Hey, thank you very much.
Welcome back, Mino and the Mayor here at 21 degrees in Green Bay, 24 Naphton, 21 in Oshkosh, mostly sunny high in the low 40s today.
Special thanks to Cheese Curd Nick for coming in today from the Dog House.
And they, of course, will be very prominent outside the stadium view during the NFL draft.
Michael Friedman, of course, simple life hospitality.
He's awesome.
And if you're looking for places to stay around the Green Bay area of Wisconsin or
points far beyond possibly in Italy very soon.
Contact him.
Thomas Swearingen, favorite chef contestant, best of home.
Please check out that.
Oh, that he's had an amazing career.
And now a couple of ladies that are really trying to do their best.
And it sounds like for your entire adult lives with your careers, one way or another, you guys have always been involved in helping the less fortunate.
Carissa Buck and Lisa Jones, community clothes closets, the great underwear give
I mean, okay, you're a boys and girls
That's
great.
Yeah, so I was with the hospital prior to this.
Worked in an emergency room.
I have just
You're old
no, no, no.
You have great experience for your age.
You
And, you know, toys for tots and they may use the toy, you know, once a week or once a day or something like that.
What you're doing is something maybe we don't think about as much and that's just underwear for.
kids for people and this is a great drive you're doing.
So tell us, I don't know, I came up with the concept and it's probably one of the biggest needs out there that's not addressed.
Do you want to go ahead?
No, you can go.
So our mission is about providing free clothing to people in need.
And so we're providing clothing for families from infants all the way up to adult sizes.
And probably one of our biggest requests is for underwear.
And it's just something that isn't donated.
People don't think about it.
A lot of us take it for granted.
If you need it, you just go out and buy it.
But for a lot of our families, that is not an option.
And
might be one of the priorities if they're thinking about, do I put this money towards food?
for another couple of days versus that,
right?
Yes.
They're making hard decisions every day.
Like you said, food, everything has gone up in cost.
So, you know, if you're going to provide your child a coat or get underwear, you know, you're going to choose that coat.
That's really important.
know?
Yep.
Any size, we're collecting all sizes.
As far as sizing goes.
Yeah.
Really all of it.
I mean we we get a couple few thousand pairs each year But we are serving over 11,000 individuals So that's not even enough to give each person one pair of underwear in a year
and I'll be honest with you It's not cheap underwear isn't cheap anymore either.
No,
I mean I went to buy a pack of t-shirts the other day and I was shocked at how much a pack of regular
Walmart-type t-shirts were.
So I mean, for these people, like we're talking, they have to make every buck stretch as far as possible.
Right, and when you have a family the size, you know, an average size of four, we're working with a lot of families who are, you know, six, you know, four or five kids.
That adds up very quickly.
Okay, you're gonna make her talk.
All right, so yeah, you can go to the community clothes closet right in Manasha.
We also have two drop-off locations at WFBR.
FRV.
sorry.
And then we also have the Fox River Mall.
There's three locations within the mall.
easy.
And then last one would be Gundersons, and that's in Nina, Oshkosh, and Appleton.
Gunderson
cleaners.
Cleaners, yep.
But that's pretty cool.
We've got the collection box, the Macy's Wing, Target Court, and the Food Court.
Can't get much more convenient
all right, people can
And
Yes, so as they come in, we actually take them out of the package, we size them, and then we put them out for our families.
So as they come in and shop, they can pick out, you know, two to three pairs while they're with us, so.
great.
I encourage them to pick out some fun ones for kids.
You know what I mean?
You know what I mean?
Disney characters or whatever.
Absolutely.
I
mean that's a little belief to this.
Oh, for sure.
Kids love to pick out their own.
So we definitely tell the parents, like, hey, let them have a chance to do that.
So yes.
That's cool.
Yeah,
I mean, we've all been involved with...
Incredible number of charities and we're not pondering our chest right like that, but I'm just saying I still think back of when we're doing a thing I'm sure you did it to Jim during the service league They put on that big thing the back to school.
Yeah, we take
the
kids
That was one of
the that was one of the most because anybody can write out a checker Okay, when you're actually with that little kid and they don't quite believe
that they can have that backpack and they can't they can have those things and they can it's like what an amazing feeling that is if a person wants to feel good and again not say oh what a wonderful but just to know the need and what you can do that might not seem like a huge thing that is such a huge thing
for certain people.
Isn't that the truth?
Yes, most definitely.
I think we experience that every day at our job.
So yeah, I think it's pretty eye-opening to see that.
That's a good point too.
Yeah, I think the thing is too is that we do get
things donated, but it's just having that new, fresh, well-fitting pair of underwear
and
having that dignity associated
with that.
I'm an old guy and I'm still looking for that well-fitted pair of underwear.
I mean, totally honest.
bite the bullet and buy that bigger size.
Do you know what I mean?
It's like, no, these are good.
I'm going to be losing a few.
I haven't, we all been kind of like,
Yes.
Yeah, this is our first time actually running this specific
So we've done, you know, pajamas in the past.
We've done back to school, things like that.
But this is our first on the campaign.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, we're staff, but yeah, we have 150 volunteers that come in on a weekly basis and support our mission.
You know,
We are serving individuals directly through our shopping floor that has thousands of items that people can come in and shop.
We have shoes, we have bedding, towels, pillows.
That's
So that is in Manasha.
We're right across from the University off of Midway Road.
we talk about that now?
Yes, so we have donation hours that happen Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.
to 1 p.m.
and Monday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m.
And then our client shopping hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 10 to 12, 45 p.m.
and Monday evenings from 6 to 7, 45 p.m.
Yeah, so all of our clients do have to be referred.
So we work with over 90 agencies, social service agencies, schools, churches, food pantries.
They will make that referral for the family.
And then once referred, we issue them a card and they're able to come in and shop twice a month for a year.
That's fantastic.
And everything is free.
So I mean, a lot of it's gently used and we're very picky about what we put out.
I really believe in dignity.
We want to make sure that, you know, you walk away feeling very confident with what you received.
And so, but a lot of it also we get is new.
A lot of people donate new stuff.
And I will say this, you guys give that stuff away from free for
free.
And I know of other stores would have that exact same stuff and it'd be
Secondhand but gently but very expensive with some of that stuff.
What isn't that the truth,
Some of these people would have other ways of making money by donating, but they're giving it to you guys for free.
Absolutely.
Yeah, so this period of time between now and the 14th, which is What is the seventh eighth?
Yeah, seven.
Okay.
This is the the the Underwood Drive.
So we're asking people to go out buy a couple
pair sets of underwear, drop them off at one of these locations, we'll repeat again.
Is this an annual, not annual, is there something then next week that you're going to be looking for or how do people, like if you have pillows, those aren't cheap either.
You must have a pillow drive or tell me a little bit more about your organization.
Yeah, so I mean I guess we're always seeking donations year-round for everything So you can don't if you're cleaning out your closets, you know, it doesn't matter what season you can donate it to us if we can't use it for this season We'll save it for next season You know same with pillows.
We do for pillows.
We do require new pillows, right?
So but they have a whole list out on our website community close closet org talks about what we need what we accept So that's a great place to start
now.
Let me ask you a little bit about this so
The fashions can change in a hurry.
Do you ever like accept something?
It's like
No, 16 year old girl is going to wear this because that's true.
Does that happen?
I feel like we can't really judge that though, because we don't know all the clients that are coming in.
Yeah, that's true.
So it's hard to,
exactly.
Like for our operation Cinderella, there were so many different styles and things like that because we just can't anticipate other people's needs like that, unfortunately.
donate when it's all from 1989.
So I didn't know.
know some old Lindy and Fonte show shirts.
We love Reggie White shirt.
You know what I mean?
I got a bunch of those things.
Holmgren is the greatest coach.
I got a bunch of those.
I didn't know if those were.
They might have some antique value.
I think so too.
thing.
Those stores are popular.
Oh,
definitely.
Yes.
And things always come back into fashion.
I
know.
That's right.
with you.
Just keep waiting, John.
Let me ask you this.
And I mentioned this before, and we had fun with it.
But to be in your types of jobs, you have to have a certain passion.
It's not no disrespect to any other company out here.
But you could go work for a Shriver cheese across the street, and I'm not sure you're
Passion is sliced cheese.
You know what I mean?
It's like just something though about helping people That's got to be a little bit more internal than just the job itself true
very true.
Yeah,
where does that come from?
You know, I think it comes from just wanting to to help others to you know have
kind of like a purpose that's driving you every single day.
When I go to work, it's something that I love doing.
I love helping.
It's that passion that's ingrained in me.
How about for yourself?
Yeah, I would say the same.
I think I grew up, you know, my parents were involved with the community and giving back.
And so that was something I witnessed very early on.
But I think it's important that everyone feels like they have a chance.
And so, you know, even just smiling at someone, you know,
acknowledging them, that can make a big difference in someone's day.
And so that's, you know, I just think for all of our clients, like just making them feel valued, that they have a purpose as well.
That's cool.
That's very cool.
You used the word dignity, but I mean, it's just people need to, you know, that's all Mosul's hierarchy, right?
You got to, you know, they got to feel safe, they got to eat, but then ultimately you want them to just feel confident, feel good about themselves.
And like you said, this program you're doing is part of that.
I mean, people don't
see how it's all connected and you bring that all together.
This is really important stuff that you're doing and you obviously see it firsthand.
Give yourselves a pitch one more time.
You got one minute.
Well, yes, so Community Clothes Closet.
We are doing the great undie give back and hoping to collect sizes of underwear, all sizes of underwear for everybody.
And that's through the 14th.
So we would appreciate all your support.
awesome.
Yeah, thank you for having
us.
You bet.
Hey, let me ask you one quick question.
If somebody wanted to volunteer for you guys, I mean, you have paid volunteer positions, right?
for the most part.
OK, how can they get involved?
Because somebody might be listening and say, hey, they might text me or Jim or Todd.
How do I get involved with them as a volunteer?
Yeah, so you go out to our website, communityclosecloset.org, under About Us.
There's a volunteer page there, and you can fill out an application, and our manager is amazing.
She'll reach out.
Sounds great.
Thank you so much for being here.
Carissa Buck, Lisa Jones, Community Closed Closet, the great Undy Giveback.
You get another week to do it.
Really convenient locations.
WFRV, Local 5 here downtown Green Bay, or just outside downtown Green Bay on Roosevelt and Mason Street, or along the highway.
You can see it about half
way in between just a little bit out of Appleton.
Macy's Target Court and Food Court in the Fox River Mall.
Gunderson Cleaners in Nina, Aptin and Oshkosh and the Community Closed Closet.
You can drop the stuff off there up until April through April 14th or make a financial gift towards the purchase for these people.
Awesome.
Great work you guys.
Carissa and Lisa Community Closed Closet.
Back after this.
Special thanks, Carissa Buck, Lisa Jones, Community Clothes Closet, the great Undie giveaway.
You know, I was just talking with Lisa about to.
what?
Lisa.
Yeah, Carissa.
No,
Talk about where she's from in Texas.
Yeah.
Oh boy, you cowboy fan up here in packages.
No, I never liked him.
But I said, I said, well, don't.
And she said, Waco.
I said, oh my God, we're hoping to go to Waco because we're huge fans of Chip and Joanna.
games.
They have the really popular TV show.
It's been.
upper.
Fixer upper.
was like the first really mega popular one where they had like personalities as a people.
I mean, it used to be like Bob Vila
the Fixus old house and Norm.
Yeah, we got to have to seven, eight their screwdriver right
And you know what
Yeah.
With the personality
whole thing.
And then that genre exploded.
But that led the way.
But they're from Waco and we've always wanted to go to Waco.
And Lisa just said, oh, my best friend's parents just built a house right next door to Joanna's parents.
So
them all the time?
I was like, wow, that's cool.
I'm big fans of theirs.
Huge fans.
Yep.
Yeah, I like that show too.
Yeah, me too.
But you know, I will say something funny though, they make that town, Laurel, Mississippi, look like this most picturesque little Ernest Hemingway.
Then I was reading about towns with higher crime rates than your experience is like Laurel, Mississippi, all these ones.
It's like they can make anything look really, really good.
Can
There was a lot of them that were still 30, 31, 32, 33.
I mean, that's still more than it should be, but I was surprised.
I would have thought it would have been a different city.
I was just surprised at Detroit.
because I thought Detroit paid a higher wage because of some of the industry they have there.
And I just thought there was a lot of living units there that the supply and demand would have been a little bit lower.
I was just surprised it was that high.
I'm
just going to tell you my experience with something like that.
When I was going to leave Tucson, they brought me up to Flint for a job interview.
So except for the job, grabbed a newspaper, which in those days was the only way to find real estate, grabbed a newspaper, brought it back.
we're sitting there, it's like, oh my gosh, look at this, four bedroom, 36,000, circle that, such as a circle, oh my gosh.
So when I accepted, when I accepted my contract, it's the only time I've never argued, or not argued, it's the only time I didn't
whatever.
And I just accepted the first offer.
Yes.
We get there, and we got a map, and we go to these places, and I'm just saying, and then I asked, I talked to a cop.
who has worked at the station as well.
My producer's husband was a cop.
Yeah, he had it.
And I showed him, he says, yeah, probably not.
Crime rate right there is really bad.
We're here.
Drug house right there we're kind of looking at, so and so.
So what we had to do was move far outside of where we thought we're going to and spend almost twice as much as we thought, but my pay didn't go up.
So I wonder if part of that is a fact with some of those kind of cities.
you know so
little enclaves within the city but those were really expensive too because they were cut you know that was a safe area right i mean you gotta remember when i moved to flint it had the highest murder rate in the nation and and the factories had just shut down and it's just like everybody's unemployed it's like whoa you got to pay whatever you want to pay to kind of get out of dodge
Probably, I don't know,
1982, 1983, it was a rough place to be.
Yeah.
I mean, I loved it because the sports was phenomenal, but.
But my point was,
just jump into the thing that you also know real estate wise.
My real estate person I talked to didn't mention anything like that.
And I didn't realize it until I was going through my.
My real estate exam, you can't, that's illegal for a real estate person to talk about that.
They can just direct you to where you can get the information.
So I went to that my producer's husband, who was a cop, and said, point out some that are, you know.
So that's what I'm saying as far as what Detroit might be along that same line.
I've been there.
I did that.
So what do you do?
Let's make it $21,000 a year.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
lie.
But you got two little girls and your wife and, you know, I mean.
Absolutely.
So I understand that.
There's been more and more articles on that because if you look at the last couple, three years, wages have gone up.
Yeah.
Not ours, but.
Wages have gone up 19%.
Housing has gone up 53%.
Think about that, John.
You're just not keeping pace.
So people just got to keep an eye on that.
We'll talk about that with the Melchors to make sure that people are getting in the right house, not because it's the right house, because...
kids can play, but it's the right house financially.
Well, and there's also the thing, if I was a younger person, you know, starting out with the family and I'm renting and it's like, holy crap, I got to get a house sooner or later to build up some equity.
And it's, it's that gamble.
Do you roll the dice?
So do you say, okay, it's really high.
It's 53% higher than it was a few years ago.
Is it going to go, are we going to get better than it coming down?
Or are we worried it's going to keep going up?
Tough decision to make.
That's it.
It's a yeah, I wouldn't want to be a young person with a family right now try to navigate all the things going on I'll tell you what man great lineup Todd.
This is fun.
Kurt Nick Michael Friedman simple life hospitality Thomas Swerge and favorite chef contest best of home Chris about Lisa Jones community clothes closet great people helping out our community We are out of time.
I will be at the courthouse today talking civics with high school.
Yeah, yeah Hope they don't fall asleep on me like last year.
See ya
