Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, April 8th, 2025.
Have your host James J. M. A. Love here.
In part two, we got Reality Radio with David Farnborough looking forward to that.
Right now, we've been looking forward to this.
Promise Bucket is in with us marketing and communications director with our heart of Wisconsin
Chamber of Commerce.
Promise, good to see how you're doing.
Good, good morning.
How are you?
Doing well.
Appreciate you and being here in the time and always like to shout out our Chamber and
the great work that you guys do.
I want to remind everybody that when you become a new Chamber member, you get to hang out
with us on the air here.
We've had some recent new members on with us and it's been a lot of fun getting to talk
to them and getting to know not only them but a local business and being able to support
local, which is something that us here and you guys over there champion and are so proud
of being able to do.
Yeah, yeah.
I think that's a really great opportunity for our new members to come here and be able to
showcase who they are and what they are and the services that they have to offer.
We had quite a few new members this last year and I'm excited to hear they're actually
utilizing their radio segments with their new memberships.
That's great.
And one of the advantages along with that and doing that is not only do you get to really
talk one-on-one with our audience and really express that but it gives us in our audience
an opportunity to really buy local support local and while also having a really good time
because we have a blast with these guests.
So when you become a Chamber member, all of those things and you are showing to your
community, I back local, I back my community, I'm putting into my community.
Yeah.
It's a real win-win situation.
And it's also something to keep in mind, hosting events and everything.
Always like to remind businesses out there, if you're wondering, if your business would
be perfect for one of these events that Promise and I talk about, encourage you to reach out.
I see our first event is networking at night and it just makes me think, oh, I think we'd
love to have hosts that here.
Yeah.
I think that'd be a lot of fun.
I think we'd have a blast doing that.
And I know there's other businesses out there that hear this segment and think similar
things.
So encourage you to reach out to Promise and the gang and find out how you can be a part
of things.
And Promise, your network gain at night, your next one, one of our favorite locations.
Yeah.
So networking at night is happening April 21st at El Café, and we're at Words.
And I'm really excited about this one because he joined the Chamber a couple of years ago,
so he was finally on the rotation of list of hosts for networking at night.
He's got some great food over there.
I've been over there a couple of different times, mostly after church, but that tends to
be when his busier times are I've noticed.
But yeah, I just love Fidel and everything that he's doing for the community.
He's got a couple of other projects he's working on that really helps benefit the community
that he's serving.
And he's just a really great guy overall.
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Period.
Fidel was standing out here selling just anything and I'd be buying it because of what
the great guy he is and in his business, you know, we've talked about this with Fidel
before.
A bath with the kitchen's open has interviewed him.
The El Café sponsors our birthday anniversary club on our morning show.
So we've talked about El Café a bit, but one of the things that I don't think I've gotten
to really dive into about this so much is anybody that's watched Bar Rescue or any of these
restaurant shows, you've heard the stats of how hard it is for a business to survive.
And then how much those numbers go down when it comes to a restaurant being able to survive.
So if you can imagine this and put yourself in Fidel's shoes, you would think that every
bit of your resources, your focus is keeping this business alive and well.
And a lot of it is for him.
That is certainly job one, but just as important to him is supporting local, whether it is
an individual that could use some help with funds and doing a cause about that or supponsoring
our birthday anniversary club.
Singing in other chefs and different people for like Misty's menu and some of that that
they've done over there, the unique menu they have, I've seen a menu like that before.
And all of that, not missing stuff, but there's things I haven't even covered.
All of that stuff going on and along with that, putting it into the community while also
having a good business, it can be done.
And that he shows that every day and I appreciate that from him as much as his support and so
much he puts into our community.
Yeah.
I totally agree with you.
Have you tried his avocado toast?
No.
No, I've got to, Melissa's been telling me I'm going to try that one.
Yeah, I've got to try it.
It's really good.
So this business at this network getting a night is coming up April 21st, five to seven
over at Alcafe.
A market avenue and beautiful port Edwards.
Is this open to members, open to others?
Open to members and then future members.
So if you've been frequenting the networking at nights, you know, just to get your toes
wet, you know, dip your toe in the water there for our networking events and you're ready
to, you know, explore other opportunities with the chamber.
This one's a great one to start with.
It's free.
You make a lot of great connections.
It's kind of casual laid back, you know, people really enjoy going to these and connecting
with people.
It's kind of like a social hour for our members.
So I've been meaning to mention that with this.
Yeah, one of the more consistent things I've heard is just the nature of it, the casual
kind of like there's no real pressure to this is just really putting a bunch of business
people in the room together and being able to connect or just make friends or something.
That's really nice.
And oftentimes this is probably one time a month where we can get an event in the community
where all members are welcome to come.
So, you know, if you haven't been out in the community lately or been doing your networking,
this is a great one-stop shop for you in the area.
A lot of our members come out to it.
This one, we also have our Apple price.
Oh, we don't want to skate past that, you have a raffle price.
Everybody loves that.
That is fantastic.
And then I said a bonus to this.
This is going to be a fun event and you kind of mentioned in the conversation here a little
bit that they've been waiting to get a host this, you know, Kevin.
You guys got a waiting list on this, that's awesome.
I was going to mention to you if you're interested in hosting next summer maybe, you should
probably get on that list now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But Pam, we got to get on that.
That's awesome.
That's a really good, that's a great problem to have.
That's a really cool thing to hear.
We encourage you to get on that list for, you know, next summer or something and be sure
to attend this one and all of these networking and night events.
Each one of them I imagine will have maybe some different people at some and some at others
so you just don't know who you're going to meet and there are no reruns with an event
like this.
Everyone is unique and different and a lot of fun.
Yes.
Now we're getting night, having April 21st, five to seven over at LKFA in beautiful
port Edwards.
Check that out, everybody.
And you can go to WisconsinRapidsChamber.com to find out more information.
We'll get a promises info before we wrap up today.
Networking Exchange for Safety Professionals, that is our next one and that's coming up
at the end of the month promise.
Yep, so our Network Exchange for Safety Professionals is happening April 31st, no, 30th, excuse
me.
From 11 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. over at Mid-State Technical College at the Wisconsin Rapids
campus.
So this is kind of one of those events where we allow our members to come in and kind
of like shoot around ideas and talk about the issues that they're having.
This one's going to be specific to safety.
And so say, for example, you're a small business owner, but you don't have like a safety
director on site, you know, and you're like a person that wears multiple hats in your
company.
This is a great one to come to.
So you can get advice in here about other situations that are happening in the area
and stay updated with anything that might have been changing in the last year.
So lots of people come to it and they kind of just talk about like, what are your safety
concerns?
And how did you approach those and what was the end result?
And it gives you a real great range of information that you can use or potentially, you know,
how is for use in the future?
So this one is, or speaker, this one is going to be Andy DeWitt from Mid-State.
He's the head of security over there and he's going to be covering the topic of like a
critical incident or even like an active shooter.
Like, what are your, what are your protocols for those kinds of incidents?
And you have a procedure in plan.
Have you practiced that procedure and do you need help developing it?
And it gives you ideas on how to develop those kinds of safety procedures for your
own company.
This one's free for chamber members, but we do have a registration open for it right now.
There is limited seating, you know, due to space capacity and things like that.
The registration closes April 23rd for this one.
And I would really highly recommend anybody who has just recently opened up a business
or is looking to hire new staff, you know, it's a great, it's a great way to get more
ideas from people in the area of like, what's, you know, what will impact us this summer,
for example.
You know, I, I, I pick you back on your new businesses out there, but I, I, I think
I'm sure you, you mentioned this too, as far as, you know, any business, no matter how
long you've been around, Andy's a pro at this, Andy knows what he's talking about and his
job is to look for things that you might not see.
So new old business, what have you, he may be able to look at this from a different angle
and see things that you might not see.
And this is all stuff that, hey, it's, it's break glass in case of need it.
Hopefully you never have to break the glass.
But if you do, you, you certainly want this there and having somebody who kind of is,
it's not only a pro at this, but has been doing this for a long time and really knows
his stuff, he's able to give you a perspective that you may not have otherwise.
Yeah.
He's coming in with fresh eyes.
And no matter what we're talking about, that always is a positive thing.
And when it comes to security, I, I think one of the things that can get lost in that
is the peace of mind that it gives, security gives much more than just letting you know
that your employees and you are, and your customers are safe.
It's also that peace of mind that you have, whether it's at midnight and you're sitting
there and bed thinking about it, or you're just about your day and you're not around the
office or something like that, it goes so much farther than I think, you can be really
put in the words.
So it kind of encouraged people enough to attend this one.
And I think you guys were thinking of this and hosting this, or having this idea even,
I appreciate Andy being a part of this as well.
This is literally for the betterment of our community.
It's a really good thing to be doing.
I appreciate that.
And you mentioned that there's limited seating for this one.
So you want to get in on the registration right now.
Yes.
Yeah.
Registration closes April 23rd.
And again, this is, I think, especially with this discussion topic that we have this
time with the critical incident active shooter, I think, you know, a lot of schools in the
area kind of have that locked down, but if you're a smaller business or a nonprofit organization
or you have a tiny little building that you're operating in, it's good to kind of have
like a little bit of what you're going to do when that happens.
So I highly recommend coming out and listening to Andy.
He's got some great advice and I'm excited for this event.
My dad from a young age taught me how to defend myself, not to get in fights, but to be
able to defend myself.
Yeah.
Like, that's the point of all that.
And it's no different with an event like this.
It's not, hopefully, you never have to use any of this stuff, but boy, it feels at that
piece of mind of knowing it.
We're speaking with Promise from the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, and we're
diving into one of our favorite events lunch by the river.
Love this event.
Oh, yes.
Lunch by the river.
So this one's been around for quite a few years and it's one of our most popular summer
events.
It happens every Thursday between June 5th and August 28th and from 11.30 AM to 1.
We usually have live entertainment, food trucks, one of the, one of the days we bring out
stuff, the bus.
There's a whole bunch of different things that we do with these.
I think last summer we had even some, like, little tiny tumblr dancers out there, it
was so adorable.
It was great.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So this is a great community event.
Come out and have lunch with us.
We are looking for sponsorships.
Well, actually, we have a few left.
So I thought I'd throw it out there if anybody was interested in sponsoring one of those
dates.
This is a great way to get your business out in the public, become a little bit more
community focused.
You know, a lot of our larger businesses love this one because they're always stuck
in their offices all the time.
And this is a great way for you to get out there and be face to face with your community
and kind of show them what you are and who you are and what you're about.
And you can have a booth down there if you sponsor lots of great opportunities with this
one.
Veterans Park is such a beautiful location.
And it's a darn near dead center of town.
So you're able to bring in businesses from around there that stop by, too.
So for you as a, if you are a, you know, you have a food booth or something like that
set up down there, what a great opportunity to be seen or heard or have people check out
your food that may not get a chance to otherwise.
And to new people out here in the community and everything, we've had a lot of new members
to our community in recent months and everything.
This is one of the main things.
If not the first thing, I tell people you got to attend.
You got to attend this event.
Oh, I totally agree.
It's not only a great way to get to know the area and run into locals and everything,
but I, I remember doing this a couple of years ago and having somebody come in for a mid-day
interview and the first thing out of their mouth, well, you were so right about lunch
by the river.
Well, oh, and this was like months later and everything, like I had no idea how many people
were in this town.
Like you get a good idea of how big this town is, going to lunch by the river and seeing
just how many different unique and wonderful people we have in this area and how many unique
and wonderful businesses we have in this area.
And whether you are going to have a food truck or something like that or you just want
to have your business attached to this, this is marketing 101.
I mean, this is just a great opportunity to be seen by so many different eyeballs and
people coming to your business, coming to your location.
That's what happens here.
People come down to the park to spend.
Sometimes people bring in on lunch or just want to browse and hang out, but more times
they're not bringing their appetite.
They're coming down there to enjoy the sun and the beautiful park and have some good
food.
So if you're interested in sponsoring one of these dates, I recommend reaching out to
Lacey Alling.
She's our events engagement director and I have to tip my hat to her a little bit.
She's been working pretty hard on getting this expanded.
So throughout the last year, I saw that she had brought in more food trucks and expanded
the area of like available food truck parking.
So I think this year she's going to have a lot more food trucks and she works very hard
on having different types of entertainment.
So there's no repeats or things like that.
And the sponsorship opportunities are a really great way of getting in front of a really
big crowd every Thursday.
Lacey is fantastic.
She's doing amazing work and her, especially her approach and her touch on this event has
been really noticed by the community.
You, her, everybody over there, keep up the great work.
You guys are doing great stuff over there.
Again, if you want to maybe get it, especially because there's only a few sponsorships left
if you want to get in on this one.
That contact information one more time promise, who they'll contact for that.
Well, you can either reach out to Lacey Elling at communications at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com
or Hollianne Heidel at office at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com.
And as we're wrapping up promise and man, the time goes by so darn fast, we'll get together.
We did want to mention another future event that's coming up that we want people to be a
part of.
And I don't think it's a hard argument to make.
This is probably our most popular event in our area, the cranberry blossom festival.
I feel pretty comfortable saying that that's nothing against any other event or anything.
It just, well, you guys know you out there.
You know what I'm talking about.
This is the biggest event we have.
It's one of our bigger ones during the summertime.
I can definitely agree with that.
So our cranberry blossom festival is kind of like a two-day thing for us.
We have the, on the Saturday, we have our arts, crafts, and vendor fare.
We have a lot of booths that go downtown and showcase their products that they have
for sale.
We also have some great food trucks down there as well.
We are opening up sponsorships for this one and we are opening up the booth registrations
for this one.
I know that Lacey, again, is working on expanding how many booth spaces we have available and
how many different variety of food trucks we will have down there.
And I think she might have a little surprise for us this time around.
So I'm going to keep that one just in case, just in case.
But yeah, definitely reach out to Lacey if you're either interested in having a booth down
at cranberry blossom festival.
Or if you're interested in participating in our parade this year, we have those registration
forms available as well.
The parade this year happens the Sunday following.
So it's a Saturday, Sunday event and our theme, we're going to really highly encourage
everybody to theme up their floats this year and our theme this year is Blast from the
past.
Oh, good one.
So I'm super excited to see the creative ideas and the floats that will be coming through
this year.
Oh, I love that idea.
That is going to be a lot of fun.
This again, so similar to some of the other events we talk about with the chamber.
This is an opportunity to be seen, to be heard and get your business out there like no
other and unlike some of the events we have in our area that are very supported by locals
and everything.
This one brings in people from following from surrounding counties and cities.
You're not just getting seen by locals.
You're getting seen by the whole central Wisconsin area really with this event.
And I know people from out of state that come in for and everything.
It's a great opportunity to do that.
This is again, one of the better ways to show your support for your community and your
involvement in your community and how, hey, we want to be a part of this.
I like to use big businesses often as an example and I think Culver's is a great example.
I don't believe the Culver's really needs to advertise.
If Culver's never did another commercial, I feel like they'd be doing okay.
They're going to be doing all right, but they choose to show that they're a part of
communities.
They want to be a part of things.
So they're a part of events like this and other events in our communities.
It's just an example of you as a business out there.
However you're doing business wise, this is a great opportunity to show that you are
a part of these things.
And I think a way to show appreciation to the community, especially to businesses that
are doing well out there.
You're not in this alone.
We're in this together and this is a great way of showing that fellowship, showing that
community effort and having a really good time because I don't know anybody who doesn't
enjoy putting these floats together.
It's a lot of fun to be a part of.
So there is a few sponsorships left you mentioned.
Want to encourage people to get a part of this right away.
Yep.
The sponsorships that we have open are for the cranberry blossom festival, arts and crafts
vendor booth fair, which is happening on June 21st and then the parade the following
day on June 22nd.
That was just a registration fee for your float, but yeah, I highly encourage people to participate
in the vendor fair.
If they have any products that they would like to showcase, you don't know how many people
come through there and chop those vendor booths.
It kind of reminds me a little bit, it's a smaller scale, but very similar to how warrants
happen.
Yeah.
Very similar.
And I love looking at all the different crafts and all the, it's amazing how some people
can come up.
So it's some beautiful products at the end of it.
And then I also like to shop around for soaps.
I love scented soaps or homemade soaps.
There's going to be a couple of those down there too this year.
You and my sister.
Yeah.
They're just locked in on those things.
They're great though.
They're so unique.
And again, these are things you will not be able to find anywhere else.
They're very unique items.
And while you're getting those items, it's going to feel cool.
You're going to like having them.
And you're going to be able to know that you've supported local and supported a local
artist or somebody in our ag industry or something like that.
Another great part of the cranberry blossom festival, we want you to be a part of it.
And all of these events promise if people want to find out more and they would like to
be a part of some of these things or just be a part of future events with the chamber.
Because while we touch on a lot, we barely scratch the surface of what the chamber offers
to this community, everybody.
So how can people find out more promise?
They can always visit our website at WisconsinRapisChamber.com and visit our events tab.
It pulls up a nice, pretty calendar for you to check out what's going on during the
month.
So between our website calendar and the CVB's website calendar, those are the two websites
that you should, you know, check the most often to see what's going on in town in the
area.
Yeah, we don't get to shout this out enough, but I love your guys' website.
It's very well done.
It's so easy to navigate, even I can do it.
And again, while we touch on a lot of things here, that events page alone has just a hundred
other things there that you can check out and look at.
And to anybody out there, if you're looking into work development or jobs or any of those
kind of things, there's also great resources available for you there.
I encourage you to take some time, check out the web page, go through all the tabs and
see what it has to offer for you.
WisconsinRapidsChamber.com, WisconsinRapidsChamber.com.
Keep in mind our chamber is very active on social media as well.
Do a great job on there, follow them on Facebook and be sure to share their posts on your
page.
Just never know who might see it otherwise.
Yeah.
Promise always good hanging out with you.
We will talk again real soon.
Say hi to the gang over there for us.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Coming up for you right here at 975 FM 1320 AM, WFHR, we are locally grown radio.