Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this June 11th, 2025, the Rapids Report
proudly brought to you by Crocket Sceptic, a big thank you to them, and a thank you
to our guests today, some of our favorite people to talk to.
We have the South of County YMCA in with us today.
First up, we have Aaron Hess with us.
Aaron, good to see you.
Good to see you too.
Thank you.
And Judy Blum is with us.
I say that, right?
Blum?
It's the Jacqueline Blum.
Jacqueline.
Oh, did I say?
You know what I did there?
And I'm not going to edit this.
I'm leaving this in.
It's fine.
Judy Blum popped in my head, and I don't know why.
I have no idea why.
I am so sorry, Jacqueline.
You have a beautiful name.
I want to get that right.
Thank you for being here, Jacqueline.
Thank you for having me.
My name's Jimmy Mallow.
You can just get me a miss my name, but all you want, please.
We got some fun stuff to talk about here today, Aaron, and to kick it off, I want to dive
into the five.
Am I getting this right?
Five-year anniversary.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
This Thursday on June 12th, we're going to celebrate.
So if you have time and you want to check out the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club, we have
a bingo card.
You can go around both areas and get your bingo card stamped, and we have hot dogs and chips
and cookies, and we have some little door prizes to get out.
But yeah, I mean, I don't know where the five years went, to be honest.
I kid you guys not.
It feels like it was maybe a week or two ago that I was over there getting to get a tour
of the building before it was even fully constructed.
There was just, it wasn't much left, but there was a couple of projects left that they
were working on before opening.
I think it opened like a month or two later, and just walking around there with a hard
hat and just imagining everything that was going to be taking place with the Y, the Boys
and Girls Club, all these different things and stuff.
And I got a pretty darn good imagination, and I had no idea what was coming.
I had no idea all the amazing things that would be going on at that Y.
And then you tell me, that's just in the first five years, because I hope the audience
gets this when we talk about it and everything.
I try to always throw in there.
We only scratch the surface of things going on at the Y.
No matter how long we talk, no matter how much we cover, there's just not enough time
to cover everything that you guys are doing over there.
And I hope it's also in the people's mind that this is the beginnings of this.
For five years into this new building and understanding what is even possible with that
building and what we can do and everything, that's really exciting.
Absolutely.
And you think about just some of our early partnerships.
Of course, we have great partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club, but then our partnerships
outside our walls of the Y, and where we can bring community partners inside the Y,
to be able to utilize their equipment and space and all that good stuff.
So we've had a great first five years, and now we get to look forward to the next five
years.
And now that we're going to age, we're just going to keep looking great.
That's a fact.
Well, I'll tell you this, I can't guarantee if I go into the Y, it's going to help.
Absolutely.
It's going to help you age.
It's going to help you look at that.
When it comes to, not only this, but one of the other things that I've been very encouraged
and I've really enjoyed, and I will say this now because I feel very confident in it.
You get this new big building and it looks amazing and the concern becomes, well, are we
going to get used out?
Is it going to get used?
Are we going to get people to be in and out of there and stuff?
No worries.
I pass that building every day, usually multiple times a day, and I have never not seen a busy
parking lot, not once.
In the five years, I've been, and I'm not even kidding, exaggerating, at least twice a
day I've gone past that building.
And not only do I still just, especially at night, I love the way it looks at night over
that.
But it's always busy.
Oh, yeah.
It's always busy.
It's always busy.
And Jacqueline is membership ever bored?
No.
I can't imagine you guys are ever, there's ever a, like, even a dull moment in their life.
No, no, no, no, it's, there's not, and that's, that's, that's really nice to have because
it does keep us busy.
The staff that I have at the front, they enjoy being busy.
Sometimes it could be overwhelming, but majority of the time they are the type of people
that they have to stay busy.
If they're not busy, they're literally losing their minds.
So we do enjoy having a crowd there, even if it's just them forgetting their key tags,
or just even having a small conversation with them on their day, day on day workout, it's
fine.
We enjoy that.
Along with this Thursday from four to seven, the five year anniversary event going on
over at our Y, you've also got a lifeguard experience happening over there.
Absolutely.
We're trying to get more and more interest in people for lifeguarding, because I think
a lot of people in the area know, well, let's just say the whole state of Wisconsin know
that it's very difficult to get lifeguards.
So what we're offering is that five o'clock if people step in, they, they get a great
tour of the pool by our Aquatics Director, Julia DeGroote, and she'll talk with them
what it means to be a lifeguard, and she can talk through what it means to be a swimming
lesson instructor or water aerobics instructor, and then one of our staff will demonstrate the
swim test to be able to pass that to get into the lifeguard certification course.
So if you're interested in that, you just want to be there by five o'clock, and then you
will have your name entered to win a free month membership at the Y.
So even if you don't, even if you don't want to pursue the lifeguard piece, you know, put
your name in that dry and get a free membership.
Why not?
Why not?
Exactly.
I think one of the longer conversations I have been having on this show is talking with
members of the Y and your position, Aaron, and about how important it is this time of
year for all kids know how to swim and have some basics of swimming, and to feel comfortable
in the water, comfortable with water around water, all those things.
We actually were talking about this on the morning show the other day and one of our
good stories, and I just touched on this because it does segue into it a little bit.
There was a man, there's a man in India who has taught over 10,000 people to swim for
free because of the, there was this tragedy that happened there, and to kind of like just
keep this from happening and stuff.
And I bring it up in part because it's a beautiful story, but it's also a story that, you
know, on a local level, there are individuals out there that know what this feels like and
how the this scaringness, the danger of this and everything.
And there's also the, there was a lot of the individuals that were taking these classes
were adults, adults not knowing how to swim.
And I've had listeners and it's been a while since I've had this, but I've had listeners
in the years kind of asked me off air, hey, are there adult swimming classes?
Are there classes for that please know that the, the why is there for you to help with
that as well?
Yes, for sure.
We're focused and certainly we're thinking to the kids and everything, but adults, you
know, anybody, everybody deserves a swim, swimming's awesome.
Exactly, absolutely.
I am a Pisces, I am a little biased on this, I'm a journalistically I'll admit, but I think
it makes fun.
Swimming's awesome.
It is fun.
And this is a great opportunity for people to learn more about that, Erin, I appreciate
the, my, my overall thing here is appreciating the why having these classes and offering this
to the community.
So the lifeguard experience is going to be going on a five tomorrow at the Y and the five
year anniversary will be going on from four to seven over at the Y.
Yeah, yeah.
So when you get down with the lifeguard experience, when you're done, grab a hot dog and
some chips and have yourself a great night.
It's a good, it's a good plan.
You're good at this.
Thank you, thank you.
I think I need to start going to you for making my plans for that.
One of the other things we wanted to talk about is camp Alexander is up and running.
Can we dive into that with you, Jacqueline?
Yeah, camp Alexander, it's, yeah, it's, it had a first week, yes, we have a first week
this week.
And right now, the weather is a little bit crummy, but the backster still has the kids
still being on their feet.
For example, my daughter, she had 16,000 steps yesterday.
So they had her running literally up and down through the lake into archery and then they
were doing some guard, or not guarding, I'm sorry, well, no, actually they were messing
around in the guarding.
It's, it's been a lot of stuff going on there.
Like I said, even though that the weather is crummy, backster still makes sure that the
kids are on their feet and they're actually having camp experience.
Today is the only day I think that seems not bad.
Yeah, that's what we're here.
So she might be able to dip her toes in the lake today.
Something, something a little bit different with this, this year, you guys are partnering
with the Boys and Girls Club this year.
We are starting next week Boys and Girls Club is opening up some of the, we have certain
groups where we have children that are going to experience camp for one week.
They switch off every other week depending on the age group.
We feel that since we are close with Boys and Girls Club, that those children as well
should experience camp just as much as those are at camp.
So I've heard a lot of feedback from parents stating that they're super excited to have
their kids experience camp.
Sometimes actually not a lot of people realize that you are able to do, you utilize both.
You can do camp and you can do Boys and Girls Club.
So that's really, that's really nice to have.
Just even getting that information out there is really helpful, Jacqueline.
I don't think it's common knowledge and we certainly can always get used to get it out
there more.
Yeah.
And to kind of piggyback on that, if you don't mind, there are camp scholarships available
for the kids as well.
Correct.
The YMCA does offer MFA, which is based off of household income.
Anyone is qualified to apply for it.
That simply we just ask anyone that's interested to come in person to the front desk and ask
more questions about that.
That's a very simple process.
It doesn't really take very long at all.
We would just need the basics, information of the household, the child's information.
And it takes about a good, I want to say 25 minutes, so it's really not, really not
that complicated.
And if it's easier for a parent, they can always message me via email, me or myself,
me or my coworker, Vicki.
Yes.
We'll get that information out before we wrap up today, but I appreciate that Jacqueline.
And also certainly, I wanted to mention the summer membership promotion that is going
on right now and touch on that a little bit.
Yes.
I'm actually really excited for this summer promo because this promo has no commitment
with us, which is great.
We tried really hard to figure out a promo for, especially our college kids.
We have tons of college kids that come in and not even a college kid.
You don't even have to be a college kid.
This actually really helps because some people are only here for the three months of the
summer.
Now the promo for this is you, it goes through now until the end of August.
You just pay up whatever months, either June, July or August up front.
And like I said, there's no commitment.
So no card on file unless you want to do 24 hour access.
That's the different, but that's only the $5 for that monthly.
And yeah, we've seen a lot of great feedback from that because like I said, a lot of people
are only here for three months and this helps them out financially and doesn't give them
a lot of stress about the commitment.
It's really nice.
That's really nice.
And it again shows how much the Y is paying attention to the community listening to the
community working with the community.
I really, really appreciate that.
Also wanted to touch on some of the summer programs that are going on at camp.
I see microsports, crafting clubs, gardening club, all kinds of cool stuff.
Yes, that is available as well.
We do have plenty of spots available that also involves in financial assistance as well.
So if anyone is interested in that, that is also available.
I have to be honest, I keep looking at the archery.
I've always wanted to do that.
Well, this sounds like a lot of fun.
Yeah.
And while again, another one of these things where we are telling you so much, but there
is so much more to be told.
There is so much more going on, especially with camp, you know, find out more and will
tell you how you can do that in a minute, but encourage you to find out more about some
of these clubs and these things available.
I can't think of any, I feel like you guys covered everything.
If there's a kid out there, they're going to find in some, one of these things, if not
a lot of these things, very interesting and a lot of fun.
And it will tell you how you can find out more about camp before we wrap up.
The swim lessons that are starting July 7th, registration is opening June 20th, Aaron
Thompson.
Yep.
Yep.
So that's our next set of swimming lessons.
We have swimming lessons running now.
But then our next session will be starting July 7th and there are three week sessions.
So again, keeping that mindset of, you know, summer schedules are so packed and, you know,
some families can't commit to seven or eight weeks of sessions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, that also, that gets them out there, they get a chance to take that into
action.
Absolutely.
You, some of it in the summer, because we get very, not a lot of summer here, right?
We've got some nice to be able to get them in and out and be able to get them out there
into the lakes and stuff.
There is also a personal training, a buddy training, a great option to cut down on the
cost.
What's this about?
Yeah.
So if you, if you're looking for personal training and let's say maybe that fee is just
a little bit outside your budget, if you have a friend that's also interested and what
you can do is you can sign up together and you're pretty much splitting the cost of
the personal training.
And what I have found and what I've heard is when these friends are training together,
they're using a lot of their core strength because they're laughing all the time.
So if you're looking for just a fun way to get some good movement in and work with a
highly certified trainer, check out the buddy training.
It's, you know, fiscally, it's very reasonable and you could probably have a good time
exercise.
It could be fun.
Yes.
Let me just say that.
It could be.
We need to make that a teacher to that or something because we need that more and more
people need to understand.
Get that over.
Yes.
Just a couple of things one of the touch on before we let you guys go.
One of them makes sure to highlight the golf outing coming up.
That is a big one and especially a big one for our area a little long for you guys.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's our biggest fundraiser for the YMCA.
It's Monday, August 4th and we encourage anyone who's interested in golfing.
You can find it on our website and go to our Facebook page.
You're welcome to register.
You don't have to have a team of four.
So if you want to sign up as an individual or maybe two of you want to sign up together,
we can pair you up with other golfers as well.
That again, all the proceeds for this event goes to our membership for all.
It goes to our annual campaign, which that's where all the money in our annual campaign
goes towards membership for all.
So we never, ever, ever turn anyone away based on their financial situation.
And you know me well enough, Aaron.
That's what I wanted to wrap up was membership for all and not only appreciation to everybody
who has helped make that happen, whether it's community members or businesses or just
the work that you guys are doing on the front, we really give you no reason you can't take
in the Y.
Like there's so many options and available things available for anybody in the community.
That truly makes it a community hotspot, a community hub, and somewhere where we want
to be and we will be.
We'll meet you there.
That's a really nice thing to be able to offer.
Yeah.
Yes.
Absolutely.
And we know how much this area loves golf.
So it's a combination right there.
If anybody has follow up questions, we'd like to know more about some of what we talked
about today.
First, Jacqueline, how can they reach you?
You can reach me directly at the front desk at the YMCA.
Phone number is 715-818-9622.
You can either ask myself for myself or for my coworker, Vicki Kelps.
She's also is able to reach on that line as well.
Tony, first time joining us and acted out the park, great work, Jacqueline.
That was awesome.
You're really good today.
Thank you so much for joining us.
And Erin, if people have follow up questions, how can they get in touch with you?
Yeah.
They can shoot me an email.
I'm Hess at SWCYMCA.org or you're always welcome to give me a call 715-818-6017.
And of course, bookmark that web page SWCYMCA.org, SWCYMCA.org, it's where you can reach out
to the gang here or find out more information about some of the things we've been talking
about today.
And be sure to follow them on social media, share their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see them otherwise.
Thank you both for the time.
I appreciate you.
Thank you.
I appreciate you out there for joining us here at WFHR's Rapids Report.