Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this Monday, October 27th, 2025.
Big thank you to our sponsors, Croc and Septic Sponsor in the segment here, giving us
an opportunity to talk to great people like our good friend Matt from the Wisconsin
Ravis Police Department.
Matt, good to see you.
Good to see you too, James.
Thanks for having me.
Always appreciate the time, like hanging out with you, like talking with you, especially
when we get to talk about fun events like we're going to today.
Before we dive into the haunted walkthrough, I do want to rewind a little bit.
Talk about national night out.
How did that go?
It was a great success.
Just like in years past, we saw a large turnout, especially with community organizations.
Vendors were really great this year.
Anybody who wanted to participate was awesome to have along at the event.
We had a large turnout of kids, raptor fans, and it just worked really well with the
raptors because they're grateful to host us there, and we're grateful to have their
support too.
So just to have a large venue like Witterfield and everything going on in the parking lot,
I think it draws more people in, and I think it really, really did well this year.
So I know the raptors have expressed a lot of interest moving forward, doing that down
the line, and we're excited to partner with them.
It's an important event.
It's a great one for many, many reasons that we talked about highlighting it and talking
about it going up to the event, and we certainly, as a community know what it means, means
to us citizens and some of that.
I have that perspective already in hand.
I'm curious how much it means to you and your colleagues for you guys.
I can only imagine it's got to be a very rewarding event.
It means a lot to all of us, because as we mentioned before, and the last time I was
in here was probably late July, I mean, time really flies right now, really almost at
the end of 2025.
It's so funny you said that because I felt like you were here a week ago.
I know, that's what I thought too when I came in.
The big thing is, it really does mean a lot to us.
When we get to see those positive connections being formed, especially with the youth in
our community, the organizations in our community, and building those bridges.
The most important thing, because already we've made some connections at those events.
We see them out in the community when we're on patrol or we're doing other type of activities
within the community.
We just open up that dialogue and conversation.
I can't say it enough.
It's extremely important to have that.
I feel very confident, even though I don't have stats for this or anything, but I'm certain
that police departments and sheriff's departments have wanted to do these kind of things since
they're inception.
They've wanted this.
It's so cool to be in these times now where we see events like this.
We have these events in their common.
We get a lot of these a year and stuff, and I think we could use even more of them and
stuff.
It's a really cool place we're at with this topic with all of these things.
Kind of piggybacking off of that into another event that you and your team get to be a part
of the community with and have some fun, the haunted walkthrough that is coming up.
Let's tell people what this event is.
Yes, so the haunted walkthrough has been a also large success for us in the past.
Coming up on this Friday, October 31st from 3pm to 5pm at the council chambers at City
Hall in Wisconsin Rapids for the address for maybe people that don't know 444 West Grand
Avenue in Wisconsin Rapids on the west side of the river.
Just enter through the main doors of City Hall and the council chambers are directly to
the right.
It'll all be decked out with Halloween gear and you'll know where to go once you get in
there.
I know in years past we've had just a countless amount of people come in there.
Not just the youth, but their parents.
It gives everybody a chance just like national night out to meet us in person, have good
conversations and one thing I do really want to bring up is if our first contact with youth
in the community is maybe giving them some candy, smiling, having a quick conversation
with them, we just made a great first impression.
I mean, I mentioned that the last time when I was young growing up in Wisconsin Rapids,
the Packer, Brewer Cards, big first impression with me and police officers.
There are things that are just interesting, there are things that we can kind of follow
through on and see, oh yeah, that can see how this can impact things.
Then there's stuff like this that you're talking about there that have such a huge impact
that we don't really know the words for.
We don't really know how to put it into words.
That individual that just taking, for example, that one kid, that kid grows up and in life
whether they want to or they have an issue, it happened in their life or they don't.
Or whatever the case might be, that they feel comfortable going to an officer.
But that they also raise their kids to feel more comfortable that way.
This is how we change things generation wise.
This is how we build this bridge stronger and stronger, not just for the current people,
but for what we're doing this for our kids, all of this, whatever you're doing in life,
it's all building to the next generation and everything.
That's how we do this.
There's this other part of this too to me that is so impactful about it.
The idea of yes, that kid hopefully feels comfortable going to an officer.
Maybe the kid wants to be an officer.
Maybe that kid grows up and says, hey, that's really cool.
I want to do that.
We could never use enough of that.
We could never use enough of being a people seeing that from a young age as a very good
career, a very good industry to get into.
Absolutely.
When we're driving around and maybe a child or it could be even an adult, we had that
positive police interaction.
We always talk about that in our profession.
How can we positively impact somebody's life even if it is a negative situation, not
saying anything about the walkthrough?
This is a very positive event, but even at events like this, how can we positively impact
somebody?
When you're driving down the street and somebody's waving at you and they're excited to
see you and they just want to talk to you, that's the greatest feeling ever because you
know that that more than likely came from a past interaction.
These things, whether it is handing out those cards or it is these events, the national
light out, any of these, it keeps building those bridges and keeps making that impact
to a point where maybe whether it's years from now, a decade from now or whatever, it's
so much more common what you're talking about there, people waving it off, it's almost
like you're a rig going by or something like that.
I think that's pretty cool.
I think that's great.
There's no downside to that for our communities out there.
There's a lot of strength in it.
When it comes to the event itself, you kind of described it to a degree, is there anything
that people should know parents should know about, or are there anything like that as
far as, you know, costume wise or things to be aware of for the event?
We try to make it family friendly.
Costumes are obviously, that's the big point of it too and we welcome parents as well.
It's not just an event for the kids, we want the parents to come in and have that exposure
to us as well.
There's going to be a lot of police officers, a lot of public safety on scene two and I'm
just going to run down the list of who's going to be there.
I've got it right here in front of me.
So we got the Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department, Wood County Sheriff's Department, the dispatch
from Wood County, Elks Lodge, number 693, Southwood County, Maine Society, Coldwell Bankers,
Seaward Relatures, Wisconsin Rapids Deca, Wisconsin Rapids Starbucks, and the early autism
project in Wisconsin Rapids.
So everything is set in place again for those good community partnerships.
We have to give a lot of credit to also the city of Wisconsin Rapids, Mayor Zackers, been
very grateful to continue this event.
And also I got to give a big shout out to Officer Oliveris, he puts this event together
and he spends a lot of time organizing, getting the candy, getting the room ready and making
sure that everything is set so it looks like a real nice haunted walk through and a haunted
house type feel.
I imagine when you're going through the difficult training to become an officer, this doesn't
come to mind very often.
Like one of the things you'll be doing eventually is decorating.
Decorating the officer or picking up, getting Halloween caddy for a Halloween event.
But that's awesome.
That's a fun part of this.
Maybe it becomes more of a normalized thing going forward, not just for our community
but other communities out there and hopefully more and more do these things.
It's a really noteworthy thing, all those different organizations you bring up coming
together to bring this on for the community.
We greatly appreciate that.
And you know, here's something else and I bring this up not just with you, but others
when it comes to the topic of Halloween, we see things in our society that have gone
to the wayside.
Things, you know, you and I are two different generations.
But for both of our generations, we've seen this happen where we used to do that as a
kid and we don't do it anymore.
Here's one that is a society we've kept this around.
Maybe Halloween got a little more dangerous.
Maybe a Halloween, they got a little more unfriendly for families and got them a little scared.
Where what we could have done is just stopped.
Just completely stopped this holiday and it doesn't even exist anymore or anything like
that.
And instead, as a society, we didn't wait for somebody to tell us to do this or anything.
We created events that would make Halloween safe for kids.
We created ideas to do this.
We did this.
There's such a strength in that that I don't think we appreciate enough and it's understandable.
Time only goes forward and everything we got a lot to do.
But I hope everybody this Halloween can take a moment, a beat and be like, wow, we're
still doing this.
We made this still safe.
We made this still a thing for kids.
It speaks to, well, if we can do it with this, we can do it with anything and it brought
all of us together.
It took people from all different walks of life to be able to pull these things off.
It's really noteworthy.
I think it's really cool how we still have this a holiday and how kids are still able
to celebrate it.
And if there is that hesitancy from parents, it is a controlled environment.
They can understand that we are going to host a very safe event.
The candy is going to be safe.
I know that's been stuff in the past who our parents have been worried about candy and
really what it boils down to and something else I was going to bring up is that it does
take a whole community to have a safe community.
It goes back to what we talked about at the beginning right, the positive police interactions.
We need the assistance from the community to ensure that we are constantly running a safe
place to live.
I think that's what makes Central Wisconsin and Wisconsin rap is great.
We have that great community support, but we want to continue that.
These events are a big way to help ensure that that stays in a positive light.
When it comes to tips for Halloween for people out there, things to keep in mind.
It's never a bad idea to go through some reminders out there for everyone.
Are there things that you find noteworthy that you think, be sure to keep an eye on this?
Yeah, absolutely.
Make sure that I just a note for the parents.
Just check over the kids' candy.
If you see anything suspicious, inspect it.
Don't be afraid to give us a call.
It's no burden to us at all.
If you need any assistance or help or identifying anything, give the police department a call.
If you're outside of Wisconsin rap is just give Wood County dispatch a call and someone
would be happy to come over and help you and take a look at stuff, but just make sure
you're inspecting stuff.
Talk to your kids, have supervision with them, have good communication about where they're
going to be and supervise them as well as you can.
My father was really, really good about that, although I think part of it was him picking
up what candy he wanted to take.
It was a little 50-50, a little column A, a little column B, but it was a really appreciated.
Maybe the toughest question I have to ask you before we let you go, Matt, do you go
back in your memory bank and everything?
You got a favorite costume you had growing up?
Did you have one that you enjoyed or even a resell as an adult at your app?
Well, I haven't been around too long, but I feel like I've been around a little bit
now where I can say back when Harry Potter was really big in the early 2000s.
I dressed up as Harry Potter and I think that was probably my most notable costume.
I was more of a shy kid, so trick-or-treating kind of fizzled out for me a little bit
earlier than some.
I still love candy.
I love candy as an adult, but I don't know who wouldn't like candy, but I would probably
say going back to your question, probably my Harry Potter costume was my favorite.
Fantastic answer.
Appreciate that.
As a side note, I think that's really interesting to mention being shy.
I would have never guessed that.
I've noticed that a number of officers I've talked to over the years have said similar
things and speaks to also another part of this industry that I think is really helpful
to people and can really get people to get out of their shell and all those things.
It's really interesting.
Always good talk with you, Matt.
Really do appreciate the time.
If people have fault questions, they would like to know more or maybe even ask your opinions
on some of the things that they're a Halloween event or something like that, is there a way
to reach you?
Yeah, absolutely.
There's a couple of ways to reach us.
You can always stop by City Hall, Police Department directly on your left when you walk
in.
You can call our phone number during business hours, 715-423-4444.
And also reach out to us on Facebook if you have any questions.
We're more than happy to have a dialogue with you on there and be transparent about
everything.
So if you need anything, reach out to us.
Be happy to help you out.
And one more time, if you give people the details of the Haunted Walkthrough.
It'll be coming up this Friday, October 31, 3pm to 5pm at City Hall in Wisconsin Rapids.
Again, that address is 444 West Grand Avenue.
It's actually 544-95 because it's on the west side of the river.
And that is going to be in the council chambers.
So when you walk directly through those front doors in the vestibule, just take a right.
Everything will be set up.
Always appreciate the time from our Wisconsin Rapids Police Department.
And when you can have a chance to join us, Matt, doors open.
Always, we'll talk again real soon.
Thanks.
Thank you, James.
I appreciate being on.
And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of Crocket Sceptic Sponsored.
Rapids Report here at 975-FM 1320-AMWFHR.