Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this September 18th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailov here.
Welcome into the studio.
Our good friends from the Hannah Center here in Wisconsin Rapids.
We have Kristi Nevinsky with us director of the Hannah Center.
Kristi, did I get your name right?
You did.
I am on a streak here right now.
I know last time you got it right.
This time you got it right.
I just have to do it again.
It's so right.
Yes, we're going to have to keep hanging out.
No, because you're one of the few people I get the name right now.
And mostly, more importantly, the work that you do as director over there at the Hannah Center,
you and your team over there, we appreciate the work that you are doing,
the vital and important work that you do, not only in our community, but in Marshfield,
and really in the surrounding areas.
And if you don't mind, I am really interested and cannot wait to talk about the motorcycle rally
and community fundraisers, not only here, but the one in Marshfield.
Yes.
But whenever we have the opportunity, I like to really bring home the mission statement of the Hannah Center.
Do you mind if we start there, Chrissy?
Yeah, I would love just to shed some light on that.
So our mission statement is that we exist to assist women and their children in crisis
through compassion and guidance in a nurturing environment.
And so that is something that for all of our staff meetings,
for our board of directors meetings, we look at that mission statement
and we look at all the programs and the things that we do.
And we want to make sure that everything that we do lines up with our mission statement.
So that really keeps us on track and helps align us to from our advocates
who are there day in, day out with the ladies who live in the house
and making sure is what you're doing, is that helping?
Is that coming alongside them and guiding them in their life?
And that is that really sweet balance of having compassion, but then also guiding
so that when our ladies graduate our program, again, they can take care of themselves.
And so it's that sweet balance of compassion and guidance that we offer.
It's also a gift to our community that we have Hannah Centers,
although I wish you guys had no work.
I would love you guys to be unemployed, honestly.
I'll tell this to my friends at the family center all the time
and my fellow board members over there, I wish none of us had a job.
I wish none of us were working, but we are where we are.
And this is the reality of the situation.
So I am proud of our society.
I am proud of our community, especially, that embraces these things
and that takes them on and is not shy about them.
That it is not talking in a lower voice anymore.
Where we are is a society.
I think that it is so easy oftentimes to look at the work that hasn't,
or how far we have to go when we don't look back and see how far we've come.
And yes, there is plenty of work to be done.
And we have a lot of important issues and a lot of important things coming up
in our lifetimes, really.
But it's also important to look at where things were for our parents
and our parents' parents and where we are now
and how far we have come with this stuff.
So you can do both.
And it's a nice note whenever we have a chance to get together
and everything to kind of note this.
Similar to when I have the family center join us in talking about that
and the progress that is made and the progress that we have to make.
Right. Right.
And I think last time that I was here, we talked about just shedding light.
Right. On these things that have been hidden for so long that we're saying,
okay, this really does exist.
These issues, the trauma, the crisis that men and women are enduring on day-to-day
from a day-to-day basis, the things that happen to them as children
that now impact them as adults.
And if we can, if and when we step in,
we can not only shed light on that,
but we can come alongside them to make sure that they are taking healthy steps,
building and healthy rhythms into their lives so that they can stop that cycle
that brought them to that place of need.
And so, yeah, I agree with you.
I wish we didn't have to have centers like that.
But thank God we do, right?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Oh, my word, we can come together.
And as a community, and I love that you mentioned our community
because Wisconsin Rapids and the surrounding areas around us
and in Wood County, we have seen such an incredible amount of support,
whether it's been financial or it's been in-kind donations,
where people are saying, I'm going to come alongside you in whatever way
that I can to support, to show you guys that you're not an island here doing this all by yourself.
Those of us who are in this type of work and the day in and day out,
sometimes it can feel like that.
And so, when a community member comes along,
and just like we're going to talk about this motorcycle rally,
when they came to us from our house in Compasses,
and they said, we've decided that we want Hannah Center to benefit from this.
That wasn't something that we went out looking for.
They approached us.
And so, to me, that's our community saying, we see you.
And we want to do the shoulder to shoulder arm and arm and say,
we want to support you and we're excited about what you guys are doing.
We have a brave community.
And a big heart community.
And it really shines and it really shows in situations like this.
And especially when we have a community that looks at ways,
how can I help?
What can I do?
What can we do to help you do your job?
And your team do their job and some of that.
And some of that is fundraising.
And some of that comes through fundraising.
So, let's go ahead and dive right into that and this motorcycle rally coming up.
And how that, because I only ask because it seems interesting,
how did that become to be?
They approached us.
Honestly, that's really how it happened.
I mean, it was exciting for us.
And especially in Rapids, we just opened our doors on June 17th,
which is so exciting.
Our community got us to the finish line.
And then we had our ribbon cutting on July 1st.
And so, compasses and our house senior living approached us and said,
this is what we want to do.
Are you guys interested?
And of course, we're interested.
And I'm just going to be a little selfish about this.
I love motorcycles.
And so, and it says that there are motorcycle rides.
I mean, come on now.
It seems good.
Why wouldn't she want to be there?
Why wouldn't she want to show up from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
on the 26th of September and go get a motorcycle ride and get your face painted.
Adults can get their faces painted.
Did you know that?
Yeah.
Just to make sure that I had all the prep done for this interview.
And I look up the hard hitting things all the time.
And yes, if you're over 18, you still can get your face painted.
Thank you.
It needed to be said.
It really did.
And you can jump in a bounce house.
Yes.
I just see.
That's the big one for me.
I've never been in a bounce house before.
I am in my 40s and I've never gotten to be in a bounce house.
Maybe you should show up.
Yes.
I definitely will, Chrissy.
Especially because these are things that not only I, but many are stationed in particular,
but us as a community, we want to support these kind of events.
Because you're right.
This is fun.
There's a lot of cool things to go on here.
But whether it is the motorcycle rides, the face painting, or some of these other things.
One of the things that I think this community does better than most, if anybody,
is being able to have a good time enjoying yourself.
And whether it's in the back of your mind or the front of your heart,
realizing that what you're doing is helping our community,
is impacting our community.
We can do both at the same time.
We can have a good time and enjoy ourselves while also raising awareness about a cause,
or putting funding into a cause, or just letting people like you know,
we got your back.
Yeah.
We see you.
We got your back.
And we're here for you, whatever you need.
I love that.
I love that.
And it's funny to be on a microphone and doing this radio interview.
Because people can't see my face right now, but I'm literally being,
because I'm just so excited about what our community does.
Yeah.
And how they continue to show up, which is so fun.
And so at this fundraiser, you know, looks like you're going to have motorcycle rides.
Like you mentioned, that's going to be a lot of fun.
Face painting certainly.
Now, I like to tell everybody, if you are going to have an event,
one thing you have to have is a raffle.
Every event in this community needs a raffle.
People love these raffles.
You're going to have a basket raffle with this one that looks like?
Yes.
But that's something that Hannah Center is not we, we don't have ownership of that.
Right.
So I don't know what the basket raffle is.
Got to find out.
Got to come and find out.
Come and find out.
And then the bounce house.
And then something that we're going to be doing as well to raise additional funds
is we will be having some baked goods there for sale.
So definitely come on out for that.
So there's going to be food.
$6 a plate that includes barbecue, chips, cookie, and soda.
And then another great thing.
So this is, again, what I love about our community, our house senior living
and compassion said, let's not just stop with Hannah Center.
Let's do an additional thing.
So if you bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Southwood County emergency pantry shelf,
that's how you get entered to win the basket raffle.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Such, again, a win-win kind of situation where we're having fun.
We're enjoying ourselves.
And also, you know, really adding to this community.
And aspects of the community, and this is nothing.
I know it's low hanging fruit to pick on government or politicians or any of this.
I'm not doing that with this.
I think that we, any adult can step back and say, we got a lot going on.
There's a lot of issues out there.
And there's a lot of things that whether we want them to or not or whether we like it
or not fall into a great area or fall into an area where
maybe the government can't do too much, but it comes on us as citizens.
And then we have situations like we have going on this year where
the funding has been cut for domestic violence shelters around the country and some of these things.
So we're seeing that as well along with the fact that we know that
there aren't just enough bodies really in this area to be able to help with these things,
whether whatever organization we're talking about in almost any state.
So our community here is all that.
Our community knows all that's going on.
And all the more wants to step up and be a part of events like this, like this motorcycle rally.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is again, and as a side note here to all of this that we're talking about,
and all the goodwill that we're creating and going to be creating with this event,
I think it should be said as well, very cool idea.
It's a very original, cool idea too.
We don't see this very often as event with any organization.
I love the idea of this.
We have a very strong supportive motorcycle community in this area
that not only loves their bikes, but loves this community.
And so for them to be able to, I know I've talked to a lot of people in this world.
And they oftentimes feel like, well, we want to do this.
We want to be a part of this.
And sometimes they're not asked to or able to.
I love that we're seeing this kind of combination of that going on too,
because while it is important to learn what the Hanna Center does,
and the clients that they have and the good work that they're doing over there,
it doesn't hurt to find out, hey, you know, our motorcycle, our bikers here,
they're just people, they're just human beings.
Absolutely.
They just happen to be out of two wheel instead of a four wheel.
And understanding a little bit more of that,
and even understanding a little more, and having a little more empathy for our bike riders out there.
And some of that, so many different layers to an event like this.
Isn't it such a beautiful thing?
And I love you, you know, you touched a little bit about, you know,
just what's going on right now in our country, in our world.
And I think we can get to this place of becoming so offended in such simple little things.
We become offended.
And I love that we don't have to do that.
We can choose to be around people who may think differently than us,
who may have a different viewpoint, different heart set about different things.
But we can come to these different types of fundraisers as a community.
And we can lay our differences aside.
And we can say, you know, we're going to rally together, we're going to, you know,
we're going to have a different type of fundraiser, you know.
I mean, there's lots of different fundraisers out there.
And what's one of the things that we're doing as an organization is we're trying to figure out,
like what are the different groups within our community that maybe we're not,
we're not reaching out to yet, right?
I mean, with, you know, and the motorcycle rallies is a great, is a great example of that, right?
Like that's a group that, hey, we need to, we need to connect with them because,
and you, and you said it perfectly, James, like it's, it's, yeah, they're just on two wheels.
They have, they have a heart and they want to give back.
And so they're going to show up.
And I would love for our community to show up as well to this.
It's, it's going to be an event that everybody can enjoy.
There is something for everybody to enjoy.
Encourage the, the families to come down and enjoy this one.
It's, it's all coming together for a great experience and a great way to,
not only put into the Hannah Center, put into it and give some fundraising help there,
but as I mentioned before, even if you are just showing up and just kind of stop and buy checking things out,
you are one more person that reminds Christy and her team.
You are not in this alone. We have your back.
We believe in what you guys are doing and we want to support that.
Yeah, thank you so much.
I want to also mention a couple of other things here too.
We'll come back to the motorcycle rally and give people the details of when that is again.
But there's a great event going on also in Marshfield.
The, the giving for life built on faith donation that that is going on over there.
That's October 3rd.
They're doors open at 5.30.
The dinner will kick off at 6.
This is another great fundraiser.
I just wanted to let people know that that is out there and they should check that out,
whether you're in the Marshfield area or not.
Right. Right.
One thing, you know, as we're talking about that fundraiser.
So we have two main fundraisers right now for Hannah Center.
And the reason why we have these two main fundraisers is because we are in a,
we're in a place where we have two locations.
And so it's one organization, two locations.
And so Marshfield started 31 years ago.
And so they are still going strong over there, but they still need continued support
and the community to come around them.
And so they do this giving for life banquet every single year.
And it's awesome.
They have a speaker coming.
They have some personal testimonies from, from the women who might already be,
like in the program right now, and they have one who just recently graduated,
who's going to come and talk about what her life looks like now as a result of being part of Hannah Center
and going through the entire program and graduating from the program.
And she is thriving.
It's really fun to hear more and more about that young woman.
So, yep, and they're going to have a live auction.
They're going to have silent auction and other ways to win prizes and money
and different things like that.
But really, it is a time for the community to rally around Hannah Center and in Marshfield, Wisconsin.
It's a wonderful thing.
And it's one of the bravest things I'll hear today of somebody coming forward
and sharing their story wherever states they're in.
Especially if they are showing, able to show the benefits of the Hannah Center
and certainly in graduate from there.
That's one of the braver things any of us is going to hear today.
That is pretty cool.
And certainly the river edge golf course that this has taken place is beautiful.
It's a gorgeous area to have a nice meal and enjoy yourself.
It's a great place to spend an evening.
Built on Faith, their guest speaker, Mary Docky.
That's what she'll be speaking on.
And she's a great talker.
She's really good at what she does as well.
Oh, this is great, but you really hit it at home where hearing from people.
And that's so often what gets people to listen.
You know, whether it is a great, well, well done commercial or a really good ad in the newspaper.
Those are great and people will look at those and see those.
But what really gets them to engage is real, being real with people.
And these are real people, fellow community members up there talking about their experiences.
Man, does that hit home?
And that's kind of what we need to have happen in order to get not talking about so much
the people that have already volunteered or already supported the Hannah Center.
They've liked the Facebook page or something like that.
Those people on the fringe that we're still trying to reach.
That how we reach them is being real and being straight with them.
And these clients, these people are able to do that.
We tune in, right?
When someone is going to share their story.
That is something that pulls at our heartstrings.
And that says, hey, I need to pay attention.
And I need to come on board with this in some way, shape, or form.
And so that's why I love these events that we do, where we can have a really beautiful sit-down meal.
The director over in Marshfield, her name is Kim.
She and the fundraising team and the board of directors are doing a really fantastic job
in pulling this whole thing together.
But for them to be able to have these women come up and share their story,
it is an honor to be able to sit in front of women who have worked so hard to pull their lives back together.
And I tell the ladies that we serve in rap as all the time.
I thank them for letting us come alongside them in this journey.
It is a big deal when a woman says she needs help and we need to pay attention.
It is an incredible viewpoint to see a woman take steps towards healing.
And then to see her thriving in life and being able to take her life back
and to be able to impact her community, to be able to impact her kids' lives.
And again, I know I said this before, but stopping that cycle of chaos, the cycle of turmoil, the cycle of trauma,
that she endured beforehand and to stop that for her kids so that it does not get carried on from generation to generation.
And that is the work that we are doing.
That's that bottom line of us saying, hey, we're going to come alongside you.
We're going to support you.
We're going to do this through compassion and through guidance.
And we are also going to celebrate you.
And that's what happens at the Giving for Life banquet.
Very well said, Christy. Very well said.
The Giving for Life banquet is going on Thursday, October 3rd at 6 o'clock, over at 2123rd.
East 3rd at street in Marshfield.
You can find out more by going to their Facebook page and subscribing, liking that and letting them know that you're going to be going.
And find out more at the on the Hannah Center website as well.
That website is HannahCenter.com.
We'll give that information again before you wrap up because we did want to wrap up talking about the motorcycle rally coming up real quick here.
It's taking place at our house.
It's assisted living at 2941-16th Street South in Wisconsin.
Rabbids be going on next Thursday, September 26th from 11 to 2.
You're going to motorcycle rides as a part of this, Christy.
What other things are going to be going on at the event?
So I have face painting and there will be a basket raffle that you can be entered into.
If you bring a non perishable food item to donate to the Southwood County emergency pantry shelf.
And a bounce house is going to be there.
And then lots of really great treats.
So I will be making scones for it.
I used to have a scone business that I did and sold at the winter market.
And so I will be making scones for that.
So I'm really excited to be able to do that.
And our ladies at our house are going to be making treats as well to sell.
And so we're getting our clients involved.
We're getting our board members involved.
And so again, just coming alongside and doing something for Hannah Center.
Keep in mind whether it's this event or any events going out with the Hannah Center.
Always looking for good volunteers.
Always could use extra hands.
If you want to volunteer, if you want to donate.
If you want to find out more about this event, Christy, how can they reach you?
So if you want to find more out about this event, go on to Facebook.
And you can go right to the Hannah Center page.
And I would encourage everybody right now.
Take out your phones and get on to Facebook or get on to Instagram.
Follow Hannah Center because you will get all of the updates for every single event that we do.
We put a lot of information out there.
We also have our website, which is a very simple website to get to,
which is www.HannahCenter.com.
And you can go out there if you want to get tickets for our Giving For Life banquet.
You purchase it right on there.
Otherwise, you can reach out to us at our location in Wisconsin Rapids.
That is 1320 Pepper Avenue right here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Keep in mind the Marshfield address is 212 East Third Street in Marshfield.
Find out more by going to the website, HannahCenter.com
and be sure to follow them on social media.
Let them know that you're coming to these events too,
and share these events on your pages.
You just never know who might see them that wouldn't otherwise.
Christy, always good talking to you.
We'll talk again real soon.
Thank you so much.
And we'll have more Midday Magazine coming up for you right here in 97-5 FM.
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