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*FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
*Contact: Terry Testolin Executive Director, NHS of Richland County
terry@nhsrcwi.org
(608-647-4949)
Neighborhood Housing Services of
Richland County, WRCO-AM-FM Radio and community partners proudly present:
AMERICAN
STORIES to be performed by the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua on
April 28th in Richland Center, Wisconsin!
The 4th Annual Big Top Chautauqua -
NHS of Richland County community building fundraiser will be held in
Richland Center, on Saturday April 28th, 2012 at 7PM at the
Richland Center High School Auditorium, following 3 years of community
success with packed audiences and many standing ovations! This years
performance, a new show for Richland
Center is AMERICAN STORIES performed by the Lake Superior Big Top
Chautauqua Blue Canvas Orchestra. AMERICAN STORIES performed by the
nationally renowned Big Top Chautauqua performers featured weekly on Tent
Show Radioon the Wisconsin Public Radio Ideas Network is a retrospective
work focused on the people. These are the stories, the songs and faces
of those who came before the pioneers, the lumber barons, the lighthouse
keepers, the Voyageurs and the Native Tribes. Performed with their renowned
skill and stage craft and musical mastery, combined with Team Big Top
Chautauquas special powerful historical photographs with a power point and
giant screen, make AMERICAN STORIES a
beautiful experience, a walk back in time through some of the most poignant
stories and momentous episodes of our countrys founding. Songs
about Abraham Lincoln, the civil war, native Americans, the Civilian
Conservation Corps, Apostle Island light houses, the great lakes,
agriculture, instrumentals and many more are featured in this fabulous
multimedia show for all!
Just prior to the Big Top Chautauqua
AMERICAN STORIES performance at 7PM (interior theatre doors open at 6:30pm)
NHS of Richland County, GRACE and Richland County Performing Arts Council
are presenting for the second year in a row a community building,
storytelling and socializing event called DISCOVERYING
WISCONSINs PAST from 5pm 6:30pm, FREE entrance in the
glass atrium area next to the Auditorium. Featured events include:
*Story Telling - including Dan
Bomkamp of Muscoda, author of several books and a popular local speaker.
Nick Lichter from LaCrosse and Vice President of Organic Valley Logistics
will talk about his book on canoeing the entire length of the Mississippi!
* Music and local high school club
food stands;
*Wisconsin Made Products by Local Artisans for sale including H.O.B.
Hands-On Beekeeping
*Civil War enactors from the History Corps (outside with tents, weather
permitting)
*Green Built and Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Home Information
*Ho Chunk Housing and Community Development Agency Information
*Lake Superior Big Top Chautauquas traveling gift shop featuring CDs and
more!
Tickets
are available now and continue to be at the low price of $12 per
person in advance and $15 at the door. Richland Center and area ticket
outlets are: *Eds Family Food, *Auditorium Antiques, *Burnstads
Market-Richland Center, *Viroqua Food Coop. Tickets can also be purchased
through the Big Top Chautauqua Toll Free: 888-244-8368 or On Line:
www.bigtop.org (MasterCard and Visa accepted) Board Members
from the following partner organizations will also be selling tickets in the
area: NHS of Richland County, Richland County Performing Arts Council (RCPAC),
Greater Richland
Area Cancer Elimination (GRACE)
Also with the purchase of each ticket is a coupon on the back from CULVERs
good for a FREE single scoop of Fresh
Frozen Custard at the Richland Center CULVERs through July 31,
2012! Last years show sold out, get your tickets early!
Partner, recipient community
organizations receiving net funding from the partnership Big Top Chautauqua
fundraiser in 2012 include: NHS of Richland County, GRACE, Richland
County Performing Arts Council and the Richland High School District
Foundation. Strong community support of the 4th Annual Big
Top Chautauqua Community Fundraiser helps bring affordable, high quality
family entertainment to Richland County and our regional audience. In the
last three years over $27,000 in net proceeds were raised through near
capacity audiences and thanks to dozens of sponsors and contributors. Net
proceeds in 2012 will be utilized as follows by partner groups: *NHS
Community Building and Organizing (CBO) in NHSs target neighborhood in
Richland Center, *GRACE Assist Cancer patients, *RCPAC- Maintenance and
restoration of the Historic Municipal City Auditorium in Richland Center,
*Richland School District Foundation Scholarships
The Annual Big Top Chautauqua NHS
Community Building and Fundraising event has received major Sponsorship
Funding from the following: *WRCO-AM-FM
Radio, founding and champion Sponsor *Ho Chunk Housing and Community
Development Agency, *American Family Insurance, *Schreiber Foods,
*NeighborWorks America America.
According to NHS of Richland County Executive Director Terry Testolin, This
year we have a record 46 community business and individual sponsors who are
at the center of our success, the most ever showing how the community is
strongly supporting our team fundraiser!
Richland Center Tourism, M&I, Culvers, Jones Chevrolet, the Richland
Observer, Shopping News and State Farm Insurance are helping greatly
again in addition to our generous Major Sponsors. For more information on
Big Top IV and a full list of Big Top Chautauqua IV Sponsors who we
encourage the public to patronize please see our posters in the community
and our website
www.nhsrcwi.org
In the words of Mark Twain
according to the Big Top Chautauqua website
www.bigtop.org : Chautauqua
is a place where you can be educated as well as entertained and not know the
difference!
Lake
Superior Big Top Chautauqua celebrated a fabulous 25th Silver
Anniversary in 2011 with dozens of great events and over 28,000 attendees at
the Big Tent in Washburn in Bayfield County way up north near Lake
Superior. Many local folks have travelled to the delightful experience of
Big Tops tent shows in Washburn and are now enjoying the shows here in
Richland Center. NHSs annual Big Top Chautauqua partnership fundraiser and
community building event also provides those who are regular fans and part
of the Big Top Chautauqua family to show their support of a great Wisconsin
tradition we are honored to be a part of here in Richland Center!
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Residents
Participate in Community Training in Kansas City and South Dakota
For Immediate Release
October 21, 2011
Contact:
Chelsea Wunnicke,
chelsea@nhsrcwi.org, 608-647-4949 x 301
October 2011--A team of 4
residents from Haseltine Court Richland Center and 1 NHS of Richland County
staff person travelled to Kansas City for an annual Community Leadership
Institute sponsored by Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) and NeighborWorks
America. The 4 days of training were an introduction to resident lead
community engagement and the participants took classes in: getting people
involved in small towns, working with local universities, making green a
priority in your neighborhood, and youth and adults working together. With
over 900 participants from across the country attending this training, NHS
of Richland County was proud to be represented by this team of NHS-built
homeowners from the Haseltine Court neighborhood. One key result of
attending is the opportunity for the team to write a grant for $2000 for an
action plan in their neighborhood
In September, another team
utilized a grant for a peer-to-peer learning opportunity to travel to
South Dakota. Once there, NeighborWorks Dakota Home Resources,
headquartered in Deadwood, introduced the team to their concept of
neighborhood block clubs. In a block club, residents of a certain city
block or neighborhood have organized themselves to address issues in their
community and to increase connections between neighbors. This team,
consisting of Chelsea Wunnicke, Jeanetta Kirkpatrick and Elaine Hanson-Hysell
look forward to bringing these ideas back to the Haseltine Court
neighborhood in Richland Center. Elaine noted that the most impressive
thing we saw was a neighborhood in Rapid City, South Dakota that was plagued
with crime and neighbors who were afraid to even come out of their homes!
With the help of establishing a block club and community garden, the
residents of Lemmon Ave. are taking their streets back for safety and
neighborly connections.
NHS of Richland County is a private, non-profit,
community controlled organization that has been active in Richland County
for over 25 years. As part of the national NeighborWorks America network,
we are Neighbors Helping Neighbors committed to educating residents in
affordable housing services and revitalizing our area communities. More
information on NHS of Richland County can be obtained by calling NHS at
608-647-4949 or visiting www.nhsrcwi.org.
Thoughts from
Participant Elaine Hanson-Hysell
The trip to South Dakota
made me aware that at this time in our society, when we are facing so many
problems, one of the most useful things people can do is build their own
community from the bottom up. We as a culture have to move past the intense
individualism that has been idealized and return to the power of belonging
to each other and this glorious planet that we call home. All the latest
research shows that human beings are hard wired to belong and be part of the
larger whole.
The block club in Rapid
City included so many partners from the city: police, city council, local
businesses as well as the local NeighborWorks organization, allowing people
to develop skills, build relationships, find their voice, and become
invested in their neighborhood and their city. Lemmon Ave. is not a wealthy
neighborhood, but it is rich in the things that can't be bought. It was an
inspiration to listen to the tale of their neighborhood and the impact the
community garden is having on so many people, both owners and renters. My
hope is to see neighborhoods in Richland Center discover how they can be
participants in the wider city as well as support their neighbors right next
door.
-Elaine Hanson-Hysell
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