All of the season is here hard to believe. Seems like just yesterday was handing out trick-or-treat
candies and now we're talking about Christmas. We just bypass Thanksgiving. I was like Thanksgiving
is my favorite holiday, only because we're growing up. We always have family dinners and stuff.
Thanksgiving. It was always something special. Now it's like Halloween Christmas. Oh, yeah,
we have the gateway to Christmas Thanksgiving, but that's the way it is. And from the
coitus of West Racine, Paul Holly and Tim Nelson are here. We're going to talk about
their holiday ornament plus a lot of other things too. Is this like an ever this is what
do you have as a little background on the holiday ornament?
It's hard to believe, Don, but the holiday ornament has really become a Racine
tradition. We've been doing it continuously since 1999. And it's really people have
just kind of come to expect it. This year's ornament design is features the Racine
Yacht Club. And of course that is a well-known fixture in the community. It's been around
since 1916. And this year's ornament just very, very attractive. It's a solid brass
and enamel. And it pictures you can see a little yacht on there. And one of the light houses
there at the edge of the marina. Just a really beautiful little look great on everybody's
tree. I think it where I bought one last year. I think I bought it. And
what's the Racine welcome place? What's it called again?
Well, the visitor center. It's got a name. I can't remember the name of it all of a
sun here. As you get older, the name is just out of your head.
I think I bought it there last year. Yeah, you sell them there, right?
Yes. Of course, they're closed for remodeling right now, but they are available.
Are they really? Yes, right now. They're redoing that parking lot because it was like
pop whole city when I was there. I believe that's part of the remodeling.
But right now down, they're available at nine locations throughout the area.
And I'll just run down the list real quick, the Castlewood restaurant, CRB insurance,
Catrine Sparber Shop, DP Wiggly Company, downtown Racine Corporation's office,
the Racine Heritage Museum, of course, at the yacht club, and the Racine Zoo gift shop.
And finally, it's so in save. And we'll have the list us up on our website,
westerseeingcawanis.com. And you can also follow it on our Facebook page.
Let's talk a little bit about the quietest club.
I think I told you I was watching the movie Lilies of the Field with Sydney Portier,
and it's about a group of nuns that come from West Germany, or East Germany,
over the Berlin Wall, and they come in and they're trying to raise funds.
They don't know much about America. And they're sending to all the fraternal organizations
and the elk, the moose, and the Kiwanis. And he says, what kind of animals are Kiwanis?
Which is a good question. There's a Kiwanis of West Racine, but it's only really
the only Kiwanis club in Racine, right?
Yeah, that's correct, Don. But we are part of an international organization,
Kiwanis International. It's a worldwide volunteer organization dedicated to
serving the children of the world. And right now, there are 7,369 Kiwanis clubs
in 83 countries all over the world. They have a total of 175,224 members.
And here in town, our club is the Kiwanis Club of West Racine. And actually,
we meet in West Racine. We have our meetings at 730 AM on Wednesdays
in the basement of Living Faith Lutheran Church over on Bright Avenue. And of course,
visitors are always welcome. But I want to throw out a statistic here, Don,
that I really like. The average Kiwanian impacts the lives of 98 children.
And that just blows me away every time. Between the two of you, 190.
That's right. Not the way I did that math in my head.
Very quick. I went to high school and graduate. I went to college.
So I can figure this stuff out. But you know, Don also it's something that's
kind of a sad fact of Kiwanis is not that many years ago, Metropolitan Racine had
four or five individual Kiwanis clubs. And now we're down to one.
Now between the three of us, we're kind of up there in age. How do you get young people
involved? Or can you? And these particular organizations, it's difficult.
And it's not just Kiwanis that runs into the situations.
It's many different organizations that are struggling to get new members to come in
and, you know, join in, be part of the community.
So if we're all going to age out in life, which is the fact of life,
we're going to age out. Is that the end of Kiwanis in Racine?
Well, we hope not. We hope not.
The, you know, and really that's one reason why we're here today.
And that's one reason why the Kiwanis work pretty hard to stay visible in the community.
I should mention you were saying, what kind of an animal is a Kiwanis?
And actually, that word comes from Native American, one of the languages.
And it means we build.
Oh, that's good. I think about it that makes a lot of sense. We build.
But I should also mention, Don, you're asking about, where's that next generation going to come from?
And one of the things that I think sets Kiwanis apart is we're really a family of clubs.
Of course, the Kiwanis, that's the best known. That's the adults, right?
But we also have something called key club, which are for high school students.
Yes, key club. I remember that from high school.
And we have two of them here in Racine Park High School, in case high school, both have key clubs.
And that gives young people an opportunity to really build that lifelong.
What we hope is lifelong skill of volunteerism on the college level.
There is circle K.
And in some areas, Kiwanis clubs also sponsor action clubs, which are a service club for people with developmental disabilities.
So there's a whole family of Kiwanis or Kiwanis related volunteer organizations out there.
You know, and I remember the key club in high school.
You know, when you're a teenager, you don't pay much attention to what the background is on it.
But I remember the key club. I remember the kids. I remember their meetings, the key club meetings.
Wow, Paul Holly and Tim Nelson here from the Kiwanis club.
We're talking about a lot of the Christmas things going on around Racine that they're involved in.
And one of them is the big one. And it's returned for the first time in like 10 years or so.
St. Nick's festival of trees coming to festival hall. You guys are involved in that one, huh?
Yeah, we sure are. And I know you had Kevin McDoil from festival hall here the other day.
And this is really exciting.
And yes, Kiwanis is sponsoring the tree in this year's St. Nick's festival trees.
And happy to tell you, it will be decorated with an entire set of the Kiwanis ornaments.
That's 27 total from 1999 through this year.
And that tree will be raffled off. And those proceeds are going to benefit the Racine County Food Bank.
Look at you. We're nice things for people.
We're very excited to be there. And as Kevin mentioned the other day,
there are a number of public events and we'll have some Kiwanis members there at the public events with information about Kiwanis,
as well as an opportunity to purchase the ornament.
I should mention the ornament is $15 cash preferred.
And all of the proceeds go right back into the community.
And Tim has a brief list of some of the many organizations that we've donated to just within the past year.
Well, we we had over 45 different organizations that we made donations to throughout the year.
Ranging from giving nations.
Camp lobby.
Coos for kids is a big one.
Text rentals toys for tots.
Totally and over with scholarships that we've given out to high school recipients.
Totally and over $46,000, almost $47,000 for just this last year.
A lot of money.
Well, it is. And you know, again, I don't want to sound negative here.
But you know, with Kiwanis club goes away.
Yeah.
All these organizations are going to take you out.
Yeah, the fundraising goes away too.
Yeah, it does.
So how can you get people into it?
You mentioned the key clubs, but younger people than that joining.
Is it just the thing that was a product of the times?
And now it's everything's on the internet.
And people aren't meeting in person anymore.
Except if it's Comic Con or something like that.
They don't meet in person.
Yeah.
I mean, I think that's true.
You know, the internet takes away a lot of people's attention.
And they're drive to join different organizations in person.
Let's talk about St. Nick's festival trees.
You mentioned it.
It actually opens on November 22nd and runs through December 6th.
And it's at Festival Hall downtown Racine.
And if you want the poster that I'm looking at,
go to events at festivalpark.com events at festivalpark.com.
The big poster.
They gave me here.
It's tough to even lay in front of me here.
So many things going on.
You guys have a tree this year.
You mentioned that's pretty good.
And people bid on the trees.
Right, right.
And that's, you know, and then they get to take it home.
And set it up and have a good time with it.
Year after year after year after year.
Who's decorating a tree?
Um, we're working that out.
You might be looking at decorating the trees.
Okay.
Well, you're going to have all your ornaments on there.
That's correct.
Somebody gets the tree to get all the ornaments.
They get the full.
Wow.
And which is, by the way, a little bit hard to come by,
especially some of those early years.
So.
Well, yesterday I had Captain Eddie Williams on from the Salvation Army.
He was here yesterday morning.
And we talked about the bell ringing.
That's going to start.
I think Friday said.
I'm trying to remember the date Friday.
And you guys are involved in ringing bells too.
We do.
We are members sign up.
We spend a Saturday or two and different locations in the area.
And that's, you know, a good way for us to help out the community.
And the Salvation Army is a big contributor to the recene area.
So it's important that we get out and encourage people to donate to that.
Organization.
Yeah.
And I was a bell ringer year to go at.
Now, it's, I don't know if it's open anymore.
It's a mall.
The Grand Avenue Mall downtown Milwaukee.
I was a bell ringer.
It was like 20 degrees outside, but I was nice and toasted inside.
I got that bell.
No jacket required.
Yeah.
But some of these bell ringers are out there in the freezing cold.
Yeah.
We spent some cold days out.
A lot of the supermarkets.
A lot of the supermarkets let them in the vestibule and stuff.
So they say warm.
But otherwise, it's cold out there as old Captain Eddie.
I hope you heard your back lifting that kettle this year.
Hope it's that full.
Yep.
And these, these stories around the people actually put gold cougarants
in these barrels and little kettles around.
Every year you hear that story, don't you?
Yeah.
It's not me, by the way.
Just, you know, I don't do that.
All right.
And then you got the Kiwanis Knight at Christmas Carnival of Light.
What's that about?
Well, Don, you might recall when we were here last year.
We talked about that.
Of course, the Kiwanis holiday lights were a long standard tradition.
They were displayed up at the Racine Zoo for 36 years.
And frankly, a lot of that was all taken down and put up by volunteers,
including Tim and myself.
And frankly, some of us guys that are getting up there.
It shouldn't be out there on ladders on.
We shouldn't be on ladders for anything.
Much less doing that kind of thing, right?
Or, or, or shoveling snow.
Right.
So at, uh, after 2023 season, we looked for a new home and, uh,
the folks that, um, put together the, um,
Christmas Carnival of lights out at Jelly Stone Park.
We're willing to incorporate those into their display.
So they're out there now.
They've just done a wonderful job of maintaining,
that really great job out there anyway.
Yeah.
It is really something to see.
Yeah.
Very impressive.
You're right.
So we're really happy to announce that this year on Wednesday,
November 26th, from 5 to 9 p.m.
will be Kiwanis night out at the Christmas Carnival of lights.
And our Kiwanis club will be receiving 50% of the gate that evening.
So we encourage people to come out.
Uh, the admission is, uh, $25 per car will carload.
And it's just a really fun pre Thanksgiving thing to do at the family.
So hope to see a lot of folks come out for that.
That is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
So Wednesday, November 26th, 5 to 9 p.m.
Kiwanis club.
Western scene receiving 50% of the gate.
That's not bad.
That's very nice.
It's always packed.
It's always on a line of cars when I go there every year.
Yeah.
I always bring a family member or somebody I know a friend who's never seen it before.
And it's a lot of fun going through that.
Very popular.
And to the person who's going to be behind me there, turn your headlights off.
Please.
Please, the person behind me always has the headlights on.
Then I go out and take them to the lights.
Please, and they shut them off.
Just put in their parking lights.
That's a lot of fun.
You guys doing a lot of work out there this Christmas.
Your time of year.
Look at you.
You're very happy about it, too.
Look at you.
It's the most wonderful time of the year done.
I can write a song with that title.
Hold on a second.
I think I hear the song in my head.
Okay.
So let's do a quick review here.
For people just tuning in.
You've got the brand new ornament.
And it's on sale at so many places.
Run the list again where you can get this ornament.
It's $15 cash preferred.
They've been doing the ornaments every year since 1999.
So this would be the 26th ornament.
This is 27.
27, right?
Because there's a zero year.
Correct.
I went to college.
I didn't do this kind of stuff.
I didn't study this in college.
Okay.
So this is the ornament this year.
And you can get it.
$15 cash preferred.
Where can you pick it up?
Castlewood restaurant.
In Stirred Event.
CRB Insurance in Racine.
Katrina Sparvershop.
DP Wiggly Company.
Downtown Racine Corporation.
The Racine Heritage Museum.
The Racine Yacht Club.
The Racine Zoo's gift shop.
And it's so unsafe.
And also just if you know a Kwanian,
we can get you one as well.
Tell what you guys are called.
Kwanian.
We are Kwanians.
Kwanianites.
No, sir.
Kwanianites.
Kwanianites.
Okay.
And don't forget about the festival of trees.
They will have a tree there for bidding.
That opens up November 22nd runs through December 6th.
At the St. Nick's Festival of Trees.
At Festival Home.
Glad it's back again.
We are too.
Yeah.
It's been 10 years.
I think since it's been back.
And don't forget the salvation.
You know, you guys give me ringing bells this year.
I believe it kicks off Friday.
I'm turning it over to Captain Eddie.
He told me yesterday.
So, but you guys are going to start on Friday November 28th
through Christmas ringing bells.
We'll be there black Friday every year.
All right.
And the Kwanis Knight at the Christmas Carnival of Trees,
which is a jelly stone park.
Bring a pick and a basket with you.
And that's right there on.
What word?
What's the word?
It's just it's in Caledonia.
I can't remember.
I'll be 38.
Yeah, right there.
You can watch you get close.
You can't miss it.
You'll see all those lights.
You'll see the trees.
That's right.
Yogi Baron and Ranger Smith and Boo Boo and all the people there.
Well, thank you guys for coming in.
We'll mention this a few more times after you go.
Not like go forever.
I go, you know, pay out of the building.
Well, that's it.
I don't want to make it sound morbid.
Thank you guys for coming in.
I always pick to the Kwanis like the raccoons on the 100 borders.
You know what?
You have a grand high exalted mystic ruler like a naughty boaters.
One more thing down it.
It's Kwanis Club would like to thank the veterans out there on Veterans Day.
Yeah.
And we appreciate the sacrifices they've made in the service that they continued to provide
to our country.
Coming up this hour too, we're going to talk about some celebrities who you never knew
were veterans.
And one of these was an actress who was in the Marine Corps during World War II.
She was a fighter in the Marine Corps.
And we'll talk about her coming up a little later on.
We got Willie Nelson.
We got George Carlin was in the military.
All that's coming up.
Thank you guys very much.
Thank you, Don.
Paul Holly, Tim Nelson from the Kwanis.
They're Kwanians, not Kwaneseites.
And thank you for all your service you're doing for the community.
And it's really important.
And I hope this continues on for many, many years to come after.
We're not here anymore.
And we just keep continuing.
You just get that smile on your face.
You're a happy guy.
Thank you.
And thank you for schlepping in this cold weather.
I do appreciate it.
Thank you.
And we'll talk more about this as the weeks go on so we don't want to forget about it.