Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Friday, January 10th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here, welcoming into the studio.
Our good friends and Wisconsin Rabbits Swim Club and visit Wisconsin Rabbits Bureau.
We have with us, and I'll let you guys introduce yourselves as I say your name.
We have Dave Kahn here with us, a hedge coach with Wisconsin Rabbits Swim Club.
Our crack is Dave.
Always good to see you.
Thanks for being here.
Yeah, thanks for having me back.
We have Amy.
Mark.
Mark.
Mark Ward.
Mark Ward.
Thank you.
Right.
Amy is the club secretary.
Thank you very much for being here, Amy.
And our good friend, Dawn Disarce, is with us, Recreation Supervisor with the Visit Wisconsin
Rabbits Bureau.
Dawn is always good to see you.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for being here.
Appreciate the time, you all.
And I really do appreciate the club being in town, the everything that is put and put
into it.
If you don't mind, I would like to start right there, Dave, with what the Wisconsin Rabbits
Swim Club is and the kind of things you guys do.
And it's also an opportunity for me to say crackings.
I just love any opportunity to be able to say that, sir, I'm going to take it every
chance I can in this interview.
Well, thanks for being here.
Well, you got to remember, too, that, you know, the famous line released the crackings.
So that's what we kind of, we kind of, we kind of, I have to, yeah, I just, I can't,
clash of the tightens is so plaguing my head right now as you say that, yeah.
How is the club?
How are things going?
Well, we found it an opportunity that we needed as some club here in town because we just
really didn't have one.
And if you remember back in the 70s and the 80s and even in the 90s, Wisconsin Rapids
was just a powerhouse, it was swimming.
I coached a number of years down in Milwaukee area and I just absolutely hated Rapids coming
down to the metro area because they beat everyone.
And now I had an opportunity to move to Wisconsin Rapids after my retirement.
And I thought, you know, we really should put this back in town, you know, giving that
water is in our name, it really should be a part of the community.
So we, I've got some individuals together and we put some parents together and we approach
the wrecked apartment and or everything just fell into place just like one right after
the other.
The club right now is an educational type opportunity for kids.
It is an ability for them to be part of a team, to practice their skills at learning
the four strokes that we have, butterfly backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle and it's
a club organization and a team function.
So the kids have relays, they have individual events.
What I like about it is that right now we have a meat coming up tomorrow at Merrill, Wisconsin
and we have 35 swimmers that are going to attend that meat.
Not five like a basketball team, not nine might be on a baseball team.
Everybody gets the chance to swim.
Everybody is a part of it.
So there's no restrictions on ages, on abilities.
You don't have to be a great swimmer to be a part of our club because of the age group
process.
You're only swimming against, if you're eight, you're only swimming against eight.
If you're 10, it's nine and 10 and so forth and given the fact that there are so many
heats and you're based on time rather than ability, it makes a great opportunity for kids
to get involved not only as an athletic type thing where they're going to become stronger
and swim better, but it's also team building.
You get a chance to meet with all kinds of kids, not only from our club, but from the
individuals that come to the invitations, we'll probably see about eight swim clubs
from the area that'll be there and we'll be competing.
So there's an opportunity to make those connections with other kids, other parents, they get
to talk, you know, how's your club doing?
Well, this is a great idea.
We'd love to see that and you know, they talk to our parents.
I don't know how many times, so I've been sitting on the deck and other coaches have watched
our kids and they'll come to me and say, well, what are you doing?
That these kids can do that and then I'll spend time with them and actually lay some
things in the activities that we do here in Rapids and the practice times that we have and
what we actually do during a practice.
So it's been really a growth for us and we're just starting our second year.
We're almost close to what, 60, 60 competitors right now.
So we've doubled in size, 80% of our kids are ten and under.
So building that kind of base and continuing to grow that kind of base will really see
great things in the future for the Kraken's.
It's noteworthy, Dave, all the things you mentioned there are a couple of those things
we'll come back to.
One of the things that I think that it should have been brought up as well though and I
appreciate the giving of compliments and ending our flowers out as we have the community
to some of our other members and some people even in this room.
But Dave, I do want to throw this back at you a little bit too.
You brought up a key word in that consent and in what you were saying there, retired.
You're retired, sir.
You're not doing this right, you're not, no, no, no, it all seriousness.
You have a skill set.
You have an ability to be able to offer to our community that we don't necessarily have
just laying around.
You doing that is just as noteworthy as everything else you've mentioned.
It is very appreciated that you're doing that for these kids for our community.
The empowering of kids, I was just talking with the superintendent of Kusa about this.
And as adults, I've got three kids.
They're all in their 20s.
They're not in the school district anymore.
They're not doing those things.
My job is not changed.
My job is still to help empower kids, is still to help the youth.
The greatest investment any of us will ever make with our time, with our money, with anything
is investing in kids.
I looked it up before the interview.
Kids are still the future.
It turns out.
And so to any of us, all of us doing that in whatever ways we are is all impactful.
And then to be doing that at your age, and when you could just be sitting back, watching
your favorite TV show or something like that, man, it's very noteworthy and I appreciate
it.
And one of the make sure that we may note of it.
And one of the talk about the event coming up, too, that you touched on, Dave.
We've got a meet right around the corner.
And Amy, if you don't mind coming up to the mic a little bit, because I want to make
sure the audience hears you on this one.
Can we tell people about the meet, how they can attend it, what they're going to be
seen?
Yes.
Well, January 25th is our first crack in home meet.
We're part of the Central Wisconsin swim conference.
And having our first regular season meet, we've had a great response from parents and families,
all wanting to come in.
How do we volunteer?
What needs to be donated?
We've also gone into different local businesses.
Thank you, Pick and Save and Walmart, that it offered us money for our concessions.
And we've also gotten response on raffle baskets.
So we'll have a very nice selection of raffle baskets if you want to stop down at Lincoln
High School on January 25th.
And really support our team.
We're going to have over 300 swimmers across Wisconsin.
We're hosting six teams.
So we're very excited to bring this to the community and hoping that this is more meets
to come.
With for one, I think another thing that Dave touched on, I wanted to make sure to come
back to, was how popular swimming is in this area.
One has been for a very long time and they revitalizing of that and bringing that back.
I think we're seeing that not only in a second year of this and hearing some of those numbers
there, not just with the attendance, but the people that are coming in.
But I think one of the key parts of that is what you mentioned there about people, individuals
in the community, parents, different people, wanting to be a part of this, wanting to volunteer,
wanting to help be a part of that and everything.
That's just as noteworthy as the event.
It's really impressive.
It speaks to how much we love this, the sport in this area and how much this helps kids.
Something that Don and I and our visit with Wisconsin's Rapids Bureau have talked about
before and we've talked about with our YMCA a lot is how important it is for kids to
learn to swim, just in general swimming and so them getting more comfortable with that
and the more reps they get in within the water and understanding it, regardless of where
they go with this swimming in general, if they continue to do it in school or even
in college or anything, or they just become avid swimmers or lovers of swimming.
All of this, there's no downside to this.
There's no negative side to this.
It's all great and while it all is about empowering them, it's also fun to competition
part of it.
It is fun to kind of root for your teams, root for your kids, that part.
We all love a good, you know, some competition.
It brings out things in people too.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I think part of the event too is the raffle.
If you are going to have an event, I talk about this all the time.
Any event in Wisconsin, have a raffle attached to it.
And I say that jokingly, but they'll serious this.
People love raffles and sometimes that's what brings them out.
Thank you.
Do you want to thank the people that, you know, helped those baskets, those raffles come
together too?
Oh, definitely.
Definitely.
Thank you to all.
A lot of families coming in raised Coca-Cola has donated a few baskets.
We're getting some other baskets from some auto dealerships and everything.
So yeah, we're hopefully, we'll have a nice selection for everyone to come down.
With the event coming up and everything has kind of the deadline closed for being a part
of things.
If you wanted to donate to the raffle or put into it or anything.
Oh, no, no.
We're still looking at four donations for concessions and for our raffle baskets.
So, you know, feel free to email info.wrsc.swim at gmail.com.
And I'd be happy to work with you to see how we can connect and make this a success.
Before we wrap up, we'll get that email out there again one more time.
And thank you, Amy, for that.
And kind of bringing this to all of you here.
But one of the things that stands out to me also about this event is the opportunity for
kids to, you know, interact with other kids from other schools and other places and so
much of that.
That's a really fun aspect of this, the community aspect of this and bringing so many people
together.
The may not be in the room together with otherwise.
That is a fun part of it.
And certainly, again, getting back to the revitalizing of this sport in this area and
really like being a part of that.
It's an investment.
And while things are, we're seeing the num, we're here in the numbers that we do this
year.
I can't imagine three, four, five years down the line where these numbers are going
to be and how popular this could be and getting it back to where it was.
It's a really powerful thing and everybody can take a little pride in that, I think.
When it comes to the event itself, do we need tickets?
Can you just show up?
How does that work?
Yes.
Nope.
There's no entry fee to come.
You can come on.
I think we're starting it at 9 a.m.
I'm sure that'll be in the city times as well when closer to the event.
Yeah, 9 o'clock and it'll probably go to around 4, 3, 3, 4, yeah.
And when it comes to a swimming event, let's say somebody out there sounds, they're interested
in this day, but maybe they've never attended a meet before.
They may not know the rules or the scoring or some of these things.
Just as somebody who walked into the sport late and everything, just a good friend of mine
was into it.
I found that I was able to adapt and pick up really quickly how this works.
And I think a lot of us watch Olympic swimming.
I don't want to say it's the same type of thing.
But I feel like if you've watched Olympic swimming, you have a bit of a gist of an idea
of what this is.
What you're going to be seeing.
Yeah.
Well, the way the way our meets layout is that because of so many kids being involved
in it, of the morning session, starting at 9 o'clock, you'll see anybody that's ten
and under.
So there's two sets of relays that the kids will be swimming in and then they will have
the individual events then starting around noon, the warmups will start and then we'll
have our 11 and older kids that will swim.
But it's just not down and back.
We've got swims that'll be the 1000 freestyle.
We have the 500 freestyle.
We have 200s where the kids will swim 8 lengths of freestyle or backstroke, so it's not
only just down and back in the quick and easy, but some of these are very, very challenging.
And we have just to talk about our club a little bit, you know, we were able to attend
a state meet last year.
We had four competitors.
Well, the way it works though is when you age up, now you're in a new age group and now
the times get a little faster.
So we're right in between that.
But boy, we have probably about eight kids that are right on the verge of making that
next leap to where not only we're going to compete locally, but we'll compete at the
state level, we're not quite there yet.
But you know, when you're talking about a kid who is 9 years old, now has to make those
cuts.
He turns 10 years old, gets a little easier, but you really have to hustle when you're
9 to make cuts that are required of a 10 year old.
And that's where the conditioning and their dedication to the sport really pays off.
One thing though I wanted to touch on though too is that, you know, with our kids, you know,
we have a lot of trouble teams and a lot of kids.
And I actually grow out there and try to find those kids to bring them to the pool because
if you're dedicated to a sport like this and you can come to the pool, work with other
kids, you're not only learning a sport, but you're also working team leadership, team
building, sportsmanship, it really pays off.
And I've talked to some of the administrators over at our middle school that when those
kids are coming to practice and they're kind of wore out, you know, it kind of increases
their studies and their ability to function in a classroom and we're out there trying
to find those kids and bring them to us so that we can do something for them.
Appreciate that.
On many levels, one for our community, one for the future, but just on a personal level,
I was one of those kids.
I was a knucklehead man.
I really was.
And there's no way I would be in this chair.
There's no way I'd be in the position I am in life right now without sports.
There it was, you know, my father teaching me boxing at any young age or me moving to
this area and I was horrible at making friends.
Just could not be worse at it.
But as soon as kids saw how fast I was, all of a sudden they knew my name and I started
making friends real quickly from that and everything.
And before I know it, I'm in track and field, I'm in football, I'm in basketball, some
of these things.
Athletics do so much more for every Michael Phelps, Katie Ludecki, for all the things
that we could hope for out of these kids or the dream of it is so important that they're
just getting those experiences.
They're getting that chance to build themselves up to build some confidence and doesn't
hurt to wear them out a little bit.
That never hurts a little bit.
As a parent, I will say that certainly doesn't hurt.
I would like to also touch on one other thing that you brought up, Dave, that I think
is really great, and especially having dawn here.
And that's kind of rewinding a little bit and how this even came to be.
And you've mentioned it, and I've mentioned before even where this wasn't as, it was popular
when I first came here when I was in high school.
I graduated in the late 90s, and it was still very popular then, but it did fade for
a little while there.
To bring this club back, to bring swimming really back and force in this area, it took
a lot of people behind the scenes, took a lot of work.
You touched on this a little bit before.
And Dawn, we were talking in a pregame a little bit about this as well.
Dawn, how did this develop from your perspective from the, uh, Visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau?
Well, Dave actually approached me, I believe first, right, and we kind of talked about
getting the club together, and there were more involved, obviously, we've got Dave,
we've got Amy, we've got several others who were so involved in getting this going.
Just a such a dedicated group of parents and volunteers and the kids, I mean, the swimmers.
We had to get the okay from our commission, because it's a big program for us.
This was a huge undertaking, and a lot of details to iron out and get figured out.
And it was kind of a slow process to get it going.
Okay, I know we got started later last year than we had hoped, but we had to make sure
everything was covered and we had done things correctly.
And then once we got it going, it has taken off, as you can see.
But not without the dedication of everybody else, I mean, it was, we had a small pardon
it compared to the dedication of everybody else that has gotten this going.
So we appreciate them bringing it to us, but it's, it's been quite a, it's been fun.
It's fun to see it take off.
There are any foundation, there are no small bricks.
Every foundation has needs bricks, needs to find, and so you're part in this or Dave's
or anybody's parts in this or none of it happens without those pieces.
And it's such a, and I say that, not just out of pride, but out of love of this.
I love this event.
I love what is happening with this and everything.
And it's so, I don't know about you guys, but taking a step back and seeing the big picture
of this, how this impacts the future, how this impacts kids and everything.
I don't know how you can't be excited about it and really, really excited about the
meat coming up as well.
When it comes to the work that the, that the Bureau still does with the, with the swim club
and everything, are you guys still involved intricately with it?
As far as like promoting it and helping these events get out there and such.
Oh, yeah.
They still are dedicated with that stuff.
Great.
And, and that's certainly key to helping this survive and get on its feet and everything.
I, I imagine, you know, working with the rafters when they first moved here and then eventually
at some point, they're okay.
They're, they can advertise for themselves that that's kind of where I'm going with this
where we're hoping to build up the, the swim club where not that you don't, you're not
a part of it or helping promote it, but that may, it's a little bit more on its own.
So I think we're getting closer and closer to that and events like this really help.
As we're wrapping up, I do want to let people know how they can get their kids involved
with the swim club and certainly go over the details of the meat again.
So just real quick, Dave, how people can find out more whether it is getting their kids
involved in the sport or maybe volunteering and helping out with it.
How can they do that?
Well, we are at the Lincoln High School pool.
We're at the community pool and we're pretty much there every single night of the week
now between 10, between 6 and 8, 8 p.m.
We have our practice schedules.
We last night we had 35 kids in the pool.
So it really is quite a show to watch these kids as they compete, you know, in the pool
and have their practice sessions.
So you can come on down and stop in and see what we've got going on.
There's, you know, you sit on the bleachers.
We've got plenty of bleachers space.
We have a phone number here for the rec department, 715-421-8240.
And then we also have a Facebook page that they can go ahead and look at for the Wisconsin
Rapid Swim Club.
So that will give you an idea of the activities.
We've got thousands and thousands of pictures out there so you can kind of see what we
look like.
Of course, everybody is familiar with Facebook.
And then, you know, the rec department itself is a great place to get that information
and Dawn is certainly great to steer those people to us so we get a chance to talk to
women.
I'm a substitute teacher for the district, so I'm out in the schools all the time handing
out little flyers and the great folks over to assumption are real happy to have me over
there.
So it's not just the public school system that we're reaching out to.
It's all the schools.
Yeah.
We're just like the mentioned two.
We have swimmers from Port Edwards and Akusa and, you know, out surrounding areas is
Rudolph.
And I think Pitsville?
Yeah.
And we have Pitsville swimmers as well.
So it's not just Rapids because we have such a one of an eight-lane facility, 25 yard,
beautiful, beautiful pool, we've got kids coming from all over the area to be part of this.
So it's not just Wisconsin Rapids.
It's everybody around that hears about us and I have a great relationship with Think
Academy up there and root off and we have four of their youngsters out now that come
to every day for practice.
So it's a community effort, great to hear that and keep that in mind to all your listeners
out there wherever you were listening to us in that in the area.
Your kids are welcome.
We want you to be a part of this.
And when it comes to the meat coming up, Amy, if we can just touch on the details one
more time when the meat is and how people can attend.
Yeah.
So the meat is January 25th, Lincoln High School.
Our mobs will start up before 9, we start at 9, like David mentioned, 8 in the morning,
I'm sorry, 10 in the morning and 11 up in the afternoon, so yeah, we're excited.
And that info you gave us earlier, if anybody wants to be a part of things, whether it's
adding to the raffle baskets, a raffle basket, a raffle basket, so the pun intended to
write that.
But anything like that, if they wanted to reach you for that.
So you can reach us on Facebook or info.wrst.swim at gmail.com and I'd be happy to work with
you and give you some, you know, have your logo posted at our meet and whatever we can
do to share how great our community is.
I appreciate that, Amy.
And thank you very much for the time being here today.
And of course, Dawn, as we're wrapping up on our mind, everybody, how they can reach
out to the Bureau and find out more and great ways to promote whether it's your business,
your own profit, your event, whatever it might be, cannot encourage you enough to reach
out to our visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau.
How can they do that?
I got a website here.
I can tell you.
I was going to say on the CVV website.
Yeah, go to visit wirapids.com, visit wirapids.com, you'll be able to not only find calendar
events of other great things going on in our community, but to be able to reach out
to the visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau, find out more ways that you can be a part of the
community, get your events out there.
And there are so many great things going on in our area this week and cannot encourage
you enough to check them out.
I keep focusing on the River Kings.
I'm sorry.
I'm a hockey kid.
But not only is that going on this weekend, but you got the Winter Farmers Market kicking
off again at the Moravian Church.
That is kicking off again tomorrow.
And plenty of other great stuff that you can find at visit wirapids.com, visit wirapids.com.
Thank you all for the time and everything you put into our community.
Thank you.
And a big thank you to the heart of this station, Pam Hilke, and the amazing scheduling.
She does week in a week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you next week, right here at 975 FM, 1320 AM WFHR,
locally grown radio.
