Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this December 26, 2023.
We have your host, James J. Mailov here.
At 3.30, we're going to have a replay of our interview from the 20th
with our friends from the Family Center.
Amy and Tia joined us, and we had a really good conversation with them,
encouraged you to stick around for it.
Right now, in studio, we have with us our good friends.
We have Carly Redmester, uh, Meister.
Redmester.
Redmester, okay, all right.
See, now that's what I didn't ask.
I want to do it on the air, okay?
Carly's with us.
Member, engagement, director with our Southwood County YMCA.
Carly, thank you very much for being here.
Thank you.
And Heather Koshani?
Koshani.
Koshani, oh, CIO, close, close.
I don't know if that one counts or not, but close, close.
Heather, thank you very much for being here.
Heather is childcare director over at the Southwood County YMCA.
And that's what we're talking about today.
Events and different things going on at our Y.
Want to send a big, big, big thank you to Tri-City Services,
giving us the opportunity to talk to the ladies here and find out more about
what's going on at our Southwood County YMCA.
First up, we're just got done with the holidays.
Did you guys have a good set of holidays?
Everybody doing good?
Yeah, we're good.
Absolutely.
Very tiring.
Yeah, yeah, going back today.
Well, and then you got to come and put up a meme for 20 minutes on that.
I did want to touch on hours over at the Y,
if you don't mind real quick.
Are the hours any different during this holiday week here
as we're getting into New Year's and that?
The only thing that's different is New Year's Day,
we will be closed.
Everything else will be as normal.
Very cool, very cool.
So let's dive right into it.
It's hard to tell maybe, but it is winter.
And we got youth sports to look forward to.
Let's start right there, if you don't mind.
Perfect.
We're very excited to announce that we just hired a new sports and camp director.
His name's Baxter, aren't.
He just started today, actually.
So he is bringing in some of those youth sports
for the winter session here.
Those will run January 15th through February 14th.
And we have a couple different offerings.
Those range from basketball, soccer.
Those are for K through two, basketball, excuse me.
And then we have some micro sports as well.
Those are for the youngins, the three to five year olds.
Those are basketball and soccer as well.
That run through those similar dates.
And participation is required for those very cool.
We welcome Baxter to the community to the to the shop.
I mean, that's very cool.
And whenever you bring somebody new in,
you're going to have a new take on things.
You're going to have a new set like they're going to see things differently.
Want to do things maybe add their own touch to something or anything.
So maybe we'll see some of that with Baxter and some of the events or some of the winter youth
activities we have.
Absolutely.
He also comes with a big camp background.
So we're really looking forward to, you know,
summer camp being a big hit.
Hopefully this year again.
Certainly.
I imagine you guys are very similar to us here at the station,
where when we hire people, we look for them to where many hats
or be able to do multiple things.
I think that's the case for a lot of businesses,
a lot of nonprofits out there these days.
Absolutely.
That's a really nice thing to be able to hear
that he brings to the table.
Also, great name.
Great name.
That's a good name, right?
That don't hurt.
Not a reason to give them the job,
but a nice thing is that about it.
With these winter activities,
is there anything else that the parents should keep in mind
with getting their kids involved in them?
Is there a hefty schedule?
You certainly can get busy this time of year.
Yeah, so most of the activities run one day a week.
Anywhere ranging from one day through Wednesday.
Just for an hour, some run 430 to 530,
some run 530 to 630.
So we try to make sure that it is, you know,
that after school time for them to participate.
We do charge $40 per member or 55 for non-member.
For some of those registrations,
for the microsports specifically,
it's $30 per member and 45 for non-members.
Certainly, good points to keep in mind.
Not a big time restraint.
You know, it doesn't take too much time out of the day
and everything.
And certainly, we are always looking for things
to keep our kids active this time of year.
So those are great advantages
having these things available to our community.
I do always like to mention, whenever I have the opportunity,
when you guys join us,
when you hear the prices of these things
or the price of the Y itself or anything,
keep in mind the Y will work with you.
Absolutely.
The Y is more interested in getting you in the building than not.
And so anything that they can do within reason,
certainly to try to make that happen.
There are scholarships available.
There are ways to be able to get you and your family
into our beautiful, amazing facility,
or the Port Edwards facility,
or any of our great Ys around here.
Absolutely.
And you know, we're super excited
because a lot of these sports are for those kids
that are maybe just getting introduced to those things.
So, you know, it's a good way to get them involved
and introduction into basketball or soccer.
So maybe if it becomes an interest, they can carry on.
My son is 22,
and I'm still trying to get him to be a major league pitcher.
He just graduated like last year in neurology out of Minnesota.
So he doesn't need that,
but I'm still trying, I'm still trying.
No, like a lot of people out there,
I'm a big sports fan, I love sports.
But I also, I kind of cheat with,
and this is between us, okay, don't tell me.
But when it comes, what has always pulled me to sports
is the storylines.
Like if I didn't know anything about these people
or anything like that, I don't know how much I'd care.
As much as I love rooting for my home team and all this,
it's the people, it's the storylines
that have always pulled me into sports.
And I think that when it comes to youth sports,
when it comes to kids playing sports at a young age,
it's a good thing to remember.
Wins and losses are great.
You're seeing your kid be able to get out there
on the court of the field, it's really cool.
But it's so much bigger than that.
It's about so much more than that.
When I was a little kid, my dad was a minor league hockey player.
And my first memory is seeing my dad and this other guy,
just like from the moment the puck dropped,
just neck and neck and beating each other up
and all these things.
And then at the end of the game,
they're going in the line, the handshake line
at the end of the game that happens at the end of every hockey game.
And my dad and this guy are holding up the line
because they're laughing and joking together
and talking and everything.
It turned out it was one of my dad's best friends.
I didn't know that as a kid,
but it was one of my dad's best friends.
The bonds and the things that sports bring
and the opportunities it gives to kids
to be able to do that.
For me, when I first moved out here,
I am one of the worst people in the world
at making new friends.
Horrible at it.
I'm so bad at it.
And I went to Humkey for a little while
and it didn't make many friends.
And I moved to Rapids and I started going to Washington School.
And I go out there for recess
and I forget how it came up.
But all of a sudden, everybody in class found out
I was the fastest kid in class.
And then everybody knew my name.
And I started making friends
because they called me on the basketball team,
on the football team.
And that's how I really built friendships out here.
My first friendships were through sports.
I'm sure my dad would have loved
the same thing with me and my son,
turned out to be a great professional athlete or something.
And that stuff's cool and all, you know,
sometimes finding a spark and being good in the sport
can lead to a scholarship down the line
or something like that that's important.
But it's so much bigger than all of those things.
The relationships, the friendships that sports can bring,
especially this time of year
where there's not as many opportunities maybe.
Absolutely.
And kind of off what Heather said earlier,
is this can be the first step to your kids trying a sport.
So for how we have this set up,
we do sports on different days,
so basketballs on Mondays, soccer's on Tuesday.
So for me, what I did is I put my kids
and everything to find out what they liked first.
Smart, yeah.
And especially with kids,
where one day they may really like this.
And then the next day, they want to really like this.
And then what was that other thing?
I don't remember what to do.
But I bought you all this equipment.
Yeah.
It's fun to figure those things out too.
Let them dip their foot in the water a little bit,
find out what they like.
And then maybe you're also not putting as much
a buddy and effort into some of these sports or things
that maybe they aren't into.
It's a great way to kind of get a sample platter of it.
Yes, absolutely.
And if people want to find out more
if they need to reach backster or anything,
just send them to the website,
you can find out more information from there.
Okay.
SWCYMCA.org.
SWCYMCA.org.
We'll get that information out there
to again before we wrap up.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the Forever Wellness program.
It's a very interesting one of that.
I did not get to hear a whole lot about.
Yeah, so Forever Well is a program
that is for 55 and older.
They meet every Monday from 11, 15 to 12, 15.
Thank you.
And they do different things.
So for instance, they were painting
with broccoli the other week.
That was pretty cool one.
They have guest speakers come in.
So every Monday it's something different.
They are actually taking a bus trip to Ashkash
to see, well, to experience.
They're not cracker in the castle exhibit.
So that's going to be happening on Monday, January 8th.
Registration ends tomorrow.
So get that in.
Yeah.
And when is the trip?
Monday, January 8th.
Okay, okay.
I thought that's what you said.
So you got a little time to prepare for that,
if you want.
If you're just hearing about this now and everything,
still got a day to register.
So you want to make your decision soon.
But for the age range that this is for,
we're talking some people who might be retired out there
and maybe have a little bit more of a freer schedule.
And what a fun idea.
Like, this is very, it is different
and it's not that different for something from the Y.
It's something that I wouldn't have expected
or haven't seen before from our Y.
At the same time, it makes such perfect sense.
Oh yeah, for our area, especially I think it's,
you know, it's obviously start off small
because it was something new.
But now that people are hearing about it,
even just within the Y,
these trips to are becoming a big hit
because I think we get comfortable.
You know, we have a group of individuals
who just come and drink coffee every morning at the Y.
And now they're taking a trip.
For instance, this trip too,
they are going out to lunch together after the performance.
It's just a way to build those friendships
in that community that we're trying to at the Y.
Yeah.
It seems like such on paper, such a difficult thing to do.
You're covering literally from like five,
six years old to like 60 to 70 to 80 year old.
That's your market.
That's where you've got to reach.
And how you would do something like that.
But our Y continues to find different ways
to reach those different individuals
in those different groups
where wherever age range you fall in there,
I promise you, and I only say that word
if I can back it up, there's something there for you.
And it'd be enough if that was all you guys did,
but you're constantly looking for other things
in new ways of bringing people to the Y.
And something like this is a really unique and fun idea.
Absolutely.
And with that meeting every Monday
from that 11, 15 to 12, 15 time slot,
they usually make popcorn in the kitchen.
And I'm back in childcare
and we're kind of a wing off of there.
And I can smell that popcorn all the way back in my office.
So we're looking for some good popcorn.
I think we've had this in our area.
We've had this at a lot of Ys for a long time
where the Y was a place to go in the morning
to see your friends, to maybe take a walk
or around the building or that kind of thing,
get some exercise in the morning
while catching up with a good friend
or something like that and planning out your day.
An event like this is kind of that
to the fullest extent almost,
where it's a bit or deeper of a deep dive of that.
Yeah.
And again, people need to register by tomorrow.
Tomorrow, correct.
And for members, it's $39, not members, $50.
Excellent.
And then obviously lunch is not included,
but you get a bus trip there.
Yeah, yeah.
And Carrie, not to put you on the spot
or ask inside details necessarily,
but this seems like something that
if it's successful,
you're gonna be doing things like this again.
Yeah, this is actually so Sarah Wheeler
is the Forever Well Coordinator at the Y
and she, this is her second bus trip.
Cool.
She first went to the landing,
which is in Warsaw, off there,
YMCA for 55 and older participants.
And that was a really big hit.
So this is her second one.
And I think right now,
there's already six people, seven people signed up.
And you know, for just starting this program this year,
that's a big jump for us.
Yeah, yeah.
I was very impressed by that number.
Oh, that's very cool to hear.
It not only speaks to people wanting things like this,
but I think to our,
I don't know what our average age range is
in this community or in this area,
but we certainly know that we have a healthy population
in that age range.
It's nice to see them active,
them doing things like this,
wanting things like this.
That's great.
Looking forward to more and more projects
like this going forward.
That's a really fun idea.
Yeah.
A great play, by the way, too.
That's a good, good show.
Good show.
That's a good one.
Let's talk a little bit about
some of the other family events
that are going on over
at our south of County YMCA.
And we can go anywhere you want
whoever wants to start that one.
There's a lot to talk about this one.
So the first one we're going to go over
is Father and Son Game Night,
which is happening at the YMCA Friday,
January 5th from 6 to 8 p.m.
Any ages.
I know we kind of talked about this before.
Anytime we have Father Son or
Father Daughter, Father Son,
it's for any ages.
If you're 30 and you still want to bring your mom or dad,
please do.
That's what makes it fun for us
to see all the ages.
So for Father and Son Game Night,
there's different activities happening, such as
minute to minute dodgeball, capture the flags,
scavenger hunts, bingo,
just really active program to do that.
It's something for the whole family
or something for the individual family members.
We never get enough time to do these things
one-on-one, especially if you have multiple kids.
I think almost every parent,
if it's one of the most universal things there is,
am I spending enough time on both kids?
Am I putting all my love into both kids and these things?
That we all balance and deal with.
These kind of events give you that opportunity
to kind of do some of that.
To do, you know, my son and I maybe didn't get as much time
together as something as I'd like.
So we'll do this together or something like that.
Those are all cool, really fun opportunities at any age.
But Carrie, I'm so glad that you mentioned the age range thing
because as I've touched on before with you guys,
my kids, my youngest is 22, you know?
But I would love to bring her to some like this.
I would love to do some like this with her.
We never got to do these kind of things.
So doing something like this would be a lot of fun.
I think it's really cool that you open it up like that.
Yeah, and we've been able to expand recently
for family events offerings.
The father, son, game nights, one of the first
of that type that we're doing.
You know, we added Stephanie recently
as our community events coordinator.
So we're very excited for all that she brings in that realm
as well to be able to expand on some of our offerings
that are directed towards families.
Yeah, there are more great events.
I'm sure coming up.
But with this one, do people need to,
is there anything they need to know ahead of time,
anything to prep for or registration,
or registering for?
Yep, so registration closes on January 3rd.
For members, the cost would be $25.
Non-members, it's 30.
And then if you have an additional son,
it would be $10 per child.
Very cool, very cool.
Thank you for that.
Another fun event coming up.
What about the father, father, daughter dance?
What about the next?
Yes, that is.
So our father, daughter dance has been going on annually
for almost, I think, 10 years at this point,
through our partnership between the Y and the Boys
and Girls Club.
So that event will be held on Saturday, February 3rd.
It runs from 6 to 8 p.m.
The registration closes on January 29th.
It is 29 per member, couple, and then $10
for each additional daughter.
So the similar pricing to the father's son event.
We're very excited.
We always try to make that a magical experience
for fathers and daughters.
But we understand that not every daughter
has a father necessarily.
So we always encourage grandfathers, uncles, cousins,
can go ahead and bring their relative along.
We have our derves and dancing and coloring
contests and those types of things.
So very exciting night.
It's a fun night out.
It's a great opportunity to spend some time with your kid,
especially if they are getting older
and you don't have as much time as you usually do to do these.
And I think as parents, like for me, again,
I'll let you guys look behind the curtain here a little bit.
I brought this up with one of my daughters
and I was very, very hesitant too.
So I did it as a joke, because I thought, OK,
well, then I could back out as she doesn't like the idea.
I'm just joking and I was joking and everything.
But as soon as I started getting into the conversation,
not only did her eyes light up, like she started tearing up
a little bit and everything, which got me tearing up,
of course, and everything.
Because I didn't know that this was something she'd
never even think about or whatever.
But it was something that she'd always
wanted to do that we never got a chance to.
Then we started talking and finding out
and we do a little look.
Well, I'm sure we're too old for this now.
And as soon as we had that thought,
we see in the press release and everything, all ages welcome.
I think I would think that even if you were somebody
out there listening where you and your child
got to do this 100 times, you'd still
want to be able to do it once more.
Yeah, and we do have a lot of fathers and daughters
where they've gone at all 10 years.
That's going to ask.
OK, yeah, that's really cool.
So this is like something daughters look forward to.
I know I'm originally from Steven's point
and the Steven's point why you still hold something like this
as well.
And I went every year with my dad.
And now my daughter gets to experience that.
And it's cool to see.
It's cool to show her pictures of me and my dad
and now her and her dad going.
That is really cool.
OK, that is really, really cool.
That's awesome.
That's very full circle.
I'm not sure you guys too.
But it's just like what Heather said,
we're just trying to make that experience
for those family members to have that special time
if it's father, daughter, mother, son, whatever it may be.
The way I want to help with that.
Building memories, making memories.
That's what this is all about.
That's a great opportunity for that.
And one of the things that I was trying to lean on here,
I think that it can be difficult the older our kids get
as silly as this might sound as parents
to ask our kids things, like to ask them to do things
and stuff, or they're not going to want to do this.
Or they're not going to, you know, or that kind of thing.
Ask, ask, just ask.
They may be they will say, no, maybe they won't.
Maybe they'll laugh at you.
It's OK, you're the parent.
Don't forget that.
Same thing to kids, don't be afraid to ask your parents
to do these kind of things.
To see if they want to do something like this.
Oh, if I ask my dad, he cry, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think sometimes we're getting our own heads
about these things when it turns out the other person probably
wants to do it just as much as we do.
Is there a date that we need to register by for this?
January 29th.
OK, all right, good.
So we got some time to still do this.
We can go ahead and whether it is the father daughter dance
or the other dance.
I mean, any of these, you've got a little time
to kind of figure this out and make sure to register
so they know how many people are going to be here.
Yes, so we can be prepared for it.
Yeah, yeah.
There are lots and lots of other great events going on
at the South of County YMCA.
One of the things that I noticed whenever we have you guys
join us, any cast of characters from the wine, joining us.
We never have enough time.
And there is always stuff and always events going on
that we don't get a chance to touch on.
One encourage people to find out more about those events
reach out to the Y.
There are no silly questions with our South of County YMCA.
If you're wondering about something,
reach out, ask the staff.
One of the friendly as a group of people you'll ever meet.
And they're looking to get you into the building.
They want you to be there.
This is not a hard sell.
We want you to be a part of things
so call and find out more.
Certainly also want people to keep in mind, too,
that there are, you guys are open to ideas.
And the community, we have a very creative,
very fun community and a lot of people out there
that have different ideas about bringing up to the Y.
See what they think of them.
Yeah, we have a whole bunch of things like you were saying.
Pickleball classes, sports, all ages.
We can book birthday parties now, these family events.
I wanted to touch on that if you don't mind, Carrie.
Yeah, that's actually leading up to that.
Nicely done.
The birthday parties at the Y.
That does seem like something new to me.
Yeah, that just started the last few months here.
And they really, they're every weekend.
Yeah, they are.
They're really a big hit.
So we have two options.
One is a pool party and one is the adventure center party.
So like the playland is the way I would like to describe that.
You bring in cake and the presents and everything.
You get half of the conference room or teaching kitchen
and then you can utilize the pool.
Or like I said, that adventure center.
That is awesome.
Is 46 to old?
Is it no?
No, age limit.
No, it's okay.
Good to know.
Just asking.
Just was wondering.
That sounds like a lot of fun.
That sounds really cool.
I'm one of those people.
I don't like my birthday.
That made me start thinking, well, wait a minute.
Now, wait a minute.
That might actually be kind of fun.
And it's certainly one of those things
where, as the ladies just mentioned, you guys
have been booked quite a bit.
So you want to play on a head on that one.
Yep, play on a head.
And I think it just gave at least this area a place
for to have birthday parties.
We kind of are lacking that.
I feel so giving, again, the community
what they're asking for with those ideas
or thoughts that are being brought up.
Especially in the winter months.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, you're looking for something
of fun or interesting to do.
And there is so few opportunities.
So even some of the ones I'm thinking
over a couple hours away or something like that.
Here, right here, right in town.
You're not gonna have to go that far.
Your guests don't have to go that far.
And you may even go into the Y.
Maybe for people who don't go to the Y as much
you might come across something
that you're gonna bring it back.
Right, absolutely.
It's a really fun one.
I like that.
And I know that we are always looking for things
to kind of keep us warm or have warm thoughts
and thinking of spring and summer.
Certainly want to remind everybody
that you can rent a camp Alexander
that there are those opportunities coming up.
A lot of great summer activities
that you'll be here sooner than we realize, right?
Registering or planning ahead for these things.
Never a bad idea.
No, no.
So like we were saying earlier,
Baxter, our new sports and camp director,
he's gonna come with big ideas for camp.
I feel this year.
Like I said, he had a big background in camp.
So summer camp will be coming up.
You can rent the camp, different activities.
We do sports stuff out at camp.
We last year we did archery and ax throwing.
So thank you.
Always wanted to try archery.
Always went, seems so much fun.
Seems like such a blast.
You guys seem like you have a really good time.
Find out how much fun they're having
and have some fun with our friends
over at the South of County YMCA.
I want to encourage you to reach out to them
whether it's about any of the things
we talked about today or any other questions
you might have with our South of County YMCA.
Carrie, if people do have follow questions,
how can they get in touch with you?
You can go to SWCYMCA.org
or you could call us at 715-818-9622.
Heather, how about you?
Same way, just go to that website.
All that information's right up there.
Each department has a different section
that you can see what's going on in youth sports
or otherwise.
Otherwise, give us a call if you have any questions.
There are more than enough happy people to help you.
SWCYMCA.org, SWCYMCA.org.
Be sure to follow our local Y on all their social media
platforms as well.
It's a great way to keep up to date
and all the good things going on at our Y.
Big thank you to Tri-City Services
for sponsoring the segment.
Appreciate our friends over there.
Buy local, support local.
Carrie, Heather, thank you both so much for the time.
Thank you.
Have a great day, YouTube.
Well, a more midday magazine coming up for you right here
at 975-FM 1320-AMWFHR.
We are a locally grown radio.
