All right,
welcome everyone to another episode of Lean Local.
This is the show where we do what our name says, we lean local into the community.
And that just, we need more of that in Green Bay.
We have so many good things going on, some challenges out there, and we need to talk about it.
And no fault to the local media, you know, they've got their half hour news, and of course,
12 minutes as commercials and then they got the weather and the sports and very little dedicated to news and for sure not in-depth news like we do here for the next hour and you know even the newspaper sometimes really not as community-owned as it used to be so here on Lean Local we we get into what's here what's going on locally and really what's important and today we're talking about
This is a really interesting topic here and I learn a lot in the next hour and because it's something that's very important for on a lot of levels and we'll get to the details in that but we're going to be talking about disability services, family support, employment, independence and really what an inclusive Green Bay actually requires.
And my guest today is Ryan Rezacani.
How's that?
That's good.
Yeah.
Okay.
This guy's amazing.
And you got to Google him or read about him.
We're not going to get, we're going to talk more about his, this Spiro program.
Ryan is the president of a Spiro and a Spiro's phrase is live your way, which is truly
what they're all about.
That's a great mission statement.
It's a great line.
Live your way.
And that may sound simple, right?
But it raises a practical civic question.
What does the community have to do to provide so many people with disabilities so they can live with choice, connection, and dignity?
Thanks for being here, Ryan.
Thanks
for
having me.
It's going to be exciting.
We kind of know each other a little bit.
We're going to know each other a lot better in the next hour.
So for the listeners who have never heard of a Spiro,
I mean, everybody's heard of a Spiro, right?
Hopefully.
Yeah, well, 70 years, you said?
Yes, almost 70 years.
Yeah, okay.
But tell me 30,000 feet, what the organization does, who it serves?
So a Spiro is a Wisconsin disability service provider.
And we provide services through the whole spectrum of an individual's life from birth all the way through adulthood.
And we have 1,600 clients.
We touch over 10,000 families through our community programs.
We have two locations.
Our main facility is on Dustman Street in Green Bay.
And our other facility, which houses some of our work programs, is on Stiles Road in Green Bay.
We're in 10 counties, and we have 11 different programs, so a number of programs.
believe that individuals with disabilities should be able to live a full and meaningful life, and that's where our motto comes from, that they should be able to live their way.
And we've, the spirit was started in 1957, so we've been around for almost 70 years.
That means we're ingrained in the community, and that means the community has a lot of trust in us, and that's something we don't take
lightly.
How, I know you weren't here in 57.
How did that start though?
Like was it one guy that, tell me how that started.
Was it done somewhere else and they copied the program or tell me a little bit more about the
origin.
It was 57, or excuse me, 67 families who started a spiral.
Here in Green Bay.
Here in Green Bay.
It was families who had children who had disabilities and they wanted somewhere where they could go, where they could learn.
They could participate in activities, rec programs, but also that they could get out into the community a little bit.
And so they started that in 57.
And then in 1967, they built the first building, which was our main facility on Doceman.
And so it's been going ever since.
They looked at it as their mission being to help individuals with disabilities exceed expectations.
And that's really where we came up with our
tagline beyond expectations for our capital campaign that we just did this past year, was we took that and said this is the next step in the evolution of a Spiro to move it beyond expectations and to honor that legacy of those original founders.
So I think I know the answer to my next question, but often I get people in here and the question is, you know, has the mission evolved or changed?
Doesn't sound like it's changed a whole heck of a lot.
I think the difference from years ago is
Most, a lot of the programming was done in the facility.
And over the years, that's changed.
We still obviously do that programming in the facility, whether it's day services, assisted day services, our rec programs.
But now there's definitely a move in the last 10, 15 years to more community based.
We're going out into the community with our Building Full Lives program.
or we're doing our group supported employment program and our clients are working at businesses in the community.
Our employment services program is helping clients find work, long-term work, and getting them long-term jobs with different business partners.
And so that is, there's been a focus that has shifted to get, you know, being out in the community.
You know, individuals with disabilities want to do the same things that
We all want to do.
We want to have jobs.
We want to go to lunch with our friends.
We want to socialize.
We want to learn skills and, you know, be out in the community with a job.
And that's what we provide.
I think I've known you more in the latter part of your life, because I've owned a couple of businesses and we've worked with a Spiro.
And other employees can learn a lot from a Spiro employee.
I just, the experiences I've had in City Hall, you know, at the front desk and then we owned a coffee shop.
It was almost her name.
She's awesome.
One of our most reliable, happiest, dedicated employees.
Maybe I'm not saying they're all like that, but she never complained.
I mean, she was happy to be working and we were very happy she was there when she was only a couple of days a week.
But still, that can lift the whole morale of the company.
Yeah, absolutely.
We're seeing that.
We see that with our business partners currently, we have 100 plus business partners.
We have over 350 clients working with those business partners.
And we've tried to build the programs that it's not one size fits all.
And we understand that.
You have clients who have entry level skills to more advanced skills.
So we have a couple of different programs, our pre-voke.
program, provocational program is at our styles facility.
And that's where a business might send us something that needs to be repackaged or wrapped or sewing for the government, which we do.
And our clients work right there in the facility and they're doing wrapping, collating, packaging for those businesses.
Our group supported employment program is where
One of our job coaches is going out with three clients and they're going into businesses and they're working their daily.
So not only they're learning a job skill, but they're also getting to work with employees at those companies.
So for instance, if you've been to Epic, the chair you sat in, the table that's set up and you're having a drink with your friends, that's our clients that are setting that up before those concerts.
If you've gone to a UWGB basketball game,
at the crest.
The reason it looks so clean when you walk in is because those are our clients, they're working at the crest and getting that arena ready for those games.
And then our last program is employment services.
And that's really finding them a job.
So it's a job service program where we work with the client to figure out what job skills they have.
We work with the employer to understand what their need is.
Maybe it's an entry level position.
Maybe it's something a little more advanced.
And then we try to match.
you know, try to match that company with one of our clients.
And the goal is long-term employment.
And if they need help through that, has their working there over the months and years, we're able to jump back in and help with that teaching of a new job skill and things like that.
And I think, and I don't know what employers think, but, you know, your predecessor, predecessor, I think Mike, who was there was just a great guy.
I mean, like you, he was just well liked in the community, he was everywhere.
We kind of did it, we just didn't know what we were doing, and he said, just try this, and we just loved it.
And I don't know, maybe you're doing a good job, and I think that program is successful for you, but testimonials are really important to say, look, we weren't sure about this, but man, it was the best thing we did.
And she was happy, but our employees were too.
Everybody liked her, you know.
Everybody likes everybody in the coffee shop.
Yeah.
And you know, it's about visibility and awareness.
And
that's where the
business partners really help because they're, you know, without them, the doors won't be opened, you know, to be out there in the community and to provide these work programs for individuals with disabilities.
And so that's why the business partners, the volunteers, the community manage so much for us.
So a spiral, you kind of cover 11 counties.
And there's 72 other spirals throughout the state of Wisconsin.
No, so our two buildings are here in Brown County.
But what we do is where we either have are going to those counties and doing services in those counties or employees travel and do those there, or the clients are actually being transported to us at our facilities.
Now, we are expanding.
So for instance, this fall will be up in Marinette County.
We've been hosting an open house information gathering sessions and it's been very well received from the school districts to the community and we're excited to be up there.
We'll be doing our Building Full Lives program up there, which is taking individuals with disabilities into the community to volunteer to look at different jobs and careers that are available to them.
So, we're excited about that.
Our birth to three program has expanded into Menominee County recently.
So, we're sending
a therapist into Menominee County and that's therapy that's happening in the home.
So, we're excited about that.
But if we go to, you know, do other counties outside of our year 11 counties, do they have programs that address people with disabilities?
commenting throughout the United States, is it more unique here, Nashville, pick any
place you want.
It can be common.
You know, there are organizations like us in different counties throughout Wisconsin.
When you get into the rural areas where we're staying, that's where you're
not
seeing it.
And that's where we get a lot of requests.
from families, from health care organizations to say, hey, would you be able to go into, you know, Vilas County or Lawrence County or some
of
the areas where they just don't have it.
And so we try to work on something with them so
that we can get
up there and at least do some of the services.
Get something started.
Exactly.
You know, I'm making, I'm assuming there's people with disabilities everywhere.
Everywhere,
yep.
Absolutely.
You know, so, hey, you touched on
a capital campaign.
I want to get to that a little bit later, but your milestones.
I know you've only been there a year and a half, two years.
They've been there 70 years, but your biggest accomplishment, I think, is awareness.
I just think everybody knows you.
If they don't, it's like...
Do you ever hear the G-Day Packers?
I mean, come on.
I think everybody should know who you are.
Right.
But I hope they do.
But what are some of the milestones, though, that you feel you've achieved or that your company has achieved?
Yeah, I think one of them was in our transition program.
So what you see in this space a lot is, you know, we might touch a client from birth to three, where our therapists are going into the home and working with a child that has
developed.
Just
awesome.
Yep.
But at four years old, they're going to the school system.
We might not see them again until they're 21, because in the school system, they can stay until they're 21.
But we noticed that what was happening, so many families were talking to us as their child was getting ready to graduate, and they were like, what do we do now?
And we said, this is a niche.
We need to be out there advertising and marketing this program that we do have.
And so we were working with the school districts.
We've been working with families.
We've been doing as much education to the public as we can to say,
You know, at the age of 17, 18, they can start coming to a Spiro.
They can start coming in the summer.
And so these are the programs that are going to be available to them after they graduate high school.
And that program has really taken off and we're really excited about that.
So I think that's one of our, you know, early accomplishments in last year.
The other one has been we took over the birth to three program from Brown County.
on January 1st of 25.
So now we have the physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist.
That is so important.
I want to talk.
People don't understand how important that is.
Yeah.
And I mean,
you're talking about over 1,200 families that we're serving.
Right.
And
I want to get to that.
And I also want to talk, I want to get back to your personal connection.
I read about you and I'm like,
What's this guy doing here?
I mean, that's awesome.
We're here.
We're going to talk more about you, but I want to talk about zero to three right when we come back.
We'll be right back.
You're listening to Lean Local Egyptian.
All right, welcome back to Lean Local.
We're here with a very special, interesting, great guest, the CEO of a Spiro here in Green Bay, Ryan Rezacani.
And before we get to a couple of questions I wanted to follow up on before in this next segment, for sure I want to talk about that zero to three, zero to five, how important that is for everyone.
I mean, for everyone, and then a little bit more about your connection with this.
But before I do, I want to thank one of our sponsors.
You know, these shows, they cost money.
We have to pay our overpaid, we have to pay our producers, and we, you know, have to pay for our studio.
And we have a couple great ones, and I'm sure you've heard of them because I'm sure they support a Spiro, but Pella Windows and Doors of Wisconsin.
And that is like a great company for
our community and their service is unbelievable.
I live in my house and people will listen probably know us, 115 years old.
some of those houses, we didn't have the best windows and doors back then.
So they come over and not only, it's 45 minutes, they'll stop at any house.
You just call them at PellaWI.com and they come over and they bring the laptop and they show you different styles, different types of windows you can put in because windows in my house are not the same windows you would put in a house built in the 80s, right?
And then this front door thing, I thought, ah, there's really nothing wrong with our front door.
Man, can that make a difference?
Not just with the heat and the air conditioning, but really with the curb appeal.
And it saved us money on our heat.
I mean, that thing was a money pit when we bought it.
But it's just a great company.
And you talk about a community-minded company.
And like I said, I am sure they're supportive of you and many other organizations, but we're
I work at the new community shelter and we're building a new building there for permanent supportive housing.
And Pella donated $300,000 of windows.
I know, that was a lot.
I went to see him and John and he said, we'll donate the windows.
I'm like, careful, we have a lot of windows.
We'll do it.
So anyway, great company, great service and not only great products, but they do the installation too.
And you know, it's like in way.
good piece of fish or beef, but it's how you cook it, right?
And these guys do both, so love them.
Great, great supporter of Greater Green Bay.
I want to talk a little bit more about you.
And I kind of joked about, wow, what's this guy doing here?
You've got an incredible background.
You brag about yourself a little bit.
I mean, you're an attorney.
You put together some major deals, did some work on stock exchange, brought some companies public.
Like that's...
Cool stuff that you read about.
Yeah, it's been an interesting journey.
It's, you know, some things that not everybody gets to do.
So I feel blessed in that way.
I went to the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and then law school at Marquette University and spent some time in Wausau.
As a matter of fact, working as assistant general counsel at Colby Windows.
And then I left and went downstate to diplomats specialty pharmacy.
And that was
A small pharmacy when I joined, their niche was long-term disease stay patients.
If you were cancer, HIV, hemophilia, diabetics, that's who we served.
We were hit the market at the right time.
The specialty pharmacy blew up around 2010, 2011, and we went from about a
$200 million company with 250 employees to about 10 years later, we were doing $5 billion in revenue and we had 4,000 employees.
I took them public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, oversaw legal HR compliance, and it was a lot of fun.
It was a fast moving roller coaster journey.
But I learned a lot.
I mean, we worked, our headquarters was in Flint, in Flint, Michigan, and we became the largest employer in Flint, Michigan over that time.
And so you got to see how a company that did it right and gave back to the community the difference that they could make in an area that was rundown and economically depressed.
And that allowed me to kind of move my next step was going to the Children's Hospital in Michigan and working on their foundation.
And that was one of the biggest nonprofits in the state of Michigan.
And we did a lot of pediatric research and a lot of other community programs that got me looking more into the nonprofit area.
And then when we wanted to move back to this area to be closer to family, I was approached kind of good timing by two board members at Espero and said, would you ever be interested?
This is kind of gets you in the business side, nonprofit side.
There's still some legal aspects to it.
You'd be involved in the community and it sounded like something fun and it has been.
It's been just a great opportunity and I enjoy going to work every day.
Not every attorney gets to say that.
No, not every attorney gets to go to work either.
I mean, that's an incredible story.
And I hope you tell that often because, yeah, that just those moves that you made and to bring you back here and, you know, makes this someone who's pretty engaged in a community.
It's nice to have people like you move back here too, you know.
Well, that's that's great.
And you're happy and you're gonna hopefully stick around?
Yeah, I'm loving it.
I think, you know, Espero does wonderful things.
It's a privilege to work for an organization that does good things in the community and works with a great population of people.
I mean, you know, has some friends call it the happiest place on earth where you might be, it might be a Monday and you might be feeling a little down or depressed and you go walk around the halls and you got all these clients who are always happy.
They
are.
always engaging and they make you laugh.
And by the time, you know, I get to my office, I'm dying laughing and I got a big smile on my face and you forget what made you cranky in the first place.
Right.
Isn't that awesome?
We could use a lot
of
places.
Well, all right.
I added a minute and seven seconds before we go to another break.
But since we're kind of talking about you and I want to talk about you a little bit more, another minute.
Do you have political ambitions?
You got a lot of great, you're successful, good looking guy, I mean.
No.
Really?
No.
None.
Okay.
I've had a couple of people ask.
I'm sure
you've had more than a couple.
Say to me some things, but I've always been like, no, that's just really not my cup of tea.
I think I like where I am.
and like what I do and it's, I get, hey look, I get to play in the political side by meeting with politicians all the time, discussing budget issues and hopefully more funding and that's good enough.
All right,
well, he didn't say never though.
Did you catch that you guys?
No,
no.
Anyway, all right, we're going to come back.
I want to talk about a little bit more of your programs.
I want to leave more of your programs, a little better understanding of that and
kind of where you see, you know, you're running the place, but how you see the future going.
We're going to be right back.
You're listening at Lean Local with Jim Schmidt.
All right, welcome back to Lean Local.
We are talking to, you talk about the city of Green Bay and how it works, and there's a lot of things that make it work.
The business sector, the private sector, of course, the government, they take the credit when things do work well.
And then we have the whole non-profit world.
This really is, I think, what makes Green Bay work.
I mean, people working homeless, people working with people with disabilities, people with autism, all these organizations work, and they work together pretty well here, I think, in Green Bay.
I agree.
This is competitive as other businesses are.
And Spiro, 70 years, 1600 clients, and it's working.
We talked about...
30,000 foot level, we've talked a little bit about your personal connection.
Let's delve into the programs a little bit more, you know?
Like when we talk about a Spiro, and I think people, again, know that, but like who's eligible for a Spiro services?
Sure.
So obviously, you know, birth to three, so younger children.
And then once you get around the age of 17,
you know, you're eligible as well at Espiro.
And then that translates all the way through adulthood, right?
And so we encourage families, if they have questions on any of that, please reach out to us, you know, go to espiroink.org.
And we can help you navigate who's eligible, how to get funding, the MCOs that are involved in family care and what's in that fund it.
Do you see...
growing segment and the reason I want to ask about that is that zero to three thing just really interests me and when I was in office we go to these mayors conferences and you think we talk about infrastructure crime you know gang violence
right
everyone we had somebody come in and talk about zero to three zero to five education and
Man, can you get convinced that that's where the money should go or the time or energy should go to that?
I have a daughter who works in that field because I think people get stressed out, you know, you know, ninth grade.
I don't know if Johnny's going to graduate.
And some people say, well, you knew that in fourth grade.
Some will say, well, I could have told you that, you know, and just a little things.
My daughter tells me about that.
Just this interaction of rolling a ball back and forth versus watching, you know, Oprah or something.
So I think that is are you doing more of that or
we are and there seems to be you know an uptick in in most counties and the need for births of three so you know we work with the families and we also work with you know other health care providers in the area who refer families to us so if a child has a you know a developmental delay it could be you know mental could be physical
You know, we can come in and we do an assessment and then they work with our physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists.
We also have special education educators and service coordinators
at that young
age.
Yep.
And then we go right into the home.
Yeah.
So that's one of the things is, you know, it's hard times at times to get families to go to the clinic for these services.
We can do that by going right into their home.
And so it's an environment that's comfortable for the child, comfortable for the parents.
And we're able to provide that.
you know, that service right there in the home.
And, you know, there is such good data that shows that having these services for that age group help them later on in life, you know, increase in English testing and math scores.
I mean, it's setting them up on the right foot, you know, as they get into their educational years.
That's, it's been a while since my kids were little, but that's going to be a little bit
A parent may not want a call, like maybe denial, saying, look, but is it just a free call or is it working a referral?
Like how does someone get started with a spirit?
So usually in a birth to three program, they can be referred through the county.
So the county, they're asking about programs through the county and the county refers them to us.
They're physician.
I see.
And their clinic can also refer them to us as well.
All right.
And, you know, as you get older,
Those referrals are coming in through one, they hear about a Spiro and they call us and we can help them with that.
Or they have a guardian or a therapist or somebody else or a special education director at a high school who knows about us because they say, here's a Spiro's programming.
This will be a good place for your son or daughter to go once they graduate.
That's delicate work.
Sensitive, you're working with the child.
How are you doing for employment, for getting people to work?
That's always the need.
I mean, it's hard everywhere.
There's obviously a shortage of employees throughout, whether it's Northeast Wisconsin, Wisconsin, the nation.
But definitely in our industry, it's hard.
It's hard to find individuals who have the care and compassion.
have the calling to be in this field.
It's also, you need funding.
You have to have the revenue to be able to pay them a living wage as well, and that can get tricky.
We're always in the fight to get more funding with the legislature and things like that.
So it's a never-ending battle, but I think the one thing that Espirro has that probably some other organizations don't,
is we have a lot of employees who've been there a long time you know our turnover rate is really low good and we've had we have a number of employees who've been there for 15 plus years and that's that's unusual
that that's more than finance i mean that's a passion for that that's all we're we're blessed with that too at the new community shelter so
um
The zero to three that's so important.
It's growing and you're making a huge difference there walk me through one of the programs you offer when the kids get a little bit older like a Probably gonna be the job placement thing, but you know that 17 year old yeah person who graduates from East and comes over
sure one of our you know One of our great programs that just is an immersive programs called project search So project search is we take
not only high school students, but also adults.
And we take them into a work setting and they work five days a week.
They do internship rotations.
So they do three, 10 week internship rotations.
And our two partners with this are HSHS, St.
Vincent, Amplify.
And the other one is Aurora Baycare.
And so these students are getting to, they have some classroom activity in the morning and then they're going out and they're working in a department in the hospital.
They might be working in the pharmacy.
They might be working in the cafeteria.
They might be working in the NICU.
And then they rotate every 10 weeks.
And so they're getting not only job exploration, but they're learning job skills.
And we've had some great successes.
We had a young man who, his goal when he started the program was to be a barista.
And after he did his rotation at Aurora Baycare, he loved being in the pharmacy.
And now he's a pharmacy tech there.
He works there to this day.
He's been there a couple of years.
And so those success stories are great.
Sometimes they're hired by the health system.
Sometimes they go on to find other jobs after learning the skills there.
And so those programs are fantastic.
And those health systems have been great partners for us too.
And those are two great industries to learn something because they're growing.
I mean, and you look at Green Bay,
We're a regional health care facility.
So, I mean, all our jobs, any job's a good job, but it's nice to go to get a job in an industry that's growing.
And while that's, that's very smart.
Hey, I want to talk about funding.
You and I both raised money, capital campaigns.
You raised more than we did, but we both did our goal, right?
I think that's, that's what's important.
How are you funded a spirulier?
organization.
So most of our funding comes through Medicaid and that flows into the state of Wisconsin and then into the family care system that's administered by a couple managed care organizations in Wisconsin and then that's how we're funded.
So a client and their family will be part of MCO's network and then that MCO pays us.
Families can also private pay.
so they can private pay for the services as well if they don't want to go through the family care system.
And then there's some other, you have fundraising yearly, you write grants yearly.
There's different grants that might come through the state of Wisconsin, might come through the federal government, might also come locally as well through Brown County.
So there's a variety of avenues.
for our funding.
Obviously, Medicaid is always on the chopping block.
I was going to say, doesn't that make you nervous?
It does.
What you try to do is you have a little bit of diversity, meaning you try to find other avenues to fill those voids.
And some of that is when we do work with some of our business partners who bring in
things that need to be repackaged or sewing or things like that.
That's a different revenue stream that stays away from Medicaid.
And so that helps us.
And so that's why those business partnerships are so important.
Yeah.
We've been around 30 years, 20 years at our facility, but we've really throttled back on the government money because one is you don't know if it's going to be there, although it's really tough to cut out.
social programs because eventually they're gonna be like you're really gonna do that you know and these people vote you know but I think the bigger thing is we were getting too many restrictions laid on us and we don't like that I mean we got a program that works and when they say well you can't breathalyze people it's like you know what we do that we do that often because that's part of our program and
you know, we service people from Brown County and if we take federal money, then somebody can parachute in here from Minneapolis and we have a waiting list now.
So we, it's been disappointing because I know there's a lot of money in the federal government, but just we, you know, we talk about are we going to be true to our mission or true to the balance sheet, you know, and we got to be true to both, but our mission is more important.
But
I think for us, it's been education.
We had, if we can get out there and educate, not just the community, but also educate.
politicians and leaders, whether it's in Madison or DC, even locally, about what we do and the services.
And when we get them in for a tour, they understand.
They take it up and they're a champion of the program.
But you have to get in front of them and you have to show why it matters.
And I think we're a non-partisan organization.
I think both sides of the aisle love us.
But you've got to get them there and you've got to explain what
why this is important.
Yeah.
And I think getting them there is important.
You have your legislative breakfast, you
know, you have
attended a million times.
A
30th anniversary coming up this year in 2027 for that legislative breakfast.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was always very, very enlightening.
You learn a lot from that.
You want to share, I know you've got an announcement coming up in the next month or so, but you just, you had a capital campaign.
I follow capital campaigns because we just completed one and
It's a very generous community, but you don't want to have a lot of them stacked on top of each other because then they divide by four or five and we, you know, won it all.
And I know there's some going on right now.
You just completed a significant capital campaign.
Yeah, $21 million capital campaign.
That's a lot.
It is a lot.
Felt like a lot, was a lot at work.
It is a lot.
Green Bay is a benevolent community.
I've lived in a lot of communities, but I got to say Green Bay is probably the best at that.
And that's rare.
And they support a lot of organizations, families, donors support a lot of community organizations here.
And we were able to get it done within basically a year.
And that's because we had a great campaign chair, Rick Churnick.
We had a great campaign cabinet who really kind of hit the ground running.
And that makes things easier when you have somebody who believes in the organization, the mission, they have passion for it.
Right.
And yeah, we're extremely excited.
And that building renovation of our dowspin facility is a complete renovation.
So we've got upgraded classrooms, upgraded art, music, rec.
All our programming spaces are updated and we're really excited about it.
We can't wait.
So we're hoping to be back in there in early August.
Isn't that awesome?
Yeah.
We had a similar experience with us, too.
It's like, well, that's a lot of money for homeless, but the community is great.
I think if you have the right mission, which you do, and then we do, and a little bit the right person asking, I
think
that helps.
I mean, people, and you'd churn with, you know, Mike Daniels, myself, and a few other people who had a good board.
So I just, I'm so proud of this community, because when I heard your number and our number kind of at the same time, I thought, wow, and yet they both.
our goals.
I agree.
So it's awesome.
All right, we're going to come back.
I just want to talk about kind of what you see, what the future is.
I mean, you're going to be around for another 70 years, some of the things that you see, maybe not personally, because you look like you will be.
But we're going to be right back as we talk a little bit more about a Spiro here on Lean Low College.
All right, welcome back.
We're wrapping it up here on Lean Local, talking with the president and CEO of a Spiro, Ryan Russicani, and who's, we talked enough, well not enough about him, this guy's amazing in his background, but he's here in Green Bay and doing a great job leading this organization.
And we talked 70 years, successful capital campaign, growing,
programs, some growing faster than others, you know, zero to three, and then the relationships you have with the healthcare.
Are there any misconceptions people have about individual disabilities or misconceptions they have about your organization?
I think
when, you know, when I've been there 18 months, I think when I first started, the misconception was people didn't really know what we did.
You know, they had heard of us.
They weren't 100% sure of all the programs we offered.
And so that what we've tried to do in the last couple of months is really reinforce in the community exactly what we do and why it means so much to the community.
And then for individuals with disabilities, you know, there's that, I think a perception that they don't want the same things as us.
You know, they want to be out working.
They want to socialize.
They want to be around their peers.
They want to be involved in the community.
and they want to learn, they want to be active.
And I think part of us, you know, part of our education for the community is to jump over that misconception and hurdle.
And that's what we've been working on.
And I think we're getting there.
We've had great response.
Like I said, all of our programs are growing, and that has a lot to do with, you know, getting out there and spreading the word about what we do.
Awesome.
The community is obviously stepped up financially for your organization.
Volunteers, take volunteers or tell me about how someone can volunteer with Spiral.
Yeah, so we have about anywhere from 30 to 40 volunteers at any one time.
And they really work with our, we have the largest rec programs for individuals with disability in the area.
So after hours, we have a softball league.
We have a basketball league.
We have a bowling league.
We have a football league in the fall.
There's always something going on.
We go fishing.
We go on field trips.
And those programs...
you know, we need those volunteers.
So they work directly with the clients then.
Yeah.
No, that's cool.
Yeah.
So we have a number of volunteers where they're playing basketball, who are playing softball, they're in the flight football leagues.
And we have so many of our clients participate in all those programs.
And you don't have to be one of our clients.
You can be, you know, an individual who would just love to participate and you can do that with us.
They make quite the impact.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And we've had some of our volunteers have been there, you know, going on 30 years.
Wow.
Yeah, people are amazing.
And those people don't get recognized enough.
They don't want to be recognized either,
though.
Right.
I mean, we tried that one time to do this.
I forgot what we called the award, like a behind the scenes award.
Yeah.
I don't want that.
Right.
You know, people who read to kids every day.
Yeah, they just enjoy it.
I love
it.
It's like, wow, they saved a lot of things.
So, beyond volunteering, what other help do you need?
I mean, it seems like you're hitting on all cylinders,
but
is there anything you're kind of looking
for?
I mean, we're always looking for more business partners, you know, for all of our programming, whether that's, you know, where you need help in a manufacturing setting and you need to have product that we can help you with, styles that'd be great if we can go, you know,
as part of our group supported employment program, and we can go and work at your business.
We have a number of partners, whether it's Epic, UWGB, Pepsi, there's LRI recycling.
We always need more partners for those programs.
All right.
And again, I think if someone's hesitant, maybe the
call a friend or call you
guys
and say, talk to someone who's got a restaurant to hire them.
Like you said, PMI
or
Epic that worked with those people.
I think that's, you know, it just gives people more confidence that, I mean, it's the right thing to do.
There's no question about it, but you know, people worry about the bottom line.
It can be just as like I told you, like I mentioned to you earlier, it's good for the superior employee, but it's great for your employee, your other employees.
That's what I think.
It helps.
I mean, every one of our employers always has the same response that they love the program.
Our clients are hardworking.
They're dependable.
They're there every day.
And they bring that same joy that they bring to a spirit.
They then bring it into their business.
And it's the same thing.
They're having fun.
And they bring that laughing and that mentality and atmosphere.
Yeah, cool.
Talk about some events that people listening can go to.
You talked about that October you have an annual.
Yeah, in October we have our Taste and Toast event, which is at Lambeau Field.
And that's a wonderful event where you can learn more about a Spiro, but you're also, you know, it's.
a little bit of a cocktail party, there's great food, there's silent auction items, and there's music, and it's our largest fundraiser, and it's just a great event.
And it's a great networking opportunity.
It is,
absolutely.
You know, you always, I mean, there's obviously nice people there, but you know, maybe to hear about someone or you meet somebody, it's like, wow, that's cool, all right.
And the local businesses that are,
making a difference with you, you need more of that.
And I think you used, I used to work at KI, and I think we had some stuff done over there.
I don't
know if that's still
done,
but it was, you know, and it's just, it wasn't the most difficult work, but it was work that had to get done, sample packs, you know, that kind of stuff.
You got to shrink wrap
all
that stuff.
All right, so we need more of those.
Is there a type of business that you like that,
Someone's listening to it.
Is it packaging or is it
labeling?
It's all different types, you know, and so reach out to us and we can work with you on finding what works best for your business.
You know, we're able to look at a business and say, you know, you might need entry-level workers in this department.
You might need more advanced in this department and we can work with them.
All right, cool.
So you're the CEO.
You're young.
You've great resume.
You're probably going to be here for a while.
I want to talk about, you know, your vision for a spiral.
over the next five, five to seven years.
No, people only say that.
What needs to be growing faster?
If you answer that quickly on the radio, we're going to carry this over to our podcast.
So do...
It's up to you which one
you want.
I think I want people to stick around for the podcast.
We're going to talk a little bit more.
Yeah, I want to know if there's services that you want to expand there.
I mean, you've talked a lot about what you do and you do extremely well.
And, you know, are we missing anything?
Are there populations that we're not serving?
I want to hear from you on that as well.
So, stick around.
This has been Lean Local with Jim Schmidt.
We're going to continue this conversation on our podcast, The Green Bay Way.
Stick around with Mr. Renzanikani.
