Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Monday, October 28th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here at 430 today.
We're going to talk to Mitch Wayne and Steven Henter from the Tri-City Curling Club.
Looking forward to that.
Right now, our good friend, Tom Dierian with us.
Wisconsin Ravix, Elk Salad, number 693 is where we're talking, what we're talking about today
and all the great events going on over there.
Tom, how you been?
Been good, James. How you been?
Don't go. Don't go. Thanks a lot for being here.
Always good talk with you guys.
Always wonderful to be able to highlight our Elk Slodge.
We try to do that every Wednesday with Bingo and different events that you guys got going on over there.
And I have to be honest with you, one of my favorite things of this time of year is the Nightmare Before Christmas.
So I'm completely distracted. I keep looking at this wonderful poster you guys got and everything.
Let's start right there, man.
All right, so kind of the Nightmare Before Christmas party.
I wanted to do something last year, but I just couldn't get it done in a quick manner.
So this year, I was like, I really want to connect with the community, have a fun family event.
But I don't want to do it on Halloween itself or the weekend before because there's so much other stuff going on.
So I looked at it, I go, what can we do that's going to be fun kind of the weekend after?
Give the kids a chance to use those costumes one more time.
Still come out and have the Halloween experience, kind of fun games, face painting, things like that.
So we came up with this idea, the Nightmare Before Christmas, which kind of correlates into the Christmas season as we transition away from it.
So it's kind of a party that we're setting up so that there will be community involvement.
I do plan on having a giving tree there so that when people come in, they can see there'll be some tags.
They can grab a tag off of the tree, purchase a gift, put it under that tree.
And eventually we'll give those presents away at our breakfast with Santa later in December.
Just trying to think community events that'll be working together and carry one into the next.
One of the things I love about the movie is I can watch it during Halloween and during Christmas.
And you, like many have seen that connection there and it's a great segue between these holidays and everything.
Well, while also being able to give the community a chance to really put into the community and give back.
Yeah, I mean, there was a lot going on this weekend with trunk or treat and the various activities that are going on.
And you know, you learn quickly, you don't want to overshadow any of those other events, you want them all to stand out.
And I'm like, what can we do to make that different?
And I thought this would be the best approach.
So a little bit about the event.
We are going to have it from five to seven at the Oxlodge right here in Rapids.
The public is welcome to attend and encouraged to attend costumes for the kids.
Of course, bring them in.
We will have candy for them.
We will have kids games and Mary Beth from over at 1716 will be doing some face painting for us.
Oh, very calm.
So it'll be a very fun, fun event.
You know, and you brought up something I think is a fun, one of my favorite parts of this.
A lot of times kids get one time to wear these costumes and so many times that Halloween,
which might be this year too, the weather isn't always the greatest or anything.
Getting another opportunity for them to wear the costumes just stretches the holiday out a little bit longer
gives them the more that opportunity again.
And while they're doing that, seeing their community come together to do some good,
like having fun while also doing some good.
These kids, their brains are sponges, man.
And they see this step, they pick up on these things.
And when they see their parents, their guardians, their adults,
doing good and putting back into their community,
they're going to want to do that when they become adults,
along with also having fun.
Exactly. That's the goal.
Bringing people in and being connected with the community is something that I've really worked hard in my term as ER to try and connect and bring us back.
That's going to be fun and all the games, the food, the costumes, all this stuff is going to be great.
We'll be highlighting this, talking about it on our morning show.
Make sure you guys get a good crowd for this one.
Appreciate that.
And as we do shift gears and get ready for the Thanksgiving season coming up and everything.
I don't know many people do as much as you guys do over at the Elk Slatch when it comes to,
we got a lot of great nonprofits, a lot of great people do so much good work during Thanksgiving.
So not meaning it's a competition, but you guys do such a great job.
I do want to highlight what the Elk Slatch does and what really are our lodges around the country do.
A lot of lodges around the country do similar things.
But for us, it had been a few years since we'd gotten to do something that was very impactful in the community.
Yes, we do our Christmas baskets.
Those are huge and we're going to continue to do those.
But I wanted something that would definitely reach the community at a time where we need it.
You know, times are uncertain.
Inflations high right now.
People, and we want something that wasn't just going to exclude anybody.
Yes, there's places that do the needy Thanksgiving.
There's things that they do to help out a select audience.
But I wanted to open up to everybody, whether you're just a person that's alone on the holiday
and you want a place to go or you want to bring down your family and participate.
I didn't want to close the door on anyone.
I wanted to make this as open to everybody as I could.
So we decided to do the community Thanksgiving.
Now it's not on Thanksgiving.
It's the Monday before from five to seven at the lodge.
But I took a good amount of care in looking at how to build this thing out
and maximize as best we could.
There are other organizations that do a community Thanksgiving as well.
And I know they serve upwards of 500 people in the community.
We want to start small and do 150 people to try and see if we can do that.
It's crazy.
That's a small number.
But you're right.
It is.
Just just thinking about that though.
And then I kind of put together the numbers.
People are like, well, it seems a little high for what you're putting out.
But I looked at things as worst case scenario when I put this together.
Smart.
I costed this out with my food vendor for those that don't know.
I am a chef.
I've been for 30 plus years.
So figuring this out and finding a way to pass those things on.
Now when I put it together, I did worst case scenario.
So if I had to get in a case of something and I was stuck with it, we still have to pay
for it.
It's still going to sit there.
But what we can do with that is fund another one of these events down the line.
I'm thinking around tax time.
February, March, when people are really struggling again and maybe put on another community meal.
But getting to this one, the rust cost for the turkey for about 150 to 200 people is $207.
That doesn't seem like a lot.
And it really isn't.
But in order to get the product that I'm using to make it consistent and across the board.
So hopefully I can serve more than that mark, which is really my goal.
That's what it would cost.
Him about 130 bucks is what it's going to cost to feed 150 people that much.
Mash potatoes.
I'm working on getting some donation.
Stuffing and rolls about $70 for the amount of people we're looking at.
Veggies, sweet potatoes, cranberries, I kind of lumped together.
202 is a high estimate.
Again, I'm going to look at getting some donation from some of the major companies around here
to see if we can knock those numbers down.
And then the pumpkin pies, I tried to make it as easy as possible.
They're going to be a cut and serve.
So less work for those that are volunteering to help and making it manageable
because I know I'm going to be doing the lion's share of the cooking and setting up of the event.
That's just the nature of the beast with what I do.
So I'm good with that and being able to bring in volunteers to help and serve.
Plate up in the kitchen and everything is going to be undisposable.
So once it's done, they can just toss it out.
So there's no need to wash dishes or things like that.
So Tom, what kind of food are you looking to serve for this meal?
So this meal will be a traditional Thanksgiving.
It'll be an oven roasted turkey, honey glazed ham, mash potatoes, sage stuffing.
Gravy, green beans and baby carrots, pumpkin pie, and traditional cranberry sauce.
Take it away from the cranberries here in Central.
No, no, it just made me so hungry.
As you were saying all that, it's going to sound, it's going to taste so good.
That's going to be great food.
In order to do this, though, as you mentioned, this is going to be a cost.
It's going to be up there.
How can we help with that cost?
How can we be a part of things?
So basically, I'm asked for donations of money.
It's not because, oh, this is a money grab or something like that.
I've heard that one already.
I'm like, that's funny to me because basically I'm doing it at cost below.
Yeah.
I'm trying to get as much donation as possible, but it's because I have a game plan
of what I'm going to do that day.
It's set up so that people have offered to give food.
Food is great, but it doesn't work into the plan.
So it's not really helpful.
And then, too, if I can get donations from things, obviously, that totals easier.
If you want to donate to this, you can stop into the ludge.
And we do have an envelope set up.
Everybody that donates is being written down.
So we kind of know what it is.
If you want to rename remain anonymous, that is totally up to you.
But we have gotten some nice donation to start with.
We're at about 250 currently with a few more coming in.
Beyond that, which really has helped get us to at least, you know,
the part that I'm worried about, which is getting the turkey because this time of year,
it goes really, really fast.
You got to order them and they go because people know this is coming.
So I'm trying to get the big course out of the way.
There's a really good, a unique opportunity for businesses out there with this, too,
where you could sponsor a particular menu item if you wanted.
Exactly.
You could sponsor the turkey.
And, you know, we've broken it down by how much that is.
Obviously, we're going to give a shot out there.
The plates have already been donated by Midland Papers, Diana that works at the Elks
as our bartender works there also.
She donated those.
That's another $90 worth of donation that was right there.
Yeah.
And it's huge because it's one less thing that we have to look at purchasing and taking care of.
So we appreciate that.
And do you businesses out there?
We'll be mentioning you, too, on the air here.
We're going to be talking about this event and getting people up for it.
And as I see that name on there, I'll be sure to mention that.
If that helps even a little bit, too, you're going to get more bang for your buck with this, too,
as you do anytime you advertise, not just with us at WFHR, but our nonprofit friends,
our family out there.
We always want to help promote and encourage buying local, supporting local,
and so many of our great businesses out there put back into their community.
If you are a business, as I mentioned, with any of our nonprofits,
there are a few things, there are marketing executive getting paid millions of dollars
to tell you what I'm going to tell you right now.
There's nothing better than associating yourself with a nonprofit.
There is no price tag that you can put on that.
That you'll, well, I spend this amount of money.
How much am I getting back?
It's not, there is no price tag.
You cannot put a price tag on good PR when it comes to working with your nonprofits.
Along with also, you can't put a label or a name to the feeling you get from
being a part of things in your community.
The community Thanksgiving dinner, we're looking to put this together.
Monday, November 25th, 527, we'll have more on this as we gear up towards it.
May even bring you back, Tom, to talk a little about it before we get right
get into the Thanksgiving season.
And as we continue on to seasons, we go from Halloween to Thanksgiving to now Christmas.
Yeah, it ends up being a crazy thing.
In December, we get into more of the holiday spirit.
So there's quite a bit of things going on as well.
Beyond just this, we have on December 1st,
we always do a memorial service for all the members that passed in the year.
That's kind of just an elx thing that we do.
On December 7th, we partner with the VFW and we do a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
We will also be doing that.
Again, that's a free event for the community to attend.
It's a free veterans lunch.
It's kind of, you know, a lot of people do things for veterans day,
and they kind of plan their day ahead of that based on, you know, where they're going to go,
what's going on, what they're getting given.
So I didn't want to interfere with that.
But we wanted to make it something that was a lasting memory.
They've been doing the ceremony at the VA for a long time,
or at the VA, the VFW for a long time.
And last year, we did the first annual one with them.
And this year, they'll have the ceremony over there at the VFW.
And then they'll come over at 11 for a lunch over at the Elks.
That's completely free to veterans.
So another way to honor our military service,
as well as at the Lodge, we're doing Christmas cards for the soldiers this year.
Carrie Nicholai spearheaded that.
She's taken over our veterans affairs committee.
And she's doing a fantastic job reworking that entire program from the bottom up,
trying to get connected with her.
That's wonderful.
Carrie's amazing.
Yeah, I have no doubt she's running with that.
Yeah, yeah.
And so we want to make sure that gets out,
that we're working on that as well.
And then we're also going to do some care packages to send active duty soldiers
over and wherever they might be in the world,
and try and get some of that out.
As somebody who has a cousin who is doing that currently,
and won't be able to be home for the holidays and everything,
that stuff means more than we can put in the words,
like those kind of things.
That's cool to hear.
Yeah, and I think that's just another fun thing.
Which brings us into the holiday thing.
The fun thing that I think a lot of people will be looking forward to,
which, as always, is a breakfast with Santa.
I know we're not the only ones doing it.
There's several places.
But we're doing our breakfast with Santa on the 21st from 10 a.m. to one.
We will have the big guy there.
Nice.
Of course.
That's a tough get, man.
We've been trying to get him on Midday Magazine for years.
He's rough.
You know, it's not easy.
It's a lot of coordinating between the pole and good on your nice job.
It takes a lot of work to make that happen.
Maybe that's what we need to do or offer him breakfast.
That's what we should have done.
That's what we're doing.
Well, there's definitely going to have to be some milk and cookies there.
That was a deal bring.
Nice.
Nice.
So this is going to be a fun event.
Looking forward to this one.
Yes.
And then we'll have that giving tree.
So hopefully we can give out some presents.
Again, we didn't want it to be as extensive as some of the other organizations do around here.
They do a wonderful job.
We're not trying to tread on them in any way, shape, or form.
Just trying to do good work in our community.
And also with that, the weekends before, as I said,
we'll be doing our Christmas baskets.
Christmas tree is on December 7th.
Also, hoop shoot that day for the alks, which will be over at East Junior High.
And then Christmas baskets are the next Saturday where we will take out,
I think we did 60 families last year.
And we're looking to do about that many again.
That's awesome.
They get like a week's worth of groceries.
It's amazing.
And you definitely see the need in the community when you go out
and you deliver these baskets like we do.
And that's the big one.
And then, of course, breakfast with Santa,
which is just another chance for us to connect with the community and have a good time.
Mark your calendars for December 21st.
You're going to want to be over at the Elks Latch for breakfast with Santa.
We'll talk more about this as we get closer to it.
I did have a couple of things I wanted to know before we let you go, Tom.
But I really want to make sure to point out,
this past weekend was a wonderful weekend in Wisconsin.
We had a bunch of different events going on and it was so busy.
But it was also there was so many events going on.
And not everybody could attend the ones that they wanted to or they got pulled to this one
and weren't able to go to this one.
I do appreciate that you look into those things and try to your best.
You're never going to be able to dodge maybe everything.
But the idea of thinking of that stuff,
I hope more of our nonprofits are doing that.
I'm not saying they're not.
I hope more coordinating together, working together to do our best to try to give people
as much space for these events on the weekend as we can.
A tip of the hat to you guys for that and thinking of that.
I think that's fantastic.
And certainly want to credit you guys for some of our favorite events to talk about around here.
And that one of those is of course Bingo every Wednesday.
Keep that in mind.
Everybody doors open at five.
Bingo kicks off at 6.30.
It's a great time, great atmosphere,
and a great way to put back into your community.
Because that is what the Elks Latch does.
Whatever you're doing over there at the Elks Latch,
you can know that that stuff is coming back and going back into the community.
Encouraging to check that out.
Of course, the fish fries.
I mean, I can't have you guys in and not talk about the classic fish fry.
Oh yeah.
Well, now that it's November,
we're getting back to it every single week.
The only week we won't be doing it is the week of Thanksgiving
because everybody's off hunting and everyone's gone.
So we felt like we're going to spend a little extra time with our family.
And then right back in the December,
we're right back on the horse and getting to it.
Very cool.
And before we wrap up,
let's remind everybody one more time
about the Nightmare Before Christmas fundraiser you guys are going to be doing.
Yes, it's a Nightmare Before Christmas party.
And communities welcome, completely free event.
Bring your kids down.
Let them wear their costumes.
There'll be face painting,
kids games.
And again, that's from five until seven at the Elks Latch here in town.
And it'll be a great time.
You're going to have games, food,
costumes are encouraged.
This is a family-friendly fun event.
Be sure to mark your calendars November 2nd,
five to seven when you're getting done this Thursday
with the trick or treating and everything.
Make sure the kids take care of those costumes,
keep them in good shape so they can wear them one more time.
And they have a good time.
And Tom, if people have follow-up questions,
they want them more.
Maybe they want to help out and volunteer with some things.
How can they reach you?
So they can reach me at the Elks Latch at 715-423-1930.
Or I'm the one that they call for all the stuff,
whether it be hot rental or anything else.
So they can also reach me on my personal number at 715-697-9221.
And I can give them all the details on any of that.
And definitely looking for volunteers that want to step up
and help run the games.
Want to bring in some candy so we can do a trick or treat style thing.
And just basically be there and have fun.
Yeah, it's such a good energy, a positive atmosphere.
When you're volunteering or you're doing anything with the Elks Latch,
cannot encourage you enough to reach out,
be a part of things in your community,
and be a part of one of the oldest and greatest nonprofits we have in our area.
Elks Latch for decades have been putting into this community.
It's a chance for you to be a part of that.
You can also find out more at elks.org, elks.org.
And be sure to follow them on social media.
It's a great way to keep up to date and all the things they're doing.
Maybe sharing things on your page might not get seen otherwise.
I encourage you to do that, everybody.
Tom, thanks again for the time.
We'll talk again real soon.
Okay, thanks, James.
Thanks as always for having us.
We appreciate you.
We'll have more midday magazine coming up for you right here at 97.5 FM.
13.20 AM.
We are WFHR, locally grown radio.
