 Welcome to Independent Lifestyles sponsored by the Sheboygan County Aging and Disability Resource Center. We present programs that direct you to resources to maintain health and independence in our community. I'm Christine Jeske, an outreach worker at the Aging and Disability Resource Center and I'm your host for today. Our guests are Lisa Rader and Ed Gilligan of Fountain Park United Methodist Church. Lisa and Ed will be telling us about the Love Your Neighborhood program of Sheboygan County. Hi, everybody. Hi, Christine. So Lisa, will you tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm from Sheboygan County my whole life. I am married for 30 years and I have two grown sons and a miniature wiener dog, Oliver. And Ed, thanks for coming as well. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm also from Sheboygan County most of my life. I've moved a couple of areas and came back. My wife, Suzanne, of 21 years now and I have a lovely, a handsome step son and grand daughter and I also have two lovely daughters as well and a nice English Springer Spaniel pup. Oh, what's it say? Briar and she's just getting trained. She's very young, four months old. Wow, it's a lot of work. Yes, it is. So who is Fountain Park and what are you doing for our community? Who would like to start? Anybody? Fountain Park, we have been in Sheboygan County, the city of Sheboygan, for I don't even know how long, but we have sponsored, we have partnered with group mission trips from Colorado and with group we are working alongside them to organize a youth home repair work camp. It will be the week of June 21st to the 27th for Sheboygan County residents who with physical or financial need. And this is all at a minimal or no cost to the resident and volunteer labor. Nice. The kids come in from all over the United States to group missions, organizes this and they'll come in from all over the United States and they usually have to generate some money, roughly about $500 each through doing things at their church to raise funds to go on this. So the kids are kind of committed to this job when they come. It's not that you have a lot of kids just coming just for the fun of getting away. They're actually very committed and in the years that I've gone, about six years now, when you go on mission trips, it's just really exciting to see the kids get busted into groups and work individually. Like they are, there's 400 kids coming to Horseman and the 400 kids that are coming are going to be into individual groups of five or six people. Sorry if I'm talking a little too much. So can you kind of tell us a little bit about the group work camp again and a little slower? That would be awesome. Well, group mission trips, they've been around since the early 90s. They work with communities across the country and the world and they are a mission organization, a mission ministry of group cares. They've been doing meaningful service and community programs and they have also, I mean, they've worked with thousands, they've done thousands of these trips and racked up millions of volunteer hours across the, around the world and we just serve people in need. That's wonderful. And it's very Christ centered. Very nice. They have a strong belief also in providing teenagers to encounter Jesus through serving others either in their own backyard or around the world. Nice, nice. And what are the ages of the youth that are involved? Really about 12 to 19. The ones coming to Shambuiget here are 12 to 19 years old but group does do other age groups as well. They have a younger youth camp and an older youth camp of high schoolers as well. So like middle school to high school? Yeah. This is a middle and high school camp, okay. And they do this all on their own. Well, with their youth groups from their church, right. Yeah. And how did our community get, you know, involved with this work camp? Well, we've been doing this. I've personally started in 2005. I think our church has done a few of these before that and Ed's kids have been doing this for what, five, six years. And you have one that's aged out of the youth group already but she still stays very involved. Yeah. She's also helping out in ways where she can on this as well. And my youngest daughter is also very instrumental. I kind of drag them along but they're very instrumental in helping out with this as well. So I can imagine and they meet these people and they start working for them. And I bet you they become close to them and they kind of build a relationship with them. I think that's so meaningful. And then do they do these relationships that sometimes carry forward? Do they exchange emails or do you know any that ever happened? They exchange a lot of social media. And my oldest will be 30 and I know he still stays in touch with a few people. And he aged out pretty much at the age of 18. He went in the army after high school and he still stays in touch with a few people. So, and that's what kind of got us fired up about doing it. Every time we'd come home, we'd be talking about we really need to do this in our own area. Because so often we hear from people, why don't you stay in your own backyard and do this? There's people that need help here. And we finally just said, let's check into it. And is that when the two of you got involved together? We started checking into it about a year and a half ago. It takes a good year and a half to two years to plan. One of these, the first time especially. Yeah, and it's a big learning curve. There's a lot to learn in organizing it. I can't imagine. I mean, it's a year for five days, right? Right, six days, yeah. But there's a lot of behind the scenes for us. And if you're going to build a wheelchair ramp for somebody, you have to meet the building codes. So we had to talk to all 28 communities and their building inspectors to make sure that we're going to be meeting the codes that they need and that they're OK with this. Good, good. And could you tell me, either one of you, what does a typical work camp look like? It usually consists of three to 400 youth participants and their adult chaperones. So they come here, three to 400 of them? Yes. Yes, our camp is currently at 406 participants. They have stopped accepting people and they are wait-listing people. So if anybody drops off, they already have people to replace them, unless they've already signed up somewhere else. But yeah, and these people, it represents about 1,200 volunteer work hours for the community. In those seven days? In those five days, yeah. And right now, we have, from our 406 people, it represents 10 different states from Oklahoma to South Carolina and a lot in the Midwest. So do the children or the young adults, young teenagers, in our community also help or do they go to a different mission and work? We have one church in our community that is signed up with 30-some people. They just wanted to stay in their own backyard this year and just show the need that there is in our own community. Because so often, we don't see it. We don't see it until it's right in front of our face. I know there's also, I believe, Racine does this every year or Kenosha does it every year through group missions. And so does Green Bay is doing it the second year. They did it last year. And again, they're doing it this year. So this is our first year since it was here once before in 2006, I believe. I'm sure every year it just gets bigger. I can only imagine. So is there a cost or anything for the children or how does this all work for the work camp? There is a fee of about, excuse me, $470 for each participant that covers the cost of food and the lodging. Also the program that is done during the week. And then they also have a paid staff of about six that are on site, but then there's many in the background that help organize this. We personally are all, and about $30 of each participant money goes to actual materials. We then are responsible for raising $20,000, which we have pretty much reached. We've pretty much reached our goal. And those donations came from First Congregational Service Grant, Johnsonville and our own United Methodist Foundation. And then we have many individual donations that we've had also. So we wanna thank those who have donated also. So these kids pay $470 to come to this camp for a week to do work. And that includes their stay and everything, correct? Right. Okay. How do the adults get chosen for the youth group? That's yours. Usually oftentimes, in my past history, my daughters were going, and I just wanted to be part of what they were doing and learn more of what they were doing. So as a member of the youth group at our church, I tried to encourage the other kids to go as well and we all went. We have a young boy that goes quite often and his mother doesn't have anybody. So it's kind of helpful that way. They don't have a, she doesn't have a male counterpart to go sometimes. So grandpa has also gone a couple times, but it's something to help out that way too. I said, some kids, when we've gone on these mission trips, they get to see things they don't normally get to see. We've gone to Washington and they see on back from one of our mission trips and just allowed the kids to see the White House, Lincoln Memorial, things like that. They may not have gotten to see ever in their lifetime. So I apologize, they didn't really answer how I got, that's how I got involved those through my kids. But that's what happens. And then we've had our pastor go along, we've had other members who don't even have kids in the youth group that, we've had a year where we had, I think twice as many adults as we've had youth. So that's good though, right? Just because we're still on fire for it. When you go and see these kids and they light up when they're able to do something. One boy was just a matter of showing them how to use a drill and run screws into a board for a deck so that he was prepping the boards and getting them all ready. But it was something that for him was really a value. He had never done that before, never experienced it. And you could see his face just light up with excitement. And I says, that's what I enjoy about it. It's good for their soul. To see that they can make a difference. And I'll tell you the other thing that I learned when I go on these mission trips, when you sit down with devotions and see these kids discuss devotions, their commitment to Christ is amazing. We watch a lot of stuff on media that kind of makes me nervous about how we're doing. And when you see these kids, it really enlightens you and makes you feel like we have a positive future. That's right. I also want to add to that is the grandpa that went the one time, he wrote the most beautiful letter when he came home and said he just wishes the world could see this in our young people. Instead of just seeing so much of the negative all the time. That's true. And it doesn't, it's not as advertised either, because that costs money. Well, and that doesn't bring in big numbers of people watching you. What type of projects? We will do repairing and new builds of wheelchair ramps and porches, interior, exterior painting, skirting on mobile homes and like the rubber roof coatings, we will do a lot of weatherizing. There's a lot of little things we will do that we don't list. Do you clean their houses? Sometimes. Those are considered. Interior painting, you end up moving everything around. Yeah, you do end up moving everything around. But it's also kind of rainy day projects that if people need help with something, I mean sometimes people have just asked if we could help rearrange their living room so they can clean it. If you have a rainy day, there's other things that can be done. Going back to how you choose the adult volunteers, is there a background check that you do? Yeah, yeah, we do background checks on all the volunteers that go. Even if a youth is 18, they have to have a background check. So anybody 18 and older. So who's ever long is all good people. Yep. I hope so. Yep, and I believe we do background checks on the people, and I correct me if I'm wrong, but on the people at the work sites that we're gonna be working at too. Yes, the residents all have a background check. Yeah, we don't wanna send the kids into an area that could be potentially dangerous. Yeah. Yeah, and communities have been, one of my first ones was not a work camp, but it was a week of hope. And in that situation, we were just helping out at a park, letting kids play for the summer. They came to the, but there was also a police officer there just to keep an eye on things, and yeah, it was very interesting and very informative. Some of the kids coming to the park, you know, I mean, that was, they were just barely toddlers to adult teens, and keeping all them kids active, that was a challenge as well. Oh, I'm sure. I think I was more exhausted after those days than I was after the work camps. Yeah, because at work, when they're at the camps, they're working, so they're occupied, and yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. And how many residents do you help in the five days? We're doing, what, 60 to 70? 60 to 70. Yeah. So how many groups do you have them that go to each? That's difficult to answer, and the reason I say that is, I'm gonna just give an example of last year. Of course. Last year, we were in Green Bay, and we were painting a home at my work site. And the work site we were at was a two-story home, and we were painting the whole outside. So you have a kid holding the ladder for either an adult or a kid that's up on top, and you're painting. So that's two people right there. So if you have a crew of five to six, you know, it starts, and then what happens is towards the end of the week, you may be struggling to get that project done because of all the up and down, and scraping and everything needs to be done. So other groups will show up to help you out. And a lot of times my site in Green Bay was the 39th site to be completed out of 42. So we don't want to leave the resident with an uncompleted site. You know, we want to be able to make sure they're done as much as possible. Did I hear you say you had 39? 39 completed, and I think there's 42 all together. There's 42 sites. Nice. So us on a local level have to finish them. Yeah. Okay. Even if the kids, even if their time is up. Yeah, well, if their time is up, they go home. They do. And we don't want to leave the residents sitting, you know. Anything that gets started has to be finished. Yeah. It's wonderful. And depending on weather, right? Yeah. Right. So let's pray for good weather. Yes, we want good weather that week. And how do you get residents who need the help? They go through an application process. It began this last October. We just closed it as of February 20th. It's for owner occupied homes. And they have to have, again, a physical or financial need. And then we have on our steering, our steering organizing committee that we have organized is somebody, a few people look at them and then a phone call is made. And this past weekend, we had four members of group work camps come to Sheboygan. And we looked at all of the tentative 93 sites that we have picked out. So we'll know in about another month or so who will actually be getting work done on their home. So tell me, what do you mean by a steering committee? Steering committee is our organizing committee. We've got about 16 to 20 members, I guess, right now. Are these all adults? Are they young? Yeah, these are mostly adults. Your daughters have been. My oldest daughter does come help out once in a while. She's an adult, but she's a young adult. She's a young adult. We have a few young adults. So once the application is filled out, you give them a call, you go to their house, and you look at the project that's needed. We look at the projects, decide what we really can and cannot do. And then the people that came from group work camps, they will decide, they don't really have the final, final say, but they are trying to budget based on money that we have and the materials that we need. We've kind of, we're probably got about two thirds that are mostly painting, and then we have a few other bigger projects that we're doing. So everything is timed out? Everything is timed out. Everything's figured out monetarily, so hopefully we stay within our budget. And is the work day eight hours, or is it 15 hours, or it depends on the job? It's about 8.30 to 3.30. Good. Yeah. There's a lunch time in there too. Sometimes people get those done really fast because they also want you to do a devotion with your six-person crew. I think that's another thing that's very important. These kids are coming based with a Christian ethic and to have that devotion time and make sure that that devotion time is there. Because it's one of the things I always, it's, I kind of preach to them, but I says as an adult you get busy in life and you sometimes don't have the time to open up that Bible and take a look at it. Or you can, yeah. That's sad because we get too busy, you know, and it's just showing them that, yeah, we're working today, we need to get this project done, but we also need to take time to just review and do a little bit of an devotion. Kind of get them centered for why they're there and the meaning of it. Yeah. Yeah, that's really great. That's wonderful. And you finalize all the applications by when? So when do the people know that, yep, they were coming and usually by May. I'm not gonna say for sure because I'm gonna say May, by the end of May for sure we should know. Because some of these people are working with violations on their homes and they're working with the city. The city did give us a great opportunity and they gave them an opportunity that if they are working with us that they'll extend their violation period. And that's wonderful. They're deadlines on their violations, so yeah. It's great when everybody works together, right? Yeah, the city's really been wonderful with that. That's wonderful to hear. I was on a mission trip a few years ago where the woman was about seven days away from losing her home and when we came in and did everything she was so pleased. By the end of it we had a little extra time so we painted an attic upstairs for her and she says because of that she may be even able to have her grandchild come back and move back in with her. So it went from almost losing everything to having your grandchild be able to move back in with you. So I mean, that's what's great about this. Yeah, I'm sure you see a lot and you got some really good stories to share. And are the people when you go meet them, are they intimidated? Are they willing to allow you to come in? Do they want this, I would think. Most do, you find a few that afterwards just I think it intimidates them and since we've done the weekend I have had a few phone calls where they've backed out and I've tried to talk to them and ask where that problem may lie. And some it's just because they have to take the entire week if they have to take the week off of work because they're supposed to be there while the workers are at their home. And they have to be there? Well, they have to have someone there. They have to have someone there. It doesn't have to be them but they have to have someone there and for some people that's a difficult problem. And you don't want to take them away from work either but you can be there to help them out if they can work with you and somehow find somebody to be there for you. And that person has to also go through background check so whoever's staying at the home that there's not a person that's not been checked over. So what is your biggest project this year for this? I think a 32 foot wheelchair room. There might be a 40 something. Okay, I know there was one that we've been working on and I know I sent the information back to the group people that were here because we were looking at, because of the standards, we thought that it was five foot landing and it's actually a three foot landing and the room was very close as to how much room we had to put. We have to go back and forth three times so it'll end up being very close to the sidewalk. It's gonna take up pretty much of the front yard. So yeah, that one's gonna be a challenge. So these helpers that help you, they must have experience. Are some of them carpenters or plumbers or electricians or, you know, cause a lot of times and you learn as you go are just as well as the professionals and I get that. Yeah, you, I've been very blessed on my mission trips. There's always been somebody that has some carpentry experience. I can paint, but beyond that, I wouldn't say I'm a very good carpenter, I says, but because I'm able to learn through some of the other people that are there, that's another thing that's just amazing. As an adult, I'm learning things every time and I says it's nice for me as well. My matter of fact, the last week I was talking to somebody and we had so many projects at the house. He says you work on the painting and they were doing some stuff with a deck in the front and I wanted to learn it and he understood that. He says, we'll get together some other time. I'll make sure you and I work together. So yeah, you make those friendships along the way. Yeah, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. So tell me a little bit about what the week will look like for the workers in the camp. Well, on Sunday they'll arrive. They get checked into a classroom at, they're staying at Horseman. They, where they sleep on the floors and they eat in the cafeteria. They shower in the locker rooms and then they'll have dinner. They'll meet crews that evening and that's their five other people that they'll go out with on the work site all week. Let's go back to when you said, with the meals and stuff, who cooks those and who prepares those? They do keep some of the school staff on. That's nice. And they are paid their regular wage and also janitorial staff stays on and they get paid their regular wage during the week. Through their employee. Through group, well group, the money that, like we pay group work camps and that the participants pay group work camps. The school then keeps track of the, they keep track of the hours that they work and they will get paid from group work camps. And group work camps will bring in the food so that part of it is the actual food is brought in by group work camps. They purchase that as well. Yeah, there's a menu that's pretty much for each work camp during the summer. And you mentioned something about that there's showers there so every day they shower. There's shower times and they do differentiate. It's 18 and below have certain shower times and then adults have other shower times just because you still don't wanna be having adults showering with young people. And I think it's another thing that just outstanding but if you think about it, when we went on these mission trips and you sleep in a high school floor on an air mattress and get up and put in an eight hour day at work and then come back, take a shower and that's gonna be your place to sleep. These kids are impressive that way to me because I says that's something that, you know, I think that you're going home and laying in a nice bed. Yeah, the kids can handle that. Yeah, they can, but adults also have to do that. It's not five stars. No, yeah, we sleep on the classroom floors also. So you don't get to go home and sleep. And even the paid staff sleeps on the floor. So, three minutes, okay. Okay, so tell me about what time they wake up and. They wakey wakey. Yeah, about 6.45 is the wakey wakey song and they have sort of a thing. They play over the PA that gets everybody going and then they'll have breakfast. Usually about seven. Seven to seven, seven to five, yeah. And then they'll, after that they have program. They have like a morning program and then they'll go off to work at about 8.30 and come back at about 3.30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Now Wednesday, they have like what's called a half day. So after the 8.30 program, they go out and they work till noon, then they come back and their youth groups will go out in the community and see things that draw their interest. Whether it be golfing or windsurfing was somebody had listed. Just different things that the kids do, enjoy to do and then they'll come back and they'll be an evening program that night and this is on only on Wednesday but there'll be an evening program that night as well and most people make it back by that time to go. That sounds like a lot. Yeah. It's a busy day. Yeah, yeah. And are there any other ways that the community can offer support? The week before camp, we have a set up week and we will need help. Well, we do need some help with some of that. We will be delivering ladders and materials to each site that week. Along with that, we also need ladders donate to be that we can borrow. They will get them back. We need ladders to borrow. They can be of various heights, step ladders, extension ladders. So can people donate money, snacks, cookies? Yep, we already need a snacks for the youth during the week after they come back. We can always use, we're not gonna turn down any money that's donated either. And can they drop it off at Horseman or do they call contact? They would actually contact the number that was up on the camp. Or the email that was up there. You can contact and we will get you. You can also, if you wanna just send a donation, of course it's 828 Erie Avenue also. That's Fulton Park's address, so. It sounds like a fun day, but I wouldn't wanna sleep on the ground. Well, you don't have to. You can bring air mattress. I know, but still, I mean, that's a lot. We picked on one of our adult women because she brought one of those super high air mattresses the rest of us were practically on the ground and we called her princess all week and we had fun. And the kids get the camaraderie of each another. Yes, and they're resident. They really, they love getting to know the resident also. I would like to thank our guests, Lisa Rader and Ed Gilligan for sharing with us how important it is to help one another and to our audience. Thank you for tuning into our show. Please join us next month for another interesting topic on Maintaining Your Health and Independence.