Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, January 28th, 2025.
Have your host, James here.
And we're joined right now by our great friend, Amy Shide, from the Wisconsin Rabbids
Family Center.
Amy, good to have you here.
Thank you for having me, James.
Good to see you.
Appreciate the time, as always, always like to mention to the, our listeners out there
for those that don't know.
I am a board member of our Wisconsin Rabbids Family Center, and I say that proudly, and
I bring that up not only for journalistic integrity, of course, but to encourage more and
more of you out there to be a board member.
I am also a secretary over at the Family Center, and I cannot tell you how easy they make
these things.
They go out of their way to help me and meet me halfway, if not coming here to have me
sign papers and things like that.
It is one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life, and I am incredibly
thankful to the Family Center for giving me that opportunity.
And encourage others out there, whether it is with the Family Center or any of our other
great local nonprofits out here, they are always looking for good board members, and it
is not a huge time commitment, but what it does for the soul, there is no words.
I can encourage you to do that, everybody.
Amy is the Administrative Development Volunteer Coordinator over there.
That is a big job, Amy.
That is a big one.
And we appreciate the work that you do over there with that.
I bring that up in part, just, I want to note it, because I think it's a great title,
and you deserve it.
But also, we want to start off talking about volunteers, and how important that is to
our community.
I think volunteering has a big depth to it, and I brought up the board membership and
everything in part because of that, because that is a form of volunteering and being a part
of that program.
It can be very beneficial to the Family Center or, again, any other nonprofit out there.
But then there is the, I like to say above and beyond.
It's something that the Family Center does in droves.
It's something that a lot of our community does quite a bit.
And when it comes to what we're going to talk about today in volunteering and donating
in some of those things, they go hand in hand.
But we also, you and I know better than most, I think, that not everybody has dollars and
cents to donate.
And while they want to, they would love to be able to, not everybody can.
But most of us have an hour or two.
Most of us have a little bit of free time, a little bit of ability to be able to put back
into our community.
And that's where volunteering really comes into play.
I would agree with you, James, and just add two points to that.
First of all, a thank you to you for your years of service to the Wisconsin Rapids Family
Center board.
We appreciate it so much.
I often hear people say things to me like, I just, I don't know what I'd have to give.
Or I don't know what skills I would have to serve.
And I would tell you that each and every one of you has the capacity to be a great
addition to any board of directors, any team of volunteers.
We all have something that others would value.
This is a weird connection I admit.
But it actually reminds me of talking to a lot of my first year students and getting
in the comedy.
And there's this idea of, I've got to tell how the chicken crossed the road differently.
I got to come up with a whole different way and a whole different punch line that nobody's
ever thought of and everything.
And I tell everyone of them, I'm like, you know, just tell the joke.
You yourself are an original.
Every one of you out there is an original.
True, yes.
And just by that in its own, you're going to tell that joke differently than any other
comedian ever will.
And volunteering is extremely like that where you each, like Amy said, have a different
skill set.
See the world a little bit differently.
So you're probably going to bring something a perspective or something like that to volunteering
that maybe we don't see.
Many hands make light work.
Many eyes bring much more thought and much more ideas and creativity to these things.
So you just never know what you're, you know, you being there even might add to this.
Let alone the many hands part of this.
I think that's a great way to look at these opportunities, but also individuals and the
way in which they bring a life experience and a heritage to any position, any opportunity
that we would be foolish to turn away given that we could all benefit from seeing the
world a different way.
You know, we talk about this too as far as donations and that when it comes to supporting
our family center and volunteering is another way of showing that support.
When the people that are working there see volunteers working and helping and everything
that that can be sometimes that fire that you need to get you through the rest of the
day or the week or something like that.
There's no getting around it.
This is a tough industry and it takes a toll.
But boy, it can be re, it can really refuel the soul having volunteers there and seeing
people take time out of their day where they could be doing almost anything else and what
do they choose to do at that time?
Help out us, help out the family center being a part of things.
There are many opportunities for volunteerism at this time at Wisconsin Rapids Family Center.
We have an exciting event coming up that James and I will be talking about a little later
in the program called Chefs for Change.
And we're looking for volunteers for that event.
That type of volunteer might only work with our team three times out of the year for the
fundraisers that we hold when we're working in the public to not only raise those important
dollars but also bring awareness to the clients that we serve and the things that they're
going through.
Right now we are looking for a volunteer that could assist with book work.
It might be for a one month period or a two week period and then we might not need your
assistance again for a period of time.
Or the direct service volunteers that we have working with us, they set their schedule,
they assist with phones, doors, providing resources to clients who may phone in, drop in, etc.
And they typically have a certain period of time that they come in at the same time during
the week.
So not only are those three different types of volunteers that require three different
types of world experience, life experience, interest level, but also three different ways
in which it fits in your own schedule.
One other thing that I wanted to touch on before we move on, Amy, is when it comes to volunteering
and with the Family Center, there might be some people out there that have a hesitancy
or something because of, well, with the Family Center, what kind of volunteering would I be
doing there?
Just a reminder out there that there were the type of things we're talking about could be
a lot of different things, it could be helping shovel, it could be helping put some lights up
or something like that, it may not necessarily have anything directly to do with domestic violence
or those sorts of things.
We've got professionals to do those things just to reassure people out there.
Agreed. And there is an application on our website and on our Facebook page that allows
for you to demonstrate what types of things you're interested in.
Some people come to us very passionate about direct service to the clients and then others
would prefer to do something that's, that they have more experience in such as paperwork or
accounting assistance, that sort of thing. Or they're just social, you want to come to us
at one of the most fun events that we're going to have this year.
Yes, yes. We can't wait to talk about chefs for change.
I've been talking about it a lot of morning show a bunch of everything.
Awesome.
Do you want to get to our annual appeal progress though and see how that's been going?
Yes. So the annual appeal was typically comes out right around Thanksgiving.
We released two appeals annually and one in the middle of the year and one towards the end of
the calendar year. Why this one is particularly special is a good reason and a less than good reason.
The less than because I always want to start with the negative and end with the positive.
Yes, me too.
Is the Volca cuts that we've spoken about often, James, the significant cuts that we saw
in federal grant funding to domestic violence shelters across our nation?
We are, we went into this appeal knowing that those grants were going to cause a major deficit
in our budget and honestly, we know that our community is going to bridge that gap.
We believe in our community understanding the importance of taking those most in need in our
community, providing them with services to strengthen them and to have them move on from our
facility as survivors, not as victims as survivors. And we need your help to do that.
There's a great many things that aren't funded by federal grants such as and this one is forever
ahead scratcher for me and James, but prevention, you know, will be in a perpetual state if we don't
look at ways to provide prevention and Volca cuts are not, those are not things that are funded.
So the annual appeal is a great way for you to help with that. So that's the negative.
The positive is 40 years, 40 years of serving our, our community and we're celebrating that
anniversary through this annual appeal. So help us commemorate that special milestone, please,
by going on our website, going on our Facebook page, clicking that support tab,
maybe even becoming an annual donor. That would mean so much.
By being an annual donor, one of the things you can look forward to as a phone call for me,
not just a kid. That is true, actually.
But trying to find a light moment here, I have to because I get really passionate about this
topic and this really frustrates me. I have been very clear with the audience from day one.
I am not a Democrat or Republican. I'm an American and I focus on what is best for our communities,
what are best for our country. And this is a no-brainer. Helping our domestic violence shelters
around the country is one of the smartest economic things we can do. Whether you care about this
cause or not passionately, however you feel about it or not, you care about your wallet,
you care about your taxes, and look at the communities that do not have a family center. Look
at the communities that do not approach this topic. There are taxes different, the job quality,
all these things are affected by this. This is one of those topics that bleeds into everything.
The more we help the family centers in our areas, the better our communities are. This is something
that's not going away. This is something where the numbers were not seeing dive down or anything
like that. If anything after the pandemic, we saw rise in these things. And I will mention,
and I brought up the political parties for a reason because these cuts happen over the pre,
after the, with the previous administration. And I am just being completely honest with everybody.
I don't have a lot of confidence in the current administration is going to change that.
If anything, we might see worse happen. This is the time. This is the time right now. In the 40
years of the Wisconsin Rapids Family Center, it has never been more vital for you to donate,
for you to put time into it, for energy into our family center. This is for the betterment of our
community. This is for the betterment of our kids. This is for our future. That's what is at
stake here. It's incredibly important that if you are able to to add to this cause, it's not,
you want to be on the right side of history on this one. You do. And this is something that
matters and it affects every single one of us. If you're there listening and you're like, I don't
this isn't affecting me. It doesn't happen to me. I promise you. And I don't say that word unless I
can back it up. Statistically, we know this, your neighbor, a neighbor's neighbor, somebody in your
community, somebody you work with, somebody you go to church with, they're going through this.
The stats speak for themselves. And you can help those people. There are a few things in this life
to me that are greater than strangers, helping strangers. And our community does that better than
most. So let's show the world. Let's show everybody how good we are at this by adding to this
annual appeal. And as Amy so well said, bridging that gap. It's an easy Google James. You know,
we were very used to having now in our in our current world, the ability to back up any question
we have with statistics with information. And it's an easy Google to see the percentage of people
in your stratosphere that have been affected by domestic violence or sexual assault. And I
would just like to add to that the fact that we serve all different people at the family center.
No one has turned away. We serve people of different sexual orientations. We serve people. We
serve men. We serve women. We serve people that have experienced elder abuse. We serve people
that have had sexual assault rising in our area. Unfortunately, and you're seeing it on the news,
human trafficking. All of these things and the variety of support that we have. I would
encourage you to take a look at our website. Look at all the services we provide. And tell me
with the budget cuts of the significance, which one of those positions would you eliminate?
Yeah. Is it our visitation program? Is it our child and family advocate? Our sexual assault
prevention member. Which one of those positions is something you would cut?
It also gives you, hopefully, an opportunity to learn more about what the family center does and
how they go above and beyond when it comes to the clients that are there and the people that need
them. It's not it's one thing to be able to offer a roof. It's another to offer a future
to offer a better day. Like that's there's no words for that. There's no way we could I could
summarize that for you perfectly. It's something that I think you get from the website,
and you get from events that you guys do. And Amy is with us right now from the Wisconsin
Rabbids Family Center. We want to spend some time talking about chiefs for change. First off,
we're really happy to have this event back. It's got a little reimagined, which is kind of cool.
I love the name. I saw that name in the email. I'm like, oh, that's a winner. That's a banger
right there. And while it is a new name, it is very similar to men in the kitchen and some other
events we've done. Yes. So we've taken a look at the fundraising that we do and knowing that we
had to enhance that activity at our organization in order to meet these gaps. And we want to have
events such as touch a truck where we have people of all ages come out learn more as a family
about the services that we provide. We want to have some fun activities. We added a golf
outing last year. I don't golf. No one wants to see me. But I did learn I can drive a cart.
You know, everybody has their talents. Food service on the other hand, those of you who know my
past life know that I'm a passionate person about local foods. I love to serve the public. And as
many years as owner of great expectations, I'm proud to bring the culinary skills of Chef Ryan.
That's a new announcement of Chef Ryan to chefs for change. So this is an event that we felt
was important to bring back. And we're looking forward to being able to raise those vital funds
while providing a lot of great entertainment and a fantastic meal. I get to the last time we did
this, I was honored to MC the event. And I was the first time me doing an event with the family
center. I had worked from a radio perspective with the family center a little bit. But I'd never been
in the heart of it and really behind the scenes, if you will, in some of that. And I long supported
the family center. It's a cause that's been important to my family long before we moved to this
area. A little on when we did move here and found out right away that there was an domestic
violent shelter and everything and wanted to be a part of that. Anyway, we could. I never dreamed
I'd be MC an event or anything. And I was a little nervous, Amy. I'll be out between you and I.
I was a little nervous going into it. I don't do a lot of that work. But I wanted to be a part of
things. It was my little bit of way to help out my community and my family center. So it was before
it was a board member too. So I go there and I don't know who's going to be there. I don't know
how popular the event is or anything like that. And I go in and it's first off jam packed. There's
no room. Everybody's there. And by everybody, I mean every one of our community leaders. The first
person I see is our current mayor at the time. Then I see Andy Francis from the Raptors. I see
Marty Cortes from the River Kings. I see Sheriff Becker there. I see leaders in our community.
And just as important as that, male leaders in our community supporting this cause. Not that
that's more important than women or anything like that. But I think we all read between the lines
on this and understand how important it is for men to support these causes and to be at the
forefront of that. It's on us to do that. I feel it's not just a responsibility. It's a privilege
to be able to do that. To be able to be able to be in part of this conversation and to be able
to help with this. So the first off right at the gate, I'm seeing all of that. And there is a
kinship that gets built from that. There is a, oh, we're not alone on this topic anymore.
We're not talking in a hush voice anymore. And it was that event that really brought this home
for me and really brought me to where, well, I can talk about these things now more on the air.
I could do this more. I got a community to back this. So in ever since then, you've heard
me on the air and you hear how I am about this cause of when the family center joins us.
And it's so much because of the individuals that showed up there. And we encourage you to be a part
of that. It's, it's me. I also want to mention too. This is a lot of fun. It's a really fun event.
It's a really good time. And in the winter, we're all looking for good events.
This one is coming up quick. Yeah, it's right around the corner.
Then a month away yesterday was the one month marker. The event is going to be held on
February 27th. Tickets are available. It's a mere $60 to attend the event. And that $60 is
going to give you an opportunity. We still have a little bit of the competitive aspect.
We did make a segue into having culinary experts providing the meal as opposed to
community members simply because we want to lean more heavily on those that have food service
certification, et cetera. Give all of you guys who helped us create those amazing meals back
in the day. An opportunity to just order a ticket and be served yourselves. So I challenge
those of you who've cooked in the past to buy your ticket and come and enjoy someone else serving you.
So that $60 is going to include our cocktail hour, which we will have some great cocktails available
for purchase. An opportunity to bid on amazing silent auction items. We have packages.
Oh my gosh. They're insane. They are insane. They are really something.
Yeah. Flights, if you're interested in the EAA, an inclusion in their museum, flights across
the area to get up in the air and enjoy that. A package of local talent that has woodworkers
and ceramicists and beautiful amazing things. The taste of our area gives certificates from all over
in museum packages, entertainment theater packages, kids packages, just a toy box that was donated
by a community member this week that's filled with toys and books and stuffed animals. So lots of
great things to bid on there. Cork pole, which we're calling it has booze in it too. So instead of
just wine, so I think we're calling it DRAW for drinks. And that amazing meal. And that competitive
aspect, we are inviting individual chefs from dairy food works, the MSTC culinary program and
a hotel need to compete during the appetizer portion of the meal. Very cool. So lots of great
tastes in there as well. It's going to be fun to see how that shuffles out at everything as well,
along with just so many other great parts of this event. It's a great time. It's a great opportunity
to get out, have some fun. Well also knowing that you are doing good in your community. You are
putting an investment in your community. You are helping the future of your community.
Something that this area does better than most. And this event really highlights that.
I also wanted to mention as well that we, as Amy brought up earlier, we're still looking for
sponsors if you want to be a part of this as well. And so keep that in mind. Amy, if people are
interested in sponsoring or getting tickets or any of these kind of things, how can they do that?
We made it incredibly easy, James. If you go to our website, which is Family CTR,
Family CTR.org. There's a link right on the front page. There's a link under donate.
When you click that link, it gives you an opportunity to sponsor. It gives you an opportunity to buy
a table, half table or individual ticket. And you can also donate to the annual appeal from that
location. There you go. Or click on the opportunity to volunteer. I need servers that night. I'm
sure to bartender change. Oh really? Okay. I like to see you doing that. I can do that. Mystique is
going to be joining us behind the bars. That's going to be a good time. That's going to, yeah,
that's going to be fun. We have Joel goodness. Also, it's kind of theater-heavy. Yeah, it's going to
say, wait a minute. I have to be there. Joel's going to be unseeing and the chamber players are
going to be performing as well. So lots of overlap between our nonprofits. It's going to be a great
night. We look forward to seeing you there. Chefs for Change. Chefs for Change February 27th.
Find out more. There's also a great Facebook page. Just type in your search bar. Chefs for
Change. Also, keep in mind that our Wisconsin Ravens Family Center has your back. They have a
crisis line that is available 24-7 715-421-1511. It's 421-1511. And you can find out more by
emailing them, communications at familyctr.org. And of course, that website familyctr.org.
Go there to register. Just find out more and to support your Wisconsin Ravens Family Center.
Amy, always good talking with you. Thank you for the time. Thank you for having the change.
Say hi to everybody. Well, all you do appreciate you. We'll have more Midday Magazine coming up
for you right here at 97-5 FM 13-20-A-M-WFHR locally growing radio.
