Fiesta Latina with Noelle Braun from Casa Guadalupe

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And a couple of interviewees back down, not saying names, uh, so it's been a bit of a time for me. However, things have settled down a bit, I hope, and I should be back on track for a while. Okay? Cool. This week, Casa Guadalupe Education Center's Executive Director, Noelle Braun, Noelle's first time on the show was back on my 14th episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

Where she talked about Casa Guadalupe. And now we're here on the 75th episode. Isn't that crazy? It is crazy. Today, she joins me to talk about Fiesta Latina, a great event coming up on Saturday, May 20th at Regner Park in West Bend. With that, here are 15 minutes on Casa Guadalupe's Fiesta Latina with Noelle Braun on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

Welcome back to Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz, Noelle. Uh, first of all, you were on episode 14 of this show back in the day, and now this is episode 75, so that's kind of exciting. Welcome back.

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Anything from adult English classes to after school reading programs for elementary school youth. We have a college life and career readiness program for middle and high school students and a large health program too called Healthy Latinos, Healthy Futures. And then we're just a resource in the community.

We do work with a lot of individuals where their first language is Spanish. They may have just moved here recently from a Latin American country. And we're here to help them connect in the community, to provide resources on a variety of topics. So every day is different at Casa Guadalupe. We're really grateful and blessed to be in this community.

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It was the fall of: 2012

And I realized that we didn't have like a large Latin American celebration at definitely the fastest growing population in Washington County would be among the Hispanic Latino community. And I thought, how cool would it be to gather everyone to celebrate Latin American culture while, you know, gaining some more recognition and, uh, about Casa Guadalupe and all the great things that we're doing in the community.

was my ask to them. And so in: 2012

It's the first event. That kicks things off at Regner Park and it's just a really fun time to bring the community together.

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So our event's going to be on Saturday, May 20th from noon to 8. 30 PM. So it's a full day event and there will be entertainment from that stage from the start to the end. We're going to have three different Latin American food trucks. Two of them are going to have more Mexican style food like taco trucks, called Sazón Dominicano is going to be there with some more of like a Food from the Republic.

Dominican Republic. Sure. Republic Dominican. That's what I was trying to say. We say it backwards in

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Jeff spirits always helps us out with getting a variety of like, Latin American or like Mexican beers, um, there a lot of other drink options too, of course. From this stage, we're going to be doing a variety of things. We are going to be recognizing one of our staff members, Maria Gutierrez Gorolla, who this school year has transitioned to a role at the West Bend High School, but she's done so much for us and our youth programs over the past five, six years.

So we want to make sure that we're recognizing her. We're also going to be recognizing students that are receiving our Dream to Succeed Scholarship. This is our fourth year, so we're very excited to announce those recipients. We're going to have anything from a singer named La Chaparra Cisneros, who's going to sing some songs in Spanish.

We're going to have Salsa Brosa Dance Company come up. They do a lot of Latin dance. They do demos. They do performances. They're fantastic. Award winning. Ballet Folklorico. Sones Mexicanos doing a bunch of folklore dances from Mexico. They're from Chicago. They come up. They've come up multiple years in a row, and they're, Just beautiful, phenomenal dancers.

We have a couple of bands too, and yeah, we got some raffles that are coming up. We've got tons of stuff for kids, lots of activities. We're going to have a couple of bounce houses. We have at least 10 games, face painting. We have MPTC, Marine Park Technical College, and their cosmetology. Some of their students are going to do, um, either like mini manicures or hairstyling.

So there is so much, there's going to be lots of vendors too, that are selling, uh, handmade items. Particularly either lat. Latino owned businesses or they're selling items like from Latin America. Okay. So we'd love to, to highlight that as well.

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There's a lot of people that are, that help you on your team to get this all together, right?

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We're still looking for volunteers. We'll put a plug in for that. There, we have a sign up genius link out there on our and also our Facebook page. We have an event out there too, but yeah, we need at least a hundred volunteers to make this event a success in such a variety of ways. Yeah. So everyone helps make it a great time for everyone.

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casaguadalupeonline. org.

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that are splitting things up. For instance, I know we could still use some people that are greeters at the entrances or, you know, giving people wristbands when they enter. It is free admission with a little asterisk because, you know, obviously it's our fundraiser so we do ask, uh, suggest a donation. And if kids do want to play all the games and activities, we're asking for 5 per kid, they get a little drawstring backpack.

For their prizes and candy and all that. But just again, it's like a nice way to, to contribute a little bit to the fundraiser as well. Otherwise, people, if they just wanna like come in and just check it out, they certainly can just mingle in the crowds and everything. So we're absolutely looking forward to it.

One of our other top volunteer opportunities we have is cleanup. I know that's everyone's favorite thing to do, but at 8:30 PM the more people that can help us, it's gonna go by so much faster. Yes, exactly.

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Or like for the licenses for the curriculum that we use. You know, so many things. And then we also have a large raffle drawing, and all of our raffle tickets that we sell, there's multiple prizes that can be won. You don't have to be present to win. We're selling tickets in advance and day of all of those proceeds are going directly to our Dream to succeed Scholarship funds, right?

So all those students that are getting scholarships, so that's, that's a very specific earmark, are those raffle prizes. Perfect.

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uys have coming up throughout: 2023

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So last year in the fall, uh, we actually had a leadership West Bend group help us plan it. They're fantastic. I always give them a shout out. So we're doing it again because it was a great success last year. And. That fundraiser is very specific to raise funds just for that scholarship fund. Keep it sustainable.

We want to continue to grow that and make sure, because the amount of students that apply every year are just continuing to grow. The first year of the scholarship program, we had six that applied, six that got scholarships. Fast forward to this year, we had 27 that applied. So it's great. Yeah, absolutely.

So that, this year, it's going to be on Friday, October 13th at the Washington County Fairgrounds in the Ziegler Building. And so shortly after Fiesta's done, we are going to, we're going to switch gears and we're going to tell everyone to save that date. That's more of like a dinner dance. You buy your ticket and, and just have a fun night out.

Um, so yeah, so that's a big event coming up.

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Thrivant, Ramiro Paz's office here in West Bend, and West Bend Mutual Insurance Company. Um, so yeah, so we have awesome sponsors, uh, multiple levels for Fiesta, but there will be sponsorship opportunities as well for the Dream to Succeed Scholarship Fundraiser.

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Well, I guess there's not really ticket information, but donation information for Fiesta Latina.

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You can get more details at www. casaguadalupeonline. org, as well as our Facebook page. You just have to look up Casa Guadalupe Education Center. We have an event that's been created. We also have an Instagram page too, which is at casaguadalupeWI. And you can just check out all the updates there.

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Well, Noelle, I appreciate you coming on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz and I look forward to having you on a third time sometime soon.

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Again, Fiesta Latina takes place on Saturday, May 20th at Regner Park in West Bend from noon until 8 30 p. m. It's free and it will be a great time for your entire family. Go experience Fiesta Latina. If you ever have an idea for Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz, please reach out to me. You can go to fuzz. cc slash guest and fill out the form or email me at fifteenwithfuzz at gmail.

com. Be sure to Spell out the word 15 again. That's 15 with fuzz at gmail. com. That'll do it for today's episode. Barring any curve balls, I'll be back next Tuesday. I appreciate you listening and we'll talk to you again next time, right here on 15 minutes with fuzz.