really started here in theQuad Cities many years ago. You've just
got people just wanting to almost callyou each day or stop by and just
say how can we help. Andanother great thing is some of the students
from All Saints Yes that actually cameabout. They're just on the road from

(03:00):
us from our Davenport location, andwhile of their teachers had been recently diagnosed,
so when they think when they're thinkingabout ways that they could support her,
she thought it was a great ideato make chemo bags for patients going
through treatment. And so they actuallyhad reached out to us to come in

(03:21):
and do a presentation to their studentsabout cancer. So our Children's teen and
Family manager went in and presented tothe students, and then after that she
helped answer a lot of questions aboutmyths that they may have had about cancer.
And then it came about after thatwhere they hand painted a lot of
about one hundred and twenty I thinkit was bags filled them with comfort items

(03:46):
for those going into treatment for thefirst time. Will that be an ongoing
thing or will they provide more oris that something where if other schools maybe
want to do it, whether they'vebeen touched or not, is there a
way to find out how they canvolunteer some of their time and services to
do that. Yeah, so weactually give we have our own chemo bags

(04:08):
that we typically give out to anyonegoing into treatment the first time, So
they just kind of helped add ontoour stockpile. We we hand out about
one hundred a month, and they'rereally just filled with comfort items and things
make people feel more prepared. Soif there was a church or school or
even a business that was interested inhelping donate some bags and putting them together,

(04:32):
they could just give us a calland we could give them the list
of what we typically include in thosebags and what people have told us is
helpful to have in those bags,and what would be the numbers or maybe
a website. Yeah, so youcould give us a call at five six
three three two six seven five zerofour, or you can email us at

(04:57):
MAB Actually email me Lexile Exi atguild US Club QC dot org or you
just visit our website even and findour information there. Yeah, and of
course, along with all of thegreat volunteer work that happens, none of
this really is being taken care forfree, even though no costs is you

(05:20):
know, there's certainly times where peoplelike it with the meals where you're getting
that for free, of the chemobags for free. But certainly fundraising is
an important part of things. Anda couple of big fundraisers, one that's
coming up fairly quick and another onethat's just a little bit down the road.
And certainly if you like the golfand you like the challenge of Palmer

(05:41):
Hills, it sounds like the oldestclub has just the thing for people to
be a part of. Yes,So fundraising is a big chunk of our
revenue and it's a great way forthe community to come together and show their
support while still you know, enjoya night out or a day on the
course. So, as you mentioned, our golf ounding is coming up.

(06:04):
It's on May third at Palmer Hills. We actually this year so we have
the traditional eighteen hole course that youcan do, but we also this year
added the option of a mini outing. So if you don't want to miss
work all day and you just wantto come out and spend about an hour
on the course, they have what'scalled the Forge and it's a putting experience.

(06:27):
Oh that's an absolutely beautiful place.It is, and we're excited about
that and that that should be reallyfun. And then it includes lunch too,
so there will be lunch served afterwards, and we have awards and all
that good stuff for that event exactlywell, and that's great too, not
only for work, but sometimes somepeople if their golf game isn't the best,

(06:50):
Palmer Hills isn't the place to maybeworry about trying to get better at
it. It really can be avery challenging layout, but it's fun.
But the four which is fantastic too, because I mean, it's not going
to take much out of you tobe able to kind of put on that
and it's not like it's an easycourse that you take on the Forge,

(07:12):
but it is fantastic to think ofjust those options out there for for a
lot of people. But the mainthing is a lot of fun and hopefully
it raises a lot of money forGuildness Club. But a one big fundraiser.
Certainly it's going to be the bigone for the year, or at
least one of the big ones.Is what's coming up in April. We've
talked about it more than a fewtimes, but it's live for the QC.

(07:34):
It's Saturday night. Yes, we'revery excited. It's quickly approaching.
The event is on April sixth thatRhythm City Casino. It's just a great
night to get out and you know, enjoy a night out on the town,
but also still be supporting the nocost services that we have to offer

(07:58):
to anyone being affected by cancer inthe community. So we have obviously entertainment
and that will be local musician SoulStorms, but also we have Josh Blue
coming. He's been on everything fromLast Comic Standing to America's Got Talent and

(08:18):
I think Jimmy Fallon if I'm correct. But he's really a comedian who's out
there and doing great things, andwe're so excited to have him. He's
hilarious and he's in this whole night. Even though it's a fundraiser, this
is a this is a great priceto be all of that. Now,

(08:39):
since it's at Rhythm City Casino,some people maybe would go to their website
to maybe find out more and therecould be something there, but really to
grab the ticket's best thing would beto call or get in contact with Guiltless
Club. Yes, all the ticketsales are actually through us directly, So
if you actually visit our our websiteand go to Guild us CLUBQC dot org

(09:01):
slash live, you can purchase yourtickets online. An individual ticket is eighty
five dollars per a table of eight, it's six hundred and fifty. And
then we added a new option thisyear for a table of ten, which
we're excited about and a table atten and how much is that? What's
the price on that? That iseight hundred and then your ticket includes all

(09:24):
the entertainment for the evening as wellas heavy appetizers. Okay, so why
don't you give the website again ora phone number just to make sure that
people know how they have to go, because I do think that there's it's
an honest it's not really a mistakeat all, but there is a tendency
when you think Rhythm City, Oh, I'm going to go there, and

(09:46):
that's not how you're going to beable to take care of this fundraisers.
So website and phone number again yep. So it's guild Us Club QC dot
org, slash live that you cango purchase your tickets at and then you
can give us a call if youdon't want to fuss around with the online
registration, So you can call usat five six three three two six seven

(10:09):
five zero four and we can processyour payment over the phone. Lexi Ball,
development and event manager at Guilder's Club. I know things are busy and
they're they're going to get busier aswe get closer and closer to all of
those events. Thanks again for takingyour time here, young lady, and
look forward to the next time.Sound great. Thanks you have a great

(10:31):
one on QC forum. Now,we were talking with Dan Diibert, the
senior vice president of marketing or anywayhe does help to promote Casey younger than
both of us. I think he'syounger than both of us. Yeah,
my business cards as senior vice presidentof marketing, but that's only because I
ordered them that title. Oh mygood way. But we love talking with

(10:56):
you about case I because there's ahuge event coming up Dan, and we
we definitely want people to be outfor it. And it's not that far
down the road, right, Yeah, we're just coming up. It's on
the sixteenth, and it's uh,it is our biggest Did I say the
sixteenth? Yeah, yeah, Ithink this is sixteenth And that throws throws
us up because normally it's on SaintPatty's Day, but it's the sixteenth.

(11:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's on thefirst Saturday closest to Saint Patrick's Day.
So yeah, it is on thesixteenth. It's downtown Davenport. And get
this, you know, this isthis is really the race. It is
a five k race. We've gota tot trot and a fam and a
one mile fun run, although runninga mile for me is not fun,
but some people, yeah, it'smore fun than these than these you know,

(11:43):
three point one point three or whatever. K. Yeah, but so
yeah, this is so we're thisis our forty second year doing this and
uh, you know, the BIXis fifty this year, right, and
so we we like to say theBIX is like Tiger Woods. We're like
on daily. We are the We'rethe thing that kicks off the spring running

(12:05):
season in the Quad Cities. Soa lot of the runners love us,
you know, because it's the thingthat gets them outside and gets them going
that first time of the year,and then a lot of the people like
waw who would rather you know,not so worried about the exercise portion of
it. It's a fun way toget out there and kick off the Saint
Patrick's Day weekend because you know,the parade comes around later on and it's

(12:26):
just you know, knowing what happensto most of us for the rest of
the day on that day, it'sprobably a good idea to start with something
helpful. And I do think too, Dan. This course is a nice
flat course, so it's a greatway to kind of start ease into what
will be a long day and along weekend for a lot of people,
and that ends up helping out caseI But how can people find out more

(12:50):
or if they want to right now, they haven't done it already, how
can they enter? Yeah, sothe easiest way is to go to QC
Saint Patrick's Day Race dot com andthat'll take your right to the to the
web page to register. You canuh, you know, a lot of
people want to support but don't actuallywant to do the run, which is
fine. You can register as youcan register as a ghost Runners what we

(13:11):
call it, and everybody who runsthe race, and everybody who registers as
a ghost runner will after the racego to our after our post race party
featuring some awesome music from Quad City'sfavorite Fantastic Five. They're going to be
down there, so uh, that'sinside the Double Tree Downtown, right next
to the race route. So finishthe race, walk on in and enjoy

(13:35):
the party afterwards, and you canhang out there till till the free beer
runs out. I guess that's right. Hydrate first, then dehydrate a couple
of adults, Yeah, exactly.But the great thing about this race is
that it supports case I. Youknow, it's been a rough couple of
years, starting with the race itselfbecause we've had you know, we had

(13:58):
to camp the race a couple ofyears ago. Uh, we went one
year during throughout COVID. We wentone year without being able to be open.
So that was that was rough,and then you know, we come
back. We got a couple ofcold, like really really cold, weathered
race days that didn't help. Butthe weather right now, looking at the

(14:20):
forecast, looks pretty good for ayou know, for a March morning in
in Davenport. So we're kind ofexcited about that forecast. And yeah,
and it has been like I said, rough, we lost a lot of
funding from Scott County. We hada flood inside. I mean we were
yeah, that's I was going tobring that up the water pipes where you
were just in just a few weeksago to help with that. Yeah,

(14:41):
you know it was I like tosay that we were trying to do our
impression of Second Street in March.Oh, it flooded. I'm telling you.
We had the sprinkler system. Thesprinkler system, we had a really
cold day and then a warm dayand a really cold something happened, but
the sprinkler s system burst, andI mean it caused I don't know what

(15:03):
the final number is. It's inthe double digits, thousands of dollars,
you know, so I think we'reop over fifty. I'm not a hunt.
Don't quote me on the number.But it was a very expensive break.
So yeah, I mean it's been. This is our largest fundraiser too.
This the race is our largest fundraiser, so we're you know, this
is an important one for this year. And of course case I does so

(15:24):
many great things for seniors throughout theClaude cities. I mean, you guys
have been there, right, It'slike if you walk in, it's like
a country club. Right. AndLaw has always talked about it, how
it is. It is not yourgrandma and Grandpa's no retirement. It's not
a senior center, huh, becauseeverybody puts I mean I do it too,

(15:45):
right, You get that image whenyou say, well, it's a
senior center, Well it is.I mean we have we actually have senior
advocacy programs. We do have JamesPlace Adult Bay Services. We have that
there. But the core mission ofcase I and it's called case I Center
for Active Seniors, we do activities, we do it's like it's a country
club. You come in, there'sthere's hundreds of different activities throughout the month

(16:07):
at case I that you know thatseniors pay a monthly fee and they're part
of it and they I mean,and it's active and they're I just got
my rear end kick the other dayat a bags game because it's like I
thought I was much better at this, but I but I go in there
and these see they're they're in therelike every and there once a week and
they've got bags tournaments. I thoughtI got them, knew it was terrible.

(16:30):
They were knocking my bags off.They like, no, I didn't
know what Yeah, you know,yeah, I didn't know what how to
fight them? Yeah, pick aball. I bet it's really big too.
Actually, yes, that is.That is a great one too.
And uh, they're so good atthat. And I know it's kind of
embarrassing, right, but well you'restill helping Dan. Dan on the other

(16:52):
side of it, you're maybe beingembarrassed there, but without your help,
yeah, they're not going to makeit. They're not gonna be able to
have that. And that's where everybodyneeds to get involved in with the run
here in just a few days andagain give them given that number again so
that they can find out because eventhough this will be a we'll probably have

(17:12):
a pretty good lineup here, thisin no way, shape or form takes
care of Kasey for the rest ofthe year. So this just kind of
gets this momentum, you know,correct, Yes, this is this is
the thing that kicks it off forus for the year. And you're right,
that momentum is good one. Wehave a good they have a good
race turnout. It it helps usfor the rest of the year. So
again, it's March sixteenth, nineo'clock downtown Davenport. That's when the O

(17:36):
and we do a tot trot whichis so much fun to come and watch
that one. I can win,Yeah, well you can't. It's not
really gets the top. So abum. I never thought of that.
I might hop in that issue.There you go. I'm just saying,
okay, yeah, So that startsat nine and nine thirty we do the
one mile Family Fun Run we callit, and then at ten o'clock the

(17:59):
Big Daddy kicks out off. That'sthe five K and you can register for
that if you go to QC SaintPatrick's Day Race dot com. All right,
perfect, you got it, man, Dan. We have to get
you in one other time just totalk about your trivia stuff. Although if
you want to do a plug onthat trivia thing, because you do stand
up, you'll do all that stuff. But then you also do the trivia

(18:23):
thing that is very successful. Soso why don't you do a little dual
thing Walmart finish it with kse I, but give us your website for your
for your trivia stuff. If peoplewant to find out have you guys come
into their town or building. Thatseems weird to me, but I will,
Okay, we want you to,we asked, we want you to,

(18:45):
but finish it with the kse Ithing because that we want to make
sure everybody gets over there next nextone. I think that was good with
kse I, right, Like,that's that's a good way to end it,
is it not. I just wantto find out your trivia thing because
I think that's that's pretty cool whatyou're doing. So the trivia thing is
that started during the pandemic. Ihad no intention to keep doing it.
Remember when we had nothing to do, right, No, you were doing

(19:07):
virtual you were doing virtual trivia nightsright right, and we were having just
that. I started it with justfriends and eventually five, six, seven
hundred people were showing up for thisthing. Right. Well, I would
like to take credit for it,but I remember we had nothing to do.
We couldn't go anywhere. We werewashing our groceries, but we couldn't

(19:29):
Yes, couldn't go anywhere. Sothat probably had a lot to do with
it. But then during that someof these people, you know, they
worked for large you know, fortunefive hundred companies, and they were like,
hey, can you know we needsomething to do during our virtual meetings.
Well it's like a morale booster maybefor some people. So all of
the you know, year and ahalf of comedy shows that I had scheduled

(19:51):
that canceled within a week. Istarted to replace those with these virtual events,
and then I thought, well,this will be over after the pandemic.
Well then the companies are like,hey, can you come do these
in person? So well, Isuppose, and so me not doing anything
small. We have you know,we have players that you enter all your
answers on a tablet. There's youknow, it's a big production of a

(20:15):
show, lights and sounds and allthis kind of stuff. And it really
feels the whole point that I'm thatI'm going for. I want people to
feel like they're in the middle ofa game show while this is happening.
So like all the answers are instant. I walk around the crowd making fun
of bad answers as you should.Yeah, you're the Don Rickle. You're
the Don Rickles of trivia. Great, wish I could. I so wish

(20:38):
I could be the Don Rickles.I wish I could do that to people,
just trying to be just trying tohave fun with it. But if
people want to fight out more onon that, is there a website that
they can at least check out?Sure? Yeah, that website is Hip
Trivia Hip Hip Trivia dot com.And if that doesn't give you enough inform,

(21:00):
you can go to my comedy websiteand that is just my name,
Dan Dibert and that's d E IB E R T Dandibert dot com.
And one more time, since weknow that we get we finally chased you
down after many days and hours thanyou doing this that case that we I
know you want to get out ofhere by saying case I had to get
people in for the run, Ido because it's so it's so important.

(21:23):
Uh and it's it's like I said, it's our biggest fundraiser of the year
and we and also it's so funwhen there's a massive turnout, right when
it looks everybody had the green downthere, it looks great. Uh.
So we would love to have abig showing and that is our website.
So that is q C. SaintPatrick's Day Race dot com. If you

(21:44):
or your organization would like to befeatured on Quad City Forum. Please visit
the contact page on our station website. Now back to bat Luke and Danny
Linnhowe on our Quad City Forum.This morning, we are talking to Mona
Piper, executive officer, Quad CityBuilders and Remodelers Association. You've seen them
a lot in the news and inthe newspaper quite a bit here lately.

(22:08):
They just had a big event lately, just a few days ago, that
ended up just trying to get youngerpeople involved in the trades and Mona,
this is something that when I wasyounger, didn't have to worry about it,
but it's a big situation. It'sa serious situation now to get younger
people involved in the trades, andwe don't know why they don't want to

(22:30):
be a part of it. Youcan make a lot of money. Yeah,
in a short period of time.You're absolutely right. It is a
struggle right now. The average constructionworker homebuilder is fifty eight years old.
So we need to get the nextgeneration going to continue these wonderful homes and
remodel projects and all the new technologythat's out there. We need these kids

(22:52):
to learn all those things so wecan keep moving ahead. We saw something
in the Times a couple of daysago about an event that you had over
off of the Armory, over offof a Brady Street with some of the
junior high kits. How did thatturn out? That is an awesome event.
We've been doing it now for gosh, probably going on eight years.
It's called our Hands On Trades Expo. So we invite local and surrounding eighth

(23:15):
grade students to join us. Wehave two sessions, and we have a
two hour session in the morning anda two hour session in the afternoon to
accommodate all the kids, where wehad two hundred and twenty signed up and
it's awesome. We have eight differentstations. They learned a little bit about
drywall and framing and electrical and plumbingand HVACX and different types of foundation and

(23:37):
roofing, and they actually get theirhands on there. They've got you know,
they're working the drills, they're hookingup electrical outlets, they're actually getting
their hands in the putty and doingthe drywall, and you know, it's
amazing to watch their eye fight upbecause there's things that they've never even touched
or even thought of before. Whenwe talk about you talk about people that

(24:00):
work in a garden, and howthat energizes themselves when they work on the
mother earth. I would think justthe feeling so empowered working on something as
simple as a putting a door knobon. And that's what I was telling
the Times yesterday too. It's like, well, if they don't end up
getting in the trade, how didthese events help them? Well, it
would have helped me in adult lifeif I would have known how to dry

(24:22):
waif something and spackle something, orswitch my outlet out or you know,
fix my toilet or anything like that, you know, instead of you know,
you pay the trades to come outand do it, and they do
make good money, and you knowyou'll get charged for that. So if
these kids get into this profession,it is a profession that can take them
wherever they want. If they're anelectrician, they're an electrician everywhere. They

(24:44):
don't have to stay in the quadCities. They can go to California,
they can go to Colorado, theycan go over That is that is pride,
and that's a profession and that's whothey are and no one can take
that away from them. And itworks for the guys and the gals.
But I since this has been likea women's month, or I know Friday
was International women exactly, and it'sno longer just a guy's thing, that's

(25:07):
right. And I love to seewomen, girls so empowered by getting their
hands into whatever is interesting to themand actually getting interest from getting their hands
on things right. And I tellyou a few years ago, we had
our photographer out there and I rememberI had to make a point where I
said, make sure you get apicture with some girls in this year.

(25:30):
Absolutely no problem. There were girlsin every picture, which was great to
see. Well, we've we certainlyknow that a few of these events could
pop up between our conversation now injust a few weeks down the road.
But are there other events that arecoming up here soon that maybe should people
should kind of mental note if theywant to be a part of it.

(25:52):
We'll have this eighth grade event againnext year, and then we will be
hosting you know, this is oureighth grade event hands on, and next
year we will be hosting a handson event for ninth through twelfth graders.
So this is going to be theevent we just have on steroids. And
I really believe in that because highschool kids, you know what they're picking
their classes. They're trying to decidewhat they want to do with their future.

(26:15):
The twelfth graders, you know,they're going to be looking for jobs.
You've got workers there that are readyto hire and train people as well.
So I think it's really important toget the eighth graders because they're going
to be starting high school and theycan pick what classes they want. But
I think it's very important to grabthe kids that are already in high school
too because they're getting closer to theiryou know, their path, and I

(26:36):
just think that's that's huge. Andwe are talking to Mona Piper, executive
Officer, Quad City Builders and RemodelersAssociation. Now, Mona even with some
of these events now they're just youknow, they're not coming up immediately.
But is there a way like aFacebook or social media page that maybe if
some some younger people have some questionsand even if even if somebody's in their

(26:59):
thirties and not necessarily sure of theirlife right now, this certainly could work
out too. But how can theyfind out a little bit more if they
just want to call you after theyhear this interview on our Quad City Forum?
Yeah, absolutely, I will tellyou there is an event called Build
My Future, and it's going tobe in Des Moines and that is April
seventeen, So that's kind of likeI was talking about with the high school

(27:21):
students' hands on. There will alsobe one in Cedar Rapids on April thirtieth
for high school kids and you knowthose. The attendance for those all comes
through the schools and the counselors.But if you are in your twenties,
your thirties, you're out of schooland you are you know, looking to
get into the trades, you don'tknow who to start with, what businesses

(27:41):
there are. That is how theQCBR can help you, the Quad City
Builders and Remodelers Association, because weare kind of like the Chamber of Commerce
through the building and remodeling industry,So we know who is hiring, we
know what they're hiring for, whoneeds jobs, who needs interns, all
of those things, and it's QCBRdot org or five six three four four

(28:03):
one five six nine two. Wecan definitely help you out because, believe
me, they are hiring. Ohmona, We're so excited to be able
to talk shout. I want toget out here and start doing this.
She has me fired up. QCBare a great resource. Mona Piper,
thank you for talking to us,and thank you for being concerned and promoting

(28:23):
the trades. It's so important,it really is. And I think we
really need to get the parents onboard because I think sometimes parents are you
know, my kid's going to goto college because I went to college,
or they're going to go to collegebecause I didn't go to college. And
college is great. And we helpkids, you know, we have a
scholarship fund help kids. If theyneed laptops to go to school, we

(28:44):
help them with that. If theyneed work boots tools, we help them
with that. So any path theychoose, you know, is great.
We just want to make sure they'renot limited to one path. If you
or your organization would like to befeatured on Quad City for them, please
visit the contact H and R stationwebsite. Now back to bat Luke and
Danny Linnow, as we wrap upour Quad City Forum today, remember next

(29:07):
week Impact Life along with patent DonPeck hosting a blood drive at the Milin
American Legion. That's the next Saturdaymorning called pattern down Pack Right now three
oh nine seven two one, fiveto five oh five. That's three oh
nine, seven to one five fiveoh five and the blood drive is next
Saturday at the Miline American Legion.Thank you for giving the gift of life

(29:32):
from Impact Life patent Don Peck andyour iHeartRadio stations to the Quad Cities.
You've been listening to Quad City Forum, a weekly community service program produced by
iHeartRadio. If you were your nonprofitorganization would like to be featured, please
visit the contact page and our stationwebsite for contact Quad City Forum and carab

(29:52):
iHeartMedia, Quad Cities three five threefive East Kimberley Road, Davin Forts,
Iowa five two eight zero Kevin