Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, February 18th, 2025.
Have your host, James here, and we are joined right now by CEO of Yuri Nightaway of South
Wooden Ames County's Terry Johns.
Hey, good morning.
Good to have you here, Terry.
Thanks for being here.
Appreciate the time.
We put our serious hats on to have a good, fun discussion about our United Way.
I've got a couple of things I want to ask about.
You have a new pamphlet for 211.
We'll get to power the purse, but before we get to all of that, Terry, you have this highlights
of 2024 that we're going to touch on.
Some really great stats here, and I think that really add to the conversation of what we're
going to get into here in these different events and the good that they do.
So we started this several years ago, thinking about what is a bridged annual report that
we could put out some statistics, I guess, without being overwhelming.
And so we kind of came up with this little infographic of sorts where we could share some
highlights of the prior year with donors, with other stakeholders, just say, hey, when
you invest in our United Way, this is your dollars at work.
And so I just wanted to share that in on our, we did have our annual meeting last week.
And so part of that, of course, is electing new officers and directors and honoring outgoing.
But it's also a little bit of a recap and a celebration of the year that we just ended.
So you can get a full copy of our annual report on our website, but it does include this,
this snapshot.
And so we've been doing this actually mailing it to our donors for several years now.
And it's too cited.
We've got highlights of the prior year and then how to, you know, some of the ways that
you can engage with us in the upcoming years.
So, you know, just a couple of things on here that I wanted to call out because I just
thought they were so remarkable.
One is that 946 students in Southwood County were served through stuff the bus.
So, you know, when we distributed backpacks, we had a few more than that.
We had like a little over 1,000 that registered, but of course, you know, there's transiency
with families and things change.
But 946 physical backpacks full of supplies were given out to make sure that kids were
able to start the school year off, you know, on the same foot as all other kids.
And I just think that there's such a, there's, I don't know, there's such a weight to that,
you know, you know, like I just think that there's so much gravity to it.
And it just is really important that, you know, we recognize how we, how we are serving
families in that way with, with something that can be, you know, should be, would be
hopefully a fun thing.
And sometimes it's a burden, right?
Like sometimes it's just really difficult.
So I just, I love that.
We had almost 5,000 books mailed to kids through the Deli Parton Imagination Library Program.
Also something really cool about that in 2024 is we were able to expand to Adams County.
So now our entire service area as a United Way.
And this program is primarily funded by women united and then also through grants that
we leverage.
But this is a book gifting program for children from birth to age 5.
And if that child resides in Southwood or Adams County, they qualify.
So, you know, in theory, by the time a child starts kindergarten or by the time they turn
5, we understand that, you know, sometimes they don't start immediately.
But by the time they turn 5, they could have a 60 book library.
You know, books are expensive, but books are also exciting and fun and open up a whole
new world to kids.
So even a three-year-old could sign up.
You don't have to sign up, sign them up right when they're born or maybe you're just hearing
about it for the first time, but there is a paper form that needs to be filled out.
That can be downloaded from our website.
You can also just, you know, contact us and we can get you that form.
But I just think that's really cool that, you know, almost 5,000 books went out on our
behalf and got into homes right here in our community.
The trickle down effect of everything we're talking about today, I think, is important
to the domino effect that happens.
Certainly the aspect of helping kids learn to read better, everything you get better at
with practice.
And they're able to practice that much more with books there.
Kids' interest changes within the second.
So having different books for them so they don't get bored necessarily with a book so
they continue to keep reading is great.
But imagine a kid picks up a book and there's a firefighter in there and all of a sudden
it sparks an interest in firefighters.
Like the domino effect that just this one program has is just incredible.
Or even a certain animal or stuff, you know, and then kind of the side benefit too.
It's like, I mean, it's like a present, but at this, but kids don't get mail anymore.
Like I don't even know if kids really get the concept of US mail at this point.
And so these come to them in the mail with their name on them, you know, and I heard a
funny story from a parent once, you know, they were, they were really just thanking us
for bringing this program and recognizing that it's no cost to the family, regardless
of financial, you know, what they can't afford or can't afford, but this is a program for
all kids.
But, but that their kids, when, when the books would come, like they might go to the mailbox
and they'd see the books there and they'd have to leave them because the kids wanted to
get them themselves.
You know what I mean?
So like they go that was a go.
You have a book outside, you know, that they don't get it.
So, so that's super cool.
But we just love that we're able to bring that.
And then, you know, also thinking about 211 and how we're connecting people in the community
with resources and making sure that they have, you know, what they need.
It helps us track unmet needs, but, but we answered over 5,000 calls last year.
We do surf 13 counties.
So those aren't all in wood county, but, but 211 is a 24 hour resource and referral line.
We cover the entire state of Wisconsin with eight contact centers.
Our contact center happens to handle 13 counties.
So it's, you know, it's exciting and that we're able to connect people with resources.
And then, like I said, the downside sometimes is that there are not resources, but it helps
us establish a trail of unmet need.
So there's definitely a lot of benefit.
But the top three, because, you know, this is a common question, well, what are most people
calling for?
Right?
And that, that we were able to make referral to in 2024 was housing and shelter, mental
health and addiction and then employment and income.
So you see some things are, all of them were in, right?
Like some things are kind of lumped together, but that's just how taxonomy works in the,
in the call center.
But you know, it just really speaks to the great programs that are being offered.
The caring, you know, the caring way that programs are delivered.
But then also our ability to match people up with resources that already exist because
sometimes it's the just not knowing.
Yep.
There's some other great stats about this encourage people to check it out.
I did my homework and read through a lot of these before and we've talked about some
of these as well.
But just hearing you say some of these numbers, even though I already knew them, it's
just really hits you.
Just right in the heart and a good feeling and it feels so impactful.
I wanted to note the over 72,000 that was invested in local financial stability programs.
And again, the domino effect that that has and so many individuals and so many things.
And so much of what we love about the United Way is different things that you can impact
and different causes and needs that you're able to do.
But one of the overall themes is kits and helping kits.
And there's not any greater investment we can make, any greater donation we can make
than in our kids and in our youth and our future.
And so much of this is about that, whether it's Imagination Library or the Backpacks program.
These kids were helping empower them.
We're helping give them.
And at the same time, and you and I love these side stories and these side benefits, these
kids are seeing that every kid that got that backpacked, 946 kids.
By the law of averages, a good portion of those kids are going to remember this.
And as they become adults, they're going to want to do good in their communities.
And remember, hey, somebody help me out when I was a kid, I want to help them out now.
Again, the domino effect that this has.
You know, we've had for many years a mom of adult children now, but children who receive
backpacks and she's like, there's no way that I can donate that much, but I can give
you my time.
Like I can help sort this stuff.
So I think that's super cool.
But you know, going back to your overarching, you're coming about the overarching theme
of youth.
And you know, we had this conversation a long, long, long time ago of, you know, if there's
only so many funds, do we focus more on the kids or the parent?
You know, and it was just an overwhelming thought of we invest in our future.
And where we have funds, right, then we invest in the adults.
And because you know, of course, we have a continuum, right?
Like we're hoping that we are beginning of life till the end of life where people need
it.
Hopefully, people can be on their feet at different points in time that they don't need
us from that whole continuum, but they need us on their path, right?
And at different points in time.
But it is very interesting.
I mean, I've tried growing the money tree.
It just doesn't want to grow.
So it's tough.
I mean, as soon as I grow one and we have enough dollars to fund everything, that will
be beautiful.
But for now, you know, that is, you know, we certainly have different impact areas where
we focus.
One last thing, one last step, I wanted to touch on it.
We may mention some others with other parts of conversation, but the new dollars that
were raised.
I wanted to touch on that real quick with you.
Yeah.
So, you know, we do have, we've been having for many years our annual sweepstakes.
And this is when someone gives a dollar or more per week on the qualify for our sweepstakes.
And this helps us leverage new dollars to the campaign.
So without this, you know, donors that we lose because people leave the area, they retire,
they stop.
Whatever, their financial position has changed.
So when we, when the number of donors declines or the amount of dollars decline, you know,
we always need to figure out how we're going to make that up because we don't want the
shortfall to be transferred on to the programs that we offer.
So the sweepstakes helps us do that.
And this is, you know, this year, the last campaign, that was a value of $56,000 of dollars
from individuals that we didn't have the prior year.
Now it doesn't mean that we raised $56,000 more total because we lost some donors along
the way, but this helps us to leverage, you know, leverage more.
And you know, and that's only possible through sponsorships because we do not and we would
never take a donor's dollars, you know, if you donated $1,000, we're not going to take
your $1,000 and use that as a prize.
Your $1,000 is making impact in the community.
We are working with local businesses who say, hey, I see the value in the United Way.
I see the value in more donors, more dollars, and they're giving us the $1,000 to use
as the prize, you know, in exchange for some recognition of their of their company.
And that's right.
That's how the how the world goes around.
Right.
So, you know, so we've had some great, great sponsors along the way through sweepstakes.
And you know, we are certainly thankful for that because of course we want to continue
this because if we can leverage $50,000 each year, you know, we're, we're closing the gap
on what we, what drops off.
There's also a ton of great events coming up with the United Way.
I encourage you to bookmark them, look for them.
You can find them also on this pamphlet, or they're right in the back for you.
We're going to dive into one of them in just a moment here, but encourage you to look
at these.
A lot of them coming up right around the corner too.
Yeah.
And I would also encourage you to check out our website.
In December, we launched a new website.
And one of the things that's on there is our, if you go to the event tab, you can see
all of these things that are on the highlight flyers.
So you know, that's just another way to learn more about maybe we don't have a lot of detail
yet.
But if you're like, oh, when is their diaper drive?
You know, you can find at least at a minimum the dates are posted so that you can kind
of plan ahead or when is United, we can, you know, the food sculpture contest.
So all of those dates are set and are posted.
And we obviously talk about them as they're a little bit closer so that there's relevance
when we're here.
But they are, they are available to view on the website.
Speaking with CEO of the United Way of Southwood and the M's counties, Terry Johns and Terry,
one of our earliest conversations was transparency with the organization and we appreciate that
so much.
Along with that, we get some really interesting stats, I think, too.
And one of them, again, 211 talking about that, again, 5,110 calls were taken by two local
211 contact centers and 410 calls were answered by our local 211 contact center for Wisconsin
Addiction Recovery Helpline, again, domino effect.
How many of those people were able to, you know, get that hand up that they needed and
maybe change their lives.
It's incredibly impactful.
The 202 calls were answered by a local 211 contact center for mental health resources.
Again, domino effect and how many of those individuals are having a better day today
and being able to impact their community in their own way.
It's incredible.
What's great about like the mental health calls or the recovery helpline is that that
is now that's evolved into a warmline call.
So we are reaching back to people if they wish to be reconnected with.
And so it's not literally just a you called us for a resource.
We gave you a number.
Now the calls ended.
We're getting people into app with their consent, but we're getting people into this loop
system where the other nice thing about it is that the resource specialist with the
consent of the caller can now see when they've called in the past and what needs they might
have had.
And so especially around mental health and addiction and recovery, this is really important
because it can speak to a cycle of behavior.
It can speak to, you know, ebbs and flows in recovery.
And so and again, this is only with consent of the user, but this is another tool and another
resource that that individual can have.
So so you know, there's some really cool things evolving in the two and one system that
we will will only continue to grow in 2025.
That's above and beyond it be one thing to be able to offer the services.
But then that follow up to it is just above and beyond and a beautiful thing.
That's that's really cool.
I wanted to mention with two and one talking about that you guys got new pamphlets out
for.
Our help guide for 2025 is complete.
We literally were delivered to our office yesterday.
So breaking news, first delivery was here at WFHR, so that's awesome.
But we do so we do have new help guides.
If you typically have these available at your location, we will be getting to you.
It does usually take us three or four weeks to get them delivered everywhere.
I'm just for perspective, we print 13,000 of them.
So it does take a little while to get them out and about.
But if you are unfamiliar with our help guide, this is just a snapshot of the resources that
are available into one one.
So we honestly try not to put a lot of things in print because programs change so quickly.
The last thing I want is somebody to have this in front of them and be counting on something
and then they call 211 and we're like, oh, we don't have that resource anymore.
So we're a little bit selective about what we put in here, but it does cover basic needs
and it also hopefully builds a habit of calling 211 when you have a need and engaging with
us.
I do want to call out that this is a partnership with our 211 program and Encourage Community
Foundation.
So we write a bridge grants to encourage and they fund the printing so that we can get
13,000 copies printed and get those out into the community.
So we want to thank our friends over at Fay Printing, who do a great job on this and
I will say to, you know, I just said we don't like to put a lot of stuff in print, but
we have, last year we did a little upgrade to this.
It typically was a trifold.
Now it's a fourfold.
So, you know, made the font so you can actually read it.
And then we were able to get a few more, you know, really needed services in here.
So this will go home in March with every elementary age child in the community.
So we've been doing that for a long time.
Our first version of this was in 2009, isn't that amazing?
But it's been going for that long and that there's still, you know, a calling for it.
So we will get at home with every elementary age student.
But then also, you know, it's at pretty much every kind of clinic, hospital, social service
kind of program, health, you know, health department, county services, churches, you know,
we really make an effort to get it out everywhere.
But if you're listening and you would, well, you'd like one for yourself, you certainly
can stop by and get one.
Or if you are, you know, you represent an organization or a business and you're like,
hey, I'd like to have these or we've also had companies contact us and say, you know,
we'd like to give those to each of our employees.
Just as a, you know, sometimes you just don't need it, but you tack it up on the fridge
or you tuck it in the junk drawer.
And then obviously you're like, wait a minute, I know where I can find that out.
Of course, you can always just call to one one.
But this sometimes just gives people the, I don't know, the motivation or the, you know,
just that little extra boost that maybe they need to do that.
And of course, you know, we're calling out really important things like the suicide
crisis lifeline and, you know, just any kind of need, imminent need that we think that
someone, someone might have.
So I encourage you to get the help guide, help us distribute those.
Let's get a wide, a wide path with this.
And if you have 2024 help guides or before, please recycle them.
We've got a new version.
We were speaking us some numbers and talking about some of the highlights of the United
Way of South O'Neum's County for 2024.
And one of the ones that you went over was the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a program
that is funded and supported by women's United, another outlet of the United Way.
I want to talk about your big event coming up, Power of the Purse.
It is right around the court.
Lesson a month away.
Yeah.
And we're so excited.
March 11th is our annual Power of the Purse event.
This will happen at Bullseye Golf Club starting at 5 p.m.
It's a great, just, you know, I don't know.
We can say it's networking.
We can say it's happy hour.
We can say it's engaging with other women, but it's all of those things and it's a fundraiser.
So it's really awesome.
It is a Purse silent auction.
We also have raffles and giveaways and door prizes and all just all kinds of fun jam
packed from 5 until 7.30 and we encourage any and all women to attend.
So the cost it is a ticketed event and I, you know, we encourage you to buy tickets in advance.
They're a little bit cheaper, but it also gives us an idea of how many, how many we have
coming.
So tickets are $40 each, $45 at the door.
You purchase those online on our website and we make it super easy.
We just collect a little information from you and there you go.
Get you on the list and hopefully you bring a friend or two or three.
But that, what that registration or that ticket price gets you is we have a really awesome
pasta buffet, some dessert, the networking, silent auction.
We'll have, you know, 24, 25-ish purses for silent auction and it's just a really fun
event.
The proceeds from the event fund women united initiatives here in Southwood and Adams
County, namely imagination library.
Like you said, and we did it, we did expand that to Adams County right now.
They're serving about 450 kids every month.
And then there's also, you know, a key component to our women united is classroom grants.
So we will, we have a very simple, I mean, it's maybe the simplest grant form in the history
of grant forms.
But a very simple form that classroom teachers reading interventionists, you know, someone
who's affiliated with reading, you know, couldn't fill out and, you know, tell us why, why
do you need the funds?
What are you going to use them for?
How do they impact literacy?
And it's pretty much that easy.
And then the only requirement of the grant is after the fact they come and tell us, tell
us what worked.
So for instance, we have a women united meeting tomorrow evening and we've got two of our
grant recipients.
So poor Edwards, Ed Hoyer Elementary School, they received a grant last year, I believe
last April.
And so they're coming to talk to us about how they use the funds and what they did.
And then we also have been funding a program at both Woodside and Howell Elementary called
Reading Olympics.
And this is an incentive program for kids to read so many minutes, so many books.
And when they do that, they go meet with their reading teacher and they get to pick a
book from this wall of brand new books and they keep it, you know, like that's their
book to keep, that's their reward.
And we women united pays for those books.
So it's, it's just a really, really awesome engagement opportunity.
But this is how the funds are being used.
We encourage you to come out, even if you're not a purse person, there's still something
there for you.
And you know, bring your friends.
It's a great night out for the ladies.
What else are you doing on a cold Tuesday?
Well said.
Very, very welcome.
Come on out and join us.
I love that.
Real side note, real quick.
My dad was talking about this with my mom and asking like, hey, do you know, we can get
your new person do something like this and my mom, she's had a purse forever.
She loves it.
She doesn't really need a new one.
But I told them like, well, you could still buy her a ticket for it.
She could still go.
You know, that could be the gift.
Maybe the purse isn't the gift, but the ticket and her going is the, a gift and everything.
There's a lot of ways that you can be a part of this and impact this and impact our community
through this wonderful event.
Again, power the purse going on March 11th, 5 to 730 over a beautiful bullseye golf club.
Get your tickets and find out more by going to uswac.org.
Terry is we're wrapping up here and everything.
Is there anywhere else we could send them or any other way they can get a hold of you all?
Yes.
So if you would like to contact us, you can do that through our website, of course.
You can contact us on social media.
So we are pretty active on Facebook.
So we encourage you to find us there and really follow.
We try not to overdo it, but we do do usually a post every weekday and just, you know, connect
with people, give you some of these impact stats.
Tell us about, tell you about events that are coming up.
You can contact us there.
Of course, you can always come visit us at 351 Oak Street here in Wisconsin Rapids or
give us a call at 715-421-03090.
Always appreciate the time and say hi to the rest of the team over there at the United
Wave Force and keep up the great work.
We'll talk again real soon.
Sounds great.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you as well coming up right here at 9755-FM 1320-AMWF-HR.
