Doctor Sherman J. Silber: A Great Example of a Purposeful Life

 (This is an article assignment I had for an in-person interview earlier this year with the St. Louis Jewish Light. I took all photos in person during the lengthy interview.)

The official opening ceremony of the Silber Infertility Center on Clayton Road in Frontenac took place on Feb. 15. Just eight days later, infertility pioneer Dr. Sherman Silber revealed countless details of his miraculous life’s work.

He displayed a chart explaining a dramatic improvement in selecting the correct egg match for any specific patient. 

“It used to be very scary. Embryologists would have to look down at tanks, open them up, and liquid nitrogen fumes would come up. They would poke a little straw down there and try to see which label had which patient over it. ‘Oh, no! It’s this one! No, it’s that one!’’  Plus, liquid nitrogen had to be refilled about every two days to make sure it never melted down.” 

Also, when you opened the large incubator, the atmospheric culture system would change as would everyone’s petri dish within the incubator.

Enter the Tomorrow Machine which Silber’s team invented in Belgium. You simply enter a patient’s name and birthday, and a drawer automatically opens with liquid nitrogen and the embryo you want to transfer.

“It’s so safe and flawless! Now it’s just one little micro incubator for every single patient. It’s 22nd century equipment amazing embryologists around the world. They tell me (from photos), ‘These are the best eggs we’ve seen in any IVF center.’ It’s nice to hear that because it correlates with our results. At any age you view, our baby rate for eggs is four to five times higher. Instead of a fertilization rate of 72%, it’s over 90%.”

Soon as the new center opened, his team executed its first egg retrievals there on Jan. 27. Previously, all work was done at his St. Luke’s Hospital office.

Silber’s IVF lab began in 1985. His first In Vitro Fertilization was done at St. Luke’s. Other infertility doctors couldn’t do IVF because they had no understanding of cell culture which he learned in 1973 in Melbourne, Australia.

“All the infertility doctors, including me were very hesitant getting into IVF.  We were hoping it wouldn’t work because it was just a new venture. Sometimes when you don’t want to do something that’s not in your comfort zone, G-d gives you a little nudge. Then you do something you wouldn’t have done otherwise! I realized it wasn’t enough to just treat people conventionally. We really needed IVF.”

On Feb. 23, just two days before this interview, Silber was on Facebook Live with 35-year-old Meaghan Ferneau. Just 35 years previously, Meaghan’s mother was infertile.  Silber’s crew got her pregnant with IVF. That led to her perfectly normal, healthy girl. But Meaghan was also infertile and had been trying to have a baby for seven years.  She had endometriosis, then had several laparoscopic surgeries and multiple rounds of various drugs which did not help.  Meaghan’s doctor informed her she needed to seek reproductive help. Her visits were totally unsatisfying. 

“So, her mother referred her to us, and Meaghan called me the very next day. They were living in Arkansas then, and now in St. Louis. Now, she has a nine-month-old baby girl who is the second generation of babies.” 

‘We love her so much that it would be great to have another!’ Meaghan said on the video holding her baby girl.

More new age results were invented using AI for choosing sperm to inject into an egg. That was a gigantic step for male infertility. Silber noted they don’t care about the sperm count, needing just a few. They’re also not interested in the diagnosis of male infertility because when doing IVF, they just pick the sperm and inject it into the egg.

“As humans, we can find the best sperm, but they move so fast. It’s tricky and you may not get it right. AI chooses the best sperm. It circles it, then when it swims off, it circles another one and you only pick up the sperm with a circle around it. So, we know we’re only getting the best sperm.” 

Meanwhile, Silber’s own life’s journey began strangely. He was born on the south side of Chicago as the neighborhood’s only Jewish kid to parents who were not meant for parenting. Prior to his grade school years, he was dropped off at a Jewish Family Service office that was akin to a wonderful orphanage.

Once he entered school, Silber rode from there to a conservative shul/Hebrew School. He was there until around eight at night. That experience was also uplifting with nurturing people.

A positive from both his parents since age five was the push to be a doctor as a great way to permanently escape his own poor, fight-filled neighborhood.

Silber always wanted to be a creative writer. He’s written 11 books translated into five different languages. But they’re all medical.

He split undergraduate time at the University of Michigan between medicine and the humanities. Later, there was only time for medical studies.

Silber planned on a residency in cardiovascular surgery at Stanford where he did his internship. But during the Vietnam War, he was called up to the Public Health Service and was sent to Alaska. There were no urologists there, so he constantly called to Seattle for help.  After Alaska, he returned to Michigan.

“After I was in urology a little bit, it wasn’t as interesting as when I started. But one thing I really liked was kidney transplantation. I developed all the microsurgery for doing them in rats. My wife’s mother and friends all said, ‘What are you doing? Rats don’t have insurance.  They’re not going to pay you.’” 

It was merely an interest, but it transformed surgical research which used to be done on dogs who would howl endlessly.

Silber met his wife Joan in his senior year of medical school. After years of training together all over the world, they returned to the U.S. After marriage, they settled in Joan’s hometown of St. Louis and Sherman was immediately ‘adopted’ by her parents.

Joan inspired Sherman to do his first vasectomy reversal in 1975 that led to a front- page New York Times article by famous medical writer Jan Brody.

Fast forward to 2004. Silber’s team was the first to perform a successful ovary allotransplant using eggs of a fertile woman transplanted into one with no eggs.

“That was an interesting story.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial page criticized me. They kept saying I was a cowboy.  But a year later, she was pregnant, and the front page read, ‘Revolutionary Fertility Doctor Achieves Success with Ovary Transplant.’” 

His team has successfully done four, utilizing a safe immunosuppression protocol that can be done on life-saving procedures.

One example was a young, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish girl with Turner’s Syndrome who couldn’t have babies. They did the transplant from her sister. She started ovulating and they found a great match for her.  She never thought that would happen, but has been pregnant since late summer!

What was Silber’s attitude toward thinking all the details of his work could be possible? He said it’s all based on curiosity that’s developed in the first three years of life.

“I learned curiosity from how I was taken care of at the Jewish orphanage. It’s the secret to all innovation and progress.”

Regarding the Y chromosome, most thought hormonal issues caused a man to have little or no sperm count. That led to a variety of treatments. But Silber’s control trials showed that none of those treatments worked.  So, it had to be genetic.

Silber said that from an educational point of view, people used to talk about how the world was overpopulated.  He said that’s been debunked by population sociologists and that young people need to support an aging population even if it’s pretty healthy.  Despite being age 82, Silber still swims a mile every other day. He added that it’s crucial that we allow these people to have babies because if you ask any patient what they care about most in life, it’s their children and grandchildren. 

Curiosity keeps Silber up at night.  He always has a scratch pad to write problems of patients or systems to take care of the next day.

“Mozart always had melodies going through his head and he could hardly sleep because he had to write them down. That’s how I am with problems and new ideas.”

Another recent miraculous result involved an Asian billionaire and his 36-year-old wife.  They had been to six different IVF centers with no success.  He had an incredibly low sperm count, was told he had a Y chromosome deletion, and would need donor sperm. But he did a massive Internet search, found Silber’s work on the Y chromosome, hopped on a plane and flew here.

“I said that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard because with that kind of Y chromosome deletion, you have SOME sperm! That’s all we need because we pick it up by the tail under the microscope and inject it into the egg. He said, ‘But you haven’t even looked at my semen.’ I told him, ‘We’ll look at your semen, but I guarantee that you’ll have some sperm.’ He brought his wife here. We did an ultrasound and found she had a very small number of eggs. So, I said, ‘We’ll have to do mini-IVF because we’ll have a much higher baby rate for eggs, and we’re going to use your sperm.’ He didn’t believe it was possible, but they had healthy twins!”

Still working some 70 hours a week, Silber is currently collaborating with colleagues in Osaka, Japan and at UCLA’s stem cell center. They’re doing skin biopsies on men with zero sperm and women over age 50 with no eggs. They’re taking skin cells, fibro blasting them into stem cells, then turning those into completely normal eggs. They are being funded by that same billionaire with the fertility success story!

Silber’s new IVF center offers a patient-friendly experience in an ultra-modern lab.  While he is the big name because of his innovations, he insists far more credit should go to his coordination staff of 20-25 years and his seasoned embryologists.

Dozens of awards have poured into Silber’s hands over the years. Regarding one that stands out most, he grabbed a plaque from 2010.

“Four months before the Arab spring, things were looking good in Syria. Assad was trying to move more toward the West. That would have been very important because he would have been a counterfoil toward Iran. I was on Al Jazeera as a real hero, and I gave a speech after being named the only Jewish member of the Middle East Infertility Center in Damascus.

“It was so joyful as the only Jew there with so many Iranians, Palestinians, and other Arabs.  There we were, my wife and I. My speech was broadcast all over the Arab world. What I said was, ‘This is amazing!  Here I am, Jewish, you’re inviting me as a lifetime member, I’ve got a son and grandchildren who live in Israel, and it’s here in Damascus that I’m talking right now. Syria has always been a center of communication and trade for the world. It always brought diverse people together.  It’s appropriate that I’m the first Jew to come here to be honored by you. I hope this is a symbol that we’re all going to live together in a diverse society, in the Middle East, and Israel, Syria and Jordan will all be happy together.’ “

Silber added that everyone rushed in with their little cameras to pose with he and Joan who have been married for 57 years after a one-year engagement.

Having enjoyed countless TV appearances, Silber’s most recent one was with Megyn Kelly on The Today Show. He brought a patient who was 17 when he first froze her ovary.  She required two bone marrow transplants to survive Hodgkin’s disease, and then chemotherapy.  They transplanted the frozen ovary back to her and she ended up having four babies. She’s now 40 years old and an oncology nurse at Children’s Hospital.

Regarding Silber’s own family, Joan’s on the national board of the American Jewish Committee (AJC).  She was chairman of the Boys and Girls Club of St. Louis, and Aish HaTorah for about 10 years.

Eldest son David is an Orthodox rabbi in Israel with eight children and three grandchildren.  He is also a prominent Mergers and Acquisition lawyer. Two of the three lawyers representing Israel at The Hague are from his firm, Horowitz and Company, the oldest in Israel, dating back to 1908.

Middle son Steve was a U.S. Marine anti-terrorist who became an outdoors wilderness guide. He nearly made the Olympics in snow skiing.  His present goal is a Master’s Degree to practice psychology.

Youngest son Joe is Chief Engineer at Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory in northern California with a major interest in dark energy. He directs his staff to build machinery, and he’s also written four novels.

Long ago a chess master in high school in Chicago, winning the Illinois state title, Silber still loves making videos of wildlife in Africa and Alaska. Recreational loves are fly fishing and snow skiing. He said that if he had a tag line, it would be ‘Keep Your Nuclei Rotating’ 

“We have stem cells for everything in our body, and there are resting follicles in the ovary. It’s well-known by some bio engineers that myogenic tension, or tissue pressure, causes the nuclei of the stem cells to rotate. When they do, they slow down their metabolism and last longer. It’s from the pressure that’s caused by any form of exercise.

Regarding life itself, the good doctor added, “When you’re young, everything can be fun. As you get older, you think more about your mortality and what’s really important. The most important thing is to be happy when you die. That happens if you feel you’ve had a purpose in life and have done something useful. If you don’t have a purpose or purposes, you can get depressed and die unhappy. So, it’s really important to have a purpose.”

Regarding life’s purposes, on which he has excelled, Silber concluded by citing “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. 

Parkway Central junior Andrew Rubin is living his dream with State Street Spices

 (Here is my more in-depth and detailed version of a story I recently had published in West Newsmagazine. All photos were sent to me, courtesy of Andrew Rubin.)

According to 18^th century British poet William Cowper, “Variety’s the very spice of life that gives it all its flavour.”

That’s precisely what Andrew Rubin has experienced this school year. The Parkway Central junior has enjoyed an all-encompassing journey involving travel, some of the highest levels of school classes and true entrepreneurship.

But that old poem is even more fitting considering that on September 6, 2023, Rubin started his own business known as State Street Spices. It now boasts bottles of spice covering eight different flavors, each named after cities where he’s traveled thus far except for one.

Rubin would be considered an inspiration to many even without his business prowess. After all, that success followed closely on the heels of a wide variety of physical ailments throughout his young life.

“When I was younger, I had a bunch of stomach issues which I still have,” Rubin said. “I’ve had eye problems my whole life, too. When I was in (Shenandoah Valley) elementary school, I had to wear a patch over one eye for a few years because the vision was so little compared to the other eye.  I almost went blind in fifth grade and had to have a procedure to save my vision. I was about 11 years old then, the youngest in St. Louis to have that operation. I also had really bad headaches from it (a corneal disease known as keratoconus that former baseball Cardinal Tommy Pham had). That led me to being in the hospital; mostly in St. Louis Children’s downtown. I was also in a wheelchair for a couple years in middle school.”

 

Despite all those ailments, Rubin has persisted in so many ways, taking all the difficult steps leading up to his business venture.

The lifelong Chesterfield resident is not only involved in speech and debate, but belongs to three different Honor societies.  He spent the first two years of high school on Central’s Student Council. At the end of his sophomore year, Rubin won the Hugh O’Brian Leadership Award.  This year, he is the school’s president of DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), a high school and college program for students interested in business and future entrepreneurship.

Through his schooling, Rubin acknowledged a few outstanding mentors who have helped on his business journey. One is Erin Fluchel, the Spark director who works with about 30 students in the Spark incubator program to help students grow their businesses. He also mentioned Parkway Central business teachers Sarah Hale and Julie Weindel through DECA and National Business Honor Society who Rubin deems ‘equally amazing and influential.’

“I grew up watching every episode of Shark Tank as often as possible because I love watching it, and I actually just saw it at dinner about an hour ago,” Rubin said of this May 19 interview. “A couple years ago, I participated in a summer program at SLU that was an entrepreneurship program and from there I knew I wanted to start my own business.

“I first started to think of State Street Spices around March of last year. But I didn’t start it then because you sometimes push back before starting a business because you think of all the risks involved. But when I started my junior year, I joined the Spark Incubator Program which is offered through Parkway and Rockwood. It gives you half the day on Wednesdays and Fridays to work on your business, grow your networking and work with a group of people who are also starting a new business.  That’s been a neat experience this year and I’ll also be joining it next school year. It’s been an amazing program not only to start my business, but also to learn all these important skills in the business world.”

His parents, Sarah and Phillip offered the initial few hundred dollars to get things started. From there, Andrew combined his loves of travel, cooking for his family nearly every night, and entrepreneurship.

Rubin’s been on several float trips, but that was nothing compared to many of the places he’s been over the past year or so. Included in that was the first time he had ever left the country with a mid-March trip to Calgary, Alberta Canada that included actual hiking at Banff National Park.

Regarding that trip, Jennifer Rubin Evans declared in a Facebook post, “So proud of my baby brother! As most of you know, he was literally in a wheelchair a few short years ago and we never knew if he was going to walk again. Now, he just crushed two difficult hikes on the side of a mountain in ice, snow, and mud.”

Rubin has also flown three times to Washington, DC, his favorite city.  While there, he not only toured a pair of universities, but also visited a good deal of the historical landmarks and a variety of cultural and fun tourist sites of our Nation’s Capital.

But it was his 2023 trip to Madison, WI where Rubin came up with his State Street Spices idea and the company name because he was riding down State Street at the time.

“My thought was that I wished I could try the famous foods of different cities in the comfort of my own home, without having to pay to travel. So, I thought of the idea of a spice blend company with the focus on the authenticity of each spice.  There are a lot of spices right now such as our Nashville Hot, but other major spice companies don’t necessarily focus on the quality and authenticity of what they put out with a lot of additives (such as salt) and cheap fillers.  I wanted to start a company that focuses on authenticity.  Each of our eight spice blends took roughly 40-80 hours of research for which I have a research formula. I also looked into a bunch of recipes and restaurants in each city to really narrow down the most authentic cases for each of the blends. My research looks deep into the cities to see what the other spice markets have lacked.”

Rubin added that the idea is to bring authentic flavors from throughout cities and states in this country. So, it was fitting being on a street named State Street to use that name. The only city of his eight spices he hasn’t visited is Buffalo, NY.

Since Rubin has spent so much time in hospitals, some 10% of the funds from his sales automatically go directly to buying games for the staying time of youths at local children’s hospitals. He added that playing games would have been a great distraction for him in helping take the constant focus off the gloom of being in a hospital and on the medical issues he had.

In addition to the initial funding of his business, Rubin credits his parents for their support of helping mix spices and in being beside him in the handful of events he has attended to support his business. That began with the Parkway West craft fair late last October.

A couple weeks later, Andrew’s mom added a Facebook post congratulating him on the business and noting that his then seven spices can also be added to meat, chicken, vegetables and even popcorn!!!

“Since then, I’ve invested everything and put in my own money to really grow this business,” Rubin said.  “Before I got into this, last summer I was working about 60 hours a week through two different jobs in the daycare industry. I really worked hard because I knew I wanted to start a business and they can cost a lot of money. I’ve reinvested everything I’ve made to grow my business.”

Another financial highlight along the way was winning a $500 Parkway-Spark! And Waterway Car Wash business grant.

“I’ve done five different events and I’ve sold about 500 spice jars just at those events.  On average, I sell a spice jar about every four minutes which is super neat.  I also offer samples of items like dips in which you can add the spices.  It’s been a really good experience going to those events.  However, about two months ago, I also started my online store.  So, I’ve been excited about getting some online orders to grow that part of the business. For four different weeks in the summer, I will be at West County Mall to sell some of my spices at a kiosk. I’m really excited about that being another opportunity to help grow my business. But my goal in the next few months is to get into a grocery store.  Getting into retail is a really big dream of mine. So, I would not only be going to all these events, but also have my spices in these shops.”

The State Street Spice details for the West County Mall appearance will be on the lower level near Nordstrom from June 10-16, June 24-30, July 15-21, and July 29-Aug. 4.  Prior to that, Rubin will have a June 1-2 booth at the Kimmswick Strawberry Festival.

Rubin is also thankful for some extra special free publicity he has received as of late. He reached out to St. Louis Bucket List through its Instagram page.  They featured a story on Rubin and also helped him create some helpful videos which he is set to post on his business page www.statestreetspices.com in the coming weeks.

He also sent a letter to KSDK’s Rene Knott about his business. Knott really liked the letter and responded to Rubin by email. They stayed in contact, Knott filmed an interview in which they mixed up some spices, and on May 15, Rubin was featured on the ‘My Lou’ segment.

“I’ve also actually gotten some interest from some pretty large companies both from the St. Louis area and Nashville companies,” Rubin added. “But I just want to focus on distribution and some of the other challenges of starting a business.  Being able to grow my business but not grow it too quickly has been something I’ve had challenges with. So, I’m willing to find a good balance for that. But this has all been a great experience starting my own business, to see it grow, and I’m very excited about this summer at West County Mall…not just to sell my spices, but to grow my brand and get it more out there.”

Rubin noted that, in the meanwhile, he’s looking to add one or two more spices in the coming months to add to the most recent one, L.A. Taco. The others are in alphabetical order: Buffalo Buffalo, Cincinnati Chili, Kansas City Barbecue, Memphis Barbecue, Nashville Hot, New York Steak and St. Louis Barbecue.

“There are so many cities with lots of different flavors to focus on. So, I’m looking to add more flavors, then later down the line, I would love to add some other things like dips and sauces. But that comes with a lot more legal corridors because they would be more perishable items.  So, that would be more years down the line.  Right now, I’m just focusing on adding more spice blends and continue to grow that segment of the business.” 

Local trail running group highlights natural amenities of West County area

 (This ran April 24 in West Newsmagazine online and print. All photos are by Elaine Collins.)

Participants in the Ozark Foothills Endurance Run, held at Greensfelder Park in Wildwood

Shalini Bhajjan is blending passion, experience and skill into a unique local direction. The Delhi, India, native moved to the U.S. in the 1990’s and pursued a professional career in design and merchandising. After working in that field for more than a decade in New York, then two years in Florida, Bhajjan settled into the Ballwin area.  

Since then, Bhajjan’s path took an interesting turn. After being a stay-at-home mom to three children for a handful of years, Bhajjan started running, and has kept on running.

But unlike Forrest Gump’s adventures along America’s roads, Bhajjan casually ran the trails of nearby Castlewood State Park around 2011-2012. Shortly thereafter, she connected with a group in Wisconsin and ran her first 50k ultra trail run.

“Getting back to St. Louis, I was just looking for people to run with,” Bhajjan said. “I was throwing out weekly runs, and a bunch of us would connect and do long Sunday runs at Greensfelder County Park and elsewhere. That kind of initiated a question, ‘Why aren’t there any races here?’ It snowballed from there.”

                                                      Race Director Shalini Bhajjan and speaker Traci Falbo.

Bhajjan connected with United States of America Track & Field (USATF). That led to the creation of Terrain Trail Runners-STL which combines her talents of not only coordinating runs and races, and helping work on actual trails plus merchandising products for the organization and specific races. From there, she directed the Ozark Foothills event.

Bhajjan has been race directing full-time for 10 years and currently has 11 events in St. Louis. Ten of those events offer races ranging from 5k up to 100 miles, and are held at different state and county parks. Every race showcases different terrain and different kinds of trail systems.

“The eleventh event is actually a women’s summit, a free community event I host in October,” Bhajjan said. “It’s open to all female athletes, whether they’re running, hiking, cycling or just want to learn more about the outdoors and connect with other women in the area. I started that with the goal to engage women in the outdoors and create that safe place for other female athletes.”

Terrain Trail Runners-STL has brought new races to Greensfelder, Rockwood Reservations and Al Foster, to name a few local parks. She also has a first-ever foot race this year at Babler State Park on May 4. It’s a 15k run known as Babler Bongo.

“I run in a lot of races in the United States and internationally,” Bhajjan said. “I always get the question of where I’m from. Everyone has the misconception that St. Louis is all just Katy Trail – like crushed flat gravel. I wanted to prove that’s false. Our trails are not all flat because we are at the Ozark foothills. We don’t have 2,000 and 3,000 feet climbs, but our trails are equally challenging.  Also, I take pride in the accessibility of all our trails, and don’t want people to keep saying that just because we live in St. Louis, we won’t be able to run some of the out-of-town trails. My top priority has been showcasing what we have and creating routes and events that bring in people.”

To maintain sustainability, Bhajjan also limits race participant numbers to 100-125. Ozark Hills is one of the biggest races, pulling in 200-250 runners. Bhajjan said some 40% of the participants traveled here from outside the Greater St. Louis and Metro East area for their recent April 5-7 Ozark Foothills Terrain Trails runs. She added, “That’s an introduction into, ‘Hey! This is happening in St. Louis!’”

“Outside of that, I’m heavily involved in a lot of trail building and volunteer events,” Bhajan said. “One of the initiatives we have in place is with Forest ReLeaf. Sustainability is a component in a lot of what I do in race directing. It’s not just throwing out races. It’s a lot of mindfulness of giving back to the community and showcasing what St. Louis has in our trail systems.”

The Forest ReLeaf initiative has helped plant 44 trees at Route 66 State Park.

Event registrations for Terrain Trail Runners-STL runs offer a question where participants can opt out for shirts and other items. As Bhajjan notes, if you run in several events, getting such merchandise is a redundant thing. So, runners can choose to plant a tree instead of getting additional apparel.

“What will happen this year, unless I can find an initiative of planting a certain number of trees at Greensfelder County Park or wherever, I will look at how many people opted out of the t-shirt for all of my races, and basically take all that money and donate to Forest ReLeaf,” Bhajjan said.

Regarding trail work and maintenance, Bhajjan partners with St. Louis County Parks and state parks with volunteer projects to help maintain trails.  She also works closely with Gateway Off-Road Cyclists (GORC), a non-profit that also helps maintain area trails.

“It’s not just offering a lot of events, but also giving back,” Bhajjan said. “For the event I have in February, I donate all the funds to GORC for all they do. After all, trails don’t maintain themselves, and a lot of the parks departments are understaffed. So, I’m side-by-side helping them clean the trails and do whatever is needed.”

Terrain Trail Runners-STL is a free group, and anyone can join. It’s very active on Facebook where the group started and where all group runs are posted. The only payment is for specific race registration.

Spring truly sprung with hope at the Job Seekers’ Garden Club meeting

 

The March 27^th Job Seekers’ Garden Club (JSGC) event was a veritable Garden of Eden for those seeking both knowledge and connections regarding the path to satisfying employment opportunities.

The Center for Specialized Services at 11828 Lackland Road was the site for the six-hour ‘Matching Passion to Purpose’ extravaganza, co-hosted by Rockit Careers.

It was fitting that the first person introduced to the nearly packed house was JSGC Founder and Executive Director Bob Kolf. His contributions to the area can never be overstated.  Since planting a seed in March 2020, the then networking group gradually germinated into a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that has sprouted to well over 5,000 members!

Kolf was followed by several Board members like group Vice-President Lexie Dendrinelis, who also served as event emcee; Brian Young and Mitch Mandel, Career Coaches at Rockit Careers; Secretary Kay Kalra and Treasurer Edwin Schmid. Next introduced were about 10 JSGC ambassadors.

Meanwhile, Sarah Snyder of SC Consultings, LLC provided fantastic event photography while Wendy Fitter, who started Unleashed Music & Event Planning some 20 years ago, did likewise with terrific music during lunch and the half dozen breaks.

It was Dendrinelis’ honor to introduce keynote speaker Tri Pham, a fellow Dale Carnegie of Missouri member. His multi-step Translating Your Life's Purpose to a Job presentation was accompanied by a wide variety of brief networking sessions from one-on-ones to small group gatherings and even entire room activities.

Pham’s first of several slides was ‘Today, we will: 1)Draft a compelling vision that motivates. 2)Use the “Start with WHY” framework to communicate our vision. 3)Leverage the conversation linking method to build a lasting impression.’ After all, Pham showed a slide with a Helen Keller quote: “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision.”

Pham also offered one of his own lines: “Things can change very quickly. Don’t give up!” That was in reference to losing his job in 2020 and heading back to Nebraska before being offered a job at Dale Carnegie in St. Louis just three months later.  He’s currently a Certified Senior Trainer. Pham used projection into the future as a means of one’s vision, stating ‘I AM’ in several cases, which included specific job position and its job environment.

Then came the question, ‘What is a trait of a successful person?’ Regarding importance on the job, the near capacity crowd touched on roughly a dozen responses.  But Pham had it narrowed down to three main categories: 1)Skills, 2)Knowledge, and 3)Attitude.  While knowledge stood at just 15%, the other two combined for a hefty 85%!

“That slide with the surprising importance of those numbers really caught my eye!” said Sally Matiszik. “That’s reassuring as a job seeker; especially my pivot from being a restaurant owner for seven years to a return to B2B sales. I had asked myself, ‘If I were not doing this job right here, right now, would it still be what I wanted to do today?’ That great question got me back into job seeking. The name of this group reminds me of a garden spreading out to keep growing.”

For the process of networking throughout the room, Pham offered Conversation Links starting with one’s name, where they live and their family. Next was work, travel, hobbies and greatest life’s passions. He added that “We need to communicate and expand our comfort zone by using emotional intelligence in our conversations.”

Even so, Pham added a Dale Carnegie quote into the mix regarding attitude: “It isn’t what you have, who you are, where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”

“His presentation was a good overview of most aspects of job seeking,” said JSGC  Ambassador Joshua Maloney. “The exercises were great because I’m in sales vs. people who may not be as comfortable speaking to so many others.  This was a good road map because positivity breeds success.”

Maloney found his current position as Director of Sales and Growth with Guardex Home Maintenance and Repair through Job Seekers. “I became a group ambassador to be an example for other people. The group is so inviting and welcoming! It felt right to keep being with people who understand how frustrating the job search can be.”

One intermission featured a brief, but heartfelt presentation by Janet R. Martin. Having suffered a fairly recent job layoff, Martin first filled the room with a bone-chilling rendition of “I’m a Song,” written by a friend of Lonestar bass guitar player Robby Wilson. Martin herself currently writes and performs faith-based music after helping a good number of veterans and others at work. This will be her fourth year of participating in the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, held May 16 in Denver.

If that wasn’t super-charged enough, Janet revealed how she had been horribly abused in  marriage. She proceeded to read parts of her emotionally-charged chapter entitled ‘God’s Grace’ in the book, Breaking the Silence.

“I had developed very negative health myself, but because of networking, I wrote the anthology through healing instead of throwing people under the bus unlike what others do. If we don’t connect, we miss out on so many opportunities.”

Frank Alaniz, Workforce Consultant in AI, presented The Power of AI in a Purpose-Driven Job Search. That started with a slide, “AI will not replace you. A person who is using AI will.”

He revealed several surprising facts about current job seekers: 1)Only 51% have relevant keywords. 2)Less than 25% customize their resumes to fit each available job. 3)A full 35% have zero metrics. 4)Only 48% of resumes contain a LinkedIn URL. 5)A full 51% of resumes contain unneeded buzzwords, cliches or misspelled words.

Alaniz then displayed a series of slides and provided detailed explanations of subtopics like the Pros and Cons of AI, necessary cover letter prompts, important LinkedIn headlines for job seekers, resume steps and potential interview questions. He also added important details of following up on job applications using the 7-7-21 method.

“If you understand the process, you can be successful in the process,” he said.

Alaniz added that despite all the crucial AI steps, “Networking will always be the best way to get a job.”

While emphasizing so many do’s and don’ts of various AI sites and formats, Alaniz continually noted the importance of reaching out to Young and Mandel for resume writing tips.

After another networking break, Young spoke on Communicating Your Purpose Through Your Cover Letter and Resume.

Young emphasized the need to study all details of the job description, starting with the purpose of the job, its importance to the company, and what skills and personal qualities would be necessary to fulfill that job’s needs.

Once that’s done, there’s a choice among chronological, functional and hybrid resumes with individual details to include or exclude based on age, years of experience, employment gaps, skills, and possible career change.  Next are graphic design choices and how resume items should be formatted for easiest readability.

For the actual writing of the resume, steps presented were the Professional Summary starting with a catchy opening statement, followed by hard and soft skills, experience with specific accomplishments that are quantified, if possible. The next segment would include education followed by training and perhaps certifications or licenses, then pertinent memberships, volunteering and personal accomplishments; especially for those without a great deal of actual work experience.

“This is basically Resume 101 in a nutshell,” Young said. “What’s important is readability.  So, don’t cram a lot of stuff on one page with really small font. You can go to two pages, but always aim to go more than halfway down that second page.”

Finally, Young said to tell your story in your cover letter; again, starting with a catchy lead and wording that appeals to emotions, shows your uniqueness and has a hook that makes readers want to learn more. The cover letter also needs to be personal to the job and company itself, noting the value you would add to that company without being too lengthy.

“Unfortunately, a lot of hiring managers and HR people don’t even look at cover letters. So, sometimes it’s also good to mail in a copy with your resume.”

In the process, Young added that it may be to a job seeker’s benefit to talk to some of their own connections for advice; especially if seeking employment outside their own regular line of work. That said, Young and Mandel can also be contacted to ensure resumes. Like their Rockit Careers namesake, they can take the fortunes of prospective employees up to the stars!

“I was so excited to see the list of speakers; especially having one from Dale Carnegie,” Matiszik added.  “I was just blown away with the presentations! And it was so affordable with a charge of just $10 that included a great catered lunch! If it wasn’t the Job Seekers Garden Club where he spoke, it would have been so expensive!”

Added to that, experienced leadership trainer Eva Henry announced she’s offering 12 free workshops in person and virtual: “Networking can be difficult. It was for me.  But everybody in this room is fighting for what’s best for you!”

Other recruiters at the event included Jeanna Smith of Challenge Unlimited; Leah Harris of Unleashing Potential; Jeff Strasburg of MERS/Goodwill; Alicia Goetten of New York Life Insurance Company; David Halfmann of Executive Financial Group; Ragan Andrew of Adrift Tours & Travel; Mandy Kendall of Northwestern Mutual; Cheryl/Cheri Zink of Zink Enterprises, LLC; and Kenda Curativo, who helped provide the event’s home base as Director of Career Development and Work Incentive Practitioner at the Center for Specialized Services.

Meanwhile, Dendrinelis, who has spent her entire career in corporate wellness, recalled giving a presentation in a different networking group years ago when she was approached by Kolf. “He asked if I would give a presentation at one of his events. Shortly thereafter, I joined his Executive Board. Today’s meeting was fabulous! It’s exactly what I expected!”

Dendrinelis offered a quote from 130 years ago by famous American inventor and businessman Thomas Alva Edison. It was intended for dozens of job seekers in attendance, and still rings true: “Our greatest weakness is giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

96-acre Olia Village project approved

(Dozens of meetings led to this final verdict I wrote for West Newsmagazine more than a week ago.)

Three bills paving the way for the 96-acre Olia Village mixed-use project, to be located on the former Bayer Campus in Creve Coeur, were passed by the City Council on April 8, despite pushback from residents.

The first bill uses Missouri Chapter 353 to designate the area as blighted for tax abatement purposes. The second creates a Community Improvement District (CID) designation for the development site, and the third bill allows the city to issue Taxable Industrial Revenue Bonds in an amount not to exceed $135 million to aid in the construction of the project.

                                              (Source:  City of Creve Coeur)

During the April 8 meeting, City Administrator Mark Perkins addressed prior concerns made by residents –  a major worry brought forward had been the use of incentives to offset development costs. While the city has provided very few incentives over the last 25 years, he said Olia Village is a particularly unique development opportunity for the city – one that fits with Creve Coeur’s comprehensive plan. 

Perkins said Olia Village compares favorably to other major developments in the St. Louis region, comparing it to the Streets of St. Charles, Chesterfield downtown TIF and the Brentwood/Manchester corridor project. 

Those projects offer 9-14% of incentives per the total investment, Perkins said, while the St. Louis average is about 17%. He stated that Olia Village’s incentive rate is just 6.7% and added that they couldn’t locate any projects of this size in St. Louis that have not had some form of incentive.

The developer of Olia Village is seeking a reimbursement value of $61.8 million in discounted incentives and also requested a tax abatement for real property tax revenues of $86 million. The total cost of the project is $984 million.

Regarding the possibility of taxing districts losing money, Perkins said that answer is “no” because there are 130 townhomes within this development that are not being provided any tax abatement. The abatements apply to the rest of the development, which are apartments, retail, hotels and offices. 

The other major question raised by residents regarding Olia Village was the “blighted” designation. Fears expressed included that the designation could devalue property value near the site.

Perkins said a large vacant or underutilized property, whether it is called blighted or not, is not beneficial to the city or its surrounding neighborhoods. 

“The key is to have a plan to address the blight, to address the conditions, and that’s what this is about,” Perkins said. “It’s about a major investment that will certainly be an overall asset to the entire community, certainly to those that are in close proximity.” 

However, as was the case in previous meetings, residents shared concerns on the project. 

Mara Diaz-Granados felt the city was giving away too many incentives and was still concerned about the potential loss of revenue for the Ladue School District. She has a school-aged son and was concerned potential lost revenues could equal the loss of several teachers, assistants, computers and other equipment.

Resident Linda Rezny thought the tax abatement was excessive, but proposed a middle ground.

“We keep bringing up the premise of either all or nothing is going to happen, which is ridiculous,” Rezny said. “I would suggest a compromise here. If we’d cut out the Chapter 353, they’d still have the sales tax and the Chapter 100.”

Resident Elizabeth Link said the property is a prime location that will be developed with or without the benefits. 

“It seems like you’re just adding whipped cream with a cherry on top at the expense of current citizens of Creve Coeur and the school district,” Link said. 

Following citizen comments, Matt Pfund of Jack Matthews Development addressed the “blighted” label for the property and noted the challenges and issues with the site. Pfund said the planning process with the city was collaborative, and “included much give, take and compromise.”

“The end result is a development with results that far outreach the boundaries of this site alone,” Pfund said. “The development creates many new jobs and provides many new public amenities and builds synergies that benefit the future of 39 North, offers new housing options, an innovative and accessible Main Street destination, slows stormwater flows through and exiting this property, maintains 30 acres of green space, and achieves every component of the Creve Coeur 2023-2025 strategic plan development.”

Prior to the vote on the bills, Ward 1 council members Mark Manlin and Heather Silverman explained why they planned to vote “yes” on the project, which is based in their Ward.

Manlin recalled his evaluation of Olia Village throughout the process. He said he considered priorities for the city, and the citizens’ concerns. 

“For me, the analysis boiled down to a handful of key, critical considerations and questions,” Manlin said. “First, do the merits of this development from a social impact perspective warrant the potential cost of granting incentives? In more basic terms, can this campus provide the community with a meaningful place to gather with friends, family and in the community as a whole? Is this a project that the community needs and desires? I believe the answers are yes.

“Second, does this development provide a significant amount of long-term, enhanced revenues, employment, and other financial benefits as the result of its development and in light of the incentives?  My answer is yes. Finally, are the requested incentives proportionate to the scale of the project? My determination was that it does warrant the incentives.”

Silverman followed with her assessment; she said when she was knocking on doors in Ward 1 during her run for office, she overwhelmingly heard that residents care about the redevelopment of the East Olive corridor. 

“Stagnation, which is what we have at best right now, leads to this,” Silverman said. “We are probably already in decline. With what we’ve negotiated, I don’t believe the students in Ladue schools would suffer or leave the district. It will end up with more income than what it currently has per student. That’s something I care about because I have three children in the school district.”

The bill to designate the area as blighted passed 6-1, with Council member Dan Tierney (Ward 4) opposed. The bill approving the CID was approved 7-0, and the bill allowing the city to issue Taxable Industrial Revenue Bonds passed 7-0. 

Woerther Elementary student takes fire truck to school

 (West Newsmagazine March 14th edition!)

Shanley Gibson didn’t take the bus to school on March 13, though her ride was still bright yellow with flashing lights. 

The Woerther Elementary first grader had earned a special honor for collecting the most money ($611) of any student in her school in the annual Kids Heart Challenge, which serves the American Heart Association. A Metro West Fire Protection District truck and firefighters brought her reward to her Ballwin home. 

Shanley Gibson in a Metro West fire engine, her reward for collecting the most money in Woerthr’s Elementary Kids Heart Challenge, which benefits the American Heart Association.

“That was really cool,” said mom Megan Gibson. “The top collector for the school got to have a ride to school on a fire truck. It actually showed up to our house about an hour early. They were the nicest guys, and they took her and her sister (Kenna) around the neighborhood with tons of kids seeing Shanley waving. She headed to school in the fire truck and her whole class came out to see her get off the truck. Her dad (John Gibson) said she had the biggest smile he had ever seen!”

Ballwin Ward 1 alderman Mike Utt, Shanley’s grandfather, was also present that morning. He said that the look on Shanley’s face was priceless, especially considering that the anticipated excitement of the special trip had kept her up most of the night.

However, there is a bit more to the story involving Utt himself, who was a large part of Shanley’s motivation in the Kids Heart Challenge. 

Shanley Gibson in a Metro West fire engine, her reward for collecting the most money in Woerthr’s Elementary Kids Heart Challenge, which benefits the American Heart Association.

"She made it extra important to her because my dad had a heart attack at a young age,” Megan said. 

Several classes at Woerther collected more than $2,000 total, but Shanley described why she was able to do so well individually through the online donation process.

“I have a lot of people that love me,” Shanley said. “Also, I thought it was fun and I liked knowing it changed a lot of people’s lives.”