Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this April 16th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Maylove here, and we're welcoming in our good friend, CEO of
your United Way of Southwood and Ames County's Terry Johns.
Good to see you, Terry.
Hey, good to see you.
Always appreciate the time.
It's nice when we have the time during the morning show to hang out and touch on things
that are time sensitive with the United Way or just up to date things on the United
Way.
But I love this opportunity as well, so we can really get our hands in the dirt, really
stretch out and get into these topics and these great things you guys have coming up.
And if you don't mind, I wanted to start things off with the Raffle and the Raffle winners.
And let everybody know that the Raffle winners are on your website if people haven't seen
them already.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we did sell calendar Raffle tickets earlier this year for a drawing taking place for
the month of April.
So each business day of April, we are doing a drawing.
You can't still get in on the Raffle, but you can see who's winning.
So we do do a drawing every day in our office at 11 a.m.
And we post those on our website.
So yes, you can see if you bought a Raffle ticket, you can hop on there and see if maybe
you're a winner, although we do call the winners each day.
So we would have called.
And then we also post them on our social media so that people can see that as well.
It's been really fun.
We'll cut all the checks at the beginning of May, just do it all at once and get them
sent out.
And sometimes we have people win twice if you can even believe that.
I mean, there's so many tickets in there.
And you know, just the randomness of the same person's name getting getting drawn twice,
but it has happened.
So this is just a really fun way for us to actually, I guess in theory, kick off our
fall campaign because the dollars that we raised with this Raffle go toward the go toward
the campaign.
And you know, I really used for the greater good of the of the community.
So those are up and and posted.
And we encourage you to, you know, if you think this kind of thing is fun, I think calendar
Raffles are great.
You know, we we've been doing it annually.
So, you know, I look forward to bringing it back again.
You know, we selling tickets again next February March for April.
So that's that's really cool looking forward to that.
And we know how much this area loves Raffles and loves putting into the United
Way.
So it's a win-win for the community and for everybody.
And some people it's a literal win-win.
They really do.
Literally.
Yes.
And I, you know, I think I'd be remiss too to not just call out every day.
All of the prizes are sponsored.
So we have a lot of great local businesses that are our partners.
And so literally we are putting into the campaign every dollar of the ticket sold.
None of that is being used for prizes because each one is sponsored.
And it does, you know, it is helpful to that local business because it's printed on, you
know, 2000 tickets, they're they're logo and we do that for the day, but we certainly
are appreciative and thankful to all of them that that sponsored a square on the smallest
drawing amount.
We have this year's $75.
It goes up to 200.
So super fun.
Nice.
And again, keep a lookout for those winners on their social media and on their website.
We'll give you that information before wrap up, certainly.
I'm excited to talk about this every time we get a chance to talk about this, Terry.
When we do hang out, I often bring up the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
When you told me about this years ago, my mind was literally blown.
Like I just thought it was one of the coolest things I've ever heard of as far as programs
and getting, putting into the community and all the different things that it does and
all the layers to it.
We have some exciting news about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library now that you're going
to be able to serve even more people and we're going to Adam's County.
Yeah, absolutely.
So this is a really cool program that is funded by our Women United.
And so when you hear us talk about, you know, I get really excited about Power of the
Purse.
And so when when you hear us talking about that, the dollars raised at Power of the Purse
support this program and a few others, but specifically support Imagination Library.
And when we were looking at this, you know, in our business meetings of Women United,
we said, gosh, we're serving Southwood County now.
So any every child who is birth to age five that resides in Southwood County, the child
needs to reside in Southwood County is eligible for free books.
And these are books that are very purposefully selected by reading interventionists on Dolly
Parton's staff at Dollywood Foundation.
And so they are intentionally chosen.
And in theory, a child could have a 60 book library by the time they turned five.
This is this is pivotal to their reading ability to their growth.
I mean, to the relationships that they develop with those who are enjoying that book with
them.
And so there's, there's just, you know, you try to kind of when you're starting something
kind of poke holes in it, like, okay, you know, what's, what's the downside?
What's the catch?
What's the, there isn't one, right?
There just isn't.
And so we've been offering this since 2017 to all, all youth in Southwood County.
And again, funded primarily by Women United and some other grants.
You know, we've got a great partner in, I'm just going to throw out Ocean Spray.
They have funded Imagination Library for many years and other businesses or they might
have some kind of a fun, you know, hey, we're going to do this.
Brought for I just for the heck of it, but we'd like it to go to Imagination Library.
So this is how we're funding it.
The other thing that we're doing is we're allowing individuals, you know, to sponsor
a child.
The cost is roughly $30 a year.
And so, you know, so if you donate $30, that child is going to get 12 books.
These are high quality books.
They have an insert from Dali in the, in the jacket, usually, you know, a little story
and, and, and also fun pointers for, you know, maybe parents who are just kind of at
their end.
Like, you know, I'm a, I'm a single parent.
I'm just, you know, I'm working two jobs, I've got, or, or whatever, or I'm, we're just
really busy.
But, but in there, there's, there'll be tips, you know, let's say it's a book about playing
outdoors, then it'll be, there'll be even be a list of questions to ask the child.
Well, tell us, tell me what your favorite thing to do is outdoors, and you might automatically
think, well, who doesn't do that when they read a book, but a lot of people don't do that.
You read the book.
Yeah.
But, but how do we now engage the child?
It builds vocabulary, it builds reading.
And so, you know, we could, we could go on for days about the value that this program brings.
But we as women united made the decision, I'm sorry, talking about it last fall.
And then this spring made a firm decision that we could extend this to the Adams County
part of our United Way service area.
So typically women united is just kind of Southwood County.
We haven't just had a lot of women engage from, you know, the southern part of our service
area.
And, and we were really just looking at it, but thinking we can, we can make an impact.
And we can do this.
And, you know, working with Dollywood so that we could get the, another account set up.
And, you know, all of the logistics that go behind the scenes that Stephanie from our
team worked really hard on.
And now we are launching in Adams County.
So if you reside in Adams County and you're the child has to live there, there is a form
on our website that you can, you can download and print out, or we will be at the Adams County
Kids Day on April 27th.
And this is a big draw and we, and there will be imagination library forms there.
So this is a Saturday event, I believe it runs 9-1, you know, where, where families bring
their children and there's all kinds of engaging activities in our 211 program participates
and then we'll also have imagination library.
And then from there, we'll just continue to launch throughout the summer, right?
Like working with child care centers, libraries, that kind of thing, but we're just so looking
forward to getting these books into, you know, into even more kids' hands.
You know, the fun part about it, James?
They get them in the mail.
Kids don't get mail like right until you, they just don't, and it has their name on it.
The book, you know, not like, and also the front, but like on the back, you know, your name
and your address and, and the parent name, and so that's really fun too.
It's just, there's, like I said, we can't really poke any holes in this program.
And, and no one can even poke a hole in the cost.
You cannot go by high quality, you know, specifically chosen books.
You cannot get 12 books for $30.
I, when you first brought this to me, I think it was 2019, 2020, something like that.
And my curious brain, I thought about that and I, I was actually in Madison and I was
thinking about doing this for my nephew, Henry.
And I was like, well, you know, Henry, if I was going to Barnes and Noble and I was going
to go, my sister used to work there.
So I was already there anyway.
And I'm kind of in my head.
I got two books in and I was already over 30.
And I'm not even kidding.
Like it's, to your point, this is such a great impact on that level too of the, the,
the, the getting these books out there, like that part of it is nice too.
It's, it's not certainly our key part of it, but it is a nice added bonus of this of
getting more books in the world, getting more books in kids hands, all the things to come
with that.
For sure.
And, and that includes the postage too.
I mean, it's, you know, I'm just saying you just can't, now if you're listening from
outside the area and you're like, this isn't fair, my kids can't get this.
My grandkids can't get this or you live in the area and your grandkids live somewhere
else because we get that question just a lot.
We just don't have the capacity, you know, we just don't.
So the child has to reside there.
But I will tell you that if you go to Deli Parton's Imagination Library website, you can
put in your zip code and you can see if there is a program that's serving that community.
I'm, I'm not saying there is, I'm not saying there isn't, but there are several communities
around Wisconsin that are, that are certainly doing imagination library.
So it is win-win, something else that's been kind of fun as it relates to imagination
library.
We have been doing the great book giveaway in June, right?
If your school lets out for many years.
And this is a series of reading in the park events, it's a way for kids to get books
for summer.
If they don't have them, we literally set up, I'll date myself, member RIF, reading
is fundamental.
Oh my god, yeah.
So they used to, you know, in their elementary schools, they'd have like tables set out
of books and you had to pick one and you got to keep it, right?
Yes.
So that's kind of what great book giveaway is, right?
We have tables and tables of books.
We have volunteers that come read to the kids, 20 minutes or so, half hour event.
The way that we get those books is we ask the community to provide us with new and gently
use books.
We are currently accepting books through April 26th at the United Way office, but what's
been cool and why I brought this up at this point is we've been getting some imagination
library books.
Oh my god.
You know what I mean?
That people have received and maybe they got them right away in 2017 when we started.
And now their children have aged out, but you don't.
I always had a hard time, like I don't want to just get rid of books, but if you know
they're going to go to another kid or another family.
So it's just been kind of fun to see some of those get donated to us so then we can get
those out as well.
That really got me full circle.
Yeah.
I love that kind of stuff.
That's so cool.
The symmetry of that is beautiful.
That's great.
Is there a deadline for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library?
No, Imagination Library is always open for registration.
We do have a capacity level, so we can only serve, you know, depending upon what we have
funding for, but which could in theory create a wait list situation, but you have to remember
that every month there's a child that turns five or there's 30 children that turn five
or whatever.
So then every month as if we had a waiting list and we do not know, but if we did, however
many children aged out, we would bring those children back out.
So I would say if you ended up on a wait list for some reason, and it is possible with
this launch in Adams and with doing it on kids day, and it is possible that we all of a
sudden get right up to that max, but every month we'll have some graduate out, and so
my guess would be that if you were on a wait list, it'd be just a couple months.
And it is not our goal or intention to have a wait list, but we also know what we can
in Caniford, what we have a support level for.
And we will be soon seeking out grant opportunities to help fund the Adams County portion of the
program as well.
So I mean, I think we were a little nervous when we launched in Southwood County just
about cost and being able to sustain it, right?
Like you don't want to take out something like this and then be like, oh, sorry.
And so we've had no, no struggle to sustain.
So I anticipate it will be the same once it kind of catches on and, you know, foundations,
businesses learn about it, individuals.
We never ask families who have children enrolled.
They are never approached to help fund the program, but we have once children graduate
out, just said, hey, if you want to pay this forward, $30 will support a kid.
There's no pressure to do it.
We don't email you a hundred times, but we do just, you know, throw it out there that
if you want to make sure it continues, that is one way to do it.
That's a great idea.
And the kids day, can we go over the details of that one more time again?
Yeah, I don't have a ton of details because we don't host it.
We just participate, but it is, it's in Adams County.
And I don't even, I don't even know the location, but it's Adams County Kids
Day.
Yeah.
And it's on April 27th, which is a Saturday.
And I believe it's from nine to one.
Okay.
And I can actually, Amy from our United Way team participates.
So I can get the information from her and get it to you.
And then you can just talk about it like crazy.
Yeah.
It's what we want to do.
Make sure that I cover the Adams area.
We try to do that as best we can around here.
So we can touch on that.
We can do a teaser.
I'll be here in the morning on the 18th in two days.
And I'll have that information with me.
There we go.
All right.
It'll make people tune in.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Two in and join us as we're talking to CEO of your United Way Southwood
of Adams County's Terry Johns and Terry, you just already mentioned us.
You teased it a little bit.
The great book.
Give away.
I want to talk about this a little bit and remind everybody about this great
event in our community.
Yeah.
So we are collecting new and gently used books now through August 26th.
So basically you have to August April 26th.
Basically you have two weeks.
If you have gently used books that you'd like to donate, we're especially in need of baby
board books and easy readers.
So you know, probably your birth till age two, three ish is really what we're what we have
a great need for.
But we would accept any books that are in usable condition that could be enjoyed by
another child.
And then the events will take place after school lets out.
So June 10th through the 18th.
And I'm sure you know, well, plenty of opportunities to talk about that some more.
And if you're curious about the dates and locations, they are posted on our website
at UWAC.org.
You just need to click on great book giveaway and then you can see because we move around
to all the different small communities that we serve.
So we're in, you know, Rudolph, Esper, Rapids, a few different places, Rome, Adams
Friendship.
So, you know, we certainly encourage you to take a look at that and see which works best.
And for planning purposes, there are about 30 minutes.
It is how long the event goes.
Of course, we encourage people if it's a beautiful day, bring a picnic and enjoy that
park that you might be in and that kind of thing.
You're at some great locations.
So as far as that goes, you're going to have a, if you have some nice weather, you're
going to have even more fun to look forward to about that.
And we will touch more on this as we get closer to some of these dates and reminding everybody
to be out there and read to these kids and have fun with it.
You mentioned the kind of books you're looking for, the kind of books that we don't need
are, is that pretty basic?
Okay.
If it, if the bindings broken, we don't need it.
That kind of thing.
Because it, you know, we just want to, or like one of the things that we, and kids do this.
I'm not saying kids don't do this, but like if there's like bite marks on it, you know,
we just don't, we just don't put those out to, to pass to another, to another fan.
Kids are awesome.
They're, they're wonderful.
They are the future.
They're weird.
Well, I mean, I just, I did it too.
Yeah.
Or when they're teething, like, you know, I mean, it's just a natural.
So yeah.
So we just don't.
So, you know, I would say gently used.
Yes.
And, and I wanted to remind people about that.
Of course, again, the, the dates are kicking off in June too.
So keep that in mind, everybody.
Let's get into the United Weekend event.
This is a fun one to us when we love talking about Terry.
Yes.
So we are currently taking registration for United Weekend.
This is our annual food sculpture contest.
We'll be, we'll, the actual event is June 18th at the Raptor game, which is fun, businesses,
organizations, civic groups, families that sign up to build a sculpture.
We'll build from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
And then the sculptures are on display for the Raptor game.
Really designed to be a hunger awareness event.
The leveraging of the food is the bonus, right?
You know, like, that's a good thing.
And we get that out to partner programs in the community.
But really, we want to build awareness around hunger.
And, you know, we all know and we love our rafters.
And that is one of the largest captive audiences we have in this community, you know, at any given time.
And so for us to be able to be there and, and do this building and people can come by earlier during the day
if they want to check things out.
And, and the other thing we do is collect a non-perishable food item from people who are coming to the game.
Certainly not required, but if you'd like to contribute to what we're leveraging, you know, as far as food for that day.
So that is, that, you know, that's really how people can participate.
But we are taking registrations for teams.
And if your team is registered by May 1st, you get put into a drawing for four tickets in the craft
river in the point craft river area.
So that's super fun.
So one of our, you know, teams or, or somebody from those teams will have an opportunity to win those.
And so that's cool because the rafters donate those to us so that we can, we can use them in that way.
Helps us get people registered a little bit earlier.
So we just know for planning purposes, you know, what we have for space, what we need for space and that kind of thing.
So, yeah, we're really looking forward to it again.
June event, but register registration is now.
You can look at this from two different perspectives.
You can look at it as major league or minor league.
So if you're going to have more than 500 items, your major less than 500, your minor, because sometimes that comes up.
Like, there are some, like, amazingly elaborate sculptures, as you know, but that are using, you know, 3000 cans of food.
And, and someone might think that's completely overwhelming, which it could be, right?
If you don't have a team that, but, but you can build something with 300 cans of food, right?
And, and there is no theme, you can build whatever you want, but it is fun.
You know, for people when it's kind of something recognizable, but we've had all kinds of fun stuff.
I mean, I don't know anything I haven't seen yet.
And then I'll see something this year that's completely new and below my mind.
Like every year, it never fails.
It's awesome. Sometimes people try to write a word, you know, within the cans, or it might be, you know, we had a big apple one year.
We've had a pontoon boat. We've had a castle. We've had, I mean, it's just, we've had minions.
We've had R2D2. I love the characters.
Yeah. So, so it is really fun, you know, and certainly appreciated the level of support, because this, you know, especially for businesses or other civic groups,
this is something outside of what they're normally doing, right? So, so you have to plan it.
You even have to do a little engineering, honestly, because you're, and you're building it outside.
And so, so I think there's, you know, there's quite a bit that goes into it.
And I don't say that to scare people. I say that to, you know, it's fun, right?
There's a little challenge with it. And, and people just so appreciate it.
When we're watching people, you know, um, fans that are coming to the game and we're watching them, like talking about it's, it's fabulous.
And it's very remarkable, you know, these companies that, and individuals and, and groups that put these together.
It's, uh, one of those things where we love our rafters. We wait all year for this.
It, it says something that people are just, uh, not distracted, but they go there just as much for this as to see the game.
Yeah, it's awesome. And take it in. And I, it's one of the things I get the biggest kick out of every year is the, during the game and hearing people in the stands, talk them.
Oh, you got to see this or, oh, you got to check this out and stuff. And it, it feels good.
It's always fun to see the community coming together and doing these kind of things.
But then it hits you at some point in the night or maybe early on or sometimes when they read the numbers out loud, the amount of
cans that was collected, the amount of pounds that was collected of food.
And you think about how much even just five pounds can impact a family.
And we're talking thousands of pounds. Absolutely. It's, it's, I had no words. Yeah, it's really, it's really awesome.
It's a really cool thing. Um, I, I wanted to touch on one of the thing about a couple of things about this.
For one, uh, the, you were adding to what the Southwark County, uh, hunger coalition is already put together.
Uh, over 72,000 pounds of food, uh, from, uh, the event has been leveraged since 2013.
And we can add to that. We're going to add to that. Um, that is pretty impressive.
And it just needs to be put out there. It's incredible work that has been done from this event.
And also to keep in mind that the rafter games we're talking about, the rafter game we're talking about, they're going to be taking on the battle
Creek jacks, uh, to be 630 game. Um, so look forward to that too as well, especially if you're, uh, looking, I know some fans out there
like to see certain teams. That's another added bonus to this.
If, uh, people want to register Terry, if they want to put a team together or any of the above, have any questions about this one.
Uh, who should we send them to?
Yep. Registration forms are on our website. So if you know you want to do it and you want to get in before that may first deadline to get the craft river tickets.
Um, the forms are there. Otherwise, if you have questions, you're not sure. Um, you should get in touch with Ben in our office at 715 421-0390.
And, uh, Terry, we got a couple of minutes left as we're wrapping up. Was there anything you wanted to touch on? We didn't get a chance to.
I'm not used to saying that to you.
Yes, I do. You really thought I'd know. Um, so just a couple of other things to, to bring awareness around and the first is
where we're at in our, um, plan for community well-being. So this is, you know, when we think about the dollars that are donated invested in the community, um,
you know, where do they go? How do they get allocated? And so next week is actually when our panel volunteers. So we have three different panels, one for each of our strategy areas that will be hearing, um, funding presentations from, from local, uh,
agencies looking for program funding. So that happens next week. So, you know, certainly big thanks to all of them because that is the hardest volunteer opportunity that we have.
It is because it's hard because you want to fund everybody. And you want to have enough funding for everything that they need. And we just, and we don't, I mean, that's the reality.
We have a very generous community. We have, we have phenomenal campaigns. I mean, so there's no, there's no discounting any of that. But what we have to allocate is what we have to allocate and we have to make that work. And, and I think, honestly, no matter how much we raised, you know, let's say this fall, we raised $5 million.
The requests would be $6 million. Yeah, I mean, it's just the nature of the beast, right? So, so that group will be again, it's three separate panels. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday next week, they'll be, you know, making some listening intently and being very thoughtful about process and questions and then making a funding recommendation to the Community Impact Committee of our Board of Directors. And then from there, it moves forward to the board. And then by middle to end of May, we will notify programs. If they're going
to receive funding for January of 25, so they have plenty of time to plan, right? They can plan budgets. They can work things out. And it is, of course, always contingent on us, raising the money in the fall. But, but to date, we've been able to be pretty strategic about what we allocate and then getting within that amount. So it's, it's really awesome.
It's fantastic. Terry, appreciate you so much. If people have follow the questions, one of them more, how can they get in touch with you? Yeah, you can visit us on our website. All of our email addresses are there in case you're looking for a particular area. Otherwise, always feel free to give us a call 715-421-0390.
Always appreciate you and your team. What you guys do for our community. We'll talk again real soon. Sounds great. Well, our more midday magazine for you coming up on tomorrow right here at WFHR locally grown radio.
