Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Noah Grot & Courtney Ligtenberg from 1st National Bank in Amboy

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Talk Line: Noah Grot & Courtney Ligtenberg from 1st National Bank in Amboy · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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Speaker 1: Our right sock Valley. You're back with the Waking Crew
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Speaker 1: on FM ninety five one and fourteen sixty WIXN. It's
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Speaker 1: just about a thirty five on your Friday morning, and
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Speaker 1: it's time for talk line, and I'm joined in the
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Speaker 1: booth once again by our good friends from the First
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Speaker 1: National Bank and a boy Noah Grot and Courtney Lettenberg. Folks,
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Speaker 1: how are you good to have you back?
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Speaker 2: Thank you certainly glad to be here doing excellent.
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Speaker 1: I am fantastic. I get to sit in the booth,
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Speaker 1: play good music and have good conversations with fine people
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Speaker 1: like you. Also, I never have a bad day at work.
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Speaker 1: When my wife has to tell me about the stressful
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Speaker 1: days of being a nurse. I'm just over here, like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I had to play an extra song today. It's so
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Speaker 1: rough it's.
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Speaker 2: Not even fair. I don't even try to lie anymore.
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Speaker 1: But so, you guys are here because there's there's so
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Speaker 1: much going on, so much that's always being put back
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Speaker 1: out into the community and what you're trying to do
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Speaker 1: to improve your services over a national So I'm just
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Speaker 1: gonna kind of let you lead. I love community service efforts,
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Speaker 1: and you guys are always part of them, So I'm
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Speaker 1: gonna let you take that away.
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Speaker 3: Well, thanks, Brandon. Yeah, I mean, we we certainly enjoyed
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Speaker 3: being involved. I have the privilege of being able to
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Speaker 3: work with a lot of excellent people inside the bank
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Speaker 3: and coordinating a lot of our efforts outside too. And
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Speaker 3: we have multiple, multiple, multiple employees that are a part
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Speaker 3: of different boards and organizations that are always They're always
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Speaker 3: providing opportunities for us to stay out there and be
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Speaker 3: helping the community.
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 4: I think also to play into it, you know, amboys,
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Speaker 4: Amboys history has always been community oriented, so naturally, seeing
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Speaker 4: all of our history of community service and seeing all
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Speaker 4: of the executive team put their time into community service,
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Speaker 4: I think it just kind of trickles down to everyone
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Speaker 4: just wants to do as much as they can play
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Speaker 4: their part build the community up. I mean, you see
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Speaker 4: it in all levels of our employees. Everybody just wants
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Speaker 4: to donate and give their time, and it's just it's
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Speaker 4: something special that you see in our bank. It's just
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Speaker 4: words can't even put it to full perspective.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes absolutely and one of those things an initiative here
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Speaker 1: is partnering with the Dixon Police Department for you guys
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Speaker 1: are going to be educating me and I'm sure many
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Speaker 1: of our listeners today on card skimmer detection devices.
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Speaker 2: That's right there, are.
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Speaker 1: You guys part of the new Mission Impossible movie? What's
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Speaker 1: going on here?
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Speaker 3: These aren't super secret gadgets, so yes, you don't have
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Speaker 3: to be you don't have to be part of six
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Speaker 3: or CIA anything like that to get your hands on these,
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Speaker 3: but they are very useful. We did purchase a few
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Speaker 3: of them and donated them to the Dixon Police Department,
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Speaker 3: And basically they are a it's for deep insert machines,
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Speaker 3: so that's most ATMs gas pumps, which you can see
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Speaker 3: a lot of not necessary here, but historically you can
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Speaker 3: see card skimmers in those. So that those card skimmers
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Speaker 3: are once you put your card in, take it out,
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Speaker 3: it's stealing and retaining your Democratic card information and frousters
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Speaker 3: can use that against you. So these devices help detect
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Speaker 3: the presence of those.
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Speaker 1: Wow. I yeah, see again education today, because I had
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Speaker 1: no idea outside of something that sounds like a plot
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Speaker 1: in one of these movies, that this is a way
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Speaker 1: that people are getting it. You always are thinking of
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Speaker 1: like the telephone scammers and things like that, but the
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Speaker 1: thought of like putting my card that God now though,
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Speaker 1: you know, now I got two things to fear when
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Speaker 1: I put.
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Speaker 2: My card in a machine.
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Speaker 1: I was always thinking like, it's gonna malfunction and suck
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Speaker 1: my card in, And now I'm like, is this real? So,
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Speaker 1: but I'm glad now that we have these here and
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Speaker 1: in the hands of our law enforcement that can that
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Speaker 1: can help folks around here.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: It's both on the prementitive side and on the investigative side.
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Speaker 3: So obviously the ideal is to prevent it and detect
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Speaker 3: it before anything bad happens, and then in the unfortunate
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Speaker 3: event of frot happening, they could be used for the
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Speaker 3: investigative side too.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Just just another tool to help people, to help customers.
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Speaker 1: So I absolutely love that. Another way that you guys
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Speaker 1: are helped supporting the community, and I love anybody getting
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Speaker 1: involved in this because I love shouting it off the
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Speaker 1: hills is the Impact Program at stock Valley Community College,
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Speaker 1: and you guys are have been for a while just
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Speaker 1: helping along the way.
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Speaker 4: We do we do we you know, same same for us.
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Speaker 4: We we love the Impact program. We could shout it,
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Speaker 4: shout it through the mountains too. We're huge supporters of
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Speaker 4: the Impact Program. You know, Amboys seen a huge increase
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Speaker 4: in donations just I mean, gosh, just within the last
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Speaker 4: year for the Impact programs such a it's such a
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Speaker 4: huge accomplishment because we're a part of that. There's other
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Speaker 4: businesses in Amboy that are a part of that donation.
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Speaker 4: I mean, you're seeing it grow in our area, which
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Speaker 4: I think this is the first time throughout the past
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Speaker 4: few years that I've seen it grow this rapidly out
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Speaker 4: in Amboy. So, I mean, it's such a such a
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Speaker 4: great program at the college, and to see it expand
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Speaker 4: to some of our other rural areas ISS, it just
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Speaker 4: shows how much of an impact it makes.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of outside looking in.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I'm from Dixon, but I've especially now working
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Speaker 3: at the bank and getting to see the community of
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Speaker 3: Amboy and seeing how true of a community they are.
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Speaker 3: I mean, when they find something that they like and
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Speaker 3: that they know is going to help their people, everybody
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Speaker 3: rallies behind it. It's been extremely impressive the instant traction
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Speaker 3: and the exponential take off that the Impact Program's success
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Speaker 3: has kind of garnered.
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Speaker 2: In that community. It's been just unbelievably amazing to see.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean Amboy really ran with it. I mean,
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Speaker 1: this is something that's there in part of these communities,
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Speaker 1: but it's up to them to get it, to grow it,
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Speaker 1: and Amboy really did. I was watching the Shaw stories
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Speaker 1: when they came out every time that something was to
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Speaker 1: do with that, and I was like, many they went
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Speaker 1: really quick, even bigger than some of the other bigger communities.
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Speaker 1: You need to take a lesson from Amble and what
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Speaker 1: they're doing over there. So yeah, which you know brings me.
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Speaker 1: I mean impact program. You know, volunteer, these these kids
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Speaker 1: and their volunteer hours are part of that. And of
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Speaker 1: course volunteer and volunteering and events are part of what
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Speaker 1: you guys are at. And you've got several that you're
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Speaker 1: involved in the summer.
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Speaker 4: We do have a lot, but it's it's a it's
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Speaker 4: a laundry list, which is a good thing. I know,
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Speaker 4: it shows and we have we have employees that sign
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Speaker 4: up for all of these. I mean, we've got we've
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Speaker 4: got so many different events. Noah is a huge part
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Speaker 4: of that. I mean, just trying to get in touch
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Speaker 4: with the individuals, the nonprofits that are hosting these events,
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Speaker 4: telling them we've got employees that can rally behind them,
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Speaker 4: donate hours, donate time, and then Noah sends I mean,
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Speaker 4: Noah's the one that sends out the emails to our
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Speaker 4: employees to get us all to sign up for everything.
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Speaker 4: So I mean he's a huge piece of that for
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Speaker 4: us as well. But I mean even just all of
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Speaker 4: our employees, everyone who's willing to donate the time, it's
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Speaker 4: just it's so it's so special, and there's some people.
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Speaker 4: You know, we have some events that are always they're
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Speaker 4: an annual event, they're always there, and some employees just
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Speaker 4: stick to it. They're like, you know, that was so
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Speaker 4: much fun, Like sign me up every year, like that
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Speaker 4: was great, and it's I mean, how special is that?
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Speaker 4: It's wonderful. I think one of our biggest ones the
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Speaker 4: Summer Eats Summer Eats program, that's one of our Yeah,
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Speaker 4: one of our big ones. Everybody always signs up for him. Yeah,
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Speaker 4: that one's a good one. Of course, we do a
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Speaker 4: lot with Deepot Days too. When Deepot Days comes to Amboy,
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Speaker 4: we always donate our time for that. Some of the
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Speaker 4: local fair grounds whenever fair seasons right around the corner,
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Speaker 4: so when they need an extra extra pair of hands
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Speaker 4: to help run events or if we set up a
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Speaker 4: booth out there. I mean, we always try to help
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Speaker 4: out there as well. There's there's so much anymore, Noah,
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Speaker 4: you name, you name.
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Speaker 3: Sometimes we've done different collection drives for things.
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Speaker 2: I know last year there was stuff the bus.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, we had we had put out a
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Speaker 3: lot of different totes at our different locations and kind
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Speaker 3: of gather them all up and got had the privilege
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Speaker 3: of dropping them off over there and sterling at the
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Speaker 3: good Will. So that was cool and that was cool
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Speaker 3: to see everybody's generosity in that too.
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Speaker 2: We have that. I mean, we're involved in the CEO
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Speaker 2: program too. I'm I'm actually a mentor for it. Honored
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Speaker 2: to be that we do. I mean bell ringing for
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Speaker 2: the Salvation Army over the winter.
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Speaker 3: I think that's that might be through our Kawanas Club potentially,
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Speaker 3: but or at least I know I know that I
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Speaker 3: did that. But yeah, we we help out with the
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Speaker 3: good Fellows of Lee County two. That's a that's a
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Speaker 3: big one. That was another fun one. That was one
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Speaker 3: and good Fellows has been a more recent addition and
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Speaker 3: I think people really look forward to to shop them
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Speaker 3: with with folks and helping out there.
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Speaker 2: And Clara Harris is.
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Speaker 1: Just clas Yeah, don't think I forgot about you. Claire's Claire.
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Speaker 1: We got to get you back in here. She she's
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Speaker 1: been a regular on here. I love that lady and
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Speaker 1: everything she does. Yeah, uh, you know. And speaking of
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Speaker 1: what you guys do, it doesn't just stop with it
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Speaker 1: with events, although again, uh, this is just I'm sorry.
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Speaker 1: This is a private thing between me and the audience
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Speaker 1: where they're probably sick of hearing me say that there's
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Speaker 1: always something to do in the Sauk Valley. Like okay,
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Speaker 1: First National just rattled off. Okay, they had too much
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Speaker 1: long on the list of what they're part of when
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Speaker 1: what they're doing, and this is just one organization, So
9:33
Speaker 1: get out there, all right, I'll get off my soapbox.
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Speaker 1: They're used to it. But you guys are also supporting
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Speaker 1: our our our local students with scholarships.
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Speaker 2: That's right. We do.
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Speaker 3: We do offer some to a couple of a couple
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Speaker 3: of our different high schools here. Yeah, I know over
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Speaker 3: at at Amboyward Student of the Month and Student of
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Speaker 3: the Year, and then we.
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Speaker 2: Have a couple of scholarships over at Dickson High School too.
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Speaker 3: That that we have the privilege of giving out. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: and of course as we can, we continue to grow
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Speaker 3: we we love, whether it's through scholarship or our donations
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Speaker 3: of our money or time, either way, just try and
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Speaker 3: grow those in each of the communities that we serve.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean really I've always said is what's
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Speaker 1: nice about the Sauk Valley is it's this this pocket
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Speaker 1: of Illinois where Illinois will produce some battle hardened creatures.
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Speaker 2: Okay, it's rough.
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Speaker 1: To make it out in Illinois. We got to break
10:27
Speaker 1: on the weather disasters, no earthquakes or typhoons, but they said, whoa,
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Speaker 1: it's other than that, it's it's gonna be a little
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Speaker 1: expensive out here. And so what we've done is we said,
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Speaker 1: we're not gonna wait for somebody to come along when
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Speaker 1: it comes to you know, supplying scholarships, education, the impact program,
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Speaker 1: things like this summer eats right, Like, we're not gonna
10:48
Speaker 1: wait for for the federal government to come in and
10:50
Speaker 1: help our kids eat. Like, we're gonna solve our own problems.
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Speaker 1: And it's things like this, things that you guys are
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Speaker 1: doing and everybody joining together. That that what I I love.
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Speaker 1: I say, we really just sol we solve our own
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Speaker 1: problems here.
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Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I mean it's amazing to go to these
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Speaker 3: different things and see the amount of people and different
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Speaker 3: other businesses and organizations are represented at these things around
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Speaker 3: here in the Soutailey. It's I think it's a pretty
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Speaker 3: extra special place.
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Speaker 2: You just there's so.
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Speaker 3: Many people who care and who who give back without
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Speaker 3: asking a return, they just give.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, It's it's amazing to see so many people give them.
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Speaker 1: Themselves absolutely, you know. In speaking of that nonprofits and donations,
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Speaker 1: Gens Day is this an excuse to get out my skinnies?
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Speaker 1: What's going on today?
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Speaker 4: Would be today? Because today's actually one of our gens Days. Yeah,
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Speaker 4: Usually what every other Friday we try to have a
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Speaker 4: Gene's Day. I think we've had over over thirty of
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Speaker 4: them so far. It's over thirty jeans days. Each Geen's
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Speaker 4: Day we host a different nonprofit to raise funds for,
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Speaker 4: so as you're wearing your jeans, you know, five dollars
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Speaker 4: five dollars to put towards the nonprofit of the day.
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Speaker 4: And yeah, I mean we've had over thirty of them, so,
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Speaker 4: I mean that's thirty different nonprofits that we've been able
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Speaker 4: to help and donate a couple. You know, even if
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Speaker 4: it's just a couple hundred dollars, it's our employees trying
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Speaker 4: to do something to again rally together and raise funds
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Speaker 4: for the local nonprofits that support us and we support them.
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Speaker 4: And yeah, it's fun. You bring out, you bring out
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Speaker 4: your jeans. Everybody except me, I don't like jeans, so
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Speaker 4: you know, I'm one of the I'm one of the
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Speaker 4: losers that does not does not dress up for Jeans Day.
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Speaker 4: I do still try to participate, but I don't ever
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Speaker 4: wear the jeans. I just donate, So that's okay. I'm
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Speaker 4: comfortable with that.
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Speaker 1: I finally gave in and broke out the shorts yesterday.
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Speaker 1: Officially I did, which is say, I'll still have my
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Speaker 1: jeans on the lighter days because I miss being able
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Speaker 1: to wear my boots otherwise it right, oh, gives give
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Speaker 1: way too much the cargo in the boots. Lets you
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Speaker 1: wonder what's going on with me? Man, don't give them
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Speaker 1: a match. You guys also support and sponsor a variety
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Speaker 1: of community events from right here within the community.
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Speaker 3: That's right, I know, Courtney, you had mentioned Depot Days earlier.
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Speaker 3: Of course, with that with depot dyes being a part
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Speaker 3: of Amboy and that's where our home base is. We
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Speaker 3: do enjoy being involved, whether it's whether it's there for
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Speaker 3: I know, we have multiple plays who help with the
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Speaker 3: fifty to fifty ticket sales and in other aspects we
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Speaker 3: do the parade there, Petunia Fest Parade, Framkin Grove Harvest
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Speaker 3: Fest Parade, some different county fairs, things like that. I
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Speaker 3: know that we yeah, we supposed the Midwest someone on
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Speaker 3: leadership kind of pive been totally away from.
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Speaker 2: This is now professional development side. We've been able to
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Speaker 2: sponsor and be involved in that.
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Speaker 3: There's different United Way events and yeah, there's a lot
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Speaker 3: of like you said, Courtney, with whether it's with the
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Speaker 3: Geens Days or even just when I see our our
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Speaker 3: marketing budget and look at the look at the amount
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Speaker 3: of sponsorships that we send out.
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Speaker 2: You know, I'm not always a fan of just patting
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Speaker 2: myself on the backside, but it's kind of any to
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Speaker 2: the bank because I'm like, all right, hey, you know
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Speaker 2: we're doing some good here.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And I mean this is people always look
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Speaker 1: forward to this, so I mean, keeping these things going,
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Speaker 1: it's just a wonderful thing. You guys, You guys were right.
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Speaker 1: I think we could fill it until ten, but we're
14:23
Speaker 1: pushing close on our timeline. Is there anything else you
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Speaker 1: want to share? What we got another minute?
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Speaker 4: I suppose you know, big big event we host, so
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Speaker 4: shred Days. We have shred Days coming up here in
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Speaker 4: the next few months, So shred Days. People can bring
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Speaker 4: four large boxes or bags per person. Shred Days is
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Speaker 4: what September twelfth behind Dixon North, September nineteenth behind our
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Speaker 4: Franklin Grove location, and then September twenty sixth behind our
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Speaker 4: Amboy Main location. All from nine to eleven, so nine
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Speaker 4: am to eleven. But yeah, we can bring you know,
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Speaker 4: shred that you have at home, whatever you've got, bring
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Speaker 4: it in those days. Yeah, I mean, that's one of
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Speaker 4: our one of our bigger things. Everybody's got stuff they
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Speaker 4: need to throw away. So now's your time to go
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Speaker 4: through closets and safes and start purging your old documents whatever.
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Speaker 2: You don't need a box or two.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you need to get tossed. It's a good time.
15:22
Speaker 1: You think sometimes you gotta call him out, so you
15:27
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
15:28
Speaker 2: That's the call reminder. I think she might be listening.
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Speaker 1: It's with love, he's smiling, it's with lovely. Oh I
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Speaker 1: love it. Guys, thanks so much for coming in for
15:36
Speaker 1: all that you do. If anybody wants any more informational
15:39
Speaker 1: we've talked about, or any of the fantastic financial services
15:42
Speaker 1: you offer, what is the best way to do it?
15:44
Speaker 2: Well, of course you can visit.
15:45
Speaker 3: Our website is www dot f NB is in bank
15:49
Speaker 3: and Boy dot com. You can call us at eight
15:52
Speaker 3: one five eight five seven three six two five, or
15:55
Speaker 3: of course stopping at one of our branches. We have
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Speaker 3: two here in Dixon two and and Boy of course,
16:00
Speaker 3: one in Franklin Grove and then one up in Monroe
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Speaker 3: Center to our Ogle County branch.
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Speaker 2: There you go.
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Speaker 1: They are going to be everywhere one day. Noah Courtney,
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Speaker 1: thank you so much.
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Speaker 4: Thank you,