Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Monday, September 30th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here.
In part two today at 430, we're welcoming contestants from the Miss Wisconsin
Rapids and Miss Wisconsin Rapids teen pageant of 2025, looking forward to
hanging out with them.
Right now we have him with us.
Our good friends, Reverend Beth Habhager, Beth, it is good to see.
I was just going to call you, Rev.
I've never done that before.
I don't know why I did that.
Good evening.
Good afternoon, James, I should say.
Yeah, thank you for being here, Beth.
And Alice is with us.
Alice Levin.
Alice, good to see you.
Thank you.
Good to see you.
I appreciate the time from both of you, as always, and everything you guys put into our
community.
We really appreciate it.
We're going to talk about some of the outreaches and services offered from the Moravian
Church in a little bit.
But first, I want to get into this community book sale, Beth, that we've been talking about
a lot on our morning show and some other places.
Let's dive right into this one and let people know what this is.
Well, this was started by the University Women's Association back in the 1990s, I believe,
or early 2000s.
It was originally hosted over at the mall when it was still the mall that, as the ladies
got older, they lost their space.
And so we had a member of our congregation that was a part of that group and said, well,
why don't we see if we can do it at the church?
So we started doing it at the church basement, and then those ladies all got to an age where
they just physically weren't able to do it anymore.
And the church believed it was a worthwhile effort, especially with all of the proceeds
going towards scholarships.
So we just kind of took it over.
And we've had several people who have taken the reins and coordinated it for us.
And Alice has been doing it now for two years.
This is her second year coordinating it, I believe, second or third.
I think it's the third.
Okay.
Very cool.
And she's just done a great job with it.
So it's good to have her here and to be able to share a little bit more.
I love the history of this event, and I love being able to cover that.
So thank you, Beth, for that.
And it really, this is one of those events that the community takes a lot of pride in.
Really enjoys.
It's one of our signature events, I would even say, in the community of what people just
look forward to this every year.
And it's one that that pride comes from also being able to put into this event is
collecting books for quite a while.
We do.
We start collecting books on Memorial Day weekend, and we'll start getting calls in March.
When are you taking books?
And we only have so much storage space, which is one of the reasons why we wait until
then.
So we usually tell people find a place to put it in your car or your house.
We do want them.
We just can't handle them now.
But we take them all summer from Memorial Day through September 15th, and there are a
couple of people that have said, oh, did I miss it?
And we've got enough space that right now we've taken some extra books.
But we're at the point where we need to make sure that we have things set and ready for
the public.
Yeah.
Now that we're to this stage in it, Alice, and I don't, you've already been in part of
this.
But now, really, this is go time for you kind of and everything as we get closer and closer
to it.
How is that coming along, putting everything together?
It's coming along great.
I have a great committee.
So I just kind of, and I delegate well.
Yes, she does.
I delegate well.
So, I mean, our books are getting set up.
We just have to kind of go through them again to make sure that they're where they need
to be.
The cool thing is, is that this book sale is all donated books like we don't buy books
to sell.
We already have the books from the community that drop them off and that's what we sell.
So it's all coming together.
We have our tables set up and our books on our tables and we have more than just books,
which is fun too.
We've got some VHS, we've got CDs, we've got LP.
So if you like vinyl, you can come find some vinyl.
We've got games and puzzles, and we do, and I want to say a big thank you because in
the past, I've been promoting, we could really use some large print books and we've been
getting large print books.
And we want to thank the community for doing that.
And as every year, one of the things that I just, I come away dumbfounded by is the variety
that it involves.
Just with the books along with you, what you mentioned there about.
Oh, yeah.
And we have signs up everywhere to let you know, you know, if you're big into self-help,
we have a self-help section.
If you like inspirational, we've got an inspirational section.
So it's like going to a bookstore, but it's all in the basement of the church.
Notice that Beth looked right at me when she brought up the self-help books.
I'm joking.
I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
You know what I mean?
It makes sense.
When it comes to that part of it is another fun aspect of this.
And you know, the community input on this one, as far as donating the books and spreading
the word about this event, I don't have to, you know, overexplain to the audience.
The Moravian Church doesn't have a big marketing budget or anything, but yet this, this thing
sells out.
This thing is always well attended every year.
This thing is that when I talk about signature events, that's kind of what I think of is events
where even if you don't have necessarily a lot of pomp and circumstance, people know about
this event and they're going to show up.
That's a fun part of this too.
And it speaks also to not only the, what we love about the event, showing up, getting
some books, being able to donate to an amazing cause and knowing that and having the comfort
in that.
And there's the fun other part of this too, where you just run into people.
You don't always get a chance to.
It's such a community hub.
It's such an opportunity where even if they show up and you're not planning on buying
some books, first you probably will, even if you go there not planning on it.
And if you don't, Alice is very good at talking you into buying one.
Yeah, she does.
And you can buy a canvas bag.
That's right.
You can't do 50.
Right.
More on that in a moment.
But the idea of going there and you'll, you'll go there this, when this shows up, when
this comes up and everything, and you'll see people that aren't even looking at the
books.
They're just talking.
They're just hanging out.
They're just catching up and everything.
We don't have enough opportunities like that in life.
So here's another cool part of this event where you get that community interaction.
You get that kind of chance to kind of hobnob and stuff.
And that's a big part of who the Moravian Church is.
We have a very what I refer to as a relational theology and it's about building community.
It's about building relationships.
And so we enjoy being able to offer events like this where we can help do that even just
outside of our congregation, but in the community in which we live.
There are some details that you wanted to touch on about this event and you just touched
on one of them.
As far as the prices of these books and the kind of deals that can go on with these books
in the bag that you mentioned there, can we touch on some of that?
Sure.
Most of our books are a dollar.
It depends.
Doesn't matter what kind you get, cook books, non-fiction, paperback.
Most of them are a dollar.
Self-help.
Self-help.
I know.
Good.
Asking for a friend.
God helps those who help themselves.
Yes.
Yes.
And we also have children's books and we actually have like an educational children's section
like for the homeschoolers that may want an educational book.
And then we have canvas bags with our church logo on it.
I think they're blue.
I think they're blue.
They're blue.
And they're nice canvas bags.
I mean, you can use them to walk around the sale with or you can use them when you go
to the grocery store and we just started selling them last year for 250.
So but we have a lot of books.
And there's a special bag sale that comes up on October 12th, more on that in a moment
but do want to give the details of the event and we'll get them out there again before
we wrap up.
Yep.
But the event goes on October 10th at 11th, 836.
And then the bag sale is October 12th.
That's from 830 to 1.
What is the bag sale?
So the bag sale is you can take a grocery bag which you don't have to bring one.
We have plenty and you fill the bag, you can fill more than one and you can get it for
two dollars.
It's a great bag.
Each bag is two dollars.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you just fill that thing up.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
And we don't like leftovers.
I'll never forget the first year we went to this.
It's so long ago, but I went there with my mom and she showed up and did not.
We didn't know any of these details and you would have thought that these books were going
out of style or something like she just was grabbing paperbacks and just trying to cram
as many as she could in there.
Like it was great.
She was so happy.
This all takes place at the Wisconsin Rapids and Arabian Church at 310, 1st Avenue South
in Wisconsin Rapids.
There's also going to be other things there as Beth mentioned, some of the other items,
but there's also going to be one of the greatest things you could find at any church,
free baked goods.
Yes.
Yes.
And we'll have like a hospitality center where people will sit and chitchat because we
have comfy chairs so they can have a cookie, cup of coffee.
I think we serve coffee.
We do.
Okay, good.
Nice.
Very nice.
It's our sign-up sheet, go through the congregation and we've had a dozen or so ladies
say, yeah, make some cookies or bars or something.
So they'll be plenty, plenty of food there.
Thank you to all of them for that there are not many beds, big goods better than churches.
Nobody.
Nobody does better.
And Beth, you touched on this earlier while this is a fun event and you guys really enjoy
having this event, the community enjoys being at the event.
This is all for a really wonderful, important cause.
Yes.
We're raising funds for a scholarship that we have set up with Mid-State Technical College
and we've had that set up with them for I think since the inception of this.
Last year we were able to raise over $3,000 so we were able to give at least $1,000 scholarship
but there, our scholarship isn't just for a high school student coming out of high school
going into college.
ours is specifically designed for somebody who is looking for a second chance.
So it's what's called a non-traditional student and there are the ones that qualify for
the scholarship.
And as we see funding for these things go lower and lower and not having a nearly enough
opportunities for these, even when on the brightest side of these stories, you oftentimes
will have an individual that is having to make a choice.
Do I continue my education?
Do I try to have a better life or do I keep paying the bills or something?
And this can be a difference maker when it comes to that.
Right.
You never know what's going on in somebody's life.
There may be a single parent that unexpectedly became a single parent and now has to find
a new job or a better income.
And we've had I think in the last several years most of the recipients have been in the
nursing program.
I believe so.
Yes.
So it's allowing them to go back, get their nursing degree and have a solid income after
that.
And you think about that.
The big picture in this and you take a step back and there aren't that many opportunities
in life to really impact the future like you can with this event.
You are doing something that could put back into our community.
This person goes on, gets a degree, starts to work in your community and contribute to
your community even more than they may have been before or something like the domino effect
this can have.
It can't be lost in the conversation.
Right.
And it connects with the education.
You know, we're telling books and you need books for education and there are so many
other pieces and we want to try and make sure these books get into people's hands.
So there are organizations that we give books to once the sale is over.
And Alice has been doing a great job coordinating that who are some of the organizations that
we're working with?
We're working with the family center, um, focus and Mary's place, Mary's place.
Mary's place.
And Nekusa Court is going to get the left over large print books.
Very cool.
Oh, that's great.
And so it sounds like almost all these books are going to go to you one way or another.
That is our hope.
You know, in years past, we've had boxes and boxes and boxes that we've taken to Alliance
Club in another city so that they would be able to have them.
We're hoping not to have to do that this year.
We're hoping that people buy them or that we're able to give them to enough organizations.
We're also anything that we don't sell in the religious or inspirational section.
We're giving to St. John's church in Kelner who has their own sale coming up like a
week or two after we have ours.
So they'll have another chance to be seen by maybe some different people.
Very cool.
And just another quick reminder that if you are, if you have books and you, oh, no, I forgot
about the sale or something like that, reach out if they can't use them this year.
There's always next year.
Absolutely.
You find a good place to store those books, keep them in good shape because they will go
to good use for this community book sale.
If not this year, next year.
Mm-hmm.
And again, the community book sale happening October 10th and 11th, 836.
The back sale will be October 12th, 831.
All this takes place at the Wisconsin Rapids and Meravian Church at 310 First Avenue
South right here in Wisconsin Rapids.
And before we wrap up doing a reminder, everybody, if you were not able to make the sale,
gift certificates are available.
That's right.
And in fact, we had a member yesterday donate 10 gift certificates that we will be gifting
to an organization so that people there will have the chance to come over and use those
to get books.
That just made my heart sing.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
I know there are organizations in the community that help under, you know, underfunded families
that maybe you contact us through our email, which is community book sale at gmail.com.
Reach out.
Let us know.
And you can purchase the gift certificate.
And if you want it to go to a specific place, we'll do what we can to make sure it gets
to that place so that they can bring it with them and maybe do what we did last year
and donate a one or two to be given away here on the station.
Mm-hmm.
We'd love that.
We would love that.
And we're looking forward to this.
We'll be talking about it more and more as we get closer to it.
We were speaking with Allison Beth from the Wisconsin Rapids and Arabian Church.
And Beth, I wanted to get into a couple of other things going on over at the church.
And one of the many things you guys do a number of outreach is over there.
Can we touch on some of that?
And especially to those out there that may not know about them.
So we created a new outreach called Cleansing Waters back in, I think it was around 2018-2019.
And we work with other referring agencies in the community to help people who may not
have the funds to get their laundry done.
It's specifically when we were doing a discernment process to figure out a new outreach to do,
we found that kids specifically in high school won't go to school if they have dirty clothes.
So we wanted to find a way to help them make sure that they were able to have clean
clothes to go to school.
And so working with like F-set and other referring organizations will get a call from their
worker and say, hey, I have a family here that needs to have their laundry done.
This is a time that works.
And we will get two volunteers to meet them at a laundry mat and we pay and bring the
supplies so that they can do a load of laundry with the hopes that the money that they would
be used for that could then be used for groceries or to pay a bill, that kind of thing.
So they can use the service up to a year, once a month, up to a year.
And it's our way of trying to help them find that leg up so that they are able to get themselves
into a better spot.
We've heard from whether it's the L-Support or just your surveys and studies that you
hear on the news from time to time of how that line between those are doing okay or living
check to check and those that are not.
And it doesn't, it's not a gigantic difference.
We're talking dollars, not even thousands or hundreds of dollars, talking dollars that
are a difference between these two individuals or these two families, if you will.
And any chance to take a little bit off of that plate can go so far.
It's insightful and encouraging to hear the way you talk about this path because I don't,
I've heard people my whole life talk about poor people, but I've never heard people actually
talk of a tooth poor people.
As somebody who grew up like this and experienced this stuff, I'm encouraged by our community.
I'm encouraged by our society of some empathy being shown and some understanding of, well,
the roles could be reversed easily here.
Right.
Well, I'm putting my hand out and trying to help you up.
It could easily be me down there needing that hand up and more and more of society seeing
that.
Instead of judging people, understanding that, oh, we are quite a bit alike.
We actually have a lot in common here.
Here.
Take this or here.
Have this.
Let me give you a hand up here, man.
That's what all this is about.
And that particular program is fully funded by donations.
So members of the congregation will give quarters as they can to help towards that.
And we, you know, if you have a heart and you say, hey, I believe in this kind of outreach
and want to support you, support us, reach out.
I'd be glad to talk with you about it.
Or if you want to contribute money towards this to help others in the community.
We gladly received that to be able to use it for that outreach.
And knowing the transparency of what you guys do, too, is always noteworthy going forward
and going, when we talk about these things, it's something that I champion when our nonprofits.
This area gets that and really gives you nothing to question, you know, and that goes
a long way for people nowadays.
And knowing, too, that you are making an impact in your zip code, in your community, that
goes so far, whether it is a big sales or the community book sale, or any kind of things
that you guys are doing over there, knowing that, okay, this is going to stay in here.
This is going to help out here.
We don't get nearly enough opportunities in life to make such a direct impact on our community.
And with these events, whether it's the services, or the outreach you mentioned there,
or the community book sale, these kind of things were able to do that.
And it's not able to be done without people like Alice who have a heart to do something
and Alice loves books.
I love books.
Yeah.
Yeah, I can tell.
I think a book on communication.
Nice.
Nice.
So when it came time because our old journey to set back and we were looking for somebody
and I had put out newsletter articles saying, you know, we're looking to put a committee
together and nobody was stepping forward, I happened to visit Alice and I realized Alice
loves to read.
Alice has a gift of organization.
And I said, Alice, what would you think?
And I jumped in.
Both of these.
Nice.
We really appreciate that.
But I love to read.
And I just think it's so cool that we can offer the service, offer the sale for people
that may not be able to afford a brand new book.
They want a book.
And it's only a dollar.
So come on down.
That's such a great point.
Thank you.
Very well said, Alice.
I really appreciate it.
I don't appreciate your involvement and Beth always appreciate our chemistry because you
set me up right where I wanted to go.
Could you guys use volunteers for this event or just in general, looking for all volunteers
were always calling on good people?
Right.
Actually, we do have some spots open that we could use some help with the sale.
So if you would be interested, let us know.
And if any, I mean, yeah, just let us know and if you want to come down, we'll gladly
put you to work.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And as far as the baked goods, you guys are good on that and everything, are you sure
you're good on that?
Because if I'm coming down there, I might wipe out some of these.
So just making sure you're got a good stock.
That's all.
I'm asking for a friend.
You're asking for a friend?
Yeah.
Sort of.
Sort of.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's probably a good idea.
And certainly, come on down.
Now, the other part of this, before we wrap up, as far as paying for these books, do you
need cash?
Can you use a card?
How does that work?
We take cash, check, or credit card.
Excellent.
Very cool.
Very, very cool.
We try to be as accommodating as possible.
Yep.
And do a great job of it and everything.
And just reminding everybody one more time that not only is the community book sale going
on October 10th and 11th, 836, and the big bag sales happening, October 12th, 830-1,
over at the Wisconsin Ravism Reveal Church, but keeping in mind that 100% of the proceeds
go to the Mid-State Techno College Scholarships, an incredible foundation, incredible fund.
And we want to let you know, no matter what your physical ability, you can still make
it to the book sale.
We recently repaved our parking lot so that you don't have to worry about gravel or tripping
there.
We have a ramp into the building and we have an elevator.
Just going to say that we have an elevator.
And I don't know, but other people, maybe it's just my construction background or anything,
but that is a really nice parking lot.
They did a really nice job on that.
I never thought the parking lot was horrible, but I didn't realize how bad it had gotten
until being on the new.
It's nice.
It is.
It's nice over there.
Go check it out, everybody.
We're here to check out the services offered from the Royal Wisconsin Ravism Reveal Church.
Go to YouTube, type it into your search bar, Royal Wisconsin Ravism Reveal Church, and
you can see these services that Beth does on Sundays.
They are usually posted right there, usually later on the day or the next day or so.
They're live oftentimes, too.
If you go to YouTube, they are live, and then they stay posted live.
So you can go to our channel and then look under our live and you'll find them there.
And then we usually get them on our website.
I try to get them there to say more even if possible.
I can't tell you how good they are, only bet to Alice.
They're great.
They're good.
Be sure to find out more at www.rmaravian.org and again, if you'd like to volunteer or be a
part of things, that's also where we can send you to the website www.rmaravian.
Yes.
Okay.
www.rmaravian.org and be sure to follow them on social media, everybody.
Thank you both very much for the time and everything you do in our community.
Oh, thank you, James.
Thank you.
Appreciate you.
The magazine coming up right here at 97.5 FM, 13.20 AM.
WFHR, we are locally grown radio.
