Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this July 16th, 2024.
Have your host, James J here with you.
And we're joined right now by CEO of your United Way of South
Wooden Adams County's Terry Johns.
Good afternoon.
Good to have you with us.
Terry, as always, it's always a great time talking with you.
And we put our serious hats on.
So we're certainly going to get to business today.
Absolutely.
Very professional.
No matter what flies in our days, or what happens.
No, we're going to stick with the task at hand.
And I would like to start with stuff the school bus
desk, this collaborative that you guys work so hard on, Terry.
Yes.
So we have two really important deadlines coming up
as it pertains to this community collaborative.
So if you're not aware, stuff the bus
is our school supply drive and distribution.
And there's two things that need to happen,
that we need the community to rise around.
The first is registering students.
So August 1st is the deadline to register your student
for free school supplies.
If they qualify for free and reduce lunch,
and they go to a school in Southwood County,
they are eligible for free school supplies.
So you do that, complete that registration
by going to our website, UWAC.org,
or you can just search United Way, Southwood,
and Adams counties, and it'll pop up.
And you will click on the link, and then you
will register your students.
We do need information about your students.
We need to know what grade they're going in, what school,
that kind of thing.
Because we really make a very, very serious, strong effort
to make sure that each kid gets what is needed for their school.
So for instance, if they're going to be in fourth grade at Mead,
we want to make sure that we're packing their backpack
based on what fourth grade at Mead needs,
not fourth grade at Howe or Nakuza.
And of course, sometimes we can provide everything,
sometimes we can't, but we try to match that teacher list
as best we can, because the idea behind this
is to minimize and eliminate disparities amongst our kids.
And so we don't want to give, if each elementary kid
needs a blue, red, green, and yellow folder,
we're not going to give them four purple folders.
Like our goal is to give them what is on the list.
So students do have to be registered.
Again, the deadline to register is August 1st.
That's a Thursday.
And just for perspective, the registration's
been open since May 1st.
So there's a long window of time to get this done.
You've got three whole months to do it,
but you're down to the last couple of weeks.
So if you have not registered, please do so.
Again, the qualifiers for in Reduce Lunch,
you can register by visiting our website,
uwac.org, or by dialing 211 between 8 and 5 Monday
through Friday.
And one of our resource specialists
can just ask you the questions over the phone
if that's easier to get that student registered.
Now, we have, right now, 900 students registered.
Wow.
So that's big, right?
And it's important.
And it's very similar to last year's number.
So I also don't want to make it seem like it's,
you know, we've got some big explosion or something like that.
But that is a lot of kids to serve.
And so, you know, we put the call out to the community now
to really help us meet this need.
So how can you help?
There's a few different ways you could purchase
and donate school supplies, right?
So just the next time you're in a store and they are out,
I know people don't like to hear this,
but I was in the store over the weekend
and their school supplies are out.
So we would encourage you to purchase school supplies
and bring those to us at Lunch by the River.
So on August 1st, we are the sponsor, we unite away.
Are the sponsor for Lunch by the River?
And we ask everyone to bring the supplies
to Lunch by the River for the main reason of A,
then we're only handling them once, right?
But at Lunch by the River, we have tons of volunteers
that are there sorting.
So literally all the pencils get in one box,
well, multiple boxes, but all the pencils together,
all the pens together, scissors, that kind of thing.
So that when our volunteers two weeks later,
our packing the backpacks, you know,
all the scissors are together,
all everything is sorted and inventory encountered.
So it's really, really helpful
if we can have all those supplies by August 1st
at Lunch by the River.
We have several businesses that are drop sites.
So if you buy stuff, but you know you can't come
to Lunch by the River, you could bring them to our office
at 351 Oak Street.
Just one example is DNL Recreation.
They've got a big up on their marquee sign.
They've, you know, say bring your school supplies here
so you could drop them off there.
Just really, again, encourage you.
If you're a business listening and you say,
gosh, why'd be a collection point?
Just let us know.
We'd love that to happen too.
We have often civic groups, businesses, coworkers,
also that just do drives, which is really awesome.
So and maybe sometimes there's some kind of an incentive
for that, right?
Like maybe if you have to wear a certain dress code,
maybe a casual day if you bring a school supply,
or you know what I mean?
Just think out of the box and something fun.
But the top needed items that we are seeking are backpacks,
notebooks in plain colors, folders in plain colors.
So, you know, the folders with the little puppies
on are super cute.
But that's not what the teachers are asking for.
And again, we're trying to keep it the same for all kids.
So plain colored notebooks and folders, colored pencils,
markers, highlighters, glue sticks, scissors.
And then of course, if you don't want to, you know,
you're like, hey, I'm not going out and buying this stuff.
Monetary donations are accepted.
All of those donations that come in
are used to purchase these items.
So there is, you know, it's not used for anything else.
It's all, it all sticks right with stuff the best.
And as you can imagine, 900 backpacks are pricey, right?
So we as a United Way team work on writing grants
and seeking out funding sources, you know,
to help support this, this cause.
We have always, every year, got, been able to get what we need.
So that's encouraging and good, but that doesn't mean
that each year we're not like, oh my gosh,
that's a lot of kids, right?
So we just want to make sure that we have what we need.
So if you're interested in making a monetary donation,
those checks should be made out to United Way
and can be dropped off or mailed again to 351 Oak Street.
You can also just donate online.
When you visit our website, there's a donate button
and then there is a memo spot and you could just say
stuff the bus.
So, you know, that's, that's a lot that's kind of big
and coming up and it's only three weeks away.
So that's why you know, we're just really wanting people
to maybe put a little urgency on it.
We've always had a great showing from the community
and it's just coming up fast.
Maybe it's just coming up fast for me.
To me, it feels like this summer is like full.
I am back.
Couldn't not agree more.
Yeah, it really is going too fast.
You could slow down summer, slow down summer.
So we just want to make sure that we are ready
and we can't do that without you.
So, you know, thanks to the generosity in the past.
I mean, oh my goodness, it's overwhelming.
You know how awesome it is.
And you know, and then to just bring this full circle.
August, I think through my dates, 16th and 17th
are the days that we will be doing the distribution.
So again, a village of volunteers that comes together
to make that happen.
And so, you know, we certainly are thankful
for all of those who sign up to help with that
and make sure that we are successful in this,
in this effort.
There is nothing short of great opportunities
to impact your community with the United Way.
We're going to talk about some other ones in a minute.
But this is to me one of the biggest impacts
you can make an investment in our future
and helping these kids feel prepared for the class day
and the school year ahead.
I touched on this before with you over the years.
I was one of these kids and I was distracted
by this in school.
And I was already usually behind my other classmates
coming to a different grade school
and everything, let alone coming in.
And well, they got a glue stick and I don't
or some of those things.
And it did play with me.
It did mess with me.
And I know I'm not alone in this.
Not only my sister dealt with the same thing,
but over the years in us having this conversation, Terry,
I've heard from so many of our listeners
that grew up in our age range or even older than us,
especially the older community that dealt with this a lot.
And it was difficult and it kept you from learning.
It kept anything that distracted you.
Now, there are plenty of distractions for kids.
It does not take much.
Here's one that we can do something about.
Here's one that we can make an impact on
and you can feel awfully good from whatever type
of donations you can make.
We greatly appreciate it as this need gets stronger
and stronger.
Yeah, and it's pretty, I mean, it is pretty easy.
Like we're not asking anyone to provide the value
of an entire backpack.
Of course, if you can, that's great.
But you know, you think about all the things that go in there.
Even if, like I said, the next time you're picking up
a few groceries and you can pick up, you know,
when they run folders for $4 or something,
you know, even just a dollar's worth.
Like it, it really all comes together
and makes a huge difference and adds up.
So again, I just want to run through most needed items one more time.
So we need backpacks, plain colored notebooks,
plain colored folders, colored pencils, markers,
highlighters, glue sticks, scissors,
and then cash donations also accepted.
Yeah, thank you, Terry.
We'll go over that information again before we get right
to that cutoff date and be listening to our morning shows.
We'll be covering this topic again as well.
Speaking with CEO of your NetAway of Southwood and Amazon County,
Terry Johns and Terry, I got, I am a part of your newsletter
at the United Way and got the volunteers
needed for a homeless point in time count coming up.
Yeah, so point in time count is coming soon.
This happens twice a year and it is not led by United Way.
It's led by all of the community action agencies in the state,
but we help with recruiting volunteers.
And so this is a snapshot in time when every community in the state
will do this count and it happens in January and in July.
And basically, the count takes place
over in the overnight hours, starts about midnight.
I think we gather volunteers like 10, 30, 11 o'clock
for a little orientation and then they
are go out in small groups to just try to identify individuals
in the community who might be homeless.
There are some care packs that they offer to them
if they're interested, but it's not meant to be invasive.
It's not a interrogation.
It's not anything like that.
It's just trying to identify how many individuals
that we might have in our Wisconsin communities who are homeless.
I think that what we've experienced is that homelessness
looks very different in different communities
and it looks different in an urban setting than in a rural setting.
And homelessness looks different to the naked eye
in the summer versus the winter.
Very true.
Sometimes it's just easier to identify in the winter in some cases.
In some cases though, they maybe are partnering up
or bunking up with someone else.
In the summer, those who are homeless
might maybe have the opportunity to camp somewhere or to...
So they're not visibly homeless, so to speak.
And not that...
Our goal isn't to find a whole bunch of homeless people,
but our goal is to find a whole bunch of homeless people.
It's both, right?
It's if and?
If they are out there, you want to find them.
And so again, to offer, we do have some care packs,
but really, like I said, it is trying to just get a count.
And the reason that it's done in every community
at the same time is so that we can hopefully avoid duplication.
Because we know that there is a level of transiency
in the homeless population, where they might be here
for a few days, and then the next week they might be in,
I don't know, Steven's point, or they might be
in another community.
And so the goal is to make sure that we're not
overinflating that number.
And honestly, we typically don't find very many,
which for us is encouraging because it means
that they have shelter over their head somewhere.
Now, it might not mean that they are properly housed.
So I mean, if you've got two or three families
living in one dwelling, it's certainly not ideal.
I mean, think about your own personal space
that you have at home and your own ability
to have belongings of your own and that kind of thing.
So it's not ideal, but from the safety aspect
and the health aspect, it's better than,
better than just seeing people out in the community homeless.
So we participate in that.
We are seeking volunteers.
So if you are interested in being part of this,
you would contact Ben at United Way at 715-421-0390.
This information is important, certainly,
on a local level so that we can help
any individuals out there that could use the assistance.
But this data is also important nationally and locally
because of how it impacts so many different things
as far as, you know, at different grants we can get,
or different access or help that we can get
from government levels and that.
Yes, so it does help us access and leverage government grants
and also potentially matching dollars,
maybe some subsidized housing vouchers,
subsidized housing inventory is a whole other animal,
you know, having enough, but to be able to, you know,
adequately react to what's happening in a community.
This is just one tool in the toolbox,
but it's a very valuable tool.
And so, you know, if you have the ability
and are willing to be up for an overnight,
I think, you know, usually by 2 a.m. 3 a.m. you're done.
But if you, you know, if it's something that you are willing
to experience and participate in as a volunteer,
again, contact Ben at United Way.
And no previous experiences needing necessary for this
and you will not be out there on your own.
You will have some security with you as well.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely in groups.
It's not even just two people.
You know, it's a group of people that goes out
and you're given a specific area that you kind of comb,
so to speak, you know, that you drive by
and walk around and check out.
Yeah.
Terry, you coming up, you have your campaign volunteer training
although we could dive into that a little bit.
Yeah, so this is exciting.
Coming up on August 20th.
This is when we are really working with people
who coordinate the company campaign at their workplace.
And so anyone who coordinates a company campaign
is welcome to attend this.
And so what does that mean?
That means that, you know,
maybe they are handing out the pledge forms
on behalf of United Way.
They are coordinating some fun activities.
You know, one of the things that I mentioned earlier,
maybe if people brought school supplies,
they could have a casual day.
We see that a lot during campaign.
You know, if you make a donation to United Way,
you get jeans on Friday or, you know,
something kind of fun like that.
So, you know, we talk through a lot of those success stories
that we see at companies that have high levels
of employee participation in the United Way campaign.
Many businesses allow their employees
to give to United Way through direct deposit,
which for a lot of people is just much more palatable, right?
Like I can give you $5 a paycheck,
but for me to just write you a check for $260,
mm, you know, that just doesn't really work into my budget.
So, you know, this is a great think tank.
So to speak, you know, getting these folks together
and talking about, hey, what works,
James, what works for you at the radio station?
Well, this works for me at the bank.
Well, this works for me over at, you know, at this location.
So, there's some of that.
And then we also distribute materials at that event.
So, it's a really good time for us.
It's a very exciting time.
We will be doing a group impact project with that group.
And I'm not going to share what it is, but it is a fun,
you know, we get the group together
and they're going to be packing kits
that are going to be used in the community.
So that's a great, great opportunity to hear about
what impact, you know, 40 people for one hour,
how large of an impact that they can make collectively together.
So, you know, we're really looking forward to that.
This is a registration required event, mostly for food.
But, you know, it is something that we do need to know
who's coming.
So, you know, I would certainly not turn away
someone from the public if they wanted to attend,
but it is designing geared towards workplace volunteers.
You know, for the sole reason of, hey,
let's have really robust and exciting
and energetic campaigns.
The way that we fund all of the programs, you know,
we've talked about a few,
but we also help to support 30 programs
in the communities that we serve.
And so the way that we fund them is through our fall campaigns.
And so, you know, the success of these folks
is really, really instrumental in anything that we can do
to support them and help uplift them
and to encourage their companies to support them
and give them time to, you know,
reach out to other employees and do these things.
You know, it is instrumental to the success
of our total campaign.
And, you know, we can only give out what we have, right?
So, it's like, you know, we wanna,
we really want to raise as many dollars as possible
so that we can continue to support,
I mean, the 30 programs that our United Way helps to fund
and then there's about 10 initiatives.
You know, collectively, that's impacting
about 20,000 people.
So, it's big.
And sometimes it's bigger than people
can wrap their arms around.
You know, they're like, wait a minute.
The United Way does that.
Wait a minute.
You know, the United Way does that.
So, there is a lot.
There's a wide, wide breadth of what we're trying
to do in the community.
And really, that's because we want to impact, you know,
kind of cradle to end of life.
We have programs that are impacting
all different stages of life with a common thread.
And that common thread is Alice, which is, you know,
our, I guess, under-employed members of our community,
you know, not necessarily,
they don't have to be under the federal poverty level,
but there's plenty of households
that are above the federal poverty level,
but still struggle.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, it's tough.
And this economy and this inflation
is making it even tougher.
And so, so people are having to choose,
you know, we had a really strong recent success
with our diaper drive.
We did a diaper drive in distribution
that ran from Mother's Day to Father's Day.
And what we did there was we asked for diapers, wipes,
and creams, and just asked the community to participate.
First time we ever did it,
we got some really nice monetary donations
to which we just literally went and bought diapers,
and then distributed those to three programs
in the community to focus.
So at the food pantry, you can access diapers
to the family center,
and then also the first choice pregnancy resource center.
So that people who are struggling, you know,
they maybe are doing just fine during that Alice population,
but because of the additional cost of groceries,
they're choosing, you know, use less diapers,
or less food, or, you know, pay my utility payment,
or, and so this is a way for us in the community
to help alleviate that ore, right?
Let's give these families the opportunity to say,
and, you know, I'm gonna pay for this, and this,
and I'm gonna do this, and this for my children.
And the really cool thing I think about Alice,
and about our commitments to Alice,
is that, you know, these are folks in our community
who are working.
Yeah.
You know, it's not, because we do hear that stereotype,
you know, oh, this is just, you know,
people just taking it out.
Well, you know, our main focus is people
who are working and struggling,
and we've, everyone has struggled at some point.
Yes.
So for us to be able to say, hey,
we're gonna have this tremendous campaign
so that we can continue to fund those
who need it most in our community.
I mean, there's no, there's no lose, right?
I guess it's all winning.
And I wanna piggyback off of that,
with the campaign volunteer training,
because everything, every year we talk about this,
I never see a downside to doing this,
whether you've done it before or not.
I am curious, and Terry, say it like for here,
Pam goes for us.
Yeah.
If I wanted to go as well, can two people go?
Absolutely, absolutely.
So we definitely have multiples from many organizations,
and we, you know, we even encourage that,
because I think there's something about,
there's the strength in the team, too, right?
So if an organization or a business sends two or three,
depending upon the site, you know, four people,
well, when those people get back,
they help, you know, they help stir up each other's excitement
and keep the flame alive for the campaign
and the work that has to be done.
So, yeah, we certainly encourage multiple attendees
from one organization.
And again, it's just, it's really how we do our best work,
is by the liaisons that believe in United Way,
you know, maybe if it's a heartfelt story that they heard,
we also have very data-driven people.
So, you know, we try to offer both,
like, what are the warm, fuzzy stories?
What's going to take out your heart strike?
But then, what about the people who need the numbers?
Yeah.
So, it's kind of, we try to offer a blend of both,
or at least a snapshot of both,
when we are talking at the training,
and then, you know, hoping that that carries through
into the workplace, when people are asking their peers to give.
You know, hey, join me.
You know, would you give to United Way?
We have some incentives, and we have our sweepstakes,
which, if you give a dollar a week,
so $52 a year, if you give a dollar a week,
you qualify for our sweepstakes,
this is, we have $5,000 cash prizes,
they are all sponsored by businesses,
basically, out of their marketing budget,
because we put their logo on everything.
So, the number of impressions that they get
is spectacular, and, you know,
we talk about them all the time,
and in the reason that, you know,
we ask them to do this, is to help us gain new donors,
and get people maybe to increase their gift.
Maybe they've been giving, you know, a dollar a week forever,
but maybe they could make it $1.50.
You know, you never know.
And so, if we don't ask, we don't know,
and that's really, you know, one of the things, too,
that comes out of this, is promoting that incentive.
And again, no donor dollars are part of this.
This is all sponsored dollars,
and it's pretty fun, pretty cool.
Usually, the week before Christmas,
we go out with some checks and award those.
So, you know, sometimes, everybody's motivated differently.
You know, sometimes an incentive helps.
Sometimes, just knowing you're helping is the key.
We have a bonus incentive this year,
and that is a match from the Central Wisconsin Legacy Foundation.
And so, the first $500,000 that are given to our campaign
will be matched into our endowment fund.
For to help cover our fundraising costs.
So, you know, we've got some great stuff going on,
and we just really encourage people to stay connected with us.
And, you know, check out information at uwac.org,
give us a call, come and see us at Lunch by the River.
We'll be there, August 1st.
We are the sponsor.
So, come on down with some school supplies, say hi.
We great to see you, and, you know,
thanks for everything that you've done
as community members to make sure that we stay successful.
We will meet you at Lunch by the River,
and we will find out more information at uwac.org,
and be sure to follow the United Way on social media.
It's a great way to not only keep up the date on things there,
but to reshare some of the things that they're doing
on your page, encourage you to do so.
Always good talking with you, Terry.
Thank you for the time.
Great to see you.
We'll have more fun coming up on Midday Magazine here
on WFHR, locally grown radio.
