Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Monday September 16th, 2024.
Have your host James Jamail off here and welcoming him to the studio.
Our great friend Don DeSorsey Recreation,
Supervisor with the City of Wisconsin-Rabux Parks and Rec Department.
Don, it is good to see you. Thanks for being here.
Good to see you, too, James.
Don, how bad did I say your last name?
How badly is it?
You got it.
Did I get it? After a little flop at the beginning?
Yes, you did.
I did practice a little bit.
It's been a little while since you've been with us.
It's great to see you.
Thank you so much for being here.
And right away I want to say a big thank you to you and your team at the Parks and Rec Department.
We appreciate all the work you guys do for this community.
Thank you.
Got a lot of great fall programs coming up.
Don, we're going to dive right into these.
And first up, you have Pilates and Yoga Workshop and Classes going on.
I heard a little bit about this last year.
It heard some good things.
Yes, we have some fun classes coming up.
We have a new thing that we're going to try this time.
It's a popery workshop.
So it'll be a little review of all the classes that are coming up.
And then after that, people can sort of any time they can sign up for all of the classes that we have in the month of October.
And those are on Saturdays.
And then we have an all class package as well.
They can do.
So it should be fun.
With a program like this and this may come up with other things that we talk about too, Don.
This is one of those programs that feels like if I've never done this before.
I'm welcome as much as if I've done this a bunch my whole life.
Absolutely.
There's a lot of people who have not tried some of these classes.
There are some of the different forms of yoga and then Matt Pilates.
A lot of people have not tried that as well.
So it's a good time to give it a little shot and see how you like it and then sign up for the classes.
Where do these classes take place, Don?
They are in the Centralia Center.
So they're down near the community theater.
You go down the hallway on the right.
There's a nice room there and we've got some nice soft lighting and it works out well.
Very cool.
Very cool.
You also have back by popular demand.
Right.
Volleyball camp.
Yes.
We have somebody who is an instructor who has played volleyball, coached volleyball, taught volleyball, everything.
Refed it.
Well, it says over 25 years of experience and he offered to do another session.
We had some sessions this summer and we had really good feedback on those.
So we took the gym time that was available, which is I hope it's going to work out for people.
For the older kids, it's the seventh and eighth graders are at four o'clock and then the younger kids through six grades are from five to six.
So hopefully that'll work with some schedules.
And it should be fun.
It could be tough to navigate that, especially this time of years.
Everybody's kind of getting used to the new schedules and everything.
Those feel like really good times.
And it's noteworthy, I think, too, just you talking about that and mentioning that as just another way that the Parks and Rec Department tries to work with the community and listen to the community.
And not just, this is what we're doing.
Hey, we're going to try to work with things around our community and try to make it so that as many people that want to can attend these.
I hope so.
I hope so.
Like I said, it was good feedback in the summer.
People really liked this session of classes.
So we're trying to do it again.
And Jeff is a lot of fun.
He's our instructor.
And we had to kind of go around his availability, too, because he's really busy.
Well, and we're really thankful he is available, because if you, those paying attention to the sports world, like I do religiously, volleyball is only getting more and more popular as we go on here, especially women's volleyball.
It's just beginning.
It's they've had a couple, I think in the last five years, some of the biggest attended ever sporting events have been for women's volleyball.
It's been incredible.
We've had one here in state that did really well as well.
That's pretty cool to see.
Yeah.
And along with all these kind of activities that get you moving around a bit, whether it's yoga or volleyball, there's also other great opportunities as well that, you know, work out your mind and your creativity and rock painting is coming up.
Oh, yes.
We have Susie squirrel.
I don't know if you've met her, but she's so much fun.
She loves to teach rock painting classes.
She loves to paint them.
She's super talented.
And she, I don't know, people just really love her classes because she's just, she's a great teacher.
And she brings ideas that are kind of simple to do, but they look like they're not simple.
Yeah.
And she's really good.
I've heard, I've heard for a couple of years now, I've heard how great she is.
Not just as an artist, but as a teacher.
Yes.
Which is a true art itself to be able to do that.
Sure is.
Dawn, I have to mention, a journalistically here just for the integrity of the interview, that I can't even draw a stick figure.
Like, I'm really, really bad at drawing.
But Susen's able to even work with people like me.
Definitely.
Because a lot of the, a lot of the people taking the classes are little.
Like, they're young kids.
Yeah.
And she always, always provides a lot of pictures after the classes and they're so cute.
I mean, they turn out so cute.
They did minions over the summer.
That was so cute.
Oh, that would look great at a rock.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm glad you mentioned that, Dawn, because this is not, this is for ages six and up.
This is something that you can do with the family.
Yeah, you can, you know, it really has some fun with.
They do.
A lot of times grandparents might bring their kids or, you know, parents, whatever.
It's, it's fun.
Even babysitters have brought them.
And those are both on days off of school.
Oh, nice.
For the public schools.
That's a smart idea too.
Again, as you guys listen to the community and figure out what works best for everybody.
That is very good.
That's something to do, right?
Oh, yeah.
It's busy on those days.
It's, um, and, and a great way to get those minds created, creative minds going.
And it's something to do with them.
Yeah.
Get ready for Halloween.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yes, yes.
Uh, gymnastics for ages two to eight is, uh, coming up as well.
It is.
We have a new gymnastics instructor.
We're just getting her all finalized on the employment side of things.
Um, I think she'll do a great job with classes.
She's really excited to start teaching.
So we've got some of those classes coming up.
We do have something a little bit different.
Uh, we have Friday mornings for classes.
We did have some, um, people in the summer that really enjoyed the day classes.
So for some of those younger kids, we thought we would offer those morning classes on Fridays.
And this is, uh, there's two different groups it looks like for different ages.
Yes.
We tried to kind of go around the kids that were probably not in school yet.
Um, um, or in maybe in half day, you know, four K type of classes.
So, you know, but it'll work.
Coming out of the Olympics, um, like a lot of us are, uh, that I am a big gymnastics fan.
I'm a big Olympics guy.
Oh, yeah.
We have kind of usually you see a rise in, uh, you know, classes like this, uh, the attendance of them.
Um, what I think is really noteworthy about this too.
And really, you can mention this, uh, tag this on to anything we're talking about today.
Whether a child goes on to do gymnastics on any level, let alone the Olympic level or something like that.
The percentage of that is very small.
But I've never, I know of, uh, I've known a lot of people in my life that have taken gymnastics at a young age.
And not a single one of them ever does anything but just rave about how great it was for their body and their flexibility as they got older and everything.
Um, we're all getting older.
Even these two to eight year olds.
Uh, so I mean, the flexibility that they can gain at a young age is only going to help them as they get older.
There's no downside to that.
There's not, there's not.
And it seems like every time we've hired an instructor, because you know, they'll go off to school.
They can't teach for us all the time.
And every one of our instructors has probably done gymnastics for I want to say like 14 years.
Yeah.
And they're like 18.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's crazy.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
They get really get into this really young.
And so many kids find a forever passion with this.
They do.
You know, well,
and some, some kids going back to what we were talking about in the beginning here.
Some kids take that passion into yoga or pilates or other things too.
Diving.
Diving.
Yes.
That's right.
I never would have thought that before, but I heard some about that during the Olympics, I think.
Yeah, it's really unique.
It is.
It is.
And it also not only does it give you something to do, your kids something to do, but something like positive to do.
Something that they can really enjoy and get their body and their mind working.
It does.
It does get some moving.
And I love that it's broken down in the groups too that gives a little bit more.
I think it would, I would imagine it makes a little easier on the instructors, but also a little bit.
It gives the kids a little bit more of a spotlight at these different ages.
Yes.
So there is Tumblr Bugs.
The names.
I love the name.
I'm doing this next part just so I could say the names.
The Tumblr Bugs are for ages 2 to 3.
Tumblr Types are ages 4 to 5.
And youth Tumblr's 6 to 8.
And all of these classes again at the Centrelius Center?
They are.
They actually share the same room as the Pilates room.
So that's a nice big expanded space now.
It's got a double area that we had before, I guess, or double the area.
So it's working out nicely.
One of the things that I appreciate, and I know that our community does too,
is where we would understand if our parks and rec department, you kind of focused on certain things or certain areas.
I love that you guys try to do as much as you can with what you have,
and covering so many different bases.
We talked about Pilates and yoga.
We talked a little bit about volleyball.
We went over to rock painting and gymnastics, all these different areas.
And then there is the SafeCitter program, the babysitting program,
which is a really great use for our community and these families, these kids and these families.
People really enjoy these gymnastics, but also the SafeCitter classes usually fill up pretty quickly as well.
So we've got two of those coming up on September 27th again,
another day off of school, and then November 27th.
We have two great instructors for those classes.
So each instructor is taking one of the classes, and I think kids will really enjoy that.
Those are for grades six through eight, and a lot of times those are the kids that might be staying home with a younger sibling,
or they might be going out and making some money babysitting for the first time.
It was something when I first moved to this town, it was one of the first things I did to try to make a couple bucks for my family,
was babysitting.
And part of the reason I felt confident about this is, well, I had a brother and sister, I helped raise.
I mean, I got this, this will be no problem.
Other people's kids are different.
It's just in the most positive ways I mean that, the most wonderful ways I mean that, but they are different.
And the same sets of rules are not going to work every kid is going to be different.
One of the things that I think I would have been benefited from this class in doing something like this,
I may have known some things, but it would have been really nice to kind of have, oh, I know A,
but B really complements A's information, or even just the confidence in a class like this can build for a young person
in watching other people's kids.
Well, you know, certainly your own siblings, you want this same kind of thing.
But I think that as we go on and everything is a society, we want more and more of this confidence in the people that we don't necessarily know,
you know, doing these kind of things.
And the fun part of this for kids too is that, and you know, I think that another extension of this too
is that a lot of these kids may become parents, and some of this information is helpful in that regard too.
It is, and sometimes, you know, a kid might not listen to their parents.
Yeah, I've heard it.
It might listen to the instructor write before this.
Yeah, yeah.
So sometimes it's nice just to have that second voice coming in and saying, okay, here's what you do in the event of an emergency
or, you know, how to do some first aid, some really basic first aid kind of thing.
So it works out well because, you know, I don't know about your kids, but my don't always listen to me.
Yeah, yeah, even in their 20s, they don't don't even.
It doesn't change.
No, it doesn't.
Speaking with our friend Dawn from the city of Wisconsin-Rapx Parks and Rec department,
talking a little bit about some of the fall programs coming up in our area.
And you can join the crackings.
What a great name for the swim club crackings.
Oh, that's good.
And they came up with that themselves.
That's all.
I think they somehow they all voted.
They had like the top three, and then they kind of got to vote on the name they like the best.
And that was the one.
Can you tell us a little about the Wisconsin-Rapx swim club, the crackings?
So they are a competitive swim team.
They range from ages from eight.
I'm sorry, some five until 18.
And we've got some try-and-out sessions that we're going to have coming up.
So that if you're thinking you might be interested in that, you can come and see what it's like.
We have four sessions like that.
October 1st, 3rd, 8th, and 10th.
And that'll be about an hour long.
You come in, it's $2.
Basically, we just want you to pre-register for that.
So it's like I said, it's $2.
You come in, you'll kind of go through a practice.
You'll get to meet the coaches.
The only suggestion is that you need to be your suggestion, I guess, requirement.
It must be between ages 5 and 18, and able to swim one length of a 25 meter pool.
So we've had a few people come to those.
We do have a large group of swimmers for sure in our crackings.
The practices for the actual team start on October 14th.
Very cool.
And this could lead to you joining the swim club and being a part of that eventually.
Yes, and then also what's kind of nice about this program is it kind of gets kids ready
if they want to do some swimming when they're in high school.
And while it is a requirement that they're able to swim the 25 meter pool and all,
knowing as a parent or an adult that your kids are that much more in tune with swimming,
understanding swimming them much better is certainly great.
There's never a bad time for that, enhancing their swimming skills.
We all know of, especially in our great state here in Wisconsin,
where there's so many waterways, so many lakes, different things.
It's always good.
Every one of us need to be able to do this.
It's a great skill to have.
Yeah, and it's important.
Another part of this too, and all of these things we've been talking about here,
fun, lots of fun.
Every one of these activities are blessed and a lot of fun.
You're not only enjoying yourself in learning or maybe, you know,
fine tuning some of these things that Don and I have talked about here,
but also having a lot of fun with it too.
Definitely, and they, I don't know if you've seen, but the crackings get out in the community quite a lot.
They have a presence in a lot of places.
They went to the Grand Affair.
They did the Calender Corn Fest Parade.
They did the, what was the parade?
The cranberry blossom.
Oh, cranberry blossom.
The cranberry blossom.
I'm sure they'll be doing the Christmas Parade as well.
So they have a lot of fun getting out and doing thing.
I know they're going to be raking leaves again.
They did that last October.
So they really get out in the community a lot.
And I think they kind of bond as a team that way too.
Yeah.
And that bonding as a team is another one of the great things that kids can learn
and taking some of these programs and taking some of these things and enjoying them as well.
We mentioned a little bit of things, but they have some new stuff this season as well with this.
We did add something and this was kind of based on some of the feedback that I had received
from some of the newer kids joining this team.
Really, their parents kind of talked with me about some of the things that they would like to see in the program.
So we have added for the beginning of the season,
we'll have an instructor there so she can kind of walk the deck
and kind of see how kids are doing with their stroke development.
If they see, if the instructor sees something that they feel that they need to work on,
they can pull the kid aside and say, hey, let's take a look at this.
You know, maybe you need to do this differently.
And I think this is going to work really well because you don't want those bad habits that you might have to stick through.
So you want to catch that right away and try to get them to be doing the correct stroke and everything.
Because all around, that's just going to make them a better swimmer.
And enjoy it more.
Definitely.
They get the full, like, complete, everything they can out of these moments out of these programs.
Exactly.
If you don't mind, Dawn, with the time we have,
I would like to touch on the fall winner basketball volleyball leagues and pick-a-ball leagues coming up.
We can't have a show and not talk pick-a-ball.
Right.
I don't know if we can do that.
Legally, I'm not even sure if we can.
But there are some really cool fun competitively, non-competitive leagues coming up.
Right.
The non-competitive would be basketball.
And it's not rough, but it's a lot of fun.
Last year we had so many teams signed up.
We actually had to expand the number that we got the max number.
Nice.
So that worked out really well.
We are taking registration for that.
It started a couple of weeks ago.
Pickleball.
It is paddle stacking open play.
So we changed this year from ladder league to open play only because that was what the feedback was that people wanted to do just open play.
So we're going to try it.
We'll see how things go.
People have the option of signing up for fall only, winter only, or both fall and winter together.
And that's a long season.
That's from October 21st through April 7th.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then we also have volleyball league.
We have women's and co-ed.
Those are Tuesdays and Thursdays.
And that deadline for actually for everything is basically October 14th.
So that we can get everything set for those to start because they start in November.
It's one of the most popular and high growing sports as pickleball.
It is.
It's really fun to be able to have that.
And you have a volleyball league as well lined up.
Yes.
The volleyball league starts November 14th or November 12th depending if it's women's or co-ed.
And when it comes to people that can attend these, that can register these, the question of residency comes up from time to time.
So just to touch on that just for a moment, if you don't mind, Donna, what is residency?
And am I resident that question that comes up?
A lot of times people feel like, hey, I live in Wisconsin Rapids.
My address says Wisconsin Rapids, why am I not a resident?
And we have that at the aquatic center.
We have that with our activities.
So I try to explain it so that people understand basically it's where you're paying your taxes to.
So a surrounding area, even though it says Wisconsin Rapids on your mail,
beer and Grand Rapids, Kellner, Nakusa Port Edwards, Rudolph, Saratoga.
Those are all outside of the city limits.
So anyone is welcome to participate in our programs.
It's just that the taxpayers are the ones that are really funding those activities.
So that's why the non-residents pay a little bit higher rates.
Yeah.
And so isn't it good to note that and to keep in mind as you're learning more and registering.
And I would say that pretty much, well, yeah, everything we talked about today is something that you do need to register for.
Correct.
And registration for most things starts on Wednesday morning at 8 a.m.
But there are a couple of things like the volleyball basketball, pickleball, and pilates that have already opened up for registration.
If people do want to register dawn or find out more about these, how can they do that?
You can give a call to the office or go on to our registration page,
www.activityareg.com.
We have a Facebook page.
We have an Aquatics Facebook page.
We have all kinds of Facebook going on.
And like I said, just even on the city website, www.rapids.org.
And as we've touched time throughout this, you know, so much of the things that you've heard,
Dawn and I talking about today, are things that you out there have your fingerprints on.
You out there have had an impact on with your feedback.
So always encourage you to get some feedback to the team over there.
They are able to do, you know, the best work that they can, the better information that they have.
Yes, it's always helpful to have input from people so we know what's working and what might not be.
And Dawn, what about volunteers?
We've got a great community here that loves to step up whenever we can and volunteer for different events.
Are you guys in need of volunteers at all?
We can use volunteers right now, probably something that we could really use volunteers for
or would be if there are any high school students that are good swimmers.
We could use a couple of them maybe here and there to help out with the crack ins.
Last year, I believe we had 40.
I want to say we had 45 kids and we've got two to three coaches at all times,
but that's a lot of kids in the water.
So it would be helpful if somebody needs, I know they do require volunteer time,
I think when they're graduating.
If there's kids that want that, we can absolutely have that as an option for them if they're interested.
Not only will help you with that and graduating, but it looks great on a college resume.
It's a wonderful thing to have on there.
As a lot of kids out there are gearing up to get into college and stuff.
This is a great one to have on the resume, volunteering for these kind of organizations
and these kind of groups and adding to your community.
And it feels good.
It feels good and it's fun.
Just like all the activities that Dawn and I have talked about today.
Dawn, if people have follow up questions you want to know more about some what we talked about,
how can they reach you?
They can call our office 715-421-8240.
They can always email us at parks department at wirapids.org.
Or our registration page is www.activityareg.com.
Really looking forward to hanging out again real soon.
Dawn, don't be a stranger.
Dawn, door is always open for you guys.
And again, a big, big thank you to you and everybody, everybody in your team.
We appreciate you.
Sounds good. Thank you.
We'll have more Midday Magazine coming up for you right here at 97-5 FM 13-28 AM WFHR.
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