Transcript
Walk With GRACE: Fighting Cancer In SW Wisconsin (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu Jul 31, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Todd Albaugh here on location at WRCE in Richland Center along with our producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board at the Old World Headquarters in Madison.
It is Friday, TGIF, the 31st.
Pardon me, it's Thursday.
That's the idea.
Usually I'm a dollar late hours an hour late dollars short.
No, it's Thursday the 31st of July 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite seven minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Welcome everyone.
Zombers already this show is off to a great start.
There is an air quality alert out today for those who are suffering from those types of things.
So be careful.
But it's a beautiful day in Southwest Wisconsin where we are at.
Always great to be back in the old hometown of the Driftless in Richland Center.
It is a beautiful day here and it is
Thursday joined by my friend, my colleague of many years, 37-ish years.
Moore Orlesi is the general manager of WRCO.
The host of those were the days every Saturday night.
The all-around utility player for Civic Media, Philip James Knee.
Phil, how are you?
Good afternoon.
It's an honor to be on your show, Todd.
Well, it's always fun to be on with you.
That's a pleasure.
I think I'm a little spacey because I've been traveling around a lot this week, and it throws me off a little bit.
I guess I just want it to
be Friday.
Exactly.
It is the last day of July, which hardly seems possible.
I always say when she gets past the 4th of July, the summer just flies, unfortunately.
And here we are looking at August tomorrow.
Again, I can't believe it.
Yeah, we had Jimmy Cusco on yesterday, a significant sports director talking about high school sports.
We did our show at Green Bay Preble last week.
And I said, was it legal to have these kids?
It's already that time of year.
He said, yeah, with only helmets or not full pads.
I know you cover all kinds of high school sports here in Southwest Wisconsin.
and I'm sure you're geared up, changing from home talent
over to back to high school.
Yeah, we're still doing some amateur baseball around here, but yeah, the first day of practice for high school football is August 5th, and then the first games can be played the 21st or 22nd in that range.
Just I don't know why it just keeps going quicker quicker every season right
it seems so but this year It's a week later because it used to be the first game would be around the 15th or 16th August so it's it's a week later this year Wow
Well, it's that time of year and here in Southwest, Wisconsin We're here for especially for our first hour folks because yeah I mean it's always fun for me to come back to my home station my hometown gets to fill and family and whatnot in fact I was downtown earlier I had to get some cash I'll explain that later but I ran into at least four people I knew in about 10 minutes
And anyway, it was great to stop and catch up.
So I love doing that.
But the real reason that we came back here to RCE today in Richland Center is because of something very, very special.
It's something that's near and dear to my heart.
And I know to fill you as well, the Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination, better known as GRACE in Southwest Wisconsin.
It's done really well for the community for all these years now in our 22nd year.
But it's a community thing that was formed all those years ago.
They had belonged to some other organization
not to name names, but they kind of felt like the CEOs and they were getting some of the money, not a lot of the money and nothing was being funneled back to the area.
So they formed their own community organization and what Grace does is it provides funding for those that are on a cancer journey, whether it be treatments, maybe they need rides to, from here we have to go to La Crosse or Madison generally for our doctor visits and treatments and so providing those kind of things, helping pay.
phone bills and that kind of thing.
So what Grace does is they kick money back.
They have a committee that meets and they hear the cases and they they're able to disperse the money as they see fit and they've helped a lot of people over the years.
A lot of people and for the reason you just said Phil is yeah there were the national organizations that for various reasons just weren't working out according to local folks and this is again an example of good old ingenuity in Southwest Wisconsin.
Hey we'll do it ourselves and and nobody
griped about it.
They just did it.
The community got involved.
And I think it's a great way because I think a lot of folks when people give money to organizations like, well, how much is the people that run this?
How much are they skimming off the tile?
How much of this stays local?
And with the case of Graceville, it's 100%.
Yes,
it does.
They do send some to Carbon and Gundersen, a couple of hospitals that a lot of our patients are helped by and our local Richland Hospital as well.
They send some for some research, but a lot of it.
over half of it stays in the immediate area.
And for our small area, none of us are millionaires around here.
$300,000 plus was raised just last year.
And that's just a lot of different stands and organizations, people thinking outside the box, brought stands and and rummage sales.
They had a quilt gala here this year where they sold these amazing quilts that people made the auction them off.
And then our radio auction, which we've been doing this week on double
Yeah,
you're gonna talk about that in the middle, because that's a great part of it.
But you bring up a great point, Phil.
This is not just like, oh, we're gonna have this event, and it's a long weekend once a year.
Grace is continually doing events all year long around the calendar year, and people get involved.
And this is kind of the culmination of all those efforts, isn't
it?
It is.
And on the 8th of August at Croska Park here in Richland Center, they'll have a night, and it's kind of a carnival.
It's a celebration of all of those blood, sweat, and tear efforts that they've put.
together bowling tournaments and golf outings and those kind of things and they announced the money that night that is raised and everybody kind of celebrates they have ambassadors too that speak about
their cancer journey and they'll have a parade of those people.
They'll have a walk around the track and they'll all tell their stories.
I've had the opportunity to interview all four of them and they're all just excellent speakers.
And what we find too, and we feature their interviews on the radio, there's always somebody that checks in with either them or us at the radio station and says, you know what, I heard that.
I was motivated to go get checked for colorectal cancer or to do my
a yearly mammogram, those kind of things.
It motivates people.
It's been, you know, and I think that's one of the things the ambassadors really bring to light is the stories that they have and how somebody else can maybe relate to it.
Couldn't agree more.
It takes courage to come forward and tell, it can be very personal stories, you know, for a woman to talk about doing a self-exam for a mammogram, for a guy to talk about a self-exam for testicular cancer.
These are things we normally, you know, hey, let's have a cup of coffee and talk about that.
have this event where it gives people a safe space to come forward.
It's the advocacy field.
It's not just the people who are currently dealing with this, but I think you're exactly right.
It brings awareness to help prevent something moving forward.
Yeah, right.
That's a very positive thing and a lot of family members and our area and I'm sure a lot of areas around the state have been hard hit by cancer, but it seems like we've had quite a share of it and younger people all the time as well.
So we all kind of feel like
you know, we can try to make a difference in this way.
We're talking with Phil Neene, the general manager at WRCO and WRCE here in southwest Wisconsin.
They are a large part of the Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination, better known as Grace or Walk With Grace.
That's the big culmination event and also the Grace auction here on the radio.
Phil, before we get to the auction.
Your wife Juni who I know very very well and I'll say she's your better half because I've known her for a long time as well As long as I'm knowing you just a great person and a child care provider here in southwest, Wisconsin But June had her own battle with cancer has been one of the the chairs before and is currently the other chair of the walk If you don't mind I mean the
cancer struck your family it did 2006 we had three children all at home the oldest was in high school the youngest was
five years old, I believe.
And, you know, it was tough because, yeah, she's self-employed, so we lost her income.
And I was fortunate that I had some time I could take vacation days and some insurance that I could use as well for her, but we lost a lot of income.
So we actually benefited from Grace with gas cards because we had to make.
lots of trips to Madison for treatments and appointments and things like that and it was a real hardship so we were involved with Grace before that but after that it hit home it's like wow they really helped us out we want to give back
And luckily, yeah, she's been cancer-free since 2006, so we're very fortunate.
I've never known a better fighter than Junie, and she's still doing half-marathons or marathons,
but
here, she battles and wins cancer, and then she keeps, literally
keeps running.
Yes, right, and that motivated her even more.
After her cancer diagnosis and treatment, she has been a part of five marathons.
Yes, she's finished them, and countless half-marathons, and she still runs.
And she looks like the...
was I met her 30 some years ago.
She's the Dick Clark of South.
She never ages.
You can't say the
same about me.
Well, neither me, me either.
Look, radio is a hard job.
It takes its toll.
No, you look fantastic.
Phil, come on.
We're young at heart.
We're
still
as goofy and young at heart as we started in the 80s.
That's right.
I'll hit you with my cane if I Well, that's the thing.
Here's the deal, folks.
Phil knee.
Has it been two weeks yet?
It'll be three weeks tomorrow since I had hip replacements.
He had a hip replacement and a week, less than a week and a half later, he's back at work in the morning at five o'clock and you're calling home talent baseball league games using a walker at the field.
Well, this is the kind of community we have.
So teams actually, they want our broadcasts.
And so Friday night was two weeks from.
my surgery.
And Casanova said, you got to come do our game.
And I said, well, I just had this.
I said, I'm working, but I'm all on one level here.
And they said, you come to the game.
We'll get you there.
We'll load your stuff.
We'll set everything up.
All you got to do is drive right up to the booth.
So I did.
I drove my car right up the booth.
And they took care of me.
And the same thing in Arena on Sunday, right up to the gate.
Yeah, I have a walker.
It doesn't roll real well on the baseball.
Not real well.
I can sit and talk for three hours.
But you're absolutely right.
That's the kind of community here in Southwest Wisconsin where neighbors are helping neighbors and they're like, we'll just get it done.
And nobody asks for any payment.
They just do it because it's everybody's important one another and that goes back to exactly what grace is.
Most definitely.
We're talking with Phil Knee here at WRCO WRCE Phil a couple of minutes before the first break.
But let's get into this.
So was honored to be asked and was happy to do it was part of the phone answering team here at the studios.
Center today.
This radio auction raises a lot of money and folks, I can tell you, I got the winning bid on the Oakwood Fruit Farm Donuts for the great sponsors at Civic Media WRC Oakwood Fruit Farm.
And I got three dozen donuts.
Wow, you had to pay up on them, though.
But you know, the lake, there's a lot of great auctioneers across Wisconsin.
But for my money, the guy who did it the best, Danny Schaefer, the late great Danny Schaefer now, nobody did it better than Danny Schaefer in my
And we go to we go to sales at my grandparents my granddad grandma all the a lot and my grandma would be bid on something and to get to a certain price and Danny looked at her and she just kind of put her head down and he'd stop the Cadence and he'd say Marguerite it only hurts for a minute
And she say okay, yeah And the way they go.
There you go.
I thought you're gonna say they were bidden against what
happens
That happens to do right at auction wise.
Yeah, but but this auction, you know
Sure.
I mean, so I've been a little bit more than I normally would for donuts, but it all goes to great cause.
It only hurts for a minute in our checkbook, but the results could go a long, long way to somebody battling cancer.
Correct.
Yeah.
Every dollar goes back to grace and all these businesses step forward and they donate these awesome items.
Individuals, we've had collectibles sold today.
We had a real more like, you know,
the old kind
without any more, without any motor.
That went really well this week.
We've had brewer tickets, courtesy of Civic Media.
We've sold those and they've gone extremely well.
And home baked pies, they just go gangbusters.
Over 150 bucks for, I think, one today or something like that.
It was crazy.
But here's the great news.
You're saying, well, Todd, that sounds good.
I wish I could have gotten in on it.
you can because we're going to come back here in a minute and we're going to give you an opportunity if you don't live in southwest wisconsin and here on wrco you can still tune in via the civic media app download it on your favorite apple or android device simply go to your search engine type in civic civic media it'll pop up takes less than a minute to download it is free it's what cbs is gail king calls a deal
It's a deal and you see a download here's the thing so you can listen to our show on the Civic Media app tomorrow on our show and others on the talk side.
You can win free ticket Brewer Fridays, but more importantly for this you could tune in to WRCO on the app tomorrow morning and you could bid on great prizes.
We're gonna come back preview some of those tell you how you can get involved.
We're live from WRCE and Richland Center across to Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.
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Welcome back to the title ball show live at WRCE on location in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
Our show plays out here on the AM 1450 FM 107.7 side WRCE, the sister station WRCO 100.9 FM in here in Southwest Wisconsin, Richland Center, along with Mr. Phil Knee, the general manager, my long time friend, my colleague, my mentor and watching on the Facebook.
You can see us on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter as J Matt Nair says our friends.
our colleague Jeff Perry, who also was here working at WRCO, R-W-R-C-E for many, many years.
Jeff says, what's better than Todd on the radio?
Todd and Phil on the radio and joined the show, guys.
How about that thing?
Thank you, Jeff.
Absolutely.
We could
tell some stories about him, but we better not.
We better
not.
We better not.
But a great, great friend, of course, is Dad Rod Perry worked here for several years as well.
So lots of history and lots of friends anytime we're back here in Richland Center.
Phil, we're talking about the great original area of cancer elimination, better known as Grace here, organization in Southwest Wisconsin, WRCO.
It's been a long time sponsor.
and kind of a cohort of this entire thing, helping to get it going, helping to raise money for people who are fighting cancer, families, you said, your own family, gas cards, sometimes it's food, other treatments, and also to raise awareness so that people can get in for exams, do self examinations, and hopefully prevent a longer fight with cancer.
Another thing they do, Todd, is prevention is a big thing.
They've organized an event called Walk Around the World with Grace.
It goes all year, but people log their miles that they walk
or they run or even.
you know, around the house.
I mean, somebody that maybe isn't that mobile, but just kind of log in the number of steps that they take and it all comes together and they add up the mileage.
They have a monthly get together with a potluck where they have healthy foods that they serve and they've organized running groups and walking groups and all a part of prevention to get people up and moving.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Also, as we said, buy some things, help raise money.
I went down to the Grace office today to pay for my Oakwood Fruit Farm Donuts.
Thank you very much.
Get out here and support.
or one of our fine sponsors.
I also bought this year's t-shirt and feel it's a tribute to Bob
Euker.
It is.
It's called Cancer.
Get up, get up.
get out of here and there's the the ball that says cancer on it.
It's leaving the ballpark.
I love
this.
It's awesome.
Yeah, they did it in tribute to to Bob Uker and I think it's wonderful.
And our friend and former colleague, former owner here of WRC L Ron Fruit has a quote on the back.
It says, when the bad news is cancer, the good news is grace.
Right.
Yep.
That's the slogan that they they live by and they use every year.
Yeah.
Ron's pretty smart man.
He's
a pretty smart
man.
Oh yeah.
I don't mean to talk about him like he's not here.
He's still very much in the community.
You bet.
Phil, the auction is going on here the final day tomorrow on WRCO 100.9 FM and Richland Center.
If you're not in this part of Wisconsin, the Southwest, you can still listen to it tomorrow via the Civic Media app and then scroll down to the WRCO.
Phil, give us the details.
What time does it start?
What's up for grabs?
Well, Todd, it starts at 10 o'clock on WRCO tomorrow, as you mentioned.
Some of the things up for grabs, more donuts in case you missed.
tickets for our local drive-in, which is very unique to our area.
We have some autographed things.
We hosted a country music concert known as Star Spangled Celebration for 20 years, and we have autographed memorabilia.
Toby Keith, the late great Toby Keith.
We have a picture of that we're going to be selling off.
We have some tickets to a Bucks game.
We have some handmade folk art things.
We have escape room passes for the elusive escape rooms in Wisconsin Dells.
always go well.
We have more cheesecakes.
We have more pies.
How about this?
One hour, those were the days.
My radio show on Saturday night.
You get to be the programmer.
You can guess DJ.
It has to fit the format.
You know,
you
can't come on and play brand new hip hop.
You've got to play the format, you know, 50, 60, 70s, 80s, early 90s.
But one hour of the program.
How cool is that?
It's one of those things where we kind of think outside the box.
It's kind of unique.
And we're looking at selling.
Somebody can be a guest with Hank and I in the morning too.
Oh, nice.
So we're looking at selling that.
Yeah, more pies tomorrow.
We have
This is a big one.
Zero turn radius more.
Whoa.
Tomorrow.
Who can't use that as the grass has been grilled like weeds.
I just mostly have weeds.
At least it's green though, right?
And those club level seats to the brewers courtesy of Civic Media.
And this is a Bob Euker package with a Bob Euker book and a couple of shirts.
That's super cool.
So
yeah.
And there's a raffle going on and Aaron Zommers.
What could people win at the raffle?
A new car.
Come on down.
Johnny Olsen from the Older Days of the Price is Right.
Well done, Summers.
It's a
raffle for a car.
Absolutely.
$20 a pop and we're going to be giving that away the night of Grace, which is August 8th here in Richland Center.
But it's available statewide.
We had a music artist here today and their manager bought $100 worth of tickets.
Wow.
So there you go.
Super
cool.
Don't have
to be from here.
If
people want to get in on the auction items tomorrow, the number to call.
Uh, 6472111.
So he's
calling right now.
72111.
It says potential spam.
Trying to sell us something.
Oh, well, I'll probably buy it.
Again, the number called tomorrow between 10 and noon is 608-647.
2 1 1 1 zomers put that or show notes simply listen on the civic media app to wrco tomorrow between 10 a.m.
And noon 6 0 8 6 4 7 2 1 1 1 eligible to win that zero turn radius more or bid on I should say and these pies are fantastic You're a personal chef.
She'll come to your
house and cook a meal Yeah, exactly a meal for two she'll come and she'll she'll even maybe show you how to do it So that's one of the things you can bid on tomorrow.
That's fantastic and just a shot
out to all the great people, Sheila Troxel in particular, but all these businesses who match some of these bids and they're involved on it as well.
They are as well.
They kind of get it.
So if we can get to $100, we'll give you $100.
We've been doing some matches like that as well.
The whole community gets involved.
Yeah, it really is.
It's the Grace Auction tomorrow on WRCO.
Tune in tomorrow if you're not in Southwest Wisconsin on the Civic Media app and dial in 608-647-2111 tomorrow between 10 and noon for these great prizes.
Phil, I can't thank you enough for your friendship.
Can't thank you enough for what you do for this community.
And thanks for supporting Grace here in
MichelinCon.
Absolutely.
Love it.
And by the way, Light My Fire was number one this very day in 1967.
How about that?
There you go.
You can hear all kinds of information like that every Saturday night from six to midnight on those were the days.
Come on back.
We'll talk to Eileen Stevens, president of Grace After This on WRCE Live on location on Civic Media.
Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome.
back to the title ball show on location at W R C E in Richland Center.
It's 35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, the 31st of July, last day of July.
I cannot believe August is tomorrow.
Great to have you along here as I was back the old world headquarters in Madison on the board.
Right now, we are joined live here at the desk at W R C E by a couple of wonderful people.
First of all, I lean Stevens, who is the president of Grace again, once again, stands for Greater Richland Area.
cancer elimination, talking about the great event, great organization to raise money for this great cause of helping folks who are battling cancer and also raising awareness for prevention.
There are a radio auction is going on all week, including the finalizing it tomorrow on WRCO here in southwest Wisconsin from 10 until noon.
If you don't listen or if you don't live here in the area, you can still tune in anywhere you're listening across the state of Wisconsin on any of our 11 stations.
by downloading the Civic Media app.
If you don't have it, it is free.
Scroll down to WRCO tomorrow between 10 and noon.
Click on that.
You can hear live right here, all the programming, including the Grace Radio Auction, and you can call in and participate in the many great items.
The number tomorrow and Zommer's going to have it on the screen in the show notes, 608.
six four seven two one one one six oh eight six four seven two one one one in addition to Eileen Stevens the president of grace
no six oh eight six four seven okay two one one one yeah if I said it wrong before I apologize thank you solvers six oh eight six four seven
In addition to Eileen Stevens, the president of Grace, we have the co-founder and a current board member, and she also happens to be the news director here at WRCOWRCE and her friend of mine for several years, Ms.
Joanne Kruelotz.
Ladies, thanks for being here.
Thank
you so much.
Well, it's it's our pleasure.
It's a great great to sit down and talk about something that's near and dear to my heart.
Having grown up here, having worked at this station for my first job at radio.
It's one of the cool things of what radio does and one of the cool things I says.
I think it says a lot about the Richland community.
For the rich and
rich and richland County.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean tell us a little bit about yourself How long you've been involved in in grace here and how long you've been president?
I I originally when when grace first started I had come to a couple of the first events.
I lived out of town at that time I've been actively involved in grace now for a little over two years and Currently serving as the president of the organization.
It was
It's been around for 22 years, so it's definitely has a solid foundation.
It has people that built it up and brought it to where it is, and it's just bringing it on to where it was.
I'm born and raised in Richland County, so I'm from the area, and our family does deal with a lot of cancer.
I lost my mom and dad to cancer.
My sister's a cancer survivor.
My brother is fighting cancer right now.
And then I had a niece with cancer and a great niece.
so
well it's uh unfortunately it touches some not as much as your family but i think all of us have had a family member a friend somebody that we know that's been touched by this terrible disease but as i talked about with phil uh former owner here at wrco and and a friend of mine and a friend of the show ron fruit i love the fact he put his quote on the back when the bad news is cancer the good good news is grace
Yes, that's been a very powerful phrase.
And Joanne probably knows when that came along.
But I mean, that has been just an extremely powerful phrase that's just kind of stuck with the organization.
Because it says so much.
It really does.
Because Grace has helped so many people in our service area.
And it's not only Richland Center.
That's why it's the greater Richland area.
We are all of Richland County.
plus any township in the surrounding counties that touch our borders.
So we really reach out there and help a lot of people.
Joanne, what led you to, I mean, you were one of the founders of this.
Tell us a little bit about the origins.
It wasn't a huge group of people that first started this, but it was a really passionate group.
And here it is thriving all these years later.
Well, an organization that I won't name the name.
We had a walk each year.
It was
a national organization.
It
was a national organization.
And we realized that, and I chaired that walk.
And as people were coming to me with issues they were having because we are a very rural area and they would go to that national organization because it said they could get them equipment, they could get them different things.
Well, they could get it for them, but they had to go to Walgreens.
Now, in the last five to 10 years, we do have a Walgreens in Verroqua, but we had nothing around here.
Which is still a half an hour drive for those that don't know the area.
Right.
So, and then I got a phone call from a woman who was a big, um, and a factor to the walk.
And she had a friend whose job moved out of the state.
But she decided to stay here because her son was a senior in high school, so she didn't want to move him.
And in the meantime, she found out she had cancer, stage four cancer.
And they sent a letter to this national organization.
What can they do to help her?
Because she was between jobs.
She didn't have anything.
They said she got a flyer that said, well, one of the first things you want is to make sure you have a good job with good insurance.
Wow.
And
it was like, who was going to hire a woman with stage four cancer?
And on top of that, in those days, you couldn't even get insurance if you had stage four cancer.
So our community was known for raising a lot of money for this organization.
In fact, they gave recognition to areas for that size.
We were recognized.
And a friend of yours, Rob Brunish and I, were flown to Texas to receive all this recognition, wind and dined, rubbed shoulders with legislators and lobbyists and everything.
And the whole way there, and the whole way home, we started thinking, what can we do to keep the money here?
Because we felt like everything we raised, $80,000,
pretty much paid for our fancy trip and some others.
And so we discussed it and thought we could do the same thing that we were doing, but keep the money local.
And so we thought we'd give ourselves a year, have another walk with this national organization.
And each year we have a wrap up meeting.
And we got to that wrap up meeting.
And 90% of the volunteers were burned out.
They didn't want to support it anymore.
And Rob looked at me and he says, should we say something?
I said, go ahead.
And when we brought the idea up, they all stayed on.
Wow.
That's great.
And, and we just started having town like town hall meetings to get the support of the community.
So we didn't even wait a year.
The next year I met, you know, we met with an attorney who gave.
workforce pro bono to get all the paperwork done and That's kind of how it started people just got burned out of seeing the money go elsewhere, and I figured out After I figured it out we were lucky if we got one cent on the dollar of the money we raised
Wow, and now now majority of the vast majority that money stays right here in Michelin County
It does the only money that that leaves is to Carbone cancer in Madison
and Gunderson in La Crosse, and that's for research.
And they're very transparent.
They let us know every year what our money went to and the progress they've made with the research.
That's great.
We're talking with Joanne Krulac, who is one of the co-founders and current board members of the Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination, better known as Grace, and also Eileen Stevens, who is the current president of Grace.
Our own Terry Barr, watching on YouTube, saying, thank you for sharing these stories.
So very important and keeping it local.
Wow.
My mom is a 30 plus year breast cancer survivor.
Thanks, Terry, for tuning in down there in Madison.
Always appreciate all Terry's great work here at Civic Media.
Eileen, tell us a little bit about the current iteration of grace and tell us some of the current services you provide through grace.
Well basically each year the board looks at the way the money is going to be split up and our 2025 disbursements, 58% is going to go directly to the cancer patients here in the Greater Richmond area.
And what we do with that is they may have different needs.
So if they need gas cards, because out here you've got Gunderson on the cross.
You've got UW-Carbone in Madison.
So that's a lot of windshield time every day back and forth for people.
So it's a lot of gas, a lot of time.
So we provide them with gas cards.
Maybe they need help with groceries, personal care items.
We have Walmart gift cards.
We give them.
They may need help with utilities.
And with that, we just ask that they don't pay the bills.
and give us the receipt, they give us their bill, and we will pay that directly for them.
Another need that we have found is, sometimes they have an early morning treatment, so they have to be ready to go at six in the morning at the hospital, so we'll help if they have money on their account to pay for the hotel the night before.
So they can get down there, they can get a night's rest and just go a few blocks to the hospital.
And as Joanna had mentioned, 25%
We split between UW-Carbonne and Gunderson, and like August 6th, we'll have a doctor from each facility.
They will come here to Richland Center at our August 6th event at the Bowling Alley, and they will be very clear about what they are, what they've used our money for, and why it's important is, of course, they need a lot of money for research.
What they can use our money for is what they call feeder funds.
So they can do some of this research, see what they can do, and then they can
can chase the bigger dollars with the feeder funds that we give them.
10% we use to support the medical communities within our service area.
We did just purchase for the Richland Hospital.
They had put in a grant request and we purchased a $40,000 piece of equipment for them that they're able to do screening, pre-screening that they may pick up and some preventive testing.
That's so
exciting, not to interrupt, but I just think that's so exciting because as important as this organization, the cause is to help those and support those currently fighting cancer, how important is it to help people to prevent getting here in the first place?
Exactly, yes.
So when we can provide those types of services and get that equipment here locally so people don't have to run to Madison, they don't have to run to La Crosse for these tests, they can at least have preventive screening here.
We
also help pay for their 3D mammogram several years ago.
And that's something, again, that might not normally be offered in a rural community like this.
And to be able to have that right here, because again, I mean...
as women, obviously I'm not, but as women I would think that's just a more difficult thing to schedule those tests.
If you have to carve out time to get to Madison or La Crosse, I mean, you can't do it in under a half a day and probably it takes a full day to, by the time you go there and go through all that, again, to have that opportunity here in the area, I think would be a long way to prevention.
Right, right.
And so any medical facility in our service area can submit a request.
We also have like the community or the cancer prevention and education.
There too, they use, they only use 5% of the funds.
And that's, and that could be anything.
I think Leif was talking last week about sparks, what they're calling sparks.
And that's to, if people have an idea, you know, bring it to us.
See if we can help fund that, whether it's something in dietary nutrition, maybe it's getting together a walking group, a jogging group, a biking group.
There's so many different groups that they can have.
to help get the community active and work on prevention of cancer.
Yeah, absolutely.
Are you staying around to break Joanne?
Can you stay till the top of the hour?
I can stay.
So, Joanne, I know you have to get going, Aline, because you're a busy person.
You got other grace things to
go here.
So,
a couple of minutes left, or two minutes before the break here, what have I not asked you that you want to make sure people understand about grace before you leave us?
I mean, it's just a fabulous way to support
And a lot of times people say a community, but we are so much bigger than that.
And that's what I really want to reach out to the outlying communities.
you know we're reaching people in a vote on kazanova in hillsborough muscaday basketball to make sure people know that they are eligible for these services and reach out to us
we appreciate you so much aileen stevens your part of what makes wisconsin great thanks for being here the president of grace can i come back talk more about the grace auction how you can get involved yes you can win fabulous prizes and help out a great cause join crew lots for live in richland center across wisconsin on the civic media radio network
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
On location live from Richland Center, home of WRCE, our news talk station here in the Driftless and WRCO, the music station, country and community, title of all along with you, Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer back at the old home studios, the world headquarters in downtown Madison Zommers.
Here in the Driftless, another beautiful day, sun is out, little smoky because of the wildfires in the West.
How is it downtown Madison right now?
Yeah, probably probably good advice for those listening at WMDX in Madison.
And for those that might be wondering about the concerts on the square, it was postponed last night because of the the rainy weather in the city.
So concerts on the square in Madison will be tonight.
So get out there and get your blankets on the Capitol lawn beginning at three o'clock.
It's about 10 minutes from now and Capitol or the concerts on the square will be tonight.
Right now we're here in Richland Center talking about Grace, the greater Richland area cancer elimination, talking right now to one of the co-founders of Grace.
current board member, friend of mine and employee here now, news director.
How long have you been news director joining the crew?
Lots at WRCO.
Let's see, I guess about nine years.
Wow.
All right, we're gonna have a phone call coming in.
No, it's like, you know, a call coming in on the headset here.
Spam, ladies and gentlemen.
Spam.
The people are spamming me even during the show.
No spam when it comes to grades.
Everything is quality.
I want to make sure we get time to get to the auction and plug that.
There's a radio auction the final day here at WRCO.
Your opportunity to bid on great items and raise great money.
But Joanne, I want to go back to again.
For people to understand, we talked about the gas cards before quite a lot, helping people that are fighting cancer, money to get to either La Crosse or Madison Richland Center is right in the middle of those two cities in Southwest Wisconsin.
If you're not familiar with those watching across the state, but what other services does Grace provide?
Basically just about anything that is related to their cancer.
Years ago, we had a woman who had mouth cancer.
and she wore dentures.
And after her treatments, her dentures no longer fit her, which is understandable.
And we helped by dentures.
We've had a couple times where people have been getting our services and they unfortunately die.
They lose the battle.
And with money they have left, we help pay their funeral expenses.
So I mean,
You name it.
We've paid for it.
And again, I think that's a real advantage to having a local organization like Grace and not to hate another national organizations They probably have their place but have this ability locally for this organization to know almost Sometimes unfortunately personally many of the people these monies are going to in helping and then make that quick decision locally.
Hey, you know what?
It was intended for this, but the family really needs that and the monies are going right to help immediately
exactly and You know and I don't think all of this would have been possible without the support of the community We started out with an office in the trunk of my car in the back of Rob's truck and then We were donated office space and for
quite a few years now we have been up you probably know it as the old school district office above royal bank and we get the office space for free.
Wow that's amazing it's just another example of people coming together saying hey what what have I got that I could give and sometimes it's space sometimes it's money sometimes it's time everybody has something and that's the cool part about this
We all have the ability to do something for grace
and you know 22 years later.
We've grown it won't all fit in my car and stuff anymore and
You
know there are we have to keep records.
We you
know for so long we have to do all that stuff so Having office space is just fantastic.
It's actually rent-free
It really is a blessing and very fortunate here in Southwest Wisconsin.
All right, the fun stuff, Joanne.
Tomorrow, the WRCO, if you don't live in Southwest Wisconsin and can't tune in over the air on 100.9 FM WRCO, you can still participate by downloading the Civic Media app today.
Number one, you could win a free Friday Milwaukee Brewers tickets on our show and the rest of the talk shows by texting in so you want the app for that.
But secondarily, and maybe tomorrow,
more importantly, from 10 until noon, you can listen to WRCL 100.9 on the app and you could bid on Milwaukee Brewer's tickets for our Civic Media Club level seats and the money all goes to Grace Joanne.
That it does.
Yeah, we are so thankful.
You know, WRCL, you know, from day one has been very supportive.
You know, Ron, when he owned it, when I had to leave for meetings with attorneys.
I went.
He was very gracious.
Go ahead.
You need to go to those and very supportive of helping us get everything going and off the ground and has been supportive with all the...
auctions and everything we have each year.
It's a really great Ron fruit and Beth fruit with the own station.
Really, we're partners in this.
In fact, it's quote, as we said, is on the back of this year's t-shirt.
When the bad news is cancer, the good news is grace.
Ron always has a gift with words and speaking and inspiring people.
And now, very fortunate, Civic Media has picked up on that since buying WRCO and is equally as supportive.
And it all comes back to the local staff here at WRCO and WRCE as well in Richland.
Center.
You guys just do a great job of supporting.
So thank you.
Congrats for that.
Well, thank you, you know, and, and I want to get out there too.
If anybody has questions about grace, just give us a call at 608-604-8255.
They didn't have walk when I went to get the number.
So we ended up with
talk.
So just remember talk, radio and talk.
So 608-647 talk.
No,
604.
It's a cell phone.
608-604.
talk is the number to call and connect people.
Grace, they might be going through cancer.
They might be having questions about it.
So if you want to talk to Grace directly, 608-604-TALK.
Yep.
And our website is walkwithgrace.com.
walkwithgrace.com.
Easy enough, Zalbers could put that in our show notes.
And if you want to bid on more of these delicious, awkward fruit farm donuts like I did today and I won three, I won, I bid, I got, I paid for, believe me.
I put up first for a great cause, as Danny Schaefer said, it only hurts for a minute.
So get your wallets out, get your checkbooks out, write the check, a zero turn radius mower tomorrow on the block, homemade pies, Milwaukee brewers, tickets, and a personal chef.
Call tomorrow between 10 and noon.
Listen to WRCO.
Joanne Krulatz, my friend, news director here and co-founder of Grace.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Really a treat.
Come on back.
Hour two straight
ahead.
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