(lighthearted music) - Will you "Consider This?"

We wanna do everything we can for our veterans who have kept us safe from harm.

We've got a couple of veterans with me right now, Jim and Jayme Poirier.

Okay.

- Yes, Ma'am.

- And in French that means pear.

- Pear, yeah, pear tree.

- So, pear tree, all right.

Well, that's even better.

(Jim chuckles) And they have a business, and it is Pear Tree, no, it's PearTalents.

- Talent, that's right.

- Yes.

So we're gonna talk about how this came about and what their talents are, but first, where did you serve?

And is that where you met?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So, we were stationed out in Lemoore, California.

We both worked on F-18s.

I'm a Marine Corps veteran, and she's a Navy veteran.

I won't speak for you.

- (laughs) Thank you.

(Christine laughs) - But a aircraft mechanic for the F-18s out in Lemoore, California.

We met out there.

Jayme is from the area, and I'm actually born and, until I was seven years old, lived in Quebec, Canada.

- Okay.

- So that's where that French name comes from.

- [Christine] Uh-huh, all right.

- And at 18, I joined the Marine Corps.

I lived in the United States from a young age.

I was seven years old when we moved to the U.S., and my heart was always going into the military and serving, so I joined the Marine Corps.

- Thank you.

- Mm-hmm.

- Thank you, and then you served in the Navy?

- Yes, Ma'am.

- And you were also a Navy mechanic, or?

- I worked on, I was aviation electronics technician.

So I worked on, like, the weapons systems and weapons release, the HUDs.

But, I didn't really know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I knew I loved to travel, and I thought I was gonna go be a pilot.

And my recruiter, it was, like, right before I went to bootcamp, and I said something about, "When am I going to Pensacola?"

And he said, "Well, what are you gonna Pensacola for?"

I said, "To be a fighter pilot."

And he laughs and he goes, (Christine laughs) oh, honey, the only way you're gonna laugh, or, the only way you're gonna fly is if you wink real pretty at a pilot.

(laughs) - Okay!

(Jim laughs) - But, you know, it was a fun thing to do, and it got me away, it got me to travel.

And I think travel is such an important thing in a young life.

But then I met him in California, and we worked in the same squadron, we were a training squadron.

So we trained all kinds, we had Kuwaitis, we had RAF, we had all kinds for the F-18.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Oh, good collaboration.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely, and the training command, that's why we had Marines and Navy together.

So it was a true training command, we got to go and be on carriers.

Together we've done over five different carriers, so we've got some seat time, but yeah.

- 'Cause we would go for short deployments.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And so we'd take 'em out for a couple weeks, and they would get their catapult and catch the wire qualifications and learn how to navigate on the ocean.

So, it was fun.

- [Christine] And no seasickness?

- Almost.

- Oh!

- I remember one time.

- You don't really have it on the carrier.

- I remember one time, we flew around the carrier, 'cause we missed the carrier.

We landed, and we were supposed to be deployed that next day, and the carrier left without my unit.

- Oh!

(laughs) - So we had to take the COD and catch the wire the next day.

And as you're circling that carrier, a lot of people got seasick, and you turn green, and then you finally land, and you're like, okay, it's over.

- (chuckles) Airsickness.

- You didn't use any of your little lunch bags that are?

- Oh, no.

(Jayme laughs) Is that what that is?

(Jim laughs) - That's what I heard.

- No, no.

- You can keep those leftovers.

(laughs) - No, no.

- So, what did you do after you left the military?

- Yeah, it's a great question.

We knew we wanted to use our G.I.

Bill 'cause that was important, getting an education.

I moved back to Virginia.

Jayme came back with me.

We lived there for about a year and decided we didn't really care much about the traffic out there, so.

She goes, "Hey, I know this great little small town, Peoria, Illinois."

(Jayme chuckles) So we moved here.

And we moved here in 2020 and started going to school.

And I got my education.

It was an off-study program.

So I got my degree from Southern Illinois University.

- [Christine] All right, online?

- Actually, it was through ICC.

You go there on the weekends, you study, and then during the week, I would go to school, as we're raising our family at the same time, 'cause we got married.

And we're raising our family, we got, you know, a little one running around, I'm going to school full-time, she's going to school full-time, we're trying to make it.

And, what a life that was.

- (chuckles) I bet.

- But we had the dedication, and we both got degrees.

And my degree is in engineering.

And then Jayme, you got your degree, associate's, right?

- Well, when we moved here, if you join in the State of Illinois, like, you go tuition-free.

I can use credits to go tuition-free as long as it's- - With your G.I.

Bill?

- Yes, as long as it's a state-funded school, the schools will let you go tuition-free.

So, I started going to school, but then I got laid off.

But I kept going to school because I could keep my G.I.

Bill money.

I didn't have to pay tuition, I just had to pay books.

And then that paid for our mortgage.

So we were able to keep our house, 'cause when I got laid off, we had just bought a house, just bought a car, and had a brand new baby.

- [Jim] Yeah.

- [Christine] A challenge.

- And we're both going to school full-time and trying to make it work, so, yeah, it was an awakening.

- Mm-hmm, I bet.

- Yeah.

- So, then the pandemic came around, you were bored outta your mind, and you decided that you knew woodworking, or how did this all come about?

(chuckles) - In a weird way, me being laid off, we incurred a lot of debt, and we started, we started doing Dave Ramsey, we started reading the book.

And so we've been working through Dave Ramsey.

Well, because we did that, we don't have any debt.

So when the pandemic hit, we had already built a couple of things for our home just to see if we liked, you know, what we wanted to do.

- [Christine] This is kind of country stuff, is what you were doing, right?

- Very rustic.

- [Jim] Very farmhouse, rustic stuff.

- But we were, yeah.

- Two-by-four furniture, yeah.

- We remodeled our basement and couldn't find a piece of furniture that was made in the USA and that was real wood.

- And that fit in the space you need.

- And that fit!

- Right.

- And that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

- Right.

- So we thought, well, we'll build a piece of simple two-by-four furniture and see how it goes.

You know, if we can build that together, we can.

(laughs) And then we built- - So one of the things we wanted to do was go on a mission trip.

And so our church was going to a mission trip.

They were doing a fundraiser, and they asked us if we had anything to donate for that raising money to go to this trip, so we built them a console table, a two-by-four.

- Just like the one we built for our basement.

- Yeah.

And so they liked it so much, people were asking us to build them.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - So we built more, and we started making 'em and selling 'em on Facebook Marketplace.

- Now, before that, we had not done any carpentry at all, we literally had, like, a mitre saw.

No, we had a little plastic RYOBI table saw.

- Yeah, it was a plastic.

- Oh!

(Jayme laughs) - I did have one of those, a mitre station.

- A real, okay.

- Yeah, it was a 45.

- Yeah.

- I did not know how to use it.

- All right.

(laughs) - But yeah, I had one of those, I had a saw.

And I think my furniture at that point was all done with a hammer and a nail.

You know, screws.

I didn't know how to do a pilot hole, I didn't ever wanna do a pilot hole, so my- - I don't even know what that is, so.

- (laughs) I would put two pieces of wood together.

- I don't think I'll ever.

- And they would crack, and I'd go, I don't know what's going on, I don't know how to do this stuff.

- So, oh, you mean the pilot hole is to drill first, and then to put the screw in?

- Yes, Ma'am.

- To pre-drill.

- I didn't know the name.

Yeah, I never pre-drilled.

- Pre-drilling.

- I knew something, yay!

- Yeah.

I never pre-drilled, (Jayme laughs) so I was like, mm, I don't wanna do this stuff.

But I got the fever, I started liking it, and we started doing more and more and- - Well, and then COVID hit.

- Yeah.

- Right.

- Yeah, pandemic.

- And so we're like, well, we'll put it on Marketplace.

- Now what do we do?

- And it gives us a chance to learn and help somebody else, 'cause it is rustic, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

- Right.

- But it's an opportunity for us to learn and an opportunity for somebody else to get a piece of made in the USA, real wood furniture.

And we didn't charge a lot.

But he said, "Man, I really like this."

And he didn't really have a hobby before or something he really dug into.

- [Christine] Right.

- So the Dave Ramsey part comes into, we were at a good point in our lives where we could invest in ourselves.

So we would build something, and then we had the opportunity to take that money and roll it into the shop and buy a new tool or buy the next wood.

And roll that and roll that, and stay debt-free.

So we were able to build our business that way.

And, like I said, it gave us an opportunity to make a few mistakes but not in a way that it wasn't a good piece of furniture, it was still great.

- Right.

- We were able to evolve our knowledge and say, "We did it this way, but why don't we do it this way next time?"

- It'll probably work better this other way.

- Yeah.

- Well, you learn from, I mean, that's how we learn, is from mistakes.

Now, you're wearing a red shirt.

- Yes, Ma'am.

- And I know that the RED stands for, I think it's a national organization, Remember Everyone Deployed.

- Yep.

- And so, this is something that is near and dear to your craftsmanship as well.

- Absolutely.

I remember being in a market, and I had done a kneeling soldier, a template, and a lady walked up.

And I always said, you know, we're gonna give, you know, some items to charity and help with bringing that awareness to the community.

But a lady walked up to me, and she saw that soldier kneeling there, and it had "A Soldier's Prayer."

She just about, she had a baby, and she goes, "Oh my gosh, I need that piece!"

She reaches down and gets her purse and realizes she forgot her purse in her car.

And so the baby, she goes, "I'm gonna be right back.

How much is it?"

- So, left the baby with you?

- No, no.

(chuckles) - (laughs) Okay.

- No, I avoided that.

- Okay.

Okay.

- So I said, you know, I said, you know, "I appreciate what you're trying to do, do not go back to your car."

And I handed her the piece, and she goes, "This has," and she breaks out into tears, she goes, "This has so much more meaning than you can imagine because my husband is deployed."

And I said, "Wow."

- Yeah.

- There is a need in this community to bring that awareness here.

- Right.

- And so we really started with that awareness there.

And then without even knowing it, we turned our woodworking from making benches to patriotic stuff.

- Yeah.

- We made American flags, and we made, just, American crosses with the flag or the heart of country, and kneeling soldiers.

As we evolved, we made more and more and got involved with the community, we would give to other local organizations and just help them whenever they had a raffle or an event that they needed to raise money for.

- [Christine] Right.

- We would volunteer with them and just basically got immersed into that.

And it brings you a sense of, I'm back to my military days, and I'm with my people that I know, and I- - [Christine] It's your comfort zone.

- It's my comfort zone.

And so we were dealing- - Oh, yeah!

- We were dealing with our stress or PTSD, you know, a little bit, wherever you are, you have a little bit of it.

And so it's dealing with that through our art.

So we realized, hey, there's 22 Veteran Artists in the local area, 22VA.

There's Resilience Project, there's Freedom Paws, there's the Honor Flight.

And as we learn more and more, there's all these different organizations doing different things.

So Freedom Paws does the dogs, the training.

- Mm-hmm, service dogs.

- The service dogs.

- Right.

- We started working with them, and we designed something for them.

We stayed with military art, so it kinda fits, we did dog bowls.

The stations for those dogs as they hand 'em over to owners, they can have a dog bowl for them.

It just fit that theme.

- Yeah.

- We work with the Honor Flight.

We have a background with the F-18s, so we made, is it okay if I show you this one?

- Yeah, please do.

- This is our F-18.

Jayme, having the graphics background, she would do those, and then we would laser etch them on anodized aluminum, and then we will frame them in wood.

- Wow.

- But that's what we worked on, so we know a little bit about it.

- [Christine] Gorgeous.

- We have that one, we have different aircrafts that we do.

- I love it.

- Learning about our history within Peoria.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm.

- There used to be an F-16 squadron.

- I remember that.

- We have F-16s, we have the C-130s.

We have, somebody asked us- - We have the Chinooks.

- The Chinook.

Somebody asked us, "Can you do an SR-71?"

I hand 'em over to Jayme.

Jayme does the SR-71.

We just got done.

- [Jayme] I'm working on an Osprey right now.

- Actually, it's in process, she's doing the Osprey.

- So, you actually do the computerization of the- - Of the blueprint.

- The blueprint.

- So I find them online, and then I take the different pieces and I turn it into a graphic.

And then we can use the laser to create that.

- And neither one of you knew that you had this talent to start with?

- Never.

Nope.

- But it was something that was tugging at your heartstrings in order to really, really embrace veterans, and you are veterans.

- Yeah.

- And so, you know that the need.

And so, what other organizations are you partnering with?

You had a T-shirt that you were showing me before we started taping here.

- When we're at the markets, so we have this.

- This is where I met her.

- This talks about it.

- You know what, want me to put this one here, Micah?

I met them at the Riverfront Market that was indoors couple weeks ago.

And I thought, oh, this is really something I need to know more about, so thank you very much.

So this is the red T-shirts, and on the back you have- - All the different organizations.

- So, there, can you see that one okay?

So we've got Freedom Paws, talked about that.

Veteran Artists, you said there's 22 of them locally.

- No, no.

- Give you the story.

- It's a group called 22VA.

- Oh, okay.

Oh, 22VA, okay, I got it.

- They bring awareness to the fact that nationwide we lose 22 veterans to suicide every day.

- Every day.

- Every day.

- Oh, okay.

Oh, darn.

Then the Honor Flight and Fuller Center, Helping Veterans.

Heart of Illinois, Blue Star Moms, mothers.

And then here's the peartalents.com, so that's your website.

- Yeah, and then on the front we have the kneeling soldier, which started it all, right?

And then, Remember Everybody Deployed.

- Right.

- And then on the sleeve, it has WGY6 in stencil font, which is "we've got your 6."

- Oh, I got it, yeah.

- We got your 6, we've got your back.

- We've got your back.

- [Christine] We learned that, right.

Exactly.

- So, that's on the back of the shirt, so.

- I love it.

- So, being in the marketplace, and we have a tent full of veterans, and sometimes it gets so, it's so fun 'cause it's almost like a reunion.

You've never met these people before, but you have a tent full of people all talking and joking and making fun of each other, and it's like a family reunion.

- Right.

- And, you learn that they all have different needs, and we have this unique niche where we have a gathering place for them.

They're there, they didn't know they were gonna meet us, but we can say, "Oh, you have a friend who's looking for a service dog?

You know, let me give you the information for that."

Or, "Have you ever been on an Honor Flight?

No?

Here, I can sign you up right here and give you the information."

- Right.

- And so we've become, like, we've become a hub of information for the veterans that visit our market tent.

And we get to connect them with resources that we didn't even know existed up until a couple of years ago.

- So people at these organizations have found you once you're just kind of out there and established.

- And some of 'em, I've heard of from somebody who came in, and then I will go chase 'em down and say, "Oh, you do this?

Well, I'm not trying to sell you.

I want you to know we wanna know what you do so that we can pass that information along."

And I'd never seen a shirt with all of the local organizations.

- On the back.

- So it gives us, when we say PearTalents, we're pear tree, but we're multiplying the talents that God gives us, the opportunities that He's given us.

So we bought the first group of shirts, and half of the money this time goes to the, it helps us fundraise- - With the Honor Flight.

Okay.

- For the wood that we use, that we gather locally, we get it from a gentleman, it's Forged Of Wood And Stone in Knoxville, Illinois.

- Ty Putnam, yeah.

- He helps us, he gets the wood for us and he dimensionalizes it.

And then we have little work parties, and we have friends that help us put it together.

- [Christine] Okay.

- So half the money goes to the wood, and the other half goes to the next round of shirts.

So we can help Freedom Paws, we can buy the next whatever they need.

And then we can do another round of shirts as we learn the different groups.

- And who needs you.

Yeah, so explain this now.

- Who needs us.

- This is really awesome.

- Yeah, so, we actually had a box, they were really rustic.

We would make 'em out of reclaimed wood out of- - Chip Energy in Goodfield.

- Chip Energy in Goodfield.

And then we said, well, if this is gonna be a mass production effort, we got 320 veterans going on the Honor Flight this year, so we've gotta build 320 boxes.

Who can supply me some good wood and Ty came through for us.

And so this is the oak.

It's all locally stores in Illinois.

But on the inside, each veteran will get one of these as they go on the Honor Flight.

But we've got the logo for the Peoria Honor Flight.

So, this wasn't developed by us, we made bigger boxes, but working with the Honor Flight, they gave us the dimensions they wanted for this box so that each veteran can go home and have a memorabilia to take home with them.

- And so this is somebody from the Army, and there would be a Marine and there would be- - Each branch.

- Coast Guard.

- Each branch, yeah.

- [Jayme] We had one Coast Guard this year.

- One Coast Guard, all right.

(Jayme laughs) - And that brings us to another point.

You know, you can't just go out and put images on anything that you want to, you have to get rights.

- Absolutely.

- So for this, we had to get licensed with the Marine Corps, the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, Coast Guard.

- Coast Guard.

- We have all the branches that we're licensed with.

So we wanna make sure that we honor all the branches and do the right thing the right way.

- And Jayme, you were saying that the official photographs from the day that they go on the Honor Flight are included in their boxes.

- From their day.

And it's not a generic photo book, it's an actual book of their day, they'll get it after the flight.

And when they go home, it fits in their box, and so does all of the letters and the little flags and the things that they get from that day, it all will all fit in there, with their coins, and it's just a nice place for them to have all of their stuff in one place 'cause- - [Christine] Absolutely.

- So many of them will say, "That was the best day of my life."

And they wanna go back over those letters and they wanna read them.

It makes such a difference to them, so.

- [Christine] Relive it.

- But that was all, I mean, that's in collaboration with the Honor Flight.

They're the ones that reached out and asked us if we can make these for the veterans.

It wasn't our idea.

Kudos to them.

You know, that's a great idea for the veterans, and it's just a way that we can help support that mission.

- Right.

- Help them do what they wanna do.

So, we love all the time we can do that.

- And so, and again, you do, so you're not doing so much rustic furniture anymore, (Jayme chuckles) you're mostly doing patriotic things.

- Yes.

- Well, there's a couple other things, yeah.

- Absolutely.

You gotta have fun.

- What are some of the other things that you're doing?

I know that one of 'em is, like, people are smoking their cocktails and things, so you're making- - We followed a little bit of trends and tried to see how that worked.

Again, we made those boxes out of cedar, locally sourced cedar.

And we followed, how do you, in the big, I don't know, bars, people go and get a smoked cocktail.

So it's basically shavings of the whiskey barrel or shavings of the barrels themselves, and they'll light them, and it'll create the smoke within that glass.

And then you can put ice in there and then your whiskey or your- - So you had to research this too?

- Absolutely.

- Yes, Ma'am.

- Every little detail.

(Christine laughs) Every little detail.

- We call it plugging into the Matrix.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - 'Cause we, it's like, you know, oh, we don't know how to do that.

Okay, well, we just learned how to 3D on our, to do, like, a 3D carve on our CNC.

- On your printer?

- Oh!

Okay.

(Jayme laughs) - Yeah.

Yeah.

- All right.

- I mean, every time we have a request, it's something new that we get to learn and grow and learn new skills.

- What's the most unusual request you've gotten so far?

Do you know?

- Oh, I have one.

- Well, we had to turn that one down, though, but yeah.

- Yeah, are we talking about the toboggan?

- Yeah, yes.

- Oh!

(Jayme laughs) - I can't do toboggans.

(Christine laughs) - Be hard to get that little curve.

- Yeah, you have to steam the wood in a steamer, I don't have that.

And it would be a very focused product.

And sometimes you have to turn away people because it's just, it's not within our niche.

And you have to be able to say no, because you'll get spiraled into something you don't wanna to be doing.

- Right.

- So- - We wanna keep our focus.

- Take your focus off what- - Yeah, exactly, why are we doing this?

- Understandable.

- We're doing this for the veterans, we're doing this to bring awareness.

- But the Riverfront Market is wonderful, and it is filled with all kinds of makers that we've met and become friends with.

- Yeah.

- And so we can say, well, that's not really something we do, but I know NoslenMade.

- [Christine] Right.

- You know, I know the cutting board guy, or I know...

There's so many different people that we can, we're not afraid to share work 'cause we're not there to take everything, we wanna be part of the collective.

- [Christine] Right.

- And yeah, we still teach it.

And I love to teach people, because then I can help them multiply what they like to do.

I could see them as a competitor or I could see them as an opportunity to grow their mission.

- Well, there you go.

And that's the healthier way to look at it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And so, you know, we did a lot of research when we were doing the markets and what we wanted to sell.

One of the best advice I got was, don't sell what everybody else is selling.

- Right.

- Find something you wanna do.

- Your own niche, yeah.

- What are you passionate about?

- And people will walk into our area, and they'll go, "I have never seen anything like this."

- [Christine] Yeah.

- And so, again, being licensed with the different branches, we're able to bring in different items and make stuff that we really enjoy.

- So you have a blanket approval for using the logo on just about anything?

- Well, we have to go through and submit the art.

- Every branch.

- Every branch, yeah.

(Jayme laughs) Yeah, so- - Well, I mean, but once it's in place, you're okay with what- - We're okay, we have to report.

- You're putting it on?

- Right, what we've made.

- Okay.

- How much we've made, but- - All right.

- We're not mass production, so we're more of a hobbyist license at that point.

- [Christine] Well, I like that.

Okay, so what do you have here?

- So this is a fun thing.

A long time ago, a long time ago?

It seems like a long time ago, my friend gave me one, and I thought, man, this is the best thing in my garage.

And what it reminds you as a woodworker is you have to measure twice (Christine laughs) or else that E just gets cut off.

So it's a "Measure Twic" sign.

- [Christine] It is.

- And so you have to remember that, that's the golden rule of any woodworker.

And so we wanted to present it to you.

- Well, thank you.

(laughs) - As a gift to hang.

- Thank you.

- I remember that's what made you laugh.

I saw you come in, and you're like, (Christine laughs) look at this, look at this.

- Yeah, it is.

- I love that.

- I mean, it's perfect, because how many times have we measured twice and still cut wrong?

- Yes.

(Christine laughs) - [Jayme] In all things in life and not just woodworking.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

(Jayme laughs) So, real quickly, bucket list.

What do you wanna do immediately next?

What's your next goal?

- Well, we just enjoy what we're doing right now.

I just love all of the support.

We can do a bucket list, wow.

- I just wanna follow, I wanna follow the thread.

I feel like somewhere along the line, God put us on a path and gave us a thread, and as we go along, we kind of take the right turns and we find ourselves in places that I know we're there for a purpose.

And I just wanna keep finding that purpose wherever we go.

- Well, we thank you very much for all of your efforts and all of your foresight and all of your talents, and thanks for sharing your story, you guys.

- Absolutely.

- Thanks for having us, it was so fun.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- All right, and we'll find you at, what's the website again?

- It's peartalents.com.

- Okay.

- So it's the fruit pear, and then talents.

- All right, thanks so much.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for joining us, and until next time, be well.

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