Welcome everyone to midday magazine for this January 31st 2024. Have your host James J.
mail off here at part two at three thirty. We're going to welcome in Kayla Mangle.
She is with the Wood County Health Department looking forward to talking with her.
Right now in studio, we're talking about the Wisconsin Rapids Elks Lodge number six ninety-eight.
We've got Tom Dairy with us. Tom, good to see you. Good to see you too, James.
And Pete Rogoski with us. Pete, good to see you. It's been a while Pete like by that a couple
days. It's always it's good to see you guys. Thanks so much for being here. First off,
thanks to the Elks Lodge. Just period. Just a big blanket. Thank you to the Elks Lodge and
everything it does for our community. I think we could spend a half an hour just talking about ways
the Elks Lodge have impacted this community or taken care of the community or been there for
the community in different scenarios in different ways. We're really fortunate for that.
So I just want to put that out there in a big think into the Elks Lodge right out the gate.
I want to talk about some of the fun things going on over there. We got some great fish fries
coming up. Let's talk about that Tom. All right, so this year things are going to be a little bit
different for fish fry. Like many other volunteer groups, we've had quite a few people that have,
you know, done their time, been there consistent and the volunteerism last year, a lot of our
core group just as at that age where other things are going on. So this year, my company,
Deere's Food Works will be running the kitchen aspect of that as well as the service.
But because we want to keep it as traditional and as close to what we'd always done as the
lodge fish fry, we are going to be making sure to keep it a very similar format to what it had
been in the past. So we're getting ready to do things. It'll be a little bit more because obviously
it's not the volunteers. I have to pay some staff. We're giving back 15% of earnings every
week during that time. Typically on a Friday night, we donate 10% in our current fish fry,
which we do have open now and have been running since December. But going forward for the
Lenton fish fry, specifically, we're going to do the first six weeks. We're not going to do the
good Friday week. I feel like that week has either been a really big one for us or a complete
mess. So I feel we'll go back to our regular fish fry service then. But the costs on their
pretty reasonable, a one-piece fish fry, whether it's baked or fried, it'll cost $9. A two-piece,
it'll cost 12. Three-piece, 15 are shrimp that they've always done. It'll stay right around 16
where it's always been. And then a fish and shrimp, which is two pieces of fish, two pieces of shrimp,
that's an $18 thing. We're trying to get on board with some of the assisted livings and things
and work to try and get some volunteers from the community. So if anyone is interested
in helping out with that, feel free. Contact myself down at the lodge and we can go from there and
hopefully fill those spots. Yeah, we'll wrap up talking a little about volunteers and looking
for volunteers. We understand how important that is and we want to just read the word about that,
of course. I never would ever try to speak for a large group of people that alone this community
that is so vast and wide-ranged in different opinions and thoughts. I feel very confident in saying
we're happy to have this still, that the price change is understandable. I think there were all
adults. I think that we all understand the day and age and a lot of the things that Tom was
breaking down for us to precursor some of this. But even if you didn't give us that Tom, I think
we all understand the world we're living in right now. In order to keep certain things,
sometimes prices go up. It's just the natural order of things. And with that being said,
again, I think that it's more important to us to have these events, these fish rise than not.
I believe it's just huge for the community. A lot of the other churches and things,
this is their big fundraiser as well. That's traditionally had been our biggest fundraiser.
Or one of our bigger fundraisers, second biggest fundraisers, I believe in the lodge for years and
years. But with that, we've decided to go a little bit different route on that as well,
which we'll get to in a little bit. Yeah. With these, and I'm glad you brought that up to
fundraisers, because while these events and interiors is a great business and we support our local
businesses and that, that's what so much of this is about, is helping the Elk's Lodge help us.
That's all that's is is you're basically doing things for yourself here is going on because
the Elk's Lodge in one way or another affects everybody in this community helps everybody in this
community. Maybe it's a couple of degrees of separation, but I guarantee it's there. So when you're
investing and you're doing things with the Elk's Lodge, you're putting right back into your own
backyard. You're taking care of your community and helping your community.
Okay. With that said, us as Elk's, we are planning something new this year that we haven't tried
before. It was brought to our attention that Stevens Point Lodge does this and after
lengthy discussion, we decided we're going to do a super bingo. It's got a little bit more
information on that. But I believe the date is going to be March 16th and it's going, the doors
are going to open at 11 a.m. and we'll do some lunch service. The games will start at one o'clock
sharp. We'll play a $20 thing in order to get in on this special bingo. It's going to be a $5
to get your ticket. You can come down to the lodge tonight actually during bingo around five o'clock
Beth will be down there to sell the tickets for this. On our first night alone, we sold 50 tickets.
We're only selling about 160 tickets for this event. You pay your five bucks. It's basically
a credit that you'll get back in food when you come to the event. But then you'll have the
opportunity to buy your ticket, which is 50 bucks. And then you can purchase your card packs from
there. Beyond that, it's limited to 100 and it's limited to 100. We asked that everybody
please turn off their cell phones before joining this. It's all right, man. I'm surprised
it hasn't happened to me. I don't know what happened. I'm surprised it hasn't happened to me.
Like I've been doing this a long time, but I've never I can't believe that doesn't happen to be.
Don't worry about it. So I'm not sure the amounts of money. I believe it was on that
card that we had. But it's it's greater amounts than what typically happens with a regular
with a regular bingo. Yeah. Yeah. And we're we're talking a little bit about this special bingo
and some of the prices, some of the things that are available or price amounts that are available.
The total payment out would be $5,500. And it'll be 20 regular games and a $500 blackout game.
Oh, you were kidding about super bingo. You know, we're joking about that day.
Yeah. This is going to be a massive, massive piece of business for us. I hope was that it would
help to replace what the Lenton fish fry had been just being able to get volunteers for one day
versus trying to spread it over six weeks, seven weeks. That that's where the challenge is
lying. So this we believe will be a really good option. And we're trying this out now with the
hopes that I think we can do one of these quarterly is what we can legally do. So we're trying
this one out. This one will be benefiting elk's charities. So we can spread the money around the
community as we always have things. Yeah. So trying to do those type of events is really what we're
looking to replace some of the Lenton fish fry with. Now, in addition, like I said, I really
wanted that fish fry to stick around the community. So we're still going to need some volunteers for
that. We're still going to need some volunteers as well for the special bingo. I think we've got
most of our slots full, but the more the merrier if people can help out, that that's the best
possible thing we could be looking for. Yeah. We we know how popular bingo in general is on Wednesdays
at the Wisconsin Rapids Elk Slot. And you can we talk about it on our morning show every Wednesday.
We encourage people to check it out every Wednesday. And every time I probably usually at night,
I'm driving home around nine or eight thirty at night. And every time I pass it, booked that whole
places book that is jam packed over there at every Wednesday. It never fails. Encouraging to check
that because I got to imagine what super bingo is going to be even better. It's going to be even better
turned. Yeah. Like I said, just the fact that we're only selling a certain amount of tickets and
that a third of them currently are sold. And that's before we get into tonight. When we announced
last week that we were having it, many of them filled the slots right away. So hopefully that'll
continue. And we can just get this thing some momentum. Yeah. We'll have a fun little menu for it
as well. So if they're coming down, we're going to have some cheese curds, some onion tanglers,
chicken tenders, homemade sloppy joes, fries. I'm doing what I'm calling a St. Paddy's
day melt because the very next day of St. Paddy's day. Right. Right. Yeah. And no one's really going
to come out on Sunday for the carnivorous cabbage. So it'll be shredded corn beef cabbage, Swiss
on rye bread. That's the stuff right there. And then burgers and brats, the usual. Very cool.
Very cool. Yeah. I got one question. Sure. I see on here as it must be 18 or older to play. Now,
what if it kiddos with his mother? I think with this one, it's an exception to that rule.
I believe so. Normally they can come in at like 14. And as long as they're with the Guardian,
with this special bingo, I believe the ruling has to be 18 for them to enter.
Okay. It's a one time thing. But yeah. Yeah.
We've got some fun events coming up over at the Elk Slatch. Let's touch on those a little bit.
Yeah. So another thing that we've been doing is in the past, we basically would have our Tuesday
nights. It's more of a member night. Our Wednesday that is always open to bingo in the community.
Thursday, we were closed Friday for a long time until we came back in December and started
doing fish fry. We were pretty much closed down, not giving members or the community an
opportunity to really get in there. So with us coming back, we decided, you know, we started
doing the bingo. That was fun. The next step was we decided for sure we are going to be back
there. And that's what we were going to do and to get more opportunity for people to enjoy the
lot. So we started doing Tuesdays. We'll do some of them that are members only night.
A lot of those I put down. Again, you can see a lot of this on our Facebook page.
Either ours or the Elk Slatch's Facebook page. A lot of this stuff gets shared there.
But we're doing a Thursday game night in five dollar burgers. Now, if the games don't
grab you, we spent $170 on getting brand new board games, card games, all sorts of fun,
interactive things. There's some murder mystery ones in there. There's something that's
different and fun. Yeah. And a space where people can just come and play games and have fun.
That's probably not what's grabbing them though. The five dollar burgers. Yeah, that's definitely
going to get them. That's definitely going to be it. So what that is is it's a five dollar burger
to start and it comes with kettle chips. Out there, I put out a topping bar with different things
that you can add. Basically, you get charged a dollar if you add on fries instead of your chips.
It's more for the cheese curds. I basically sell those in the haystacks as an appetizer.
But the rest of it, a dollar for sweet potato fries. If you want bacon, it's a dollar. If you want
cheese, it's a dollar. But all the rest of the toppings, the vegetable toppings, all of that
is out on a bar out there. And you can put as much of that stuff on as you want. What a great idea,
man. That's awesome. It's great. It's been working out. We will have one of these coming up this
Thursday in the back. We'll also be having the sip, the paint and sip party in the back. So if
you haven't checked out them or they haven't been on, they're a really fun group. Yeah.
Really nice people. My old junior high art teachers, one of the teachers and they do a very,
very nice job with that. Yeah, we got to get them on. We got to talk more about that because I
know that's a very popular thing in town. It is. And they do a wonderful job with it. And then in
addition to that, we're doing the burgers and the game night in the front. So we're not disturbing
them in the back. Very cool. A nice option for people to come in. And if they're curious about
either of those options, it's fun. It is open to the community as well. It's meant as a member
recruitment night. So, you know, there's usually one or two of us else voting around there that
can talk a little bit about the organization. And if they'd like to join, that's really a night
that we're trying to drive membership and be about community and have another option for our
members and people to enjoy the facility. Yeah. I love the idea of the games. We've seen a rise,
even before the pandemic, but really from the pandemic and after that, we've seen a huge rise
into sale of board games, the use of board games, the people doing more of those things.
A lot of the time, it's where do I go to do it though? They don't have a place to go. They're
giving them an opportunity, giving them a place. It's a great idea. Yes. And then
in a barbed-end around duty all the time. Yeah, barbed-end around. That's great. We've got that.
Again, then we still have a regular fish fry. Even year-round, despite this, I shouldn't say
year-round. I think in the summertime, we take a little break because a lot of our large members
are not there. They go off and they camp and do other things. So we do take a little bit of a
break in the summer, but we bring it back around August or after Labor Day there. And then we
get right back into it. But we have a regular fish fry and it's pretty much on par with the
prices that I've posted up for this. So not much really changing and if they want to come out,
they can come out. We do that every Friday. It's a famous fish fry. It's a very, very well-known
fish fry. We encourage people to be reminded if they haven't been there a while or just go ahead and
keep coming. Yep. And it's pretty much the same as it's always been. The whole plan was to keep
everything as light that had been. One of our members had created this recipe quite a while ago
and we've stuck by that and honored what it was and kept it the same. So if you're coming in
during Lent, it's the same fish fry you're going to get every Friday in non-Lent. So.
We're speaking with Tom and Pete with the Wisconsin Rabbits Elk's last number 698 talking about
some of the events coming up that are fun and we're looking forward to any other events you
wanted to touch on Tom. Is there any other things coming up? We also have a Super Bowl party coming up.
We're doing really having gotten too big into the details on that one yet but it'll just be
regular Super Bowl party. We're kind of doing it potluck style so they can come on down and
enjoy some games. I'm sure there will probably be some 10 liners or some fun things going on with
that. But just a good chance for people to come down and enjoy the lodge again and maybe learn
a little bit more about us. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be a great event looking forward to that.
That should be a lot of fun. Elk's last number 693. I want to make sure to get that correct.
Wisconsin Rabbits Elk's last number 693 in this Super Bowl party coming up on Super Bowl Sunday.
Looking forward to that. That should be a lot of fun. I wanted to as long as you kind of touch
down at a little bit time and we have some time. We're always looking for members and volunteers.
I want to talk about volunteers in a moment but what does it mean to be a member of the Elk's
lodge? What it means to be an member of the Elks is we live by four pretty much credos of what we do
which is justice, fidelity, brotherly love. What's the last one, Pete?
Community involvement. Yes. Charity. Charity is our greatest virtue of the lodge.
Again, those are the main things. Again, it's a uniquely American club. There's maybe
an Elk's in Canada but it's not associated with us. It is uniquely an American club so it's
based on patriotism. When you join, you're asked or prospective joiner is asked two things. Do you
believe in God? Are you an American citizen? Those are the two main requirements. We don't look at it
from a religious aspect, a political aspect or anything else. Nothing in the club is going to
conflict with those views or any of that. It's basically a good American club that does good
charity works and promotes community and fidelity in the community. Pete is a past exalted
ruler. He's actually the one that brought me in as a new member to be a board member and
while we have a pretty great crew on right now with Carrie Nicolai currently being our exalted
ruler, she's finishing up hers, her term and then I'm on to that next role. And I think you'll
be doing a good job. You're going to do great, man. It's been four years for me of learning exactly
what it is to be an Elk and trying to grow in that. I got very involved very quickly right away
and it wasn't just because my business was there. It was because I met the people. I understood
what it was. Kyle Cronin approached me about membership and it went great from there. So it's a
uniquely American club. Again, they do a lot of great works. We do Christmas baskets every year.
This year we were able to help I think 50 families with Christmas baskets and it's not a small
little basket. It's full. There's probably a good three, four meals that they can get out of
this basket. Beautiful meals out of this. We try and we're trying to do more with youth activities,
things like that. We just did hoop shoot over at East Jr. High, which is a national Elk's thing
that we do. I don't think we had members that went very far this year, but every year is different.
But again, it's volunteerism. It's trying to contribute back to the community. And then some of
the other thing is they help with the food pantry, boys and girls club. We donate, we have charity
or not charity money, but scholarship money that we give out to high school kids. I believe in
four different districts and schools. So it's a huge impact that the Elks makes and I don't think
people know a lot of that. They just think of it sometimes as a place where you go with grandma
Wednesday to play bingo, but it's so much more of an impact than that. It's an organization.
It's been around for quite some time. And I think for some, they may not think of those things
all the time or recognize that stuff, but I do know that there are so many people in the community.
I hear this almost every week. I want to make an impact. I want to help my community. I want to do
the same things, but sometimes the world seems so big or there's so many problems. I don't know,
what do I do? Where do I even begin? This is a pretty good place to start. It is.
Being an Elk's member, you are immediately able to make an impact on your community. You're
immediately able to help out your community. You're immediately able to do some of these things.
And a lot of people are looking to do out there. And the requirements are quite to be blunt about
it, everybody. Are a lot of things that you probably already are. You already have. You don't have
to jump through hoops or anything for this, something like this. This is something that you kind of
just, well, let me double check here. Yeah. I am actually all those things. Cool. Check, check,
check. Go check out the Elk's Lodge. When it comes to this, as something Tom has talked about
a little bit, as something we've talked about about the Elk's Lodge, and it's very similar to a
lot of our nonprofits in this area. We'll have the store point boss on this week. And we talk about
that with, with, talk about this with them as well. I get really passionate about this. I apologize.
But when it comes to putting into their community and being a part of things, whether it's the Elk's
Lodge or some of these organizations that are looking for volunteers, this is where you show your
worth. This is where you show the Elk's Lodge has had our back. They've done tons of things for
this community. This is our opportunity to have their back. This is our opportunity to keep these
things around. It isn't a, it isn't just written in stone that we're always going to have these things.
The only way to keep them is to keep putting into them. And we need younger members. We need new
members. We need young and new volunteers out there. And we encourage people to be a part of
these things because one, the impact you make is, is evident right away. And, you know,
not for nothing, it feels really dang good. Like, it feels really good to be a part of these things.
There's no price tag you can put on something like that. You know, and as if you're going to be a
new member, you're not obligated, but it'd be nice to get into something right away like the
volunteer would bingo or other events that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and appreciate you guys,
not only bringing this to us in these great events, but everything that you guys have already
done in this community and with the Elk's Lodge. And we say a big thank you to them. If Tom,
people have follow up questions, they want to know more about some of the stuff we've talked about
or learn about volunteering. How can they get in touch with you guys? They can get a hold of us on,
obviously, call us at the Lodge, 715-423-1930. Usually, I'm the one answering that phone or
getting back to people and messages, whether it be for rentals or any other inquiries they have
with the hall or if they're just curious about an event is bingo going on or I saw this online.
What do you have going on? Feel free to reach out also on our Elk's Facebook page. We have quite a
bit of stuff that we're sharing out there. We're working on getting a newsletter back active and
working. That's been a project that we've really been putting a lot of energy into. And we're
hoping to have that out by the end or beginning of this month again. And then just, yeah, stop
down to Lodge anytime we're open. Usually it's in the afternoon. Usually after 4pm, 5pm is usually
when we're wide open and going. So even if it's a member night, feel free to stop in.
There's the doors always open to the community. We'd love to have more people interested and
find out more about what we're about. Yeah, doors always open for you guys as well. Here,
come on by any time and we'll be talking about these events, looking forward to every one of them.
Tom and Pete, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, James. Thanks for having us.
We'll take your time out. We'll come back and have some more fun on Midday magazine here at WFHR.
