Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crockett
Septick for this July 30th, 2025.
Have your host James here.
We're joined right now by Officer Matt McQ from Wisconsin's Rapids Police Department
for we're going to talk about National Night Out coming up on the 6th of August over
a beautiful winter field.
Matt, one of the more important questions I'm going to ask you, did I get your last name
right?
Yeah, you did James.
Okay, it's McQ.
We can mark that down, Pam, we can go.
Matt, good to meet you, man.
Thanks so much for being in.
We appreciate the time as always and any chance to talk about an event like this one we're
looking forward to.
Let's get into the details of 2025 National Night Out.
This is a police and community partnership event that we're really looking forward to
and it's going over at one of our favorite spots winter field.
Absolutely.
We look forward to this event every year.
Last year was the first year we had this at Winterfield and it's great because it allows
for more space for us to have vendors and community partners come in.
It's a great event for all ages and it really supports community police partnerships.
It shows that we're approachable on the community and that's exactly the kind of image we want
to portray too.
But not just the police department, the fire department, EMS and then local businesses
giving back as well.
So it's a pretty great event and we look forward to it every single year.
I know one of the things that is fun for these events and we just had this with the Family
Center and our touch of truck event is the kids being able to see these vehicles and
kind of look at them and check them out and stuff.
So they'll be able to do a little of that.
Absolutely.
A lot of people really don't know what the inside of a squad car looks like and that gives
everyone a great opportunity to do that.
All ages are welcome to adults as well too.
It's just a great informational session to show people around and show what our equipment
actually looks like on the inside and we're always happy to show anybody that has any
questions.
We're going to have some fun activities down there too for everybody.
Absolutely.
We have balloon animals.
We're going to have face painting this year.
A lot of fun activities.
Yeah.
Oh, those are always great.
The people that you run those are great as well and they're very good at what they
do.
We know because they're at every event that we always try to get them into these.
They're great people.
That's going to be fun.
That part is great.
And again, the space to do this too at Winterfield.
That's fantastic.
There's going to be ballpark food as well.
One of the greatest things about baseball, about going to a baseball field is the food
and we're going to make sure that that's there for everyone.
Absolutely.
Nothing beats that classic smell of brats or hot dogs or going to Miller Park.
It's like the same atmosphere.
You've got to love it.
And attending this event, you'll receive a free ticket to the Raptors game right afterwards.
That's a really cool part of this, I think.
Yeah.
Gamber Johnson is a big sponsor of this event and they are extremely nice enough to provide
those tickets prior to the game.
It's a 6.35 p.m. first pitch against Fondelac.
Yeah.
Who we've been playing well this season, so that's going to be a good game.
And I know that we're at the home of the Raptor baseball here at WFHR and stuff.
And we know that the season hasn't been as great as we may have wanted it.
That's why every game matters and we get a win.
That's going to be great.
It's going to be a good fun time and taking all these games that we can as the summer's
wrapping up.
You know, with an event like this National Night Out, we've talked about it for many
years here on the Rapid Support and it's shout out to everybody that we've talked to
in the past and enjoyed this conversation.
One of the things that I think that I enjoy about this topic is us having just an open
opportunity to talk about what this is.
There are plenty of times in life where, especially growing up, there were different events
that had really good meanings behind them.
But I feel like there was the event itself, but this meaning was kind of like almost
a hidden meaning or something along those lines.
This is really up and out in the open and very honest about what this event is really.
The meaning behind this event is, Matt, it's really about building that bridge, making
that bridge stronger between community and community and law enforcement or EMTs or
firefighters or any of the above.
The more we can do that and the more it is that much normal, more normal for a kid to
see this and they're much more likely to talk to and reach out to when they need help.
That's exactly what we want to portray too.
As I mentioned earlier, we want to be approachable in the community, we want to be partners
with the community, kind of going off on a tangent on this, working patrol.
We will see people having lemonade stands, little kids, lemonade stands.
I try to stop out every single opportunity I have to do something like that just because
we want to make sure that people can come to us and ask for help.
We open up that dialogue and that conversation with people and explain, hey, we're people
too, right?
We're just working in the community to make it a better place.
That's very important.
Building those bridges, like you said, is always a very important goal for us and whether
that's community partners, residents of Wisconsin Rapids and the surrounding area, we want
to make sure that we do that every single time.
With these different businesses, we're talking about businesses, police department, share
department, fire department EMTs.
You touched on something really important there, I think, where so many kids grow up and
they don't have experiences with these and don't know them and everything.
When you don't know something, you're a little afraid.
That's just human instinct.
That's just the way it works.
Building that bridge for them, those individuals is wonderful.
Among other things, you just don't know the spark it might start, too, where I'm a little
kid and before all of this, I wanted to be a firefighter.
We had a field trip at the Fush Kogel Fire Department, and I fell in love.
I wanted to do this.
This was the coolest job in the world to me.
You don't know what sparks could start there for a child and every one of these great
businesses and groups really deserve that.
They need more and more good people in there and stuff.
That's a great win-win right there.
There's the other side, too, of individuals that have experiences with these different
groups, these different things for maybe not the greatest reasons.
I know that I've touched on this before and my family and our past, and we're all on
the right side of the tracks now and everything, but it didn't start out that way.
When I was a little kid, having some negative experiences got me as a teenager and as an adult
to be a little hesitant to reach out when my family or I needed help.
That has changed and grown since then, of course, and everything.
I've talked with Sheriff Becker about this a lot over the years, but that's something
that it took me being away from here and coming back to really understand some of those
things.
It took me having kids to understand those things.
We don't want it to take that.
We want to build those bridges right now.
There is no getting around that our society is better and stronger when our kids feel
safer.
There's just no getting around that.
I think the job of all adults, whether you're in law enforcement or not, is to make that
happen.
Whether you have kids or not, whether your kids are like mine and then they're 20s and
all that.
Don't even need you anymore or anything.
That's a good ring to do.
This event really helps make that happen.
This event is a really big part of that.
And I agree with you.
Like you said earlier, you don't know what that spark could be.
It could just be that going up to somebody and saying, hey, how you doing?
I always introduce myself by first name.
When I'm working, I'm not Officer McHugh.
I'm Matt from the police department.
And that really lightens the mood and dialogue when we talk to people.
And really what it comes down to is a lot of people just need someone to listen to them.
And that's extremely important.
And whether it's at an event like this or just in everyday patrol work like I do, it's
important to listen to people and show that empathy no matter what situation they're
going through because you truly don't know what kind of day somebody's having.
And it's very important to have that relationship with somebody.
It's something we ask of the individuals in these groups that we're talking about here.
And I hope that the community, I hope the audience out there takes it on themselves as
well to do the same for them and understand that they are human beings that they are doing
a job.
And you don't know what they had gone their day and what they have going on working with
everybody's trying to work for the same thing, trying to solve whatever is happening
right here and trying to make our community safer.
There is no downside to that.
There are no bad sides of this, only a positive.
And it can only become stronger with the more and more people that attend.
So I want to make sure that you make plans to be there.
Wednesday, August 6, 3 to 6, over at Witterfield, head on over there and take in some of these
cool vehicles that are around there.
If you have questions, feel free to ask them.
You'll be able to talk to officers and people in the departments straight up right there.
You're going to get some good food, so bring your appetite.
Make sure to do that.
And bring the kids.
We want the kids coming down.
We want whole families down.
You certainly are welcome to come down individually and all that and bring your friends or what
have you.
But it's a real family event.
And one other thing that I love about this event too, and I get to touch on this from
time to time lately, we are having less and less opportunities for strangers and strangers
standing next to each other and having a good time.
You know, whether it's going to the movies or taking a ball game or something like that,
we don't have enough of these opportunities in life.
And so many of the bonds and friendships are created that way of just running into somebody
and like, hey, I like that shirt.
You're room for that team too.
And you get to know each other and all of a sudden.
And that also strengthens our community and makes it safer.
These things, I think a lot of the time, the coming back to this, the hesitancy or the
fear of things, it just comes from not knowing.
Best way to know is to do it.
Do it.
Come on down.
Have a good time and have some fun with this.
I wanted to wrap up here and I didn't necessarily talk about this in our pregame, Matt, but I couldn't
help myself when we're talking here and everything.
You yourself are somebody that that spark happened for.
You didn't necessarily start out with law enforcement in mind.
It was something that came to you later without prying too much or anything like that.
How did that spark happen for you?
So just a little bit of background.
I'm from Wisconsin Rapids.
Born and raised for pretty much the first half of my life and I actually grew up in
Clover during adolescence, but my family's always been in rapids.
Talking about those good community relationships, especially with not knowing, I recall one
time way back in the early 2000s.
I was playing out in my yard in Rapids here and a couple of Rapids police officers stopped
by and I was back when they would hand out baseball cards or packer cards.
And just that interaction with them, it sat with me to this day.
I can remember it vividly.
That was something that was big for me to say, hey, I can trust these people.
They're approachable.
And from there on out, I remembered that getting into law enforcement, I didn't want to be
a police officer in my entire life.
I actually wanted to go into radio and broadcasting, which is interesting why we're sitting here
today.
The symmetry of that, you know, right, right.
And I did a ride along when I was 16 years old, just starting off in high school, actually
with a state trooper and just given my skillset and knowing what I was good at and my communication
with people, I thought that could translate really well into the career field.
And that's how I decided to stick with law enforcement and dedicate my career to that.
I appreciate you sharing that, man.
Thank you.
One, you really note some things that lead to this happening and really giving evidence
to a lot of what we're talking about here today.
But as a side note, I also just think it's really cool to hear that.
I imagine that doing the job itself is very rewarding, feels very good, doing it in your
hometown.
That's a whole other level to do something like that.
It's, I can't think of many more higher callings than that.
And that is pretty darn cool, man.
And we appreciate that.
We appreciate you being a part of things.
And we are definitely going to work those radio skills of yours.
We're going to find uses for them, definitely.
But thank you for joining us again, Matt.
I appreciate the time.
One more time.
Let's remind everybody the date and time for the national night out.
So it's going to be Wednesday, August 6th, from 3pm to 6pm at Winterfield and Wisconsin
Rapids here.
Bring the kids.
Bring the family.
It is a welcoming family event.
It's going to really showcase how we have a strong community and partnerships with everybody
around Wisconsin Rapids.
So we look forward to seeing you there and appreciate you having me on the show, James.
Thank you.
Thank you, man.
I appreciate you.
And go to the Facebook, a type in there, National Night Out, Wisconsin Rapids.
You'll be able to keep up the date and everything.
And it gives you a nice reminder about it.
Also we'll keep you letting them know how many people might be attending and some of
that.
Share it on your Facebook pages as well.
That way other people might see it.
You just never know who might.
And sure, be sure to spread the word about the Rapids support being brought to you by
Crocatsceptic here at WFHR.com.
