Boys and Girls Club – Kids From Wisconsin – Update July ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this July 18th, 2025.

Show is probably brought to you by Crocodceptic.

Big thank you to them for sponsoring, and a big thank you to our friends at the Boys and

Girls Club here in Wisconsin Rapids.

We got our friend Jennifer Allen joining us, Jennifer, it's been a while.

It has been.

Thank you for having me.

It's good to have you here.

We always had the door open for you guys.

Love the work that you guys do over there.

We're a big appreciation to you and the staff, and looking out and having fun with the

kids.

We appreciate it.

We're going to dive into some summer events going on over there right now, where do you

want to start?

Sure.

So our summer program is halfway through already, actually.

So we have over 350 kids enrolled at the Boys and Girls Club, and we have about 200 kids

coming daily.

It's been a great summer.

We were able to go have a day with the rafters and watch a game at the rafters.

And we have lots of field trips, lots of out and about adventures.

Our kids really love getting out in the community and being part of it, so it's been fun

so far.

Really good to hear.

I have to say that I passed the building twice every day, and every time I'm passing

it during the day, it is just such a, the energy over there, the vibe over there just seems

to be so great.

Even just driving past, I pick up out of it.

I can't imagine being in the building and the times that I've gotten to talk to the kids

and some of the people over there, just a really fun vibe, really good energy over

there.

And great to hear.

Great to hear.

It's been a successful summer already.

Is there anything coming up that we wanted to let anybody know about?

Sure.

Actually next week, we are in partnership with the Kids from Wisconsin Group, and they

have a workshop going on before their tour.

So it's called The Heat Is On Tour.

It's a group from the Kids from Wisconsin Group is a group of kids that actually have to

rehearse and try out to be part of this group.

It's an amazing show if you haven't been.

I went for the first time last year.

The show is on Wednesday the 23rd at 630.

Tickets are available online to purchase, and then the workshop is right before that.

The workshop is free to the community.

You just need to sign up for it.

We have a group of about 35 club kids that are going to be attending.

So it's a pretty neat workshop.

It focuses on song and dance, musical composition, or you can do something with a musical instrument.

You would just have to bring your own instrument.

So there's kind of three different tracks that kids can participate in, and then they

can go to the show afterwards.

It's such a wonderful opportunity for everybody.

Now certainly if you were a kid like me and would have just been killed for something like

this, as a kid that wanted to be an actor since he was seven and stuff, it's such a wonderful

opportunity for kids.

But one of the reasons that I bring up that up, and I bring up performing or sports,

or a lot of the things that you can find at the Boys and Girls Club, whatever a child

might do in the future where they might go with these things, we don't know, and none

of us really have an idea necessarily.

But one thing we know is they could use some confidence, some people skills, working

with others, fellowships, so many of these things that are hard to teach, but you have

to kind of be doing them to learn.

And you get so much of that from just taking a workshop like this or being involved in

some of the activities with the Boys and Girls Club, kids get these things.

They oftentimes get a chance to hang out with or work with kids that they don't always

in their school, and there's so many other great opportunities that are available through

a program like this, through a workshop like this, and it's just a fun opportunity for

families, for kids, for the whole community.

Getting to see kids up there on that stage that you may know or neighbors or your kids

go to school with them or something, that's a whole lot of the level of enjoyment.

It's going to be fun, and we support all the kids and all the performers on that stage.

But our locals, they bring out a little bit something extra at us.

Yes, 100%.

And some of these kids maybe wouldn't try to, one of these pathways because they weren't

exposed to it.

So we're kind of creating that exposure, making sure they can see what's out there and

try it, because you might like it, you don't even know yet unless you try it.

And it's really cool to be able to not only have that, but again, to the workshop point

of this, which is again open to the public, it's free.

There is another just great opportunity, not only for them to gain the things that I

was talking about there, but them to learn those things from people that really know what

they're doing, really good teachers, really good people that have worked with kids for

many years, and know how to really speak kid.

I don't know how else to say that, but you know what I'm talking about, you either have

it or you don't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I bring this up in part because my kids are all in their 20s, they're older and everything.

And I forget sometimes when I'm talking to my nephew or my God son or something, kids

don't get sarcasm.

And that's like my main thing, that's what I mainly do.

Things like that, they're very good at and they're really good with those things.

And again, the event is coming up real soon.

We'll touch on the details of that before we wrap up, but I do appreciate you bringing

that to us, Jennifer.

But if you don't mind, I did want to talk a little bit about some of the programs and

some of the things that are available at the Boys and Girls Club.

Just thinking about it as we're talking here, we just don't get to hang out nearly enough

and get to bring attention to that nearly enough.

When it comes to that, if somebody's out there listening and they're just new to town

or something or haven't heard of the Boys and Girls Club that much, can we talk a little

bit about some of the things that you guys offer over there?

Sure.

So the Boys and Girls Club is really a safe place for kids to be before and after school.

And then we have a 10 week summer program.

It's very affordable for families.

And it's something that we actually, we struggle with capacity, so we are at our limit.

So we actually have a wait list.

So what I encourage families to do is sign up right away as soon as our registration

is out, because our spots do fill up.

So in the school year, we have before school programs at all of the elementary schools

in the Wisconsin Rapids District.

And then we have our after school program that is at our Rapids Center.

And so that program, we focus really on healthy lifestyles, making sure that the kids are

getting out and about active, going over to the YMCA, swimming, playing basketball, those

types of things.

We help them with homework.

We have positive adults and mentors that work with the kids.

And we really just wanted to have fun, honestly, safe until the parents get done with work

and can pick up them up.

So our after school program and our before school program are very similar.

Our summer program embodies all of those things as well.

It's just longer and louder and it's busier and it's fun.

So we really, like I said before, we try to really get the kids out and about in the community.

And it also allows them to see what's important in our community to give back to our own community.

So we have been doing field trips.

We do community service projects.

We work with like United Way, with United We Can, we're a United Way partner program.

And then it's really just giving them a place to be for the whole summer so that they're

not at home and they're not just on their phones or not just, you know, doing things

they shouldn't be doing.

So it's kind of a neat and unique program to the area and we're really proud of our

center that we have.

If I can piggyback on that, it's also one of the more vital programs we have in this area.

And the work that you guys do over there is really appreciated.

It's all the more reason why we also call on any kind of sponsorship or any businesses

out there that want to help out, that want to add to things.

The Boys and Girls Club has maybe a maybe two real big fundraising events really a year,

I believe, and any opportunity throughout the fill in the blanks, if you will, and help

out with things we greatly appreciate.

It's also included with volunteering, always looking for good volunteers out there and people

that want to help out and be a part of events or different program clubs, things like that

that you can do.

And another way of impacting your community and know so many of our listeners out there,

I can tell you how many times I get asked, I want to do good or I want to help out and

I want to, but not everybody has dollars in sense that they can donate or they're working

with a business or something along those lines.

Most of us have an hour or two or a couple or a night, a week that we can give up, that

we can give to the Boys and Girls Club and they put me where you need me, and where can

I help?

That's another great way of impacting your community and there are a few programs we are surrounded

by wonderful nonprofits in this area and amazing people that are a part of them.

There are very few opportunities where you can say, I am impacting the future.

I am literally doing something that is going to help tomorrow, that is going to help the

future.

And when you're working with the Boys and Girls Club and doing these things again as a

sponsor or a donor or just volunteering, you are impacting the future.

You are doing something that is incredibly vital to this community and helps this community

progress and get forward and better and something that you touched on Jennifer that I really

appreciate that you guys just get over there and understand.

When we're doing these activities with kids or they're doing these activities, their brains

are sponges and they're taking this in and they're not just paying attention to their

schoolmates or their friends at the Boys and Girls Club.

They're seeing what us adults are doing and how we're interacting and how we're stepping

up to help our community, how we're stepping up to be a part of these programs and that's

how you grow and future adults to do that.

So that impact, it's not just today and tomorrow even but we're talking 10, 20 years down

the line when these little ones grow up and become and take our place and make us feel

older.

I know those things.

The work just goes so much farther than I think we can really put in the words sometimes

and I really try to do that but I don't know if I would succeed but I hope people get

that because we really appreciate you over there.

Jennifer before we wrap up if we could just touch on the kids from Wisconsin event one

more time and tell people the details of that in the workshop.

Sure, sure.

So the workshop is on Wednesday, July 23rd at 3 o'clock and it is called the Realize

Your Dream Performing Arts Workshop.

It's with the kids from Wisconsin so some of the performers actually help with the workshop

and put it on and then the show is following that so the show is called The Heat Is On.

Kids from Wisconsin on tour and it is Wednesday, July 23rd, same day at 6.30pm at the Wisconsin

Rapids PAC and you can get tickets on their website at kidsfromaskonson.org.

Jennifer can't think enough for the time.

Please don't be a stranger.

You and the team over there.

Dora's always open for you guys.

Look forward to hanging out and talking again real soon.

If people have follow up questions or they'd like to know more about some of the things

we talked about today, how can they reach you?

So they can either reach out to us directly by just giving us a phone call.

They can go to our website which is bgcwa.org or a lot of things are posted on Facebook

as well if you follow us.

Be sure to bookmark that web page that again is bgcwa.org bookmark that and as she's

touching on there, they got a great Facebook page, like that page, subscribe to it and

share their posts on your page.

You just never know who might see them otherwise and be listening for another Rapids Report.

Jennifer does too good of a job.

We're going to make her come back real soon.

I appreciate you Jennifer.

Thanks for the time.

Thank you.

And thank you everybody for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report, probably

brought to you by Crocketceptic here at WFHR.com.