Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Dallas Knack talks summer events at the SVACC

Transcript

Talk Line: Dallas Knack talks summer events at the SVACC · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

0:00
Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You're back with the Waking crew
0:03
Speaker 1: here on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen
0:06
Speaker 1: sixty WIXN. It's eight fifteen on your Thursday, July ninth morning,
0:11
Speaker 1: and that means it's time for talk line and I'm
0:13
Speaker 1: joined in the booth once again by our good fronts
0:16
Speaker 1: from the Salk Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. Dallas Knack
0:19
Speaker 1: is here wants more to tell us all about the
0:21
Speaker 1: fantastic work going on throughout the Sock Valley with your organization. Dallas,
0:26
Speaker 1: how are you?
0:26
Speaker 2: I'm great, how are you fantastic?
0:29
Speaker 1: It's air conditioned and here kind of relaxing, I think
0:32
Speaker 1: my I think this job is probably one of the
0:35
Speaker 1: more relaxing parts of my day. So uh yeah, just
0:38
Speaker 1: just doing good And I know y'all have been very busy.
0:42
Speaker 1: Everything's bustling this time of year with events and activities,
0:45
Speaker 1: and of course it's no exception with the Chamber.
0:48
Speaker 3: There's always something going on in the community over the summer.
0:51
Speaker 3: That's one of the great things about the Sock Valley area. Yeah,
0:54
Speaker 3: if you're bored, there is something going on for sure
0:56
Speaker 3: in one of our communities.
0:59
Speaker 1: I'd just helping you just got to get out and
1:00
Speaker 1: do it. Don't say there's nothing to do, You got
1:02
Speaker 1: to get out and do it.
1:03
Speaker 3: There is plenty to do, just depends on what you're
1:06
Speaker 3: looking for. But there's such a variety. Whether you're looking
1:09
Speaker 3: for a food truck festival, or live music or even
1:13
Speaker 3: just a nice walk through nature. There's always something going
1:16
Speaker 3: on in the Sock Valley absolutely.
1:18
Speaker 1: And what I love about what you guys do with
1:20
Speaker 1: your work is that getting people involved in the chamber
1:24
Speaker 1: and in you know, being business minded really starts at
1:28
Speaker 1: a young age for y'all, with the work starting with
1:31
Speaker 1: some middle schoolers for an event you got coming up.
1:34
Speaker 3: Yes, So the Sock Valley Young Creators Group. This is
1:37
Speaker 3: the very first year of it. This is a camp
1:40
Speaker 3: that we have put on in partnership with WACC, the
1:44
Speaker 3: SBDC at Sock Valley Community College and University of Illinois
1:47
Speaker 3: Extension four EAH and it's a.
1:49
Speaker 2: Program that we've been working on.
1:52
Speaker 3: We brought in middle school students so grades six, seventh
1:55
Speaker 3: and eighth to learn about entrepreneurship and build a business
1:58
Speaker 3: this summer, so they had four wheeks to work on
2:00
Speaker 3: their business and this Saturday, July eleventh, They're.
2:03
Speaker 2: Going to put them to the test.
2:05
Speaker 3: We're going to pop up at Grand and Civic Center
2:07
Speaker 3: during Chalk the Walk, and they're going to try it
2:09
Speaker 3: out and see if they like their concept, if they
2:13
Speaker 3: have a good time doing it, or not, if we
2:15
Speaker 3: need to pivot, maybe they don't love the idea day of,
2:18
Speaker 3: or maybe they find out that they want to do
2:20
Speaker 3: something a little bit different.
2:21
Speaker 4: That's what this program is really for, and we're so
2:23
Speaker 4: excited to see them do it.
2:25
Speaker 1: I love that, you know, one of the best ways
2:27
Speaker 1: to find out if you do really enjoy something, you know,
2:31
Speaker 1: you take it from an idea, you got to get
2:33
Speaker 1: hands on with it. So doing this earlier on, I
2:37
Speaker 1: mean one, like you said, is a fantastic way to
2:39
Speaker 1: actually learn. Okay, do I like this? Do you need
2:41
Speaker 1: to pivot? But it gets them so comfortable at an
2:45
Speaker 1: early age having ideas executing on them. And then again,
2:49
Speaker 1: like you said, learning how to pivot, I think is
2:51
Speaker 1: almost sometimes more important than you know once you found
2:57
Speaker 1: it and you're like, yeah, this is great, this is
2:58
Speaker 1: really what I thought it was, because because I feel
3:00
Speaker 1: at some point or another, you're always going to have
3:03
Speaker 1: to learn how to pivot, even you know, maybe you
3:05
Speaker 1: do find out you like this, but you got to
3:07
Speaker 1: tweak a few things. And these kids aren't. They're not
3:10
Speaker 1: going to be afraid of that because they're already gonna
3:12
Speaker 1: have experienced it.
3:13
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we're we already week one. We're going through
3:16
Speaker 3: some pivoting of what can we actually execute in four
3:20
Speaker 3: weeks through this program. Also, they just had the opportunity
3:23
Speaker 3: to develop soft skills that was really important to me,
3:26
Speaker 3: just making sure that they're able to communicate, really getting
3:29
Speaker 3: them ready to work with customers on Saturday at the
3:32
Speaker 3: event take Feedback, work Together. And one of the great
3:36
Speaker 3: things too, is we had quite a few of our
3:38
Speaker 3: local business owners that came out and worked with our kiddos,
3:41
Speaker 3: so they got behind the scenes looks that a lot
3:44
Speaker 3: of our local businesses, and I'm very very grateful for that,
3:47
Speaker 3: and for places like Halo who provided them with stickers
3:50
Speaker 3: and business cards at no cost for these kids to
3:52
Speaker 3: start their businesses. We're really excited to see the SoC
3:56
Speaker 3: value young creators pop up. On July eleventh, I can't
4:00
Speaker 3: believe it's already time for them to start their businesses,
4:03
Speaker 3: but it's been wonderful to see the progress that they
4:06
Speaker 3: have made. You know, you talk about six seventh and
4:08
Speaker 3: eighth graders and building a business and what is entrepreneurship,
4:12
Speaker 3: And some of them came in with ideas. They were like,
4:14
Speaker 3: I've been baking from like three years of my life,
4:17
Speaker 3: which is most of their lives, right, But they're like,
4:21
Speaker 3: I want to make cookies, Like they knew what they wanted.
4:23
Speaker 4: And some of them came in and they're like, I don't.
4:24
Speaker 3: Know, but these are the things I'm passionate about, Like
4:27
Speaker 3: what direction should I try. So just seeing them get
4:30
Speaker 3: more comfortable in what they're passionate about and then providing
4:34
Speaker 3: that and showing that off to the community is really
4:37
Speaker 3: incredible too, when you're talking about such a pivotal age
4:40
Speaker 3: middle school, Like, yeah, I definitely give them a lot
4:43
Speaker 3: of credit for how willing they are to go out
4:47
Speaker 3: in the community and talk about things that they love.
4:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that fearlessness and encouraging that that's going
4:55
Speaker 1: to it's going to stick with them for years to come,
4:57
Speaker 1: and it's really going to serve them when you see
4:59
Speaker 1: so many you know, older kids, I would say, sadly
5:02
Speaker 1: sometimes being kind of afraid of those soft skills, networking,
5:05
Speaker 1: talking with people you know, and I know a lot
5:08
Speaker 1: of that had to do with COVID for some of
5:09
Speaker 1: those kids unfortunately. But you guys are really doing something
5:14
Speaker 1: that's going to help bridge that gap of where I'd
5:17
Speaker 1: kind of seen that in kids being afraid and it's
5:20
Speaker 1: I know they're not going to have those issues after
5:22
Speaker 1: doing this.
5:22
Speaker 4: Well, I mean that's the hope.
5:23
Speaker 3: And the hope too is just to show them the
5:26
Speaker 3: entrepreneurship and owning a business or being part of a
5:28
Speaker 3: business is something that they can realistically do. We know,
5:32
Speaker 3: we have great pathways in our school systems for things
5:35
Speaker 3: like education, early childhood education, anything like that, maybe some nursing,
5:39
Speaker 3: but we don't really have anything for entrepreneurship. And that's
5:42
Speaker 3: sometimes it's really scary to get into. Right when you're
5:45
Speaker 3: setting you're your own boss, you're setting your own path forward,
5:49
Speaker 3: and you know, some of our parents don't necessarily support
5:53
Speaker 3: that because that's a scary venture, like.
5:55
Speaker 4: Who's going to pay for your insurance?
5:56
Speaker 2: What are you going to do if this happens? You
5:58
Speaker 2: need a backup plan.
5:59
Speaker 3: So showing kids at a younger age that this is
6:02
Speaker 3: realistic for them. The goal is just that hopefully when
6:06
Speaker 3: they get to high school, they go into the CEO program.
6:08
Speaker 3: We had a bunch of the CEO kids come in and.
6:10
Speaker 4: Work with them.
6:12
Speaker 3: They worked on their pitches and they personally went on
6:14
Speaker 3: one mentored a bunch of the kids. So that's the
6:17
Speaker 3: next step, and then hopefully just being a business owner
6:19
Speaker 3: in our community because we know that we need local
6:22
Speaker 3: businesses here. That's what makes our communities unique, is what
6:25
Speaker 3: gives us flavor and makes us a destination. So just
6:28
Speaker 3: building them as young as we can, growing local and
6:32
Speaker 3: trying to get our young entrepreneurs just out there and
6:35
Speaker 3: see that this is a possibility for them.
6:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I love that and it's going to be something
6:40
Speaker 1: that I'm just going to I'm really going to be
6:43
Speaker 1: interested to see continue because as you said, this is
6:45
Speaker 1: the first.
6:45
Speaker 2: One, one very first year.
6:47
Speaker 3: Yes, so we've learned a lot through the program. You know,
6:52
Speaker 3: every kid is going to react differently to this, and
6:54
Speaker 3: so we have pivoted.
6:56
Speaker 2: We have learned to.
6:57
Speaker 3: Pivot and taylor things and see what's working and see
7:01
Speaker 3: what's not, see what other mentors we need to bring in,
7:04
Speaker 3: what other behind the scenes they need to see for businesses,
7:07
Speaker 3: what industries interest them.
7:09
Speaker 4: Has been very interesting. So we have been.
7:13
Speaker 3: Building this for our first year, it's definitely been a
7:16
Speaker 3: joint effort and very very thankful for the partnership that
7:20
Speaker 3: we have that has helped work on this project. But
7:22
Speaker 3: this has definitely been a passion project of mine and
7:25
Speaker 3: I'm really excited to see them pop up this Saturday already.
7:29
Speaker 1: Well mark your calendars, get down there, help support the kids,
7:31
Speaker 1: see what it's all about. And I'll be looking forward
7:33
Speaker 1: to seeing how this continues throughout the years and grows,
7:37
Speaker 1: because y'all never stop improving what you're doing over there.
7:40
Speaker 1: So I love it, you know, and speaking of you know,
7:43
Speaker 1: keeping supporting local and you know, when you think chamber,
7:46
Speaker 1: you know, some people might just think the business side,
7:49
Speaker 1: but agriculture. You guys are having an AG day with
7:52
Speaker 1: the kids that kind of just ties into what you do.
7:55
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, we are having as called Youth and Agriculture
7:59
Speaker 3: Mark Day. It'll be at the Twin City Farmers Market
8:02
Speaker 3: in Sterling, so down by the river by the brand new.
8:04
Speaker 2: Park with a splash pad. The big pavilion is.
8:08
Speaker 3: Down there, so we are inviting out for each kids
8:11
Speaker 3: to show off what they grow or make and have
8:14
Speaker 3: a table at the farmer's market for the day with
8:17
Speaker 3: us so again trying to encourage our youth to find
8:21
Speaker 3: a passion and show them that this is plausible for them,
8:25
Speaker 3: especially an ag.
8:27
Speaker 2: How do we get the kids?
8:28
Speaker 3: How do we get kids aware of it and the
8:31
Speaker 3: community aware of it to support it too. So we're
8:34
Speaker 3: inviting them out for anything handmade, homegrown, to show off,
8:38
Speaker 3: try their hand at selling things at the farmers market
8:40
Speaker 3: on July eighteenth. That'll be a Saturday, It's from eight
8:44
Speaker 3: to noon. We're also hoping. We've had some people retire
8:48
Speaker 3: that have been longtime vendors at the farmer's market.
8:50
Speaker 2: How do we fill those gaps? How do we create
8:52
Speaker 2: a pipeline?
8:53
Speaker 3: And I say we farmer's Market is not one of
8:55
Speaker 3: our projects, but is is truly, in my mind, kind
8:59
Speaker 3: of a hidden gem of our community, the Sterling Farmer's Market,
9:01
Speaker 3: and the Dixon has a wonderful farmer's market as well,
9:04
Speaker 3: but a lot of people don't know that it happens
9:07
Speaker 3: down there in Sterling, especially being down by the river,
9:10
Speaker 3: and there's some really great vendors down there's some great businesses.
9:13
Speaker 3: How do we just continue the longevity of that. It's
9:16
Speaker 3: been there for forever in my mind. But so we're
9:20
Speaker 3: inviting out some four each kids to try it out.
9:24
Speaker 3: Have a booth. Four H will also be out there
9:26
Speaker 3: talking about the four EAH programs. If you're unfamiliar with it,
9:28
Speaker 3: it's a really great opportunity to learn more about it.
9:31
Speaker 3: But we really just want to shine a light on
9:34
Speaker 3: youth and agriculture and the agriculture industry in general in
9:38
Speaker 3: our community because it is such a large industry here
9:40
Speaker 3: in the Sock Valley. How do we just continue to
9:43
Speaker 3: support those kids and keep them interested.
9:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that's a great thing to focus
9:48
Speaker 1: on because you know a lot of kids that you
9:51
Speaker 1: know that I've talked to, if you haven't been like
9:53
Speaker 1: kind of born into a farm family, unless you're becoming
9:56
Speaker 1: like part of four H, it's hard to get exposure
9:59
Speaker 1: to agriculture unless you're taking like an AG class at
10:02
Speaker 1: the school. So to have something like this and show them,
10:05
Speaker 1: you know, this is a pathway. You don't necessarily have
10:09
Speaker 1: to have been a third generation kid born on a
10:11
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred acre farm to get involved with
10:15
Speaker 1: ag and make that a part of business and something
10:17
Speaker 1: that you could do for a living. You don't necessarily
10:20
Speaker 1: have to be a big farmer to be involved in
10:22
Speaker 1: agriculture and have it be a pathway.
10:25
Speaker 3: Well. I think the interesting thing too is you don't
10:27
Speaker 3: have to necessarily be out in a field to be
10:30
Speaker 3: a farmer too, right, or be an ag I guess
10:32
Speaker 3: I should say, because there's so many areas of ag,
10:35
Speaker 3: Like the technology side of it is just crazy, all
10:38
Speaker 3: the advancements happening there. There's a lot of different areas too.
10:42
Speaker 3: Even food science can be part of agriculture, veterinarian services
10:47
Speaker 3: part of agriculture. The egg industry needs all of those pieces.
10:52
Speaker 3: So I think that's the really neat thing in my
10:54
Speaker 3: mind too, is showing the different areas. Because we have
10:58
Speaker 3: someone who's going to be doing bouquets out of flowers
11:01
Speaker 3: that they grew. They're going to be doing like French
11:04
Speaker 3: bread because that's part of four H too. Did you
11:07
Speaker 3: know cake decorating is part.
11:08
Speaker 2: Of four HS.
11:10
Speaker 3: Yes, So there's a lot of different areas. It doesn't
11:13
Speaker 3: have to be you know, I'm a big corn farmer,
11:16
Speaker 3: I'm big soybet you know anything like that doesn't even
11:18
Speaker 3: have to be live stock necessarily. So showing off just
11:21
Speaker 3: all of the areas because I don't even think the
11:23
Speaker 3: adults in our community know all of those areas, and
11:26
Speaker 3: I think it's important for us all to be aware and.
11:28
Speaker 2: Just even have some sort of concept.
11:30
Speaker 3: It's wild to me some of the people that you
11:33
Speaker 3: encounter in this area, they're like, I've never set foot
11:35
Speaker 3: on a farm. I don't know how you live. It's
11:37
Speaker 3: not a valley area. I not have done that, but
11:40
Speaker 3: it's very true for a lot of people. So how
11:42
Speaker 3: do we bring those aspects to them where they're at.
11:45
Speaker 3: I think it's important for us to discover. So we're
11:48
Speaker 3: hoping to enlighten some people on July eighteenth that the
11:52
Speaker 3: Twin City Farmers Market again.
11:54
Speaker 1: Get on down there, mark your calendars, help learn what
11:57
Speaker 1: it's all about. Support this and again, what I love
12:00
Speaker 1: seeing in the way that our topics are kind of
12:02
Speaker 1: going today is that, as I said, y'all have started
12:05
Speaker 1: making sure you're getting people involved very young, but you
12:09
Speaker 1: don't stop there. It continues. And what I really love
12:13
Speaker 1: what we're talking about next, your Sauk Valley under forty
12:16
Speaker 1: group is just again another fabulous way from early on
12:21
Speaker 1: and again through because it's still under forty, to get
12:24
Speaker 1: people involved.
12:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the goal right especially right now during the summer.
12:30
Speaker 3: We know that we have some of our college students home,
12:33
Speaker 3: maybe we have some interns in the community. How do
12:35
Speaker 3: we get them interested and also make them feel like
12:39
Speaker 3: they have a place and they belong in our area.
12:41
Speaker 3: And I think that's where Sock Valley under forty really
12:43
Speaker 3: comes into play. So they are hosting an event as
12:47
Speaker 3: a free event on August fifth. It's a Wednesday. It'll
12:50
Speaker 3: be at Palmyra. We're going to be out on the patio.
12:53
Speaker 3: We're going to be doing some networking so that you
12:55
Speaker 3: get to make those connections, you get to meet some
12:58
Speaker 3: new people.
12:58
Speaker 4: There's going to be some.
12:59
Speaker 3: Really chick just like yard games and stuff as well
13:02
Speaker 3: some of us old structure.
13:03
Speaker 2: Some of it's just hey, come hang out and chat.
13:06
Speaker 3: We will have, like I said, some games, some door prizes,
13:11
Speaker 3: there's some fun little some fun little networking pieces.
13:14
Speaker 2: I don't want to give away too much.
13:15
Speaker 4: You got to come out and see it.
13:18
Speaker 2: So that'll be on August fifth.
13:20
Speaker 3: We're really excited to be hosting this in August because
13:23
Speaker 3: we think last year we did something very similar around
13:26
Speaker 3: the same time and we brought in a lot of
13:28
Speaker 3: our interns, a lot of kids that were home from college,
13:30
Speaker 3: and it was a really good sendoff because a lot
13:32
Speaker 3: of them were like, oh, we're leaving to go back
13:34
Speaker 3: maybe next week or in the next couple weeks. So
13:36
Speaker 3: it's kind of just a nice like farewell from the community, like.
13:40
Speaker 4: Come back and see us again.
13:41
Speaker 3: We'd love for you to move back home when you're ready.
13:44
Speaker 3: So that's the goal for August fifth with Stock Valley
13:47
Speaker 3: under forty.
13:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, this group has so many great
13:51
Speaker 1: benefits in the sense even at its simplest. I was
13:54
Speaker 1: explaining to my son, who's in his early twenties. He
13:57
Speaker 1: had called me like a couple of weeks ago, and
13:58
Speaker 1: he was like, he's kind of looking for something to do,
14:01
Speaker 1: and I had suggested this, and he was like, well,
14:04
Speaker 1: you know, he was like, I'm just thinking about he
14:07
Speaker 1: was just thinking about having tweaked his major and going
14:09
Speaker 1: back to school. And he's like, well, I'm un decided
14:11
Speaker 1: with this. He's like, why would I He's like, I'm
14:14
Speaker 1: not sure what I would have to offer in this.
14:16
Speaker 1: And I said, part of what I think is the
14:19
Speaker 1: greatest bit of this is the people that you end
14:21
Speaker 1: up surrounding yourself with. I'm like, don't go in there
14:25
Speaker 1: with any expectation of what you think you're you're going
14:29
Speaker 1: to do or what they're going to do for you.
14:30
Speaker 1: I'm like, get out and meet these people who are
14:34
Speaker 1: civic minded, want to be part of the community, want
14:37
Speaker 1: to do big things. I was like, once you start
14:40
Speaker 1: talking and meeting with people like that and getting involved
14:43
Speaker 1: with what they're doing, you just naturally get pulled into something.
14:46
Speaker 1: You will find some area of things that these people
14:50
Speaker 1: will introduce you to and you never know who it
14:52
Speaker 1: is or who you'll meet. I was like, but just
14:55
Speaker 1: such a big part to me, that's part of personal
14:58
Speaker 1: development is the people you surround yourself with. And for
15:02
Speaker 1: anybody who can be part of this age group, I
15:05
Speaker 1: don't think there is a better way to be like,
15:07
Speaker 1: well where do I find these people? Here? You go?
15:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, right here? Yeah, don't go to the bar.
15:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean the bars are fine support, you know,
15:15
Speaker 1: but I mean when you're looking for something like that,
15:17
Speaker 1: there couldn't be a better way to know that. This
15:19
Speaker 1: is a great way to start.
15:21
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, And for someone like you said that maybe
15:26
Speaker 3: is changing their majors, changing.
15:27
Speaker 2: What area they want to be in. Maybe they don't
15:29
Speaker 2: quite know yet.
15:31
Speaker 3: This is a great way to just get out and
15:32
Speaker 3: even hear about some of the job opportunities. We're not
15:35
Speaker 3: having a job board, we don't have anything posted. But
15:37
Speaker 3: as you're networking and as you're meeting people, you're going
15:40
Speaker 3: to hear about different companies maybe you're not familiar with.
15:42
Speaker 3: You're going to learn about some of the different areas, like,
15:45
Speaker 3: for example, one of our steering committee members is in
15:49
Speaker 3: marketing at a bank. You don't think about roles like
15:51
Speaker 3: that at a bank, right, So just thinking or learning
15:54
Speaker 3: about those different opportunities that maybe you aren't as familiar with,
15:57
Speaker 3: and maybe that just sparks something of like, oh, I
15:59
Speaker 3: never can considered this career opportunity, or you know what,
16:03
Speaker 3: sometimes they're hiring, Oh I want to get my foot
16:06
Speaker 3: in the door. Or it's just about making friends for
16:09
Speaker 3: heaven's sakes. Yes, we have some people that are very
16:12
Speaker 3: avid runners that ran the Reagan five k. Maybe you
16:15
Speaker 3: don't want to run it alone. Maybe you're like, hey,
16:17
Speaker 3: I kind of want to get with a running group.
16:18
Speaker 3: I don't know where to start. That's a great place
16:21
Speaker 3: to find some people too.
16:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's all people that are interested again in
16:26
Speaker 1: being part of the community, developing themselves, developing their community,
16:31
Speaker 1: and yeah, I just couldn't recommend that more love that group.
16:35
Speaker 1: Unfortunately we're out of time. I go on too much,
16:38
Speaker 1: but we did get through the topics that we wanted
16:40
Speaker 1: to get out today, Dallas. Thank you so much for
16:43
Speaker 1: all the work that you folks are doing over there.
16:45
Speaker 1: Really appreciate it. Love seeing what's going on, and I'm
16:49
Speaker 1: loving the updates I'm going to be asking you about
16:51
Speaker 1: during some of the future visits.
16:53
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.