Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Cracket Sceptic.
For this August 11th, 2025, have your host James here.
We're joined right now by our friends, poor was cut in Nekusa.
We're here with Heather Sayers, Heather.
Always good to see you.
Thank you James, always good to see you.
Appreciate the time.
And Joe is with us too, Joe.
Thanks for being here, man.
Thank you for having us.
I appreciate the time for you guys.
What we're getting together here to talk about today, we're going to our main focus
is certainly going to be the CNM circus.
We got a real live circus coming to town.
That's so cool, that just that big top alone, I'm excited about.
But before we dive into that, Heather, you had a great note, I appreciate this.
The organization for Nekusa, talking about that, what you guys are up to over there.
I know that you have been at the forefront of this.
And so I got the right person to talk to when it comes to this.
When it comes to the origins of this organization and what that is, can we get into that a little
bit in the purpose of it, Heather?
Sure.
So, for Nekusa came about when the Hard to Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce decided that they
no longer wanted to, or had the manpower to do it, then Nekusa, hometown Christmas.
And there was a few of us that had volunteered and they're like, hey, would you guys think
about taking it over?
So myself and Trisha Furkey, who owns champions, Car Wash, decided we were going to create
our own nonprofit organization called for Nekusa.
And we took over Nekusa, hometown Christmas.
And then that developed into Nekusa Walli Days, Nekusa Easter.
And then we do have a free community picnic in the summer called Midwest Fest.
So the main focus of our committee is to have all of these events for free for our community.
We wanted to bring something back to Nekusa besides Nekusa Joint Pump Confest.
But our events are 100% free.
Anybody who comes down, we can walk through like our Midwest Fest.
We had six bouncy houses.
We had axe throwing.
We had batting cages.
Many golf.
The only thing they had to pay for there would be food if you chose to eat.
So our main focus is to make sure that our events are free and involved into higher
community, not just Nekusa, but the surrounding communities as well.
I think one of the lessons we've learned over the years in rural towns and small areas
is we survived together, the stronger we are together.
And I've always appreciated the way the chamber would reach out to other towns outside
of rapids and working with them and everything.
And certainly love that the work that was done there for many years.
And I appreciate what they're doing currently and stuff.
But with something like this, Heather, I don't know if I'm going to word this the right
way, but I kind of dig this better.
I kind of like this.
I like the idea of true locals and people right there being able to really look out for
their area and know what fits their area best.
And it's planning these projects or these events or anything like that.
Nobody's going to know and lay out like people in the area.
Right.
And that's the case for anything.
It's the same thing with if somebody was trying to plan something in Nekusa for rapids,
I would say the same thing.
Right.
Yeah.
That I enjoy.
And I think my favorite part of this, and I hope the audience is catching this, that
this didn't take a government bill that we didn't get to wait 10 years or seven months
or something like that for some decision from high up to come on down or people made
this happen.
And we are so truly blessed.
Our committee is founded with nine board of directors.
We have volunteers that come in.
We are so blessed that we have such a dedicated committee.
They work all the time on making these events happen.
We have great sponsors.
You can't do anything without our sponsors.
You know, Nekusa community has been blessing us with support as well as port edwards and
Wisconsin rapids as well.
So.
And I do want to say journalistically, I don't think there's
a town.
There's a city in this whole state that gives me more love or nostalgia than Nekusa.
I love Nekusa.
I should journalists say I do love the area that we're paying partial to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're living our entire lives.
It's, it's, you know, it's another thing too when we're talking like with Mike and
the store point buzz or any of these kind of things in that area of keeping that area
alive and relevant and healthy.
And the great thing about like you brought up a store point that they actually partner
with us for Nekusa hometown Christmas and they come and they help us set everything
up.
And then we do have like a little old time Christmasy night where they come in and they
dress up and they participate in that.
You know, and the other part of this too that is so impactful and so important while
and we can talk about, you know, what's going on right now or the economic impact it makes
any year to your basis and some of those things.
But I think the biggest part of all of this, we can't really gauge right now.
One of these events, people are bringing their kids and they're seeing and kids are
seeing their, their parents or their guardians or their adults care about their community,
put into their community, take time to be at these events and everything.
Those brains are sponges, they're picking that up and for every kid that may move away
and go, you know, and not come back or what have you, there are more and more kids that
see that and want to stick around or maybe go to college and come back or whatever the
case might be.
But at the very least, caring about their hometown, caring about their roots, the creation
of that, it's something we can just, you know, there's no textbook for that.
There's no, you know, hey, Jake, you know, love in your hometown class?
Did you, it doesn't really work like that.
This kind of incorporates that that really like gets into kids and I love that.
I think that's awesome.
Yeah, there's always, you remember when, you remember when we did this when we were in
high school or, you know, Joe and I are always like reminiscing about things and that's
why this is so near and dear to our hearts.
I went to school one year in Nicosah and I have plenty of memories from it, you know,
and it's just, it's so funky, I went to Humphrey, and it's just one of those things.
It's when it's positive memories, end or memories with like relatives, adults, things
like that.
There's stuff that stay with you.
Yes, absolutely.
Let's create some memories.
Let's make some new ones here with this circus coming to town.
Heather, there's a lot of fun involved with this.
Where do we begin?
It's a circus.
It's amazing.
There's so much to talk about.
I don't know.
Where would you begin, Joe?
Yeah.
Put you on the spot.
Well, this is one of the things we're proud to bring to the community.
We're looking for anything that gets anyone involved and has fun things for the family
to do.
And it was great to see them actually approach us to say, hey, we see you guys do all
this stuff.
Would you be willing to be a sponsor to bring us into town?
Anything that makes our neighbors or anyone from the area laugh, smile, whatever makes us
all happy?
Right.
Well said.
And I was going to ask off here.
I was just curious how this works.
Like if they reached out to you, you reach out to them.
They reached out to us and they said, well, would Furnacusa like to sponsor the circus?
And they said, well, how much does that cost?
Because we are a non-profit, you know.
And the thing is, it costs us about $290 to have them come to town.
But they are going to be our biggest fundraiser for the year to make sure that we keep all
of our other events free.
So a percentage of all the ticket sales comes back to Furnacusa so that we can incorporate
all of those funds into our other four events.
Well, and while I don't take one dollar lightly for any of our non-profits or anything
like that, that's a pretty good deal, I think.
I mean, that's just going off of some of the stuff that I've seen and what we do here
and know, those things like that.
When you're looking at these events, I imagine, you know, one of the hardest things is can
we finish in the black with this?
Can we finish?
You know, that's one of those ones where I would say that it's not too hard, not too much
you're asking of the event.
And it's always nice to have that starting base the next year instead of always having
to start over, you know, and feeling the stress and the pressure of like, how are we going
to put on, because while it is, if we don't have anything in the budget for, you know,
so this will help us do that.
And that's something to keep in mind with these events, everybody.
Not only attending them because they're fun and interesting and all that and you, you
know, you're going to run into people that you may not see all the time or something,
but they more than not, it's a domino effect of, I go to this event and put into it that
helps the next event and so on and so on and keeping that in mind with attending these
events.
And it's all the more reason to do so and it's a circus.
How often do those come to town anymore?
We don't get this.
I remember the last time we had one, yeah.
That's pretty cool.
And it's a bona fide circus like that we're talking a real circus here.
Lions and tigers.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
But not bears.
We got enough of those right.
So when is this kicking off?
What are the details for this one?
I don't know.
I think you go ahead and get that over.
So it'll be this Saturday is the start and it actually starts at 9.30 in the morning.
They come in.
They start setting up the tent and that's open to the public that anyone can come down
to our park.
Riverside Park in the city of Nacusa right on Prospect Avenue and they can come down.
They can watch it.
They make it a big spectacle to watch, you know, raise the tent.
It's actually quite amazing to see them raise one of those big tents.
Yeah.
So 9.30 is when we can start with that.
I honestly don't know how long it takes.
Yep.
That's free to come to.
There is parking right there.
Otherwise, there's many of the streets right around there.
We can park on too, just like everyone's used to for the Nacusa giant pumpkin fast.
And then after they get up there, it kind of slows down a little bit till 1 p.m.
At 1 p.m. is when they open their midway.
So they open up the area for people to come.
I know they have pony ride scheduled or available.
I should say they have face painting, bounce houses, concessions, all the kind of fun things
you would expect to see at a circus.
There are some really cool things about this one in particular.
They got a real big top they're bringing.
That's really interesting.
And one of the things that they note about the, one of the selling points of their circus
in particular is when you're seeing shows, no seat is further than 40 feet away from
the ring.
So you don't have to worry about missing anything.
There's not a bad seat in the house kind of thing.
I love that they think about that.
I love that they incorporate that as part of this.
Bringing this back is such a fun part of this too.
You can get tickets for that and I wanted to make sure to mention the Beaver's Dimes
store, Romo Doors, Nukusa Library, Charles and Joanne Lester Library, and Nukusa B.P.
You can pick up the tickets in any of those or going to cmcircus.com.
We'll get more of that information out not only in this, but throughout the week here.
If you order it, if you get your tickets in advance, they're at a discounted rate.
So if you get them now, they're like $8 for children and seniors and $13 for adults.
And I believe they're like $16 at the gate or something like that.
I don't have that price right off the top of my head.
But it's important to at least go online or visit those businesses that you mentioned
to get your tickets early.
With the event too, they got a 90 minute family-friendly show featuring big cats, tightrope,
aerialists, a dog, a dog's foot, a juggling, foot-duggling.
That's interesting.
That's a cool one.
I can't wait to see that one.
Yeah, that one's bad.
I've got my interest.
And so much more.
I would say that there's so many of these kind of things that we, you know, nowadays you
want to see something you look at up online.
It's pretty simple.
This is one of those events that, yeah, I encourage you to go ahead and go to their website,
check out some of the cool things that they're doing over there, cmcircus.com again.
But you've got to experience it.
You've got to be there and feel it and be in the atmosphere to really get the full weight
of all of this, especially with the tightrope stuff and some of those things.
I would say that this area has a real love of circus, Wisconsin in general.
As a real love of circuses, we got the circus museum and baribu and some of those things.
It's this is a perfect event to bring to the area.
But I do want to say, even if you've never been to a circus, and I feel I was trying to
put my words together for that because I'm like, wow, there are probably generations
out there that haven't even been to a circus.
It's so weird for me to think of that, but this is your event that you've got to check
this one out.
Really do. Was there anything else you guys wanted to make sure to mention about the
event itself?
Just to make sure you get your tickets in advance.
If you want to save a couple of pennies, we still get a great percentage of that for
our fundraiser, but get your tickets in advance.
Make sure you have your ticket because I know they go rather quickly.
My understanding is they're getting sold out pretty fast.
So get them now.
Yeah.
Again, you can get those tickets at Beaver's Dimes store, Rome Outdoors on Nukusa Library
and Nukusa BP, or you can get your tickets online, cm-circus.square.site to check that
out.
I just tested this through it into the search engine and it all popped up for me.
So you throw it in there and it'll pop right up the first thing so you should be able
to find it that way.
And Heather, as far as the organization for Nukusa, if people would like to know more about
that, or be a part of things, or just volunteer, or just help out, hey, you've got to say
to hands, put me to work.
Oh, we would love volunteers.
We are events.
We can definitely use more volunteers.
In order to find out more about for Nukusa, you can look at our website, www.fornukusa.org,
or follow us on Facebook as well.
I can't thank you guys enough.
Not only for the time I put up on my silly questions, but for everything you're putting
into the community and putting into our area, you're making a huge impact.
Everybody at for Nukusa, please say hi to them for me.
Looking forward to this one.
I'm going to get try to get down there.
I haven't seen the circus long enough.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got to see what this footjuggling is.
Right.
I know.
I'm excited.
Thank you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
