Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rappens Report, proudly brought to you by Crockett Septick
for this July 2nd, 2025.
Have your host, James here with you, and we're joined by our good friend, Sheriff Sean
Becker, and Wood County Sheriff's Department, Sean, good to see you.
Hey, always great to see you, and I first want to start off by apologizing for last month.
I missed our show, and I hope everybody will forgive me, but I think I have an okay reason.
For me, it's the best reason you ever can have, but our daughter, Jordan, had her son.
He was six weeks premature, so we weren't really ready for everything, but hey, it all worked
out.
My grandson or our grandson, River Becker Moon, is home, healthy, gain weight, doing all
great things that he needs to do, but that's what was going on last month.
Oh, I mean, I apologize for missing our show.
It's the first time, I think, since we've been starting it, so I hope I get it free to
be there.
You absolutely do.
You got to mullig it on that one for sure, for, I mean, a ball of reasons, especially.
Mazel Tof Salute to you in your sets.
Wonderful.
And one of the better names I have heard in a very long time.
That is a good name right there.
That's a great name.
Yeah, it's through you and I a little bit, because we missed the, we wouldn't want to be
there during the delivery, but we got there about an afterwards, an hour afterwards.
And, uh, they, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, her and David didn't want to tell us the name right
away, because I think they're still new in the middle name.
Mm-hmm.
But they didn't tell us that either, and they waited until the next day to let everybody
know.
And the reason being is, they named him River because they met out of the river.
Oh, God's for River River.
Oh.
Bearing by anchor bay.
And, you know, so I'm like, oh, so he did put some thought into it and, you know, continuing
the Becker name, too, was kind of pretty cool as well, but they both agreed upon.
So, yeah, things are, are going well.
It's, uh, that next chapter in, in our life to, uh, enjoy a grandchildren and it's, it's
pretty cool.
It's still surreal, you know, or still, but, yeah.
That's a really cool, congratulations.
Wonderful.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
And, uh, you brought in some more friends and family.
Yeah, I did.
Um, it's been a while.
I know I've talked, uh, quite a bit about, uh, our other two guests here, um, often, uh,
our daughter, Caitlin, and then her husband, Dylan, um, unfortunately for them, they were
in town this, uh, time frame and, and you know, me, I'd love to bring in family and
friends because the show isn't about me.
And when I get an opportunity to talk about family and, uh, you know, especially family
because, you know, with this position, it's not about me.
It's about, you know, everybody else that, that's around that has helped make this happen.
And Caitlin, um, huge part of that, you know, when we decided to, you know, run for this
position, it wasn't a me thing.
It was a we thing.
And then you look at building that platform, we talked about it a lot on the show and
our platform was, was simple, you know, mental health.
It's not simple, but it's, um, it was simple for, for us to look at and say, okay, what
are you going to, what, what can you potentially change?
What can you do as a law enforcement officer to have an impact on the community, uh, on
the community?
But you can say that, but you, you can see how you can do it, you know, and, and like
I said, we've talked about the jail patrol CIT and then going back to, you know, the campaign
seven plus years ago, you know, talking with Caitlin, you know, if she, at the time was,
uh, at, you know, be a medicine studying social work, I'm like, okay, you know, picking
her brain.
You know, on trauma, you know, and, and trauma, how that affects people, not just the
law enforcement side of it, but the community, you know, and trauma informed care and things
like that, you know, going back to that timeframe, you know, she did a video for the campaign
that, that wasn't BS, you know, something that she knew and something that I learned, you
know, and then it is, you know, we all learned on the mental health side of things and how
you can impact the community on the law enforcement and the things.
There's still a lot of work to be done, but, you know, you only can control what you can.
And within our community here, I think that, you know, we've done a good job.
We still need to improve, but by focusing on the niches that we've had, you know, I'm proud
of and I'm very proud that the Caitlin had the opportunity to at least, um, educate me
on a young student at UW-Madison and, um, kind of what we're seeing here and what can
we do to make some changes, um, here, and we have, and we'll talk about a little bit more
about that throughout the show because there's a, we got a grant that is going to allow us
to hire a social worker under the sheriff's department.
I want to get in that way with you.
But anyway, enough me, uh, Caitlin and her husband Dylan Dylan, um, you know, he's just
recently finished the academy for the, uh, Madison Fire Department.
So you started his shifts already.
So that was a long journey, um, the funny thing is, uh, both of them graduate high school
together, um, but didn't start dating until after graduation.
I think it was after Dylan finished his tour, uh, he was a Marine and then they connected
after that and the rest is kind of history.
Right.
Yeah.
So he served our country, um, you know, appreciate that more than, more than you know.
Thank you, Dylan.
Um, um, yeah, this them connecting one other thing, uh, before we introduce you guys, uh,
that I want to thank you both for too.
And I second what Sheriff Beck are saying about the service and being a firefighter, I appreciate
him and really do, um, also appreciate you guys being here.
One of the things that I've wanted to do because he's too, he's too, you know, he's not
going to do it for himself.
None of these guys.
Well, um, but I want to make sure to do with this job is humanize our, our departments,
our, our, our fire departments, our police departments are sheriff departments.
We need more of that.
You guys help us do that.
You guys help us remind everybody is a human being right here.
Um, he's got a job to do like everybody else out there, um, but that behind that badge
is a heart is a human being.
And it helps us remind our audience, our, our community of that, which I don't know that
we can do enough.
Uh, so I appreciate you guys being here for that along with me being able to put you
on the spot.
I mean, uh, ask questions.
I mean, ask questions.
We're going to find, we're going to find out.
I'll let you guys introduce yourselves so you can put a name to the voice.
We'll start with you.
Uh, yeah.
My name is Dylan Rickaby, uh, like Sean said, I'm a city of Madison fire fighter.
Uh, I was a long journey.
It was about a two year hiring process that I did twice before I finally got the job
and then six months of academy.
And now I'm fresh, freshly out doing my job, getting some shifts.
Uh, yeah, it's a lot of fun and great experience.
Do you, do you, um, do you get to have the mustache after graduation or do you have to
have it before?
How does that work?
Well, this mustache took me the whole process to grow.
So I'm just terrible.
So I'm going to hold on to it as long as I can.
Break it down.
It looks good.
Why would you?
I can't keep it down.
Thank you.
Um, and, and Caitlin, if you want.
I'm Caitlin Becker and I'm a social worker and therapist in Madison.
Thanks for being here, Caitlin.
Appreciate that.
If you don't mind, uh, I, I really quickly out of the gate.
I have to ask because, um, I, I think that it's just a, it's something that everybody
might be thinking about when we think about our, our officers or anybody in that,
in that type of role, when you think about their, their kids, their, their wives, their
husbands, their, the, the significant others, the people at home, um, we've seen TV shows,
movies that give you little glimpses of this before and everything, but we don't often
get to actually talk to somebody from it and then hearing the kind of field that you
went into.
So I have to ask right away, did, um, you know, growing up with Sean and, and the field
that he was in, that that influence or have any impact, do you think on your career
choice?
Um, I didn't prepare an answer for that.
Good.
Good.
That's what I wanted.
That's what I, but it's also some, if you haven't thought about it before, I think
that kind of is the answer.
Yeah.
I think that kind of tells you right there.
No, I mean, I think it's it.
I feel like our whole family is more of like a service minded, uh, I mean, I feel like
Jordan too, um, so I think it was probably more of like the values and empathy, um, yeah.
So I think that definitely probably impacted what route I chose.
Yeah.
When it comes to the, the kind of work you do, what, what is, uh, and certainly not getting
too detailed or anything like that, but an around about kind of way, what is the kind
of work that you're doing?
Um, my full time role is a contracted with account, like Dane County human services,
um, a bunch of different school districts.
So I'm in the Madison school district and a nonprofit, um, and we're a crisis stabilization
program, um, fully voluntary, so schools send referrals for kids that are usually struggling
and families that need more support.
And then, um, I'm able to work with families in the community and try to just build up their
support network, um, get them connected to more resources to try to get them a little
bit more stable and in a spot where they can just have a better life.
Um, and then I support the school team with, like, programming for the student and then
work with the students for some skill building or just to involve them with decisions that
are kind of being made around them, um, right on.
I appreciate that work.
Um, I was one of those kids and could have used somebody like, you know, and everything.
I would look where I ended up.
I'm joking.
But, uh, but in all honesty, that is, that is just as integral work as these guys are
doing.
And it's a very important, very vital work that, uh, we don't have enough people doing
to be honest.
And it's really great to hear from your perspective and being into this field, uh, where
you are.
And certainly, I know you haven't been in it at 20, 30 years or anything.
But in the time that you've been doing it, uh, there's certain things that you're seeing
are bigger issues than others or just in general that, uh, you know, uh, at all.
I've been in Madison housing is huge.
I mean, we're in a housing crisis and there's really not much housing available and what
is available is excessively expensive, um, so with families that at least where I work
with in my side of town, I do a lot of either housing preservation work or supporting families
that don't have housing and try to get housing.
So my mindset is definitely very housing first before you can kind of do anything else.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's, uh, I mean, that's a great way to approach it.
I think that's, uh, really cool.
Thank you for that.
Appreciate that.
And, and I, I didn't want to ask Dylan, you touched on this a little bit and everything.
I, uh, we don't get a chance to talk to firefighters or, or people to do that very often and
everything.
And I will admit to the audience, I've already, I, the questions I'm asking Dylan, I've
already asked my, uh, youngest, uh, her, uh, fiance.
So I've already got pre-done this already, but how long did the, well, first, uh, let me
remember why I didn't have what made you want to be a firefighter.
Uh, it's kind of a mix of things.
I knew I wanted to be in the service field still, uh, after getting out of the Marines,
I realized quickly I missed being in service.
Um, so I bounced around, I went to college at UW Madison for psychology, um, and then
it was a mixture of someone mentioning how difficult it was to become a Madison firefighter
and the process and then realizing that that's probably one of the best ways I can kind
of influence and help my community and get back to the city of Madison.
You mentioned, uh, the training and, uh, the, the, the waiting to get hired and some of
that, um, how long did it take you to be able to get into that step to that stage?
So I had originally applied in 20, 21, I think was the first go around, uh, and I was
in that hiring process for about a year before, um, I got, uh, let go after the community
board interviews.
So I waited, it was about a year again, and then they started hiring once more.
So I did it again, and then that process was about a year, a year and a half before you
get the call from the chief that you got the job.
So it's been, you know, almost five years going on this journey, but I know a lot of
people that do it 12, 10 years, uh, the guy in my class that applied six times before
he got the job.
So I don't think a lot of people would know that, uh, that, that, uh, a common thing in
that field.
And it just speaks to how badly you really want to do this to, to do that.
So to stick with it like that and everything.
And again, greatly appreciate everything both of you are putting into your separate fields
and what you're doing.
Sean, did you have anything you wanted to touch on with them or anything or, uh, I know
you got news and notes for us.
Yeah.
And another thing Dylan should bring up after, you know, serving our country, then he,
you got to, you know, be a Madison.
And then I think it worked out perfectly that, you know, he didn't get that first round
because you weren't done with school yet.
But then he got hired on that second round and he graduated from UW Mass.
And so now you have, you know, your, your career in the service.
And then now, you know, a bachelor's degree, you know, I'm sure people argue with me.
But I think from the best university in the state of Wisconsin, you know, um, so that,
that's pretty cool.
You know, two huge accomplishments, you know, accomplishments, both of them had, you
know, they both got UW grads, uh, Kayla went on to get her masters right away, um, which
was, I think a really smart thing to do even though you're kind of as a student, uh, do
I have to keep going?
But get it done because one of my biggest regrets, you know, through all my career was I had
the opportunity to get my masters.
I didn't.
And here I'm sitting right now without it, you know, I don't know if it'll change my
career path, but it would have been a nice thing to have, you know, what I thought of
done something to, uh, to do that.
So, you know, besides that, and the other thing we should bring up, Caitlin tackles much better
than Dylan.
Yeah.
And make that very clear.
It's very, okay.
Good to know.
Good to know.
They both played high school football and if anybody knows me really well, they noticed
that probably every year I share a clip of when Caitlin was playing for, for, uh, the
red raiders and we're up in DC Everest and, um, she was our kicker and had a nice kick
off and Dylan missed the tackle.
There is on the same kick off there, they're there together and, you know, somebody had
to have your back and Caitlin did.
So, you know, thinking about it for a head day, you know, she always had your back.
Of all the times and not have our good friends from Wisconsin, I'm excuse me to be here.
I wish to God you guys could see their faces right now.
I really do.
Uh, I appreciate you both being here.
I really do.
Yeah.
So, I'm sure we'll, we'll think of a couple of other things.
Got to watch that clip again.
I got to check it out.
Yeah.
You'll find it.
It's on YouTube.
It's on my page.
You'll find it's pretty cool.
It's a long-pointing talent.
She's running and takes the guy out pretty, it seems like that really motivated you,
man.
Because boy, have you accomplished a lot since that.
We appreciate you both being here.
Thank you again for the time.
So, um, there was a couple of things I want to get to, but I really wanted to make sure
we got to the topic that you touched on before.
You, you, uh, the, um, some of our rapids, police department, I know in our local OCD working
together on a grant and, and you touched on that a little bit.
Yeah.
We're part of that, too.
That course.
Yeah.
I was, I was wondering, I wanted to answer that.
Um, I know we're part of, uh, we are, and we are part of that and, uh, um, who are
contacted.
Our department is, uh, Captain, you know, Charlie Hooke's Dagger, um, who has been, you
know, working with ODC from the get go before the legacy grant grant was awarded and it
really, you know, fits, um, you know, the initiatives of, you know, I really strongly feel
with law enforcement having, you know, that connection with, you know, the other stakeholders
within the community and with human services, you know, with the social work connection.
Um, you have to have a strong working relationship there.
And what you're seeing with a lot of law enforcement agencies as you move forward and, and those
that can, I wouldn't say believe, but have the opportunity to partner with, with these
other stakeholders.
But I've always dreamed about, you know, as we move forward with, with the, the career
of having our own social worker working under, you know, the sheriff's department and
our, our, our employee.
And that's where, you know, that, that partnership with ODC started with, all right, you have
somebody out there that, and legacy is done a phenomenal job supporting our community,
especially with many mental health initiatives.
And, um, you know, the sheriff's department had an opportunity through the state to essentially
hire a social worker, um, with what we're talking about, you know, it all started with, um,
you know, having a doppy that's assigned to mental health.
And that was the Christians he retired.
Now we have Alicia Brondens, who was promoting that, um, position who will, she'll be a guest
soon enough.
But anyway, look forward to that.
This, this grant opportunity came out, um, several months ago and, uh, we have a couple
of really good contacts at, at the family health center out of Marshfield.
Daniel Luther and Rachel Sankowski, they've helped us out, running grants before.
Got us a cops grant, a couple of their grants out there.
Um, it's, it's nice to have those connections because don't look at me to write a grant.
I mean, you're not going to understand what I write, everything's going to be misspelled
and, you know, whatever, put it anyway.
And then also, uh, our chief deputy, Quentin Ellis, you know, they, you know, after we decided
this would be a good opportunity, they put the time, the effort in and we just got awarded
the grant.
Through the state and it's a deflection grant, but I think the best way to, you know, explain
it is we're going to have a social worker at the sheriff's department that will assist,
um, Alicia, you know, we're dealing with welfare checks or any type of, you know, situation
whether it's from the jail that we identify, um, or out in the community that we have,
like I said, a welfare check or there's something else that, that comes in that we need to
follow up on to connect people with other stakeholders within the community.
Um, I think it makes us more valuable as, you know, hey, we're all just cops, you know,
no, now we have not only a cop that is doing these types of investigations and helping people,
but now we, we're, we're doubling down and having the social worker that is also going
to be assisting it.
So we're growing that division, you know, and, and before I, I decided to retire, I
know we had more, you know, because I think with that responding, that response on the
community, not only that you have a social work that can follow up on it, on a situation
or, you know, they respond to it, you know, depending on when that comes in.
And then, all right, taking some time away from our law enforcement officers, then our
social work now work with these people that called it a crisis and now they can work,
help them work through that, you know, and, and I guess that there's a lot of stakeholders
out there that want to help people.
So I'm really excited to say that, that we, we're awarded this grant.
It's a three year grant and, you know, my intentions, I, I totally believe that the program
will be successful, the mental health deputy of our investigator that started with a grant,
you know, from legacy.
And once the grant was finished, we added that to a budget because of the differences
making in our community.
I fully expect that to continue to happen with, with this position.
And it's exciting and also partnering with the co-responder model that ODC has put together.
That wasn't exclusive to Wisconsin Rapids Police Department.
A lot of the work is probably going to be generated from there because of the call volume,
but we also have that connection as well.
So I think things are growing, you know, in that commitment that I had started off talking
about on mental health, you know, how can we make those changes as a law enforcement agency
to help people.
And I've really found that that is really the foundation, you know, and you look at drug abuse,
drug addiction, you know, how did that addiction start?
You know, it's probably something to do with a mental health situation, illness or,
or something that drove somebody to go down that path.
So, you know, I'm excited to see this happen.
Sometimes things don't happen as fast as we'd like.
But getting these kind of opportunities, you take them forward with it and see what kind
of difference you can make in the community.
To that point of what you're just piggybacking on what your last said there, Sean,
well, this is new and it's great to see.
It was awesome, very, very encouraged about this news and everything.
It was when I saw the report first.
I couldn't help but thinking this is something we probably should have always had, you know,
we probably should have had this forever.
And I'm not saying, you know, last 10 years, last 20 years, I mean, like since we built a
police department, we probably should have always had this.
We put a lot on the shoulders of people wearing those badges.
And there's a lot that you guys can handle.
There's a lot you guys can take care of.
There's a lot that you're prepared to handle better than anybody else.
But there are those gray areas.
There are those areas that you know way better than I do that, you just don't have
the tools, don't have the abilities to or quite for, you know,
bluntly, just don't have the information or the knowledge or the schooling or et cetera, et cetera.
I'm encouraged by this.
I'm encouraged any time I'm seeing that we're hiring people to do a job that they're hired,
that they were good, they're good for, they're good at anything that assists our departments
out there is an asset to our community.
And while all this is great, I don't want it to get lost in anybody either that this is
oftentimes a, I don't, I try not to be over dramatic here,
but it can be a life or death thing and not just for the person,
but for our officers or anybody else involved.
When, when words can solve things that we, we need to go use that as the,
as the research, that should be the number one thing we're going to before anything
else. And being able to have these, this resource there gives us that ability
to be able to do that more.
I, it's a new program and this is a bit of a newer thing.
So I don't want to give you a, he's shown, give us an example of this kind of thing.
But in your head or, or the way we can imagine this and can, you know,
let the audience know about this.
How would this break down in an average situation where they would be needed?
Yeah. Great question.
You know, the first thing it comes to mind is a welfare check and, you know,
that happens quite often.
You know, it's a common unfortunate call to service where people are in crisis.
And they don't know who else to call.
You know, and oftentimes it's 911.
And then, you know, we'll get, you know, I couldn't tell you how frequent that
calls could be, you know, at least a couple per shift could be none.
It really depends on, you know, what's going on.
But, you know, what I'm envisioning, you know, okay, we get that welfare check.
Whether we have our social worker working or not.
If they're working, the expectation is they get the opportunity to go to the
call once it's a safe situation for them to be at and then help us.
All right, really start to look at what's going on.
All right, once the scene is safe and then we find out, okay, what's going on?
And this isn't a, like a legal situation like there wasn't a crime committed.
We have to look at, all right, some people need some help here.
Now, what kind of follow up can we do to connect people with the services that
they need at that moment?
And then the expectation is to, from there, if the social worker or, you know,
Alicia's not working is, okay, we follow, they follow up in situations.
All right, hey, we a couple of days ago responded to a welfare check.
Here's the information.
This is what we dealt with.
Call them or go and see them and say, okay, what's going on?
Can we help you out with any type of other stakeholders or something
through human services, you know, any type of counseling that is available,
that kind of thing, that's, you know,
route the top mad what I'm thinking that we're this big fittest.
And that's what makes the most sense to me.
But, you know, again, we don't have the person hired yet.
I'll probably start.
Yeah, I'm envisioning some sort of time in August that this person will be going.
But that's what, that's what I'm thinking right now.
And I'm not saying that's the exact way this person is.
It's a great example, though.
I think it's a good way of, that's my expectations at least.
There will be other opportunities, I'm sure, to, to be out in the community.
I think a lot of getting the education out there that we have this position
and people knowing it, maybe there'll be direct calls, you know, first and foremost,
when people do call us, we'll respond.
If it's well for a check, the priority is making sure the scene is safe.
Not only for the people called, but for, for our people as well.
And then once that's determined and in the scene is safe, now we can,
hey, let's work on getting people help, you know,
thing that does bother me and I'm hoping that as we move forward with, you know,
our mental health initiatives and it's not just exclusive to what County is,
sometimes we get over focused and this happens on both sides,
whether you're, you're a social worker or you work for human services and crisis
or in law enforcement.
Alright, if a crime is committed, you know, depending on what the crime is, you know,
it doesn't mean that person should go to jail right away.
We have to look at that crisis and okay, if there are criminal charges there,
they will be dealt with at some point.
But what is the priority at that particular time?
And I understand in an argument that some, some people might have that,
hey, the jail is a safe environment.
Well, we have the obligation and duty to make sure that any inmate is safe in our
facility, but are they going to get the proper treatment?
You know, I have to look at that and that's where I've, I've but it has with people
of foreign and and that's where the system, I think, will always need the improvements.
But unfortunately, I've seen through all my career, especially the, probably the
last ten or so years that, oh, there's a crime that, you know,
there's probable cause in this welfare check that show that maybe it's a
disorderly conduct or something like that, open the jail.
You know, we can get them in jail.
It'll be a safe environment and then, you know, we'll, we'll trust the legal
system to take that person, the path to get them, you know, the help they need.
That's not fair.
I mean, we're doing a lot in our, in our jail, we have counselors that are available
to provide, you know, help for people while they're in custody, but look at the
big problem.
What brought them here?
No, maybe that person need to be committed.
Maybe they're suicidal, you know, or, or, or homicidal or something is jailed
the right environment for them.
No, where can we get them to get that treatment started in a secure facility?
And then, you know, we'll deal with the, the criminal charges later.
You know, that's going to be there.
They're not going to free pass, you know, what you did is what you did.
You know, so that's, that's a, a struggle that I have periodically,
but I've seen throughout time that, that attitude is changing.
You know, I'd love to see in a perfect world, somebody that's struggling in the
community, they don't even call us.
They go to the hospital, you know, and get treatment there.
You know, they're, you know, that's where I wish that this all went to it
because, you know, you're, you're putting law enforcement in the middle of it.
And, you know, most often, or, you know, many cases, we don't have to be.
But since we're going to be, that's why I have a social work working for us.
When I was a first, this article, and I first heard about it, and then you and I
talked about this quite a while ago too.
So, been known about it for a while and seeing the grant go through was very
excited. One of the first thoughts I had was, you know, and it's not at all the same.
I don't mean to compare the jobs or anything, but there was a similarity to me
about a hostage negotiator and that most departments have something like that.
A person specifically that is good at this and does this job.
Not saying that's their only job, but that is a key part of their job doing that.
It would not be anybody in our listening ship, anybody in this country, in this
world, you would have mentioned that most departments would have that, would
have somebody that does that.
That just seems to make sense.
And especially in this day and age, you know, granted that you would have
something like that.
This isn't that different than that.
Looking in the history of hostage negotiators and all that, it's not that
old of a history.
We didn't always have something like that, but now it's kind of common.
It's kind of assumed that most bigger, especially bigger cities and
everything would have something like that.
I believe that this could be that 10, 20 years from now where we have a
position that just, well, of course they have that.
Why wouldn't they, you know, well, it makes sense.
I think we're just in those early days of this where we're kind of building
it now, but eventually at one point, it'll just be common.
Yeah, we have this.
And, you know, not just our department, of course, here in town, but
other rural communities, other smaller communities have this.
Yeah, no, it's a, it's a great point.
You know, things I think are evolving just like in life, things, you
know, change, change for the better.
And you look at the opportunities, you know, what I have seen people are
listening, you know, it's, you know, years ago when you talked about mental
health, and there's a huge stigma against it.
You know, now you flip it around and say, okay.
Um, if you go and get help, well, you should be applauded for that.
Yeah, especially if you do it on your own terms, you know, but years
ago, it was your shundead, you know, even like officer wellness.
Um, you know, that was never an issue when I started it.
And it's like when you see something that is traumatizing to a family or
people or yourself, it's like tough enough.
Yeah, and we've said we've lost a lot of a great law enforcement
officers because of that mentality, you know, but that's changed a lot.
You know, and, and now it's really on that individual officer.
If you see something, we'll follow up with you, um, but you have to have
the, you have to say, okay, you know, I want to, I want to do something
about this.
I want to deal with it.
You know, and we've implemented, you know, a strong officer wellness
program, um, always again, could be better.
But, you know, now we, we've got wellness checks that we just started.
You know, and it's unfortunate there's a cost to that, but we'll find the money
in, um, you know, following that, the majority are department that say, hey,
you're going to do an officer wellness check every year.
Um, and there was very few people that did not want to participate.
That's good news.
And it is kind of mad.
I was at them.
It's like, okay, but then on the flip side of it, you know, everybody went
through and some of the people that I thought would, would, would push back
on it.
Actually, uh, went through and enjoyed it.
So it's like, okay, so I think we're, we're batting a pretty good percentage
on our department that, that we finally took that initiative.
It took a while because of unfortunate cost.
And just like many things, um, you know, the social worker position, you
started off with a grant, you know, you put, you know, your information
out there and, and your wise.
And then when people review that and they do, they, uh,
they invest in it and that's where we've been very, very fortunate throughout
the last seven years on the grant opportunities that we've had.
Not only locally, but state and federally, you know, where we've got
in positions.
Um, I'm hoping we get another one.
I'd love to see an SRO, um, resource officer's, um, up in Auburndale.
Yeah.
They've been talking about it for a long time and, uh, Cobb's grant came out, um,
that we did apply for, um, hoping we get it the only catches that it comes
down to money.
It doesn't fund the entire position.
So, uh, if we get it, um, we'll do our best to make it happen.
Speaking of a share of Sean Becker, we have Caitlin and Dylan with us as well.
Uh, Sean, I've already kept you a half an hour.
I have already kept you a while here and everything.
So I don't want to keep you too long, but there is a couple of things we definitely
want to get into, especially as we're gearing up for the fourth.
Uh, yeah, anything you wanted to touch on with the fourth of July.
I remember.
Yeah.
Please common sense, um, you know, law enforcement wise, you know, fireworks,
if they leave the ground technically, they're, they're most likely illegal, um,
you know, be safe.
I mean, you can buy them anywhere, um, you know, know your neighbors, know the time
when you're, you're thinking about doing it, um, please just common sense.
That's, that's the biggest thing.
You know, um, another thing I'd bring up, um, it's something different.
We had a bench meet out and anchor meet, a bench press meet and anchor,
Bay, uh, June 14th.
And thankfully, you know, both of you guys came up for it.
It's Father's Day weekend, uh, to watch it.
Um, we did that last year.
This year we raised money for a special response team and the Wisconsin law
enforcement moron.
I want to bring that up because unfortunately, a state of Wisconsin lost another
law enforcement officer over the last weekend.
Um, Milwaukee police officer, Chris McCray, um, was shot and killed.
Um, and so we're still grieving that.
And, uh, when, when you lose one, doesn't matter what agency is, we all did.
And, um, I don't know all the details, but I know that it was more of an ambush
situation.
The person that took his life is in custody.
And, um, he also shot another Milwaukee officer that's going to be okay.
And, um, it's tough.
Um, I don't know the police chief very well, but, you know, I, I have his number.
And those are hard, uh, messages to send out.
You know, here he's, you know, overseeing the largest law enforcement agency in
our state.
And this is, uh, I believe the second time since he's been chief, they's lost
somebody, you know, in gunfire.
And just, it's a hard reminder how dangerous this job is.
No matter if you're in Milwaukee, um, Madison or Wood County, it can happen.
Um, it's a dangerous job.
So, you know, as far as the listeners, please, um, you know, keep them, you know,
keep all of us and our thoughts and prayers and never gets old to hear somebody
to say, Hey, thank you for your service.
But, um, we're all hurting right now.
And Milwaukee P is especially right now at the loss for when they're on.
I empathize with them and feel for that.
And, and appreciate you touching on them.
Yeah. Um, you know, a couple of other things, um, you know, like I said,
the bench press meet to bring that up again a little bit.
Huge thank you to, it grew from last year to this year.
Um, huge thank you to anchor bay for allowance had the vent there.
Uh, weather cooperated.
We had it outside where, uh, the bands perform and it's, it's something different.
You know, uh, um, Kayla knows this.
Unfortunately, you know, back in the day, when I, uh, like to do powerlifting and, uh,
I drug them around when they're little kids to many places and then, um, kind of
got out of it for a while and then COVID hit and then everything stopped for whatever reason.
Um, and then we say, why don't we do this?
And then the owners and anchor bay bit on that.
And yeah, so then it was successful last year.
And then this year we raised money for a special response team.
And again, though, Wisconsin law enforcement memorial.
So we had more lifters than last year.
Quite a bit more sponsors all locally.
Um, you know, most of them aren't, and a huge thank you to them.
And, you know, we raised quite a bit of money for our special response team that,
you know, the equipment's expensive, but it's just gratifying to see the people
within our community wanting to support us.
So a huge thank you to the lifters, the sponsors and anchor bay for allowing the
meat to happen out out there.
Also, the Bluegrass Festival, that was the same weekend.
Uh, you know, and, um, you know, uh, Carolyn sailor and, and, and their,
their team that was got some rapids lines.
You know, they raised $10,000 for our system group.
You know, it's a third year that they chose,
um, you know, support.
And it's such a personal cause for them for what they went through.
It's really humbling to, um, accept the money under that cause because they lost
their daughter and, and, you know, they, they freely talk about that.
And here you put yourself out there for an event and you pick causes.
Yeah.
And they've chosen us three years now, um, and raised a lot of money because,
you know, we sat down and it just came out with a conversation.
What is sism? What does it mean?
You know, and how does it help people?
And to choose, um, that, and how that helps all of our first responders.
Um, that's huge.
So, you know, they weren't as happy as with how much money they rose.
And I'm like, $10,000, a lot of money.
Yeah, I know you've done more in the past, but we're so appreciative.
It's gonna, um, and their goals were to, all right,
sism was just in wood County.
And they wanted to expand that to other counties that, you know, we have, you know,
Portage County as their sism team and, and that gave us an opportunity now to work
with each other when you have, you know, these traumatizing incidents.
Now we can, we've got more people to, hey, who's available to come in and handle
the debrief, okay?
And then what more do we need to do here?
And what kind of counseling or, or therapy do we need to do?
What kind of follow up needs to happen?
And it's grown.
So I mean, the goals have been being, you know, made with what we talked about
three years ago with them.
And it's a great accomplishment.
And it's so appreciative on, on our end.
The, and that doesn't even, uh, uh, count the attention and awareness that
they've been able to bring to that and some other things as well.
They do a great job and we're really happy that you're able to take in some
of the events and everything.
And I know we had a lot of fun with that one too.
A great event for a great cause.
Uh, I don't know that anybody does, uh, this better than this area.
Great, uh, great time, great cause.
Yeah.
We, we did this a lot and that's another one.
Yeah.
It was awesome.
As he's self-bounded, local bank, get off and, uh, tied toy cuts in my hair.
And I always ask him, like, you got anything to help me out up here?
He's got nothing, nothing, but he, uh, he's the lead singer.
You hear anything?
Let me know.
I, one day I'm going to need, I'm going to need that advice.
I don't, don't go playing right now.
Well, as long as you can, right.
But his daughter, Flynn, I didn't realize what you're talking about.
Um, she's a singer out in the East Coast and she got to sing with him.
And that was awesome.
Oh, that's awesome.
And she's awesome.
Well, it was a great moment to see them sing together.
And, uh, she was, she'd move over here.
But I think the money's out there, but who knows.
But yeah, um, oh, it's so much time we have left.
Um, got a couple of minutes left.
I think I, if you have anything else.
Team Rapid, so I don't know if you've got an opportunity here.
Much about them.
Great.
They had an event last week.
Um, really a built from an endowment that, um, came in as a significant
donation that, um, came towards Gus Mankusso and, um, the vision, I think was
initially towards Rapids football and then it just grew into all athletics
at, um, you know, at Wisconsin Rapids.
Um, you know, you look at the quadplex.
You look at the football stadium and, and the message that was just
phenomenal that Gus had, um, at this event last week was, you know,
you have a community that's invested in our students and athletics.
You know, and it's not all about athletics, but you look at that impact
that it has on kids.
Now you probably have the best facilities around in the state.
Now let's get the kids to come out and, and play.
And, uh, there's challenges out there with kids that, you know, it could
be a financial concern or something.
So it grew and I think that is such an awesome cause, um, from football
to all athletics, you know, at, in the Wisconsin Rapids area.
So what, uh, what a cool thing.
Um, and the event was held at the ridges and, like I said, Gus at, uh,
awesome speech he brought in, you know, former players, one being Vince Beagle.
And until he had a phenomenal speech, you know, you get people that, I do it.
You know, you bring up an outline or you read from something, you know,
because you want to make sure you hit your points and what was so special
about Vince's, uh, um, speech was, it wasn't scripted.
And it was broken from the heart and he didn't talk about himself.
And that says a lot about individual and about not just his experience
at, um, you know, in football, but in life and the impact athletics had on him.
You know, um, the impact cultures had on him, the impact that the school
system at Wisconsin Rapids had on him and was very admirable to bring up that.
Hey, it wasn't me.
It was this.
And, um, you know, so it was a great event that raised some money and I would
continue to, uh, all right, I will tell people if you see an opportunity,
you want to give some money to a phenomenal cause, you know,
please do it for Team Rapids and, uh, you shot out to, um, you know,
Gus and the people that he has brought on to his team, um, to, to move this
forward, this endowment should last forever.
So I, you know, I don't need to and I strongly, you know, um, what have
everybody else and they also, um, you know, Tony, be all a good friend of mine,
that coach at at Lincoln and I talked about the history that I have there with
him, um, stepped aside.
So there was, you know, some recognition for him, which I love to see, um,
because Tony, uh, gave him a lot of his life to rap his football and being a
coach and he's gonna, you know, I believe teach one more year and then we got
that time to stop aside.
He's got quite a few grandkids and, um, you know, life will take him in a,
a different direction and, and those are cool things to see.
But huge shot out to Tony, um, you know, gave me an opportunity to coach for
the number 10 years, you know, and that's, um, pretty special because, you know,
I was thinking about, you know, that went by really fast and there's,
there's two things to highlight, you know, one is the moment when kids are
playing that you don't forget, you know, those games, whether we win or lose,
you know, there's so many memories that I have in 10 years that of the games.
And some really awesome ones, even tough losses, but, you know, those who
I forget, but what's even more important as a coach is what you see out of
these kids going up into adults and then still getting the opportunity to
talk to them and see what they're doing and the impact they've made.
And, uh, you know, whatever they do moving forward, you know, it's, uh,
those are, those are awesome memories that, that you have as a coach and
I've been really fortunate to have done that for the past 10 years.
Big thank you to coach, uh, and, and certainly look forward to the new
coach coming in and get to know them and everything.
And, uh, we had, uh, team rapids in and got to talk with Gus and, um,
after, uh, well, after, uh, it took a couple of minutes because I actually
was talking, Joker with him in the pregame on everything that I, I got to
stop calling you Mr. Mancuzzo and not feeling like I'm in trouble, uh,
because that's usually what I was talking to him.
That's how it usually would.
Nobody was, he was really good to me as a kid and it was really kind of full
circle for both of us having him in.
But then when we got talking about this subject, uh, this is one of my
favorite topics to talk about is, is the way that sports impact our
communities, impact kids, impact the world.
Um, we know the percentages of how many kids go from high school to college
and continue to play athletics.
And we know that percentage goes down quite a bit when it comes to college
to the pros.
But every one of those kids is going to go on to do something and whatever
they're doing, having a bit of confidence, uh, having people skills,
understanding what it's like to work with others.
I can keep going and keep going and what sports bring to the, to a person.
And, um, and how much it builds a community, the, the economic impact it has,
especially here in rapids with what you were just touching.
I want the facilities that are better than most anybody has.
Um, this has a deeper impact than just, uh, you know, winds and losses.
It's so much bigger than that.
Um, you, you speak to that and touch on that whether intentionally or
not with everything you were just talking about there, we didn't talk about
any championships.
We didn't talk about any of those kind of things.
We're talking about people.
We're talking, and as much as I love winds and I love winning and all that, uh,
it's, it's bigger than that.
And, and this, um, I think it's nice to have these reminders similar to the
grant we were talking about earlier.
It's a nice, and even a blue grass at the lake or, or some of these other
events, these are also serve as reminders to our community to us, um, to me
in general and everybody else out there of the important, how much deeper things
are than they are on the surface and how much more there is to this game.
Then what we're talking about here, the investment that is made with, um,
team rapids and taking things going forward with that is it, it's game changing.
There really is.
And it can make a real impact on a lot of people.
You, you, just one little example of that you touched on something before
between me and my brother, um, there was quite a bit of change for my family
financially.
I wasn't able to do a lot of the athletics that I would have liked to have
done. By the time my, my brother comes around, they're able to do those
things and Nick's a good, a good kid.
I'm not.
So look at the knob joke, but, uh, it's, it is something to, to speak to this
that where there's going to be kids now that are able to beat joint
athletics, do things and who knows?
Maybe that does straighten them a little bit more.
Maybe it does give more direction or just a little more confidence or any of
these other things.
It's an investment that you can't put a price on, uh, shout out to them.
What they're doing there.
And everybody who is, uh, helped out with that, it's great.
No, it's been, um, man, just, uh, you know, from team rap, it's an evolving,
you know, it's unfortunate.
It comes from, you know, it's money, but you have an individual that has it
and wants to make a difference with it.
And those are those are the people that, you know, are truly good people, you
know, when they're not only helping the people around them like family,
but they go above and say, okay, no, I've done this.
How can I, you know, have an impact on the community that I'm from?
And this is a, this is a big one.
Anything else you want to touch on before I let you go, Sean?
Uh, jail update, um, as everybody knows, we built the new jail.
We're, uh, around three months in to the new facility.
If you drove by a round downtown, you'll notice the old jail is gone.
It went down in like two weeks.
Um, but so that next phase, the project is well under the way where they'll
be putting in a parking lot and some green space.
And then you'll see some demolition going on in front of the court.
That black, um, is now, uh, been vacated.
And once the, the company that we're working with that did demo the, um, the old
jail, they'll move, you know, towards the front of the court also.
Just please, um, be patient.
Give it a few months and I think that downtown is going to look really nice.
I like that partnership the county has with the city and working together to, um,
it's going to have a much nicer look downtown Wisconsin rapids.
Who knew that a jail could do that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool.
Uh, we're excited.
We're excited to see not only that, but how that area is developing everything.
Uh, agree with you.
I'm already looking forward to, uh, hanging out again next month.
Uh, Sean, do appreciate the time.
Caitlin Dylan, thanks so much again for hanging out with us, putting up with my
questions and all of that.
Uh, appreciate you guys being here.
Thanks again.
And, uh, Sean, we will talk again real soon.
You'd be safe out there, right?
All right.
Thank you.
And appreciate all of you joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids,
brought proudly brought to you by Crockett Sceptic here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR.
