Welcome everyone to Midday magazine for this December 19, 2023.
Have your host James here and I am joined right now by our great friend Ben Eberlein,
community engagement director with our United Way of Southwood and Adams counties. Ben,
good to have you here. Good to be here. Thank you. It's been a while. I know it hasn't,
but it's always good to see you though. We do appreciate the time and any chance to talk with
our United Way and some of the great things coming up and we're even going to have a chance to
look in the 2024 a little bit looking forward to that Ben. That's going to be good.
It's what his year is flown by. It really has. It really has. And before we get to next year,
we have to rewind a little bit. Can we talk about the year end giving? Can we have some stats
from that? Yeah, we have a couple weeks left. We're still. Yeah, and we're looking at,
how we can make the most impact in 2024. Like you said, looking ahead to next year, we have 30
programs, local programs that are doing amazing work in education, health, financial stability,
and our safety net services of, you know, having to make sure people have access to food and shelter.
So the best way that we can continue to support those programs, which is open that people are
able to put a few dollars toward that effort collectively because when we all come together,
what's the word united? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. We can make it impact.
We know that, especially from the Alistair port, how many people are impacted and helped
by the United Way services and by the things that you guys offer over there. We also know
how many of us could need those services and that there isn't a lot of steps between that,
that happening. So I think that when we're, especially this time of year, we're asking people to
give and to put invest in their community. These are things that I think are important to note,
and I encourage people that they have not looked at the Alistair port to look at that, to think of
these things. Also to think about the idea that so many of us want to be a good positive in our
community. And so many people too can feel, well, there's so many different things to do. There's
so much going on. How can I make an impact? When you do invest, and it is an investment with the
United Way, when you do that, the United Way, as Ben just said, has 30 different programs that
are able to add into. There's so many different layers to the way the United Way helps in our
community. If it was just one thing that you're helping with hunger or early helping kids read
earlier or something, I think we would just be as proud and just as a lover, United Way just as
much. But it's amazing to me how many things the United Way impacts and helps with and how they're
able to spread across doing that. But you guys are able to do that because of the funds that you
receive. So we got to make sure to get you those funds. We got to make sure to help out as much
as we can. We got a little bit of time left to do that, right? Yeah, we got a couple weeks left
in the year. Get the, you know, get your get your get your get in and donation it right before
the end of year and you can make a huge impact. And you mentioned the Alice data that we lean on,
you know, to kind of illustrate what poverty and financial hardship looks like because what we
really know is there's so many people, so many more than what we think of for a typical, you know,
when you think of the the federal poverty level. And what we imagine as as poverty and looks very
different in terms of families and individuals and households that are, they're struggling but
they're getting by, you know, they're, they're really just making it work. And that's what,
you know, our, our funding going to those 30 programs, those programs are there for those families
that that we would consider as households that they, they, they might not be getting the
your traditional, you know, assistance that that we think of or maybe they're not getting a full
benefit because they have some income they're getting by, they're, but they need a little more
and that's where that funding goes and that's when really just want to start things off and,
and you know, reiterate that message hopefully people can, you know, even if it's a dollar a week,
like we talked about during our campaign, it makes a huge difference when it goes to those 30
programs. Oh, that's, I mean, that dollar a week that only adds up to helping the funds at the
United Way, but it gives you the the everyday feeling that, you know, whatever that comes to mind
or when you see things going in the community or you see the United Way that you're, I'm a part of
that. That's my team that, you know, I, I sponsor that. I'm a part of that team and I want to
come back to that part of things that the kind of the theme of the campaign this year supporting
your local team. We love our sports teams and especially here in the Midwest, you're not going to
go five minutes without seeing who somebody love what team somebody loves. You, you don't even
have to ask they'll just going to tell you or they're wearing something or there's something like
that. One of the things that you guys have been doing with the campaign is talking about supporting
your home team. Well, I can't think of a better home team to support than the United Way.
There's no sports franchise that puts into their communities like the United Way does. We love
our sports teams, but there's nobody that does what the United Way does for their communities,
not especially around the country. So when we, when we encourage people to, you know, certainly
enjoy your sports, enjoy your sports teams, but continue that into your local nonprofits,
specifically our United Way, who is your ultimate home team. And I know we get a lot to talk about,
but while we're talking about what we can do to give back during this time here, for the folks
that maybe they're having a harder time right now, whether it's due to the holidays,
extra expenses, maybe it's the whether it's pretty cold out there lately. If there's, you know,
anybody that's going through some challenges right now, two in one is a 24 or seven resource.
We staff it locally eight to five Monday through Friday. So you're going to talk to somebody
here in town. And it's a it's a way that anybody who is having a hard time or a challenge,
you can get connected to solutions. You might not even know exist. So just something to also be
aware of that, you know, I don't want to sit here and just talk all about, you know, don't need
to do anything. Although we obviously appreciate every, you know, all the help we get there,
but just something that came into mind. I want to make sure that everybody's aware of that
resource in case, you know, there's the other side of that coin there. So it's a great thing to
bring up. I'm glad you did. Thank you for that. And any chance to mention 211, we love being
able to shout out to our friends at 211 and all those great, you know, people working the phones
there and everything for us on that. Ben, I want to get into the raffle and talk a little bit
about that with you, if you don't mind. That'd be fantastic. Let's get into that. Yeah. So again,
looking ahead to 2024, we've got our annual calendar raffle. So in 2024, that's going to be in
the month of April. We're going to be given away cash prizes every day. Who doesn't love that?
Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, there's there's something you guys do with this every year, Ben. And
I've been talking with Terry about this off air too. So you draw this, you say you draw my name
and I'm the wind something, but or I don't win or whatever. What happens to my name after that?
The most amazing magical thing happens. Your name goes back in and you can win again.
All right. Every year you do that. Are you sure you want to do that? Are you sure?
Okay. If you're going to do it, okay. It seems like I mean, give it away a lot there. That's
pretty cool. I've never heard of anything like that. I love that about this every year. I want to
bring attention to that. I think it's such a cool thing about this. If people want tickets,
if they want to learn more about this in maybe even sponsor or something on the raffle, how can
they find out more? And what should they know about this? Yeah. Absolutely. So feel free. There's
a lot of information on our website. So you can go to UWSwac.org. There is a banner. So
right on our homepage, the first thing you're going to see is a banner that we have all the
upcoming information ball are upcoming events and everything. So it's right in there. You can
click on that and get all the details or feel free to call over to United Way at 715-421-0390.
There's a total of over $2,400 in total prizes that are going to be given away with this.
A big thank you to our local sponsors and all the different great groups out here that help
the United Way be able to give things like this away. That's pretty cool. Yeah. If anybody does
want to sponsor, you got a business and you want to get your name out there, it's really inexpensive
to support the calendar raffle and then you get your name on the calendar in however many places.
You want to feel free to sponsor more than one. And it costs a little $75 or you can, if you really
want to have a good association with your name, you can be a sponsor for a day that's a little
larger amount, so $150 or $200. Then whoever wins that's really going to love you. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm glad you said that. I hit on that bed because for one, the PR part of this and the advertising
part of this for you and your business cannot be taken lightly. We've seen this and I've seen
this and I know our listeners have with businesses that sponsor with the United Way. They are
celebrated more. They are seen more because the United Way is seen more. So your logo is attached
to the United Way within comes to these events. So you're automatically getting more eyeballs
on your business and maybe even eyeballs that you might not normally get. That part of it seems
like a win right there and something that I would invest my advertising dollars in. Then there's
the part of the feel good of this. The thing that we can never put a number on. If the United
Way comes to me as a business and you guys say, hey, you could be a part of this and it's going
to cost you this, this, and this. And I believe that you'll get this kind of return on your investment.
But the one thing I can't tell you is the PR leveler that you got me. Boom. Sign me up. I'm in.
Because you can't not only put a number on something like that. We don't know how much of an
impact that has on people. We know it's a positive one. We know that much. But I know this in part
because I've seen it in my own family. My mother has been a, I don't need to the United Way
as long as I can remember. And I've got a, she had a sister that thought about doing this and
just hadn't done it. And so she decided, you know, well, she works at this bank. Maybe I'll get my
bank to go ahead and sponsor. And this is a United Way in Illinois. And she does this. And the
bank immediately comes to her like a week or two later. Hey, well, that was a really good idea.
We've got more clients than we've had in the past year. And it wasn't a coincidence.
Like they were not an advertising bank. They weren't one of the most banks don't have to advertise
really. This was something that they saw a win right away from it. And I'm not saying that that
is the case for every single business. I'm almost guaranteeing it. And that's just me. That's just
my name. And that's just me saying that. But I say it with backing. I say it because I believe
in this not only the United Way, but the counter raffle and the idea of supporting our nonprofits.
And how much that benefits our businesses. It all goes in a circle here. It all stays in this area
in this town and helps our community be that much stronger economically. And for the businesses
listening, there's only so many days in April. Yeah. So if you'd like to take advantage of that,
go ahead, head out to our website, sign up for whatever amount you want. If it's for as little
as 75 bucks, you can grab a day, sponsor it and get all those eyeballs. And in our case right now,
your drums. Yeah. You know, on your business and feel great about what you're supporting.
I didn't think about April, big or shorter month. That's such a good point. Oh, yeah. You got
to get out of that. Again, tickets are $10 each three for 20. And you can find out more information
at uswac.org. But I wanted to take some time to talk a little bit about 2024 and some of the
events coming up. Fantastic. Yeah. We have a lot of fun stuff. We'd like to start out the year.
We've been obviously talking about campaign a lot. So one of those first things that we'd like to do
is just say thank you. We have our thank you celebrate should coming up in January. Just really
want to recognize everybody, all of our partners, our sponsors are, you know, all the people that
individuals, you know, that made a difference in our campaign and helped make it as successful as
it has been for for the last several many, many, many years. So we can continue to do it. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, this is another one of those things that whenever I talk about this with you or Terry or
anybody at the United Way, I know how much you guys look forward to this event. It's a fun event for
for the team. I imagine, but I know the community looks forward to this too. First off, events in
January, we need more. Like it's always nice to have something to get us out of the house.
A nice place to go and have some fun and maybe see some people that we don't always get to see
these times this time of year. Bullseye is one of the best places you could have for anything. You
can have a glass of water. Bullseye to enjoy yourself. Let alone when all these great people in
this great event is going on over there. But I, one thing I never thought about until I think it
was last year, maybe the year before Terry brought this up and it was actually not even in the
conversation on air was off air. She was talking about running into somebody that she hadn't seen
in a long time. And I was dumbfounded by that in some ways because who, Terry sees people every
single day. Like everybody knows her. So who is this person that she hadn't seen in a long time?
We got talking about it and everything and it made me think of like, this is another great thing
about this. Thank you celebration. Running into people and seeing people maybe you don't always
get a chance to see the networking that can take place at an event like this where most of the
time if you are a business, chances are you're running into people in that similar field. Something
like this that thank you celebration literally brings people from all different fields and all
different walks of life to this event because the United Way brings those kind of people together.
And you know what? I'm feeling generous. I'm going to grant your wish. More events in January.
Thank you, Pat. Thank you. I appreciate you listening. I wish I could take credit. No,
you know, just another, you know, just hit on all the things you just said,
women united, the founder celebration is going to be in January as well. And I think that's
another really fantastic. It really fits with all of the benefits that you're just talking about.
For women united, for anybody that's not aware to some amazing things in our community,
their focus is early learning and literacy. I know that's something that's pretty close to your
heart, your big fan of the Die Part Imagination Library, which women united supports funds.
So great opportunity. Anybody who's interested in women united or, I mean, even becoming a member
feel free to reach out, but I just want to highlight that as well that that founder celebration
is coming up at the end of January as well. Women make this world move and be a part of something
like this. Some of the strongest individuals in our community are a part of this organization,
part of this group. And we know that because of the great work that is being done in literacy
in this community, we've seen reading numbers go up. We've seen different results from this.
We know kids getting these books and how much they are benefited from it. And again,
all this comes full circle because as we help these kids be stronger and smarter and enjoy
reading more and more, they grow up, they come back into this community, stay in this community,
do the jobs in this community, become an office or et cetera, et cetera. They are the future.
We are investing in our future. That is what we are doing here. We love kids. Kids are great,
but they got a job to do eventually. We wanted to be able to do it well. So this is a smart win,
win, win kind of situation. And again, when I come back to the networking, but the bonds
that could be made with something like this, all the other layers to it, certainly first and foremost,
helping children with literacy. But there are so many other added benefits to something like this
that we can't not mention them. The bonds that you can make that feel good that you get from
something like this. I don't have a lot of things that hit me in my soul, like something like
this. And to be kind of blunt about it, I don't have a lot of opportunities to give back. I work
in radio. There's not all that, but something like this, the imagination, Deli Parton Imagination
Library, when I thought it, when Terry first started talking about this on the air, it was like,
well, $30. Well, that's something even I can swing, I feel like. And, you know, would that $30
make a bigger impact here and this or in this or something? And I go through and I do my homework.
And yeah, there's a lot of great things that that $30 could benefit and help. But for me,
and from what I was looking to do, there's nothing that makes an impact, that $30 makes a bigger
impact on something like this than a program like the Deli Parton Imagination Library.
For those who don't know what it is, Ben, can we get into that a little bit?
Just what the program is? You still weren't talking about that? I did. I was afraid of that.
We really are. We really are. We got chemistry.
Yeah, it's a great reminder at the start of the year if you got little ones, if you're
doing roll, it's a program that you get free book, mailed your house every month for your child
from birth to age five. So it's a really fantastic program that it just gives books in your hands,
in your kids' hands. So you can't read if you don't have a book, right? Well, there's some
exceptions. It's a lot better. It helps a lot more with the structure, I imagine.
Yeah, but I mean, all the things that you kind of mentioned, I mean, just having that book there,
even if the child's not old enough to read, to be able to look at the pictures and the colors
and see the words and the amount of brain development and things that are going on underneath the
surface there, when you read to your child, just being read too is incredible. So it is really
a wonderful program. I appreciate your passion for that program. And yeah, thank you to women
United for making it possible. Big, big thank you to them. Those are some really nice points
you bring up to there, Ben. And I think even outside of the program, just to parents out there,
things to good and keep in mind, reading to our kids is so important. It goes so far. And taking
every opportunity we can to do that, especially because there's going to come a day where they don't
watch a reading to them anymore. And that's going to devastate you. Trust me. But there's also the
part of this, too, where the mentorship that you can be a part of things. Maybe you don't have
the $30 for the Dalai partner imagination library, but you can volunteer. You can donate books.
There's a lot of those things that you can do. We'll talk more about them as we get closer to those
events with the United Way, but just things to keep in mind with our United Way of South
Wooden Ames counties. We're speaking with Ben Eberlein from their community engagement director.
And Ben, we also have the homeless point in time count coming up. Absolutely. At the end of January,
it's a semi-any. So we do it once in January, once in July. And it's an event that basically,
we want to get a snapshot of what homelessness looks like in our community. And it can be,
we've talked about homelessness before, and it's a very, it's a challenge in our community. A lot
of it doesn't necessarily look at what you would think it does. You know, what we are preconceived,
preconceptions are around homelessness. So we do this twice a year. And volunteers help us out.
We run out into the community in the night. So it is overnight. If for anybody that would like
to volunteer, just in case you're a night owl, be perfect for you. And then what we do is we'll
break out into small teams so we can canvas the area, get an idea of the number of homeless
individuals or families that might be in our area. If we do encounter individuals that way,
provide whatever resources we can or at least offer. And well, then that information that we gather
just helps inform what our needs are in this community. It helps secure funding for the programs
that are serving the individual that are in need of resources and assistance and around housing.
So it's a really important event. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of different that that is overnight
volunteer opportunity. So it's definitely something that we like to make sure that we're reaching
out and getting as many people involved as possible because it takes a lot of, a lot of,
more hands make less work, right? So if we can all get out there and take it on, it's a one night
event so we need as many as we can. And usually have one of our great officers with you that night,
I believe. So just as far as if there were any concern about safety or anything like that,
that is covered, that is certainly intact. I wouldn't worry about that at all. And it's something too
where, I don't know, you mentioned night owls and I think that they're, at being a night owl,
I would say that that perfect for something like this, but also I think it would be close to
your heart. This is another one, Ben, that's a passion of mine and I care very deeply about.
And the first homeless individuals I met when I was a kid, one of them was a Vietnam bet.
And the other used to work at a state street in Chicago, a state street in Chicago very similar
to Wall Street in New York. Both people coming from very good walks of life had great families
and just ended up in these positions in these situations. It can happen. I think one of the most
important things to come out of the Alice report to me was this, that how close some people are to
being in this situation. I think you don't have to look too far and nationally. You look at what's
going on in California right now with the homeless population there where it has never been more dire.
And that kind of thing can happen to your state too. California, I love that state, but they took,
they dragged this out and they took, they kept pushing, passing the buck. No, you take care of it,
you county, you take care of it, you take care of it. Now the whole state has got an issue with it
because everybody kept pushing and it's your problem. It's your problem. You do this and we
can end up like that. It's important for us to get in on these things. It's important for us to
do these things. And I genuinely believe that this time of year continues. It's not, Christmas,
the feeling that we have right now is something that can be there any time of year. When you're doing
things like this, I almost promise you you will have these feelings. That Christmas spirit,
you're going to feel it when this, when you're doing, when you're a part of an event like this or
any of the great events at the United Way. It makes an impact. It makes such a difference in your
community. You'll notice it too. Ben, as we're wrapping up here, I wanted to go back a little bit to
the thank you celebration and the women's united dinner that they're going to be the party that
they're going to be having. Do these take registration? Do you need to register RSVP for these events?
Yeah, absolutely. So if you jump out, like I said earlier on our website, you do, you
can find the information for how to communicate that you want to attend those events. So feel
free to check that out. And yeah, let us know if you want to come and hang out with us for an
evening or join women united or whatever questions you might have. We're happy to, we'd love to
hear from you. And again, we're still in campaign season. It is go time with our United Way.
This is a perfect opportunity for you to not only impact your community, but to help out with
your United Way, do some good and feel darn good from it. It's a good time of year. Yeah,
really. It really is a good time of year. It really is. Ben, as we're wrapping up here,
people that may have follow the questions may want to know more about ways that they can impact
their community and help out. We've covered a lot of great stuff today, but there's other stuff
that you can do with the United Way they may want to find out about. How can they reach you?
Feel free to give us a call at the office of the United Way office here in Wisconsin,
Rapids, the phone number 715421-0390. And as always, if you need anything, if you have a question,
you're not sure where to go. Call 2-1-1. Again, the United Way's thank you,
sell 2023. Thank you. Celebration will be January 10th, 430-630, Bullseye Country Club right here
in Rapids. And the women's United event, women's United Founders cocktail party will be taking place
January 24th, 515-645 over Bullseye Golf Club right here in Wisconsin, Rapids.
Then, thanks again for the time. We appreciate so they have hired the staff for us.
Appreciate being here, thank you.
You can find out more by going to uwswac.org, uwaac.org. Be sure to follow the United Way
on social media as well. It's a great way to keep up on things in your community.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you tomorrow right here on WFHR. We are locally grown radio.
