here, Paul.
Oh, hi, Tracy.
Tracy Luffel.
Tracy, who should we have on the show this week, do you think?
Kim Larson.
Who?
Speaking to the microphone, Tracy.
What?
Yeah.
Come on up.
You always have good ideas.
Who do you think we should have on?
Probably Kim Larson.
Oh, OK.
All right.
Sounds like a good idea.
Yeah,
Serving Washington.
up?
Business show!
With your hosts, Ryan and Paul.
What's up?
What's up?
Business show!
You start walking nine We meet in the middle, need that old Georgia pie We gain a lot of ground, cause we both live a little Ain't there a too long trip when we meet
in the middle?
I start walking
Hello, Wassonians.
Hello, everyone.
I'm Ryan.
I'm Paul.
And who do we have on the show this week?
Paul, are you taking Tracy's advice?
I think we should take Tracy's advice and bring her in.
Who's coming in?
Kim Larson's coming in, the managing director of the Boys and Girls Club of Wausau.
Nice.
And we're going to talk to Travis Tesca coming up, world-renowned chef Travis Tesca.
That's what I heard.
And I'm saying that because he's getting a pretty big promotion that we're going to hear about.
Have you ever had his food?
Travis Tesca, the former executive
One of Wassa's celebrity chefs.
Yeah.
But he's got a chance when I say world renowned, I mean, we're going to hear about something big that's happening with Travis Tesca coming up.
Cool.
Can't wait.
And the World Horseshoe Finals were last week at the Greenhack Turner Center.
That went well.
Yeah, it was a big event.
This week's
Yeah, no.
Okay.
Sorry.
And that's it for the bands this year at the Wisconsin Valley Ferris Grandstand.
Well, I like new music, and that would be new music for me, I believe.
Fine.
Eric Church, let's not forget.
Eric Church performed at the Wisconsin Valley Ferris once.
That's right.
Before he was the Eric Church we know.
Before you knew any of his songs.
Right, that's correct.
So maybe that's the case with Skillet.
Yeah, maybe Skillet will become the next Eric Church.
They look younger than Shadandoah, and I think
on day
I gave you a little hint there.
Yeah, okay, which I didn't mean to it could be ounces It could be in the ounces.
It's a skill.
I have to pull hints out of you when you can be trivial It use whatever skill you want.
Okay, how much does mark I don't want to give it anyway
How much does Mark Holly's famous pumpkin grow per day at kind of one of the higher grow days?
What do you peg it at?
Well, I think it would be somewhere in August or September as my guess is the biggest grow day.
Where it's really going.
I mean, isn't that shocking to say, oh yeah, the pumpkin grew from yesterday at one PM to today at one PM, 25 pounds.
It is shocking.
That's why I don't, but I know it's going to be a shocking number.
You wouldn't have asked the question.
Okay.
And I did give away that it was in pounds.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's
Was I right on the total about 1600?
Yeah, I guess.
It was 100 pounds.
Save that for next week.
I grew about 60 pounds yesterday.
Did you make a mistake?
What?
60 pounds?
She goes, yeah, no, 60 pounds.
I go, 60.
Pounds?
It takes a human like eight years to grow 60 pounds.
She goes, yeah, no, but some days it grows 100.
Wow.
Are you telling me that it grows 100 pounds in a 24-hour period?
Yeah, it grows up to 100 pounds in a 24-hour period.
Almost
not believable.
It's right.
That's crazy.
Insane.
Yeah.
We'll see if Travis Tesco knows about that.
Okay.
Several underappreciated iconic Wausau landmarks, Paul.
Okay.
I don't know if you know that there's one right by UWMC.
That kinder rings a bell.
And with a live report, here's brand new Wausau Business Show correspondent, Shay Reif is off today.
Yeah.
Rebecca Deimos, Rebecca.
Ryan and Paul, I'm off.
location at one of Wausau's most amazing and iconic landmarks.
Hello, Wausonians.
Imagine you're driving down Stewart Avenue.
You pass UWMC or UWSP at Wausau, whatever they're calling it now, I don't know.
But you're thinking about lunch and you just rolled right past
one of the most electrifying pieces of granite in the entire city of Wausau.
I'm talking about the historical marker at 8th Avenue and Stewart Avenue.
Buckle up.
Long before Wausau was known for insurance companies, paper factories, and questionable roundabouts, we were apparently the place in Wisconsin to learn how to teach children.
Yes, Wausau.
Not Madison, not Milwaukee, us.
This beautifully overlooked granite marker reads, and I quote, Yes!
Right back at ya!
Thank you so much for listening.
Classes began September 11th, 1899 with Professor Oliver E. Wells as principal at a salary of $1,800 a year and Miss Rosalia Bohr as teacher at $1,300 a year.
Over the next 43 years, the little school that sat on this land
cranked out roughly 1,400 teachers who fanned out across 365 rural classrooms.
So next time you're stuck in traffic by UWMC or UWSP at Wausau or whatever they're calling it now, just remember,
you're idling next to the birthplace of the very first place for teacher training in the entire state of Wisconsin.
You're welcome, Wisconsin.
landmark update, this is Rebecca Deimos reporting
live.
Back to you, Ryan and
I'm
listening
to the
Wausau Business Show.
What does it take to run a successful business?
It takes incredible courage to start at the beginning, incredible grit to achieve success, incredible determination
to sustain results, and incredible perseverance to leave a legacy.
But most importantly, it takes an incredible local partner dedicated to helping you achieve your goals.
At
And
here we
are with Kim Larson and, oh, Craig
Club.
Good pronunciation.
How's everybody doing?
Boys and Girls Club, this is great.
Well, come in, yeah.
Kim, how long have you been executive director of the
there for over
25 years.
25?
25,
two decades.
Doesn't look that old.
Doesn't look that old.
I appreciate that, thank you.
That's Hal Veron.
What did you do before the
Well, I worked for
it in Wausau that you don't
it's in business any longer?
No, it was in Rhinelander.
And what industry?
Fishing maps.
Fishing maps.
in
business up north.
How many years did
do that?
Less than one.
It was my job after college as I tried to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.
We all have that job.
Still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Yep.
Were you responsible for topography then?
What's it called when you're making my cartog
or cartography?
Oh, no.
You didn't draw the maps.
No, that would have been bad.
I sold them over the phone.
So I was a telemarketer.
So I would call
Please don't call again.
Click and
be like, oh, awesome.
So there was no lake when you
called at the time?
No, because it would drain when it was not the rainy season.
It would fill up during the rain.
And those are lessons that
by.
Making phone calls.
Let go of a chubby.
That's a tough one is like right in the middle of
Florida, right?
Sure.
have a degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing because I thought I was going to be, you know, the next
Club and that dream went out the window and I found a better dream.
How did you become a part of the Boys and Girls Club in Wausau then?
What did that come about?
Well, there wasn't one.
a little while, to try
figure out my life.
And you grew up in Rhinelander?
Yep,
hodeg.
What's a hodeg?
Coming off the festival.
And when I went to college, I knew I wanted to work with kids, but I didn't want to be a teacher.
And this was a path to work with kids without having to go back to school to get my teaching degree.
So what role did you have when you started then?
at it
had the opportunity to apply for this job, I
What a great way to come into the role of executive director having done everything else, literally there is to
responsibilities.
Yeah.
Good experience for you and lead the way then.
But you started as the skate park coordinator.
I did.
And that's like thrashers and kids on skateboards, skateboards and rollerblades at the time.
Yeah.
It was, it was wildly popular when I started.
Mwasa at the time didn't have any outdoor skate parks.
So we were the only game in town.
Yeah.
High roller.
Did you take everybody to High Roller skating center then?
We did not go to High Roller skating center.
We went to Four Seasons skate park in
I think in Appleton, that was the big field
time.
But yeah, it was huge.
We had some really big ramps.
When we renovated the park, when renovated the basement, we had former club
together
of the wood.
So we're trying to figure out how you're going to know where this 2x4 goes versus this 2x4, this sheeting.
But it was
very, very
traumatic for people that we were getting rid of the skate park.
Oh, and you put it back up somewhere else, though?
We did not, somebody else did.
Oh, okay.
People
Oh, I see.
Where I was going with that is, do you know how to skateboard?
Nope, I tried.
At the time, though, the ramps were, they were six feet tall at the top.
So to drop in on that, you have to be good.
I was not.
I couldn't even sit on the skateboard to go down the ramp.
So I just did the fun box in the center and... Well, you know what that's called.
Yeah, the fun box.
Yeah.
That's always in the center of a skateboard park.
Always in the center of a skateboard park is something called the fun box.
Oh, I like that.
Yep.
Do you use skateboard?
No, I don't either.
But my son does.
And Dave Beckman over at the Chamber of
Connors grew up on skateboards.
Yes.
His parents used to own a skateboarding company.
That's
the VP of all
what?
You've got to start there.
Operations, I think.
Operations.
Let me read it.
Yeah, go ahead.
Paul has his readers.
Get your readers out.
Old man official business card
charge of everything in was okay.
So we were kind of right on the right track.
But yeah, Craig in all seriousness, are you going to be open on time?
bit ahead.
So they're they're
smoke and the hot probably would have slowed us down, but not when it's inside.
What do they say, Paul?
It's one throat to choke.
Yeah, that's right.
That's Craig.
He's responsible.
What I know that Myron Construction is very involved in the Boys and Girls Club too, and a big sponsor of all the events there.
And Craig, you being on the board, what are some of the initiatives that are going on from your perspective?
Yeah.
So I mean, the Boys and Girls Club has been a big part of Myron for a long time.
So it really evolves from our corporate office and wherever we have our satellite
organizations
that We'll be doing the the work in Merrill when we we start working for there the new boys and girls new boys and girls Well, this is called the wassup business show not the mayor
But it's a national organization, the Boys and Girls Club, right?
And what is the founding purpose of the Boys and Girls Club?
So our mission is to enrich and transform the lives of young
1860s when
boys walking down the
their dads, they didn't want to take them into the mines, the coal mines or where is this base?
That's my understanding.
Wow.
In Hartford, Connecticut.
Hartford, okay.
And that's how the Boys and Girls Club started.
And it started as just a place for the boys to hang out.
Yep.
Okay.
But if you're a child in the Wausau community, what motivates you to want to go to the Boys and Girls Club or what attracts people to the Boys and Girls Club?
I think it's a couple of things.
I think when you walk into the Boys and Girls Club here in town, it's a place that is just for kids.
The whole building belongs to the kids.
in it is designed for kids and teens.
It's their space.
They own it.
We are there to
bit about the Boys and Girls Club.
And obviously, I enjoy going to the Harvest Dinner.
That's a big fundraiser for you that's coming up on November.
What is it?
12th.
November 12th this year at the Roth Child Pavilion, otherwise known as the 400 block.
But still bitter about that.
Yeah.
But they come in and what happens?
Like they just show up at your door, like
off and or do they have to register or how does it work?
Yeah.
The kids and teens enroll to become a club member are enrollment.
fee is $20 for
if they don't come for summer, that's the only fee that they would pay.
But kids can walk through the doors, and there's educational opportunities, there's sports, fitness, recreation opportunities.
health and wellness opportunities, cooking programs,
busy with different hands-on projects and activities.
And all that for 20 bucks a year?
That's $20 for the year.
And that doesn't even include our workforce readiness initiative where we take kids on business tours, help them apply for college for their first jobs.
They can have club-based work experiences through a junior staff program.
What a deal.
I mean, someone's got to pay for it though.
How does that work?
That's a great question.
And the club is really community funded, whether those
are individuals, businesses, foundations, corporate sponsors.
It really, we were designed
community, brought to Wasaha
and we continue to be funded by the community.
And those donations and investments help offset
one kid for a year.
I think there's a lot of people that have the perception that there's a lot of funding like state funding, federal funding, those types of.
things.
And that's not the case.
It's all community funded.
Primarily.
Every small percentage, but a majority of it is all community based funding.
And why isn't the state or why don't you get grants or anything like that from the state or federal government out of curiosity?
We do get a little
state of Wisconsin has been supportive of Boys and Girls Clips across the state with a couple of initiatives.
Those contracts vary in amount based on
budget and elections
federal program.
So we do get reimbursed about 66% of that program.
dinner.
So, you know, our annual meal budget is about $200 plus thousand dollars.
Yeah.
How many kids do you serve then?
For meals.
So far this year, we've served 25,000 meals and snacks at no cost to kids and club members, kids and families.
And how many kids are part of the Boys and Girls Club right now?
Right now, there's about 1200 enrolled members between all four sites.
And they don't necessarily come every day.
We're not a licensed child care center.
So kids, there's much more fluidity, I think, in people's schedules.
So if you happen to take today off and
want to stay home with your kids, then we don't see your kids today.
If kids have other
summer, we have a lot of club members that may be caregivers for their siblings.
They go out and have a job.
They're helping in gardens, whatever that looks like.
We might not see them during
grandparents.
in Merrill.
But grandparents are driving them down every day so that they have some place that they can go.
What's the age range of the children?
Organizationally,
drop
whenever they want.
Yep.
And kids can get there in whatever way is safe for them.
So if they're getting dropped off, if they ride their bikes, their scooters, if they take the bus, if they walk, whatever
not childcare, Paul, but you can drop your kids off whenever you want, but it's not a licensed childcare.
But what's the distinction there?
A license, I think?
Well, I think it's license.
I think it's fees, right?
I mean, there's not a, I don't know of a childcare center that's going to charge you $20 for the year for your kids.
Right, that's pretty cheap childcare.
Not that it's childcare.
So in all reality, we serve kids that
could be on their own, right?
Eight years
of, typically have aged out of a traditional childcare setting because it is so structured.
There are so many restrictions on ratios and those types of things.
And so these are kids that can make choices on their own, can choose for the most part.
It's just a wide range of kids that walk through our
every day.
But you can sort of dwell on this,
are a licensed, like we're
standards, charter standards, and we pay dues and fees to that national office to be held accountable to those things.
And I know people that are listening always want to know what percentage of your fees go to the mothership, so to speak.
Um.
far less than 1%.
Okay, reasonable, reasonable.
Very
in Wausau, so our main site
Greenhack Fieldhouse in 1999.
We've actually been out there since 1999.
The DC Everest Middle School, we've been there since 2012, and Prairie River Middle School in Merrill.
We've been there since October of 22.
And Carolyn Marks has a lot to do with the, or had a
lot to do with the Wausau location because it's called the Carolyn Marks Boys and Girls Club.
exact
very influential in not only the funding
and Girls Club in those conversations as a community influencer.
She made
speak.
Why
and Girls Club
if you don't
putting it bluntly?
What's a better
I think
Is it M.A.R.?
Like Richard Marks, M.A.R.X.?
I'm M.A.R.K.
M.A.R.K.
S. No S. No S. Yep, Carolyn S. Mark.
Oh, Mark, Mark.
Okay.
Carolyn S. Mark.
Wassa.
It says, uh, Carolyn S. Mark.
was a prominent Wausau philanthropist and humanitarian.
That's a great way to put it, whoever wrote this.
I like adding humanitarian as a philanthropic humanitarian.
It doesn't say what her background was though.
She died in 2002.
She has a lot to do with the community foundation of North Central Wisconsin, which we love.
Gotta rest your soul.
She led with her heart.
She was a steadfast and influential
yeah, okay.
That's a beautiful portrait of her Yeah, she supported the conservatory
wassa conservatory of music
she's something.
Yeah.
God bless Carolyn and S. Mark.
Okay.
Yeah.
So getting back to the kids of the Boys and Girls Club, then what capacity are you at in your facility right now?
Right now we have about 200 kids every day throughout the summer.
And that could go up to what?
240 would be our max.
Okay.
So you got a little capacity left.
Do you ever have to turn anyone away?
How does that work?
We have not had turned anyone away yet.
We've hit,
up against that at our high of 236 this summer.
That gets a little
know, when you serve a significant number of teens and tweens, they have a varying schedule.
So whether they have a job or they have
varies.
And it just kind of depends on what the day looks like for kids.
And they don't have to schedule their time to be there at all.
No, when we do summer enrollment, we ask parents and caregivers to give us their best guesstimate of when their kids will be there, but we don't hold them to that.
And what's the biggest impact that you feel the Boys and Girls Club, and I ask you this both, has on the children that go through the program that are there on a regular basis?
You know, I think one of the things that the Boys and
So regardless of what's happening.
in our world and their world, what happened at school, what happened at home, what's happening with their friend.
They walk through the doors and they can go into the gym and they can run it off.
They can hang out with other people.
They can step into the art studio and create something and express themselves.
It's just a place for them and they don't have to manage that other stuff.
Yeah, I know a lot of them have kind of hairy worlds outside of coming to your place for stability.
And I've heard some of those stories before.
Can you give us one of those stories that you so eloquently have
talked about at the Harvest Dinner, for example.
Yeah.
So in just a couple of weeks, we are getting ready to send our 2026 Youth of the Year off to college.
She's got accepted to UW-Milwaukee, and she's going to start her first day of college.
She's been with us for the past four years.
When she started with us, she actually wouldn't speak to the staff, and she will tell you that she made some pretty
poor decisions in her behavior choices and since then has grown with the support
really fantastic mentor who she connected with
that support.
And now she's actually giving back to the club.
She's one of our youth development specialists and she's working there this summer.
in our elementary art room, and she wants to pay it forward with what she got out of the club.
And how old was she when she came to the club for the first time?
She was going into eighth grade, I believe.
And she was just having a
tough time.
Yep.
There were all sorts of influences in her life that were impacting her negatively, just personally, mentally, and through her grandparents first and foremost, and then
the support of people around her and them choosing to bring her to the club.
She's found this really great community of support
carrying adults that have just helped push her forward, lift her up and be the resources that she needs.
And I would think like when she came in eighth grade, I mean, college probably wasn't even remotely close to your thought process at that time.
And now
to
know that she's been accepted and going to
go to
a four year school is amazing.
She is part of a program that we call Be Great Graduate.
So she's had a one-on-one mentor with one of our club staff members for the past several years.
And she will tell you, and I know she doesn't mind me sharing this, that she was not doing well academically.
And now she's got all A's and B's.
because of the support of this
program.
So our staff goes in and meets with her once a week.
Well, he used to, now she graduated.
So she's got this, has had this support.
And that support for her, if
to see her.
And it's just, it is not one person.
We are
of the solution for a lot of kids.
And it's even cool.
I know another quick story, but when you talk about we had a person that was in the program, went off to college, graduated.
came back and is working
for
the club.
Absolutely.
Like roughly ballpark, what percentage of the kids that come through your program would likely not be going to college
That's a really great question.
And I would hate to guess at that.
We only know when kids tell us, you know, by the time our club members are in junior or senior year, we see them less because they're doing those things.
The kids that ask for help and ask for support or that we reach out to and help support them.
Those are the kids that we know are going off to college.
And we don't have a lot of eighth graders that listen to the Wausau Business Show.
There's a few, bud.
Unfortunately, just a few, just a few.
But if they were listening right now and struggling, you know, I can imagine myself in eighth
grade, if I was going through some hard times, I probably wouldn't, my first thought wouldn't be, I need to get to the Boys and Girls Club.
Right.
So what do you say to those kids when they come in to kind of
put them at ease because to keep a kid coming back over and over again day after day regularly is a real art form I would imagine at that age.
I will tell you it's our staff.
You know, our youth development specialists, this summer we have about 40 of them and they are a wide range
that provide those programs activities.
And
comes down to the structure and accountability that kids are looking for that they get with our staff.
Okay, so you build the relationships and so you can
kind of they walk in the door and they're like, I don't know about this.
And they're embarrassed.
And obviously, you know, their guard is up.
And you just kind of say, well, if you want to go play ping pong, go play ping pong.
And
then your
staff takes over from there kind of deal.
That's 100% exactly what it is.
Um, and it's the same with our elementary kids, you know, a parent bringing in an eight year old that is nervous to be there for the first time.
It's a big building.
There's a lot of space, a lot of noise, a lot of kids.
And so there
are many times that if a parent says this is his or her first time, our staff will walk them downstairs and give them a tour and introduce them to another, another kid and a staff member is, you know, with kids and teens, it's not instantaneous friendships, but it is with our staff.
If they are with our staff, that is their job is to reach out to the
kids, get to know them, learn something about them and build that trust in that ongoing.
relationship and rapport.
Is that staff going to their homes when they need them to then?
Or how does that work?
Because I would imagine if they went home and they're having a tough time at home that they might feel the desire to reach out to the staff at Boys and Girls Club.
How does that work?
We'll just see you tomorrow, or?
Yeah, that's where our safety standards come into place.
We can't do that outside of club hours, with the exception of our graduation specialists who can do that at school during the day.
But our club staff will call home if there are issues or if we have
network for kids.
And not every kid needs that support network, right?
And some kids are.
People ask, you know, what is a typical club member and there isn't one.
Kids show up today
imagine that it's an awesome cross-section of people and kids that it's a melting pot and that's an only positive thing.
Absolutely.
Yeah, what what you see in a school is what we see at the club.
It's just a smaller, a smaller version and a wider range of ages in one building.
And all socioeconomic backgrounds and coming from every types of family all over the neighborhood, it's not just kids that are going through a tough time.
Absolutely.
The club is open to all kids and our age group, all kids and teens.
And it really all there's no restrictions based on income, based
or guardian might work in
They are living with grandparents
There's foster families, different placement
And so we want to make sure that the club is
consistent, is affordable, and that caregivers consider us a reliable resource for their families.
And Wausau would not be as great of a place to live and work or not for the Boys and Girls Club decades
been
it.
We are looking forward to unveiling our 30-year celebration.
Two harvest dinners.
And Ryan, I was just going to mention
from a board perspective and you can appreciate this because you've been very gracious with your time over the years and serving in a lot of different boards, but we can sit there.
We don't talk about that in a lot of business.
We've all been gracious with his time too.
All as well.
Thank you guys.
He could do more though.
Craig, go ahead.
What I was going to say, as a board member, I mean, again, it's just the people that we have running
I just give kudos
the federal government.
But
other than that,
all on you
million bucks every year from the community.
Absolutely.
Not an easy task.
That's impressive.
Yeah, because you're getting 20 bucks per student for the year.
But other than that, it's roughly too much.
that you're raising every year, right?
Absolutely.
That's wild.
What can people do if they want to help with that?
Contribute any listeners out there?
That's a great question, Paul.
Way to help out, Paul.
First, we have our online donation system is always available, and that's right at bgclub.com.
But we strongly encourage people to come in and take a tour.
This is a great platform for us to talk about this.
But seeing the club in action is really where it becomes reality.
You say you have a building that's dedicated just for kids.
Come in and see what it looks like to have a building that is dedicated just for kids.
See the interactions of our
And for
of kids,
fundraising events coming up on Thursday, August 6th is our high T event that is at the Hilton Garden Inn.
It's celebrating our club girls.
Thursday, November 12th is our largest fundraiser that is a harvest dinner at the Rothschild Pavilion.
That's great.
Paul's been to that.
I like that one.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So do I.
And that supports our character and leadership development program.
So
that we talked
We ended up, I think she was the youth of the year that year.
She
waited our table and then she ended up being her babysitter for several months.
Kim,
your free
I have not.
Not yet?
No?
You've heard
heard of that, yes.
You don't like bar hopping, I think.
I think that's a lot of what they do.
every drink.
OK, we're reading between the lines.
We got you,
a whole dig.
Have you been to the
I have been and I did go this year.
Who was your favorite?
I will shamefully admit I was only there for two performers and Leanne Rhymes was better than the other one.
Okay, okay.
I like Leanne Rhymes.
For Leanne Rhymes.
Was Hardy there this year?
So I only saw Leanne Rhymes and Old Dominion.
Oh, I love Old Dominion.
They were okay.
I think she
showed up for the crowd.
Yeah.
Did
see Duff Deimos at all?
No.
Oh, darn it.
Oh, yeah.
year he does it, I think it's his last
Yeah, I heard guaranteed in there.
My guess is I'll be back on the show if it doesn't open.
Correct.
We'll be checking in with you.
You have a hostile answer to that.
He's a public shaming, for sure.
And we've also learned that nobody knows much about Carolyn S. Mark.
No, no one knows where the money came from.
Well, we'll follow up on all
right.
Thanks
coming in.
Kim and Craig on the Wausau Business Show.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you for having us.
All right, to the Boys and Girls Club, everybody.
I'm Shadow Stevens and you're listening to the number one show for and about Wausau, Wisconsin, USA.
This is The Legendary, Wausau Business Show with Ryan and Paul.
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interns.
Hey guys, should I push on speaker?
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think
Two interns that we have this summer.
I think so.
Oh, guys.
Hey, welcome to the Wausau Business Show, gentlemen.
Hey, guys.
You are honorary
interns.
And we know that was national intern day yesterday.
And we want to talk to you about what you're doing today as an intern.
Where are you guys?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So today, as interns for rocket industrial, we went to
the paper mill up in Menominee, Michigan.
Oh, way up there.
Which
does go to?
We went to the by origin paper mill.
the food paper that you see
learning.
We're
educating the future.
Yes.
Yes.
Great guys.
Yeah, you'd
Go ahead, Nate.
This is your, this is your test.
I don't want to work in a paper mill.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Fair.
And Nate, you're in the, you're an accounting intern, right, Nate?
Yeah, finance.
Finance, okay.
Much better, much better.
Big difference.
And Bennett, you're in marketing.
What did you learn?
Marketing?
Marketing and sales.
Yes, I learned
and you heat it up and then you...
Um, flatten out the sheets, but there's a lot of chemicals that go into it.
It's a very, very complex process.
Yeah.
They got a bleach that, uh, pulp, right?
Yeah.
Do they talk about the bleach steps?
What, what kind of paper are they pumping out of that mill?
Like, is it like sheet paper, you know, like
dining establishments.
go?
I'm a UW Green Bay.
Oh, GB.
I was supporting the
a basketball player and pop concert legend.
Yes.
Bennett Mattson.
Bennett, what was
song that you sang for the pop concert last year
us.
Oh,
by a white snake.
Oh, that's a banger man from the 80s.
Great use of the word banger
young
High school?
I went to West.
I went to West too.
I was like right above Bennett.
Also a
What
a solo guy
like
part of the group?
Yeah, we just did some group stuff.
I don't even remember what we did.
Oh, I'm sure it was wonderful.
You were at the end.
You participated in the Nylons.
Na na na na.
Hey, hey, hey.
Goodbye.
You
well.
I'm sure,
Oh, they're still doing that.
OK.
Well, what
and trying to
it out.
a management role and lead a, lead a group in some fashion, like a sales team or a marketing team.
Hopefully a role
that.
Okay.
That makes sense.
And, and you're 19, correct, Bennett?
Yes, I am.
Okay.
And Nate, how old are you?
Maybe 20, 20, 20.
Good man.
What do you want to be when you grow up, Nate?
Well, I'm majoring in finance and accounting at Green
my CPA.
Oh, okay.
Take it easy.
I don't want to go into public
fund?
With that certification, it's a lot
you
last few weeks of your
by the way.
Yeah, great interns is that where do you hope to where do you hope to
live
you graduate from
to go guys.
Okay.
Thanks guys.
Love you.
Appreciate you.
Thank you.
Travis Tesca is on the show.
for it to ring
Yeah,
wasa's famous celebrity chefs.
Tell us about one of the key people in the iconic right place, right?
Right house?
restaurant.
I can't right the right place right place.
Okay.
And the heading up the culinary program and NTC very successfully the past number of years.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And now so and now what trap traps?
I was just going to start start at the beginning.
Okay, please do please do.
So it actually is ironic.
It's 20 years ago almost to like
like the week that
So the right place that I was trying to remember and I tried to find it, but I already packed all that stuff up.
I believe it was like August 6th is when we opened.
So and that would have been in 2006.
So I moved here in May of 2006.
I've been here 20 years, almost exactly.
Where'd you move from?
Where were you at before?
Well, so originally I'm
Auburn, Dale.
Okay, and I worked for the owner of the right place Patty in Marshall that Castle Loma fine dining and be sure I worked there for two years And then she had the idea of starting a restaurant in a house And she wanted to do it in wasa so we actually we started that business together I owned a small portion of the restaurant with her people love And and the idea was always that I was gonna purchase it from her
restaurant and
When that time came, we just couldn't come to an agreement on the price.
And so she sold it to another chef.
And then we all know he didn't, unfortunately, didn't do so well.
So it had a different vision for customer service and things like that.
And that sadly didn't end well.
Oh, well.
Yeah.
One thing leads to another.
Yeah.
You got to move on, right?
With life.
Yeah, exactly.
So then...
Then I actually worked in the automotive industry briefly for a few years, just kind of, you know, I was looking for, for Chef work, but it was not, it was not a friendly market here.
And also that, that had a pay scale that could match what I had made when I was at the right place and I had a mortgage and, you know, whatever.
So, the automotive industry helped me out a little bit.
And
I was kind of approached by an old food vendor who worked for North Central Technical College.
And he was a dean there.
And he was like, hey, we're going to start a culinary program.
I know you always talked about wanting to be a part of that.
And he's like, so here's the dean's name that's going to be in charge of it.
And you should reach out.
So I did.
And she said, cool.
We're not ready to hire anybody yet or whatever.
When we
you know.
A couple months later, whatever, I got an email from her and I applied and interviewed and they liked me and so they hired me to start the culinary program.
When I was hired, it was a list of classes and that was the only thing that existed for the culinary program.
Zero students, yes, zero kids.
Uh, yeah, there was, there was no students yet.
There was nothing yet.
It was just a list of classes.
So I started at the tech in January of 2016.
Yeah.
And they actually hired me to start the corner program that fall.
So I actually worked there for like eight months, but now the getting
ready.
Yeah.
There was nothing,
the kitchens didn't exist when I started literally nothing.
It was crazy.
They had the list of classes and they
to fund to start that program or to run those classes, I should
curriculum for the first year and picked out all the textbooks.
Where did you go to culinary school?
I went to Johnson and Wales University in Denver.
And is that the same place as chef Adam went?
Is that the same
that chef Adam went?
No, chef Adam from Chow.
Nate from RedEye did a bunch of work in Colorado too.
Oh cool.
But chef Adam was yeah, out, out.
It's like in Maryland, I think, where he went.
Yeah, that's right.
And then Chef Nate went to the Art Institute, I believe, in Minneapolis.
And then
how many kids, how many students, I guess I
should say, were there when you left NTC?
How did you, how many did you back?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we had
Uh, anywhere between, uh, you know, the capacity of the program was 15.
Uh, and there were many years where we took 15 and then there were some years where we took less.
Um, COVID was a little difficult.
It was hard on us.
We had a couple of years where enrollment was very light right after COVID.
Um, we had actually grown the program.
So I, so I got it off the ground, got it rocking.
Um, like I said, designed the kitchens, wrote the curriculum, kind of got all that rocking.
Uh, and then that next year we had
another chef and then he came on and
teaching the second year after the first year was going.
So then there were two of us and we did that with an assistant for a few years and then actually in 2019 our enrollment
that we needed a third chef.
We were going to have two sections every year because it was really good.
So we brought on a third chef and then COVID happened.
Then the enrollment went back down, but we kept the third chef and added a hospitality program.
And then four years ago, they asked me to start the butchering program.
So then I did the same thing.
I started the butchering program from the ground up and designed the cold lab space and the slaughter trailer and kind of gathered all the knowledge that we needed to get that
rocking.
And then I taught that for three years.
So cool.
I taught the butchering program just.
Just me taught that we did.
I mean, I had an assistant occasionally.
I had a help, but that was kind of like my program to start and run.
So
had pretty good enrollment in the butchering program too, um, especially for a new program.
It's kind of a niche thing.
So you're not going to get a thousand students, you know?
I mean, you pumped a lot of people through there.
Good enrollment.
don't know
this fall looks like.
Um, well, it's not your problem anymore.
Is it?
So now tell, tell us where you're moving to.
You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune in to any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
75!
with
your host Ryan and Paul.
Cause we both give a little anger
Dale's Western Lanes.
A lot of Lanes.
This
World renowned chef Travis Tesca.
That's what I heard.
And I'm saying that because he's getting a pretty big promotion that we're gonna hear about.
Have you ever had his food?
Travis Tesca, the former executive chef of the Wright House.
Yeah, that's right.
No pun intended.
And recently took over the culinary program at NTC for the past number of years.
Cool.
Very, very successful chef.
One of Wasa's celebrity chefs, we call him.
But he's got a chance when I say world renowned, I mean, we're gonna hear about something big that's happening with Travis Tesca coming up.
Cool, can't wait.
And the World Horseshoe Finals were last week at the Greenhack Turner Center.
That went well.
Yeah, it was a big
event.
big
Can't wait to...
I smell some animals.
Let's see if you recognize it.
Can you name, here are the people at the grandstand, Paul.
Go ahead.
Artists at the grandstand.
Okay, this will be good.
It's not that money, I'll tell you that.
God rest his soul.
Chris Jansen, can you name one of his songs?
Can you name an Eddie Money song?
A lot of Eddie Money songs.
I can name his whole collection, to be honest with you.
August 6th is a band called Skillet.
We're moving from the country and Western genre to the food genre.
Looks like kind of a rock band looking at their picture.
Skillet.
Can you name any Skillet songs, Paul?
Yeah, no.
Okay.
Sorry.
And that's it for the bands this year at the Wisconsin Valley Ferris Grandstand.
Well, I like new music, and that would be new music for me, I believe.
Fine.
Eric Church, let's not forget.
Eric Church performed at the Wisconsin Valley Ferris once.
That's
The Rodeo is coming August
7th and 8th, and on the 9th is of course the iconic Demo Derby.
Yeah, the iconic Demo Derby.
So a whole smorgasbord of events coming up this week at the Wisconsin Ballet Fair, which we can't wait to check out with the kids.
Smorgasbord, we can't get off this food theme here.
The skillet, what is a smorgasbord?
Yeah, give it to me.
Do you know how much?
It's kind of pumpkin growing season now, too.
Okay.
Squash and all that.
Yeah.
Mark Holly, famous pumpkin tour.
Best...
pumpkin tooth, I know.
Mark Holly of Channel 7 fame, you know, he has got his famous world-class pumpkin that he does.
The biggest pumpkin in the world.
Yeah, I don't think he did it last year.
No, he took a year off.
He has the biggest.
Here's the trivia.
Go ahead.
Do you know how much Mark Holly's famous pumpkin grows per day?
Per day?
Per day, the weight.
I'm looking for, in pounds.
Right.
Or not necessarily pounds, whichever metric, whichever, whichever.
I gave you a little hint there.
Yeah, okay, which I didn't mean to it could be ounces It could be in the ounces.
It's a skill I have to pull hints out of you when you give me trivia.
Use whatever skill you want.
Okay.
How much does Mark?
I don't want to give it any away
How much does Mark Holly's famous pumpkin grow per day at kind of one of the higher grow days?
What do
I grew about 60 pounds yesterday.
Did you make a mistake?
What?
60 pounds?
She goes, yeah, no, 60 pounds.
I go, 60 pounds.
It takes a human like eight years to grow 60 pounds.
She goes, yeah, no, but some days it grows 100.
Wow.
Are you telling me that it grows 100 pounds in a 24 hour period?
Yeah, it grows up to 100 pounds in a 24 hour period.
Almost not believable.
It's right.
That's crazy.
It's insane.
Yeah.
We'll see if Travis Tesco knows about that.
Okay.
Several underappreciated iconic Wausau landmarks, Paul.
Okay.
I don't know if you know that there's one right by UWMC.
That kinda rings a bell.
And with a live report, here's brand new Wausau Business Show correspondent, Shay Reif is off today.
Rebecca Deimos, Rebecca.
Ryan and Paul, I'm on location at one of Wausau's most amazing and iconic landmarks.
Hello, Wausonians.
Imagine you're driving down Steward Avenue.
You pass UWMC or UWSP at Wausau, whatever they're calling it now, I don't know.
But you're thinking about lunch.
and you just rolled right past one of the most electrifying pieces of granite in the entire city of Wausau.
I'm talking about the historical marker at 8th Avenue and Stewart Avenue.
Buckle up.
Long before Wausau was known for insurance companies, paper factories, and questionable roundabouts, we were apparently the place in Wisconsin to learn how to teach children.
Yes, Wausau.
Not Madison, not Milwaukee, us.
This beautifully overlooked granite marker reads, and I quote, first teacher's training school in Wisconsin, 1899 to 1943.
The Marathon County Board appropriated $12,000 for construction of a building completed in October 1902.
12 grand in 1902.
Groundbreaking economics right there.
Yes, right back at ya.
Thank you so much for listening.
Classes began September 11th, 1899 with Professor Oliver E. Wells as principal at a salary of $1,800 a year and Miss Rosalia Bohr as teacher at $1,300 a year.
Over the next 43 years, the little school that sat on this land cranked out roughly 1,400 teachers
who fanned out across 365 rural classrooms.
So next time you're stuck in traffic by UWMC or UWSP at Wausau or whatever they're calling it now, just remember, you're idling next to the birthplace of the very first place for teacher training in the entire state of Wisconsin.
You're welcome, Wisconsin.
For this Wausau business show, iconic Wausau landmark update,
This is Rebecca Deimos reporting live.
Back to you, Ryan and Paul.
I'm listening
to the Wausau Business
Show.
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Let us help your business do the incredible.
Incredible Bank, member
FDIC.
yeah
Three and a half years.
But
Yeah, actually, 25 years.
25.
25
decades.
Doesn't look that old.
I appreciate that.
Thank
Well, I worked for a brief stint at a company that I don't think is in business any longer and just prior to that, I was in college.
it was in Rhinelander.
Fishing maps.
Fishing
Those come
go.
I sold fishing maps over the phone.
I was a telemarketer.
Yeah, I tried.
Yeah, I
that?
Less than one.
It was my job after college as I tried to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Oh, no.
No, that would have been bad.
No, I sold them over the phone.
So I was a telemarketer.
would call places like my favorite was to call Lake Okeechobee in Florida and sell
them
fishing maps.
And I would find out that I would often call during a drought and they would yell at me that.
Young lady, you need to call it a time when we have some rain.
Please don't call again.
Click it and be like, oh, awesome.
So there was no lake fall at the time?
No, because it would drain when it was not the rainy
rain.
And those are lessons that you learn
making phone calls.
math.
I was just giving a list.
have a degree in English with an emphasis.
in creative writing because I thought I was going to be, you know, the next great author
then I fell in love with the Boys and Girls Club and that dream went out the window
found a better dream.
Well, there wasn't one, I moved home after college as most people do for a little while to try to figure out my life.
And
Yep,
And when I went to college, I knew I wanted to work with kids, but I didn't want to be a teacher.
And this was a path to work with kids without having to go back to school to get my teaching degree.
So I was the team coordinator.
So
ran the skate park, which is now our elementary center.
I ran
girls with a purpose programming, restorative justice programming, that kind of stuff.
And over the years, I've had the opportunity to try everybody's role and some I'm not good at and I'm okay with that.
Other people are way better at it than I am.
And so they, when I had the opportunity to apply for this job, I took it.
I did.
Skateboards and rollerblades at the time.
Yeah.
It was wildly popular when I started.
Moasa at the time didn't have any outdoor skate parks.
were the only game in town.
Center.
We went to Four Seasons skate park in
I think in Appleton, that was the big field trip
the time.
But yeah, it was huge.
We had some really big ramps.
When we renovated the park, when renovated the basement, we had former club members who are now in their thirties come to dismantle the ramps to put them back together in their own spaces.
really interesting, though, because they didn't label any of the wood.
So we're trying to figure out how you're going to know where this 2x4 goes versus this 2x4,
sheeting.
But it was very, very traumatic for people that we were getting rid of the skate park.
Oh, and you put it back up somewhere else, though?
We did not, somebody else did.
Nope, I tried.
At the time though, the ramps were, they were six feet tall at the top.
to drop in on that, you have to be good.
I was not, I couldn't even sit on the skateboard to go down the ramp.
So I just did the fun box in the center and-
Yeah, the fun box.
That's always in the center of a skateboard park.
Always in the center of a skateboard park is something called the fun box.
Oh, I like that.
Do you use skateboard?
No, I don't either.
But my son does.
And Dave Beckman over at the Chamber of Conners grew up on skateboards.
Yes.
His parents used to own a skateboarding company.
That's right.
Which is pretty cool.
Yeah.
So then you get involved.
Well, Craig's here too.
And Craig, how's the.
Hey, Craig.
No, I'm enjoying the
conversation.
another check in.
Still on track.
Everything is going well.
Yes.
I
Yeah, everything is going great actually so far.
So
ahead of track or I would say on probably even a little bit ahead.
So they're they're doing well and everything's is going well at this point.
So
That's the beauty of this job.
It's all inside.
If it was the smoke and the hot, probably would have slowed us down, but not when it's inside.
What
Yeah.
So I mean, the Boys and Girls Club has been a big part of Myron for a long time.
so it really evolves from our corporate office.
And wherever we have our satellite offices, they're all involved in those different clubs and those organizations and those communities.
So when I moved here to Wausau, it was important that I really wanted to become part of the club.
And the Boys and Girls Club here in Wausau is such an integral part of this community.
So us being a part of that, we've been fortunate to do a lot of work for them.
When like Kim just talked about the elementary center renovation, we were able to do that.
We'll be doing the work in Merrill when we start working for the new Boys and Girls Club
So our mission is to enrich and transform the lives of young people.
Our national office has a version of that mission, but it started in the 1860s when a group of women saw some boys walking down the street following the men who were going to the coal mines and they thought they needed some place to spend time.
So they opened the first boys club and
the boys club until 1990 and then it finally became the boys and girls club and they welcomed girls in for the first time in 1990.
my understanding.
Hartford, Connecticut.
I think it's a couple of things.
I think when you walk into the Boys and Girls Club here in town, it's a place that is just for kids.
The whole building belongs to the kids, everything.
in it is designed for kids and teens.
It's their space.
They own it.
We are there to support them and to provide programming opportunities and experiences that they can't get anywhere else for a variety of reasons, whether that's access to things like transportation to get there or financial or their families are working.
So it's just, it really is a place that is just for kids.
So whether it's after school, non-school days during the summer.
We're there Monday through Friday.
Or, you know, because I know a little bit about the Boys and Girls Club and obviously I enjoy going to the Harvest Dinner.
That's a big fundraiser for you that's coming up on November.
What is it?
November 12th this year at the Roth Child Pavilion, otherwise known as the 400
Yeah, the kids and teens enroll to become a club member.
Our enrollment fee is $20 for the calendar year.
And if they don't come for summer, that's the only fee that they would pay.
But kids can walk through the doors and there's educational opportunities, there's sports, fitness, recreation opportunities.
health and wellness opportunities, cooking programs,
ton of field trips.
Our art studio
summer is crazy busy with different hands-on projects and activities.
And all that for
That's $20 for the year.
And that doesn't even include our workforce readiness initiative where we take kids on business tours, help them apply for college for their first jobs.
They can have club-based work experiences through a junior staff program.
That's a
question.
And the club is really community-funded, whether those are individuals, businesses, foundations, corporate sponsors.
Really, we were designed by the community, brought to Wasaha by the community.
Gary Fuels was actually our founding board president, and we continue to be funded by the community.
And those donations and investments help offset the cost for families.
So $20 is their enrollment fee.
But it's that's certainly not the cost to serve one kid for a year.
I think there's
a lot of people that have the perception that it's there's a lot of funding like state funding, federal funding, those types
Yeah.
And that's not the case.
So
Primarily.
Every
small percentage, but a majority of it is all community based funding.
And why
curiosity?
We do get a little bit from the state of Wisconsin has been supportive of Boys and Girls Clips across the state with a couple of initiatives.
Those contracts vary in amount based on budget and elections and those types of things.
Our meal program is a federal program.
So
we do get reimbursed about 66% of that program.
And then the rest of it is offset by things like harvest dinner.
So, you know, our annual meal budget is about $200 plus thousand dollars.
Yeah.
kids do you serve then?
For meals.
So far this year, we've served 25,000 meals in snacks at no cost to kids and club members,
Right now, there's about 1,200 enrolled members between all four sites.
No, we're not a licensed child care center.
So kids, there's much more fluidity, I think, in people's schedules.
So if you happen to take today off and you want to stay home with your kids, then we don't see your kids today.
If kids have other responsibilities,
especially during the summer.
We have a lot of club members that may be caregivers for their siblings.
They go out and have a job.
They're helping in gardens, whatever that looks like.
We might not see them during the summer, but we see them during the school year.
And the opposite is true too.
There's one family in particular that I can think of.
They were coming to stay with their grandparents.
in Merrill.
But grandparents are driving them down every day so that they have some place that they can go.
Organizationally, we serve third through 12th grade.
Each site is a little bit different by the age group that they serve, but the Wausau site is third through 12th grade.
Yep.
And kids can get there in whatever way is safe for them.
So if they're getting dropped off, if they ride their bikes, their scooters, if they take the bus, if they walk, whatever that looks like.
Well, I think it's license.
I think it's fees, right?
I mean, there's not a, I don't know of a child care center that's going to charge you $20 for the year
it's childcare.
in all reality, we serve kids that...
could be on their own, right?
Eight years old.
Some parents, they wouldn't consider leaving their eight year old home alone.
But some kids are home alone at eight years old.
And these are kids that have aged out of, typically have aged out of a traditional childcare setting because it is so structured.
There are so many restrictions on ratios and those types of things.
And so these are kids that can make choices on their own, can choose for the most part.
It's just a wide range of kids that walk through our doors every day.
We're a chartered boys and girls club,
we are held to a very high national standards, safety standards, organizational standards, charter standards, and we pay dues and fees to that national office to be held accountable to those things.
speak.
far less than 1%.
Okay,
So we opened, we were born and raised in Wassa, so our main site is here.
We opened at Greenhack Turner Community Center, formerly Greenhack Fieldhouse in 1999.
We've actually been out there since 1999.
The DC Everest Middle School, we've been there since 2012, and Prairie River Middle School in Maryland.
We've been there since October of 22.
right?
Yep, the Carolyn S. Marks site.
Definitely a significant part of the building, yes.
I wasn't around at the time, so I couldn't give you an exact figure, but I know she was very influential in not only the funding of the building, but the concept of choosing the Boys and Girls Club and those conversations as a community influencer.
She made a difference in many organizations in our community.
I
her philanthropic efforts.
I would be making a guess and I don't want to be wrong publicly.
it was...
And this is a public forum to be wrong on.
I'm M-A-R-K.
S.
It doesn't say what her background was though.
She died in 2002.
She has a lot to do with the community foundation of North Central Wisconsin, which we love.
Got a rest your soul.
She led with her heart.
She was a steadfast and influential humanitarian.
Her commitment through the community continues through the Legacy Fund.
No.
Okay, so we don't know.
There's really no information other than she was a philanthropist and a humanitarian.
Hang on.
Sorry.
Oh, no.
Hang on a second.
Now, here's something from Wassa Pilot and review about her legacy.
We'll get back to this interview shortly.
We're
Okay.
That's a beautiful portrait of her.
Yeah.
She supported the Conservatory of Music, the Wassa Conservatory of Music.
You're giving ladies.
Center for the visual arts.
Geez, she's something.
Yeah.
God bless Carolyn and S. Mark.
Okay.
Yeah.
So getting back to the kids of the Boys and Girls Club, then what capacity are you at in your facility right now?
Right
now we have about 200 kids every day throughout the summer.
240 would be our max.
We have not had turned anyone away yet.
We've hit, we bumped right up against that at our high of 236 this summer.
That gets a little uncomfortable when there's kids everywhere.
You know, when you serve a significant number of teens and tweens, they have a varying schedule.
So whether they have a job or they have responsibilities in the morning or they're, they sleep in.
So we don't have, you know, that 200 all day, every day,
varies.
And it just kind of depends on what the day looks like for kids.
No, when we do summer enrollment, we ask parents and caregivers to give us their best guesstimate of when their kids will be there, but we don't hold them to that.
You know, I think one of the things that the Boys and Girls Club does is provides that consistent place where kids can walk in and be a kid.
So regardless of what's happening.
in our world and their world, what happened at school, what happened at home, what's happening with their friend.
They walk through the doors and they can go into the gym and they can run it off.
They can hang out with other people.
They can step into the art studio and create something and express themselves.
It's just a place for them and they don't have to manage that other stuff.
Yeah.
So in just a couple of weeks, we are getting ready to send our 2026 Youth of the Year off to college.
She's got accepted to UW-Milwaukee, and she's going to start her first day of college.
She's been with us for the past four years.
When she started with us, she actually wouldn't speak to the staff.
And she will tell you that she made some pretty
poor decisions in her behavior choices.
And since then has grown with the support of club staff, of her grandparents, of school people.
She's got a really fantastic mentor who she connected with at the club through our IT program and has just found that support.
And now she's actually giving back to the club.
She's one of our youth development specialists and she's working there this summer.
in our elementary art room, and she wants to pay it forward with what she got out of the club.
going into eighth grade, I believe.
Yep.
There were all sorts of influences in her life that were impacting her negatively, just personally, mentally, and through her grandparents first and foremost, and then the support of people around her and them choosing to bring her to the club.
She's found this really great community of support
supporting, caring adults that have just helped push her forward, lift her up and be the resources that she needs.
And I would think like when she came in eighth grade, I mean, college probably wasn't even remotely close
your
thought
process at that time.
And now to know that she's been accepted and going to go to a four year school is amazing.
She is part of a program that we call Be Great Graduate.
So she's had a one on one mentor with one of our club staff members for the past several years.
And she will tell you, and I know she doesn't mind me sharing this, that she was not doing well academically.
And now she's got all A's and B's.
because of the support of this program.
So our staff goes in and meets
with her
once a week.
Well, he used to, now she graduated.
So
she's got this, has had this support.
And that support for her, if she chooses, will continue into college.
So our graduation specialist will continue to check in on her.
I know her mentor is already trying to figure out ways to go down to Milwaukee to see her.
And it's just, it is not one person.
We are part of the solution for a lot of kids.
And it's even cool.
I know another quick story, but when you talk about we had a
person that was in the program went off to college, graduated and now came back and is working for the club.
That's a really great question.
And I would hate to guess at that.
We only know when kids tell us, you know, by the time our club members are in junior or senior year, we see them less because they're out doing those things.
The kids that ask for help and ask for support or that we reach out to and help support them.
Those are the kids that that we know are going off to college.
There's a few, but unfortunately, just a few, just a few.
But if they were listening right now and struggling, you know,
I can imagine myself in eighth grade, if I was going through some hard times, I probably wouldn't, my first thought wouldn't be, I need to get to the boys and girls club.
So what do you say to those kids when they come in to kind of put them at ease?
Because, you know, to keep a kid coming back over and over again, day after day, regularly is a real art form, I would imagine at that age.
I will tell you, it's our staff.
you know, our youth development specialists, this summer we have about 40 of them, and they are a wide range of experiences of backgrounds, about 20% of them are former club members.
So, and that ranges anywhere from 20 to 30%, depending on the year, but it absolutely comes down to our staff, the staff that show up for them consistently that are present for them, that have fun with them, that provide those programs, activities, and it really comes down to the structure and accountability that kids are looking for that they get with our staff.
they walk in the door and they're like, I don't know about this.
And they're embarrassed.
And obviously, their guard is up.
And you just kind of say, well, if you want to go play ping pong, go play ping pong.
And then your staff takes over from there kind of deal.
That's 100% exactly what
is.
Um, and it's the same with our elementary kids, you know, a parent bringing in an eight year old that
nervous to be there for the first time.
It's a big building.
There's a lot of space, a lot of noise, a lot of kids.
And so there are many times that if a parent says this is his or her first time, our staff will walk them downstairs and give them a tour and introduce them to another, another kid
and a
staff member is, you know, with kids and teens, it's not instantaneous friendships, but it is with our staff.
If they are with our staff, that is their job is to reach out to the kids, get to know them, learn something about them and build that trust in that ongoing really.
relationship and rapport.
Or how does that work?
Because I would imagine if they went home and they're having a tough time at home that they might feel the desire to reach out to the staff at Boys and Girls Club.
How does that work?
It's like, we'll just see you tomorrow or...
Yeah, that's where our safety standards come into place.
We can't do that outside of club hours, with the exception of our graduation specialists who can do that at school during the day.
But our club staff will call home if there are issues or if we have concerns, we reach out to our community partners, whether that's social services, law enforcement, counseling services, anybody that we can build in a support network for kids.
And not every kid needs that support network, right?
And some kids are people ask, you know, what is a typical club member?
And there isn't one.
Kids show up today with a certain
set of challenges and that could change drastically tomorrow.
It just depends on their situation.
Yeah, you know, what what you see in a school is what we see at the club.
just a smaller, a smaller version and a wider range of ages in one building.
Absolutely.
The club is open to all kids and our age group, all kids and teens.
And it really all there's no restrictions based on income, based on zip code, based on family style, anything like that.
So we do have on an annual basis, we serve about 35
different zip codes because somebody might work in, you know, parent or guardian might work in town.
They are living with grandparents for the summer.
There's foster families, different placement situations.
And so we want to make sure that the club is consistent, is affordable, and that caregivers consider us a reliable resource for their families.
1997.
year is 30 years.
big planned?
We are working on it.
are looking forward to unveiling our 30-year
celebration.
Two harvest dinners.
And Ryan, I was just going to mention from a board perspective and you can appreciate this because you've been very gracious with your time over the years and serving in a lot of different boards.
But we can sit
talk about that in the loss of
though.
Craig, go ahead.
to say, as a board member, I mean, again, it's just the people that we have running these organizations, right?
I mean, you look at an executive director like Kim and her staff, the things that they do are just amazing and wouldn't be possible without them.
So again, I just give kudos to Kim and all of her staff and the amazing things they're doing with these kids here and the opportunities and the things that they're giving them are pretty amazing.
to keep the operations going?
Our budget is 2.2 million dollars.
So
That's a great question, Paul.
Way
to help
First, we have our online donation system is always available, and that's right at bgclub.com.
But we strongly encourage people to come in and take a tour.
This is a great platform for us to talk about this.
But seeing the club in action is really where it becomes reality.
You say you have a building that's dedicated just for kids.
Come in and see what it looks like to have a building that is dedicated just for kids.
See the interactions of our staff with our club members because it is a game changer.
And for a lot of kids, this is the thing that keeps them going.
The other thing is we have three fundraising events coming up on Thursday, August 6th.
Is our high tea event that is at the Hilton Garden Inn.
It's celebrating our club girls.
Thursday, November 12th is our largest fundraiser that is a harvest dinner at the Rothschild Pavilion.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So do I.
up a lot.
Perfect.
Perfect.
You love hearing that.
That supports our meal and snack program.
And then every April, we host winemakers dinner again at the Hilton.
And that supports our character and leadership development programs.
So that youth of the year that we talked about, somebody like her is our highlight speaker at that.
That's kind of their, they're coming out their celebration event.
And that is the second Thursday in April.
Absolutely.
We're always looking to sell tickets.
our sponsorships
careful.
Bring some Kleenex.
time?
Yep, that's a great question.
So at my, I love living in Wausau.
There is just so much to do.
So playing outside, kayaking, running, hanging out with my kid, my dog, my family, my friends.
I have not.
Kayaking takes a
I have been and I did go this year.
I will shamefully admit I was only there for two performers and Leanne Rhymes was better than the other
Hardy there this year?
So I only saw Leanne Rhymes and Old Dominion.
okay.
I think she showed up for the crowd.
Did you see Duff Deimos at all?
No.
Oh, darn it.
Oh, yeah.
Hey, Duff.
Hey, Duff.
Yeah.
Every year he does it, I think it's his last year doing the whole thing, and he comes back another year, which I'm happy about.
Yeah.
So that's awesome.
Well, what have we learned?
We learned a lot about Kim.
We learned that she's a whole day, and we learned a lot of great stuff about the Boys and Girls Club.
We've learned that my own construction is guaranteed to finish on time.
Did he use the word guaranteed?
Yeah, I heard
there.
My guess is I'll be back on the show
it doesn't open.
Correct.
We'll
To the boys and girls.
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I'm
car with Nate.
Yeah, you're exactly the two people that we wanted to talk to.
Yeah, the two interns.
Ben and Nate, the two interns.
Hey, guys.
Should I push on speaker?
Sure.
Yeah.
Are they the only two?
Two interns that we have this summer.
I think so.
Oh, guys.
Hey, welcome to the Wausau Business Show, gentlemen.
Hey, guys.
You are honorary rocket industrial interns.
And we know that was national intern day yesterday.
And we want to talk to you about what you're doing today as an intern.
Where are you guys?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So today, as interns for rocket industrial, we went to the paper mill up in Menominee, Michigan.
there.
We went to the by origin paper mill.
Okay.
We got to see the product.
We got to see the process of paper being made from the pulp all the way to the finished product of the, the food paper that you see in.
Yeah.
educating the future.
Okay.
Yeah,
Oh gosh, Nate, you want to start here?
this is your test.
I don't want to
work in a paper mill.
Okay.
Oh yeah, finance.
Marketing and sales.
Yes.
I learned that I learned just, I say the process about making the paper and how
It's very complex.
Like on the surface, it might seem pretty simple.
You just take the pulp and you heat it up and then you flatten out the sheets.
But there's a lot of chemicals that go into it.
It's a very, very complex process.
Yeah.
So just like Rocket, they're SQF certified.
And so a lot of their paper is going to restaurants and big dining establishments.
And it's the paper that you find at the bottom of your restaurant.
I'm a UW Green Bay.
Oh, God.
I think here I go again by white
that's
I went to West.
I went to West too.
I was like right above Bennett.
Also a warrior.
you.
Were you in the pop concert, Nate?
Oh, yeah.
yeah.
I didn't sing very much.
I wasn't a solo guy like Bennett.
Yeah, we just did some group stuff.
I don't even remember what we did.
Oh,
Right now, I'm still navigating that and trying to figure it out.
I've always thought of myself as a leader, and so I really like to take a management role and lead a group in some fashion.
sales team
team?
Hopefully a role that I can do that.
Well, I'm majoring in finance and accounting at Green Bay.
And I'm studying to get my CPA.
take it easy.
And I don't want to go into public accounting really.
I just know that with those...
hedge fund with that certification it's a lot easier opens a lot a lot of doors to do a bunch of different things
finance though
finance bro.
We'll see about that.
what's the new wall for all?
Well, I won't get caught.
It's not a trick
do you hope to live?
Well,
hope to have a nature outdoors guy myself.
So I'd really love to spend a few years out west.
All right,
Sorry, my phone never.
I was waiting for it to ring and I've been working around the house doing packing and stuff and not paying attention.
right.
The right place.
Yeah.
I was just going to start at the beginning.
Please do.
So it actually is ironic.
It's 20 years ago, almost to like
like the week that we started the right place.
So the right place that I was trying to remember and I tried to find it, but I already packed all that stuff up.
I believe it was like August 6th is when we opened.
So, and that would have been in 2006.
So I moved here in May of 2006.
I've been here 20 years, almost exactly.
from?
Well, so originally I'm from Auburn, Dale.
And I worked for the owner of the right place, Patty, in Marshfield at Castle Loma Fine Dining and Be sure I worked there for two years.
And then she had the idea of starting a restaurant in a house and she wanted to do it in Wausau.
So we actually, we started that business together.
I owned a small portion of the restaurant with her.
that place.
And the idea was always that I was going to purchase it from her and run it as my own restaurant.
When that time came, we just couldn't come to an agreement on the price.
And so she sold it to another chef.
And then we all know he didn't, unfortunately, didn't do so well.
different vision for customer service
that.
And that sadly didn't end well.
Oh, well.
Yeah.
You got to move on, right?
With life.
Yeah, exactly.
So then...
Then I actually worked in the automotive industry briefly for a few years just kind of, you know, I was looking for for chef work, but it was not, it was not a friendly market here in wasa that, that had a pay scale that could match what I had made when I was at the right place and I had a mortgage and you know, whatever.
So the automotive industry helped me out a little bit and then.
I was kind of approached by an old food vendor who worked for North Central Technical College, and he was a dean there, and he was like, hey, we're going to start a culinary program.
I know you always talked about wanting to be a part of that.
And he's like, so here's the dean's name that's going to be in charge of it, and you should reach out.
So I did.
And she said, cool.
We're not ready to hire anybody yet or whatever.
When we are, I'll let you know.
A couple months later, whatever, I got an email from her and I applied and interviewed and they liked me and so they hired me to start the culinary program.
When I was hired, it was a list of classes and that was the only thing that existed
Uh, yeah, there was, there was no students yet.
There was nothing yet.
It was just a list of classes.
So I started at the tech in January of 2016.
Yeah.
And they actually hired me to start the corner program that fall.
So I actually worked there for like eight months, but now the getting everything ready.
Yeah.
There was nothing, right?
Like the kitchens didn't exist
when
I started
literally
nothing in the classes.
They had the list of classes and they had the approval from the state to start that program or to run those classes, I should say.
So I wrote all the curriculum for the first year and picked out all the textbooks.
Where
I went to Johnson and Wales University in Denver.
And is
No, chef Adam from Chow.
He went to somewhere
in Colorado.
chef Nate from RedEye did a bunch of work in Colorado too.
cool.
But chef Adam was yeah, out, out.
It's like in Maryland, I think, where he
then Chef Nate went to the Art Institute, I believe, in Minneapolis
Yeah.
Yeah, so we had...
Uh, anywhere between, uh, you know, the capacity of the program was 15.
Uh, and there were many years where we took 15 and then there were some years where we took less.
Um, COVID was a little difficult.
Open was hard on us and we had a
couple of years where enrollment was very light
right
after COVID.
Um, we had actually grown the program.
So I, so I got it off the ground, got it rocking.
Um, like I said, designed the kitchens, wrote the curriculum, kind of got all that rocking.
And then that next year, we hired another chef and then he came on and started teaching the second year after the first year was going.
So then there were two of us and we did that with an assistant for a few years.
And then actually in 2019, our enrollment was so strong that we needed a third chef.
We were going to have two sections every year because it was really good.
brought on a third chef and then COVID happened.
the enrollment went back down, but we kept the third chef and added a hospitality program.
And then four years ago, they asked me to start the butchering program.
did the same thing.
I started the butchering program from the ground up
designed the cold lab space and the slaughter trailer and kind of gathered all the knowledge that we needed to get that thing rocking.
And then I taught that for three years.
So cool.
I taught the butchering program just.
Just me taught that we did.
I mean, I had an assistant occasionally.
I had a help, but that was kind of like my program to start and run.
So how
So we had we had pretty good enrollment in the butchering program too.
especially for a new program.
It's kind of a niche thing.
So you're not going to get a thousand students.
You know,
Good enrollment.
I don't know what this fall looks like.
it?
Yeah,
So, yeah, back in March, I was just scrolling around on LinkedIn one afternoon or one evening, and the Culinary Institute of America was hiring for chef instructors, and I thought, well, I'm a chef instructor.
can do
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