PEORIA MAGAZINE December 2022

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What’s your why?

I W A N T T O T A K E C A R E O F T H E O N E S I L O V E .

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Let’s talk about your why. Call Tammy Waterworth, Senior Relationship Strategist, at 309-655-5371 or visit pnc.com/privatebank

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DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 1

COVER PHOTO: The 2022 Women of Influence,

COVER STORIES 28 ‘An Unparalleled Dedication to Public Service’ — Linda Daley By Lisa Coon 32 ‘She Planted the Seed’ — Barb Drake By Terry Bibo 36 ‘She’s Just Getting Started’ — Lisa Gates By Linda Smith Brown 40 The Road Less Traveled — Pam Howe By Amy Talcott 44 Empowerment Through Art — Nikki Romain By Laurie Pillman

SPOTLIGHTS 20 Another Landmark Learning Opportunity - Preston Jackson By Phil Luciano 24 Get To Know The Planet 56 ‘But A Miniature Sleigh, And 10 Tiny Reindeer … By Phil Luciano 62 ‘Here I Am. Take Me’ By Bob Grimson

(L to R) Nikki Romain, Linda Daley, Pam Howe, Lisa Gates and Barb Drake Photo by Ron Johnson

Next Door - Renae Kerrigan By Steve Tarter

2 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

2022 WOMEN OF INFLUENCE

FEATURES 10 Seed and Soil:

80 WordCount:

48 Peoria Retro:

The Times They Are A Changin’ By Emily Sharkey

Peoria’s Most Influential Woman Ever? By Madeleine Trolinger

Lola and the Tree of Life By Laurie Pillman

85 Twenty Something: Commentary Carry it With You By CeCe Hill 86 EconCorner:

52 Mom and Pop:

13

Seed and Soil: Fred the Horse By Dan Ackley

The Best Bistro (Many Of) You Haven’t Been To By Phil Luciano

14

Seed and Soil: Women Make Their Mark in Central Illinois Farm Country By Steve Tarter Dish and Drink: Mom Rules The Restaurant Roost By Nick Vlahos Dish and Drink: What's Cookin' - Christmas Macaron Tower By Mary DiSomma

66 Playing in Peoria:

David Cleeton, chairman of the Department of Economics at Illinois State University

The Community of Theater By Laurie Pillman

68 Playing in Peoria:

98 Out & About

Christian Music Takes Local Singer-Songwriter

16

to a Higher Level By Kirk Wessler

76 Hometown:

18

Opportunistic Ottawa By Scott Fishel

DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 3

COMMENTARY

58 Christmas in America By John F. Gilligan 90 Breaking the Glass Ceiling By Dee Brown 94 Everyone Needs A Retirement Income Roadmap By Daryl Dagit 96 Everyone Deserves To Be Led Well By Amy Burkett 108 One Last Thing: When Christmas Trees Spoke To Us By Phil Luciano 111 Toon Town By Dan Ackley

AND MORE 7 Letter from the Editor 72 ArtsPartners Calendar 104 In Brief 112 Thank You, Advertisers

in this issue December 2022 contributors: Dan Ackley, Terry Bibo, Dee Brown, Linda Smith Brown, Amy Burkett, David Cleeton, Lisa Coon, Dustin Crawford, Daryl Dagit, Mary DiSomma, Scott Fishel, Jenn Gordon, John F. Gilligan, Bob Grimson, CeCe Hill, Phil Luciano, Laurie Pillman, Emily Sharkey, Amy Talcott, Steve Tarter, Madeleine Trolinger, Nick Vlahos, Kirk Wessler FOLLOW@PEORIAMAGAZINES: To subscribe or renew, visit peoriamagazines.com/subscribe.

4 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

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E D I T O R I A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mike Bailey mbailey@peoriamagazines.com PUBLISHER Lesley Matuszak lesley.matuszak@wtvp.org C R E A T I V E SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE Phil Luciano phil.luciano@wtvp.org WTVP DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS Julie Sanders A D V E R T I S I N G PRESIDENT AND CEO OF WTVP Lesley Matuszak lesley.matuszak@wtvp.org SENIOR CORPORATE SUPPORT MANAGER Angie Spears sales@peoriamagazines.com CORPORATE SUPPORT MANAGER Kristina Gamez sales@peoriamagazines.com DIRECTOR OF PHILANTHROPY Tom Zimmerman sales@peoriamagazines.com julie.sanders@wtvp.org STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Ron Johnson GRAPHIC DESIGN Debbie Cody

6 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I T O R

ALL CHEER PEORIA’S GLASS-CEILING GLADIATORS

W e l come t o Peor i a Magazine’s December edition, in which we introduce some of the most inf luential women in central Illinois and highlight the contributions they have made and continue to, often without the recognition they deserve. But first things first. We would like to acknowledgePeoriaMagazine’s veryfirst woman of influence, Jan Wright, who helped launch the magazine with her husband in 1989andpublished it formore than 30 years. The Women of Influence (WOI) issue was her idea, and we are happy to perpetuate a great tradition. Our fiveWomen of Influence for 2022 – Linda Daley, Barb Drake, Lisa Gates, Pam Howe and Nikki Romain – have shaped and are shaping this community in some very profound ways, as strong and willful women going back to Lydia Moss Bradley uniquely have in Peoria. That should come as no surprise, as arguably most people of any level of success have, somewhere along the way, been molded in a positive way by a strong woman. On a personal note, I was raised by one, along with a couple of sisters who gave not an inch in our streetball games. Throughoutmy career, I have worked with and for some very independent, decisive, accomplished women—alongside BarbDrake during a decades-long newspaper journey, with Lesley Matuszak (WOI, Class of 2013) now at WTVP/Peoria Magazine. Then I

went and married someone — hi Joann — who rarely hesitates to point me in a certain daily direction (the right one, of course). I owe – we owe – a debt to all of them. Our WOI honorees this year range in age from mid-40s to mid-70s, but despite the different generations in which they rose through the ranks, there are some patterns in play here. They were “influencers” before that became a thing, and it’s not a label they necessarily embrace. All, in one form or another, faced obstacles to their advancement – that infamous “glass ceiling” that may at various times have seemed like cement – and they found inventive ways to go over or under or around or through it. They have never stopped proving themselves. Admirers describe “dominant forces” with “unparalleleddedication,” forwhom “there is no such thing as impossible.” In short, they have been get-it-done groundbreakers. To a person, they own a love for the region they now call home, whether they grew up here or adopted it as adults. And they desire to pay it forward to future generations – to youngwomen, to be sure, but as role models for young men, too — to be the sturdy shoulders that others can stand upon. As Pam Howe advises, “Be good, do well, and do right.”

For a few, this recognition is long overdue. As with our Local Legends earlier this year, it’s a wonder some weren’t chosen before. The Peoria area is better, healthier, more enlightened for them having applied their talents here. The paths they’ve paved are now being traveled by others. In this issue, you will read about women taking new leadership roles and making big differences on our farms, in our museums, in our restaurants, on our stages, and in our bookstores. Beyond that, the year has flown by for Peoria Magazine as we unveil this final issue of 2022. We have put Thanksgiving to bed, and now we look forward to Christmas if not to the cold weather that accompanies it. We have it all in this issue, including reindeer and talking Christmas trees. Meanwhile, nobody writesmore eloquently or knowledgably about our holiday traditions and their origins than Jack Gilligan. Happy holidays, and enjoy.

Mike Bailey mbailey@peoriamagazines.com

DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 7

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8 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

For 125 years, Bradley University has developed women leaders.

DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 9

S E E D A N D S O I L

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’

Farm-hers are taking their rightful place next to the guys in rural, food-growing America

BY EMILY SHARKEY

10 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

G rowing up on the farm is an experience I’ll never take for granted. I ’ve learned about re sponsibility and work ethic and about extremely hard and joyous times. I watch the most beautiful sunset in the en tire world and lay in the cold creek on a hot day. And I’ve come to understand that rain can miss my dad's field by just a quarter of a mile during a drought. I know that chickens are vicious and will chase you and they must never be trusted. (Helpful tip when dealing with chickens: Bring a broomwith you when you go get themail, you're gonna need it.) Typically, women aren’t pictured as the head of the farm. This concept isn’t a negative one, it just simply isn’t the norm. I mean, take a look at my dad. My grandparents didn’t stop having kids until they got a boy. (It took them five tries, if you were wondering.) But that was par for the course during that time. It just was not expected for the women growing up on the farm to end up playing a crucial role. TYPICALLY, WOMEN AREN'T PICTURED AT THE HEAD OF A FARM ... IN RECENT YEARS THIS IDEA HAS SHIFTED However, in recent years this idea has shifted. Now I feel as though there is a place forme on the farm, whereas before it wasn’t discussed quite as much. If I come back to the farm, my rolewould be just as important as my brothers’ roles. To quote my husband, Rob Sharkey, “One of the biggest mistakes a multigenerational farm can make is

Imagine what it would be like to create a product for yourself, only to find out a whole community wants to enjoy a soft sheepskin rug as well. Driftless Tannery helped Bethany and Danielle share their creative idea with the world. (Instagram: driftlesstannery) Stephanie and Hayley Painter are multigenerational organic dairy farmers. These women have 200 cows that they milk twice daily. These ladies alsomake the most delicious Skyr Yogurt and are certified yoga instructors. Their goal is to create their spin on ag, wellness and the food industry (Instagram: painterlandsisters). Chyenne Smith fromCarmen, Idaho is a rancher who likes to connect people to agriculture and showthatwoman can worksidebysidewithmen. She isopening doors one picture and conversation at a time (Instagram: jlazysangus). Watching daughters, mothers, wives, aunts, sisters and grandmothers chase their dreams and share their journeys of being a female in the ag community is truly inspiring. Stories of a woman being resilient and powerful – being leaders — in the workplace continue to encourage and motivate me to find my place and be a productive member of the ag community.

crushing the dreams of the kids that are coming back. To say that you're fifth, sixth or seventh generation and to succeed, you need to dowhat I or your grandfather or great-grandfather did. That is not fair to the next generation. So if my daughter comes back to the farm and she wants to try something dumb, I’ll ask her if I can help. And if she fails, shewill learn a better lesson than I could ever teach her. But if she succeeds, well then, that is what it’s all about.” The narrative is changing and I couldn’t be more eager to see what the future holds for the agricultural community. The collaboration between farmers and farm-hers, if you will, is refreshing. A woman's role on the farm can range from running the auger cart or combine to handling livestock, from raising the kids to simply bringing a sack lunch when the combine driver gets hangry during harvest. These are things that have been done for years. All these tasks can define a strong woman on the farm. All legacies don’t always lie in heavy labor or livestock farming. There are places for all sorts of jobs. Personally, I am passionate about the media side of what my family does on the farm. I have seen somanywomen using their unique ideas to shareamessageor inspireothers. Here are just a few lovely ladies that inspire me: Bethany Edmond Storm and Danielle Dockery run a woman-owned and -operated tannery in Argyle, Wisconsin.

Emily Sharkey is one half of the dynamic duo that make up “The Shark Farmer” broadcasting company. She and husband Rob Sharkey till the land at the family’s fifth

generation farm in the Bradford area. Their “A Shot of Ag” program appears regularly on WTVP PBS

DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 11

2022 AWARD WINNERS CHILDREN’S CHARITIES AWARD JEREMY SCHLIEPSIEK CATERPILLAR — BUSINESS RESOURCE MANAGER EARTHMOVING PRODUCT GROUPS NICK AND DR. SANDRA ADKINS EDUCATIONAL SERVICE AWARD DR. CHRIS COURI DDS, MS

Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Peoria

LEE GRAVES

Treasure Chest Fill the

PATRICK T. SULLIVAN COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD LISA FISHER BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF GREATER PEORIA — EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT UNITED WAY IT MATTERS AWARD ART SYMBERSKY COMCAST — GOVERNMENT & EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MANAGER

On November 12, 2022 civic, professional and elected officials attended Fill the Treasure Chest to honor local citizens and organizations for their outstanding efforts and commitment to the youth of Greater Peoria. This year’s speaker was Chris Reynolds, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at Bradley University. The Boys & Girls Clubs mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. Thank you to Greater Peoria Treasure Chest donors, volunteers and supporters: their generosity makes a positive difference in the lives of Boys &Girls Clubs youth.

LESLEY R. MATUSZAK LEADERSHIP AWARD BUD JENKINS LUCWORK/TACO BELL

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Cheryl Walsh of Bradford, discs a harvested corn field

Ali Gibbs tends to the livestock on the land she farms with husband Nathan

S E E D A N D S O I L

WOMEN MAKE THEIR MARK IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS FARM COUNTRY

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

A

and f lowers on the 15-acre spread. When she’s not tending the fields, she’s organizing one of several greenhouses on the property or freeze-drying items such as mushrooms and sweet potatoes for sale in her store. Her remarkable backstory aside, Irons is part of a growing phenomenon in central Illinois of female farmers plowing ful l-speed ahead in an industry traditionally dominated by men. Farming is a year-round endeavor for Irons, who starts planting in the greenhouse in December. Kira Santiago, who runs Kira’s Flowers in East Peoria, refers to Irons as “my dahlia girl.” The two women are close friends and part of an expanding f lower network in central Illinois, said Santiago, who hopes to develop

nya Irons developed her interest in agriculture while growing up in a Russian orphanage. “I spent a lot of

that network further to provide area consumers with flowers grown in the Midwest. Most flowers on the market today are produced in South America, where some farms continue to use pesticides restricted in the United States, she said. Although she grew up on an organic farm in Eureka run by her mother, Teresa Santiago, Kira said she and her two sisters weren’t initially sold on the idea of farm labor. “We complained a lot but we did the work,” she said. But Santiago came around after spending some time in Boston and hearing about a successful flower farm in Seattle. “I’m coming home and I’m going to grow flowers,” she told her bewildered mother. That was eight years ago.

time in the garden,” she said. When she was 15, she was adopted by Lowell and Janet Ioerger, who operated a grain farm in Minonk. As they say, ostal'noye uzhe istoriya — the rest is history, that is. “This family choseme,” Irons said. “The first year was tough with no English.” But Anya learned. Now34 andmarried with two young daughters of her own, Irons runs theTriple IGardenShopaspart of the Ioergers’ corn/soybean operation. “Nowmy favorite part of the business is communicating with people at the farmer’s market. I learn a lot,” she said. Irons grows vegetables, fruits

14 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

Farmer Anya Irons plants a variety of flowers at Ioerger Farms in Minonk

Kira Santiago of Kira’s Flowers in East Peoria

into schools to give city kids a hands on experience with a live farm animal. Ali Gibbs, 30, was one of those kids. She grew up in Bloomington with no farm experience. Now she confidently runs a combine at the Gibbs family farm in Benson. “The only thing I knewhow to dowhen it came to farming was how to hold up a sign at the grain elevator. But every year I’ve pushed myself to learn more about the agriculture industry,” she said. Marrying into a farm family when she said “I do” to Nathan Gibbs has provided her a whole new outlook, she said. “It’s like (farming) was in my blood.” Ali’s farmexperience extends beyond raising corn and soybeans, the Gibbs family staple. There are chickens, horses and sheep to tend, even a couple of alpaca who protect the sheep from coyotes, she said. Women also are involved in farm related businesses. Two McLean County women started Farm toWick, a do-it-yourself, custom candle business using soy wax that sprung out of the pandemic in 2020. “People were isolated for a year. We knew they needed an activity,” said one of them, Alice Long of Stanford, a 59-year-old grandmother who partnered with Amy Manahan, 47, a resident of Shirley who works for the Growmark seeddivision inBloomington. Long jokes that her partner “burns the candle at both ends” by taking on themobile candle operation along with

Today, Kira’s Flowers operates a successful f lower CSA, supplying weddings and doing business at the Riverfront Farmer’s Market in Downtown Peoria. “The community has really responded,” said Santiago, 32. Women have always been a vital cog in the nation’s agricultural machine, though traditionally playing second fiddle to a spouse or other family mem bers, noted Christine Belless, program coordinator with the University of Illinois Extension for Fulton, Mason, Peoria and Tazewell counties. “But I believe today we hear and see more women in the ag industry making big financial decisions,” she said. “Women have generally thought of their role as secondary but that is not the case,” added Ellen Dearden of Morton, an agricultural analyst since 1980. “More and more ladies are the primary farmers in the operation.” Cheryl Walsh, who operates a large sow farm in Bradford, is an example of a woman who has taken on a leadership role in the agricultural community. A former vice president of the Peoria County Farm Bureau, Walsh will serve as president of the Illinois Pork Producers in 2024. “I do seemore women getting involved in the agriculture industry,” she said. Walsh also is a big believer in helping educate children about where their food originates. As part of the Illinois Farm Bureau’s “Ag in the Classroom” program, she likes to bring a baby pig

a full-time job. Manahan says she has no regrets. “It’s a blessing to reach different people at candle events,” she said. Alongwith serving as a boardmember on the Peoria County Farm Bureau, Kiersten Sheets is involvedwith another kind of farming: solar. An employee of Trajectory Energy Partners, Sheets said the federal funding recently put in place to stimulate solar andwind projects will only increase opportunities for land owning farm families. As chairperson of the Farm Bureau’s local affairs committee, Sheets said events are planned year-round to ed ucate area farmers on everything from beekeeping to woodland management. Dana Vollmer, development director for the Land Connection, a Champaign based organization that seeks to save farmland and train new farmers, said women are also involved in agriculture in other ways, such as running community gardens. “A lot of these women don’t think of themselves as farmers because they don’t have the big fancy tractors and hundreds of acres,” she said. “Instead, they’ll refer to themselves as gardeners even though they are performing the important job of feeding people.”

Steve Tarter is a Peoria Magazine contributor who was born in England, raised in Boston, moved to Peoria to attend Bradley University and decided to stay. He has spent a career in journalism and public relations

DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 15

D I S H A N D D R I N K

MOM RULES THE RESTAURANT ROOST Rhythm Kitchen’s Julie Maag says motherhood prepared her well for the restaurant business

BY NICK VLAHOS PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

Julie Maag is owner and chef at Rhythm Kitchen Music Cafe

F rom one woman to another, Rhythm Kitchen Music Café appears to be in good hands. Motherly hands, even. That’s among the ways Rhythm Kitchen owner Julie Maag describes herself. She’s a mother of four, but she also might be a mother figure for the 10 or so employees of her NewOrleans influenced restaurant at 305 SWWater St. in Peoria. 'SHE HAD HER OWN VISION OF WHAT SHE WANTED THE PLACE TO BE ... AND SHE HIT IT' — Jason Zeck

opened in 1999. Maag once was their peer. In 2019 she purchased Rhythm Kitchen, where for the previous 13 years she was a server. “Customers like to see the same faces when they come in. I try to take good care of them,” Maag said about her staff. “In the way that I’m a mom at home, I try to be a mom here.” It ’s appropriate, then, that the riverfront restaurant’s aroma might conjure a mom’s kitchen. Particularly if that mom is from the bayou. Gumbo, crawfish etouffee and shrimp creole are among the creations Maag and longtime Rhythm Kitchen chef Jason Zeck produce. Meatloaf, salmon, salads and vegetarian fare also are on the menu. Much of it is no different fromthe base

founding owner Shelley Lenzini created before she retired and sold her business toMaag. The interior, a blend of Bourbon Street baubles and avant-garde artwork, also resembles Lenzini’s era. But the “Music Café” part of the restaurant’s name might now be a misnomer. Maag decided to no longer feature live entertainment, which had been a RhythmKitchen staple. Obvious costs and hidden ones, like music licensing fees, were among the reasons, according to Maag. There was another, more ambient reason. “We have a higher percentage of calls asking if we have music, because they don’t want us to,” Maag said. “People want to sit together and talk. They want to visit with their friends, enjoy a meal

Someof those employees haveworked for a decade or more at an eatery that

16 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

and hear each other. I want people to sit down, dine and have conversations. “Somecustomers arehavingahard time understanding that. They just want live music. But for a small restaurant like this with a limited amount of seats, people will come in to see the live music early in the night and stay all night. I’m not turning tables, and I’m not selling food.” Once the coronavirus pandemic surged in early 2020, Rhythm Kitchen couldn’t play host to live music. Selling food also became problematic. Indoor dining was banned, and Maag had almost no infrastructure to support carry-out orders and curbside delivery. Maag pared payroll. Almost all the furloughed employees returned after COVID abated, she said. A website in need of an update received one, along with capability for online ordering. Overdue cosmetic changes, like a new floor, were undertaken. “For as ugly as the shutdown was for everybody and their families, she made a lot of good come out of it,” Zeck said about his boss. “We didn’t sit and hem and haw and wallow, like ‘What are we going to do?’ “She had her own vision of what she wanted the place to be and needed to be, and she hit it. I give her a ton of credit for that.” It seems to have worked. Post shutdown business has more than rebounded, according to Maag. “We’re breaking records right now,” she said. “I just have a great staff. I’m pretty scrappy, too.”

The scrappinessmight relate toMaag’s relatively less common status in the restaurant business, at least in central Illinois—a female owner, aswas Lenzini. Maag suggested the major dif ference between male and female restaurateurs might lie in how they’re able to balance their personal and professional lives. “I can handle the cooking here, plus paying the bills, plus making the calls. I wear a lot of hats, and I have always,” she said. “As a mother homeschooling her kids and keeping a house and keeping a job, I’ve always done that. And it translates well to this.” Said Zeck: “She’s a mother, and she’s a good one, and she takes that mentality and adapts it to owning a restaurant. It speaks to her organization and her work ethic as an owner, as a mother – all of that gets wrapped up.” There might be compromises. Maag cited recent high school homecoming celebrations in which some of her children participated. Usually, they take place during prime time in the restaurant business. “I want to be home helping my daughters with their hair, but I’m here,” Maag said. “But on the other side of that coin is they come here with their friends to eat dinner, so I get to be part of it in a different way, where most moms don’t.” Most moms might not work with their children, either. But Julie and Brody Maag’s teenagers, Angus and Scarlett, pitch in at Rhythm Kitchen.

It’s practical, but it might also be educational. “I hope that when they work with me, they see what goes into running the business and they can appreciate that,” Julie Maag said. “That’s how I spend time with them.” Maag also spends time assessing the small-business scene inDowntown Peo ria and theWarehouse District. Rhythm Kitchen’s location straddles both. The steady addition of new restau rants, bars and other enterprises in the area has prompted Maag to shelve the possibility of moving. Representatives fromPeoria Heights, with its Restaurant Row along Prospect Road, have been persistent suitors. “We’ve had some offers and talked about it, but only a momentary conversation, because I really think it’s important to be down here,” Maag said. “I just feel like we’ve been here so long, and if things are starting to grow, we should stay.” Expect Maag to stay most days and nights at Rhythm Kitchen, too. Motherhood can be a 24/7 duty, after all. “If I weren’t here, it would be like having someone tomy house for dinner and not being there,” Maag said. “It’s like a home. It’s like a second home.”

Nick Vlahos is a longtime Peoria print journalist and regular contributor to Peoria Magazine

DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 17

WHAT’S Cookin’

D I S H A N D D R I N K

CHRISTMAS MACARON TOWER

First, the INGREDIENTS A good “foot” – the rise at the bottom of the macaron that occurs during baking — is the secret to a perfect macaron shell. Aging egg whites for 24 to 48 hours at room temperature strengthens the macaron structure and produces a better foot. For 48 shells/2 dozen macarons, you’ll need: • 2/3 cup almond flour • 1½ cup confectioners’ sugar • 3 large, aged egg whites, room temperature • 5 tablespoons granulated sugar • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract • Gel food coloring of your choice • Edible gold dust (optional) Next, the PROCESS: 1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Draw 48 one-inch circles on parchment paper. Lay paper on baking panwith circles face down. 2. Place almond flour and sugar in a food processor. Process to a fine powder. Sift the mixture twice through a fine mesh sieve. 3. Using a stand mixer, whip eggs until soft peaks form. On medium, gradually add sugar. Add vanilla and foodcoloring. Beat onhigh speeduntil whites formstiff peaks, about 1minute. 4. Using a silicone spatula, fold half the dry ingredients into the egg whites. When the first batch is incorporated, add the remaining mixture. 5. Pressandspreadout thebatteragainst the side of the bowl. Repeat 10 to 15 times. Thebatter should formribbons when lifted with a spatula. 6. Using a pastry bag fitted with a ¼-inch round tip, pipe batter into the center of the traced circles. The batter spreads so don’t pipe to the circle edge. Firmly tap pan on countertop to remove air bubbles. 7. Let macaron shells dry out at room temperature for 30minutes. A slight crust should form. If the batter sticks

to your finger upon touch, dry longer 8. Nest macaron pan onto another sheet pan. Doubling the pans helps prevent the macarons from over browning on the bottoms. Bake in the middle and bottom racks of the oven for 14 to 16 minutes. 9. Remove from the oven, cool 1 minute. Carefully move the parchment with the macarons to your countertop. Allow to cool completely. Unfilled macaron shells can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 days. The shells also can be frozen for up to 4 months. For Gingerbread Buttercream Filling (5 dozen macarons): • 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • ½ teaspoon salt • 2 teaspoons molasses • 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon • 1 teaspoon ground ginger • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg • 3½ cups (1 pound) confectioners’ sugar, sifted • ¼ cup heavy cream, ( more as needed ) 1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on low for 1 minute. Add vanilla, salt, molasses and spices. Beat an additional 2 minutes. 2. S lowly add the confectioners’ sugar. Pour in creamand beat for 2minutes, scraping down the bowl side until frosting is smooth. 3. Using a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip, pipe a circle of buttercream on theflat sideof half of the shells. Top with another shell and press lightly. Sprinkle gold dust on top. Build your ChristmasMacaron Tower by placing 5 dozenmacarons on a 4-tier stand, 8 dozen on a 6-tier stand, 20 dozen on a 10-tier stand. Festoon with gold ribbon, battery-operated lights, gold-colored candies, and a gold star for the tree top.

F or the holidays, I turnmy famous wedding macaron tower into an edible Christmas tree. Green coloredmacaron shells are filled with a creamy gingerbread buttercream. For extra glitter, I sprinkle edible gold dust on top of the shells and wrap ribbon or small lights around the tree. The final touch? A gold star to adorn the top of the tower. Though your guests will be wowed by the presentation, just wait until they dive into those deliciousmacaron jewels!

About our chef : Mary DiSomma lives in Oak Park and Cuba, Illinois. She is an author, publisher, philanthropist, podiatrist, entrepreneur, wife to Bill and mom to four adult children

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S P O T L I G H T

ANOTHER LANDMARK LEARNING OPPORTUNITY Peorian Preston Jackson’s Freedom Suits Memorial reveals a chapter of St. Louis’ long-forgotten history

BY PHIL LUCIANO A s an artist, Preston Jackson has become a historian. The Peoria sculptor and painter often strives not only for aesthetics, but meaning and truth — especially regarding civil rights. Even if painful, he says, the truth is important. ‘IT'S ALL FOR THE BETTERMENT ... THAT WE UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH’ “It’s all for the betterment — of womankind, mankind, human beings – that we understand the truth,” said Jackson, 78. “And my only tool – or my only weapon, if you want to call it that – is to put it on canvas or in bronze.” That ’s why he spent f ive years intensely working on an ambitious and impressive sculpture that was unveiled this summer in downtown St. Louis. It’s the FreedomSuits Memorial, dedicated to hundreds of slaves whowent to court to try to win their freedom. Jackson is grateful for his role in shedding light on a brave and vital struggle that had gone largely unknown. — Artist Preston Jackson

“I was very happy to be part of the discovery, something new in history,” he said. For Jackson, history is a newer avocation. He never gave the subject much thought while growing up in Decatur with nine siblings. As a young man, he was more interested playing guitar and creating art. After graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Southern Illinois University, Jackson became an instructor in drawing and painting at Millikin University, then an art professor at Western Illinois University. In 1989, he joined the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a professor of sculpture, serving as head of the Sculpture Department from 1994 to 1996. Since 1995, he has owned The Raven Gallery in downtown Peoria, home of the Contemporary Art Center. His sculptures have been displayed throughout central Illinois and beyond. Among the most notable, “Bronzeville to Harlem: An American Story” is on permanent display at Peoria Riverfront Museum. In 1998, The Lincoln Academy of Illinois presented himwith the Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor.

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build a plaza on empty land outside the courthouse, centered by a memorial to the freedom suits. Artists nationwide submitted ideas for a memorial sculpture. Attorney Paul Venker, who heads the committee, was floored by the proposal from Preston Jackson. “In my view, Preston’s was head and shoulders above the rest,” Venker said. “His was such an in-depth approach to the topic, (one) I’ve been calling a dynamic visual narrative. It’s very rich with imagery. It’s very rich in storytelling.” Jackson would need five years to put together the memorial, which stands 14 feet tall and consists of 85 separate pieces. The artwork depicts slaves at work, a slave auction, a steamboat and other vestiges of everyday St. Louis life before the Civil War. The focal point features a slave appearing in court before a white judge and white jurors. And the base is inscribedwith the names of those hundreds of brave plaintiffs. “We are enjoying the feeling that we get when we think about these courageous people,” Venker said. “But as Preston would say, ‘There’s ugly here.’ Slavery is still at the core of this memorial.” The Freedom Suits Memorial and FreedomPlaza were dedicated this past summer. Now, fundraising continues, still shy about $150,000 from the goal. Supporters want to add a marker in the plaza to further explain the memorial, then perhaps add an interactive display inside the courthouse, perhaps narrated by Preston Jackson. He is always interested in spotlighting the truth, ugly or otherwise. “If you dig deep enough, you find fascinating things,” Jackson said. “Wrong is wrong, good is good.” For more on the Freedom Suits Me morial Project, go to the website for The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis: https://www.bamsl.org/?p g=Contributions&cpAction=showDe tail&pid=259&cid=312. Phil Luciano is a senior writer/ columnist for Peoria Magazine and content contributor to public television station WTVP

Over time, Jackson’s artworks increasingly became outlets for him to share history, particularly black history.

At the time, Missouri courts often abided by a legal concept known as “once free, always free.” A slave, if moved to a free state and then returned to a slave state, could sue for legal freedom. Those cases later would become known as “freedom suits.” Between 1814 and 1860, at least 330 of these freedom suits were filed in St. Louis. After the recent discovery of those documents, Judge Mason – a descendant of slaves —pored over them with fascination, amazed at the bravery of the slave plaintiffs. BETWEEN 1814 AND 1860, AT LEAST 330 FREEDOM SUITS WERE FILED AND MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE PLAINTIFFS WON “All of these cases were tried in front of all white, male jurors, who also were … property owners,” Mason said. “You would think that an enslaved person, a black person, suing a white slave owner for freedomwould have great difficulty even getting in the courthouse door, much less convincing a jury.” Yet more than a third of the plaintiffs won, include Dred Scott, who later would lose his freedom in an infamous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Otherwise, successful plaintiffs would leave the courthouse forever free. JudgeMason – impressed as well with the fairness of the white judges and jurors — decided to spread the stories of the freedom suits. “It became clear that there was an incredible story here to be told,” he said. A steering committee was formed to raised $1 million in private money to

About 20 years ago, a clerk at the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis found a stack of old boxes. They were stuffed with faded and deteriorated legal papers from the five decades before the Civil War. During that period, St. Louis underwent an economic explosion, fueled by steamboat traffic on the Mississippi River. There, as Missourians hotly debated the issue of slavery, you could find free blacks and slave blacks working almost side by side. “This was a state, a particular region, that was very mixed at the time,” said David Mason, chief judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit based in St. Louis. “There were a lot of free black people just wandering around St. Louis. The state of Missouri wasn’t sure where it was going to go in the Civil War. Some areas had a lot of freedom. Some areas had a lot of slavery. That was a real debate in Missouri.”

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S P O T L I G H T

GET TO KNOW THE PLANET NEXT DOOR

Peoria Riverfront Museum planetarium director Renae Kerrigan has long had her eyes on the sky

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

R enae Kerrigan never gets tired of looking up. As planetarium director at Peoria Riverfront Museum, she’s not only busy planning daily planetarium shows with her staff but regularly pointing out celestial events through emails and YouTube videos, where she has earned quite the following. That was especially true during the pandemic, when she helped take an otherwise closed museum virtual, attracting an impressive 88,000 worldwide viewers to her Facebook live event on the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. But Kerrigan, 33 and a recent 40 Under Forty selection for her work as a “nationally respected evangelist for science, astronomy and the environment,” isn’t one to rest on her laurels. Indeed, she tasked herself with another duty in 2022: Come up with a museum exhibit on Mars. After pitching the idea to museum CEO JohnMorris andCurator Bill Conger last spring, Kerrigan got the green light

billion years ago, the dry, toxic planet we see today might have once been as habitable as Earth.” It doesn’t matter that Mars and Earth are 50 million miles apart. The red planet has never seemed closer, with three robots roving about the Martian surface as we speak, two from the United States and one from China. The photos and other data they send back continue to add to our body of knowledge on the planet. “There are lots of exciting things happening,” said Kerrigan, referring to the steady stream of media stories involving Mars — from news about the Perseverance rover collecting rock samples to aerial video taken by Ingenuity, the little Mars helicopter launched from Perseverance. Then there’s the recent New York Times report that researchers have been remotely scouting Mars to identify subterranean caves that might serve as suitable shelter for future residents. “It would be challenging to live on Mars. People would have to live under

this fall, with the show starting onOct. 7 and running through Spring 2023. That wasn’t much time to showcase an entire planet, especially one as fabled as Mars. After all, from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds in 1898 and OrsonWelles’ radio version of the same in 1938 to the work of science fiction writers such as Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein, Mars has always been that other world we Earthlings viewed with a combination of fear, suspicion and wonder. While we’ve yet to spot any sign of invaders, we have learned that, in the words of National Geographic, “until 3.5

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shelter,” said Kerrigan, citing frigidly cold temperatures and an atmosphere so thin that it would fail to shield humans from radiation. But humans have dreamed of visiting Mars since the 1700s. “Humans are explorers,” Kerrigan said. “We always want to chart new waters.” Kerrigan believes there’s pent up demand when it comes to space exploration, recalling that the Apollo program was curtailed after Apollo 17, the flight that featured the last moon walk in 1972. “There were supposed to be other flights up to Apollo 20 but thosemissions were canceled,” she said. “I love the robotic exploration we’ve done.Without it,wewouldn’t knowmuch about the outer planets,” addedKerrigan, referring to the Voyager space probes that were launched in the ‘70s. “But why not both? I think there’s also great value in human exploration,” she said, adding that human involvement also attracts public interest. TobuildadisplayonMars,Kerriganhad to find enough objects for an exhibition.

Among the items she came up with are full-size models (on loan from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) of the first robotic rovers to explore a planet that’s about half the size of Earth. “There’s the rover called Opportunity that landed onMars in 2004. It was only supposed to last 90 days but wound up running for 14 years. They thought the batterywoulddiebutMartianwindsblew the dust off the solar panels,” she said. In the selection of images used in the show, Kerrigan perused hundreds of pictures. She also had to find a way to involve interactivity, those hands-on displays that museums have learned occupy young minds. That’s why you’ll find an augmented reality sandbox in the museum’s Mars exhibit with a topographic map of Mars. The planet is on full display. A centerpiece of the exhibit is the 10-foot illuminated spherical sculpture made by British artist Luke Jerram, whose handiwork has been displayed at the museumbefore, in the formof theMoon sphere. TheMars artworkwas sponsored

by Sheldon Schafer, the planetarium’s director who retired in 2013. “Hetaughtmehowtowork inamuseum,” saidKerrigan, whoalso includedadisplay on fictional works involving the planet such as “Mars Attacks,” the Tim Burton movie, and thoseof EdgarRiceBurroughs, the creator of Tarzan who also wrote 10 books featuring John Carter of Mars. Kerrigan credits a museum team that includes Zac Zetterberg and Ben Panfil for helping set up the Martian exhibit. Ultimately, Kerrigan is a believer when it comes to colonizing Mars. She echoes the words of SpaceX founder (and Twitter owner) Elon Musk: “It’s important for the survival of the species to have humanity on two planets.” Steve Tarter is a Peoria Magazine contributor who was born in England, raised in Boston, moved to Peoria to attend Bradley University and decided

to stay. He has spent a career in journalism and public relations

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GET YOUR TICKETS NOW! WOMEN OF INFLUENCE EVENT Tuesday, December 6, 2022 7 – 9:30 AM Country Club of Peoria

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In this issue of Peoria Magazine we recognize and celebrate Women of Influence in central Illinois. It is only fitting, then, that I should recognize Jan Wright, former publisher of this magazine, for the considerable influence she has had in this region and in my own life and career. Jan has been a friend for many years, and I have always admired her courage, leadership and entrepreneurial vision for the Peoria area. She has shown us all that it is possible to overcome obstacles and find personal and business success. I have learned immensely from Jan’s example as a business owner, mother and community leader; that knowledge will continue to have an influence on me for years to come. JANWRIGHT Friend. Entrepreneur. Woman of Influence.

Thank you, Jan! Your leadership is legendary.

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