Incourage – Clean Green Action – River Riders Bike Share May ‘25

Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this May 14th, 2025.

Have your host, James J. Mailov here.

Welcome our friends from Encourage and our Wood County Health Department along with

Clean Green. We're talking a bunch of other stuff today.

We're going to have some fun over the next time and let's go ahead and introduce

everybody to get things going. First off, Linda Schill from Encourage is with us.

Linda, thanks for being here.

Thank you, James. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having us.

We also want to introduce our friend Hannah Wendell Scott from Wood County

Health Department. Hannah, good to see you.

Hi, James. Nice to see you.

And of course, Carol Davis from Clean Green Action Committee.

Carol, always good to have you in studio.

Yes, glad to be back. Thanks.

It's great to have you guys here to be able to talk about all of this great stuff.

I do want to start off thanking Encourage for setting this up and bringing in these great guests

and using the time this way. I really do appreciate that and everything that Encourage does

for our community. And Linda, I'll go ahead and let you kind of

tee this off a little bit here, where we get this going.

Absolutely. And I thank you again for having us.

We like to be able to invite guests to highlight the partnerships that we created and carried

through over the years or the last 30 years with Encourage.

So it's really our honor to have Carol and Hannah with us here today.

So you've probably heard in previous podcasts or radio shows about

Encourage's scholarship program. And really the month of May is like go time for scholarships.

We have so many graduating seniors in the Southwick County area.

And we're just so pleased that Encourage is able to help these students.

We offer over 180 scholarship opportunities at Encourage.

And we feel that it's the key to really unlocking the student's potential as they continue on

in their education. So scholarships are available for not only two-year programs or four-year

programs as students continue on. They can be studying in the fields anywhere from trades, medical,

nursing, business, agriculture, the sciences, you name it, so many opportunities.

Yeah, Linda, so many that it seems like when this topic comes up, when we've been having this

conversation for years that for everybody that does such a great job going through these

and finding out there's always some available that people didn't even realize were available.

Exactly. They're really are. And we even have scholarships for continuing ed students as well.

And some scholarships that carry on with the student all four years if they're going to

four-year programs. So all of that is detailed in our website, which will offer at the end of

the podcast. But and also just a reminder, you know, as our juniors are graduating in the next

couple of weeks, they need to be thinking about this because a scholarship can really make a

difference in their pursuit as they move on after graduation next year. So but I wanted to offer

just a few statistics and a shout out to Kim Shields as well, who's our donor services manager.

And you wouldn't believe the gnarly spreadsheets that this girl is working with in tandem with our

ISTS scholarship selection program on the state. So but this year we are offering 200 individual

scholarships. They're going to be awarded to graduating seniors in the South of County area

over the next week. We will grant more than $234,000 in scholarship awards. And this is of course

all thanks to the generous individuals and organizations who have established these funds with

encouraged dating all the way back to our inception in 1994. But in total, since that time,

we've awarded more than $3.65 million in scholarships. That's incredible. That's that just feels good

just. It does. It does. Like you can hear the teaching in the background. Yeah. Yeah. So I know

Kim is presenting at a scholarship program this evening and we have them throughout all of the

local high schools over the next week. So it's an exciting time for those seniors and we wish

them all well. And as Linda said before we wrap up, we'll give you the information how to reach

her. They find out more through the website and encourage great stuff. Thank you. Great way to

start. Linda. Great start. Absolutely. The next piece I wanted to cover is our encouraging action.

I'll call it a newsletter, I guess, of sorts. So two times a year, Kim Shields will. She's

gathering information year round. But twice a year, she will publish this piece called

encouraging action and sends it out to our donor donor advised fund holders and also just to

individual donors that have expressed interest in helping nonprofits, whether it's an emergency

need or just a new opportunity, a new project that they'd like to bring to life. So we've gathered

a lot of research. I have a packet that talks about 12 different opportunities in our community.

I'm going to highlight two of them. Just kind of get scratched the surface on those. And then

Carol and Hannah are going to dive a little deeper on on another one. Sounds great. So the two that

I wanted to showcase today, because believe it or not, for me summer starts June 1st. I know

it's technically June 21st, but we have an organization called for Nicosah. In 2024, they created

a group. This is just local community members. Their goal was to help keep traditional events going

in the Nicosah community, but open to the public as well. So things like Nicosah hometown Christmas,

walleye days, which I can remember dating back for years, Easter egg hunt, the 5K run,

and then last year they introduced a new event called Midwest Fest, which is a summer picnic.

It's free, open to the public. Some of the key pieces they have food and beverages available

through food truck vendors. And then they have a free children's activity zone, which really caught

our attention. And when they reached out to us for support, we were happy to sort of work through

some questions with them and identified the opportunity to offer a grant for $1,500 to support

the children's area, specifically bouncy houses. But we are here seeking on their behalf

additional support from individual donors that are listening. Maybe you have a fund at the

encouraged community foundation with us. And we are able to help pass through dollars then to

support for Nicosah with the Midwest Fest. But the event is June 21st at Riverside Park in Nicosah.

So I don't think that people really ever regret or feel anything negative when it comes to donating

money or donating two things. It always is a good feeling and it always feels great, but you don't

always get a chance to donate and then actually take advantage of that and actually be a part of

the things that you're donating to. That's a really fun idea, fun combination. And just go along

with all the other fun things that they're doing over there and really interesting stuff along with

really helping our community, really impacting our communities and whether it's coming up with

fun new events or just giving the community stuff to look forward to. Which not for nothing impacts

our economy and gives people reasons to go to this town or that town or that or check out this

business or that. One of the things that Mayor Matt and I have been talking about a number of times

is the area like this and like all of our surrounding cities, not just rapids, but we're all

connected here. This desire to hang on to the people that are in their town and the young people

that are graduating from their schools while also bringing in new people. These events do that,

these kind of things do that. They help with that. They're not the only thing. There's certainly

you know treating people well in the great community we have, etc. But this is, it has a domino

effect, these kind of things. It's so much, it's the event itself is great on its surface, but

you don't have to dig too deep to figure out always actually does this too and it impacts that.

So it's fun and it helps impacts the economy, side me up. That sounds great. It's really

cool what it's able to be done with these things. It is. And I think I've lived in Wisconsin

Rapids my entire life and what I've seen was, you know, for so many years you felt a divide between

Nikusa Port Adwords, Wisconsin Rapids, Grand Rapids, Pitzville. Now it's just so much more inclusive

and it is. The lines are blurred between these communities and it's just southwood county area.

And we are all able to enjoy the river that runs through our towns and the many activities,

events that are happening and also just rally around each other. If Nikusa High School has a need,

people in Grand Rapids are paying attention to that. So it's much more of a family feeling and

we know that's why people are coming back and raising families here who are staying and raising

families here. It's a wonderful place to live and wrap your arms around each other. I'm so glad

you brought this up. This is actually something I've talked about a lot with people that are similar

to me because I couldn't be the more opposite Linda. I moved around a ton in my life. And I've

lived in a lot of neighborhoods, a lot of places and I've generally never lived anywhere like this.

I've lived in small towns. I've lived in rural areas and stuff. I've never lived in anywhere like this

in part because of when I first moved here and what you were first talking about and learning that,

okay, I have to watch what I talk about about this high school or that school or something like that

and to get to where we are now. And I genuinely think and certainly this could sound a certain way

like a brown nose or something like that. That's just a color of my nose. That's just who I am.

But when it comes to I believe a lot of this stems from our non-profits and our non-profits at

a certain point realizing we're better together than a part. Instead of being crabs in a barrel,

you know, trying to climb to the top or something, helping each other in that. That is,

these are we're talking about community leaders. And when that happens at the top,

you see most people really get a joint forces with that. I think it's also in reverse, too,

because it's the people that make those non-profits and the people believing in those things.

So it's a wonderful combination. I could not agree with you more that the night and day that from

when I first moved to this area to where it is now, we still, you know, have our rivalries and

you know, with our high school teams and stuff like that. That's all great. That's wonderful.

But when it comes right down to it, we back our own. We support our own. We support this area.

And that's that's Nikusa. That's Port. That's Stevens Point. That's Marfield,

Warsaw. This whole central Wisconsin area really looking out for each other. And yes, you know,

when our high schools are pulling each other, you know, and all that. But when it comes down to

everyday living, we're just trying to live and we're just trying to make this area. And I mean,

the whole area that much stronger and better. It's a really good thing to bring up. I appreciate

you doing that. I just recently learned of the butterfly effect concept too. And I just,

these three, the two ladies sitting with me, I mean, we all have a connection. We won't, you know,

go in depth with that today. But it is just amazing. I mean, you never, you should never burn a bridge.

But you really don't want to burn a bridge in a small town because it all comes full circle.

It really does. And it's, it's just pretty cool to be sitting with Hannah and Carol and friends for

many years. We should make them work. We should make, they've been sitting here more. They have,

and I know we've been doing all the gabbings. Let me call it one more because I know you'll,

you'll have interest in this. In fact, your name came up when we were chatting with the new president

of Friends of Rapids Music. Her name is Suzanne Arnt. I love the energy and the new ideas and

perspective. She's bringing to this organization. And I know Friends of Rapids, Friends of Rapids

Music. See that? A bunch of times. Yeah. Um, took a hiatus last year from a big fundraising event,

but they are bringing it back this year for its eighth year. That is Friends of Rapids Music

Festival, which will be held on Saturday, September 20th at Robinson Park. Food drinks,

merch, as she calls it. And then a popular FRM kid zone will be available. This is a free

event for the open to the public, um, other than the things you're purchasing when you're there,

obviously. But the Friends of Rapids Music is looking to fundraise to hold this event because then

the, the, um, funds generated there are used for music scholarships and to also help

it other nonprofits, like the Cultural Center, installing the guitar-shaped stage that they have

there. So it all goes hand in hand. Um, but they're looking to raise some funds for that event.

Encourage, uh, has granted a $1,500 matching grant opportunity to FRM, um, in the hopes to

sort of generate some more grassroots fundraising and expand the opportunities for giving

there. So, uh, we've, uh, worked with them for many years. Uh, and, and I've, I've been fortunate

enough to get to MC a couple of those, uh, FRM fasts and everything. And, uh, I look forward to

working with them again. We'll be talking about that. I'll leading right up to September and, uh,

build it up around here quite a bit. Big supporters of what they do over there. And, and, and part,

and, and I admit that as this as an artist, I admit that I have some buys in this and everything.

But I also have a connection with all this because, um, and, unless I will say, if there's anybody

out there who's never not, who isn't enjoyed a local musician, then this isn't for you. Otherwise,

if there's anybody out there who likes music or anything like that, I guess that's a pretty big

spectrum of people. Um, this, support this event. The, the, the FRM group, not only they support

these other organizations that you were matching their Linda, but, uh, they're vital in supporting

our artists and our musicians in this area who have entertained us for decades in this area.

When you think of some of the acts that have been around and, and, you know, this is something that

I talk about quite a bit and there's a passion of mine. Um, there is no retirement plan for artists.

There is no 401k. There is none of this. When we're able to help where we can, it goes so much farther

than you can realize. And, and this also impacts our economy. This fest is very popular. And, uh,

especially as we're going to get a chance to build it back up and everything, and not even just

this one, but other musical fest like Bluegrass at the lake and some of these things. They bring

people to our community. They spend money here. It helps our economy. Some people want to stay

and live here, et cetera, et cetera. It, it, it, even if you don't like music, even if you're

somebody who doesn't even care, you should care about this event and, and support this event,

because I guarantee you probably care about your taxes. You probably care about the economy.

It's a great one to learn about and be a part of. And we're looking forward to talking more and

more about as we get closer to it. Thank you for bringing that up, Linda. You bet. You bet. So those

two events are, you know, just two of the 12 that I mentioned that would be showcased in our

encouraging action, which not all of it is fun stuff like a festival. There are some really

emerging needs for some of our local nonprofits. So if you want to learn more about those needs,

you can contact us at the encourage office. Again, we'll share that information at the end of

the podcast. But one of the 12 that we're highlighting with encouraging action is the river

rider's bike share program. And that is why we invited Carol and Hannah to join us today.

So Carol and I date back to encourage. She was an employee there many, many years ago. As was I.

Years ago. So a full circle moment with Carol and I invited her to come back and

and help us understand the backstory of the river rider's bike share program because she was

involved at the early onset of the program. And then she'll be able to tee it up for Hannah.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you again for being here. Where do you want to begin with this?

Well, you know, everything starts as a good idea. The Rapids Music Fest started as a good idea.

So this was we had a this group called Clean Green Action. And we would work on projects

each year. And so once we came up with the idea, wouldn't it be great to have a bike share

program in our community? And this was in 2014. So bike share programs were just in their infancy.

So as we were looking in the nation, there were like two or three bike share programs that we could

look at because we wanted to be inclusive where people could just check out a bike and ride

because I had heard before, you know, I would tell people, what is there to do when you come to

reps while we have great bike trails? Well, I didn't bring my bike. What if we had a bike share

program where you just borrow a bike and put it back when you're done? So we kind of looked into

that more. And we thought, I think we could do this, but we need a little help. So we reached out

to the Wood County Health Department. We reached out to encourage. We're like, okay, help us with

this. We have a good idea, but we need some help with this. And so encourage said, well, we have a

teen leadership program. How about if we brought it to the teen leadership program because they

worked on a project every year. We're not going to say they will do it, but they might, you know,

they might agree to take it on. So they brought it to a vote. Teen leaders voted on it. Teen leaders

named it. So that's where the River Riders bike share program came from. They came up with the

logo for it. So I mean, it was really a great effort. And so we're like, okay, we got this program

we're going to do. Guess what? We need bikes for a bike share program. Minor details. So that's

where we reached out to the community. So it's like, do you have a bike you don't need? We're starting

a bike share program. We want to, you know, and we had such a great response to this program. People

would bring bikes. They bring them to the Tribune building. We stored them at the Tribune building.

And so what we would do, because we wanted to be able to track these bikes when we were,

they were out in the community. So we're like, when people would drop off their bike, we would tell

them, okay, what's the name of the bike you're dropping off? So it was really cool. We had bikes,

we had a shadow, we had mother goose, we had Mickey, we had Scout, we had so many bikes. And we had

kids bikes, we had adult bikes. So then the next step was, okay, now we have to make these bikes

kind of look the same. And so we worked with the teen leaders helped with sanding them down.

And we painted them on cranberry, because we're a cranberry community. We thought, let's have

these bikes be cranberry color. We worked with sunrise rotary. They helped us encourage helped.

And, and then of course, the the health department again. So we worked and, you know, got these

bikes sanded down about 30 bikes, had to get them out to the community. So we developed several

locations, we had them at Riverview Hospital, we had them in Veterans Park, we had them at the

Tribune Building and Westside IGA. And we worked with, you know, those places where you could check

out a bike and then ride it in the community, return it. And it worked out really good. And

it was a free bike share program. So, you know, we ran into a couple glitches, you know, accountability,

it's hard. Sometimes the bikes got checked out and didn't get checked back in. Yeah. So that's

we had a great partnership with Wisconsin Rapids Police Department, where they would bring me back

a bike to encourage. It's like, okay, we'll get it here. Once we saw a bike and someone's yard,

a bike share bike for sale, you know. Right. All that. Get that one back. So, but it just

was an example of a green community effort. You know, teamwork makes a dream mark. Absolutely,

well said, as always. And Carol, I can't imagine how good it must feel to be able to look at it now

and where the program is. I know, you know, programs reached their cycle. These bikes were donated,

so they were older. And so they kind of, you know, they wear out. So then it was like, you know,

I don't think we have the band with to continue this. None of us are bike mechanics, so to keep

them up. So then it was, okay, we can't do this who can. And it was Wood County Health Department

that stepped up. Yeah. Take it away. Yeah. I love hearing the history of it. I was a senior in high

school when all of that was going on. And it was so fun to, I actually had the privilege of going

to school with one of Carol's sons. And he would come back and talk about this bike program. His

mom is starting and we were like, cool. And now I'm like, that's amazing. And then it is a full

talk about. Yes. It's fantastic. I think what's really cool about the original like program

is just how high the need was and the demand. And I think when I was learning about bike share,

when I was starting as an intern, that was something that became so apparent that we needed to evolve

because this was such a good idea. And the demand for it was like massive. And people weren't just

using it to take it along the leisurely trail ride, which is wonderful. But people are using it to go

to an appointment to go to the grocery store to connect with loved ones. They needed it for work.

I mean, they were using it for a mode of transportation. And so I think that's where

bike share has evolved today across the country, whether it's an e-bike or just a regular bike like

we have here in town. But now it's all on your phone. And I know that comes with pickups and

its own set of barriers at times. And there's a cost to it now, but that's one thing that we've

always wanted to do is stay true to the program that you all started and make it affordable,

make it accessible, and really still be that community bike share program that we always were

with just a couple of upgrades. Yeah, and accountability. And accountability. Yeah, that's

super helpful too. So it's really neat to see where it's come now. And one of the things that I

enjoy about things like this is certainly the highlights that both of you touched on so well

and everything is also the things that we're able to learn from these that are organic. And we

didn't go set out to learn, but finding, oh, there's a lot of people in our community that need

something like this. Maybe transportation is something we need to focus on. And here we are,

now where the Mary and I have talked a number of times about different ideas when it comes to that

and things that the city is talking about about pop soul public transportation and some of that.

I think some of that stems from some of the data and some of the need that you see with the program

like this. I don't know if that happens without this program. There's, you know, especially as

Midwesterners where we just we don't really complain. You know, we just rub some dirt on and keep

walking. That's what we do. And when it comes to like a need for transportation, you're not going to

get a big outcry from the community. You have to look between the lines. We have to see, oh,

this program blew up really quick. People need bikes. Maybe they need transportation, some of

this stuff. And that's just one little thing that can kind of come from something like this along

with all the positives that you both highlighted so well. If you wouldn't mind going into just for

those that don't know the program, how they can rent one of these bikes and where they are available.

Where they are. Yeah, for sure. So we have currently out right now. All the stations are live

as of this day. Whenever this podcast airs, you could go rent a bike. We have three stations live

right now in Rapids. So we've got one at the West Grand Avenue Bridge, which has been super

popular since we moved it there, which it's just right at the corner of First Avenue South

and then West Grand Avenue. So you can literally pick up your bike and just head on down the

river trail right there. It's beautiful. We have them at McMillan Memorial Library,

which I love having anything at a library because you feel so comfortable going to a library.

And so having a bike chair station there just made so much sense. And then we also have one

out at White Sands Beach at Lake Wasija. So we have one located in the Grand Rapids area, which

has been always been one of the most popular ones because it's so nice to hop on that trail and

just loop around with your family. I was monitoring our Facebook page and I saw a family commenting

like, when are the bikes coming out? Like we've been taking rides ever since. It's been so nice.

And I'm sure they're riding there. They're riding at the river. So it's a really cool like space

for these families to get involved, especially if you know kiddos have their bikes. Our bikes

are all made for adults. But if you don't have a bike, bikes are expensive. This is a really

nice option to to utilize. If you're traveling in from out of town and you forgot your bike,

it's great. Or if you just can't afford to buy that new bike or even a used bike, this is a

good option for you. Thank you again for that and I appreciate it. We'll again get the information

out there where you can find out more about these online and all that in just a moment. But we do

before we wrap up wanted to talk a little bit about Clean Green Action Committee and a Clean Green

and just to get into that a little bit. So let's dive into that topic right now. Wow, nice to have

this promo opportunity. Yeah, Clean Green. We started as a grassroots organization out of a

community leadership program that encouraged was running and it's been going since 2008. We're now

a registered nonprofit. So you had the Prairie Chicken people in. I'm sure this so that's part of

Clean Green. We have if you have Elizabeth Whelan in it all she talks about pollinators and how

important they are to the environment. We just promote sustainability in different ways and so

bird city. The the koanas are having their youth event this weekend in bird city which is part

of Clean Green is going to be out there too. You know helping people learn about about sustainability

and birds and how you can be more bird friendly in our community. So we have many different projects

going on and it's just we always welcome people to join us. We meet through September through May

four o'clock at the library or we do Zoom too. So if you can't can't make it you can always make

a via computer. We're always welcoming people and to be part of us and help make a more sustainable

community. So thanks for that opportunity. Oh, just appreciate the work being done and and

all the people behind it and getting into that and everything. Not only with with what you

mentioned and what is done but the sharing of information, the attention that is brought to

certain topics that might not be otherwise. I think it's some vital work actually. Yeah,

it's nothing to bring up. I appreciate you. What did the you guys are doing that and everything.

And really appreciate you all joining us today putting up with my questions and having some fun.

It's been great. Linda if people have follow up questions would like to know more from

encourage and how to find out more maybe about the scholarships or anything else. Should we

just send them to the website or do we have a contact information? A couple of ways you can do

that. I would say visit the website which is encourage with an i encourage cf.org. You can call us

at seven one five four two three three eight six three. We'd love if you made an appointment. Stop

down to to visit us. We're located at 478 East Grand Avenue which is right across from hotel

Mead and tucked in between the library and Solaris. So a nice convenient location. We're open

Monday through Thursday nine to four. But we would just love to you know even if you want to call

and ask questions about some of the needs that are identified in the encouraging action newsletter.

I know Hannah's with the with the introduction of technology to the bike share program. There's a

need there every year to help pay for that subscription for the technology. There's there's great

need. As I said ranging from emergency to these fun things like festivals throughout the south

with county communities. So give us a call. We'd love to help get you connected in in any way

that you're able to give time talent treasure. Along with that if you have any follow up questions

or want to know more about some of the things we've talked about today. I encourage you to reach out

to encourage and and to find out more. And again thank you all for everything you're doing in

the community and hanging out with us today. We appreciate you. Thank you. And thank you for

joining us out there. The joining the conversation here at WFHR Rapids report.