Episode 114

full
Published on:

21st May 2024

Youth Impact Club w/Zach Church, Haley Jo Hubert, Jackie Schmoldt, & Melissa Hoogester

This week, I get the chance to spotlight the incredible work of the Youth Impact Club at West Bend High Schools. I had the pleasure of meeting this inspiring group at the Volunteer Center of Washington County’s Champions of Change event, and their dedication to mental health awareness and suicide prevention truly moved me. Join me as I sit down with Zach Church, Haley Jo Hubert, Melissa Hoogester, and Jackie Schmoldt to discuss their personal journeys, the club’s mission, and the impactful initiatives they’ve spearheaded. From their annual 5K Butterfly Run Walk to community outreach programs, this episode is a testament to the power of youth activism and the importance of mental wellness.

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Transcript
Fuzz Martin:

Well, well, well, happy Tuesday, or whatever day you're listening.

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Thank you for tuning into

Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

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My name is Fuzz Martin, and you

are you, thank you for tuning in.

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A few weeks ago, I emceed the Volunteer

Center of Washington County's annual

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Champions of Change event at the Prairie

Center at West Bend Insurance Company.

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It was a great event, at a great

location, and we got to see a

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lot of good in the community.

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And, I was completely impressed

by a group from the West Bend High

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Schools called the Youth Impact Club.

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The Youth Impact Club exists to

help raise awareness and prevent

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suicide amongst high school students.

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It's a very important subject.

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And they're here to join me today.

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With that, here are Fifteen Minutes

on the Youth Impact Club, with Zach

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Church, Haley Jo Hubert, Melissa

Hoogester, and Jackie Schmoldt.

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Right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

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Alright, thank you for

joining me, everybody.

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Can you please start by first introducing

yourselves and share a little bit about

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what inspired you to join the Youth

Impact Club at West Bend High School.

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We'll start with you, Zach.

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Zach Church: Alright, so I'm Zach Church,

I've been involved with Youth Impact

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Club for all four years of high school.

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I'm the current president, we'll be

passing that on to Haley Jo next year.

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And I guess what inspired me to

start working with the Youth Impact

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Club is just my family's like,

personal history with mental health

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awareness and things like that.

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Unfortunately, a few years back, I

lost a family member to suicide and

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that set my whole family on a path

of spreading awareness about mental

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illness and making it a talkable

topic and breaking the stigma

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surrounding it and things like that.

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And throughout the club, I've been

able to help so many other people

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and I'm so thankful for that.

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Fuzz Martin: Great.

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Haley Jo, hello.

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Haley Jo Hubert: Hello,

I'm Haley Jo Hubert.

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I Joined Youth Impact Club just

last year after my friend Willow

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Prost, hi Willow, introduced me to

it as a way to start spreading about

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mental health and mental awareness.

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I am, as Zach stated, currently the

president, the president of next year.

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And I joined Youth Impact Club again

because Willow suggested it to me,

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but also because I struggle a lot

with And I also survive a lot through

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my mental illness and mental health.

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I have ADHD, don't know if you

can hear the fidget toys, but I do

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have ADHD and anxiety and mental

wellness is something that has just

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helped me navigate my entire life.

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And I feel like it's, it's something

that everybody needs to know about

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that doesn't need to be this only

like, only like one political party

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or something can have mental wellness.

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Everybody should know

how their brain works.

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Fuzz Martin: Very good.

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Thank you.

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Nice to have you in the studio today.

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And you, Melissa.

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Melissa Hoogester: Hi,

I'm Melissa Hoogester.

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I became interested, primarily

after going to one of the

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classes that Jackie Schmoldt had.

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She was doing a QPR training for just

making students and others aware of

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the stress and the mental health and

how to recognize suicide in others and

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just kind of felt a pull to want to

really, help students in the school.

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Fuzz Martin: Very good.

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And Jackie.

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Jackie Schmoldt: Hi, I'm Jackie Schmoldt.

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I actually helped get this

club started back in:

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My son, who was a junior at West Bend

West High School, died by suicide

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and I just felt moved to do something

to reach out and help kids and kind

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of leave a positive legacy in the

wake of something very, very tragic.

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So, I've been just amazed at what the

students are willing to do to help out

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the club and to promote mental wellness

and especially to prevent suicide.

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I wanna add that we have not lost a

student to suicide in West Bend for

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five years since the club's inception.

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Fuzz Martin: That's great.

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And I, I have to say that I was introduced

to your club at the Champions of Change

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event from the volunteer center in

Washington County, and I was completely

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moved by, one just the positivity of,

of the, the whole group and the eloquence

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of how well you all speak on this subject

and how positive and, uplifting it is.

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And I think just that it would, like,

I have goosebumps thinking of it.

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But it's, you're, you're all

very well spoken and very,

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heartfelt when you speak about it.

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And I, I really appreciate that.

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So I know it's kind of obvious from

this conversation, but can you kind

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of talk about that primary mission

of the Youth Impact Club and how

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do you work toward achieving that

within the West Bend schools?

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Zach Church: Uh, yeah, sure.

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As stated previously, the Youth Impact

Club primarily focuses on mental health

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awareness and suicide prevention,

not only within the school, but also

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within the greater community as well.

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We do this through a lot of community

outreach programs and events.

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Our big one every year is

the, 5K Butterfly Run Walk.

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We host it every September

on the first Sunday.

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Been doing it every year for the

last ten years, I believe, this year.

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And, it's a huge fundraiser.

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We get a lot of community

partners involved.

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And we host a big RunWalk event and

it just gets larger and larger every

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year and then the funds from that go

directly back into the community through

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all the other events we host as well.

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Some of the other events that we

hosted this year was something called

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the Day of Hope where we catered in

some food and we had people in at the

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high school and then we had a speaker

talk about his struggles and his

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wife's struggles with mental illness.

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And then we also did a community health

fair at the school recently where we

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had multiple vendors and businesses and

companies all come in and then they all

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set up booths in our school's gymnasium

and they all got to teach the students

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a little bit about what they do as

a business and then further increase

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community outreach and things like that.

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Fuzz Martin: Excellent.

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So, I've heard the term a number of times,

QPR, and how the Youth Impact Club has

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trained more than 150 students in QPR.

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Can you explain what QPR stands for?

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And how that helps in suicide prevention.

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Haley Jo Hubert: Now, I just

like to describe QPR as CPR for

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suicide because that's what it is.

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It's saving people from a time in

which their life really is in danger.

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CPR, it's easy to tell when somebody

needs it because they're gasping for air.

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But QPR, it's important to get that

training because it can be harder to know.

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But it is just as important.

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I don't quite remember what

the acronym stands for.

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I've got it.

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Zach Church: Um, it's, uh,

Question, Persuade, Refer.

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Okay.

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Haley, do you want to continue

or do you want me to cut you off?

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Yes, and

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Haley Jo Hubert: again,

it's, no, no, it's fine.

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I was expecting Mrs.

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Schmoldt to pop in.

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Um, yes, we have trained over 150 people.

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That is due in large part to Zach at

the beginning of his term as president.

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He said that he wanted to expand QPR

training and we've done that a lot.

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I myself am QPR trained, and it's

honestly a very easy process.

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We just went in for four of Mrs.

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Schmoldt's resource periods, but the

training, again, it can really save lives.

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And as Mrs.

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Schmoldt said before, there hasn't been

a single suicide here, so it really

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does have an effect on West Bend.

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Fuzz Martin: Can you talk a little

bit about the training process?

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What is the training process for

QPR look like, and what are some

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of those takeaways from that.

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Jackie Schmoldt: Okay.

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I'd be happy to do that.

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I'm the primary trainer of QPR,

for our staff and our students.

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And it's, it really, you have to get

trained through the QPR Institute.

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It's not overly complicated, but

as Haley said, it's super important

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because otherwise you might walk

by someone and there's an obvious

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sign, but you don't know it's a sign.

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So the first thing we do is we

talk about suicide statistics.

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We talk about all the different

warning signs, both subtle

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and sometimes not so subtle.

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And then we train them, What to do

when they see those signs, how to

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ask the question, and you really

have to ask the suicide question.

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Are you feeling suicidal?

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It doesn't plant the seed of suicide.

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If someone's suicidal, they already are.

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They're just going to be

relieved that someone has noticed

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that they're in so much pain.

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And then, once you ask the question,

you try to get them, persuade them,

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there's the P for the QPR, to, go get

help and we give all the kids and the

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staff, numbers and the 988 is obviously

the really easy number to remember.

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But we also have a wide variety

of resources in our community.

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a little shout out here for NAMI.

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They also do QPR training and, NAMI

is our local nonprofit that does, a

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lot for mental health, teaching people

how to live successfully with mental

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illness, teaching families how to deal

with a child or a spouse or a relative.

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So, we partner with

them in a lot of cases.

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Fuzz Martin: As part of the Youth

Impact Club, the, you know, obviously,

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there's an important cause to both

you as students and as educators.

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How do you balance this advocacy

work with also your school work

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and your life outside of school?

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Like, how does this impact your

school life and your personal life?

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Haley Jo Hubert: Honestly, that is a very

good question, and to be completely honest

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with you, it, if it weren't, I take on a

lot as a student, especially since right

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now I'm taking four AP classes, thankfully

exams just finished up, hallelujah.

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But it's because of what I'm learning

in the Youth Impact Club that helps

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me get through all that stress.

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And just at the fair that we had the

other day with Youth Impact, not the

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other day, it was a couple months

ago, with Youth Impact Club and Peers

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for Peers also helped a lot on that.

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It was mostly their event.

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And something that I got there

was this card that stated

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a good breathing activity.

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Breathing in for four, holding

for four, breathing out for

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six, and breathing out for six.

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And it's just that alone that got

me through AP exams, through the

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amount of stress that I've been

having with studying, through

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other stressful events in my life.

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So really the way that I would answer

that question is that youth impact

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club advocacy, it's just how you live.

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You need to live as a mental

wellness advocate and continually

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take care of your mental health.

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Zach Church: Balancing

everything, it's manageable.

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It's a, it's a little difficult for

me, but I'm just, I have so many other

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conflicts and things outside of school

that I'm all juggling at the same time.

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We host, a big large group meeting

with all of our members, once a month.

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And then we also hold like

smaller meetings for different

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event planning committees.

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And, as president, there's a lot

there to kind of keep track of, and I

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definitely wouldn't have been able to get

everything done without the help of Ms.

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Schmoldt and Ms.

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Hoogester, great advisors.

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And, it's really, they're the

reason that the club is, I mean, Ms.

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Schmoldt is the reason the club

really got off its feet, and then Mrs.

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Schmoldt have both been able to really

create something amazing, and they

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do a ton of work, even though, Haley

and I have the pre president position,

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there's still so much that they do,

but there's still a lot of planning

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and things that go into it, I tried

to focus a lot, as Haley mentioned

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previously, on getting the larger, club

population QPR certified, Previously

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it was just the like main exec board.

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And then I also wanted to

focus a lot on self-care.

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Mm-Hmm.

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this year.

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So like kind of taking some time out

of our monthly meetings to do little

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lessons on like, here's some ways that

you can manage stress and help yourself

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as well as helping other people.

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And I guess through all of those lessons.

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Haley kind of mentioned it previously

is that we're not only helping other

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people, we're also really helping

ourselves as well to navigate everything.

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But I'm also able to, use what I've

learned and what I've taught to help

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other people and help myself outside of

school and just in the greater community

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and my family and things like that.

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And it's just been really great all around

where, you know, doing things for Youth

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Impact Club, it doesn't feel like work.

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It's just This is what needs to be done.

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It's something that's great.

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It's something that helps.

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And it's always so, so relieving

to see, something that we've

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planned go off without a hitch.

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Like all of our events are insanely

successful and it's so great to see.

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Fuzz Martin: Well, speaking of that,

you have the 10th anniversary of the

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10th annual, 5K Butterfly Run Walk,

which you'd spoke about earlier.

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What, when is that coming up?

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Jackie Schmoldt: That

event is on September 15th.

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Okay.

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Up at the high school

by the football stadium.

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It's going to be amazing this year.

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We have the choir singing a Dear

Evan Hansen song, we've got the

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dance team cheering on the runners

and walkers, we've got two, guest

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speakers who are going to talk about

navigating life with a mental illness.

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And there's food and prizes and

it's just a really wonderful event.

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Fuzz Martin: Awesome, excellent.

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And how can people get

signed up for that event?

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Or, or when will there be more

information and where can they find it?

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Haley Jo Hubert: We are currently working

on providing more information but as of

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right now, I believe we do have a website

up by Mason Bemis, the vice president,

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or incoming, coming in vice president.

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He is, he's He and I, especially him,

we've done so much work and it's honestly

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great to see it all come together.

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And he currently has a website going

up right now that has all the sign up

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information that you can get there.

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Fuzz Martin: Perfect.

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Jackie Schmoldt: It's actually, a

website that we use called Run Sign Up.

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Okay.

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And you can search for the Youth

Impact Club 5K Butterfly Run Walk.

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The, link is active now.

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The earliest we've ever gotten it done.

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Fuzz Martin: Excellent.

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Good work.

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So.

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Alright, so that's coming up September

15th, and I'll post the link to that

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in the show notes of this episode.

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Looking forward, Haley Jo, you're

coming in as the president elect.

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What are some goals or projects

for the Youth Impact Club that you

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hope to achieve in the near future?

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Haley Jo Hubert: One really shocking thing

that I learned in QPR training is that the

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demographic with the, or age demographic

with the highest amount of suicides

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is actually the elderly population.

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Right now, mental health, it's

definitely seen as more of a

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teen or younger adult eye action.

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But the fact is that especially with

older generations having such stigma,

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especially since destigmatization is only

a newer event, It is really important

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to be able to get it past the high

school doors and into the real world.

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Zach has done an amazing job with helping

create the club population into something

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very powerful, and I want to take what he

has done and spread that beyond our doors,

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have really big impacts on our community.

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Perhaps bringing together the older

populations and the younger populations

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so that we can start getting to the heart

of the issue that goes down in West Bend.

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I feel like, I know, I know the Youth

Impact Club has a lot of potential

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that we can go far beyond what any

high school club has done before, and I

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would love to see that happen this year.

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Fuzz Martin: That's excellent, that's,

that's great to hear, and, and, again,

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very uplifting, and, and how can community

members support or get involved with the

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Youth Impact Club if they, if they hear

this and want to help make a difference?

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Zach Church: With the 5k, we accept

donations, I believe through the RunSignUp

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website, but, I know I've had a couple

of people reach out to me, and they

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say, Hey, I would like to donate some

money to the club, how can I do that?

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And then that just goes

straight through the school.

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But there, there are numerous ways,

participating in the events that, we host

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is a great way of getting involved, as

well as just donating money to the club.

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5k is a huge, great

opportunity to do that.

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We usually host a raffle as part of that

event as well, and all of those proceeds

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will go to the club and things like that.

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And Ms.

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Schmoldt, are we doing the Teams

system this year for the 5K?

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Jackie Schmoldt: Yes, we have

created an opportunity for other

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non profits to sign up as a team.

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And if they get at least 10 members,

we're gonna, give back to them 50 percent

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of the registrations for their club.

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Fuzz Martin: Oh, great.

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Excellent.

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Good way for a non profit to help make

some donations for their own club.

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Very good.

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Well, Zach, Haley, Jo, Mrs.

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Hoogester, and, Ms.

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Schmoldt, thank you all for coming in.

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The Youth Impact Club at West Bend

High School is obviously very powerful

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and, , Very needed organization.

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And I appreciate all that you're doing

for the students and the community.

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Thank you for coming in today.

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Thank

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Zach Church: you so much for having us.

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Haley Jo Hubert: Thank you very much.

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Thank you.

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Fuzz Martin: Thank you again to Zach

Church, Haley Jo Hubert, Melissa

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Hoogester, and Jackie Schmoldt from the

West Bend High School's Youth Impact Club.

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For joining me on this week's

episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

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As always, if you ever have an idea

for the show, please let me know.

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You can email me

fifteenwithfuzz@gmail.Com.

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That's fifteen spelled

out with fuzz at gmail.

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com.

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Or you can send in a form at fuzz.

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cc slash guest.

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That is fuzz.

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cc slash guest.

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That said, this is going to be

the last episode for a few weeks.

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I'm going to take a little break for

Memorial day, and then maybe I'll

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A couple of weeks after that, since

the kids are going to be getting done

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with school, my wife's a teacher.

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She'll be done with school and it's

a free show and a free country.

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I can do that.

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I can do that.

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So thank you for listening.

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About the Podcast

Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz
Showcasing the positive things happening in Washington County, Wisconsin.
Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz showcases positive people, events, and organizations in and around Washington County, Wisconsin, with host, Fuzz Martin. Fuzz is a local business owner (EPIC Creative) and a former radio personality (92.5 WBWI - now Buzz Country). New episodes launch on Tuesday mornings. https://fuzzmartin.com

Whether you're in West Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger, Hartford, Germantown, Richfield, Jackson, or anywhere else in the area, 15 Minutes with Fuzz serves the community with fun and positive people, places, events, and attractions.

About your host

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Fuzz Martin

Fuzz Martin is a partner and Chief Strategy Officer at EPIC Creative in West Bend, Wis.