Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this May 27th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here, welcoming in to the studio, Osama, our favorite people.
We have the ODC with us right now, first want to see a good afternoon to Annelie Peck
and good to see it.
Good to see you.
Thanks for being here and Ashley is with us, Ashley Nichol is here, Ashley, good to see you.
Good to see you too.
Thanks a lot for being here, always good to have you guys with us and the audience has
known many, many times how I feel about the ODC.
There's no journalistic integrity, love you guys and appreciate everything you do.
Want to also not take too much of your time and just get right into things and Ashley,
I want to dive right into the for hope golf benefit going on and touch on that and tell
the audience a little bit about this great event.
Yeah, it was the for hope golf benefit was held on May 15th at San Valley and we'd
like to thank everyone that participated and sponsored because it supports our ODC's
mental health clinic, Opportunity for Hope.
We raised over $25,000 and we'd like to highlight that our clinic is open to the general
public and we have immediate openings and we do, we take everybody regardless of income
or ability to pay an insurance and we would also like everyone to like and follow us on
our new Facebook page dedicated to opportunity for hope.
So our look for opportunity for hope on Facebook.
Ashley, you're so good at this, nicely done, well done.
I had like questions and you already answered them, I go well done, well done.
At first off, I did want to congratulate everybody on a successful event, everybody at
the ODC, certainly all the participants, this community that really makes us a fun event
every year.
But I also wanted to just ask real quick, did you guys have fun, did you guys get to go
down there, either of you?
Do you have a good time?
Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of fun taking pictures.
Good, good, really good.
It's always nice added bonus to these events, certainly want the community to have fun and
certainly want to raise awareness and funds and everything, but it's nice that you guys
have a good time too, get out a little bit and San Valley beautiful over there, so it's
almost hard not to have a good time over there, great to hear and helps us get ready for
next year as well, Ann.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we are already scheduled for next year, May 28th or 29th.
Yeah, I think I saw that.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's cool.
And I really do appreciate the way the community comes together for these events and
shows that support.
I don't think that there's many areas that do what we do around here as well as we do.
So very successful and appreciate every all the feedback on this, Ashley.
Thank you.
Nice work.
Thank you.
I was good talking to you.
And we got a lot of other things we wanted to get into as well.
And I wanted to start with graduations because that's where we're in the heart of that
right now.
Let's get right into that.
Yeah.
There may be some folks that don't realize that we do.
Obviously, there are high schools and college graduates.
There's lots of graduations going on.
ODCs, this is a big time of year for ODC because we also celebrate project search graduations.
So if you're not familiar with project search, it's an employment training program for
students and young adults with disabilities.
What's unique about it is it takes place at a host business in the community.
And it's for a full school year.
And so it's a real intense job training program, like I said, for students and young adults
with disabilities.
So we're real excited to kind of share.
We just wrapped those up over the last couple of weeks.
So that was real exciting.
And we have eight to 12 individuals at each location that participate in the program.
And so I just wanted to shout out that, you know, ODC has four project search sites locally.
And so we're located at Marshfield Medical Center in Marshfield, Aspirus Riverview Hospital
here in Wisconsin Rapids, Aspirus Wassa Hospital in Wassa, and then also UWSP and Stevens
Point.
So we're real fortunate to have those sites.
If I may, just to piggyback off of this because I was thinking I only had a chance to think
about it a little bit this morning, but hearing you talk about it as well, a big thank you
for all those great, great places of employment and everything, also community leaders.
And really that show, you know, of all businesses and, you know, that could have something like
this, our medical industry really leaning into that is so wonderful to see.
And maybe the biggest one we could ask for.
So I think that's not worried any other businesses out there, anybody else and not profits
or anything, any work environment to keep that in mind.
We're talking about this great program.
Yeah, yeah.
And so really the goal of the program.
So individuals participate in three, ten week internships, all based on kind of their
skills, abilities and interests.
And again, the goal upon graduation or shortly after is to find employment, not necessarily
in the host business, but it certainly does, it can and does happen, which is awesome.
But really then we support individuals to find jobs in the community that meet their
needs and that they're an asset to various employers within our communities.
Similar to, you know, we've talked about this a lot going into the for hope golf benefit
and how that's fun.
It's a great opportunity for the community, great for the ODC, get out there, raise some
awareness and hopefully some funds.
But in that conversation, the mental health group, the clinic, we have to talk about
and there's something that's helping the community.
It certainly helps the ODC too, but it's such a thing for the community.
And here is another thing where it helps the clients at the ODC certainly and that's
that's at bridge that we need there.
But these businesses, I hear from them all the time and how benefited they feel from
having these particular employees and what it does for them.
It's a real winning, winning situation for both.
Yeah, yeah.
We attended all of the graduations and took pictures.
So again, check out our Facebook page.
All of the graduations are out there in the photos.
But that is one theme that we hear all the time from the businesses is that having the
individuals within their facility, you know, really makes an impact not only on their
environment, but also with the patients and things that they're supporting as well.
So it really is, it's really, it's just, it's the best time of year to see how far the
students have come and what an impact they've made and see them become successful.
So if there is a business that would like to be a part of this next year is now a good
time to be reaching out about that or so they can reach out to us.
If you, I guess what I would say is if you're looking to hire someone, yeah, right now would
be a good time to reach out to us because we do have, although we have, we had 29 individuals
graduate.
I think I'm not exactly sure the numbers of people that have been hired, but we do have
people that are looking for jobs, that recent, that just completed the program.
And so now would be a great time to reach out if you're looking for a trained and ready
to go worker.
And speaking of keeping on this kind of theme here a little bit, a mystery mid-state has
their adaptive career awareness series graduation in early June.
That's coming up.
As we're talking about some already done, there's one on the way.
Yep, yep.
So this is real interesting because it was established a year or two ago, adaptive career
awareness.
And it's really a series of exploratory sessions that allows really adults of all abilities,
but also inclusive of students with disabilities as well to be able to participate and really
get an experience of the technical college and what's involved.
And every year this program just grows and grows and grows.
It was originally in point and then now they've moved, it's a combination between Stevens
Point and Wisconsin Rapids and now they added Marshfield this year.
And so there's seven different, different sessions in each year depending on, you know,
what people are interested in.
So individuals get to learn about law enforcement, they did a crime scene processing activity.
They do some dental, they've done a dental program exploration, they've learned about
digital marketing and advertising, customer service.
And just a real variety, I know one year they did the EMS firefighting and also CPR, things
like that.
Real, it's very supportive and inclusive and we get more and more people involved each
year.
And it's just wonderful.
Yeah, there's so many things that they can learn from this that I want to just interesting
and unique and stuff, but also things, skill sets or lessons that they can take to other
jobs and other industries certainly.
But there's also something happening here and we're seeing it more and more in society
of the idea that you are born this doesn't mean you have to do this.
That's correct.
You know, and whatever that might be, whether we're talking about men and women or races
or something like this, we're seeing those lines gone.
And that's a better, certainly it's a better world, I think, and I can get into the Kumbaya
of all that that I think is special, but in unique and beautiful about our society.
But I think that, you know, for anybody that doesn't care about that, the economic impact
that makes.
There is very few people out there right now not looking for better and more workers or
more options for it or something.
And this creates more of that and an industry that is needed for quite some time and not
just new faces and new people, but just in general, you know, I bring different perspectives
from different walks of life into those industries are key to those industries.
Absolutely.
A lot of layers to that.
That's cool.
Absolutely, because if you think about it, you know, all of those industries support people
with disabilities and who better to help, you know, provide the services and be able to
give input as a, you know, a person with a disability, be able to give their input on
the best way to support people, right?
So it's, it's just really been, it's really been awesome.
So we're super excited about all of those.
I look forward to hearing how their graduation goes in June.
I'm sure it's going to be fantastic.
It's just always a, it's always a great, great day.
So before we let you all go, we do have a couple more events that we wanted to talk about
speaking of June, coming up in June, Friday, June 6th, very familiar with our audience here
at the home of the Wisconsin Rapids Raptors WFHR.
You guys are going to be down there, ODC night coming up.
We are.
So ODC is going to be nonprofit of the evening.
So we are going to be doing a 50-50 raffle that evening.
In last year, we set the record for the largest amount of tickets sold and largest 50-50
raffle.
So we're proud of that.
So we'll hopefully see if we can match that again this year.
And then the other fun thing is, I know we've talked a little bit about our better together
program and opportunity.
And our better together friends are also going to be down at the game.
And so we'd like to talk to people because we are expanding into Wisconsin Rapids about
our friend program called Better Together Matching People Disabilities to Volunteers out
in the community.
And so we will have some representatives there as well, kind of sharing that information.
And we'd love to have some other folks from the community get involved in our program.
So we'd love for people to hear more.
Coming down for the game anyway, come down, bring your questions.
And what a great environment, a great place to be able to do that.
Just face-to-face, and just having a simple conversation, and then taking in some baseball.
That sounds like a great summer evening to me.
Absolutely.
And a chance to win some big bucks.
Yes, that too.
Boy, the audience is yelling at me about the raffle.
You got to mention the raffle out.
That's a bad job by me as an interviewer.
I shouldn't have brought that back up.
I said, no.
You're so right.
That's great.
That's a really fun evening.
And again, that'll be coming up Friday, June 6th, ODC night at the rafters.
We'll talk more and more about that as we get closer to it here at the morning show and
all that.
And then Monday, June 23rd, another great night, another great location.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So nonprofit Mondays at White Sands Mini Golf.
And we've been doing this for a few years.
And so if you're looking for something to do, I'm hoping the weather will be beautiful.
But if you're looking for something to do on a Monday, go on out to White Sands Mini
Golf.
And a portion of every game purchased will be donated back to ODC.
And that's always a fun, fun time as well.
And especially if the weather's nice, we get a lot of people coming out there.
So if you're looking for something to do on Monday, June 23rd, come on out to White Sands
Mini Golf and come and see us.
I love Mini Golf.
I love Mini Golf.
The only thing to spend of the Mini Golf is Mini Golf with a nonprofit and the great cause.
You can't go wrong with that one.
You're going to have a great time with that Monday, June 23rd, nonprofit Mondays at White
Sands Mini Golf.
A big shout out to them and to all these businesses that are working with our ODC.
We greatly appreciate that and encourage more of that.
And if people have follow up questions, we'd like to know more about some of what we talked
about today.
How can they reach you?
Yeah.
And certainly check us out on our website, odcync.com or give us a call at 715-424-2712.
And as always, check out our Facebook page, odcink.
And be sure to like and follow our odc page and our opportunity for hope page.
I'd be sure to share what you see.
Everybody on your page is just don't know who might see it otherwise.
Ashley, and thank you again so much for the time and everything you guys put into the
community.
Say hi to the team for us, okay?
We'll do.
And thank you for joining the conversation out there.
We appreciate you being here for WFHR's Rapids Report.
