National and local business interests collaborate with a Madison non-profit to improve the job prospects of area teens. Staples, a major office supply retailer with 14 locations in Southern Wisconsin and Minnesota recently donated $5,000 in support of the Youth-Business Mentoring Program created by Common Wealth Development. Providing guidance through the hiring process, executives coach young people through the difficult task of landing their first position in the workforce.

Sonny Maly (left) and Kristofor Cooks on the job at Staples

“Our focus is on expanding the employment and financial opportunities available to young people,” said Tariq Pasha Saqqaf, youth programs director at CWD. “Especially those teens from poor families, it’s not just about improving their education but increasing their knowledge.”

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Jesse Kurzicki is one of those rare kids who loves eating his vegetables, and not just the peas and carrots his mom piles on his supper plate. The 7^th grader enjoys garden produce he grows himself.

“I grew up with gardens,” Kurzicki said. “Strawberry gardens my mom loves so much. And my dad who lives up north has a garden with corn and beans and carrots. All the green that comes from them, I think they’re great!”

At 12 years-old Kurzicki is a member of the Sherman Middle School garden club. This after school program provides a small plot of land for the cultivation of vegetables. There students can grow everything from tomatoes to broccoli to cucumbers. But in addition to offering a fun outdoor activity, the garden club also helps young people acquire a taste and an appreciation for fresh nutritious food. Read the rest of this entry »

Keep Wisconsin Warm executive director Tim Bruer

Wisconsin’s most vulnerable residents stave off the chill through the cold winter months with the assistance of Schoep’s Ice Cream.

“I suppose someone out in California might think that sounds a little funny,” said Alan Thomsen, Schoep’s vice president of national sales. “But here in Wisconsin there are people in their homes trying to stay warm. With all the stories out there we know that people need some help.”

Throughout the Capital Region and across Wisconsin frigid temperatures well below freezing each year put at risk a growing number of the elderly, the disabled and families with young children. A state-wide program called the Keep Wisconsin Warm Fund provides low income households with small financial grants to pay rising heating costs as the economy slowly recovers.  Local companies like Schoep’s are actively involved in a number of fundraising initiatives such as an ice cream social that aims to give area residents a little boost with the weather turns cold.

“This is our first year helping out,” Thompsen said. “We handed out about 12,000 dishes of ice cream. At $3 to $5 apiece we were able to make a good contribution.”

Not to be outdone the frozen custard franchise Culver’s has also made sizeable donations to KWWF. Along with more 7,000 small to large businesses such as Park Bank, CUNA Mutual Group, Rayovac, The Gialamas Company and Glowac Harris, many local institutions provide funds to help the less fortunate manage their home heating needs. City of Madison Common Council president and KWWF spokesman Tim Bruer said keeping poor families safe and warm through the winter is an easy cause to support. Read the rest of this entry »

Eight-year-old Savanna Lee is discovering wonderful things about the world around her. “I learned that there’s a whole bunch of stuff under the water,” she said, “things like bugs and beetles, not just fish. It’s exciting!”

A student at Glendale Elementary School in Madison, Savanna is among many local children that benefit from an environmental education program offered by the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. Every Monday afternoon for ten weeks of the year Savanna and her classmates explore nearby forests, streams and marshlands. Called Nature Nuts, the course creates safe and enjoyable outdoor experiences for area youth whose families cannot afford traditional after-school activities. Read the rest of this entry »

Gabrielle Seals is an aspiring piano student with big ambitions. “I want to go to Juilliard,” she says. “But for my career… my career, career I want to go to Harvard to be a forensic anthropologist.”

This Madison sixth grader, age 11, only started taking piano lessons in September. And despite her family’s economic challenges she’s already making plans for the future. Thanks to a unique program called Piano Pioneers Gabrielle can include training in music on her application to the Ivy League.

“I’ve done some research and Harvard is a really good school,” she says. “Graduating from there I’ll be eligible to go anywhere in the world.”

Bright and precocious -she skipped the 1^st grade- Gabrielle is one of many children in Dane and five adjacent counties who receive free piano lessons. They are also provided with a used instrument from the Steinway Piano Gallery of Madison so they can practice at home. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an old joke. Show me a farmer and I’ll show you a man out-standing in his field. For guys like Don Schuster excellence in agriculture has never been more challenging. Increased government regulation, low market produce prices and a changing global climate make for an intricate labyrinth of obstacles to navigate.

Owner with his wife Theresa of Schuster’s Playtime Farm, this fifth generation crop grower is constantly coming up with new ways to make the most of his patch of land on Highway 12 just outside of Madison in the town of Deerfield. Through the fall months at the height of the harvest season he opens his property to the general public to provide a fun educational experience that also helps to raise money for those less fortunate in our community. Read the rest of this entry »

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David Overlin receives $10 to give away at Summit Credit Union in Fitchburg

This story aired June 9, 2009 on Wisconsin Public Radio

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Several weeks ago David Overlin was given a $10 bill. He was one of few thousand people in Southern Wisconsin asked by Summit Credit Union to pay the money forward. In other words, Overlin was tasked with giving the cash away to someone who could use it more than he could.

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There’s a fabulous business over in the Allied Drive community, just south of the Belt Line Highway called Dream Bikes. What’s really amazing about this little company is that it combines just about everything that The Joy Trip Project is all about. Supported by Trek Bicycle, Dream Bikes gets low-income families and individuals into the sport of cycling while providing practical job skills training.

Young people from this economically challenged part of town not only get access to gainful employment, but they’re exposed to a healthy lifestyle activity that lets them enjoy recreation time outdoors. Working in conjunction with the Boy & Girls Club of Dane County, Dream Bikes provides both its customers and employees with exercise and non-polluting, sustainable transportation to school, work and play. A micro-lending program offers free financing toward to purchase of a bike for those with limited ability to pay. And because they specialize in used bicycles, the company helps to recycle and repurpose old equipment that might otherwise be left to rust in dusty basements or worse area landfills. Dream Bikes offers a great community service. Read the rest of this entry »