Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Wednesday, October 9th, 2024.
I have your host James here with you and joining us right now are good friends from
Encourage. We got our friend Kim Shields with us. Kim, always good to see you.
Great to see you.
Thanks for being here and you brought in a friend as always.
I did.
We have a joining us from the 3-0 day board, Cathy, Steban Hines.
Cathy, good to see you again.
Good to see you.
Thanks a lot for being here.
We'll put you to work in a minute, Cathy. We'll be talking to you in a second because
I'm looking forward to talking with you.
Kim, if you don't mind, I wanted to start off talking a little bit about the foundation,
how are things going over at Encourage?
They're going really, really well. We're super busy, as always, and I just wanted to share
once again about our matching opportunity that we have. We have an anonymous donor that
was so pleased with the response that we had from our first 30,000 by 331 matching campaign
that another match has been offered. There's a $30,000 match by $12,31 and this would be
$1 for $1. Every contribution matters and every contribution is appreciated. The fund
actually raised, actually, go to our Friends of Encourage fund, which supports our general
operating and work that we do at the foundation. That basic support is so greatly appreciated
and needed.
You're really able to put so much of this to such good use for the community to think
that you'll be able to double that use in everything. It's just a big thank you to this
community and the individuals involved in matching that. It's certainly want to make use of
that too. Let's make them spend that money. Let's make them do this. Let's match that
grant and everything.
Exactly.
People can do that any time, right, Kim?
Absolutely.
Yes. We're able to receive donations in many different ways. Somebody could drop off
a checker cash online through the website. If anybody has, it's part of an IRA charitable
distribution. We're able to receive that, stocks, you know, securities, so many different
ways to accept gifts and...
One of the things we don't have a chance to touch on very often is that the ability to
be able to help people and walk them through this process too. I've heard this before from
my individuals that want to donate, but they don't know maybe some of the tax implications
or things like that. This is your wheelhouse. You're really able to help people with that
part of it.
It is. And thank you for saying that. That is our business. So we're very familiar with
that and we're always very happy to help and answer questions people have.
And just one other thing, Kim, I think too, for so much of this, in this community in particular,
we got a given community. We got a community that steps up, but there's a lot of individuals
out there that think, or maybe thinking, well, I don't know if I have, you know, hundreds
or thousands of dollars to donate or anything. Every penny counts, every penny impacts
our youth. It really does help our community.
Absolutely. And truly, we appreciate every dollar. We do have a fund, one of our funds
where somebody contributes a dollar from their paycheck every month to that specific fund.
And it is so appreciated. And it does grow over time. So that one dollar, you know, it
might be by the end of the year, it's already $5. It's a great point. It makes a big difference.
It goes so much farther than we can really put in the words. And we're, that also goes
to the thank you. We don't know how to put that in the words, but we thank this community.
And thank you so much. And this, the opportunity to be in on this matching grant, I have
until the end of the year.
Yes, yes. This one is until 1231. And again, it's a dollar for dollar match up to $30,000,
which is amazing. And you, you don't need to go very far to see the, where extension,
how much this impacts our community, whether it's the interviews we do with Kim once a month,
you can go back and listen to some of those and some of the individuals that have benefited
from this, or just look around your community. You're going to see examples all over the community
of where the impact this money makes. Yes, absolutely. We've been involved in so many things throughout
our community and it's our 30th year. So it's, you know, looking back and reflecting
on all the work that encouraged us done and the programs and projects and the lives that we've
been able to impact. It's, it's incredible. It's very humbling. And 30 years, that's just
beyond impressive to me. And it's, it's wonderful that you mentioned that. And we have in with us
the 30 day board. Oh, yeah. It's not the same as I'm reaching here. I admit, but I love a good
segue. And it kind of gives us a chance to go right into the 30 day club. But thank you, Kim,
for that. Now, before we wrap up today, we'll let the audience know how they can reach out to you
with other ideas or other ways to impact your community. Sure. Could I share a little bit of
information about some of our newer funds that have been established? Yeah. Yeah. You know,
after we had team rapids in with us last month, Gus Mankuzo and Jay Bumpke were here to talk about
the team rapids fund that supports youth athletics. And I heard feedback from several people
that they really appreciated hearing about the, the new funds I've been making social posts. But
it's nice to learn a little bit more about them. So I did want to take a moment to share some
of information quickly before we start talking with Kathy. So there's another fund. There's the
Jenkins Music Education Fund. And this supports the young artist's concerto competition that
takes place at the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra. So again, really inspiring and supporting
those youth orchestral students that really show a lot of promise. They compete. They have the
opportunity to perform with the symphony. It's really an incredible opportunity. So we're so
pleased to manage that fund. That's wonderful. For scholarships, we had one of our new, new
scholarships that started in 2024 was the Dick and Betty Reed Scholarship. And Dick and Betty,
Dick set this up in memory of his wife Betty. She really believed in a strong work ethic.
Both Betty and Dick truly believe in the value of education. Sadly, Dick passed away in May of
this year. But this scholarship was for Lincoln and Assumption seniors that are pursuing a career
in the medical field or trades fields. And so two scholarships were awarded this spring already
for that. I mean, the benefit and seeing those students, the impact is amazing. Another scholarship
is for Louis Bennett. So it was a Louis Bennett's Memorial Scholarship. And this was established by
his family. There were so many contributions that they received from friends, the rapids community,
the wrestling community. Louis had spent over 40 years in, he was teaching drivers education,
and he was a coach. He coached the wrestling program at Lincoln High School. And he really valued
education, relationships, and just, he touched so many lives. And the family wanted to give back
and remember Louis. So there is the Louis Bennett's Memorial Scholarship. Mr. Bennett was really
good to me. He was a good guy. He was a really good guy to be always trying to get me into wrestling,
though. So it would never take no for an answer. He's always trying to, you're so lanky,
you're so lanky. He's a good guy. My locker at Lincoln High School was across from a driver's
ad. I had Mr. Marx for a driver's ad instructor, but Mr. Coach Bennett, he was right there.
I'm sitting there in driver's ad trying to focus on driving. Louis sitting there like,
you should really think about it. You're a weak class. You're really good. He's a good guy,
really good guy. One that was recently established is the John Marshall Bueller Scholarship. So I think
I think everybody in our community knows Marshall Bueller. He's been so dedicated. He is one of our
local historians. And this was established by the Gerard and Doris Veniman family. They had
established the scholarship. The Veniman and Bueller families have this long lasting relationship
that dates back to when Marshall started working at the paper company in Nekusa.
While it's established for Marshall, it also recognizes that incredible relationship that
the Bueller and Veniman families have and all of their involvement and support of the
Port Edwards community and the Southwood County community in general. That one is for
John Edwards High School graduating seniors that are pursuing a career in a science-related
engineering or law field. So that one will be awarded this next season. The Merlin David Memorial
Scholarship, Sports Scholarship, that was established by his family. He had coached over 50 years
from the Nekusa School District. And there's really a focus on the mentoring and leadership component.
He mentored and worked with those students during his entire time. And so that one is for
Nekusa High School seniors that were involved in the athletic programs and they demonstrate
that leadership and mentorship. The Jim Fiber Memorial Math Scholarship, he was a math teacher
at West Junior High for 34 years. He really obviously felt strongly about the value of education
and he supported the Wisconsin Rapids Sports Program. When he passed, he had made it known
prior to passing that he wanted to support students that would pursue a degree in math,
specifically math education. So this would be for Lincoln High School graduating seniors
that had been involved in math for all four years at Lincoln. So that's the Jim Fiber Memorial
Math Scholarship. The Kevin Edward Marth Memorial Scholarship, this was established by his family.
He passed away suddenly last August. He had a love of learning his entire life and they really
wanted to commemorate that. He got his bachelor's, master's, and doctors. And after that he still
continued to take classes and was taking a class at the time of his passing. So they really want to
honor Kevin's love of learning. So this one is pretty broad. All Southwood County area graduating
high school seniors, homeschool seniors, and Wapaka High School seniors. And it's for those that
are studying computer science, preferably a computer science engineering, which is what Kevin
was doing. The Roy and Lori Ingram Scholarship that was supported by Roy and Lori Ingram and they
really wanted to be able to support students that might not otherwise qualify for a scholarship.
Roy had served in the Army and he was a special forces green beret. In Rapids, he had after he
had gotten his master electrician license, he was owner and operator of Ingram Electric. So that
was since 1983. So some folks might be aware of that. Lori, she had a 25-year library career.
She was in Pittsville, Nicosa, and the Rome Library. And she was the Rome Library Director from
2002 to 2018. And they wanted this started during their lifetime. They didn't want to wait until
they had passed away, which I think is wonderful. And they said, anyone can possess the determination
and desire to better oneself through higher education and everyone deserves a helping hand in
order to achieve their career goals. So that is open to all Southwood County area residents graduating
high school seniors, continuing college students, non-traditional students, and veterans. So they
specifically called veterans. The super family scholarship, this was established to help Pittsville
High School students. And Connie Soeper, she had attended Pittsville High School. She was an RN and
a dialysis administrator here in Wisconsin Rapids for over 40 years. Their daughter Kimberly Soeper
Damon. She also attended Pittsville and she is an elementary counselor at the Marshville School
District. And then Chuck Soeper, he was a coach, teacher, and counselor for three decades for
Pittsville. As Mr. Soeper states, education can never be taken away from you. Pursue it and embrace it.
So this is for students from Pittsville that are pursuing a career in nursing or education.
So that obviously honors Connie and then Kimberly and Chuck.
And then we have a couple other scholarships that we are working on for the upcoming year as well.
The Lynn Larson Swanson Memorial Scholarship, Lynn recently passed away. She had been a dedicated
educator in our community. Over 40 years was her teaching career. In Rapids for the Rapids
School District, she taught at Rudolph and Grove Elementary School. She was a dedicated volunteer
in our community receiving numerous awards. So that one will be for graduating high school seniors
and homeschool seniors from West Southwood County, as well as graduating seniors from Kane
Area High School in Kane, Pennsylvania, which is where Lynn had graduated from. Oh, nice.
And the last one that I would like to draw attention to is the Larry Jorgensen Memorial Scholarship.
This is a build of funds. So the family is hoping to build this. It
wants a ward until it reaches a doubt status, which is at $10,000. But Larry had been
one of our area educators who was actually my science teacher at West junior high.
Nice. He gave me my first B, which unfortunately I did earn that was what I should have gotten.
But yeah, he had a 38 year teaching career. And in Wisconsin Rapids, and after he retired,
he still continued to substitute teacher for 15 years. That's incredible.
He was on the Wisconsin Rapids City Council, the Wood County Board of Supervisors.
So once that becomes a doubt, that will support graduating seniors from Lincoln,
Port Edwards, and Acusa High School that really have that community and civic engagement passion
for leadership. So we're just so fortunate to be able to support our young people in our
community with these scholarships and other and other funds that I just mentioned.
Mr. Jorgensen, also a classic beard. He had a great beard, great beard, and a great teacher
and a great individual. I appreciate the rundown there from you came so much because so many of
these, as you and I have talked about, oftentimes maybe there's a family, a kid out there that
doesn't know that this is even there. Right. So to be able to bring attention to that is always
wonderful. And another reminder to the listeners out there to reach out to encourage about
opportunities, you just might not know of what's available. But it's wonderful to hear of these
legacies continuing, these voices, these these people that we remember and we honor,
their legacies continuing. But I hope also gives an idea to or gets the creativity going for the
audience out there that, wow, there's a lot of there's a lot of gray area in life. There's a lot
of different things that well, I could have a scholarship involving this or you can be very
specific with these things. And if you want to like an industry that you're coming from an industry
that you think could really use a scholarship or something, you can be very specific with these
things. The creativity that you can have with these scholarships is is noteworthy, I think, and
encourage the audience to reach out to Kim will give you the way of to do how to do that in just
a little bit. Thank you, Kim. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that rundown. I want to talk with you
a little bit Kathy and talk a little bit about the three oh day board and get into this with you
a little bit, especially for those that may not know what it is and dive into this a little.
So let's start right at the beginning if you don't mind. How did this begin? What is the kind of
origin story for the three oh day? Well, thank you, James, for letting us come and talk about the
organization. And also I'll just start with one of the reasons we're here talking is we are our
board is establishing a scholarship fund. So we were kind of following up on what Kim's talking
about, but three oh day actually started back in 1977 by a group of very concerned doctors,
teachers, clergy, specifically the Reverend Roger Brooks who was a minister with the United
Church of Christ in Acusa at that time. And he pulled that group together because he was very
concerned about issues that youth were facing. And when the group first started it was particularly
they emphasized teen pregnancy and they were concerned about the rise in teen pregnancy,
but then as they came together and they talked they recognized there were several issues
that back in 1977 students were facing and kids just were lacking information. They were lacking
knowledge about how to take care of themselves and just didn't have the information that they needed.
So the group came together and incorporated actually in 1979 and formed this group that they
called three oh day. And three oh day comes from the idea of our bodies ourselves and our
responsibilities that we need to pull those things together for kids and help help them. The
mission is to educate youth so they make responsible decisions that help them lead healthy and
productive lives. So things such as drug abuse, mental health issues, anxiety and depression,
human trafficking, suicide prevention, bullying, sexual health, vaping, internet safety,
cancer awareness and teen pregnancy, all those things that our youth face every day and the
list can go on. The mission of three oh day was to help youth in wood county deal with those
issues. This is an organization that if it started up today we would all be championing, we would
be like oh this makes perfect sense. We could definitely use this right now and everything.
The fact that it's as old as me that it's been around since 1977. Not only hopefully
you know kind of I don't want to say shakes up the audience but reminds the audience that kids
have been dealing with this stuff for a long time and some of the issues that we grew up with
kids are still dealing with and haven't changed so have some perspective, have some grace when
it comes to that with our youth. But also some of the things that we never had to deal with that we
even as a parent of 20 year olds and stuff I don't realize some of the things that the kids are
going through nowadays and to give us a little empathy and understanding of that. It can be
beneficial for adults as well as kids, an organization like this where it's letting us know a little
bit of what it's like to be young now and having some understanding of that, putting ourselves in
those shoes a little bit while also being able to help young people with some perspective and some
older wiser you know talking and conversating and just support and just support in general when
it comes to this. What kind of services have you guys been able to do over the years you were
touching on that a little bit Kathy? Well what the group did is they established a annual seminar
summit if you will dealing with these topics and they brought together folks from the community
who had knowledge and information on these issues and then school districts over 20 school
districts from throughout the area have sent students to this on an annual basis and it was a
day long workshop where the kids would come in attendance with counselors and with teachers
and go to various seminars on these topics and organizations such as the Wood County Sheriff's
Department, the Wood County Health Department would send folks to help educate the kids and talk
about some of these issues and learn about some of the risks and the things that are important
to them again to help them lead healthy and productive lives. Yeah yeah it's great and a big
thank you to all these individuals stepping up and doing those kind of things. I would just say too
that you mentioned that it's you know the length of time it's been around this was a pretty
progressive group back in 1977 that they were thinking along these lines you know we've progressed
so that today when you enter a school kids are taking health classes and they're talking about
these issues at school with schools with their counselors and with their teachers but back in 1977
that wasn't happening so in essence three o'day really sort of set some trends in this community
and sometimes had some backlash at the time but now what they were trying to do then has become
an accepted part of the school curriculum. I'm so glad you mentioned that Kathy it's one of the
first things to come to light did I recognized in researching this organization and seeing the
work that they did like oh they were really ahead of the ball on some of these things and trailblazers
and a lot of this stuff. Part of the reason and one of the things that I'm so proud of and
thankful for and going forward in our society is when it comes to mental health you know we don't
talk like this about it anymore we talk like this and that's wonderful but that doesn't happen
without organizations like this and trailblazers and people really doing the groundwork early on
and they're back in the day to get there that's a great thing to be able to bring up and another
tip of the hat to this organization when it comes to that. In the last minute or so we have
are there future plans or the things that you have coming up? Yes well the board has come together
and realized that in providing these annual seminars that a lot of these topics are being covered
in the schools actually they are being covered in the schools and through other agencies so we felt
the best use of the funds that we have remaining would be to establish a scholarship and so we did
establish the 30 day scholarship which will be awarded this next year and the scholarship is to be
given to a student or students who are pursuing a career in mental health and we feel that the
mission of the organization will continue that being educating you so they make responsible decisions
and so the money and the funds will continue and I have to say really quickly we have had incredible
donors through the years to people who were maybe necessarily boots on the ground but were giving
to the organization for example the Aspirus Review Healthcare Foundation, the Wood County Medical
Society, the Bell Family Foundation have all donated generously to 30 day and individuals
like Andy and Nancy Lucas, Dr. Lucas and his wife Nancy who have really contributed generously
to the organization so that we were able to supply not only the information to the kids but give
them lunch that day as well so that's been a good thing. I appreciate all the information on this
and Kathy you got to come back I think we got to talk more about this organization some time can
I just say one more thing we have to give a special thank you and a special shout out to Mary
Joel Carson who for the last I want to say 15 years has been the president of the board and has
contributed time and talent into keeping us going I'm not sure we would have gone this far without
yourself. Wonderful human being. Our former mayor. Yeah, wonderful human being Mary Jo,
wonderful he treated me really good another nice one. If people want to find out more about this
Kathy how can they reach you how can they find out more? They can go right to the encourage website
information is there you can donate and if you want to specify 30 day you can donate to enhance
the funds that we have in existence with the scholarship and the scholarship will be in the
catalog correct him yes the catalog will be up online before the end of this month and anybody
can donate to 30 day or any of the other scholarships or any other funds that we have you can
just it's under encouragecf.org forward slash give and then give now thank you for that
Kim and thank you as always for the time appreciate both of you so very very much and everything
you're doing in the community thank you very much for being here today thank you thank you
well the more midday magazine coming up for you at WF HR locally grown radio
