Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Friday, December 20th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
And today, we are going to be speaking with our friends from the Wisconsin Rapids public
schools.
We have Superintendent Ronald A. Rasmussen in with us.
Sir, looking good.
How you doing?
I'm doing great, James.
Good afternoon.
It's an audio medium, so I have to share with the audience.
You are decked to the fullest.
I am envious of that suit, man.
It looks good, doesn't it?
It does.
It does.
Pull it off.
It looks great.
I could not pull that off.
You look good in it, though.
With you, Ron.
We have with us today Melanie Kozlowski.
They said they got it right, Melanie.
Okay.
Melanie is an advisor with the program we're about to dive into and Ava Lang, president
of that program.
Hi, Ava.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks so much for being here, you two.
The program that we're speaking about is an interesting history, and I want to get into
that, too.
But first, what we're talking about is the Interact Club.
And ladies, if you could tell us a little bit more about what this club is and how it
developed.
So the club has been around for several years, and it's changed names over the years.
It really started out of a student concern that we wanted to address bullying in schools.
And from there, the students really took it and ran with it.
They saw a need for connecting with one another, for reaching out to our new students, and
also the issue of mental health.
And so they come up with the ideas, and every year, it's something a little different,
and that's what keeps us coming back to it.
Most recently, we shifted to the name Interact because our local new and rotary organization
has adopted us, and so they help us with some of our projects and we help them with some
volunteering, and go from there.
So many hands make light work.
Yeah.
Melanie, how did you get involved with the program?
So I noticed you're not a student, I am quite a bit older than the students.
Oh, well, just leave it at that, though.
Why is there?
There you go.
There you go.
I came aboard with a counselor who took over the program.
Her name was Mary Schultz.
And the group was expanding.
So Mr. Aspison, Principal at the time, came to me and said, would you please be willing
to help?
And so I'm like, sure.
And from there, Mary took it on and ran with it, and then once I came on board, I was
able to kind of tap some kids on the shoulders, too, that I had in class, and we just kept
going from there.
Very cool.
And thank you for being involved.
Thank you for getting involved in this and doing something like this.
I love doing it.
What does it mean to have the new Rotary Club being a part of this and the work that they
can do to assist or help with that?
So the Rotary Club, their mission is service above self.
And that aligns with our mission as our club.
Our kids put together a mission statement, and their goal is to make our school and our
community kinder, more supportive place.
Every, if you look at what they do in our community and for our community, the programs
that they support, we have kids who are doing service learning as well.
So it provides direction for our students to see how they can continue to be involved
in the community.
But it's also some networking.
They get to meet people who are doing great things for our community, and in return,
they get to see that we have awesome kids at our school.
And they, our students at Lincoln do a lot in this community, and they're invested in
it.
So, yeah.
I want to talk with Eva about that in a moment here in a little more in depth of what
the program is.
But something that Ron and I touch on from time to time, and I've talked with a number
of our midday magazine guests, how important it is to whether it's the Rotary Club and
the individuals there or you yourself, volunteers, and adults working with kids, adults, setting
a good example.
It's old as time, but it truly matters.
The example we said is such so much to say of what they're going to might do, and the
ideas that they have and everything, and so much of seeing, well, if they're doing this,
what can I do?
And some of that.
So it goes so much farther than I think we can put in the words, and as all of us are
young and spirit around here, we are obviously a little bit older too.
And the older we get, I think the farther away we get from these things, and we, you
know, just the way time works and everything, we kind of forget how important, how much,
and how big some of these things are when we're young.
And Eva, that's where I want to come to you a little bit, because this program is so
cool.
It's such an open intended.
It is.
It is.
It is really cool.
And I wish that I had something like this when I was in high school.
My family is talked about mental health as long as I've been alive.
It's been a very important issue in our family.
But it wasn't always that way in society.
What does it mean for you and kids, and not to make you speak for your whole generation
or anything?
But I mean, for you yourself, as well as maybe your friends or other people you talk
to, that we, we're talking about these things in a raised voice now.
We're not hushed about it or anything.
We talk about these things openly now.
How important is that, do you think, going forward?
I think it's a really important thing to be able to talk about it, because lots of people
struggle and have issues that they don't always have someone at home necessarily, because
you know, in the past, mental health wasn't as important of a topic.
But these issues are still a thing, and they need to be discussed.
So I think what we do is very important, because it gives the community and especially
students at our school the ability to reach out to any of us if they need help with
anything, and it gives them resources that they can look to themselves if they.
When you're young, I think one of the things that I know I didn't realize was important
to me until I got older, but support.
How far support can go, and just the simplest of having somebody's back, and how much farther
that can go, whether it's your peers or it's adults, and this program does a lot of that,
it sounds like.
Yeah, whether it be our members, coming to Mrs. Kuzlowski when we need it, or us trying
to help and be there for the other students in our school, and then also the community
around us, it is a very big part of what we do.
And not to say the program wouldn't be successful otherwise, but I would think that it has an
added meaning to it.
The kids came up with this, that, you know, adults, we mean well, but we don't always
do well.
And we could come up with a program like this and everything, and maybe it would be just
a successful.
But I imagine it means a little bit more to know that it's peers, it's other kids that
really put this into work, it's a real, it's a true grassroots kind of thing that happened
here.
Yeah, and I think kids often get kind of a bad rap, you know, they don't care about
much, but the fact that it was the kids that came up with it, and the kids that do a lot
of the work, it shows that we really do care, even though it might not seem like we
do all the time.
But I mean, how else are you going to come across as cool if you don't care, like you don't
care?
It's part of what it is, it'd be a teenager, and we get that.
No, but to pick on that point there a little bit, while we all want to do really good
work, and we're all trying to, it really does take you guys to have each other's back,
to come up with these things and to do that, but you don't always see it, I just, I took
my hat to you guy, you and these classmates of yours and everything that really saw this
and took the ball and ran with it, and really turned it into this really cool program
that's around now.
What are some of the things that you guys are doing to help, to help kids, help your fellow
students?
Well, one of one of my favorite things that we do is our so-called pick me up cards.
So three times a year we send out this Google form to everyone in the building, and they
can send this little card with a message on it to anyone in the building, just to wish
them a good day, tell them that they're there for them, thank them for something to increase
the kindness between everyone else in the school.
Yeah, yeah.
Can I get that on that?
Can I?
No, no, no, no.
That's a great, that's a really cool idea.
That's a very, very cool idea, and you know, one of the things that strikes me about
this, and I don't mean this, I mean this in a complimentary way, these aren't like revolutionary
ideas, these aren't things like, oh my god, where'd you come up with that?
Like whether it's the program itself or something like that, these are things that are important,
but you guys saw that others didn't, and I think that's really cool, also noteworthy.
When it comes to that other kind of work, are there other things, are there other programs
that are a part of this or anything to help students?
Well, also three times a year, we make sure, because at the high school, there are a lot
of new students, especially coming from freshman year, from other districts or not coming
from the middle school, so you know, they haven't been able to have the connection with
the rest of us that maybe came from the middle school, so three times a year, we all
meet together, our club as many of us that can go, and we invite all of the new students
to come, and we eat something nice, whether it's caramel apple sundaes or brownie sundaes,
and we play games, and we get to know them, and we give them a little welcome bag with
some goodies in it to hopefully help the new students feel welcome at our school.
That's fantastic.
I first off, a great big compliment to everybody that works on that and puts those packages
together and everything, but to take the time to do that too, I imagine that it's a little
bit of, well, I wish I had this, and where some of these things are coming from, is that
where some of the ideas for these are coming from, or you wish you might have had them
when you were just getting into school?
Yeah, I think it's, I know that if I was in that situation coming to a new school, I would
be terrified, totally scared, so I think if I was in that situation, I definitely would
appreciate something like this, yeah.
I had a 10 different addresses before I was 10, I can't relate to this so much, and have
a program like that, it goes so far for kids, not for every kid that's good at it, not
every kid isn't necessarily good at making new friends, and trust me, that gets tougher
as you get older too, but it's one of those things where you can, if you can give an opening
a window, an opportunity for that, you just don't know what can happen from those things,
that's really cool.
Other programs or other groups that you work with, with this program?
I would say the largest thing that they do is actually in May, is the program that has
the greatest impact in our school and community, and they work with a lot of our students with
their fine arts performances, so I'm going to Aver or Ms. Kuzalski to highlight what they
do in May because it's a really awesome opportunity to involve many students more than just
in the organization.
So in May of every year, our organization hosts our rise to remember event, which is a
focus on mental health, and we do work with other organizations throughout the community
to bring mental health resources into the school, and we have a resource fair as we call
it, where all of these mental health resources set up tables, and the students can come in
and talk with these, the people from these organizations, and see what they're about, see
how they can help.
And then we finish with a group of performances, typically focused around mental health, whether
be poetry or music, dance, dance, yes, we let students perform.
Yeah, that's very cool, that's a great program, that's awesome, and Aver, you are killing
it, you are doing a great job on this, or I can see why they're rushing it, you know,
what does it mean for you to be president of this club?
Well, I originally became an officer of the club because one of my friends was president
my sophomore year, so then I became vice president my junior year, and now that friend graduated
in, so I took over as president, and it really means a lot to me because kindness has always
been such an important part of who I am, and wanting to see others be happy and succeed,
really means a lot to me.
So being able to work so close with Mrs. K, and all the other students that run the club,
it's really important to me to be able to spread kindness throughout the school.
Yeah, well said, well said, and doing a great job with it.
Is there anything else you wanted to touch on before we go to run with a couple of questions?
Is there anything else about the program you wanted to make sure we mentioned?
Just maybe we can come back and talk a little bit about Rise to Remembering.
Please.
We would love to get more community members coming in and seeing what a beautiful facility
number one with the PAC, it's a free event, open to the public, and it just really is
a one-shot deal of looking at all of the abilities that our students have, instead of going
to all different separate concerts, you really get a feel for what kids are thinking about
and caring about and what they have to offer.
I probably should have told Melanie and Ava before they came in, Ron, we have a deal.
If you guys do a good job, you have to come back.
You got to come back.
You guys have done too.
You got to come back.
Especially with that event.
I really want to make sure that the community knows about it that we really hit on it really
well.
That's a great idea, Melanie.
I'd love to have you guys back for that look and look forward to it.
If people would like to volunteer or they would like to be a part of this and help out
in any way they can, can they do that?
Can they reach out to you guys at all?
Yeah.
If you are part of an organization or a program in the community where you address topics
of mental health and can offer some kind of support to our kids, we do have a mental health
resource fair.
We have to finalize the date on that, but we are, we partnered with United Way Focused
the Leo program, Family Center, Montgomery Center.
We've had therapy dogs come in.
Last year we had an equine therapy through Jeremiah's crossing, so kids actually could
visit with a therapy horse on their way out to the parking lot.
It was quite a surprise to them.
But if you have anything that you might be able to offer, we are always looking for ways
to bring in community and connect our kids to community and vice versa.
And you know, I say this all the time, support and encouragement cost nothing can mean
everything.
Yeah.
And I, Ron, I don't believe that there's ever been a child that there's, oh, that person
has too much support.
Yeah.
No, that's not a thing when it comes to our kids.
And to see them supporting each other, the least we could do is support them, have their
back.
But how, what did it, going back to, when this originated as the cool program and everything,
you're seeing this develop from the principal level and now to this level.
What is the pride that must be, I don't know if you can put it in the words, because I
can't.
I can't imagine how you feel about it.
Yeah.
The program had just started before I became principal at Lincoln and really excited
to see a grow to what it's become today and the importance of collaboration in the
community.
I, I'm a Rotarian in town as well.
And to see the kind of a symbiotic relationship that the cool to be kind now interact club
has with Rotarians as was stated earlier, you know, seeing what Rotarians do in the community,
learning about what jobs Rotarians have and how that may lead to career exploration.
We do focus neighborhood meals together, so that, that working relationship.
But then just the growth in the community involvement as Melanie stated with all the groups
that come in and assist, it's really cool for students to have that ability to really
partner with our community and showcase our community.
And the other part of it is it allows community members who don't normally have that insight
into operations at Lincoln or high school or to teenagers and to dispel some of the negative
that they see and the greatness that as Ava exemplifies today in leadership and assisting
other students gives you goosebumps and just makes it really appreciative as a leader
in the district and the community to see that growth amongst our students and support
of our students.
Yeah.
Love the way this community steps up and the kids are doing it just as much.
We appreciate that.
And I did want to wrap up with you guys if people wanted to maybe there's some parents
out there listening that maybe they want their kids to learn more about the program or anything
like that.
Is there a way to reach you guys?
Is there a way to reach you Melanie to find out more about this or to find to be a part
of things?
Yeah.
If you have students at Lincoln who would like to get involved, have them listen to our
announcements.
We put announcements on for it.
We also are on social media.
The Interact Club is on Facebook and Instagram so you can kind of see what kinds of things
we do if you're interested.
We put a lot of information out there because we are also a club that relies on fundraising
completely.
So we couldn't do these projects without applying for grants.
Marie has assisted us as well which has been fantastic because doing all these projects
we do like two or three a month and we work to make opportunities for students who might
not be able to be involved or build their volunteer hours because of transportation or they're
working.
So they're providing for their families.
So we sometimes send projects home with kids so that they can work on them too.
We're working on some police tie blankets right now for some veterans.
Cool.
So yeah, if you would like to donate or anything, reach out to Mr. Rasmussen.
Reach out to me at Lincoln, we completely appreciate any support we get because it takes
time and it takes money to do it but we love doing it.
And follow them on social media everybody and be sure to share their posts on your pages.
Other people might see it that wouldn't otherwise, so encourage you to do that.
And Melanie A.
But thank you very much for being in today, I really do appreciate the time.
And just as much appreciate what you guys are doing in our community, thank you for the
great work.
Appreciate it.
Ron as we're wrapping up, I did want to mention really quick, Pam and I noticed that our
friends over at Lincoln High School were not able to have their holiday concert but we
got some really smart people over there that thought this thought just through that lived
through Wisconsin winter before.
Yeah, we knew that Thursday evening was going to be possibly dicey with the weather with
the weather service selling us so on Wednesday afternoon we quickly got everyone together and
rehearse fourth up, fourth period and perform the concert.
That was to be Thursday night, fifth period so that is available on the district YouTube
channel.
The link is also on the district social media, on Instagram or Facebook.
So sounds of the season we do encourage you to hop on YouTube and watch our students
perform.
They do an excellent job and we could not be prouder of them.
A shout out to everybody that made that happen, that's so cool, it's being in those concerts
as a kid and everything, I know what it was like to build up and build up and rehearse and
everything and then Mother Nature happens.
It's a really cool idea to be able to do that and maybe even going forward that kind of
thing in the back pocket.
Yeah, it's wonderful.
They're not in their dress black but they're in their normal school attire that day
with it's still the sounds of the season so that's what we care about.
Well, and you know, a mantra that we use in this community and certainly here at WFHR
a lot, buying local, supporting local, that includes things like this, supporting these
things.
There is no, we've been talking about it the whole half an hour here, encouragement, support,
how much that means and there's no child that couldn't have enough or more of it.
So taking in these shows even online when you're doing that, you're showing that support,
you're showing how much you back your community and that you want to support these kids.
Yeah.
And students do pay attention to that.
They look at how many views they do, they're on YouTube more than I and I can guarantee
that.
They look at that.
Ron, always appreciate the time.
If people want to reach out to you, how can they do that?
Yep, you can contact me at Central Office and via email or phone and I just want to wish
everyone a happy holidays and we look forward to having our students back in our buildings
on January 2nd.
Yeah, we're looking forward to hanging out again next month, Ron, and a happy holidays
Mayor Christmas and happy New Year's to all of you.
Thank you so much for joining us today, you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And we'd like to take the time to thank all of our guests this week so much for hanging
out with us, giving some great conversation, great radio and a special thank you to the
heart of this station, Pam Hilke, the wonderful scheduling she does week in a week out.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
We'll talk to you soon right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR, locally grown radio.
