Stories you might have missed from across Wisconsin.
Stanley – Stanley Correctional Institution prisoners work with nonprofit to build beds for local kids
Help sometimes comes from unlikely places, charities, neighbors or even… prisons. The Stanley Correctional Institution to be exact. Through a partnership with the national nonprofit “Sleep in Heavenly Peace” the institution has selected prisoners to build beds for children.
According to the organization’s team manager and Chippewa Valley chapter founder, out of the 400 chapters across the country, this is the first time a correctional facility has hosted the single day build a bed event. The institution is located 30 miles northeast of Eau Claire and is one of the 10 medium-security prisons for men in the state.
Through different long and short-term programming, prisoners have had opportunities to help multiple organizations, like training service animals through, “Can Do Canines’ Prison Puppy Program”, or food-packing for “Feed My Starving Children.
The Chippewa Valley area has Wisconsin’s second-highest poverty rate and researchers estimate 6,000 to 7,000 children there don’t have beds to sleep in. But a little can still go a long way and with the help of 60 prisoners, the program produced 22 beds. Full Story at the Wausau Herarld.
Madison – UW-Madison Students Launch Conservative ‘Federalist’
It’s one thing to start a podcast, any schmoe with a microphone can do that. It takes another level of commitment to start a new newspaper. But conservative students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are doing just that. Last week, they launched a new student publication called “The Madison Federalist”, to, “ “fill the void of conservative student journalism.”
Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Rothove said the Federalist will counter an imbalance in campus journalism, calling both the Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal “left-of-center.” The founding statement said, “The university’s major student publications do good journalism, but they have occasionally failed to hold the school accountable for its left-wing excesses.
Rothove said the Federalist plans to publish campus news on their Substack and hopes to have a print magazine twice a year. He said editorials will be conservative and news coverage will have some “conservative candy” but not “be super in your face, like Fox News openly right-wing, as much as we are just a non-liberal space.”
Rothove admits, “Yes, we are in the minority on this campus. I think that if we have a publication for conservative students, it will kind of help build a network.” Full story at The Daily Cardinal.
Altoona – Big pumpkin! Fond du Lac County man grows Wisconsin’s heaviest at 2,551 pounds
“There are three things I’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” Linus, The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Well, here is a Wisconsin great pumpkin we want to discuss. This year at the 2024 River Prairie Ginormous Pumpkin Festival weigh-off in Altoona, veteran grower Jim Ford took first place with his 2,551-pound Atlantic giant pumpkin.
Ford has been a giant pumpkin grower for almost 25 years. Growing his prize-winning gourds, in the town of Eldorado in Fond Du Lac County. Last year the heaviest topped at 2,420 pounds, however the world record remains at 2,749 pounds set by a Minnesota grower last year.
Ford states he learns something new every year for the competition and attributes his success to the community of growers and the non-profit Wisconsin Giant Pumpkin Growers club where they share tips and tricks from sharing seeds, education seminars, and more. But it’s not all fun and games, according to Ford, he has pumpkin friends for 11 months out of the year but then it becomes very very competitive. Full story at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
