Next up on The Morning Show today, Rebecca Cook is in the studio with us, Democrat running in Western Wisconsin's Congressional District.
It is nice to see you again, Rebecca.
It's great to see you again, too.
It's great to be back here.
A
lot
of row construction projects going on.
It's summer.
Absolutely.
You made it here.
That's half the battle, right?
Yeah.
We talked to you late in the year last year, and you had just kind of announced and you were just kind of making the rounds.
And how many miles have you put on since then?
Lots of miles.
And this isn't my first rodeo.
I was grateful to be the Democratic nominee.
in 2024, last cycle, I outperformed every Democrat on the ticket, including Harris by 9,000 votes and our Senator Tammy Baldwin by 5,000 votes.
And we outperformed, I think, in such a wig way because we continue to show up.
We show up in small towns, rural communities, big and small, but really trying to meet folks for their ad and talking to them about the issues and the things that we see are really keeping folks up at night.
And I'm sure I'll be back again before long, but I'm here today.
We've got a meet and greet going on.
So I'm looking forward to connecting with people and hearing what's on their hearts and minds right now.
Oh, so what is the most common thing?
Is there a common thread that you hear when you're out and about?
Yeah, I've been knocking a lot of doors, even this hundred degree weather.
And I've been out at parades, community events, county fairs, you name it.
And that is like the question that I asked.
Sometimes when you ask people, you know, what's the most important issue to you?
They're like, well, I'm not really political.
And I was like, everything's political, you know, it's more like, what are you worried about?
What's keeping you up at night?
And often I think the things that I hear about from folks the most is concerns about rising costs and particular health.
Healthcare costs are really through the roof for Wisconsinites and Americans because of the passage of the one big ugly bill, what that's gonna do to Medicaid recipients, what that's gonna do to our rural hospitals.
I've actually met here in Richland Center with your hospital CEO to talk about some of the impacts that's gonna have on them remaining open and funded.
Here in Richland Center, in Richland County, there isn't a single psychiatrist in the entire county and they've been trying to
recruit an orthopedic surgeon for the last three years.
So I want to make sure that our rural hospitals can remain open and funded, you know, and able to provide care.
For us, I think here in West Central Wisconsin, it's not just a cost issue, but it's an access issue.
So making sure that people can get care close to home and don't have to drive further and further to get the care that they really need.
I think last, at the end of last year, I know I was here in November, but Congress failed to expand the ACA tax credit premium.
expansion.
So folks,
their premiums jumped from $400 to $1,800 a month.
I was here meeting with some Richland County Farm Bureau members who were talking about how that really impacted them in particular and seeing that was insurance premiums go through the roof.
I grew up on a farm up in Eau Claire on a dairy farm and we would have insurance like depending on what sort of job my mom could get on or off the farm.
And so when the ACA passed folks like small business owners and farmers really got access to the kind of insurance that they wanted to have
right?
And so with the failure to expand the tax credits, it really squeezed farmers.
And that's the other issue.
I think farmers are getting squeezed, squeezed, squeezed at every turn.
Reciprocal tariffs that we've seen and how that's impacted our soybean and cranberry industries.
And also this warren around that's increased diesel prices, fertilizer prices and just increased prices across the board, I think for consumers too, that those costs get passed on to them.
You've been hearing a little bit about the 765 kilovolt
transmission
lines.
You've been learning about that.
What have you been hearing?
What is your feeling
on that?
Yeah, I think that overwhelmingly it doesn't matter if folks are Democrats or Republicans.
Most folks are opposed to these transmission lines and what that does to cut through our communities.
I know that there's been some efforts at the state legislature level to try to make sure that our communities really aren't harmed in the process and to push back on some of this.
And I also know here in Richland County,
that the county board has been pushing back on that as well.
And so I think that we're hearing a lot from folks around Wisconsin about data centers.
And I think you can see the writing on the wall of what these transmission lines really are and what they're gonna hook up to, right?
And I think overwhelmingly, the public does not support data centers and does not support those in our backyard.
So that's what I've been hearing most from people.
And I think what has been most difficult is a lack of transparency.
we've got a demand transparency as voters, as ratepayers around these sorts of projects so that things aren't being done behind closed doors and secret NDAs and things like that.
A lot of people struggling in terms of the economy and things like that, trying to create an economy for working families.
That's a
top priority in mind.
Yeah, I was going to say.
I think it is, isn't it?
It is, yeah.
And that's the conversation I also have with a lot of folks is people are trying to fill up at the gas pump, go to the grocery store, pay their rent or mortgage, and have a little bit of money left over at the end of the day.
I've been out talking to people.
I've been holding little town halls at the tank, talking to folks as they're filling up their gas.
about what do they think about the price of gas, talking to people in grocery store cart corrals, being like, what do you think about the price of groceries right now?
And I think a lot of folks feel like corporations are really price gouging consumers.
And they're very much so doing that off the backs of their workers.
And I think many people that I've talked to aren't able to go on summer vacation this year.
And I think that that's not the American dream that we all work really hard for, right?
And we need folks that are willing to have spines and
stand up to focus on enforcing antitrust law.
You look for example, you know, at the meat industry and we've got like forming meat processors, right?
Baking, breaking up big trust like that is something that's important to me or you look at the Amazons of the world and the sort of market share and like the way in which they can manipulate prices.
I think we've got to have people that aren't afraid to go head on to work to lower prices for consumers.
Do you feel like being assertive?
Maybe that's
that's you apart from your opponent coming up in the primary.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm running for, I'm in a primary right now.
I think I speak my mind.
I think that, you know, I'm authentic and know what I believe and I'm not afraid to talk about it.
And I think that that's what people are looking for right now as a fighter that has had lived experiences to draw from that's going to fight like how to work to make our, our communities not just survive, but to thrive.
And you've got to have a backbone to be able to do that.
And I think my background, having grown up on a dairy farm.
having run a small business, balanced budgets, taking care of employees, having started a successful nonprofit that has helped over 70 small businesses get launched across Northwest Wisconsin, really does uniquely prepare me for some of those things and some of the fail policies that I've experienced as a Main Street business owner, as the daughter of dairy farmers, to go in and make things better.
Yeah.
Do you hear it from your family on the farm?
Rebecca, you got to do something about this.
Oh, hell yeah.
I
hear it from my neighbors.
I think what was really frustrating is Derek Van Orden has had multiple cabinet officials from this administration come in to basically carry water for him because he's not doing it himself.
He's voted for the one big ugly bill, which has hurt a lot of folks in this district.
He is a lackey for Donald Trump, has been supportive of these tariffs.
and the war in Iran, which, you know, I talked about how harmful that has been to our agricultural and rural communities.
And so he brought, in the same week, he brought RFK Junior up to Elk Mound, our healthcare secretary.
Didn't talk about expanding those ACA tax credit premiums.
Didn't talk about the hospital closures we've already seen up in Eau Claire.
He talked about moving milk to the top of the food pyramid.
totally out of touch.
That's what RFK, you know what I mean?
Totally out of touch with what most people are struggling with right now in this district.
In that same week, that was on a Monday and Friday, Donald Trump, the president came a mile down the road from, you know, a couple miles down the road from the farm that I grew up on.
He was supposed to be there to talk about.
agriculture and farming and everything that he's done to support farmers but instead he showed everybody a picture of the reflecting pool that he was running in his White House ballroom renovation and it just felt so out of touch and such a slap in the face to I think what
is really of grave concern for a lot of folks and what their livelihood looks like.
And our family had to sell our cows because of the low price of milk and competition with larger dairies.
And when you sell a business like that, it's not just losing a business.
It's a part of your tradition and heritage and way of life.
And so I think, well, they're really playing part of some politics and Russian roulette with people's livelihoods.
We need folks that are going to be awake at the wheel, putting this country back on course.
Education too is a hot topic and try and figure out how to fund everything that's going on too.
Well, we have a very proud product of Eau Claire Public Schools and I think that we have a big school funding problem here in Wisconsin and so much of that is done really at the state level.
But I have been making myself open and available to talking.
I've been calling school board members, county board folks, city council folks,
all across the third congressional district.
you know, if I get elected, I want to work with anybody, whether they're a Democrat or a Republican and building strong relationships with local elected officials, I think is important.
So I've been talking with a lot of those school board members, Democrats and Republicans who are fed up with our broken school funding formula, having to have their communities go to referendum every year, every couple of years.
And that's, that's frustrating.
The use of our taxpayer dollars aren't going back into our public education system.
That's something I really want to advocate for what I can
at the federal level is working to put back together a department of education that this administration has been dismantling.
Things like more funding for early childhood education, more special education funding, and resources for mental health services in our school districts.
So those are the types of things, specific funding at the federal level that I can advocate for to come to Wisconsin.
most of our school funding is done at the state level.
But making sure that I'm attuned to that and building relationships so that we can work towards some change here at the state level is important.
One of the things you talked about there, Rebecca, the fact that, and I hear this here too, people are tired of the bickering across party lines.
Me too.
And why can't we all just get along, right?
Yeah.
I mean, I think that there's things that you
make you who you are, right?
You know, make you kind of go towards one party or another.
But I really think that at the end of the day, we're all Wisconsinites, we're all Americans first.
And we've got to focus on trying to find those through threads of how we come back together in a party that is in a country that is deeply divided and full of chaos and enforces that are trying to pit us against each other.
I think that there's a lot more opportunity to actually accomplish things and get things done if we can work across
And that's something that I really intend to do.
If I'm fortunate to win the primary here August 11th, please vote for me, Rebecca Cook.
And then again, if I'm able to win in November, I think kind of that would be the difference between myself and someone like Derek Van Orden who has proven to be very divisive and follows lockstep with whatever his party tells him to do.
Let's talk about your own party because, you know, there's, there's different factions there too.
And you've got some strong support from some of the old guard.
I saw Bernie Sanders was one.
Does that help you?
Do you feel or does it hurt you or what?
I
mean, Bernie Sanders is the most anti-establishment, you know.
I guess politician that there is out there like he's not really but behold into either party.
He's a progressive first and so Having the support of somebody like senator Bernie Sanders who stood up to party establishment time and time again I'm really proud of to have his support and have a progressive champion like that
I'll say I've gotten Bernie Sanders support, Senator Tammy Baldwin, who is another longtime progressive.
But some of the support that I'm most part of are the local electeds that have supported my candidacy.
People like here in Richland Center, like Rachel Schultz, who's on the Richland Center City Council.
She's also my advisory council.
There's a lot of people, as I mentioned, from school board to county board to city council that are backing my candidacy.
This race won't be one on national endorsement.
this race will be won on the support of people in this district.
And that's support that I've worked to earn for a couple of years here as I've been traveling around the third, hosting county tours and showing up at dairy breakfast and putting together meet and greets.
And that sort of support, I think, you know, that sort of showing up, I think is what's important to people right now when they, when they have somebody
as in a member of Congress like Derek Van Orden, who has failed to host any sort of in-person town hall to be accountable for his votes.
I think people really recognize when you're present and around.
You've raised a lot of money, obviously, too.
You've got a lot of financial support.
I guess that's what it takes to stay in age, right?
Yeah, I'd love to see campaign finance reform.
I think it's really important that we end Citizens United that makes it easier for folks with working-class backgrounds to step off the sidelines to run for office and To be able to communicate I think that we have a really broken campaign finance system right now But I've taken the no corporate PAC pledge because I don't want to be beholden to Special interests or big corporations.
I've taken no money from APAC.
I've taken no money from big pharma.
I can't say the same
for Derek Mayn-Ordin, who has done all of those things.
And I think that's the difference is like who I'm going to be beholden to out in DC or the folks that elect me to be there.
I think we've got to do other things to combat corruption, like ending stock trading, banning stock trading for members of Congress who can operate off of insider information to further enrich themselves.
And I just, I don't have any stocks, so no problem there for me.
We talked about the lines, the 765 kilovolt lines, but I
know you're all about the environment too and clean water and clean energy and those kind of things too, correct?
Yeah, well, I think a lot of people care about conservation in this district.
You know, we've got some beautiful mighty Mississippi River, you know, running all along the border to Minnesota.
And I like to think about the environment like I think about politics and it's all local.
We've had some pretty big issues with water quality in this district with PFAS and forever chemicals in our water.
So, you know, we talked about school funding and just the lack of funding that a lot of municipalities have.
If they find
PFAs in their water, oftentimes smaller municipalities, they can't remediate that problem on their own.
They're going to need more federal funding to be able to address some of those water quality issues.
So if I'm elected this fall,
I want to call for more research testing remediation so that, you know, no matter what size of a community you live in, you have access to clean drinking water.
And that also goes for our rural communities.
I was at a clean water summit up in Eau Claire and talking with some folks there about some funding that came down through ARPA that allowed for more basically like
So well water in small in like rural communities like you're not a part of the big city system But this this allowed for Discounts basically and tests for well water So if you were you know in a private well wish like my parents have a private wall in Chippewa County Chippewa County got some funding where you could test if you have a private wall too So it's not just testing for in our bigger municipalities But making sure that rural folks have access to those sorts of things as well.
Do you pay attention to the polls?
I do.
And how are they looking for you?
Oh,
I'm
up in them.
Um, I'm up both in my primary, um, and in the general, which I think is, uh, the bigger piece here, looking ahead at, you know, who can defeat Derek Van Orden and we've built the strength, I think over time to be able to out communicate him and I think pull people back into the big tent of the democratic party and take this over the line.
I think people are really frustrated with the votes Van Orden has taken.
Uh, people are really frustrated.
with his lack of leadership and showing up in our communities and are looking for something different.
So we're leading the inordinate right now by four points, but that's before we went on TV with some advertisements here in the last week.
So you might see some of those or mailers in your mailbox, but we're starting early because this is so important.
And I think the implications of this election, whether I win the primary or somebody else does, we've got to, if we're able to flip this seat, Democrats can take back a house majority.
and have a check on this administration and their worst instincts.
Your commercial, your video commercial, shows you waitressing and leading cows and things like that.
And I think that a lot of candidates political have no idea what goes on out here in the rural area and those kind of things.
Maybe that sets you apart a little bit.
I think it definitely sets me apart.
I feel like I have a pulse and understanding of a lot of, you know, those lived experiences of my neighbors and, um, you know, what it's like, um, to make tough decisions.
I'm watching our family make tough decisions, like having to sell our cattle because of the low price of milk and the heavy competition in the dairy, in the dairy industry.
It was sort of like go beg or go home.
And, um, and so that was tough.
And I think the same with, you know, waitressing while I'm running for Congress.
I work at a restaurant up in Eau Claire.
called The Good Wives, and I've been working there.
I've been a waitress since I was 16 years old.
My first job was at Mike's Smokehouse in Eau Claire, which is now closed, but had a legacy of its own.
I waitress all through college.
And yeah, I've been waitressing while I've been running for Congress.
I'm able to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights so that I can campaign by day and really work to get my message out across this district.
But I've had those sorts of lived experiences.
But I think also being a small business owner, I understand what it's like to not just sign the back
of a paycheck, but the front of a paycheck as well.
And a lot of small businesses have struggled this year as well.
Yeah.
I mean, if you drive through Western and Central Wisconsin, you know, you'll see a lot of Dollar General sorted at the end of the road, but that's not what makes our community special.
It's our small businesses that line line our main streets and working to cut red tape so that our small businesses can, you know, move ahead and compete against some of the big, you know, Amazons of the world who got a level to playing field.
You're going to be pretty.
over the course of the next week and a half or so.
14
days, but who's counting?
Yeah,
who's counting, right?
So do you enjoy this?
I love it.
The campaigning part of it.
I
do.
I just love talking to people.
And more than anything, I like talking to people that think differently than me.
And I think that that's why our campaign has been so successful.
I'm not afraid to talk to anybody, even if we might not agree on everything, but finding that through thread that folks can at least trust in me, right?
that I'm gonna work to do the right thing when I get to Congress.
I think that's important.
And also just to hear from people right now, and I think in a time that can sort of feel so hopeless, it can feel like no one's listening, but giving people an opportunity to do that, I think is important right now, just to be heard.
If you win the next two, the primary and then in November as well, are we gonna see you back here once in a while?
Oh
yeah, absolutely.
You're gonna have to be holding my feet to the higher and keeping me accountable.
Cause that's
what it means to be a representative.
What's going to put you over the top here?
What do you feel
over the top in the general election or, um, showing up, I think showing up and talking and being, having the pulse on what people really care about.
And that's not something that you're always going to read in a poll or what a post or what some DC think tank is going to say.
It's having the pulse of like.
what is really concerning people and not talking about just why the other side is bad.
But if I'm elected this fall, what am I going to do better?
I think people are looking for solutions and less finger pointing.
And as you mentioned, civil discussions, not raising your voice.
That's hard to do sometimes.
It's hard for Derek Van Orden, but I feel like I'm very pragmatic and know how to keep a cool head.
I think shown that through my last couple of campaigns running against a hot head like him.
Anything else you'd like to add today?
No, I'm just so grateful to be back down here and yeah, I would love to come back again maybe early next year as a congresswoman.
When you're driving through the land, what's your music jam?
Do you have a-
What's my music
jam?
What's your go-to?
I've been listening to a lot of Zach Bryan.
Oh,
okay.
Yeah, he's like kind of a, he's a country singer.
And I also like listening to old school country too, like Earth Brooks and things like that.
Okay,
cool.
I mean, it's kind of just matches our gorgeous landscape, you know.
There you go.
Yeah.
Sometimes you got to have those three minute unwinds.
Yeah, totally.
With the tunes.
Yeah.
Well, it's so good to see you again.
Good to see you too.
Thanks for having me.
I always appreciate you thinking of WRCO when you're down in these areas.
Well,
thank you so much for having me.
And if folks want to learn more about my campaigning, you can go to cook4wisconsin.com to learn more.
That's right.
And it's Cook with an E too, right?
Yes.
Not to be confused with Cookie, but Cook.
Cook, right.
C-O-O-K-E, F-O-R, Wisconsin.com.
Thanks, Rebecca.
Thank you.
Rebecca Cook, Democrat running in Western Wisconsin's Congressional District, stopping by the Morning Show studios today.
you
Welcome to our morning show today at WRC.
We're going to kick it off, talk about an upcoming fundraiser for the Joshua Klein Saucer Foundation.
I think we were here almost exactly a year ago talking about this with Dante and Josh Klein Saucer and talking about the upcoming tournament, which Josh is going to be the second annual.
You're pretty proud of that, are you?
Oh, absolutely.
We're very, I'll say I'm most proud of the volunteers and the way that God's been able to work in the community, being able to raise money,
For this event and to be able to help people in the community is is what I'm most proud of And I'll say a quickly just a special shout out when I'm since you brought up what I'm most proud of is a number one the volunteers and just right there again at number one is I'll say South Central heating and cooling this year for sponsoring the entire event outright They gave us a large sum of money so that would be able to put on this event they
We're very, very thankful for that and being able to be able to work with them on this.
And then the other thing I'm thankful for is God for allowing us to be able to put this on this year and last year.
And just we're really grateful for all three, just everyone and God being sovereign over it all and just being able to help us with this.
You don't have any trouble getting teams.
And last year, you were here, you were kind of crying for teams.
This year, you've got them all filled up, it sounds like, right?
Yeah, last year was very interesting.
We were just talking about it.
I think it was the day of we finally got all the teams filled, and it was a little bit stressful.
We were hoping we'd be able to do a 16 team tournament.
And last year, it was like day of, day of we finally got them filled this year.
We're two weeks out, we have everything filled up, all the slots filled.
So we're very thankful for the community as well for wanting to participate and have this day of basketball with us and wanting to participate.
And it's very, we're very thankful for that.
It's coming up on August 8th, the Richland Center High School.
You just want people to show up and cheer them on, maybe have some food too, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
My uncle is making, he's pretty,
You all probably don't know him, but in our little community, he's very famous for his pulled pork.
He's smoking pulled pork.
And I just want to shout out Mick Cosgrove.
He loves the pulled pork, and he's also helped us a lot with getting this off the ground and whatnot.
It's going to be a good day of fun.
A 16 team double elimination tournament.
We would love to have spectators there.
We're having a silent auction with many good items including a two night stay at some cabins in the Dells.
We're having auctioning off tools.
uh... and what not just uh... a lot of stuff there are fifty fifty raffle plenty of things for our spectators to do besides basketball if you uh... don't really wanna come for just a basketball so plenty of stuff for people to do
that they were to come into this event what what is your role
uh... i started just with josh from the start he's just like hey we're going to spend can you like show to the meetings and at that point i was like i'll probably not gonna do much i'm just there to be there
But then, I guess as the meeting goes on he specifically gave us things to do.
Last year, my biggest thing was probably getting teams, finding people, getting the connections, getting teams.
This year was just pretty much whatever he wanted me to do.
Just like, randomly get a call or text.
He's like, hey, I just had this idea.
Can you do this, this, or this?
I'm just like, you know what, sure.
And that's pretty much what it was.
I guess he calls me his little agent,
so.
Brotherly love, right?
Yeah.
What about the silent auction?
You have some cool things there?
Yeah, there's actually some really cool things.
I'm not exactly sure what's in all of them, but I've heard there's like,
Personally me I'm big into golf.
I heard vortex.
So they gave something and I'm not sure what
Yeah, I'll quickly interject here.
Yeah vortex is giving a rangefinder and some other things as well a good rangefinder for golf hunting whatever you would want to use it for and on the silent auction a lot of Baskets and whatnot if you're into cooking literally we have stuff for everybody.
I mean if it's if it's work food golf, I mean
even like a short vacation we have up in the Dells so.
Can you talk about Josh some of the things that you've been raising money for some of the things and some of the people that you've helped in the area?
So to start off we will be releasing a pamphlet shortly after the tournament so we can show the community exactly who we've helped and whatnot.
We've been talking with the families they've given us permission to share but we've helped
a child in the area over in the Ithaca area that had a problem with his heart and he needed actually a machine for his heart for what I believe to help it pump it when we were able to help him.
We were able to help a lady whose family was going through numerous medical struggles and medical issues.
from a daughter, I believe, with pneumonia and some other things and whatnot, or I believe it was actually a different member of her family with pneumonia and her daughter had some other issues that we're able to help them with.
And then another member of the community that actually, they left a few years ago, but they're a well-known member of the community that actually lives in Hawaii now, but they were in a bad motorcycle accident.
uh broke multiple uh arms uh both their arms ribs brain bleed and so we're able to help them out as well so uh at this time uh we will release the full details in in a pamphlet we want to release them after so we get so we can uh document everything make sure it's everything's all good with the families and everything before we release everything but that's our plan we've been able to help quite a few
members of the community so far from the funds we have brought in last year so far and we hope to help more people this year.
And this for people that don't know the backstory is a lot of people helped you when you were going through some struggles earlier this in your life.
Well you were in high school I think,
Richard.
Yep, yep, exactly.
And to share a little bit for
the people that don't know.
So this entire movement, I should say started when I was just four years ago when I was in high school, I got diagnosed with something called aplaskanemia.
If you want to look that up, so simply I had to get a bone marrow transplant.
They had to kill off all the current bone marrow in my body, and they had to replace it with my brother's.
He was 100% matriarch able to do the transplant.
And during that time, the way that
God provided for me using the community to gather around me.
The members of the community were just amazing in the fundraisers they did for me, in the messages they sent me, the letters they sent me, in all these different things that they were to help me with during this time.
It was truly just amazing and now I'm looking at and I have a unique ability and a unique outlook that I am now able to help other people that are going through similar things.
I would just love to be able to do that and I would love to bring the community together to help these people because really we can help a lot of people.
We can do all these things but what really helps is when the community comes together we can see each other's needs so even if it's not me
personally or this foundation personally helping people if the community can come together get to know each other we can all help each other we can all even if it's not me if it's not this foundation if we can just come together as a community and be able to help each other and know each other so that we can help each other when things happen.
So really it's just a movement in that way that we can we can become closer as a community Is it is my goal of this so even when I'm gone or whatever happens that we can The community can stay strong.
Yeah, it's a lofty goal You as a family member Dante that was kind of a scary time for the family and you know You kind of learned about a lot about what this community is about at that time didn't you?
Yeah on there's like we had a couple events held for him and it was actually really scary time because they really thought like he had a high chance of death and
And yeah, it was, I guess, just terrifying for the family as whole.
But then when we had those events, the amount of people that came out was just like crazy to come support.
I remember, I forgot how long ago, probably a couple months ago, I was talking to Josh and he said, he was either talking to or he saw a guy wearing like the shirts we made for that event.
It was like a Joshua Klein Saucer, like help out, like the, just shirts we made for the event to like you pay for them, help him out.
And that guy, he was talking to that guy or he saw that guy and that guy had no clue who he was.
And Josh also had no clue who that guy was.
So it just shows like how many people come out just to help a cause.
So it was just like,
I guess encouraging a way where this guy came out bought a shirt just to help out somebody doesn't even really know.
That's real key and I mean young people like you Dante certainly in your group of friends and everything this this is kind of maybe not typical so I mean you guys have really dug deep and I think you learned a lot about giving back haven't you.
Yeah and it's like I guess from this star like we're going back to like Josh's thing
I didn't really understand.
I was not Christian, so I didn't really understand what was going on.
I didn't understand how to deal with that thing.
I just thought, you know, people are doing good things that do good things.
But now when we move like past to this tournament now, I'm like, we really got to do this for the glory of God.
That's the only way I'll ever work out.
That's the community can do all they can do, but we got to make sure we're putting our focus in our mind where it needs to be.
Or this won't work out the way we need it to work out.
Are the teams coming from far and wide?
Or is it just local players?
It's
all.
We got people coming from a lot of different places.
My team, personally, a lot of people are coming from, I think, Montetello, La Crosse, I believe is the area they're coming from.
I think there's a team coming from Madison.
There's a lot of local teams.
And then there's a team, I think, coming from the Dells, the Men's League team.
There's a team coming from the Richland Center Men's League.
So yeah, there's teams from every direction.
Did you recruit any ringers for your team or?
Oh, my team's pretty good.
Okay.
We got, we
got, yeah.
So I've been told, honestly, my, I've been, I let one of my friends, I was like, Hey, just get us a team.
And he said, one of the team guys on my team is like 6668.
So I'm just going to believe this guy can play basketball
and show up.
Yeah.
I'm just going to believe he can just play basketball.
Who won it last year.
Do you remember?
Yeah.
That was a Cheney Browns team.
Okay.
So it's Cheney Brown.
Cullen, Jacobus, Jeff Olson, who else was on that team?
It was a couple, I thought a couple more kids from Crawford.
Yeah,
Crawford kids.
Yeah, I mean they put up a good fight.
They were against a Platteville team actually in the finals, and the Platteville team had to beat them once, and Chanee's team had to beat them twice, and they ended up beating twice and winning it all.
It was actually crazy.
Uh, it was like a local team from just schools in the air.
They all brought kids from the different schools came together.
And yeah, they, they had already, they had lost one time already.
So one more loss and they're out.
The other team hadn't lost at all.
Then they came in, beat the team twice to win the whole thing.
It was actually, it was very, uh, crazy to see actually
some, some like some good basketball.
Yeah.
Do you have any old timers?
There is it pretty much sounds like right now the names you mentioned are young timers really
there is like the like I said the I was talking to the men's league teams like he's coming to play We're just making a joke.
I'm like you got to play like a tournament You know like your bones are gonna be squeaking halfway through and he said we better be supplying WD 40 I was like you got to bring your own So there is some older guys gonna be there.
I don't know.
I mean
I'm not gonna say they can't keep up, but I'm hoping they can keep up.
Oh, yeah.
Well, especially if they have subs.
So how many can beat you've got five on five, right?
How many can be on the team though?
Six.
Six
until last year there was a kerfuffle where there was seven on a team that became a problem, but it was very clear this year.
You can only have six and that's all that'd be allowed.
But yeah, that the winning team is coming back with a couple new additions, but pretty much the
the teams set in so I'm sure there'll be a lot of eyes on them trying to beat them and see how that goes I guess.
Plenty of playing
time for everybody though.
You're not going to sit on the bench very long.
So it's coming up August 8th, the original center of high school.
What's the time frame Josh?
When are you going to be playing?
The games will start at 9 a.m.
The teams that are actually playing the players should be there at 8.30 a.m.
for any of those listening.
We will be sending out
A text message with all the information to you guys, they'll come to you guys.
You'll know everything you need to know beforehand.
But yeah, and then we shoot to have everything done around four or five o'clock.
We have the place rented out for longer than that just in case it goes over.
But about four or five o'clock, nine to four or five o'clock is where we're shooting for in that.
And it's air conditioned, so you don't have to worry about getting overheated and everything.
No worries about the 108 degree weather we had just the other day.
No worries about that.
Plenty of this facility is nice.
You'll be you'll be well taken care of.
And how do you make your money then?
Teams pay entry fees to get into it then?
So how the foundation actually.
So we were we had a few different avenues.
The main one is people sponsoring the event.
So what they get
This year, we're gonna have a new system next year.
I won't get into that yet, but this year how it worked.
If you wanted to sponsor the event and get your name on the shirt, get a team in and have a banner, you paid a certain sum of money.
So for just having a team in the tournament, it was $300, but for any amount, about over $100 to $150 in that area, you would get a banner and your name on the shirt is what we did this year.
So and then we gather about 49 different businesses from the area that were very helpful in sponsoring and raising money that way to get their names on the shirts and get their banners up at the at the event.
And then through the silent auction we saw pretty much obviously people are donating items and then pretty much everything after that goes towards
That's how we make some money there.
And then we have the concessions as well and the 50-50 raffle.
The 50-50 raffle usually brings in a few hundred bucks every year, but the concessions, I'll say, we're looking to...
We're looking to provide good food to be honest.
We're looking to have high quality good food there so people can enjoy.
We're not really looking to make too much money off of that.
So the other three is usually how we make our money.
Every little bit helps though.
Absolutely.
Sounds like a good time.
Hopefully people will come out on Saturday, August 8th, original center in high school.
The second annual Joshua Klein Saucer Foundation.
basketball tournament anything either of you would like to add here before we close
the last thing is one last shout out to south central heating and cooling out of reedsburg wisconsin for sponsoring the entire event we're very thankful to have you guys on our team uh and we're blessed to be here uh i just god's been good to us uh in this area and we hope we guys been good to us and i just want to share one final thing is
even when bad things happen in our life, that doesn't mean, like in the story of Joseph in the Bible, his siblings even sold him into slavery, but God was able to use that for good in Joseph's life.
I had my bone marrow fail and I hope God's able to use me and use that in a good way in my life, so that's why I just want to say I'm glad God's able to do it good so far and turn that into a good thing in my life, so I hope we can
We can keep going forward and plowing the forward in that direction.
So thank you Phil for having us on.
Yeah, no problem.
And you'll be back for the third annual next summer then,
right?
That's the plan.
Lord willing, Lord willing.
All right.
Good to see you guys.
Good luck.
Thank you.
You bet.
Dante and Josh Klein Saucer joining us on this portion of the morning show.
Bruce Petzley joins us.
We're talking about Kikapu Cowboy Church.
Bruce, it looks like you got another one coming up here this weekend.
Is that the case?
We do.
This coming Sunday, August 2nd, we have Kikapu Cowboy Church once again at 6 p.m.
at the Old Balkan Banquet Hall and Soldiers Grove.
And we've had a really good season so far, a lot of good support, and we're looking forward to doing it again this Sunday.
Well, tell us about it.
If there's somebody out there that doesn't know anything about it or what you do or your format, could you tell us what typically happens on those Sunday nights?
So on a Sunday night, a typical Sunday night at Kikapu at our Kikapu Cowboy Church.
We started at 6pm.
Basically, Kikapu Cowboy Church is just like all most of the other Cowboy churches.
It's a gospel concert.
Sometimes people get, you know, they get a little leery about the word church.
Um, and this is not a church service.
It's a gospel concert.
Um, all different kinds of gospel songs until those country gospel, bluegrass gospel, southern gospel, or just plain good old gospel music.
Um, we have, uh, the first Sunday of every month, April through December, we do kick and pull carbide church.
And, um, we're just looking forward to being able to do this again and, um, want to keep it going as long as we can.
Can you talk about your performers?
Yes.
So.
This coming Sunday, we have Holy Curls coming again to join us.
Holy Curls from the Lancaster area.
Jim and Kathy Bergles, they do an amazing job with music.
They do a really, really good job getting the gospel message out.
And that's what Cowboy Church is all about, is getting the gospel message out through music.
Jim and Kathy, they've been playing music for quite a while now.
The first time I met them,
was at the farmers market in basketball.
And I love their style, and we've been talking to them ever since, and this will be their fourth time coming to Kickerpool Cowboy Church.
We have a different group come every month.
In April, we started out with Gary Froyland from Minnesota.
He does an amazing job.
In May, we had Tom Jones from basketball join us.
In June, my wife, Katherine, and I have already seen it, did the music.
And for July, Monty Burger joined us.
um this sunday august 2nd we have holy crow joining us
now do you have uh books and lyrics for people to sing along
we don't um usually we have usually most of the songs that that the performance do um the different groups do for kick and pull carbo chairs the songs that are familiar and most of the songs people know and they're able to sing along so yeah it's really a lot of it's very enjoyable and the gospel message gets out
Do you have, uh, refreshments and things like that afterwards?
So, um, Catherine and I, my wife, Catherine and I, um, assumed the responsibility of Kickapoo Cowboy Church, um, four years ago after Wayne and the Wayne Goplin passed away in 2022.
And Wayne's dream was to have a cowboy church in the area around the Kickapoo Valley area.
And, um, he had a team of people.
That would always come and help him and they would always bring refreshments and drinks and there's plenty of snacks and goodies for everybody.
Every Sunday that we do kick up recovery shirts.
So yeah, we have a lot of, a lot of refreshments and come hungry, come as you are and come and join us.
Well, we remember Wayne and family real well.
I mean, they would come and join us from time to time here on the morning show.
And, and certainly, uh, I think he'd be proud of this legacy, wouldn't he?
You know,
I certainly hope that he would be.
We've been trying to carry on the tradition like Wayne did it.
We didn't change anything up.
We just wanted to keep it pretty much the way he did it.
And it's what an honor it is to be able to continue on what Wayne and LeWand had started.
He had had a dream to do Kixapoo Cowboy Church for a long time.
And he had heard about it.
He'd been to them.
And he really wanted to do one in this area and they was able to start it in 2016 the public church movement started probably 50 years ago 50 years ago and It has it has taken off a lot.
There's there's over a thousand public churches just across the United States alone and that's spread to other countries as well
Now that's amazing because yeah, you mentioned it's happened that long.
I think we hear about it more now
Then we did some years ago, don't we?
I would, I would certainly hope so.
Um, it has grown.
There are other people that do cowboy churches once in a while.
So, you know, up around Ontario, there's, there's a couple that do them and, um, there's other areas that do them as well.
And it's really an important, uh, important part of, of things in our area that go on because it provides a place where people can come and hear the gospel message.
and everybody just comes up there.
It's really, it's really an honor to be able to do this.
Come as you are, you hear the gospel message.
Some people have had a bad experience at some point in their life with, you know, a church and some people won't go to church, but they will come to Cowboy Church.
You know, there's no...
No rituals, no, no, no sign seats, no dress code just come as you are and enjoy the music and get the gospel message.
Awesome.
So that's six o'clock this Sunday night, Bruce.
That is correct.
We start at six p.m.
the Sunday night August 2nd at Old Okan banquet hall and Soldiers Grove.
I'd like to thank the Old Okan for allowing us to use their banquet hall.
It's a perfect facility to do this and Deb and the
and the gang at the Old Book Inn do a great job and they welcome us and we thank them for that.
Well Bruce, thanks for carrying on the tradition and thanks for talking to us today about Kickapoo Cowboy Church.
Thanks Phil and if anybody would like to contact us, they can contact me at 608-485-2678.
They can contact Catherine at 608-485-2554.
We also have a Facebook page, Kickapoo Cowboy Church, or you can find us on
our website at kickerpoolcarboychurch.com
you
Welcome to our morning show today at WDRC.
We're going to kick it off, talk about an upcoming fundraiser for the Joshua Klein Saucer Foundation.
I think we were here almost exactly a year ago talking about this with Dante and Josh Klein Saucer and talking about the upcoming tournament, which Josh is going to be the second annual.
You're pretty proud of that, are you?
Oh, absolutely.
I'll say I'm most proud of the volunteers and the way that God's been able to work in the community, being able to raise money,
for this event and to be able to help people in the community is what I'm most proud of.
And I'll say quickly just a special shout out, since you brought up, what I'm most proud of is number one, the volunteers.
And just right there, again, at number one is I'll say South Central Heating and Cooling this year for sponsoring the entire event outright.
They gave us a large sum of money so that we'd be able to put on this event.
They were very, very, very thankful for that and being able to be able to work with them on this.
And then the other thing I'm thankful for is God for allowing us to be able to put this on this year and last year.
And just we're really grateful for all three, just everyone and God being sovereign over it all and just being able to help us with this.
you don't have any trouble getting teams and last year you were here you were you're kind of crying for teams this year you've got them all filled up it sounds like right
yeah last year is very interesting we're just talking about it I think it was the day of we finally got all the teams filled and it was a little bit uh stressful we were hoping we'd be able to do a 16 team tournament and last year it was like
Day of day of we finally got them filled this year.
We're two weeks out.
We have everything filled up all the slots filled So we're very thankful for the community as well for for wanting to participate and have this this day of basketball with us and wanting to participate and it's very
We're very thankful for that.
It's coming up on August 8th, the Richland Center High School.
You just want people to show up and cheer them on, maybe have some food too, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
My uncle is making, he's pretty, you all probably don't know him, but in our little community, he's very famous for his pulled pork.
He's smoking pulled pork.
I just want to shout out Mick Cosgrove.
He loves the pulled pork and he's also helped us a lot with getting this off the ground and whatnot.
It's gonna be, it's gonna be a good day of fun.
A 16 team double elimination tournament.
We would love to have spectators there.
We're having a silent auction with many good items, including a two night stay at some cabins in the Dells.
We're having auctioning off tools and whatnot.
Just a load of stuff there, a 50-50 raffle.
Plenty of things for spectators to do besides basketball if you don't really want to come for just the basketball.
So plenty of stuff.
for people to
do.
Last year, my biggest thing was probably getting teams, finding people, getting the connections, getting teams.
This year was just pretty much whatever he wanted me to do.
Just like, randomly get a call or text.
He's like, hey, I just had this idea.
Can you do this, this, or this?
I'm just like, you know what, sure.
And that's pretty much what it was.
I guess he calls me his little agent.
Brotherly love, right?
Yeah.
What about the silent auction?
You have some cool things there?
Yeah, there's actually some really cool things.
I'm not exactly sure what's in all of them, but I've heard there's like,
Personally me I'm big into golf.
I heard vortex so they gave something and I'm not sure what
Yeah, I'll quickly interject here.
Yeah vortex is giving a rangefinder and some other things as well a good rangefinder for golf hunting whatever you would want to use it for and on the silent auction a lot of Baskets and what not if you're into cooking literally we have stuff for everybody.
I mean if it's if it's work food Golf, I mean
even like a short vacation we have up in the Dells so.
Can you talk about Josh some of the things that you've been raising money for some of the things and some of the people that you've helped in the area?
So to start off we will be releasing a pamphlet shortly after the tournament so we can show the community exactly who we've helped and whatnot.
We've been talking with the families they've given us permission to share but we've helped
a child in the area over in the Ithaca area that had a problem with his heart and he needed actually a machine for his heart for what I believe to help it pump it when we were able to help him.
We were able to help a lady whose family was going through numerous medical struggles and medical issues.
from a daughter I believe with pneumonia and some other things and what not or I believe it was actually a different member of her family with pneumonia and her daughter had some other issues that we were able to help them with and then another member of the community that actually
They left a few years ago, but they're a well-known member of the community that actually lives in Hawaii now, but they were in a bad motorcycle accident, broke multiple arms, both their arms, ribs, brain bleed, and so we're able to help them out as well.
So at this time,
We will release the full details in a pamphlet.
We want to release them after so we get so we can document everything, make sure everything's all good with the families and everything before we release everything.
But that's our plan.
We've been able to help quite a few members of the community so far from the funds we have brought in last year so far and we hope to help more people this year.
And this for people that don't know the backstory is a lot of people helped you when you were going through some struggles earlier this in your life.
Well, you were in high school, I think.
Yep.
Yep.
Exactly.
And to share a little bit for the people that don't know, uh, so this entire.
Movement I would should I should say started when I was just four years ago when I was in high school I got diagnosed with something with called a plastic anemia if you want to look that up so simply I had to get a bone marrow transplant they had to Kill off all the bone the current bone marrow in my body and they had to replace it with my brothers He was a hundred percent match.
We're able to do the transplant and during that time The way that God provided for me using the community
Gather around me the members of the community were just amazing in the fundraisers They did for me in the messages.
They sent me the letters They sent me in all these different things that they were to help help me with during this time It was truly just amazing and now I'm looking at and I have a unique Ability and a unique outlook that I am now able to help other people that are going through similar things.
So I
I would just love to be able to do that and I would love to bring the community together to help these people because really we can help a lot of people.
We can do all these things but what really helps is when the community comes together we can see each other's needs so even if it's not me
personally or this foundation personally helping people if the community can come together get to know each other we can all help each other we can all even if it's not me if it's not this foundation if we can just come together as a community and be able to help each other and know each other so that we can help each other when things happen.
So really it's just a movement in that way that we can we can become closer as a community Is it is my goal of this?
So even when I'm gone or whatever happens that we can The community can stay strong.
Yeah, it's a lofty goal You as a family member Dante that was kind of a scary time for the family and you know You kind of learned about a lot about what this community is about at that time didn't you?
Yeah on there's like we had a couple events held for him And it was actually a really scary time because they really thought like he had a high chance of death and
Yeah, it was I guess just terrifying for the family as whole but then when we had those events the amount of people that came out was just like crazy to come support I remember I forgot how long ago probably a couple months ago I was talking to Josh and he said he was either talking to or he saw a guy wearing like the shirts we made for that event it was like a Joshua Klein saucer like help out like the
Just shirts we made for the event too.
Like you pay for them, help him out.
And that guy, he was talking that guy or he saw that guy and that guy had no clue who he was.
And Josh also had no clue who that guy was.
So it just shows like how many people come out just to help a cause.
So it was just like, I guess encouraging in a way where this guy came out, bought a shirt just to help out somebody he doesn't even really know.
That's real key.
And I mean, you know, young people like you, Dante, certainly in your group of friends and everything, this, this is kind of, uh, maybe not typical.
So I mean, uh, you guys have really dug deep.
And I think you learned a lot about giving back, haven't you?
Yeah.
And it's like, I guess from the star, like we're going back to like Josh's thing.
I didn't really understand.
I will, um, I was not Christian.
So I didn't really understand what was going on.
I don't understand how to deal with that thing.
I just thought, you know, people are,
doing good things to do good things.
But now when we move like past to this tournament now, I'm like, we really got to do this for the glory of God.
That's the only way I'll ever work out.
That's the community can do all they can do.
But we got to make sure we're putting our focus in our mind where it needs to be.
Or this won't work out the way we need it to work out.
Are the teams coming from far and wide?
Are they or is it just local players or?
It's all we got people coming from a lot of different places.
My team personally, a lot of people are coming from
I think Montetello, La Crosse, I believe is the area they're coming from.
I think there's a team coming from Madison.
There's a lot of local teams, and then there's a team coming from the Dells, the Men's League team.
There's a team coming from the Richland Center Men's League, so yeah, there's teams from every direction.
Did you recruit any ringers for your team?
My team's pretty good.
Okay, we got we
got yeah, so I've been told honestly my I've been I let one of my friends I was like hey just get us a team and he said one of the team guys on my team is like six six six eight So I'm just gonna believe this guy can play basketball
and show up.
Yeah, I'm just gonna believe you can just play basketball
Who won it last year do you remember?
Yeah, that was a Cheney Browns team.
Okay, Cheney Brown Cullen Jacobus Jeff Olson Who else was on that team?
It was a couple I thought a couple more kids from Crawford.
Yeah Crawford kids Yeah, I mean they put up a good fight They were against a Platteville team actually in the finals and the Platteville team had to beat them once and Chinese team had to beat them twice and they ended up beating twice and winning it all
Oh, it was it was actually crazy It was like a local team from just schools in the air They all brought kids from the different schools came together and yeah, they
They had lost one time already, so one more lost and they're out.
The other team hadn't lost at all.
Then they came in, beat the team twice to win the whole thing.
It was actually very crazy to see, actually.
Some sound like some good basketball.
Do you have any old timers on there?
Sounds like right now the names you mentioned are young timers, really.
There is, like I said, us talking to the men's league teams, like he's coming to play, and we're just making a joke.
You gotta play like a tournament, you know, like your bones are gonna be squeaking halfway through.
And he said, we better be supplying WD-40.
And I was like, ah, you gotta bring your own.
So there is some older guys gonna be there.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm not gonna say they can't keep up, but I'm hoping they can keep
up.
Oh yeah.
Well, especially if they have subs.
So how many can beat, you've got five on five, right?
How many can be on the team though?
Six
six six
last year there was a kerfuffle where there was seven on a team that became a problem But it was very clear this year.
You can only have six and that's all that'd be allowed But yeah that the winning team is coming back with a couple new additions, but pretty much the the teams set in so I'm sure there'd be a lot of eyes on them trying to beat them and see how that goes I guess plenty of
playing time for everybody though.
Yeah, you're not gonna sit on the bench very long
Ah, so it's coming up August 8th, the Richland Center High School.
What's the time frame, Josh, when are you going to be playing?
The games will start at 9 AM.
The teams that are actually playing the players should be there at 8.30 AM.
For any of those listening, we will be sending out a text message with all the information to you guys.
They'll come to you guys.
You'll know everything you need to know beforehand.
But yeah, and then we shoot to have everything, everything done around four or five o'clock.
We have, don't worry, we have the place rented out for longer than that just in case it goes over.
But about four or five o'clock, nine to four or five o'clock is where we're shooting for in that.
And it's air conditioned, so you don't have to worry about getting overheated and everything,
so.
No worries about the 180 degree weather we had just the other day, no worries about that, plenty of
this facility is nice you'll be you'll be well taken care of
and how do you make your money then teams pay entry fees to get into it then
uh so how the foundation actually so we were we had a few different avenues the main one is uh people sponsoring the event so uh what they get uh this year we're gonna have a new system next year i won't get into that yet but this year how it worked if you wanted to sponsor the event and get your name
On the shirt get a team in and have a banner You pay the certain some of my so for so for just having a team in the tournament.
It was $300 but for any About about over 100 to 150 dollars in that area.
You would get a banner and your name on the shirt is what we did this year
So, and then we gather about 49 different businesses from the area that were very helpful in sponsoring and raising money that way to get their names on the shirts and get their banners up at the event.
And then through the silent auction, we saw pretty much obviously people are donating items and then pretty much everything after that goes towards.
That's how we make some money there.
And then we have the concessions as well and the 50-50 raffle.
The 50-50 raffle usually brings in a few hundred bucks every year, but the concessions, I'll say, we're looking to...
We're looking to provide good food to be honest.
We're looking to have high quality good food there so people can enjoy.
We're not really looking to make too much money off of that.
So the other three is usually how we make our money.
Every little bit helps though.
Absolutely.
Sounds like a good time.
Hopefully people will come out on Saturday August 8th at Richland Center High School.
The second annual Joshua Klein Saucer Foundation.
basketball tournament.
Anything either of you would like to add here before we close.
The last thing is one last shout out to South Central Heating and Cooling out of Reedsburg, Wisconsin for sponsoring the entire event.
We're very thankful to have you guys on our team and we're blessed to be here.
God's been good to us in this area and we hope God's been good to us and I just want to share one final thing is
even when bad things happen in our life, that doesn't mean, like in the story of Joseph in the Bible, his siblings even sold him into slavery, but God was able to use that for good in Joseph's life.
I had my bone marrow fail and I hope God's able to use me and use that in a good way in my life, so that's why I just want to say I'm glad God's able to do it good so far and turn that into a good thing in my life, so I hope we can
We can keep going forward and plowing the forward in that direction.
So thank you, Phil, for having us
on.
Yeah, no problem.
And you'll be back for the third annual next summer,
right?
That's the plan.
Lord willing, Lord willing.
All right.
Good to see you guys.
Good luck.
Thank you.
You bet.
Dante and Josh Kleinsasser joining us on this portion of the morning show.
