And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with packed right low on 98.9 WXCO online at WXCO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app with Ian Welsh Ian.
Good morning.
Good morning,
Jen.
We will of course have more with you as we continue along the pathway here today.
But also it's the first week of the month.
And as I like to say, it's time to pay the rent and it's time to talk to Christine Daniels from The Good News Project.
Christine, always good to see you.
Good morning, sunshine.
That's how I greet my children in the morning.
Good morning,
sunshine.
And do they still appreciate it?
They do.
They do.
Fantastic.
It's always good to talk to you and talk about what's going on at The Good News Project and a whole bunch more.
And I was just saying before we went on the air this week, we've been very fortunate on Monday had a chance to
Talk to a young lady who is in Athens doing a back-to-school Drive to get awesome new notebooks and other things for needy folks in in Marathon County on Tuesday talked about special scholarship at Wasa East for a
a fallen comrade who was a student and a staff member who passed away from cancer last year and a former colleague and coach of hers starting a scholarship where there's been a lot of a lot of great response and you do it every day with a good news project and of course we always say be the good and the thing about it is we've talked a lot about what you're doing and a lot of the challenges that you've had and everything else we haven't really dealt
into the folks that are also there, that are doing the good, being the good.
And you got a few people, I think, that I wanted to find out, because frankly, I don't really know a lot about some of the folks that are working with you.
How big of a staff do you have at Good News Project?
Yeah, so we have four full-time people and five part-timers.
And that has grown significantly in the last three years.
You know, before our capital campaign, we had three full-timers.
A lot of work.
Yeah, we really
have had to bulk up our staff.
But there's been a lot of wonderful things that have happened in doing so.
You know, you bring a lot of talent and...
knowledge to the table when you add more people.
And you gave me a little information and there's a mixture of those who've been with you at your side for a long time and the others who've been there a shorter amount of time, but all bringing a lot of great pieces to the table, a lot of skills to the table.
And the first one that you kind of listed was a long time.
person and I imagine that in a job like yours where there's probably a lot, every day you walk in and on that desk, there's a lot you have to deal with, a lot on the plate to have somebody that's been around and knows the lay of the land.
And Tony Schmidt was somebody who said, can you tell us a little bit about her?
Tony is my right hand woman.
I've known Tony for a couple of decades now and she actually started with Good News Project.
as a board member.
So we kind of tease about this because that means she was my boss first.
When we got to a point where we were starting our help program, we needed to hire someone to manage it.
And she decided that'd be something really, really interesting for her.
So right around the time she was retiring from owning a small business, Tony's Ceylon and Spa, which was a very successful business.
I even heard of that.
You remember that?
But it was
in an old house downtown Wausau, kind of right now where the YA MCA parking lot is.
So it was ultimately removed.
But she brought and continues to bring these skills to the table of running a small business
and all of the
moving parts.
And she had staff members and managed that, managed customers, all of that.
Yeah, she's phenomenal.
She's also a very good friend.
She has become a very good friend through all of these years
It must be just again priceless to have somebody that has a sense of what you do as well I mean because sometimes you bring people in and they they have to go through the ranks and have to learn Every level but to have somebody that actually has a understanding of some of the challenges that you have to face on a daily monthly yearly basis.
Yeah.
Yeah, so
Our co-founder Peggy McCarthy recruited her because Peggy used to sit in Tony's salon chair.
And that's how it all
started.
That's how they always
start, isn't it?
Just a little
conversation.
And
she's like, oh, you should join us.
Oh, we need a board member.
You'd be good.
That kind of thing.
right around the time that she was finishing her board membership and becoming an employee, she dipped into becoming a trip leader in St.
Lucia under
the
tutelage of Pagan Chuck McCarthy.
So she learned from the best.
And so she has a really interesting viewpoint of all of our programming, you know, although she manages the help program, she knows international, she knows the people, the players, what we do and why we do it and how to manage volunteers in
in a country thousands of miles away.
And she also has been integral in our E-Cycle program.
Just bringing the right questions to the table, like, have you thought about this?
Have you thought about that?
And her husband has...
volunteered significantly for our E-Cycle program throughout
the
last 15-ish years.
Volunteers are worth that as well, because another person that you've kind of highlighted here for me to think about and we can talk about is Eric Nielsen.
Started as a volunteer.
And I imagine that a lot of the folks that have worked for you in your tenure at Good News, that's where they... That's how a
lot of people come to us.
They start as volunteers.
years, we get to understand who they are, what their motivations are, what their skills are, and then it becomes kind of a natural stepping stone into employment.
So we have quite a few people that...
That's how they are with us as employees
right
now.
Eric, so he started as a volunteer.
And then during COVID, we had a part time, no, he was a full time, stepped in to do recycling, basic management.
And then when he had to leave, he said, I think you need to consider Eric Nielsen.
And so we put the job out there and I specifically asked Eric to apply and, you know, he went through the interview process and he embraced the program.
Our warehouse is the neatest it's ever been.
He's organized.
He's efficient.
He thinks of all of the details.
He does a tremendous amount of research and his volunteers love picking on him.
We'll have more with Christine Daniels coming up at 7.52.
More of Mornings with Pat Crite Low coming up on 98.9 WXCO.
It's the WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXCO the time is 752.
I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh talking to Christine Daniels from the Good News Project as we do every first week of the month.
Somebody who had come in here with you one time was ruling Gartner.
Yeah.
You have her as somebody who really deserves a shout out in terms of what she does for you.
For sure.
Rowling is our volunteer coordinator and we were able to hire her.
So originally she was a volunteer with us.
There you go.
Yeah, for maybe a half of a year or so.
And then we wrote a grant to the Impact 100 and part of that was securing a volunteer coordinator to help us.
And we hired her and she has made our organization blossom.
in so many ways.
And most of it's because of the volunteer care that she creates.
previous to her, we all were managing volunteers in our own programs.
I was managing some office volunteers and Tony was managing her help program.
And this way it's centralized and she can create little open houses and ways to connect with volunteers, highlighting them, creating a program where you volunteer a certain amount of hours and that translates to dollars for merchandise, like good news project, logo and stuff.
So yeah, she's done a tremendous job and her background is.
being an executive director of a nonprofit.
So she knows what's going on.
Incredible knowledge to be able to have.
Oh yeah.
This can't imagine then again that the amount of help that somebody that, the idea is that sometimes I'll get an idea for something.
Oh, I didn't think of that.
I didn't think of that.
I imagine that it's like, hey.
You probably say, I didn't think of that, you know?
All the time, yeah.
And I really love bouncing ideas off of her, and she helps kind of keep me on target with certain things.
She'll be like,
hey, you know, we had talked about this, where's this at?
And I feel like we work really well together.
Another lady involved, Jacqueline Denke.
Tell us a little bit about her and what she does.
Jacqueline is fabulous.
She came to us.
You know, as Tony was hired to grow the help program, she did just that to the point to where she needed help.
And so
we opened up an assistant position for help.
I think it was right around 2021.
And Jacqueline has filled this position.
She has been a CNA in the past.
She has worked in manufacturing.
She runs a dairy farm.
She's a hard worker, and she knows all of the things.
So, you know, if Tony's not available, you go to Jacqueline,
and
she can basically answer the questions.
A guy that you've talked about a lot, I think, in our discussions, Al.
Al, yeah.
You keep talking about Al all the time.
I mean, you talked about Al, I think, a handful of times in the past year.
Al is
a favorite.
So Al also came to us through volunteering.
He was doing fix-it things alongside of one of his really
good friends.
you know, he knew we were beginning this program.
It was toward the end of our last strategic plan.
And this has been a goal of Tony's forever to have a mobile help truck.
And
so Al applied for the position and he's been working with us ever since on a part-time basis.
But Al's history is so interesting.
Like he has worked for a couple of local manufacturing groups and has helped grow their businesses from like 350 employees to over a thousand employees.
and helped manage ways to cut costs and assess different processes.
And so this is yet another situation where, you know, I'm the boss and yet I am learning from Al.
Al, you know, came to me and said, I think these are some skill sets that I could share with you.
And I'm like, yeah, teach
me.
And
it's really exciting.
just to kind of have that flip-flop.
And to continue to talk about, okay, we realize this isn't part of a normal employment structure in terms of quote unquote, who's in charge or something.
But I
feel like as long as you keep the open communication and the ideal that you're going to learn from the other person, it's fine, right?
We have
all of these pre-established
ways of looking at business and running a business and being a good human.
And not all of them are great.
Well, what's the old adage that you really get the most done if nobody cares who gets the credit?
Exactly.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's so true.
And you got a few folks that are either interns or just, you know, folks that are there to help, but boy, the impact is probably greater than you can imagine for people that just come in and fill some gaps and do some really good
work.
Yes, for sure.
So we have Sheila and we have Adrian and we have Megan and they all work part time.
But if we didn't have these three people, there would be a significant hole in our operation.
So it's very important to point them out in the work that they do.
They're helping with...
our health equipment lending program customer service.
And they're the ones speaking with customers who need things.
They're asking, you know, what, what do you need?
Have you thought about toileting?
Have you thought about mobility?
How much do you weigh?
All of that stuff that helps us fit equipment to people.
And I think I told you before that Adrian and Megan are my comic relief.
Like even this morning.
Adrienne's like, I can't log in, I guess it must be a sign I shouldn't be at work today.
But Adrienne,
you did this yesterday too.
We got you logged in ultimately.
But she's a hoot.
I mean, again, it's just wonderful to hear about people that are.
positive influences.
It can be within a company, a corporation, within a group like Good News.
It's just wonderful to hear again.
We hear so much about those who are, I think, pushing back in the wrong direction.
But there's still a lot of people that are grabbing hands and pulling forward in the right direction.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, I feel like we're all very aware of one another's just
I don't know, like where we're at, you know?
Like yesterday one of the employees came in and said, you seem off to me.
Are you okay?
And just that someone paused enough to see that maybe there was something on my face or maybe there was a certain way I was acting or responding and
I got
a hug out of it.
And I was just like, you know, I needed that.
I appreciated that because someone paid attention.
And I love that everyone's aware and it's not just our employees.
Our volunteers are very much aware.
And we treat one another as equals in all circumstances.
And it works best that way.
Christine Daniels joins us the first week of every month.
And again, thank you very much.
Thank you for having me
again.
We're going to take a timeout and be back with more here on 98.9 WXCO.
And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Kratlow here on 98.9 WXCO Friday morning.
And heading towards the weekend, heading towards the first Packer game, heading towards another big weekend for the Brewers and the New York Mets and doing great.
And I was thinking, man, there's so much sports going on.
And I need to talk about a little bit of the sports.
And of course, you hear now Mike Clemens on with Pat Crichtlow, because he stole them away from me.
And I had lost some time, but now I thought it's time to bring back.
Paul Micolink, our prodigal son.
Great to have you back.
It's great to be back, Chad.
So much sports to talk about.
So much sports to talk about and obviously filling the shoes of Mike is putting the pressure on him.
No, no, no.
I think he always felt the pressure of you.
But let's jump right in because since we last talked, I mean, the Brewers, I remember early in the season, you know, there was a lot of question marks.
First weekend was a disaster.
I've been following the breweries for close to 50 years, and there's not been a season like this.
I mean, it's just amazing.
Not only they're winning, they're winning so consistently, they are just coming out there and they've earned the moniker's best team in baseball right now, haven't they?
Yeah, I mean, you're saying about...
found them all those years.
They have had the best 60 game stretch in the franchise history.
I mean, so right there it says it.
That's the proof in the pudding, I guess, with having that.
And it's just been an incredible ride.
And the key thing is what's going to, the lineup looks like it could slow them down, but that pitching staff, they have, it's solid.
And I think they're going to, you know,
I don't think they'd made the jump that they needed to at the trading deadline.
You wish they would have.
dip their toe and just instead of dipping their toe and jumping into their toe and they didn't.
But that Shelby, he went out and had his first appearance the other night and his rehab and three strikeouts, three batters.
You know, you get him into that bullpen with that stun rotation and they got, they still have, even though they traded Nester, they still got Logan Henderson.
I mean, Henderson's been awesome.
I don't see where you, where are you going to see
a drop off.
That's right now.
You want to go to bed and wake up in October and hopefully that everything stays the course, I guess is what you want.
But one thing that we're kind of used to is seeing these pictures come up and they find ways to get the best out of them.
It's Andrew Vaughn that's jumped out to me here.
I mean, this was a guy, the socks, white socks, this gave away.
They said, this guy, we don't want anything to do with him anymore.
So if we send him to Milwaukee and now this guy won a 12 game hitting streak, he's hitting about five home runs.
I think it
is a 13.
Did he get one?
Cause you get.
The last game in LA, is it 12?
Is it 12 now?
It was
12.
It was 12.
It is 12, actually, because I'm actually looking at the game story from Wednesday night.
Had five home runs in the span, 16 RVIs in the span.
I mean, there's some sort of magic dust right now with this organization.
When they bring in guys that others have kind of said, well, we see some talent there, but it's not coming together.
They find ways to
strike oil when it comes to talent.
Because these guys are talented for whatever reason they weren't coming to the forefront in this organization.
I mean, again, I've been critical at times of anti-noceo in terms of maybe the spending, maybe even there, but he certainly does hire the right people.
I'll give him that credit.
That he does.
I remember sitting July 7th with my brother and father and Vaughn, his first game as a brewer.
And he looks like the guy from Fanzi, his son.
I don't know if you... Chachi?
No, no.
I forget, he looks at, just look it up and you'll know what it is.
He's kind of losing his hair.
He's looking, you know, he's like me out there and he looks like he, he doesn't belong out there.
And he came out and he hit that home run.
And we were sitting there laughing and I go, he was the third pick overall.
I know, yes.
He's got talent.
He's got to have talent.
There's some reason why he was picked third overall, that he has talent.
And why he didn't work there, who knows, whatever the case might be.
But they obviously have the correct, like you said, management to get him into a situation where he feels comfortable.
And the key thing is starting off hot.
Because when he was down in the AAA,
He didn't hit a home run.
I know.
Is that nuts?
That's crazy.
It's nuts.
I mean, it's just insane.
And I don't think they've said it the last week or so that they believe it's going to stick.
I believe it's going to stick too for the time being because he's hitting the ball every at bat.
You watch him.
He had a bat where he had the other night on Tuesday where he had a 12 pitch at bat and he got a base hit, a couple RBIs.
It was a huge hit.
And those are the things that he's doing.
He's making good at bats.
This is not just a fluke.
And so much of hitting his confidence.
I mean, even when I remember playing in Babe Ruth ball, I had this bad slump and the confidence went away.
Once I got a hit, and then I got second hit, all of a sudden felt like, oh, okay, now I can do it again.
But when you're not hitting, boy, it feels like you have no chance.
I mean, I still remember that aspect of it.
Another player I wanted to mention is, last time we talked, Brandon Woodruff.
It just shows medical miracles again.
The guys all for, I mean, I remember we were actually in Milwaukee when we kind of heard that he was done for that year.
Remember that?
That
was like early in the 2023 season, I think
it
was.
And he's come back and with three and all on the season, 2.22 ERA, just amazing stuff.
and he just solidified again the rotation and that made a trade with Nestor to get Shelby over.
for that bullpen and secure that bullpen even more.
Uh, the crazy thing is the bullpen's kind of got to rest the last week or so.
Um, and so hopefully they're good.
So I
can't, I can't rail about these terrible five innings starts that I always do.
Well, I mean, the whole thing has just been, when you got, now it's pretty consistent with those starting guys, they're getting five innings and then pre-steer gets
seven more.
That's the thing that I, I, when he got seven, I was like, yeah, that's what I like to see.
I mean, that's huge when he has, when he has that and, you know, and, and.
maybe since we last talked, um, the preaster, and there's another guy that the brewers picked up.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
He's won his last.
No, no, he hasn't won his last, but they've won.
The brewers have won his last 12 starts.
Yeah.
That means there's a thing where you get to a point where, like, every time a guy goes out there, you actually think the brewers are going to win.
Like, why are the brewers going to lose tomorrow?
You know, why are they going to lose in three weeks?
Because is there not one guy in that rotation?
We have to take a timeout.
We're going to come back another segment ago.
Yeah, we'll talk some.
Packers as they start on Saturday.
And also we're going to see if Ian can get an A grade for the week on this number for the day quiz.
And the number for the day involves the brewers.
So we'll talk about that coming up here on 98 9 WXCO at 52 after.
And welcome back.
It is the Friday edition of mornings with pack right low our WXCO morning report The time is 9.52 and Coming up in just a few minutes.
We will have our number for the day quiz with Ian Welsh But we have a few more minutes with Paul Mickley talking Wisconsin sports and Packers start tomorrow against the New York Jets and
Aaron Rodgers left before this happened, but they'll see him later in the season with Pittsburgh.
But training camp has obviously been underway.
Again, I don't know if I'm not just following it close enough, but it feels like it's been a pretty quiet training camp for the Packers.
Yeah, and I don't know how many positions they really have.
battling out you know last year they had a kicker situation that they were trying to figure out and those different kinds of position battles where a lot of the stuff is probably secure for the most part the only hiccup so far away looks as Hobbs in his meniscus there having a quick surgery and hopefully he'll be back before the first game otherwise that's the key thing there's not been any major injuries and the position battles for the most part are pretty
Defensive tackle, I think is a spot that has got to be secured.
And that free agent, rookie from Georgia, looks like he's doing a pretty good job of there.
And there's those kinds of things that are those battles.
And that's specifically on first down kind of plays.
Otherwise, it looks like they're kind of still working in the slot.
Bullard's not doing so well.
But I mean, there's those kinds of things.
Yeah.
So again, it would be interesting.
And again, heck, I admit, I haven't watched a lot of preseason footballs last few years.
I'm not sure I'm able to catch some of the game tomorrow, but at the same time, I'm just looking forward to the regular season.
I just, I don't think, I think it's all about just trying to stay as healthy as possible.
What is your theory?
Cause I know, I, who was it?
There's a team out there.
I wish I remember, I swear a story about it, that's going against the grain and they're actually gonna play their starters a lot, the entirety of the pre-season.
How important do you think having playing time for the starters is?
Wow, that's... As much as they play...
Year round I don't know.
I mean different guys coming in and out.
It's such a long year.
It's a long year I don't know if that is I don't know if that is and what they do in practice now and how they take care of their bodies I don't know if that's something that is needed You know, I some people will say yes and some people say no, you know, and they all different they work differently and they all come out a different way and And it works for whoever I don't think there's a right or wrong answer
I just, my personal thing, if you don't have your team on the field at the start of the year that you are expecting, you get somebody banged up during the preseason, I think that is not very intelligent.
And especially this year when you have Detroit on the weak one.
I
mean, obviously that's, I'm gonna use my word, big, big, but that's a big
game.
And because if you're gonna go ball off their theory, which I'm not disagreeing with their theory,
that those divisional games cone as two.
So really, that first game is actually two games.
You
only got six of the 17.
I mean, those are the major focus, I think, in terms of needing those, especially in a good division.
I mean, you look at this division this year.
I mean, Detroit obviously has some changes with their coaching staff, but you would expect that they would still be solid on the field.
Minnesota's got a new quarterback, so there's obviously that little bit of a question mark.
And then Bears brought in Detroit's offensive coordinator.
He's coming in gung-ho.
I'll say this much.
It sounds like he's very confident in his own abilities It has the potential of being a very it has a potential now with this scheduling of six Division games and 11 out of the division were theoretically pretty easily if you could have four winning teams
You could easily have that and going back to that you lose to Detroit
You're two games out of it.
Exactly.
I mean, that's how... Especially losing at home.
Especially losing at home.
So you're basically another one coming that you think they might lose.
It's a big game.
And that division is good.
I do think that Detroit, it's going to be interesting to see...
Because I think coaching does play a huge if any sport
coordinators that's
that's a lot That's a lot.
That's and I'm sure he he they they plucked some guys with them I mean they just didn't leave all their those assistants there So they they plucked some of those guys with them.
So you're talking about a quite a bit of new staff Overall now it'll be interesting to see the head guy how much now
He brings in his guys again.
He did a great job of hiring obviously one time this does he gonna do it again and bring in that stuff?
So that's that's an interesting battle right off the bat And it might take him a little time in Minnesota same thing.
That's a big difference.
Listen to somebody He was on your Michigan's Harbaugh the whole time
when he was in college.
JJ McCartney.
Yep.
And he didn't get, he didn't, uh, he never had a face.
He was pretty clean is what I'm getting at is, is going to be, this is a different game and it might take him a little while to get going.
I'm not saying he's not going to be really good.
But he wasn't
asked to carry that team in any respect.
The
NFL quarterbacks are expected to carry the team.
I mean, that's the way it is.
Like it or not, because that's why they get 25% of the seller cap.
That's, and that's why, and Sam Darnold.
did until the playoffs when he did it and they
lost.
And if the protection is the same as it was in the Ram game and the Detroit game in the finals, the game of the regular season that Darnell saw, I don't think McCarthy could do much better.
And he might not last because he's not going to get rid of that ball and he's going to be able to think that he's going to be able, this is not the college anymore.
We will talk some badger football next week because they're practicing too, but.
Good to have you back.
Oh, it's great to be back.
And now we got to finish up with our number for the day quiz.
And Ian
is
three for four this week.
So a chance for an A grade if he gets it right.
And I said the Brewers are the topic and their number for the day is.
Okay.
What is the most number of wins the Brewers have ever had in the regular season?
Most number wins in the regular season.
Is the correct answer 93, 96 or 99?
I
bet
your
dad knows.
Yeah, I
bet he's trying to send mental waves if he knew this question, but I'm gonna say I'm gonna say a 96.
96 is my final
answer.
The most wins for the Milwaukee Brewers in a regular season occurred in 2011 when they finished 96 and 66.
Yes, I got that right.
An A great year.
That's a good week.
That's a way to go into the weekend, right?
Yeah, it feels very good.
We'll see you Monday.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
