Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Tuesday, July 16th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here in part two at four thirty.
We're going to talk to CEO of your United Way of Southwood and Ames counties,
Terry Johns, with the United Way of Southwood and Ames counties.
Right now, we're talking Boy Scouts of America.
We've got some good new friends with us.
Kevin Krieger is with us at Kevin.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Appreciate the time.
And we also have Fabrina Buffington with us.
Did I get a right? Fabriane.
Fabriane.
You just told me two seconds ago.
Fabriane, thank you very much for being here.
Appreciate it.
Would you, before we dive into Boy Scouts and talk about kind of a year and a
review of 23 and talk about some of the fun things that you guys are doing
in the end current and present time, I wouldn't, if you guys wouldn't mind
telling us your ties to Scouts and Kevin will start with you.
Well, I started in Scouts many, many years ago.
I was in Cub Scouts as a child and then, and joined Boy Scouts.
And I made as far as second class, I kind of ran into the situation of a single
parent couldn't get me to the to the meetings.
And our scout master actually was our neighbor.
So I was able to ride with him, but when he stepped down, I was unable to make
it to the meetings because of where the location was.
So I was probably 13 years old when I probably had to stop eating and scouting.
But I got back into it again when my two boys got into it.
I've been thinking about this has been about 17 years ago.
Both of my boys did make it to the highest level in Scouting as an Eagle Scout.
I was a Cub Master, then leader, committee chair for the Cub Scouts Pack.
I've been a Scout Master, committee chair for the, for the troops.
So I've been better on it now and now I am the district chair for the auto-wagum district
here in Wisconsin.
And Kevin, appreciate the work that you've put into this and not just for your boys, of
course, before our community.
Really do appreciate that man.
Thank you.
That's very cool to hear and thank you for that story.
I want to come back to that though before we wrap up because there's, there's, I got
some questions on that one that just out of curiosity.
And Fab, I'm just going to go with Fab, I can't mess that up, I can't mess Fab.
That's totally fine.
Fab, what are your ties to Boy Scouts?
I am the district executive for Wisconsin Rapid Area and I've been on the job about two
months, I think actually two months today.
So I am very brand new but very excited about beginning with Wisconsin Rapid and working
with Boy Scouts.
My ties to Boy Scouts was when I was about three or four and that was quite a long time
ago.
We'll just leave it at that.
We'll leave it at that.
Both my parents were leaders in Boy Scout when my brother was there when he was a kid
and I just got to go along with all of the different activities and camping and all
that when we lived out in Montana and it's just, yeah, it's kind of funny, kind of a
full circle back around.
Yeah.
Which is always unique in life.
I always find that cool and that happens.
Yeah.
Next, next.
And just so you know, it is a right of passage that you have to come on the air with us and
put up with my questions.
So happy two month anniversary and here's what you get, here's what you get.
We really do appreciate the time and everything you put in the Boy Scouts and our area, we
appreciate that and it's nice to have you with us.
It's a lovely area and really very supportive town and we definitely have a great
group of people that are leading our different packs and troops.
Yeah.
So I'm very impressed.
I want to talk about that with one of the members of that and Kev, one of the things
that I wanted to get into before we go forward, let's rewind a little bit and kind of look
at the year and review of 2023 and the things, different things that you all accomplished
over there.
What are some of the highlights to you?
Well, some of the highlights is that we had a pretty good recruiting here.
We've had struggled in the past because of the COVID, kind of took a put a damper on
that and we're kind of slowly starting to make our way back, not to where we were before,
but we did increase a little bit this year throughout the whole council, which is the
Samusac council, which covers from, probably as far as North is Rylanders, I would have
to say, and then down as far as Adams friendships.
So it's a big, big area and we did okay.
I mean, there's a lot of room improvement.
We are trying to really work our way back up because at one point, our council was one
of the top councils in the country and we want to get back there again.
So we're growing one of the biggest things that I think that is always one of my biggest
highlights just because once you get to that point, you're at the highest levels at
Eagle Scout.
We had 63 with council light.
Nice.
This last year, so that's, it's pretty good.
Our numbers for camping would down a little bit, but again, again, it's just one of those
things of our, because of our numbers are down, but hopefully in the 2024, what we have
seen, hopefully keeps going, going up.
Service is a core part of what you all do with Scouts.
You guys put in some major hours over in last year when it comes to that.
Well, yeah.
And in between doing our, our scouting for food, we do in the spring, but a lot of those
service hours comes to from, you know, the Eagle Scout projects.
That's where a lot of the hours come in and I've talked to many college recruiters and
if it comes down to two people and they see Eagle Scout is there, they're going to take
that Eagle Scout just knowing because of the service hours they have.
Yes.
Yeah.
And the projects are very impressive that they do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Both good points.
And Kevin, to your point, I know that we have a lot of people out there getting, gearing
up and preparing for their senior year of high school and getting ready to go into, going
into college and continuing their education and everything.
That is one of those things that most college resumes look great having on there as is, and
if you are somebody who did not get a chance to do Boy Scouts, you could still be a part
of things.
You could still volunteer.
There are still opportunities for you no matter what the age, and we'll talk about
that a little bit before we wrap up, but just as a note to any college kids out there.
I think that is a great note by you, so I want to make sure to hit on that.
There's so many other things that you guys do in communities as well, Kevin, that really
enhance the community and make it better.
Yeah.
I mean, like I said, I know that there's a few troops in our area when the United Way
do their, they're raking in the fall.
They get group of kids together and they go out there and rake leaves and get that going.
And then also too, I think some of the other troops and packs they get together with their
sponsor organization.
They do some of those projects, but one of our biggest, I mean, besides our fundraiser
in the fall is our spring is when we do our scouting for food and our area for the Wisconsin
Rapids area goes to the emergency food pantry here in town.
And then like Nikusa area goes to their backpack, and then I think the Pittsville area, they
have a community pantry there too, so but our council, they raised, they had over 38,000
pounds.
I mean, I can't really remember what our, 38,000 pounds, I just wanted that to sit there
for a second.
That is amazing.
A lot of meals, food for people in need.
That's pretty cool.
And I think this last spring, I'm going to check off the top of my head.
I think just in the Rapids area was closed, almost 2,000 pounds and that's just incredible.
Just incredible.
The community does quite well helping us out in there.
They do look forward to it because we get the phone calls sometimes of, one of the coming
dropping off the bags, what the, you know, food also.
People do expect it.
Yeah.
We're speaking with Kevin and Fab of the Boy Scouts of America.
And one of the things that I thought would be interesting is we get into today and
going forward and everything.
We are certainly going to inform people about Boy Scouts, but certainly do some recruiting
here as well.
One of the things I approached this as is somebody who did not grow up in Boy Scouts and
didn't get a chance to do this as a kid, but really wish I could have.
I think that by the time I moved out here, my parents felt, well, he's too old for Scouts
and them not knowing much about it either.
So I thought one of the things we could do is get into the programs and the kind of
age ranges of these programs so that parents out there understand a little bit more of
what's the difference of a Cub Scout and other levels of Cub Scouting.
So if you guys don't mind, I'd like to touch on that just a little bit.
I get to do it for now.
And I do have a cheat page in front of me.
So I can ask this question and put you guys on the spot.
But with, so this begins with Cub Scouts, which I think a lot of people might know, but
I think that their knowledge of Scouts may start or end right there even.
So Cub Scouts, Kevin, this is for ages 5 to 10.
Yes.
Actually, it used to be just from first grade to fifth grade or halfway through fifth grade
and you can go into Boy Scouts, that halfway through your fifth grade year of school.
But within the last five years or so, they brought the Cub Scouts and that's called the
Lions.
And that really, that one really promotes the family involvement on that.
So they get the, the kidney garden kids into Scouts and kind of get them introduced
and kind of hopefully they can move up the ranks.
You go from Lions to Tigers to Wolves to Bears and then two year and a half of Weeblos.
And that Weeblos was where they pretty much started getting you prepared to become into
the Scouting program and moving up.
So yeah, I, I back, remember back when I was a Cub Scouts, it was basically, I was dropped
off at the dead mother's house and left there.
Now this is more family oriented, they want the families involved, they want the families
to be there to help out.
I mean, obviously we were going to hopefully get some volunteers from the families of being
maybe a den leader or a cub master or a committee member or just something that maybe take
on something, a project or something.
Yeah.
So Cub Scouting compared it back when I was in Scouting is a lot different compared to what it is
now.
It is really family oriented.
It's another good note, especially for those out there that have been in Boy Scouts
before as kids, but maybe it's been a while since you've been refreshed with the program.
So that's a good note.
So once they get, once they get to the weeble twos and they earn their arrow light, then
they can advance into the, the Boy Scouts end of it and that goes up until they're 18.
Okay.
There are, you know, there has been a few, a few Scouts in the past years that we've
really had to really scramble to get there to the Eagles because once they're 18, you're
done with the Boy Scouts end of it and you cannot get your Eagle.
So mean when I was a scout master, I kind of encouraged the kids to hit their Eagle before
they're 16 because once you hit that vehicle, the job, yeah, and more, yeah, all the other
extra cricketer stuff with the school and all that.
So, yeah.
I always encouraged the Scouts to try to get to their Eagle by time they're 16 and it's
achievable.
Yeah, yeah.
Definitely.
And one, I guess I just kind of popped in my head, I want to let everybody know Scouting
is just not for boys anymore.
It is for girls also.
I add them in and my notes nicely done, man, nicely done, yeah, definitely one of the
cover that.
Some great female troops and both troops work together and do separate things and it's
just a great collaboration.
One of the things that I've really enjoyed about Scouting and being very new to it.
So I'm just learning a ton is that it is very family orientated and then when you get
up to the Boy Scouts, which will be Scouting America starting in February, we're really
starting to feed that in, is that the kids are involved in so much of the programming
and it's led by them, but the families are still really involved and that piece is awesome
because from a parent perspective, you also have that community amongst the parents and
that group.
So it's really kind of two folds there, which I didn't know about myself until I started
working from them.
It's a really good point.
Yeah.
And SamoSet Council is, you know, like Kevin was saying, you know, it is what we fundraise,
what we ask for food and all of that stays in the community.
I love that.
That it's not out somewhere else.
It stays and helps our community.
It's all great points and important things to keep in mind when it comes to not only promoting
and sponsoring, but maybe being a part of things with Scouts and the work that you guys are
doing over there.
Kevin, were there any other breakdowns that we wanted to mention?
I know this area, we don't really have these programs.
We did at one point, but it was just the lack of participation.
We do have the venture Scouts.
Matt is from the age of 13 to 20.
I know, at one point, they had a venture group that was like through Solaris.
They did, you know, this is where they can kind of do like maybe more radio or telecommunications.
I think they used to have one through the police department where they were more working
on that end of it.
The police department, they would also, you know, some of those would help out like
with parking and some type of security that was on that end.
And then the exploring is more adventurous.
I do teach the importance of life career skills and from all backgrounds.
And if I could, Kevin, I'd like to piggyback off of the exploring end of the group.
Because while I mentioned earlier in the interview, I wasn't a Boy Scout growing up.
The explorers group I did actually participate with when I was in high school.
I saw an ad in the paper for this and I had a teacher tell me that, well, this group,
this explorers group, this could be anything.
I'm like, really?
So young actor me thought, oh, wow, this is amazing.
Really?
And I didn't, to be honest, I didn't like the high school plays that were going on.
So I reached out to a bunch of friends from Nikusa and here.
And we formed an explorers group, a theater group.
And we did plays.
We wrote, directed two of our own plays over junior and senior year.
We had a blast doing this.
And it's part of the reason I'm in this chair today is the work that I was able to do
with that explorers group.
The confidence that I built from that and leadership qualities I learned that just interacting
with other people, there was something I was not very good at at all growing up that
I learned in junior and senior year with this group.
I would like to send a big thank you to Lisa Fisher who was our in charge of our explorers
group, a wonderful teacher in our area for many, many years.
And just I couldn't imagine my life without it.
It was fun to write those plays.
It was fun to act in them with my friends and everything.
But I cannot tell you how many times I look back and I think about where I am right now.
And it just doesn't add up.
I don't get here without that.
There's, you know, we all see this in an arc of our lives in different aspects.
Well, well, that was an impact or all that made a change.
Maybe we don't realize it at the time.
But at that time, I didn't, I had no outlets like that.
I had no creative outlets like that.
This gave me that.
And I know I'm not alone, not only my fellow classmates that were able to participate,
but I know that there's other explorers groups around the country that experienced this
too.
So again, Scouts is not only not just for boys anymore, but for girls as well.
But it's not just something that you have to, oh, I hit this age.
And maybe I can't win a badge anymore or earn a badge anymore or something like that.
But I can still participate in this great organization that's doing such great work in
our communities.
Yeah.
And, you know, I kind of want to talk off of that a little bit too, because with the
Scouting Program, especially when you get up into the, to the, to the Scouting part of
it, when you start earning your merit badges and start earning your ranks and stuff like
that is, we had an opportunity to go down to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to do
the nuclear science merit badge.
And it was actually put on by the university.
And it was pretty cool because we actually wanted the students that were doing it said that
he was in Scouts.
He was down there doing the nuclear science merit badge.
And all of a sudden, he decided, I'm going to do this instead of what he was originally
going to do.
And there are, I mean, we do teach life skills.
And you know, some of the kids are like, oh, why do we got to do this for our Eagle project?
You know, for example, you have to do, there's like four citizens, chips, merit badges, you
have to do a nation world.
Oh, boy, I'm not going to goof this up.
You can get that badge.
But there's four of them.
And they're like, well, why do we have to learn to be a citizen within your community
and world and nation and all that sort of thing?
And then, you know, why so much cooking?
Well, you got to eat.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But so, I mean, there's, I mean, it's not, you know, the kids are going to have fun
doing it.
Yeah.
But they're also going to learn something.
And that's one of the, one of the, I mean, I'm masterful jobs we do as adults, I think,
is being able to, I don't mean really trick kids, but in a joking sense, tricking kids
into like, hey, we're having fun here.
And they're also learning.
Right.
Right.
No, no, no, no, no.
But that's great.
That's a big part of life in general.
And I don't know many parents out there that couldn't use the hand when it comes to a lot
of these things, too.
Right.
And so there's that part of this as well.
As we're wrapping up and getting close to the end here, I did want to talk about 2024
and which you guys have going on going forward.
And Fab, you had the popcorn information for us?
Yeah.
We'll start taking orders for popcorn September 21st.
And that runs through into November where we'll start delivering and doing popcorn.
We also do have where quite a few troops are pre-ordering and so you can buy right directly
from them or also order.
So we're looking forward to that.
And it's going to be my first year.
I've bought years and years of popcorn from all my neighbor kids and so I'm looking
forward to being a part of that also on the other end.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you for that information, Fab.
And Kevin, you had some numbers of our sales last year where over $300,000 in popcorn.
And that goes directly to the kids into the program.
It doesn't go to some of these other ways of fundraising happens, but this goes directly
to the scouts themselves.
It's important that transparency matters so much and we appreciate that.
I know that there are people out there listening that would like to be a part of things.
I know that there are families out there that heard your story, Kevin, and can relate to
that.
And I appreciate you sharing that and everything.
So if people want there, want to be a part of scouts whether they're getting their kids
involved or maybe themselves and volunteering or any of the above, where can we send them
, Fab?
Online we have a website, SamoSet.org, and they can go right to our website and they can
sign up for boy scouts.
They can see what's going on and we do have a Facebook page also.
And we will be doing a lot of different events around the community, open houses where we're
giving out more information, some of the rafter games, just a lot of different opportunities
around the area.
We're going to be seeing you guys a lot.
Yes.
Which is great, which is fantastic.
That also leads me into letting you know the door is always open.
Please feel free to stop by any time, especially when these popcorn sales start getting going
and everything.
Let us know about it.
We can spread our airwaves here.
That's what we do around here.
Well, that's what it's all about.
So let us do it too and have it.
Please do.
And we'll bring treats.
Yes.
I wasn't going to lead into that, but we were never going to turn out a good treat.
Kevin Fab, thank you so much for the time.
And everything you put into our communities.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Appreciate you all.
Again, you can find out more at samoset.org, samoset.org.
We'll be talking with the scouts again real soon.
Coming up, we got more midday magazine for you right here at 97-5 FM, 13-20 AM, WFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
