(slow music) - [Jim] It's a bakery that's also serving up opportunity.

- [Anne-Marie] They're leading employers and a workforce into a new frontier.

- [Jim] If you read the comics, you can see her work everyday.

How this St. Louis comics fan got the opportunity of a lifetime.

- "Are you interested in syndicated comics?"

So, I said, "Yes, I am, tell me more."

(laughing) - [Jim] And with hiking season upon us, we remember the man who gave us this park and remember the day Don Robinson showed us around.

- [Anne-Marie] You're kind of a backseat driver, Don Robinson.

- [Don] Well, I'm telling you what the road, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya.

- [Jim] It's all next on "Living St. Louis".

(upbeat music) - I'm Jim Kirchherr and who doesn't like a good bakery?

Even better, a bakery that is doing some good.

That's what our first story's about and Anne-Marie Berger takes us there.

(playful music) - [Anne-Marie] The Pioneer Bakery Cafe in downtown Kirkwood is unique.

They opened for business during the pandemic.

- Originally, we were gonna open earlier in the spring, but when the pandemic hit, it delayed the project.

But, it appeared the pandemic wasn't going away and so we just felt we just needed to continue pushing on and go forward with it.

- [Anne-Marie] Now, that's brave, but it's not newsworthy.

That's not why the Today Show came calling.

- And Today, we head to St. Louis Missouri.

- Oh, it's a great spot.

- [Anne-Marie] What makes the Pioneer Bakery Cafe special is their business model.

They exist to provide transferrable and employable skills training for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD.

- [Scott] So, the Pioneer Bakery Cafe was created as a practicum working environment for this special STEPUP Program.

- [Anne-Marie] The STEPUP Program is a grant-funded effort at Lafayette Industries, a sheltered workshop that directly employs adults with disabilities.

- STEPUP curriculum was designed with experienced special educators and business executives who examined their experience in both the classroom world and the business world and combined those - Stacey Elster is the director of programs - to really deliver a unique program and its focus - at Lafayette Industries.

- The program is designed twofold and they come to Lafayette one day a week to receive instruction in our classroom focused on the curriculum.

And then another day of the week, they go to our business partners and our individuals get to go apply those social skills that were focused on here while learning specific skills to the industry.

- Elster explained that in Missouri, the hospitality industry can't recruit enough employees as businesses struggle to wrap back up.

Many in the pre-COVID hospitality workforce moved into industries that kept hiring during the pandemic, such as grocery stores, online retailers and fulfillment warehouses, making the need to fill the hospitality workforce an opportunity for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Most people, when they think workforce development, IDD individuals aren't the ones that they're thinking of.

- You're absolutely correct.

It's an underutilized population.

It's so very important that they have the same amount of opportunities that you and I do when it comes to employment.

And there are many, many careers in this diverse world and so, it's very important that people with disabilities have that same opportunity.

- [Female Employee] Do you like those gloves okay?

- I do.

These are- - [Female Employee] Easier to use.

- Easier to get handled.

- [Female Employee] Yeah.

- [Anne-Marie] This is Noah and he's thrilled to be part of this one to two year program, learning soft and hard skills he can bring to a job.

- Welcome to Pioneer.

It works for my speed, my learning speed.

They're not teaching me fast, I'm learning at my own speed.

- [Teacher] You're actually learning something.

- Yes, I'm learning something.

I'm learning really good communication skills, I have to say, "Welcome to The Pioneer Cafe" to customers, like build my self esteem up and that, that's the biggest thing I'm learning.

(playful music) - Noah was our very first participant who was interested in the program.

We were in the middle of construction and it was like, "What are we getting ourselves into?"

And all of a sudden, Noah and his father were looking through the windows and they had rode their bikes here to see and I invited them in and just seeing his enthusiasm, despite the construction mess, was just uplifting for me, like, "Gosh, this is what we're doing it for."

- Pioneer, the name is a nod to their Kirkwood community and a reminder that they're leading employers and a workforce into a new frontier.

So, this is the training location where they gain those skills that other people aren't hiring them for because they don't have any experience.

- Exactly.

So, we're helping build a resume, build a confidence.

You know, I always kind of refer to it, it's like the wave.

You know, you can be in the stadium and it takes a couple people to get it going and there's a choice of the fans, it's either accept it and get the wave rolling or it's going to Peter out and so, for us, it's that momentum we're trying to build up.

- Everything's good?

- Yeah, everything was great, thank you so much.

- [Anne-Marie] Working, independent, self-advocating, not to mention, a well earned paycheck, sounds like a good recipe to me.

- It's really cool because I made the money that I'm getting from the cafe.

Like, I'm gonna earn it, so that is a big value in my life.

Once a paycheck says my name, that means everything to me.

(playful music) - The virtual event, it's something we've all gotten used to.

Virtual meetings, virtual parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, baby showers, concerts, and in St. Louis, for the second year in a row, an ancient art form that has, once again, gone virtual.

- "Not I," said the dog, "I'm..." - [All The Kids] "Digging for bones."

- "Not I," said cat, "I'm sitting in the sun" - "sitting in the sun" - [Jim] A couple of years ago, we did a story about the St. Louis Storytelling Festival.

It was marking its 40th year.

(kids clapping) and storytelling then looked a lot like, say, this depiction of Homer a few thousand years ago or really, any depiction of storytelling from any era, until now.

The St. Louis Festival went from looking like this in 2019 - Then she stopped and she looked - to looking like this in 2020.

- at her hands and she looked at her feet.

- [Jim] Yes, the Virtual Storytelling Festival.

No live audiences, you didn't walk in and sit down, you clicked in.

- As the sun seemed to be bright.

- The timing of when the COVID lockdown started happening was right as we were kind of in the final push of our festival and so, very quickly, we had to adjust.

- [Jim] Lisa Overholser is with the University of Missouri Extension, she's been the director of the festival going on seven years.

It's a challenge not just for you, as the organizer, it's got to be a challenge for the storytellers, as well.

- Absolutely.

Yeah, storytelling, at its heart, is a very intimate art form, it's person to person and I was just speaking with a storyteller yesterday and he said, "You know, I adjust my story based on reactions that I'm seeing and the eyes that I'm looking at" and, you know, it's impossible to do that and we try, we try to have people visible on the screen when storytellers are telling, it's just not the same.

- We've all sort of looked at the advantages of the technology as opposed to, initially, I think we were all thinking it's a big disadvantage.

- I think there is a kind of intimacy that can be formed that way and if you utilize the technology properly, if you allow for interaction and Q and A and that kind of thing, it actually can be a little more of a person to person experience - I happen to have with me - than otherwise would have been.

- two biscuits that my boy and I did not have for breakfast.

- Storytelling is a dynamic art form and the nature of the stories change, the way that stories are told changes, the genres kind of evolve and storytellers, themselves, adapt.

- [Jim] This year's virtual festival from late April to mid May, the schedule's on the St. Louis Storytelling Festival website, was given a Missouri bicentennial theme.

Having a lot of events to choose from, that's not unusual.

- A window, while my kids were strapped in- - [Jim] While past festivals have had some flagship events with large audiences, it has worked to bring stories to the community for free to different locations and always to schools.

So, in some ways, virtual's not so bad.

- The grass was green.

- But I also have to say, we learned that we can access and reach out to many more people than we normally would have.

Last year and earlier this year in some isolated events that we've had, we had listeners from Canada, we had listeners from both coasts, we had listeners from South America, we had storytellers, actually, joining in from Taiwan last year, so there's kind of a different community that's been formed, I would say.

- [Jim] The St. Louis Storytelling Festival started out small in 1980 and it's grown into one of the premier festivals in the country.

But there's another challenge ahead.

This is the last year the University of Missouri Extension will be running the festival, but nobody's planning to wrap up this story.

Is it more than just hope?

But do you have a sense that the Storytelling Festival will continue after this year for the 43rd year?

- Yes, yes, I'm very confident that it can happen.

There are enough people that are supporters in St. Louis, people that come to attend the festival, schools that we've worked with, institutions that we worked with, we have a great relationship with, for example, the deaf community, the deaf and hard of hearing community.

So, I think there's enough interest and support and luckily we have a good track record with finding, you know, financial support and individual donors and I think, I have no doubt that storytelling will continue and that the festival will continue and that we'll be able to evolve and try some new things and be innovative and expand storytelling, even year round, in St. Louis.

(kids clapping) - I don't read the comics as much as I used to, but there's one that I've been keeping my eye on, it's called "Heart of the City".

It's not set in St. Louis, but it does come out of St. Louis and that's quite a story.

Here's Kara Vaninger.

(playful music) - People ask, you know, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

And cartoonist is almost never on anyone's mouths, you know.

And when you don't really, like, see anyone do it, it doesn't really feel like something that you can do.

- [Kara] Which is why becoming a nationally syndicated cartoonist wasn't even on the radar for artist Christina "Steenz" Stewart when she was selected to inherit the long running "Heart of the City" strip from creator Mark Tatulli in May 2020.

- It wasn't until I started working at Star Clipper, the comic book store in the Loop where I started looking at the creators behind these comics.

I didn't even consider comics as a career until I saw Brittney Williams do the art on a "Samurai Jack" comic and I had been following her forever and so I knew what she looked like, I knew she was a black woman and then when I saw her stuff in front of me that I could hold on the shelf, I was like, that's when it clicked and like, "Why don't I just try and do comics?"

- [Kara] Steenz began to explore this form of visual storytelling and soon was being published in a variety of anthologies, including "Elements Fire", which won an Eisner Award in 2018.

She also collaborated with Writer Ivy Noelle Weir on the graphic novel "Archival Quality".

- I usually say the best way to become a better cartoonist is by continuing to create.

I feel like I learned more from drawing "Archival Quality" than from any class I've ever taken.

- [Kara] Consistently producing work helped her to build momentum and expand her range, but Steenz also credits the supportive comics community with not only her growth, but also her exposure to what was possible as an artist.

Wanting to get back, Steenz came up with a program that has been inspiring and educating comics fans for almost a decade.

- I created Comics University where every Wednesday during the summer, you can learn something about comics.

You can learn history of comics, myths in comics, women in comics.

It was a really great opportunity for me to get that community building skills in, you know, I was reaching out to people in St. Louis, like, "What can you teach?"

- [Kara] And after years of encouraging others to share their knowledge at Comics University, Steenz was asked to do the same at Webster University.

- I have definitely remodeled the syllabus to focus on not just the skills of cartooning, but the skills of being a working artist, as well, you know, because you don't want to throw someone out into the deep end like, "Well, you know how to draw, good luck," you know?

You want to teach them about how to actually promote themselves, how to read contracts, how to pay your taxes.

What kind of jobs do you want to take for the experience and which ones do you want to take for the money?

As a freelancer, there's a lot that you have to learn on the job and it would be a lot better if you learned it when you were in school, you know, paying for that information.

- [Kara] While teaching others to develop their artistic style and business savvy, Steenz was focusing on the same things in her own career.

- Once I was a full-time freelancer, I wanted to do my own stories as well, so I did a "Encyclopedia Brown" fan comic, I did a sci-fi comic for myself and after continuing to put out my own work, people reached out to me for different projects.

- [Kara] And one of those projects would turn out to be the chance of a lifetime.

- Shena Wolf reached out to me from Andrews McMeel Syndication and she was like, "I love your work, are you interested in syndicated comics?"

So, I said, "Yes, I am, tell me more."

(laughing) So I read many years of "Heart of the City" just to get a good understanding of the comic, the characters, all the different kinds of stories that were in it.

- [Kara] But before she landed the job, Steenz had to do several weeks of auditions to make sure she was the right fit for the strip.

- So, every single day, the stories had to be self-contained, but it had to be an over rocking story and then I also had to do Sundays, which are different, it's a whole puzzle to figure out and I did that about four times (laughing) with different stories, different character designs.

They were more concerned about getting the writing correct over the drawing because they already knew that I had the drawing skill, but with this, they were like, "We believe the art's fine, can you tell a joke in four panels?"

- [Kara] In addition to the expectations of taking on the writing and illustrating of a long-running, well-loved comic strip, Steenz also experienced the kind of pressure that is unique to pioneers.

- When I first got the job, I was like, "Okay, I want to see how many other, like, black women are doing it" and there are two others, Bianca Xunise, who is a part of "Six Chix" and the other one is Barbara Brandon-Croft from "Where I'm Coming From".

It's a lot of pressure on your shoulders, you know, being like one of three.

Especially one of three nationally syndicated.

(jazz music) Jackie Ormes, who was the first black female cartoonist, was not nationally syndicated.

The one she's most recognized for is "Torchy Brown".

But yeah, that's who's on my arm.

(laughing) I love her.

(laughing) It was really heartwarming because a lot of the comics that I read when I was growing up that featured black families, like "Curtis" or "Jump Start", like, those are still going on today and those creators reached out to me, like, "Welcome to the, like, comics family."

It's two sides of it, one of them is really cool to be a part of, you know, that history of, you know, being a black cartoonist, but the other one is like, "Ah, it's kind of crazy that I've already talked to all of them."

(laughing) You know?

So, it's a double-edged sword.

- [Kara] After being inspired by trailblazing artists, like Jackie Ormes, Steenz is hoping to do the same for others by being intentionally visible.

- As I was teaching the history of black comic creators at the library, there was a girl who was not even in the class, she was just walking through the library and saw this out of the corner of her eye and she was like, "I've always been into, like, illustration and drawing and I didn't know what I wanted, but it was really cool to, like, see you up there talking about comics because I feel like that's something that I can do now."

And I'm just like, (laughing) it's like it's all happening.

(laughing) - [Kara] In addition to changing perceptions as to who can create what kinds of art, Steenz also hopes to build awareness around the incredible diversity within the comics community, itself.

- So many times, people were like, "Oh, well, you know, comics are becoming more social justicey and there're more, you know, women and, you know, people of color doing it," I'm like, "We've always been here, I think it's more about media representation, you know?"

If you watch a TV show and someone goes into a comic shop, all you see are white dudes, you know?

But if you go into any comic shop, like, in St. Louis, that's not the case.

I'm hoping that all the work that I do and all the work that everyone else in my community does, you can see that it's rather diverse, it's just it's taking some time for the spotlight to be on more than one type of person.

(slow music) - Finally, when the weather gets warm, a lot of people get out and do some hiking and that made me think of a story that Anne-Marie Berger did years ago about a quirky guy by the name of Don Robinson.

You might know the name from Don Robinson State Park.

After he died in 2012 at the age of 84, he left the land for that park.

He also left us with a lot of great memories.

(upbeat music) - [Don] 43 years, I was off a year.

- [Anne-Marie] Meet Don Robinson, he's a funny guy.

- [Don] We won't let you fall 'cause they don't want blood everywhere.

(Don laughing) - [Anne-Marie] But Don's reached that point in his life where he needs to decide what to do with his stuff.

- [Don] God knows what's happened in this room over the years.

- [Don] We'll just keep that to yourself, Don.

- Right, that's why I just made that vague statement.

- [Anne-Marie] No shower stories.

And by stuff, I mean his earthly possessions after he, well, you know, dies.

- I had to do something about it or else my melon head cousins from out of nowhere who would come out of the woodwork and sell the joint, you know, over a weekend or something.

- [Anne-Marie] How old are you, Don?

- [Don] In 18 years, I'll be 100.

(don laughing) - 82.

- Yay for the lady.

- I didn't even need to use a calculator.

Don lives a simple life in a simple home.

His house was built in 1928 and he only has heat in his upstairs bedroom, which he calls the comfort zone.

I bet it's cold in here in the winter.

- Oh, it is, how'd you guess?

'cause there's- - 'cause it's cold in here and it's August.

- [Don] Yeah, right.

- [Anne-Marie] So, he doesn't fit the typical profile of a guy who has affairs to get in order.

I hate to say, it's a little spooky.

- It's a cut above camping, but I like it.

- [Anne-Marie] But it's not necessarily his house that Don Robinson's concerned with.

It's the property it sits on.

- Inside of four years, I had 843 acres, which is exactly what's in Central Park, to the acre.

(slow music) - [Anne-Marie] Don's 843 acres is located 38 miles southwest of St. Louis in Cedar Hill.

His property is in the upper watershed of LaBarque Creek.

The watershed covers 13 square miles in northwestern Jefferson County and includes both private and public land.

It's considered by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources one of the most unique areas in the state.

- LaBarque Creek is an exceptional high quality stream that's a cascading bedrock stream with small pools and waterfalls throughout its length.

Has a tremendous diversity of fish life in it, over, nearly 40 species of fish are known in LaBarque Creek.

- [Anne-Marie] The entire watershed is about 8,000 acres and that includes Don's 843.

Should I have brought a flare?

There are two ways to get around on Don's property, by car on what he calls roads.

- [Don] Now here, you want to make, go to the right, you don't want to go through all that mud.

- [Anne-Marie] Mm hmm.

- [Don] Oh god, you're doing it anyway.

- [Anne-Marie] There was a big rock.

You're kind of a backseat driver, Don Robinson.

- [Don] Well, I'm telling you what the road, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya.

(Anne-Marie laughing) - [Anne-Marie] And there's the more peaceful way on foot.

- We really go that way.

- Do we have to come back up this hill?

- [Don] Yeah, going down's not the problem.

- [Anne-Marie] Don, his friend, Nels Holmberg, an ecologist and regular explorer on the property, and I went on a hike in search of what Don calls the Green Gulch.

What is Green Gulch?

- Well, it's a big box canyon-like place.

Moss covered walls, it's a real deal.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] Don grew up in University City, later lived in Kirkwood and he bought his first patch of land here back in 1964.

- This 320 acres was for sale.

We came out here and it was so cold, the beer was freezing on top of the cans and I thought, "Well, this is really prehistoric, you know, I just gotta get it."

So I bought it for 21,250 and I paid that off in a year, under two years and then, well, then other stuff became available and I just didn't want to, you know, have neighbors, for God's sake.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] In 1978, Don moved from Kirkwood to his Cedar Hill getaway permanently and he's made his living since 1952 selling Off, a super duper stain remover.

- No, it's not good for salads, sandwiches, chest rub, athlete's foot, VD or mange, but it does do all this stuff.

Takes spots out of clothes and carpets.

- [Anne-Marie] No ringworm or psoriasis removal?

- Mm mm, mm mm, no, we're not talking about that, uh uh.

Well, that's the product.

- [Anne-Marie] In fact, Don produces it himself underneath his now defunct swimming pool, using the same dough mixer since the early 50's.

It still works like new?

- Well, it refuses to die.

It's just, it's amazing how they built stuff then.

- [Anne-Marie] What makes Don's land so unique isn't its size, it's what's on it and how well it's been preserved.

- Mostly because of the deep sandstone hollows in it that harbor a whole bunch of very interesting, some rare, plant life, the mosses, the bryophytes, the vascular plants.

106 mosses, we've found so far and there're more that we- - I thought you said 135.

- 135 bryophytes.

- Oh.

- That in, so that includes - Can you get it right?

the mosses, the liverworts and the hornworts.

You have one hornwort.

- Oh.

Is that good or bad?

- Oh, that's good.

- Oh.

- Nobody ever finds hornworts - oh.

- and yet they're here.

- [Anne-Marie] Did you know you had all this?

- Well, it's pretty big.

I mean, when you spread all this stuff out, you're talking about a lot of ground.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] So what's an 82 year old man who's never married, has no children, but has melon head cousins, to do with 843 acres of prime natural resource?

- It's the most depressing thing I've ever had to do, is to figure out what to do with this place.

Because after all, it is the last chapter of the book, isn't it?

You know?

People say, "Well, what do you care?"

Well, what the hell do you mean what do I care?

If you enjoy being dead, you know, and that's what's gotta happen first 'cause I'm not leaving.

(laughing) - [Anne-Marie] After much thought and consideration, Don has decided to give his home to those who will continue to take care of it.

Don Robinson is leaving every inch of his land to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

- It's all given to the DNR.

- [Anne-Marie] Currently, there are 50 Missouri State Parks in the system.

Don Robinson State Park will make 51.

- How generous and how thoughtful it was of Don to leave this legacy for the people of Missouri?

It was generous because the land is very valuable, it was thoughtful because Don could've done anything he wanted with this special place and he chose to share it with all of us.

- [Anne-Marie] In addition to the 843 acres Don is leaving the people of Missouri, he's providing the resources to ensure the property will be well preserved.

- Don has provided a trust fund to ensure that we have the funds to properly manage and care for this special place in perpetuity and funding is a challenge for all government operations, but particularly for parks, so having something set aside like this to ensure that future generations get to enjoy this special place is really tremendous.

(upbeat music) - And that's Living St. Louis.

Thanks for joining us, I'm Jim Kirchherr and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Female Narrator] Living St. Louis is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation, the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan Charitable Trust and by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat music)