South Wood County YMCA - Wisconsin Rapids Boys & Girls Club - October ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crockett Septic

in this episode in particular is brought to you also by Tri-City Services, a big shout

out to both of those wonderful organizations, by local support local, and by local supporting

local is the definition of things over at the South of County YMCA, our guests today.

We're going to be talking with them.

We also have a good friend of ours from the Boys and Girls Club who are getting into

all.

Let you guys introduce yourselves to the audience, quote a voice to the name, and we'll

get going from there.

I won't start on the end here actually.

Okay.

Hi.

My name is Cheyenne Kester.

I am the administration director at the Boys and Girls Club of the Wisconsin Rapids

area.

Cheyenne, great to have you here.

We don't get to talk to the Boys and Girls Club nearly enough.

Wonderful to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, and I'm Heather Kishani.

I'm the executive director with the Southwood County YMCA.

Heather, good to see you again.

It's been a while.

Nice to have you here with us.

Appreciate the time.

And certainly, right up the gate, appreciate so much the work that you and your teams do

for our community and our kids.

Thank you so much.

We greatly appreciate the work there.

And we'll get into how people can get in touch with you both in your organizations before

we wrap up.

But we got, I'm sorry.

The audience knows me well enough now.

You can hear the excitement in my voice.

I'm going to get to talk about Halloween stuff right now, everybody, and I'm so jacked

about this.

The Monster Mash that is coming up, this is a joint collaboration between both of your

organizations, right?

Yes, that's correct.

The Monster Mash will be held on October 30th.

It is a joint collaboration between the boys and girls club in the YMCA.

We use the whole facility for the event.

We're super excited.

It runs from 5.30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

We do ask it is open to the community.

We do just ask that everybody brings a non-perishable food item that we will then take and return

to sweat before we get into the details of the event and what's going on with it.

I know that this isn't the first or certainly the last, but how good does it feel when you

guys get to work together?

Your organizations get to partner on events like this.

I'll start with you, Shay.

Yeah, it's really fun because our buildings are connected and we see each other from time

to time, but you really get to work together on these things, especially something like

Halloween that's super fun for not only their day care members and our club members,

but just the community in general.

Yeah, but we're always excited to be able to collaborate as much as possible and to

bring the community together to really be that hub to support everybody we can.

So events like this allow that opportunity.

I love to highlight this.

I know, and this isn't a negative, but we kind of normalize this stuff, especially in

this area, but living in a lot of different places, I've seen much more of nonprofits

being more for themselves in a lot of ways and understandable, but in this community we're

so much stronger because we work together.

And my good friend, mentor, learned this from Terry Johns at the United Way, and please

don't tell her I said any of that, but Terry really, I saw that from the work that she

would do and such and how much stronger our community was compared to others because

we work together.

And just when these things happen, I like to highlight that.

That's a really cool thing.

And then there's the event itself, which is very cool, very awesome.

What are the details?

What people, what should people know, Shay, and about your guys's involvement at the Boys

and Girls Club with the Monster Mash?

Yes.

So at the Boys and Girls Club, in our part of the building, we'll be doing the haunted

house.

And so it will be very kid-friendly, very family-friendly, not too scary because we know we get a lot

of young ones there, and so we want to make it fun and very family-spooky-oriented.

So more of a haunted walk-through.

Oh, I like that.

Ooh, a cap-o-copy right there.

That's good.

Yes.

And it is themed with the Monster Mash, so classic Monster Mash song, that's what it's

going to be based around.

That's what you can expect.

Very cool.

Very nicely done.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

As far as the wise involvement, and what people can expect from that, what will be going

on over there, what would that have?

Yes.

So our gym will have a DJ with music, so everybody can come in and dance.

There will be a costume contest.

We have crafts set up throughout the facility, and just different activities and games for

people to participate in.

You know, the event itself, and I think even opening your doors on Halloween, literally,

just doing that is a welcome thing for the community, a great thing for the community.

We know, as Halloween has changed so much, even from when you guys were kids, let alone

when I was, and I'm old, and all that, but one thing that I know it's changed a lot,

but I love that the event is still what it is, and it's still kid-focused and family-focused.

In some ways, I think it's gotten stronger in many ways, because of one of the things

that used to keep maybe families from celebrating or getting into it was some of the concerns

you would have.

Events like this are so safe, and there's so much to do at them, that you really are still

getting the full extent of all the things we enjoyed about Halloween.

You know, it's just a little different, just adapted a little bit different to the times.

Not profits.

Events like you guys is the ones that you're hosting here.

That much mean that much more in the community.

It's not just giving communities and these families something to do.

It's really keeping an American tradition alive and well and doing strong.

I think that there's something for that.

There's something to be said for that, along with also getting to dress up.

That's always fun.

It's always fun to me.

I'm an actor.

I get to do this all the time.

One of the things I love about Halloween is everybody gets to be an actor.

As far as the costume contest, keep that in mind, everybody.

When you're putting these costumes together, that's a fun part of it.

The DJ.

I love the addition of that.

That's something that you don't see it a lot of these.

Then there's the building itself and the Y and the boys and girls of themselves.

If you are a resident or new to the area and have not gotten a chance to experience either

of these or know much about these organizations, what a perfect time.

Come on by.

Not only have some fun with the family and enjoy Halloween, maybe the haunted walk through

or even some of the cool things that the Y are doing, but also get maybe some answers

to those questions about these organizations and what they can offer for you and your

family.

It's a real win-win.

That's a burden.

What are the details, what time and date is the Monster Mash going on, Heather?

So the Monster Mash is October 30th from 5.30pm to 8pm.

Once again, it's open to the whole community.

We just ask that you bring a non-perishable food item that we will take in and then donate

it to sweeps.

One other thing that I think is noteworthy about our Y and our boys and girls club and

you guys do these kind of things all the time.

Notice that in most people will see, okay, cool, we're adding to the food pantry.

That's wonderful.

And it is.

And there's no taking lights.

One of my bigger causes that I care about in hunger in this community and all communities.

But there's another lesson there on that too for kids because you're going there with

your family, your kids, you're all dressed up, maybe you're all dressed up as the Adam's

family, something like that fun, and you're walking around with a bunch of cans of food.

And they're going to see you handing those off to people and know why you're doing that.

And boom right there in that little sponge of a brain, it takes in, I'm helping people.

And I'm having fun.

And the more they see that, the more that stays up there and they are more encouraged to

do that when they become adults and everything.

It's another one of these layers to these things that you guys do that is so wonderful, I

think.

And another fun part of this, get on down there and make plans for this event, take

in this Monster Mash everybody.

We'll meet you there.

I would say listening to the song, you know, would help get you ready for it.

I think that's a good idea.

You're going to have to listen to Monster Mash, I guess.

Cheyenne before we wrap up, I'll get more information from you and how people can get

more information from you and reach out to you.

Thank you for the time.

Yeah.

Was there anything else that you wanted to touch on with the Boys and Girls Club involvement?

I think we covered it.

I'm just excited.

I'm getting all the decorations ready and just excited to have fun with it.

Right up, right up.

Looking forward to it.

Very excited for you guys.

I'm excited for it.

It's contagious.

You're excited.

That's great.

Heather.

I want to go over with you and we talk with the Y a lot about membership for all and the

inclusion that the Y wants to have where literally every resident in this area, we want

you to be a Y member.

I want you to know those doors are for you as they are for everybody.

Then you guys do these really cool things every once in a while kind of highlighting in

a certain month.

You have something going on in October?

We do.

We have a membership promotion going on called Fall Fitness for All.

Apparently it is from October 1st through the 10th members or people can come in from

the community and join a membership.

They save half off their October fee and then there is no joiner fee as well.

It's a really nice opportunity for people.

It's another one of these things similar to what I was saying before about the haunted

house.

It's a great opportunity to learn more about the Y.

Find out what it is for you.

How it can work for you because I don't say this lightly.

Just literally something for everybody over there.

Whether you're looking to get into a program, maybe take a training or a class or you just

want to go there and do your own thing.

There is something for everybody, any age range over there with this.

Oftentimes one of the things that we would hear in the past, I mean even going back before

this new building, well I can't afford the Y or I couldn't afford that membership.

That's where membership for all really comes in the play where the Y will work with you.

If it's doable, we're going to figure it out together.

You and the Y are going to be able to work this out because it's more important to the

Y.

I want to keep the lights on.

That's important.

I want to keep Heather a paycheck.

That's important.

But it's not the end goal.

The end goal is to get all the people in this community being able to take in that beautiful

building over there and enjoy all the great services that are there for people.

This membership program sounds like a really cool way to do that.

Yeah, absolutely.

We're very excited for it.

I hope we can get a lot of new members in, but once again just to reiterate the membership

for all program, you can come on in.

They just take some basic information and if you need some assistance and they figure

out what that can look like for you.

We are speaking with Cheyenne Kester from the Wisconsin-Rabbitz Boys and Girls Club and

Heather Kamaci.

Kashani.

Kashani, darn it.

Kashani.

Oh, so close.

Kashani.

Heather from the South of County, YMCA, but thank you both for putting up with me and being

here today.

Before we wrap up, did you want to talk about the turkey trot happening over at the

Y?

Yeah, so we are partnering with Assumption Catholic Schools this year to do a turkey

trot on Thursday, November 27th for starting at 8 a.m.

The event itself is free if folks would like to purchase a t-shirt.

It is $5 and we're super excited to do that in partnership this year.

Yeah, don't feel like we hear about these as much as we used to when we were kids and

everything.

So it's really cool to have this around.

I know how much people enjoy these.

This is one that you're going to want more information on, of course.

Can they find it at the website?

Is that a good place to send it?

Yep.

They can visit our website, southwoodcountywmca.org.

Otherwise, we do have a Facebook page as well.

That's the same southwood county YMCA.

So either one, they can find information on all of our events or programs that we're holding

at the Y.

And be sure to do that, everybody.

In bookmark those web pages so you can keep up the date and all the great things going

on there.

And of course, add our boys and Girls Club of Wisconsin Rapids.

And if people want to get in touch with either of you specifically, Cheyenne, how could

they get in touch with you?

Yeah, email or give us a call at 715-424-2582.

Our website, bgcwa.org, we've got some information on there about our programs and our leadership

and how to contact us on there as well.

It does help if you sing it.

It does help.

It helps you remember.

It does.

It's a great way to do it.

It's a great way to do it.

I want to do that with all the numbers now.

Hey, there.

How about for you if they want to get in touch with you?

Yeah.

And anytime if they have any questions for anybody at the YMCA, 715-818-9622, once again,

they can visit our website, swcymca.org, and go ahead and give us a call for anything.

And be sure to follow both of these groups on social media.

It's a great way to keep up the day and know what they are doing, oftentimes with events

and stuff, letting you know about last second things, social media is a great resource

for that.

Direct messaging, some of that.

And you can, of course, share their posts on your page.

You just never know who might see them, otherwise, help spread the word about so many of these

great events going on with our Boys and Girls Club and South own county YMCA.

Thank you both so much for the time today.

I appreciate you.

Really appreciate what you do in our communities.

Say hi to your staffs for us, okay?

Absolutely.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

Also, a gigantic thank you to our friends at Tri-City Services and Crocket Sceptic.

We greatly appreciate them buying local supporting local.

We encourage you to do that, everybody.

Buy local support local.

And keep on listening for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.