Stay tuned for In Our Range on the way next, brought to you by Westgate Nursing Rehabilitation and Assisted Living Center.
Good morning and welcome to In Our Range.
I'm your host, Mike LeBeau.
Joining me this morning is Dale White with We Care Wakefield.
We Care is a much needed non-profit in Wakefield.
They aim to enrich the greater Wakefield community by promoting physical activity, enhancing social interaction, and building strong connections among residents.
We Care was the brainchild within the administration that picked up support from outside individuals.
Since then, We Care is the flagship for most community events, whether they are recreational, athletic, or public-minded.
Although it's still in its infancy, it is growing through learning with each event and realizing the need for more public relations.
We Care hosts an event tomorrow called Sweater Weather in downtown Wakefield.
Sweater Weather will feature a pumpkin decorating contest, baked goods, contest, cornhole tournament,
Bingo, live music, pie auction, kids corner, raffle baskets, and of course, a 50-50 raffle.
Dale White joins me this morning.
Dale was born and raised in Ironwood.
He graduated from Luther L. Wright in 1975, got married in 1978, and moved to Wakefield, where he's been a resident ever since.
He coached football at Wakefield.
Health issues forced him into early retirement, so he directed his time towards his town.
In 2004, Dale joined the Wakefield Fireworks Committee.
Long after that, he got a seat on the Wakefield Planning Commission.
Then in 2019, he filled a vacant seat on the Wakefield City Council.
He was the top vote-getter in that election, and so he was nominated mayor, which is a position that he's held for seven years now.
Good morning, Dale, and welcome to In Our Range.
Good morning, Mike.
Thank you for having me.
So Wecare is recently founded.
nonprofit in Wakefield?
How did WeCare come about?
Well
actually WeCare kind of came along kind of unexpectedly.
The Wakefield Fireworks Committee, who I was a member of, sponsored the International Watercross Snowmobile Racing on Sunday Lake.
They came into town, they were looking to get started here.
Wakefield Fireworks jumped on board and took the sponsorship to bring them into town and we had a fairly
Decent year that first year.
They wanted to come back for a second season.
They loved it here.
Wakefield fireworks did not want to do a second year with them.
So we needed to find a non-profit that was going to pick up and take over them.
And that's when We Care kind of jumped into it.
I credit Robert Brown for kind of putting the people together to put We Care together.
One of them was Ashley Taro, who was an administrative assistant with the city at the time.
Mike Zekovic, who also sits on the city council.
And then we have a couple of other individuals that joined who kind of like the brainchild people that put this all together.
We did all of the work to put ourselves together as a non-profit, all the paperwork.
We had our meetings that got everything together and we created We Care.
And then once We Care was established and we got a hold of the people through the International Water Cross and started some fundraising just enough to get enough funds together to kind of get things going.
And that's pretty much how We Care got started and we took off taking care of that.
And then the next thing we were approached by
The Gus Macker people, they wanted to know they needed a nonprofit that was going to cover them so we picked up the Gus Macker and we worked side by side with the Gus Macker and we figured we needed to do more and more with that so we've sat down with meetings and we've come up with more and more things that we needed to do and then of course two years ago we started with sweater weather and we're building on it and we have a couple other projects that we're putting together now.
Yeah.
So we care was formed to sort of fill this space that was needed to promote this event with the snowmobile racing.
Yeah.
We needed a nonprofit that was going to cover that void in town.
So yeah, we care stepped up and I think they've done a pretty good job.
And since then been able to branch out and the Gus Macer tournament that happens every June.
Happens every year, every summer.
Every summer.
Yeah.
I know that we always advertise that
comes around in
the year.
And that's a that's a fun event
every year.
Very.
It's just growing in leaps and bounds each year.
Yeah.
and then other events as well.
And then this will be the third annual sweater weather
that's happening tomorrow.
Yep, yep.
And it's another little event that's just starting to pick up.
I think each year we're picking up two or three, four more vendors each year.
The food vendors are coming in.
They look forward to it.
They're so excited.
Kind of like their last big event of the season before they put all of their trailers away for the year.
The people in town are getting excited for it.
They really look forward to the businesses.
It's kind of our little thing.
We're just going to keep working on it and keep building it up.
And, you know, I look back two weeks ago or three weeks ago, Pump Confessed, you know, they started out small and they keep building it up and Pump Confessed is a big thing over in Besmere.
And I think we're just going to keep working on it and hopefully a sweater weather will build up to be that one day.
Oh, I think so.
I mean, just take a look at Hurley and Festival Italiano.
Festival Italiano.
You may be
surprised to find out that at one point there were no Italians here.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's true.
And that weekend everybody's in Italian.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I make attempts at jokes every once in a while, Dale, so...
Thanks.
Yeah.
But yeah, this is incredible.
So it is slowly building.
And I think personally, that's the right idea.
Just take it one event at a time.
Yeah.
Take it slowly and build it up and
make sure that you've got the right people.
I truly believe in baby steps when you take these.
I think you've got to start out small.
Take it slow.
Keep it simple.
Work your way through it.
Don't get too crazy.
Take a lot of mental notes.
Take a lot of written notes.
Find out what works, what doesn't work.
Don't commit yourself to anything big within the event the first couple of years.
Listen to people.
That's the most important thing.
Listen to people.
What did they like?
What didn't they like?
And then you build off of that.
And like I said, a lot of mental notes for me, that's what it is.
When I go to these events, once they're up and running, sometimes that's the easiest part.
It's the background work that goes into it.
And then once they're all set up and they're all running, then it's kind of easy to just stand back and let it do its thing, especially with a sweater weather.
you bring in the individual vendors once they're up and running.
They're going to run the show for you and the food vendors are the same way.
So you kind of just have to walk around and then just listen to people, talk to people and what can we do next year just to make it just a little bit better?
What can we add to the event just to make it a little bit better?
Again, just don't get crazy with it each year.
Just maybe add little things here there just to keep perking it up and you know, don't go for broke right away.
Just slowly keep working on it.
Yeah, that's the way.
Slow and small solutions and then observe the feedback, make those small adjustments and just keep her steady, right?
Listen to the people.
They'll tell you what they want.
Oh, they will.
That's one good thing about about folks on the range is they ain't shy
to tell you.
No, no.
Upers are like that.
I like it.
So besides hosting these events, sweater weather, Gus Makker tournament, the snowmobile races across the lake and everything, what are some other things that We Care is trying to get involved in?
Well, I think one of the first things that We Care decided to do because We Care stands for We Encourage Community Athletics, Recreation and Entertainment, we decided let's get some scholarships out there.
So we stayed small the first year.
And then I think we're able to up the ante a little bit on the price of the scholarships.
But we've tried to shoot for three to four scholarships each year for the Wakefield High School graduates.
And as we've been able to build our bank account up a little bit, we've made donations to the Go-Gibic Miners football and girls softball programs.
In the wintertime with the Wakefield-Marinesco basketball program, we sponsored away games for the basketball teams for the girls and the boys.
We have given money to the Wakefield-Marinesco elementary basketball program.
We've given donations to the Wakefield-Marinesco Fun Frolick.
We gave some money out last spring for a local gal.
She attended what was called the Maria Pepe Little League Legacy Series.
It's a girls softball tournament, I think that's held nationally.
She needed, so was raising some funds to go to that tournament.
So we made a donation for her to be able to go to that tournament.
Every fall, we hold a backpack drive, raising backpacks and filling them up with goodies for the kids when they're going back to school.
In the wintertime, we try to do movies in the fall.
I don't know if we're gonna be able to try to do it.
We're scratching our head.
I think we're gonna try to still do a movie in the park this fall, which is weather-related sometimes.
And then we try to do a movie at Christmas time, up in the gym.
And in correlation with that, then we also do what's called Letters to Santa, which is kind of started out slow, but it's getting to be a big thing.
The kids get their letters in, and then we have Santa.
on the fire truck riding around town on a cold night and those sledders are all delivered to the kids and presents out there so that's really growing.
The kids really get excited to see that fire truck with the sirens going coming down the street and going to deliver a present to them.
Another thing that we've done in conjunction with the city of Wakefield we obtained a grant and through that grant then we were able to
purchased four AEDs.
Those are getting to be big things nowadays.
And we were able to donate four of them.
One to the girls basketball program, the boys basketball program, all of the athletics.
One went to the city of Wakefield Electric Department.
And then we also donated one to the Wakefield Public Library.
And this last spring, we do not have the chamber in Wakefield anymore.
So we care took over the citywide garage sale.
Another big step this past summer was we care joined up with the Wakefield fireworks committee and they did a joint venture because of the The way the parade was set up.
We did a combined float and parade handouts So we're trying to get ourselves out there and getting people to know us and getting involved with everything.
So
it sounds like you're doing an amazing job hosting these Events for downtown, but you're making a difference in individual kids lives You're getting kids going during school with the backpacks things
How long has the Santa Claus firetruck letter
been going on?
Robert Brown has been here since 2019 and again this was a big idea from Robert.
He really really liked the idea with this letters to Santa Claus.
I would say probably at least the last six years.
Wow.
And like I said, it started out kind of small, but it's been building up steam every year.
We have the people in the office getting together on this.
The letters are coming in like crazy from the kids from the school.
We get all the presents ordered or bought, however we have to do it and get them wrapped up.
We have Santa.
I'll leave his name as Santa.
We don't want to name Santa.
Yeah, that's his name.
And we get him out on the truck.
He's all dressed up, ready to go.
And just before Christmas, we get him out riding around and we go door to door wherever those letters came from.
And Santa makes sure he knocks on the door and gives a present to each one of those kids that gets a letter out to Santa.
So
that's incredible.
So for we care being a relatively new nonprofit.
You guys have just hit the ground running.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And like I said, you know, anything that we can try to do to promote anything and everything, you know, that we can out there.
We also have trying to coordinate anything that we can do with our gussets and family with their winter wonder lights that we have in the park, which is such a fantastic, fantastic light display that's through to holidays over there.
And now we do have a non-profit that just started with the fire department that's trying to raise funds for a new fire truck over there.
We are going to be getting together with that auxiliary through the fire department and I think between we care in this auxiliary we're going to try to do some funds over there to try to help the fire department raise some cash over there on their part too.
Wherever we can put our hand out there to help anybody in town We care is trying to be there.
So
yeah, it sounds like you're really living up to your name
Well, there aren't many of us, but we're willing to get our hands out there and help anybody well
since you're on the air How can you get more people involved?
How can people join up and help out
just reach out to any one of the we care members?
There's me.
There's my wife Jean.
There's Ashley taro Mike zekovich Allie Willem
And then there's also Val Miller.
She runs the Northwoods Coffee House in Wakefield.
Pop in, have a coffee with Val, talk to her about what needs to be joined.
And yeah, otherwise check in at City Hall, talk to the girls, find out who they need to talk to.
We're taking volunteers, anybody wants to come in and help.
Yeah, you know, when you get involved in this stuff, and that's me, you gotta do this from your heart.
You gotta enjoy doing this.
You know, sometimes they're,
I should say not sometimes.
Most of the time there is no payback.
Your payback is gonna be feeling good on what you do for your community.
And that's why I do it.
And I think most of the people that I have working with me on this week here, that's why they do it too.
They do it for the greater good of the community.
And it started with IWA this past year.
We had a great, great turnout.
We changed up the venue a little bit and I had so many residents come up to me.
Saturday night and we're just totally blown away at the change-up we made.
They just loved it, so keep building on that.
and keep building on everything.
And again, it's the feel good that you get at the end of it.
For
sure.
When those kids get their backpacks at
school,
when you see those kids get those gifts at Christmas or you see a kid get helped out and go into college after they've worked hard.
Absolutely.
In athletics and at school.
And I got to say, it's just someone who took his kids to the fireworks display down there in Wakefield.
One of the best fireworks displays this year that I have ever seen in my life.
It
really moved me.
It
was incredible.
It's 22 years I've been with the fireworks department.
And I'll tell you what, in the beginning, no, we were nowhere near what you saw this past.
It was incredible.
The eye was drawn to different places.
There was
depth and height and lots of color and big
sounds.
That's 22 years with John Granado.
So he knows his stuff.
He knows what he's doing.
And yeah, it took us...
it took us all of that 25 years to build up to that level so and every year we're always looking for new ideas what we need to do to even make that show better so it's a lot of hard work but again you feel good with the whole thing after so.
Well Dale we're coming up against our time here is there anything else you'd like to add before we head on out today?
No I don't think so I said come on to Wakefield.
We enjoy having folks come down.
We're just a nice quiet little town.
We enjoy having people come down.
We don't try to compete with anybody.
We just try to want to be ourselves.
I'll throw in one quick plug.
We are working on a big snow race that we're going to be putting on this winter.
We did it last year.
It kind of started out slow.
We're going to be going big time now because we care is picking it up.
And it is snowmobile racing on the lake.
It is a radar run.
So, yeah, and I think it's going to be a really big thing this year.
So that will be in, I do believe February, but keep your eye out.
We'll be getting the posters and everything out, but it's a big radar run that we're going to be doing on Sunday Lake.
So.
Excellent.
Yeah, we'll stay aware of that.
I'm sure we'll be promoting it here.
Well, Dale, thanks so much for joining us this morning on NR Range.
It was really good to meet you and happy to hear about all the wonderful things we care is handling.
All right, Mike.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, you have a great day.
Yep, you too.
Thanks again to our guest this morning, Dale White with We Care Wakefield.
We care.
Wakefield encourages community, athletics, recreation, and entertainment.
As you can tell from this interview, they get into a lot of things.
And one thing they have going on right now is a celebration of fall happening tomorrow.
Downtown Wakefield, it's sweater weather event.
They got all kinds of things happening for sweater weather over there tomorrow, including a pumpkin decorating contest.
contest, baked goods contest, cornhole tournament, bingo, there'll be live music from Michael Grayson and friends, a pie auction, a kid's quarter, raffle baskets and a 50-50 raffle, and more.
It's all brought to you by We Care.
They are doing tremendous work.
If you'd like to learn more about We Care, you can call 906-285-
2197 or you can find them at We Care Wakefield on Facebook.
Thanks for joining us this morning on In Our Range.
I'm your host, Mike LeBeau.
We'll see you back here next week.