Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Wednesday September 11th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailov here and we're joined right now by our great
friends from Encourage. We have Kim Shields Community Investment and
Communications Specialists for Encourage with us. Kim we're going to talk to our
guests and some friends in a moment here but first you and I wanted to start on a
very solemn I think strong moment. Yes if we could all we understand that
today is September 11th and if we could all just take a moment to remember
this historic and tragic day in our country I would appreciate it.
We were we are so fortunate in our community to have this beautiful fire and EMS
memorial so if you have an opportunity today to swing by pay your respects remember
those that lost their lives and continue to have after effects from that and the
families I just think that would be a wonderful way to remember those that
have served our country. We also have another really nice memorial in the
Port Edward's community in Ripple Creek Park. I'm not sure how many people are
aware but one of our former Port Edward's residents by the name of Lieutenant
Colonel Dennis Johnson actually was killed at the Pentagon on 9-11 so just
appreciate all their sacrifice for us. I appreciate you wanting to take the
time on this and noting him for him his family I think that's very noteworthy
and important to do. Something that I talked about on our morning show quite a bit
and I do every year on this date I think that it is very important all the things you
said Kim and if I can just piggyback on that especially in a year like this and times like this
it is important to remember the feelings that we had on 9-11 as well as 9-12 9-13 9-14
the weeks the months after that how unified we were as a country how we came together
we need to get back to that we need to remind ourselves of that and we don't need a tragedy
to remind us of it and certainly any of our workers out there and so much of that any
chance to highlight firefighters some of these things we're able to do that on this day let's
remember that and honor those people it's very well said thank you Kim. Absolutely thank you I
appreciate it. We do have there is no transition or anything there shouldn't be from something like
that but I do want to get into our conversation with not only talking about something very exciting
for encourage coming up but some really something really cool and exciting going on in our community
let's start with 30th anniversary is that I see that right Kim? Yes absolutely so I know we've
mentioned this and we're excited to continue to celebrate our 30th anniversary for encourage
community foundation back in 1994 our organization was established we are a nonprofit community
foundation serving the entire southwood county area including the town of Rome and we do have
some regional support as well kind of aligning with mid-state technical college and you know we
we take our role very seriously we are very humbled by the opportunity to work for our organization
and to serve our community so this has just been an exciting year for us and we're trying to
highlight different things that we've done in different ways our on our social media on our website
you know conversations here and I know I had mentioned earlier in the year one of our anonymous
donors had offered a $30,000 match to support our work and that is you know in recognition of our
30th anniversary and just the incredible community support we have and the donor was so pleased with
the generous outpouring of community support that this person has offered another $30,000 match
to continue to support our work and you know at encourage one of one of our roles is managing
and doubt funds to support our community nonprofits in our community community programs and projects
and and you need that in doubt support in order to have long-term sustainability and viability
for an organization and so this anonymous match really does help support our work
you know we've always focused on and talked about other organizations and we're trying to get
better about talking about us and asking for support for us and the fact that so many people
supported that first $30,000 match and another's offer we are just we're absolutely thrilled
it's it's certainly going to be able to do all the things you said and that is important and
noted but it's also should be noted what the reason for that people aren't putting money into
something like that they don't believe it they're not going to put money into something that they
don't see a reputation for doing good work in the community for 30 years you guys have been doing
that so this isn't just being thrown at you for out of charity it's it's being thrown at you
because they know you're going to do something with this money they know you're going to be able
to do good work with it from big projects to small projects to gray areas that we don't know
if and think about encourage for 30 years has been able to cover these bases for us it's really
cool to see and somebody being in this chair for a couple of years now I've really been spoiled
getting to see so much of this and talking with you on and off air about the different organizations
where they start and where they are now that's kind of cool to think about too when you look at
encourages history absolutely and organizations themselves and also some of the programmatic work
that we've been able to support you know primarily grant funded and so you know as the grant
funding comes in we're able to shift our focus and and when we have the capacity to take
something on we do and it's just it's been wonderful tonight I'm actually talking with the
team leadership program which I know heart of Wisconsin was on with you last last last week
and we actually started that program in our community so we had managed that for 11 years and
great program where we're so excited to see it come back and and kind of come back to its roots
in this current in this current year so it's full circle moments and it's very exciting there's
there's a lot of exciting things that you guys are doing over it encourage I want to get into some
of those with you Kim but before we get too far ahead if people are listening and they have ideas
or they have thoughts that they would like to see what they could do about them and maybe how
they can impact the community how can they reach out to encourage give us a call at 715-423-3863
or send us an email at hello at encouragecf.org we we'd love to have a conversation that's where it
starts we will get that information out again before we wrap up Kim but we have to talk about team
rapids we have some great guests in with us and you have a new field of interest fund established
for this right it is for team rapids so I'm super excited about our guest today yeah we want to
welcome into to the WFHR stage from team rapids we have Jay Bempke with us Jay thank you for being
thank you for having us Jay did I get the name last name right I did okay mark that down pan
I got last name right and we have mr. Gus Mankusa with us I know I got that one right yep yeah
Gus it is good to see you thank you for being here sir thank you thanks for having us I would be
remiss journalistically if I did not mention I care very much about this man it was one of the best
principles I've ever been around or ever had I greatly appreciate what you did for me as an
individual but also for our school and our community so thank you very much mr. Mankusa I haven't
seen it a long time so yeah a little talk tied around you man for a second there I want to talk
about team rapids before we get to into it though I want to get into the founding story of team
rapids where this all began I love a good origin story which one of you would like to start off with
that I'll start with that yeah thank you again for having us one of the three people that are
involved right now is not here his name is Luke Wyland we are the trustees or the board directors
of what is now team rapids which is an endowment fund with encourage the story starts really back
in 1980 when we were together Jay and I were together I was coaching Jay Jay was a football player
the 1980 football team and that team was very very successful with a number of really really
strong individuals which had been very very successful and in 1980 we obviously had that team
and in 2020 we wanted to have a 40 year reunion that was delayed because of COVID but we did have it
in 2021 and we had an excellent turnout they came from all parts of the country and we honored
them in our football program at the time and we really stayed fairly close over that next year
unfortunately in the summer of 2023 last summer our team captain very very close friend of Jay's
as well as highly respected quarterback Steve Tempest passed away due to cancer so the team rallied
again and came back many people came back from all over again as well and then afterwards the two
of the individuals on the team approached Jay and I and said that we would like to help the school
and the football program because of its meaningful experiences in 1980 that 1980 team were they were
Valley Conference Chams and finished second in the state lost in the state finals in a close game
so they had some very very positive memories and so they said we'd like to help out and we'd like to
help by establishing an endowment based on a large initial donation that they gave so we had
this money that we were obviously trusted with to help the community focused around sports and
athletics to begin with and so we sat down then with encourage and became interested in starting
an endowment we searched out several different ways to do that a foundation we found out that a
foundation was really kind of over our head in terms of managing it and we had an excellent
opportunity and I think a track record with an encourage in terms of its success rate and so
there there began lots of discussions with them over the court it's not as easy as everybody thinks
to just walk up and say hey we want to start an endowment obviously Jay and I felt very very
humbled but yet very very responsible for doing this the right way because this is really our
community's legacy but more importantly at this point in time it's our legacy in terms of doing
it right so we sat down with encourage over several meetings and we were also exploring other
opportunities but when when when push came to shove we found out that encourage was the best way
to go obviously it's it's the best way to go because we've got a lot of faith and trust in the
people there and then Kim as you already know we'll take care of anything that you ask and go
beyond and that means the little things like thank you letters keeping us up to date positioning
us in the community on a continuing basis so it's been it's been really really good since then
we have developed a webpage and we also have a brochure that you have a copy on and we are
also in the process uh over the last actually I was looking at our notes um September of 2023 we
began doing an outreach to the community to find out exactly so we had we had a parallel
activity uh both at the time trying to get an endowment going but then also discovering the
needs of the community where could this endowment be best used and where could the people
be told that we're going to donate to to make it impactful on the community so we gathered
lots of information and I think this is an excellent time for Jay to step in and tell
you and our audience what we've been up to over the last year yeah Jay as far as the mission the
purpose if you can get into that for us thank you guys so the mission initially started out was
we were going to support Lincoln High School football but Lance coach said um we had some time
in between we got out in the community a little bit and I think we realized that the need in the
community is a lot more than just the football team so um some of our stops along the way we spent
some time with united way with area united way um saw naces presentation which is a health
program for kids in the community um we met with our park and wreck director who's also tied into
some youth sports um we were at the library with Catherine um spent a lot of time with
elite uh Lincoln High School with the principal with the athletic director with coaches multiple
meetings with um um we did stop in over at the middle school with the athletic director a system
for principle um youth sports in the community we've started to touch base with them um
and then I guess the last piece is kind of what we're working on right now is a grant
grant application that could benefit um port assumption um Lincoln and Nacusa um and we're just
really in the early stages of that right now I think one of our proudest partnerships and one of
the most successful things is um our partnership that we have with the boys and girls club in the
community right now and if you want to maybe describe that. Sure. The one of our mission statements
in addition to helping uh the sports programs and other non-funded clubs at Lincoln High School
having been up there for 30 years there's probably about 50 different activities in the building
and the vast majority of those are clubs where there are uh stipends given to the advisers but
the kids have to do all their fundraising or the vast majority of it on their own so that's one area
that we have I think a sweet spot for to help clubs in the area uh starting with uh the Wisconsin
Mads public schools to do we also our second uh mission uh statement is to overcome barriers to
athletics that is one that we feel very strongly about and uh one of the things that I have been
observing because I'm still coaching so I have seen our free and reduced numbers go from in the 90s
and early 2000s to maybe 20 to 30 percent now our free and reduced lunch numbers and I could go into
more detail at a later time or someone from the district could you know they're approaching 50 percent
which means that our families are struggling in the buildings to meet normal kinds of things that
many of us and probably lots of people listening to this take for granted uh we have an increase in
single parent families uh the divorce rate is still around 50 percent so as a football coach still
which I'm very grateful to be able to do I see these kids every day and I see some of the backgrounds
that they're coming from and it's it's a changed dynamic and a demographic from what it was 20
years ago when we had over 4,000 people in this community working in our mills so that has been
very very significant in our work and one of the barriers is that in this particular year or in
the recent years football players start school three weeks before school starts so we have
freshmen that are coming to the high school that don't have rides and many of our older kids
have cars so there's a gap in that ninth grade class so this year we we entered into a partnership
with Jennifer Allen who's been just a rock star at at the Boys and Girls Club in terms of
of helping us and and getting together so uh we we uh ran a shuttle bus for early practice for
the ninth graders and we wanted to start small work big and we had three kids take advantage of it
one was for a while coming in riding his bike uh from Rudolph to the Boys and Girls Club then
they would pick him up and then drive him over and pick up two kids on the east side so those kids
were then able to get the practice and I talked to two of the three parents and they were extremely
grateful because both of them were working and they couldn't get him to football practice so it's
those kinds of things that we're trying to do now uh there's a chance uh that those kids wouldn't
have been able to play football had they not gotten out because what we find is that when school
starts and a player and a kid knows that he's missed three weeks of practice he's less likely to
want to come out so that's why we want to get him early next year we hope to expand the program
to other sports that are in the fall in the early late summer for the fall practice like soccer
and other programs uh but again those are the kinds of things that we're actually trying to do to
overcome most barriers we also have a lot of kids that are supposed to be fundraising and trying to
earn uh it's it's astronomical about how much all of our programs in southwood county have the
fundraise to participate because the school district dollars and rightly so because the money
is very very tight they can't provide everything that the program needs so we have a large large
emphasis on fundraising here in our community you guys are doing uh some uh again similar to what I
was talking about with Kim about the encourage and the courage mantra the courage mission uh of
covering areas that don't always get covered you you've already talked about and touched on some of
those and sports can oftentimes as much as it can be in our our the top of our minds and everything
and be something that gets us to you know uh root for our home teams and and everything it can
also be lost in the shuffle when it comes to the importance it can have in society uh and what it
can do and the opportunities it can create long before and I don't have to tell you guys this uh
the the stats of kids that go on to play uh in college or the kids the kids from college to go
on to pay and pros uh there's you never know who's gonna make it who isn't or anything but what you
do know is that sports can build confidence sports can build a team work uh a team ship and so
many different things that it can build in a young mind and a young human being and being able to
have more opportunities for this and get more kids to be able to be a part of this this one
example alone is worth it to me let alone the amount of other things that you guys are doing
to kind of cover this gray area again that doesn't always get covered um it's it's noteworthy
especially coming from both of you that um have experienced this and and are currently in the
middle of this and everything that means something uh not only to the community but I imagine two to
people when we're trying to get support for this uh and what you're doing when it comes to that how
can people support uh the college and team rapids so we've got we've got a website we've got uh we've
got a pamphlet out there um if you go to the football games on Friday night uh lincoln place but
oh yeah Friday night oh yeah Friday night seven o'clock over at the high school so um if you watch
the big board we've got we'll we'll run our stuff up there a little bit but we do have a website
it's teamrapidsfund.com um we've got a Facebook page that's as well team rapids fund um so yeah
if if you have questions reach out there um and and and the website we have the ability to take
donations through that or call and courage and and they can point you in the right direction yeah um
if you go to encouragecf.org and then go to our giving page uh we actually uh have a drop down
where you can select the type of fund or cause that's important to you and we made we made sure to
have a spot for team rapids so you can just select that and make your donation online um if I could
do a little personal plug here so you were talking about how sports can instill that confidence right
so I was very very shy growing up and I still am an introvert to some extent um an extroverted
introvert but um between performing with dance and singing um I was a cheerleader believe it or not
and actually I did uh make a donation to team rapids in honor of my cheerleading days
so you know you can you can uh make donations for whatever is for whatever reason you know
whether you were on a team yourself or you were impacted by it you went to the games you know
somebody that was you just want to support and help reduce those barriers which is very important
whatever your reason everybody can give and every dollar amount matters thank you for including
that Kim thank you thank you as we're wrapping up guys Kim uh again if people want to follow up
on this they want to know more not only about team rapids but ways that they can work with
encourage uh how can they get in touch with you yeah give us a call at seven one five four two three
three eight six three um or email us at hello at encouragecf.org and one very important thing about
giving to team rapids to encourage or any other organization we are a nonprofit organization we
are 501c3 so every donation that is made is tax deductible as allowed um to the fullest extent of
the law um we are able to accept gifts in many different ways cash check the normal but if people
have IRAs if they uh want to take care of their QCD their qualified charitable donation as long
as it's not a donor advice fund we're able to process that so there's so many different ways
that you're able to participate in giving and with this team rapids in addition to the match that
we have um they have a donor that um by donating uh their your your dollar essentially will be
doubled um because it will unlock other dollars that are in the fund so unlocking that has a
doubling impact it's pretty cool yeah thank you for that Kim and thank you for the time
thank you uh Jay Gus thank you so much for the time of what you're doing for our communities we
appreciate you thank you for your opportunity yeah thanks for having us today i'm never going to
get used to calling you Gus i can't do it i can't do i appreciate you sir thank you very much for
the time and thank you Kim we appreciate you find out more information at team rapid uh team
rapids fund.com team rapids fund.com and you can find out more about encourage at encouragecf.org
encouragecf.org well a more midday magazine coming up for you right here at 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WFHR we
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