Richland Hospital Foundation

you

On the first part of our show today, we're here to talk about the upcoming Crime Stopper sponsored murder mystery weekend in Richland Center.

We've been kind of talking about it all summer and we're just a week away from that.

Joining us in the studio today is Kathy Hamby.

Jay is joining us as well and Glenn Dunn talking about the murder mystery.

Kathy, here we go.

You guys are getting all set.

Do you feel a little bit more like you're ready to go than the last time you were here?

I do.

I feel like we've

come a little further we've we've improved on a lot of things and today is D-Day for the printer so I just before I walked out the door the last of the ads are taken care of and we're ready to go.

Awesome and you've been kind of making plans and the cast has been getting together frequently haven't they?

Yeah we've got the cast, we've got the media taken care of, we've got the clue stops made, we've got

I think 23 different local stores that have agreed to be clue stops.

So if anybody goes into a store and sees a big clue stop sign, bright yellow sign, you can't miss it.

Be sure and thank them for participating and helping out.

One of the key things you want to push today is you want people to pre-register,

correct?

We do.

Friday night at the 1921 80 lounge at the 80 German warehouse.

There'll be an event going on.

Music by Jay Huffman, he's there, but the

People that decide what's going on have agreed to let the cast show up and you may see some antics taking place.

Just remember when you're there that Bozo is still much alive.

He has not been murdered yet.

So if you see the cast, they know nothing about his murder.

And you can pre-register there.

$10 for a single registration, just like last year.

We're making this family-friendly and affordable.

So a whole family can play together for $10.

If everyone wants to have a chance to win prizes, though, you may be interested in the $25 family packet.

And that will include two booklets and two newspapers.

And it will also include a youth ballot for whatever children are in your group.

affordable still and more people get a chance to win prizes.

What a fun family thing though and you know you're not going to get a lot of entertainment value for ten dollars most of the time are you?

That's right for the entire weekend.

You can play as much of the weekend as you want.

That's one thing that you can register either day or Friday night and you can still participate for the entire weekend or you can just come down for a couple of hours on one day and participate, get a chance to win, have some fun.

You could just go into one of the stops.

Your chances might not be good, but you don't have to go to all of them if you don't want to.

You could even walk into the registration booth by a packet, write down one of the characters names, drop off your ballot and leave.

who knows, you may have been lucky and guessed the right one and still win.

And you're still going to unveil it on Sunday then.

Sunday will be the reveal at the Phoenix Center and there our detective will be there to announce every cast member what their motive was, what their alibi was and whether their alibi stood up and then he will eventually reveal the actual person that did it and after that's all taken care of we'll start handing out those prizes.

Wonderful Lincoln.

That's next weekend.

I presume Glenn, you're the detective then.

I

am

the detective.

Yes.

That's right.

Yes.

You've been kind of absorbing this whole story and kind of getting it down.

So there's, there's quite a lot of twists and turns in the story.

Uh, and it's, it's kind of interesting the way Jay wrote it up is, uh, everybody has a motive.

Everybody has a reason to kill, uh, both zoo and, uh, you know, we don't know.

who it is, you know, and I don't think until like right before we do it, sometimes we don't figure it out until like right before we get the answer.

It's like, Oh, it's going to be this, this person.

So

it's like the typical movie or TV show you watch murder.

She wrote or whatever.

Right.

A lot of times it's like, Oh, it's this person.

It's gotta be.

And then all of a sudden, wait a minute.

I mean, it probably shifts several times.

Oh,

exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

You were involved in it last year.

I was

the detective last year, and I've also been doing this in Baraboo.

So there's, I think it was the sixth year in Baraboo that we've done it.

So I've been the detective basically guy that figures it out at the very end.

I'm curious because you've acted on stage a lot.

This form of acting is a lot different, isn't it?

It's a little more improv because basically there's certain things that, well, it's improv for everyone that's every actor because you have to play your part.

You just have to be in character because people are going to ask you, you know, where are you on Thursday night or how far away was your house from the TKO saloon, you know?

try and figure out, you know, was it possible for you to kill the person and get back to the, to the party without anyone noticing?

And it's in, as an actor, you've got to like come up and go, okay, that's a really good point.

How am I going to answer this?

You know, without, you know, saying something I don't want to say.

Right.

Now you as an actor, um, uh, do the actors know who did it or how

does that?

No one knows except for Jay.

Yeah.

Which, which makes it very nice because.

Everybody could play guilty or everybody could play innocent and variations of it because they don't know they have no

clue.

Jay, as you write this, I had to think, you know, there's a rodeo theme there as well.

Were you inspired by Richland Center hosting the Wisconsin High School Rodeo?

I was very much so.

I even had my kids go to the rodeo.

They've been reading cowboy books and rodeo books so that they can feel their part a little bit more, but I just thought it was something that's big in this community, and it would be kind of fun to do a little spin off that.

Except for these are more adults rodeos, but that's where I got the basic

twist this year.

What did you learn from last year that maybe you added or you might do a little bit differently this year?

Well we got our cast together much earlier and last year we didn't have as many organized meetings but we've been meeting for about four or five weeks now.

Every Tuesday we actually shot a commercial this year and we've got a bunch of clue clips that are going to be on our Facebook page for people to watch over the next couple weeks.

And last year I spent hours writing almost an entire novel only to know that maybe it was too much detail.

So this year everybody has a timeline and right now they only have their timeline up until 2.30 a.m.

because I don't want them sharing too much.

And then everybody has a packet that says confidential on it, and it's for their eyes only.

So the TKO saloon owner is Dusty Carell.

So she's got her timeline, which we all have shared and talked and asked questions about to each other.

But she has a packet of information that she cannot share to anybody.

And then as people ask her questions over the weekend, she can start to reveal.

things a little more and a little more.

So

every one of the actors or actresses have like a career, a bio on them, don't they?

They kind of know what, how they should react and things like that.

Yes.

Very much.

Yeah.

So,

and so that makes it maybe a little bit better for them.

But as Glenn said, they don't know for sure whether they did it or not,

right?

Right.

Um, which is kind of a good thing.

Cause last year, the person I had chosen to be guilty, um, the night before said he couldn't make it.

for the whole weekend.

But it just so happened, his name was Jalopeno and he fictitiously owned Los Amigos.

And that coincided with when they had to shut down for some remodeling.

And so people thought that he shut his restaurant down in left town.

So even not being there, he still got votes.

How do you come up with the names of the characters?

Because to me, that seems like that would take a lot.

Everybody likes to give me

funny names.

In fact, one of our characters is Mary and Richmond.

And I knew that I wanted to have a Clydesdale.

And when my daughter came up with Mary and Richmond, that just formed a whole character right there.

Like, you know, she, she's Mary's for money and her husbands die unexpectedly.

In fact, you know, she has just lost a spouse who's obituary will be in the newspaper while she's pursuing Clydesdale.

So.

Good stuff.

So it's all coming together now.

Do you feel pretty comfortable for next weekend?

Yes, very, very comfortable.

In fact, I've already started next year's so that we can get that word out next year's is going to be called I love or love you to death.

And it's going to be about a game show, but it's not a romantic game show.

It's more of a trivial pursuit game show where people match up by their their knowledge of trivia.

Interesting.

When you write this, though, you have to think about all the scenarios because you have to have, you know, probable cause and you've got to have alibis and all those things work into it.

So it must be, it must be very painstaking to write this, isn't

it?

Yeah.

I got started a little later than, I mean, I started it and then I kind of put it aside for a while and I think I put it aside too long, but, um, but that's why I'm like getting in gear to do next year's right away.

But yeah, I think I spent more time this year thinking about it and having all these stories in my head.

And so then to sit down one day and write them out.

But I think I was trying to figure out a way that I only knew how to write things in a novel form.

But then it kind of made me think that really, when you start writing anything, you start with a timeline or an outline.

So I decided to just

maybe take that route and I think it's working a lot better.

And then when we asked the timeline, ClaireSky was like, well, who's my husband?

What's my husband's name?

And it's like, oh yeah, we have to come up with that so everybody knows.

And we've decided that he's not around anymore.

Are you getting good response from not only here, but like outside the area people are saying they're

gonna come in and play yep I Play a game with some friends in Wisconsin.

That's all over Wisconsin and some of them are gonna come from you know different areas like Eau Claire and Racine and different areas, so it's it'll be kind of neat getting More people than just Richland Center people there

Yeah, it's going to really add to the community.

Kathy, I think the sponsors, the businesses, they're happy about this too because it brings people to town, doesn't

it?

Oh, yeah.

There are people last year who told us they saw customers or people walking through their door they'd never seen before.

And it works both ways because other ones had told me, I didn't even know that place carried such and such an item or I'd never been in there before.

And it's just a win-win for everybody.

Would you like to thank the sponsors that make it possible?

Yeah.

I guess I left the complete list at home.

But there are so many people.

We do have some local help that have been, the union is providing the hospitality area.

They have a wonderful room that is used.

throughout the year for students and now it can be used for people to rest, relax, throw their personal items to be safe there.

TKO is the crime scene as well as the video location for our advertisement and he's offered spots if anyone wants to come in and

rest and put their heads together and make some plans there.

The library has been graciously letting us use their room for our meetings, and they've also provided an event.

They said they want to do something fun that weekend too, so watch for that.

The Phoenix Center, of course, is the location of our reveal, and they are a clue stop.

The AG, AD German Warehouse is the place for the preregistration.

Who knows what's going to happen there at that 1921 Lounge on Friday night.

And Tony Burke designed the banners.

I'm sure you've seen those big banners around town and the clue stops.

There are 23 clue stops that they open their doors.

There's a few that may be closed on Sunday, but that's no problem.

The clues will be there and you can just stop.

outside their door and pick those clues up.

And the chamber is providing chamber bucks for the actors because the actors work for food.

So they're going to be given money to chamber money to purchase their lunch once a day.

We don't

sing for our supper.

No, that's a good deal though, Glenn.

Yeah, right.

And then of course the actors and every single

Part of this is an important we couldn't go on without it.

You know you've got the prizes so many people donated wonderful prizes We got prizes from spring green muscaday richland center Hillsborough of Iroquois and even lacrosse so Working together Everybody working together and then not to mention the people that come to play we that's you know We couldn't do it without people coming to participate So I'm sure I left somebody out of that long list, but there's hanging up flyers

whatever anybody does, just spreading the word, participating, helping out where you can.

Everybody's appreciated.

Thank you.

And thank you, Phil.

No problem.

Oh, it's so much fun.

I remember last year, Glenn being in downtown Richland Center on Saturday and seeing these more colorful characters than usual walking up and down the

street.

That's true.

Actually, it's the way we kind of want our characters dressed so that they stand out.

There's been

I've, you know, I've done this, this bit before and they were characters, they had dressed like a normal person and nobody knew that they were part of the, the whole thing.

So this way, you know, you'd say, Oh, that's the guy that they had.

That's the lady with the flowers, you know, and so you can pick it out.

So

last year, I recall there were people that were kind of rubber necking too, you know, you're driving by and all of a sudden like,

Oh, yeah.

Who is

that?

Exactly.

So hopefully, you know, no one calls the authorities saying there's, you know, some weird character on the loose or something like Glenn Dunn.

Exactly.

The police department is working with us too.

So they're aware that it's going on so that if anybody calls and reports anything, they have a, you know,

the right answer to tell them, like, yeah, it's not anything really.

Out of the ordinary,

yeah.

Oh, yes.

And so this year, because we have children that are in this, and they are not suspects, they are just, you know, everybody has kids around at rodeos, and they overhear things, but they have whistles this year.

So they've been told that they have to stay in groups of three or more, but there's only four of them.

So every child, and I bought enough for every actor after I thought about it,

But they'll all have whistles so that if they get into an uncomfortable, like just if I've seen in Baraboo where people get very aggressive towards the actors, I didn't see that here last year.

So if they start to feel cornered or I don't know, even if somebody tries to kidnap them or something and they can blow their whistle, everybody knows that if they hear a whistle, they need to.

Like, that's when they can lose character and go run towards wherever the whistle's coming from.

And I don't think that we'll need them, but the children all know that if they whistle, they will go home and they will not finish the weekend and they will not play next year,

so.

If they whistle when they don't need to whistle.

Yeah,

right.

So how does it work then?

Because there are going to be several people probably that guessed the right answer, Kathy.

Then do you draw one from those names?

Good question.

All the people who draw the correct, or excuse me, guess the correct

name will be put into a separate bucket, one bucket for youth and one bucket for adults.

The grand prize winners are drawn first and then after that everybody is eligible to win a prize.

So it doesn't matter if you guess the right name or not, you still can win a very fabulous prize.

Do you know who did it, Kathy?

I hope it's not clear skies.

Is that your?

That's who I will be.

That's you.

Okay.

She may though.

You never know.

I do know she has a reason to want Bozo out of the picture.

I see.

Everybody's kind of got a reason, don't they?

What's fun as playing, I've never, ever done anything like this before, not even a school play.

But as people ask questions, you are.

trying to convince the people that you're innocent, but you also kind of hope to think you're guilty.

So you have to be a little deceptive and look like you're just making it all up.

What if no one guesses the right answer?

I mean, I suppose that could happen too.

Well, I still want a prize.

They still

want a prize.

I guess everyone is eligible for the grand prize.

Last year, every single person got a vote.

Like Jennifer said, even the man who wasn't here got a vote.

He got two.

He got two votes.

Our detective got a vote.

Our police officer got one vote.

So, you know, we're all suspicious

group.

Yeah, you really are.

And this goes on again next weekend in downtown Richland Center.

I think it's going to be a great community event coming together, Jay.

I think so too.

And I do have one thing to add.

We have some committee chairs quickly.

The hospitality is run by Lorna Maxwell, registration by

Trinda and Ed Wells, the gopher, she's got to have a gopher, would be Ed Fink and J.R.

Hamby, and we couldn't do it without the author, J. Renee Hamby.

There you go.

Will some of the actors be in the actual clue stops or wander around or how does that

work?

Yeah, we want them wandering around for the most part.

However, Dusty Carell needs to stay in TKO because she's the TKO saloon owner, but she will not be serving.

Just to clarify that, she will tell her

her bar hands to serve on customers and I like to keep Mary and Richmond played by Jenny Sadie over by the registration center because she's very very good at this and she's also very loud and that's a compliment and she's right across some quick trips so maybe people that hadn't heard of it will be like

what's going on over there and just, you know, cross the street and find out.

So, I'm kind of using her for her, like, attention-getting abilities and her amazing costume skills.

So, really excited about that.

But the rest of them are supposed to be in groups of two or three walking around, going in and out of the stores.

You know, they even will get a lunch break, but they're working on their lunch break.

So, even if they're eating, people are allowed to come up and ask them questions.

If they need a break, they just head over to the union for about 15 minutes and then head back.

I saw some of them at National Night Out.

Yes.

And Jenny, shoot, they were making a scene there too.

Oh,

yes, yes.

Spreading rumors and things like that.

Yeah.

Mary and Richmond was sure that Kathy, my mom, was somebody else and was telling people that

you know, she's just faking it so that she's got to be guilty if she's trying to pretend to be someone else.

And you have pencils too, don't you?

That's pretty cool.

Yep.

Sunny Sky handed out bracelets last year.

So this year we decided to hand out pencils.

They do same murder mystery or Richland Center mystery weekend on them just to kind of so people think about it for next year because we're always going to be the third weekend in August.

So

We just thought this year it would be pencils and we have a young man in the group and his name is Pierce Deere and he's a tattoo artist and a rodeo contestant.

So he will be handing out tattoos for all the kids.

Fun.

Well, don't chew the pencil because that could also, you know, be a clue, right?

We'll have your teeth marks.

You'll have your teeth marks, right?

Exactly.

Dental records right there.

Be careful.

Wow.

Well, I'll tell you the plot thickens.

Glenn, anything you want to add today?

Just a

It's gonna be a great weekend.

It's it's it's like win-win all over the place because it's it's family fun It's it's a good time.

You get to get out get some exercise walk around I also think it's it's a it's a good win-win for like the business owners and stuff because like say say I'm the record store guy, okay, and There's people out there that

don't

So it's hopefully the business owners appreciate us as much as we appreciate that appreciate them.

I think you bring up a good point because it plants a seed.

Somebody might not buy something in that very moment, but that's in the back of their mind that they have that product.

Oh, exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So it'll be fun next weekend.

And then do you have to, you don't have to memorize any lines, right?

Glen,

you just kind of kind of keep your timeline.

You're what your character was doing at all the different steps.

But, you know, you can cheat and somebody says, where were you doing Thursday?

Yeah, I was over here.

Yeah.

Jay, is it kind of like the telephone game where you whisper in somebody's ear and they pass it on sometimes?

I mean, can I get a little convoluted sometimes?

Everybody has a timeline.

We all got together and worked that out to get any questions.

But then I did kind of plant a seed.

One character has a big secret.

I let her know what her secret was.

Then I told another character who's Dusty Carell.

I told her,

parts of the secret, but not all of it.

And it came from Beau's point of view.

And then Dusty Carell has a daughter.

And so the daughter has parts of the secret, but from Dusty's point of view, just to kind of get that, you know, kind of going where people might not all think quite the same, just like, you know, when you, like, I might tell my mom something and my mom will tell Glenn something and then Glenn will tell one of the actors something, excuse me.

And it doesn't always come back quite the way it started.

That's what makes it fun.

Pre-registration is key, right, Kathy?

Pre-registration is key.

It's an option.

It's not necessary, but you can have a lot of fun just going to the 1921 Lounge that's good music.

Anybody is welcome to be there, whether you're participating or not.

It's just a little added perk to be able to register early.

And as the person who went around seeking locations and prizes and clue stops and asking, asking, asking, I can't say enough how grateful and thankful I am to every single person that did any piece of this puzzle.

I just, I can't say thank you enough.

That's just what it is.

great will keep us posted on how it goes it's going to be fun to watch it transpire so thanks for coming in today everyone you bet kathy hamby joining us and glenn don and jay hamby the uh... talented author of this whole thing the crime stop responses murder mystery coming up next weekend in richland center

you

Next up in our morning show, get together, Angie Kuhnen is here, Foundation Director for the Richland Hospital.

They have a lot of cool things coming up here.

Good morning, Angie.

Good morning, Phil.

Thank you for having

us.

Wonderful to have you.

You have, first of all, some good days that you've got, maybe kind of building awareness and then giving back to the community as well.

What's coming up on Monday?

So Monday is actually nonprofit day.

And so to celebrate that, the Richland Hospital Foundation, we have put together a free

Ice Cream Social.

And it's to celebrate non-profit day.

So we are going to have a vintage ice cream truck stationed in the hospital parking lot.

And it's sponsored by the folks at Sleepy Hollow in Verroqua.

They have this vintage truck and it's free ice cream.

Ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones.

to celebrate national nonprofit day.

Now we will have a jar out for a donation.

We will accept donations and all the donations that we get for national nonprofit day through our ice cream social will come right back to the Richland Hospital Foundation.

So it all stays local, helps us with our local programming, our local services, but it's really a day to celebrate nonprofit day.

And we invite the community to come between 11 and one o'clock in the hospital parking lot.

get some free ice cream, see a few Foundation Board members, see myself.

And just thank you for supporting all the work that our community does to support all the nonprofits.

You know, there's other nonprofits before the hospital, besides the hospital, but we want to celebrate National Nonprofit Day with this ice cream social.

And again, all proceeds that we get from donations for the social stay right here in our community.

Nothing like summertime ice cream socials, right?

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

And thank you to the sponsor out in Baroque with their Sleepy Halla for doing this.

And it's a neat little truck that comes in and just some great people offering free ice cream.

And it's just a great way to have some stewardship and really give back to our donors in our community that has supported us year after year.

The next big thing is coming up.

I believe you talked about it the last time you were here, but the Howl at the Moon

event.

Yeah.

So this is a super big event we're super excited about.

So it's Howl at the Moon at the Willows here in Richland Center.

So it's closer to Ithaca.

The willows if you're not aware is a new event space They do Airbnb's but they created a barn that they turned into of this beautiful event space that we are going to bring in dueling pianos So I brought in a dueling piano group out of Chicago.

So there'll be two pianos a drummer.

They put on a performance So from five to ten The doors will be open at the willow.

So if you've never been there, come check it out.

We'll have food trucks there

Four food trucks are coming in to help support the event.

We have sponsors that are there supporting the event, but it's gonna be a really cool fun time.

From five to seven, come and eat dinner there.

It's a $20 ticket to get in.

And then from seven to 10, it is non-stop entertainment.

We have raffles, we have games, and again, raising all funds for the Richland Hospital Foundation.

How did you choose this dueling piano group?

So I belong to a consortium where there's a bunch of foundation directors that get together on a quarterly basis and we meet in SOC.

And we talk about fundraising techniques and what each small critical access hospital foundations are doing to bring in funding for their facility.

And somebody mentioned dueling pianos.

And I thought, wow, that sounded really fun.

And then Heather Tomi, who sits on our board, had heard of this dueling piano group.

We have an events committee that thinks about ways to fundraise.

So we contacted this company because we've had firsthand experience with Heather attending a show

So in Chicago, we reached out to them.

They're willing to support nonprofit.

We did have to pay to bring them in, but all the tips they make that night for playing the songs comes back to the foundation.

So it's kind of cool.

So if you request a song, so let's say I want to hear sweet Caroline, I'll give them 20 bucks, but you want to hear sweet Alabama, you're going to give them 40.

They're going to play your song first, but they'll eventually get to my song.

But all the tips they make that night come back to the foundation to

our special program that we have called the Patient Project Fund.

And I can talk a little bit more about that fund.

Yes, I think it's going to be, you know, it's fun.

I think it's going to be good music, but it's also going to be funny too,

isn't it?

It's going to be funny.

It's going to be entertaining.

It's just something different to do in Richland Center on a Friday night, September 21st at the Willows.

Four great food vendors will be there.

We have RC tacos.

We have utter brothers, all local cooks kitchen will be there and beef producers.

So a variety of different types of foods.

There'll be drinks and games.

Again, just a great.

time and raffles.

Some great raffles in 50-50.

It's a really way to come out and support the foundation and learn about us and meet our board of directors.

But yeah, the entertainment is, I'm super excited about it.

I think it's going to be a great evening.

And you get to check out the willows if you've never been out there to see what kind of event space they have.

They have been very generous to us in helping us put on this program and putting it together.

Shelly Maxwell and her family have really stepped up to help support this event.

that we're doing raising funds for the foundation.

Do people need tickets in advance in

Angie?

So they can get tickets in advance.

They can get them online through the hospital website, or they can get them the day of.

It's $20 in advance, $20 at the door.

But yes,

you need $20 ticket to get in, but that helps support, pay for.

The pianos that we have coming in to perform helps some of that overhead cost.

We do have to ensure the event.

We have to rent the event facility, but again,

at a very low rate that they're giving us to help support the foundation.

Foundation does a lot, a lot of things behind the scenes.

Could you talk about maybe some recent successes for the group?

Yeah, so recently we, and I think I talked about earlier, the foundation purchased, agreed to purchase $244,000 worth of equipment for our eye clinic.

Now,

Was that going to happen?

At some point, yes, the hospital was going to do it, but they could do it quicker because they had the foundation and the community support.

Just so I think you and I both have probably had issues.

I know I have tried to get an eye appointment locally.

I've had to go to Hillsborough, and now I can do it right in our own facility because the foundation, through the donors, were able to purchase this eye equipment.

We just had our golf event.

We just wrapped up a very successful golf event in spring green.

And those proceeds will help pay off the rest of the balance that we owe on that equipment.

The equipment is installed.

We have doctors using it.

We have our new doctor coming in next month, starting to take appointments.

but we have a final bill that we need to pay on that.

We were able to raise those funds through the Gulf event.

The Gulf event that we had is one of our biggest fundraisers.

I'm hoping how let the moon will be even bigger, but we were able to sell out the event.

We had it originally scheduled in June and then we were rained out.

So I had to pivot very quickly and in my career that was something that I hadn't had to deal with before, but

through the help of my board, through the help of the golf course, we rescheduled to July 30th, so which was just a couple weeks ago.

Very successful.

Max amount of teams is 36.

We had 34 teams, businesses, local businesses, vendors, really supporting the cause and helping us support to purchase that eye equipment for the hospital and clinics.

I think a lot of people think, well, I pay my bill, you know, or my insurance pays my bill.

I don't think we think about

other things that maybe, you know, don't get caught up with as far as, uh, you know, money going to the hospital.

Yeah.

You know, so you walk in, you pick your bill, you think, well, I should just have all these services.

It pays for the basics, but it doesn't pay for the extras.

Some of the extras are.

through community donation scholarships.

This year, we wrote a little over $50,000 in checks to community members, not just hospital employees, received funds to help further their education and health care.

Those are our future people that's going to take care of you and I.

If we didn't have a foundation, I don't know if there would be a scholarship because there's only so much staff.

There's only so much money to go around.

And it's through community donations, we can do scholarships.

The Howl at the Moon event, we're raising funds for our patient project program.

Our patient project program has just skyrocketed.

And that's an extra amenity that we're able to provide patients that normally wouldn't be there.

That doesn't.

get covered by your bill.

We have patients that come in that maybe need a little extra support.

Let's say, for example, they have to have their clothes cut off for whatever reason for a medical procedure.

Sometimes patients come in and they don't have clothes to go home in and we just cut them off.

And so we've got staff scrambling, bringing home t-shirts and pants from, you know, their rummage sale.

But that's where the foundation stepped in.

That's where the faculty, the employees came to us and said, hey, we donate to the foundation.

We have a need for our patients.

And so we created the patient project program.

So we purchased brand new clothing, brand new t-shirts, brand new sweatpants, that if patients have a need for clothes, we want them to leave our facility with dignity.

And that's what the patient project program helps fund, which we're raising funds for next Friday at the Willows.

We have another package we give to families who, unfortunately, if their loved one has to get emergency transported out of our facility, we have a care package for the family just to get them over the hump, toothpaste, toothbrush, just some toiletry kits.

to get them if they're going to Madison or La Crosse or whatever you have you.

And then finally in that package, we have a sympathy package for, unfortunately, their loved ones that pass away at our facility.

We show that extra support.

There's a card from the care team, a pin and a poem about their loved one and some basic information and that stuff.

wouldn't be there if we didn't have donor support, if we didn't have our foundation.

That's the extra services that we're able to provide.

Really cool story.

At the end of December last year, I had our hospitalist come to me and have a patient that had been coming back often and having to be hospitalized.

And they found out that he kept getting frostbite on his feet.

Well, he didn't have dry boots for the winter time, and he worked an outside job.

And he came to us, this physician said, would the foundation support us buying this individual a new pair of boots and socks so that he doesn't get frostbite?

And we said, absolutely.

So we pulled that from the patient project fund through donor support, through employee support.

And we're able to buy that patient a brand new pair of boots and socks.

He had a size 14 shoe.

So we had to shop locally at Mr. G's and get that for him.

But that's the type of stuff, the extra work that we can do to help support patients.

And that feels good.

that feels good that we can do that.

We're a small hospital, critical access hospital, locally owned.

We're not part of any facility as far as like Amplify or Gunderson, which is now Amplify SSM Health, UW Health.

We are an independent hospital.

And the only way we stay that way is if we keep, be able to have community support, to have patient support is by attending and donating to the foundation so that we can

stay critical access, stay independently owned.

Patients don't feel like they're a number when you have those kind of amenities.

No, absolutely not.

And we're always open to new things, how we can support the patients, new programming, super cool thing.

I just had a board meeting this morning and I always start the month out with a win.

What is something that made me feel good in my job because of the donations that we received because of the community support?

We have some staff members that were CNAs, certified nursing assistants, and we have a need in our facility with these new doctors.

We need more MAs, medical assistants.

So the foundation stepped in and supported these staff members to get that higher degree to get them into their MA certification.

So we just paid out a little over $1,600 last month to two staff members to help them get a higher certification so that they can support our patients and support their need.

And if you think about it, if we didn't support our staff members, you as a patient coming in, we may have a brand new eye doctor, but we don't have

somebody to help support him.

So we can't schedule as many patients.

We're promoting within, we're supporting within, and that all happens through donor dollars and through the foundation's work.

We're very fortunate because, you know, it's bad enough to have to go to lacrosse or Madison for health care, but it's nice to have it right here in our backyard.

So it's important to support the effort, I think.

Yeah.

The work I do every day is so rewarding.

I mean, I am excited to wake up every day.

Um, I'm just finished four years in my position and the amount of growth our foundation has had through community support, through community donors, through foundation.

Um, and we're always, we're always looking for that extra program that we can do to support you.

If I have a donor that came in my office and said, Hey Angie, let's do X, Y and Z.

We're going to do it.

We're going to do our best to do it, and we're going to figure out how to do it because it only betters us as a community hospital.

So I know the focus is on the event at the Willows, but what's up next after that?

What's coming up in the fall for the foundation?

So we have an event called Healthcare Here, and that is an event that I'm working with your past counterpart, Ron Frute, where we are working on some testimonials from patients that

and one is a scholarship recipient who received a scholarship from us and she's going to talk about, her name is Julia Smith, she's going to talk about from the time she started, got her degree and to now be a nurse in our Kramer Center.

Very cool story, another couple individuals that will be giving stories about their healthcare journey.

at our October event called healthcare here.

And I am putting it out there if anybody would like to attend that event.

It is a philanthropy event.

We're asking donors to come and listen to these stories and then think about pledging for at least three years to help support our rural healthcare.

But these three individuals, Ron has interviewed them already.

He's putting together this great package.

It's October 15th at the White House.

are interested.

I'm happy to send them an invitation and have them hear the stories.

It comes with a dinner.

Um, and then that event again is going to help support our continuing work and it doesn't happen.

And I want community members to hear the stories from the patients that we served that how there it's been life changing for them.

Our small little hospital is, you know, has people walking that they said would never walk again.

And people saying that, you know, they may never even be alive or off a ventilator and they're here because of,

our rehab department, our physicians.

So it's a pretty cool story that's coming out there.

We have another individual who does works out of our rural health care.

clinics, you know, we have one in springery in a Muscatay.

And he's a farmer and he's going to talk about, you know, how important it is for him to have that rural health care so close to him in the Muscatay area.

So great testimonials coming up.

I would love individuals to attend and listen to the stories.

And so again, if people are invited, give me a call at the hospital, you know, my extension is 2285.

And I'd love to invite you to that.

And then finally, we have our annual end of the year appeal.

And that's where we send a letter out.

So if you attend my health care here event in October, you won't get a letter because hopefully you've already pledged to us.

But we have an end of the year appeal where we're going to be asking donors, community members to donate to keep these programs going, to keep the ideas flowing, to keep us doing scholarships.

keep us our equipment, fund going and our patient project fund going.

And that letter will go and every dollar helps.

I have a little person that comes into my office, a little lady actually, she gives me $5 every year, warms my heart.

love her because you know what combined it makes a huge difference.

I know there's a lot of not other nonprofits out there but we're just asking for a little small piece of the pie to help keep our community hospital running and our foundation doing the work that we're doing.

Foundation down the road, uh, I know a lot of talk about a new facility someday.

Uh, that's something that the foundation would be a part of too.

Absolutely.

We'll be running the capital campaign for that.

Um, we're going to be charged with raising millions of dollars, um, for that.

And so we're hopefully setting up now the relationships, um, setting up people thinking about, Hey, if they want a piece of the action of that new hospital,

We just had a discussion not too long ago about naming rights.

We're far off from that, but I think it's always worth talking about because you never know.

pretty soon I'm afraid they're going to pull the plug and say, all right, Angie, we're going to be building this hospital in three years.

We need a million dollars from the foundation to make it happen.

So yes, it's happening, but it's not going to happen without community support.

And there's some really cool things, ways that the community can support it.

So even if listeners now are thinking, you know what, I might want to support that down the road, contact me.

There's ways to do it.

So it's tax free for you.

There's different ways of legacy giving.

Um, individuals, if you're over 70 and a half, you can pull out of your IRA if you don't need it and you don't have to pay the income tax on it.

If you donate it to the hospital foundation, um, we're completely a hundred percent nonprofit.

You can write off everything that you give to us.

Sounds good.

And, uh, if somebody's listening and saying, well, maybe I don't have that much of my pocket book, but I can give them my time.

How can they be a part of the foundation?

So we have board positions constantly open.

Volunteerism, the amount of volunteerism, I wish I could put a price tag on that.

It would surpass, I think, maybe what we have already invested because the amount of volunteer hours that our board puts on.

So if you go to the hospital website, you'll see a number of...

foundation board members, maybe reach out to them.

You can say, oh, I know Cindy Chicker or I know Dr. Bob Smith.

Talk to them, find out, call me at the hospital and find out how you can be a board member.

We have community events like our event that we're running at the Willows.

We could use community support to help with certain things on that.

So if you're willing to, maybe you don't have time to sit on a board, but you want to sit on a committee, I have committees for you can put you on.

There's even a fundraising committee, so.

Great.

That's a busy week next week for the foundation free ice cream on Monday and then the dueling pianos at the willows.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fundraising for a patient project for a program.

The foundation's here and we're just here to support the community and the needs that they have health wise.

Wonderful.

Always good to see Angie.

You

too.

Thank you, Phil.

You bet.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you.

Angie Coonan foundation director with the Richland hospital on this portion of the morning show.

you

Next up in our morning show, get together.

Angie Kuhnen is here, foundation director for the Richland Hospital.

They have a lot of cool things coming up here.

Good morning, Angie.

Good morning, Phil.

Thank you for having us.

Wonderful to have you.

You have, first of all, some good days that you've got, maybe kind of building awareness and then giving back to the community as well.

What's coming up on Monday?

So Monday is actually non-profit day.

And so to celebrate that, the Richland Hospital Foundation, we have put together a free

Ice Cream Social.

And it's to celebrate non-profit day.

So we are going to have a vintage ice cream truck stationed in the hospital parking lot.

And it's sponsored by the folks at Sleepy Hollow in Verroqua.

They have this vintage truck and it's free ice cream.

Ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones to celebrate national nonprofit day.

Now we will have a jar out for a donation.

We will accept donations and all the donations that we get for national nonprofit day through our ice cream social will come right back to the Richland Hospital Foundation.

So it all stays local, helps us with our local programming, our local services.

It's really a day to celebrate nonprofit day.

And we invite the community to come between 11 and one o'clock in the hospital parking lot, get some free ice cream, see a few foundation board members, see myself.

And just thank you for supporting all the work that you've done.

our community does to support all the nonprofits.

You know, there's other nonprofits before the hospital, besides the hospital, but we want to celebrate National Nonprofit Day with this ice cream social.

And again, all proceeds that we get from donations for the social stay right here in our community.

Nothing like summertime ice cream socials, right?

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

And thank you to the sponsor, you know, out in Baroque with their Sleepy Halla for doing this.

And it's a neat little truck that comes in and just some great people offering free ice cream.

And it's just a great way to, you know, have some stewardship and really give back to our donors in our community that has supported us year after year.

The next big thing is coming up.

I believe you talked about it the last time you were here, but the Howl at the Moon

event.

Yeah.

So this is a super big event we're super excited about.

So it's Howl at the Moon at the Willows here in Richland Center.

So it's closer to Ithaca.

The Willows, if you're not aware, is a new event space.

They do Airbnb's, but they created a barn that they turned into of this beautiful event space that we are going to bring in dueling pianos.

So I brought in a dueling piano group out of Chicago.

So there'll be two pianos, a drummer, they put on a performance.

So from five to 10, the doors will be open at the Willows.

So if you've never been there, come check it out.

We'll have food trucks there.

Four food trucks are coming in to help support the event.

We have sponsors that are there supporting the event, but it's gonna be a really cool fun time.

From five to seven, come and eat dinner there.

It's a $20 ticket to get in.

And then from seven to 10, it is non-stop entertainment.

We have raffles, we have games, and again, raising all funds for the Richland Hospital Foundation.

How did you choose this dueling piano group?

So I belong to a consortium where there's a bunch of foundation directors that get together on a quarterly basis and we meet in SOC.

And we talk about fundraising techniques and what each small critical access hospital foundations are doing to bring in funding for their facility.

And somebody mentioned dueling pianos.

And I thought, wow, that sounded really fun.

And then Heather Tomi, who sits on our board, had heard of this dueling piano group.

We have an events committee that thinks about ways to fundraise.

So we contacted this company because we've had firsthand experience with Heather attending a show

in Chicago, we reached out to them.

They're willing to support non-profit.

We did have to pay to bring them in, but all the tips they make that night for playing the songs comes back to the foundation.

So it's kind of cool.

So if you request a song, so let's say I want to hear Sweet Caroline, I'll give them 20 bucks, but you want to hear Sweet Alabama, you're gonna give them 40.

They're gonna play your song first, but they'll eventually get to my song.

But all the tips they make that night come back to the foundation to support

our special program that we have called the Patient Project Fund.

And I can talk a little bit more about that fund.

Yes, I think it's going to be, you know, it's fun.

I think it's going to be good music, but it's also going to be funny too, isn't

it?

It's going to be funny.

It's going to be entertaining.

It's just something different to do in Richland Center on a Friday night, September 21st at the Willows.

Four great food vendors will be there.

We have RC tacos.

We have utter brothers, all local cooks kitchen will be there and beef producers.

So a variety of different types of foods.

There'll be drinks and games.

Again, just a great.

time and raffles, some great raffles in 50-50.

And it's a really way to come out and support the foundation and learn about us and meet our board of directors.

But yeah, the entertainment is, I'm super excited about it.

I think it's gonna be a great evening.

And you get to check out the Willows if you've never been out there to see what kind of event space they have.

They have been very generous to us in helping us put on this program and putting it together.

Shelly Maxwell and her family have really stepped up to help support this event

that we're doing raising funds for the foundation.

Do people need tickets in advance in

Angie?

So they can get tickets in advance.

They can get them online through the hospital website, or they can get them the day of.

It's $20 in advance, $20 at the door.

But

yes,

you need $20 ticket to get in, but that helps support, pay for.

The pianos that we have coming in to perform helps some of that overhead cost.

We do have to ensure the event.

We have to rent the event facility, but again,

at a very low rate that they're giving us to help support the foundation.

Foundation does a lot, a lot of things behind the scenes.

Could you talk about maybe some recent successes for the group?

Yeah, so recently we, and I think I talked about earlier, the foundation purchased, agreed to purchase $244,000 worth of equipment for our eye clinic.

Was that going to happen?

At some point, yes, the hospital was going to do it, but they could do it quicker because they had the foundation and the community support.

Just so I think you and I both have probably had issues.

I know I have tried to get an eye appointment locally.

I've had to go to Hillsborough, and now I can do it right in our own facility because the foundation through the donors were able to purchase this eye equipment.

We just had our golf event.

We just wrapped up a very successful golf event in spring green.

And those proceeds will help pay off the rest of the balance that we owe on that equipment.

The equipment is installed.

We have doctors using it.

We have our new doctor coming in next month.

starting to take appointments, but we have a final bill that we need to pay on that.

We were able to raise those funds through the Gulf event.

The Gulf event that we had is one of our biggest fundraisers.

I'm hoping how let the moon will be even bigger, but we were able to sell out the event.

We had it originally scheduled in June and then we were rained out.

So I had to pivot very quickly and in my career that was something that I hadn't had to deal with before, but

through the help of my board, through the help of the golf course, we rescheduled to July 30th, so which was just a couple weeks ago.

Very successful.

Max amount of teams is 36.

We had 34 teams.

Businesses, local businesses, vendors, really supporting the cause and helping us support to purchase that eye equipment for the hospital and clinics.

I think a lot of people think, well, I pay my bill, you know, or my insurance pays my bill.

I don't think we think about

other things that maybe, you know, don't get caught up with as far as, uh, you know, money going to the hospital,

right?

Yeah.

You know, so you walk in, you pick your bill, you think, well, I should just have all these services.

It pays for the basics, but it doesn't pay for the extras.

Some of the extras are through community donation scholarships.

This year we wrote a little over $50,000 in checks.

Two community members, not just hospital employees, received funds to help further their education and health care.

Those are our future people that's gonna take care of UNI.

And if we didn't have a foundation, I don't know if there would be a scholarship because there's only so much staff, there's only so much money to go around.

And it's through community donations we can do scholarships.

The Howl at the Moon event, we're raising funds for our patient project program.

Our patient project program has just skyrocketed.

And that's an extra amenity that we're able to provide patients that normally wouldn't be there.

That doesn't get covered by your bill.

We have patients that come in that maybe need a little extra support.

Let's say, for example, they have to have their clothes cut off for whatever reason for medical

procedure.

Sometimes patients come in, they don't have clothes to go home in, and we just cut them off.

And so we've got staff scrambling, bringing home t-shirts and pants from, you know, their rummage sale.

But that's where the foundation stepped in.

That's where the faculty, the employees came to us and said, hey, we donate to the foundation.

We have a need for our patients.

And so we created the patient project program.

So we purchased brand new clothing, brand new t-shirts, brand new sweatpants, that if patients have a need for clothes, we want them to leave our facility with dignity.

And that's what the patient project program helps fund, which we're raising funds for next Friday at the Willows.

We have another package we give to families who, unfortunately, if their loved one has to get emergency transported out of our facility, we have a care package for the family just to get them over the hump, toothpaste, toothbrush, just some toiletry kits.

to get them if they're going to Madison or La Crosse or whatever you have you.

And then finally in that package, we have a sympathy package for, unfortunately, their loved ones that pass away at our facility.

We show that extra support.

There's a card from the care team, a pin and a poem about their loved one and some basic information and that stuff.

wouldn't be there if we didn't have donor support, if we didn't have our foundation.

That's the extra services that we're able to provide.

Really cool story.

At the end of December last year, I had our hospitalist come to me and have a patient that had been coming back often and having to be hospitalized.

And they found out that he kept getting frostbite on his feet.

Well, he didn't have dry boots for the winter time, and he worked an outside job.

And he came to us, this physician said, would the foundation support us buying this individual a new pair of boots and socks?

um, so that he doesn't get frostbite.

And we said, absolutely.

So we pulled that from the patient project fund through donor support, through employee support, and we're able to buy that patient a brand new pair of boots and socks.

He had a size 14 shoe.

So we had to, you know, shop locally at Mr. G's and get that for him.

Um, but that's the type of stuff, the extra work that we can do to help support patients.

And that feels good.

That feels good that we can do that.

We're a small hospital, critical access hospital, locally owned.

We're not part of any facility as far as like Amplify or Gunderson, which is now Amplify SSM Health, UW Health.

We are an independent hospital.

And the only way we stay that way is if we keep

be able to have community support, to have patient support is by attending and donating to the foundation so that we can stay critical access, stay independently owned.

Patients don't feel like they're a number when you have those kind of amenities.

I know absolutely not and we're always open to new things how we can support the patients New programming a super cool thing.

I just had a board meeting this morning And I always start the month out with a win.

What is something that made me feel good in my job?

Because of the donations that we received because of the community support

We have some staff members that were CNAs, certified nursing assistants, and we have a need in our facility with these new doctors.

We need more MAs, medical assistants.

So the foundation stepped in and supported these staff members to get that higher degree to get them into their MA certification.

So we just paid out a little over $1,600 last month to two staff members to help them get a higher certification.

so that they can support our patients and support their need.

And if you think about it, if we didn't support our staff members, you as a patient coming in, we may have a brand new eye doctor, but we don't have somebody to help support him.

So we can't schedule as many patients.

We're promoting with him, we're supporting with him, and that all happens through donor dollars and through the foundation's work.

I'm very fortunate because, uh, you know, it's bad enough to have to go to lacrosse or Madison for, uh, healthcare, but, uh, it's, it's nice to have it right here in our backyard.

And, uh, so it's important to support the effort.

Yeah.

The work I do every day is so rewarding.

I mean, I, I'm excited to wake up every day.

Um, I'm just finished four years in my position.

and the amount of growth our foundation has had through community support, through community donors, through foundation.

And we're always looking for that extra program that we can do to support you.

If I have a donor that came in my office and said, hey Angie, let's do X, Y, and Z, we're gonna do it.

We're gonna do our best to do it and we're gonna figure out how to do it because it only betters us as a community hospital.

So I know the focus is on the event at the Willows, but what's up next after that?

What's coming up in the fall for the foundation?

So we have an event called healthcare here and that is an event that I'm working with your past counterpart Ron fruit where we are working on some testimonials from patients that

And one is a scholarship recipient who received a scholarship from us and she's going to talk about, her name is Julia Smith, she's going to talk about from the time she started, got her degree and to now be a nurse in our Kramer Center.

Very cool story, another couple individuals that will be giving stories about their healthcare journey.

at our October event called healthcare here.

And I am putting it out there if anybody would like to attend that event.

It is a philanthropy event.

We're asking donors to come and listen to these stories and then think about pledging for at least three years to help support our rural healthcare.

But these three individuals, Ron has interviewed them already.

He's putting together this great package.

It's October 15th at the White House, but if people

are interested.

I'm happy to send them an invitation and have them hear the stories.

It comes with a dinner.

And then that event again is going to help support our continuing work and it doesn't happen and I want community members to hear the stories from the patients that we served that how there it's been life-changing for them our small little hospital is You know has people walking that they said would never walk again and people saying that you know They may never even be alive or off a ventilator and they're here because of

our rehab department, our physicians.

So it's a pretty cool story that's coming out there.

We have another individual who does works out of our rural health care.

clinics, you know, we have one in springery in a Muscatay.

And he's a farmer and he's going to talk about, you know, how important it is for him to have that rural health care so close to him in the Muscatay area.

So great testimonials coming up.

I would love individuals to attend and listen to the stories.

And so again, if people are invited, give me a call at the hospital.

You know, my extension is 2285.

And I'd love to invite you to that.

And then finally, we have our annual end of the year appeal.

And that's where we send a letter out.

So if you attend my health care here event in October, you won't get a letter because hopefully you've already pledged to us.

Um, but we have an end of the year appeal where we're going to be asking donors, um, community members to donate, to keep these programs going, to keep the, the ideas flowing, to keep us doing scholarships, to keep us, uh, equipment, fund going and, uh, our patient project fund going and that letter will go and every dollar helps.

I have a little person.

and that comes into my office, the little lady actually, she gives me $5 every year, warms my heart, love her.

Because you know what, combined, it makes a huge difference.

I know there's a lot of other nonprofits out there.

But we're just asking for a little small piece of the pie to help keep our community hospital running and our foundation doing the work that we're doing.

Foundation down the road, I know a lot of talk about a new facility someday.

That's something that the foundation would be a part of too,

right?

Absolutely.

We'll be running the capital campaign for that.

We're going to be charged with raising millions of dollars for that.

And so we're hopefully setting up now the relationships

Um, setting up people thinking about, Hey, if they want a piece of the action of that new hospital, um, we just had a discussion not too long ago about naming rights.

We're, we're far off from that, but I think it's always worth talking about cause you never know.

pretty soon I'm afraid they're going to pull the plug and say, all right, Angie, we're going to be building this hospital in three years.

We need X amount, a million dollars from the foundation to make it happen.

So yes, it's happening, but it's not going to happen without community support.

And there's some really cool things, ways that the community can support it.

So even if listeners now are thinking, you know what, I might want to support that down the road, contact me.

There's ways to do it.

So it's tax free for you.

Um, there's different ways of legacy giving, um, individuals.

If you're over 70 and a half, you can pull out of your IRA if you don't need it and you don't have to pay the income tax on it.

If you don't need it to the hospital foundation, um, we're completely a hundred percent nonprofit.

You can write off everything that you give to us.