June 12, 2024 • 50 mins
TripWire is honored to have U.S. Navy Veteran and Commander of VFW Post 3873 in Naperville, Illinois, Staci Boyer. Join us as we discuss her time in the Navy, 35 year career as a fitness and wellness coach, her annual NPC competition events and time in the VFW leadership. Stay tuned for a high energy interview.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:38):
Good afternoon everybody. It is thetwelfth of June Wednesday, and it is
time for trick Wire again and wehave a phenomenal show ready for us today.
Thank you all for joining us.Look forward to the next fifty four
minutes of us discussing wonderful things aboutthis fantastic veteran I have Stacy Boyer.
Everybody, Stacy, thank you verymuch. We are honored to have you
(01:00):
here. I really appreciate you joiningus from the KGr A family and specialism,
specifically here on Tripwire with us.Thank you, thank you for having
me. Absolutely I'm excited. Excellent. So, Navy veteran, let's talk
about what just I guess just acouple of years ago. Yeah, you
(01:21):
know that you were in the navy, So let's talk about Let's talk about
what got you going into the Navy, where you're originally from, and what
has got you going living here inthe Chicagoland area. Well, I graduated
and then I worked for I hadbeen living on my own since I was
fifteen years old, so back thenit was a little more common for people
(01:42):
to move out of the house andget started with their lives. You know,
I'm almost fifty four, so yourage, I'm a little older than
you, I think, right justby the day. Let's not talk about
that about being in my fifties,so we'll talk about that later. I
was living on my own and Iwas working, and I decided that I
wanted to go into the military.It really resonated with me, and I
(02:05):
was very patriotic and even you know, I just thought it was the right
path for me. So I wentin and then I was in for twelve
years after just it changed my life. I really you've heard me tell my
stories before, but everything that Iam and do and the woman that I
have grown in to be, Ifeel like the Navy was a catalyst for
(02:29):
all of that. So fantastic,fantastic. And so where did you start
your twelve year career in the Navyto get to propel yourself to where you're
at now? Well, boot campback then was in Florida, so that's
where I was, and then Iwent to hospital course school at Great Lakes.
It's no longer there as well,which is sad. Then I was
(02:50):
stationed from there, I went toBethesda and that was right before we went
out to the Persian Gulf War.So I was at the Naval Hospital in
Bethesda. I'm always going to callit that. I don't care if they
changed the name. All of usthat were stationed there when I was called
that are never going to say anythingelse. So then the Persian Gulf War,
I was on the comfort and Iwas out there for just about a
(03:12):
full year. The whole time cameback and from Bethesda. I was working
as kind of a ward corman backthen, and which I loved. I
worked in pediatrics and I did theshifts on the ward and then I decided
that I wanted to when my dutystation was up, I ended up going
to Oakland Naval Hospital. And whileI was in Oakland, I was there
(03:34):
for a while good bit. Iended up going to surgical tech school,
so I started to specialize myself andwork in the operating room, which I
loved. And then I transferred tothe Emris Land It's a subtender out of
Norfolk, Virginia. So I wasthere for three years, and then after
I became E five, I decidedto get my instructor Training certificate and teach
(03:55):
at the hospital course school, whichI loved. So that brought me to
Great Lakes back where I went toschool full circle. Yeah, so then
I was in Great Lakes and Iwas there. I finished out my career,
my twelve year career up at theGreat Lakes Naval Hospital, and I
(04:16):
it was it was amazing. Andyou know, I got out after twelve
years because I was married to myolder son's father and it we got divorced,
and it was like I was kindof trying to figure out what to
do. And at that moment intime, like the you know, I
got out. The one thing Iwould do different with my whole life only
is I would have stayed in reserves. I should have. And I often
(04:38):
tell that to people, the kidsyou know that we go and speak to
through you know, Veterans Day andall the stuff that we do in the
schools around here. When I talkto them, you know, Career Day,
Veterans Day, I and anybody that'sinterested in going into the military,
I always tell them that is somethingthat when it's time for you to separate
or leave, always always factor inthe importance of that reservist piece. Like
(05:02):
I would be getting a retirement payright now. I had retirement pay all
through COVID times. Yeah, Imean, and it's It's the one thing
that I would I would have goneback and done a little bit differently.
Nothing else though, well, Igot you. That's quite a lot of
bouncing around. And I also wason active duty during the first Call four,
although I never made it over there, So thank you for that.
(05:27):
Always always good to see someone fromthat era and have a conversation with them
because a lot of people, alot of these young kids, I mean
the global Warren Turris in for twentyyears. Some of these kids have no
idea about the first Golf four.They don't they can't remember, or it
was on schools or anything like that, right, right, So you found
(05:47):
yourself back at Great Legs. Youleft, got out of the Navy after
your time there as an instructor,You've stayed in the Chicago land area because
Great Legs, for those of usthat are our viewers are not familiar with,
a Great leg is just north ofChicago on Lake Michigan and uh and
then I'm sure it was a littlebit of time, but thirty five years
is a fitness pro That's incredible,That's absolutely incredible. So I got my
(06:13):
first I got my first personal trainingcertification early on in my military career when
I was like eighteen, so Iyou know, and being a hospital corman,
you're in the medical field, soyou're kind of in charge of making
sure people are physically fit can passthe PRT test. So I was always
put into a position where I wasneeded to do that, even before I
became super passionate about it. Somy fitness being in the fitness realm,
(06:38):
that fitness space, that health wellness, medical fitness space, has really been
something I've done my whole entire life. Well it's all adult life. Let's
say, no, yeah, Iget it. I get it. So
that led to so, which didyou start first motivating you or did you
start Phoenix Productions first? Or wasit kind of motivating you? Motivating You
was my my first business, myfirst book. That was that literally started.
(07:02):
I've actually got a fun story aboutthat on my website. How I
even came up with the name.I had a friend of mine was a
calibration tech and she her email wascalibrating you right, very similar to the
eight in mind. And then she'sthe one that said that I was motivating
and that when I would speak aboutwhat I was passionate about, I was
(07:25):
really motivating motivating motivating you, Right, So I was I'm going to use
that in my my email back inthe day, you know, like my
email, your emails like really representedwho you were back in the day if
you can remember that, you know. And so I had a couple of
different variations of that throughout, andthen when my first book came, I
(07:46):
was like, motivating you. Itjust made sense. And then my business
I started, I started writing thebook, and then business opened kind of
right around that same time. Mybusiness, well, I opened my business
and then the book came, andso keeping the name the same really made
a lot of sense to me.And so that was back like in two
(08:07):
thousand and eight when I started MotivatingYou. Phoenix Productions is going into my
fourth year, very nice. Yeah, twenty twenty five, twenty twenty five,
May third, twenty twenty five willbe my fourth date for the Phoenix
Productions, the Phoenix Natural Noble Warrior, which is the bodybuilding show that I
promote that And that's awesome. I'veyou and I've had multiple discuss multiple conversations
(08:31):
about your event at the first weekendin May. Yeah, and we'll get
definitely get back to that. Howmany let's let's explain to the audience.
I mean, how many you're anauthor, how many books have you written?
So I've had six book projects.And the reason why I say book
projects is because one of them wasa collaboration with other authors, and then
(08:52):
another one was the recording of theaudio version of Motivating You, which I
did pretty on my own. Ihired, I got studio time, and
mastered it on my own. Andso that's why I call it projects.
But there's other books that I've writtenthat are out there on Amazon easy to
(09:13):
find. Just google in my name, and then links are on my links
that are going across the ticker onthe bottom of the page. I got
you, I got you well.And so in the description of this episode,
we've got all the links up theretoo. So that way, if
anybody misses our lot this live broadcast, they come in late or whatever the
case may be, they maybe they'llbe able to find it up there for
(09:35):
you as well. So let's uh, let's let's go into this. A
lot of people are not familiar withNPC, and you are an NPC promoter
through the Phoenix Natural Noble Warrior production. Yes, so why don't we explain
what the NPC environment is So theNPC is National Physique Committee and it is
(10:00):
argument arguably the largest UH amateur bodybuildingorganization in the country. And our pro
division is the i f b B, the International Federation UH of Bodybuilding.
And so we've got the amateurs thatcompete in the n PC and they qualify
for national level shows at the nationallevel than they are pro qualifiers, they
(10:24):
have the opportunity to win their procard. So we have different competitions.
And in the body bodybuilding world,there's obviously some natural athletes and some not
natural athletes. That's that's no secret. There are some organizations that are smaller,
different organizations out there that claim tohave all of their shows natural and
(10:46):
and and they that's there, that'stheir business model. Sure. And then
with the n PC, we wehave a mix and my show is one
of our natural shows, and wedo test. We polygraphed in the past,
(11:07):
but I am moving to a higherlevel, more expensive method of testing
going into your number four and that'sgoing to be with your analysis. So
we do make sure that our naturalshows are in fact natural. We do
have natural national level shows for thepro qualifiers as well. So if you're
a natural athlete and you want togo only that route within the NPC,
(11:28):
you can. However, our athletesare at such a high caliber with their
conditioning, training and the coaches thatare in the organization that many of the
natural athletes are very competitive with thosetop level athletes that you know might be
taking anything. Sure, I understand, and I'd like to ashare with the
(11:50):
audience. There's I guess this isa district that you belong to you right
for the NPC or this region asfar as the MPC is, Yeah,
we have a I state area Illinois. We call it NPC Illinois, and
we have six shows in Illinois,and then there's five up in Wisconsin that
are part of that are under ourumbrella as well, and then one in
(12:11):
Iowa. And Chuck Sano is ourNPC chairman and so he basically governs all
of those shows that are underneath.And I'm one of those. I got
you and then yours your show specificallyearly May, first weekend in May,
uh is the Veterans Show. AndI don't think I'm not sure if we
(12:31):
get it. We can check yoursite, but I mean, you did
a you did a lead into it. It was awesome I can't. I
got to commend you on just howprominent and how fantastic it is that you
your entire show is is gatered towardshonoring veterans, and it's just it's fantastic.
If I wasn't geographically challenged every weekfirst weekend in May, i'd I'd
(12:54):
be attending UH And just so theviewers know, I am not trying out
for the add Bob Bob competition foryour show, I'm not doing that either.
I want to make sure that everybodyunderstands that I will not be doing
that. But so motivates use yourgym. Motivating use to the gym,
and that's I see you doing videoson linked or on Instagram and Facebook,
(13:16):
and you're you're walking your your contestants. You're the people that go to your
gym for training. You're walking themthrough the process. You're training them.
How about we explained with some ofthat to the audience. I do all
of it. So I have anapp that I developed that my clients.
I have athletes that compete, andI also have lifestyle clients, so I
(13:37):
coach anybody. I've got a verylarge amount of clients kind of all over
the country, that I'm able totouch with this app. And then I
have my studio, my gym thatI own locally, so people you know
work with me either online or inperson, or a hybrid of both.
Competitors you know, are usually verygreat independent workers in the gym, so
they don't always need a trainer.They like to meet with me. Maybe
(14:00):
you know some of them meet withme more often, but they like to
meet me with me, you know, once a week or a couple of
times a month, just to pushthemselves past the plateau. Have some FaceTime
with me to talk about things.But I do on Sunday. One of
the things that you do see onSundays, I do group posing in the
in the studio, I have astage there. I have pictures of the
judges. I try to create asituation where, especially for new people,
(14:24):
that they're able to experience what it'slike to be, you know, at
a higher level than the judges aredown here and they they're in front of
people, and it's a really goodcamaraderie, support system and everything that you
do. You know, having asupport system and like minded people doing like
minded things is always hall exactly.Yes, I get it, I get
it. No, that's fantastic.So how long how long have you actually
(14:50):
had the gym's in Naperville? Isthat correct? So how long have you
actually been at that location? Weopen October of twenty nineteen, right before
COVID, and I opened it asa wellness center because I do a lot
of stuff in there. I dostuff with the community for you know,
I'm part of the chamber and therotary in the VFW and the church,
(15:11):
and so I opened it to forwhatever anybody needs. You know, people
want to do things in activities,so and I do seminars and I just
didn't want it to be at thetime, didn't want it to be labeled
as a gym. And it wasfor good thinking at the time because I
wasn't required to close I during COVID. I was able to manage who came
(15:33):
in when they came in, andit was a different, different type of
situation. So that really was beneficialfor me because it was a struggle with
Scott, you know, being myhusband being a bartender. He lost four
jobs in one day. So whenit was it was good and I just
opened that studio, so I waslike, oh my gosh, what am
I gonna do. But because ofmy military brain and my ability to troubleshoot
(15:56):
and overcome obstacles and never say no, I was able to stay above water.
Seriously reference stay above water the armyguy. I see how. But
I was able, Yeah, Iwas able to keep things going perseverance,
you know, Tanaca, like thosethings like we don't give up, Like
(16:17):
I'm not going to give up.You're not going to tell me no,
I'm going to make I'm going toget through this. I am and I
absolutely did, you know. Butmy business, I'm lucky because I reverse
engineered my brand, which you know, the tenacity of that is from what
I learned in the military. Butuh revert my brand was already existing,
right. I already had clients.I already was motivating you. And then
(16:41):
when I opened up the brick andmortar space, people already knew who I
was. So it wasn't like Iwas trying to gorilla market people to come
and find me in this industrial park. People were looking for me because they
were already my clients. So Ioften tell that story to people entrepreneurs.
I'm part of venas veteran own tobusiness connection groups where we help new uh
(17:02):
new entrepreneurs, veterans that are wantingto open their own businesses. You know,
there's a lot of things I learnedover the years that as I've grown
my business, how I've taught myselfhow to build websites and market myself and
what I do, best practices andwhat not to do, you know,
help lesson learn, Yeah, helpme get through, help me get through
COVID. That's it. We're allthinking. We're all happy that we're on
(17:26):
this side of that. Yeah,for sure, how it panned out,
We're all glad we're on this sideof it. Indeed, indeed, for
the audience, I want to Iwant to share with the audience that you
have just been You just got theofficial title of commander of the VFW and
Naperville. Congratulations. How long?How long were you the When did you
(17:51):
start becoming involved in the leadership ofthe VFW. How about that? Well,
So, and this is an interestinglittle story too. And I don't
know how much of this you knowalready, but back in twenty fifteen,
I met Phil Mayhan at a rotaryNaperville response to Veterans' event, right,
And so my husband and I werethere and Phil came up and talked to
us, and I got I boughta lifetime membership right then paid in cash,
(18:15):
and I got one of his pins. I still wear his pin on
my cover to this day. AndI went up on stage, and I
still have this picture of me,and I looked like such a young little
girl up there saluting. I'm inmy workout clothes, no cover or anything,
right because and then I never Iwas always doing stuff in the schools.
(18:36):
I was going and talking for VeteransDay and Career Day, and I
had my PowerPoint presentation, and Iwas always volunteering or wanting to do things.
But there was something here. Iknew there was something more that I
needed to do, not just wantedto do, but like needed to do
right. So Phoenix, it's funnyhow these things connect. Okay, here's
(18:57):
the story. So Phoenix production happened, and I want to have my military
First Responder ceremony to open finals.I want this piece to be important.
I want a color guard, Iwant so I want all of these things.
From twenty twenty two. So Igo on the VFW Aperville website.
And before that, I was alwaysin the parades, but with Marty Walker,
(19:18):
who hands Max out, yes,out for so I was familiar with
some of these people. So Igo on the Neighborville website and I'm looking
for the who the commander or whoI should contact for to figure out about
color guard right because I'd like toget the color guard there. So Todd
Schueneman, Todd Schuteman is like,hey, Stacy, why don't you come
(19:40):
to a meeting. The worst ishistory because I go to the meeting and
they give me the microphone. Ihaven't put it down since no. I
mean literally, I literally go tothe meeting and I'm like hey, and
everybody was like, who is thiswoman? And then I go down to
the canteen and Leo's like, doyou think you want to be Junior Vice.
I'm like, yeah, what's that? I'll do it. I mean,
(20:06):
you're you know yeah. So thenand then we had some you know,
we had some troubles with UH thepeople that were in some of the
the other officer positions, you know, had had UH work in life obligations.
And so I ended up both yearstaking over the junior and senior vice
positions, and I learned so much, you know, Leo and Phil and
(20:29):
George Kramer. I mean, allthese guys are like amazing. It's I
feel like I've got a ton ofuncles and grandpa's, you know, and
brothers now because there's younger people there. Because it is good. I mean,
we really and they taught me somuch and I am super excited about
how it has all played out.And Todd kind of laughs because he was
like, well, I just invitedyou to a meeting. He got on
(20:53):
the microphone, and then we're like, yeah, she's here to stay.
Yeah, exactly. Holy Holy.So it's funny that you mentioned that though,
because you know our age, youknow, to post excuse me,
post Global War on Terrors and postFirst Call four. We're the new blood
(21:15):
that they need in the vfw's andthe American legions. And it's just it's
good to hear that you're actually nowYou've got some brothers, not just uncles
and grandfathers in there, and we'regetting new people into VFW. And if
I ever stopped moving around and Iactually settle, I'll probably do the same
thing at the local VFW wherever Idecided to hang my hat. So yeah,
(21:36):
you know, one of my oneof my directives, you know,
when I got in there, whetheranybody liked it or not, was I
wanted to create experiences at the postthat people wanted to be a part of.
I am not I'm not a salesman, believe it or not, I
really am not a salesman. Iprovide experiences that make people want to do
what I'm doing, and that isjust how I lead, That's how I
(21:59):
operate. And I'm also going toprobably throw in the fact that you are
very high energy and that helps.That helps with the information. It kind
of just they retain the information alittle bit better that you're sharing with them
because you're so high energy, andit works for you. It definitely works
for you. So, you know, I I've learned. I've learned a
lot about you know, diplomacy anduh, chain of command. There's so
(22:22):
much I've had to kind of youknow, I've had to tape for back
my enthusiasm and and and pick mypick my battles. And I've really grown
in the past few years within myselfas a woman, a leader working.
I've always found myself to be agood team player, but I've really learned
how to be better at it really, you know, I pride myself and
making sure that I'm listening more.I'm listening. I've got two years in
(22:45):
one mouth. I got to listentwice as much as I speak, and
I speak a lot, but thatmeans I'm listening twice as much as that.
So how about that. I thinkwe're running with that. That'll that'll
be fantastic. So all that fantasticstore. And now, as of June
eighth, which was just four daysago, you are now the commander of
(23:06):
the VFW in Apriville, and sowhat what are what are some of the
changes or some of the new thingsthat you plan on trying to bring to
the VFW for as far as oram I letting the cat out of the
bag eye? Well, okay,so it's and I don't want to say,
like I'm not going to say thingsare going to be different or things
are going to be better, becausethat's not the case. The case is
(23:30):
is, you know, they areso open to all of my crazy ideas
and putting the things in check thatneed to be in check that you know
we have already been. It's aboutconsistently doing a lot of the things that
we've been doing. You know,I'm out there in the community. I
was in charge of the fish Frythis year, which I'm going to continue
to do. I have given usthat social media exposure that they never had.
(23:52):
I'm out there meeting the people wherethey are that we want to come
in. We are continuing beautiful collaborationswith the American Legion and the Auxiliary.
I'm actually working right now with TomGeorge Stead, the American Legion Commander,
opening a chapter for a Legion auxiliary. We have a lot of women that
(24:12):
are not qualified to be on theVFW Auxiliary and we're missing opportunities. So
a little bit of boots on theground work for that. But I'm also
a member of the American Legion andso I told told him Jennifer Sloan and
I are gonna work on that withwith him to branch that out. And
I think that that's a big change, you know, being able to expand
(24:33):
what we offer and and really workingon that collaboration with all. Is you
aware of that? Of you andJennifer Sloan And that's the one two punch
knockout. I mean yes, Imean she's a hard charger down there too,
and I hope she's my senior vice. But we're gonna have a little
flipperoo because she just had a baby. So I've got her in the senior
(24:56):
vice position and then moving her backinto junior and we're gonna have like the
you know, the officers as theofficers move through the ranks. I'm just
doing it a little different so wecan have everybody learn what they need to
learn before they before they move up. One of the things that I think
I did do different than I ampretty proud of that I feel like is
a very positive change is I feellike as we're moving, you know,
(25:18):
into the future, there's a lotof things with technology, there's a lot
of things that we're doing that Ifeel like an so OP is important.
There's a lot of vague definitions ofwhat junior and senior vice and some of
the committees do. I'm actually puttingpen to paper to create and have already
created more of a master plan sothese officers are much more prepared when they
(25:41):
go into two serving because it's avolunteer you know, and so you can't
expect somebody just to volunteer and thenwing it. If you really want the
best out of these people, andwe pick the best people for these jobs.
But I want to set them upfor success. So that's one thing
that I'm working really hard on,is setting really good expectations with my with
(26:02):
my team. Yes, that's fantastic, well done, well done. So
is now you're with your position asand we can talk, we can expand
more upon all these topics as aswe go on. But with your position
as a vice. Is that whatstarted this latest project that took you down
to Springfield? Or did you startedyears prior to that and then moved into
(26:26):
this And I'm not gonna I'm notletting the cat out of the bag.
Oh, I'll tell you exactly whereI started. It started when I was
putting flags on graves Memorial Day whenI was junior vice. I was out
in the nap Hill Cemetery putting flagson the graves, which we do every
Memorial, and Nadia had the clipboardand she was reading we look for a
grave that's at the front of theline and the end of the line,
(26:48):
and then we look for all theveterans' graves in between, and we've placed
the flags down a foot a footmarked out, and we read everything that's
on the clipboard that Jim Hulk isamazing with how he has curated this information
for the ceremony that we do,and we read about everything we can find,
like if whatever they did, whenthey whatever. And so there was
(27:12):
thirty five graves in the Naperville Cemetery, and I remember it would say,
description would say, look for thisbeautiful memorial and then walk fourteen paces west
and look down for a pile ofbroken rocks and debris, and that's where
the flag goes. That first yearI was junior vice. Everybody knew I
(27:33):
had a voice, but nobody wasreally listening to me yet, I guess.
So whenever I would bring up thiswas a problem and I didn't like
this, and we need to dosomething, everybody would say, that's going
to be a lot of work,Stacy, that's a lot of red tape.
Nobody's nobody's gonna listen. You're gonnahave to do all this stuff.
And I said okay, And soI kept tossing it around. And then
when I became senior vice and wewent out again, I go, enough
(27:55):
is enough. I'm not going todo this every year. And then you've
got everybody virtue signaling. You know, everybody puts putting the flags down is
very important. Okay, it iseverybody does it right. But then you've
got these people that are taking picturesand posting it on Facebook and they're like,
look what I did a memorial.And I'm like, I know you
people care about this, right,I know you do. I know you
care that these graves are destroyed andyou can't read them. Yeah again,
(28:19):
you can't read the names or they'renot in existent and so and that led
me to I said, well,we can adopt the highway, we can
adopt the veteran's grave. I loveit. I love it. So that
led me to the first piece.The first piece was I found all these
companies that were like, here's themoney, and so I went to the
(28:40):
monument company and I got a greatdeal, worked out fifty percent monument installation
of the foundation taxes everything, sowe got a fifty percent marked off.
So we ended up with about afifteen to seventeen hundred dollars bill to adopt
a grave. So then the nextpiece was we I is told that I
needed to have next of kin permission, yes, so which I for one
(29:07):
solid year with the help of peoplefrom the FBI, investigative reporters from CBS,
myself calling searching background checks. Isearched for a year for next of
kin for all thirty five of thesegraves, and we found one, and
Naperville North High School Veterans Club raisedthe money Steve over seventeen hundred dollars and
(29:30):
refurbished that grave. Edward Hilts,he's actually a VFW owner or a VFW
member. His family is part ofthe He was a VFW member and his
family's local, and I was ableto speak with the granddaughter and it was
a beautiful thing that it all cametogether. Then, but then what do
we do with the rest? Sothen that's when I decided to write a
(29:52):
new law. So I said,how can I I'm meeting with the board
of the cemetery. I'm researching burialrights laws in Illinois like it was my
job. And all of a sudden, I started to read about things that
are a century old or one hundredyear old, or historical markers, and
(30:14):
I was like, hmmm, onething led to another with my brain,
and I said, what if westarted with the ones that are over one
hundred year old? One hundred yearsold? What if we started with those
we designated historical markers? So thenthe VFW and the American Legion can take
ownership. We take ownership, thenwe don't in good faith, we'll look
for next of kin up to acertain degree, and it's an undetermined amount
(30:36):
which can really be set by theowner the legion of the VFW, because
it's all good faith. At thatpoint, we have the ability to refurbish
the grave. Right, So thatis the first piece that legislation. Because
once we have and that's gone throughSpringfield, I went there and testified in
Springfield. It was signed in theCommittee, and the House and the Senate
(30:59):
approved all three times. Now it'sjust waiting for the governor's signature, which
I believe will be next week fromwhat I'm hearing from a state representative,
so that when that law is passed, that will allow me to and I
already have the money and people thatare adopting those they're seven graves, so
there you know, you figure thosegraves are one hundred year olds from nineteen
(31:22):
twenty four? Is that hundred markright before that? So those graves are
ready to be connected with their adoptiveparents and refurbished. So then we had
about twenty eight other graves that werenot over one hundred years old. So
this law is creating a way forme to change the narrative for the rest
of them, because I couldn't findtheir next to kin either, we just
(31:45):
leave them piles of rock and debrisand don't do anything. So for the
sake of this part of the project, we added another layer to it where
I got bricks engraved for every singleone of those people that had a destroyed
marker that you couldn't read, andthen I had them installed next to the
podium that represented their branch of service. We raise all of that money through
(32:05):
the Adoptive Veterans Grave Project and oncethe laws, Yeah, once the laws
passed, we'll do the other sevenand then I'm going to scale that for
every cemetery that I can go touse the one hundred year old law,
adopt those out that need it,get bricks and grave for a memorial that
whatever that cemetery has, raise moneyfor that, and hopefully as I move
(32:30):
forward, I'm going to be ableto change some of the language with how
you have to find the next ofkin and get permission. That's the next
phase is making that easier, Likewhy can't I go and refurbish a grave
for a veteran, right, likeI families permission, but there's got to
(32:51):
be some kind of work around there, and that's the next step. Yeah.
Well, I mean you talk aboutthe one hundred year difference nineteen twenty
four, you're looking at you know, those could be World War One graves,
those could be Civil war graves.It's just for these veterans they are
there's four years, yeah, forCivil war gins like the Blackhawk War and
(33:13):
the Eighteenth War of eighteen twelve.Yeah, eighteen twelve. I get it.
I get it, but I thinkthat was a little bit before Illinois
became a state. So but that'sthere. There's a grade there. I
understand, yes, but I meanit is why when they were twenty five
years old, they never even cameyou know, they died and they never
(33:35):
came back to have families, right, And I get that. I understand
that. And even even you know, first Golf War veterans, Vietnam veterans,
and any of the conflicts that we'vehad since World War One or even
before that, there could be gravesthere and the families have moved on and
nobody takes care of the grave.And I mean it is it's important that
(33:59):
we made this and I and againjust so the audience understands it, it's
the Adopt a Veterans great project thatthis is offentially going to go when the
government signs it. This is thisis statewide in Illinois. Correct, Yes,
Okay, Wow, that's fantastic.So have you been because of that
your initiative? Have you been incharch with other commanders vice commanders of other
(34:22):
vfws throughout the state and they're allaware of Yeah? Yeah, I have
been talking to a lot of theother commanders and a lot of the other
just different level officers at different functionsthat we go to. And with me
being on color Guard, I've beenin the past two years. I've been
on Color Guard. I've been inalmost every kind of you know, every
(34:42):
function that we've needed to have flagrepresentation at. I've been able to.
I've talked about it. Whether peoplewanted to hear, I've talked about it.
So yeah. So, but it'slike HB the the law. The
law is HB forty nine thirty four. So if anybody wanted to reference that
when they hear it, the HBforty nine thirty four, And I post
(35:05):
a lot about it on my socialmedia platforms, you know, and it's
like I was kind of laughing.It's like we've got all these layers where
we've got uh, you know,adopting, refer refurbishing graves, writing new
legislation, engraving bricks, and nowwe've got merch there you go. Yeah,
thanks, Yeah, And I'm glad. I'm glad that's working out with
Ginger and David. They're they're reallygreat people. And it's you know again,
(35:28):
uh, David's David's a Navy veteran. It's fantastic we get to be
you know, we're inn a positionwhere we keep that in house and in
the yeah community. So I'm alwaysgoing to use a metronowned business if I
can. First absolutely well. Imean you've had me there in spirit at
least with the Master Blaster Coffee.So I appreciate that. Thank you very
much for those opportunities. So let'stalk. Let's share with the audience.
(35:51):
I mentioned Facebook, I mentioned Instagram. What else are you on? Uh?
So people can find you and theycan follow because I mean, you've
got a lot going on, fantasticpresence and if they if they don't just
look at some of the stuff thatyou're doing and feel motivated to take that
step forward. You know, Idon't know what's going to help them because
(36:12):
it's it's high energy stuff you gotgoing on there. So so on Instagram,
obviously, I have my personal pages. If somebody wanted to follow me
as a person, you know,the motivating you to that link tree link.
If somebody's just listening and can't seethat ticker that l I n K
t R dot e E slash motivatingyou has everything on there. So I've
(36:34):
got my books on Amazon. I'vegot podcasts, so if you go on
pop my podcasts like Spotify easy.Most people have Spotify. I'm also on
SoundCloud and iTunes, but I've beenusing a lot more Spotify lately. And
my podcasts aren't long like this one. So my podcast I specifically keep short,
you know, because bolkfish. SoI like to do these like two
(36:57):
to four minute nuggets and have peopleand I don't necessarily interview people. I've
interviewed a few people, but forme, it's just about me having this
thought that I feel like I needto talk about, and I'll talk about
it for two to four minutes andit's like a little takeaway nugget. And
so that's what people know they're gettingwith me is just you know, it's
called Stacy speak. Sure, andit's just Stacy speaking. So there you
(37:22):
go. But Spotify find me onSpotify, and then I run the Naperville
you know, Facebook and Instagram.So finding the Naperville VFW post thirty eight
seventy three, finding that Naperville Instagramand those Facebook pages, you'll see all
the stuff we do, you know, our fundraisers, our Juttathon, our
(37:42):
Turkey Raffle, We've got our fishfries, our veteran resource business fairs,
everything that we're doing in our bloodDrives, all the stuff that we've got
going on in the canteen, thethings that we're doing just out in the
community. Everything is there, andit's it's you know, up to the
minute. So and you know,I don't There's one thing I've had a
lot of conversations with people that likebecause I'm part of the Rotary in Naperville
(38:05):
and I'm part of the Naperville Chamberas well, and I represent both my
business Motivating You and the VFW withthose and I have since I became Junior
Mice. So I'm kind of theirconnection with the post with that, and
I find getting I get asked alot about well, the difference between the
VFW and American Legion. A lotof people don't know that the VFW you
have to qualify for you have tohave been in combat and a foreign war,
(38:27):
and then the American Legion is foryou know, all of all of
the veterans and most many of usare a member of both. And so
that's why the VFW itself has beenstruggling a little bit with membership because people
are aging out. You know.It's I hate to say it's harder to
qualify these days, but it kindof is. And the one thing that
I'm really proud about with our NaporvillePost is one of the very biggest ones
(38:50):
in the state. I mean,we're upward of almost over six hundred and
fifty members and closest to that isthere's a few of them with three and
most of them have about one hundred. So our voice matters, you know,
And the VFW itself in any town, Aurora's very active. Aurora has
got one of the best ones.A combination of American Legion over there as
well, like they work together likewe do. But being able to go
(39:13):
to district level meetings and state levelmeetings and be a voice for like having
like a vote for every thirty memberstype situation, right, Like think about
that, right, And so theseposts that are very robust with their membership,
they have the ability to make realchange because people are listening. Like
that's how we get together for districtand state meetings. We get together and
we're able to say on we're voteis for this, take that forward,
(39:37):
and they do. And you knowwe also as a post. One more
thing I think is important is peopledon't understand our fundraisers, you know,
like our for veterans. Okay,that money goes to the post. What
do we do with it? Well, I like we're like a bank.
So the VFW is like a bankfor all of these other ancillary veteran support
(39:57):
organizations. And when they need help, where they need money, they need
resources, they come to us.We vote, we give and keep that
money available. We help individual veterans, We help families, we donate.
We donated over forty thousand to theNational Home for Children, which is also
to civilians. Think of like theRon McDonald house, right exactly. You
(40:19):
can kind of compare it in layman'sterms. Yeah, so we work very
hard within our vfw's all of thevfws to have that money to be able
to give to those veteran organizations thatare out boots on the ground, you
know, that are setting up stuffat this state Fair and doing this at
this you know festival, and they'reout there. They need money so they
can do that, and they cometo us, and so that's how it
(40:42):
all kind of connects. Yeah,I got you. So three things hit
my clicked in my brain as youwere describing that. One is fish Fry.
I've been Dad was in there,prevailed, my sister still lives there.
I've been down there several times tovisit and handle business. I've talked
to people in conversation. They lovethe fish fry. This year, they
(41:05):
had the they had the best time. They're like super excited. They're like,
when can we start that again?Because it was fantastic. So kudos
to you. That was a veryprominent in people's minds about your fish Fry
and the VFW and what a fantasticjob you guys, you and your team
did over there for that, andthat's fantastic. Thank you. Uh.
The second thing is is Uh,yes, you are out there all the
(41:27):
f and time in in the public. Uh was that softball? Baseball or
what on Saturday? Where you wereat Saturday? Okay, yeah, so
uh photo shoot. I'm not sureif you wanted to do audio because I
was down there visiting my sister andthe casadoes were crazy on Saturday. But
I'm sure you had a good timewith the little ones down there with the
(41:50):
softball thing. So again, asas your friend, I'm proud of you
for everything that you're doing because you'remaking a difference and you're throwing your presence
out there. You're making your puttingyour presence out there and people are noticing,
and it's it's good for the community. It's fantastic for the community.
The last thing is we have thearticle on your grave protection build thing.
(42:12):
Did you want us to bring thatup? Can? Should we bring that
up? So we can talk aboutthat for the remainder here and then well
we'll get closing comments and you canbring that up. I think that's really
important. Absolutely all right, herewe go. So Stephanie Kivowitz is the
Stephanie Kivawit is the state representative thatshe was. She's a marine well,
(42:34):
wants a marine, always a marine, so I don't want to ever say
was the marine. And she isan amazing advocate for our veteran community,
both our post and the Aurora RooseveltAmerican Legion in BFW. She's very active
in the community as a whole andwith veterans legislation. She's amazing and she
really guided me on what I neededto do here and I am just thrilled
(42:59):
with how it turned out. Fantastic. That's great. And I'm sure you
have a link for that article somewherein your massive cyber space footprint out there.
If I don't actually know, ifI do, I where is that
article? I mean, I feellike I have access to everything, but
I well, I'll make sure weget it. I'll make sure we get
(43:19):
it to you. Yes, it'sin the notes now, but I'll make
sure we get it to you afterthe show. Yeah, send it to
me. Yeah cool, Okay,too easy, we can do that.
So what's the next real you know, as we wrap this up, what's
the next step forward for you?And then well, okay, you're like
(43:43):
wrap it up June thirty. Excuseme, I would never say that to
you. I'm just gonna say,what's the next step for Stacey Boyer.
Here we go. So, Junethirtieth is our Officer Installation dinner, right,
And I've been calling it induction dinner, and so induction or installation both
of those words. No one's correctedme yet. But the Officer Dinner is
June thirtieth, and I'm really superexcited because we have almost one hundred and
(44:05):
twenty RSVPs so and it's not justand this is what I love about it
is like you said, I'm kindof all over the place and everywhere.
And my goal with the dinner,because it is open to the public,
is I'm curating a situation where Iknow that people care about the VFW,
people care about veterans. That obviouslyveterans are there. No veteran is going
to be turned away that wants tocome to this thing. But I'm super
(44:25):
excited that some of the people fromthe Rotary in the Chamber and the other
place in Apriville responds. Those peoplethat we work with and do things with
and support us, and we supportthem, they're coming to this too.
And so it's just this really amazingmelting pot of great minds coming to this
dinner as we you know, kindof change command. So I'm really excited
(44:47):
about that. And you know,we've got our veteran owned business resource fair
that is coming in August, andyou've been to the last one and you
know how amazing that was. SoAugust seventeenth is that's coming around, and
we're going to have a very similarvibe music, food. It's going to
be amazing, big right. Butthen I'm working on another project that I
really want to mention with the Rotaryand it's an interesting take on PTSD and
(45:14):
I've got four other people on theboard of this and we wanted to do
something different and I'm very excited about. We had this theme of survival skills
and so we're calling it a ResilienceTactics Workshop, but it's for it's supporting
the supporters of the military first respondercommunities. It's when those supporters are giving
(45:36):
back and are needing to keep theirown cup full. So hearing the exhibitors
and our breakout sessions around how tohelp those people that are support system and
some of those supporters are veterans likemyself. For example, I don't struggle
from PTSD like a lot of myfriends, my brothers in arms at the
VFW do so I'm a veteran thatthey can trust and talk to, but
(45:59):
I don't have that same pain andI had, yes, And so we
are going to have a breakout sessionthat is specifically for just veterans and first
responders that'll be there. Nobody elseis going in there. It's more of
a share your story and you haveto actually have an ID to get in
there. We're not letting anybody comein just by saying they are. We're
(46:20):
carding them and everything else is gearedto where we're trying to help people be
better supporters and even first responders,helping give them an insight on the job,
how to deal with somebody, youknow, a veteran that's got PTSD,
social anxiety, loud noises, crowdscoming around, that's not going to
make them calm down. And youknow, we're we've got a lot of
(46:42):
really cool things going The link tothat, just so you know, is
also part of the link for theOfficer Dinner, so I can suck that
to you if you need it.But there's a flyer there and I can
send that over to you. Butit's the Resilience Tactics Workshop and and it's
that's a sub so you and youand I'm assuming there's a panel. There's
(47:05):
a couple of years. Yeah,there's the Rotary. So we've got we're
doing it at Little Friends. They'redonating the space. We're working with Support
over Stigma, that organization, Zoe. We're working with the Rotary Club.
So we've got three people from theRotary, the Support over Stigma and then
myself, So there's five of ustogether that are working on this workshop,
(47:28):
building it and bringing all the peoplein. Well, I want to extend
an invitation for you and any anyof the leadership from this workshop that would
like to come back on Tripwire andeither pre or post the kickoff of the
workshop, let us know how itwent or talk about what's going to happen.
I'd love to have you back.And we as you know, it's
(47:52):
very important for me about the PTSDPtSi status. We talk a lot about
that here on the show, andI want to continue to try and help
the community both sides of that coinwant first responders and also as veterans as
well. So five minutes left,So do you want me to send you
(48:13):
after we get out. You lookat her, I'm telling you, SkyWatch,
or she's just taken over the show. Here we go, I might
have to pull her in my asmy assistant in this in this show on
a regular basis. So what wereyou? I'm sorry? What were you
said? I was going to say, do you want me to send you
a link for that on here ora flyer? Well, go ahead and
(48:35):
send me the link and I'll throwit through all of my I mean,
because as we've talked about before,I've got my network of thousands of followers.
You've got your network of twenties ofthousands of followers, and some of
them overlap and some of them don't. And I'll make sure that we push
it all out and everything will begood. So I'll just put the link,
(48:55):
just text it to me, becausewe're going to lose it as soon
as we get off, okay,So I'll just text it to you you
don't even know, and I'll haveSkywatcher send me that link for that article
and then pass it on to you. So famous quote, and then we're
going to uh, We're gonna goahead, uh and shut this bad boy
down because we've probably got everybody jumpingout of their skin about everything that's going
(49:17):
on. Oh you want to quotefrom me? Okay, so all right,
well I want a Stacey Boyer fantasticquote, keep people motivated. Here
we go. What do you got? Well, okay, I like this
one. Though. Your successes arein direct proportion to your efforts. Period,
take ownership and responsibility for whatever itis that you're doing, either doing
(49:37):
what you need to do or you'renot get it done. Very nice,
very nice. I really appreciate yourtime as always again honored it that you
could chisel out some time for ushere on trip Wire. We really appreciate
you here. We're gonna have youon again because there's just too much stuff
in for one fifty four minute show, or a fifty minute show. I
(49:59):
know more to talk about next week. Oh well again again my co host
slot is wide open. We'll talkabout it. Stays careful what you asked
for. Thank you everybody for tuningin today. This is a great podcast
that we had. We'll catch youthis same time next week. I hope
(50:20):
you enjoyed this episode of Tripwire.God Bless and God Bless America. Thank
you, thank you,
Good afternoon everybody. It is thetwelfth of June Wednesday, and it is
time for trick Wire again and wehave a phenomenal show ready for us today.
Thank you all for joining us.Look forward to the next fifty four
minutes of us discussing wonderful things aboutthis fantastic veteran I have Stacy Boyer.
Everybody, Stacy, thank you verymuch. We are honored to have you
(01:00):
here. I really appreciate you joiningus from the KGr A family and specialism,
specifically here on Tripwire with us.Thank you, thank you for having
me. Absolutely I'm excited. Excellent. So, Navy veteran, let's talk
about what just I guess just acouple of years ago. Yeah, you
(01:21):
know that you were in the navy, So let's talk about Let's talk about
what got you going into the Navy, where you're originally from, and what
has got you going living here inthe Chicagoland area. Well, I graduated
and then I worked for I hadbeen living on my own since I was
fifteen years old, so back thenit was a little more common for people
(01:42):
to move out of the house andget started with their lives. You know,
I'm almost fifty four, so yourage, I'm a little older than
you, I think, right justby the day. Let's not talk about
that about being in my fifties,so we'll talk about that later. I
was living on my own and Iwas working, and I decided that I
wanted to go into the military.It really resonated with me, and I
(02:05):
was very patriotic and even you know, I just thought it was the right
path for me. So I wentin and then I was in for twelve
years after just it changed my life. I really you've heard me tell my
stories before, but everything that Iam and do and the woman that I
have grown in to be, Ifeel like the Navy was a catalyst for
(02:29):
all of that. So fantastic,fantastic. And so where did you start
your twelve year career in the Navyto get to propel yourself to where you're
at now? Well, boot campback then was in Florida, so that's
where I was, and then Iwent to hospital course school at Great Lakes.
It's no longer there as well,which is sad. Then I was
(02:50):
stationed from there, I went toBethesda and that was right before we went
out to the Persian Gulf War.So I was at the Naval Hospital in
Bethesda. I'm always going to callit that. I don't care if they
changed the name. All of usthat were stationed there when I was called
that are never going to say anythingelse. So then the Persian Gulf War,
I was on the comfort and Iwas out there for just about a
(03:12):
full year. The whole time cameback and from Bethesda. I was working
as kind of a ward corman backthen, and which I loved. I
worked in pediatrics and I did theshifts on the ward and then I decided
that I wanted to when my dutystation was up, I ended up going
to Oakland Naval Hospital. And whileI was in Oakland, I was there
(03:34):
for a while good bit. Iended up going to surgical tech school,
so I started to specialize myself andwork in the operating room, which I
loved. And then I transferred tothe Emris Land It's a subtender out of
Norfolk, Virginia. So I wasthere for three years, and then after
I became E five, I decidedto get my instructor Training certificate and teach
(03:55):
at the hospital course school, whichI loved. So that brought me to
Great Lakes back where I went toschool full circle. Yeah, so then
I was in Great Lakes and Iwas there. I finished out my career,
my twelve year career up at theGreat Lakes Naval Hospital, and I
(04:16):
it was it was amazing. Andyou know, I got out after twelve
years because I was married to myolder son's father and it we got divorced,
and it was like I was kindof trying to figure out what to
do. And at that moment intime, like the you know, I
got out. The one thing Iwould do different with my whole life only
is I would have stayed in reserves. I should have. And I often
(04:38):
tell that to people, the kidsyou know that we go and speak to
through you know, Veterans Day andall the stuff that we do in the
schools around here. When I talkto them, you know, Career Day,
Veterans Day, I and anybody that'sinterested in going into the military,
I always tell them that is somethingthat when it's time for you to separate
or leave, always always factor inthe importance of that reservist piece. Like
(05:02):
I would be getting a retirement payright now. I had retirement pay all
through COVID times. Yeah, Imean, and it's It's the one thing
that I would I would have goneback and done a little bit differently.
Nothing else though, well, Igot you. That's quite a lot of
bouncing around. And I also wason active duty during the first Call four,
although I never made it over there, So thank you for that.
(05:27):
Always always good to see someone fromthat era and have a conversation with them
because a lot of people, alot of these young kids, I mean
the global Warren Turris in for twentyyears. Some of these kids have no
idea about the first Golf four.They don't they can't remember, or it
was on schools or anything like that, right, right, So you found
(05:47):
yourself back at Great Legs. Youleft, got out of the Navy after
your time there as an instructor,You've stayed in the Chicago land area because
Great Legs, for those of usthat are our viewers are not familiar with,
a Great leg is just north ofChicago on Lake Michigan and uh and
then I'm sure it was a littlebit of time, but thirty five years
is a fitness pro That's incredible,That's absolutely incredible. So I got my
(06:13):
first I got my first personal trainingcertification early on in my military career when
I was like eighteen, so Iyou know, and being a hospital corman,
you're in the medical field, soyou're kind of in charge of making
sure people are physically fit can passthe PRT test. So I was always
put into a position where I wasneeded to do that, even before I
became super passionate about it. Somy fitness being in the fitness realm,
(06:38):
that fitness space, that health wellness, medical fitness space, has really been
something I've done my whole entire life. Well it's all adult life. Let's
say, no, yeah, Iget it. I get it. So
that led to so, which didyou start first motivating you or did you
start Phoenix Productions first? Or wasit kind of motivating you? Motivating You
was my my first business, myfirst book. That was that literally started.
(07:02):
I've actually got a fun story aboutthat on my website. How I
even came up with the name.I had a friend of mine was a
calibration tech and she her email wascalibrating you right, very similar to the
eight in mind. And then she'sthe one that said that I was motivating
and that when I would speak aboutwhat I was passionate about, I was
(07:25):
really motivating motivating motivating you, Right, So I was I'm going to use
that in my my email back inthe day, you know, like my
email, your emails like really representedwho you were back in the day if
you can remember that, you know. And so I had a couple of
different variations of that throughout, andthen when my first book came, I
(07:46):
was like, motivating you. Itjust made sense. And then my business
I started, I started writing thebook, and then business opened kind of
right around that same time. Mybusiness, well, I opened my business
and then the book came, andso keeping the name the same really made
a lot of sense to me.And so that was back like in two
(08:07):
thousand and eight when I started MotivatingYou. Phoenix Productions is going into my
fourth year, very nice. Yeah, twenty twenty five, twenty twenty five,
May third, twenty twenty five willbe my fourth date for the Phoenix
Productions, the Phoenix Natural Noble Warrior, which is the bodybuilding show that I
promote that And that's awesome. I'veyou and I've had multiple discuss multiple conversations
(08:31):
about your event at the first weekendin May. Yeah, and we'll get
definitely get back to that. Howmany let's let's explain to the audience.
I mean, how many you're anauthor, how many books have you written?
So I've had six book projects.And the reason why I say book
projects is because one of them wasa collaboration with other authors, and then
(08:52):
another one was the recording of theaudio version of Motivating You, which I
did pretty on my own. Ihired, I got studio time, and
mastered it on my own. Andso that's why I call it projects.
But there's other books that I've writtenthat are out there on Amazon easy to
(09:13):
find. Just google in my name, and then links are on my links
that are going across the ticker onthe bottom of the page. I got
you, I got you well.And so in the description of this episode,
we've got all the links up theretoo. So that way, if
anybody misses our lot this live broadcast, they come in late or whatever the
case may be, they maybe they'llbe able to find it up there for
(09:35):
you as well. So let's uh, let's let's go into this. A
lot of people are not familiar withNPC, and you are an NPC promoter
through the Phoenix Natural Noble Warrior production. Yes, so why don't we explain
what the NPC environment is So theNPC is National Physique Committee and it is
(10:00):
argument arguably the largest UH amateur bodybuildingorganization in the country. And our pro
division is the i f b B, the International Federation UH of Bodybuilding.
And so we've got the amateurs thatcompete in the n PC and they qualify
for national level shows at the nationallevel than they are pro qualifiers, they
(10:24):
have the opportunity to win their procard. So we have different competitions.
And in the body bodybuilding world,there's obviously some natural athletes and some not
natural athletes. That's that's no secret. There are some organizations that are smaller,
different organizations out there that claim tohave all of their shows natural and
(10:46):
and and they that's there, that'stheir business model. Sure. And then
with the n PC, we wehave a mix and my show is one
of our natural shows, and wedo test. We polygraphed in the past,
(11:07):
but I am moving to a higherlevel, more expensive method of testing
going into your number four and that'sgoing to be with your analysis. So
we do make sure that our naturalshows are in fact natural. We do
have natural national level shows for thepro qualifiers as well. So if you're
a natural athlete and you want togo only that route within the NPC,
(11:28):
you can. However, our athletesare at such a high caliber with their
conditioning, training and the coaches thatare in the organization that many of the
natural athletes are very competitive with thosetop level athletes that you know might be
taking anything. Sure, I understand, and I'd like to ashare with the
(11:50):
audience. There's I guess this isa district that you belong to you right
for the NPC or this region asfar as the MPC is, Yeah,
we have a I state area Illinois. We call it NPC Illinois, and
we have six shows in Illinois,and then there's five up in Wisconsin that
are part of that are under ourumbrella as well, and then one in
(12:11):
Iowa. And Chuck Sano is ourNPC chairman and so he basically governs all
of those shows that are underneath.And I'm one of those. I got
you and then yours your show specificallyearly May, first weekend in May,
uh is the Veterans Show. AndI don't think I'm not sure if we
(12:31):
get it. We can check yoursite, but I mean, you did
a you did a lead into it. It was awesome I can't. I
got to commend you on just howprominent and how fantastic it is that you
your entire show is is gatered towardshonoring veterans, and it's just it's fantastic.
If I wasn't geographically challenged every weekfirst weekend in May, i'd I'd
(12:54):
be attending UH And just so theviewers know, I am not trying out
for the add Bob Bob competition foryour show, I'm not doing that either.
I want to make sure that everybodyunderstands that I will not be doing
that. But so motivates use yourgym. Motivating use to the gym,
and that's I see you doing videoson linked or on Instagram and Facebook,
(13:16):
and you're you're walking your your contestants. You're the people that go to your
gym for training. You're walking themthrough the process. You're training them.
How about we explained with some ofthat to the audience. I do all
of it. So I have anapp that I developed that my clients.
I have athletes that compete, andI also have lifestyle clients, so I
(13:37):
coach anybody. I've got a verylarge amount of clients kind of all over
the country, that I'm able totouch with this app. And then I
have my studio, my gym thatI own locally, so people you know
work with me either online or inperson, or a hybrid of both.
Competitors you know, are usually verygreat independent workers in the gym, so
they don't always need a trainer.They like to meet with me. Maybe
(14:00):
you know some of them meet withme more often, but they like to
meet me with me, you know, once a week or a couple of
times a month, just to pushthemselves past the plateau. Have some FaceTime
with me to talk about things.But I do on Sunday. One of
the things that you do see onSundays, I do group posing in the
in the studio, I have astage there. I have pictures of the
judges. I try to create asituation where, especially for new people,
(14:24):
that they're able to experience what it'slike to be, you know, at
a higher level than the judges aredown here and they they're in front of
people, and it's a really goodcamaraderie, support system and everything that you
do. You know, having asupport system and like minded people doing like
minded things is always hall exactly.Yes, I get it, I get
it. No, that's fantastic.So how long how long have you actually
(14:50):
had the gym's in Naperville? Isthat correct? So how long have you
actually been at that location? Weopen October of twenty nineteen, right before
COVID, and I opened it asa wellness center because I do a lot
of stuff in there. I dostuff with the community for you know,
I'm part of the chamber and therotary in the VFW and the church,
(15:11):
and so I opened it to forwhatever anybody needs. You know, people
want to do things in activities,so and I do seminars and I just
didn't want it to be at thetime, didn't want it to be labeled
as a gym. And it wasfor good thinking at the time because I
wasn't required to close I during COVID. I was able to manage who came
(15:33):
in when they came in, andit was a different, different type of
situation. So that really was beneficialfor me because it was a struggle with
Scott, you know, being myhusband being a bartender. He lost four
jobs in one day. So whenit was it was good and I just
opened that studio, so I waslike, oh my gosh, what am
I gonna do. But because ofmy military brain and my ability to troubleshoot
(15:56):
and overcome obstacles and never say no, I was able to stay above water.
Seriously reference stay above water the armyguy. I see how. But
I was able, Yeah, Iwas able to keep things going perseverance,
you know, Tanaca, like thosethings like we don't give up, Like
(16:17):
I'm not going to give up.You're not going to tell me no,
I'm going to make I'm going toget through this. I am and I
absolutely did, you know. Butmy business, I'm lucky because I reverse
engineered my brand, which you know, the tenacity of that is from what
I learned in the military. Butuh revert my brand was already existing,
right. I already had clients.I already was motivating you. And then
(16:41):
when I opened up the brick andmortar space, people already knew who I
was. So it wasn't like Iwas trying to gorilla market people to come
and find me in this industrial park. People were looking for me because they
were already my clients. So Ioften tell that story to people entrepreneurs.
I'm part of venas veteran own tobusiness connection groups where we help new uh
(17:02):
new entrepreneurs, veterans that are wantingto open their own businesses. You know,
there's a lot of things I learnedover the years that as I've grown
my business, how I've taught myselfhow to build websites and market myself and
what I do, best practices andwhat not to do, you know,
help lesson learn, Yeah, helpme get through, help me get through
COVID. That's it. We're allthinking. We're all happy that we're on
(17:26):
this side of that. Yeah,for sure, how it panned out,
We're all glad we're on this sideof it. Indeed, indeed, for
the audience, I want to Iwant to share with the audience that you
have just been You just got theofficial title of commander of the VFW and
Naperville. Congratulations. How long?How long were you the When did you
(17:51):
start becoming involved in the leadership ofthe VFW. How about that? Well,
So, and this is an interestinglittle story too. And I don't
know how much of this you knowalready, but back in twenty fifteen,
I met Phil Mayhan at a rotaryNaperville response to Veterans' event, right,
And so my husband and I werethere and Phil came up and talked to
us, and I got I boughta lifetime membership right then paid in cash,
(18:15):
and I got one of his pins. I still wear his pin on
my cover to this day. AndI went up on stage, and I
still have this picture of me,and I looked like such a young little
girl up there saluting. I'm inmy workout clothes, no cover or anything,
right because and then I never Iwas always doing stuff in the schools.
(18:36):
I was going and talking for VeteransDay and Career Day, and I
had my PowerPoint presentation, and Iwas always volunteering or wanting to do things.
But there was something here. Iknew there was something more that I
needed to do, not just wantedto do, but like needed to do
right. So Phoenix, it's funnyhow these things connect. Okay, here's
(18:57):
the story. So Phoenix production happened, and I want to have my military
First Responder ceremony to open finals.I want this piece to be important.
I want a color guard, Iwant so I want all of these things.
From twenty twenty two. So Igo on the VFW Aperville website.
And before that, I was alwaysin the parades, but with Marty Walker,
(19:18):
who hands Max out, yes,out for so I was familiar with
some of these people. So Igo on the Neighborville website and I'm looking
for the who the commander or whoI should contact for to figure out about
color guard right because I'd like toget the color guard there. So Todd
Schueneman, Todd Schuteman is like,hey, Stacy, why don't you come
(19:40):
to a meeting. The worst ishistory because I go to the meeting and
they give me the microphone. Ihaven't put it down since no. I
mean literally, I literally go tothe meeting and I'm like hey, and
everybody was like, who is thiswoman? And then I go down to
the canteen and Leo's like, doyou think you want to be Junior Vice.
I'm like, yeah, what's that? I'll do it. I mean,
(20:06):
you're you know yeah. So thenand then we had some you know,
we had some troubles with UH thepeople that were in some of the
the other officer positions, you know, had had UH work in life obligations.
And so I ended up both yearstaking over the junior and senior vice
positions, and I learned so much, you know, Leo and Phil and
(20:29):
George Kramer. I mean, allthese guys are like amazing. It's I
feel like I've got a ton ofuncles and grandpa's, you know, and
brothers now because there's younger people there. Because it is good. I mean,
we really and they taught me somuch and I am super excited about
how it has all played out.And Todd kind of laughs because he was
like, well, I just invitedyou to a meeting. He got on
(20:53):
the microphone, and then we're like, yeah, she's here to stay.
Yeah, exactly. Holy Holy.So it's funny that you mentioned that though,
because you know our age, youknow, to post excuse me,
post Global War on Terrors and postFirst Call four. We're the new blood
(21:15):
that they need in the vfw's andthe American legions. And it's just it's
good to hear that you're actually nowYou've got some brothers, not just uncles
and grandfathers in there, and we'regetting new people into VFW. And if
I ever stopped moving around and Iactually settle, I'll probably do the same
thing at the local VFW wherever Idecided to hang my hat. So yeah,
(21:36):
you know, one of my oneof my directives, you know,
when I got in there, whetheranybody liked it or not, was I
wanted to create experiences at the postthat people wanted to be a part of.
I am not I'm not a salesman, believe it or not, I
really am not a salesman. Iprovide experiences that make people want to do
what I'm doing, and that isjust how I lead, That's how I
(21:59):
operate. And I'm also going toprobably throw in the fact that you are
very high energy and that helps.That helps with the information. It kind
of just they retain the information alittle bit better that you're sharing with them
because you're so high energy, andit works for you. It definitely works
for you. So, you know, I I've learned. I've learned a
lot about you know, diplomacy anduh, chain of command. There's so
(22:22):
much I've had to kind of youknow, I've had to tape for back
my enthusiasm and and and pick mypick my battles. And I've really grown
in the past few years within myselfas a woman, a leader working.
I've always found myself to be agood team player, but I've really learned
how to be better at it really, you know, I pride myself and
making sure that I'm listening more.I'm listening. I've got two years in
(22:45):
one mouth. I got to listentwice as much as I speak, and
I speak a lot, but thatmeans I'm listening twice as much as that.
So how about that. I thinkwe're running with that. That'll that'll
be fantastic. So all that fantasticstore. And now, as of June
eighth, which was just four daysago, you are now the commander of
(23:06):
the VFW in Apriville, and sowhat what are what are some of the
changes or some of the new thingsthat you plan on trying to bring to
the VFW for as far as oram I letting the cat out of the
bag eye? Well, okay,so it's and I don't want to say,
like I'm not going to say thingsare going to be different or things
are going to be better, becausethat's not the case. The case is
(23:30):
is, you know, they areso open to all of my crazy ideas
and putting the things in check thatneed to be in check that you know
we have already been. It's aboutconsistently doing a lot of the things that
we've been doing. You know,I'm out there in the community. I
was in charge of the fish Frythis year, which I'm going to continue
to do. I have given usthat social media exposure that they never had.
(23:52):
I'm out there meeting the people wherethey are that we want to come
in. We are continuing beautiful collaborationswith the American Legion and the Auxiliary.
I'm actually working right now with TomGeorge Stead, the American Legion Commander,
opening a chapter for a Legion auxiliary. We have a lot of women that
(24:12):
are not qualified to be on theVFW Auxiliary and we're missing opportunities. So
a little bit of boots on theground work for that. But I'm also
a member of the American Legion andso I told told him Jennifer Sloan and
I are gonna work on that withwith him to branch that out. And
I think that that's a big change, you know, being able to expand
(24:33):
what we offer and and really workingon that collaboration with all. Is you
aware of that? Of you andJennifer Sloan And that's the one two punch
knockout. I mean yes, Imean she's a hard charger down there too,
and I hope she's my senior vice. But we're gonna have a little
flipperoo because she just had a baby. So I've got her in the senior
(24:56):
vice position and then moving her backinto junior and we're gonna have like the
you know, the officers as theofficers move through the ranks. I'm just
doing it a little different so wecan have everybody learn what they need to
learn before they before they move up. One of the things that I think
I did do different than I ampretty proud of that I feel like is
a very positive change is I feellike as we're moving, you know,
(25:18):
into the future, there's a lotof things with technology, there's a lot
of things that we're doing that Ifeel like an so OP is important.
There's a lot of vague definitions ofwhat junior and senior vice and some of
the committees do. I'm actually puttingpen to paper to create and have already
created more of a master plan sothese officers are much more prepared when they
(25:41):
go into two serving because it's avolunteer you know, and so you can't
expect somebody just to volunteer and thenwing it. If you really want the
best out of these people, andwe pick the best people for these jobs.
But I want to set them upfor success. So that's one thing
that I'm working really hard on,is setting really good expectations with my with
(26:02):
my team. Yes, that's fantastic, well done, well done. So
is now you're with your position asand we can talk, we can expand
more upon all these topics as aswe go on. But with your position
as a vice. Is that whatstarted this latest project that took you down
to Springfield? Or did you startedyears prior to that and then moved into
(26:26):
this And I'm not gonna I'm notletting the cat out of the bag.
Oh, I'll tell you exactly whereI started. It started when I was
putting flags on graves Memorial Day whenI was junior vice. I was out
in the nap Hill Cemetery putting flagson the graves, which we do every
Memorial, and Nadia had the clipboardand she was reading we look for a
grave that's at the front of theline and the end of the line,
(26:48):
and then we look for all theveterans' graves in between, and we've placed
the flags down a foot a footmarked out, and we read everything that's
on the clipboard that Jim Hulk isamazing with how he has curated this information
for the ceremony that we do,and we read about everything we can find,
like if whatever they did, whenthey whatever. And so there was
(27:12):
thirty five graves in the Naperville Cemetery, and I remember it would say,
description would say, look for thisbeautiful memorial and then walk fourteen paces west
and look down for a pile ofbroken rocks and debris, and that's where
the flag goes. That first yearI was junior vice. Everybody knew I
(27:33):
had a voice, but nobody wasreally listening to me yet, I guess.
So whenever I would bring up thiswas a problem and I didn't like
this, and we need to dosomething, everybody would say, that's going
to be a lot of work,Stacy, that's a lot of red tape.
Nobody's nobody's gonna listen. You're gonnahave to do all this stuff.
And I said okay, And soI kept tossing it around. And then
when I became senior vice and wewent out again, I go, enough
(27:55):
is enough. I'm not going todo this every year. And then you've
got everybody virtue signaling. You know, everybody puts putting the flags down is
very important. Okay, it iseverybody does it right. But then you've
got these people that are taking picturesand posting it on Facebook and they're like,
look what I did a memorial.And I'm like, I know you
people care about this, right,I know you do. I know you
care that these graves are destroyed andyou can't read them. Yeah again,
(28:19):
you can't read the names or they'renot in existent and so and that led
me to I said, well,we can adopt the highway, we can
adopt the veteran's grave. I loveit. I love it. So that
led me to the first piece.The first piece was I found all these
companies that were like, here's themoney, and so I went to the
(28:40):
monument company and I got a greatdeal, worked out fifty percent monument installation
of the foundation taxes everything, sowe got a fifty percent marked off.
So we ended up with about afifteen to seventeen hundred dollars bill to adopt
a grave. So then the nextpiece was we I is told that I
needed to have next of kin permission, yes, so which I for one
(29:07):
solid year with the help of peoplefrom the FBI, investigative reporters from CBS,
myself calling searching background checks. Isearched for a year for next of
kin for all thirty five of thesegraves, and we found one, and
Naperville North High School Veterans Club raisedthe money Steve over seventeen hundred dollars and
(29:30):
refurbished that grave. Edward Hilts,he's actually a VFW owner or a VFW
member. His family is part ofthe He was a VFW member and his
family's local, and I was ableto speak with the granddaughter and it was
a beautiful thing that it all cametogether. Then, but then what do
we do with the rest? Sothen that's when I decided to write a
(29:52):
new law. So I said,how can I I'm meeting with the board
of the cemetery. I'm researching burialrights laws in Illinois like it was my
job. And all of a sudden, I started to read about things that
are a century old or one hundredyear old, or historical markers, and
(30:14):
I was like, hmmm, onething led to another with my brain,
and I said, what if westarted with the ones that are over one
hundred year old? One hundred yearsold? What if we started with those
we designated historical markers? So thenthe VFW and the American Legion can take
ownership. We take ownership, thenwe don't in good faith, we'll look
for next of kin up to acertain degree, and it's an undetermined amount
(30:36):
which can really be set by theowner the legion of the VFW, because
it's all good faith. At thatpoint, we have the ability to refurbish
the grave. Right, So thatis the first piece that legislation. Because
once we have and that's gone throughSpringfield, I went there and testified in
Springfield. It was signed in theCommittee, and the House and the Senate
(30:59):
approved all three times. Now it'sjust waiting for the governor's signature, which
I believe will be next week fromwhat I'm hearing from a state representative,
so that when that law is passed, that will allow me to and I
already have the money and people thatare adopting those they're seven graves, so
there you know, you figure thosegraves are one hundred year olds from nineteen
(31:22):
twenty four? Is that hundred markright before that? So those graves are
ready to be connected with their adoptiveparents and refurbished. So then we had
about twenty eight other graves that werenot over one hundred years old. So
this law is creating a way forme to change the narrative for the rest
of them, because I couldn't findtheir next to kin either, we just
(31:45):
leave them piles of rock and debrisand don't do anything. So for the
sake of this part of the project, we added another layer to it where
I got bricks engraved for every singleone of those people that had a destroyed
marker that you couldn't read, andthen I had them installed next to the
podium that represented their branch of service. We raise all of that money through
(32:05):
the Adoptive Veterans Grave Project and oncethe laws, Yeah, once the laws
passed, we'll do the other sevenand then I'm going to scale that for
every cemetery that I can go touse the one hundred year old law,
adopt those out that need it,get bricks and grave for a memorial that
whatever that cemetery has, raise moneyfor that, and hopefully as I move
(32:30):
forward, I'm going to be ableto change some of the language with how
you have to find the next ofkin and get permission. That's the next
phase is making that easier, Likewhy can't I go and refurbish a grave
for a veteran, right, likeI families permission, but there's got to
(32:51):
be some kind of work around there, and that's the next step. Yeah.
Well, I mean you talk aboutthe one hundred year difference nineteen twenty
four, you're looking at you know, those could be World War One graves,
those could be Civil war graves.It's just for these veterans they are
there's four years, yeah, forCivil war gins like the Blackhawk War and
(33:13):
the Eighteenth War of eighteen twelve.Yeah, eighteen twelve. I get it.
I get it, but I thinkthat was a little bit before Illinois
became a state. So but that'sthere. There's a grade there. I
understand, yes, but I meanit is why when they were twenty five
years old, they never even cameyou know, they died and they never
(33:35):
came back to have families, right, And I get that. I understand
that. And even even you know, first Golf War veterans, Vietnam veterans,
and any of the conflicts that we'vehad since World War One or even
before that, there could be gravesthere and the families have moved on and
nobody takes care of the grave.And I mean it is it's important that
(33:59):
we made this and I and againjust so the audience understands it, it's
the Adopt a Veterans great project thatthis is offentially going to go when the
government signs it. This is thisis statewide in Illinois. Correct, Yes,
Okay, Wow, that's fantastic.So have you been because of that
your initiative? Have you been incharch with other commanders vice commanders of other
(34:22):
vfws throughout the state and they're allaware of Yeah? Yeah, I have
been talking to a lot of theother commanders and a lot of the other
just different level officers at different functionsthat we go to. And with me
being on color Guard, I've beenin the past two years. I've been
on Color Guard. I've been inalmost every kind of you know, every
(34:42):
function that we've needed to have flagrepresentation at. I've been able to.
I've talked about it. Whether peoplewanted to hear, I've talked about it.
So yeah. So, but it'slike HB the the law. The
law is HB forty nine thirty four. So if anybody wanted to reference that
when they hear it, the HBforty nine thirty four, And I post
(35:05):
a lot about it on my socialmedia platforms, you know, and it's
like I was kind of laughing.It's like we've got all these layers where
we've got uh, you know,adopting, refer refurbishing graves, writing new
legislation, engraving bricks, and nowwe've got merch there you go. Yeah,
thanks, Yeah, And I'm glad. I'm glad that's working out with
Ginger and David. They're they're reallygreat people. And it's you know again,
(35:28):
uh, David's David's a Navy veteran. It's fantastic we get to be
you know, we're inn a positionwhere we keep that in house and in
the yeah community. So I'm alwaysgoing to use a metronowned business if I
can. First absolutely well. Imean you've had me there in spirit at
least with the Master Blaster Coffee.So I appreciate that. Thank you very
much for those opportunities. So let'stalk. Let's share with the audience.
(35:51):
I mentioned Facebook, I mentioned Instagram. What else are you on? Uh?
So people can find you and theycan follow because I mean, you've
got a lot going on, fantasticpresence and if they if they don't just
look at some of the stuff thatyou're doing and feel motivated to take that
step forward. You know, Idon't know what's going to help them because
(36:12):
it's it's high energy stuff you gotgoing on there. So so on Instagram,
obviously, I have my personal pages. If somebody wanted to follow me
as a person, you know,the motivating you to that link tree link.
If somebody's just listening and can't seethat ticker that l I n K
t R dot e E slash motivatingyou has everything on there. So I've
(36:34):
got my books on Amazon. I'vegot podcasts, so if you go on
pop my podcasts like Spotify easy.Most people have Spotify. I'm also on
SoundCloud and iTunes, but I've beenusing a lot more Spotify lately. And
my podcasts aren't long like this one. So my podcast I specifically keep short,
you know, because bolkfish. SoI like to do these like two
(36:57):
to four minute nuggets and have peopleand I don't necessarily interview people. I've
interviewed a few people, but forme, it's just about me having this
thought that I feel like I needto talk about, and I'll talk about
it for two to four minutes andit's like a little takeaway nugget. And
so that's what people know they're gettingwith me is just you know, it's
called Stacy speak. Sure, andit's just Stacy speaking. So there you
(37:22):
go. But Spotify find me onSpotify, and then I run the Naperville
you know, Facebook and Instagram.So finding the Naperville VFW post thirty eight
seventy three, finding that Naperville Instagramand those Facebook pages, you'll see all
the stuff we do, you know, our fundraisers, our Juttathon, our
(37:42):
Turkey Raffle, We've got our fishfries, our veteran resource business fairs,
everything that we're doing in our bloodDrives, all the stuff that we've got
going on in the canteen, thethings that we're doing just out in the
community. Everything is there, andit's it's you know, up to the
minute. So and you know,I don't There's one thing I've had a
lot of conversations with people that likebecause I'm part of the Rotary in Naperville
(38:05):
and I'm part of the Naperville Chamberas well, and I represent both my
business Motivating You and the VFW withthose and I have since I became Junior
Mice. So I'm kind of theirconnection with the post with that, and
I find getting I get asked alot about well, the difference between the
VFW and American Legion. A lotof people don't know that the VFW you
have to qualify for you have tohave been in combat and a foreign war,
(38:27):
and then the American Legion is foryou know, all of all of
the veterans and most many of usare a member of both. And so
that's why the VFW itself has beenstruggling a little bit with membership because people
are aging out. You know.It's I hate to say it's harder to
qualify these days, but it kindof is. And the one thing that
I'm really proud about with our NaporvillePost is one of the very biggest ones
(38:50):
in the state. I mean,we're upward of almost over six hundred and
fifty members and closest to that isthere's a few of them with three and
most of them have about one hundred. So our voice matters, you know,
And the VFW itself in any town, Aurora's very active. Aurora has
got one of the best ones.A combination of American Legion over there as
well, like they work together likewe do. But being able to go
(39:13):
to district level meetings and state levelmeetings and be a voice for like having
like a vote for every thirty memberstype situation, right, Like think about
that, right, And so theseposts that are very robust with their membership,
they have the ability to make realchange because people are listening. Like
that's how we get together for districtand state meetings. We get together and
we're able to say on we're voteis for this, take that forward,
(39:37):
and they do. And you knowwe also as a post. One more
thing I think is important is peopledon't understand our fundraisers, you know,
like our for veterans. Okay,that money goes to the post. What
do we do with it? Well, I like we're like a bank.
So the VFW is like a bankfor all of these other ancillary veteran support
(39:57):
organizations. And when they need help, where they need money, they need
resources, they come to us.We vote, we give and keep that
money available. We help individual veterans, We help families, we donate.
We donated over forty thousand to theNational Home for Children, which is also
to civilians. Think of like theRon McDonald house, right exactly. You
(40:19):
can kind of compare it in layman'sterms. Yeah, so we work very
hard within our vfw's all of thevfws to have that money to be able
to give to those veteran organizations thatare out boots on the ground, you
know, that are setting up stuffat this state Fair and doing this at
this you know festival, and they'reout there. They need money so they
can do that, and they cometo us, and so that's how it
(40:42):
all kind of connects. Yeah,I got you. So three things hit
my clicked in my brain as youwere describing that. One is fish Fry.
I've been Dad was in there,prevailed, my sister still lives there.
I've been down there several times tovisit and handle business. I've talked
to people in conversation. They lovethe fish fry. This year, they
(41:05):
had the they had the best time. They're like super excited. They're like,
when can we start that again?Because it was fantastic. So kudos
to you. That was a veryprominent in people's minds about your fish Fry
and the VFW and what a fantasticjob you guys, you and your team
did over there for that, andthat's fantastic. Thank you. Uh.
The second thing is is Uh,yes, you are out there all the
(41:27):
f and time in in the public. Uh was that softball? Baseball or
what on Saturday? Where you wereat Saturday? Okay, yeah, so
uh photo shoot. I'm not sureif you wanted to do audio because I
was down there visiting my sister andthe casadoes were crazy on Saturday. But
I'm sure you had a good timewith the little ones down there with the
(41:50):
softball thing. So again, asas your friend, I'm proud of you
for everything that you're doing because you'remaking a difference and you're throwing your presence
out there. You're making your puttingyour presence out there and people are noticing,
and it's it's good for the community. It's fantastic for the community.
The last thing is we have thearticle on your grave protection build thing.
(42:12):
Did you want us to bring thatup? Can? Should we bring that
up? So we can talk aboutthat for the remainder here and then well
we'll get closing comments and you canbring that up. I think that's really
important. Absolutely all right, herewe go. So Stephanie Kivowitz is the
Stephanie Kivawit is the state representative thatshe was. She's a marine well,
(42:34):
wants a marine, always a marine, so I don't want to ever say
was the marine. And she isan amazing advocate for our veteran community,
both our post and the Aurora RooseveltAmerican Legion in BFW. She's very active
in the community as a whole andwith veterans legislation. She's amazing and she
really guided me on what I neededto do here and I am just thrilled
(42:59):
with how it turned out. Fantastic. That's great. And I'm sure you
have a link for that article somewherein your massive cyber space footprint out there.
If I don't actually know, ifI do, I where is that
article? I mean, I feellike I have access to everything, but
I well, I'll make sure weget it. I'll make sure we get
(43:19):
it to you. Yes, it'sin the notes now, but I'll make
sure we get it to you afterthe show. Yeah, send it to
me. Yeah cool, Okay,too easy, we can do that.
So what's the next real you know, as we wrap this up, what's
the next step forward for you?And then well, okay, you're like
(43:43):
wrap it up June thirty. Excuseme, I would never say that to
you. I'm just gonna say,what's the next step for Stacey Boyer.
Here we go. So, Junethirtieth is our Officer Installation dinner, right,
And I've been calling it induction dinner, and so induction or installation both
of those words. No one's correctedme yet. But the Officer Dinner is
June thirtieth, and I'm really superexcited because we have almost one hundred and
(44:05):
twenty RSVPs so and it's not justand this is what I love about it
is like you said, I'm kindof all over the place and everywhere.
And my goal with the dinner,because it is open to the public,
is I'm curating a situation where Iknow that people care about the VFW,
people care about veterans. That obviouslyveterans are there. No veteran is going
to be turned away that wants tocome to this thing. But I'm super
(44:25):
excited that some of the people fromthe Rotary in the Chamber and the other
place in Apriville responds. Those peoplethat we work with and do things with
and support us, and we supportthem, they're coming to this too.
And so it's just this really amazingmelting pot of great minds coming to this
dinner as we you know, kindof change command. So I'm really excited
(44:47):
about that. And you know,we've got our veteran owned business resource fair
that is coming in August, andyou've been to the last one and you
know how amazing that was. SoAugust seventeenth is that's coming around, and
we're going to have a very similarvibe music, food. It's going to
be amazing, big right. Butthen I'm working on another project that I
really want to mention with the Rotaryand it's an interesting take on PTSD and
(45:14):
I've got four other people on theboard of this and we wanted to do
something different and I'm very excited about. We had this theme of survival skills
and so we're calling it a ResilienceTactics Workshop, but it's for it's supporting
the supporters of the military first respondercommunities. It's when those supporters are giving
(45:36):
back and are needing to keep theirown cup full. So hearing the exhibitors
and our breakout sessions around how tohelp those people that are support system and
some of those supporters are veterans likemyself. For example, I don't struggle
from PTSD like a lot of myfriends, my brothers in arms at the
VFW do so I'm a veteran thatthey can trust and talk to, but
(45:59):
I don't have that same pain andI had, yes, And so we
are going to have a breakout sessionthat is specifically for just veterans and first
responders that'll be there. Nobody elseis going in there. It's more of
a share your story and you haveto actually have an ID to get in
there. We're not letting anybody comein just by saying they are. We're
(46:20):
carding them and everything else is gearedto where we're trying to help people be
better supporters and even first responders,helping give them an insight on the job,
how to deal with somebody, youknow, a veteran that's got PTSD,
social anxiety, loud noises, crowdscoming around, that's not going to
make them calm down. And youknow, we're we've got a lot of
(46:42):
really cool things going The link tothat, just so you know, is
also part of the link for theOfficer Dinner, so I can suck that
to you if you need it.But there's a flyer there and I can
send that over to you. Butit's the Resilience Tactics Workshop and and it's
that's a sub so you and youand I'm assuming there's a panel. There's
(47:05):
a couple of years. Yeah,there's the Rotary. So we've got we're
doing it at Little Friends. They'redonating the space. We're working with Support
over Stigma, that organization, Zoe. We're working with the Rotary Club.
So we've got three people from theRotary, the Support over Stigma and then
myself, So there's five of ustogether that are working on this workshop,
(47:28):
building it and bringing all the peoplein. Well, I want to extend
an invitation for you and any anyof the leadership from this workshop that would
like to come back on Tripwire andeither pre or post the kickoff of the
workshop, let us know how itwent or talk about what's going to happen.
I'd love to have you back.And we as you know, it's
(47:52):
very important for me about the PTSDPtSi status. We talk a lot about
that here on the show, andI want to continue to try and help
the community both sides of that coinwant first responders and also as veterans as
well. So five minutes left,So do you want me to send you
(48:13):
after we get out. You lookat her, I'm telling you, SkyWatch,
or she's just taken over the show. Here we go, I might
have to pull her in my asmy assistant in this in this show on
a regular basis. So what wereyou? I'm sorry? What were you
said? I was going to say, do you want me to send you
a link for that on here ora flyer? Well, go ahead and
(48:35):
send me the link and I'll throwit through all of my I mean,
because as we've talked about before,I've got my network of thousands of followers.
You've got your network of twenties ofthousands of followers, and some of
them overlap and some of them don't. And I'll make sure that we push
it all out and everything will begood. So I'll just put the link,
(48:55):
just text it to me, becausewe're going to lose it as soon
as we get off, okay,So I'll just text it to you you
don't even know, and I'll haveSkywatcher send me that link for that article
and then pass it on to you. So famous quote, and then we're
going to uh, We're gonna goahead, uh and shut this bad boy
down because we've probably got everybody jumpingout of their skin about everything that's going
(49:17):
on. Oh you want to quotefrom me? Okay, so all right,
well I want a Stacey Boyer fantasticquote, keep people motivated. Here
we go. What do you got? Well, okay, I like this
one. Though. Your successes arein direct proportion to your efforts. Period,
take ownership and responsibility for whatever itis that you're doing, either doing
(49:37):
what you need to do or you'renot get it done. Very nice,
very nice. I really appreciate yourtime as always again honored it that you
could chisel out some time for ushere on trip Wire. We really appreciate
you here. We're gonna have youon again because there's just too much stuff
in for one fifty four minute show, or a fifty minute show. I
(49:59):
know more to talk about next week. Oh well again again my co host
slot is wide open. We'll talkabout it. Stays careful what you asked
for. Thank you everybody for tuningin today. This is a great podcast
that we had. We'll catch youthis same time next week. I hope
(50:20):
you enjoyed this episode of Tripwire.God Bless and God Bless America. Thank
you, thank you,
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