Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Friday, September 20th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here and welcoming into the studio and it's a little
weird to have you in studio but a good friend of ours and a good friend of
this community's Kevin Krieger is with us right now and it is how do I say
that Ed Ed Wagon?
Ed Wagon.
Ed Wagon.
Thank you, Matt.
Ed Wagon.
District Chair of Scouting.
We're talking Scouting today with Kevin and it's good to have you with us, man.
So let's just dive right into the playmaker.
No, I'm kidding.
And we got actually a really good one to talk about today with Scouting.
We're going to give people a scouting update.
But first off, I just want to let you know how much I in this community appreciate what
you do and what the scouts are in this community and all the good work that you and these kids
do.
We know it.
We appreciate it.
And thank you for being here today, man.
It's good to see you.
Well, thanks for having us on again.
I mean, it's kind of nice when we get our voice heard a little bit more and take this
opportunity to this platform to make it heard even more with everything going on
this fall.
So I was taking a look, you were cool enough to send over an email and I got, I haven't
been able to eat this week.
But one of the things that I'm looking forward to is when I can eat and when I can, one
of the first things I want to devour is some of this popcorn and food you sent over because
you've got popcorn sales going on right now.
And I cannot stress enough how much I really mean popcorn like sales, like popcorn, like
lots of different varieties.
Can we tell people a little bit about this, man?
Yeah.
Tomorrow, where you're going to be able to go out and go door to door selling selling.
And plus also two of something that we've been doing now the last couple of years is the
show on sale.
Like if you go to pick and save or maybe Walmart or the IJs on the Grand Avenue and Baker
Street, where you can actually get the popcorn as you can walk out of the store.
So something a little different, those sales have been doing really well.
And plus the scouts have been doing really well going door to door and the money that
they get from this, they can put it toward your scouting activities.
So yeah, it's one of these great events with our nonprofits where it's putting right
back into the good work that you guys are doing and what able to do and you're able to
do it because of things like this.
And for those that don't know or haven't checked it out in a while, we're not just, we
are talking your classics, you got your kettle corn, you got your traditional popcorns
and butter popcorns and all that.
But there are so many different varieties, man.
And maybe I'm just hungry, but they all look good to me.
The morning brew looks really interesting.
I am a coffee nut, you know, I'm a coffee guy.
That one looks really good.
There's a trail mix that looks good too.
There's a bunch of them.
Yeah, and actually some of those that they do have some newer products out there.
And my personal favorite is the cheddar cheese or the howl, you know, cheddar.
You can't go wrong.
I mean, yeah, I can probably sit there and watch a football game and, you know, a whole
thing about the whole thing.
Absolutely.
I make no bones about it.
I have definitely done something like that.
You're not only getting good food and good products, but you're going to feel good when
you're eating it too because you know that the money you spent went right into the community,
went right into scouting and helps them do the work that they're doing in the community.
Yeah.
And I brought some stuff in here to kind of explain on, based on the commission, 32% goes
back to the scout.
And then actually that's for the, the, the, the Cups go end of it because they have,
they have a program that they sell so much they can earn prizes.
Right.
Right.
Which is really cool for them.
Right.
And then when you get to the scouts, be I say it's a little bit more profit because that,
they don't have the prizes like, like the Cups that it's answered.
Yeah.
I didn't thought of that.
And when my two boys were in it, I mean, they sold close to, at one time, I think my
oldest son sold closer $2,000 with a popboard.
That's impressive.
And actually it helped pay his way to camp and my way to camp.
So when I went up there with him as a leader, it paid, it paid for a camp that we never
really had to take money out of my pocket to take it, you know, and have him go to camp.
What was that?
But it can use it toward, also toward, you know, like a new uniform or a new books or if
they want to buy their own tent.
I mean, as long as it's scout related, a lot of those units give, you know, reimburse
the families.
You see, another one also, a milk chocolate pretzel that I wanted to note that looks really
good.
That's a new one.
That looks really good.
But I, especially one of the note, they're a military donation that that is also an option
on this.
And what a cool feature to have on there, an important one.
Not just because the, I would hope the obvious of helping our vets, putting back into something
like that.
But, and I wasn't a scout, but one thing you know, talk with you, Kevin, and even just
having friends growing up that were in scouting.
And is this constant, you know, reminder to young people of the things to appreciate
and have some perspective.
And there's nothing that gives you that like our military.
There's nothing that can give you that like appreciating our veterans.
So while this is for a great cause and it adds to a great cause, it's also adding to
scouting and the work done by scouting and, you know, raising young people to be a great
individuals and great citizens and everything and have some appreciation of our people.
Yeah.
And, you know, with that military donation, there's some people that, when you go to
Florida or, oh yeah, I really don't want the popcorn or is there something I can do?
And then the, the scout can say, okay, well, we have this military donation and, you
know, the popcorn will, you know, go to the military personnel.
I mean, you can have, I don't, I can't remember if it, if they can personalize it to a certain
person.
I know they've made changes in the past where I think they have done that.
But, they, yeah, they can put that donation in or that can happen.
Yeah.
I was just double checking real quick and it does look like you can to make it personal.
So that's even cooler.
I didn't know that.
That is really cool.
That's like a newer feature to that for the last few years.
I've been out of so-and-pop.
We're probably now for, excuse me, I'm probably out of the, I'm probably four years now,
three, four years.
Mm-hmm.
But, you know, so there's always changes and, yeah, and I, yeah, I have to do my research
and, you know, I had a job of, you got a lot on your play, bro.
You got a lot on your play.
It's understandable.
I, I would know if it wasn't in front of me, so I'm, I hear you, I hear you about that.
And it's also something that, a note to the audience out there to our community.
Keep an eye out.
Kids are going to be bopping around, scouts are going to be bopping around, selling the popcorn.
Regardless if you buy any or not, this is another opportunity, very similar to what Girl
Scouts do with their cookies and everything.
Whether you're going to buy those or not, this is your chance to impact the future.
Right.
These kids are coming up there.
They're nervous.
And even if they're not nervous, they're a little nervous.
Everybody is.
And, and they're, they've never done anything like this before, maybe it's their tenth time
doing it.
But either way, this is them trying to be salespeople.
This is them interacting with strangers and people.
And the experience they take from this is something that they will take with them the
rest of their lives.
So even if you don't buy popcorn or anything like that, treat them good, you know, ask them
up, you know, to go on, oh, tell me about this, tell me about that, give them a little
work to do and everything.
And, and make them, I don't want to make the experience for them.
It's a real learning experience for them that you get a chance to be a part of.
What a gift to be able to impact the future like that just for something.
They come to you.
They're coming to your door.
You know, and I've seen it a couple of times when I've taken, take, took my boys out
and not kind of, you know, you get some of the, you know, the older class, they'll sit
there and say, so what are you doing?
And, you know, my boys did a pretty good job of seeing the money that they raised for
this is going to help them go to camp, you know, and that was, it's been kind of always
one of those big things of reason why you go to camp or, you know, in the past, some
of the units have gone to the national camps where, like, down to Philmonton.
I mean, this is a, you know, big impact on these, and these boys and girls' lives that
they can really, you know, make changes.
Yeah.
We, there's so many different directions that a person's life, a child's life can go.
These things can help guide them or help them on the right path.
We just, we really have no idea how simple act can really lead to so many different things.
Right.
I've heard friends of mine that were in Boy Scouts and talking about this and how much
of an impact it might have had.
One of my buddies actually, and I thought of this and I don't know if he has, is in sales.
And I wonder if he has ever made that connection with everything, because he talks so highly
about his experience with Boy Scouts.
He, like me, was a transplant and came from a big city and really, he got the chance
to really experience nature, really got to get into that and there's so many advantages
to scouting.
This is one of them.
Yeah.
You know, and you get the kids don't, you know, don't think about it.
I mean, yeah, like you said, it's down the road, you know, if they want to become a sales
person or, you know, or some type of, I don't know what to do.
There's almost, you know, even, even, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Kevin, but I didn't
thought of this right away and I wanted to come, I wanted it in my notes and I didn't
put it in there.
But another thing that this does is give kids a chance to interact with human beings.
And as much as we were, especially our generation, we worry about the younger generations having
their heads and phones or tablets and not getting enough people interaction and really getting
that experience.
You talk about something that you really have to do to really get down, you can't read
it in a book.
It's not on an app.
Getting people's skills or working with other people is something that you've got to
just do in repetition.
Here's an opportunity at a young age for them to do that.
Treat them good, give them a good experience.
And you know, as a leader in the past years, I mean, I've had boys that, you know, they
come up to a high, high, Mr. Krieger, you know, just his head, their heads don't and by
time they got down with scouting, it was a completely different view of how it is and
even their leadership skills were really good.
No matter what they do in their lives, they're going to have to do this.
They'll have to do some public speaking at some point or they'll have to interact with
other people.
Here's a chance for them to get some early reps in that and get better at it more comfortable.
That's a great example of that right there.
We're speaking with Kevin Krieger from the scouting and district chair for scouting and scouting.
Scouting.
Oh, sorry about that.
I want to do a little side track because I was really excited to talk about these next
two things with you, man.
The fall sign up, I know that you recently had that and it's currently going on.
Yes, I'm usually the month of September.
We kind of really make that fall push to get the boys and girls signed up K through K
through 12th grade.
So basically right around the five euros old, the 18 is the is the age range range.
Yeah, you can go if you want to be a venture scouter and explore, we can go to the age
of 20 on those.
And we we serve the Samusel Councils as and I even found out last night there's a community
I guess that possibly we might have by the early area, a couple of you know what they're
and down as far as Adam's friendship.
So we've been covering during the year, and yeah, so we're making a push to get the youth
signed up.
If you did miss your school's sign up night, we still can go on and be a scout to sign
up online.
And we've been kind of encouraging that a little bit more and then once you get signed
up and we find out like what school or what unit is in your area, we'll pass that onto
the to the leaders and they'll reach out to you when we can you can meet up with them.
And then and then also once you get signed in, you as a scouter can actually start selling
popcorn.
It's pretty cool.
Did you can get right into it too is cool.
I want to get into what it is to be a scout, what the skills and the reasons behind it
and some of those things with the cab.
But before we do, I want to remind everybody because I think it's a reminder to a lot of
us, even myself, that scouting isn't it's not just boy scouts anymore.
It is scouting.
Yeah.
This is boys, girls, all of the above.
Yeah.
And I know I think the last time I was at it said back when I was growing up and being
scouting is like I got dropped off at my dead mother's house and we did our activities
and then my parents picked me up and then when I came, became a boy scout, it was basically
got dropped off at the meetings and then the parents would come back and pick me up.
But scouting has become very family oriented.
So we want to encourage the families to be involved, you know, and like I said within
the last, I believe the last five years, six years we've had the girls involved in
scouting now.
I mean, I had siblings that way when I was a leader, they're like, oh man, I wish I could
be in scouting because they were doing the exact same stuff because I kind of kept them
involved when there were a cup scouts of doing activities, what their brother was doing.
And now, I mean, we've actually, I believe we've got five eagle scouts from the girls on
in our area in the auto-wagum district.
We have two really good female troops active within the community and it's just awesome
to see.
The last time we did get together and talk about this, I actually ran into my mom later
that week and we were talking and she brought up the interview and she was saying how my
sister was a brownie, she got in the girls' scouts and when we first moved up here and
my mom was a scout leader, a help den helper, I can't remember the name, but so they were
involved in it and I just, she vaguely brought up, she's like, Jimmy, did you know how
that started?
I'm like, no.
So they do this, they sign Jillian up for it and Jill gets done with the first meeting.
Now, and as a side note, Jillian love brownies, love being a girls scout all of that, she ended
up really liking it, but she joined because she thought she was joining Boy Scouts.
She wanted to be doing that.
She saw it in a cartoon and she thought it was really cool and she wanted to be a part
of Boy Scouts and it's so cool to think that now for younger kids out there that they
can be a part of this.
For one, certainly, I think it's noteworthy to say, this helps keep scouting alive.
This helps keep scouting relevant, current, around, which I think all of us want, regardless
if you were a scout or not, I wasn't, but I love this program, I love what it does
for kids.
I champion this program every chance I get.
In part because I wasn't a scout and I know the benefits it could have.
I wouldn't have been half the knucklehead I am if I wasn't scouting.
But I also embrace scouting because scouting has embraced us, scouting has embraced our
communities.
It is evolved.
I think we don't give this enough credit when it happens in society.
So many people want to go right to pandering or different things like that in time.
That might be true for businesses and some other things, not our non-profits, man.
Save those things for where it's deserved.
When it comes to our non-profits, like scouting, these are people and individuals in our communities
that are just not only looking to do some good, but impact the future to help the future.
One of the greatest things you can do with your free time and again, free time, not getting
paid to do this necessarily.
This is something doing out of the free time out of their heart and their time and helping
shape our young people.
So a young boy, young girl doesn't matter to me as long as we're making a good impact
on the future.
Anything does that.
Yeah.
And scouting has evolved, I mean, as everything else has.
I mean, we've did some new things coming up in the Cubs Program coming up this fall.
They have the Bobcat Award, which is a character and leadership type of award, citizenship,
family, reverence, outdoors, personal fitness and personal safety.
That's something to do with stuff that they're really focusing on this year with a new program
on Cubs Couts.
I was kind of reviewing it a little bit last night.
It looks very cool.
And I kind of wish I had this almost when I was a Cubs Couts leader.
And this actually helps more for them to when they advance into the Scouting BSA end of
it.
Then when you get into Scouting BSA, besides learning all you're doing on your merit
badges, I was going to talk about that in a little bit here.
They have other national training, youth leadership training that they go through as one
time.
They do in this right after one school gets all it's called NYLT, National Youth Leader
Training.
It's a week-long training and you're with a bunch of other Scouts pretty close to the same
ages and you're learning leadership skills.
They put them in certain scenarios and they get leadership, I've seen Scouts come out
of that completely different, just in one week completely different and I want to take
on more responsibility within the unit.
That's really, really cool, man.
I appreciate you sharing that.
You mentioned badges, you wanted to touch on some of that?
Yeah, I mean, I might try to hit, you know, you said you weren't involved in Scouting
when you were youth, we could get you involved with it when Scouting with, we have merit badges
like for theater, we have merit badges for radio, there you go, you could become a merit
badge counselor.
This is amazing.
This is a new day for me, man, you just made by day, that's awesome.
It's so cool that they have all these different varieties and they have expanded like they
have.
And then they, you know, like for the, like when the Scouts are working toward the eagle,
they have to have 13 required eagle merit badges like from first aid to citizenship and
community citizenship in the world citizenship and in, I'm sure what's the third one.
I can't, well, I can't think of the third one, but then you got cooking and you got personal
fitness and emergency preparedness.
And then you have some other ones that kind of decided we're working on trying to do a
merit badge clinic within our community here working with midstate, we're going to try
to do like animal science, fire safety, crime prevention, well done, auto mechanics, we're
trying to, so their life skills that the Scout would end up learning.
You know, and we have, we have something here in Evan advantage with Scouting where there
is so much put on our learning system and our schools and our teachers and parents and
everything.
There's a lot to cover in life.
Scouting often gives us, being able to cover areas that don't always get touched on or
maybe fine tune something that they've learned here and here they're able to put it into
action.
You know, there's a lot of that too.
I love about Scouting where you learn about these things, but then you're going into
real life and real situations and putting them into action.
So you're really getting kids a chance to not just learn, but all types of different learning.
Yeah.
So many advantage to that.
And sometimes, especially when it comes to their rank advancements, you know, they have
to do like, cook a meal within a, in a camping trip, well, it's like almost every rank
that has that discount.
It's like, we've got to do this again and think, well, let's think about this a second.
What's going to happen when you become 16, 17 year old, you're as old and mom and dad
might have to work and not make dinner.
Are you going to be able to make dinner, you know, be able to feed yourself.
What happens when you move out of the house, go to college, you know, and then when even
on the personal finance end of it, when we kind of, there's a mayor badge on that too,
they get to learn how to do their time management and how to save, you know, look at the finances
and figure out where to spend and not spend and things like that.
It's a really smart program that has advanced and grown over the years while still being
true to its roots and still being, you know, really what scouting is all about.
And just now, even more people and hopeful that we're going to see more and more numbers
as we go along here.
Hopefully, we did some recruiting right now, Kev.
As we're wrapping up, I do want to encourage people as well.
You could be a part of scouting, no matter what your age by volunteering, you could always
use volunteers, more hands on deck and everything.
Yeah, and even what the parents do, I mean, what more joy can you, you know, see your
scout to evolve through the program.
I mean, I'm fortunate enough to have two Eagle Scouts for, you know, my son, both are.
I never had a chance to get to that point.
And it's just, it's so rewarding to see that I have, there's some friends that had three
boys go through scouting, all three are Eagles.
And it's a neat thing.
And boy, if we can get the families more involved, you're going to have more fun.
It might, you know, encourage the kids to be, you know, more active within the community.
Yeah.
I know that with Dave Carey, you're going to see troops out there raking leaves and things
like that.
But yeah, it's just, if we can get the families involved, that you're going to get hooked.
Bringing up and getting the family all involved, too, is another great opportunity for families
to have activities together and do that.
There are so many different advantages and positives to this great program.
And so much, we didn't even get a chance to cover.
We got to run out to bring it back, talk some more about scouting one of these days coming
up real soon.
Kev, if people want to find out more, if they want to, if they have follow questions for
you, where's the best place to send them?
Okay.
So we have a couple of websites you can take a look at.
You've got bsqa.bsqa.org and also our website, SamoSet.org, it's s-a-m-o-s-e-t.org.
And that's for our council and that's our website.
Do you get a lot of information on that, too?
And you're on social media as well.
Yes, we do have a Facebook page for the SamoSet council, yes.
Be sure to like that page and subscribe to it.
Keep up the date and all the great things that they are doing over there.
Keep up the great work, man.
We'll talk again real soon.
All right.
Sounds good.
Take care, man.
And we'll, big thank you to, as well, to Pam Hilke, the sole of our station doing the
great job scheduling.
She does week in a week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
We will talk to you soon and then later right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
