Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this Friday, October 4th, 2024.
Have your host, James Day, mail-off here, and welcoming in the studio a perfect way to
wrap up our week.
We have our great friends from the Miss Wisconsin Rapids, Miss Wisconsin Rapids team contestants
in.
Ladies, I'm going to have you introduce yourselves, go down the line here, and we'll go
that way with our questions as well, if you don't mind starting us off.
Hi, my name is Brielle Totsky, my name is Brielle, thank you for being here.
My name is Kaelin Ald and I'm from Wisconsin Rapids.
Good to see you, Kaelin.
Thank you for being here.
Hello, I'm Kaelin Mindrasky from Wisconsin Rapids.
Hey, Kaelin.
I'm Eva Lowersdor from Wisconsin Rapids.
Eva, thank you for being here.
Hi, my name is Maya Hernandez and I'm from Wisconsin Rapids.
Maya, good to see you.
And good to see some of you faces again, appreciate that, and you knew faces, we appreciate
you being here.
I want to mention that since 1985 Miss Wisconsin Rapids Scholarship Organization has been providing
scholarships to some of the most talented, intelligent, and driven young women in this
community, they are dedicated to empowering young women by giving them the skills and opportunities
in life needed to become successful, strong, and engaging citizens.
We are going to tell you about the event, times of the event and everything as we go along,
but I want to dive into the event a little bit with you all and talk about what brought
you to this, what made you want to do this, and Eva, I'll start with you, what made
you want to be a part of this page?
What made you want to be a part of this?
Brielle, sorry, I knew I was going to do that.
I get one, I get one Mulligan, I can mess up one name, I can't mess up anymore, sorry,
Brielle.
So the reason why I wanted to join this pageant is because of all the opportunities you
get from it, and the speaking things, because it helps you talk with others and just
introduces more opportunities for you.
Yeah, well said.
So this is actually my very first local pageant I have done pageants before, and I chose
this one because I wanted to take more initiative with my community and to know the girls even
better.
Very cool.
I found out about this pageant last year because I heard about the amazing scholarships
and sisterhood you get from it, and it was such an amazing experience last year.
I knew I had to come back.
Right on.
I'm a grain with Kaelin, I definitely love this.
I did it last year and I'm just, it's all about sisterhood and I love it so much and
I heard about it from Ruby Marty, and she is a former Mrs. Cotson Rapids teen.
And I heard about it from when I was a little, I used to be a part of the princess program
that is now called the cranberry cuties, so I've always kind of been a part of the organization
and now I'm old enough to compete.
Very cool, very cool.
Great answers you guys, great answers, really well done.
I want to talk a little bit about the event itself.
This is done by a couple of different categories.
All the contestants compete in a private interview on stage question, talent, health and fitness
and evening gown.
I want to get to the talent part of this for a little bit.
Well, what is going to be your talent for the event?
My talent is a contemporary dance to leave a light on by Tom Walker.
I chose this song because of the message it gives.
It fits with my initiative healing the broken women in crisis.
I am doing a violin performance to once upon a December by Anastasia.
And I chose to do violin because it's been my passion for over four years.
And I chose a song because it really just resonated with me and I love the movie Anastasia.
I'm doing a tap dance to sit still and look pretty because I've been dancing for 12 years
and tap has always been my favorite.
And I chose a song because I think it is true, everyone is pretty.
So just sit still and look pretty.
Nice.
I'm also doing a tap dance to the greatest show.
And I chose this because it's very fun and exciting and it's also some jazz, so it's
going to be really fun.
My talent is singing and I'm singing a song of a Maria by Beyoncé.
Oh, my God.
Man, you guys, you really set the bar here.
All of you are doing impressive things.
I love that so many of these are either tied into a passion or a message.
It's very cool.
That's very unique.
And another way to kind of show your personality to these judges, but also to the community and
doing this.
That's a great, wonderful things.
Want to get into your platform a little bit now.
This is one of those ones where I want you guys to go ahead and take a beat and really
get into this a little bit.
If you choose to, you don't have to.
But I know how much this can mean to individuals.
I know certainly for me at a young age, I had my passions, I had my causes, I'm curious
of what yours are and part of what you can put a kind of a spotlight on at this at this
event.
And again, we'll start right on the line here, Brielle.
Do you have a CSI?
Do you have a platform that you're?
So my CSI, which I've already said, was healing the broken women in crisis, which I chose
this because I intended a dinner with the Hannah Center that hosted at like a church.
And just what they were talking about really resonated with me and made me want to help
them with their healing journey.
And it just really stuck with me.
That's great.
I always journalistically mention I am on the board of our Wisconsin's Rapids Family
Center.
This is a topic that is very personal.
It means a lot to me.
And one of the things that I am encouraged by is how many young people are getting behind
this and going to be on the right side of history with this topic.
And it's very encouraging, Brielle.
Thank you for that.
Thank you for sharing that.
My platform is navigating Crohn's and Collitis together.
And I chose this platform because my mother has Crohn's disease.
And I have second hand seen how it has affected her life.
She has had it for 31 years, so over a quarter of her life, or half of her life actually.
And I started out when I was five with my cookies for Crohn's where I bake cookies and
all the proceeds go to the Crohn's and Collitis Foundation, which I am directly partnered
with.
And I got into partnering with them because I wanted to take more initiative with my CSI.
And I found out looking into it further that there are no support groups in the state
of Wisconsin for Crohn's and Collitis.
And my mother has told me how much she felt alone and scared when she was first diagnosed.
So I want to be able to help more people.
And I am currently the only support group of Wisconsin and you can find it directly on
the page.
It's called the Midwest Crohn's and Collitis Warriors.
And not only a great cause, but you're already getting good at the marketing thing.
Nicely done.
You get to get that in there.
Nicely done.
Well done.
This is one of the things that I enjoy about not only this event, but events like this where
we can oftentimes bring attention to things that don't get a lot of attention in our society.
Whereas it got a lot of causes, got a lot of things going on, and we kind of get pulled
one way in direction or another.
It's so great to see people be able to bring attention to something that doesn't get
nearly the attention it deserves.
So nicely done.
My initiative is music as an instrument for growth.
So as a band kid myself, I've seen how music impacts other people's lives and impacts
my life.
I have made amazing friends and some of my best friends come from band.
I've also learned great life lessons throughout band.
And this goes for all types of music, singing, playing in the orchestra or band.
And I really want to encourage people to join a music class as our schools have amazing
music programs and really just help bring awareness that everyone should play in instrument
or sing.
I love that.
I think I could not agree with you more.
And I think one of the things that stands out that we often think when we were looking
at an instrument or thinking about it and just as a spoiler alert to you guys, you do
this even in your 40s.
Even in your 40s, you're looking at like I've you've mentioned violin.
That's my favorite instrument.
I've always looked at it and I thought, oh, you know, I'd love to be able to pick that
up.
I'd like to be able to play violin.
And I talk myself out of it and I get busy or that kind of thing.
And one of the things that I come back to with singing or an instrument is, well, I don't
know if I could do it good, well, that doesn't matter.
You don't have to be great at it.
You don't have to be the next, you know, yo yo ma or anything like that.
You can pick up an instrument and just to play it, just to enjoy, just to have fun with
it.
We are doing a better job of talking about mental health and certainly you see a lot
of this tied into mental health with a lot of people having hobbies that make them happy
or just bring a little joy to their day.
That's a great one.
My CSI is Fire Safety, the power and a plan and it's about educating and helping families
in my community have a fire safety plan.
And a fun sad fact is that one in four families do have a fire safety plan.
I just want to make that a higher percentage.
Yeah.
And again, another one of those topics that we don't seem to really touch on or talk
about until it happens or it happens to one of us, I will say that even from my family,
we had a horrible fire happen about almost seven or eight years ago.
And we had felt we felt that we felt like as a family, we had dealt with it all.
We had had every bad thing that could possibly happen.
We've dealt with it all and then that happens.
And we really had no real plan.
We really had no idea of really what to how to handle that.
It was an eye opener for us and our neighbors across the street and some other people too.
So that's a great topic.
And it's an important one.
Nicely done.
Maya?
So my CSI is not a victim of survivors speaking out against sexual assault and I'm a really
big advocate for this because this is something that was affected by it personally.
So I just want to be an advocate for my community and get the resources out there.
Appreciate that.
Appreciate you sharing that and appreciate the work on this.
As mentioned before, this is a topic that is not going away.
And we've seen from the pandemic, the numbers rise when it comes to this topic.
And one of the enough to use a word like a cure or ways to solve something like this.
But one of the best ways to do anything close to that is you guys, like the youth, young
people.
This changes with the way we treat each other and the way that we handle each other in
life and treat each other and all this.
And more and more, younger people seeing older people handle this well and learn from
that and everything.
And certainly you guys taken the mantle and doing the work that you're doing with the
front.
That's great to hear.
Appreciate that.
All great topics you guys.
I am so glad I am not a judge of this.
I am so thankful.
I would never we'd be there for days, days just not mean not being able to decide.
We're sitting back with the Miss Wisconsin Rabbits 2025 Miss Wisconsin Rabbits team 25 contestants
right now.
We'll talk a little bit about the rehearsal process.
What that is like, how often are you guys rehearsing and if you enjoyed it?
If you don't mind, Brielle.
And I keep on picking on you because you're on the end here.
It always happens to the person on the end, I apologize.
How often did you all rehearse?
We come in every Sunday to a local church that lets us practice there.
And I was surprised in how friendly everybody was there.
Like they're just like a loving family, basically.
And you just want to come back every time super excited.
Did you guys enjoy the rehearsal process?
It sounds like you did, Brielle.
Did you guys have the rest of you enjoy the rehearsal process and some of this?
Yeah.
Good.
Very good to hear.
Very good to hear.
One of the things that my mom brings up with this, because when I was young, I really felt
well, I don't understand pageants and I don't know if we should have these in society.
And I don't know if this is a good thing for women in that.
I was raised by a hippie feminist.
So it is something that was kind of instilled at me at a very young age.
But my mother, who the hippie feminist I'm referring to, was the one that told me, well, Jimmy,
this is one of those, this is something that you just don't get.
Now, it's important in life, I think, oftentimes to understand that I empathize, but I understand
that I can't understand what it's like.
I don't know what it's like to be a young woman, and I don't know what it's like to not
have necessarily the opportunities for women to support women, for sisterhood as something
that you have touched on and there are other groups have touched on, and something that
I've noticed over the years of doing this.
You guys have already won.
You already won.
Not only in the braveness of doing something that not a lot of people can do.
I have acted for, since I was about seven years old, I've done about a hundred characters,
I've done a lot.
I could never do what you guys are doing.
Never.
I wouldn't even come close to it.
I admire and think it's brave what you're doing.
That is certainly a big part of this, and in that there's, they part, they've really
always mentioning before, as far as public speaking.
The more reps you have with it, the better you will be, and though we don't know what
you guys are going to do as you go forward, something that's going to involve public speaking
in some way or another.
That's a great experience right there, getting that.
But those friendships, that sisterhood, the opportunity to support women, supporting women
and some of that, you've already won, already having that in place.
Whatever happens from here out, I wish you all well with, but you're playing with house
money here.
You've already won, and that's got to be a good feeling going forward.
When I ask something that you take away from this event, is that the main thing that
you would say that you've taken away from this, the friendships, the women supporting women,
the sisterhood of this, I'll go down the line.
I agree.
I also came here for the public speaking because I kind of struggle with that, and I wanted
to improve on that.
You're getting better.
I would say, I don't know what you were like before, but you're doing great today.
You're killing it today.
I actually started also because of the same reason, because I was such a shy kid, and
I wasn't really great with talking with strangers.
But over the years, it wasn't just public speaking I gained from this.
It was also lifetime friendships, big travel opportunities, and really just being able
to have that satisfaction of knowing that I'm changing the world with what I'm doing.
Yeah.
Well said.
Yeah, I came because I heard about the friendships, and originally I was like, I don't think I'm
going to do it.
Everyone's pretty, I feel like beauty, beauty pageants, everyone's pretty, everyone should
walk away.
But when I learned about the scholarships, all of us get scholarships, and you can take
those to college or text schools where most people do go.
So they help you also in your future, and the friendships I talk to these girls almost
every day.
Very cool.
Very good to hear.
I do also agree with them, and I just think that Sisterhood is just so important for all
of us.
And I also agree with public speaking, it is so important, and you can do so much with
it.
Yeah.
Um, I think even like, if you don't win, just getting your CSI and talking about an
on stage in front of people, for me, that's a really big thing, knowing that like I was
out there, and I said what I needed to say.
But again, with the scholarships, at the end of the day, everyone does win something which
I think is a really great opportunity.
And that's what I love about this page, and that is that we get scholarship dollars in
the end.
Yeah.
What the investment that the community makes, and the investment, the organization makes
in you guys in that is noteworthy, very noteworthy.
And a big part of this, a huge part of this event.
The event is happening.
It's coming up real soon, everybody Friday, October 25th will be the dress rehearsal,
which is open to everybody, yet again, and tickets available at the door for that.
And certainly, be sure to mark your calendars for the event itself Saturday, the competition
will be going on Saturday, October 26th, tickets can be purchased at misswisconsinrapids.org,
misswisconsinrapids.org, encourage you to attend this event, give these kids a great
crowd, give them a great audience, and cheer them on.
Do want to wrap up with talking about as far as encouragement, encouraging other people
out there listening while we certainly want to, you know, highlight you guys and champion
what you all are doing.
We know that getting together and doing this is also about the younger people out there
listening and, you know, future contestants possibly.
So to those future contestants, how would you encourage them to do something like this?
I would encourage them by even though if you don't do it perfect, you gain something,
even if you don't win, even if it's not about the crown, you can still do your initiative
even without getting the crown.
I have always said this and I will continue to say it.
You are not competing against others, you are competing against yourself.
It is self growth and really what you take away from the pageant, not about who wins
or what you think that you lost because really you do gain something every single time you
do a pageant.
Just do it.
You won't regret it.
You will gain so much confidence and the girls are amazing.
If you're backstage and you need something, you can say it and guaranteed someone will
have it and it's not, she's my competition, I'm not going to help her.
You help each other so much.
And at the end of the day, the judges have 10 minutes personally with you, if not they
have on stage.
They have very little time to decide who will take it on.
So every day it could change to a different person.
So don't take it hard on yourself.
Well said.
I was a little princess or in the princess pageant when I was little and I just encouraged the
little girls to join that to see how the girls do things and how to bring your community
service initiative to the community and I just think it's a better look on how the pageant
goes.
Same with the princess program when I was a little girl doing it, that's all I ever wanted
to be like, oh my god, look at these older girls, they're so pretty, they're dressed
up.
It's just about like being motivated and showing those girls the younger generation
like being a role model and like, hey, like one day you can do this too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's great to hear that in all of you guys and I hear a chorus of that through every
one of you of the encouragement to the younger generations, to the other kids to do this
and what the empowerment that it has given you already and confidence it has given you
and you're going to have some nerves, you're going to have some feelings with this and
everything.
I will tell you, I have been in the industry for, I've been doing radio for 22 years, I
have been in over a thousand plays, I have never not gotten nervous, never not gotten
nervous before we got together and we started recording today, I got a little nervous,
right before I hit this mic on, I didn't, it's a good thing, nerves are a good thing,
it means you care, it means you're engaged, it means this means something to you.
And I also think it can mean, it means that you can have a really good time.
So while you're going to have a lot going on, this next couple of weeks and everything,
one thing that I hope you remember and I just want to remind you of, enjoy yourselves,
have fun, enjoy the moment, enjoy the camaraderie, have a good time out there and know that
this community supports you and has your back and is going to be cheering you on, okay?
Enjoy yourselves everybody.
And thank you so much for putting up with my questions and hanging out with us and everything.
This is a lot of fun, looking forward to having whoever wins and more of you guys
in throughout the years and everything, whatever you go on, go on to do, know it's going
to be great things.
Do appreciate the time, ladies.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You can find out more and get your tickets at misswisconsinrapids.org, misswisconsinrapids.org.
Be sure to support them on social media as well and share this on your pages.
You just never know who might see this that wouldn't otherwise and save the date.
We'll meet you over there even if you want to take in the dress rehearsal.
It'll be Friday, October 25th.
And of course, the show itself will be the very next day Saturday, October 26th.
It'll be over at the Performing Arts Center right at the pack and here right here in Wisconsin
Rapids.
And find out more at misswisconsinrapids.org.
We're wrapped up for the week here, but we do want to send a big shout out to the heart
of this station Pam Hilke in the amazing scheduling she does week in a week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
Well, the more midday magazine for you next week right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR,
we are locally grown radio.
