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Transcript

Galaxie Skate Center

WRCO Morning Show · Thu Jul 30, 2026

Music.

Good morning and welcome to The Morning Show on WRC Radio.

Today we're talking about Galaxy Skate Center and some great things coming up here.

Phil Wallace, the owner of that establishment, is in the studio with us today to talk about a Christian concert, something new there, and all kinds of new happenings this summer.

Phil,

what's up?

Well, good morning, my friend.

How are you?

I'm doing all well.

We're doing really good too.

So we've made a lot of changes this year to some things here at the rink.

One of the things we did we closed down for the three or four weeks there at the end of June and Refinished skate floor.

It was a little overdue for that.

That's a big undertaking.

Well, it is and expense to you know, so But it's it's it's one of the necessary evils, you know in order to keep the people coming back and we just had a guy His name is Joe.

He comes down on a regular basis.

He's from Fonda lack and

and he comes skating on our floor.

He says, I just absolutely love your floor.

He says, I got to come down here and skate as much as I can, but it's two hours and 20 minutes each way to get here.

So we have dedicated people that come and skate on that maple floor, and they absolutely love it.

So we try to take care of it as best we can.

I mean, that's one of our biggest assets, that and my smiley face.

Oh yeah,

that's it too.

But you aren't closed that much in the summer.

You are for maintenance there, but you're back open

again.

Yeah, we're back open.

We were back open right after July 4th weekend.

You know, we figured let people celebrate the 250th birthday of America.

That was a great thing.

You know, and then we were right back at it the next following weekend and we've been doing private parties.

We just had the glow down throw down.

with Stetson Clary and he puts that all assembles together and everything and we, you know, help provide the place for him and whatnot.

We had over 620 bodies through the door on one Saturday and we had people there from not just Wisconsin, but we had people there from Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

seven states plus Wisconsin.

We had all those people coming to our community for this one major event and it's a youth wrestling event.

Were they wrestling with skates on or not?

No.

That might be a little dangerous.

So, you know, it's just doing different things and making use of the facility of, you know, just not just roller skating all the time, you know, but, you know, of course our true passion is roller skating.

Um.

So one of the things that we've been doing is we've been experimenting with event nights, you know, and stuff like that.

So, you know, it makes something a little bit more special, a little bit different, you know, on a Friday night or a particular Friday night.

And one of the ones that we have coming up is Michael Jackson night is going to be on Friday, August 7th.

And it's going to be all Michael Jackson's music, music from the Jackson's Jackson five, what's it, Janet Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, you know, some of their hits and stuff like that.

kind of playing off of the movie Michael that has been out this summer that everybody has enjoyed so and then K-pop is still really really huge so we're gonna do another K-pop night on Friday August 14th come dress up as your favorite K-pop character so you know this just different things we got going on and then you know just

trying to keep everybody involved and keep everybody out of the hot heat, you know, we got, you know, our air conditioning is there and we's constant 72 degrees all the time.

So,

yeah, perfect.

You mentioned the guy coming from a long ways away too.

I mean, we've talked about it before.

There aren't that many skate centers or facilities.

That's why they're coming from that far away to find you guys.

Yeah, yeah, right.

And a lot of the ones will like La Crosse is, you know, they have a cement floor and Oakdale, they have a black

for, that's asphalt, which is very similar to cement.

You know, when you fall down, it's going to hurt.

There is a guy in Madison who is in the works of trying to put together a roller rink.

It's going to be over by the airport on the northeast side of Madison.

I really do hope that he does well.

I really do because roller skating needs to be around.

It's a very healthy activity for everybody and

It's just something that you can do from age two all the way to 92.

It doesn't make any difference how old you are.

Roller skating should be part of your life, just like swimming.

So the guy in Madison, he just closed down a building here about a month ago and he's got a lot of work to do and I think he's planning on trying to be open by the end of the year.

But there again, he wants to put in what I have as a solid maple floor.

And of course, the expense that goes along with that.

And so I'm hoping that maybe he'll reach out and he'll ask for some helpful advice or whatever.

Because roller rinks, it's a different ball of wax.

We all communicate together.

We have a camaraderie amongst us owners and whatnot.

We all try to work together to make everybody's rink run a little bit more efficiently.

We work off of each other.

Hey, what are you doing over here?

Oh, that sounds like a great idea.

Well, let's play that at my place.

And we bounce ideas off of each other and everything because most of the roller rinks, like you said, are so far apart.

I mean, there's almost 100 miles distance within most of the rinks that are in Wisconsin.

let's see the one in Appleton and after the tornado the other day I did make contact and they are doing okay you know they didn't have any damage to their building so that's that's good and then there's one in Fond du Lac it's

More of a wedding and banquet facility now than it is a roller rink.

I mean the new owners kind of went a different direction with it We still have the one over there in Cedarburg.

We have one in Waukesha.

There's one in Kenosha.

There's one in Burlington My friends John and Melanie own that one down there.

Then we have Steve up in superior We got Steve and Sarah in Rice Lake and then there's Eau Claire Menominee

that one's for sale if somebody wanted to buy a roller rink

there you go you know excellent opportunity I was thinking about this the other day Phil when I was driving around um you see you get into some of these small towns you see these little like quonset hut buildings and

those used to be roller rinks

yeah back in the day when roller rink was roller skating was really a fad there was one in

every

small town

yeah uh if you're on highway 14

And you're going towards Madison.

Just as you're leaving the village of Arena on the north side of the road, there's a building.

It's kind of like a, what is that now?

It's like a trash and treasure kind of thing or whatever it is.

That was the Arena roller rink.

And there was one in Rock Springs, little old Rock Springs over there by Bear Boo.

And they had a roller rink over there in their community building.

And, you know, so yeah, there was a lot of them.

all over the place.

Varroqua had one.

I mean, there was just tons of them all over the place.

Now, I think we're down to about 17 or 18, something like that.

So, hey, get out and support your local roller rink.

Yeah,

hint, hint, hint.

Well, you've made some upgrades not only in the facility, but your website.

You've made some real changes.

You've got an app, too, I understand.

Well, we're still in the development stage with the app.

OK, there's a lot of different things that have to go into the app thing.

You have to get with Google Play, and you have to meet all their guidelines.

And with Apple Play, you have to meet all their guidelines.

And those are fairly strict.

So everything has to be coordinated with them before the app can actually be released.

But yes, my friend Ethan, who

Incidentally was one of my fourth and fifth grade students when he was in Hillsboro when we did skate lessons up there and he's been an avid roller skater since then.

He is now 19 years old and he is a tech guru and he is building websites and doing all kinds of different things like that.

So he says, I have a love and a passion for the roller-rank fill.

Hey, can I do something for you?

Can I revamp your website?

Is there something that we can work on for you to make things better or whatever?

And I say, so we sat down and we had like a two or three hour meeting.

And he was talking about all the passion that he had, you know, growing up from fourth and fifth grade all the way through high school and everything, always come a roller skating.

He goes, this place means a lot to me.

He says, how can I help?

And how can I help redo things?

And so he has developed and rebuilt my website, galaxieskatescenter.com.

So if anybody listening out there, you go to galaxieskatescenter.com, G-A-L-A-X-I-E, skatescenter.com, you will find a whole brand new look.

Now it's gonna be easier for you to book birthday parties private parties and all that kind of stuff and Since everybody loves our pizzas and some of our food and all that kind of stuff.

We've upgraded our food too It's gonna be on the website and on the app where you can actually if you want to come up and order our food to take it to go

you can do that.

Yeah, that would appeal a lot of people because not everybody's going to want to get on skates, obviously.

Right.

Come up and check it out.

So Galaxy Skate Center and your hours, are they back to kind of normal

now?

Not yet.

We're going to wait until after the Richland County Fair before we go back to normal hours.

We're just going to stay at five to nine on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

and we're going to keep that until after the Risen County Fair and then after the Risen County Fair we're going to actually go back to the normal hours again which will be extended on like Saturday it'll be from two until nine you know so you have a whole seven hours of skating and whatnot that you can do so.

You've been doing Christian skates?

I've been doing Christian skates and those have been like basically the highlight of our month I mean that's one of the biggest nights of the month and we have one that's coming up uh August 9th where we're going to do things a little bit different

And we normally do our skating from 4.30 to 7.30 on the second Sunday of every month.

Well this month here for August, we are going to make it a whole Christian day.

and we're going to do the skating from one to four in the afternoon and then we're going to have some live Christian bands come in.

We're going to put about two hundred and some chairs in a big horseshoe shape around the floor and we're going to put these bands right in the middle of the floor and we're going to have a little Christian concert.

You know for those of you that

You know, you don't want to come up there and go skating, but you like Christian music and you like the camaraderie and the fellowship that goes along with Christian music.

You're really going to enjoy this day.

And we have three national Christian acts.

One of them, Brendan Brooks.

He's been touring the United States with a lot of other acts and whatnot.

He's an up and coming Christian artist.

He's been writing a lot of his own Christian music and anybody from the Hillsboro area is going to know who I'm talking about.

Brendan Brooks and he is fast becoming one of those that is making his niche in the Christian music market.

Good to hear that and good to say maybe we knew him when, right?

Well, yeah, exactly.

Hey, I knew you back then.

I knew that guy.

I knew that

guy.

So tell us a little bit more.

So you're going to have, so the band will actually kind of maybe have its back to like where the seats are normally in the food.

You're going to face an outward or how does that work?

No, we're going to have the bands actually facing towards the, the, the booth area and the concessions area and everything like that.

The backs of the bands are going to be out towards the back wall.

Okay.

I see.

Okay.

So, but they're going to be in the middle of the floor.

And like I said, we're going to put about 200 chairs in a big old horseshoe shape around them out there on the floor.

It's not going to be skating.

This is going to be the Christian concert will be from six until nine.

So there's going to be the skating from one to four on August 9th.

And then we're going to have from four until six p.m.

If people want to come in, they want to eat, they want to have food, you know, whatever.

Join some fellowship.

We might have a couple of pastors come in there, maybe give some words, you know, read some scriptures or whatever.

And then at six o'clock, we're going to commence with the Christian live Christian music.

And if anybody wants to help set up chairs, they can do that too.

There you

go.

You wouldn't turn them down.

Well, you've brought

along

some examples

of the

I did acts that will be there.

So Brandon Brooks, I don't have anything from him right now, but he is, like I said, he's an up and coming artist.

He does have some stuff that he's been writing and working on right now.

But I want to highlight this band here.

They've been around for a few years.

They're from Duluth, Minnesota.

It's a husband and wife duo, Brandon and Leah Munson.

And they have some friends of theirs that come along and help

with the band and everything and they've been playing in their church and what they've done is they've went out and actually made a recording of some of the christian music that they've been writing and so they're trying to make their way and they have a couple of hits that have been on youtube and and and on christian radio and whatnot the name of their band is presence

Music and I want to play one for you right now.

It's it's their latest that they've had The song is called pick up that book and it's reference to picking up that Bible and read that Bible pick up that book Let's listen to it right now

Are you walking around in circles prove you can fill up the room

That's new, but everything you try just leaves you empty Going to church, hearing the sermons Don't know if you go to heaven for certain Cause your mistakes left you feeling worthy The greatest story ever heard Stand as strong now on his word

There's no

This is The Morning Show on WRCO Radio.

Presence, music,

film.

Yeah, one of the things that we really stress to do on Christian Music Skate Night is we try to play the really upbeat

Christian contemporary music, and President's music has been one of those that really emphasizes, you know, some positive messages, some good messages, and doing it in a beat that you can skate to.

So you can have fun with that.

And I did speak with Brandon Munson from President's Music the other day on the phone.

He had this to say,

Hey everybody, this is Brandon with Presence Music.

So excited to kind of sort of be on the radio this morning for WRCO Morning Show with Phil Knee.

Man, want to jump on and talk a little bit about the amazing event we have coming up at the Galaxy Skate Center.

With Presence Music, myself and my wife have a

Christian pop band that travels all over the country and we'll be opening up with our friend Brendan Brooks who's right from your neck of the woods for a national Christian recording artist love and the outcome So it is going to be an amazing evening seeing the the lights and the sounds of the beautiful galaxy state skate center together with professional sound and three amazing artists have come from all over the country to be there with you a

Sunday evening August 9th at 6 p.m.

Man, it is gonna be so much fun from 6 to 9 p.m.

Tickets, I believe are 12 bucks at the door or 10 in advance There's food and beverages are available for purchase.

So this is gonna be a ton of fun between all three of these artists.

We've probably done a

thousands of events and I don't think any of us have ever played at a skate center so it's going to be super cool we're hoping to get some cool photos and videos even but most of all you know if you're looking for

hope some more peace in your life.

Summer can get really busy.

This will be an opportunity to slow down, relax, have some fun by yourself or with a friend or with a family.

So really hoping you can come out.

I mean, 10, 12 bucks, that's probably cheaper than a movie ticket to enjoy three national artists and just have a ton of fun.

So hopefully we can see you there August 9th at 6 p.m.

For this long supreme

Thank Jesus.

President's Music and WRCO's morning show.

They sound like a good group.

I like both those

guys.

Well, the last song we just heard is called Where Would I Be?

And it was released in May of 2025.

And it is right now gaining a lot of national attention.

And you can kind of see, it has that really positive uplifting beat to it.

And I think it appeals to a lot of different people.

Maybe you

or just thinking about something, you know, maybe you're just feeling kind of sad, maybe or whatever, or something's got you down in the dumps, or, you know, maybe you're just missing a loved one or whatever, and you need something positive and uplifting in your life right now, and I'm going to provide that for you on August 9th, so.

August 9th, yeah, at the Galaxy Skate Center.

We'll take time out and be back with more on today's morning show after these words.

We hope people will be a part of the walk with grace radio auction next week.

You're going to be a part of it, Phil.

I am going to be a part of it in a kind of a background kind of way.

I just gave Hank a bunch of 10 pack passes for a galaxy skate center.

Now these are going to be in your auction items and whatnot.

So each one of these passes is worth in the normal session about $120 worth of skating.

So you'll have admission and skate rental and there's 10 punches on each one of those cards.

So I gave him, I think eight or 10 of them or whatever.

So I hope people will call in and participate in the Walk with Grace auction.

And one of the surprises that you can get is some free skating.

Absolutely.

We appreciate everybody in our area.

And as I mentioned before, we're so

fortunate to have a bowling alley, outdoor theater, skate center.

We're

just very, very fortunate.

I do hope that the powers that be realize what Richland Center has here because you are right and I have done some more research and I cannot find any other community that has a bowling alley, an outdoor theater and a roller rink all in the same place.

Richland Center is the only one in Wisconsin.

Now,

other states in the United States, maybe they might have one, I don't know.

But in Wisconsin, we're pretty unique right here.

So people come on out to the wrestling center, you know, come out and enjoy the day.

I mean, you can, you can have an afternoon movie.

I think they have matinees down there to movie theater, you know, you can come up there from five until eight or five until nine and, and enjoy some skating and then head on out and see another movie at the outdoor theater, you know, and then Sunday afternoon, take the family down to the bowling alley.

Maybe make a weekend of it.

Sure.

Absolutely.

We're here to talk about the Galaxy Skate Center Christian Concert again.

It's coming up on Sunday, August 9th, and you've got some top entertainers.

Another group, Love and the Outcome, they've had some success over the years, haven't they?

They have.

Anybody that remembers the WoW CDs back in the early

2000s, 2010s, you know, something like that.

They're Christian contemporary artists.

They're out of Canada and they were on, well, if you dig out some of your wow CDs, you only find wow hits 2015, 2016, 2017.

King of my heart, he is with us and the God I know is on there.

And just to reiterate

Who we're talking about we're gonna play the old one from 2017.

This is called the God.

I know

I love you

Morning Show featuring more of the music of the concert coming up here on August 9th in Richland Center.

Love and the Outcome and they've been around for a while and right now, believe it or not, Love and the Outcome have over 23 million views on their YouTube channel.

So they've been around for a while.

They've been around for about 10 years.

And like I said, they are big on the Christian charts.

They've been on the charts several different times on the US and Christian Airplay in Canada and whatnot.

So we're really, really fortunate to have them coming to town and sharing their music with us.

Now, anybody who would like a small preview for love and the outcome,

We have convinced them to come and perform with our praise team at Free Methodist Church on that Sunday.

So if anybody's interested, you know, stop by the Free Methodist Church.

A service will begin at about 1030.

And they're actually going to be our guest speakers that day.

They're going to share their message and their passion for Jesus and, and, and they're what they're doing with their life and spreading the gospel and all this kind of stuff.

So.

if somebody wants a preview of them, and then, you know, of course, six o'clock that night, come on out to the Galaxy Skate Center and see them live perform, and they'll be there for about an hour.

Brendan Brooks from Hillsborough will be first, and President's Music will be second, and then Love and the Outcome will be the headliner of the show.

So, I'm really looking forward to it, and like I said, skating is gonna be a little different that day.

It'll be from one until four.

And then we have all those other special things coming up for the month of August.

So check out the new website.

It has an events page and you just click on events right there at the top and it'll take you all the way down through there and it has everything all listed out there for you.

very easy to book birthday parties, private parties and all that kind of stuff right now on the new website.

And I got to thank Ethan for making that happen for us.

He has just been kind of a God send himself.

So, and he's really looking forward to seeing all the reactions and the app that we have

Is in development right now and we're hoping to get that released here within the next few weeks You know before September anyways and That thing will be live and then there's gonna be all kinds of promotions that we're gonna do through the app You know kind of like what you guys do here, you know Hey, if you sign up through the app, you know, you're gonna get promos.

You're gonna get deals, you know, you know things like that get first-hand, you know

I got a

t-shirt

on right now.

Does that

glow in the dark?

This one does not.

The other tie dye ones that we had in previous years, those really looked well under the black lights, but this one does not.

I wish it did.

Maybe the next shipment you

can do that.

We might have a t-shirt night.

you know hey dig out some of those old galaxy skate center t-shirts and wear much of the rink you know watch our facebook page keep an eye on that we have a lot of different things that like i said that we're coming up end of summer right end of summer party yeah the 28th it's the friday the 28th and we might even carry it over into uh...

Saturday the 29th of August because that's my birthday when I have a little birthday party up there For me.

I don't know.

We might have some special Frank special things going on for that night So they don't keep you keep an eye on what's going to happen, you know, I mean Michael Jackson night coming up here next week Friday the 7th That'll be from five until nine Friday the 14th k-pop night if you got kids that are into k-pop and that

that series on Netflix has been very, very popular right here.

So I have never seen it.

I haven't either.

I know about cake pops, but not cake pops.

You know all about cake.

Does anybody come up anymore with skates with a key, you know, to fit their shoes?

Well, you know, those, those are kind of in days long gone, you know, but clamping them to your shoe.

I do still have my steel

clamp on the shoes, roller skates from the late sixties.

They're still up in the display case up there.

If anybody would like to see my original first pair of roller skates, they are there.

Yeah, they used to, and the ball bearings are wear out

a little bit.

Oh yeah, yeah, steel wheels too.

Steel wheels.

I can't wear them on my floor though.

No, it's been a lot of fun this summer and we're trying to keep people involved with things.

We don't want you to lose sight of all the exercise and the great help benefits that they are with roller skating.

I just talked with a member of the hospital staff up here recently and we donated some stuff for them.

And matter of fact, I think it was their walk for grace thing.

We donated some passes for them.

So make sure you

Make sure you all participate in this Walk for Grace because that is a very, very important thing for this community.

I just lost my stepmom not too long ago and the cause of her death was stage 4 lung cancer for somebody who never smoked a day in her life.

Yeah.

So, um, you know, these, uh, cancer elimination things are very important to me and I do donate to them every single year.

So please help me out by coming skating, you know, and participating in my business so that I can help their business and we can all help each other in the community.

That's what it's about, right?

Yeah.

It goes hand in hand.

Um, are you going to be doing some school visits again this year?

Well, uh, I'm hoping to.

any of the teachers that are out there please make sure you get a hold of me you know right away in September as soon as you get your schedules ready and everything's all set and you know what's gonna be what and everything for the year because dates fill up very fast I mean last year I did seven schools so don't wait around thinking oh well just I'll call him in January well by that time I'm gonna be fully booked for the rest of the year you know a lot of the teachers are

know that if you don't get a hold of me early, then you might not get your spot.

So you're there for a week, when you?

I'm usually there for a week or two weeks, depending on their schedule and depending how they want to do it.

So I have a couple of different ways that we can do this.

We can do FIED class and rearrange the schedule for and do a one week thing and get a little bit of a discount and do FIED Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you know, every day for a whole week.

Those work out really well.

Wonny Walk does that, they rearrange their

schedule for a little bit and I think Hillsborough did and Weston they rearranged their schedule and they have Monday through Friday gym classes every day so we get all the skate classes done in a week and so I give them a little bit of a break if you can't do that and you still have to do two weeks you know and do fiat every other day that's always welcome too because a lot of times those classes are 45 minutes

or maybe a little bit longer.

And the kids can get a little extra skating time in, so they get a little extra practice time in, which is more beneficial.

So, you know, the more you get things done, you know, the more you do things, the better you get, right?

Indeed.

And you got a good staff at Galaxy Skates Center.

I do.

Right now we have a really, really awesome crew.

We got my

kind of like my right hand man right now, Autumn, she's from Muscatay area and she's been working with me for almost two years now.

Another gal, Sophia, she's in high school and she's been with me for a little over two years now and we have Zoe, we got two Zoes working there and they're both

you know very energetic kids and they're always looking for something to do always wanting to you know hey what else can i do what else can i do what needs to be done you know and i really really like that energy that they come in come in there with and it allows me to be a little bit more one-on-one with their customers and let them kinda do their thing you know and and it's kind of like the style that i've done for management the last few years is

teach them and empower the employees to do what they know how to do and do what they can do and, you know, give them the reigns for, like, coming up with these promotional nights, you know, and stuff like that.

You know, that was one of Autumn's ideas.

He's like, you know, let's do a special event night.

Let's do this.

Let's do that.

So they're always coming up with ideas, you know, and it kind of helps me because I don't have to sit there and use my brain so much, you know, I can just come sit back and talk with my customers and visit with them.

I love visiting with people from out of the area.

And, you know, when we had the wrestling event there, I had one family was here all the way from Kansas.

to come all the way up here just for this event.

And I said, well, are you going to be spending any time in the area and whatnot?

Oh, yeah, yeah, we might do some skouting around.

And so I kind of told them a little bit about some of the backwoods.

I say, we got a lot of really great scenery up here in the Driftless area.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend while you're here.

Don't just go run back home.

You know, we give them a list of things to do, you know, and places to check out and things like that.

So, you know, we try to encourage as much tourism here as we possibly can.

Well, you guys

do a great job.

And I mean, I'm talking to Tony too at the, at the theater.

How much of your clientele would you estimate comes from out of the area, like outside of?

Probably, it's probably 75%.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah.

I would say a good 70 to 75% of our business all comes from at least a 45 minute drive or more away from the area.

Like I said, Joe from Fond du Lac, he comes down here at least once a month.

Fond du Lac, he's driving literally two hours and 20 minutes each way just to come down here.

For what to go skating

stretches his legs

And he's a really good skater, so

that's

we got a family from a coca-tah, Iowa that comes up here quite regularly during the wintertime and She brings the whole family they got four kids mom and a dad And they just pack it all in the van and they make a whole day of it You know they'll it takes them a little over two two and a half hours to get here

you know and then they spend the rest of the day up here and you know what what else would they do maybe they stay overnight I don't know um you know but a lot of times they'll make a weekend of it you know and one of their highlights is coming to see me at the at the rink so you know

There's something said for having a beautiful maple hardwood floor to skate on.

People will drive for miles and miles and miles to skate on a maple floor.

It's a whole lot different than cement.

How many years for the roller rink and all the Clarkson's opened it?

What year was it?

Yep, Hank and Rudy opened that in, let's see, February 1st, 1973.

So yeah, it's been, what, 53?

53 years.

That's unreal and how long have you owned it Phil?

23 years.

23.

Yeah.

So Hank ran it for 30 and I'm on my 23rd year now and roller skating has been a tradition in recent center for a long, long time.

I mean, there was a roller rink in town during the 60s.

It was over where the health and human services building is now.

And if anybody remembers Arnie's shoe repair and there was a welding shop right there.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

The welding shop was what used to be the roller rink.

Oh, okay.

Well, and then my dad tells me stories about how they used to bring in a portable wood floor into Croscutt Park and put the big circus tent out and then they had the wooden snow fence around the outside of it and they brung skating in the park in the summertime back in the 40s and 50s.

So, you know, roller skating in Risen Center has been around for a long, long time.

So, yeah.

And with God's good grace, we're going to keep it here for a long, long time.

Sounds good.

Well,

Let's cut out here with one more song from your groups coming up here on Sunday August 9th, Christian concert at Galaxy Skate Center.

Again, people can get tickets today if they want, right?

Yep, you can buy tickets today.

I'm at the rink.

I'll be up there this afternoon, anytime after about 4, 4, 30 tickets.

ten dollars in advance if you buy them in advance uh... if you just come to the show it's gonna be twelve dollars that day so if you buy them that day the day of the concert's gonna be a little bit more expensive so you know i know two bucks two bucks whatever but you know i i really do hope people enjoy this as much as i enjoy bringing it to you uh... and we want to follow up and make this the last song here before we have to go uh... and the song is uh...

called i'm not lucky i'm blessed and i truly truly feel this way every day and all the different things that i do and all the different people that i've met through the last 23 years the roller skating and being able to do and run a business that was my childhood passion you know from way back then and so yeah i i feel

A real huge part of this song belongs to me and I feel it in my heart.

Love in the outcome.

I'm not lucky.

I'm blessed.

Thanks for coming in, Phil.

We appreciate

it.

Alrighty.

Phil Wallace, Galaxy Shades

Center.

Some will call it good fortune.

Some will call it good.

you

Good morning and welcome to The Morning Show on WRC Radio.

Today, we're talking about Galaxy Skate Center and some great things coming up here.

Phil Wallace, the owner of that establishment, is in the studio with us today to talk about a Christian concert, something new there, and all kinds of new happenings this summer.

Phil,

what's up?

Well, good morning, my friend.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

We're doing really good too.

So we've made a lot of changes this year to some things here at the rink.

One of the things we did we closed down for the three or four weeks there at the end of June and Refinished skate floor.

It was a little overdue for that.

That's a big undertaking.

Well, it is and expense to you know, so But it's it's it's one of the necessary evils, you know in order to keep the people coming back and we just had a guy His name is Joe.

He comes down on a regular basis.

He's from Fonda lack and

and he comes skating on our floor.

He says, I just absolutely love your floor.

He says, I got to come down here and skate as much as I can, but it's two hours and 20 minutes each way to get here.

So we have dedicated people that come and skate on.

that maple floor and they absolutely love it.

So we tried to take care of it as best we can.

I mean, that's one of our biggest assets, that and my smiley face.

Oh yeah, that's

it too.

You aren't closed that much in the summer.

You are for maintenance there, but you're back opening

it.

Yeah, we're back open.

We were back open right after July 4th weekend.

You know, we figured let people celebrate the 250th of birthday of America.

That was a great thing.

You know, and then we were right back at it the next following weekend and we've been doing private

parties, we just had the glow down throw down with Stetson Clary and he puts that all assembles together and everything and we help provide the place for him and whatnot.

We had over 620 bodies through the door on one Saturday and we had people there from not just Wisconsin, but we had people there from Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,

Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

Seven states plus Wisconsin.

We had all those people coming to our community for this one major event, and it's a youth wrestling event.

Were they wrestling with skates on or not?

No.

That might be a little dangerous.

So, you know, it's just doing different things and making use of the facility of, you know, just not just roller skating all the time, you know, but, you know, of course, our true passion is roller skating.

So one of the things that we've been doing is we've been experimenting with event nights.

you know, and stuff like that.

So, you know, make something a little bit more special, a little bit different, you know, on a Friday night or a particular Friday night.

And one of the ones that we have coming up is Michael Jackson night is going to be on Friday, August 7th.

And it's going to be all Michael Jackson's music music from the Jackson's Jackson five.

What's it?

Janet Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, you know, some of their hits and stuff like that.

kind of playing off of the movie, Michael, that has been out this summer that everybody has enjoyed.

So, um, and, uh, K-pop is still really, really huge.

Um, so we're going to do another K-pop night on Friday, August 14th.

Uh, come dress up as your favorite K-pop character.

So, you know, uh, there's just different things that we got going on.

Um, and then, uh, you know, just,

trying to keep everybody involved and keep everybody out of the hot heat, you know, we got, you know, our air conditioning is there and we's constant 72 degrees all the time.

So,

yeah, perfect.

We mentioned the guy coming from a long ways away too.

I mean, we've talked about it before.

There aren't that many skate centers or facilities.

That's why they're coming from that far away to find you guys.

Yeah.

Right.

And a lot of the ones, uh, well, like, uh, lacrosse is, you know, they have a cement floor and, uh, Oakdale, they have a black

for, that's asphalt, which is very similar to cement.

You know, when you fall down, it's going to hurt.

There is a guy in Madison who is in the works of trying to put together a roller rink.

It's going to be over by the airport on the northeast side of Madison.

I really do hope that he does well.

I really do because roller skating needs to be around.

It's a very healthy activity for everybody and

It's just something that you can do from age two all the way to 92.

It doesn't make any difference how old you are.

Roller skating should be part of your life, just like swimming.

So the guy in Madison, he just closed down a building here about a month ago.

And he's got a lot of work to do.

And I think he's planning on trying to be opened by the end of the year.

But there again, he wants to put in what I have as a solid maple floor.

you know and of course the expense that goes along with that and and so I'm I'm hoping that maybe he'll reach out and he'll ask for you know some you know helpful advice or whatever you know because roller rinks it's a different ball of wax we all communicate together we we have a camaraderie amongst us owners and whatnot we all try to work together to make everybody's rink you know run a little bit more efficiently we work off of each other's you know hey what are you doing over here well that

Sounds like a great idea.

Well, let's play that at my place.

And we bounce ideas off of each other and everything, because most of the roller ranks, like you said, are so far apart.

I mean, there's almost 100 miles distance within most of the ranks that are in Wisconsin.

Let's see.

The one in Appleton.

And after the tornado the other day, I did make contact, and they are doing OK.

They didn't have any damage to their building, so that's good.

And then there's one in Fond du Lac.

It's more of a wedding and banquet facility now than it is a roller rink.

I mean, the new owners kind of went a different direction with it.

We still have the one over there in Cedarburg.

We have one in Waukesha.

There's one in Kenosha.

There's one in Burlington.

My friends John and Melanie own that one down there.

Then we have Steve up in Superior.

We got Steve and Sarah in Rice Lake.

And then there's Eau Claire Menominee.

that one's for sale if somebody wanted to buy a roller rink

there

you

go you know excellent opportunity i was thinking about this the other day phil when i was driving around um you see you get in some of these small towns you see these little like quonset hut buildings and

those used to be roller

yeah back in the day when roller rink was roller skating was really a fad there was one in

every

small town

yeah uh if you're on highway 14

And you're going towards Madison.

Just as you're leaving the village of Arena on the north side of the road, there's a building.

It's kind of like a, what is that now?

It's like a trash and treasure kind of thing or whatever it is.

That was the Arena roller rink.

And there was one in Rock Springs, little old Rock Springs over there by Baraboo.

And they had a roller rink over there in their community building.

And you know, so yeah, there was a lot of them.

all over the place.

Varroqua had one.

I mean, there was just tons of them all over the place.

Now, I think we're down to about 17 or 18, something like that.

So, hey, get out and support your local roller rink.

Yeah,

hint, hint, hint.

Well, you've made some upgrades, not only in the facility, but your website.

You've made some real change.

You've got an app, too, I understand.

Well, we're still in the development stage with the app.

There's a lot of different things that have to go into the app thing.

You have to get with Google Play, and you have to meet all their guidelines.

And with Apple Play, you have to meet all their guidelines.

And those are fairly strict.

So everything has to be coordinated with them before the app can actually be released.

But yes, my friend Ethan, who

Incidentally was one of my fourth and fifth grade students when he was in Hillsboro when we did skate lessons up there and he's been an avid roller skater since then.

He is now 19 years old and he is a tech guru and he is building websites and doing all kinds of different things like that.

So, he says, I have a love and a passion for the roller-ranked fill.

Hey, hey, can I do something for you?

Can I, can I revamp your website?

Is there something that we can work on for you to make things better or whatever?

And I say, so we sat down and we had like a two or three hour meeting.

and he was talking about all the passion that he had you know growing up from fourth and fifth grade all the way through high school and everything always come a roller skating he goes this place means a lot to me he says how can I help and how can I help redo things and and so he has developed and rebuilt my website galaxyskatecenter.com so if anybody listening out there you go to galaxyskatecenter.com G-A-L-A-X-I-E skatecenter.com you will find a whole brand new look

Now it's going to be easier for you to book birthday parties private parties and all that kind of stuff and Since everybody loves our pizzas and some of our food and all that kind of stuff.

We've upgraded our food too It's going to be on the website and on the app where you can actually if you want to come up and order our food to take it to go

you can do that.

Yeah, that would appeal a lot of people because not everybody's going to want to get on skates, obviously.

Right.

Come up and check it out.

So Galaxy Skate Center and your hours, are they back to kind of normal now?

Not yet.

We're going to wait until after the Richland County Fair before we go back to normal hours.

We're just going to stay at five to nine on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

And we're going to keep that until after the Risen County Fair.

And then after the Risen County Fair, we're going to actually go back to the normal hours again, which will be extended on like Saturday.

It'll be from two until nine, you know, so you have a whole seven hours of skating and whatnot that you can do.

So you've been doing Christian skates.

I've been doing Christian skates and those have been like basically the highlight of our month.

I mean, that's one of the biggest nights of the month.

And we have one that's coming up August 9th, where we're going to do things a little bit different.

And we normally do our skating from 4.30 to 7.30 on the second Sunday of every month.

Well, this month here for August, we are going to make it a whole Christian day.

and we're going to do the skating from one to four in the afternoon and then we're going to have some live Christian bands come in.

You know for those of you that

You know, you don't want to come up there and go skating, but you like Christian music and you like the camaraderie and the fellowship that goes along with Christian music.

You're really going to enjoy this day.

And we have three national Christian acts.

One of them, Brendan Brooks.

He's been touring the United States with a lot of other acts and whatnot.

He's an up and coming Christian artist.

He's been writing a lot of his own Christian music and anybody from the Hillsboro area is going to know who I'm talking about.

Brendan Brooks and he is fast becoming one of those that is making his niche in the Christian music market.

Good to hear that and good to say maybe we knew him when, right?

Well, yeah, exactly.

Hey, I knew you back then.

I knew that guy.

I knew that

guy.

So tell us a little bit more.

So you're going to have, so the band will actually kind of maybe have its back to like where the seats are normally in the food.

You're going to face an outward or how does that work?

No, we're going to have the bands actually facing towards the, the, the booth area and the concessions area and everything like that.

The backs of the bands are going to be out towards the back wall.

Okay.

I see.

Okay.

So, but they're going to be in the middle of the floor.

And like I said, we're going to put about 200 chairs in a big old horseshoe shape around them out there on the floor.

It's not going to be skating.

This is going to be the Christian concert will be from six until nine.

So there's going to be the skating from one to four on August 9th.

And then we're going to have from four until six p.m.

If people want to come in, they want to eat, they want to have food, you know, whatever.

Join some fellowship.

We might have a couple of pastors come in there, maybe give some words, you know, read some scriptures or whatever.

And then at six o'clock, we're going to commence with the Christian live Christian music.

And if anybody wants to help set up chairs, they can do that too.

There you

go.

You wouldn't turn them down.

Well, you brought along some examples

of the

I did acts that will be there.

So Brandon Brooks, I don't have anything from him right now, but he is, like I said, he's an up and coming artist.

He does have some stuff that he's been writing and working on right now.

But I want to highlight this band here.

They've been around for a few years.

They're from Duluth, Minnesota.

It's a husband and wife duo, Brandon and Leah Munson.

And they have some friends of theirs that come along and help

with the band and everything and they've been playing in their church and what they've done is they've went out and actually made a recording of some of the christian music that they've been writing and so they're trying to make their way and they have a couple of hits that have been on youtube and and on christian radio and whatnot the name of their band is presence

music and I want to play one for you right now.

It's their latest that they've had.

The song is called Pick Up That Book and it's a reference to picking up that Bible and read that Bible.

Pick up that book.

Let's listen to it right now.

Are you walking around in circles proof?

You can fill up the void that's new.

But everything you try just leaves you empty Going to church, hearing the sermons Don't know if you go to heaven for certain Cause your mistakes left you feeling worthy The greatest story ever heard Stand as strong now on his word

Just seal it in your heart, that's what's called a change.

There's no author that is better than the father.

The words in red draw you in deeper, flowing through your soul like water in the river.

There's no author that is better than the father.

It's your music

This is The Morning Show on WRCO Radio.

Presence, music,

film.

Yeah, one of the things that we really stress to do on Christian Music Skate Night is we try to play the really upbeat

Christian contemporary music, and President's music has been one of those that really emphasizes, you know, some positive messages, some good messages, and doing it in a beat that you can skate to.

So you can have fun with that.

And I did speak with Brandon Munson from President's Music the other day on the phone.

He had this to say,

Hey everybody, this is Brandon with Presence Music.

So excited to kind of sort of be on the radio this morning for WRCO Morning Show with Phil Knee.

Man, want to jump on and talk a little bit about the amazing event we have coming up at the Galaxy Skate Center.

With Presence Music, myself and my wife have a

Christian pop band that travels all over the country and we'll be opening up with our friend Brendan Brooks who's right from your neck of the woods for a national Christian recording artists love and the outcome So it is going to be an amazing evening seeing the the lights and the sounds of the beautiful galaxy state skate Center together with professional sound and three amazing artists have come from all over the country to be

They're with you Sunday evening, August 9th at 6pm.

Man, it is going to be so much fun from 6 to 9.

PM Tickets, I believe are 12 bucks at the door or 10 in advance There's food and beverages there available for purchase.

So this is gonna be a ton of fun between all three of these artists We've probably done a thousands of events and I don't think any of us have ever played at a skate center So this is gonna be super cool.

We're hoping to get some cool photos and videos even but most of all, you know, if you're looking for

hope some more peace in your life.

Summer can get really busy.

This will be an opportunity to slow down, relax, have some fun by yourself or with a friend or with the family.

So really hoping you can come out.

I mean, 10, 12 bucks, that's probably cheaper than a movie ticket to enjoy three national artists and just have a ton of fun.

So hopefully we can see you there August 9th at 6 p.m.

I was lying.

For this long supreme

Jesus

presents music and WRCO's morning show.

Hey, they sound like a good group.

I like both those

guys.

Well, the the the last song we just heard is called where would I be?

And it was released in May of 2025 and it is us right now gaining a lot of national attention and you can kind of see, you know, it has that really positive uplifting beat to it, you know, and I think it appeals to a lot of different people, you know, maybe you

or just thinking about something you know maybe you're just feeling kind of sad maybe or whatever or something's got you down in the dumps or you know maybe you're just uh missing a loved one or whatever and you need something positive and uplifting in your life right now and i'm going to provide that for you on august ninth so

this ninth yeah at galaxy skate center we'll take time out and be back with more on today's morning show after these words

We hope people will be a part of the walk with grace radio auction next week.

You're going to be a part of it, Phil.

I am going to be a part of it in a kind of a background kind of way.

I just gave Hank a bunch of 10 pack passes for a galaxy skate center.

Now these are going to be in your auction items and whatnot.

So each one of these passes is worth in the normal session about $120 worth of skating.

So you'll have admission and skate rental and there's 10 punches on each one of those cards.

So I gave him, I think eight or 10 of them or whatever.

So I hope people will call in and participate in the Walk with Grace auction.

And one of the surprises that you can get is some free skating.

Absolutely.

We appreciate everybody in our area.

And as I mentioned before, we're so

fortunate to have a bowling alley, outdoor theater, skate center.

We're

just very, very fortunate.

I do hope that the powers that be realize what Richland Center has here because you are right.

And I have done some more research and I cannot find any other community that has a bowling alley, an outdoor theater and a roller rink all in the same place.

Richland Center is the only one in Wisconsin.

Now,

other states in the United States, maybe they might have one, I don't know.

But in Wisconsin, we're pretty unique right here.

So people come on out to Ristlin Center, you know, come out and enjoy the day.

I mean, you can, you can have an afternoon movie.

Maybe make a weekend of it.

Sure.

Absolutely.

We're here to talk about the Galaxy Skate Center Christian Concert again.

It's coming up on Sunday, August 9th, and you've got some top entertainers.

Another group, Love and the Outcome, they've had some success over the years, haven't they?

They have.

Anybody that remembers the WoW CDs back in the early

2000s, 2010s, you know, something like that.

They're Christian contemporary artists.

They're out of Canada and they were on, well, if you dig out some of your wow CDs, you only find wow hits 2015, 2016, 2017.

King of my heart, he is with us and the God I know is on there.

And just to reiterate

Who we're talking about we're gonna play the old one from 2017.

This is called the God I know If

it was all about religion what to do what to say what to wear on a Sunday

Never be good enough I try to walk the line Pray that I find something that I knew was real Began to real

Morning Show featuring more of the music of the concert coming up here on August 9th in Richland Center.

Love and the Outcome and they've been around for a while and right now believe it or not Love and the Outcome have over 23 million views on their YouTube channel.

So they've been around for a while.

They've been around for about 10 years.

And like I said, they are big on the Christian charts.

They've been on the charts several different times on the US and Christian Airplay in Canada and whatnot.

So we're really, really fortunate to have them coming to town and sharing their music with us.

Now, anybody who would like a small preview.

for love and the outcome.

We have convinced them to come and perform with our praise team at Free Methodist Church on that Sunday.

So if anybody's interested, you know, stop by the Free Methodist Church.

A service will begin at about 1030 and they're actually going to be our guest speakers that day.

They're going to share their message and their passion for Jesus and their

What they're doing with their life and spreading the gospel and all this kind of stuff So if somebody wants a preview of them and then you know, of course six o'clock that night come on out to the galaxy skate center and see him live perform And they'll be there for about an hour Brendan Brooks

from Hillsborough will be first and Presence Music will be second and Love and the Outcome will be the headliner of the show.

So I'm really looking forward to it.

And like I said, skating is going to be a little different that day.

It'll be from one until four.

And then we have all those other special things coming up for the month of August.

So check out the new website.

It has an events page and you just click on events right there at the top and it'll take you all the way down through there and it has everything all listed out there for you.

very easy to book birthday parties, private parties and all that kind of stuff right now on the new website.

And I got to thank Ethan for making that happen for us.

He has just been kind of a God send himself.

So, and he's really looking forward to seeing all the reactions and the app.

That we have is in development right now and we're hoping to get that released here within the next few weeks You know before September anyways and That thing will be live and then there's gonna be all kinds of promotions that we're gonna do through the app You know kind of like what you guys do here, you know Hey, if you sign up through the app, you know, you're gonna get promos.

You're gonna get deals, you know, you know things like that get first-hand, you know T-shirts yeah, I got t-shirt on right now.

Does

that glow in the

dark?

This one does not.

The other tie dye ones that we had in previous years, those really looked well under the black lights, but this one does not.

I wish it did.

Maybe the next shipment you can do that.

We might have a t-shirt night.

you know hey dig out some of those little galaxy skate center t-shirts and wear much of the rink you know watch our facebook page keep an eye on that we have a lot of different things that like i said that we're coming up end of summer right end of summer party yeah the 28th it's the friday the 28th and we might even carry it over into uh...

Saturday the 29th of August because that's my birthday when I have a little birthday party up there For me.

I don't know.

We might have some special Frank special things going on for that night So, you know, keep you keep an eye on what's going to happen, you know, I mean Michael Jackson night coming up here next week Friday the 7th That'll be from five until nine Friday the 14th k-pop night if you got kids that are into k-pop and that

That series on Netflix has been very, very popular right here.

So I have never seen it.

I haven't either.

I know about cake pops, but not cake

pop.

You know all about cake.

Does anybody come up anymore with skates with a key, you know, to fit their shoes?

Well, you know, those, those are kind of in days long gone, you know, but clamping them to your shoe.

I do still have my steel, uh,

clamp on the shoes roller skates from the late sixties.

They're still up in the display case up there.

If anybody would like to see my original first pair of roller skates, they are there.

Yeah, they used to, and the ball bearings are wear out a

little bit.

Oh yeah, yeah, steel wheels too.

Steel wheels.

I can't wear them on my floor though.

It's been a lot of fun this summer and we're trying to keep people involved with things.

We don't want you to lose sight of all the exercise and the great help benefits that they are with roller skating.

I just talked with a member of the hospital staff up here recently and we donated some stuff for them.

Matter of fact, I think it was their walk for grace thing.

We donated some passes for them, so make sure you

Make sure you all participate in this walk for grace because that is very, very important thing for this community.

I just lost my stepmom not too long ago and cause of her death was a stage four lung cancer for somebody who never smoked a day in her life.

yeah

so um you know these uh cancer elimination things are very important to me and i do donate to them every single year so please help me out by coming skating you know and participating in my business so that i can help their business and we can all help each other in the community that's what it's about right

yeah it goes hand in hand um are you going to be doing some school visits again this year

well uh i'm hoping to

Any of the teachers that are out there, please make sure you get a hold of me right away in September as soon as you get your schedules ready and everything's all set and you know what's gonna be what and everything for the year because dates fill up very fast.

I mean, last year I did seven schools, so don't wait around thinking, oh, I'll just, I'll call him in January.

Well, by that time, I'm gonna be fully booked for the rest of the year.

A lot of the teachers already know that if you don't get a hold of me early, then you might not get your spot.

So you're there for a week, when you I'm usually there for a week or two weeks, depending on their schedule and depending how they want to do it.

So I have a couple of different ways that we can do this.

Those work out really well.

Wonnie Walk does that.

They rearrange their schedule for a little bit.

And I think Hillsborough did and

uh, uh, Weston, um, they rearranged their schedule and they have Monday through Friday, uh, gym classes every day.

So we get all the skate classes done in a week.

Uh, and so I give them a little bit of a break.

Um, if you can't do that and you still have to do two weeks, you know, and do fiat every other day, um, that's always welcome too, because a lot of times those classes are 45 minutes.

or maybe a little bit longer.

And the kids can get a little extra skating time in, so they get a little extra practice time in, which is more beneficial.

So, you know, the more you get things done, you know, the more you do things, the better you get, right?

Indeed.

And you got a good staff at Galaxy Skate Center.

I do.

Right now we have a really, really awesome crew.

We got my

kind of like my right hand man right now, Autumn, she's from Muscatay area and she's been working with me for almost two years now.

Another gal, Sophia, she's in high school and she's been with me for a little over two years now.

And we have Zoe, we got two Zoes working there and they're both

you know very energetic kids and they're always looking for something to do always wanting to you know hey what else can I do what else can I do what needs to be done you know and I really really like that energy that they come in come in there with and it allows me to be a little bit more one-on-one with their customers and let them kind of do their thing you know and and it's kind of like the style that I've done for management the last few years is

teach them and empower the employees to do what they know how to do and do what they can do and you know give them the rains for like like coming up with these promotional nights you know and stuff like that you know that was one of autumn's ideas age like you know let's do a special event night let's do this let's do that

I love visiting with people from out of the area.

And, you know, when we had the wrestling event there, I had one family was here all the way from Kansas.

to come all the way up here just for this event and I said well are you going to be you know spending any time in the area and whatnot oh yeah yeah we might we might do some skouting around and so I kind of told them a little bit about you know some of the backwoods I say you know we had a lot of you know really great scenery up here in the driftless area you know enjoy the rest of the weekend you know while you're here you know don't just go run back home so

You know, we give them a list of things to do, you know, and places to check out and things like that.

So, you know, we try to encourage as much tourism here as we possibly can.

Oh, you guys

do a great job.

And I mean, I'm talking to Tony too at the theater.

How much of your clientele would you estimate comes from out of the area, like outside of?

Probably, it's probably 75%.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah.

I would say a good 70 to 75 percent of our business all comes from at least a 45 minute drive or more away from the area.

Like I said, Joe from Fond du Lac, he comes down here at least once a month.

Fond du Lac, he's driving literally two hours and 20 minutes each way just to come down here.

for what?

To go skating.

stretches his legs.

And he's a really good skater too.

We got a family from Makoka to Iowa that comes up here quite regularly during the winter time and she brings the whole family.

They got four kids, mom and a dad and they just pack it all in the van and they make a whole day of it.

It takes them a little over two, two and a half hours to get here.

you know and then they spend the rest of the day up here and you know what what else would they do maybe they stay overnight i don't know um you know but a lot of times they'll make a weekend of it you know and uh one of the highlights is coming to see me at the at the rink so you know

It's there's something said for having a beautiful maple hardwood floor to skate on.

People will drive for miles and miles and miles to drive or to skate on a maple floor.

It's it's a whole lot different than cement.

Yeah.

How many years for the roller rink?

You know, the Clarkson's opened it.

What year was it?

Yep.

Hank and Rudy opened that in, let's see, February 1st, 1973.

Okay.

So yeah, it's been what 53 53 years.

That's unreal and how long have you owned it Phil?

23 years.

23.

Yeah.

So Hank ran it for 30 and I'm on my 23rd year now.

And roller skating has been a tradition and recent center for a long, long time.

I mean, there was a roller rink in town during the sixties.

It was over where the health and human services building is now.

And if anybody remembers Arnie shoe repair and there was a welding shop right there.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

The welding shop was what used to be the roller rink.

Okay.

Well, and then

My dad tells me stories about how they used to bring in a portable wood floor into Crosscut Park and they put the big circus tent out and then they had the wooden snow fence around the outside of it and they brung skating.

in the park in the summertime back in the 40s and 50s.

So, you know, roller skating in Risen Center has been around for a long, long time.

So yeah, and with God's good grace, we're going to keep it here for a long, long time.

sounds good.

Well, let's cut out here with one more song from your groups coming up here on Sunday, August 9 Christian Concert at Galaxy Skate Center.

Again, people can get tickets today if they want, right?

Yep, you can buy tickets today.

I'm at the rink.

I'll be up there

this afternoon, anytime after about 4, 4, 30 tickets.

A real huge part of this song belongs to me and I feel it in my heart.

Love in the outcome.

I'm not lucky.

I'm blessed.

Thanks for coming in, Phil.

We appreciate

it.

All righty.

Phil Wallace, Galaxy Shades

Center.