Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for the April 16th, 2024. Have your host James
behind the mic. And at 330 today, we're going to welcome in CEO of your United Way of
Southwood and Ames counties, Terry Johns, looking forward to speaking with her, looking forward
to this conversation we're about to have with our guests. We have Wisconsin Rapids Fire
Chief in with us right now. Todd X. Todd, good to see you. Good to see you too. Thank you
for having us. Thanks for being here, sir. Appreciate the time. Sarah Lucini is with us as well
from the Wood County Health Department. Sarah, thanks for being here. Thank you.
And we have Patrick Delaney with us. Older person in Wisconsin Rapids. Patrick, good
to see you. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Appreciate the time from all of you. If I messed
up anybody's names, mine is mail off. You are welcome to mess it up all you like. It's
a 20 minute show. So I should get it right by the end of the show. But in all seriousness,
I cannot thank you all enough for being here. Every one of you has a different role in our
community that we are thankful for and appreciative of. And anytime I get you guys in front of
me, I like to thank you eye to eye in person to person. So our Wood County Health Department,
we greatly appreciate the work you guys do. We have your back. And most of us wouldn't
know what to do or where we would be without you guys. We would greatly appreciate what
you do. Being an older person, Patrick is something that we are very, especially coming
out of another recent election. It's something we're always encouraging people to do and be
a part of. Appreciate you doing that with your time. Thank you for that. And Chief, we
are just talking in our pregame. I got to tell you when I was a kid, my first field trip
in Chicago was going to the Chicago Fire Department. And I wanted to be an actor since I was
seven. But right before that, I wanted your job. I have always admired and looked up to
fire firemen and what they do and not just what you do in the field, but who you are as
people. So greatly appreciate what you do for our community. Thank you so much for being
here. And all of you, thank you for this topic. What we're going to get into today is
a program that will be around to assist those who are relying on electrical medical machines
during a power or electrical outage. This is a gray area. This is something that isn't
the first thing a lot of people might think of with a power outage or something like that.
So I'm always appreciative of a community seeing those, those blind spots, those gray areas
and being able to do something about them. Now, Chief, when it comes to this, this, um,
this idea of this program, where did this start? Where did this come from?
Actually, you can thank all the person Delaney to my right here. He, uh,
he'd come to me with the idea that I think there's a population out there that are, you know,
at risk during electrical outages and cities or something we can do about that. And I said,
well, we sure can work on it. And we probably were kind of slow in the start, but I don't know,
I think that we didn't know how to attack this. So we kind of put our heads together and decided
that, you know, it's not something that really 9-1-1 can affect during a big operations like that,
because they're already busy. So we come up with the volunteer idea. And we started putting that
together with, you know, how are we going to incorporate this and right away we thought of
Woodconey Health. And actually, I reached out to Sarah for some statistics to try to find out,
you know, how big a population is out there. Yeah. And she got, she said, this is something I think
I would really like to get involved with. So she, she come on board with us and the statistics show
there's a large population out there, but we don't know how much of that population are dependent on
themselves or very few people. So some of that population is in nursing homes and places like that
that have people to help them. So we're trying to target that population set that is, you know,
independent or has very few people to rely on in the time of emergency like this.
Yeah. So we come up with the idea of volunteers. Can we pair up volunteers that are geographically
in the same location throughout the city as the people that are dependent on those electrical
devices. And what then came up was, you know, we got an organization in the county that that
takes care of volunteers very well being the United Way and we and that was Sarah's idea and
she said we should get a whole of Ben Eberline who kind of runs that. So now we're, we're kind of
to where we are now is we want to get that definitive number of what is out there. So
what we come up with is program is to collect some data and what are those numbers that are out
within our community. And then once we get that definitive number, we can then reach out to volunteers
and pair them up looking at like two volunteers per citizen that needs that help so that there's
always somebody there for them in time and need. So that's kind of a short, wronged about, you know,
that's some good. That's some good cliff notes. I feel pretty caught up about that. I think I
could take a test out that was pretty good. Thank you for that, Sarah. Appreciate it. Sarah,
I want to talk to you about those stats in a moment. I want to get to that. But if you don't mind
Patrick, I want to cut a piggyback off of what Chief was saying and where this idea started with
you, it kind of begins, it seems. Where did they begin for you? Where did you first see this blind
spot, this great area that it was need and go to the, and made you think, I should go to the
fire chief about this and that. Well, that's an excellent question. Actually, it's kind of hard to
answer because, you know, being an alderman, I'm looking for ways to help the community out. And
it's not just in going and rubber stamping everything that goes through common council. Yeah,
yeah, which I'm really good at. Yeah, that's good. It's a good quality to have. Anybody that knows me
knows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I would, is it one of those things where you see it so,
you've seen it the number of times and you kind of make a mental note about it. It wasn't
necessarily one thing or one person that came to you. It was, it was kind of a number of
actions. Is it more like that? Yeah, I think it started with being involved in the community
and also with our family, but knowing elderly people that where their spouse has passed away
in their home alone, in an emergency event, the fire and police department are so overwhelmed
that we really do need something that can help the population out. And this is for anybody that
is reliant on electricity that elderly typically don't like to bother anyone until it's too late.
Yeah. So, this is a program where we can just have some people come and check on them,
that people are going to be background checked and everything's going to be safe with them.
And that part is certainly key to that. I want to get into that more as we go into the conversation.
And thank you, Patrick. Appreciate that. Sarah, for some of us, this seems like an issue,
but we weren't sure. I imagine for you and the Wood County Health Department and your colleagues,
you may have already seen that this was becoming an issue already an issue. Can we talk about those
stats that the chief asked you about and get into that a little bit? And why this is such a need?
Yeah, absolutely. So, through the Department of Health Services, they do issue us quarterly
information about folks that may be dependent on electric devices for their medical needs.
And we use that de-identified data to be able to determine what types of needs would be in our
community, because it's important for us to understand our needs of the community so we can
plan ahead of time, because of a big focus within the health department is obviously resiliency
and recovery from any type of natural disaster infectious outbreak things such as that.
So, we are able to obtain that information, but like I said, it's de-identified. So, we don't
exactly know which individuals may be disproportionately disadvantaged in the event of a power outage.
So, in the creation of this program, we're going to have a self-registration process,
so folks who self-identify as having durable medical devices at home, they might be bed-confined,
older adults, folks that might be disabled, or even those that are socially isolated,
like Cheevakas had mentioned, that might not have those support systems, those folks can register,
and then we can be able to pair them with those volunteers quickly.
It's, I mean, just on the surface, this seems like such a great idea, and
not having any of those stats or any of that information, just being in this town for 20 years,
it feels like, oh yeah, on the surface, this is definitely something we could use,
and it seems like the, what you see, what you're seeing is kind of backing that up,
but we still need this data to really bring it home. That's a key part of this conversation
today and part of what we're having you on the air for, but certainly something I think that even
just as in general is interesting to think about for locals and something to keep in mind,
I can't help myself, I think of other interviews I've done with our ADRC, and when we are promoting
meals on wheels, it's, yes, it's important, it's important that they get the food, that they get
that protein, just as important as that check-in, just as important as, you know, just stop it,
how you doing, how's things going, that kind of thing, it's as just as important as the protein
there. So with something like this, it feels like it's great on the surface of what it is,
it may have even more benefits to it that we're not seeing right now that we won't know until we're
actually doing it. Absolutely, that allows for that connection point to within our community,
so even though this is going to be on the back end with a response aspect to it,
it's also going to help us identify some of those prevention measures and different types of
initiatives that we can work on in order to promote health within our community. When it comes to
going fast forwarding a little bit here, oh, and I didn't want to say something to you chief,
you mentioned that this process may have been slow going, I'm glad. Look, I wanted to get done,
and I wanted, but I wanted to be right, and I think that we need more of that, we need to get back
to more of that, we all, all of us want things done in the second and want to be done with things
right away and all that, not everything's like that, and something like this, it needs to take time,
we need to be patient with this, we need to be stretch our legs a little bit and make this
get right for the people that need it, so I appreciate that, I appreciate that you guys have
taken your time with this, you didn't just bulldoze it in and everything, when it comes to
the types of people that will volunteer, the types of people we're looking for, I don't want to
get too far ahead here or anything, but it is always nice to put the thought in people's heads and
hey, you could be one of those people, what is the kind of person that we're looking for for something
like this, and I can ask this question to any of you, but I'm looking right at you sir, I'm sorry,
but from your opinion and your perspective, the type of people that would make gold volunteers
for something like this, what I would say is anyone who has the heart for their community,
these folks don't necessarily need to be medically trained, certified or licensed by any means,
we will actually have a training onboarding process so that any of these volunteers are able
to pick up on certain cues where they might need additional help or resources for this individual,
so honestly, if you're over the age of 18 and you have some time to volunteer and
dedicate to your community, I would say please sign up. I would say too to kind of
echo that or go along with that is, even though whether you don't have the training ahead of time,
Sarah talked about, you know, we're going to give you some training, we're going to try to
pair them up to with the people that are going to be, you know, coming over to their home in the
time in need and get them paired up and associated with them ahead of time, so that's not just,
they're never going to see them before, but and with that also, doesn't mean that if we did have
a first responder or somebody that was a nurse and had that that thrived, you know, help with the
community, they would be great volunteers for this, but don't don't let it think that it's,
you got to be trained before you come to this, we will give you what you need.
That's great to know and it's something else, I know when I volunteered, when I've done
things, one of the, you know, there's, it's your heart that pulls you into it, it's your empathy,
the pulls you into it, but it's never bad to learn a new skill set, like that always is nice,
they kind of, like it's, it's a bit of a win-win kind of situation that your time is, is valuable
and you're using it well and you come away with this kind of skill set or some of these things that
you or a loved one may be able to use in your own personal life one day, and I think that that
is an added bonus to this that needs, should be mentioned, I think that's noteworthy about it.
When it comes to collecting this data, let's get into that and how we can help with that, so as a
community, you know this community as well as I do, we have a lot of helpers out there, a lot of
people that will want to put into this and want to help, how can we collect this, how are we
collecting this data? Sure, so the city of Wisconsin Rapids has an online sign up, so you can go to
their main website, there's a link down there and the program's called the Guardian Angel program,
so you can just tap on there quickly, there's a brief description of what the program is,
individuals who we anticipate to be serving during the times and need, and there's also going to
be a registration link for the individuals to sign up, if they believe that they fit into some of
these categories that might need to be checked in on during a power outage, and then there will also
be a separate link for folks to sign up to volunteer. www.rapids.org, I encourage you to bookmark that,
if you haven't done so already, www.rapids.org is where you can find out that information and more.
When it comes to anything else we can cover about this, because you mentioned the United
Way got involved and not surprised, we got Terry coming in next and she's on the air with us
all the time and we're talking about different ways, one of the things I think the United Way does
well, and not to say others don't, but I think they do incredibly well, is finding those gray areas
in our community. We've got a lot of great organizations out there covering a lot of big topics,
but for every big topic there is something like this, and it's important that not only have
these things covered, but to have an organization that really knows what they're doing, and can really
be a big asset when it comes to this, so I think that that's a wonderful thing to be able to see,
gives a lot of confidence as well, I think for the people that are going to need this service,
that are going to need this program, and to that point, to the people that need this program,
I'm personally thankful to see something like that, and hope to see more of these types of things
going forward. We're only here because of these people, because of these people that the seniors
were talking about, the older generation, none of us are here without them, and I think that one of
the least things we can do is try to have their back, try to help in any way we can, and something
like this is again, I keep coming back to that gray area part of things where there's so much that
we cover, but then there's something like this that we just don't always see, and I appreciate you
all coming here today, taking the initiative to get this ball rolling, and looking forward to
having you back to talk more about this program, once it is up and running, and how people can
be involved, I think that that's, so yes, you are going to have to come back, I'm so sorry, but
you notice I waited to the end of the interview to bring that up. We are definitely going to have
to have you guys back, though, and talk more about this. Is there anything as far as right now that
we can do? Are we currently collecting data? Are we currently able to give you guys data? Is there
any way we can help write this second right now? Yeah, I'm just in contact with our IT. He's just
finalizing the link on there, and that will be for sure live. We have to do some modifications with
some of the language on there, but once that goes live, you can click on there, and then put your
data in, or we are discussing too, because a lot of people are not savvy with a computer. I think
we're talking about having a flyer that you could sign up off with a flyer then and hand that in,
so that we're catching all aspects of who is in need of it. To go along with what you're saying
about the population that have us here, that population is the, you know, was the largest working
population ever in history, and in our area here, Central Wisconsin, Stevens Point, Marshfield,
Wisconsin Rapids, has the highest elderly population per capita, is one of the highest in the nation.
So that kind of shows the importance of a program like this in our area here right now.
Well said, yeah. To the point of the people that are going to be using this service quite a bit
and everything, you mentioned that they may not be, or some people might not be tech savvy. I will
say that I've known plenty of seniors that are, and my, my papa was 94 and better on computers
and I'll ever be. But there are more, more traditionally, it does seem to be a part of the population,
is not always tech savvy. So when it comes to that, is there a way for them, we're going to find
ways for them to get the data to us as well, even if they are not. And when that website is up
and running, when these things are happening, we will let the audience know as soon as we know,
we'll get it out there right away. If people have follow the questions, want to know more about some
what we talked about today, how can they reach you Sarah? Yeah, so I can be reached at the Wood
County Health Department. We can take direct calls at 421-8911 and just ask for Sarah. And Chief,
how can they reach you? My direct phone is 421-6278. They can call there. And if it's a question that
I can't answer because it's the, the, the, the County Health side, we will refer them over to her.
I appreciate that. All of you, thank you so much for the time today. Really do appreciate you being
here. Thank you all for what you do for our community and hanging out with me today and putting
up with my questions. I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And again, find out more
and keep an eye out for this link at wirapids.org, wirapids.org. We will take a quick time out. We'll
come back with more midday magazine here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
