Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this March 5th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here, and welcoming into the studio,
our good friend from the South O'County YMCA, want to welcome in,
Carly Redmeister, member engagement director, Carly. Did I get that right?
Yes, he did. Oh, God, Pam, write that down.
Thanks for being here, Carly, I appreciate it.
And Baxter Art Sports and Camp Director. Baxter, good to see you.
Good to see you, James.
Appreciate you guys being here. Right away, thank you both for
to you and your team and all you do for our community. We really appreciate all the work
that you guys put into this, and especially all the work you do with our kids.
Thank you so much for all you guys put into this, and
want to actually start off about, you know, those kids and others,
and membership, and start right there.
You got something really fun going on, membership wise right now.
Yeah, we have a big promotion happening all the month of March.
So in March, we are waving the joiner fee and any fees that may come up in March.
So your first month is completely free.
As long as you've been in active for six months,
and you're willing to commit for six months.
So this is one of our biggest promotions that we've done in a while.
So again, waving that joiner fee, which can be up to $60,
and any pro-rated fees for March.
I certainly want to help you guys sell this.
So I don't want to hurt that or anything,
but I do want to compliment the why,
because from the day that's doors opened,
the why has worked to get people and more and more people into the why.
We got a beautiful building over there.
We got a great spot in Port Edwards.
We've got some really good locations and some really good areas.
That building, you look at that building,
you know, we got to keep the lights on for it.
That's not the way the why approaches it.
The why approaches it, we got to get our community involved.
We have to bring people in.
We want to bring more people in.
It's a community hub.
It brings so many things and so many people together.
And one of the most beautiful things I think that the why does
is work with communities, work with families.
What is your budget?
What can you afford?
How can we get you into the building?
Absolutely.
It's just in this day and age,
I can't think of 5-10 businesses off my top of my head
or nonprofits that are able to do something like that.
Really appreciate you paying attention to the community.
You guys are caring about something like that.
And this membership program is a great incentive,
a great way to get people.
Maybe, you know, if you've been on the fence about it,
or as you say there in the notes about it,
maybe you haven't been to the why to why.
Maybe you came out and you know,
you're using it a lot and then, you know,
holidays happen or something along those lines.
It's a great opportunity to get back in there.
Absolutely. We do have a lot of seniors or other people
who have been away for the winter, who are coming back,
who are excited about this promotion to get back into the why,
to start walking, when it's raining,
or sleeping like it was yesterday.
But to have that place to go when the weather isn't so nice.
And one of the other things that I think of too
is something like that is we, I've been working out
since I was a little kid.
But I'll be honest, just between the three of us,
I'm not the most consistent at it.
Sometimes I take breaks.
Sometimes I'm not always at it.
And, you know, it can get on you.
It can mess with your confidence about these things,
or even just your own, you know, kind of self-worth, if you will.
One of the ways to build that back is a why membership.
And it's not that it's not something I'm saying
just because I got you guys in the building here and stuff.
It's something I can say because I've done myself.
It's one of those ways of kind of building that back up.
A lot of people out there have issues with confidence
or self-worth.
Just having a why membership.
Just doing that right there is a great first step.
Let alone the things that you can do and build at the why.
There's so many advantages to it.
The communication running into people
that you don't always get to.
The connections that you make.
Oh yeah, even if you don't know people,
they'll introduce themselves right away
at our coffee lounge area when you walk in the door.
The group of members that we have are so welcoming.
And they want to get to know you
and make sure that you're okay.
And you know where things are.
They're like our little greeters that know more about the why
sometimes than what we do.
We're going to talk more about membership
and other times and everything.
And certainly bringing it up on our morning shows.
There is a think of this too, everybody.
In the 27 minutes we have with these guys,
we're not even going to come close
to covering everything the why offers.
Absolutely.
There's so many things that are going on over there.
And to that point, no matter what age you are,
what your interests are, the why's got something for you.
Or we want to, so let us know.
Oh, it's nicely done, Carly.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes, they reach out to the why with ideas.
Certainly they're a great, very encouraging for that.
But do want to remind you to bookmark the web page
SWYMCA.org, SWYMCA.org to find out more information
and we'll reference that again a little bit later.
When it comes to membership,
some finding out more about that, Carly.
Is there anywhere we can direct them?
The website, the best place?
Yeah, the website's the best place.
Or stopping in and getting kind of your feet wet
in the situation as a great start.
You can set up a tour that second
with any one of us there.
And we'd be happy to show you around.
And sometimes that's all you need once you see it.
Oh, yeah, I have a hard time believing.
You get people in that building.
They don't sign up.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Appreciate that, Carly.
We're going to talk to you a little bit more
and just a little bit about this Easter eggs.
SWYMCA.org cannot wait to talk about that.
I've been really looking forward to talking with you again,
Baxter.
Appreciate the word that you put into our local sports.
Are you sports?
And then if you don't mind,
I'd like to start with you sports with you.
Sure, I'd love to talk about you sports.
We are in the middle of our winter two session
and we are,
registration is open for our spring session of youth sports.
We are offering pickleball at two different levels.
Outdoor soccer, dodgeball,
and then for the microbes,
the three to five year olds,
we have indoor soccer.
That's a lot of fun.
You come with your parents.
You get to play some games.
Usually it's red light green light,
gray fish, whatever we can think of
that would make the kids have fun.
And on top of all,
that we're offering something special
this spring break for our
six to 12 year olds.
And that's our outdoor adventures camp out at camp.
It is 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday
from March 25th to March 28th.
And that's a great opportunity for kids
to just see the camp.
Find out if they like it,
kind of leads me into
what we've got going on this summer.
But it's designed to just have fun
for three hours
and give the parents a little break in them.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's a win-win for everybody.
Exactly.
That's great.
Let's talk a little bit more about
camp and we'll come back to you with sports.
With summer camp,
I mean, this winter has been so weird.
It hasn't felt like we've even had a winter.
So it might be a little weird to think of spring
or to think of summer camp.
But now is a great time to enroll.
And membership is open right now, correct?
Right. Registration, open.
Registrations are, yeah.
Correct. Registration opened on March 1st
and we are currently doing our early bird registration.
So you get $10 off your registration per week
if you sign up within the month of March,
similar to Carly's membership promotion.
It's our way of trying to find out
where our numbers are.
Give people a little bit of a break this time of the year
and try to boost our numbers
so we've got a good looking registration
for the entire summer.
There's not many parents out there these days.
I don't want their kids to have a little more nature
in their diet and get out a little bit more.
I'm not one of those people that think
that worries about that stuff.
Overly, I deal with a lot of kids,
a lot of younger people
and they seem to have a pretty good balance
of the tablet and outside and a lot of that.
But to squash some of those nerves
or even just for the fun of it,
it seems summer camp is becoming more and more popular
and kind of having a resurgence
from previous enrollment numbers
that we've seen in that.
When I encourage people to ask more about this
and find out more about the camp
and get their kids involved in it.
Yeah, and one of the reasons
I think we're going to see a spike
is we're trying to change things up a little bit.
We are going to offer more opportunities
for the kids, whether that be
for all kids, I guess I should say,
because we're going to offer crafts,
fishing, sports,
just about everything every single day.
We're not going to try and stick to one theme
or opportunity that the kids may or may not like.
If your child is sitting at home
and reading, why not come to camp
and read with 15 friends in a hammock
and just enjoy the outdoors.
One of the big focuses this summer
is going to be outdoor education.
And that doesn't mean we're going to sit down
like we're in a classroom setting.
More so, we are going to give them opportunities
to learn about nature,
to learn about what we're doing
and why we're doing it.
It's an opportunity
that you don't have everywhere.
We're very fortunate to have right here
and have a camp like that.
It's a beautiful area.
That alone is going to get people in,
but let alone all these other things
that you mentioned there
that kids can enjoy and take and learn from.
It's a great opportunity.
As far as the youth sports,
I want to come back to that
with you for a second backster.
Being a transplant,
coming to town here,
one of the first things I noticed,
there's a lot of soccer fields.
There's a lot of soccer love around here.
That's certainly a love of the game
and sport and everything.
But it's also one of the things
that where I know even for me,
where I was growing up
and my dad, hockey player,
boxer,
one of the first things is like,
well, you got to get into soccer.
I'm like, well, soccer.
It's the opposite of the things
you do, dad.
And stuff, he says, no, it's not.
Soccer encompasses so many different things
as far as sports go.
And I would say relationship-wise,
as far as kids learning how to work together
and being a good teammate
in some of those things.
But it's also such a great exercise too
that you're constantly moving.
There's a lot of positives
of getting your kid enrolled in soccer,
even if they don't necessarily
have a sports interest.
Yeah, we noticed that our soccer
numbers are the highest generally.
But it gives them an opportunity
to learn motor skills,
to learn how to stop and start
and use their legs productively.
And what we try to do
is not so much
teach them the whole game.
What we want to do is teach them
the basic skills.
We want them to be able to go
and play for the rapids kickers
or any of the surrounding areas
during the summer to just be better,
to enjoy it, to not have to learn the game
even as a fifth grader.
Or so we'd rather have them come to us,
learn some of those skills,
go play for a team and just love the game
for the game, not hate the game
because you couldn't figure out how to play it.
Yeah, well said.
Yeah, I will say too, as a side note,
we got the World Cup coming by here,
pretty soon in a couple of years
and everything.
Not a bad idea to get the kids into soccer
and learning it a little bit more.
That sport is only growing more and more
in this country and North American general.
That part is a nice little adipotus to it,
but everything you mentioned there about this,
it just, it makes me not only encourage for this,
but to encourage others to want to do this,
especially when it comes to those motor skills
and some of those things you mentioned.
We may not, some of these kids may not be the next paley
or me a hammer whatever,
but they're going to go on to do things in life
that those skill sets are going to be applied to,
that they're going to use them
with no matter what field or what they do in their lives.
They're going to be able to apply those things to it.
Sports has a lot more to it than wins and losses
and it's kind of a cool part of this, I imagine.
Well, that's a huge part and it's affordable,
which is the biggest draw.
We love that we can offer affordable programs.
Everything we do, we try to make it affordable
for our families, for the local community.
But yes, they may not go on to play professional soccer,
but the best athletes in the world are multi-sport athletes.
And even if soccer is not their game,
they're going to find something that they love.
We haven't adopted it yet, but even eSports,
it's coming around and it's very popular
and there's a future.
Yeah, well, it's good to get your foot in the door
with some eSports.
I, again, I come back to this.
I appreciate that the Y looks at things that way.
That it's not just about, well, what do I like?
What do I, what am I interested in?
I'm going to teach that or I'm going to focus on that.
No, you guys are constantly looking at what the community does,
what the world is looking at.
And well, I completely hear you on the eSports thing.
I've got nephews and godsons that love sitting there
and watching other people play video games
or play video games.
And I'm a, I was a gamer growing up and everything,
but I didn't quite understand the idea
of just sitting there and watching other people play games.
And then I go and sit and watch football for 10 hours
while watching other people play a sport.
And I'm like, okay, I get it now.
I get, I get a little bit of it.
I get it that I don't get it.
And I get that why the people would do that.
It is something to think of and keep in mind.
And I also think to adults out there,
it's something to not be so quick to squash.
That you may, they may know something
or maybe getting something out of this
that you don't understand or you don't get as an adult.
I know that's happened to me sometimes.
So like I just gave an example of right there.
That's great to hear.
Whether it happens or not,
it's just great to hear you guys are thinking of those things.
I do want to come back to pickleball too
because as we're talking about popular sports,
that would just keep rising.
Every time we get together, man,
it seems like it's more and more popular.
It is. I was going to mention,
I was listening to the Morning Show last week
and I don't remember who your guest was,
but all they could talk about was pickleball at the Y,
pickleball at the Y.
And I thought, wow, free promotion.
But realistically, it's true.
We have an incredible amount of people
who come to play every single week,
adult and kids.
Usually we start putting up the nets about 10 AM
and we don't take them down to one
because we are packed to the entire time.
And it's a great way to get into the sport
because once we get outside,
you're usually hoping someone shows up.
Instead of knowing there's going to be a huge community
ready to play and they're willing to teach,
which is a great part.
And to that latter part, Baxter,
when it comes to people that have been hearing about pickleball
or they've been curious about it,
I think it'd be fun to just touch on a little bit
of what pickleball is.
We don't have to get into all the nuts and bolts of it
if you don't mind just touching on it a little bit.
Yeah, I think that'd be great
because there's a rise of people interested in the sport
but may not understand what it is.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so I'm going to give you something weird, James.
But if you shrunk down to the size of a 15-pound dog
and stood onto a ping pong table,
that's essentially what pickleball is.
That's awesome.
That's the best description I've ever heard of.
You have to think about it that way.
It's kind of like tennis,
but you're not trying to hit the ball as hard as you can.
It's more like ping pong where you want to be strategic
about what you're doing, get the people moving.
It's certainly more fun as a team game,
so it has two on two,
but it can be played one on one.
It's a lot more running.
Maybe not as fun, depends who you are.
But yeah, if you could imagine
or putting a toddler on a ping pong table,
that's what it would be like.
So it's a fun game.
Everybody can play it.
I go out there and I'll compete against our members
and guests, and they could range anywhere from 16 to 85,
and I'll still get my buck kick.
So it's for everyone, and it's an active game,
but you don't have to worry about getting injured
every time you play.
Yeah, yeah.
Just forgive me for one second, guys.
I got to reach out to Funkin' Wagnows
and Webster's Dictionary and make sure
that they get that description of pickleball in there,
because that is the best you're ever going to hear.
That's awesome.
That was a great job by you.
You know, seriousness, too.
It's great to hear of sports
that are bringing young and older people together.
I love that, and I love any sport
that in whatever age you are,
especially if you were getting up there in age,
and maybe you can't pick up a basketball like you used to
or go out and run like you used to or something,
where you still have an opportunity
to get some of that exercise in
and have some fun at the same time.
Pickleball is good.
I can't see this sport dipping down in popularity.
I think it's only going to rise,
and if not, stay at where it is.
It's the fastest-growing sport in America.
Yeah, yeah.
You got guys like LeBron James
and stuff buying pickleball teams and everything.
It's only going to get more and more pop.
I'm curious to see if it ends up in the Olympics,
as a side.
I'm curious to see.
Yeah, there we go.
The level of competition is continuously rising,
and I'm basically regurgitating
what our CEO tells me every day.
Matt is very interested and very involved
in the pickleball community, but
to the point he has all of us directors out there,
everyone is trying to learn it.
We're out there trying to learn how to play,
trying to get better as a team,
and it brings a lot of laughs.
But the sport itself,
the pro level is continuously getting better.
Unlike some of these sports,
where I mean, I'm a big hockey fan,
and they can't reinvent the wheel every single year.
Whereas pickleball is still growing to the point
where you're going to see
a completely different game in 10 years.
Yeah, that's a great point, man.
I didn't even thought about that.
I've been watching hockey my whole life,
and you're right.
It doesn't mean some things with a little bit of puck play,
but not really that different.
Yeah, the skill changes, but the game doesn't.
No, that's a really cool point to think of
with this sport and being involved
in that these stages to be able to kind of see
that kind of growth of it and everything.
Very interesting.
Thank you, Baxter.
Carly, I want to talk a little bit about this
because I've been dying to talk about this.
The Easter egg swim.
We tell people what this is and when it is.
Yeah, so the Easter egg swim
as a lot of family knows,
the Easter bunny is sneaky.
Yeah.
And he or she comes to the Y often and hides things.
So this year, we have communicated with the Easter bunny
and he is a swimmer.
And he is dropping eggs in our recreational pool.
So on Saturday, March 30th,
we are doing three different Easter egg hunts in our pool.
Three different 45 minute time periods
that you could sign up for.
The cost for members is $5 and non-members is $9
and registration will close as of March 29th.
Oh, okay.
Do you need a swimsuit for this?
Do you need a swimsuit?
Yes.
I would recommend a swimsuit.
You are going to be in the water.
You never know what that bunny is going to put in these eggs.
Some could be at the bottom.
Some could be floating.
Different prizes could be at the end of it,
depending on how many you get.
But this is for all ages up, I should say,
all ages till 16.
But if they're...
Oh, I'm so excited for a second though.
Under eight years old, though,
if their little ones, an adult would have to be in the water
but they would not have to register for the event.
I want to send a special shout out to you guys
of being able to work with the Easter Bunny.
Pam and I have been trying to get the Easter Bunny
on Midday Magazine for years, no luck.
Nothing.
Nothing, can't connect.
We couldn't get Santa.
Nice, nicely done.
Connection has got us this far.
Good, well done.
It's a fun idea.
Do you know how this came about?
How this idea came about?
Because I've never heard anything like this.
No, I've never heard about it,
but some other local wise kind of presented it
for my understanding in the Aqua Department.
So I don't know.
They almost have a really close connection.
And we're getting...
I heard we're going to get pretty hard
with these Easter eggs this year.
Which means we're going to need a lot of kids,
a lot of parents to be able to help
get all these Easter eggs out of the pool and all that.
Absolutely.
Otherwise, Baxter's going to have to do it.
Yeah, and I mean, he's got a lot else
of the things to do here.
We're still willing to get in the pool.
It's a good idea.
We're going to need a team player.
This is going to be fun.
And it's a different approach to the Easter egg hunt,
which is really fun for kids.
Whether a kid is three or they're 13,
they've been doing this, you know,
maybe a bit and everything.
It changes it up a little,
while also keeping the tradition still alive
and having fun with it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And gets kids in the pool.
Like getting kids more and using that pool
a little bit more over at the Y, not a bad thing.
No, and again, if you're a non-member,
please come and check it out,
see what the Y is all about.
Like you said, James, this will get you in the pool.
And getting you in the building is our big goal here.
I should warn the audience,
if you haven't been to the Y,
once you get in that building,
you're not going to want to leave.
It's amazing facility.
It's got so many wonderful features
to it and something for everybody.
I think that's a really good note, Carly,
to about this event with this Easter egg swim,
if you will, because if it's open to everybody,
and maybe you are a bit on the fence
or you've been driving past the Y,
and you've been thinking,
I got to stop by there.
I got to do that.
Well, it's been a couple of years
since the new building's been open,
and you're still saying that.
Here's an opportunity for you to get in there
and actually find out what we're talking about here today.
And every time the Y joins us,
don't we get to talk about other other notes
about this, you mentioned the registration.
How can people register for the event?
You can register online,
you can call into the Y,
or you can stop in to register as well.
Excellent.
Do you want to also make sure to mention,
oh, what were the dates for that again?
I'm sorry.
It is on Saturday, March 30th,
from 10 to one,
but there's three different time frames that they can do.
And how long did they have it to register for?
Until the 29th of March.
Thank you, Carl.
I appreciate that.
We also want to remind the audience
and people out there that the Y
is always looking for good volunteers.
We can always use an extra set of hands around there.
It's another great opportunity to check out the Y
and find out more about that.
If people want to have follow-up questions
about some of what we talked about today,
or they are interested in volunteering,
or any of the great features at the Y,
where should we direct them?
Either to our website,
which is SWCYMCA.org.
You could call in at 715-818-9622,
or you can stop in 601 West Grand Avenue.
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
Yes, very well done.
Both of you, great half an hour here.
Thank you so much for the time,
and everything you put into our community.
We appreciate you.
Thank you.
Thank you, James.
Be sure to follow the Y on social media as well.
It's a great follow.
And again, that website,
SWCYMCA.org, SWCYMCA.org.
We'll a more mid-day magazine
for you tomorrow right here at WFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
