At IHMVCU.

We've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health and we are here.

IHMVCU as a proud supporter of Wqpt.

The future.

That's where our minds ar at Western Illinois University, Quad Cities.

We are innovators searching for something new outside of the textbooks dog loving, leadership driven, world changing.

Whether you choose to study on campus or online, your future is designed on your terms.

Start your future at WIU.EDU/QC.

Public Affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to yo by The Singh Group at Merrill, serving the Wealth managemen needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.

Giving veterans a better chance to succeed after serving.

And the real stor behind dear here in the cities.

Darren Company has a history that lasts in some ways longe than the city of Moline itself.

And now there's a new way to learn every detail.

We'll talk about that in a moment, but first, veterans in the workforce.

There are almost 18 million veterans in the American workforce right now.

And although veterans are sought after by some companies, it's not easy for every ma or woman who leaves the service.

Iowa Works has been honored with a new national award for its efforts to employ veterans, but the programs offered do so much more.

We talk with Shane Sawyer.

Iowa works veteran career planner.

So Iowa works Davenpor receiving a national attention really for its transition assistance program.

First off, let's talk about the national attention.

How cool is that?

Pretty cool.

Pretty cool.

It was hard to, hard to take it all in at first, but, yeah, it was pretty big honor for the d'abord office and for the tap classes.

So explain the transition assistance program.

I mean, I shouldn't say it's just for that.

It's for a number of states, but that was highlighted.

That was highlighted.

And it was for a myriad of things.

It was for the entire Davenport Job Center's ability to serve veterans and help them address significant barriers to employment, not just veterans, but transitioning service members and their spouses as well.

And I'm sure we'll get into a bit of that.

But the Transition Assistance Program or Tap program for those who are unfamiliar is, I think it was part of the Department of Defense, maybe under the Obama administration, where it was helping veterans with a program as they were getting out of the military to, as I like to say, how to civilian again.

Yeah It taught you, resume building.

It taught you interviewing skills.

It taught you how to, do labor market research and talk to you about your VA benefits so that you had a good game plan moving forward.

It's a program that benefits all our transitioning service members today.

But what we do so unique in Davenport is that we actually are the first American job cente in the nation, to our knowledge, to, host that there.

And it brings us a couple of benefits.

And those benefits being, for the military member, it allows them to disconnect from their day to day activities.

When I was in the military, I had, a cell phone that was attached to the commander, apparently.

And I would always get phone calls regarding work or personnel issues.

You get to put that phone away.

You get to, not be so close to work and glued to your computer and check your emails.

You can disconnect, focus on the classes.

The other aspect of that i they've get access to all the, all the the myriad of service that we provide at Iowa Works.

You know, a lot of people think of us as the unemployment office, but I like to think of u more as workforce development.

You know, we have relationships with companies all over the state, all over the Quad City area, and we'd like to connect them and help them get the resources they need to be successful.

Well, I would think that a veteran, a person leaving the military is a good hire, period.

I mean, just because you think of the person as being, task oriented or working in teams or definitely, not about yourself.

It's a more of a selfless, like I said, a team thing.

Why would there be such a difficulty in finding jobs as a veteran?

Well, I have to agree with you.

I and I in the state of Iowa agrees, too.

I think that we find the value in hiring our veterans and their family members, and wanting to attract them to Iowa for a lot of the things we talked about.

But the problem was and the problem I faced at the end of a 20 year career was that was the entirety of my adult life.

I dressed a certain way, I spoke a certain way, my customs and courtesies, my thought processes, my language patterns.

All of it was military and it's a whole other culture.

And when you get out, you, you, you speak that language.

But civilians don't.

And the majority of Americans don't.

So I never, I never knew what an air was.

Truly.

I know that's silly but I didn't know what that was.

I never wrote a resume I never interviewed for a job.

So I needed somebody to help me bridge that gap.

I like the fact that, your program also, works in combination with other veterans groups and other associations.

Tell me about those links.

Because that really does help kind of to streamline the services for the veteran.

It does.

Gosh, I'll probably forget, yo know, sitting on the seat here.

But, you know, we have you know, we have that connection with our, county, veterans service officers.

They're that liaison to the VA. And the VA provides a lot of, benefits to the veteran, whether it's medical or otherwise.

You know, education, possible benefits.

Something I like to touc on, that helps drive this home a little bit is the absence of a job does not make a job a veteran job.

Ready?

Just like the absence of a mission did not make the military member mission ready.

All things have to come into balance.

And so for me, it was.

You have to be physically fit, mentally fit, sometimes spiritually fit and financially stable.

And when I get a job seeker, into Iowa works, we look at that whole person concept.

And then if you're missing an aspect of that, we, you know, I've I've dealt with everyone from, prior felonies to, to, master's degrees, and you just meet them where they are and try to help them meet their needs, overcome whatever barriers they're facing to find employment.

So, for instance, homeless veterans Reintegration Program through goodwill of the heartland has been a wonderful partner of mine where we can help veterans that are facing homelessness or at risk of homelessness get skills, whether it's computer, you know, computer classes, help them learn how to write a resume, help them learn how to interview for a job, maybe get them some access to some interview clothing, and then introduce them to the employer and get that warm hand off.

And hopefully make them successful in some ways.

Do you consider yourself a safety net?

I don't know.

Never thought of it that way.

I do consider myself more of a career planner.

More than just a, you know, a resume writer or, or or a job placement person.

You know, it's we try to map out everythin in your life to try to help you be successful.

And why do you think that the Tap program, the transition assistance program, is successful?

I think it's successful because, well, it kind of has to be.

But but, you know, there was a need.

And our nation got together and said, I think we need to fill that need.

And it's successful now becaus I think of the collaborations, we partnered with the Rock Island Arsenal, gosh, so many years ago.

And to host the tap classes at our American Job Center.

And it's that partnership and listening to our partners and seeing what they need, what we can do, how we can tweak that and fine tune that and make it better.

I bring in, businesses that are veteran friendly.

I bring in other businesses and I'd love to talk about later that offer skills bridge program opportunities.

I bring in what I've, recently and implemented was called mentors.

It's military veterans who have been out, been there, done that and can tell you it's not so bad.

And I've got to where I am today by doing X, Y, and Z.

We'll talk about the skills that that have to be advanced for a veteran.

Well, a lot of a lot of veterans have those skills already.

Sometimes they need a certificate, you know, certifications.

And we can help with that.

Some of those skills just need a little bump and a little experience.

And so we talk about th DoD Skills Bridge program a lot.

That is a Department of Defense internship, really an initiative.

And I always say it's kind o like, try it before you buy it.

And it's underutilized here.

And in this local area where the state of Iowa i hoping to try to help out, where a business can take a veteran and they get them for free.

Really?

You give them a job, you give them a training program, and hopefully at the end of their skills bridge internship, there's hopefully a job waiting for them at the other end of that internship.

What's been difficul for companies in the past is one they've never heard of it, and two, it's hard to figure out all the paperwork process.

It's like, gosh, I have all these papers.

How do I fill this out?

How do I build this program?

Well, now, the state of Iowa i a DoD skills bridge third party provider, and that third party provider means, hey, guys, we'll help you file the paperwork.

We'll help you build that training program.

And now that you've got all this, now you've get, kind of like a revenue stream.

You get a stream of talent.

And again, all we want to do is attract and retain veteran talent to our state, to the Quad City area, obviously.

And let's let's start with that program.

I do know, like like you said, you do work in tandem with certain groups.

I'm thinking of the quantity veterans Network.

Yeah.

That you're so, so closely intertwined because you really don't want to repeat programs.

You want to facilitat new programs or advanced them.

Is that not right?

Yes.

Yes.

Of course.

Something I mentioned during the Mark Sanders Award presentation was I view this award as a bit of a mirror, and that mirror reflects on obviously, the men and women at our American Job Center that put priority of service for serving veterans at the forefront of their daily activities.

But it's also a mirror on this amazing Quad City community that I've got to.

It's just been a blessing to be a part of.

I met up with, the founder of the Quad City Veterans Network, Brian Miller, and, David Underwood.

And I got to meeting with them and is just professional networking for veterans.

And I loved it because I thought back to myself, I said, when I left the military and those who are watching this who have heard me said this before, they might eyeroll because it's a bit of a bit of a talking point of mine, but I love saying it anyway.

When I left the military, I felt like I lost my tribe.

I felt like I lost my sense of purpose, and in doing so, I felt like I lost a bit of my identity.

And and I'll spare you a long speech about finding your passion, unlocking purpose driven living so that you can reveal your identity.

Because that's that kind of that's kind of what drives me in, in career placements and in that career counseling that I provide the veterans and their spouses.

But as it pertains to the Quad City Veterans Network, you rediscover a tribe again.

It's professional networking for veterans and their families and allies of veterans.

In one location, you meet with employers.

You meet with resource providers like myself, the veterans, you know, the VA, state and local elected officials have been known to show up a lot of generous media coverage.

But the whole community rallies behind the cause of finding employment for veterans, getting them access to resources and building camaraderie, building that tribe again, that thing that that most people miss when they miss the military.

They say, you know what?

The deployments were rough.

The job was sometimes fun, sometimes wasn't.

But what I really miss is the people, and we get to recreate that for you.

And it works s well that Brian Miller asked me and a handful of people, let's, let's, let's give this away.

Let's grow this network.

And so a year ago today, we had one, and now we have, gosh, maybe six more.

I helped found the Muscatine Veterans Network with Mayor Brad Barak.

I helped, Clinton start their own quarterly.

Veterans networking meetings.

We have one in Dubuque now.

We have one in Ames, Iowa, one in Cedar Rapids, most recently, and I'm probably leaving one out.

We're looking to start one in Waterloo soon.

So the key is, I mean if you're if you know somebody if you are a veteran, reach out to Iowa works.

Yeah.

Because it's suc a phenomenal resource right now.

Let us be your network.

Let us be that conduit of resources for you, the job seeker.

Our thanks to Shane Sawyer, Iow works veteran, career planner, electric Larry has been part of the city's music scene for decades.

A lover of blues and country music, we caught up with him at Moline Black Box Theater, where he played one of his originals.

Here's Electric Larry with I'm Still Here, Hurting.

I'm still hurting over you.

You want to here, Ernie?

No.

Do you.

Want.

Sit here.

I don't know what to do.

Oh, I'm singing, looking out the wall.

I'm sitting here looking at the wall.

Watching you.

Wondering what brings.

On wishing you were here.

I'm sitting here wishing you were.

Come.

I'm sitting here wondering what you from I want you, you want.

And you.

Oh, I'm saying you want.

Oh, were you.

Want to sit here?

Don't know what to do.

But darn, I know, I know you.

Under me.

I know, I know you well.

But darn we.

Can't go on.

But you.

I'm sure hurting you know you.

I'm sitting here looking at you.

Wall.

I'm sitting here wishing you were home.

Mom to come over.

You.

Wondering.

And I love you.

Give you a darling jingle.

But you, you, darling, I know I love you.

You don't come.

Electric Larry with I'm Still here.

Hurting performed at Moline Black Box Theater.

When John Deere was looking for a place to build his plow factory, he first found Grand to tour, but then decided to hea further west, settling in 1848 along the banks of the Mississippi River in Moline.

And the rest, they say, is history.

But what is that history?

Visit Quad Cities wants more people to know the story, and Deere and Company archivist Neil Dahlstrom joined us to talk about what you may not know about Deere and the cities.

So tell us about this, this plan that you have to really get John Deere out to the public more.

Yeah, really, this is just about connecting people to John Deere past, present, what we call kind of local assets, regional assets, whether it's public art, its parks, its buildings, some of its history something that used to be there, that's been replaced b something else, something else.

So it's just kind of connecting people to that.

And what is it exactly?

I mean, it's a trail system, but it's kind of you do it yourself, right?

It's a self-guided we call it the John Deere Trail.

And you go to John Deere trail.com, you register for free, and there's just a series o locations, little information.

Some photographs go wherever you want.

You can do it in order.

You can look at the map and you can check in.

So you enable your location services.

And you check in at each of these locations.

So it's almost like a scavenger hunt when you're so active as far as deer history is concerned, and also its relationship to the public.

The pavilion has, I think, performed better than even deer probably thought.

I mean, there's just this, this hunger for John Deere Green from people outside of the community.

So tell me a little bit about that, because it really is a driving forc for tourism in the Quad Cities.

It is visit Quad cities calls it the deer effect, which is just this thi growing interest in John Deere.

And whether it's from employees from around the world, whether its customers or just tourists, think of riverboat cruises.

They want to come.

They want to be immersed in John Deere and John Deere history.

So this is another wa to kind of bring that to them.

And so how does it work?

You said you go to a website and then what do you find.

Right.

So you go to John Deere trail.com.

You register and it's not an app.

You download.

So it's web based.

So it's really accessible regardless of your advice.

And you're just going to get this list of locations that you can go to.

And you can just go scroll through, get directions and figure out where you want to go check out what.

And I think it's interesting too, because there's a lot of places that we all know.

So so tell me.

So it's ten that are right now.

There's actually 18 that's going to say because it could be so many more.

Right.

So there's the obvious ones.

Right.

So there's places like the John Deere Pavilion, the John Deere store.

But we're also taking you to TPC Deere Run, to look at the Leaping Deere statue, which date all the way back to 1893, believe it or not.

But we also focus on public art.

We focus on parks that are named after their family members.

Or maybe it was land that was donated to the city, and it's named after that person.

So we really want to get you t a lot of interesting locations, including Riverside Cemetery, where John Deere and his family is buried.

Yeah.

And it's I got to tell you through that I've been there as well.

It is kind of, man, it would be a terrible way of saying it, but, I mean, deer really is planted in the community even at a cemetery.

It's like, this is the family of the Quad Cities, not necessarily the founders, but definitely in some ways.

I mean, the second mayor of Moline, the family has always been involved in so many different ways.

It really shows how Deere and Moline, if not the Quad Cities grew up and expanded together.

Yeah, absolutely.

And right now most of the stops are in Moline, but this will be expanded to includ other parts of the Quad Cities.

And what I love is it's not just people whose surname was Deere.

So we can talk about valley and Butterworth's and Wyman's.

And so we continue to expand because there's this enormous legacy and a lot of it's hidden because their last name wasn't Deere.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up.

That was one of the questions is that there is well let's let's hit each of these actually because I mean, when you hear of the, Valley family.

Right.

Tell me a little bi about their history and some of the things that they did that was innovative in the Quad Cities.

Sure.

Stephen Bailey was an entrepreneur.

He came from out East and, he married one of John Deere, his daughters.

And so that's ho they kind of get into the fold.

But he was the corporate secretary and treasurer of John Deere for a long time.

His son, Willard, forms a carriage company, then an automobile company.

And eventually, they go into the airplane business.

I think there's a car and airplane hanging at the Moline airport right now.

So they have this long, kind of legacy in the Quad Cities.

And, of course, what a lot of people know as ville of Ely or the plantation or as I know it from junior high, the back door, a junior high nightclub.

So these are all places that we take you to and share some of this history.

So that's the fields.

And let me, let me divert a little bit here because, I mean, the valleys and deer were getting, not getting out of but expanding beyond the farm implement industry.

I mean, as you brought up the even John Deere son was involved heavily in smaller motors, and and the automobile industry.

Right.

Charles Darwin entered the automobile business in Eas Moline in 1907 and passed away.

So he couldn't bring it really forward, but really was actively involved in the Valley family.

The next generation starts to go to places to run John Deere sales branches, Saint Louis, Kansas City.

The Weber family from Rock Island ends up in Minneapolis and that area runnin different parts of the business.

So a lot of family names, a lot of technology.

At the end of the day, these become tech stories between tractors and automobiles and other farm implements and innovation.

Right?

Absolutely.

Butterworth family, a lot of people may not know anything much more than the Butterworth center right right, integral part of the Deere family.

William Butterworth, Mary's Catherine Deere, which was Charles Deere' daughter and for a wedding gift, builds a house across the street from their own house, which we know is a deer Wyman house today.

And that becomes the Butterworth Center, both incredible quad City assets that are open to public tours.

And those are part of the, the John Deere Trail as well.

And then the Wyman family as well, that people may not know, othe than the Deere Wyman building.

Right.

And multiple generations of the Wyman famil live in the Deere Wyman house.

And then one of my favorite hidden gems in Moline, Miss Patty's Park.

Thank you for going to that because I'll tell you the truth.

I mean, when I saw the list of the original ten, I saw that it's Miss Patty's Park and I thought, I have never heard of that.

Right.

And it is tucked awa a bit.

Yeah, it's tucked away.

It's off eighth Street, in Moline, near the Valley Mansion, just basically to the east of it, exactly right across the street.

And it's just kind of tucked into a neighborhood.

And there's a lot of these, these kind of gems in the Quad Cities.

And I know it because I used to drop my my son off there to play with his friends.

And I just remember looking at Miss Patty's Park like, and the official name is Wyman Smith's Patty's part I saw.

So that was the giveaway for me, and it took me a little while to look into it.

But once I did, it was donated by Patricia Wyman, who was Charles Deer Wyman's wife.

And that was the connection.

You are the, dear archivist.

And not every company's got something like that.

It really seems that Deere is very proud of its history, and really wants to preserve it.

And there's an awful lot of it.

There's a lot of it.

We're incredibly proud of it.

And there's just kind of so man directions you can go with it.

And that's why projects like this are so important, because we know things that th community knows things as well.

Yeah.

So we try to tap into this.

An this is really a conversation.

It's a learning process.

And what I love is if you introduce something to somebody, it just evokes memories for them.

And that's really what this is about.

And they kind of contribute to the historical record.

But they pass those stories on to the next generation, which is really important.

I mean because you have heard it all.

I mean, is anything still surprising you?

There's there's always surprises.

Yeah.

I learned things yesterday because someone was asking m about those copper deer statues.

And we talked about a valley quarry in Moline which I knew very little about.

I'd love to learn more about John Deere.

Had a farm in Moline.

Most people don't know that.

And it's on the John Deere trail.

It's called Peterson Park today, but he raised it.

He raised cattle on that farm.

So, amazingly enough, John Deere operated a farm in Moline, Illinois.

What do you hope that peopl from outside of the Quad Cities?

And I'll ask you the opposite question as well, get from this, trail tour.

I think it's the same answer for both.

Okay.

Which is we want diversity and variety, so people access information in different ways.

So this is another way that they can access something a little bit different.

And then we want we want to learn more.

We want to know what we missed, what's out ther that maybe we don't know about.

So it's really about engagement.

It's about learning.

I really hope to see families together saying, let's hop in the car, let's drive around, lear something about our community.

And also from the opposite point of view is that the person who lives in the Quad Cities thinks they know everything in some ways, and it's there are little surprises.

Is that kind of a key is to have 1 or 2 little nuggets there that people just did not know it is.

And I'm just amazed by people who you drive by something every day, but you never take that sid road to look at maybe a marker.

There's a historical marker between the Wyndham Hotel and the vibrant arena, and it's a statue called Spirit of Place, which, was done by an artist name Beverly Pepper in the early 80s who did a six month residency at the John Deere Foundry and created this series of of of sculptures out of Corten steel.

So it's an incredible piece of art.

It also marks the location of John Jr's first 1848 factory in downtown Moline.

Yeah, so it's there.

You just sometimes need a little nudge to get there.

Yeah.

And one last thing is that, I mean, all these things are tangible, right?

And oral history is so incredibly important as well.

Is that being preserved as well?

In some ways it is.

And it's more important than ever in a digital age where people aren't sitting down and writing letters to each other, keeping copies of those letters, oral histories become more important than ever, people's personal memories.

And that really tells the story.

Deere and company archivist Neil Dahlstrom on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile devic and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

At IHMVCU we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about you financial health and we are here IHMVCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt the future.

That's where our minds ar at Western Illinois University, Quad Cities.

We are innovators searching for something new outside of the textbooks dog loving, leadership driven, world changing.

Whether you choose to study on campus or online, your future is designed on your terms.

Start your future with WIUEDU/QC Public Affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to yo by The Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth managemen needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.