Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapid Support, probably brought to you by Crockett Septick for
this June 24th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here, welcoming in to the studio.
Our good friend, Lacey Alling, did I say right?
You did say right?
Yes, finally.
Who told you?
I heard it over the weekend.
I wanted to send you that this works out perfect because I wanted to shout you out for
the cranberry blossom fest, not just you, of course, but the team over there.
And all the good work you guys did, heard your breaks with us, and we appreciate you
being able to make the time and hang out with us a little bit on air.
And I heard you guys talking off air, and Lacey, I shrunk.
I'm over here producing and everything.
I'm locked in.
I hear that I've been mispronouncing your name all these years, and I felt horrible.
Well, I mean, I didn't tell you.
No, no, you didn't.
Because you're too nice.
You know, I mean, I will take that.
If anyone is listening, that has ever said anything, he just said I was too nice, so remember
that.
But I really do appreciate you being here.
It's been a while.
It's good to see you.
Good to talk with you.
And good to dive into this agenda we have today to get to, because there's a lot of
great things going on in the area.
Yes.
You want to start with registration being open for the 18-hole Gulf Ben coming up, or?
Yes.
So we can start with air.
So I know they actually had some damage.
So I really hope that everything is going well for cleanup at Bullseye.
We will be there on the 22nd next month.
So very excited to be at the ridges.
Obviously, if you're looking to register your team, to network, just to get out of the
office, have some camaraderie, and I mean, obviously network too with other businesses
in the area.
We'll have a lot of games at each hole.
There'll be different raffle tickets, some super ticket options for additional fun games.
So definitely excited to kind of have, Michelle was okay at the ridges with a little like
putt and play.
Cool.
Time-action.
Cool.
So really excited to get to be out there and then obviously support local and come out
and golf with us.
It's going to be a really good event.
And now do people have time still to put teams together?
Do you have enough room for that?
Absolutely.
So we are a little bit over halfway full for this.
We're going to start pushing it.
Just that we were wait, we try to wait and do one event at a time.
So we don't overwhelm people.
But yes, if you are looking to register a team, or even if you, we had a couple people
that were like, well, I have me and a significant other that like to golf.
We would definitely like, you could pair us with two other people.
So that's something new to where you don't have to have, you know, they were like, well,
I don't have any friends, but they were just excited to like, okay, well, I definitely
can find one person if you can like mix and match and then kind of have a little bit more
fun to even get to know somebody on the 18 holes.
It's a really smart way to do it.
And that's great.
And it gives more and more people a chance to do this.
We know how much people love golf in this area and everything.
So always a well-attended event.
Get your team together.
Not only fun for the golf and in the ridges and all the beauty of that, but great team
building networking.
You're going to have a 50-50.
Some raffles there.
A lot of great stuff.
Yes.
If people want to register, we'll let you know how you can do that in just a little bit.
Networking at night, right around the corner.
That's coming up.
Yes.
I know.
It does feel like it doesn't look like it.
It does feel like it doesn't look like it.
It does feel like it doesn't look like it.
Almost halfway through the year.
It's crazy.
I had to do a double take at the calendar the other day when I was putting the schedule together.
Yeah.
I don't get ready.
It's almost, I don't even, I almost said Christmas, but I'm, I don't even going to look
like I'm going to miss you.
Before we know it.
Yeah.
I'm not even going to look at how many of you can tell that.
No, no, no, no.
So we will be, it's going to be hosted by the current Young Professionals group.
So if you did attend any events of theirs over the weekend or the last couple months,
they did do the downtown on tap, which was really fun.
And so we will be on, it'll be July 28th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Lucky's on second.
It's going to be a really great event.
Another one of these ones where you've heard us talk about network at night for a long
time here, the, the fellowship, the camaraderie, the connections that you can make.
And it's all of those things along with just the organic stuff that can only happen when
you're there in person and running into these people.
It's a really good opportunity for you, your business, just in general.
I'm going to have some good entertainment down there, some good appetizers it looks like.
Yes, appetizers provided by Milltown Coffee Company.
So they are out in Culner by our chatterboxes.
So they're using that space and from what I see, they are very busy when I was out there
over the weekend.
And then entertainment provided by WAM Incorporated.
I can only begin to imagine what that's going to be with, with Phil in the gang over there.
It'll be exciting.
It's going to be great.
It's going to be good.
Great way to connect local members and networks, RAPPLEPRISES.
This is free to attend.
Everybody keep that in mind.
And again, we'll give you the information more, more of how you can find out more about
this in just a little bit.
But we can encourage you to go to WisconsinRavidsChamber.com, find out information about all of these
things Lacey and I are talking about.
Networking exchange for safety professionals.
That one's also coming up, Lacey.
Yes, and you can still register for that.
That is going to be at Midstate Technical College.
It'll be on July 30th from 11 a.m. to 12.30, registration will end the day after the
golf outing.
So July 23rd.
And then our speaker will be Zach Stabalski.
Stabalski.
I think I'm saying that right, from Ocean Spray Cranberries.
And he's going to be talking about just effective techniques for safety training, policy,
procedures.
And then obviously this is free for chamber members.
There is a small fee if you are not a member.
And the last one I attended was wonderful.
We had a lot of people, a lot of great information.
And then they can also send out, so if you register for it, you can be sent the PowerPoint
to kind of go over with your own business internally as well.
Yeah, that's the first thing I was thinking.
What a great resource to be able to have right there and get that kind of information
so that you are, it's one of the biggest things for especially a newer business to really
go into.
And you plan, you've got marketing ideas, you've got a business and all these different
things.
And then, oh no, this part of it, you didn't really think about a really no enough information
about having somebody who really knows their stuff right there like Zach, that's going
to be really nice.
Absolutely.
I think any small business you have to wear all
hats.
So your HR, your safety, and obviously, you don't, you want to make sure that you plan
for things.
And I think if you have a plan for, if stuff does happen, it's way easier to kind of go
back in that mental notebook than to have to kind of scramble.
And then typically if you're in reactive mode, it doesn't, it doesn't end up well.
Speaking of reacting really well, it's been a bit of a busy morning around here and
a lot of plate spinning and all of that.
And I didn't realize that I had completely flipped our agenda here on you, Lacey.
She's roll with it.
She's roll with it.
Just roll with it.
I'm going to get you an improv or something.
We wanted to touch on a couple of events.
Let's get to those if you don't mind.
Lunch by the river.
That is actually coming up right around the corner.
It'll be this Thursday.
Yes.
So we kind of, we kind of jumped for your next month forward.
So now you can kind of plan.
You could put that in the calendar, then flip it back to June, and then now you're ready
for June.
Just like we planned.
Yes.
It was secretly planned that way.
So we are at lunch by the river on every single Thursday, even the, even the third.
I mean, I know the 4th of July, we kind of share custody with the city for that one.
But we are there on the third before the day before that.
So we will be here this Thursday from 11.30 to 1.
Obviously that is Veterans Memorial Park.
And our week's exclusive sponsor is Greenway RV Sales and Service.
Obviously, great timing to kick off 4th of July weekend.
That's a huge camping weekend.
And then we have our entertainment.
It does say that we have someone who I love, but he unfortunately, he also is a teacher.
So he, he couldn't get us up.
So we have a different entertainment this week, Rod the sacks man.
So he, he plays the saxophone and excited to have some, some music down there, a little
bit of band.
We haven't a lot of had, had a lot of live bands, more entertainment, which obviously we
love entertainment down there.
But something different.
So he's performed for a long time and I guess even has a microphone for his sacks.
So super cool.
Oh, nice.
I've heard a little of him over the years and very good at what he does.
Very talented.
I have to say with bands in that area, Veterans Park and everything, the music carries
so well.
Yes.
It's really nice.
I don't know why it does.
I don't know the science of it or anything, but I've never been down there and heard
a band and not been able to hear them really well, no matter where I was at the park
and everything.
So it's a great act to have.
That's going to be a fun one.
Yeah, I think it's, I think it helps with the water and then maybe it, like, it
bounces off the bridges.
Yeah, yeah.
I was thinking of two.
Because you can typically hear it from the farmer's market.
Let's just assume that's what it is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good acoustics.
And then we have quite a few food trucks this week.
So we have chatterbox catering, Jamaican kitchens, Rocky or Coco, the pig pen, yum food
truck, and El Semberdor.
Oh, great stuff.
Something for everybody.
Big shout out to all of them for being down there.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
And we encourage you to check it out every Thursday, all summer long.
We're looking forward to being down there pretty soon.
I think in August, we are going to be a lot of fun.
Yeah.
And our presenting sponsor for this is Embridge, our Royal Flush sponsor, Crockett Sceptic.
And then for more information or if you want to get involved or you want to be an entertainment
entertainer, food vendor, you want to have activities there, please reach out.
Our phone number is 715-423-1830.
Gather by the ban shell coming up in July, looking forward to this one.
Yes.
Tuesday, July 8th.
So it is typically the second Tuesday of the month for people that are trying to make
sure they can put it in their calendar.
And then it is June through August.
It's just a summer event out in Rome.
And then this event is presented by Visit Rome.
Our monthly sponsors are Hochung Gaming, Nikusa in the state technical college.
And then we do have a couple of season sponsors.
So San Valley and Coldwell Banker Advantage.
So they will also be there all season.
They have canopy set up.
They're giving away lots of swag as well as I know Hochung.
If you can find them, they give away free play.
Every time they are out there, our food vendor is a pig pen.
And they do have smoked cheesecake.
Oh my God.
Definitely something different.
I have never seen anyone do that.
Blue in my mind.
I've never heard of that before.
Yeah.
So it's like a caramel pecan smoked cheesecake.
And then a strawberry, it's like a strawberry, it might be strawberry cherry or just strawberry
cheesecake.
Can you handle the rest of this?
I got to go.
And they'll be there on Thursday this week and then obviously gather and they have had
a line.
I think it's just having, it's nice having some of like they have, I think the most
interesting thing I saw was the brisket mac and cheese.
Oh yeah.
So an ample amount of brisket on top of it, but I think it's nice to have just different
things.
Obviously, like you said, something for everybody.
And definitely great to have just more innovative stuff.
It doesn't taste like smoke, but I could like taste like it was like, I don't know.
It was different.
I didn't get like, you know, like where it's like you're like charcoal smoke, but it was
really, really good.
I get exactly what you're talking about.
Yeah.
I really, really liked it.
I think it's cool to have stuff like that and especially in a smaller area.
It's nice to be able to still try new things.
Well, and I mean, such a great point right there.
You're not having to necessarily pop around town.
It's right there for you and everything.
And when you're doing this, you're supporting local, you're supporting neighbors and friends
and family and stuff when you're able to help these businesses out.
And also maybe try and say your new favorite thing, you know, your new favorite food or something
like that.
Give it a shot.
That's going to be great.
I cannot wait to try that.
I'll wait until Thursday, but I try it on Thursday.
I'll be down there especially because one of my favorite bands is going to be down there.
I love Duology.
Love those guys.
Yeah.
So gather.
They have, obviously, huge shout out to Ben, always been really, really great at helping
at these events.
So Ben and Alex, they'll both be there for gather by the bandshell this month.
So very excited to have them.
Great time and among all of this, the atmosphere, the setting, everything is just wonderful.
Over there.
It cannot encourage you to make plans enough for that one.
And rendezvous in the park as Lacey Weld knows.
I love, I just love Riverside Park, love it over there.
So what are my favorite places?
I love that there is, there's space to spread out as well as there is more shelter coverings
too.
So then in their different sizes, so it's nice for us to be able to accommodate certain
entertainment that need a little bit of shelter or obviously this here, we have pool tables
down there.
So to make sure they have some shelter and then have fun, obviously learn a little bit.
Like maybe if that's not your atmosphere to go somewhere and try something new with
a bunch of people watching you at the spot by Jacobi, but you can go down there, try and
obviously have a little bit of fun, they were, they couldn't bring the pool table last
month because it was raining.
And obviously we want to make sure that we, you know, we care about their livelihood
too.
So they didn't bring it down, but they didn't bring down like a wheel spinner and they
gave away a lot of swag.
Some free drink tickets was really fun.
My 13 year old was like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
We have to go and get a drink.
I'm like, you're ridiculous, but very, very fun.
City of Nacusa was down there and they did bring the fire department out with an obstacle
course.
They have a cadet program that they are kicking off in Nacusa to help, obviously, kind
of educate the youth about fire safety as well as they have secured a grant through
legacy to be able to pay for some of those kids to get the EMS, fire safety through mid
state.
So if you're interested in pursuing that kind of career, they have a 14 and up cadet program
where you can actually go and stay at the fire station.
So you can't go obviously on the calls, but they, you're, you can be a part of, you can
be a part of practice.
You can be a part of like their routine, they're when they're at the station, they had a little
obstacle course set up where obviously you have to put that gear on and it's heavy.
And then to go over things, climb through things.
So really, really nice to have them be a little bit more involved for this.
So huge shout out to the Nacusa fire department.
Really grateful for them to make time to bring out the trucks and set up and be a part of
these events.
It's so cool they're doing this.
It's also so smart of them to do this.
This is one of those industries and I talk about this any chance I get that are our
firefighters.
We need more and more people, more and more good people in that this industry and especially
getting younger people, you know, maybe they catch an idea that this is something they
want to pursue, whether as a volunteer or a profession, even if one person out of a hundred,
it's worth it.
Like that's such a cool idea and I don't know if you know this about me, but well before
I wanted to be an actor, firefighter, there's something about it to me.
There's such a high respect for that industry and it's really cool that they'll be down
there, but that's the great part of all of this.
Again, that beautiful setting, our good friends at Jacoby over there, lover friends over
there at Jacoby.
And am I seeing the Entertainment Act, right, because that is one of the better band names
I've ever seen.
Yeah.
So the shanny towners.
That's good.
That's good.
So it's like a father and son and they do a lot of polka and they are from Nicosha.
So I think it's really great that Nicosha supports Nicosha and Nicosha gets active in Nicosha
and I think that it really helps because people love polka.
Yeah.
It gets them up, it gets them moving and I like seeing it.
My mom is like a polka.
She just loves polka.
She likes to, like when we were little, I remember her just cranking on the radio.
Like if we were arguing, she would just play it really loud.
So then we would be like, okay, mom, like we're all in agreement and we want you to turn
this off right now.
So we'll stop arguing.
Sure.
Yeah.
But yeah, I think it's really nice to see couples dancing out there or even like grandmas
and granddaughters or grandpas and granddaughters.
It's cute.
Yeah.
It's cute for little pictures.
I also, I see where the brilliance of your mother and the urge from that I see, I can
pick up on that.
That's awesome.
That's a great move by her.
And a great time to be had a rendezvous in the park July 16th is when that's coming up.
And Lacey, as we come full circle here, let's wrap up just reminding everybody again real
quick about how to register for the 42nd annual Lucky Summer Golf Classic and some of these
other things we have going on.
Yes.
So visit our website.
And then if you click on the top part, you can click on this different community events
and it will take you to it.
And then it'll take you almost like my email, which is just communications at Wisconsin
RapidsChamber.com.
I know it's long, but or you can just call and we can always walk you through it too.
And we can always email you a copy of the registration form.
If that's, you know, I think we're, we try to be as user friendly as we can be.
And we are there 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
So please visit our website, visit our social media platforms.
We're really trying to get active with our newer interns on other like LinkedIn and
obviously Instagram things like that.
So definitely reach out Wisconsin RapidsChamber.com or call 715-423-1830 or visit us at any of
these upcoming community events where we typically have registration forms for everything
upcoming.
And I'll say I've been doing this job and been humbled and appreciative to be able to
do this job for many years.
I've had a lot of people come in and out of here.
Whether you're new business or an old business, if you have not already become a chamber member
cannot encourage you enough to do it.
It is not only all the resources and the availability of the connections that Lacey and the team
can put together for you and help you out with.
But I hear people all the time talking about, oh, there are chamber member.
I'm going to check that out.
That what it means to be a chamber member and support your community and show right
out the gate.
I support this community.
I'm putting back into this community.
More and more people are wanting to use their dollar at places like that.
There's no real rocket science behind this.
It's just buying local, supporting local.
It's what people want to do and they're taking it to such many different levels.
And I love seeing it.
It's been a real joy.
So encourage you again.
If you haven't already become a chamber member, get on over there with Wisconsin RapidsChamber.com.
Find out more.
And reach out to Lacey Alling.
Get in there.
Thank you guys.
And the gag over there.
Say hi to everybody over there for us, Lacey.
We'll do.
Thank you.
Good to see you.
Thanks for being in.
And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of Rapids Report brought
to you by CracketSeptic here at WFHR.
