Better Begins with Human Kindness, and today, Better Begins with Reality Radio, my last guest of the day.
One of our regulars, again, it's been a great day of regular guests on Reality Radio.
We've got Scott from the Flammer River.
YMCA, good morning, sir.
Good morning.
How are you?
Doing great.
So, since last we spoke, I think maybe one of the more notable things that's taking place is the start of the school year.
I know that has a pretty big effect for you guys, and back to school absolutely right in the sights today.
What have you got for us?
Well, if you drive past the Y today, actually this morning, right now, Hannah and a team of volunteers are setting up the fencing to go around the outside of the Y in the front on the Highway 13 side, because we are preparing for the back-to-school rally on Friday.
All right.
And what does that entail for those who haven't been before?
Well, if you didn't go last year, we turned it into kind of the biggest party of the year last year.
We had 400 people that attended last year, and our goal this year is to have 500 attendees.
yeah.
From Friday and from 5.30 p.m.
until 9 p.m.
we'll be at the Y. It is free and open to all members, non-members, community members, anybody who wants to come in and hang out and have some fun.
We'll be starting off with, you know, we have Dodgeball and Tug of War with the Fire Department and Police Department just...
like last year, Officer Kohler has still been warming up his shoulder.
I know my kid has challenged him a few times.
They've been talking smack back and forth for about six months, and I think that Officer Kohler is ready.
son's not.
He's not ready.
He thinks he is, but he's not.
Face painting goodie bags and prizes We're planning for a bounce house and every kid that comes has an opportunity for to win a free bike and a sling
backpack All right, so and that's just a lot of back-to-school fun in general But I see a lot of things everything from from face painting to obstacle courses you guys are well And I bet that that has some appeal too because I'm sure a lot of the kids at the beginning of the school year have plenty of energy to burn off We talked to Rachel Hoffman down at the Phillips school district and she said
Yeah, the vibes are high and that's partially because of a long weekend followed by a short week.
So that structure has been reintroduced.
Absolutely.
And
the whole idea is we're celebrating a start of a
a great school year and we want to invite all of the students and educators to come and celebrate with us and all of their families.
And let's just have a great evening together at the Y and enjoy some great food.
I know Allie and Ryan Plezner from Up North Builders, they've supplied us with, I think it's 12 boxes of preparations for walking tacos.
Our storage room is nothing but walking taco store right now.
And that'll be fun.
I'm pretty sure
Allie's planning on cooking all day on Friday to get ready for it.
you see northern wisconsin and up north builders both are uh donating a kid's bike so every kid that comes will get a blue raffle ticket and they'll put their name and phone number on it and put it into a drawing for one of the two bikes and at the end of the night we're going to draw the name of each of those kids that'll get to uh win a free bike um in fact i have a picture here i'll show you show you one of them all right
speak to the
think we have to if i find it i don't know
authority on cool, but kids bikes, I think I might be able to share an opinion on, but no, that's something that, it's one of those things where, oh yeah, yeah, yep, perfect.
Does it, and a helmet too?
Can helmet with it.
Oh, awesome too.
Well, and actually bikes are something that I wanted to, wanted to bring up because you guys last year did something that I thought was absolutely awesome, the bike bus.
Where are we at on that this year?
Yes.
Hannah's planning for a couple of days of bike bus here towards the end of September or early October before it gets too cold out.
Right.
I have to bring my bike back in and my kids are ready for it, but we're figuring that we want to get at least a couple of them in here towards the end of the start of the fall
Absolutely.
And for those not familiar, it's a group of people biking to school together and you can kind of join it as it goes by you if you're on the route or pretty easy to get to with your own bike to do that.
It's just a simple way to increase safety and add a little bit of a social component to the way to school that you might not have on the bus seat.
Hey, you don't have to pick who to sit next to or save a spot with your backpack.
You just roll that bike on along and jump in.
So we'll get you updated on that when we get more info.
And the fire that we're talking about for the back to school rally is, I believe, already in place on our website.
if not, we'll get it there today.
So people can actually look at this flyer on our website, but you guys are all over the internet too at Flambeau River YMCA on Facebook.
And is there a website too, I believe?
Northwasymca.org.
I knew it was something like that, but I didn't want to misspeak.
So you guys have been busy though, because like I said, back to school means busy why in general, right?
Pretty
much.
Yeah.
And that's, that's a great thing, especially when, you know, all of the kids are getting back into their, their, you know, fall activities and we want to get rid of some of that energy.
those kids have built up over the summer and what great...
great way to do it than, you know, playing dodgeball or, uh, getting in, getting some shape a little bit.
Oh, absolutely.
Uh, and there's, there's ways to, to figure out, you know, looking at whatever sport it is that that child is into, um, way to prepare.
There's a way to prepare for a year round, depending on how, how into that
And one of the things you guys will tell
aside from just being a source for that type of info, how to do it safely.
I know you asked me how I would go about lifting weights and there's an injury, there's a tweak, and there's a sprain, and it just, that knowledge doesn't come built in for everybody.
Some people are natural exercisers, weight lifters, and athletes, and I am not one of them.
So if you want a little bit of a guide, a bit of guidance there, the why is a fine place to find it.
Well, injuries are going to happen no matter what in sports, no matter what athletic opportunity you're into.
Injuries are part of it, but how do you prevent
injuries long term and that's one thing when you're looking at exercising and weight training and hit classes all of those things it's building in the structure the bodily structure to prevent as many injuries as possible over the long term
absolutely if you come over to the Y on Wednesday mornings you'll see
skips over in our our hit class and he's 80 years old and his goal is to jump the 24 inch plyo box and he's up to the 20 inch right now and so he wants or he's at the 24 and he wants to go to the 30 inch so 80
I'm half his age and I'm terrified of doing the 30 inch box
people are built that way.
Most of us just plain old aren't so realistic goals, sensible paths to get there.
That's what the Y is all about.
Scott, you never come with just one piece of paper.
You've got a whole stack as always.
I love that because there's always so much going on.
What else is coming up at the Y?
Well, we've got two other programs that are coming up.
I know I touched on it last time, the Cooking Made Easy program with Chef Laura.
This is a free program to any member or non-member open to the community.
This one
is essentially looking at simple cooking classes for families.
And the next one is coming up on September 18th from 4 p.m.
until 5 p.m.
And that one is essential kitchen skills for teens.
And so you're looking at your teen that's either starting to babysit or you're giving them a little bit more responsibility and they need to learn how to cook with the general staples around the house.
So if they're on a babysitting gig and maybe
the mom and dad didn't go shopping.
Well, what's in the pantry that they can learn to cook a healthy meal for those kids that they're watching?
And that's gonna be a really fun one.
It's gonna be an hour and she's got a whole mess of stuff that they'll be trying out that night.
We have five or four more of those free classes coming up here in the next couple of weeks.
So again, look online for the the info there.
Those those flyers will be on our website, but also on the Y pages.
If you want to get involved, that info will be readily available.
What am I looking at with this enrichment and music?
I'm going to pull the curtain back.
Well, enrichment and music programs.
Yes.
So as many people have heard, Rebecca Jetland, the former music teacher at Schwammigan, she has started a position with the Y in our enrichment.
program, which was we didn't have an enrichment program, and so she's creating it from scratch, which is fantastic.
And so Rebecca is leading a whole host of programming coming up here.
Everything from youth piano, adult piano, youth sewing, and a bunch of other events.
We haven't we haven't dropped the ball on this one yet, but she's planning a Y2K team night in October, right before Halloween.
That's going to be a boatload of fun.
Oh man.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That Y2K.
Remembering panic news stories from my own early memories.
And yeah, what'll happen when we hit 2000?
Well, it's 2026.
We survived.
So we've got to deal with that.
We made it.
Oh man, that's, well, you can, yeah.
Wow.
Holy cow.
The Y2K wave just hit me there.
I was thinking of the songs I used to listen to on the way to school in the car with mom.
And the, I mean, she was still listening to walk like an Egyptian at that point.
But, well, we'll get a little bit more updated from that, but it was really cool to see Rebecca joining the crew.
What, what is an enrichment program in its basic form?
If you wouldn't mind sharing that.
Yeah, so
you're looking at those different activities that aren't necessarily sports related.
But you're using your mind, you're using your hands and your dexterity to be able to perform whatever it is that you're working on.
Whether it's sewing and trying to create something with sewing or piano and those type of music lessons, and they're not just for you.
She has adult classes too.
Surprisingly, the adult classes are actually almost full of folks that are interested in doing that.
All of those classes are limited at five because we have to have a piano for each person at the Y and we're able to do this at the Y. And so check us out on the links on Facebook if you're interested.
It's bringing really bringing in the mind aspect of of programming rather than the physical aspect
You know what I think of Scott is that talented friend that everybody has or is bumped into or that one student that just you know It seems like they shine a little brighter But the truth is that they put some work into something that they wanted to pursue That's the connected thing every time and it feels like if you have that talented friend that you couldn't possibly be them But I will argue with you all day long.
I will die on that hill you can be that
talented person that you've seen before and it's through stuff just like this and it's often it's often those things those things that are a part of life to a degree that we choose cooking or music or things like that you know I think of a Dust collector some people might call a guitar that I've gotten a closet in my house right now and what what life might be like you know sure a little bit more musical but I'd have something I can look forward to on any given day something that you know if the power goes out I don't need to worry about my foot like I'll keep us busy and entertain you know the way that they use
to do on the Oregon Trail still works great.
We just watched Little House on the Prairie not too long ago.
Gotcha.
And pause playing that violin and it's like, man, what value that has when you can just do something like that casually.
And you don't have to become a virtuoso, but you do have to start somewhere.
And that might be the most intimidating part, I think, is how do I even begin?
The YouTube video, it's sure, but that requires discipline.
Let's put something on schedule, involve other people and an authority figure or a knowledgeable individual, someone with experience.
invaluable.
Oh, absolutely.
And
take a take away that intimidation factor, you know, just the other night when we were actually talking about the cooking class at dinner the other night.
And my eight year old, she asked my wife and I, you know, what was our what we do for our first date.
And we had a really good chuckle because our first date, my wife made a box of spaghetti that was
half-cooked and she used Campbell's tomato sauce for the sauce and like it was it was bad.
It was bad.
was bad.
I blessed her heart and then she's and then it's like okay but now you know
Mom practice and she did all these things and now she can she can whip up a sourdough loaf of bread in a matter of no time and make just about anything she makes beef wellington every year for For New Year's and it's like you know you every year or every time you try something you get a little bit better at it and just take away the Intimidation factor you're not gonna be the best at something the very first time you do it
It's, you know, and so it might take a thousand times of doing something, but it doesn't matter if it's a bench press or it's a piano, which piano takes a long time to be great at.
But once you, once you start mastering those little pieces, you can incrementally get better each and every
Well, when they say it's, it's what, 10,000 hours to master something.
Yeah.
The thing that always stood out to me, I don't remember what the origin was, a social media poster, whatever it was, but it was a conversation that you can read anywhere you want to.
I'm sure you could.
Google it and find it but it was somebody said that I'll be 31 before I finish learning how to do that and you're gonna be 31 anyway right the time passes regardless of what you fill it with so start yeah anyway I mean and another pair that with another saying that I know we've talked about opportunities multiply as you seize them sure you're gonna go learn how to play piano you're gonna go learn how to cook but who are you gonna run into and what will that bring into your life
Nobody knows nobody knows and it could be great it one and maybe maybe nothing but just that what you expect But even then you've been you've you've enriched yourself so enrichment and music programs Fall 2026 if people are interested look as you would online and people can get a hold of you by phone if they want to But like you mentioned those adult classes for enrichment are filling up pretty quickly So I wouldn't wait on that
absolutely in the as we've mentioned before we have the the annual support campaign which we've talked about in the past
that lowers membership rates and everything for our members that are interested in membership.
But don't forget that that's available for programming, too.
And so if you're thinking about doing piano and you're like, oh, it's a little bit too expensive for an eight-week program, well, there's a scholarship available for that that can help bring that price down for you.
Alright, so yeah, talk about that and ask questions and that's the nice thing about bringing the Y to the Northwoods is you guys are doing things the Northwoods way wherever possible That's that's what I mean What I mean when I say that is common sense and hey, let's work it out on an individual basis and a case by case You've got the time to do that in smaller communities, which is a beautiful marriage between the Northwoods way and the YMCA way So absolutely get involved and if you're saying that's not me
First of all, why?
Second of all, is that really a good reason?
Do you have a good reason not to do these things?
Because there are a bunch of good reasons to do them.
So get involved.
I'm suddenly thinking about things that, yeah, I need you to keep these.
I need you to leave these posters here real quick.
I can do that.
We'll put them on our website, 98QCountry.com.
But honestly, go to the pages online for the why itself.
Forgive me, hit the website again.
NorthwestYMCA.org.
Darn it.
I'm going to write that down, staple it to my forehead, but they can find you on Facebook too.
And we got, well, before we go, Scott, it's already, it's a holy cow.
It's already 10.03.
Is there anything else you want to touch on before we wrap up today?
I got one last thing.
It just jumped into my head.
If you remember a couple of weeks ago, we had our senior citizen celebration and we had some terrific vendors and great sponsors for that event.
John's Auto Works did a tremendous job.
We're so thankful that he was sponsoring that event and put on a great show for everybody.
At that event and in the days after,
those a few days afterwards, we had some incredible donations that came in to the tune of just under $12,000.
And every single dollar of those $12,000 was designated for the Forever Well programming.
And so if you are a senior citizen especially, and you are interested in coming to the Y, but financially it does not work,
Come and check with us.
Even if you don't have the health insurance that covers your membership, the annual support campaign and those dollars are designated directly to supporting our seniors in the community.
And so if you are interested in learning more, come and reach out to us and we'd be happy to walk you through that process.
It takes the exact same amount of time as a regular membership, but we have some incredibly generous people in the community that really want to help our senior population.
Wow, so the Flambe River wide, just like the rest of the crew, breaking down the walls and using the bricks to build a path for you to get there.
They're making it easier than ever before, if that two-word phrase that...
Fixed income comes to mind.
There's a lot of people out there who again might say that's something I can't do or I would if I could.
Well, I bet you can go talk to him at the Y. Absolutely.
Thank you guys so much for doing that and making everything so accessible.
And well, for giving us some time out of a very busy schedule, I imagine you've got a lot to do today tomorrow and every day at the Y. Absolutely.
We'll get there though.
Thank you so much, Scott.
We'll talk to you again soon.
It is though 10 0 5 already.
That means we're a little over time, but that's okay because we've got the time.
I'm hanging out until
noon today, and I'm actually hanging out all the way until 6pm when the Brewers are here on 98Q Country again.
They've got a break tomorrow, but one last game against the Cubs.
Hopefully it's less exciting than yesterday's in a good way.
I'd like a nice, resounding, I want it over by the sixth.
That would be just fantastic.
I think Scott agrees.
But talk to him yourself and dive into the programming that we've discussed today, and listen back if you'd like to on 98QCountry.com.
We're going to pause for station identification, and then we're back to the updates you need.
And hey, how about some country music too?
We'll go back to the 60s after these messages.
And reality radio continues it's 9.09 we're gonna go a little bit early with our guests from 9.15 because as they told me we like to be early.
And we talk a lot.
Why don't you two introduce yourselves?
Okay, I'm Maxine Kilger.
I'm an old lady from Butternut.
I was once a young person but now I'm old but I know a lot about Butternut.
I'm Kelly Meredith.
I'm on the museum board with Maxine and I'm a slightly old lady in myself.
So yeah, like beginning old.
I would call myself beginning old,
early old.
But she has connections to the first.
Settlers to settle in butternut.
butternut butternut.
Which is something I had no idea because I did not grow up
here.
So it's like
this
beef.
Miss Parker was a track soul and that's who.
My grandma was a track soul.
Okay.
So when I first met Maxine like she's first in getting me up to date in my own family.
So it's like okay thanks I really appreciate this.
This might sound like a tangent.
Yeah sorry sorry sorry.
It's absolutely brilliant.
I think it's just funny how organically we arrive on the same topic we're here to talk about.
about the Butternut Area Historical Society Village Fest, taking place this Saturday.
Now, is this, this isn't the first one of these.
We've talked to you guys about these before.
How many have there been now?
Actually, we have not done a good job of keeping track.
I would guess, it's just a guess.
I would guess it's number 10, but I could be wrong, because 10 would put us back to 2016.
So I think 10.
But yeah, it's an evolution of projects.
We started off when we first were formed.
We started off by doing a German dinner about this time of year, but it was labor intensive.
It was like D-Day, like it took forever to plan.
Then we moved on to Oktoberfest, which was a little more casual.
And then finally we've done this.
Yeah.
And
the weather's better at this time of the year.
We don't worry about some flakes falling and
your long johns to go out and dance.
have polka music.
Exactly.
It's still in there.
wrong.
it will be homemade sauerkraut.
It started there and then put in jars.
It was donated by a very good homemade sauerkraut maker.
drawing?
Okay.
We ask, and this is just if possible, we ask that if you attend, first of all, this is a free event.
So just come, um, and very hand to kick accessible.
So all good.
Um, we ask if possible that you bring a dish to pass.
And if even possible, we're really pushing you to bring
the recipe as well.
This has sort of evolved out of lots of conversations about where is the best food in butternut and we all talked about how going to like a funeral and then you're done with a funeral and you go downstairs to church basement and all the church ladies have brought these wonderful dishes back from like the 1880s that you don't make because it's not the 1880s and we talked about how these traditional recipes nobody makes but they're part of our history, they're part of our culture and so we're talking about how do we like do this and we decided we couldn't call it funeral potluck day.
why it's, you know, because that's cool, but maybe a little creepy.
So that's why I became Village Fest.
If you can bring a dish to pass, that's great.
By the way, if you can't, don't worry.
It's not like we kick you out and say you can't attend.
It's just, um, and this has been so fun because you get to eat things you don't normally, like handmade sauerkraut.
And this was, this is the kind of thing that, that allowed these, these types of recipes to become popular, to proliferate, to spread through a community that, that, that one community over in Oregon or wherever that makes something unique to them.
A lot of times that happened because it came over culturally and flourish.
in that new place.
I mean, even things like the pochki's you might see here in there, or the kalachis that pop up with the check fast.
These are all things that came over that didn't start here in the U.S.
but have taken on a bit of a life of their own.
And I think it's something that maybe happens a little less now that people can just Google whatever recipe they might want.
But one thing I'll speak for is that you mentioned that post celebration of life kind of gathering the food you have.
What I think of what I've had that kind of food before?
It's often...
visually similar to what you can go and buy, but it's the originator.
It's the higher quality.
It's the good ingredients, the homemade that passed down.
It's not that imitation you get in a plastic clamshell, though it might look similar.
So it'll feel familiar, but it's got a life and a color and a vibrancy that just, you can't beat it.
Right, exactly.
And this event is really about community fellowship, community camaraderie.
We used to do almost virtually all of our funding privately and now the three townships, that's butternut.
but the agenda in Chippewa now chip in.
So half our funding now comes from techs, you know, supported sources.
And so we really want to thank the community for our help because that really took a burden off of us and allowed us to do more of our mission, like sharing our history instead of spending all our time raising money.
So this is really a community appreciation sort of thing.
So come and, you know, share some food and have a great time.
Actually, we're actually a well-oiled machine, believe it or not, even though we're all elderly.
And some of us have had some health issues, and yeah, but we're still together.
And we do have volunteers.
And I thank you for putting that on.
I really
it.
But thank you, that was sweet of you.
Just bringing the food was like, hey, that's great.
Yeah, so there.
Well, we're talking about the Butternut Area Historical Society Village Fest.
This Saturday, four to seven at the pavilion, we're going to take a picture of this flyer.
It'll be on our website.
And like I was mentioning when Tammy was here a moment ago, if you know of somebody who maybe can't listen to the radio in the morning, but would love to hear these details, we'll archive the conversation on 98Qcountry.com.
Why don't you tell me a little bit just about the historical society and perhaps the museum itself as long as we've got you here.
Okay, take it away Maxine.
It's yours.
Well, building itself is one of the first buildings in the community because those buildings on Main Street, the buildings on Main Street are the very first
because the village started because the real world came through.
The way for the railroad was slashed by the Union soldiers that had just finished the Civil War.
And they were the people that discovered the butternut trees that the town's named after.
But anyway, back to the building itself.
It's a very old building.
It was built in the 1800s by the Borts family.
And it was a saloon at the beginning.
And it was just...
of one room and then they built onto it and it's actually chunks of three different buildings connected together.
It's really old and it's very interesting and we've just made it ours.
We've done different things to it and we have the full full full as well as a garage in the back where we have an 1870 pumper which is helpful.
put out the fires back then.
And we have a 1922 fire truck that has a hand crank.
and
lot of primitive tools that are amazing, just amazing when you look at something and you wonder what it is.
I was given something called a wire winder by my neighbors because
their ancestors saved the old barbed wire when they took a pinstone, and they would wind it up with this handmade machine that they had made.
And so we have that in there.
We have all kinds of things that are like, what is that?
And sometimes we don't know what that is.
Of course, nowadays you can point your phone at something and the internet will search itself basically, but there's a certain amount of fun that
is kind of gone from that process if you ask me.
It's too easy.
Right.
Ease takes the reward out of it a little bit.
It
also takes the retention out.
I can't tell you how many times I've Googled things like that.
Oh yeah, I know that.
And then I lose the information immediately because I didn't suffer enough to find it.
So
I just recently learned one of the surest ways to forget something you see on your phone is to screenshot it and save it for later.
You don't engage with it the same way.
But somewhere out there is somebody with that weird piece of knowledge that's going to come in handy and hey, I can identify that.
Somebody
who actually uses this tool or experience
Experiences with it a history with it.
So yeah,
they can tell you well and barbed wire, you know, I just recently I've been seeing similar things It's it's one of those things that save barbed wire save Absolutely when when the community is built on the fact that there's a river nearby and there happens to be a grove of a certain type of tree like that's you know There's not a town out there that is where it is for no reason right those reasons change and the railroad might not come through anymore But that community's origins will never change that will always be the history of butternut and I imagine that
a lot of kids have probably visited the museum on school field trips, but I'm betting a lot of them haven't necessarily been back since then.
For me, it was the Fight Field Museum, the very similar situation where I remember the conical bucket and we talked about firefighting and why the bucket was shaped like a cone and all kinds of silly things like that.
It's incredibly magical to revisit that.
So if you're 25 or older and you haven't been to the butternut...
Come on
have the old butternut newspapers that were printed originally by the Heart Publishing in Glidden.
And they saved them, and at some point they just said, we don't have room anymore.
Either you take these or we're going to have to destroy them.
So they were then stored in the Butternut Village Hall for a while, and then one day Cindy said,
I'm going to give you those newspapers, and that's like, oh my goodness gracious, what are we going to do with them?
What have we found some place for them?
And they're delightful, they're delightful, and they are just very popular because some of the interesting things that appear in the Glidden Paper and the Price County Review are taken from those old newspapers, and they were just
Just people chat them up all the time.
They were like, oh my gosh, you know what they had?
The latest one the gal was in last week and she said, I'm amazed.
I just found out that years ago a woman did not have a name other than Mrs. So-and-So.
She said they had Card Club and Mrs. John Smith and Mrs. Hubert Johnson or something.
She said, no one, no woman, whose name was used.
They were always
Misses somebody
right there were there were misses and then usually their husband's name You still see that sometimes in more traditional lighting settings, but that's that's the kind of thing that you know Nobody's out there banging the drum for we need to remember when this happened But I think we do I think we absolutely do we need to recognize our origins and the and the change that's come about but to me That's that's what it's a portal to the past right I was just reading how it's today is the 70th anniversary of Elvis's first appearance on Ed
Sullivan Wow
appearance.
Because as a kid, I wasn't the car guy.
I wasn't super into that.
And I always thought, yeah, some people are
are just into cars and they like, it makes sense to keep that one you rode when you were 16.
But I think of it now as an adult and I think how I would love to have that silly little Pontiac that I drove back in 2010.
And I mean, I'm not, I'm on the path to getting old.
Like I would argue, but no, no, I may not count amongst the same crowd, but even I begin to understand the appeal and boy, how would it feel to sit in that same bucket seat that I had back when I was 16 and their irreplaceable experience
that you let go of without realizing it.
You guys are right there keeping them in the consciousness, if you will.
Right, right.
And what an incredible effort.
Well, the reason we've got you here today is because of that village fest taking place this Saturday, 4 to 7 p.m.
at the Village of Butternut Pavilion.
That's Saturday the 12th, and that's on Michigan Street.
Free brats, live music, sauerkraut too, homemade, beer and wine for sale, and a potluck drawing.
So bring a dish to pass if you can.
Don't worry if you can't.
Bring the recipe, certainly.
If you can.
Oh, absolutely.
And hey, I mean, that's one thing we can do is, I don't want to forget those recipes because we take pictures of them, but a cell phone picture of an old recipe card, you get to keep grandma's recipe, but that's the beautiful thing about knowledge.
You don't lose it when you share it.
Right, right.
Before, I want to make sure about my brain is segue.
Big shout outs to certain people.
Big shout out to Super One.
They are donating the brats.
Thank you very much.
Shout out to Quick Trip.
Okay, Quick Trip.
for the bonds.
Thank you very much.
There are a ton of people in the butternut area that have donated things for a raffle.
I don't
know who they all are.
We're having a raffle.
So
a lot of raffle baskets.
Certificates and there will be a saw blade, a painted saw blade, and maybe there will be even some other hands-on things that are
somebody wants to get rid of.
Fair
If I can find my wall hanging of a red barn, that'll be there, but I don't know where to put it.
Sure, we can take that.
I think we're kind of wrapping it up, but who do you want as a con?
Why don't you just go to our Facebook page and then just find us that way.
It's on the Facebook page.
It says butternut area historical society.
Just go on that message.
It'll go to either me or
And we can kind of get you going on.
So,
she's fab.
board and she's just what we need.
She's like fab.
You know, she really isn't because she injected herself in there right away by the little library.
little library.
Karen lived in Milwaukee and all of a sudden I get this kit for to set up a little library and it was
and pieces and we got somebody to put it together and then she started sending us books because she wanted the kids to have plenty of things to read because she knew we didn't have a library in Butternut and except that school of course but she's the gal that brought us a little library and that's how she became so interested in it and jumped right on in when she moved here and we just love her.
Now there's like it's three and now
just wanted the village hall.
Like, if you ever start a little library by your house, be prepared to be overrun with books because
people
just like, oh, so
yeah.
Well, I think we have a little library out in Chippewa too because the people from Chippewa would drive all the way into town to use the one by the little library.
And so I had one made for the town hall in Chippewa as a memory to the school that had been there.
you about to talk about?
I was going to say, another shout out to John Lynch.
He will be backing up George Fultonowski on, well, George is on accordion.
John is on the drums.
John has been with us, supporting us since he was a little sixth grade boy.
He does this for free.
He's an excellent drummer.
He's been to Nashville.
He's really super cool.
He's fabulous.
So big shout out to you, John, and shout out to George.
George is a wonderful musician, and he just does it with such
gusto and it's very comfortable.
So a big shout out to both of them.
so nice.
This is such a nice service that you guys do for the community.
I mentioned this yesterday, too, is just I think this is one of the best things we can do.
So thank you for helping us make that possible.
Yeah, thank you.
Be there this Saturday 4 to 7 p.m.
on Michigan Street at the Village of Butternut Pavilion for the Butternut Area Historical Society Village Fest, 10th-ish
annual Village
we're not a hundred percent sure.
Yes, actually, let me look.
I mean, we do have archives.
I just got to dig through
Somebody out there might have the info, too.
There's still people out there keeping newspaper clipping.
So if you can answer the question, how many of these have there been?
Give us a call at 7-6-2-3-2-2-1 and we'll spread the word to Kelly and Maxine here.
You too.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for
having us.
And I'll tell you what, it's a couple minutes early, but why don't we get those bottom of the hour updates in?
That means let's see what the weather is going to do today.
I see more precipitation looking a little rainier than we might have expected if you haven't looked since yesterday.
So stay tuned.
We'll hear that exact forecast after this.
All right, reality
Good morning, Gray.
have
Yes.
But hey,
it.
Yeah, the house.
is open for residents
started receiving some calls and we'll just we put it in God's hands to see what all how it all works out but we are very excited about that
when you you are part of part of making that possible is well let's put it this way leading from the front you shared with me that you are do some of the things that you guys still need you're filling those roles in the meantime and I I always rally behind somebody who hey
Do what I'm doing with me right now.
That's a lot easier than go do this thing.
Let me tell you.
So I imagine that a lot of people will get a lot of encouragement from seeing you there doing the things that, well, you could still use some assistance with.
So let's start there.
If we could there, you're still looking for some house moms, as I understand.
We have
five fantastic house moms right now.
One of them being our house manager and a couple of them have stepped up to the plate was regard to taking on some extra hours if need be for the night shift in that.
But yeah, in the meantime, we still need a couple of house moms.
There's no doubt about that.
So.
If anybody is interested in reaching out about that, that would be wonderful.
In the meantime, yes, I'm filling in some of those shifts if we need them as residents are going to come so that we can get things going.
Because that's really important if we need to be out there doing what it is this has all been.
I've
Now I've asked you before to tell me about qualities you look for in a house mom, but let's let's look at the other side of the same coin if we can without getting too personal or naming names necessarily.
What can you tell me about the people you've already got in those positions?
What kind of qualities do they show?
What brought them to you?
Tell me about them, please.
Oh, you bet.
Well, on five of our house moms, our house manager, she just has
I had the blessing of having her be a caregiver to my folks.
And that's how I got to know her and saw her abilities.
And so I started tapping her long before things were in the works as far as that part went.
And she told me when she had first heard about maternity home back before anything had come with Northwood's Living Hope, she was like, huh.
I want to check that out, so that was neat, you know, as far as that part goes, but she's been doing a fantastic job.
The other gals, they ended up contacting us, and, wow, some of them, two of them have got some experience back in.
They have helped out with shelters or teamwork, you know, and the detentions.
over in the state of Michigan.
Another gal, she just simply has a heart from her own background for coming into this work.
And another gal is one of, again, another former caregiver, and she's going to be coming in part time in that.
So yeah, we're pretty excited about that.
Each one of them is just, just wonderful.
They just have such giving and voluntary, you know, even though they're, you know, it's a
going to be a job for them.
And every one of them is willing to patiently wait until the residents start coming.
So
is just wonderful.
Well, and that's, that's the perfect display of the patients that the job itself will require naturally working with other people.
But I know a lot of people can say, Hey, I want to help other people.
And boy, if that doesn't come in many flavors and styles and approaches and ways to go about it.
But this is an opportunity that I think those people in this area haven't really had before.
I can't think of, you know, having grown up
I can't point to something that yeah, this is for the people who used to work there that there is no there to point to it's this is for a little bit of everybody that's if you were I mean somewhere out there is a is a former bank teller who didn't feel called to that and who's looking for something that they resonate with a little bit more and Hey, if you're not a bank teller, but that sounds like you you're probably who I'm talking about that I like to believe there's somebody listening to 98 Q that thinks that
Could be me.
Cool.
Place a phone call.
Do that today because they need your help.
Absolutely.
Yeah, definitely.
So knowing, you know, in another area that's really important now that we are, you know, open and ready to take residence, some of those life skills, if you have a desire to pass on some skills, you know, whether that's in finance, whether or not that is in learning about.
writing resumes, whether that's in sewing, whether that's in canning.
I'm definitely, for next summer, I'm looking for some people that would be interested in overseeing the garden and being able to allow a garden to be grown to help out with that food budget at Northwest Living Help, because I don't want folks to forget this home that has now turned into Halley's house.
It has a root cellar.
in a cold storage room so we can actually do some things in that garden that would help out you know on our menu planning and all of those different things and oh and then give some of those skills to the gals that are going to be coming you know so that they are better prepared to do take on the challenges they might never garden again
but the fact that they've got it tucked underneath their belt for example that they can learn about that we're even dreaming about whether or not we can have some chickens and
things you know that's the benefit to be in a place in the country
Yeah, you guys have the land and the space for it certainly it just becomes a matter of practicality and in some cases approval from certain bodies out there I know you got to check with that sometimes but that said you know I think of a graduation speech that I heard from a comedian of all people but he said please please please
be a teacher, even if you don't teach students in a class, even if you're not showing up for a nine to five where you're writing a lesson plan.
If you pass on a skill, you've done one of the most valuable things that another person can do, which is to preserve the knowledge and spread the skills and abilities that enrich a community.
I know I'm waxing poetic there a little bit, but seriously, if you teach people to garden and raise birds like that, I mean, it has ripples that you'll never see.
They reach so much further than we can see.
Yeah, that's exactly.
Right.
Well, they would need to let me know that one that they're interested, they go through an application process as a volunteer and have to have a background check.
But then it would be, you know, what their availability is.
And then we would figure out those life skills based on their ability.
So let's say you're coming in and you want to teach finance, you know, for example here.
budgeting those types of things.
You know, we'd be looking at that, you know, perhaps whether or not that would be a weekly or whether that'd be a bi-weekly type of class.
So we're not talking an everyday type of commitment.
You know, our everyday or several times a week type of commitments are going to be, you know, the folks that are coming in to help lead Bible studies and things like that.
So, you know, from that standpoint, those volunteers that are willing to come in and help do that would be a little bit more of a commitment that way.
So obviously you're not going to teach much about the garden.
out in the garden, except during our fair months of May, June, and July August and September here in northern Wisconsin.
So that's just one example.
You know, instead maybe, you know, that quilting glass or who knows what that we're able to arrange.
We've got, you know, different folks that are willing to come in and help with sewing and all those types of things.
I even have a line on a gentleman who might be willing to come all the way from down in Marathon County to help with a mechanics class.
So if we had anybody up here that was interested in it because I think it's really important that we need to know how to change the oil or we need to know how that car runs so that when we are doing life on our own with a vehicle we can take it to the mechanic and then we know what's going on.
We can understand what they're talking about when they say that the starter is.
gone and whatever.
I did not grow up with that mechanical sensibility, but that is a great example of, Hey, it's not as scary as you think it is.
If you're willing to learn and you, you go in and say, Hey, I'm going to figure this out.
It's just a matter of how and putting the time into it.
That brings a certain confidence.
And the moment you can answer one of those questions, you know, like, if you can, if you can look under the hood of a car, I might not necessarily be able to point out the starter.
In fact, I actually could, but I remember when that kind of changed, you know, and that's, that's only very.
recently for some reason YouTube decided hey you need to know more about cars and I thought you know what I'll accept that that might come in handy someday so I'm watching a bunch of goofballs riding across the United States not on any highways and they're modifying their vehicles and stuff it's like you know this is definitely entertainment and that's why I'm doing it but it's it's easier than one might think to absorb those topics that seem off limits to people like you well people like you are capable of change
that's right
That's exactly right.
So then our other exciting news is today, folks, if you're interested, not folks, ladies, if you're interested in coming to the royalty on September 24th, that's going to be at the Phillips Municipal Center, starting at 4.30 the doors open, and then our program is going to kick off right after 5.30.
And ladies, you could still contact
us tonight.
Through tonight I should say 339 2130 if you wanted to register or you could go on to the website at northwoodslivinghope.org and you would find a way to register there if you wanted to come.
It's a night for the ladies to dress up to enjoy the banquet and if you will the gentlemen from the area come and there are servers and by the way I was trying to talk great into this but he's like no he's not so sure about that and and just enjoy an evening with a speaker and a silent auction and
just fellowship with all ladies from all over the county.
So that's a really good, good evening.
We are looking forward to that.
I think those tea parties are something that you lose as a kid, but they can be something that has its own purpose and whether that's just a quiet social environment with a, Hey, who wouldn't want to dress up and have a pleasant evening, right?
There you go.
It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.
If that sounds like you, but like you said, there'll be a speaker, there'll be a silent auction.
Are there any other details we might share with the people less?
familiar about this one?
Or is that that a pretty good encapsulation of it?
It's a pretty good encapsulation in time to enjoy one another and fellowship and get to know some other, you know, other women in the community as far as that part goes.
And obviously it's our fundraiser.
Right.
So, you know, it's an opportunity to support Halley's house at Northwoods Living Hope.
There's no doubt about that.
Definitely.
You can see details of some of our silent auction items and things will be on our Facebook page to scroll through But there's details about the tea in and of itself on the website at northwaslivinghope.org
so definitely so and then crafters if you're out there We are having it's going to be called.
Oh dears widows
day.
It will be on November 21st at the Municipal Center and we're simply going to have a food thing to help raise money for Northwood's living hope.
Sue Bloom, our fundraising coordinator.
She is open yet to crafters who might want to come in and see if we can't get this kicked off to be the first day of hunting season.
So anybody that is not interested in going to the woods and you've got a craft you want to share, you'd like to get a booth.
I believe the cost is either $30 or $40 depending on the size booth that you want for the day to be able to come and participate.
But you can reach out to Sue Bloom at 715-937-1888 if you're interested.
or send us a message on Facebook.
Amen.
And we've given the basics of all these items and things that are happening here in the upcoming calendar.
But one thing I'd like to touch on as I do often and perhaps too often is that this conversation, like all of them on the Reality Radio program, will be archived back.
So if you can think of somebody who fits this bill, who you know might not listen to the radio, do you have a Spotify listener who would enjoy the royalty in your life?
Well, perfect.
Point them out to 98QCountry.com.
of this and I'll title it with Tammy's name and we'll put Northwood's Living Hope right on it.
And I'll even mention in the little byline that we put there that it's about the royalty and the updates in general that you guys are accepting residents now or right on the cusp of doing.
So that's absolutely well.
No, we're over the edge.
We're there.
Yeah, we're there.
It's God's timing on the rest.
And you know, one last thing just to end this day with, I just want to really give a big shout out.
We have had so many people come forward and volunteer their time and their work.
to get us to this point and we are so thankful.
We truly are.
We had three gentlemen come and install the fence in the backyard and get that all ready to go and we had someone donate a whole house generator and we've had different people just all these months of work and preparation and people who have given their time.
We wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for the people who are interested in seeing this mission go forward and so we are thankful and we thank
I will personally guarantee Northwood's living hope understands the value of your time because of course we can always make more money somehow some way but time
We have no control over how much of that we have.
And so it's so valuable that people are donating their time, their skills, and you can do more of that.
And if you want to get involved with Northwoods Living Hope, like you mentioned, NorthwoodsLivingHope.org and you're right on Facebook, they're under the exact same title.
Correct?
And that telephone number once again is 339-2130.
So that you can always reach out and call.
a pleasure to be here.
Thank you so much.
It's exciting.
And it'll be another month before we see you again, but it's going to fly by and I can't wait for.
the updates from the early goings of Northwood's Living Hope.
Open and, hey, Tammy's there leading from the front.
You can find her there any old time.
Hit us with that phone number one more time.
You bet.
715-339-2130.
And with Topi barking in the background, I expect that's our next one coming in.
It'll be about 9.15 as we get going.
First though, a few messages up next on 98Q Country and a song or two as well.
In fact, let's start with a little bit
Chris Young.
That's what's coming on 98.3 FM.
And reality radio officially begins.
Slightly late start, but that's fine on a on a fine Wednesday.
We're gonna start this week with Phillips School Superintendent Rachel Hoffman.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you so much for popping back up.
I'm glad to have you back.
I'm going to pull the curtain back a little bit, Rachel.
You emailed us yesterday like, hey, can we still do this?
And I was thinking, hey, I'm super glad we won our superintendents, our district admins.
But it's, it's, I can't believe that any one of you, whether it's from Prentiss or Butternut or Park Falls here has the time to do this.
So thank you so much for squeezing us into what must be a wild schedule, happy school year.
Oh, it's definitely a busy time of year, but it's one of the best times of the year for us.
So, you know, we got school kicked off last week.
It was a perfect start to the year with Labor Day being so late.
You know, we had the four day week last week at our feet wet, started building some routines with kids, and then we had a nice three day weekend.
And then we've got another short week with only four days this week.
So it's nice to kind of ease everybody back in, gives us that, you know, a little bit of a slower start to the school year.
Everybody can build up their stamina for being back at school and being engaged and learning and just ready to get the job done.
I can't even tell you.
I think any adult would probably agree and a lot of kids probably would too.
When things stack up like that, when you get a lot of the same kind of tones and opportunities, it's usually not for the positive.
It seems like the bad days line up that way.
But like you said, you got that long weekend followed by a short week.
Tell that in the air or have the vibes been good down there at the Phillips School District?
I mean, everything's been feeling great for the start of the school year.
We had two new principals starting.
We have a new elementary principal, Heather Friday, who's been doing a great job, you know, getting assimilated to our area and just working with those pre-K through fifth grade students and meeting all of their needs, checking in with staff.
And then we have a new 612 principal, Jake Adams, who's doing a lot of the same, you know, working on meeting the students and staff and families.
And we were able to have an open house at the end of August, and it was great for them to be able to start building those connections with families in our community.
And it's just really exciting.
We've got a lot of energy, positive energy in the district right now, and it just feels good.
Leaves are changing.
It'll be cold outside before we know it.
I personally have been looking ahead at what's coming this fall and thinking,
Football starts today.
That's fantastic.
NFL football does.
And then the Great British Bake Off is coming out later this month, and those are going to carry me to Christmas, I think.
But hey, outside of that, we've been, we're chatting with you today about what the students are doing back at school.
We've been chatting with Coach Precor once a week here the last few weeks about football in particular.
But what else is going on that we might not have chatted about on the radio, the non-athletic extracurriculars?
Because I know those really don't wait, do
they?
Nope, we have different things happening like our student council already has a blood drive scheduled for later this month.
So they come in and they get going right away looking to see what they can do for some service projects for our community.
We have other clubs and activities.
Your book starts day one, right?
We need to be taking those pictures so that we can capture everything good that's happening throughout the year.
And there's just a lot of other activities that kids can take part in.
They're going to get up and running here very, very soon.
Absolutely and you know I bet if you if you closed your eyes for a moment a week would go by and the kids would still just be going crazy busy at it because whether it feels like it or not you know I don't know if any given 15 year old will tell you I want to go back to school but man there's a lot of that enrichment that we need that structure still combined with the randomness of hanging out with your peers and I imagine it's nice to have that bustle back in the hallways too.
For sure well and one of the new things that happened at the start of this school year is that we did implement a new cell phone policy Where students it's basically a bell-to-bell band where they're not supposed to have their cell phones out during the school day We want them to be focusing in on their learning and it was it was really awesome the first week of school
You walked into the lunch room for middle school and high school lunch and we saw kids talking with each other.
And so, you know, when they're not connected to those devices all day, every day, we're seeing an uptick in that personal conversation between kids where they're just sitting and visiting with each other.
And for us, that's very encouraging because, you know, we're teaching those social skills too while we're here at school and helping them interact in a
an authentic way without technology in their face all the time.
So, you know, I know across the state there's been some concerns, what's that going to look like?
But so far so good and just seeing a lot more interaction between our students and that's awesome to see.
well in Phillips school district and let alone Wisconsin far from the first states and communities to try those bell to bell bands and it's been it's been kind of as far as I've seen and and I know it's pretty early for a thorough review but the feedback I've seen is that the students require some adjusting to it but it does the adjustment happens but the reviews that I'm seeing from teachers are incredibly encouraging when it comes to attention spans and classroom engagement and that just makes too much sense when you when you don't have that black hole of a cell phone pulling you
in.
Right, yeah.
Like I said, pretty early with only one week in, but it's awesome to hear that the vibes are absolutely high and that you guys are getting off to the right start.
Do you guys have any, one thing I like to ask anytime I'm talking to school officials, are you guys still looking to fill any roles at the school as we started the year?
We do have a couple of vacancies.
We're looking for special education teachers.
We did do some contracting online, but it's always better to be able to have somebody in person.
And we do have a vacant high school math position open.
We were able to do some adjustments to our schedule to make that happen.
We do have a full-time teacher, but we typically have two.
And so we did have to make some adjustments for this first semester.
So we are in the market for a high school math teacher.
Substitutes are always welcome and then we do have a bus driver opening as well for a regular route right now.
So we always are looking for substitutes for our bus drivers, our van drivers, cooks in the kitchen, paraprofessionals, teachers.
You know, if anybody's interested in that, they can reach out to the school and I'd be happy to get them additional information.
And I'd like to give a shout out to, again, whoever it is you've got running the social media and the website, I'm looking at phillips.k12.wi.us right now.
And there's a calendar, there's updated pictures of the football team.
It looks like everybody is really in gear and are we a weekend or are we a month in?
You guys are often running, I would say, to the 2026-27 school year.
Yep, things are looking good.
Yep, so we work with Anna Volendorf, who is one of our teachers.
She has worked on that in the past.
We have had a social media class and we don't have that this year, but we do have a publications class that may be assisting with some of that work.
But right now Anna is the one who does those updates for us.
And yeah, easy to navigate and lots of that beautiful orange color.
I grew up opposed to this orange color scheme.
You got to understand I'm a Park Falls guy, but I'll admit now that I'm an adult and kind of removed from it a little bit, that orange is pretty rocking down there in Phillips.
I got to give you guys some props for that.
Well, Rachel, I appreciate that you gave us some time this morning.
Is there anything else you'd like to touch on before we wrap up and circle back next time we talk to you?
No, next time we talk, we should have some updates on some of our school facility stuff that's been happening behind the scenes and be ready to share some great news with some projects that we have going on.
All right, we've been chatting with Rachel Hoffman, Superintendent of the Phillips School District with the beginning of the school year technically behind us.
Early though it is, the vibes are high, the new policies are in effect, and we're seeing progress.
Rachel Hoffman, thank you so much.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Alright, thank you very much.
It's 840 a.m.
That's our first guest on reality radio And hey if you ever hear something that you think that a family member a friend a loved one Hey, they might want to listen to that but they can't because they're at work Or hey, maybe they're still asleep right now people work second shift to after all we make these these interviews available to you on demand at 98qcountry.com Coming up next we'll be revisiting a regular guest Tammy Brandt is here
With Northwood's living hope, can't wait to talk to Tammy after a couple messages from our sponsors, up next on 98Q Country.