Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Friday, July 12th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
In part 2 at 430 today, we're going to speak with Lily of the Wood County Master Gardeners,
along with Richard and Roberta, and a big thank you to Visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau
for giving us an opportunity to talk to them about their 21st annual garden walk.
Right now we have in with us Margie and Margie, how do I say is it Strakka?
Strakka.
Strakka.
Thank you very much.
It's a beautiful name, by the way.
Margie, thank you very much for being here.
Margie is here to talk to us about the fourth annual Vesper days coming up July 19th and
20th.
We're so excited about this, Margie, and we're talking a little bit before our interview
here.
And as a kid, I spent a lot of time in Vesper, love that area, love anything that's going
to bring people to that area more.
And when I asked Margie a little bit about the history of Vesper days, you kind of started
it almost seems like you have a little bit of that too.
Yeah.
So years ago my sister actually lived in Vesper and we used to go to the Fireman's picnic.
We had a blast and I fell in love with Vesper.
And until I met my husband, there was no way I was ever going to move anywhere other
than Marshfield and West.
But he's from Rapids, I'm from Marshfield, Vesper was in the middle, so it kind of brought
me home.
Margie, you don't know this.
I am a foolish romantic.
I love that.
That's a beautiful story.
That's awesome.
That's very cool.
A real big shout out to the Fireman's picnic.
That's a signature event in this area.
We love that.
And another one that brings us to Vesper and that wonderful area over there.
That's really cool.
So that is some of the inspiration for where this came from.
And a really smart idea too.
Fourth annual already.
I remember this starting out and thinking, this is going to be nice, this is going to
be something fun.
You guys have really built this up too.
There is so much going on over these two days.
Let's start in chronological order with Friday.
And Friday has got a real family night feel to it.
So Friday night, we want it to be all about the family.
We want the whole weekend to be all about the family and bring in people to the Vesper
to have fun.
So Friday night, we started out with making games and having prizes and everybody won.
Everybody got a prize and just making it free for the kids.
Well, the first year we couldn't.
But now we want a lot of stuff to be free for the families.
We'll have hot dogs and those we'll have to pay for, but like the movie and kids inflatables
will be free again Friday night.
So yeah.
It's fantastic.
And actually this year we're happy to have the games come back that had been there like
30 years ago in Vesper.
They're coming back.
They're going to have four games set up and they have agreed to buy one, get one free
for a family night.
Wow.
They're regular pay, you know, price on Saturday.
So they were pretty on board with helping us stay with the family.
You know, we'll talk more about this before we wrap up, but these kind of events take
a lot of, a lot of people to make them happen.
And often, more than not, oftentimes businesses working with these events and a big shout out
to all those local businesses to do that.
We'll talk more about that before the end of the interview, but that's great to hear.
And so it's like a really fun Friday night already.
Already subscribed.
And then moving on, oh, a movie in Cameron Park and that doesn't work with the Lester
Public Library.
They, we, when Wendy tells us what movie has been popular, that's, we get a list of them
and then we pick which one we think and we won't know that until later this next week.
You know, Margie, something else that I think about with this event that I think is important
to is certainly we love events to bring the whole family together, the kids can be involved
in.
And the kids, they're, they're us when we were young and going to the fireman's picnic
or something like that and they get inspired by these things and they see their, their
parents, their grandparents, their adults, they see adults enjoying their community, enjoying
each other and enjoying these kind of events and everything.
That's, that's how we keep these kind of things going too.
That's it.
It's, it's an important part of all this.
Well, we want everybody to have fun, enjoy themselves, celebrate the Vesper area.
There is a, there is a, a really important tone to this too with all of these kind of
events of making sure that kids see people loving their communities and wanting to stay
in that community and build that community up and everything.
Yep.
I totally agree.
There's also some nostalgia in here too with me.
I can't help myself but the, the movie in the, the Cameron Park is such a kind of outdoor,
you know, going to the movie theater and seeing a movie kind of feel to it and kids
just don't really have that much anymore.
So that's kind of fun for the whole family to be able to do.
Kind of a way to have a drive-in movie without the cars.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
You know, it's a perfect, a perfect way to put it.
Yes.
We have mosquito escape spray.
So yeah.
The first year the mosquito has carried us away and it was pretty, pretty bad but we found
mosquito escapes and they've been very helpful last three years.
So, and, and so does that, that kind of cover Friday for you?
Yes.
Okay.
This Saturday I do want to remind people that this is, while there are some things that
you will pay for as Margie was touching on, this is a free event and this is open to
everybody.
Correct.
That is correct.
So while we're talking about this, I do want to remind everybody and you can do this
while we're talking on Facebook.
They have a Facebook page.
Yes, you do.
And you can go there, like their page, subscribe to what they're doing, keep up the date on
not only this year but next year's but you can also share that page and, and please do.
And the other thing that I added, I learned how to do this this year but I figured out how
to put a volunteer sign-up sheet on there.
So if you were willing to volunteer, there are slots on there to please.
That's where our biggest need is right now.
I'm glad you said that I always like to wrap up these conversations with looking for volunteers
and we'll talk about that more too before we wrap up.
But that's really smart.
Good on you for doing that.
I'm still figuring out Facebook, don't feel bad, I'm still trying to figure it out.
And you like that, share that on your pages.
You just never know who might see that the wooden otherwise.
So I encourage you to do that, everybody.
We move on to Saturday where the event is going from 9 to 11, I got some great stuff to
kick things off to and keep in mind that the parade is at noon.
It is.
So we're going to start, usually a craft vendor starts showing up around 7 o'clock to set
up.
And they're on the grounds from 9 to 4 p.m.
We have 24 signed up this year.
So at 10 o'clock till 9 p.m., the food trucks will be there and we have a lot of food.
Summer have been there for past the last four years and I thank them.
They are wonderful.
We've added a couple new ones again.
Then we have our beer tent, of course, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The parade is at noon.
The lineup starts at 10 at the Nooram cold storage building.
There is no sign-up sheet.
There is no fee for the parade.
We line you up as you come into the parking lot.
We just request that you don't stop the parade.
That would be nice.
Or be disruptive.
And from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. the inflatables in the park and the kids will have to pay for
those then.
But D&T bounce house rentals has those for us.
And 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. we have the GB dance band.
So I'm pretty excited to hear them.
30s to 60s music.
I mean, that is a great, that is some great music that they're covering there.
That's going to be fun.
And some polka music, we got to have that.
We're proud of our polka around here at WFHR.
Yeah, thank you for mentioning that.
From 1.30 to 2.30 is going to be our kids' penny scramble.
And that's from pre-K to 5th grade at 2.45 to 3.45.
Something new this year is a lot of the adults watching the kids' penny scramble.
And other years hadn't seen it before.
And like me from when I grew up over by Grant and I was part of the little kids' penny
scramble.
So that's why I got the idea for some of this stuff.
And so this year we're going to add an adult scramble.
That's such a good idea.
That's so good.
So we've gone around to local bars and not so local bars.
We actually went to York, Wisconsin.
Oh, cool.
And they donated a $25 gift certificate and some beer tickets and then over by Sherwood.
We've gone all over and the bars have been so supportive and donating.
So it'll be fun.
We're going to have the adult, ladies go first and then we'll have the man and then we'll
have a free froth.
So such a good idea.
A big shout out to you guys and doing that work, that diligence of finding those bars
and going out of town and maybe even out of your comfort zone in some of those ways.
And a great idea.
They have the kids and adults thing.
That's just going to be fun for everybody.
The kids are going to be watching the adults doing this.
They're going to be having some critiquing too.
I got to admit, I am so excited.
Yeah, it's a great idea.
It was actually my husband's idea.
So I do have to give you kudos for that.
Do you mind if I don't mean to slow you down here and to rub?
But I have to ask because I don't know what a penny scramble is.
I didn't grow up around here and I'm not sure if they're just a popular thing around
here.
Can we touch on that?
So when I was a kid, a penny scramble, we did it in Grant and they take sawdust and
they make it in a roll on the road and then they throw change back when I was a kid.
It was silver dollars and quarters and pennies and nickels and, you know, just a whole
mnagerie of change.
And then they have groups.
So they give you like the little kids can have one person, a parent help them.
And whatever they find in the sawdust, they get to keep.
Okay, okay.
I see.
You know, and getting the kids to focus on the change and not playing in the sawdust is
fun.
It is.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
Once the kids, the older kids catch on, man.
They're like whip the two of the sand and the sand flying everywhere.
Yeah.
Oh, that is going to be a blast.
Yeah.
What a great idea.
Shout out to you and your husband.
Those are both the good ideas right there.
That's great.
So that is going to be a lot of fun looking forward to that.
And it looks like you've got some more music coming up too.
Yeah, we do.
So actually moving back, we got bingol from two to four.
Oh, yeah.
We don't want to forget that.
Nope.
We can't forget that.
And then we didn't have the cakewalk last year and I took a lot of guff forts this
year.
The cakewalk back from four, 30 to six.
Good to hear.
And then from five, 30 to seven is the kid's petal pole.
Yeah.
So that's a lot of fun and we can't not do that.
And then from seven to 11 p.m., we have Ember, the 2023 Wisconsin State Band Champions.
That ain't for them.
We're so excited.
Yeah.
I've heard nothing but good things.
Great music.
Great musician.
I actually saw them at Country Fest.
They were phenomenal.
Oh, yeah.
Just a little bit I've seen in everything.
I've really impressed.
And that's a get.
Like, that's a nice get for you guys.
That's a really good bit and a great way to kind of wrap everything up to some good music,
good family music, good as some that everybody can either sing long to or Bob their head
to or dance to.
That's nice.
We're just hoping the weather is good.
Yes.
And granted, that does seem like it's going to be okay.
Does seem like it's going to be right now.
This is Wisconsin.
So of course, you'll check back in five minutes, but it does look like right now that we're
going to be looking at a really nice July here.
And those days are going to be coming out nice.
Is there anything else about the event here that we haven't got the touch on?
Is there some sponsors you want to mention or anything?
Oh, we have lots of sponsors.
And we actually to raise money, we started doing an ad book.
Okay.
So we take out, we have local businesses that can purchase either a quarter page ad, a
half page ad or a full page ad.
So some of the ones that are from our area, our Senegal Siegel insurance, we have Amy's
outback salon.
We have JoJo is amazing, carrying ingredients.
So we, after all, I'm just trying to think of, we have the Lester Public Library, friends
and neighbors.
We have new businesses this year that hooked on Schmidt Key cleaning out of Stratford, Miller
Roofing out of Pittsville, the Pittsville Hardware store.
So we have a lot of, a lot of good businesses.
Yeah.
And it actually works out perfectly.
I wanted to get into this with you.
And because this event is awesome and there's so much going on with it, it takes a lot
of people to make that happen.
And we want to shout out all those local businesses to any businesses that are thinking about sponsoring
maybe the Vesper days for the fifth annual and getting it being a part of things next
year.
It cannot encourage you enough to.
Not only is this a fun and growing event, but this is, I spend a lot of time in this
industry and I spent a lot of time in marketing and talking about a lot of these things.
And there are a few things that are going to help your business more than attaching yourself
to an event like this.
The PR that you get from it, you talk, you want to get money for your dollar and getting
a good bang for your buck there and everything.
This is one of the ways to do it.
It's also, it means so much more because I've talked to people that like a touch of truck
or some of these events and maybe they weren't a part of it last year and they were this
year and they lead into it and like, oh yeah, we want to be a part of this event.
And then you talk to them afterwards and they're just so excited and they enjoyed themselves
so much being a part of something and being in a small piece of something.
It goes so much farther than we could really put into words when locals see your name
attached with big events and events that matter to them.
So as far as you know, advertising dollars, we ask for a dollar to go to five nowadays
and we really try to stretch that dollar out.
Non-profits, different events know this and they want to make sure that they appreciate
that dollar so they're going to make sure that you do get your money's worth.
Saw the more reason to buy local support, local support, local events and we help each
other through this because those businesses that you mentioned, we want to support them.
We want to help them because they're supporting us.
We want to put back into the people that are putting in us and there's some great ones
right there you mentioned.
So besides the fun and stuff that we're getting everybody back to VESP or one of the reasons
we started this is because we wanted to be able to bring money back to our community.
So when we've done this, we were able to put a new PA system in at the ball diamond at
the recreation part for the ball games.
We were able, I mean, there's little things that we were able to purchase with some of
the money that we raised is not a lot because we're still small and we're still growing.
But we have been able to put some money back into our community where it's needed so.
That's so, and that's the good story of the day right there for us.
That's really cool to hear.
The event is awesome.
It's wonderful.
You guys have done such an amazing job with this, but that right there is what it all
comes down to is being able to help a community like VESP and stay alive, stay fresh,
stay thriving, frankly.
The other things that our recreation committee does is the Saturday before Easter, we have
an Easter egg hunt and last year we stuffed over 4,000 eggs.
We give away bicycles as some of the prizes along with other prizes.
We have raffle baskets and then at Halloween time we do activities in the community center
for the kids and we give out prizes and that's a place for them to come in and have fun
and warm up for a little bit sometimes.
And then at December we work with the fire department.
My husband and I do, I probably shouldn't say this, but we're Mr. Mrs. Clause, you might
have to edit that part out.
But you guys work with the fire department, yes.
Which is great in a shout out to the fire department over there as well.
And they're also a very big sponsor.
Yeah.
And for years we've supported the fireman's picnic in different events that go on.
We love talking about them on the air.
You have done such a good job today, Margie, that you're going to have to come back for
all of these events and talk with us about them or at least let Pam know so we can talk
about them on the air and make sure that we promote the Vespa area and what's going
on over there.
We love our friends over there and it's something that benefits all of our communities too.
Well, we're specifically talking about Vespa.
It's not as if everybody that lives in Vespa or goes to Vespa just stays in one spot.
We all know well, person lives here and travels over here.
You even started our segment here talking about you and your husband from different areas.
We all come together though when it comes to our community and supporting each other.
And that's what makes this area so strong is leaning on each other and looking out for
each other and having cool events like this.
The fourth annual Vespa day is coming up July 19th and 20th.
We certainly encourage you to find out more of their Facebook page and you mentioned this
before, Margie.
We know that you and your husband and plenty of others in the Vespa area are working hard
at this, but we could always use more hands.
Volunteers are always welcome.
So I did put a sheet on where you can click on the link.
If you go to the Village of Vespa Recreation Group or just the Vespa Recreation Group,
there is a sign up on there.
You can click on it and you can pick a time or for whatever you want and it will send
me an email and that way I have the list and I appreciate any help we get.
Yeah.
And you get to be a part of the event.
You get to put back in your community.
And I hope everybody has a great time at the event and enjoys themselves, whether it's
in the back of your mind or the front of your heart, know that any penny you spend,
it's really helping the Vespa area.
And last year we actually gave any volunteer or a free t-shirt.
Oh nice.
They wanted one.
Nice.
So whatever it might sound to anybody, that gets it done off of types.
People love free t-shirts.
Let me tell you, one of my biggest things I've learned in my radio career in 22 years,
people love free t-shirts.
That is going to hopefully get you some volunteers.
Please do let us know as we got a week or so before the event, how you're doing with that.
If you could use more attention to it, we'll bring some more attention to it.
We'll certainly be talking about it on our morning shows and making sure we get a great
crowd for Vespa days.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Margie, if people do have questions, would like to know more about the event or being
a part of it or anything, should we just send them to the Facebook page or is there another
way to reach you?
Well, they can go to our Vespa Recreation Committee Facebook page or they can always
call me too.
Is there a number they can reach?
Yes.
715-305-5040.
Excellent.
Margie, thank you again so much for joining us on the air here today.
Again, I apologize you did too good.
You're going to have to come back.
You do.
We're too good at this.
It's your fault.
Thank you again for being with us, Margie.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Enjoy the fourth annual Vespa days.
Should I?
19th and 20th.
Be there for their friendly Friday family night, Saturday from 9 to 11 with the parade and
the great music.
Find out more on Facebook, just type in your search bar Vespa days.
You can know fourth annual Vespa days and you'll find it right away, everybody, and by
local support, local.
We will take a time out and come back with more Midday Magazine for you here at 975-FM-1320-A-WFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
