4PeteSake Day in the Park

you

Welcome to the Morning Show Studios today at WRCO.

It's a pleasure to be here to talk about Four Pete's Sake and the day in the park coming up this Sunday already.

Joining us in the studio, you hear the stories of Troy van der Heiden, and you'll also hear about Irene and Michael Hilston's story.

But we're going to start with Todd Miller, who's been with us all these years to talk about Four Pete's Sake.

Good morning, Todd.

Good to have you in here with us today.

Yes, and I think your microphone might be off there if you want to reach on the top there and switch on the Well, there you go.

I told you I needed a good engineer.

All right.

Well, you're hired.

You getting the signal

yet?

Yeah,

you're there We'll blame Henry he was cleaning in here.

He might agree.

He might have bumped that So good to see you again.

Here we are again with four Pete's sake has he got a good year for fundraising?

So we are off to a good start this year.

Yes, so it's you know, they did

We should be able to top things off on the day in the park.

We usually hope for about $40,000 in revenue.

So that'll, that'll put us over the top if that's what happens.

You have fundraisers throughout the year though, don't you?

Well, we've got a golf outing in September, but otherwise the day in the park has been it.

You know, people contribute is.

throughout the year, you know, memorials and, and in honor of, and things like that.

And we do some of our fundraising early for sponsorship of some of our events, like the rum walk, pickleball, bike ride.

So, but not, not any other events in those two.

So.

And in terms of a need, there's a need year round, isn't there?

There's, there is a need year round.

And when we initially started, we only had one funding round.

And it was all focused, well, it was based upon one individual.

And then as we developed it, we had one funding round in the spring.

And then we'd get, we'd get through the summer event and there'd be people who needed help then.

And it's like, well, we have money now, but you know, next spring, you know, are they, are they going to make it to next spring?

Okay.

So we started a fall funding round, I think around 2010, and we've managed to do two funding rounds.

We have decided based upon the fundraising so far this year that we will be doing a fall funding round.

And we'll be taking applications through September 30th for that.

And then we'll have an interview date that we haven't set yet in October to review applications and then help people out.

If you go to for Pete sake.com you can download an application or you can request one appeal box 577 and spring green and we'll we'll get an application out to you

Could you give us a little history lesson about for Pete's sake and how it started?

Well, there was a young man named Peter Greenwood who was very athletic and In high school and he was having some pain and they diagnosed it eventually as

cancer.

And so they ended up having to do a partial amputation, try to get rid of the cancer.

And so he was hoping that he could, you know, remain active and get an athletic prosthetic leg.

And this is around the time where the Gulf War made prosthetics much more popular.

They were, and they were much more plentiful down the road than they were back then.

So this was a $45,000 question.

And so we managed to do enough to raise enough money to do that.

There was a variety of little fundraisers around the community.

And then the day in the park, which was the first year we did it, and we made enough money to get him his leg.

And then we had money left over.

And we talked with the family and they decided that they should go on, you know, and pay it forward.

So we've been able to do it ever since.

And if there was ever a time where people just didn't need help anymore, well then we wouldn't need to do it.

And we're under the umbrella of Christ Lutheran Church as an official committee of the church.

So it's a 501c3, but the committee is non-denominational and it's just been a group effort ever since.

So Peter,

Last I heard, still lives in Canada and he has a kid and a wife and he's doing all right.

So in the prosthetic leg, you know, wore out years ago.

So he's, he's had a variety of different, different things that he's, he's used, but he ended up doing, doing a marathon on one of those special bikes, you know, where you just sit down in your pedal and did that New York city.

And so it worked out okay.

And of course it doesn't always work out that way, but

but it's nice to see that Peter's been able to thrive, so.

Do you have any idea how many people, how many families you've helped

since the beginning?

We've helped just over 125 households since then.

You know, could it be an individual or it could be a family?

And we've distributed about $1.6 million in assistance since then.

So it's kind of a small miracle to us that we've been able to raise

those kind of funds over the years because you know we're we're recipients are limited to the the geographical area of the river valley school district and so there's only about 10 or 11,000 people and that's that's a fair amount of money to raise from a population that's small so we've been we've been blessed that's

that's gone in our

favor.

Very impressive.

When someone comes in, or if they need funds, is there a set amount that they can get, or does it very...

It's not a set amount.

It's not really a competition.

So I know Grace has a flat amount, which is an easy way to make a decision.

But, and they can do it more often, I think, because of that.

But for us, it's like, well, what can we do that's going to impact the household?

And a lot of times, you know, we're focused on how can you stay in your home and, and, and not have to worry about, you know, am I

going to be laid on my mortgage am I going to not pay rent and I'm going to be kicked out of where I live you know is there food in the home is there transportation available that kind of thing so just just the basic everyday things that kind of get turned upside down when

you've had an illness that undermines your ability to, you know, make a wage.

So, or extra expenses that you just can't afford.

Sure.

And

it's not just cancer.

It's any kind of medical condition.

Yeah.

Or some, I know you've had some that were injured possibly and

needed some help and those kinds of things.

Yeah.

And sometimes people make it back, you know, and sometimes

Sometimes things just happen.

You just don't know.

You wake up one day and your whole world's turned upside down.

So

maybe you can say a word about this year's recipients.

You have them in the studio before we introduce them today.

Well, Troy, Troy Van Der Hynes, one of our recipients this year, and you can tell you his story about doing home dialysis and stuff and what led up to that.

And then Irina Michael Hilsterner here.

Steve Hilson, husband and father, passed away pretty suddenly after the catastrophic event and they can explain to you what that was.

So it was.

We'll introduce you to him then.

So

thanks, Todd.

We appreciate that.

How about Troy Vanderheiden first?

You've drawn the short straw so we'll make you go

first here today.

So nice to meet you.

Could you tell us a little bit about

your

story, Troy?

First off, I've been diabetic for over 43 years and I think a lot of the issues is from the diabetes and I had a triple bypass in March of 2020 and then as time went on

or since 2020 even, my kidneys have slowly decreased and now I'm in stage five kidney disease.

So now we are trying to do home dialysis between my clinic which is for Cineus and Madison and

try to get what they call fistula done in my arm and what they call buttonholes.

They're small, but it's where they would insert two different needles, one in going, one out going.

But we haven't been able to get it established for quite some time now.

It's been a good almost eight months.

We've been trying to, you know, hack away at it.

but I do have a catheter in my chest where we can do home dialysis and that's what we're doing now.

We were trained through the clinic, my wife, and she is not a nurse, but she is a outstanding, sorry, a very outstanding care partner.

I don't know what I would do without

her.

You know, and she helps me with the home dialysis, getting set up and then everything.

And she, she's just there, you know, I mean, she works a full-time job.

And when she was on a third shift, we were doing training in Madison and traveling there and back.

And that was when she was on third shift and

She would spend between the time we drive to Madison and get dialysis and training and come back.

It's about a good seven hours Roughly, so I consider my wife has two full-time jobs She really does.

She's incredible So we've been trying to hack away right now.

We've took a break from the fistula

We are trying again.

We are doing home dialysis.

I am not on the kidney transplant list yet.

I got a couple things I need to accomplish before they'll put me on the list.

So you're working toward that?

That is my goal.

It really is.

I really would love to, I mean,

I don't consider myself old.

I mean, if someone looks at me, they're going to be like, well, I'm not in wrong with him, but I'm going to be 59 later this month.

And I really don't consider myself old.

And I now have six grandkids.

I have six kids, six grandkids.

And there's a couple more that might have kids down the road when they get married and so forth.

In fact, my

of my six kids it was a girl girl my oldest son younger son a girl girl and my oldest son just called me on Sunday and said you know they're going to go to the courthouse to get married the first ones to get married out of all my kids so pretty proud they had to apply for it and it's gonna take about a week so

And probably sometime either late this week or early next week, you know, I'll be a witness to it and everything, which I'm, I'm proud of them.

And there's nothing wrong with even doing a courthouse on, you know, with, with today's economy.

Absolutely.

Congratulations

on that.

Yeah.

Thank

you.

You got a lot to live for.

You got a lot to strive.

That's, that's what I'm trying to get at is, you know, I'm not really old.

I mean, I would love to be where get a kidney transplant and

I was told when I was in the hospital, first starting dialysis that people that need like a double transplant tend to get them quicker than someone that needs a single one.

So I'm kind of looking for a liver and a pancreas.

And it would be, you can't imagine how lovely it would be not to have it to give yourself shots every day.

You know back then it was poke your fingers And getting the glucose levels and so forth.

I mean since from day one I was 15 When I started this

my goodness they made a lot of strides and those kind of things though

now Yeah, I mean they got cgms, which I got one on my arm And it just it's right to my phone.

It says what it is and you know shows how it's been going

Um, which is good, but it would just be, it would be awesome just to have a break from that.

Even if it was five years, you know, five months, but that would be awesome.

Also,

you

know, with the kidneys,

right?

Well, you have some goals.

Uh, you'd like to hang out with a family, hang out by the lake and

Exactly.

That's, that's exactly what I was going to say.

It's like some point in time, maybe we get a cabin on a lake and we can all hang out and everything.

I mean, I, I love my family and I just wish we were able to spend more time and I understand, you know, all the kids, they got busy lives.

You know, I understand.

But, you know, just once in a while, we can just all get together and

hang out you know so and get to see all the grandkids would be awesome so it's like yeah i do have goals you know and deep down i hope it happens but i hate to say this but in the long run i hate to say but i kind of am accepting

What might happen if I don't get a transplants?

Unfortunately, it's just Trying to get a grasp on it, you know and just There's days I worry and my my youngest the special needs she's 18 and She will need assistance the rest of her life

She's just cognitively delayed.

So that I worry about, you know, what's going to happen to me.

I'm nine years older than my wife.

So, and we all know because of age, it's usually the older ones that go before the younger normally.

So it's where something happens to me.

How are they going to be?

Are they going to be able to survive?

You know and so forth and what kind of care it's hard to find someone for a special needs It really is you know, we do have some really true good friends was our old neighbors in arena became Very very good friends and they love cure.

I mean cure loves them from

back when she was five, six years old.

I remember they would come home from somewhere and we'd be outside.

And here she is.

She's taken off for the neighbors, you know, so

that's, that's what happens in the small town.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and you've got for Pete's sake.

Did you ever think that you might be getting a call from before Pete's sake?

Oh, my wife started the

process.

She really thought, you know,

Maybe this is something we can do and I, I can't say enough for Pete's sake.

They have helped us for the last six months extremely.

It has enabled us to breathe and you know, we've are able to get some stuff done on our vehicles that we haven't

Really had the money for because it was so tight in our with our rent and everything and that's always been our biggest worry is the rent That's the first thing we make sure we pay of course because we got that place to live.

Yes And it's hard to find anything reasonable.

I mean, I'm not saying it rents reasonable but We're you know trying to survive and Pete's sake has been there for us

since, you know, like I said, at least good six months.

I want to say back, what, April?

Roughly?

March, I think.

March?

Yeah.

Spring funding rounds.

So yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, and you'll be eligible also to, to apply again because we do, we can, you can get up to two funding rounds.

So we'll kind of, we can reassess things as, as we go into the fall.

Yes.

But yeah, and it has made a difference.

It has even we're able to get out and do a little camping In

fact, we're going up to the Dells on the 20th.

There we go through the 24th and Might have a little bit of family my brother-in-law be there.

He lives in Baraboo because we're going up in the Dells You know next Thursday, so do some camping get away

Yeah.

Important

to do that.

Isn't

it?

Yeah.

We love the camp and everything.

So PSAC has done a lot for us.

And, you know, yes, they do have goals.

And I really hope to get these goals taken care of.

My hope was by the time I turned 60, you know, I really, really am.

I mean, starting to get the gray and everything else.

And, you know, so, um,

I really want to spend time with my family.

That's, that is my biggest

goal.

Yeah.

I hear you.

That's everybody's goal, I think.

And so, and for Pete's sake, helping you out, Troy.

Thanks for telling your story.

We'll, we'll come back to you in a little bit here.

Let's take time out and we'll, we'll hear the story about Irene and Michael and more about for Pete's sakes day in the park coming up this Sunday.

For Pete's sake our our subject today on the morning show from WRCO the the great cause and again the day in the park is coming up on Sunday You've heard stories before in our morning show and thanks again to Troy for being our guest Irene and Michael Hilston next up here this morning in the morning show studios Irene good morning Good to have you in the studio with us today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So tell us a little bit about your story if

you

Well, the story involves my husband, Stephen Hilston.

And what happened with Steve is that he had an undiagnosed abdominal aortic aneurysm.

And it suddenly started leaking.

It was called encased.

And it happened when he was at work.

And long story short, we ended up getting the ambulance brought to our house.

and they transported him to Sock Prairie Hospital and he was there for just maybe a couple hours.

They did x-rays and they found that he had the aneurysm leaking in his abdomen.

So they contacted UW and then he had to quickly get to UW

because they

said he wasn't going to survive unless they did surgery immediately.

So what happened from there is that he did go in, UW was ready for him, and he had the surgery.

Surgery was eight hours to repair that aneurysm, but what happened from there is when that aneurysm started leaking, it started throwing microclots throughout his whole body.

And it started going through all the tiny little blood vessels everywhere.

Normally, if you have a clot, it's not going to do that.

It's going to be a bigger clot.

It will go through bigger vessels.

But he threw microclots because he had a high cholesterol level, which was also undiagnosed.

We did not know that.

It was called a cholesterol embolism syndrome.

And I remember how the doctor described it is when you open up

the aneurysm, it's supposed to be like coagulated blood, like almost like a jelly.

So, mind you, they're kind of going in blind for his surgery.

So they're, you know, it's going to be routine, just going to cut it open, you know, remove the quads, blah, blah, blah, you know, run the mill.

But when he cut it open, the best way I just remember, like the doctor looking at us and he was still at the time, very confused.

He said, so I opened it up and

It was like sand in there.

And they, he was still, even the doctor was like kind of confused.

He had a feeling what it could have been, but wasn't 100% too sure.

That's why they went to UW of Madison and, you know, best surgeons, especially cardiovascular which now is concerned with my dad at that point to get it, you know, looked over by some of the best surgeons.

And that's when they

found out it was called Cholesterol Emboly Syndrome and which kind of threw everything for a loop because again at the time when we found out I was happy with my dad was just you know the aneurysm you know that's easily fixable but now with this Cholesterol Emboly Syndrome it changed the entire dynamic of everything of even like what we were expecting but also the doctors

Yeah.

What happened is, because it threw all those microclots, my husband did not have circulation to all different parts of his body.

Namely, the first one that got hit really hard was his legs.

So he had no circulation there.

So after the eight-hour surgery for the aneurysm, they had to go in, and what is it called, the fascia?

Yeah.

fascia or something like

that.

But anyway, they had to go in and open up his legs and try to pull what clots they could see out and try to encourage that circulation.

But that was four hours.

So we're looking at a total of maybe 12 plus hours that he was without circulation through many parts of his body.

So he ended up, long story short,

He ended up losing his legs the circulation did not make him come back and they started dying So and that was roughly what two weeks.

Yeah, and they had to exactly burn care unit coming in because you know they had to like cut open his legs and stuff like that they had to see if his legs would adapt to the new skin Because the blood circulation was not there.

So they're hoping

by increasing like with the fascia, cutting it open, cutting open the legs and when it expand then you would put the new skin over it and hoping that it would adapt and they did it for I can't even remember how long but eventually it just we realized that it was not gonna

Yeah,

it was about two weeks that they were taking care of his legs with the burn care unit, trying to regenerate the skin and all the blood vessels.

But his legs did start dying.

Everything started turning black.

And he was facing, having a bilateral leg amputation for both legs, which he was aware of, that he was going to have to do that, and he would be a paraplegic.

But at least he would be alive, and he would be able to come home and be with his family and his grandkids.

So he agreed to have that done, went through the surgery like a champ.

Mind you, this is very painful, everything with him.

So he was on a lot of medication to keep him comfortable because of the pain that he was going through.

So he went through the, sorry.

So he went through the bilateral leg amputation.

And we were still, and the doctor said, this is such a rare case.

And that was the head of UW surgery.

Dr. Gretchen Swarzy.

Swarzy, Dr. Swarzy from UW.

Have to give a shout out to her.

Just truly an amazing human being.

So incredibly intelligent, so incredibly empathetic.

Honestly, I mean, with all of the doctors combined, I'm so incredibly thankful.

I wish, of course, my dad was still here, and I know UW themselves wished my dad was still here, but it's still with their support.

It made the transition so much easier for us.

Even though it's still... He

had good care, obviously.

He had extremely good care.

He had extremely good

care.

dozens or so surgeons on them.

But anyway, so it was the waiting game because this case with my husband was so rare that Dr. Schorzi even said in her 24 years as a vascular surgeon and had a VW vascular surgery.

She'd never ever seen this case before.

It's very rarely recorded.

Most people don't survive.

So they did not know what to expect so far as the rest of his body, how it was going to respond with such blood loss and all the different organs.

So he lost his legs first, and the next thing was his kidneys.

They went, and then he was going to be on 24 hour dialysis.

So we're thinking, okay, well, we can deal with that.

Again, we made all the accommodations like, yeah, my dad's not going to be happy.

I mean, I know him, he would not have been happy, too, that we would have to drive him there and stuff like that.

But, of course, we were going to... Through dialysis.

Yeah, like, we were going to make those...

If he got out, when he got

out, you know.

And, again, we were going to make those accommodations, but it was just...

Kind of like Troy said is there's just roadblocks.

It just seemed like okay working some momentum.

Okay, so things it's not good, but it's not So bad, but then now the news.

Oh by the way Steve your kidneys are dying.

Yeah, it's not exactly Something that I mean you can prepare for it, but it's just hearing those words is what just kind of makes it sink in a little bit deeper Yeah

The one really sad thing was is that, you know, he went through the leg amputation, then the kidneys started dying, and, you know, then he's on 24-7 dialysis while he's at the hospital.

And like I said, all these microclots that got thrown landed in so many different areas of his body, but it did not land in his brain.

He was fully aware of everything that was happening around him, which was really sad, because he had to go through a lot of acceptance of going to be a paraplegic, OK, now I'm going to be on dialysis.

So he wasn't in the hospital very long.

He was in there for 30 days exactly.

So after his kidneys failed, the pancreas started dying.

And that was the biggest red flag because again you can get a kidney transplant You can get other type of transplants, but as soon as you know that pancreas start to die because that's you know your body needs the pancreas and the bad thing about with my dad's pancreas dying is that not only was it dying but

Again, like

the necrotic tissue was leaking.

It was leaking out.

And again, just how the body is designed, pancreas was near my dad's aneurysm.

And because they had fixed that, those enzymes from the pancreas were eating away at the stents.

So

we had again, it's just it was either my dad would bleed

out because again this is the aortic aneurysm.

I mean just the aortic artery.

He

would bleed out extremely quick.

I think the doctors even said themselves like they literally cannot do anything if that happens.

Like he would bleed out so fast that like you can't keep pumping blood into him because it's just going to be coming out.

And then because the enzymes as well it's just it's just eating away at it.

It's either

The pancreas is just going to die by itself, and that would be excruciating, or my dad's going to bleed to death.

It was like every day something was happening.

It went from the leg amputation to the dialysis, and then the other thing was...

his GI tract started

dying.

He had some internal bleeding.

Yeah, he had internal bleeding.

His GI tract started dying and one day he had four units of blood given to him because he lost four units of blood that day.

I

think it was like three at night and then they did one.

They found out it was one more.

And mind you, he's monitored 24-7 and they're still pumping blood and also doing dialysis.

So he is getting taken care of.

It's just his body

There's a net loss of blood throughout the entire process.

And my dad's body was fighting so incredibly hard.

Sure.

So the surgeon called us after the pancreas started going, the surgeon called us and said, we need to have a family meeting.

So we had to gather up the whole family, you know, the daughter and son-in-law and the grandkids from Georgia came up.

And while they were up here for almost the whole 30 days

that he

was in the

hospital.

Basically.

So they ran home and got the grandkids and brought them back.

And we had a family meeting and all the 12 different surgeons and doctors joined us.

Excuse me.

And explained to us that Steve was dying.

He was actively going to die.

And there was nothing that they were going to be able to do about it.

because if that aneurysm or the stint was compromised from the pancreatic fluid that was necrosis was leaking out, he would be gone overnight.

It could happen any time.

And they said he was actively dying.

And they had my husband awake for that meeting.

So he was fully informed and he knew that he was gonna be dying.

time elements they said very soon and it was that

November of last year right

yeah yeah it was in the process after this had begun that you came to for Pete's sake and applied so Steve was still alive

Yes.

When you had applied.

Correct.

But I remember the story is he came home early from work because he thought he had a backache.

Yes.

And then they took him by ambulance to the hospital and just like that, you know.

Her life changed.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I still vividly remember where I was.

I was

doing some landscaping work at the hotel where he'd been employed for 25 years.

Nothing really well kind of out of the ordinary what he was doing that day But he thought he just threw his back out so his boss brought him home and He took a look at him when we were you were getting him out of the truck with his boss and I looked at him and he couldn't walk he couldn't feel his legs at all and I'm like

This isn't your back, Steve.

Something's worse than that.

I said, I'm calling the ambulance.

You've got to go now.

Because he asked me to take his shoes off, and he couldn't even feel me touching his feet, taking his shoes off.

The best way to actively describe how my dad was, I hate making the comparison, but just picture a zombie.

Like his legs were just dragging.

And mind you, I've seen him hurt his back before.

Like anyone that's ever had a back issue, like you know how it feels.

But the way that he was walking, I was like, that is, I just reflected this immediately shot up.

And we just, I just looked at my mom, I was like, we just even say, I think we just like kind of just looked and we're like,

yeah.

It's go time, you know.

And of course he was like, no, no, no, no, I'm like too bad.

It's my back.

It's my back.

And living in a

small community and thankful that we have such volunteers with our firefighters and our EMTs.

They were at my house within three minutes.

Yes, they were insanely

fast.

They were at the house immediately after we called and prepping to try to get him out of the house, you know, because they didn't know what they were dealing with so far as carrying him out and moving him, you know, and they were on the phone with Sock Prairie and I think UW too.

I

believe

so.

Yeah, trying to, because they weren't sure on, you know, well, I shouldn't say they weren't sure.

Just how to transport him because they weren't we're not we're not sure what was going on with the back Didn't want to do any more further damage, you know, but it wasn't his back at all So anyway, but what we learned out of this is that aneurysms are genetic So that is kind of where Michael and I are at now is that we want to preach to people that

If you have a history, family history of anybody that has had problems with aneurysms, died from an aneurysm, had to have a surgery for an aneurysm, it is genetic and you need to be tested.

You need to have a CT scan done by age 50.

This is all what UW Gretchen Chorsey told us.

And she looked at Steve's brother and sister and she said, you guys are over 50.

You need to go in for a scan now.

And that would mean the same thing for Steve's children.

They all need to have scans when they hit age 50 because that's when they will start happening.

These aneurysms will start coming around.

So you live in the small town.

I know Steve did a lot as far as volunteering and food pantry and now it's, you know, tables have turned a little bit where for Pete's sake is coming to

help.

Well, we've been with the food pantry volunteering there for 15 years.

And I'm actually now the president of the board of directors for the food pantry.

And I'm the secret service for her.

That's important.

The secret service team.

But that was the thing is that when this all happened with Steve, we were just up in arms.

We didn't know what was going to happen with him.

Is he going to come home?

Every day was a guessing game.

We're going to have to make modifications to the house and change things because now he's going to be a paraplegic and dialysis.

We had to get a ramp for the house.

Everything was happening.

Things larger in the house that accommodate wheelchair.

We didn't know how we were going to deal with any of this financially.

And Heather at the food pantry, she said to Michael and I,

Irene, you need to apply for Pete's sake.

Get some help because you're gonna need it.

Your income is changing.

You're not gonna have Steve's income from him working anymore.

And we were worried if we were gonna make the mortgage payment, are we gonna keep the lights on?

Yeah, we had just bought the house.

Yeah, in July.

July?

Yeah.

And that was my dad's

We

rented the house for 12, 15 years.

Yeah, a long time.

Until the landlords finally decided they were going to sell it, and we had first opportunity.

So yeah, we're going to jump on it, buying a house in the sky.

It was difficult, so when we are offered that, yeah, we're going to take it.

Yeah.

So, but anyway, so it was Heather at the food pantry that, you know, I mean, you would think I would have thought

for Pete's sake, but under the mental stress that we were going through with all this, I never even thought of that.

So I have to give a shout out for Heather, you know, being the spokesperson that she is to get help for people, not only with food, but other financial need

help.

And the River Valley School District for Pete's sake, Todd, certainly this is brought in two great examples of people from your community in need and where for Pete's sake stepped up.

Well, I hope it gives people a better understanding of why we have a day in the park and why it's important to come out and help if you're able to.

So that'll be this Sunday.

And lots of things going on.

Yeah, we've got activities to rum walk.

uh, pickleball, uh, bike ride.

So that all starts between eight and nine o'clock in the morning.

There's going to be bands from 11 o'clock until seven, a mixture of jazz and folk and things.

So pretty mellow, very family friendly.

Uh, we've got a silent auction with some incredible stuff in it.

There's five one week stays at Captiva Island with, uh, which is $3,000 value, but you're staying at a time share where they've donated

it for one week at a time, so we've got a $700 minimum bid.

So that's a nice break for people if they don't enjoy shoveling snow here in Wisconsin.

But you can go to our website and check all of that out for PeteSake.com.

A cake walk?

You got a cake walk going

on?

We have a cake walk this year, indeed we do.

I try to stay away from that.

Diabetes makes you feel different about sugar.

Yeah, it's

probably true But a lot of good stuff going

on it all

goes for the for the cause.

Yeah.

Yeah, Sunday coming up Troy anything you'd like to add you've been listening to the conversation here today anything you'd like to say about for Pete's

sake Just again, thank you.

I mean Anybody that's out there, you know If you are running through some difficulties

I would give a shout out to you for Pete's sake.

And Irene and Michael, anything else you'd like to

add?

Same thing.

For Pete's sake, was able to help us until we got our financial straightened out and then I went back to Todd and I said, Todd, we're okay now.

You know, Todd was like, are you sure?

Just

doubling down.

You know they said we'll make a commitment to you I think it was for a year is what you said when that was when Steve was alive Because we didn't know what we were facing at the time But I just said to dad I said no we've got it all worked out, you know, we're gonna be okay Just give the money to somebody else now.

It's time to pay it forward again

back on your feet.

Yeah, you're gonna be at the event.

Oh, yeah

absolutely Michael's gonna be serving up custard and

I

work at Culver's, but I'll be destroying that stand.

I'll be scooping as fast as I humanly can Look forward to that Troy

you're gonna attend on Sunday as well.

Yes.

Yes.

I am actually I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, it's a big celebration

isn't it?

Yeah, I just hope it's not too hot or

too miserable.

I found out I can handle the heat

like

I used

to.

Just give it five minutes, you'll find out how it

is.

We'll try to give you a good forecast for Sunday.

I hope so.

Todd, thanks for coming in and thanks for all you do for Four Pete's Egg.

Thank you, Phil.

What time does it start again on

Sunday?

The activities, the rum walk and everything is eight o'clock.

You can still

Sign up for all those things, beginning at 7.30 as a ball field shelter, but then we'll be down in the big tent by the picnic shelter at the park.

And so that mostly kicks in at around 11 o'clock.

can't miss it downtown spring green or south, south park, right?

Well, north

park, north

park, north park now called veterans park on Google referred to as municipal park.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm confused.

Stay on the north end of town,

north end of town

and spring green

Sunday.

Be there.

Thanks

everyone for coming in and it's been wonderful to hear your stories and good luck to you too.

Thank you very much.

You bet.

Irene and Michael Hillston and Troy Vanderheiden along with Todd Miller talking about a day in the park for four Pete's sake.

you

Welcome to the morning show studios today at WRCO.

It's a pleasure to be here to talk about for Pete's sake and the day in the park coming up this Sunday already.

Joining us in the studio, you hear the stories of Troy van der Heiden and you'll also hear about Irene and Michael Hilston's story.

Uh, but we're going to start with Todd Miller, who's been with us all these years to talk about for Pete's sake.

Good morning, Todd.

Good to have you in here with us today.

Yes, and I think your microphone might be off there if you want to reach on the top there and switch on the Well, there you go.

I told you I needed a good engineer.

All right.

Well, you're

hired.

You

getting the

signal

yet?

Yeah,

you're there We'll blame Henry he was cleaning in here.

He might agree.

He might have bumped that So good to see you again.

Here we are again with four Pete's sake has he got a good year for fundraising?

So we are off to a good start this year.

Yes, so it's you know, they did

we should be able to top things off on the day in the park.

We usually hope for about $40,000 in revenue.

So that'll put us over the top if that's what happens.

You have fundraisers throughout the year though, don't you?

Well, we've got a golf outing in September, but otherwise the day in the park has been it.

You know, people contribute throughout the year, you know, memorials and in honor of and things like that.

And we do some of our fundraising early for sponsorship of some of our events.

like the rum walk, pickleball, bike ride.

So, but not, not any other events in those two.

So.

And in terms of a need, there's a need year round, isn't there?

There's, there is a need year round.

And when we initially started, we only had one funding round and it was all focused.

Well, it was based upon.

one individual.

And then as we developed it, we had one funding round in the spring.

And then we'd get, we'd get through the summer event and there'd be people who needed help then.

And it's like, well, we have money now, but you know, next spring, you know, are they, are they going to make it to next spring?

Okay.

So we started a fall funding round, I think around 2010, and we've managed to do two funding rounds.

So

We have decided based upon the fundraising so far this year that we will be doing a fall funding round and we'll be taking applications through September 30th for that and then we'll have an interview date that we haven't set yet in October to review applications and then help people out.

If you go to forpeetsake.com you can download an application or you can request one at P.O.

Box 577 in spring green and we'll get an application out to you.

Could you give us a little history lesson about for Pete's sake and how it started?

Well, there was a young man named Peter Greenwood who was very athletic and in high school and he was having some pain and they diagnosed it eventually as

cancer.

And so they ended up having to do a partial amputation, try to get rid of the cancer.

And so he was hoping that he could, you know, remain active and get an athletic prosthetic leg.

And this is around the time where the the Gulf War made prosthetics much more popular.

They were and they were much more plentiful down the road than they were back then.

So this was a $45,000 question.

And so we managed to do enough to raise enough money to do that.

There was a variety of little fundraisers around the community.

And then the day in the park, which was the first year we did it.

And we made enough money.

to get him his leg.

And then we had money left over and we talked with the family and they decided that this should go on, you know, and pay it forward.

So we've been able to do it ever since.

And, and, you know, if there was ever a time where people just didn't need help anymore, well, then we wouldn't need to do it.

And we're under the umbrella of Christ Lutheran Church as an official committee of the church.

So it's a 501c3, but the committee is non-denominational and it just, it's just been a group effort ever since.

So Peter.

Last I heard, still lives in Canada and he has a kid and a wife and he's doing all right.

So in the prosthetic leg, you know, wore out years ago.

So he's, he's had a variety of different, different things that he's, he's used, but he ended up doing, doing a marathon on one of those special bikes, you know, where you just sit down in your pedal and did that New York city.

And so it worked out okay.

And of course it doesn't always work out that way, but

but it's nice to see that Peter's been able to thrive, so.

Do you have any idea how many people, how many families you've helped since

the beginning?

We've helped just over 125 households since then.

You know, could it be an individual or it could be a family?

And we've distributed about $1.6 million in assistance since then.

So it's kind of a small miracle to us that we've been able to raise

those kind of funds over the years because you know we're we're recipients are limited to the the geographical area of the river valley school district and so there's only about 10 or 11,000 people and that's that's a fair amount of money to raise from a population that's small so we've been we've been blessed that's

that's gone in our

favor so.

Very impressive.

When you, when someone comes in or they need funds, is there a set amount that they can get or does it vary?

It's not a set amount, you know, it's not really a competition.

So I know Grace, you know, has a flat amount, which is an easy way to make a decision.

You

know, but, and they can do it more often, I think because of that.

But for us, it's like, well, what can we do that's going to impact the household?

And a lot of times, you know, we're focused on how can you stay in your home and, and, and not have to worry about, you know, am I

going to be laid on my mortgage am I going to not pay rent and I'm going to be kicked out of where I live you know is there food in the home is there transportation available that kind of thing so just just the basic everyday things that kind of get turned upside down when

you've had an illness that undermines your ability to, you know, make a wage.

So, or extra expenses that you just can't afford.

Sure.

And

it's not just cancer.

It's any kind of delimitation condition.

Yeah.

Or some, I know you've had some that were injured possibly and

needed some

help

and those kinds of things.

And sometimes people make it back, you know, and sometimes

Sometimes things just happen.

You just don't know.

You wake up one day and your whole world's turned upside down.

So

maybe you can say a word about this year's recipients.

You have them in the studio before we introduce them today.

Well, Troy, Troy Van Der Hynes, one of our recipients this year, and he can tell you his story about doing home dialysis and stuff and what led up to that.

And then Irina Michael Hilsterner here.

Steve Hilson, husband and father, passed away pretty suddenly after the catastrophic event and they can explain to you what that was.

So it was.

We'll introduce you to him then.

So

thanks, Todd.

We appreciate that.

How about Troy Vanderheiden first?

You've drawn the short straws.

We'll make you go

first here today.

So nice to meet you.

Could you tell us a little bit

about your

story, Troy?

Well,

First off, I've been diabetic for over 43 years and I think a lot of the issues is from the diabetes and I had a triple bypass in March 2020 and then as time went on

or since 2020 even, my kidneys have slowly decreased and now I'm in stage five kidney disease.

So now we are trying to do home dialysis between my clinic which is for Cineus and Madison and

try to get what they call fish to love done in my arm and what they call buttonholes they're small but it's where they would insert two different needles one in going one out going but we haven't been able to get it established for quite some time now it's been a good almost eight months we've been trying to you know hack away at it

but I do have a catheter in my chest where we can do home dialysis and that's what we're doing now.

We were trained through the clinic, my wife, and she is not a nurse, but she is a outstanding, sorry, a very outstanding care partner.

I don't know what I would do without

her.

You know, and she helps me with the home dialysis, getting set up and then everything.

And she, she's just there, you know, I mean, she works a full-time job.

And when she was on a third shift, we were doing training in, uh, Madison and traveling there and back.

And that was when she was on third shift.

And,

She would spend between the time we drive to Madison and get dialysis and training and come back.

It's about a good seven hours Roughly, so I consider my wife has two full-time jobs She really does.

She's incredible So we've been trying to hack away right now.

We've took a break from the fistula

We are trying again.

We are doing home dialysis.

I am not on the kidney transplant list yet.

I got a couple things I need to accomplish Before they'll put me on the list So you're working toward that?

That is my goal.

It really is I Really would love to I mean

don't consider myself old I mean if someone looks at me they're gonna be like well not wrong with him but I'm gonna be 59 later this month you know and I really don't consider myself old and I now have six grandkids you know I have six kids six grandkids you know and there's a couple more that might have kids down the road when you know they get married and so forth in fact my

of my six kids it was a girl girl my oldest son younger son a girl girl and my oldest son just called me on Sunday and said you know they're going to go to the courthouse to get married the first ones to get married out of all my kids so pretty proud they had to apply for it and it's gonna take about a week so

And probably sometime either late this week or early next week, you know, I'll be a witness to it and everything, which I'm, I'm proud of them.

And there's nothing wrong with even doing a courthouse on, you know, with, with today's economy.

Absolutely.

Congratulations

on that.

Yeah.

Thank

you.

You got a lot to live for.

You got a lot to strive

for.

That's, that's what I'm trying to get at is, you know, I'm not really old.

I mean, I would love to be where get a kidney transplant and

I was told when I was in the hospital, first starting dialysis that people that need like a double transplant tend to get them quicker than someone that needs a single one.

So I'm kind of looking for a liver and a pancreas.

And it would be, you can't imagine how lovely it would be not to have to give yourself shots every day.

You know back then it was poke your fingers And getting the glucose levels and so forth.

I mean since from day one I was 15 When I started this

my goodness, they've made a lot of strides in those kind of things though

now Yeah, I mean they got CGM's which I got one on my arm And it just it's right to my phone.

It says what it is and you know shows how it's been going and

Um, which is good, but it would just be, it would be awesome just to have a break from that.

Even if it was five years, you know, five months, but that would be awesome.

Also,

you

know, along with the kidneys,

right?

Well, you have some goals.

Uh, you'd like to hang out with a family, hang out by the lake and.

Exactly.

That's, that's exactly what I was going to say.

It's like some point in time.

Maybe we get a cabin on a lake and we can all hang out and everything.

I mean, I, I love my family and I just wish we were able to spend more time and I understand, you know, all the kids, they got busy lives.

You know, I understand.

But, you know, just once in a while, we can just all get together and

hang out you know so and get to see all the grandkids would be awesome so it's like yeah i do have goals you know and deep down i hope it happens but i hate to say this but in the long run i hate to say but i kind of am accepting

What might happen if I don't get a transplants?

Unfortunately, it's just Trying to get a grasp on it, you know, and just There's days I worry and my my youngest is special needs she's 18 and She will need assistance the rest of her life

She's just cognitively delayed.

So that I worry about, you know, what's going to happen to me.

I'm nine years older than my wife.

So, and we all know because of age, it's usually the older ones that go before the younger normally.

So it's where something happens to me.

How are they going to be?

Are they going to be able to survive?

You know and so forth and what kind of care it's hard to find someone for a special needs It really is you know, we do have some really true good friends was our old neighbors in arena became Very very good friends and they love cure.

I mean cure loves them from

back when she was five, six years old.

I remember they would come home from somewhere and we'd be outside.

And here she is.

She's taken off with her neighbors, you know.

So

that's, that's what happens in the small town.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and you've got for Pete's sake.

Did you ever think that you might be getting a call from before Pete's sake?

Oh

my wife started the process.

She really thought, you know, maybe this is something we can do.

And I, I can't say enough for Pete's sake.

They have helped us for the last six months extremely.

It has enabled us to breathe.

And, you know, we've are able to get some stuff done on our vehicles that we haven't.

Really had the money for because it was so tight in our with our rent and everything.

And that's always been our biggest worry is the rent.

That's the first thing we make sure we pay, of course, because we got that place to

live.

Yes.

And it's hard to find anything reasonable.

I mean, I'm not saying it rents reasonable, but, um, we're, you know, trying to survive and Pete's sake has been there for us.

since, you know, like I said, at least a good six months.

I want to say back, what, April?

Roughly?

March, I think.

March?

Yeah.

Spring funding rounds.

So yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, and you'll be eligible also to, to apply again, because we do, we can, you can get up to two funding rounds.

So we'll kind of, we can reassess things as, as we go into the fall.

Yes.

But yeah, and it has made a difference.

It has even we're able to get out and do a little camping

In fact, we're going up to the dels on the 20th.

There you go through the 24th and Might have a little bit of family My brother and I'll be there.

He lives in Baraboo because we're going up in the dels You know next Thursday, so do some camping get away

Yeah.

Important

to do that.

Isn't

it?

Yeah.

We love the camp and everything.

So PSAC has done a lot for us.

And, you know, yes, they do have goals.

And I really hope to get these goals taken care of.

My hope was by the time I turned 60, you know, I really, really am.

I mean, starting to get the gray and everything else.

And, you know, so, um,

I really want to spend time with my family.

That's, that is my biggest goal.

Yeah.

I hear you.

That's everybody's goal, I think.

And so, and for Pete's sake, helping you out, Troy.

Thanks for telling your story.

We'll, we'll come back to you in a little bit here.

Let's take time out and we'll, we'll hear the story about Irene and Michael and more about for Pete's sakes day in the park coming up this Sunday.

For Pete's sake, our, uh, our subject today on the morning show from WRCO, the, the great cause.

And again, the day in the park is coming up on Sunday.

You've heard, uh, stories before in our morning show.

And thanks again to Troy for being our guest.

Irene and Michael Hilston, uh, next up here this morning in the morning show studios, Irene.

Good morning.

Hi.

Good morning.

Good to have you in the studio with us today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So tell us a little bit about your story.

If you would.

Okay.

Well, the story involves my husband, Stephen Hilston.

And what happened with Steve is that he had an undiagnosed abdominal aortic aneurysm.

And it suddenly started leaking.

It was called encased.

And it happened when he was at work.

And long story short, we ended up getting the ambulance brought to our house.

and they transported him to Sock Prairie Hospital and he was there for just maybe a couple hours.

They did x-rays and they found that he had the aneurysm leaking in his abdomen.

So they contacted UW and then he had to quickly get to UW because

they said

he wasn't going to survive unless they did surgery immediately.

So what happened from there is that he did go in, UW was ready for him, and he had the surgery.

Surgery was eight hours to repair that aneurysm, but what happened from there is when that aneurysm started leaking, it started throwing microclots throughout his whole body.

And it started going through all the tiny little blood vessels everywhere.

Normally, if you have a clot, it's not going to do that.

It's going to be a bigger clot.

It will go through bigger vessels.