Supporting Veterans At Kopke’s Greenhouse (Hour 1)

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Good afternoon, everybody.

Along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer, I'm Todd Alba.

We are live on location here in the town of Dunne in beautiful Dane County.

That's just outside of Oregon, which is just south of Madison, Wisconsin.

And we are a beautiful cop keys greenhouse here on it might be a little drizzly, a little, a little gray of the

outside.

But wow, if you're not on our stream today, you want to get there either on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, whatever your streaming preferences are, we have the cameras set up.

And behind me right here, we are inside of one of the beautiful greenhouses here, lots of red, white and blue.

We are going to be talking to Gordy Kopke, the owner and proprietor, the founder here of Kopke's greenhouse a little bit later this hour.

Find out about this great local business.

Kopke's are one of our great spot

here at Civic Media.

So always great to highlight them, but we'd be here anyway, quite frankly, because it's a beautiful, beautiful place to be and more important.

Well, as importantly, we'll say it that way coming up this Sunday.

their annual event, and this is a great event.

Sunday, May 25th, it's going to be all afternoon long, but at 3pm, a special auction, and they're going to have all kinds of beautiful planters out here for you to bid on all the proceeds from the planters, as well as the concessions, the brats, the sodas, all that sort of thing.

all those monies will go to Wisconsin Badger Honor Flight to bring our veterans from the Madison area, the Wisconsin area out to Washington DC and honor them for their service.

So just a really great cause, especially on this Memorial Day weekend.

I'm going to be talking to Gordy Kopke a little bit later this hour and we'll talk some plants as well.

Do you have a green thumb?

Do you want to have a green thumb?

We'll answer some of your plant questions a little bit later on in this show as well.

But right

right now on a hump day.

By the way, it is.

Thank you.

I forgot about the cable that I got so excited about the flowers

on this

Wednesday, the 20th of May.

I forgot about the cable, but you can never forget about our Wendy.

Well, Wednesday guests.

If I could talk joining us live for beautiful Lake Wissota in just the Chippewa Valley area there of Wisconsin.

Mr. Pat Crite low host of mornings with Pat Crite low now from six until nine across the civic media ready network and from our nation's capital outside of Washington DC.

Mr. Trigby Olson, a former Republican like myself and now the senior advisor at the Lincoln Project.

Gentlemen, how the heck are you?

Well, we're the heck in hoodies.

Him and his badger hoodie, mine and my Western Michigan Broncos hoodie.

You are bundled up like Nanooka, the north over there in the greenhouse.

It's

pretty warm in here.

Well, OK.

Relatively

speaking,

I got my jacket on, my civic

media hat.

So we're a little cold.

We're kind of waiting for spring to come on back.

But I know, right?

It could be worse.

It could be worse.

Trigby, how is the weather out in DC?

You know, I haven't been outside today because it's rainy.

Oh, okay.

It's raining.

There you go.

All right.

He doesn't get out much.

You know, and my 13-year-old wanted to ride to school and dad was like, no.

Patrick, Patrick, you have your Western Michigan.

I don't think we took time because, you know, you're a busy guy.

You're traveling all over the world, but your son-in-law is a national

champion, right?

Yes, works for the Western Michigan hockey team and the Broncos are your division one NCAA men's hockey champions.

So it was fun to watch them all throughout.

And then after the championship game, this hoodie that had worn for many games throughout the season, I put up on the top shelf of the closet figuring I wouldn't need it until next season.

And then there was a windshield, the likes of which we haven't experienced in a while here in Chippewa.

When I was gassing and again,

up the car and getting groceries yesterday with the sideways rain pelting you and that stiff wind out of the east.

And yeah, we're back in hoodie weather for a little while here.

Yeah, it's it's a little chilly.

Well, we're actually going to be up in Chippewa Valley with the show tomorrow in the Greater Eau Claire area.

No, we'll

see.

Is

that

still the plan?

Well, that's still the plan.

We thought about doing the show from

patched pontoon boat on Friday.

Or an ice shack.

Or an ice shack.

The lake might be

frozen over

by then.

I don't know.

You know, it would be really if you're still thinking about coming up.

We've got a lovely patio here with Lake Wissota in the background.

I'll be

there.

I'll be in the air.

I'm coming up for my youngest niece's artist, or Isabel's high school graduation from Eau Claire Memorial.

on Thursday night and the parties on on Saturday.

So

very nice.

And it's always

great to be in the Chippewa Valley.

Shishu's comment on YouTube is perfect.

It's your fault, Pat.

You put the hoodie away too soon.

Yes, I will take full responsibility between that and running away to Portugal last week.

I just invited all the bad weather to come back this week.

My bad.

How was the trip, Pat?

It was amazing.

Portugal was not on my list.

You know, going to Europe in general, yes, but I hadn't like looked at individual countries, had a dear friend getting married there.

And they asked me to perform the ceremony.

And so I was doing that and Sherry and I got there a week ahead of time so we could see much more of the country.

And two things worth noting that I think might be of interest to Trigvi as well.

One is that their national elections were held.

last weekend, too, as we were there.

Interesting.

And it really says something about work.

We're not crazy about the two party system here.

That's a little too limited.

But they've got 10 parties to work with.

And they're having a heck of a time that that was their third national election in four years, trying to get a consensus government.

So that was the one point about Portugal.

But the other thing they'll be quick to tell you is they've only been at this democracy thing for 50 years.

because it was uh 50 now 51 years ago that Portugal was on the verge of uh civil war after 50 years of a of a basically a dictatorship and so they are still enjoying the freshness of democracy there's a little voter fatigue with these three elections lately but

Unlike a lot of folks on, say, the MAG attempt, these folks in Portugal remember what it's like when you let despots in power and you let authoritarians run ragged across your country.

Their economy is booming now because of democracy and freedom and we would do well to not want to repeat what other countries have had to go through.

Very, very interested indeed.

Guys, I don't like to get too much into deep, deep partisan politics when we're on location at a business, but I did want to touch on this since I have both you guys here.

It's a little insider based ballish, but but you guys are the perfect people to talk about it.

Trigby, the Republican Party of Wisconsin had their state convention this past weekend in Ross child.

Brian Scheming survived.

There was kind of an attempt to vote to start taking him out and that got voted down.

So Brian Arthur Scheming still remains the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

And then coming up next month will be the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's convention.

And it appeared to be

that Joseph Peckie was kind of the inside track to to to win a takeover for Ben Wickler, who's not going to run again for the chair of the Democratic Party.

But now Wickler comes out yesterday and announces that he's going to endorse after saying he won his deputy.

And Pat, you had that guy on the show today.

Trigby, then Pat, what do you what do you make of these?

If anything, is this important to the average Wisconsinite?

These kind of kind of inside party fighting.

No, I don't think it matters much at all that the average Wisconsinite they're not paying a lot of attention to it It matters a lot for the blocking and tackling and elections in Wisconsin who wins the various races I guess I'll leave the Democrats to Pat, but you know, does it surprise me that shimming prevailed?

And there was less noisy.

No, not really because truth of the matter is

You know, sometimes what you discover with sort of that mega-wing, lots of noise, but not a lot of behind it.

What do you make Ron Johnson, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin seems to be at odds once again with Republican Derek Van Orton in the third district.

Van Orton all in the Trump train saying you have to pass what Trump calls the big beautiful bill, i.e.

the big expensive budget bill.

And Ron Johnson saying, no, we have to cut even further.

Is that just more noise?

No, I mean, I just think it gets to the truth of the matter is the Republican Party and it's been true for a while is a

Sort of a messed up coalition of people that don't really want to be in coalition with each other It's a marriage of convenience mostly because a lot of them care about one thing power I think the bigger thing with Ben Orton is did you see this thing where he?

He's sometimes he's not the most adept at media relations He got asked a question about elections and losing and he said well, maybe we don't need spring elections anymore in, Wisconsin

Yeah, we played that actually yeah and shimmy laughed at it

because because the reporter went up to him afterwards and just showed me and said did you what you agree with uh congressman van and he cut the reporter off and says i always agree with congressman van orton what do

you want to

hear it he wants to get rid of spring elections i think i mostly agree with congressman van orton

So

when your state chairman is metaphorically lighting you on fire in front of the media, maybe that's a sign that was a mistake to do over on the van odd one, man.

He's

something else.

Yeah.

Over on the Democratic side, yes, we had Devon Remaker on today.

Very happy to tout his endorsement from Ben Wickler.

Joseph Pecky had some strong things to say about that on social media, and I'm sure that he will say those things again tomorrow when he's on our program during the 8 a.m.

hour.

And then we will have the third candidate in the race, William Garcia, on in the 8 a.m.

hour on Friday.

So all three candidates today, tomorrow and Friday, folks can go over to our show page.

over at civicmedia.us and listen to them all.

That sounds great.

Is this good for the Democratic Party, Pat?

I mean, Tariq, me and I come from the other side.

I mean, you were a former Democratic state legislator.

Is this a good thing for the party to have these kind of discussions, if not fights on leadership?

I think this one is it's going to be a net positive.

I think that you've got people who

Ben Wickler's given you big shoes to fill and they're looking at all three of these candidates and seeing who's most capable of doing that.

All three of these candidates are trying to not get boxed in by or get pigeonholed that Joseph Ecke is the Milwaukee candidate or the outside the party candidate that Devon Remaker is the inside the party candidate and that William Garcia is the you know the out state candidate when all three of them have you know talents that would serve the party well.

There's not any any one of those three that I would be unhappy with.

Like Trigvie I'd say this does not matter to the average voter.

but the people who work really hard inside the party, especially at the county party level, there's gonna be a lot said about whether this motivates them.

Ben Wickler was a motivator.

Martha Lanning was not as friendly to county parties as she was to say kind of these ad hoc local organizations.

And so every chair brings something different into it in terms of whether they have the motivation, the organization, the messaging, and the ability to bring in money.

And I think it's just going to be a nice, honest debate.

And then Democrats will quickly come together and move

on.

From a DC perspective, you've worked, obviously, on the Republican side.

I know you've kind of reached across the aisle with your work in the Lincoln Project, to some degree.

The lobbying class, the money class out in DC, do they keep track of this kind of stuff at the state level, or does it really matter what it comes to a statewide

election?

Yeah, maybe the consultant class more than anybody, right?

Yeah.

But I think not huge.

The one thing I would say, though, is there is more attention paid to Wisconsin because it's Wisconsin.

Right.

It is, you know.

Michigan and Pennsylvania and Arizona get a little bit more attention to that stuff.

Well, we're going to pay attention to things here in Copkeys Greenhouse.

We are live on location Oregon, Wisconsin.

I'm going to come back and ask Pat and Trigby their memories of Memorial Day on the old campaign circuit and what it means to have these veterans memorials.

We'll talk about that more on the other side.

We're live on location of Copkeys on the civic media.

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Welcome back to the Towel Ball Show live on location on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We are at Kopkes Greenhouse in the town of Dunn just outside the city of Oregon in beautiful Dane County, a little drizzly outside.

But as Gordy, the proprietor here at Kopkes likes to say when it's when it's raining outside, that's when you want to come in and buy your plants and then you plant them when it's nice out.

Gordy is going to be joining us here after the bottom of the hour break talking about Kopkes and also talking about this great event coming up.

this weekend on Sunday, May 25th.

The actual auction will be at three o'clock in the afternoon, but the event happened all day long.

It's live music.

It's great concessions, brats, hot dogs, that sort of thing.

Great sodas.

And then they have this big plant auction.

They have planters that they auction off.

And some of their right now they're here in the greenhouse.

Normally these things will go for anywhere around 70 to 80 bucks a pot.

And then they auction them off usually go well over $100.

Some of them maybe not quite that much.

But the key is all the proceeds from those planters at this auction as well as all the concession proceeds go to the Badger Honor Flight here in Wisconsin, which helps get our veterans from Wisconsin out to Washington DC to honor them.

Pat is a former state legislator.

I know part of the duties are going around giving speeches, particularly around the Memorial Day, dedicating veterans monuments.

And Trigvie, you went around, of course, with John McCain, one of our great veterans of all time.

You worked for him, not just here, but around the world.

I'd like to ask each of you what this weekend, remembering the fallen and Pat, particularly as you represented areas, what this weekend means to you, your remembrances of it?

It reminds me from my time there that I wish more people

uh had had reason to or would make reason to take part in some of these ceremonies a lot of these smaller communities they just do either a short parade or a short memorial service uh you know in in a local town uh park or or something like that and to again hear the the stories of sacrifice to remember that these were these were

actual names, actual people in your hometown.

They're not just words on a marker as you drive past the courthouse every so often.

And I know being the son of a soldier who served during the Cold War on the border between East Germany and West Germany back in the 1960s, he knew so many people who were

Serving in Vietnam instead and who again, you know paid that ultimate price and service to their country that just simply must never be forgotten and another way that you avoid that is also not Not damaging the military not hurting our veterans say for veterans health care And I know people are going all here Pat's gonna politicize this look if you're gonna honor veterans Don't just make it a simple gesture on Memorial Day for the fallen

It's something, show that honor all year long and I'm seeing a real reduction in that honor lately to put it mildly.

Yeah, Trigby.

You know, I mean, I guess I think about a few things and when it comes to Memorial Day, one is, you know,

as a kid growing up and occasionally when I'm back the parade and then the ceremony that they have at the at the cemetery in River Falls is just fantastic and it's always the sort of passing of the baton for the high school band because you've got the kids who are graduating and and I think about back when I was a senior

And I wish I would have understood it better.

You know, there was a guy, Adie Halverson, who I think I've mentioned before on the show.

I ushered with him at church.

What I didn't understand about Adie is he was a survivor of the Baton Death March.

And I didn't really get what that meant.

I knew that others kind of had respect for him that was unique.

He never talked about it.

And...

He was the kind of guy that made the city of River Falls run.

There is an element of that to some degree that I think we've lost.

that

that

generation had because they were so shaped by their experiences at such a young age.

And coincidentally, we had Dan Hagan on from WJFWTV yesterday.

And he got very somber in noting that he had a relative who also died in the Bhutan death march that again brings to life the sacrifices that we should never forget.

Totally agree.

I hope people will take time this Memorial Day weekend to remember the sacrifices the freedoms that we all Enjoy were paid for with real lives and real blood.

You guys obviously trigger you live in DC and oh Pat you've been there several times Agree probably one of the most powerful parts of DC is a visit to Arlington National Cemetery

Yeah, you know, we typically go there on Memorial Day because there's a whole

set of veterans to go and and ride Harleys along the street in the Iwo Jima Memorial is a great place to go and watch those guys go by and as they they drive around and and it's always kind of an exciting time because they're um the you know starting on Friday they're going to start rolling in and it's kind of got the Wisconsin tradition because there's a lot of guys on Harleys of course but um yeah

I would just

underscore that I hope that people take this opportunity as well to not only focus on the sacrifice, that is the main reason for the holiday, but the service of it as well.

These are people who served their country.

And that, you know, as I know, one of the listeners was saying on YouTube here right now, let's not just have, you know, a bunch of empty gestures.

Let's actually instill the values of service to the next generation.

I do see that.

I'm not one of those that's going to say, oh, the whole younger generation, they have no idea.

There

are,

but you could never do it enough to remind people of the value of service.

I typically talk about it.

I get it from an electoral standpoint.

but whether it's in the military or health or teaching or some other ways, we really need to get this notion of service back rather than being selfish and I'm going to get mine and I'm going to get power or whatever the case may be.

Let's serve our fellow man and woman.

Pat Crite-Lake, you hear him every morning from six until nine across civic media on mornings with Pat Crite-Lake and Trig V. Olsen, of course, joins us every Wednesday to talk politics.

We appreciate you guys.

We'll see you next week after the holiday.

I'll see you on Friday on Lake Wissota.

That's right.

That's right.

A frozen tundra of Lake Wissota.

Exactly.

All right, guys.

Thanks so much.

Come on back, Dr. Gordy Kopke.

We're here live on location at Kopke's Greenhouse where we have this big auction for our veterans coming up on Memorial Day weekend here at Kopke's Greenhouse.

You're listening to the Toddleball Show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Welcome back to the Taliban show on the civic media-ready network where it is now 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Wednesday the 20th of May 21st, pardon me, 21st of May here and we are live on location at Kopkes Greenhouse in the town of Dunn that's just outside of the city of Oregon.

which is just south of Madison.

So there you go.

There's your directions.

Easy to get to.

In fact, I had I was almost out of gas.

And so I went to Oregon first.

It's like it's like less than a five minute drive from Oregon out to Copkeys.

And we're here live on location.

If you're watching on the stream on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, I hope that you are because it's beautiful.

We're inside even though it's a little rainy outside today.

We are inside here in one of their greenhouses, all kinds of beautiful baskets and planters behind us here kind of a red, white

theme and we are joined here at our our make up our desk here on location of Copkeys by the founder and owner himself that's our Gordy Copkey Gordy how the heck are you?

Fantastic

Todd.

Well, I can't thank you enough for allowing us to come out here today.

Number one, because I just love coming out here, it's a beautiful place, learn about plants.

But number two, once again, to talk about this great event that you're having this weekend to raise money for the Badger Honor Flight.

Well, it's an honor for us to have you out here as well.

And we have been doing this for a number of years and building up quite a clientele that come out.

just specifically for this auction and because all the money goes for a good cause.

Yeah, it really does.

Before we get into that, I think it's a good time.

You are so kind as to have us out here last year.

But just for folks that might not have joined us last year, tell us a little bit about Copkeys.

How long have you been here and how did this all come to pass?

Well, I was in alternative energy back in the late 70s and then Ronald Reagan got in and did away with the tax credits that helped one didn't he tore the solar collectors off the White House and I was sort of unemployed at the time and and I had grown up farming just a mile down the road and My best friend and I started a windmill business back in the late 70s and when yeah selling wind power generators and solar water heaters and

that went out of business.

And so I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with my life.

That could be doing something noble with my time.

And I built my first greenhouse in 1981 to start transplants for growing vegetables to sell at the farmer's market.

And things went very well.

We kept building a couple more greenhouses.

And then my mother, who was a very avid flower gardener,

convinced me to grow some flowers in the greenhouse while I could grow stuff but I didn't know mums are marigolds but I could grow stuff so I started growing flowers and taking them to the market and then over the course of time it just occurred to me that there was quite a significant demand for flowers and

you could grow them on benches.

You didn't have to bend over and pick them up off the ground like tomatoes and peppers.

And so we opened to further retail in 1984 to sell a few plants out of one little hoop house down here.

I didn't have much of imagination.

I could never have imagined that we were going to be the largest retail

grower to retail operation in the state of wisconsin

just incredible

yes it is

wow and uh... how many uh... how many hoop houses do you have

now?

we have 34 greenhouses all together about three and a half acres undercover and then we have about a half acre production outside as well

Well, I think that's an important thing, especially for a day like today for our listeners to know in the Madison area, but really all we go all across the state.

And if you ever want to take a drive, say on a weekend, say, I want to go just have a great day and make a day of it.

I really would encourage you to come to Kopke's because like on a day like today, you have so much as undercover.

You can come here and shop and never, never get wet.

Yes, exactly.

One time we had tour buses that used to come in from Green Bay.

Really?

Yeah, Galina, Illinois, and we have still have a good customer clientele that comes up from Chicago that shops here as well.

And if people don't want to come here to the greenhouse in the town of Dunn, you're on the farmer's market on the square every Saturday morning as well.

We are at the farmer's market, although it's, you know, we get 16.

feet of space.

Right.

We also rent a parking lot in Stoughton and we do about 10 to 12 percent of our business

is

sold right out of our little Stoughton

store.

It's quite an ordeal.

Was it busy for sitting to my last week?

It was.

Up to Sunday, the parking lot gets pretty congested during the parade time.

Before the parade and after the parade, we do okay.

We're here at Copkey's greenhouse in the town of Dunn talking to Gordy Copkey.

Before we get into the honor flight, Gordy, a little bit more about the business.

I know that you kind of slowly transitioned already handing the business over to the next generation.

This is a family owned business.

This is an independent business, which for me is really, really important as we travel the entire state.

I love talking to family owned businesses.

I get it, you know, the big box stuff is fine to a degree, but I really like it when there's a family owned local business who's invested in the community.

Yes, thank you.

I've set up my retirement scenario in such a manner that I have another generation that's hopefully going to take over and I'm sharing, gifting my stock in the corporation to six of the employees, one of which is my stepson, and they are collectively going to take this over and hopefully...

keep my name going long after I'm out of here.

Well, Josh has been incredible.

We talked to him setting this up as well.

And I know one of the other things I think you called in one day to the show.

You're a listener.

We appreciate not only are you a sponsor, but you're a listener.

We always appreciate that, Gordy.

Not only are you noted for your plans, but I think it's important to you maybe your service out here.

Well, thank you.

We have been voted

Best Garden Center for four years for the People's Choice Award.

And I think the last two or three consecutive years as the best customer service, which includes not just greenhouses, but all of the businesses in this local area.

And we spend a lot of resources hiring people who love to share their knowledge with other people.

And it's paid off for

us.

I know when I've come out here and shop before I was out here a couple of weeks ago and got some plans for mom.

I'm provincial and center and you can't, you can't go more than 20, 25 feet.

And people aren't intrusive, but are you okay?

Do you need anything?

You find everything okay?

And if you need, and what's great about it is they're not just nice folks who will help you carry stuff out to your car.

They're knowledgeable.

You can ask them a plant question.

Hey, is this going to grow in the sun?

Is this an annual or a perennial?

There's real plant knowledge here.

to help whether it's the most experienced gardener or whether it's a novice.

Yes, we try to hire people who have a passion for gardening and like to share that knowledge with them and so we have it sort of set up with some

annual people answering annual questions.

We have a perennial staff that will answer your perennial questions and then we generally have a person in the vegetable house that will answer questions pertaining to the vegetable garden as well.

So there are no stupid questions at Kopke's greenhouse.

Everybody's welcome and you'll get a good answer.

Well,

I've heard a stupid question really once in a while, but I tried not to let on.

Really

nice about it.

Yeah.

Midwest.

Nice.

Uh, well, the big question are our owner CEO stage while, uh, looking for raspberry bushes before we went on the, uh, the air, I already talked to your staff.

I found some, so I'm going to take stage some raspberries here at the end of the show.

So he's, he's very excited about that.

And it doesn't matter whether you're doing a vegetables, as Gordy said, plants or a guard or a.

flowering plants, annuals, or perennials.

And what I really like, and I got some of these from Mom last year, are the native species of wildflowers here.

That's a really cool aspect.

If people want to kind of plant, there's a big push on

controversy over no Mo May but I think a lot of experts say rather than don't mow your yard just plant native species and that's better for the pollinators.

Exactly and there's been a big move in the last several years to move to more natives and so we tried to cater to that demand as well so we have a section

that can help those folks out as well.

All right, sounds good.

Talking to Gordy Kopke here at Kopke's greenhouse in the town of Dunn.

Gordy, this event coming up this weekend, I think it's one of the coolest things around.

It's a big auction.

It's a big day.

Lots of fun, but there's also a very serious aspect of honoring those who have served before raising money for the honor flights.

Tell folks about it.

Yeah, we started a number of years ago.

I was up at the EAA when the plain load of the vets came back through there.

And I was almost brought to tears to see these veterans coming back and how well they were treated by the people who were welcoming them back home.

And so I did a little more investigation into it and found out that they have a chapter here in southern Wisconsin.

We started the first couple of years, we'd just do a silent auction where you come up, put your number and outbid the next person.

And one of my good customers, Bob Johnson from down by Milton, is an auctioneer.

And he saw we were doing it, he said, oh, come on, I can raise more money than what you're doing.

He says, I'll donate my time and we're gonna do this thing live.

I said, okay, Bob, let's go for it.

And since then, he's an amazing character.

He brings out the most out of people and last year we were able to raise $16,000 just in planting Wow.

Yeah,

that's 16 grand in plants alone

and then we did another four grand on our Broadstand and and that's basically runs Saturday Sunday Monday where people come up and just put a few bucks in whatever they want to and And it goes for a great cause.

Well, I think it's so cool because for those that might not know and I know our our friend and colleague Jane Matt

air every morning from 9 until 11.

She's had people on.

I believe there's another chapter in Milwaukee that does flights as well on General Mitchell Field.

This is the Badger on her flight out of Madison.

They go to the Ding County Airport and and if you haven't heard of it, this is where they.

Money is raised like Gordy and Kopkes here is doing this weekend and then they take veterans I think it started with World War two veterans and I'm not mistaken but now it goes all the way through people who have served in the I think Afghan or Iraqi war Vietnam certainly and they take him out to DC take him to the respective memorials just to say thank you and and what though when people come back when the veterans come back the airport hallways oftentimes are lined with family and

friends and they're clapping and they're giving them the welcome home that some of these vets Gordy didn't have when they came back from service.

Exactly.

I was treated as a guest a couple of years ago because we've raised enough money where we spent quite a few people on this.

excursion and I got to ride along with it and to come back and see the thousands of people waiting there at Dane County to welcome these people.

I was just overwhelmed and as they were, a lot of the guys were in tears because of the appreciation that they were receiving.

somewhat delayed in many cases.

And correct me if I'm wrong.

Does each veteran get to choose a chaperone or a guest that goes with them?

Sometimes it's a kid or a grand kid or somebody like that that goes with them on this.

And what a what an amazing experience for them to learn firsthand from their from their grandparent or from their parent and maybe find out things that mom or dad were never able to discuss before with them.

Yeah, a lot of its children and a couple of people on the plane.

and I was with, there was grandchildren.

But yeah, definitely a lot of the soldiers never told the stories of what they experienced.

Yeah, it's tough.

I mean, I never served, but when I worked for a member of Congress, I had the honor of doing military and veterans affairs, and you get just a little bit of a taste of what these families go through, what the service, of course, this weekend, we remember those who gave all and gave their lives for this country.

And I just want to say thanks to you and to Kopkes Greenhouse, because this is a great example of what civic media talks about all the time, community.

Nobody's making you do this.

You don't have to do it.

But here you're taking, you know, you've been gifted a lot and now you're paying it forward every year with this great event coming up on Sunday here at three o'clock.

The auction, right?

Yes.

But it goes all day.

The event goes all

day.

The event goes all day.

Brats start being served at 10.

We have live music comes on from 11 to three.

All right.

We'll come on back.

We'll talk a little bit more about greenhouses and the honor flight where a cop key is greenhouse on location.

The title of all show on the civic media.

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Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it, welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media ready to work.

We are live on location at Copkey's greenhouse in the town of Dunn just outside the city of Oregon, which is just south

of Madison and today is the having fun part of it.

Absolutely.

And if you're watching on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, streaming, beautiful inside, even those little dreary outside, a few sprinkles, overcast skies.

It is warm and beautiful inside the greenhouse here at Copkeys, where you could come in and shop to your heart's content and never really get wet because it's nice and dry inside here.

Glad to have you along here from Copkeys.

We are being joined right now by the founder and owner of Copkeys.

Gordy Koppke Gordy.

Thank you again for doing this.

Thanks for being a sponsor of Civic Media.

Couple of things I want to highlight again and the sign this right up above us here just outside the camera view says the 2023 2024 best greenhouse and customer service award people's choice awards.

That to me is such a big thing because.

People can go to a lot of different places to buy plants these days, but it's a rarity when you could go and A, have friendly and quick customer service, but knowledgeable customer service.

And that's something people get when they come to Kopkes in the town and dump.

exactly it's the key to my success is hiring people who will make me look good

but you're one of those people i mean whether you're talking here or when you're up at the farmers market you're always going to smile you're friendly uh... you're great just to chat with and people want to do business with people like that i think

Well, yeah, I think so.

I guess I'm the same way in what I miss in today's culture is going to a store and looking for somebody because I have a question in my walk around for five minutes and can't find anybody and just it gets me frustrated and looks

I want to shop somewhere else.

Yeah.

No, I totally agree.

I shop.

I try when I have something for a hardware, let's say there's a small ace hardware in Madison and you go in there and the people know exactly what where things are at.

They can tell you what it's about.

And it's the same way when they come to Kopke is here in terms of plants and all your care needs that way.

Yes,

it's really great.

I want to mention again, you have this great event coming up this Sunday, May 25th, all day long, but there's an auction.

at three o'clock in the afternoon here at the greenhouse have all how many baskets or planters do you have?

I

believe we've got 45 and then we generally will

Sometimes we'll do a duplicate of a particular design, and the auctioneer will give the choice for the backup bidder if they want to buy the second container of that design.

That's great.

And the proceeds for all of these planters are going to be auctioned off at three o'clock, as well as the concessions to the Broadstand.

That's all going to go towards the Badger Honor Flight, money raised going to Badger Honor Flight for our veterans to go visit Washington, D.C.

and have them honored.

We want people to come out on Sunday, Gordy, rain or shine, but if you can't, if you're with the show goals all over Wisconsin, there might be people in Hayward's like, hey, I can't make it down to the Copkeys.

They can still donate and they can still bid.

They

certainly can.

They can call us on the phone and we'll bid for a container, or if they just want to make a donation, they can do a credit card donation over the phone that goes directly to the Honor Flight.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Osama is going to put it up there on the

screen will give it to you and the show notes as well.

The number to call on Sunday if you want to donate to the Badger on our flight or bid on one of these fantastic planters is 608-835-7569.

That's 608-835-7569.

That's also the greenhouse number here.

But it's a great way for people to get involved and still donate and still help out even if they can't come down.

Exactly.

And we have had customers call in and bid and buy containers as well as just making a donation to the general cause.

And we're also here Saturday and Monday doing the Brot stand.

Really?

So yeah, it's a three day event.

And again, all proceeds go directly to the honor flight.

We have a quick trip has donated 300 Brots this year.

Wow.

Brots and buns and the we provide

all beef hot dogs and we have some plant-based burgers that we offer for the people who are into those.

And so we try to

cater to all folks.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Well, it doesn't matter, like I said before, whether you're a novice person with plans, whether you're a seasoned pro, stop down to Kopke's greenhouse here in the town Dunn just south of Madison because you're going to find great folks that are going to help you out.

And healthy plans, by the way, everything I bought here last year, the perennial.

from mom came back except the black eyed Susan because the deer ate it.

There's no guarantee on deer or rabbits.

No guarantee on deer or rabbits.

That's fine.

No, no.

We'll replace that and we'll try to keep the deer away.

But they're healthy plants and it's just it makes you feel good in a world that can be kind of nuts right that right now.

We all need a little zen Gordy.

Ah, yes, we not only sell plants, we sell soul food.

I love that.

I love that.

There's a lot of great ornaments to put in the garden, some glass bulbs, lots of cool artwork here, lots of red, white and blue stuff right now for this weekend.

So it's not just plants and whether you want to kind of decorate the entire garden, there's things for you.

Yeah, I have a great person who's in charge of the accoutrements that we sell.

She does a great job of bringing out some unique items.

And right now we have the seasonal thing with the red, white and blue theme.

And you also have everything, not just the plants.

but you have awesome pots of every size and style design, potting soil, fertilizer, everything that you need for the garden.

You're going to find it here at Copy.

We try to have it all.

Well, including great service and always with a smile.

And again, this is coming up this Sunday, the big auction at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Again, all proceeds from these planters and from the Broadstand all weekend long go to the Badger Honor Flight.

Anything I miss, Gordy?

I think that pretty much covers.

I think you did a great job.

I appreciate you coming out.

Well we appreciate you as a partner, a sponsor to Civic Media.

A lot of people are supportive and few people put their money where their mouth is and we really appreciate that Gordy because what we do can't be done on our own.

It takes great sponsors like you who invest in the community and I just want to say thanks on behalf of Civic Media.

You're quite welcome.

We appreciate it.

Gordy Koppke, everybody will be here.

Maybe you'll find somebody to answer some plant questions in our number two as well.

And coming up, we have what's worse.

So don't go anywhere.

We are live on location of Koppke's greenhouse.

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