Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, January 7th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mail off here.
And part two today, we're going to speak with our good friend Aaron Hess from the South
O'County YMCA.
We're able to do that thanks to our friends at Tri-City Services.
A big thank you to all of them out there.
Right now in studio we have with us our great friend Ben Eberlein, the community engagement
director with our United Way of Southwood and M's County's Ben.
Good to see you, man.
Fantastic to be here.
Thank you.
Take the time.
We always have a good time.
We hang out.
And I want to thank you not only for putting together a nice list for us and things to go
over today, but all the added extra, like there is the job you have and then there's the
above and beyond you do.
And I've noticed it.
I know other people in the community have appreciate that, man.
Appreciate that.
No, what you put into this job, what you put into this that is a passion for you as much
as it is something that you're paid for.
You're far too kind.
Thank you.
And it's not just me, man.
It's a community saying this.
I get in trouble if I didn't mention it.
I got a lot of people out there that are fans of yours and appreciate the work and appreciate
what the United Way does.
Non-profits in our area were very spoiled.
We've got tons of great non-profits in our area and everyone of them stand out.
And that's not, I think that we get normal to that, that gets normalized to us in not
a bad way necessarily, but in this area, specifically in rapids, I'll say here, I talk to
people in point.
I talk to people in other towns and other areas and it's not always the most common thing.
But what we have here is very unique and I applaud it, appreciate it, and I want to make
sure to note it whenever we have you guys in, especially when we're doing something like
today where we're doing a recap.
We've got a highlighting sum of 2024 and looking ahead to 2025 a little bit.
And Ben, I think we start off with a great place, something that we were a big part of and
we had a lot of fun with as well.
The great book, Giveaway.
Yeah, I know it's one of your favorites and you're such a fantastic participant.
We love having you, you've done amazing it for people that aren't familiar with that.
We have a lot of reading events, so we have 10 reading events that we did last year over
this span of about a week.
And we rely on volunteer readers to come out and read books to kids for about half an hour
and then they get to pick books to take home.
So we love having you out and thank you so much for doing that.
I honestly think that it's a mutual, beneficial thing.
I get as much from it as the kids do.
I really do.
I enjoy it a lot and it's something too that as adults, we need more of.
We need more reading to kids.
I think every adult should read to kids, at least sometimes in their lives.
And I'm not saying you got to do it every day or every week even, but I think it's something
to get good, especially my kids are older and everything like that, but I got a grand
kid coming up.
I got to get practice it.
I got to get back to it.
You know, how do I, man?
How does good night moon?
I got to get the pace down to that and stuff, so it's a fun thing to be able to be a part
of.
And not for nothing, the stats that came out of this bend were noteworthy.
Well, that's exactly because what you mentioned is the core of the event itself.
We had over 300 children attend and we were able to give out 832 books last year at those
10 events, but the thing is, it's so important to read to kids and just expose them to that,
but that can't happen if those kids and those families don't have books at home, right?
And so by getting those, you know, over 800 books in a hands of kids, get them, take
them home.
Leave them out.
You know, you can just look through and read with your kids when you have time, doesn't
have to be every day, like you said, but when you have those books in the home and easily
accessible, that's when you can, you know, you can do that kind of thing and it just even
just reading to your kids or having them follow along.
Look at the pictures.
You know, they can see the words and familiarize what those letters and shapes and everything
looks, the amount of brain activity that's happening just from easy little things like
that is incredible.
So.
Yeah.
Thank you to the community and all the people that brought the kids down to be able to see
the reading, but also people that donated books and where all those 832 books came from.
A big thank you to the community for that and just the way that people get behind this
event.
It's a fun one.
Yeah.
I'm glad you mentioned that we will have our another book drive coming up in April.
So children's books that are gently used or new, I mean, I know I'm fighting with my kids
to get rid of some of their old books.
Yeah.
It's amazing that they love them so much, but we want to pass those along to other kids
in the community too.
So if anybody else is on a similar boat, get ahead on your spring cleaning and start
putting those books together for our April book drive.
Yeah.
Keep that in mind, everybody that is coming up right around the corner.
We have the Summer Fun Fair, one of the mentioned as well, Ben.
Yeah.
That was fantastic.
This year we were able to get back to doing an in-person event and basically goal
that is really just to increase the awareness of all so many low or no cost summer programs
for youth.
Your youth aren't only sitting around playing Fortnite all summer, right?
Right.
You know, get engaged in some other activities.
A lot of stuff that's outdoors or just being able to engage with other youth or save
adult mentors that can help enrich their lives or teach them skills and give them something
else to do during the summer.
So it's another one of those events that we look forward to coming up because it also
means it's warm up.
It also means it.
One of the bigger events that you guys are a part of is the stuff the bus and stuff
the desk event.
This year was needed more than ever and we say that almost really last couple of years
we've been saying that because it just gets more and more intense the need.
But man did the community step up because we met that need, I believe.
Absolutely.
It's incredible.
The amount of support that we received for that event is it's always just mind blowing
to me.
But yeah, so we had 946 students receive school supplies.
So like you said, that's, you know, matched the highest number that we've ever had.
I mean, it's been a consistent level of need that we've had over the last couple of
years that we had about a 40% increase.
I think going into the cover coming out of COVID last couple of years basically and
it's been steady there.
So the amount of need that that increase has been, it's been a lot, but the communities
really stepped up to help us meet that need and to continue doing so going forward.
So in a lot of that, not only is the donation of school supplies, which is huge because
I think we all know how expensive school supplies are when you're providing those almost
a thousand students, it adds up.
But the other huge part of that was the hundreds of, we had over a hundred volunteers help
between the stuff the bus where we collect the donations.
We don't just throw them all in a giant pile.
We got to organize those and make sure that we're getting the right, right stuff for
the right kids.
So there's a lot of, you know, tedious stuff that we couldn't do without that many volunteers.
A hundred plus volunteers, that just got a great community out there and appreciate
that.
Appreciate everybody coming together for that one.
We'll probably need you again for next year.
So keep that in mind, everybody, when it comes to this, finance and investment challenge
bold.
This was one that, I don't know that we really highlighted enough.
I love this event.
I love the idea of this event.
Yeah.
And I think it's so great that to me, if anybody listening has ever been a part of this,
or if you've got a high school kid and you know how dry and boring finance and economics
and that kind of stuff is to a student, this, the finance and investment challenge bold
is so much fun because it's a way that we've seen these kids get so engaged and they get
real competitive.
So it's really fun to see them really get passionate about learning some of this material
so they can compete against other students using their knowledge of personal finance and
economics.
They want, they want to win.
They want to do well.
And we have a lot of prizes that our partners have been able to, you know, help fund the
event that we can use that to help get the students really excited about learning that
kind of material.
You're going to hear more of this, but you probably already noticed, especially if you're
new to the area or new to the United Way of South One of the Amps counties, they reach
out to the community to find out what those community needs are and try to hit on all
of these different factors, the different subjects.
And we're doing that already and we're not even, you know, through the list.
We've already hit on so many different topics that the United Way is impacting.
Another big one, and did I champion all the time?
I talk about it then.
I'll be using again just a couple of weeks, the My Free Taxes one.
There's been some great stuff that has come from this partnership as well, Ben.
Yeah, I'm really glad we were talking about that because it is the exact time of year
where we want to be getting the word out because there's so many people that probably
don't even know that they can file their taxes for free by using My Free Taxes.
So we're coming up on tax time.
So if, you know, that's something that you're curious about, please reach out to 211.
So I just got dialed 211 on your phone and you'll get connected to our local 211 contact
center and they can set you up with one of those appointments.
There are so many great tax specialists out there.
There are people who are paid a lot of money to help you get every penny you can and all
of that.
And I have nothing against anybody in those industries and encourage anybody who needs those
services to certainly go to them.
But there are a lot of people, I'll be honest, like me, in this wheelhouse where that hits
hard when you have to pay for paying somebody to do your taxes or something.
I also have a father who was insane about math and any opportunity to do my own taxes he
wanted me to do.
He's been on me about this since I was 18.
Jimmy, while you paid somebody to do that, I'll do it or why don't you do it or anything
like that.
And I never even would have thought two seconds about it until Terry brought up my free taxes.
And I would say for the past five years, I think as long as her and I have known each
other and we've been doing this show, doing the shows together and stuff, five, six years
I've been doing this and it has never done me wrong.
It has been so effortless.
And I didn't think about this part until last year when I was doing it, the confidence
and how good it feels to do your own taxes.
And to know that your bases are covered, you've done this right.
The IRS is not going to come knock it on your door, these kind of things.
Like it feels really good.
I didn't expect that part of it.
I was just doing it because you got to do it, you know.
I didn't know that I'd feel good about it and that it would feel good to be able to
do my own.
Again, if you need to go to a tax specialist, more power to you.
That's important.
But if you are in the category in that gray area where so many of us are nowadays and
more and more are getting where it costs a good chunk to do your taxes and you want to
just get them done right, this does it.
My free taxes is a great resource.
Single care prescription drug discount programs have been vital to the work over the past
year as well, then.
Yeah.
And it's something that I think most people could probably benefit from that.
I'm always trying to get the word out of a single care because most people have prescriptions
these days.
And let's be honest, it's another thing that continues to get more expensive.
You know, healthcare is a huge challenge these days and it coverages in always what
it used to be.
Single care is a prescription drug discount program.
So I would urge anybody to, you know, check out our website and you can, you know,
log in or not even log in.
You can just search and see if any of your prescriptions, you might be able to save
some money using single care.
Last year, residents just in our community saved almost $50,000 just by using single care
and it doesn't cost anything to use.
So by doing that, why not save some of that money, especially, you know, between that,
my free tax, you know, these kind of things that we're really trying to, all the work
that our United Way does is focused around, and we've talked about Alice before, but I'm
just going to mention that here again too, is it making sure that, you know, the households
in our community who are, you know, working, they're earning above the federal poverty
level, but they're still not maybe quite making ends meet or they're really just right
on that bubble.
It give, make a huge impact in these kind of, these kind of programs is where we see
a really big difference in helping families get by.
I think one thing you hit on the head grade here too is it doesn't cost anything to check.
Exactly.
If it can help you, it can help you, but if it can, boy, that's a good use of your time
right there to save a couple bucks here and there, it all adds up.
One of my favorite personal events that you guys do is the United Weekend event, and it's
interesting because we've been talking, behind the scenes here, talking a lot of rafters
baseballs, we're building and getting ready for that this season and they released their
schedule and some of that, so we'll be talking about it more in playmakers, but we're excited
about United Weekend as well as that being a partnership with the rafters that goes
on every year.
That's been a fantastic partnership, for sure, I did, I saw they just posted that, so
we are currently dialing in the date, so, you know, get everybody on the edge of their
seat, you know, stay tuned for that, for what the United Weekend date will be for this
year.
Yeah, that's such a fantastic event.
Love doing that one, again, think about warmer weather's always fun too.
So yeah, that's a food drive, basically food and basic need items, but we partner with
a lot of organizations and businesses in the community and they, you know, provide volunteers
for that they collect food and basic need items, then their team builds sculpture out
of those items, and then they compete, obviously, you know, we've got to add a little, get people
fired up there.
But it's a really good time and we've been able to generate a lot of, leverage a lot
of extra food for our local food programs too, which is really the core of the event
there too.
And with this too, to any businesses out there, any nonprofits, seven teams, 91 volunteers
competed this year, collected over 6,347 pounds of food, helping five local food programs,
all of that you could have your name or your brand attached to.
Exactly.
It certainly helps, most importantly, those in need for food in our area.
But I mentioned this all the time and I will continue to, if you are a business, if you
are a nonprofit, any of the above out there, you can't buy PR like this.
You got marketing specialists out there being paid thousands of dollars to tell you what
I'm telling you right now for free.
You cannot, there is no pain that you can pay or you could be a part of this that is
going to be, oh, that's too much.
No, you can't pay for good PR and there are a few things that you can be attached to better
and promote your business with better than the United Weekend or any of the United
Way events.
It's really marketing 101.
And so if you've been thinking about being a part of this or anything, I cannot encourage
you enough to do this.
Whatever you spend, you're going to get your money back because you can, you cannot
buy PR like this.
It's a win-win and you're putting into your community.
You're showing the community that you're investing in the community.
That's something that I feel like this area supports.
You notice the businesses that have been around a long time, they put into this community.
It's not a coincidence.
One, if you're an employee and you want to maybe day off work in June and you love going
to their afters, you want to get away with a free rafters game too.
Well, convince your boss that you should be part of this event and then you can also
feel good that you're doing something for the community as well.
So, being able to look out for that date will be sure to let you know when it happens.
Senior stock box program is another one of these ones we wanted to make sure to highlight
and make sure people know about them.
That's another food program.
So, this one is limited though.
I mean, it is offered for seniors age 65 and older who have met an income limit.
But so, that's a program where we're basically getting a month worth of pantry staples, basically
a box full of food.
It's like 25 to 30 pounds kind of varies.
But it's a big box of food that it staples that get seniors through a month.
And by having those shelf stable items that they can rely on that are just regular pantry
items they can use if it's food share or the other money that they can buy fresh produce
and meat and those kind of things that they don't have to make decisions on what to buy
then they can get all the nutritional food that they need.
They've already got it.
It's a great one.
A lot of food, a lot of pounds of food raised for that one.
I think over 22,000 pounds of food brought in.
It's incredible.
So, I wanted to make sure, as we're getting a little bit closer closer to the end here,
we've got a couple of things we wanted to make sure to mention.
One of them I'm going to tie together with looking back at last year's point in time count,
do you want to let the audience know for this year's point in time count, got an email
update from you guys recently that we are still looking for volunteers for this event?
Absolutely.
I want to remind everybody about that.
That's coming up at the end of the month.
So, the 20 seconds of the month, it is an overnight event.
So, I always want to try and make sure everybody is aware of that, but any volunteers or
night owls, and you want to look at something to do to help the community.
That happens twice a year.
So, we go out in January and July, and we basically just canvas the community looking for anybody
who might be unhoused, sleeping in their vehicle, or this is not the time of year that you
want to be outdoors.
So, obviously, July, weather might be better, but you still, it's still not an ideal situation
for anybody.
So, that's our goal is to go out, canvas community, find those individuals, see if we can help
them, at least provide some resources, and it gives us kind of a barometer of what does
homelessness look like in our community.
So, last year was amazing.
We had over 30 volunteers help out between those two events, and it would be amazing if
we could have even more this year.
Yeah, and the next one is going to be on January 22nd, so keep that in mind, everybody,
you can find out more and be a part of it at uwac.org.
We're speaking with Ben from the United Way of Southwood and the Amps counties, and Ben,
to wrap up a little bit of our look at 2024, let's talk about day of caring and some
of the stats of that, one of the bigger events in our community that everybody looks
forward to.
Yeah, and probably fresh in everyone's minds, you know, just happened in the eye in
October, but yeah, so, incredible, we had amazing turnout last year, we had 462 volunteers
show up, we were able to rake 88 yards for our seniors and disabled neighbors, people
that, you know, they aren't able to do that kind of stuff themselves, and this is the
sort of thing that you don't think about, but it really does help people stay in their
home, stay living independently longer.
So, huge, huge impact on the community, and yeah, hopefully we can grow that number next
year, I'd love to get 100 yards.
Yeah, yeah, that's the goal.
I think that's a good goal too, and we appreciate everybody being a part of these things.
And keep in mind, we have only scraps of the surface of what the United Way does.
We didn't even get into volunteer reception center or group impact projects.
There are other things that they are going on with our United Way in ways that you can
be a part of things also.
And there's some going on even right now this week, Ben, there's a thank you celebration
happening.
Yeah, exactly, and just, you know, make sure that people are aware that through the end
of the month, you know, you can still donate, and you get that to count toward our 24
campaign, that's, we're just still wrapping that up.
But donors are welcome to attend our thank you celebration on this Wednesday.
So that's at Bullseye Golf Club 4.30pm to 6.30pm on Wednesday.
Yeah, we appreciate Bullseye hosting this.
They do a great job of that and appreciate you guys having an event like this.
It's a great opportunity to share success of this community, like the United Way does,
when there are, these are wins for all of us that we can all take in.
And it's a pretty cool thing to be a part of.
And certainly, when you mentioned the donating, to me, I've said this for years, to me,
this is an investment.
You are making an investment, and one of the greater investments you can make.
There's a lot of people that are going to tell you buy this stock, buy that stock, they're
ain't a better stock to buy than your community.
That's the greatest stock you can buy, and you are investing in that community when you
are part of things with the United Way, no matter what these events are, or all of these
events.
But maybe there's one that means more to you than others, okay?
That's cool.
Champion that event, put your energy into that.
It is some of the greatest use of your time, and one of the better investments you are
going to make, because every one of these events impact our future, impact our kids.
There's a tie-in with every one of these that affect the kids.
And I got to think that of all the divisiveness out there and everything.
We could all agree, kids deserve the support.
Kids deserve these things, and you can make that impact just by being a part of that.
And if anybody else has noticed this, I've only been here doing this about six years,
but I've noticed our area being so much more improved because of these different events
that we mentioned here throughout the United Way.
This is an investment that you make your money back on, and I put my name on that.
This is an investment that you make, and you see the results from.
You feel the results from in your community, and you see it in all kinds of things, whether
it is your tax dollars that paying less, or it is events going on in the community, I
cannot think of many better uses of your dollar and a better investment to make than with
our United Way.
And as Ben mentioned, you got to the end of January to be a part of the 2024 campaign.
Yep, you nailed it.
Excellent.
And you said earlier, one of the things that I completely agree with is how many amazing
non-profits and other programs and things that are exist in this community, and it can
be really hard to decide.
But one thing that I stand by, when you donate to United Way, those dollars are going to
not just one program.
They're going to 30 different programs, plus all the initiatives and events and things
that we already covered today.
But there's 30 programs that we partner with that we help support, and that goes so much
further than just the face value of a dollar, right?
Yeah, you really get the term bang for your buck.
You truly do with this, and it all stays in the community, too.
And you could be specific about where you want that in Wood or Adams County.
You have a lot of variety, a lot of ways to impact your community with the United Way.
Ben, if people have follow-up questions, want to reach you personally, how can they
do that?
Yeah, please stop by.
Visit our United Way Office at 351 Oak Street.
You shoot me an email at Ben at UWSWAAC.org, or you can visit our website, and you mentioned
UWSWAAC.org, and you can always pick up the phone and reach me at 715-421-0390.
Encourage you to follow them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up the date and all the good things that they are doing over
there.
Ben, say hi to the team over there for us.
We'll talk to you again real soon.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll have more Midday Magazine coming up right here at 975 FM 1320 AM.
WFHR, locally ground radio.
