- I wanna take you guys back in time to the pilot episode of "Vibe 309."

My guy, John Morris, A.K.A.

J-Mo, described Peoria as the city of gratitude, actually said, "The city of gratitude."

He said, and I quote, "The vibe of the city is that we're very giving people, and giving is the action that comes out of gratitude.

When you're grateful for something, you tend to give."

And I love that.

I think one of the best ways we can give and do give in this community is by pouring into our young people.

Show them what's truly possible.

Give them opportunities to explore, reasons to believe they can do something big time with their lives.

We just saw an incredible example of this in the news.

I don't know if you saw Polly Barton and her family established a $5 million endowment at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) It's the largest ever individual gift in the history of the museum, ensuring generations of kids have free access through its every student initiative.

Just think about what kind of access that can do for a kid, what that can unlock in a kid.

Nikki and Jonathon Romain have made that same idea their life's work.

They give young people access to art, a place to create, a place to be weird, a place to find their voice.

And let me tell you something, that stuff genuinely matters, it does.

Who knows?

Maybe one of those kids becomes the next Richard Pryor.

Whatever they do become, I know it starts with giving them the opportunity to discover who they are, whoever it is, and have people around them who believe in who they could be.

Peoria's always produced people with big ideas, big personalities, and the guts to be authentically themselves, just like Mr.

Pryor here.

It's our responsibility to make sure that continues.

Peoria can't be anything we're not, but we can be this, a place that bets on its people, a place that values creativity, a place where we don't just talk about opportunity, gosh darn it, we create it.

As the saying goes, "The people make the place."

So let's keep pouring into our people.

Let's help them achieve their wildest dreams because when you build up the people who call a place home, you build one hell of a place to call home.

And that is my take, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for tuning in.

It has most definitely been a vibe.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) (upbeat music)