Moline, ILL (KWQC) – QC Empowering Network is a collaborative initiative created for and by black citizens Quad. The organization’s flag event is happening this weekend.
The Black Business Exhibition has been celebrating 10 years this weekend with its annual event taking place in Southpark Mall in Moline from 1 to 4 February 22.
What started in 2015 with only 20 sellers has become a highly projected community event.
In previous years, sellers have represented everything, from leather companies to graphic designers, photographers, cooks and more.
Starting a business can be a rough experience, and events like QC Black Business Expo allow these businesses to learn from one another.
One of those grateful business owners for the opportunity is Shay Moore, a stylist and owner of Moore Divahs, LLC.
“Martin Luther King had a dream and he wanted us all to get that dream, so this is what Black Expo does in February,” Shay said. “Certainly allowing others to know that our businesses are there, and the thing about it, getting that exposure there also allows people to know who you are, what your business is doing and what you are doing, and some people want be in one mind with that. “
What began to work in health care turned 11 years of creativity by creating custom hairstyles, hats and socks, haircut boards and more.
“Custom design with you in mind, so it’s nothing you will find in the store,” Shay said.
Allowing her the ability to spend more time with her children at the top of Covid-19 by closing many shop businesses, Shay says it is the comfort that holds it by running the business from her home. However, she has hope to get that mobile.
“This brings me my happiness because A. I can get up. Make sure my children you know to leave school, their father removing them in school and such things, and well, I have to sit in that table and do what I like to do.
In addition to traveling through the US, reception and participation in fashion shows in cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City, Memfis, Tennesses, and more, Shay has a real passion for fashion art and is taking that community passion from the community from Sewing learning for students inside the Rock Island-Milan school district.
The benefits of the exhibition expand through her family as her husband Sterling Moore, a member of the historically black brotherhood Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. (ZZS chapter), hopes young people throughout the community will come out to learn more about brotherhood and opportunity found inside.
“The more children we keep out of the way, the more successful we can become more likely. We make them go to college and school. Get a good education, and then career advances so they be stable when they get old, ”Sterling said.
Shay’s message to those who want to create a business of their own but need that extra push;
“I have paved the way to my family, and because of other children in the community, I want to open up a way they also show them, that it doesn’t stop with Martin Luther King, doesn’t stop with Rosa Parks, don’t Stop with me.
Participants will have the opportunity to meet and buy from more than 50 sellers participating. In addition, there will be a health and entertainment fair.
For more information on Moore Divahs visit here.
For more information, visit the Facebook page of the qc power network here or by email quadcityempowerment@gmail.com.
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