Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapid Support,
your host, James J. Mailoff here for this April 29th, 2025.
We're welcoming into the studio right now,
friends of San Hill Wildlife Area.
We have Vicki Palant with us.
Vicki, you know, say that last name, right?
Well, it depends on where you are.
In Milwaukee, it's Palant, where I grew up, it's Paulant.
It doesn't matter.
That's, I can relate to that with Mailoff
as the last day, I'll give you.
Vicki, thank you so much for being here.
And I want to say a big, big thank you
for me and the community to the organization
and the great work that you guys are doing over there.
And I want to talk a little bit more about that, if you don't mind.
For those who have not heard of friends of San Hill Wildlife Area,
what can we tell them about the organization?
Well, we're a group of volunteers that support
the San Hill Wildlife Area, either with work
or raising some money or sponsoring workshops.
And right now, we're getting ready to put on our open house.
Excellent, thank you, Vicki.
Thank you for that.
Can we dive right into the open house, then?
What can people expect with the open house?
Well, every year we have a theme related to the outdoors
and sort of to San Hill.
This year, our theme is all about white till deer.
And so we have a speaker from the DNR,
they're the staff who is going to talk about deer ecology.
Then they're going to take a wagon tour out on the property
to look at some of the things that he was talking about.
And if there's extra space, other people
can go on the wagon tour also.
That's a great idea.
It's one thing to have a great speaker like that.
And that certainly can go a long ways.
But so many of us, myself included,
I think information really registers and really stays with us
when you have that audio and visual component.
When you're literally kind of taking,
it's like a field trip in some ways.
And I think that a lot of teachers will tell you
that's how a lot of kids take an information
pretty better that way.
I can't believe that.
It's a really smart idea.
It's a really nice way to do that.
And it's a little different open house that way.
I think when we think of open houses,
we don't think of something like this outdoors,
but it's a perfect open house for what you guys do.
Well, we have other things going on too.
We have a nature store.
We have some interactive activities
where people can answer questions
like little quizzes with answers.
And we have displays, things about information
on white tails and their life.
And some of the information about them
that people may or may not know.
Well, and that's one of the really exciting things
I think about this open house for people,
especially if they have been on the fence a little bit
about, well, I want to do this,
or do I have the time or something like that,
being a part of the group?
It's a great opportunity for them to check things out more
and find out how they can be involved.
The open house, can we give them the dates in the time
or when this is?
The date is May 10th.
The actual open house runs from 10 until three,
but we have a pre-event birding tour with a bird.
He won't let us call him an expert, so he says an enthusiast.
And that starts at eight o'clock.
People have to register ahead of time,
so they register at 7.30 until we fill up as much as we can.
And it's a driving tour, like a little safari in the park.
To the property.
A safari, that's exactly what I was thinking.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
And while the focus is on Whitetail deer,
it's an opportunity to learn about the area as well.
While also certainly putting a focus on the deer
with the ecology talk, of course, in the wagon tour.
And along with that, learning about management practices
to see them firsthand.
You know, Wisconsinites and deer are hand in hand.
And certainly most anybody out there feels that they know deer.
Here's an opportunity that really gets a no deer.
It'll really understand them.
And I think the more you understand something,
the better off you are with that.
We all got to live together, us, these deer, us in our wildlife.
The more you understand them, I think the better off we all are.
And you never know what other ways that might be helpful.
That's a great idea for that.
Along with some of the other things that you were talking about there,
Vicki, this is free to act free.
This is going to be a free event for people.
The open house is free unless you want to buy a hot dog
or something at the store.
But we have other free refreshments.
All activities are free.
The burning tour is separate.
That has a $10 fee.
And that goes to help you guys continue to do things
like this and do great work over there.
To keep that in mind, everybody, that that's an investment
in your community, in your environment, in the area.
And really supporting that and the work
that Vicki and the gang over there are doing.
And this is open to all ages.
Why don't you bring the whole family to something like this?
There's something for everyone.
And I think everyone will at least learn one new thing
they didn't know before.
I love that.
Oh, I love it.
I love to learn that that's a fantastic thing to add to that, Vicki.
And I mentioned this quite a bit.
And I will continue to, when we talk about family events,
it's certainly, we can always use more of those in society
and life.
And my mom was even 20 years ago complaining
that we weren't having dinner enough together.
I'm sure that it's still a common theme nowadays.
And all those valid good reasons to bring the kids
and to do these things.
But the other side story of this that I find very important
is when your kids see you supporting something like this,
their brains are sponges.
And they see that.
And as adults, they become adults that
want to help and support organizations like this
and nonprofits like this.
And people that are doing really good work in our areas,
that these are life lessons that you're doing,
along with having a great time with the family.
Yes, and we'd like to get the kids
more into the outdoors anyway.
So this gets something that they can come to San Hill
and see things that are going on.
And the driving tour is open that they can take on their own, too.
Yeah, it's a great, thank you for mentioning that.
I also wanted to mention, while the open house is great,
we encourage you to attend that.
Everybody make plans, market on your calendar,
May 10th, Saturday, May 10th, 10 to 3.
There's also some workshops that you guys do over there
that I wanted to take a minute to mention.
There's workshops that the friends sponsor
and there's workshops put on by the DNR.
But ours, we have two coming up in June.
The first one is the first Saturday in June.
And it's a walking stick making workshop.
Oh, that's a cool idea.
We supply the hardwood sticks and the people come
and decorate them.
They can use wood burning feathers, paints, whatever they want
and put whatever pattern or design or animal
that they want on there.
Our second one is the next Saturday.
And it's a Native American woman talking about the uses
that they made of cat tails.
And they will go out into the marshes.
And she'll talk about cat tails and show them different things
and how they got it.
So they'll get the weight out there with their weighters.
Awesome.
Oh, man, that is a cool idea.
Great workshops.
Those are great ideas.
And again, everything I was saying before
times 100 with these workshops.
Oh, and I love things that combined educating history
and fun, each of those workshops
you described to all of those things.
That's really cool.
I want to remind people as well that these workshops,
the open house, these are all fantastic.
But really every day you can help the team over at Sand Hill
and what the work that's going on over there,
you can even become a member.
Just to touch on that before we wrap up, Vicki,
a little bit, as far as how people can help,
I see from your fantastic website, which you can find everybody
as Vicki was teaching me during our pre-game and everything.
You have to type in your search bar,
friendsofsandhild.com.
All one word, friendsofsandhild.com.
You'll get their brand new website that pops up.
That is beautiful looking, by the way.
And it actually has a couple of tips here
about how you can help.
Like supporting education programs
by sponsoring activities and seminars.
It's a great way to be able to.
If you purchase or share nature theme books, hats,
and pamphlets, it's another great way to do it.
And certainly spreading the word,
we all know word-a-mouth goes so far.
Whether it's on your own social media platforms
and resharing things on your page,
or just you're bopping around and you're at the gas station
or at a family event or something
and letting people know, hey, have you heard
about this open house they're having over at Sand Hill?
Those are great ways to support what they're doing over there.
And Vicki, I see that anybody can become a member
as far as joining this great group.
And the information is on the website,
including a forum that you can either print and fill out
or phone me or email me that you want to register.
And we encourage you to do that, everybody.
Again, if you type in your search bar,
friendsofsandhill.com, you will find that website.
Before we get done, Vicki, you had some help
with that website, you guys.
Yes, but right now, you can't use the search.
You have to type www.into the browser.
Yes, India browser.
Thank you, Vicki.
I'm sorry, I meant to word it that way.
I know because that's what's happened to me
and trying to find it.
That happened to me earlier, yeah.
Encourage you to do that, everybody.
Again, type into your browser, friendsofsandhill.com.
And then the website will pop up and you'll
be able to reach Vicki and everybody.
One last thing I want to do is encourage you to sign up
for the Sand Hill newsletter.
It's a great way to keep up the date
and all the things that they are doing over there.
And maybe even get involved with the great work
that they are doing.
Vicki, do us a favor.
Please stop by again.
This was fantastic.
We loved having you on the air.
I want to talk with you guys more.
So we will be reaching out or you reach out to us.
The next event you guys have coming up, okay?
Okay.
Thank you.
And thanks again, great job today.
This was a lot of fun.
I appreciate you joining us.
Again, you can find out more by going to friendsofsandhill.com.
Just put that into your browser, type it in there.
All one word, friendsofsandhill.com.
Be sure to follow them on Facebook as well
and share their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
And keep on listening because we'll have more
Rapids Report coming up right here,
streaming exclusively at WFHR.com.