Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Friday, February 14, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
In part two, we're going to talk with Michael Barnes, Marketing Director with the Wisconsin
Rapids Winters Farmer's Market, thanks to our friends at the Wisconsin Rapids Area Convention
and Visitors Bureau.
Shout out to them and a big shout out to my former stomping grounds, Lincoln High School.
We've got a bunch of kids in from Lincoln here.
We have the fact members in today.
We're going to be talking about what fact is, what the organization is doing and what these
kids are doing up as a part of it and how they're really impacting our community and
making it better.
I'm going to go ahead and go down the line for all of these and as I said during our pre-game
I apologize but I will let you start my man.
If you don't mind getting right up to the mic and introducing yourself.
My name is Michael and I'm a sophomore.
Hey, Michael, thanks for being here, Matt.
I'm Vanessa and I'm a freshman.
Hey, Vanessa, thank you for being here.
If you want to share Michael's microphone with him, that might be a little bit easier for
the two of you.
Thank you for that.
I'm Allison.
I'm also a freshman.
Hey, Allison.
Thanks for being here.
I'm Isabel.
I'm also a freshman.
Isabel, nice to have you here again.
Thank you very much.
I didn't see some familiar faces and see some new ones and always appreciate that.
Thanks so much for being here, you guys.
I want to get into right away, letting the audience know what fact is.
What this organization is about and what you guys are doing.
Who would like to take that?
Who would like, who can I put on the spot?
I mean, ask that question too.
So fact is a youth-led organization that helps inform kids and parents about what is put
in your bodies when you vape smoke, inject or inhale any kind of nicotine, weed, stuff
like that.
That's great.
That's perfect.
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
And this is a topic that has been an issue since I was a kid long before I was born
or anything.
And I think that having the perspective of that and being old, I can tell you that we've
come a long way with this topic.
When I was a kid, you walk into a gas station and there's a billion type of cigarette brands
and menthol and all this.
And we've gotten a rid of that.
And that's been a real encouragement.
That's been great for our society and everything.
But unfortunately a lot of those companies have shifted from that to vaping and going into
that and hit a whole different audience, if you will, and some of that.
We've got a real concern there while we're kind of fixing one thing and helping one thing
in society.
We have another issue over here.
And part of that issue, like when I was in school, it was becoming less and less, quote,
cool to smoke a cigarette or something like that was it was on the tail end of it.
And by the time I was in my 20s and everything, it became the opposite of cool to smoke cigarettes
or anything like that.
Unfortunately, it seems like that has kind of shifted that narrative a little bit with
the youth and vaping.
The peer pressure that I can imagine can exist with that because being a former teenager,
which I was, I know it's hard to imagine, but I was a teenager at one time.
And a very like rebel without a pause as my mom would say.
Like I had willpower, I had all those things and I still dealt with peer pressure all the
time.
I imagine that it's still an issue.
Is it an issue with this topic?
Is it part of the reason for the organization to kind of help with that and kind of for
lack of a better word, counter some of that peer pressure with peer support?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, would you say that that's kind of part of this too is kind of countering peer pressure
with peer support?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is, first off, I want to just, I'm sorry I skated past this right away, shout out
to you guys and all the other fact members.
This is one of the cooler things you guys are going to do.
Like just period.
And you're in your whole careers and your collegiate careers or anything.
This is going to be one of the more important impactful things you can do.
If you help one kid have some support, if you have one kid not grab a vape or anything,
you've done your job, let alone all the other people that can and stuff.
And not for nothing, but when I was in school, I wish there was a group like this.
I wish there was a group that was kind of countering the other side of things and being
able to help with that.
Have you guys found support from your fellow classmates with this, with what you're doing
here with this?
Have you seen more?
I'm sure there's always going to be some negative, but mostly positive reinforcement
from this.
Yeah.
When we were in the middle school, I think we had five members and now we have like ten
in both Lincoln and middle school.
Right on.
Very good to hear.
Very, very encouraging to hear.
Every time I have kids in here, I feel better about the future.
Every single time.
Like if you guys have already done it, we're not even five minutes into this interview.
Nice work.
I do want to go down the line with a couple of things.
First, I'd like to find out why you got involved with this organization and Michael, I'll
start with you.
I got involved in the fact because I had, I never really joined a club and this was the
first one I saw.
So I figured I'd join.
Right on, man.
It's good of a reason as any, yeah.
Have you found, you know, you've learned a lot from this organization doing this and
being a part of this?
Yeah.
We've learned quite a bit doing questionnaires, which we'll get into later.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Thank you, Michael.
And we'll just go down the line here.
What if you, why did you want to join this or a group?
I've never really been in a club before and all my friends were in it, so I decided to
join that.
Yeah.
Good reason.
Yeah.
First it was just because a bunch of my friends were in it, but then I also thought if it was
a bigger club, like it could actually help so much more than just having five people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My sixth grade year fact was struggling to like become a club.
So me and a bunch of friends joined and we started like having good time informing people.
I just haven't quit.
Fantastic.
Great answers, you guys.
Great answers.
We're speaking with the fact group from Lincoln High School right now and you guys have
different things that you're kind of centering on if you will.
I want to go down the line here and talk a little bit about some of that and Michael, let's
start with you.
And you're in some of the fact initiatives.
So Michael, you had some initiatives for us.
What do you got there but?
Some initiatives that we've done so far during this year is we did a duck scavenger hunt.
And so we hide these little rubber ducks all around the school and then if you would find
them, there would be like a message on top of under them or somewhere here about like
vaping.
Yeah.
We've done a anonymous questionnaire with we've gotten a lot of feedback from all grades,
middle school, and also high school.
That's a good idea.
Both are really good ideas.
Oh, those are fun.
That's a great way.
And you know, I think one of the things you learn to so much at the older you get, not
only one of your best friends is going to be perspective.
That's a great one.
But also just to communicating with people and very few people will listen when you talk
down to them or you're talking at them, but you talk with them or you give them the opportunity
to learn like with the ducks or something like that where they're just randomly kind of
coming across this stuff.
People take that in so much better and that's something that took me a decades into my
adulthood to learn that you guys already got down.
That's really cool.
That's really fun.
Thank you for that, Michael.
Appreciate it.
Alison, what do you have for us?
I'm not Alison.
I don't know.
I looked right at you and I said to you, you were an Alison, but Vanessa, would you?
Yeah.
So there's a lot of health risks that come with vaping, like a lot of lung problems,
heart problems, and things like nicotine poisoning can happen.
And yeah, it's really damaging to the lungs, causes like asthma and bronchitis and like different
lung infections, which obviously isn't good to have those because those aren't fun.
And yeah, just elevates your blood pressure in adrenaline.
I did my homework before this interview.
I prepped for all my interviews from a day magazine and it turns out, yes, breathing
is very important.
Breathing really helps.
It's a good thing.
It's a really good thing.
You, anybody can speak to this too if you have done these things and you haven't.
And what it's like to take that first breath in the morning or the first time you step
outside and take that deep breath.
I, I've told, I've been honest with the audience about this.
I was a tobacco smoker for years and I stopped, I think, I think 10, 13 years ago, something
like that.
And thank you.
Thank you very much for that.
It was nice.
It took, there were so many things that I was told years and years, you're going to, you're
going to feel better from this, you're going to feel better from that.
There were so many things I didn't know.
My taste buds came back and food is amazing.
Food is awesome.
And I, I didn't realize how much I was missing out on one of that.
That first breath in the morning, the way nature, I don't care what day of the year it
is or anything like that, it, and Mother Nature, when she hits those lungs, it feels good.
There's certain things that really are, are added bonuses to not smoking or not vaping
or anything.
Let me look up the positives to vaping and smoking, oh, nothing, nothing, zero.
There's literally no positives to doing these things, nothing but negatives.
And I speak to this as somebody who used to do it and everything.
So I, not just throwing that out there or anything, I, I, you can go ahead and look it
up yourself through it in your search engine, everybody.
There is literally no positives to this other than kind of the opinions of these companies
and what they tell you can be beneficial to you, which, and I say, beneficial in quotes.
Now the positives to not doing it, well, any scientist, any doctor, anybody, and these
kids will tell you the positives of it.
I think that's a great thing to kind of highlight there, Vanessa.
Thank you for that.
I promise not to call you Elsa to get, but Elsa, well, what do you have that you want
to focus on?
So I'm focusing on the stress of vaping and most people think that kids vape just to be
cool or cause of peer pressure, but actually the majority of them vape to cope with stress
and anxiety.
But most people just need to realize that that's like the worst thing you could possibly
do.
That's what makes all your anxiety and depression way worse and it affects your mental health
way more than you'd ever think it could.
It's something that, again, one of those things that I don't think you completely realize
until you're out of this, out of the fog of it, out of the smoke of it, if you will.
And it's something too that, it's under, I should also mention too.
I think it's kind of understandable to a degree, not for kids, I will say, but when we're talking
about adults here, cause a lot of our listeners out there are older adults, that whether it
is marketing and kind of the stresses of life and stuff, that it's understandable for
people to look for a release.
And I think that that's all right, just as long as you understand what is a true release.
When you exercise, when you go for a walk, play with your family dog or your kids or something
like that, that releases endorphins, that releases healthy things in your brain.
These things are tricking you.
These things are trying, they're telling you one thing, but doing another.
They're saying that, hey, this is going to relieve stress.
When really all it does is, it may take just a tiny bit of stress away from your life.
And all it does is just pile on a ton more stress.
Where am I going to get my next cigarette?
Where am I going to get my next vague thing?
Where am I going to do this?
This?
Do I have enough?
And that's just off the top of my head.
I mean, there's a hundred other things that it leads to too.
And I'm not, again, just saying this stuff, I don't just do that on the air.
I have researched this, this is science talking, this isn't just me, I'm only repeating
actual smart people.
I don't really know this for fact, but I can tell you that scientifically, the impact
this has on your brain is nothing but negative and really takes you steps back from achieving
what you want to of having a more peaceful, stressless life.
It really just, the ends don't justify the means with it.
And while the marketing and some of these other things may tell you that, even friends
or family may tell you this, hey, it works for me or whatever.
That's a lie to their brain, you're lying to your brain, you're lying to your body with
that.
There are actual beneficial ways to get a release.
Exercise, I mentioned as one of them, but there's so many others out there and great resources
for you when it comes to that.
It's a nice one.
Thank you, Allison.
It's about, what do you have for us?
It's background and the addiction of all those things.
Vapes were first created to stop the addiction of smoking and doing weed and they were
created without codine, methadine, any THC and stuff like that.
It only had a small amount of nicotine to help you stop.
And then people became addicted to how easy it was to get it, how easy it was to hold it,
stuff like that.
And 10% of teens between 12 and 17 use them and are addicted.
Many buy them or sell them.
They get them from their parents because obviously you can't buy them under the age of 21.
And most are addicted to vapes that contain THC.
It has been proven that nicotine obviously doesn't do enough and fentanyl and THC is where
it's at.
And that's what most people think.
And there is another one of the dangers of this too is the mixing of things or the, to
be honest, and this isn't a shot of these companies or anything like that, although I have
no problem doing that.
These companies are also not exactly run perfectly.
Like there's things that happen, even within every day pack of cigarettes back in the day,
things bad things could happen, let alone with these things where you're involving so
many more chemicals and liquids and different stuff.
It's not a perfect science.
And that's just that alone, let alone the way that this can lead to other things.
It's important to note that.
I appreciate that as well.
That's really good.
We are speaking with the fact group from Lincoln High School talking a little bit about
the great work that they are doing over there and the activism with this.
I'd like to go down to line with another question real quick.
And you've told us why you joined this group.
Is there any information that has come up while you've been a part of the group or anything
that has kind of surprised even you?
I think almost all of this would be surprising to me because again, I haven't been in school
in a while.
But for you guys, even being in the heart of it and still being kind of like taken back
by a stat you saw or something you interacted with or maybe even some positive feedback
that you've gotten.
Is there anything that has really kind of stood up to you or surprised you since you've
been a part of the fact group?
Michael, I'll start with you.
You don't have to have an answer by the way, guys.
I see the looks on your faces.
I'm like, look, you don't have to.
I'm just curious if you do.
Yeah.
So when we did the questionnaire, we had a good majority of even people that didn't
vape paranoid about getting caught because we have vape detectors in the bathrooms.
Well, people were paranoid that if they go to the bathroom and the vape detector goes
off, will they get in trouble as well?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would have been one of those kids.
I didn't worry about that.
That's an understandable worry.
And when you hear that stuff or when you see that kind of data, that's the way that
you're able to counter that with facts.
That's where your counter that would know.
You won't get in trouble or whatever the case might be.
And so many of these questions we keep in our head and we don't ask and then we don't
get those answers.
That's really cool.
That's cool to hear that the question came up and that you guys were able to answer.
Thank you for sharing that, Michael.
Joan, no, I'm joking.
I just tried to mess with you a little bit.
Vanessa, what do you have for?
I don't know.
Like everything.
I don't know.
I didn't really know a lot about vaping and stuff.
I know a lot of people that do it, but I didn't know certain risks that it has.
Yeah.
That's a great answer.
Just how eye-opening it was for you, even.
I can hear in your voice that it was.
That's interesting.
Alison, how about for you?
Was there anything for you?
Yeah.
So just like Vanessa said, just realizing how many people actually do vape just in our
one school.
And the kids can be so addicted and obsessed with this that they'll get suspended over
and over again and expelled just to go vape.
Is about.
I learned a bunch of things while on fact and the board.
And one of them was because fentanyl is so addictive.
Two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose.
So doing it even one can kill you.
And many of these vapes have like 10 milligrams in them.
So smoking a vape in one sitting could kill you.
And it think it was 780,000 Americans die from things like this each year.
Yeah.
And I just add to that the two milligrams of fentanyl, that's just the end of a pencil.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's just staggering.
And.
Many addicts, like even adults, they don't do only two.
They mix it with marijuana, codine, things like that.
And they put 10 milligrams in it and they smoke it in one sitting.
And there's not really a cure for overdose besides trying to stop your dopamine receptors
from basically exploding.
Yeah.
That's a really good notes.
Appreciate that.
And again, I do my homework for these things.
And even as an adult and pretty into no of the love of this, I've learned from you guys
today.
I've learned some things.
So it's one of the things one of the side stories I wanted with this conversation.
And anytime we have you kids and we need a much more, we need to do this and make this
more normal in society for adults to hear kids.
We need more of that.
It doesn't happen enough.
And you guys have a lot to say and a lot of information that we don't have.
So I appreciate that.
I appreciate you guys not only informing me, but our audience by some of this stuff.
And Isabelle, we wanted to talk a little bit about some of the activism that you guys
are doing and some of the other actions you're up to.
So we have last year we did a community breakfast with people like the Mayor, the Police, Chief
of Police.
And this year we are doing the same thing to inform not just people in the school, but
the community about the dangers.
We recently did a video that will be showed across the school.
It's like a little skit about why it's so bad for you.
We did an anonymous questionnaire thing about how people have experienced vaping and smoking
and things like that in school.
A few of the ones that were like really impactful were when people say I'm scared to go to
the bathroom, scared for my life.
I don't use bathroom during the day because I'm afraid I'll get caught.
Many of my friends have left me because they were mad that I didn't vape with them.
And then there were so many more.
Yeah, yeah, I could imagine.
Another one was stress and stress kit, how vaping and people vaping around you stress
you out and then handing out things that can stop you from vaping.
Yeah, yeah.
I understand you guys actually collect a lot of vapes a month, quite a few, even just
in a month's time.
I was a little surprised by that number.
We collect about 50 vapes a month and then we also do a thing where you can anonymously
turn in a vape.
No questions I ask or will be no judgment.
Yeah, you know, just listening to you guys and hearing some of what you're talking about
and remembering what it was like to be your age and everything.
That shame part of it is such a key part of this conversation and not wanting to shame
people.
Not again, wanting to talk down to anybody or put ourselves above anyone else or anything
like that.
We all need to hand up sometimes and giving, you know, your peers that is one of the
greater gifts you can give not only to them, but to yourself.
You just don't know how good that can feel to be there for somebody and you just never
know down the line where that karma might help you and somebody is there for you.
It's some really important notes and just another reminder of not only how we as adults
need to pay more attention to what's going on with you guys and listen to you guys more
and I mean kids just in general of all ages, but also how one of the most powerful weapons
we all have and every one of us have this superpower empathy.
It's a little bit of empathy.
You guys are talking about a topic that is very divisive and can be very, you know, a
very separator in school or even as adults, it can be in stuff.
But all I'm hearing is fellowship and togetherness from you guys and hearing support from you
guys and no judgment at all in any of your tone or voices, anything we've covered today.
It's all been about just getting the information out there and trying to show some support.
We got some amazing teachers in this community and some great education system and nobody
can teach that.
You've got to learn that yourselves and you guys are picking up on that and this organization
this group is, I'm very impressed by it.
If people would like to find out more about what you guys are doing or anything like that,
should we do you have a Facebook page or anything?
We have, there is an Instagram page, a Facebook page and a Snapchat page but you can also
go to factmovement.org.
Cool.
I got to look that up.
Yeah.
I got to look that up.
Fact is all capitalized.
I believe.
Oh no.
All lowercase.
All lowercase.
Okay.
Well, if you can't find a try both, I would say try both.
That's what I do anyway.
No spaces.
Yeah.
No spaces.
That's a good one too.
And thank you.
Thank you all not only for the time today but for putting so much time and effort of your
own lives into this.
And certainly again, thank you from the audience because there are so many things we touched
on today that me and my old folk wouldn't know otherwise.
So I do appreciate the time you guys.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk again real soon.
Thanks guys.
Thank you.
And we'll be back with more midday magazine right here at 97.5 FM 13.28 AM WF HR.
We are locally grown radio.