you
Here's our day on the morning show to highlight Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination as we do each month.
Joining us in the studio is new President Joanne Kruelotz, also Vice President Alan Kaszupski will join us in a bit, and Lee Carlson, Secretary of Grace for the coming year.
Well, Joanne, I don't know if it's congratulations or, you know, maybe, why did you do this?
What's
going on?
Just another hat.
It's, you know,
When I get involved in something I get involved in it wholeheartedly.
I There's a two-letter word people keep telling me about you know, but I forget how to spell it and how to say it.
I think it's no
Yeah, yeah, there you go.
But anyway, well congratulations on that.
It sounds like Eileen Stevens is going to be stepping down.
Yeah, we had a really busy week last week on Tuesday.
We had our monthly board meeting and it was time to
There were three directors whose three-year term had ended, Pat Meyers, Monica Ernesey, and Eileen Stevens.
And we re-elected Pat and Monica to another three-year term.
But Eileen announced that she was stepping down.
She's taken a break for a while.
So we have three vacant seats as of today.
We have some feelers out there, but I mean, if anybody would like to serve on our board of directors, let us know, you know, we've always got room.
No doubt.
Well, you've been really busy lately.
You had the annual meeting last week.
How did that go?
It went real well.
Um, you know, I promise people that they'd be in and out in time to get home to watch the brewers and I.
made good on that promise, and people seem to be happy about that.
But it was well attended, and unfortunately, because we invited UW-Carbone to get their check, and Gunderson.
But unfortunately, John from UW-Carbone was under the weather, so it was only Dr. Kinney from Gunderson was there to accept their check.
And then a representative from Bosqueville came to talk about the things that they've bought with money they've gotten from us.
It's a chest or chest, I think it's called.
And it helps people train to put in the needles and stuff for ports that cancer patients have for their chemo so that they're not practicing on each other.
They can practice on this chest.
So that was interesting too.
Good to see where the money goes.
Yes,
it is
times and what you use it for.
Right.
Right.
And recently Grace was honored in La Crosse.
Tell me, tell me about
that.
That was where we were on Wednesday night.
A few of us went and it was called Greatfully Gunderson at the Capella Center in La Crosse and it's the Gunderson Foundation does a recognition event and Grace was
honored with the Outstanding Philanthropic Organization Award.
And that award was created to honor organizations that exemplify extraordinary commitment to creating positive change through generous financial contributions and visionary leadership.
And so since Grace has given them, over the last 20 plus years, a million dollars, they recognized us this year.
That's great.
So what were some of the things they did or talked about?
It was it was kind of interesting while they had Anor Dervs and stuff beforehand, but there was actually three awards they gave out the Founders Award and then our award and the Chairman's Award and They did a video of each Group that was getting so they had been in Richland Center last summer
this past summer and interviewed myself and Rob Brinish and Eileen and so they showed that and it was really kind of brought tears to my eyes because these people that you know it took us 20 years to donate a million dollars and you got these couples that are donating a million dollars a year you know but they were congratulating us and saying what a great job we're doing and
We all said, no matter who we talk to, it's not us.
It's this whole community that does it.
And we met a guy from Cashton who works with Gunderson on their fundraising and he wants to get to know and see what we do because he's excited about what we do.
So, you know, this little community of Richland County is being noticed.
Right.
Well, it'd be nice to see it happen in some other communities, but again,
I don't know if it would work somewhere else.
Well, what I found interesting is when we started this, there was still a lot of relay for life through ACS.
But it was kind of hard to hear him because there was a lot of talking and everything.
But I caught the fact that he said when he tried to connect with other relay for lives, he only found one in existence in the state anymore.
So
I don't know if I heard him right or not, but I thought that was interesting.
He said, Prairie to Sheen and, and some of the other areas have gone to their similar to what we've done.
Oh, okay.
Leif Carlson, it's here.
Leif, you were in attendance in La Crosse too.
What was your take of that?
Well, I thought we were just surrounded by really, really wonderful people that you could tell that the people there were donors, scientists.
Just all sorts of really, really interesting people and generous people.
It made me feel good to be part of that.
I'm sure.
And then just to, to, to be honored, you don't do it for that, but it's, it is nice to be recognized from somewhere other than right here in Richland center.
Yeah, it sure felt good.
Absolutely.
Good.
Well, you're always here to talk about prevention.
And since it is the month of October, what are you keying on this monthly?
Yep.
So October is
breast cancer awareness month.
And so you've been seeing lots of NFL teams, baseball teams, basketball teams, people wearing pink.
And that's for breast cancer awareness.
I know a lot of teams of volleyball teams do like bucket raffles and, you know, they swing through the crowd.
So it brings awareness.
That is for sure.
Yep.
In fact, I want to thank Weston school.
They had a pink out night recently with donations to grace from that.
That is awesome.
So you have some notes on breast cancer this month?
Absolutely.
So, um, each year, uh, currently we, in the U S we get about 316,000 cases of breast cancer in women, 316,000.
It's a huge number.
Uh, women are at risk of one in eight women, uh, developing breast cancer in their lifetime.
one out of eight.
So you can imagine in a town like Richland Center, it's a lot of women who are at risk.
And of those who get breast cancer, then about one in 43 women will die from it.
So it's a deadly disease.
It's like anything though, early prevention is the key, isn't it?
Absolutely.
There are some risks that are unavoidable and those are the gene changes that occur in the breast.
and then they become cancer.
90% of those gene changes just can happen by bad luck, but 10% of those are also inherited gene changes.
And those ones, especially if you have breast cancer in your family, you should be talking to your doctor about the extra risks that you may have.
For example, if someone in your family gets breast cancer before the age of 30, then in that family, you have triple the risk for yourself of you ordinarily would have.
So that's some of the things that we can't avoid.
But to lower risk, there are some things that all of us can be doing.
One is to get to a healthy weight and stay there.
be physically active, that's been shown to reduce the risk, avoiding or limiting alcohol, avoiding smoking, and breastfeeding actually may also lower risk.
So women who give birth, if you begin breastfeeding, you can lower
your risk that way.
I recently had guests on from the Richland Hospital and they have some special events going on during October.
I know they have like walk-in Thursdays where women can come in and get checked and get their yearly mammogram.
But they're trying to make it more of a casual thing, more of a light-hearted thing, I
guess.
And those mammograms and those checkups and screenings are really, really vital.
We've got good news on breast cancer in that there is 40% less mortality now than in the past, and that's due to improved treatment and early screenings.
And then as far as getting those screenings, the mammogram, they recommend certainly by 40 years old that you should be getting your yearly mammogram.
And even with all of that, you know, fun stuff like the hospital doing and making it nice, still one in four women in the U S are not up to date on screenings.
And so we three out of four are, and that's helped reduce that mortality by 40%.
But we're still, we still got to get that final 25%.
And it would be really great in Richland County in this area.
If we could get that up to zero in four women.
Not up to date.
So if you're listening and you haven't had your screening, I suggest you contact the hospital and
get an appointment.
You'll be bringing us notes on prevention all year.
And I know that that's kind of your thing.
You'd like to see some help.
Um, if somebody would be interested in joining the committee leaf, what should they do?
Absolutely.
Uh, so we're going to have our first, uh, prevention committee meeting will be on Tuesday, November 17th, and that's going to be at seven PM.
Um, and
If people in the community want to be part of that committee, right now we have four of the board members on it, but we could use some expertise in cancer.
We could use some people who just want to, you know, get up and get, roll up their slaves and get to work.
Uh, we could use some creative people with new ideas, uh, things that you think that we could do in our community to help, uh, increase awareness of cancer and how to prevent it.
Then.
I would like to see you on our committee would be really great.
So again, it's November 17, 7pm.
That'll be at the grace office.
And if you want to get involved with that, please call the grace phone number.
It's 604-8255.
Again, it's 604-8255.
Just leave a message that you want to be part of the prevention committee and then they'll get hold of me through that.
Okay.
We hope they
do.
Alan Kuchupski
is here as well.
Hey, Alan, how you doing?
Good morning, Phil.
Good to be back on the morning show.
Good to see you.
Yeah.
You're back here to talk a little bit about race for grace, which it's not too early to start talking about it.
Is it?
Absolutely not.
Yeah.
We are ready.
We've, we started our planning meetings already.
Um, we just had our second, second meeting earlier this week and, uh, yeah, we're ready to roll.
So what we'd want to do is we want to see people, uh, May 8th, um,
is going to be the next race next year.
And it's going to be at the Richland Center High School track again.
So thank you very much to the Richland School Districts for being so generous, so cooperative with us and going to have a great event again.
I think you found out that it worked out pretty well at the high school last year, didn't it?
We did, yes.
So it was a bit of a, you know,
We weren't expecting to go there, but it all, all the pieces, you know, fell into place and it worked out wonderfully.
Um, there's definitely a few things we want to tweak, but overall it seemed very successful.
Well, it'll be the same format than the same, uh, walks and races that you've had in the past.
Yes, it will.
And I guess an important thing for people to hear is like, Oh, it's on the track.
Does that mean I'm going to be doing laps for like a 5k?
No, and it does not.
We don't want people getting dizzy and falling over.
right?
So all the races will start on the track and all will finish, but you're going to leave the track in between.
But we're doing the same events.
Again, we're doing the quarter mile kids run.
We're doing the one mile walk or run.
We're doing the 5k walk or run and the 3.5 mile trail walk or run.
So I guess the biggest thing for people to hear is like, Oh, it's a 5k.
Like I'm not a runner.
Like, you know, don't talk to me.
Well, that's not what this is about.
This is a grace event.
This is to get people motivated to get active.
Like leaf was talking about earlier, you know, activity, um, getting that heart rate up.
Yes, it helps prevent, um, or, or for breast cancer, but it's not just breast cancer.
It's, it's.
Probably every cancer that it helps with it when people getting more active either to prevent you getting it or help you in your battle with it
You're gonna have the trail run again up into the the boondocks.
We are we are so yes and and kudos to Lee for coming up with that trail run He did a fabulous job Working working with
Simons and the city to make sure the trail was clear.
Um, and he had the special treat out there.
We had, you know, our group of drummers for the little surprise for the people that did make it up the big hill and into the woods.
Um, so yeah, it was, it was really special.
And you had a band playing somewhere along the route, not that race, but there was another race.
We
told me about that.
They're like, there was this band playing
over there.
And again, kudos to leaf and his connections.
We did.
We, we had
a band out there and Leif, do you want to talk about that more?
Who did it and what instruments?
I don't even know what was there.
I play in the band.
And I would call it like a Jewish wedding band.
So, Klesmer music, lots of old-timey music.
We've got saxophone, violin, accordion, bass, drummer, guitar player, and keyboard.
So it's
a no Metallica, but it's good.
Just really, really fun, upbeat dance music, some classics.
And you know, a lot of people probably know the song Havana Gila stuff like that.
I know that one.
But that's really cool because I heard people say, well, we were that kind of motivated us to to get in that second wind that little bit.
Yeah.
And and it was just about perfect.
Right.
That band was at the halfway point for the five K. So it was it worked out really good, I think.
Wonderful.
So when can people start signing up?
That'll be the next question.
Yes.
You can actually go out to the website right now.
So go to walkwithgrace.com and right at the top of the page, you'll see a button that says, um, learn more about the race and click on that.
And it'll take you to, uh, get all the information and, and where to register.
You're currently meeting then.
What's the discussion about just kind of the, the, the planning stages and what's going to be in the swag bag and things like that.
Yes, um, all of the above.
Um, so there's so much, there's so many little details that, that have to happen for a big event like this for it to be successful.
So it takes a lot of planning.
So, uh, kudo to our race committee members, um, for helping out there and just figuring out details like what color will the T shirt be?
Right?
That's always a good question.
And there's, you know, some debate over that, maybe a little bribery or something, but yeah.
All kinds of little things to work out and we meet once a month and we get it all to come together.
But yeah, it's definitely a lot of work.
We said at the outset that you're newly elected vice president of grace.
Congratulations on that honor.
I guess it's an honor,
right?
Absolutely.
I just want to say it was a clean, clean running event.
We kept it positive.
There was no, um, you know, dirty political ads or anything like that.
So yeah, it was great.
Well, that's
good.
I mean, you've been involved in the past.
Why do you choose to be involved?
And what, you know, why did you step up to the service position?
Oh, that's a great question.
Um, and it's, it's an easy one to answer.
Um, since I've been involved with grace probably about four or five years now, um, I've developed a real passion.
for this organization.
I know I'm still like an infant, like a toddler, right, in Grace years, being our 24th year that we're going on, but the people that are on the board, the people that help out with Grace, the teams that raise money for Grace, the people that have talked with me that I've met that Grace has helped, there's just so much positivity.
around this negative thing that we call cancer.
And there's so much passion.
And if I can help continue that, to grow that, the positivity, to helping people in their time of struggle, in their time of need.
That's easy.
That's easy for me to get excited and to donate my time for that.
Well, great.
Thanks for doing that and stepping up.
And then good luck with the race for grace too.
We
hope it goes well.
We know it'll go well.
It'll go well.
It'll go well.
The
numbers were incredible last year.
Yes, they were.
And we're also doing the first responders challenge again too.
Good.
And for people that aren't aware of that.
May 8th is the date.
And even if you don't want to do one of the events, come on out just to check it out, just to observe.
Go stand up in the stands.
And the reason for that is because in that one mile event, we do the first responders challenge.
And we have teams of firefighters competing against each other.
We have teams
uh police departments competing against each other and we have teams of EMS emergency medical services competing against each other and and the firefighters and and the police officers are wearing their gear so that's that's a lot of extra weight that they're doing for that one mile.
And it is really impressive.
The common morality, the, the competitiveness between them and the, you know, they're, they're socializing before there's, there's some trash talking going on before.
Um, but wow, the, the positive energy that is there is just an amazing vibe.
It's fun to watch.
And you know, being at the high school last year, you got even a more of a bird's eye view.
If you were up in the stands.
And it's interesting because you might have some overachievers that just race all the way through, but you got to finish as a team.
So you find them waiting at the finish line for everybody else.
That kind of makes it, it's a true team thing.
Isn't
it?
Yes.
That was the catch.
It's like, you can't have one superstar.
It's like, you know, and it is a team, right?
The police officer team, the firefighters, the team, the EMS, our team.
So the rule is you have to cross the finish line as your team.
Well, we hope that any of them listening out there, any firefighters, the EMS or whatever, we hope that they get motivated for the eighth of May then as well.
Yes.
Yes.
So I'm just, just to warn you guys now, your fire departments that haven't been there yet, you'll be hearing from me soon.
You're going to try to shake the bushes again and get them going.
Yes.
Yes.
Hey, Phil.
Yes.
I do have a quiz for you if you're up for
it.
Oh my goodness.
I guess.
What's it on?
Okay.
It's on the race.
Oh, on the race.
And it has to do with the third annual race that happened earlier this May.
All right.
Go ahead.
All right.
Question number one.
And these are multiple choice.
So you, you got, you got a 25% chance on each question.
I was on the math team.
So yeah.
Okay.
I got it.
How many participants were registered for the third annual race for grace?
That's why you didn't tell me when I asked you that
question.
That's right.
Okay, go ahead.
A, 403.
B, 376.
C, 315.
Or D, 280.
Okay.
All right.
Next question.
The oldest age of a registered participant.
Okay, so this could have been for any of the events other than the kids run a 75 B 79 C 84 or D 87 And my last question How much money was raised from the third annual race for grace a 8,000
dollars be $9,000 C $10,100 or D $10,563 and 24 cents.
Okay.
I've got my numbers on my paper there.
All right.
No cheating.
I see you wrote it down.
I
didn't put my name on there.
Okay.
Got it.
Okay.
The answer to question one, go ahead.
All right.
How many participants?
315
close 376.
Wow.
That's even better though.
I don't mind getting that
one wrong.
That's a good number.
It was very good.
And it was a huge increase from the previous year.
All right.
Number two, oldest age.
I think it was 84.
You are correct.
All right.
Well
done.
I did comprehend that because I was reading the results.
So.
Yeah.
And you, you had a, a couple of people that were around
80 or at least three or four people that were in their eighties, which was just amazing.
All right.
So everyone listening, there is no excuse for you not to get active.
Right.
Okay.
You can't use age anyway.
Right.
So
number three, how much money was raised?
I said 10,100.
Not you're close, but it was the crazy number with the 24 cents 10,563 dollars and 24.
Wow.
Congratulations.
I should have known when you were
being that
specific that.
Oh, that's a great.
Well, congratulations on that success and it all is going to be.
Great this year.
I know fundraiser was already underway.
They've had, I know Rod Ritz's group had already had their team and Sandy.
Yes.
Sandy and Tom.
I knew I was, but anyway, they had their golfing.
Yes.
I think that was a big success for them again.
Yeah.
They had a great day for it.
Yeah.
So Joanne, are you privy to the numbers?
Did Marge let you in on some of the numbers for Grace?
Yeah.
We talked about our annual meeting.
that we had last week.
And so the annual reports were available.
And if anyone wants one, they'll be available at the grace office.
But our total raised was 400,561 dollars and 47 cents.
So
what's really nice is when we divide it up, we keep 58% of that for local cancer patient funding.
So, we have an additional $232,325.65 to assist cancer patients.
Research is 25% of the total $400,000, but then we divide that, which was $100,140.36, but we divide that between UW,
and Gundersen, so they each got a check last week for $50,070.05.
And the medical community is 10%, so we added another $40,056.15.
The preventative cancer education, which are programs like Leaf Runs, is 5%.
We have $20,028.07.
And then we keep 2% for operating costs because we do have phone expense.
We have postage and all that.
And so that was $8,011.23 in the operating fund.
So amazing.
I find I'm just speechless with what this community does to support their neighbors and friends and everyone with cancer.
It was proof too that, you know, at the walk, we had a really solid number.
Um, but at that time I didn't think that we'd be close to 400,000 and, uh, we made it.
We made it.
Yep.
Pretty impressive.
Yeah.
So it's
just unbelievable.
Yeah.
So the bar is set pretty high, you know, for this next year.
Um, and you know, it's probably early, but, uh, looking at maybe any kind of raffles or anything like that that might be in the coming year.
We have to discuss that as a board on what we're going to do.
I know people have already approached me wanting to know if we're going to have an ATV or a car.
And I said, that's a lot of work.
And I just look at, we didn't have it this last year.
We still raised $400,000.
Right.
So I think if people really want to donate, they're going to donate no matter what, whether it's buying a raffle ticket,
or buying a brat at a brat stand or just sending in money.
I think people just have a love for the community and for what grace is
doing.
Yeah, they see the money in action and, you know, you kind of feel helpless when someone has cancer, but this is a way that people can help.
Right.
Yeah, absolutely.
Anything else you gentlemen would like to add today, Helen?
Yeah, I just want to put a shout out to Mr. Ed Martin.
Um, as you can see, I'm wearing it this morning.
Uh, one of these special advertising t-shirts for the race for grace, um, bright pink letters.
It says, ask me about the race for grace.
And on the back, on the back is a QR code that you
can take your smartphone out and scan it and it'll take you right to the walkwithgrace.com website.
So thank you Ed for helping us get the word out about the race for grace.
One people to know that it's not Alan's 12 month calendar pictures or anything like that.
If you scan the code,
it's a safe thing to scan.
It's a legitimate thing.
Leave anything you'd like to add today.
Uh,
just that, you know, again, we're going to be doing the walk around the world with grace coming up and that will, uh, that's a way for people to, uh, practice.
positive movement and it can be walking, but it could also be swimming, bike riding, jumping, all sorts of exercises.
And we convert those into miles and we walk around the world.
And that's going to be a community event starting in January 1st.
And so if you're thinking of Christmas presents for each other, a good pair of walking shoes and some exercise clothes would be a really, really smart way to
go.
Wonderful.
Good to hear from you guys and nice to hear Grace is already planning for the 24th.
Thanks for coming in today, everyone.
That is Joanne Krulatz, our new President for Grace, Vice President Alan Kaszupski and Leif Carlson, Secretary.