(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Coming up on this episode.

(bright upbeat music) - The house was abandoned.

It probably sat vacant for .

.

.

- 20 years.

- Almost 20 years before we purchased it.

- There was nothing.

There wasn't plumbing, there wasn't electrical, there wasn't water.

(bright upbeat music) - So if you are currently in your basement, in your garage, working on an idea, engage with us.

Come on out, join it, 'cause this community's here for you and we believe in you.

(bright upbeat music) - And I decided to give all that up for the dogs.

Anything with the nose of a dog is where my passion is.

And to be honest, it's the best decision I've ever made.

- These kids just need an outlet and with what we provide here, we're kind of giving them that space to come in and be themselves, be creative, be with their friends, and have fun without worrying about all the negative that goes on on the streets.

(bright upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - We are the Howells and this is Duncan Manor in Towanda, Illinois.

- Welcome to our home.

(gentle music) - So we were renting a house in Denver and it was getting, it was fairly pricey out there and we had a pretty small house.

And so we wanted something that we could work on together that had space.

We're both designers.

I started looking on a website called CIRCA Old Houses, and we came across this house.

We just fell in love with it.

I don't know, it gave me chills when I saw it.

(gentle music) This was in April of 2014 when we found the house.

And we ended up coming to a wedding for a friend in May and we came to see the house and it just, I think, what, three or four weeks after that we ended up buying it?

- [Dave] Yeah, I think so.

Pretty close to it.

- And quit, I quit my jobs, he quit school.

(gentle music) - [Dave] The house was abandoned.

It probably sat vacant for .

.

.

- 20 years.

- Almost 20 years before we purchased it.

- And it was like a few weeks after we bought it that I drove by on Route 66.

I was shocked.

I was like, "Oh my gosh, we bought that house."

(laughs) That everybody else is like, "This house.

I always look for it."

(gentle music) - When we first arrived, it was, we stopped by a Walmart and bought a air mattress and a bottle of champagne.

- Yeah.

- I think we drank the champagne for breakfast.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - (laughs) Because we didn't have any food and we just pulled up.

- Well we pulled up at three in the morning, so it was pitch black.

- It was interesting.

We walked around with a flashlight when we first pulled up and then the next morning, you know, waking up on the porch with the sun and just walking in and thinking, "All right, this is it.

What are we, you know, what's the game plan?"

- [Randi] There was nothing.

There wasn't plumbing, there wasn't electrical, there wasn't water.

So it was like, it was a big feat.

We had thought we would live with my dad while we were getting this livable, but when we got here, we're like, "Nah, we're just gonna stay."

So we just kind of camped for a number of months.

- [Dave] And this was in such back condition in here.

I mean the plaster was crumbling, we had to pull plaster off.

We were pairing, sanding.

- [Randi] Windows were sealed up, so it was July.

So it was also very hot in here.

- Yeah, we didn't have any- - And there wasn't electricity so we just kind of made the back two porches, like upstairs was our bedroom and downstairs- - Was our kitchen.

- We eventually had a fridge on the back porch.

We had a porta-potty and we had like a solar bag shower in the tree.

But we met, we've met a lot of amazing people.

(laughs) Luckily people weren't coming up that often.

Well, they were coming up, but we had a lot of people reach out and offer us meals or would let, like, bring your stuff, come over, and have a shower.

- Yeah, I mean I would basically wake up at whatever time, six o'clock, whenever the sun came up, and I would just constantly work on this place.

That was my full-time gig was getting this place habitable.

(gentle music) - William Duncan, he built the house.

He purchased the property in December of 1866.

That's what we know.

There's no record of when the house was built.

And he was a shorthorn cattle breeder.

He lived in Kentucky, in Clark County, Kentucky, and he came up here in 1863, but he really made a name for himself and for the shorthorn breed here in central Illinois in the short amount of time he was here.

The driveway used to come from the railroad tracks and then later Route 66.

But he even had a stop on the railroad tracks 'cause he would have sales here.

So yeah, he was pretty prominent, I would say, in the short amount of time he was here.

He had three wives.

First wife passed away before he left Clark County.

So he had two wives during his time here.

His second wife, he had four children together, I believe.

She passed away while they lived in Towanda.

And then he remarried another woman from Kentucky and brought her up here and they had five kids.

His fifth child was born just a couple months before he passed away in 1876.

So she and the younger kids ended up going back to Kentucky and his oldest daughter inherited the house.

And this house is interesting because it was a rental property for all of the 1900s.

It was just very transient residents.

We wanna have events and classes out in the shed, not just weddings, but classes for the community.

But I just think there's a lot of opportunity out here.

And we've seen over the years, I mean that first, the very first open house we had, there was over 3,000 people that showed up in one weekend.

And that's when we realized, "Okay, so this house really means something to a lot of people."

- [Dave] When we bought this, it was- - It wasn't a home yet.

- We knew it was historic, but, you know, and we wanted to obviously save and preserve a piece of history, but we had no idea it was this big of a draw.

- I think in the beginning, people were a little iffy just because of how the house had been treated in the past, you know, wondering if we were here to actually help or not.

But we've just truly been embraced by the community.

I don't know if we would be here now if we hadn't had chosen such a supportive community.

It's been amazing.

(gentle music) So we plan to just really pour everything into this house and I don't know, I don't think William Duncan ever really completed it and it never became what he envisioned.

And so I think we can do that and create a space that the community can enjoy and that can just keep growing.

Just a place for people to kind of come and stay and just forget about, you know, your stresses and life for a little while.

(gentle music) (upbeat electronic music) - Distillery Labs is an innovation hub in the heart of downtown Peoria, serving the entire region.

More broadly speaking, we are part of a larger network called the Illinois Innovation Network, which consists of 15 hubs throughout the state of Illinois, that exists to really connect different startup ecosystems to get those innovators, dreamers, and doers connected to the resources they need.

In this building, we have our coworking space, which is Open Desk Coworking.

You can come in and find a spot to work on your project.

So whether you're a startup founder or an entrepreneur by yourself, or if you have a team, you have a spot to come.

You need private offices for a day or for a few hours, you can come and reserve our conference rooms.

We also have a maker space in here where you can come and learn how to use a 3D printer, a CNC machine, screen printers, sewing machines.

So different types of equipment or tools that might be a little bit expensive for an individual to buy when they're not sure if it's what they need, they can come in and utilize that here.

We have a very nice commercial kitchen, a shared kitchen, where culinary entrepreneurs can come in and tinker.

We have a podcast studio, we have a photography studio in here.

So we try to provide all the resources that we can to the founders and those that are part of startups in the region.

- HuMod is an advanced biotech R&D outfit.

We synthesize biological motion to deliver advanced prosthetics.

The devices we're working on now, the novel tech really is the control mechanism.

So we've developed an AI co-pilot with our control mechanism.

It's totally reactive, it's adapting to the way the user is moving rather than the user having to manipulate a tool.

You're regaining a part of yourself rather than relearning a new way to walk.

But with Distillery Labs, their ability to truly focus on the founder and be reactive to what the needs are, immediate term, of the companies that they are supporting is tremendously helpful.

They do a wonderful job of delivering this sense of community.

We're able to then feel like the entire community is at our back.

- This could be a place that could attract people to move here.

We kind of built it with the idea that we were creating a space for the organizations that are involved to help greater Peorians fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.

We have historically been a community that's been reliant on very large employers, Caterpillar, now OSF Healthcare.

But when communities become overly tied to one or two large employers, then you're kind of at the mercy of what's happening to that employer, if they're shrinking or if they're growing.

- We here at Distiller Labs, we genuinely believe, and I have 100% faith, that we will be a top 25 globally ranked startup ecosystem.

We have all the roots, it's all there.

But now, we get to grow and the rest of the world can see what we really have here.

And so as a founder, if you're there in your basement, come on out, join it, 'cause this community's here for you and we believe in you.

- I want the public to know that if they've got an idea around a business, that this is a place that they could start.

If you wanna start a catering company or you need a ghost kitchen or you just wanna do some prep work, that place is here for you.

If you want to be a podcaster, we've got that for you.

If you want to be a maker, if you've got a product that you want to try to develop that you need 3D printing or some other sort of machinery, that's here for you.

That's really what I'd like people to understand, that this is a place for them, that we built this for our entrepreneurial community.

- The number one advice we give to any startup or aspiring entrepreneurs, show up.

And so look at our events, look at something that you think would be a good fit for you.

We cannot help you navigate the ecosystem unless we know you exist.

So if you are currently in your basement, in your garage, working on an idea, engage with us.

We're here to hold your hand through the process.

- Go to Distillery Labs.

(laughs) This is one place where you can have the proverbial one stop shop.

And we're so excited to be a part of Distillery Labs at this stage, HuMod being the first startup, or one of the later stage ones here, to be participating in this space is selfishly so rewarding.

Get to Distillery Labs and check it out.

It's a pretty special place to be working at.

(upbeat electronic music) (upbeat acoustic music) - Hi, my name is Brian Wilson.

This is my dog, Beth.

We're going out training on the morel mushrooms.

So this spring, she will be a morel master.

Huh?

Mushrooms, go find 'em.

(upbeat acoustic music) (dog sniffing) (upbeat acoustic music continues) Well my backstory is, I was a boat captain on the Illinois River.

I pushed barges up and down the river for 17 years and I decided to give all that up for the dogs.

And to be honest, it's the best decision I've ever made.

(upbeat music) (dogs barking) So what it was like switching from the river to the dogs, really it was a big change, 'cause the river was very demanding, a lot of hours.

And this is too, but it's different.

It's on my time, it's what I want to do.

Owning my own business has always been my dream.

So it's been great.

Once I got into dog training, I found out how much I loved it.

Anything with the nose of a dog is where my passion is.

Then I went to a school in Missouri and from there my knowledge with dogs and dog training really excelled.

So when we moved in here in 2016, this was an old barn.

It needed a lot of work and we decided to put that work in.

We gave it a facelift.

And from there, we have grown.

Where we're sitting right now is our newest addition.

We plan on continuing to grow and eventually putting up a whole new facility.

Right now, we can house up to 50 dogs for boarding.

That's including daycare, boarding, and training dogs.

How I got into morels is I've always been passionate about the dog's noses.

The fact that they can smell 10,000 times better than us.

Just knowing that and thinking what all they can smell, and it's always intrigued me, and I've always hunted morels my whole life, and no one else is doing it.

And I'm like, "Why?

This don't make any sense."

So I started using my dogs to find morels and here we are.

All right, what we have over here is we have the morels that we use in the training.

These are the fake morels, they're made out of resin.

We use these and then we take a dried morel.

So actually, I have some here.

We take a dried morel like that and we soak it in water.

And once it's soaked, I just rub it over the top of these, what I call buttering them up, and it gives the scent of the morel and it looks like a morel.

So now we have basically a morel that we can go hide in the woods for training purposes.

(engine rumbling) (upbeat acoustic music) (dog sniffing) (upbeat acoustic music continues) Yes!

Go get it!

Once you learn how to communicate with them, they understand what you're saying and it goes really well.

I think where people really mess up is they expect the dog to be good, when they're not doing a good job training the dog.

So this is the box that we use for the training.

We have a tin in there that we just put a morel inside for the scent and I put it in that box and the dog sticks his head in, he gets paid.

The reason the morels are so treasured around here is because of the taste.

They are like gold.

Morels are very, very valuable.

Actually, when we was in Kentucky, they was selling for $100 a pound, but I understand why, they're delicious.

We definitely had our fair share.

(dog sniffing) For me, taking dogs to the woods to hunt more morels is one of the most exciting things you can do in the spring.

I love to watch dogs work.

So for me it adds fun to it.

Watching a dog's nose work, watching them be running through the timber and hit that scent, go to that morel, and just stop and spin and run to it, that's what it's all about.

What we offer for the morels right now is we offer an online course that we sell and then I offer a board and train type program, so your dog comes here and stays for two months and we train it to find morels and then send it home.

(upbeat acoustic music) (dog sniffing) We take our dogs mainly on state ground and the reason that is, is because state ground is open to the public, anybody can go there and usually it's been picked over.

There's always people that get out there before you.

And we just prove that our morel dogs are worth it by taking 'em to that property and finding morels behind other people.

(upbeat acoustic music) Our hopes for the future of Wilson's Dog Training is to build a 100 dog kennel, that'd be able to house 100 dogs.

When I first started and I said I was gonna do 50 dogs, a lot of people thought I was crazy because we're so rural.

But we are now doing 50 dogs a day through the busy season and I feel we can do 100 dogs.

(dogs barking) (upbeat acoustic music) I think getting dogs out and just out in the world is a huge thing for dogs.

And then when people can come back to me and tell me that they use my system to train, that really gets me excited.

I like hearing that.

Good girl.

(dogs barking) (bright upbeat music) - We wanted to have something fun and engaging for the kids so that they would just be entertained enough to stay here.

Because at the end of the day, what really is important, is that for three hours a day, after school, the most crucial and the most vulnerable hours of most kids' lives, we have them in a safe, fun, structured environment.

(bright upbeat music) The genesis for it started about, it had to be about 15 years ago, and I was speaking at a commencement exercise at the juvenile prison in Chicago.

And when I walked into that auditorium, there was this one guy that stood out to me among all the rest because he just looked so mean.

And after it was over, a man walked up to me and said, "My son would like to speak to you, would you mind?"

I said, "Not at all."

And I went to the table and lo and behold, it was that kid that I looked at when I first walked in.

But this time when I saw him, he had tears rolling down his eyes and he looked up at me and he said, "I want to change my life.

I just don't know how."

I got 10 minutes with this kid.

What can I say to him that could really make a difference in his life?

And that haunted me from that day forward.

And I said to myself, "I need to create a space where I could have a more sustained impact on the lives of some of these young people that are experiencing the things that I experienced in my life."

Someone that they could relate to, someone that they could trust, someone that they thought was just like them.

And then one day, I just got the nerves up, and I went to Nikki, my wife, and said, "Hey, how would you like to buy a school?"

And I didn't know what kind of reaction she would give me, but she was like, "Let's do it."

(bright upbeat music) - ART Inc actually stands for Artists Reenvisioning Tomorrow.

It is a nonprofit here in Peoria, Illinois.

(bright upbeat music) - I like to say that we offer a potpourri of arts.

We work with the kids in painting, in drawing, in dance and theater, in music.

- It's fun because you can do a bunch of activities and stuff.

- We have very engaging STEAM, evidence-based curriculums for the children.

So we have three different programs, and from 2:30 to 6:00, the ASALA program for after school, that is a main product of ART Inc, along with other programs like Project Enlightenment and EmpowHer Our Girls.

- Project Enlightenment is a program that we've created for teenage boys to basically teach them some life skills, show them some vocations that they may not have known about, as well as introduce them to some leaders in the community.

So we really push leadership, accountability, and that sort of thing.

- EmpowHer Our Girls is so fun because we get to go on trips.

Oh, and there's also speakers and stuff and they talk about bravery.

- The parents know that their kids are safe and they're also getting the arts along with academic help.

So we do homework help, tutoring, reading help, and things like that.

When you know your child is in a safe space and they're also receiving education, and not only that, they're around people from the community that care about your kids, that, it helps you go to work.

(bright upbeat music) - What we have in terms of the programming is available to anybody in the community.

It's not burdened with cost.

I would also like for the community to be more involved with making this a reality.

You know, we look for volunteers on a regular basis.

We're always trying to incorporate what we do with the kids with the community in some regard.

So just looking for opportunities to partner with organizations and individuals to make this a real community experience.

- ART Inc.

is such a unique space in Peoria that really just values community and values taking people in and making them better than they came in.

- Really thankful and honored that we have so many people behind the scenes making this a reality.

(bright upbeat music) What's more important to me is just looking at the life in these young people.

You know, I walked into a room one day and I said, "Is my best friend in here?"

And every kid in their raised their hand.

Like it's things, it's moments like that, where, you realize you had it wrong when you started this project because when we started this project, we felt that we were getting ready to pour life into them.

But when things like that happen, we realize they're pouring life into us.

- I hope that not only with what we're doing today, but what happens in the next 25, 30 years, they're still empowering, inspiring the community by having this building.

- The sky is the limit and they can do everything that they can put their mind to.

I think it really does a huge change on the community, being able to just produce kids that have a light in them that, you know, they know that they can conquer the world with everything that they do.

Communities should understand that ART Inc.

is just a place where everything blossoms, honestly.

(bright upbeat music) - [Kids] Thanks for watching!

Bye!

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)