Let’s Talk Newton – United Way of Jasper County Executive Director Jessica Lowe Vokes

Welcome to today's Let's Saw it Newton. I'm Randy Van. Today we continue our

conversation with Jessica Lovox, the executive director of the 9th Way of

Jasper County, talking about next lineup of voices of inspiration. We already

mentioned about Sarah Pratt coming on March 5th and Scott Halverson and NFL

referee, March 12th. Sarah Pratt, the butter sculptor and teacher and we got a

couple of other people to tell you about coming up in late March and early April

Jessica. Yeah, so I am a magic lover. I love magic. So sometimes I'll be honest. I

do a little self-serving on the topics because I like to hear about the things. We

have Troy Peters. He's officially known as the Mind Medler and he is a

mentalist and magician out of Iowa City. He's got a really cool story. He

actually was a set designer in Hollywood. He came to Iowa and is a teacher in

Iowa City and now he's chasing his dream to be a full-time performer and I do

know that he has tried out for America's Got Talent. Now I don't know how far it's

gone because I think they signed an NDA or what I really did. He's going to be

March 26th and he was here a few years ago and did a show for us. A fundraiser.

People loved it. He's coming back just to share more. He's so good at it. He's

so good. And he has great stories to go along with it. So I'm excited to have him

fun and come in. It's going to be fun and entertaining. It's a great program for

everybody like any age. Like truly if you're nine or 99, like come out and be a

part of it. And that's that really goes for all of them. So then the next one I

think this is another one people are like and especially younger, you know,

families, people with young kids, Adam Van Whiteke. He is an animator. He does

storyboard animation. And he's going to be April 9th. And he's from Des Moines.

He loves in the Des Moines area. He's done just a couple of me, secret life of pets,

a lot of Scooby Doo. Like he is the person helping make those movies. So if you go

and see these movies, you'll see his hand at work on the screen. So he's going to

come and talk about that and his work. And he does that from here. Like you

don't, again, don't have to be in Hollywood and New York City to be doing some

cool jobs and stuff. And then I'm excited for this one because this is

something that touches everyone. Whether Dr. Justin Glissen is the Iowa State

climatologist. And it's a really interesting job. And of course, what do we do

is islands? Oh, how about that snow? Oh my gosh, it's hot. Like we talk about it.

Like all the time because it changes all the time. And everybody's affected by it.

So it's an easy common ground. And so I told him I said, I don't know what you

want to talk about, but your official title, your program is it's not the heat.

It's the humidity. And he thought that was really funny. So I joke like that's the name. But

I mean, he's going to talk about what he does. He tracks it and records it and kind of helps. So

that way, a big part of his job is to help, I mean, we're an agriculture state. Yeah.

Kind of a big deal. We need to know what's going on. So I'm really excited because like, again,

between Sarah and Scott, Troy, Adam, Justin, like five completely different fields,

life stories, history, but like all of them are related to Iowa. So that's kind of fun.

What do you get your ideas to call people? Um, you know, it's kind of all over the place. Again,

when I like have come across people who I've met through previous jobs, you know,

like reporting or if I see a story or something online or read something in the paper,

hear some of the radio, like, I mean, if you open your eyes to it, there's a lot of different things.

So Sarah, obviously, Buttercow, Scott was introduced to me by another golfer.

Troy, I heard a podcast and absolutely a lot of what he was sharing. Adam, I saw a program of his

at the Iowa State Historical Museum and Justin is connected to a mutual friend.

So, you know, kind of six degrees of Kevin Bacon there, but what it does is creates a really

awesome season for voice and inspiration. Oh, it takes a little bit of a detective work for you

sometimes, playing content. Which I love. My murder she wrote in Colombo and Matt Locke is coming

out hard on that. But I credit being able to track somebody down because of my time as a reporter.

There you go. You know, you know how to turn over a stone and figure something out. So maybe you

should try to be a private too. Man, there we go. I don't know if I'm quite ready for that,

but a little, I don't have the cool mustache or the Ferrari for the Magnum. But yeah, all of this is

at United Way of Jasper County.org. Again, it's free. It's open to all ages at DMACC. All the programs

are on Thursday nights, just indoors open at six and program starts at six thirty. So I really

want to see the seats filled this season. All right. Well, hey, I appreciate the information and

looks like you had a great lineup that should attract people of all ages and all backgrounds.

So I hope so. Thank you. Congratulations. Yes. Thanks for helping us get the word out.

No problem. We've been talking to United Way of Jasper County Executive Director,

Jessica Low Boaks about the Voices of Inspiration series. He had all starts with Sarah Pratt,

the better sculptor and a teacher on March the 5th and it continues through April 23rd in

United Way of Jasper County.org is the website. Find out more information. It's all free.

It's going to do it for today's Let's Start Newton. If you missed any of our Let's Talk programs,

you can find them online daily at canna.ca or less.com or wherever you subscribe to your podcast.

Yeah, that's it. Let's start Newton.