Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crocodceptic and our
good friends at Tri-City Services, big shout out to both, we appreciate them, and we appreciate
our good friend Aaron Hess joining us from our Southwood County YMCA, Aaron is always
good talking with you, love hanging out with you, I see you over there, it's gonna be
a fun conversation, how you been?
Good, good, very good, thank you, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.
It's good talking with you and I love talking about our Y, we want to start off with a CEO
announcement.
Yeah, so our board of directors recently hired the next CEO, which happens to be me, and
that was effective as a Monday.
I don't have my winning bell over here any day, I didn't know that, that's awesome.
It's been, I'm not gonna call the secret, but no, but yeah, so effective as of this
last Monday, I moved into the role of CEO, and now I'm gonna look for someone to take
my old role.
Yeah, yeah, I am so beyond happy for you and yours, and I cannot think of somebody better
for the job, that's fantastic, I'm a little shell shocked, a little bit stunned by this,
but I gotta say right, my first impressions, not only are you perfect for the gig, and
I'm really again happy for you and yours, selfishly, very happy for our community, very
happy for our Y, that is only for the benefit of us, and the positive for us, and this
is nothing to do with any past CEO, so they're all great and very good at the job.
I'm a big fan of not only hiring from within, but when people see good people, and reward
that, you put a lot into this job, put a lot into this community, they couldn't have
a better person for the gig, that's awesome to hear.
Oh, I appreciate it.
Really cool to hear.
I'm excited to, we wanna bring some of our history back to the forefront, I think from what
I've heard from some of our donors, stakeholders, and just community in general, is that when
we left poor dead words, some people kinda got the sense that we left our history behind,
and of course we don't want people to feel that way, because John Alexander played such
a significant role.
I mean, it was him that really made all this happen, so we're excited to get some of
that history back to the front, and then really focusing on our community partnerships.
Who are we working with in the community?
We can't be an island unto ourselves, especially a smaller community like this.
We can do so much more by partnering with St. Lincoln High School and the city of Rapids
and the village of poor dead words and whatnot, so really strengthening those partnerships
and collaborations.
Yeah.
It's one of the things that I know I appreciate, again, getting spoiled and being in this
chair and getting to talk to so many different businesses and nonprofits.
One of the things that I think is so cool is seeing nonprofit helping out nonprofit or
just working together and rising tide, raising all boats and that.
When I think about this, it's a little bit different with the Y, and whether this is fair
or not to the Y, I don't know, but I will say the unlike some nonprofits in our community
are just in general in the world.
Not everybody has a brand new building.
Not everybody has all that space and the playability and the flexibility that you guys have over
there to be able to host things and have things.
Any time I see that the Y or the Boys and Girls Club or something like that is hosting
something or being a part of something, it just brings up, brings jolt to me, a big shock
to me because I think it's so cool and it's taking advantage of the space to put it bluntly
to put it lightly.
I think that that's one of the cooler things to see happen.
What you're talking about there with working more with community partners and stuff, just
what that can open, like just what I'm thinking of right now, let alone the things that I can't
even imagine.
That's so cool to think of, and it's really a good note, I think, it's really encouraging
to hear.
Even on the flip side of that, one of our new partnerships with Lincoln High School is
we're moving our Gymnast 16 program over to Lincoln High School.
They just had renovated this brand new Gymnast 16 space and we're looking to do some work
in the youth center so they're going to get displaced for a while, but then being able
to use Lincoln High School space, so they're still able to have their team, they're still
doing other practice and whatnot, and then vice versa, we have space available at the
Y for any of the programs, whether it's sports or nutrition, whatever, you name it.
We're able to reciprocate, and that's what I love about this community because we kind
of take care of each other, and that's super important.
Yeah, I will never get old to me.
As much as I see it and experience it and everything, the way that this community steps
up for each other and looks out for each other is amazing.
You mentioned this before, I think this is a great place to start as far as stuff, and
I know we have to move on, I could keep talking to you about being CEO, getting courage
to relate to some so happening for you.
Camp Alexander Summer Camp, how is that going, looking to tell us about that?
Yeah, it's going really well, and this kind of goes back into the whole club, or you should
think again too, because we're working with the Boys and Girls Club, so each week, you
know, 30 to 40 of those kids are coming out to camp, and as soon as they hit the ground
at camp, they are not club kids, they are camp kids, and they get fully immersed in what
camp is all about, and that's just been such a blessing for the Y and for those kids.
So yeah, if you're interested in Camp Alexander and getting your kids signed up, let's say
you're not part of the club, you're still more than welcome to sign up through the Y,
and let's say finances are tough, and maybe that club fee is a little too high, by all
me, is talk to us because we have a sliding scale for camp also, so we are more than happy
to work with you.
It's a great resource, a great thing for the kids to be able to be a part of, in the whole
family really, so encourage you to reach out and find out more about Camp Alexander, get
your child involved, even if not this summer, there's always next summer, and we encourage
you to check that out, we'll give you information on how you can find out more in just a moment.
I apologize if I was taking a little back, I have Aaron's notes up here, and I just saw
your name in the title there, so excited for you, that's awesome.
Thank you.
We got a couple of events coming up next month that we want to let everybody know about,
so they can mark them on their calendars.
One of them, I'm pretty sure they already know and have marked down the golf outing, it's
one of our bigger ones we have in the area, and man, people love golf in this area, they
show up for these.
They do, they do, it's fun.
So August 4th, which is a Monday, it's our annual golf outing, we have a spots for,
so it's a total of 36 teams, that's the max, and we have about 10 spots left, so they're
filling up, so if you're interested in golfing, be sure to get your team registered, you
can always welcome to reach out to me, or even Tracy Berwick, we're kind of tag teaming
on the event this year.
But yeah, so this is our largest event, all the money that we bring in for this outing
or for this event, goes into our annual campaign, and annual campaign, all those dollars go
towards membership and programs, so again, this goes back to our commitment to the community.
If you don't want to join the Y, because you're not into it, great.
If you don't join the Y, because of finances, that's not great.
This is where we need to step in and make sure that that's never a reason not to join
the Y.
With this too, it's one of the things that I think this area does the best of having
a good time for a good cause, you know, again, people love golf in this area, I think
my brother might even be coming down for this, he's in Oshkosh, and I think he might come
here just for this event and everything.
When it comes to that, we know our community loves golf and getting out there, getting some
sunshine and all those things, and while you're doing it, it's going to feel that much better
because you know in the back of your mind, the front of your heart, you're putting into
one of our stronger, not only causes in this area nonprofits, but really one of the greater
things that you can offer to the community, there is so much going on at the Y, and so
much that happens at the Y.
He could talk to Aaron every day and not cover everything, but I'm not exaggerating.
There's that much going on, and that's just with our Y, let alone when we bring in kind
of Alexander and some of these other, you know, factors that are part of the Y, but just
we don't get to focus on as much in all year round.
There's so much happening over there that you can feel like, okay, I put into that,
I helped with that, I made my community better by golfing, I mean, that's pretty darn
cool.
That's a pretty cool mix.
You're coming out.
You're doing, it's something that you can do together, it's something, I mean, if you
have, let's say you have employees that you want to take out for the day, and so it's
some team bonding, and you're helping a good cause at the same time.
And again, as Aaron said, there's only so many openings left, so get on over to the
reach out to the Y, so you can get in on this, everybody.
We'll mention their website and then Aaron's information before wrap up.
Did also want to talk about the Bridge to Bridge, a run coming up August 16th, another
signature event in this area that we always look forward to.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so we've got a 5K and a 1 mile fun run.
So at the 5K, of course, it's totally up to you if you want to run it, jog it, walk
it, whatever you need to do.
Yep.
It's your pace.
To get through that route.
And then we have that 1 mile fun run, which is great for kids.
So it's an event that really is for the family.
It's just, it's become part of a, it's become a staple of our Y.
Yeah.
And we look forward to every summer, so, and again, the money that comes in for that,
it goes into the annual campaign and also goes into our chronic disease programs.
So Livestrong is our program for cancer survivors.
So and this is a completely free program, it's 12 weeks and you meet twice a week, comes
with a free family membership for those three months.
And this is where we help encourage you, we help kind of find, we kind of help you find
your new normal and maybe, you know, gain back some of that strength and endurance that
you may have lost during treatment, but it's a wonderful program because you have other
survivors working together, you're able to understand each other and support each other
in ways that people who haven't gone through cancer just don't understand and they're
not going to get.
So we absolutely love this program because it gives you the support that you need.
You know, it's the physical, the emotional, spiritual, you name it.
When it comes to programs like that, my, my aunt in Florida is going through this right
now, treatment and it's recent, it's just happened in the last month or so and talking
with her and she's one of my favorite, favorite people ever.
I brought up this program with her and you're just, you know, looking ahead and light
at the end of the tunnel stuff and everything and that's how much I think of this program,
that's how much I think of things like this that are going on, not certainly with our
why, but different organizations out there that are looking at cancer and not blinking,
you know, and facing it head on and, and, you know, it's one thing, if you are struggling
and dealing with it, certainly that's a whole other ball game, but for those of us that
can help those that we love and help those who be there for them or even just strangers
helping strangers and everything, programs like this are vital to that and I don't think
I'm out on the limb here, I think cancer has been winning long enough, I think it's
time we start taking some of the wins from them, we, we start bringing that down a little
bit and we can do that, the only way to do that is together.
Exactly, exactly.
And just, you know, kind of a kudos, so a Spirits Riverview Foundation, they, they fund
the entire program for us, so, you know, it makes it so that no one is ever, we would
never even dream of asking anyone to help paper anything, so again, it's just, it goes
back to that community support, you know, they see where there's a benefit and there's
a need for the program, so they're going to make sure that we're able to, to continue
on with it and support those people.
It's a great program and a great time for a great cause, a bridge to bridge running,
thing is, it's going on August 16th and you can find out more at their website, give
that information in a second, as we wrap up, I, I, now this is Aaron's notes, it's not
me just wanting to talk about football, everybody, I think the audience knows me pretty well
and in a chance I get to talk football, I'm going to do it, especially, I love flag football,
I had so much fun in flag football as a kid and we're wrapping up with that cause that's
coming up and that's right around the corner.
That's right around the corner.
And so this is, again, it's kind of, it's exciting for us because we're working with
the city of Wisconsin Rapids, we're going to be able to use meat and water fields and this
allows us to grow the program more than what we're able to on our own.
So in the past, we've been able to have like 80 to 90 kids in our program because really,
we have that one sports field and that gets pretty full and now we're partnering with
the city and we're able to increase that program size by, I don't know, however, three
full, whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're excited about this and this is going to start in September.
We do have the program open in Dexco, so if, like, like you all know, a Dexco means,
it's our operating system.
Sorry.
No, that's all right.
And now we know.
Now, you know, and yeah, so if you wanted to register your kids today, you're more than
welcome to register them, but, you know, we're just excited because again, this is the
why being able to work closer with the city, you know, we're able to, you know, create
more spots and we're able to keep that cost down because of the sport we're getting from
the city.
So again, it's, it's that win-win that just kind of, I don't know, it brings a smile.
I've been smiling this whole time.
I can't stop it.
My face is almost started to hurt in a good way, in a good way.
We appreciate you, Aaron, appreciate all this information.
And again, while we've covered a lot today, there's so much going on over at the why
we encourage you to find out more and beyond look out for all the fun things coming up
and fall and start making plans for them now, like we've talked about with these events
and different classes and things that are available.
And of course, if you are somebody out there that would like to be involved with things
and like to volunteer, always encourage you to reach out to the why about that.
And Aaron, if they'd like to do that, how can they reach you?
How can they find out more?
Yeah, yeah.
So by all means, check out our website.
It's swcymca.org.
You're always welcome to give us a call.
Our direct line, while our line at the front desk is 715-818-9622.
Our membership staff are phenomenal.
They know the ins and outs of everything that's going on most of the time.
We appreciate you joining us.
We've just been talking with new CEO of your Southwood County YMCA.
I just had to say that.
Aaron has joined us.
Thanks again, Aaron, for the time.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
And thank you all for joining us.
As in, a big thank you to our friends over at Crack Accepting.
And of course, Tri-City Services sponsor in this time.
And thank you to all of you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.