you
On our morning show today from WRCO, we welcome the guy who's been on the morning show probably more than anyone over the years.
Mr. Steve Colstead
is here.
How you doing
Steve?
I am doing great.
How are you doing
Phil?
We're doing great.
Yeah, you know, these are just the opportunity for you and I to get together and just talk.
You know, isn't that a good time?
Shoot the breeze.
Exactly.
But today, today I'm going to talk about a pancake supper that the Qantas Club is hosting.
It's going to be on July 8th.
We're starting it a little early and part of that is because the ladies at the senior center like to have their meal a little earlier.
So it's 4.30 is when we're going to start it and we're going to run until 7 o'clock.
It's going to be pancakes and applesauce and syrup and cherries and a beverage and sausage.
the same stuff that we usually do for a pancake supper and this is the July one because we're getting ready for our backpack program and this is kind of the season to kick it off in July.
All the money that we raised from this particular event goes out to help families in our community that are looking for some help with buying the products that really
really provide education to their kids, a backpack full of materials that will start their school year off, you know, in a really, really good way.
And so we're really looking for, you know, a turnout from the community like we always do.
And we ask for a goodwill donation.
We don't set a price on this.
This is just an opportunity for people to
to come out, enjoy a hot meal, have some conversation with someone they really really like or find somebody else they don't know and enjoy the meal together and this is a chance as because it's a goodwill offering that you know you could bring a few people out throw a few bucks in and tell them that you're buying their supper and that'd be a great thing too.
That was always exciting back in the day when mother would make breakfast for supper.
And
this is kind of like what you do in your house because I come from a German family.
It was potato pancakes for supper.
And what it amounts to is we had to shred potatoes and we grind them up in a meat grinder.
So it'd get really, really fine.
And of course I have four brothers and a sister and
you know mom usually cut us off after about 10 10 a piece and she started cutting us off and uh or else we had to grind up a few more potatoes i see
these won't be potato pancakes but uh they are good pancakes
they they are um you know they're uh
They are a pancake that we use a few special ingredients in when we mix them up, that type of thing, but I'm not allowed to share that with the public.
It's all legal.
But a lot of people like them.
And we like to grill them right out in front of you.
We make them right in front so they're hot off of the griddle.
and right onto your plate, and then you can go down the line and get all the additions that are necessary for your meal.
And we do have carryouts.
So if someone wants to come and maybe take a couple of carryouts home with them, that type of thing, or whatever, we have carryouts.
And we do that usually a lot of time towards the end when people are in a real big hurry.
We'll provide a bunch of carryouts, but we have carryouts and all you have to do is ask when you're going through the line can ever carry out and we can make it happen.
It was spring training for the Kiwanis earlier.
I know you had a meal for the Grace folks and that day I got a chance to sample them, but you had the girl scouts there helping you out as well.
Do you have some other clubs that
help you?
Well, we're looking for the key club to come and provide some help for us there generally.
pretty good in the summertime and all year round.
I mean our key club has about 40 members, high school members and
They get some service hours from it, but generally speaking, they just have a lot of fun meeting the community.
And that's what I really like about this is that if we can get young people to meet the community, have an idea of what's going on, that type of thing.
Maybe in another year or two, they have some ideas that they can press on and make some things happen themselves.
I mean, that's, I think, what any type of youth organization that works
with civic clubs does is learn how to organize, how to lead, how to talk to people, and how to make our impression in their own community.
You mentioned you're raising money for the backpacks program.
Was it a big year last year?
I mean, what
were the
numbers like,
Steve?
Last year, you know, the biggest year we ever had, Phil was 280 backpacks and 120 families.
Last year was down a little bit.
We actually did about 200 backpacks and around 100 families last year.
But
The key thing is that the need is still there and the price of the product continues to go up.
We order based on a sign up and the sign up for the backpack program is going to be on Wednesday or on Saturday, Saturday, August 1st from 9 to 11 at the Richland Center Community Center.
and then again on August 5th from 5 to 7.
Now it's still a month before the school starts but the key thing about it Dave Kepler has been in charge of ordering product for us probably for the last 10 years and Dave needs that type of time to get the materials the product to fill this type of order up for
for us.
So we ask people to sign up in advance so that we can have product available.
And when you start thinking about, you know, 200 backpacks someplace around, you know, $40, $50 in product, we do have to have that type of time frame.
So we encourage anyway, now this is open to any school district.
So maybe
We're the Richland Center Kiwanis Club, but I'm in Riverdale or I'm in Kikapu or I'm in Ithaca or maybe even Weston or, you know, those school districts.
If you feel you're in need, just sign up and we'll provide the backpacks for you.
We don't look at school districts.
We look at kids in need.
and families in need.
And those are the parameters for the program.
So I mean, if you think that, if you're 30 miles away and listening to this and you feel that you could really use this program, sign up.
What do you pack them with?
Is it different for like a potential kindergartner than it is for an
older student?
Actually, that's a really great question, Phil, because what it amounts to is that we go in stages.
We go from
Pre-K to second grade is one group of kids.
And then third grade through sixth grade is another group of kids.
And then seventh grade through high school is the third group.
So we have three different groups.
Now, some teachers require a certain amount of, you should have this, this, this, this, and this.
And what we look at is we can provide most of that in this grouping, this age grouping, but maybe the parents might have to buy a few items, but most of it will be in this backpack.
Now the basics like notebooks and
pencils and pens and crayons and erasers.
Sometimes it's protractors and sometimes it's lined paper or maybe even a file
a file book, or it's folders.
I mean, all of that's provided.
Sometimes they're color coded, sometimes it's what we have left, but we try and provide a large amount.
And usually what you get is you get a bag full of the product.
because we color coat the bag.
If, for example, you sign up and I've got a pre-K, I have a third grader, and I have an eighth grader, they'll get three different colored bags.
But then they can go and pick out whatever color backpack they want, and they can put their materials in it, or they can carry the bags home and put them in later on.
The key is to sign up.
Have you determined a date when the pickup will be
then?
Actually, it'll be the Monday before school starts.
And we haven't said it yet.
That's a, you know, Amy, forehand is the coordinator for the program and, and Amy will set that up and we'll have that date at the time of sign up.
but I don't have the date today.
Okay,
so the key is just to sign up and get ready for school.
It's exciting time, but for a family, you know, it could be a real load, especially if you have several children to get
ready for.
Yeah, or sometimes if you're going through some money situations or maybe you've had a little bad luck in the year or whatever.
You know, the key thing is that we want
kids to start on the same page as everybody else.
So have all your materials, have that in your hands, that type of stuff.
And if you're listening out there and maybe you're a grandparent and you know that family members of yours are in that particular situation, you know, if you want to sign up for them and let them know you're signing up,
those are that's that's appropriate because you know sometimes people are afraid to sign up because they oh you know I what would it look like or whatever the key thing about it is that you know this is something that we're providing so kids and families first of all get some financial relief
But it gives the kids an opportunity for head start.
I mean, they can go to school and they have all the product, all the materials available, so they get a good start in education.
And education is what's about.
You bet.
And no one knows.
Where the product came from either, right?
Correct.
Correct.
The products coming from a Qantas club, um, and part of the reason we raise money is, is to support the kids in our community.
And this is just one of those fundraisers.
Um, it's coupled with a number of other ones, obviously, but this is the one that we put down and
You know some clubs have a whole bunch of different things they do to us.
This is probably our key mark project.
This is one that we raise money for and we invest in the community an awful lot of money in this project.
And do the backpack thing and you also do the coats for kids a little bit later on in the season.
You know in October we'll have another pancake supper and we'll have a coats for kids
project, you know, we'll be flipping some cakes for that too, but also a thing that we usually give out 120 to 150 coats in this community to people in need at no charge to them.
That's wonderful.
It won't be long we'll be talking about the Richland County Fair either.
Yeah, and you know, we're going to provide a premier cooperative that's already signed on to provide a
a free breakfast to all of the exhibitors and that have animals at the fair and in their families so that when they get there early in the morning at about six o'clock they can come up and catch a good breakfast before they start the day and premiere you know there's a lot of businesses in our community that just support all of us and you know I listen to the Lions
talk the other day about all the support and our businesses are great.
I mean they help us, they support us, they provide us with with product when we need it or supplies when we need it and I just want to put a plug out.
You know I could go down the whole list of people but local business.
I mean they are really the backbone of
civic clubs like ours because they're so helpful in helping us guide our way through some of these issues.
Yeah, very well said.
The basic bottom line, the reason you're here is you want people to come out Wednesday, July 8th, and even if maybe they have a conflict, you can still donate and go in the door and drop some money in the plate.
Correct.
I mean, if you don't have time to eat, that's fine.
If you don't have time to eat,
Get the carry out and take it home with you.
We have just got all kinds of product.
We are not going to run out.
We have more pancake mix than you can shake a stick at.
And you've already been to one of ours already.
We didn't run out of anything when you guys were there.
Am I right,
Phil?
No, I mean, yeah, you thought you would when you saw me show up.
I know it, but you know, the eight pancakes you had, I mean, that's pretty easy stuff,
Phil.
It wasn't like
the coal-stead boys back in the day, but
I was... That's true.
I was getting there.
You know, some of those coal-stead boys could pack around.
I'm not all that sure I was the only one.
I'm guessing not.
Always good to see you're wearing proudly a Toyota home-talent baseball jersey.
One of the many teams that I played
played baseball for, and this one is in honor of Aaron Lancaster, my nephew who passed away at cancer a few years ago.
But I wear it with a lot of pride.
I played hometown baseball for a lot of years and met a lot of good people.
And you still think about some of those great people you've met that you still rub shoulders with today.
You were a journeyman in the league.
How many teams did you play
for?
You know, I think it is seven.
It started out, I grew up in Darlington, so it started out with teams down there, and as I moved around the state a little bit, I played for some other people, but ended up here with, I think it was Ithaca, I think his name was Kevin Hauser, started a team there that maybe your brother-in-law played for too.
and then it was Ithaca Richland Center and eventually it went back to Richland Center and that's the last team I played for.
Long time ago though Phil, long time ago, but you were young, you were announcing, you actually every time I made an error you singled me out, you know that type of thing.
Not me.
It was you.
It was you.
But that's okay.
I didn't make tons of errors, but I had a good time doing it.
Good memories.
Yeah.
Thanks for all you do in the Kiwanis.
We salute you because you do so much for the community.
Thank you.
And I just hope the community comes out and, you know, for a few bucks, you can have a good meal and it'll help the kids in our community.
Wednesday, July 8th, 437 of the Richland Center Community Center.
Happy 4th, Steve.
And you too, Phil.
You know, spoil your grandchildren rotten.
I'll do the same.
Absolutely.
Sugar them up and send them home.
Right?
Something like that.
Steve Cole said joining us in the first part of the morning show.