Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Friday, January 31st, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
In part two today at 430, we're going to speak with our friend, Darla Allen.
She is the director of the Charles and Joanne Lester Library in Nukusa, looking forward
to talking with her.
Right now, I've been looking forward to this all week.
We have in Amy Schultz, Chief Operating Officer of our Girl Scouts of the Northwestern
Great Lakes.
Amy, thanks for being here.
Nice to meet you.
Thank you so much for having me, James.
It's nice to meet you too.
Amy and I, we're talking a little bit in our pre-game here.
This is not the last time maybe we'll be with us.
We're going to be joined by our friends from Girl Scouts more often going forward.
Whenever you guys have events going on or anything we can highlight for you all,
we're just big supporters of this.
I will mention, when we first moved to this town, my family,
and I right away, my little sister, I don't know how much we knew about this back in the city,
but my little sister got excited about Brownies,
and got excited about being a part of this and eventually Girl Scouts.
It did wonders for her confidence, and just, my little sister is a cartoon character,
but it took a little bit for that to come out.
Girl Scouts, I think, really helped her with that.
I'm a big fan of the program.
I think it's really cool and so impactful.
In 2025, the things that the Girl Scouts are able to do for our youth, for our kids,
is very noteworthy.
We'll be getting into that in a moment, Amy, but I do this to everyone of our new guests.
I'm going to do it to you too.
I love to get to know people's origin stories, where they're from, what they're like.
Amy, we start right there. Where are you from?
Well, I live in Stevens Point, and I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Right up. Very cool.
What was it about where you, a Girl Scouts, when you were a kid?
I was, and I loved Girl Scouts when I was a kid.
See, we have a friend of ours, Laura Hubert, from Extension, come here with 4H a lot.
Laura and I, when we first started talking about this, it was interesting to me,
because neither her nor I as kids were in 4H, but big lovers of it and supporters of it.
And I think there's two different ways you can come to this, where you grow up with it,
or you grow up, and as an adult, you see the powers of it, and you're like,
oh, I wish I could have done that as a kid or something.
It's great to see, and it has to mean something I would think a little bit more,
having the experience as a kid and getting to impact the Girl Scouts as an adult.
Yeah, for sure. There were two really big things that I loved about Girl Scouting as a child.
I really loved going to camp. It was like such a special place to enjoy the outdoors.
And so I love to be able to do that for kids now.
And I also love to do community service.
And so seeing the impact that we have on communities all over and being able to provide that for kids,
it's really, it's a fantastic way to, to be involved.
It's got to be. It's something to be able to go to work,
and almost every day, if not all the time, having that good feeling,
and being such an impact, and a part of something like that.
And we definitely have that working for Girl Scouts.
Great mission, great people, great impact on communities.
Let's talk about that mission, and kind of refresh the audience with this a little bit.
As you know, we talked about, we had to be able to have you guys on in a while.
And I think just about anybody out there listening has heard of Girl Scouts of America and knows the program.
And the mission hasn't changed. The mission still is strong as ever.
That is so correct. The mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character.
And when you were talking about your sister, that hasn't changed.
That's still what we aim for in Girl Scouts, and still what kids get out of it.
I was just talking about this with Terry, you see, the United Way.
Terry was in earlier, and we were talking about women's United and power of the purse.
And it's an event that my mom, who is a big supporter of the United Way,
has looked at for years, and she don't get out enough,
but she's been thinking about doing this and stuff.
And I'm encouraging her to do it.
But she took a moment there and mentioned something that I just didn't see as a guy, as a man, being honest.
And the idea how she was so encouraged by the idea of this organization,
this group about women supporting women and women being able to connect
and women being able to talk and this support system that it can be.
Let alone all the amazing things that power the purse does.
And it got me thinking very much about Girl Scouts.
And how we just don't have enough things like this in society,
where we have young girls coming together and being able to support each other,
make friendships, and so much of that.
There are so many great things the Girl Scouts of America do.
I really feel like this is one of those things, though, that doesn't get talked about a lot.
But man, is that unique and cool to be able to offer young women and giving them that opportunity?
Just the opportunity to be in an all-girl environment and try things and do things with just your girl friends is so powerful.
I have a coworker who's also a Girl Scout leader who tells this story
about when the kids were about in seventh grade, and she took them to an archery activity.
And the bows were really tight and they were having a really hard time.
They couldn't pull back and they weren't hitting the target and they were getting frustrated.
And they pushed past something and started pulling back and hitting the target and had a blast.
And the way she tells the story is that she knows that they just would not have pushed past that point
if it was a co-ed environment, but there was some sort of safety about being in an all-girl environment,
and just being in your friends and supporting each other, pushing past that and ending up learning something new,
trying something new, accomplishing something, and just supporting each other,
and just being an overall great experience.
While I think there is something so relatable about that, no matter who you are, as a kid,
you can I think you can put yourself in those shoes.
That's also, I think it's more important that we do this in nowadays, more and more.
I empathize with that, but I get that I can't get that.
I wasn't a young little girl. I wasn't those things.
So I can certainly empathize with it and see that that is something that we need more of
at the same time, realizing, wow, that is amazing.
That's just really cool. Thank you for sharing that story.
Right, how often in your life do you get that opportunity?
Yeah, so Girl Scout does that for girls.
We're looking into 2025 here, and where are some of the things you guys are excited about with this upcoming year?
We've got all kinds of great things coming up.
We last year got built ourselves a program that's a mobile outdoor unit that we call adventures on the go.
And so we tour all over Wisconsin and Upper Michigan and bring archery programs,
snowshoe programs that might turn into orientering programs on a day like today,
and other outdoor skill kinds of things that we bring right to true meetings,
right to towns that maybe aren't close to our camps.
So we're really looking forward to doing more of that this year.
Speaking of our camps, we're building all kinds of fun stuff.
We just did some improvements at our camp in Merrill.
And some more are coming up in 2025.
Very cool.
We also have an office in Appleton that we're doing some work to turn it more into a fun spot for girls
than an office place for adults.
Sure.
So we're working on some spaces that troops can come and do their meetings at, like fun seating,
but also some fun activities too.
I want to get into local things that are going on in the second, but real quickly.
And again, I think of this because of talking to a lot of our organizations that are kid-centric and based,
and how these organizations that have been around for decades,
but how they've adapted to modern times and kind of working with the youth and the youth of today
as every generation you have to do this.
Have you seen different ways that the Girl Scouts have kind of adapted to modern times
and taken that mission of yesterday to today?
For sure, we have lots of modern programs while we have our camp,
and it's a chance to get away and maybe unplug from the modern things.
We also do all kinds of things like STEM.
I don't know how extremely modern it is,
but it's very something that a lot of people are talking about and care about for their kids.
We do a lot of mental health, resiliency kinds of programs.
So, I think we really pride ourselves on being what girls need today.
Yes, well said, very well said.
And I think that that hits the mark right exactly what we're thinking and what I ask the question.
You know, we ask, have you modernized and sometimes immediately people think of technology and those things?
You hit exactly where I was wondering, is not only just mental health,
but just kind of getting kids a chance to get away from technology and giving them that break
that we all looking for and avenues for.
It's wonderful.
Wonderful to hear those things.
And I think honestly, one of the things that I think is so encouraging,
whether we're talking 4-H, Scouting America, Girl Scouts,
any of these great organizations, just that we're aware and understanding of that.
I think that goes a long ways a lot farther than we realize.
Just instead of just kind of doing the same thing every day, every year,
every year kind of looking at things and like, how can we improve?
How can we adapt?
How can we make things better?
Every organization can use that.
And I don't think I see it any stronger than in nonprofits that are so good at this.
And that's really cool to hear.
That's very nice of you to say, thank you.
Yeah, I see it every day of this job and I'm spoiled.
It's really impressive.
Speaking with Amy Schultz, Chief Operating Officer of Girl Scouts of Northwestern Great Lakes,
we are talking about things coming up in 2025.
Want to go a little more zoom in a little bit more and go local.
What are some of the local things happening around here?
It must be really fun to be a young girl in Girl Scouts in the Wisconsin Rapids area
and it's a rounding area because they do such cool things.
They just had a grand pre race about a week ago where they carved cars and raced them on a track.
How fun is that?
Always wanted to do that.
Oh, that's so cool.
So you're learning about what's going to make your car go fast
and then that little bit of competition to lots of prizes for the winners and things like that.
I thought that looked like a really fun activity.
They have something coming up that is connected to a Girl Scout holiday.
It's called World Thinking Day.
And the Girl Scout holiday of World Thinking Day is about learning about sister Girl Scouts
around the world.
So they're doing an activity locally where troops are each picking a country to learn about
and do some sort of activity to share with the others.
So it becomes a big expo for each other when they each have taken a country
and then they set up some sort of like experience, like some food to eat or some language to learn
or something along those lines.
So that has been an event that's gone on for a couple years now at Grant School.
Last year I went to it and there was a troop doing hyroglyphics
and a troop doing little cups of food and all kinds of really good stuff.
So I'm looking forward to it again this year.
But that's a really cool international culture appreciation, really, really cool event.
Also fun for the kids.
One of the things that I enjoy about this and it doesn't always come up in conversation
when we're talking with our, your organizations like yourselves is these added wins.
These kind of side story added wins and added benefits of things.
And one of the things that I keep coming back to when we're talking about young people
is you just never know when a spark might happen.
When they're reading about something and they're reading about hyroglyphics or something like that
and maybe they end up falling in love with history and become a history teacher.
You know, who knows?
Isn't that true to think about all the things you get exposed to and these youth organizations?
And that doesn't happen without them being in these organizations.
It's such a credit to the organizations and giving these opportunities for it.
Who knows if it happens or it doesn't, but it's not something you can plan.
It's not something I'm going to have this child's eyes open to this subject or no,
wait, you don't get to choose that stuff.
You just present them with all these different things and you never know where that spark might happen.
There's a great example of the opportunity for that.
That's a really cool program.
That's a neat idea.
Are there other things happening locally you wanted to touch on?
There's so much service happening locally, which I think is really wonderful to know about
what Girl Scouts are doing for the community.
There are some specific service projects that happened recently where kids were working
on like high awards.
So there was a girl who put together some baskets for foster kids that I thought was such
a great project.
Oh, that hit my heart.
That's beautiful.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
And there was a service project with a group of Girl Scouts that were working on a community
garden and they did work in the community garden, but then they also shared the food with
people in need too.
So lots of service projects between individual projects, but also bigger things.
Our Girl Scouts something timely that's coming up is that our Girl Scouts like to celebrate
the first baby born in Girl Scout Week or Girl Scout Month, which is another Girl Scout holiday
in March coming up.
Maybe we should come back to talk to you about that.
So they collect baby items for that first baby girl born in Girl Scout Week and then
surprise them, surprise that family with a basket of fun stuff.
That's beautiful.
That's coming up.
That is really cool.
That's a great program.
There's a great thing to hear about.
Yeah.
And even more recently, it's Valentine's Day coming up.
There's a program going on right now with our local troops are making Valentine's for
veterans and so that's a really really nice service as well.
We've been highlighting that on our morning show talking about that and encouraging people
to send those out and a kudos to you and the group and the kids for doing that.
That's awesome.
We can't put in the words what that might mean for our veterans out there.
That is really cool to hear.
And you touch on a number of different things and all wonderful to hear about.
And I don't think I'm alone on this one when I'm thinking of this as an adult.
And I think these are great.
These are great services and great ways to impact our community.
And I do mention the spark and where that could start for a kid certainly.
But the spark that can, an internal flame, an internal spark is that of community service,
of giving.
We started this talking about you and your journey and you starting at Girl Scouts and
you seeing something like this at a young age that, hey, this matters to me.
I want to give back to my community.
I want to do good in my community.
The more that young people see adults doing these things, the more inclined they are to as
they get older.
They're sponges and they take these things in.
I am living proof of this.
I think there are many of you out there that are an example of this like Amy and many
others.
So the more that they do this stuff, the more that they see it's common.
And it's an everyday thing to put in your community to help out to do different things
whether it's, you know, making valentines for veterans or it is the birth of a new baby
or something like that.
How community can come together and strengthen that.
Right.
Don't we all want to live in communities where we all care about each other and people
give their time and service and things like that?
I really, I agree.
I want to note it to the audience that I waited this long to bring up cookies.
I'm a bit of a cookie connoisseur.
I love my cookies.
So I think it did a pretty good job as it did a viewer.
I waited until now.
Yes.
But I say that jokingly.
But I bring up the cookies because we're going to talk a little bit about that wrap up.
But I also want to bring up the, is great as these cookies are and they're so amazing
and they're so good.
And they make such an impact not only on, on girl scouts, but really on communities and
that.
The bringing up my sister, one of the things that helped her was going door to door and
being able to get that talking to strangers and that opportunity to be able to, you know,
what that's like in real time and all, no net, you know, kind of that really did a lot
for her.
And just that we have that in 2025, we have so little opportunities for kids to have
things like this.
So I think that alone is amazing along with, of course, the thinnets, which I, you know,
like Betty out there are big fans of.
And it's easy for us to talk about how good the cookies are, but our girl scouts are
getting so much out of this program.
They're getting dollars to do good work like community service.
And they're getting some very specific skills.
Your sister going door to door hits on one of our skills, which is people skills.
We're also getting great goal setting and money management, learning about making change,
decision making.
Exciting how you're going to make, you're going to use that money to do things and business
ethics.
This is a huge entrepreneurial program girl led and our girls are in charge of it.
So all really important notes and not, I feel like we're having, we're getting less and
less opportunities for kids to learn almost every one of those things.
Even as simple as change and counting out change or something like that, like more and
more and having less and less opportunities for them to learn that stuff.
It really is not to say it's the only one, but it's one of the only avenues for kids
to be able to learn some of this skill set that we're talking about here.
And we've all seen the stories and heard the time conversations about worrying about young
people and are they, how are they going to be with people and their people skills in
some of this?
This is a program that's at the forefront of that and really helping with that and that
is pretty cool.
Like, again, cookies are great, but it means so much more than that.
It's great as those cookies cost, taste, nothing tastes better than a good future, you
know?
It seems a lot better.
It seems like a lot better than me.
That's pretty cool.
The Girl Scouts that I'm seeing in front of the grocery stores and the stores that
are when they're selling cookies, they're great at those things.
They're asking politely, they're saying, thank you, they're, they are building great
people skills.
We do want to let people know that it is Girl Scout season, Girl Scout cookie season.
And these cookies are up for sale now.
So right now is what we call the initial order taste.
Yeah, sorry, yeah.
So if you need it.
I got excited up right there.
Right, right.
So right now is the time when Girl Scouts have their cookie order cards and they're asking
friends and family, maybe going door to door and they're ordering them, placing that order
and then they'll come in about March 1st.
But then after that, we're going to see all of our town Girl Scouts in front of stores
last year in Rapids.
I saw them at the Ace Hardware and at Rocky Rook Cocoal, they were all over town selling
cookies at what we call booth sales.
So something else to look forward to when you're making these sales or making plans ahead
for this, make sure to do that.
Also keep in mind that they are going to be discontinuing to Girl Scout cookies.
They're going to get more and toasty Ace.
So get stocked up on those, everybody go ahead and get those.
So there's two Girl Scout Bakers in the country and we have the toasty Ace.
So that's the one cookie for us.
That is hiring.
Good to know.
So it's called Toasty Ace.
It won't be back next year, but it frees as well.
Yes, it does.
Yes, it's done.
I found that out.
Yeah, I really liked those.
I didn't know it was going to, but I really liked those.
It was good.
There isn't a bad one.
There is no bad.
You may like one more than the other, but there's no bad ones, they're all great.
And as Amy touched on so well, when you're doing this, you're not only getting a good snack.
You're putting into your community.
You're helping an organization that is impacting our future like few do.
Just from buying cookies like that.
That's pretty cool.
That's pretty unique.
Absolutely.
Amy, before we wrap up, I did want to let the audience know for whether they are a parent
of a young lady or a young girl or if they're just an adult and they wish that they could
help out and they love this organization.
Maybe they were a Girl Scout when they were a kid or something.
What are ways that they can get involved?
What are ways people can be a part of this?
So we're always looking for families to join.
It's a great program for the school age girls in your family.
We're also always looking for volunteers.
You can be a Girl Scout leader or you can just share what your expertise is.
We've got bad, we talked about this earlier about so many things that you could get interested
in Girl Scouting.
We've got badges on so many things.
So somebody could teach car care to a group of Girl Scouts or painting whatever is your
special skill to share or looking for volunteers in the troop leader way, but also sharing what
you know.
It's a great thing to mention and I have no doubt that there's people out there that
a light bulb just went over their head when you said that like, oh, they look for that.
I could do that.
I'd like to be a part of that.
It's another way to impact your community.
Certainly always taking donations as well and as Amy mentioned, volunteers are always
greatly appreciated.
If people would like to know more and find out more, Amy, how can they reach you?
How can they get in touch with you?
So our website is the perfect place to go because you can learn more and contact us right
from there and that is gsnwgl.org.
Be sure to bookmark that page, everybody keep up the date on that.
I've seen that you guys have Facebook pages as well, some social media out there.
Be sure to follow along to those and reshare their posts and make sure that other people
might see them and stuff.
Amy, did too good of a job.
You're going to have to come back.
I can't wait.
I'm looking forward to it too.
Do you want me to bring cookies?
Yes, please.
Yes, please.
Thank you so much.
You are now my favorite guest.
Thank you for being here.
I really appreciate the time.
Thanks for having me.
We'll be back with more Midday Magazine coming up right here at WJFHR, locally grown
radio.
