In The News

Friday, February 12, 2010 - 19:52

By Bill Robbins
brobbins@kenoshanews.com

Health, fitness and fun came together Wednesday as 135 children from local elementary schools participated in a wellness fair at the Boys and Girls Club’s Madrigrano Center.

The kids jammed the gymnasium and other areas of the facility, 3712 50th St., where five “wellness-activity stations” were placed.

The youngsters fashioned health-related crafts, participated in physical fitness activities and played games called “tooth relay race” and “five senses.”


Dental screenings
They also received dental screenings at Gateway Technical College by four volunteer dentists from the Dental Associates clinic in Kenosha.

The clinic donated 600 toothbrushes as well as toothpaste to encourage the kids to brush regularly.

All the children participate in the Boys and Girls Club’s after-school sites at eight Kenosha public elementary schools and the club itself.

Called Community Learning Centers, the sites provide enrichment programs such as this month’s “Cavity-Free Zone” dental-hygiene instruction, said Andrea Prichard, who is the centers’ program director and helped organize Wednesday’s events.


Saliva-free tasting
The children rotated from one wellness station to another every 20 minutes. Among the activities were a “saliva-free taste test,” in which the students dried their tongues with paper towels and then licked food such as crackers.

Then they taste-tasted the food without first dabbing their tongues.

That exercise illustrated the importance of saliva in producing the sense of taste. Without it, the food was tasteless.

As part of a sense-of-touch activity, the children reached into pillow cases containing fitness-related items, such as a Frisbee, and tried to identify them without looking.


Healthy Habits effort
The wellness fair and dental screenings were tied to an after-school program called “Healthy Habits,” which encourages youngsters to brush their teeth, get plenty of exercise and eat nutritious foods, Prichard said.

An art project involved making a pinwheel that displayed healthy foods. The kids also helped make a healthy snack — homemade popcorn heated in a pan on a stove.

The popcorn was topped with cinnamon and raisins instead of salt and butter.

“Making the popcorn in a pan is really exciting for them because they’ve never done that before,” said Nicki Ross, program director of the Boys and Girls Club’s Madrigrano Center.

“They think it all comes in a microwave bag,” she said.
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Friday, February 12, 2010 - 14:20

Support the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha by Rounding Up your JCPenney purchases at the Shoppes at Prairie Ridge in Pleasant Prairie, WI. Round-Up events will take place March 22-April 6, August 4-17, October 13-26 and December 1-14. This nationwide program provides JCPenney customers the opportunity to make donations to the JCPenney Afterschool Fund at the cash register by rounding up their JCPenney store purchases to the next whole dollar. This year all donations collected by your local JCPenney store partner will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha afterschool program! Thank you to our JCPenney partner and all the local shoppers who made this event such a success in 2009. More

Monday, January 25, 2010 - 15:01

(From the Kenosha News 08/2909)


We’re pretty sure Chairman Bob will approve of this article.



No word yet on how his “Bobtourage” feels about that, but if Bob approves, they’ll probably approve it, too.



Robert Mariano, the CEO of Roundy’s, visited the Pick ’n Save at 1901 63rd Street at the Brass Community Center Friday afternoon to meet fans and raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha.



The stop was the last of a six-city tour where Mariano took photos with shoppers, raised money, and had side-by-side comparisons of Roundy’s vs. national brand products.



Roundy’s bratwurst, Italian sausage and other fixings were on sale for $1 each, with all the money going to the Boys & Girls Club.



Mariano stars as Chairman Bob in a series of good-natured commercials where he gives a “thumbs-up” and says “Approved!” for different products, along with a group of underlings who anxiously seek his approval. Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc., is one of the largest grocers in this area and operates 152 retail stores under the Pick ’n Save, Copps, Rainbow and Metro Market banners in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

But if it were up to Bob, you might not even know his name. When the advertising team came up with the commercial idea, he gave them a thumbs-down. “It wasn’t my idea and I rejected the agency pitch,” he said. “I’m not a high-visibility guy. I’m low-key. The ones who are center stage and doing all the hard work are the ones in the store every day.”

The ad company changed his mind. So for the last two years, Chairman Bob has been featured with his three-person “Bobtourage” — a group of underlings trying hard to get his approval — as he travels the country looking for the freshest produce and value for the customers. The commercials can be seen in their entirety at www.meetchairmanbob.com.

Living up to his name, he said he bought some apricots from a store a day earlier, wasn’t satisfied with the taste, and had them removed. Since the commercials started airing, he said he gets hundreds of letters which allow him to connect with customers and make sure people get quality food.

Friday afternoon, a lot of people were happy to meet the man behind the name.

“He’s very personable on TV and I want to see if he’s like that in person,” said Kathy Holland, director of youth community at the Boys & Girls Club. “He seems really nice.” Roundy’s had several displays where people could taste test, try to pick out the Roundy’s brand vs. the national brand, and see which one they liked better.

Many people chose the Roundy’s brand as their favorite, which came as a surprise to customer Tunisia Tucker. “I’m shocked,” she said. “I try to buy depending on price, but the flavor is better.” Mike Eckart, said that’s the way most people react.

“We hear that a lot because we try to make it as close as possible,” said Mike Eckhart, the senior business manager for Daymon Worldwide, which formulates the food for Roundy’s. “Even when people say they can’t tell the difference, that’s a ‘win’ too, because it costs less.” More

Monday, January 11, 2010 - 20:51

From the Kenosha News
They raised roofs, painted playgrounds, repaired swings and slides, they cleared brush, paved trails and installed solar panels. And they had fun, gained new friends and made some money while they were at it.
But most of all, the 280 teenagers and young adults who spent their summer vacation beautifying Kenosha County public places learned valuable lessons about what they could expect when on the job in the “real world.”
“I hope you have taken pride in what you did,” Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser told the participants in the Summer Youth Employment Event, during a ceremony Friday at the Southport Beach House. “I appreciate what you did to make our community a better place.”
Earlier this summer, the young workers were hired for projects in a variety of locations, from Petrifying Springs County Park to the Spanish Center, a local homeless shelter, a nursing home, the St. Francis Animal Shelter and Project SOARR, Supporting Opportunities in Advancing Renewable Resources, among others.
Funded by a $300,000 federal grant through the Workforce Investment Act and Kenosha County, the eight-week employment program was for ages 14-24. In addition to the projects, the workers learned job interview skills, resume writing, money management and how to act in the work setting. High school students in the program also earned graduation credit.
On Friday, Kreuser, along with Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman, presented certificates recognizing the students’ efforts, while Wally Graffen executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Kenosha, recognized local businesses, community agencies and individuals who assisted in training and mentoring youth. The county’s Division of Children and Family Services partnered with the Boys and Girls Club, Community Impact Programs and the Kenosha Unified School District to coordinate workers and provide mentors.
Kreuser said the program’s initial goal was to help employ 50 kids, and before long the county was able to hire gang intervention supervisor Donna Rhodes, who has been instrumental in introducing youths to the job program. Kreuser said supervisors at the many sites praised the workers.
“Every single person I talked to said, ‘You made our community better.’ And, you do work harder than the mayor,” Kreuser said in jest as Bosman chuckled.
Indian Trail Academy students Monique Gordon and Amber Cunado, both 14, said they enjoyed their summer work building picnic shelters at the new county park under development on Highway KD. Their group also installed pillars, and in one instance raised a roof over a shelter. Monique and Amber worked four hours a day.
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Monday, January 11, 2010 - 20:49

From the Kenosha News

BY JOE POTENTE jpotente@kenoshanews.com
Recent data from the Kenosha Police Department show sharp decreases in juvenile arrests over the recent summer, compared with a year earlier.

Arrests of youths 18 and younger for all crimes dropped to 647 during the period running May 1 through Aug. 20. That compares with 1,012 during the same period of 2008.

Virtually all categories of offenses saw decreases, with curfew and loitering showing the steepest decline with 241 arrests this year, compared with 433 last year.

Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser, whose office released the data Wednesday, attributed at least some of the decline to a new jobs program that employed some 300 area youths for eight weeks this summer.
“You get 300 youths who keep their noses clean and show up for work every day and are tired at the end of the day,” Kreuser said. “I think it was a decent part of that variable to keep those numbers down this year.”
Mayor Keith Bosman said he believed the jobs program played a significant role, along with stepped up prevention efforts by the Police Department. The department recently revamped its gang unit, while the city’s number of neighborhood watch groups has grown from 55 to roughly 120, Bosman said.
Bosman said he suspects last summer’s highly publicized neighborhood crackdown effort in the central city had some effect on spiking juvenile arrest numbers in 2008. But, he added, “We’re (still) doing sweeps; we just don’t announce where and when.”

The mayor also attributed some of the decline to the work of Police Chief John Morrissey, who has instituted a strict minimum staffing policy to ensure a police presence in the areas where officers are needed.

“It’s not one or two things,” Bosman said. “There’s a whole bunch of things that probably have gone into the statistics that we see today.”

Donna Rhodes, the county’s gang intervention supervisor, said keeping high-risk youths busy, involving them in positive activities and putting some money in their pockets has to account for at least some of the arrest reduction.
Along with the crime decreases charted by the Police Department, Rhodes said the youth empowerment director from the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha, Dennis Bedford, has reported street level gang activities — parties, fights, bicycle thefts, etc. — have also seen a significant drop.
Referrals to juvenile court were also down this summer, Rhodes said.
“I think that just has a domino effect,” Rhodes said. “When you’re proud of what you do, you feel better about yourself. When you feel better about yourself, you’re not going to participate in things like gangs and drugs.”
The jobs program for ages 14 to 24 was launched with a $50,000 hard money allocation in the 2009 county budget, plus staff time, and was expanded with a $320,000 federal stimulus boost, part of an $803,000 grant to aid youth, adults and dislocated workers that the county received this year.
The county partnered with the Boys & Girls Club, the Kenosha Unified School District, Community Impact Programs Inc. and others to administer the program.
Kreuser said he is working with Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., to secure more federal money to continue it next year, and he has a larger local contribution planned in the 2010 county budget to be unveiled Oct. 6.
Bosman said this year’s arrest numbers can’t hurt in making the case for renewal.
“If they can wave those statistics in front of the powers that be, I think that’s significant,” Bosman said. “Maybe that sells the program and gives us another chance to do it all over again.”
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