Transcript — St. Vincent de Paul

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us today on The Morning Show from WRCO.

On the first part of the show, we're going to put the focus on the American Red Cross.

Kyle Kriegel is here, Executive Director for the Southwest Wisconsin Chapter of the Red Cross and local blood drive coordinator.

Bob Shearer is here as well.

Bob, it's about that time.

We're going to be making plans for this month's drive, aren't you?

Yes, I am.

And also for our people for their kitchen lunch.

It's going to be Honeyham sandwiches.

All right.

Get that done.

I know you've got lofty goals for each and every drive.

How many of you got signed up so far for the

drive?

I think we got about 74 for this trip and we're looking for more.

What's the date of the drive again, Bob?

July 15th.

Matter of fact, it's on my wife's birthday.

All right.

She'll be a whole 51.

She'll be celebrating at the

drive.

She can't give this month.

Oh yeah.

Cause she says she met a quota

and that's one week from today.

Yes.

That'll be happening there.

Um, the hours, uh, again, Bob,

the hours are from 1130 to 530.

And, uh, we're looking also for volunteers.

We're looking for, uh, people that are interested in coming out and help give.

give their donation of blood and there's always something to do with a blood drive.

There's an added bonus this time as well.

If people give blood, what, what can they receive?

When you give blood, you will receive a coupon from quick trip for a pint of milk.

That's a good deal.

Quick trip has been very responsive and very quick to step up, I think, for the cause, haven't

you?

Yes.

Yeah, very much.

Oh, I think that last year's deal, it kind of wore another sponsor down a little bit.

They kind of got a little upset because the kind of quick trip was doing the same thing they were doing.

Oh, I see.

But we all got to work together because we're one big team.

Right.

It all is for the same cause, isn't it?

Right.

Yeah, Kyle Kregel is here as well.

Good to see you, Kyle.

Good to be here.

And just to piggyback off of what Bob was saying too, if you'd like to register for the drive next week, you can go to redcross.org to make your appointment.

Certainly you can call 1-800-RED-CROSS to make your appointment.

Or if you have the blood donor app on your phone, a lot of people have that now.

That's a great way to make an appointment.

And I just want to emphasize too that

you know the summertime we see a lot of drop-off in blood donations people are you know vacationing, schools out, you know they're camping and so we see a lot of folks you know not not coming out and donating blood but yet this is a critical time of the year because people are out traveling you know there's a number increase the number of accidents and disasters that happen and so this is really critical for us to ask what the community come out and help donate blood.

I know Bob's

Bob and I are both kind of, we always want to shoot for the moon.

And so I know he's at 74, but we'd love to have it.

Well over a hundred people come out next week and donate blood.

There's no reason why not.

Plus, Phil, think of it this way.

It's a cool place.

You know, it's going to be air conditioning.

We're going to have snacks.

Bob's always got the canteen well stocked.

We'll keep you well hydrated.

So there's really no excuse.

If you're able to please come out and donate blood.

It's just a great time to help.

But I do also want to mention there are other blood drives all around the area.

and so again you can go on RedCross.org or RedCrossBlood.org and put in your zip code and you can find the closest blood drive to you.

As I said, if you got the blood app on your phone, great way to make an appointment that way too.

And the easiest way to find where the blood drive is, please come to the community center at 1050 North Orange and make sure the

The person has their iron count good and everything because that always helps.

Let's talk about that a little bit as far as the iron count and you know, you hear the term about platelets and you know, giving blood and things like that.

Maybe you can explain that a little

bit.

Sure.

I, well, one thing I always want to tell folks is that, you know, I, I hear from people like, oh, I, you know, I'm nervous about donating.

I always say to folks, you know, the trick to it is, is make sure you're well hydrated before you go in for a blood drive, you know, have a good meal.

Um, if you are concerned about your iron count, there are some foods that you can eat that will help you with your iron count.

A lot of folks talk about spinach and

like that.

So those are some things that you can do to make sure that you're ready for that.

Also, you know, folks are nervous about needles and stuff.

I always got to say, bring a friend with you, bring a family member, do it together with somebody.

It's really, you know, painless, but it's just a really great way to do it, you know, with a friend.

The other thing I would just say too is that, you know, it's only an hour.

I mean, we get you in and out of there, you know, really quickly.

Bob and his crew, you know, they've got a, you know, they process it, you get you right in right away.

You know, if you make an appointment, there's usually no waiting really.

It's relatively quick.

So one hour of your time.

Bob had mentioned earlier too that, you know, you hit your quota and I just tell folks, you know,

all blood types are welcome and it's every 56 days that you can donate.

So there may be, you know, sometimes folks are like, hey, gotta watch my time when I can do it.

But that's why I wanted to mention there's lots and lots of blood drives that are available out there.

Okay.

Last thing I just want to add regarding blood is that if you find a blood drive this week and you donate, we were running a special, it's June 29th through July 12th,

If you come and donate, you can get a Looney Tunes t-shirt.

It's really cool.

Nice.

Bugs Bunny and the gang.

So I know that that runs out this week.

And then, you know, Bob's was talking about the stuff that we have going for next week.

I would also mention too, there will be July 13th to the 31st.

You will receive a Fandago movie ticket by email.

It's a $15 price to go see a movie.

So again, really no excuse.

Get some nice gifts if you can come out and donate blood.

And as I said, it's for a good cause.

Right now, people really, we need folks to come out and donate blood.

Again, all blood types are welcome.

We really

We really need you to come out if you can.

Sometimes in the summer, people kind of forget it or get busy or whatever.

Yeah, or vacation.

You know, hey, we're all want to take that vacation.

So if you can just make sure if you can schedule it, we also have, you know, donor fix donor centers with lacrosse and Madison.

So, you know, if you're in, you know, shopping or in one of those larger communities, you can also stop in for donate blood there as well.

And again, I just want to mention all blood types are welcome.

Certainly, you know, O-Neg is one of our most popular ones that we're always looking for, but all types are welcome at this point.

Is that the

rarest?

It's the one that's most highly sought after for our hospitals to support them.

Yeah.

Let's talk about some other things.

The Red Cross has been busy.

We've had some severe weather here in Wisconsin, quite a bit of it lately.

Well, it feels like the heat's been on.

I know, I know.

Yeah, we've seen a lot of disasters.

And this year, you know, just looking back,

to April and again we were just talking before we started today.

Time seems to be flying by this summer but you know just back in April we had those statewide storms from you know I know for your listeners you know close to here like Union Center got hit by the tornado I know Red Cross was there helping those folks impacted the folks up in Ringle up by the Wausau area we had major flooding and portage and

you know, down by Janesville.

So, and that was just our, you know, kind of our part of the state, but I know also by Green Bay, major flooding like Chiachton and, like I said, it's our Black Creek and Fremont of where it hit.

So, we're not strangers to this stuff as well.

We've seen quite a bit that's hit our state.

And the Red Cross has been extremely busy with responding.

And so, what happens when that stuff happens?

So,

With the Red Cross, we work with our partners.

We set up Red Cross shelters.

We also have partner shelters that will help open up so that people have a safe place to stay if they're not able to get into their homes.

provided, you know, some cleanup kits.

We've done just a lot, a lot of work with folks that have been impacted by these disasters.

And, you know, every day you see, you know, south, just this morning, I think everything, I saw, I think it was 115 degrees at a couple of computers.

I'm like, wow, does he, how do you even like, you even like venture outside when it gets that hot?

I just want to say when it gets that hot, there's some things that you can do

uh you know that we encourage folks uh if you go to redcross.org we've got some great safety tips for people for especially for heat uh what to do what are some things that you can do in your home the biggest is make sure you're well hydrated stay in a place that's cool

But there's some tips and things that you can implement in your home just to make sure you can deal with the heat.

The other thing that comes along with that are certainly our power outages.

And we've certainly seen that that's impacted some areas throughout the country.

And so we've got, again, some safety tips to deal with that.

So that's just the United States.

And then the US also has some territories.

I know that not even six months ago, we were sending people from Wisconsin to Guam.

I had to go look and see where that was on a map in the Pacific.

But Guam is a U.S.

territory and they got hit by a typhoon.

just this last weekend, they got hit again.

And so the American Red Cross and our partners were working to respond to help support those folks that were impacted again as they were beginning that recovery process.

Island operations are a little bit different because it's not like here where you can just, you know, go to, it's really easy to go to a not impacted community.

They're, you're on an island and they're, it gets pretty devastated with the resources.

So we do have our volunteers, some of them are being deployed for that.

But also, I know that we've sent several here from Wisconsin to help support Illinois, Indiana, with some of the tornadoes that have impacted those communities as well.

And so with all this, Bill, with these disasters, I would just say, we're always looking for volunteers.

I, you know, the biggest response that we see on a regular basis is the single family house fire.

And so we need volunteers to help us respond to those, but also those are, there are the larger disasters.

that you see every day, where we need volunteers that can go out and help with shelter, help with feeding, and lots and lots of different things.

We even have opportunities for disaster volunteers that can do virtual assignments.

So there's lots of opportunities.

And again, if you're interested ever in learning more about that, you can go to redcross.org.

And on the tab, there's a volunteer icon that you can click.

And it can give you a lot of different information about volunteering opportunities locally.

and nationally.

And so I just, I encourage your listeners out there that if they're looking to do something or give back to their community, what a great way is to become a disaster volunteer.

I do want to also echo Bob.

The blood opportunities are there as well.

So the blood donor ambassadors, as Bob said, we're always looking for folks to be at that front door meeting and greeting people, helping out with Bob and the team and the canteen.

So there are opportunities like that as well.

You also make a push each and every time you hear about smoke alarms.

And

you talked about

house fires and, you know, just keeping people safe, right?

Yeah.

So, so the Red Cross, we respond nationally to about 65,000 disasters a year and over 80% of those are single family house fires.

You know, and so what we, we did starting in 2014,

We began a program where we go into homes.

What people do is they will go online and make an appointment and we'll have a team of Red Cross volunteers or our partners, many times fire departments, local fire departments, and we'll install smoke alarms in their home.

We'll replace them.

Having a working smoke alarm can greatly impact your opportunity to get out of your home and be safe if there is a fire in your home.

You only have about two minutes to get out.

and you know many times you know that fire at 2 a.m.

you're sleeping and all of a sudden you're hoping that you know you have a working smoke alarm that's working so that you can get out you know get your whether it certainly yourself but your your family and and any pets make sure you're getting out and getting out safe so we provide free smoke alarms we go in we install them we show the homeowner how they work so that when you have like your your cooking time

You got toast in the toaster, and you accidentally burn it, and the smoke alarm goes off.

We'll show you how to deal with that.

Don't take the battery out.

So we walk through what to do with that.

Also, we will help the homeowner identify hazards in the home.

Kitchen areas is probably your number one area.

But just kind of go through that with them, and then

have a plan on how to get out.

Make sure you know two exits of every room, have a meeting place outside the home to meet, and then to practice that.

Many people don't realize that even if you change the battery in your smoke alarm once a year,

the alarm itself per the manufacturer is only good for 10 years.

So if you're noticing your smoke alarm is kind of yellow and crusty, it's probably time that you change it.

So I just tell folks make sure you get it and check your smoke alarm.

Make sure that it's working properly.

Check the date when it was installed to make sure that, hey, we want to make sure it works.

So the other one I would just also put in a plug for.

If you're checking your smoke alarm, also check your carbon monoxide.

That's something that we don't put in, but that's something you should also be checking as well.

Well, where do you go to find out about this?

You can call the Red Cross.

I'll do it slow.

It's an 800 number.

So 1-888-376-4056.

Or you can go to redcross.org forward slash

sound the alarm.

So both of those are opportunities where you can go and register to make an appointment, and a Red Cross volunteer will call you, set up a time that works for you, whether it's a weekend or an evening, and install those alarms.

Typically, Phil, we install probably about three smoke alarms per home, and typically we want to do them in the hallways for bedrooms and stuff like that.

The other thing that we do is that for those that are hearing impaired, we do offer

shakers or strobe lights as well.

So if there's an issue with hearing, we do have those as well.

And those are free.

Awesome.

Tell me a little bit more about the app.

We always hear about it.

You can register for the blood drive, like the one that's coming up in Ritzel Center next week.

But there's an app for emergencies as well.

Yeah.

This is a really good app, especially again, this time of the year.

So the emergency app kind of walks you through a couple of things.

Be ready before, during, and after a disaster.

So it will actually walk you through some short guides, even some games or personalized checklists that you can have to be prepared.

Some of the things we talked about, having that plan, what to do when you have a fire in your home, what you can do for that.

Or if it's a tornado, you get a tornado warning for your immediate area of what to do.

So some really good

checklist.

I always encourage folks to go through that.

But then also, you know, get up.

Yeah.

It's also, I got it on my phone.

And when it goes off.

Oh, yeah.

Yes.

record well five fire trucks and one

you know it you're gonna get notified yes yes absolutely uh so i was just gonna say you when you get the alerts from the natural weather service they're right on your phone so you know right as bob said it is extremely loud and you will it will notify you if you are in an area that does have a warning um or a watch so it'll walk you through what to do in those situations

but it's really nice to have that on your phone.

The other thing that I will say with, with that, so like, you know, we're right here in Richland center today, but if you, if you have an app, um, with a family member, let's say in another part of the country, you know, you can also kind of let them know like, Hey, you know, there's a tornado warning for where you're at.

And so, uh, you can kind of see where your loved ones, you know, if they're being impacted by severe weather also.

One of the things that I like done here, the last point that I want to make with the emergency app is where you can find help, find your local Red Cross shelters and services.

you know many times you may not know well if we're impacted by a flood here what where do I go for shelter uh where would I go to find that out or if you've got family members in another part of the country you can let them know where the shelters are.

The other the thing I like is that when you when you look at your app you can see where all the open shelters are in the country so it's just a really good resource for you to have

on your phone so that you know what to do, especially if we have power outages.

Your phone can help you with giving you some great information.

I do also want to mention that the phone is available in English and Spanish, so whatever version you would like, and you can go either on the App Store or Google Play.

The other thing I wanted to mention too, Phil, is, hey look, we all have, well not all of us, but most of us have pets.

uh, either a cat or a dog or multiple cats and dogs.

Um, we also do have a pet first aid app.

Uh, again, I should mention all these are free for you to download, uh, on your phone and you can get them for both, um, Apple or Android phones.

So they're available both.

But, you know, a lot of us want to know, like, what do I do if my, my,

um dog starts choking or if there's an issue with my so it has some really good i mean literally mouth to mouth muscle uh it'll walk you through on breathing and helping your your your pet so just really good information there on on first aid also information about um toxics toxicity toxicity uh toxicity information um preparedness tips

early warning emergency indicators with your pets, step-by-step how-to videos.

As I mentioned, they walk you through literally the mouth to muzzle for like a dog.

And then it can tell you where your emergency animal hospital locators are.

If you travel, the other thing I liked is that a lot of people like to travel with their dogs.

It will actually walk you within 50 mile radius.

It'll show you where there are pet friendly hotels.

So just some really, really good information about pet, pet emergencies and safety as well.

That's so good.

I mean, I would have never thought about that, you know, concerning the Red Cross and, and a pet app and all of that.

So

yeah, there is another one.

I mean, I, so there's, there's four apps.

There's probably, we do have more, but the four that I like again, emergency app again to help you walk you through for emergencies, pet app.

blood donor app and then there is a first aid app as well.

So if you're camping or if you're you know going out to in rural areas that you may be your distance from EMS it could be quite far might be good for you also to have an emergency first aid app on your phone as well has some great tips on what to do in medical emergencies like first aid, CPR, walk you through all those

components and what to do in those emergencies.

Always good stuff, always appreciate you coming in Kyle.

And Bob, you just want to make a push for next week, don't you?

Yeah, well, like I said before, we're always looking for more people.

And Kyle, I do agree with you on what you said.

I'd love to see it over a hundred.

And I'd also like to make a push for all my sponsors here in town.

We've got QuikTrip, Subway, Locker, and Covers.

And now we've got a new sponsor, is Colligan-Warrosoftner.

And they've all been very helpful.

when I go in and talk with them.

They're good listeners and they also give me some advice on how I can make things better.

Always looking to make it better.

You do a good job, Bob.

And again, a good meal there too in the canteen next

Wednesday.

This month is going to be Honeyham.

next month we go back to barbecue.

Then the month of November, we have turkey and stuffing sandwiches.

That'll be here before we know it.

And again Phil, you can go to RedCrossBlood.org to make an appointment or call 1-800 Red Cross to make an appointment.

But also, as Bob would say, walk-ins are welcome as well.

Yep, exactly.

Well thanks for coming in today gentlemen.

We appreciate it very much.

Bob Shear is here.

And again, now that blood drive and racial center next Wednesday, Kyle Priego, executive director for Southwest Wisconsin chapter of the Red Cross and this portion of the morning show.

The End

Welcome back to our morning show at WRCO.

Next up we talk about the St.

Vincent DePaul River Valley Conference and an upcoming fundraiser they have.

Joining us in the studio today, president of the St.

Vincent DePaul River Valley Conference, Jones Aholka and Denny Olson is here, co-chair of the building committee.

You may have watched that kind of coming up from the ground up and a new building in spring green.

So we'll talk about that.

But good morning to the both of you.

Good to have you in the studio with us today.

Good

morning.

Thanks for having us.

Well, Joan, the first thing I want to talk about is a big fundraiser coming up this weekend.

Oh, yes.

We're absolutely delighted.

The shed restaurant in Spring Green is hosting our fundraiser on Sunday, July 12th from 11 to 2.

And we're very excited.

Great food, live music by Jana Johnson and Lydia, her daughter, local

local musicians that are very popular.

We're doing a 50-50 raffle, a basket raffle.

It's just a fun time for the community to get together and raise some money for our effort with the building, the new building coming.

So right now, the goal is to help out a little bit more with the building.

Two goals, Phil.

Two goals.

One for outreach, to help local people in need.

our friends in need.

And the other goal is to fund the rest of the building.

And Denny can get into that a little bit as we get in to talk about the building a little bit more and on how much more we have yet to raise.

But I like to kind of start out and give people a little bit of a

An education, if you will, a little history because most people, when I sit in front of them, they know the word Vinnie's.

They say, oh, I know Vinnie's.

St.

Vinnie's.

Yeah.

But they don't really know the history at all.

And so, you know, back in 1833, a young college student by the name of Frederick Ozenam in Paris, France was challenged.

by his college buddies, basically, to put their faith into action and start to help the poor in Paris, France at the time.

And the only way to do that was to go out and visit people in their own environment and bring food and try to learn about their neighbors.

And so the good news is that they adopted St.

Vincent de Paul, who lived 200 years before that.

as their patron saint, and then carried forward their mission.

And basically, 12 years after they started, it was already in the United States, and the very first St.

Vincent of Paul was in St.

Louis, Missouri.

So the mission expanded quite a bit, and then we basically, when my husband and I moved into the community in 2018,

We kind of challenged or went to the parishes in town and said, how can we help?

What does this community need?

And Father John Silva at the time told us, we need St.

Vincent de Paul.

And my husband and I looked at each other kind of cross-eyed and said, okay, what's the next step?

What I just want to say is that we kind of let a little group of volunteers to join us to begin this St.

Vincent de Paul effort without a store.

So there's eight conferences, St.

Vincent and Paul conferences in our area, and those include areas like Reedsburg, Baraboo, Sock, Monroe, Portage, Muscaday, and we were the only ones that didn't have a store.

So how do you provide resources for people in need, you know, without a store?

So it started out with some very generous, generous contributions and parishioners support from St.

John Parish in Spring Green and St.

Luke's in Plain.

And we basically got quite a few volunteer parishioners to help in this effort and a lot of resources and support from the parish community, including

wonderful support from the parish priest, Father Luke and Father Camude, who carried the torch after Father John.

And so I just wanted to give that a little history.

Instead of waiting for a store to generate some money to help outreach, we had some outreach funds from our parishes, and we could then begin to help people.

And the way we did that was, and we do it to this day, is to go into a person's home.

and meet with them face to face.

So we have trained volunteers that do that.

And we do it in the privacy, in a non-judgmental, compassionate way.

And you don't have to be a certain race, gender, faith, or creed or ethnicity to get help.

All are helped in the River Valley community.

So we typically serve the River Valley School District.

Danny, it's an exciting time for the River Valley area and for Spring Green as well.

It really is, Phil.

Again, thanks for having us this morning.

Going back to 2019 when all of this began, the idea was to help with outreach to people in need, but we needed a revenue stream.

We can't just go to parishioners or people in the community and ask for donations to help these people, so we needed to put our

faith and action.

And at that time, we worked together with Reedsburg and Baraboo Stores.

And since we didn't have our own building yet, we needed a place to do furniture and donation pickups.

And since 2019, we filled the St.

Vincent de Paul straight truck we estimated between 130 and 140 loads of donations.

We got the word out there.

People were great.

They brought clothing, donated items.

And since we didn't have a place to go with it, we worked again with Reedsburg and Bearable.

Those items go to Reedsburg.

They're sold there.

And in exchange, they voucher back our conference for people that are in need of health, people that maybe are displaced from fire, need help with

making expenses each month, and we would send them there.

They'll have their vouchers.

It's kind of a hand-in-hand work with these St.

Vincent, Riedsburg, and Bearable, and those vouchers have worked very well until we've come to the point now where parishioners and people have wanted to see a building of our own.

We go to their homes, we pick this up, and, you know, where does this go?

Well, it's going to go to Riedsburg.

Well, it'd be nice if it would stay in Spring Green.

So we're going to work with Raidsburg and Baraboo and continue to work with them.

But the donated items will be in spring green in the store.

People can donate.

They can go there and shop.

And we're hopeful that this all will be completed before Halloween

Halloween.

Why is coming quickly?

I mean, Joan, you talk about you, you started from ground zero, you know, and here you are this year.

It's an exciting year.

I think, you know, we had.

We had two major anonymous benefactors that came to the parish priest and came to us, and I think it was sort of a challenge in a way, because it started out where we didn't know that our community could really support St.

Vincent de Paul, but when we started doing sort of marketing research and started looking at rural poverty, and what does that look like?

And we discovered, too, in all the data and whatnot, that there's a tremendous amount of folks that need help.

About eight to 13% live below the poverty line.

And you know what?

It's so difficult in a small rural community, when everybody knows each other, to call and ask for help.

And they don't want their neighbors necessarily to know that they need help.

And sometimes, you know, a neighbor doesn't know their neighbor needs help.

And so this is a great way to begin the process and have a physical footprint, you know, in the neighborhood where somebody can walk in the door and sit down and meet with someone in an outreach office and talk about, you know, their situation.

And many times these folks, when you meet with them, say it's so nice to meet somebody that cares.

you know, and can point us to other resources, you know, to help us.

So we're thrilled that we just managed to land a piece of property that was right next door to the spring green food.

that's also, you know, building a location and right in front of the, you know, the spring green community gardens.

And then we've been working with the school district with Lauren Glassbrenner, who wants to work with us to identify and help and assist, you know, school families as well.

So it's turned into quite the project.

I guess what's what's the status of the building and you know you're getting there

it sounds like we're getting there yeah the the building is up it's not enclosed as yet we have some of the windows to complete but the actual structure is there we're about a third of the way complete with the with the concrete pour on the floor and

We're waiting on subcontractors.

Sometimes they can make it in a timely basis, but we know how that goes with the weather.

But it's moving along very nicely right now.

It's a pretty good size

building.

It's 12,000 square feet.

10,000 of that will be the thrift store, the outreach center, offices, and the no nation drop off bay.

So it'll be pretty good size.

And we hope to fill it.

bring the people in.

The nice part about the fact that it's going to have an outreach office there, right now, Joan has the outreach coordinator and the people that assist there.

For the most part, they're going into people's homes to help.

And I think having a neutral site to come and talk and open up about your needs is a little beneficial for those in need.

They may be a little hesitant with having strangers come to their home.

That building will be there.

There'll be a sign on the front.

And if they want to walk in, the door is always open when we're there.

And that'll be a real benefit to those that are in need of assistance.

During your time, Jonah, being a part of this, I'm guessing you, you have witnessed some really rewarding things, haven't you?

Yeah, no question.

It's kind of emotional talk about for sure.

Um, but you know, we have examples of, you know, single dads that, you know, maybe, uh, uh, lost their income for a short period of time and can't maybe make, make their mortgage payment.

We work often with single parents, single moms too, that struggle with, okay, they have a job, but now who takes care of the children during the summer or issues like that, where you're on the precipice of not being able to cover your bills because you've got to deal with childcare situations.

And then there's always,

situations too that if you're unemployed and you're looking for work, your cell phone is your link to applying for jobs.

You also need a workable car.

We've worked with some people that are single, that have great jobs, but don't have a great car and struggle with it continually breaking down stories like that.

We've also worked with seniors, elderly people that, you know, some that are living maybe a little bit more in isolation than they, you know, would like to.

We've dealt with just families that have gone through fire, you know, that work with all the agencies that help them, but then when the dust settles, you know, might need a little bit of extra help.

So there's

There's many, many different stories of folks that have been thrust into a situation that they didn't expect.

And the hardest thing is to pick up the phone and ask somebody for help.

That's the hardest thing.

So we want to be able to take care of ourselves.

We don't want to have to reach out.

But when we go into the home, my husband and I just did a home visit yesterday.

We go in and ensure people that

you know this is confidential and that we're here to help you and we're really glad that you reached out.

and will help you get through this troubling time, and then hopefully down the road, you can volunteer at the store, which some people have said, hey, I want to give back.

I want to give back.

And so we take their name down.

And while I'm mentioning that, I just want to also say that we're always looking for employment.

We have some jobs now for part-time and full-time assistance.

So people can email us.

at our SVDP River Valley at gmail.com.

That's S as in Saint, V as in Vincent, D as in DePaul, and P as in Paul River Valley at gmail.com.

And we'll send them a job application.

And the other thing at our fundraiser this Sunday will also, if anybody wants to volunteer at the store, we have a list of about 16 people.

And we're definitely going to bring them on board to help out.

which also engages the community, and people can give back that way.

And then we've also hired a store manager who's been, her name is Kali Bolin, and she's a local gal from Springgreen.

Grew up on a farm there, and she's, boy, her work ethic, and she's all dialed in.

She has a strong history in retail, and we're just delighted to have her, and she's been training the last three months and is ready to

keeps asking Denny what the progress is on the bill.

And when we're going to open, but yeah, what's going on.

So it's a combination of people that are employed and then volunteers that run the store then.

Yes, yes.

We're hoping to, there's one store in the in the Baraboo conference, Salk, Jared Van De Hea up in Salk.

They employ quite a few, not employ, but have quite a few volunteers up there.

And

That definitely helps with the payroll because those volunteers eliminate the need for more, you know, full and part-time positions.

So we're hoping to engage those volunteers in a similar way and getting more people involved in the community is always a good

thing.

It's interesting, Jenny.

You know, I think the store, you know, is the forefront, but we're learning about so many things behind the scenes that, uh, that take place that we don't even know about.

That's right.

Feel a good point.

Um, also I want to mention that even though the store is in spring green, it is the river valley conference making up.

Obviously, the River Valley School District of Spring Green, Plain, Lowen Rock, Arena, some of the surrounding areas like Loretta and Lime Ridge.

It's all part of this collective group that's working together.

And I'd like to also point out the hard work that's gone into this project.

It's been two and a half years from day one, and it's grown from a simple, maybe a 3,800 square foot building to

almost 12,000.

So we had to start building or otherwise it would have gotten so big we wouldn't have had room for it.

So I'm joking there obviously.

It's all based on the economic factor of it all and the need for a thrift store that generates revenue.

And the people that have really been involved in this are Bruce Culver, Jack Schluter, Matt Limix, Dennis Limix, and Joan and I also sit on that committee.

They bring their specific expertise to this project.

They have different knowledge and ideas about a building, and everything has just come together.

And they've done a great job, and obviously we couldn't have done any of this without their help.

But having that building, and if anybody is wondering, the actual address is 890 West Moore Street.

It's just north of the high school.

and a block south of highway 14 behind Ring Brothers.

As you're coming in on 14, you'll turn south.

A block down on the corner between Westmore and Somerset sits our building.

So if you're driving through Spring Green and want to look at some areas that are new, drive by tell us what you think.

And out front, Jack Schluter designed a beautiful finished compilation of the building, if you will.

You can kind of see the building and the sign.

side by side and you can see how it's going and get an idea how it will look when it's finished.

So we're excited.

And I think when people see it and we have that visual there, they'll certainly support it.

And we've had discussions with people already that will ask, when is the building going to be finished?

I've been storing all my goods in the basement.

I want to get them out of there.

When can I bring them over?

So hang on October.

fingers crossed will will be opening the door for donations.

I

think it's important too, Denny, you point out the fact that your coverage area, but we don't have to necessarily be in the River Valley School District to donate or to volunteer

or

anything or buy,

right?

Absolutely.

And I don't know that Richland Center has a, has a St.

Vincent to Paul facility here.

So if you want to donate to St.

Vincent to Paul and it's all strictly nonprofit,

Um, obviously we have ongoing expenses with the building and payroll, but the rest goes directly to helping those in need.

And if you want to do that with us, I mean, you can, you can drive cross country.

Well, we don't look at license plates.

You can come from out of state

anywhere

and bring whatever you want.

And you'll have a real key place to donate to where people can drop off things.

Yes.

There'll be a covered canopy there, you know,

Regardless of whether pulled in will have assistance there to unload your, your goods and take them back into the donation warehouse and we'll take it from there and we'll be, we'll be happy to have it.

It's exciting time.

We've got a lot of building going on in spring green then seems to be.

Yeah.

That's good.

Yeah, that's good.

The other nice thing about donating items is it's a sustainable way to repurpose goods.

And that's always great.

One of the mission of St.

Vincent de Paul is to, you know, bail, for example, bail apparel that is unsalable and then deliver those to jobbers that give them to the

corporations that need rags and things like that so that stays out of the landfills.

So it's an environmentally sustainable practice that we try to repurpose and recycle everything that we take in.

Hence, we really truly ask that if you're going to bring donated items, please have them be saleable and not things that you would throw in a dumpster.

So that's a good way to help too.

Could you describe the corridor of care?

I know you've kind of hinted at that a little

bit.

Yeah, it's kind of a tagline that we started using and incorporating the fact that, again, the spring green food pantry is next door to us, which also will serve people that need assistance with food, and also the spring green gardens, community gardens right behind us.

And so there's three of us there that

We'll serve the same group of people and then of course We're less than a half a mile down from the school district

from the

schools So thinking that's kind of a corridor there of people that can you know go to the food pantry on the third Monday of the month and then come over to the st.

Vincent de Paul and

you know, get clothing for their kids, you know, before school starts, you know, those kinds of things.

The fundraiser this Sunday is an important event then, isn't

it?

It very much is.

We're looking forward to a really good time to involve the community and the businesses there and the parish community as well.

Anybody that wants to come is invited.

We also have, we'll be handing out our little sheet to invite people to, if they do want to.

support us financially can go on the wall of hope recognition at the actual facility when you come in the building.

We're going to recognize people that have donated towards the building and they'll be

able

to get information on that.

But I also want to give one last plug here for anybody that needs help.

The phone number is 608-588-5044.

And again, that's 608-588-5044.

That's our number for outreach assistance.

And then again, if you're interested in volunteering or interested in the job application, email us at SVDPrivervalley at gmail.com.

Dennis.

Now, one final thing about the building fill.

We're about 93% there with the cost of construction.

Our goal is to be debt free.

every dollar we can keep within the operation is a dollar we can use an outrage so our goal is to be mortgage debt free and we need about another six or seven percent of the cost of the building and we'll be there.

Go ahead.

Well good luck with that.

Thank

you.

When you do the ribbon cutting when you open the doors hopefully in October or November you're going to have all kinds of emotions because this started with a conversation with your parish priest and here it is coming to fruition.

What's that going to be like Joan?

It'll be difficult for me because I'm an emotional person So but there are it's teamwork there are so many people to thank in the community get us this far I mean when Denny and I and our treasure Donna slaney and Pat slaney was on the pickup crew and I could name a number of people in our Vincentian group Jack and Mary Schluter all of these folks It's emotional for all of us because we've we've

started from scratch.

where Rick, it's interesting Rick and I didn't know anybody because we were newbies to the community and we still are because we've only been here for eight years.

But everyone else that's in the group grew up here and has roots here and it's so wonderful to see everybody come together as a team and work together to make this happen.

And to see the results and the thankfulness, the thankfulness of some of the people that we help is just, it's emotional.

They're just, they just didn't know where else to go.

So yeah, we're excited to invite everybody to come out on Sunday from 11 to 2 at the shed in Spring Green.

Also want to thank Shannon and Nikki Stevens, owners of the shed and Troy Day and his wife have been gracious and generous with their time and support to move this effort forward as well.

Dennis, I know it's rewarding for you, kind of a lifetime member of the community to see this do for issues.

It

will be.

It'll carry on longer than longer than I'll be around.

So it's kind of nice to plant a seed like that and watch it and watch it grow.

I would like to point out too, we are a Catholic based group.

But we are non denominational and who we help.

So if you're out there and you need help, don't feel like you have to be a regular Sunday, um, attendee at mass.

Uh, if you need help, we're there for you.

And, uh, denominational or not.

Great.

Thanks for coming in, you guys.

Thank you, Phil.

Glad to be here.

Thanks, Phil.

Come on back and talk to us when you know a little bit more about the opening and all of that.

We would love that, because obviously there'll be a grand opening and we'll be very excited to talk about that.

So we'd love to come back.

Big news, not just for Spring Green, but for the entire area here.

So

thanks

for what you do.

Thank you, Phil.

You bet.

Jones Aholka and Denny Olson joining us here on this report from the morning show, St.

Vincent de Paul.

Don't miss the Summer Fundraiser Gathering 11 until 2.

at the shed coming up this Sunday.