Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crockett Sceptic
for this September 19th, 2025.
Have your host James here, joined by our good friends right now from the Wisconsin, the
Port Edward School District.
We got James Benna with us, superintendent and 4K5 principal, James, good to see you.
Good morning James, glad to be here again.
Always appreciate the time sir, thanks a lot for being with us and thanks for bringing
a friend with us.
We have Mariska Rebsky, I know I just heard it, and you can miss my last name while you
want Marissa.
Thank you so much for being here, Marissa is the John Edwards Middle and High School
family and consumer education teacher.
She's also the Port Edward's Education Foundation Vice President, and that's kind of where
we're going to kick off with if you don't mind Marissa, I want to do for those that may
not know, get a bit of a history of the Port Edward's Education Foundation.
Sure, so the Education Foundation sort of came to be with the brain power in 1995, it
was a group of community members, former educators, they were looking for a way to get contributions
that they could use for grants and scholarships specifically for the Port Edward School District.
So they officially became a foundation in 96 and have been going strong ever since then.
Very cool and nicely done, thank you, you're good, she's good, that's going to be great.
When it comes to teacher scholarships can tell us a little bit about that.
Yep, every year we offer a chance for our teachers to get grants.
We take all of the money that we get during the school year through donations, which
we get through our fund drive, just memorial donations, all those kinds of things, and that
money is going back directly to our teachers.
So the teachers get a grant rating process, they have about a month to decide what they
want to do, and we've had a lot of different scholarships or grants that have come out,
and there are really things that enhance the curriculum, what they're already doing,
but are outside of what maybe our school budget allows, or things that are really innovative,
that are new, that might be hard for us to get.
So we've been able to donate almost $400,000 directly to the staff at our school.
It's not really something we do around, but I want to pull out the sound effect of the
winning bell to that number, that's amazing, that's fantastic to hear.
Wow, and what I'm hearing in that is ideas.
I'm hearing teachers' ideas for students that are able to be, you know, not just a thought,
but actually put in the action.
Yeah, we've had some really awesome grants over the years.
We planted pear trees at the elementary school, so those, and those are like full fruiting
trees now, the kids get to eat the pears, they go into their school lunch program, they
created a summer school fishing program, we're able to offer an orchestra strings program
for elementary and middle school students and high school students now.
We purchased a bunch of CPR mannequins for the health department, so that the students
can practice and learn CPR skills, some Spanish immersion camps, all kinds of really great
things.
And just on these examples, I can pull from every one of those fun and interesting things
for students that they enjoyed, I'm sure the teachers enjoyed too, but at the same time,
like life things, things that they're going to carry with them the rest of their life.
Yeah, exactly, and that's a big part of the scholarship rating process is that we
want it to enhance not only the classroom time now, but to make them more productive citizens
in the future.
Well said, and definitely mission getting accomplished here on that, that's really
cool to hear, and it's all the more reason why when we talk about events at the Port Edward
School District, you know, events that you can be a part of as a community, we encourage
you to be a part of them.
They're fun for one thing.
They always have a good time with any of these events, but it's also your impact.
I just had Terry in from the United Way, and we're talking a little about this, and it
was talking to her that I had this thought in my head that we talk about donation a lot.
We use that word a lot, but when I hear people use the word donation, I'm hearing investment.
I'm hearing an investment in our community.
I'm hearing an investment in the greatest thing any of us can invest in in the future.
Please tell me what's better investment than that.
There isn't anyone.
Care what the stock numbers say or anything like that, that's the best investment you
can make with your dollar.
When you hear about these events and you attend these events, you're going to have a good
time, you're going to enjoy yourself, but you can also know that you are investing in
your community.
To that point, I wanted to mention the annual golf scramble fundraiser that's coming up.
Yes, we have a golf scramble every summer.
This summer, it is...
Oh my gosh, I forgot to write down that.
It's the day after Father's Day.
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
Well done.
I'm just going to pull it up.
You had it.
You had it.
Great job.
I think only once in our 30-year history has it not been the day after Father's Day, but
we've returned to that day after Father's Day at the Bullseye Country Club, and it's
an investment, but you're also investing in a lot of fun.
It's a very fun day, and I'll let Marissa talk more about that.
Yeah, it's a traditional scramble, shotgun start.
We have whole events.
We have raffle baskets.
We provide lunch and dinner.
It's just a lot of fun.
A lot of people in the communities, people like to get groups together to go out for sums.
It is just a really, really good time and a great way to give back to our Port Edwards community.
With an event like this, and all the things you both mentioned are fantastic.
It's not only going to be a good time, but it's going to be something that a lot of people
will attend.
I almost think you said golf, like for a lot of people out there, as soon as you said
golf, they're all in.
They're already Googling this and looking it up and everything.
It's one of those things, and I joke about it, but our community supports these events
so much.
One of the ones that we love are golf scrambles and some of these.
You always see a good attendance and a good turnout for them.
Let's make sure there is a great one.
Find out how you and your team or just yourself can sign up for this and be a part of this
great golf scramble.
We'll be giving details on our morning show and promoting it, talking about it as much
as we can.
If I could, James, real quickly, one of the really cool things about, I think, the
PF golf scramble, just from my perspective of being an educator, having been a number
of charity events and scrambles and things like that, the money that is spent at the golf
scramble, there is no overhead with PF.
There is zero.
Every penny that you donate, every penny that you spend toward golf, every penny that
you buy a raffle ticket from, that is going to go directly toward the scholarships for
our teachers and 100% of that money goes directly toward our student programming.
That's a really cool thing about donating to a local, small, charitable organization such
as PF, 100% of the money.
You know it's going to benefit the students of the Port Edward School District.
I just wanted to add that little plug that when you come out and support us, that money
goes directly to our kids.
Appreciate that.
I want to get to some things with you in a moment, sir, but if you don't mind, Marissa,
I also wanted to ask before we wrap up with you about the 2025-26 officers and how
to donate for people.
Sure.
So our president for PF is Lisa Dettliftson.
She just took over as president last year doing an awesome job.
She's been a PF board member for quite some time.
I just recently became the vice president.
We have April Hofferman as our treasurer and Karen Isaacson as our secretary.
And then we have 11 other board members.
Awesome.
A big thank you and congratulations to everybody.
That's awesome.
That's really good to hear.
A lot of great individuals.
Some of those that we've talked to on the airwaves here and everything.
We know all great of people they are.
You put good people in great places.
Good things happen.
That's really cool to hear.
Did we cover everything, Marissa?
We get all our bases covered here?
Yeah.
I think so.
We do have our annual fund drive that's going to be starting in October, which runs
through December.
You can, we have a PF Facebook page that you can reach out to if you just look up Port
Edwards Education Foundation.
There's also a link from the Port Edwards School District webpage that you can find
us for how to donate.
Awesome.
Thank you for that.
We'll make sure to mention those again before we wrap up today and really appreciate
the time, Marissa.
And certainly appreciate everything you're putting into our community.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
Thank you for having me.
James, it is the beginning of the start of the school year.
And we're excited about that.
We are just talking about it a bit in our pregame.
The adrenaline, the energy is in the air.
I know that part of it for us, we're so close to Rams and we get a little of that overflow
we feel.
And even though we are not right next door to Port Edwards, we can feel it from there,
too, sir.
There's a lot of fun going on with that.
Can we touch on how the beginning of the school year is going?
We're off to a great start, James.
We are here.
It's Friday, September 19th.
We're at the end of our third week of school already.
And I think one of the reasons our school year is off to such a great start, you know, we
have great teachers, we have great support staff, but we've also implemented a couple of
great character education programs at both of our schools.
And I wanted to talk just a little bit about those today.
At John Edwards Middle and High School, our high school principal, Mr. Stelton Poll,
has introduced a program called GRIT.
And GRIT is an acronym that stands for you get to do something as opposed you have to
do something.
So that's the G.
I like that.
We get to do this.
We get to go to a great school.
We get to work with great teachers.
We get to be in all these great programs.
So we get to, we are resilient.
We do our lives with integrity and we do things in a tenacious way with tenacity.
And the GRIT program is designed to highlight and celebrate the good things that are happening
within our school community.
Many people think back on their school career and we think about, oh boy, going to the office,
someone's in trouble if they have to see the principal.
We deal with discipline like any other school does, but as school administrators, we want
to really focus on pointing out the good in our school too.
Because all too often, those students who are making good choices coming to school and
acting with integrity every day, they don't get pointed out always.
So the GRIT program has been introduced at the middle school and high school.
And when our teachers see our students doing small but important things, acting with kindness,
being helpful, acting with integrity, they will get a ticket.
And that ticket goes into a box and at the end of the month, there is a drawing.
We have a big pep assembly.
We have like a party in the gym at the end of the school day.
In fact, the September one is today at 245 and they have a lot of fun during that pep assembly.
And students' names are drawn out of a box.
They get to spin a wheel and they get prizes.
And they are identified for doing the good things in our school.
So that's at the middle school level.
We have a very similar program at the high school as well.
High school students, they get coupons as well and they get all kinds of things like gift
cards for gas stations, restaurants, treats, etc.
So we really are trying to promote and be very intentional about promoting good behavior
in our schools.
I am a big, big fan of the education system.
In particular, what we do on a public school level.
It's been around for a long time and I think that there are way, way, way more good positives
than negatives or anything like that.
But as we are getting into later years here and in 2025 and some of these things, we're
learning a little bit more and more of what works best for kids and really putting them
first.
And I believe when it comes to discipline and accountability, schools have been good
about that for a very long time.
But there's another side of that and the idea of that.
The encouragement of doing good, the positivity of that, what that does, what that brings.
It's not just a matter of putting a smile on your face or acting right, but acting right
even when people aren't looking or some of those things.
Our schools are doing a really good job on.
This is one of those things that is a part of that, this program, this grit.
When I think everybody can relate to the idea of what it was like when you were a kid
and you did something, you took the garbage out from mom and dad and they told you good
job.
So you lit up from that.
That's something that every little kid thrives on, no matter where they're from, no matter
how old they are, when you are that young, that makes a big impact when adults take a moment
to tell you, nice work, nice job.
We forget this the older we get and it's just as important as that accountability and
that discipline part is just as important to point out when you're doing something good.
It's not necessarily something that you get a ton as an adult or anything.
If we can build them up more at this age, we have them that much more confident when
they go into the society, when they go into the workforce or whatever else that they're
doing.
These things have just as much of an impact as a math test or something like that.
It's really cool to see programs like this and hear about these things and I'm a little
wish, I wish I was a little around when I was a kid a little bit, a little bit about it.
It's a great program.
Thank you very much for telling us about that.
Absolutely.
Our public schools have done this forever, right?
We've always encouraged our students to be positive.
We always want them to do the right thing.
I think this programming is just being taking intentionality to another step or just being
a little more intentional about it and we're really doing something tangible for students
showing them, hey, if I do the right thing, I'm going to get really acknowledged, I'll
get acknowledged around my peers and it is cool and it is good to do the right thing.
Yeah, the message really getting across.
Can I say too, at the assemblies, I think even more than getting the little prizes, having
everyone cheer for you when your name gets read and they also read what you're being
recognized for and I think the kids love that just as much and knowing that other people
are seeing the recognition as well.
It's great.
No, thank you for that.
Not only imagine, I immediately thought of that and yeah, got goosebumps thinking about
it.
That's awesome.
We also got homecoming coming up.
Wanted to go over to schedule with that.
Go over the schedule with you for that.
Absolutely.
It's that time of year, James.
So many fun memories when the listeners think back on homecoming in high school.
Homecoming is next week in Port Edwards.
It is September 20th through the 27th.
I'll just run through some of the highlights.
We have a lot of fun activities going on.
On Saturday night, we have the powder buff volleyball tournament.
That is boys from each grade playing each other.
They'll also be playing a staff team this Sunday.
We have class float building and the powder puff football game on the football field.
We have dress up days every day at school, which is always a great time.
There's costume judging.
The kids try to outdo each other.
They just have a lot of fun with it.
Our annual homecoming night events are taking place on Thursday.
The parade will be at 6 o'clock here in the village of Port Edwards.
There's a map on the school district website as well as on the Facebook page that shows
the parade route.
It's kind of a real classic type of homecoming.
There's been a lot of some changes with homecomings in different communities.
We still have a very traditional homecoming, which I think is really enjoyed by our community.
So we'll have the parade on Thursday night at 6 o'clock that finishes at the high school
about 6.30 or 6.45.
We then have a community-wide pepper alley in the gym where our homecoming royalty are
announced.
After that, probably 30 or 40 minute pepper alley, we all go out to the football field
and we have a 60 or 80 foot bonfire, which everyone still loves.
It's just a great kind of rallying point, gets your whole community together, and it's
just one of the culminating events of homecoming.
So that's next Thursday night.
Saturday night is the football game versus Mary and Tigerton.
That's it for a clock, remember?
We still practice, do our day games in Port Edwards.
Then next Saturday night is the homecoming dance, which begins at 8 o'clock.
That's going to be a blast.
It's a great set of events you've got going on for everybody.
They're going to have a really good time with those and looking forward to hearing how
it goes from community members.
Do you want to take a moment to really shut out the Port Edwards girls volleyball team?
Nice W last night.
We had that game on our radio or sister station 1055, congrats to the Blackhawks, absolutely.
As we're wrapping up, sir, one of them, make sure to mention the Port Edwards parents
organization, get some updates on that, and maybe some student leadership, if you don't
mind.
Absolutely.
The Port Edwards parent organization, oftentimes referred to as people, is a big supporter
of Ed Hoyer Elementary School, and I wanted to share some of the things that they are
doing again this year.
They had their annual Fish Fry fundraiser this past Friday night.
That was at L Cafe in Port Edwards, and L Cafe donated 10% of their profits from 4
PM to 8 PM to people, nearly $500 was contributed in sales from L Cafe.
So we would like to say thank you to Fidel and their staff for putting up with amateur
waiters and waitresses like myself.
We were probably bumping them around a little bit as we were busing tables.
But again, thank you to Fidel and the staff at L Cafe.
They donated that money to people.
Fidel is donating that money or using that money directly for our students at Ed Hoyer
Elementary School.
Some things about people, what does people do?
They've donated, they donate, they raise funds, then they donate the funds toward classroom
and building purchases, additional supplies and materials for our elementary that may
not fit within the standard school budget.
They've purchased playground storage units, a new entryway rug at the elementary school
this year.
They sponsor all kinds of great events that help build the culture of the school and help
bring our families in.
They do a family breakfast in the fall and in the spring.
They purchase holiday gifts for our students and their culminating event at the end of
the year is a massive afternoon long carnival that's held the last week of school.
That is 100% funded by people.
So we want to give a big shout out to them and thank them for supporting and helping to
build the culture at Ed Hoyer Elementary.
Really good people doing some really good work.
Really appreciate the updates as well.
If people have follow up questions, they'd like to know more or reach out to you.
How can they do that, sir?
Absolutely.
You can reach out directly to me.
I'm the elementary principal.
My name, phone number and email are on the Port Edward School District website.
Also the people meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month, 6 o'clock PM in
the elementary library at Ed Hoyer Elementary.
Any Port Edward's Elementary families, parents are welcome to attend.
They can learn more and get involved with people.
That's the last Wednesday of every month at 6 o'clock.
In that Port Edward's website, you mentioned just doing it as we do before every interview,
I throw it into the old search engine, see Port Edward School District, go black hawks,
something along those lines and it pops up right away, everybody.
That website is P-E-S-D dot K-12 dot W-I dot U-S, you can find it very easily, just throw
it into your search engine, encourage you to do that and reach out to the gang over here
because they got there up to some great things when you want you to be a part of it.
Both of you, thank you so much for everything you're putting into our community and putting
up with my silly questions.
Thanks for the time, you two.
Thank you for having us, James.
Thank you.
And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
