Pipe Dreams and Sweet Strolls: Exploring Local Opportunities (Hour 3)

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts, John Minow and Jim

Schmidt.

All right, welcome back everybody.

This is our three, Minow and the Mayor.

We have some great co-host today,

Connie Feldman,

Jennifer and Vanessa Moran from Feed My Starving Children.

You know, on this show, you know, our goal on this show is to connect locally and give you some information on what's going on locally and also some opportunities.

And we've touched on this and so glad you're here.

Doug, we talk about college and liberal arts and unemployment.

And I think what somebody can take a look at, and that's what I want you to talk about, is this UA local 400 pipe trades.

What a career.

Yeah,

there's some great opportunities in the trades, not just local 400 building trades in general, but local 400.

We're always looking for qualified welders, plumbers, all that sort of thing.

And the job pays well, you don't have to get into that.

But what I worry about is the security of a job.

And as I was telling you before we came on, there's some lawyers, there's some things that things change in some of these high tech jobs and then they're out.

And you don't have a lot of that, it seems in your industry.

Yeah, well, it's crazy.

We work ourselves out of work, right?

We build.

Buildings come to an end you finish them and then you're hoping that there's more buildings and because of the relationships that we have with our contractors and We work with them and we're not striking.

We're not doing all these crazy things There's always new buildings coming in we've been we've been steady steady.

We're up to 2700 plus members and yeah, that's very very low unemployment.

It's usually temporary

Wow, so let's think of some graduation right now and even kids that are juniors that are gonna be seniors They're not sure what they want to do what?

Advice for them to you shadow people or can they come down and you've got a great facility in Kakana But what what would your advice be to men or women right?

I mean this is

definitely we've made a big push on women when I got into trade 26 27 years ago.

We had one woman in a local were up to about 53 Yeah, that's not much in 27 years, but we made a real big jump in the last four good But yeah, they could come down and check our training center out

We have over 90 contractors we work with from large to small, medium sized.

If they're in high school yet we can get them into our youth apprenticeships program, then they get a chance to go and see what some of the plumbers do, fitters do, that kind of thing.

They might just work in a tool room finding out what our tools are and what weld machines are and all that good stuff.

When I started guest hosting this show last week, there was only one woman.

I was the only woman in that time.

We have doubled our

numbers.

It's impressive.

It's

impressive.

That's the

mayor

doing his

magic.

There it is.

I love that.

Oh, go ahead.

I was going to say, Doug Doki was the UA local 400 pipe trades.

We're talking about career opportunities.

And I want to get your, what a kid can contact if he wants to do the apprenticeship or not apprenticeship, but just, just shadow it because I think, you know, you don't know what you don't know.

I've said that, but.

Sometimes people shout out things like you know what this isn't for me and other times they're like, man, I love

that.

I really want to do this.

And so I would say you go to our our website is UA400.org and There's a portal there You go into that portal you start following that and then you can it'll it'll start Okay asking you questions steering you do you want to check out plumbing?

Do you want to check out fitting and then and then from there our contractors look at that portal and then you would be able to talk to a contractor and

hopefully do a job shadow.

We can job shadow right there at the union hall for welding.

We could bring a young person in and let them check out what welding is, that kind of thing.

Plumbing, you're going to have to get with a contractor because you're going to have to go out to a job site.

The other beauty of your business, and I agree that in this country we like to build or remodel, right?

So I think the pipeline is going to be full for you guys.

The other thing that I

I think we don't want to just mention to some of these kids that I don't know about Green Bay.

I don't know about, you know, the Appleton Oshkosh.

That's a trade you can take somewhere else.

Oh, without a doubt.

My brother's a good example.

My brother's a plumber in the local and he's been out in Minnesota.

He's been out in Texas.

When it, if it's slow around here, you can go anywhere.

And that's the good thing about being in the union.

You know, we don't play the seniority game.

There's none of that in our building trades unions.

So if you want to work, you can work.

You just got to go.

such a lucrative career that I don't know if people realize that, but yeah.

Stable,

lucrative.

No student loans when you're all finished with that apprenticeship.

That's huge.

It's tough to get in that too, though.

I know it's not, say it's an easy career.

I mean, you're gonna be pretty smart to be a welder.

You gotta know your math.

Definitely.

But

it's also, I think, I hope,

It's been much more respected than maybe back in the day of the grease and all that or the welding thing.

I mean, this is pretty high-tech now what

you

do.

Well, like even me, I graduated high school in 92 and it was not a big push to the trades then.

It was college, college, college.

And I was like, well, I'm not college material.

I joined the army.

After the army, then I got into the trades.

And so it was like the two routes back then.

It was either college or the military.

Now, I think that it's come a long way.

Oh, yeah.

Folks, folks, you said you're on a school board.

They realize the trades are an option and it's a good option.

And then you end up.

Lending your brother money who went to college

It's just some people are more kinesthetic and they want to work with their hands and you see that as I mean I could tell that much of my fourth graders Alright, this is sure.

They don't want to be in a desk and be you know absorbing, you know, maybe that more academic or academia path They want to be absorbing and being a part of that, you know, I'm actually

learn a trade to do something

my daughter did and I did a

a standard class out in Swamigal a couple of months ago.

And I think it's called smelting when it melts.

I could not believe how quickly she picked up this thing.

And I remember them telling us, this is 2,000 degrees.

You drop this molten metal on you, it will go through.

And I

was

so afraid.

She picked it up and I just could not believe how quickly and how talented she was at something like that.

And I'm thinking, boy, I'm going to be checking.

And you

were

saying that welding, that there's some openings.

Yes, right now, just in our jurisdictional area from Marinette Marine down to in the Fox Valley, where our fabrication shops are, we're probably about 49 qualified welders short right now.

Well, she's four years out.

That's

just great.

Where did you go to school and what would you recommend for a school if you want to pursue the the pipe trades?

Like as far as a tech school or whatever goes so I didn't I well I did Fox Valley Tech as a plumber I was a plumber so I didn't do any of the additional training like but if if a young person is into welding I would recommend going to Lakeshore Technical College Northwest Technical College or Fox Valley Technical College take their U2 year welding program and That'll really get them a head start.

They're still gonna have to do the apprenticeship, but I mean it gets them in where

they are ready to make an X-ray weld within six months.

And then

if you're an HVAC service tech, then I strongly recommend Fox Alley Tech and Northeast,

what is it, Northwest Tech to call it, NWTC.

They have great HVAC programs and they're both two year programs.

And then the same thing, you leave there, you're gonna go into that apprenticeship, but they'll start you out a little bit higher wage than what our rates are.

And I mean, you come out an absolute stud, skilled.

service check.

In two years,

you can start earning a wage like that?

Yeah, but in a lot of them, like I know a lot of our contractors right now are also putting, they're putting them on, if they're taking that school at say end of TC, they're making them

M-E-S-T, which is Mechanical Equipment Service Technician, and they're giving them a wage and paying for their school while they're

going to go home.

Wow,

wait, just talk about

that earlier.

Yeah, it's

pretty

cool.

They'll

reimburse, yeah.

I want to talk about the local 400-year union.

I think parents will all worry about our kids being safe, right?

If some kids don't want to be a cop, they're like, oh, I don't know

about

this, but just industrial accidents.

And tell me, you really do focus on training over there.

Yeah, safety and training are huge.

at local 400, we do about $3 million a year just in training at local 400.

And that's all our member money.

That's no taxpayer money, that kind of thing on there.

And we want our members to go home safe every day.

That's a huge deal to us.

So with the youth apprentices, these are young people that are maybe a junior or sophomore in high school.

They're able to take classes by us.

So they get that OSHA 30 right away while they're in high school.

And it starts getting at.

safety thought in your head right away.

And I

think whether students listening right now or their parents are just, you know, to go to UA400.org, there's information on there.

Because maybe people really don't know what is pipe trains, you know, they don't really know what it is, whereas you kind of know what lawyers or doctors, but I just think we need to educate ourselves more as parents and other opportunities.

So much

behind the scenes.

Well, and I'll say it out loud, but I've always wondered, what's steam fitting?

So yes, steam fitting is you're hooking up boilers and turning, you know, the boiler turns that water into steam and then you're doing all that piping with that steam.

It's not the

choo-choo train you thought

it

was.

We do work on trains on occasion, but usually it's the boilermakers.

And

that's pipe fitting.

All right.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

So steam fitting versus pipe fitting?

So it's the same.

The biggest difference is a steam fitter goes through a four year or five year apprenticeship and learns the science of steam and expansion.

And whereas a lot of times the pipe fitters are like, I was a plumber.

And then later on, I took a test at the union hall to become a pipe fitter.

So I didn't learn all the science and everything, but I learned how to do the piping for those systems.

I wouldn't be able to design and troubleshoot that system the way a steamfitter can.

Thank you for explaining

that.

Because

I've always

wondered

and

been too afraid to ask.

It's kind of like Todd's, this is akin to Todd's comment about algebra and not understanding things.

This

is where my understanding ends as well.

Yeah, I'm bad at algebra.

Trig I can do, not algebra.

Wow.

Wow.

OK.

Doug Doki with the pipe trades.

Doug, I want to just check a few more boxes on local 400 because I

knew your predecessor, Jeff, and I just spent some time there and you were very good to me as well.

So you're trained, you're one of the best trained facilities.

You said $3 million you're putting into training.

It's a place where you can learn, take the apprentice.

But I just want to touch on the camaraderie.

I mean, you guys just kind of get along.

Yeah, yeah, without a doubt.

Like even the relationship between our contractors, I mean, I'm pretty proud of that.

And that's something Jeff Kanos, who was a mentor to me.

Right.

He started that good relationship with the contractors.

Now, I mean, hey, don't get me wrong, when we're looking for wages and we're negotiating a

little contentious,

right?

But I've been involved as a leader in the local since 2017, and there's been one grievance in those years.

So it's really about that partnership.

Getting that skilled trained manpower to our contractors in the end of the day if I'm not supplying the manpower to those contractors Then what is local 400 for yeah,

so what are some of the projects you've worked on that our listeners would know?

Um, well, let's see.

We we did the Green Bay packaging mill.

That's right.

I don't I mean, yeah,

I don't

think

people understand How significant that was for this community

because it

wasn't

retail wasn't like the Packers, but man.

They

could have

went to Georgia, they

could have went to Tennessee, they could have went anywhere.

I was in

those meetings.

And they could justify going somewhere else logistically.

It kind of makes more sense, raw materials come in here, distribution goes out of here.

It's like, okay, wow, this is going to be tough.

But you know, think I did the questions.

Oh man, they did an awesome job for us to keep that here.

Like you said, for the whole community.

But then, you know, the remodels at Lambeau, we've always pretty much always been a part of that.

Wow, that's huge.

The Georgia-Pacific bill that was on Broadway.

We had all the piping and that.

So those are some of the real big ones.

And then, I mean, we're doing little ones like little schools and upgrades at the schools.

When I was an apprentice, I worked at Bayport High School.

Oh, lovely.

That when it was a brand new high school.

Yeah.

So we do, you know, anything from hospitals to paper.

Great job.

Great career.

job security and you're making the community better.

I mean,

that's

just, I appreciate what you're doing and thanks

for

coming in here, Doug.

We'd like to get you back here.

I just want parents, students who are listening that UA400.org, just get on the website, just take a look at it.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, you

bet,

Doug.

All right, take care.

We will be right back with Connie Feldman, Vanessa Moran and Jim

Schmidt.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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started.

I just want to make mention of this.

I'm getting a lot of messages because of people are saying you need to start wearing

sunscreen.

That's the video.

Good, I'm

glad.

They're watching.

And

trim my eyebrows.

Those are the two comments I get.

All right, this has been fun today.

And I just want to thank our guests who've been on so far.

And we have Mary Roddy coming in.

I think most people know her.

She's on Broadway.

And really, they got that whole summer in the city guy that just came out last week and just a plethora of stuff that's going on in that Broadway district.

And we had a guy on yesterday who owns the new crepe shop that

opened up.

Oh, I dropped by that.

I didn't know I wanted to go.

I had to drive by after this.

Let's

go.

Did

you see?

In front of

there, he's got that little Eiffel Tower.

He's

got

it going

on.

It's so cool.

Yeah.

I'm sure she's going to talk about that.

But just another shuttle to this, Doug McPherson.

Educators are interesting anyway.

Scott.

Scott.

I'm Scott, Doug.

Scott McPherson, Denmark teacher.

That was interesting.

I want to get him back.

And of course, Paul, doing your fundraiser.

August 21st at, where is that, that St.

John's?

It's right by the airport.

It's kind of hidden behind, there's a shell station over there as you head toward the airport.

And it's just right behind in that little neighborhood.

It's absolutely adorable, great facility for a concert like

this.

Feed my starving children and Neil Diamond tribute, that's gonna be fun.

It's

June 15th.

No, no, August 21st.

August 21st.

She's going to talk about

June

15th, just a second.

Oh, father's

day.

I always thank Doug, too, for coming out for the local 400.

Oh, he

was great.

I

want to get him back here,

because

it bothers me when people don't know what they want to do.

And you don't have to decide a career, but you've got to start trying some stuff.

Yeah.

And they

need to go

out there and take a look at that.

And I love that they provide those opportunities.

Like, let's just get kids to try different things and see what they like.

Let's let him figure it out first.

Vanessa, you're in today, and thank you for being here.

I thought you were going to be here tomorrow, but this has worked out great having you in-house.

And before we, I know we've got a guest coming on at 8.30, but we've got a few minutes here.

What are

you all working on?

So, a couple of quick things.

With Feed My Serving children, so just so, if people don't know about the organization, it's a very simple, formulaic recipe of soy, rice, veggies, and a vitamin blend, that their dry ingredients, we as the mobile pack pay for those dry ingredients.

They get shipped here to Green Bay Community Church, and then every, the first week of October, every year, we

Gather volunteers in mass and pack them all about 3,000 volunteers make it happen We are the human machinery that packs these meals the meals get sent all over the world the sad reality And this is this

number

still strikes me every single every single time I say it 6,200 children die each and every day due to hunger related causes 6,200 every day every day die because of something that's preventable so we're working really hard to to help curb that and it's a just a

It's, we always joke, it's the most fun you'll ever have in a hair net.

And it's just a really, it's a great event.

We've been lucky enough to have all the local media outlets come and cover it.

We've been lucky enough to have John and Jim come and actually pat.

We've been lucky enough to have this platform to help us spread the word because I think one of the things that always hurts my heart is afterwards.

I wish I would have known.

I

wish I would have known.

I wish I would have been there.

And it's like, you know, it's hard to keep track of all the great things that are happening.

Hence shows like this to help.

make sure that these organizations are amplified through this platform.

So with that said though.

It takes a lot of money to make it happen.

$183,000 needs to be raised for us to get

the dry

food ingredients.

Costs continue to go up and we have to pay for every grain of rice, every bit of that vitamin blend, all of those things.

So we do a lot of fundraising all year round to prepare for October.

So every single year we have 10 partner churches.

They all come together.

I serve as the media chair.

Paul is my co-chair

by name and

name only, but that's okay.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

If he's still listening, he's rolling his eyes.

guys right now.

So with that said, we have the Green Bay Rockers baseball club has stepped up to the plate and they are hosting a baseball game on Father's Day.

$15 or they're holding not hosting $15 per ticket gets you a hat at the game.

It gets you obviously the ticket to the game and $7 from every ticket almost half of that goes back to feed my starving children if.

you buy your ticket through our special link.

So if you're coming to that game, you're planning on bringing, what a great way to celebrate Father's Day, right?

A local baseball game right here, they have so much fun, there's always music, there's always entertainment, you get a free hat, it's at 105, it's the perfect way to celebrate Father's Day, and buy your ticket through our link, $7 comes back to feed my starving children.

The Green Bay Rockers have really stepped up to the plate, no pun intended.

I'm giving

myself

a bell for that.

And the

Green Bay community can do it.

We've talked about this

before, Jim, about

when there is need, the Green Bay community,

Northeast

Wisconsin,

that's what

I mean.

They will step up.

So once they know, with thank you for being here, they'll come forward.

I think we can do this, guys.

Let's get behind it.

June 15th, come on over.

The link.

I'll provide that

directly to you.

We can put it on Facebook.

Or group out of Facebook.

And I think you make a good point, Father's Day.

you want to do something special and it's like, oh, this is a great, great thing to do.

And they can go out

and grab something to eat after.

Of course, there's good food there as well, but this is a fun thing.

So Father's Day, what's this?

Is it the second or third?

Sunday, June 15th.

Second?

Yeah, yeah, it's coming up quick.

And the other thing too is, hey, listen, you can't make it to the game.

You have some kind of Father's Day celebration and you're, you know, grilling out and you have some, uh, some soda pops or anything, anything in an aluminum can or beer for dad.

Save those cans.

all through the month of June.

Any of the cans that you save, drop them off at St.

John's in...

Howard,

not the one

Ash Wabanan.

We are collecting on Glendale Avenue.

We're collecting those cans and the money raised from that also goes to the Feed My Serving Children mobile pack.

And you don't think it makes a difference, but it does.

Every meal is only 29 cents.

So graduation parties, father's day

events,

anything you have going on in June, save those cans for us.

Last year, do you remember what you guys did from us last year?

Jim and John had a giant garbage bag, multiple garbage bags, completely filled with cans.

They drank.

All the soda just for us.

Well, in the price of aluminum

right now, that could be a significant

donation.

It is.

Yeah, absolutely.

Hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Otherwise,

you're

just going to throw it out.

Baseball, saving cans, just be part of it.

I mean, you're helping.

Feed Kids, for God's sake.

I mean, this is a great organization.

Thank you for taking the lead on this for now.

So this is

so important.

Great team.

Yeah, there's a lot of good things going on in Green Bay.

And when you donate, when you participate, you actually feel better.

Yeah.

It's just a cool, cool thing.

So anyway, all right, we're going to be right back with Mary Roddy, who's going to talk about the summer in the city guide on on Broadway.

We'll be right back.

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to see the action live?

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Jump in, leave a comment and be a part of the conversation.

Now back to Mino and the Mayor.

Here's John Mino and Jim Schmidt.

Alright, welcome back everybody.

Wrapping it up here last half hour.

Kind of the best for last.

You know that

Broadway is just a Hatman district in Greater Green Bay and many, many cities have these areas that are under revitalization.

They putting some city money, some private money is going into it.

But what really makes brings the awareness is events.

It's events that you have, people come down and they're like.

Wow, this is like

great.

And Mary Rodie, who has also been a guest on our show before, and I'm glad you're back here, Mary, kind of runs this whole summer in the city, in the Broadway district, and you've got a lineup.

Again, and I know we start with the farmers market.

We want better weather and we're gonna have that right.

Yeah, it's gonna be great this week We fought through to our first two Wednesdays of rain, but you know what people still came they do they still came and They got you know, they're asparagus and their bouquets of flowers and

bread for the week and all the things.

So ponchos and umbrellas in hand and we made the best of it, but it's gonna be gorgeous

tomorrow.

But this Wednesday, right?

Tomorrow's gonna be great.

And you, three to eight, that farmer's market goes on, like you said, there's a lot of fresh vegetables and flowers that are there, but you get a lot more than that there.

Your entertainment that you bring is...

Yeah.

I mean, we have almost 120 vendors every single week, but then we also do have two live stages of music,

which

in a way sets our market apart.

We know that our market is different and we are so proud of that.

We get a lot of comments sometimes and some good and some bad, but we absolutely love the vibe and energy that our market brings.

It's so

much fun.

It's a destination.

It's a midweek break.

for people and they make a point to come down.

We see plenty of strollers, so it is completely family-friendly.

Grab a cold beverage, enjoy the music, get a couple of amazing fresh produce items for your week ahead, and just make a date

night of it.

Enjoy some of the food trucks, too.

They've got a good mix of things to eat down there as well.

I think, Ty, is this Wednesday a glam band playing?

Is it this Wednesday?

No.

No.

Well, tomorrow, tomorrow the Suzuki violin camp or violin students are going to be playing.

So my son and daughter will be playing tomorrow.

So come listen to some beautiful violin music.

And for those of us

who aren't able to have a garden like you do, we still have a place to go to get fresh

local

produce.

Oh, I still, even though I have the garden, trust me, I still go and

buy all

kinds of good stuff.

And despite, you know, despite the tough.

start to the growing season.

We've still had some vendors bring in a couple of things.

We have a hydroponic vendor too, so there's been some lettuce options, but certainly those peppers, those cucumbers, the carrots, all that'll come here as we get later into June, understandably.

And it's a great way to get to learn some of our local businesses that you don't know about.

I've gone to booths that have honey to

different

preserves.

I never knew about these local businesses, so it's a great opportunity for them and for me to learn about it.

Yeah, all of our vendors come from within 100 mile radius.

So they're truly local to the area.

I don't know how from a logistical standpoint, you put it all together.

Every single time I am just in complete and total awe, I can't even imagine how much work goes in behind the scenes to pull something like this off.

It's just.

It's a lot for our team.

I am so impressed.

All right.

And that's just one of many things that you do over there, Mary.

Tell me a little bit about that Levit Amp.

I know that that's the family that gave you the money.

Is that the way that

works?

Yep.

Mortimer and Mimi Levit.

The foundation is based in California.

However, these music series, they do throughout the country.

So we, this is our third year.

So three years ago, we won, we were awarded, I should say, a grant to put these concerts on.

So this is the third year of that grant.

We certainly hope.

that as the foundation itself starts to kind of spend down some of their funds that will be able to continue to bring this series to the community.

But this is free music that happens weekly.

The majority of the concerts are in Light Park on Sundays from four to six.

However, this year we actually put a little twist on things and we infused this Levitt Amp stage into two existing on Broadway events.

So the Ignite Market happening on June 21st will be a Levitt Amp

a stage

with

11 artists.

And then also Fire Over the Fox, one of the five

stages

will be a Levitt Amp stage

as well.

So the night market, that's music.

Yes, tell me more about that.

Yeah, the night market is music.

and more.

So it takes place at night.

The June event is actually in the street on South Broadway,

which is

a really fun vibe.

And then the August Ignite Market is what everyone typically loves to kind of end their summer with.

It's the balloon glow along the Fox River

in

Light Park.

So that is our Ignite Market.

It is local vendors, arts and crafts.

It's infused with so much art.

Last year we had live mural painting.

And we had projection mapping, and we had a silent disco, and just all kinds of artistic things, fire dancers, and everything.

It is such a fun event.

And like I said, taking place at night, and especially in the street as the June one is, is such a cool vibe.

And you'd be amazed at the local talent we have here.

Tons.

Both

in the arts and music.

Come on down, check that out.

And they're

local, and it's really impressive.

Yeah.

They do a good job over there.

And then fire over the fox.

I know that's July.

We talk about that.

That's July 4th.

But I don't think people understand what a big event that is.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, it starts at three in the afternoon and goes till 1030.

It's a full day event.

Yeah.

And you know, some people later gets the larger the crowd gets, but because the fireworks is a big reason to come down here.

But that has everything.

I mean, that's both on Broadway as well as, you know, downtown Green Bay.

It's both sides of the river.

It

is both sides of the river, but it is just our team.

It's a heavy lift.

We took over this event a few years ago, discovered Green Bay had it, the city of Green Bay had it, and now it is just on

Broadway

that puts this on.

So

yeah, we do

program, certainly we program both sides of the river with City Deck, and there's a stage that happens here on the east side of the river, and then we fill up Light Park.

But yeah, this brings over 40,000 people to downtown Green Bay.

And to your

point, Jim, it's the 4th of July, right?

It's the fireworks, but it is a full day.

of activities, five stages of music, and plenty of things for all ages.

So we were talking earlier about kind of volunteering for stuff.

Feed my starving children, or there's so many things, serving meals at the homeless shelter.

You must need volunteers for this.

We always need volunteers.

There's a plethora of options for folks to get involved with us.

So certainly just within each of the events we've been talking about, there's

a lot of volunteer options.

But then additionally throughout the year, we do trash forces, or we do spring cleanups, or fall cleanups, things like that.

And we do get a lot of corporate groups that will volunteer as well.

They'll come with their shirts

on and say, those needed bank, or

Shriver, or whoever.

And they'll be picking up trash throughout the district, or helping us plant flowers, or...

Picking weeds, like any number of things to help us keep the district clean.

All year long it

takes.

So important.

It's truly a year-round effort.

But then yes, additionally within each of these events there are tons of volunteer options for a lot of different things.

So someone listening wants to volunteer.

Just where do they start?

They can call our office, certainly, and talk to Betsy within our office.

There's volunteer information as well on downtowngreenbay.com.

That's easier for you.

You can always check there first.

You'll find information there for both on Broadway and downtown Green Bay Incorporated as we do share a website.

What a fun way to get involved.

Good energy in your, well, it starts with you, but there's a lot going on over there, and it's always fun to...

all the events and even the cleanups are, those are fun.

Absolutely.

Yeah, we have

a good time.

And you have, as Connie was saying, it's fun to see the new businesses, not just the vendors, but we had your friend on from the crepe.

Yes.

Yeah, Crip Cafe and

Bistro.

Crip Cafe, that's right.

My stomach just rumbled when you talked about it.

Yeah, we just did Del's

ribbon cutting last week.

Right.

And what a crowd.

We had his place packed to the guilt for people.

It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate with him.

We introduced him really to the community back in February at our state of the Broadway district event, gave him a few moments to take the stage and talk about his story and his journey and his passion.

And it truly, you guys talked with him, right?

It shines through.

He is just such a gem.

Yeah.

And

I want to just give you some kudos here.

He picked you.

A lot of people would like him, right?

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, he could

put his business anywhere.

Right.

He's got connections in Paris.

He's got some experience.

You know, they always like the guy with a little bit of an accent, you know, that always draws a few people in.

And he's going to be there.

You know, it's not like it's a franchise and he's investing and leaving.

He's going to be the guy.

And I just, he said some.

But I just want to tell you this, I'm sure you've heard of him before, but he said a lot of nice things about why he chose your district.

Yeah, he spoke to some of that last week at the ribbon cutting.

And I think one of the other individuals that spoke at the ribbon cutting mentioned that too.

Like there's a lot of.

geographic locations between here and here.

And he could have gone anywhere.

And he said that he's only been here a couple of weeks, but he feels at home.

And he feels the uplifting from this community and the support from this community.

And certainly we're thrilled to be able to offer up the support that we can as an organization.

We were able to give him a $15,000 grant.

Yeah.

Diverse Business Assistance Grant last week Friday as well to really help him take care of some of the expenses of starting his business.

And it says a lot about the community.

I think he's talked about the welcoming factor.

He just felt like he said at home.

Draft people came in, they

said the

same thing about the Green Bay area, Northeast Wisconsin community, just being welcome.

And I think we should talk more about that.

As a community, it's something that's overlooked.

People think, oh, it's just football.

Nope.

We're lucky to live here.

Yeah,

for sure.

So I'm not familiar with Sweet Stroll.

I'm

not either.

Tell me.

Because it's brand new.

Oh,

all

right.

I was still kind of bad.

I've been out on a loop a little while.

And I thought, oh, this is cool.

All

right.

You know, we like to keep things happen at Broadway.

And so we're like, oh, it's so in a new event this summer.

So we really love to do these type of strolls or walks and really from a downtown, from a main street perspective.

These are so popular.

And if you pay attention at all to anything that's going on in a lot of the downtowns, there's a walker astrol for everything.

They do coffee here on the east side of the river.

There's soup walks.

There's wine crawls.

There's wine walks.

So on our side of the river, we love to do this type of thing because it gets people into businesses.

Maybe they haven't been in before.

And it gives also some of the businesses an opportunity to participate who may not.

be able to participate in some other events for different reasons, right?

So we do our winter wine and beer walks, which are so popular.

We do those in wintertime.

We do our run for the roses wine walk in collaboration with the Kentucky Derby weekend and things like that.

So this is something that takes place in the middle of the summer and it gives folks an opportunity to take.

taste some of the sweeter things we have going on in the Broadway district.

Folks know about Bernstein's Candies.

They've been around over 100 years now.

And so we're thrilled to be able to highlight them.

We have five thumbs up.

Cheesecake now in

our

district.

Oh, she's

talking about food right now.

Oh my gosh.

That's really impressive what she's got there, too.

She's awesome.

Jill

is amazing.

She has a, of course, delicious product, but she's also a great business owner.

Right.

So yeah, so we will be promoting this event here.

Tickets go on sale in a couple of days, but you'll have about 10 to 12 stops where you get to sample some sweet

things.

with his crepes.

Dell is definitely a part of it.

I don't think he's shared exactly what he'll be doing yet, but certainly he does have some sweet flavors.

It will be amazing.

I will tease.

We have a Titletown Brewing Company.

They'll be doing root beer floats.

Oh, that's fine.

Yes.

That's perfect.

So excited for that.

So yeah, like I said, tickets gone sale here in a couple of days.

Could you bring the

kids to something like

this?

What do you think?

100%.

Good.

Go, go, go.

It's not going to pop when you

bring them to the wine wall.

Yeah, maybe

take them, you know.

to a park after to run off the sugar.

I was going to say, I was going to drop off with grandma and

grandpa.

There you go.

Just wrapping up here.

Do you want to share with us anything on Light Park?

Light Park is continuing to evolve.

You use it a lot.

We do.

There was a little bit of a fundraiser for that.

Yeah, so some

of the funds from Draft City Music

Fest

that happened during draft.

We were able to take some of those funds and put them into the Light Park redevelopment campaign.

So there is phase one and two and three of Light Park coming.

This is your song.

I

love this

song.

I know you do.

Well, Mary, thanks for what you're doing over there.

I just did it on Broadway.

I mean, it's the businesses, the people that really bring the community together.

That's awesome.

All right.

So we will see you tomorrow.

Yes.

Farmer's Market.

Yes, you

will.

All right,

thank you.

Mary Brody from On Broadway, Summer in the City.

We'll be right back.

They're

all dancing in here.

That is a good song.

I mean, on Broadway, she's got to

go on that, too.

Oh, yeah.

And the coffee's kicking in.

It's so fun.

So update on the temperatures, right?

You guys, look at that.

74 Green Bay, 73 Epitans, 71 Oshkosh.

So this is, yeah.

And I guess there's some rain coming later.

But

get out there and enjoy.

High near 80.

Yeah, this is great.

And bicycle days.

So get your bikes out, too.

Vanessa, thanks for coming in.

This is a lot of fun.

I'm so glad.

Thank

you for asking.

Sometimes,

rookies get a little anxious.

It's like, how's this going to go with Johnny Gunn?

But this has been great.

I'm so appreciative.

What a fun, fun morning.

Civic really has it going on civic media.

I mean, they are doing what needs to be done.

Sharing

about what's happening in the community.

The luck of the word

out.

We just need that everywhere, because what happens when you lose the local connection through the media, and we have because of Gannett being purchased, and of course the TV only has what, 18, 19 minutes, a half hour to tell what's going on, and they gotta cover, you know, world news, national, I mean, there's just a lot that they have to cover, and whereas they allow us to just really, really focus on the local, but a concern that many of us would have is when you lose the local content,

you may lose the constituency for voting and they just don't know what's going on so they don't care as much.

When that happens and people start running unopposed, then you lose sight of why you're there.

So

it's really, really important that

the media, and I'm not criticizing the media because they only got, like I said, 19 minutes and a half

hour to do it.

Prescosets got, you know, how many pages are here, but it's just important.

And I just went, when civic media said that we're going to focus on local and then to build a studio like this,

I mean,

right?

I love how you keep everything.

So I personally, I always hate finding out about something after the fact and then wishing I would have been a part of it.

It happens.

so much.

But because you have this platform, because you keep things so fresh and relevant, it's like there's just so, and there's so much out there.

I had no idea about this sweet stroll on Broadway.

And now I do.

And it's thanks to you and thanks to this morning.

So I know where I'll be on Saturday, July 19th.

And the other thing is

that the awareness that we bring to like Alzheimer's, I think that's really,

really

important that we do that.

There's so many things going on.

And we don't,

want to compete with each other.

We want to support the whole thing, right?

And Appleton's got, they've got, oh, it's an Oshkosh.

It's really got it going on.

And I think if, like you said, you hate when you pick up the paper or you watch on the news, that was, oh, that was today.

You know, you missed it.

So we like to stay ahead of that.

The other thing that we really try and, you know, I don't have to talk to you two about it, but that community involvement is absolutely critical.

Oh, for all of us at Freedom by Serving Children, we cannot thank you enough for allowing us to use this platform to amplify the work and also to co-host with you and try host with you now.

Vanessa and I have some big plans,

Todd.

I got that feeling.

We might have an opening from six to

nine.

Jim

and

John

are ever gone, just saying.

When people hear of all the things we go through, United Way and just everything when we talk about this place for pets, money's important, but it's not everything.

That volunteer time is really,

really

critical that you get out there and

get

engaged with the community.

And have some fun.

It is.

It is a lot of fun.

And segue again, but loneliness is a killer.

It

is.

And people need to be engaged.

And if it's not,

with work, if you're not working, or if it, go to one of these nonprofits, they welcome you there.

They are

just like the best.

It's like, you don't walk in and look around like, oh, nobody knows me.

They'll greet you and welcome you.

And we do that at the community shelter, and I'm sure your place is unbelievable when you're dead.

Thousands.

Well, you have 3,000

people, and we all felt like, you know, we're the most important person there.

Yeah, because you are.

Our volunteers make it happen without the volunteers.

The food doesn't get packed.