(rock music) - Welcome to "A Shot of AG."

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

What keeps communities going?

Well, generally it's people giving.

And, today, we have a guest that is very good at getting people to give.

Today, we're talking with Amy Stoller.

How you doing, Amy?

- Good, how are you?

- You're from Germantown Hills?

- Yes.

- So, for the people that aren't from this area, where is that in accordance to Peoria?

- Well, I guess it's probably like a suburb of Peoria, but it's kinda semi-rural, so we don't really feel like a suburb.

- What direction?

- Uh, it's east of the river.

- East of the river.

- Right.

- Okay.

I don't know, I think it's probably west.

- East Peoria is where it's at.

- No, it is east.

Here, I was trying to protect you and I look like the idiot.

(both laughing) You're not from here originally, though, are you?

- No, I grew up in South Florida.

- Like where?

- Plantation, which is a suburb, a true suburb of Fort Lauderdale.

- [Rob] Okay, so way down there?

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Okay.

And that's where you spent your whole childhood?

- That's where I grew up.

- [Rob] Okay.

How far were you from a beach?

- Nothing's too far from the beach there, so, it's probably, like, 20, 30 minutes because of traffic.

- Okay.

I always wondered, like, you know, you grow up around here, and you and your buddies get in a pickup and then you go to a dirt road and hang out all night.

I always thought it'd be cool to be by a beach.

Is that what you did?

- Yeah, it was the hangout place.

- Yeah?

- But, yeah, it was a little high pressure for girls, I gotta be honest.

- Why is that?

- Because teenagers, I mean, we didn't have social media, so that was good, but to be on a beach when you're a teenager.

- [Rob] Oh, wearing a bathing suit.

- Not the greatest hangout spot, honestly.

- That's the joy about the dirt road.

- Yes, much better.

- You could wear a smock and nobody would care.

- Right, down coat, puffy coat.

- See, there are some benefits to living in Illinois.

- For sure.

- So, how'd you get up here to this great state?

- So, I came up for college.

My dad was actually raised in Peoria, and moved down when he was a teenager.

I had relatives that lived in Paxton and Cissna Park area, so it was like, you know, really close to Champaign-Urbana.

So, I moved up and I lived with two of my cousins, and I had five cousins at the U of I when I was there.

Grandma and grandpa were close by, so.

- That's pretty good.

You only went, like, two minutes before you mentioned U of I.

(Amy laughing) You did better than most.

- Okay, good.

- You went there?

- Yes.

- What'd you study?

- Communications, advertising.

It's called something else now, I think, media.

- There's no money in that, I promise you.

- Yeah.

- What did you wanna do?

- Well, you know, I was good at writing, and so I was like, literature didn't seem like a great fit, and so, even though I love reading, but yeah, so.

I actually never worked in that, but.

- Isn't it funny how most people don't.

- Right.

- Whatever they major in, they just never go into.

- Right, well, I was a different person at 18 than I was at 21.

- What?

- Yeah.

- That's a good point because how many times do we put pressure on these kids when they go into college.

Oh, you need to know what you wanna do and that's, I don't know.

- Right.

- I didn't.

- Now, it wasn't as big of an expense when I was there.

I went to community college first, too, so that helped.

- [Rob] That's smart.

- I thought so.

- Yeah, it's half the cost and just as good as a transferrable education as you can get.

- Yeah, there was no asterisk on my diploma, like.

- Yeah, ICC?

- It was Parkland in Champaign-Urbana.

- Well, I'll take back what I just said.

- Okay.

(both laughing) - Well, what did you do after you graduated?

- Well, I got married pretty quickly.

My husband, Win, and I met at our church, and we got married at 21, which seems crazy now, but was great.

We grew up together and we've been married for 33 years.

- 33 years.

How do you meet at church because you're supposed to be praying?

- Oh, well, they had, like, youth groups.

- Oh, so it wasn't during the service?

- Correct, yes.

- So, wink-wink.

- Yeah, we had to have fun, and not the college fun, so it was youth group.

- So, what was it about Win that you go, oh man, this guy, yeah?

- His sense of humor.

- Oh really?

- He was fun, yeah.

- Funner than the Florida guys.

- Yeah, I had left those behind, so.

- So, you get married pretty young, and then what?

- So, we moved to Peoria, and our son was born in 1998, and our daughter in 2000, so we raised us some friends.

We're thankful for them.

- Yeah.

Peoria, this area is kinda nice for raising kids.

- It is, I think so too.

- Especially kids that you want to raise when you are faithful.

I don't know, it seemed like it was, because we live in Bradford, which is about, you know, 45 minutes north.

And, you know, you gotta hunt-and-peck.

Maybe it's just the more volume of people up here in Peoria, but that's where Emily spent most of her time.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Okay, so, tell me about this.

Impact Central Illinois.

- Yeah, well, it's one of the best ideas I've ever heard.

The first time I heard about it was at a friend, Laurie Weaver.

She and her sister-in-law, Shelley, started it because they heard about it.

It's truly a grassroots movement, a grassroots, women just hearing about this and saying, "I think we should do this here."

And I went to Laurie's house, and it was all these people I didn't know, like, 12 to 15 people.

And we heard stories about, it was actually the one that I still remember is a women's center for, like, a shelter for abused women.

The nonprofit needed tuck-pointing on their building.

And it was like, you know.

- [Rob] Tuck-pointing?

- Tuck-pointing, I don't even know what that is.

Something with walls.

But the woman said, you know, "Just think what these walls have heard."

Like, the stories that they've heard about these women overcoming really tragic circumstances and being survivors of that.

And I thought, wow, that's so cool.

And then they went onto explain that, you know, everyone gives $1,100, and a hundred of that is for admin fees and website fees, and stuff like that, but a thousand dollars we pool it together.

We collectively give, and then we do a grant process, and nonprofits in the area apply for those grants.

So this woman who was, I think, it was in Chicago, they have an Impact group and they're unaffiliated, but there's a lot of 'em springing up across the U.S.

And she came and pitched to the Chicago people that she had this need for tuck-pointing on her women's shelter.

And so those kind of stories are just powerful.

- Mm-hmm.

So when you went to Laurie's house, this wasn't even created in Peoria yet?

- It started in 2020, so, they were just, you know, meeting with women, meeting with friends, and, you know.

A lot of the groups are called Impact 100.

The idea is to give $100,000.

Well, our first year we gave $130,000 to the youth farm in Peoria for, like, a summer camp building that they had that needed new furniture.

So, like, some of these kids, new bedroom furniture for the first time, so.

That was really cool, and it was right when COVID.

- I didn't even know we had a farm.

- Well, they call it youth farm.

It's one of their locations, I guess.

- Oh, I gotcha.

- It would be the Children's Home.

- All right, they don't have cows.

- I don't think there's cows.

(Rob laughing) - Well, I mean something as simple as that.

I mean, obviously, you think if a kid's probably there who's having a tough time, I mean, to have a comfortable bed, something just to hang out with, that has to mean quite a bit.

- Yes, yeah, and I hear from other women that are involved that one of the things we love is just the breadth and depth of the nonprofits in our area.

And some of the things are kind of shocking.

Obviously, I've been blessed.

And so to hear, you know, Springboard Kitchen, which is where these cookies came from, they had this wonderful idea of, like, a community garden.

And then they'd also have, you know, cooking classes because they heard from people that said, "I have all my grandma's recipes, but I can't make them."

And they were like, "Well, why?"

"Well, my stove doesn't work."

And, you know, that kinda stuff just, you know, takes me back, like, what do you mean?

And like, well, okay, a hot plate is only, like, a hundred dollars, so let's get her a hot plate, and all the kitchen utensils, and a cooking class, you know, so they had all these ideas.

And then they made a commissary kitchen, which I didn't even know what that word meant, commissary kitchen, but it's a, you know, Health Department approved kitchen.

So someone can go there, and make their grandma's salsa, or cookies, and start becoming an entrepreneur without the cost of the bakery facility, so.

- Okay, so this is somebody that your group has helped?

- Mm-hmm, so these cookies were made by Shameka Hope.

You can find her on Facebook.

It's her little bakery business is called SheBrews N Bakes, and it's on Facebook.

And this is an airline butter cookie, so those biscoff cookies sprinkled on top.

And that's brown butter chocolate chip, so, yeah.

She uses the commissary kitchen at Springboard Kitchen, and she started a business.

So she hopes to brew tea, specialty teas in the future, but right now it's baking and her specialty is pound cake.

So, I gotta try that next.

But, yeah, Shameka has a great story.

- I'm gonna need a minute.

(Amy laughing) Yeah?

Yeah?

- [Man] Yeah.

- I brought more, there's more out there.

- Thank you, I'll take a little piece.

- I gotta try the Bischoff one, or.

- Biscoff.

- So this is, biscoff?

- Delicious.

- Airline butter cookies.

- You can have it, there's more.

- I'll take it, thank you.

- No?

You wanna try the biscoff?

- [Man] Sure.

- I'm not supposed to feed 'em, especially after midnight, - But they'll be happier.

- I know.

- They won't be hangry.

- There, you can have this whole half.

- Thank you.

- "Elmo's World."

(Amy laughing) - Good?

Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

Okay, I would say that was a good idea, helping her, 'cause these are delicious.

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah, she's a remarkable person.

She got her GED with the Moonlight Coalition.

And then she was getting, I think, it was phlebotomy, or something.

She's very smart.

- [Rob] A lobotomy?

- No, phlebot-phle- the blood, they take the blood.

- Oh, okay.

- Phlebot, is it phlebot?

- I was gonna say.

I don't know, but it's better than a lobotomy.

- She's very smart, but she loves baking and that was her passion.

And so the Springboard Kitchen allowed her to do this without a lot of expenses to get that business off the ground.

- [Rob] That's delicious.

- Hmm, good.

- Do I have stuff in my beard now?

- No, you look good, it's fine.

- Okay, all right, well, good.

Where were we?

Well done, bringing the cookies, by the way.

- Yeah.

- That's fantastic.

- I thought it was good.

- Okay, so, you went to Weaver's.

You kinda found out what they were doing.

Were you hooked then?

- Yeah, I mean, you know, like a lot of people, I think this is a generous community, so, like a lot of people I've given, well, for Christians it's an act of worship.

It's an act of faith, for Jewish people, also, but I'll tell you a story.

My grandpa, like, taught me about generosity really.

And one time when I was in college and things were tight, I was working my butt off.

I was, you know, working at Bergner's.

To put yourself through school when that was actually possible.

I feel like it's really hard now, but.

And grandpa came up to visit me from Florida, and he gave me a hundred dollar bill.

I really needed the money, but I thought the polite thing and the right thing to do was to be like, oh, grandpa, no, that's, and he's like, "Amy, are you gonna deny me a blessing?"

And I was like, "No grandpa, I would never do that to you."

- No, sir, yeah.

- And I still remember that, you know.

He's gone, but I'll never forget that, you know?

That feeling of like, oh, no, I give to be blessed because I am blessed.

And so I think a lot of our women have that mentality.

And they are passionate about this, they love it.

We have a hundred women that are involved on a deeper level.

Some people just write a check and that's fine, but a hundred women show up to be on grant review committees.

So, the nonprofits that apply, we read their applications and they take it so seriously.

I mean, it's agonizing 'cause you're like, oh, feeding kids, or, you know, like this.

- [Rob] Yeah, I know, yeah.

- It's agonizing, and they take it so seriously.

And they bring forward the best nonprofit that they feel.

And then there's, you know, semi-finalists.

And then we get to the finalist stage, and in June we have our annual meeting and we all, like, 220 women showed up last year to vote.

And they can vote absentee, or online, but we hear from them, like, a six-minute little pitch, and then we vote and they get the big check that night.

- Okay, so, 200 women are all involved?

- So, last year we had 357 women that gave.

We gave 400,000 away.

We have some corporate matches and some extra donations.

- [Rob] Yeah, wow.

- $400,000 away.

- [Rob] And it's not all to one?

- No.

- Okay.

- And so we had Wildlife Prairie Park, Neighborhood House, and now I'm blanking out on the third one.

Oh, Midwest Food Bank.

And they all got $118,000.

And then we always have a small one, this is grassroots.

The women said, "Okay, we love this, but what about the little nonprofits?

We're missing them."

And so we gave 30,000 to, basically a startup, that a woman who was a nurse is starting a senior center for people that are highly functioning and in their homes, but she wanted a place for them to come, you know, to get social and regular check-ins, and not be so lonely.

- That's kinda the downfall of it you wouldn't think of is the people that you have to say, you can't say yes to everybody.

- It's gut-wrenching, and, again, we're grassroots.

We listen to our women.

And they also said, "Okay, we can't have," I mean, 'cause the good thing is they're both great.

I mean, it's gut-wrenching to make the decision, but they're both excellent, whichever, in each category.

And so our women said, though, "Let's not let anyone leave empty-handed."

So we do give, basically, a runners-up donation that night.

And it just depends on how much we bring in.

We can never say it's just based on the donations that come in, so.

- [Rob] And this is all women?

- This is all women.

- So do you guys hate men?

- No, we love men.

- Yeah.

- If men wanna do this, we'll tell 'em how to do this.

(Rob laughing) - What's that bring to the group?

Honestly, I'm curious.

What does it bring to the group that it is just women doing this?

- I think it's so powerful.

Okay, so, my daughter is a member.

We have a lot of mother-daughter.

We have some grandmother-mother-daughter combinations.

So at our grant review committees, it is so cool for those young women.

I mean, we've had some as young as 14, and our junior members, we only have them pay $500, and they're full voting members.

And they sit at a grant review committee table with, you know, 12, 15 other women, maybe their aunt.

My niece did it one year, but they learn from them.

And we learn from the younger generation.

It's really cool to have that.

- Okay, it's kinda amazing to me because you look at people that try to get groups, you know, local, small groups like this, and, you know, it's like, hey, you know, 20 bucks for a membership and they, oh, my gosh, or whatever.

You got over 300 that are paying $1,100.

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

- I mean, I guess, in your opinion how is that so successful?

Because to me when you hear something like that, that's gonna cut out so many people just because of how much money it takes to get involved.

- Well, I think our women are passionate about this, and they tell their friends, and they tell their friends, and so.

There was one meeting I went to and it was kind of a gathering for people that were on the grant review committees, but it was in February and it was nine degrees outside.

And I was like, okay, we're gonna be the only ones there.

I know why I'm there 'cause I'm leading this, but I couldn't believe how many women showed up.

And they all have similar stories, you know.

They already give.

I mean, so many people in our community are generous.

They're already giving.

And it's just so cool to think that, like, my $1,100 is like a ripple effect, it's just expanded.

And I actually calculated the ratios, and my $1,100, $295 went to Midwest Food Bank, Neighborhood House, and Wildlife Prairie Park this year, $295, but they got $118,000.

Midwest Food Bank got a box truck that is the first one they have that's new.

- [Rob] You're kidding me.

- It's the new one.

- Really?

- Yes, they've always only bought used, and they're always in the shop in rotation.

- Oh, I imagine, yeah.

- And so they were so excited to get a new refrigerated box truck, and it was $118,000 that they got, and so, that kind of ripple effect.

And then the senior center, which I was surprised to learn that we don't really have a senior center for people that are high-functioning and in their homes to try and keep them in their homes.

So this is kind of innovative.

And I gave $75 to that, but she got 30,000, and so.

- But having this with all women, having this local, do you think that makes, well, obviously, because they're actually involved with the decision if they want to be, correct?

- Right.

So, do you think that makes a difference in making wanna people, or having people making it wanna be involved in it?

- I think so.

I think it's a unique concept.

When I first heard about it, I was like, has this been going on and I didn't know about it?

Because it just makes so much sense.

It's just a way to expand the giving that you're doing already.

And, yeah, it's a great idea.

And I think the women really, we're social creatures all of us, but we just love to get together and it's exciting.

There's so much energy in the room.

- Do you drink when you're there?

- (laughing) We might have had a margarita meeting, like, some of us, but.

- Well, you know, I know you.

I know, like, Laurie.

I mean, is there a faith aspect to it?

- For sure.

- Okay.

- Yes, I mean, we don't do only faith nonprofits, but the people who are involved, I mean, for someone of faith, you know, my husband and I give to many things.

I'll tell you a story.

My dad always said, you know, 'cause early on we were, like, in our 20s, we hardly had any money, but we knew tithing was important and giving was important.

And so, you know, my dad was a pastor, a lay pastor, and my husband and I still talk about this.

He asked him like, how much do we give?

Like what's the number?

And he's like, "Don't worry about that.

Just whatever you have keep it in an open hand because if you close it, God can't pour anymore in, but you're also holding onto it too tight.

It's not yours, it's his.

And so just keep everything in an open hand."

So we try to do that.

So, of course, for me, faith is important in my giving in general, but we don't discriminate.

We've had, honestly, a lot of the nonprofits in our area are, you know, faith-based.

And so to rule those out would be unwise, I think.

They're doing some amazing things, so we've had a lot of faith-based nonprofits win.

However, we don't discriminate.

And we've had some, you know, a lot of nonprofits that apply and make it that are secular, I guess, you'd call it, secular.

- Well, you never know.

I mean, to a secular one.

I mean, if you see is like an organization that has faith behind it, you know, might rub off.

- Right.

- Might plant a seed.

- Yeah.

- You never know.

- Well, I mean, my husband and I, like, everyone's different, but we like to give local.

We feel like, I mean, it's not scriptural I don't think, but it's more just like bloom where you're planted, and that's what we feel called to do.

So, we give, you know, a majority of our giving is local, and this is a great way to do that, you know, regardless of, you know, and the women are just, you know, they're from all different backgrounds, all walks of faith all, but they really bring forward some excellent, excellent.

I mean, they're all excellent regardless of who wins.

- Of the 300 plus women that are involved in this organization, which one do you like the least?

- (laughing) I am too smart to answer that question.

- Okay, I just, it was on the card, I was just trying to.

(both laughing) Gotta be a lot of headaches involved that people don't realize, people don't see.

A lot of time that I'm sure you don't have extra of.

Why do you do this?

- Well, again, I'm just passionate about the model.

I think it's so innovative, and it is all volunteer, which I think is great.

I think at this point, you know, who knows in the future if we keep growing we might have to have an executive director, or someone hired, but right now the fact that this is all volunteers, and some of the women on our board actually have full-time jobs and they are, or they're working moms.

I mean, they're just so busy.

So we do the best we can.

And I've told the board we're gonna make better mistakes better and better.

We'll just get better at our mistakes, but we're volunteer-run, and I think that's really a strength for us.

- Yeah.

You know, I enjoy giving, but there's always a concern when I give that, you know, you're gonna give to a charity, and then you find out that 80% of what I just gave is going to, like, administrative, and not going to this stuff.

- Right.

- Go ahead and give a little, you know, kind of a sales pitch for why an organization like yours is much better, or a safer place to give money to.

- Yes, well, we are obsessive about integrity.

We have all kinds of checks and balances.

We were blessed to have in the beginning, Wendi Ramsay was our first treasurer.

She's also an accountant, and she works with mostly nonprofits for their tax returns, so she does our tax return, she helped us.

And then we had another CPA after her was the treasurer.

So we have all kinds of, like, you know, expertise with audits and checks and balances, and all of that, but, also, I just think our women are just passionate about what we do.

We are volunteer-based.

It's awesome for now.

In the future it's totally fine if someone is a staff person, and we will do that with integrity as well.

- Plus you're always there looking like a hawk.

- Yeah.

- Amy, if people wanna find out more about Impact Central Illinois, where do they go?

- So we have a website, impactcentralillinois.com.

And they can, also, there's a link there to join.

To find out more, they can email info@impactcentralillinois.org.

And, yeah, we would love it if they'd check out.

There's a See Our Impact link on the website and so you can see all the past winners that we've supported.

- Perfect.

Amy, I wanna thank you for coming.

I wanna thank you for all that you do.

There are certain people in communities that make their community better.

You and your family are definitely that.

And I can tell just talking to you that it's not about recognition.

It's not about, look at myself up here.

When I talked to you earlier about the things you're giving to, the true enjoyment that you get from seeing someone receive gifts is just, it's something to see.

So, Amy Stoller, thank you very much.

- Thank you.

- Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

(rock music) (rock music continues) (rock music continues) (rock music continues) If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to explore more of our local content.

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