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Welcome to Doing Good 6220.
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Our goal is to help Rotarians do even better at doing good in their communities and around the world.
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I'm co-host Randy Winter, along with my counterpart, Chuck Reynolds.
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It is a giant-sized raffle, so big it took a freighter to pull it off.
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Today, we're exploring a raffle held by the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club with two members of their club on hand to help reveal their secrets and how they pulled it off.
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But first, I'm gonna send it over to Chuck Reynolds for our good question of the day.
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Chuck? Thank you, Randy, and since we are talking about the Great Lakes today the question we will all answer at the end of today's program is simply this: What is your fondest Great Lakes memory? So whether you're out on a boat or on the- shore or watching a storm roll in, whatever it might be, what is your fondest Great Lakes memory? So we'll talk about that at the end of the show.
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All right.
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And with that, we'll go ahead and get this started.
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Randy gave a bit of a tease there, but maybe a high-level overview of this raffle.
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What were you raffling off? The price of the tickets, how many tickets did you try to sell? That sort of thing Sure, happy to take the lead on that one.
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So we historically had done a tour of the shipyards in Sturgeon Bay, and for a variety of reasons, we were unable to actually tour our shipyards, so we had to find a replacement fundraiser.
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We did a few things the last few years, and then this last year we had the opportunity to do a large raffle, which included passage on a Great Lakes freighter.
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We sold 150 tickets at $200 each.
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We feel that was the sweet spot.
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It probably took us two months just to decide on that.
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And so that ended up raising $30,000 for our club to use for our projects and our work in the community.
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Wow.
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I should note that you're hearing the voice of Amy Conley, and the other voice the other person we're interviewing is Brian Henrichs, and they are both members of the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club.
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So that's a lot.
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So tell us then what did the winner or winners, how many chosen tickets, just one I'm guessing, and what did the winner get? So the winner gets passage on a Great Lakes freighter steamship.
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The exact date will be determined later, the exact steamship determined later.
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But the passage will be for four to six people, depending on the steamship.
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And Brian can talk a little bit more about that.
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Sure.
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Interlake has multiple boats.
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We- we're pretty confident it's gonna be one of the 1,000-footers.
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And the, when Interlake does this they do it primarily for their clients, but the the three state rooms they actually put an extra person on the boat so they in this case the winner will have their own steward butler as well.
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And the food on the steamships is incredible to start with, but it becomes more incredible when they do these.
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So yeah, Interlake does this up right and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity that you can't buy.
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I had just read, inspired by the fact that I'd been up in as a district governor up to Lake Superior, et cetera there's a recent book written called Gales in November, I think, about the Edmund Fitzgerald, and it's a very detailed account of the industry and these boats and the Edmund Fitzgerald in particular, but I learned through reading that book about these state rooms, and that these shipping companies would take preferred, clients as a sort of a relationship development sort of thing.
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But they described it as just, first class travel.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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As long as you're not traveling in November.
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Yeah.
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Trying to make one of the final runs.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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So this is a, maybe 1,000-foot ship, so give us a comparison to another boat that someone would know.
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And where would this passage be to on this freighter? Actually, Amy why don't you you were more involved in what the options were gonna be with the folks at Interlake Yeah.
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So this year they're doing round trip rather than one-way trip.
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In the past it had been get on at one port, get off at another port, which made it very challenging for the winners, right? So if I'm driving, say, from Sturgeon Bay and I get on in Duluth, but then I end up somewhere in Ohio how do I get back- to get my car in Duluth and then back home to Sturgeon Bay? So this year it's gonna be round trip either out of Marquette, Michigan, or out of Duluth.
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So again, it'll kinda depend on the ship.
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And the length of the cruise is anywhere from three and a half days to five days, again, depending on, as they like to remind us, they are still a freighter company, they are not a cruise line.
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So it's working, so it really is you might be awakened at 3:00 in the morning, right? 'Cause it's time to dock and unload.
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So those sorts of things going on.
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So there were a lot of unknowns behind the scenes when we were marketing this as well.
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And I remember reading in the in the raffle application or whatever, there's this form you had to fill out or...
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I guess it was just all "This is what you're in for if you win."
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And it was really long.
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It was long, but it also was like you're gonna have to be able to demonstrate you can climb a ladder- up the side of this thing.
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And so I thought that was interesting as well, it's there were some interesting requirements.
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So how did this idea come about? And I guess it, it takes a special relationship, is that correct, Brian, to be able to- No come up with an idea like this and get it into motion? Yeah, I work in the port and harbor industry and I build ports and harbors all over North America, and I also fund them.
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So that said I built a relationship with the CEO Brendan O'Connor at Interlake over the years, and I knew that they did this.
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In fact, they had done it for another not-for-profit in Sturgeon Bay a couple years ago three years ago.
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So I reached out to Brendan when I knew that the other f- fundraising opportunity that we had in Sturgeon Bay was sunsetting.
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And initially what I was trying to do was just get a tour of a freighter, one of their freighters, a thousand footer, when it was docked in Sturgeon Bay for repairs over the winter.
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And Brendan was more than happy to do that.
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However, we weren't able to get the shipyard to allow that to happen either.
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So then- Brandon said, we do these these voyages, these passages on a freighter for some charities."
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And so that's when he started to see if he could make it work, and our goal was to make this work in 2020 five.
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Get it a- aligned in 2024.
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But we weren't able to do it.
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They were over-committed with clients and another charity.
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When it came to 2020 six, 2025, '26 we were able to make it work.
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It is something that this steamship company, which is they own the largest amount of freighters on the Great Lakes, but they do it for charities, they do it for their clients.
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A very ethically ethical business, just wonderful people to work with.
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And my contact there has just been a real treat to not only call a client, but a friend Yeah.
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So as we're talking about this it's probably is good to emphasize that, y- don't pick up the phone and start calling the fre- Like, th- i- this is not something you could just call the switchboard and say, "Hey," like you'd go down to Kwik Trip and ask for some gift cards.
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It's a pretty big deal that they reserve for their clients and particular people.
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But that doesn't mean you can't use this idea.
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Yeah.
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Right now at the district level we're contemplating or we're in the process of getting a raffle for some nice Packer tickets that'll support RYLA.
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And so let your imagination roll.
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Even that idea of just the touring the shipyards, touring a freighter.
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You look around your area.
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In Waupaca we have a foundry that they give tours, and I wonder how you could maybe set something up to be even particularly special there to really get a n- behind-the-scenes look.
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But yeah, that's that's really really awesome, and great idea.
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I think that one of the things when I joined Rotary in Sturgeon Bay, we...
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I moved to Sturgeon Bay six years ago now, and, incredible folk- people, incredible club, but I thought they...
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i, in my career I don't think small.
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And I know the effort that goes into a a $100,000 project isn't that much different than one that goes into a $10 million project.
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So I've, I tried to bring that to the table, too, about fundraising, and that's why I was thinking about what can we do that is gonna bring a, as much money as we can for the great things that our club does for the community.
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Yeah.
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That is a- So I think that's a message.
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Don't think small.
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Yes.
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I was just gonna ask you to repeat that again 'cause it is so incredibly important.
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You think about...
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i've visited all the clubs in the district, and I saw different types of fundraisers and I know with one of them at least I said, "You may wanna rethink that."
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You're putting a lot of effort in and a lot of...
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if I were a member at this club, I'd feel like, oh, my God, I'm shackled to this, every-week project that we have to do to raise a few thousand dollars by the end of the year.
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It just didn't, So yeah you're exactly right.
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Look around- Don't assume you have to do what you've done in the past and don't be afraid to think big.
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That's great advice.
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Amy- Sorry it looks like you had something to say there too.
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Oh I was gonna say just feeding off of what you said before about the foundry, right? Each of our communities has something unique.
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If you can figure out what that is like we used to do the tour of the shipyard.
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But then also, yes, think big.
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Think about the volunteer hours that go into a project.
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But then that ticket sweet spot.
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So we did talk to another club who receives the same donation, and they had previously done $10 tickets and sold 6,000 of these tickets.
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Yeah and that's a lot of paperwork, and I know we're gonna get into that back end of the raffle requirements depending on, at least here in Wisconsin, there's a lot involved with having a raffle license.
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So then they changed it to selling, I don't know what they were doing, 100 tickets maybe at $600 each last year So I followed up with them to see.
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They did sell all the tickets at 600, but they said it was really hard to sell the tickets at 600.
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So that's why I stressed earlier, we spent a lot of time talking about that dollar amount, right? Like, how much are you personally willing to spend on something, right? And knowing that for many in a raffle, it is a charitable donation.
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It is not that they're gonna win the prize.
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Yeah.
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That's awesome.
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And Amy, you had, we, the club had people that bought multiple tickets too, didn't we? Yes.
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The majority of the people did only buy one.
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We did have one person buy five.
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We had a few people who bought two.
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We had people who bought from, I should have relooked, but I believe it was 17 states.
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Wow.
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We had Oregon, Florida, Arizona.
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We know Florida and Arizona could have been some of our snowbirds.
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Sure.
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A lot of East Coasters, and then of course a lot of Midwest, Great Lakes region folks.
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But yeah, I connected with a high school friend actually, 'cause I was- the one, I'm filling out the name on the raffle ticket, and I'm like, "Hi, are you actually this person?" They're like, "Yeah."
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I'm like, "Oh, my maiden name was such and such."
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They're like, "Oh my God, small world."
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You don't have to have the prize donated either, right? No.
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We're doing this thing locally for an e-bike.
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We just asked the retailer, "Could you give us your cost? Gi- give us the bike at cost."
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And he did.
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So that was worth $600 right there.
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So we're buying the bike at cost.
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He gets a little promo, and if we sell all the tickets, we'll make, it's, $4500 I think.
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But it's for very little effort, we're not thinking quite as big, but it's, we just needed to fill a fundraising gap, and we did it.
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So it's y- you don't think you have to get everything donated.
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You can just find something that, you know at a reasonable value that people, And the other thing is you want something that a lot of people would covet.
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A lot of people- really want to do that thing.
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You don't wanna do something so specialized that, only very few people would be interested in it, randy.
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Yeah, so the question, and you kinda mentioned it Amy, was about the raffle license, and did your club have one? And tell us the process of going through and getting a license if you didn't have one and why that's so important for this.
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Yep.
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So in the state of Wisconsin, you're required to have a raffle license if you're doing a raffle like this where you're selling tickets for a period of time, or even if you're just doing like a one-day raffle at, say you're doing a Polio Plus event and doing a raffle there.
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So you're required to have a raffle license in the state of Wisconsin.
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There's an application process.
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It takes anywhere between a month and three months to get your raffle license approved, and then there's things you can and can't do.
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I think in the past we all remember that churches, not to throw churches under the bus, but they would mail you raffle tickets as a member to sell.
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You can no longer mail raffle tickets.
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Up until two years ago, you couldn't sell raffle tickets online.
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Luckily, now you can sell raffle tickets online, which is what made this so easy for us.
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We are, were already working with a software system for ticketing ticket sales.
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And they had the ability to also sell those raffle tickets for us on that software system, so it was great.
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You have to track...
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so I still had to do a written paper ticket for everyone who bought online.
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That was part of the Wisconsin state law.
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So I had to hand write those 200 tickets we sold.
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We have to keep those on hand for one year.
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And I have to report, just like I did here.
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We had X number of tickets for a certain amount.
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This is what we made.
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I have to keep this ticket stub.
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This is our winner.
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I have to keep that, though for seven years.
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So there's just all of those little things, and you have to report back at the end of each year to renew your raffle license.
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And there's a cost, which I don't know off the top of my head.
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It's $25.
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Thank you.
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I was gonna say- Yeah, it's minimal it's 25 or $35- Yeah for your raffle license.
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Yeah.
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So the, The, a reminder that we have show notes for this.
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And so I will provide links in the show notes to the raffle license application page or whatever, State of Wisconsin, so you'll have that.
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And also Amy will get from you the link to the whatever the ticket software that you used.
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Yeah.
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There are various options for doing that as well, some are more- Yeah, we- expensive than others.
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Yeah, we used Zeffy, which is completely free.
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I'm the executive director of our United Way here and we use it for United Way, but a lot of our other nonprofits use it as well.
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It's a great tool, and it...
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We could set it to sell those 200 tickets, and it...
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or 150 tickets, excuse me, and it turned off automatically.
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So that was the great part, too.
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I didn't have to be sitting there at 10:00 one night being like- "Oh, God, I gotta turn this website off."
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So that was really nice.
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And did that system, that Zeffy, did, does that allow for a person then to pay for the ticket online- Yep as well? Yep.
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So they could pay for the ticket online.
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They could also make an additional donation if they wanted.
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And we had several people do that.
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I think we raised another probably $250.
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Since- Wow this was already a higher price ticket we didn't get as many of those additional donations.
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But we used this when we did a tour, a boat tour thing a few years ago, and we did get several additional donations then, too.
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So people will round up that purchase or donate specifically to your club.
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Excellent.
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Well- so you explained well the raffle the idea and I guess the oth- the next question I have is anything else that we haven't covered that you're like, "You know what? Be sure you know this if you're going into," be for either you or Brian or Amy I think the marketing for this one was key because this wasn't for everyone.
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So we said earlier, if it's an e-bike, right? Almost everyone wants an e-bike.
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Packer tickets, a suite for a Bucks game, right? Those are things most people would want.
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This, I will say, I did buy a ticket.
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But this was not something I would have been like, "Oh my God, I have to buy 10 tickets.
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I have to win this."
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So we were really relying on our guest list from our f- our previous, our shipyard tour fundraiser that we had done, knowing that those are people who are interested in the Great Lakes freighters.
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And then we relied a lot on Facebook.
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So there are a lot of Facebook pages dedicated to all of these different ship watcher groups, boat nerd groups, those sorts of things.
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And one of our members is really savvy with social media that was kinda his job, to push this out to all of those different Facebook groups.
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I thought that you did you and the other folks did a really good job when we did the drawing and how we set that up, too, and invited the people that bought.
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G- I, I think that would be helpful for those other clubs looking at this, how you actually did the final drawing.
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Sure.
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So our club does the fifth Thursday as a social, so we're normally a lunch club.
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The fifth Thursday of the month we do the evening social.
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So we held that at a location that was right on the water.
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So tying that in with the theme.
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And then we did invite everyone who purchased a ticket.
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So with that online system, I have their email addresses, so I was able to email them, "Hey, a reminder, the drawing's gonna be on April 30th at 6:00 PM.
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If you're close to Sturgeon Bay, feel free to join us.
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Cash bar, complimentary pizza," that sort of thing.
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And we did have quite a few people join us, which was really nice to see.
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Members did a great job of engaging in conversation with them, talking about Rotary and the work that we do in the community.
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Yeah and I remember...
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I don't know if I saw this on a Facebook Post or if I watched it live, right? We did.
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We recorded it, yeah.
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We had it as Facebook Live.
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'Cause I'm like, I remember watching it, and I think Mich- it was Michelle Lowery, right? Yep.
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And she did a wonderful job of talking about the club, what you've done in the community, and extending a j- a gracious invitation to anybody- Yeah present who wanted to be part of the club to, to consider joining.
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So a really nice job following through there on the membership front.
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Great job.
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Wow.
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Thank you.
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Any other key pieces of advice if someone is going to do a raffle at this kind of level this big? Anything else that you guys can think of? I would say from doing other raffles last year we did a calendar raffle which is a whole different beast in and of itself for cash prizes.
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But I would say that's where you really can get your club members engaged.
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The e-bikes that you were talking about, Packer tickets, I think that's more of an opportunity then for club members to have those physical tickets in hand to be able to talk to their friends, businesses, not only about buying tickets, but what Rotary is and what your mission and purpose are in the community.
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So I think doing paper raffle tickets when possible is a great way for that outreach to let people know about your club.
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And I, I would assume, Brian, because of that relationship that you had, that your advice would be, build a relationship.
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You just don't wanna call some company out of the blue and say- "hey, give us this package," which is This is probably a package that's worth 10, $15,000 to get if you were to value this, I'm guessing to ride along on a s- a freighter like this.
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You need to have that good relationship, correct? Yeah.
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To your point, yeah, it was three staterooms.
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If you were to convert that to a Great Lakes cruise, that's, you're right, around $15,000.
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Yeah, g- think about who your business leaders are in your community or your region and, do they have something unique that may, they may be able to offer? I'll reiterate, think big.
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And one thing that probably most clubs have is someone that owns an Airbnb in Florida or Gulf Shores or Arizona.
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I think that's an opportunity that a lot of clubs could take a look at.
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Would somebody be willing to donate a week or five days or even, a five week days of one of their rentals? And then you've got something that multiple people could use, not just one winner at that point.
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And I think that was really key.
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As Amy said, we had a couple people that bought more than one ticket.
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One individual bought five.
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Making sure that you sell the value.
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I hate using the word sell, but you convey the value of what you are raffling off and that it isn't just for one person potentially.
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So anyway.
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Yeah.
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Excellent And I will say, be sure then to thank the company.
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So we've talked, obviously Brian connected with Brandon, the CEO, right away, but how are we gonna recognize them? They've said please don't ask in the next year.
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But, you can ask in two years, right? Positioning that ask, being respectful of their wishes.
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So any company, whether you're buying something at cost or if they're donating it, really be that good steward.
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And obviously as a professional fundraiser, that's ingrained in me, but I think just making sure, we respect their wishes, how do they wanna be recognized and things, and then being sure to thank them.
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Wonderful.
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You raised $30,000.
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What are you gonna do with the money? So lots of great service projects in our community.
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So scholarships we just wrapped up our scholarships for this year.
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We usually give out $10,000 in scholarships annually, both technical scholarships and then advanced four-year degree scholarships.
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And then a lot of our communities do other work or a lot of our other committees do work in the community.
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So we have an environmental committee.
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They've done some work with Little Lake, which is a park area where we've had to do some restoration on that lake.
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Crossroads, which is one of our environmental preserves.
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We have our human and community development committee, so investing in some of those different human service nonprofits in the community, supporting work of childcare, housing, mental health.
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We've done those things in the past with some larger gifts even of $10,000 towards affordable housing.
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Five, $6,000 towards affordable childcare.
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So a lot of work in those areas.
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And then internationally, our international committee has done some work with a local Ukraine relief effort that we're affiliated with, things like that.
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So both that local and that international focus, which is I think something, as Rotarians, we appreciate.
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All good things.
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You've been listening to our interview with Amy Conley and Brian Henrichs from the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club, and we'll return to learn more about them in just a moment.
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And we're back with Amy and Brian from the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay.
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In the first half of the show, we talked about their Great Lakes Freighter Cruise raffle and how successful that was, and now we're gonna learn a little bit more about them personally.
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So I'm gonna ask both of you, just give me a little bit of your background.
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We'll start with you, Amy.
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Where are you from? Are you from Sturgeon Bay? And what do you do? You alluded to that already, but tell us a little bit about yourself personally.
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Sure.
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So I grew up in Pulaski, Hobart area near, near Green Bay.
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And I was a 4H kid, so volunteering, community service is just very natural to me.
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After a variety of jobs right out of college, I landed here in Sturgeon Bay at the ripe old age of 27.
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And I was hired as the first full-time executive director for the United Way here in Door County, and I'm still here.
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So you can all do the math.
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Everybody always says now we know how old you are."
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Yep, I've been here 26 years.
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Grown the organization and I joined Rotary probably 24 years ago.
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Service is just ingrained in with me.
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It's what my parents did.
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It's how they raised us, and then that 4H component.
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So I love Rotary.
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At first, it really was the work commitment.
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This is how to get to know the business people I need to know for my job, and I think that's not to be underrated, right? That networking piece of it is so valuable.
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But when I served as p- president last year, I said this a few times, that, Rotary is my people.
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This is my place.
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I love our club.
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I love the sense of community in our club.
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And it gives me the opportunity to meet great people such as Brian 'cause otherwise our paths would have never crossed.
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Wow.
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That's awesome.
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And you I- I just So you were put in a position of executive director of United Way office at 27 years old.
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At 27.
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I was their- that's something right there I was their first- You must have been impressive full-time executive director, so not a huge responsibility.
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I had a one part-time staff, and we were raising about $300,000 a year.
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So obviously we've grown in those 26 years I've been here.
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But yeah, somebody took a chance on some crazy young kid who thought she could change the world, and she kinda has.
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Yeah.
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Awesome.
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Yeah.
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So Brian? Brian? I am from Reedsburg, Wisconsin.
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I grew up and took over the family dairy farm in my late teens.
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I got tired of milking cows in my late 20s, and I went back to the University of Wisconsin and got a degree in the School of Agriculture.
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And right away started working for an engineering firm out of Madison.
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And I've been working in the engineering world for- 40, no, 50 years.
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Wow.
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Ended up matriculating into the, developed a port and harbor practice for a firm out of Green Bay, and part of that was finding state and federal funding for projects.
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Initially my projects were in the million-dollar range and so finding state money.
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But then I got really good at finding federal money for port and harbor projects.
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And I retired about six years ago, and then another firm teased me out of retirement- to come and work for them part-time to put together a funding practice.
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And so that's what I'm doing now for an engineering company.
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I still do the port and harbor engineering, but I also I run the funding practice.
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And they just totaled it.
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I've I've secured just under a billion dollars for port and harbor projects- Wow throughout America as of the end of 2025.
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So i- it's been fun.
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I'm doing it because it's fun.
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As far as Rotary, we...
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When I retired the first time we moved to Door County, and I was looking for an organization to do some good for the community and to meet people, and the Rotary was just a m- natural fit.
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Exceptionally welcoming people.
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Love the mission, love the outcomes of their mission.
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So that's how I ended up at the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club.
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Yeah.
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I just have to...
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what is your...
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The port and harbor are we as a nation under-built- Oh, yes in that area? That's what I assumed.
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Oh, yeah.
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And most of...
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There are still a lot of World War II era port infrastructure that's being utilized right now.
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Yeah.
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I guess it really came to during the pandemic.
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I guess it was a pandemic, right? You had all those ships just sitting off the- Yeah like Los Angeles, like where else can they go? Yeah.
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And there just wasn't...
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There's not enough ports and harbors were- And one, one project I'm really proud of is in Port Milwaukee.
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I built the first, transatlantic port for shipping grain out of Wisconsin and the Midwest.
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There weren't usually the grain would get put on trucks or rail and taken to East Coast ports, and we're shipping transatlantic ocean-going vessels out of Milwaukee now.
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Change the skyline and change the market for Wisconsin agriculture.
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Yeah.
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I was gonna say the trickle-down economic impacts of that sort of thing have gotta be humongous.
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Yeah.
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Just humongous.
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Yeah Terrific.
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Randy Should we go to the good question? I don't have any other questions.
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I think it's time for the good question of the day.
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All right.
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I could talk to Brian about ports and harbors all day long.
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All right, so the question was pretty simple: What is your fondest Great Lakes memory? Randy? Okay, so I'll start.
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And eh, just a family vacation a number of years ago.
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My wife and daughter and I stayed on Mackinac Island.
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So when you're at Mackinac, you are at Lake Huron, but you can also, as you're driving across the Mackinac Bridge, you're seeing Lake Michigan.
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And we decided that we were gonna go up through the UP of Michigan on the way home.
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So we went up and went over to Munising and Marquette, and we were able to see Lake Superior.
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In one day we saw three of the five Great Lakes, so that was a cool thing.
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Our daughter was like, "Wow, that's pretty impressive."
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I'm sure other people have probably seen more, in a day, but for us, that was a pretty good deal, seeing three of five in one day.
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Yeah.
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So Chuck, what about you? When my wife and I moved back to Wisconsin seven years ago, we had these plans to take a lot of day trips and stuff like that, but it wasn't until last year that I saw Lake Superior for the first time.
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Just, I just, grew up in Wisconsin, but just never got up there.
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But I have to say that the thing that I'm probably the, when I write this question down, the first thing that occurred to me was when I, my when I was a kid, my family go camping and over in Ludington, and the sand dunes over there, and I just have a very vivid memory of that area and the beach and the water, and the sand dunes.
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And, a- as just a secret gem that if you showed somebody a picture of that area and said, "Where are you?" They would have no clue- whatsoever.
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The last place they would mention would be Michigan.
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Yeah.
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So yeah, it's just, for some reason, that just came to mind.
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Amy? Having grown up in Green Bay essentially there's so many memories.
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As you guys are talking, I'm like, "Okay.
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Oh that, that."
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I think two that stand out sailing on Lake Superior and then the sand dunes.
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Yes, the sand dunes in Michigan are incredible.
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Living here in Door County, I have to say I try to remind myself how blessed I am and how fortunate I am every day.
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So those sunrises and those sunsets are precious to me.
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So any time I can get up early, or now that the sun sets at, almost 9:00 to sit on the beach somewhere and watch that sunset that's incredible to me.
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And Brian? My wife and I own a pretty good sized boat, and we took it to Isle Royale during COVID, when the only time you could get...
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They shut down the ferries during COVID, so the only way you could get to Isle Royale was by float plane or your own boat.
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So we virtually had the island to ourselves.
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Wow.
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So having Isle Royale with maybe 20 other people on the entire island, that was a very unique and very special experience.
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The moose and everything were just and wolves.
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We did get to see some wolves too.
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They were just, since they didn't have people around, they became very tame for that period of time.
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So yeah, that was a very special experience.
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Wow.
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That's amazing.
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How long were you there? 10 days.
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Wow.
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That's amazing.
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All great experiences related to the Great Lakes.
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And that's a wrap for this episode of Doing Good 6220.
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Special thanks to our guests Amy Conley and Bryan Henrichs of the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay for their story about the Great Lakes Freighter Cruise Raffle.
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Please share this episode with other members of your club or connections you may have across Rotary, and check out our growing list of episodes, and if there's a topic you'd like to learn about or a person you'd like us to feature on Doing Good 6220, you can email us.
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Our email address is part of the show notes.
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I'm Randy Winter, and on behalf of Chuck Reynolds, thanks for joining us and for doing your part as a Rotarian to make your community and the world better for all
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Welcome to Doing Good 6220.
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Our goal is to help Rotarians do even better at doing good in their communities and around the world.
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I'm co-host Randy Winter, along with my counterpart, Chuck Reynolds.
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It is a giant-sized raffle, so big it took a freighter to pull it off.
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Today, we're exploring a raffle held by the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club with two members of their club on hand to help reveal their secrets and how they pulled it off.
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But first, I'm gonna send it over to Chuck Reynolds for our good question of the day.
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Chuck? Thank you, Randy, and since we are talking about the Great Lakes today the question we will all answer at the end of today's program is simply this: What is your fondest Great Lakes memory? So whether you're out on a boat or on the- shore or watching a storm roll in, whatever it might be, what is your fondest Great Lakes memory? So we'll talk about that at the end of the show.
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All right.
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And with that, we'll go ahead and get this started.
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Randy gave a bit of a tease there, but maybe a high-level overview of this raffle.
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What were you raffling off? The price of the tickets, how many tickets did you try to sell? That sort of thing Sure, happy to take the lead on that one.
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So we historically had done a tour of the shipyards in Sturgeon Bay, and for a variety of reasons, we were unable to actually tour our shipyards, so we had to find a replacement fundraiser.
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We did a few things the last few years, and then this last year we had the opportunity to do a large raffle, which included passage on a Great Lakes freighter.
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We sold 150 tickets at $200 each.
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We feel that was the sweet spot.
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It probably took us two months just to decide on that.
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And so that ended up raising $30,000 for our club to use for our projects and our work in the community.
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Wow.
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I should note that you're hearing the voice of Amy Conley, and the other voice the other person we're interviewing is Brian Henrichs, and they are both members of the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club.
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So that's a lot.
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So tell us then what did the winner or winners, how many chosen tickets, just one I'm guessing, and what did the winner get? So the winner gets passage on a Great Lakes freighter steamship.
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The exact date will be determined later, the exact steamship determined later.
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But the passage will be for four to six people, depending on the steamship.
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And Brian can talk a little bit more about that.
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Sure.
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Interlake has multiple boats.
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We- we're pretty confident it's gonna be one of the 1,000-footers.
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And the, when Interlake does this they do it primarily for their clients, but the the three state rooms they actually put an extra person on the boat so they in this case the winner will have their own steward butler as well.
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And the food on the steamships is incredible to start with, but it becomes more incredible when they do these.
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So yeah, Interlake does this up right and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity that you can't buy.
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I had just read, inspired by the fact that I'd been up in as a district governor up to Lake Superior, et cetera there's a recent book written called Gales in November, I think, about the Edmund Fitzgerald, and it's a very detailed account of the industry and these boats and the Edmund Fitzgerald in particular, but I learned through reading that book about these state rooms, and that these shipping companies would take preferred, clients as a sort of a relationship development sort of thing.
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But they described it as just, first class travel.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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As long as you're not traveling in November.
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Yeah.
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Trying to make one of the final runs.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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So this is a, maybe 1,000-foot ship, so give us a comparison to another boat that someone would know.
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And where would this passage be to on this freighter? Actually, Amy why don't you you were more involved in what the options were gonna be with the folks at Interlake Yeah.
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So this year they're doing round trip rather than one-way trip.
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In the past it had been get on at one port, get off at another port, which made it very challenging for the winners, right? So if I'm driving, say, from Sturgeon Bay and I get on in Duluth, but then I end up somewhere in Ohio how do I get back- to get my car in Duluth and then back home to Sturgeon Bay? So this year it's gonna be round trip either out of Marquette, Michigan, or out of Duluth.
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So again, it'll kinda depend on the ship.
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And the length of the cruise is anywhere from three and a half days to five days, again, depending on, as they like to remind us, they are still a freighter company, they are not a cruise line.
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So it's working, so it really is you might be awakened at 3:00 in the morning, right? 'Cause it's time to dock and unload.
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So those sorts of things going on.
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So there were a lot of unknowns behind the scenes when we were marketing this as well.
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And I remember reading in the in the raffle application or whatever, there's this form you had to fill out or...
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I guess it was just all "This is what you're in for if you win."
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And it was really long.
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It was long, but it also was like you're gonna have to be able to demonstrate you can climb a ladder- up the side of this thing.
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And so I thought that was interesting as well, it's there were some interesting requirements.
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So how did this idea come about? And I guess it, it takes a special relationship, is that correct, Brian, to be able to- No come up with an idea like this and get it into motion? Yeah, I work in the port and harbor industry and I build ports and harbors all over North America, and I also fund them.
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So that said I built a relationship with the CEO Brendan O'Connor at Interlake over the years, and I knew that they did this.
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In fact, they had done it for another not-for-profit in Sturgeon Bay a couple years ago three years ago.
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So I reached out to Brendan when I knew that the other f- fundraising opportunity that we had in Sturgeon Bay was sunsetting.
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And initially what I was trying to do was just get a tour of a freighter, one of their freighters, a thousand footer, when it was docked in Sturgeon Bay for repairs over the winter.
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And Brendan was more than happy to do that.
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However, we weren't able to get the shipyard to allow that to happen either.
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So then- Brandon said, we do these these voyages, these passages on a freighter for some charities."
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And so that's when he started to see if he could make it work, and our goal was to make this work in 2020 five.
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Get it a- aligned in 2024.
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But we weren't able to do it.
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They were over-committed with clients and another charity.
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When it came to 2020 six, 2025, '26 we were able to make it work.
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It is something that this steamship company, which is they own the largest amount of freighters on the Great Lakes, but they do it for charities, they do it for their clients.
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A very ethically ethical business, just wonderful people to work with.
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And my contact there has just been a real treat to not only call a client, but a friend Yeah.
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So as we're talking about this it's probably is good to emphasize that, y- don't pick up the phone and start calling the fre- Like, th- i- this is not something you could just call the switchboard and say, "Hey," like you'd go down to Kwik Trip and ask for some gift cards.
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It's a pretty big deal that they reserve for their clients and particular people.
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But that doesn't mean you can't use this idea.
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Yeah.
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Right now at the district level we're contemplating or we're in the process of getting a raffle for some nice Packer tickets that'll support RYLA.
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And so let your imagination roll.
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Even that idea of just the touring the shipyards, touring a freighter.
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You look around your area.
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In Waupaca we have a foundry that they give tours, and I wonder how you could maybe set something up to be even particularly special there to really get a n- behind-the-scenes look.
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But yeah, that's that's really really awesome, and great idea.
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I think that one of the things when I joined Rotary in Sturgeon Bay, we...
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I moved to Sturgeon Bay six years ago now, and, incredible folk- people, incredible club, but I thought they...
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i, in my career I don't think small.
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And I know the effort that goes into a a $100,000 project isn't that much different than one that goes into a $10 million project.
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So I've, I tried to bring that to the table, too, about fundraising, and that's why I was thinking about what can we do that is gonna bring a, as much money as we can for the great things that our club does for the community.
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Yeah.
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That is a- So I think that's a message.
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Don't think small.
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Yes.
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I was just gonna ask you to repeat that again 'cause it is so incredibly important.
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You think about...
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i've visited all the clubs in the district, and I saw different types of fundraisers and I know with one of them at least I said, "You may wanna rethink that."
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You're putting a lot of effort in and a lot of...
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if I were a member at this club, I'd feel like, oh, my God, I'm shackled to this, every-week project that we have to do to raise a few thousand dollars by the end of the year.
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It just didn't, So yeah you're exactly right.
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Look around- Don't assume you have to do what you've done in the past and don't be afraid to think big.
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That's great advice.
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Amy- Sorry it looks like you had something to say there too.
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Oh I was gonna say just feeding off of what you said before about the foundry, right? Each of our communities has something unique.
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If you can figure out what that is like we used to do the tour of the shipyard.
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But then also, yes, think big.
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Think about the volunteer hours that go into a project.
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But then that ticket sweet spot.
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So we did talk to another club who receives the same donation, and they had previously done $10 tickets and sold 6,000 of these tickets.
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Yeah and that's a lot of paperwork, and I know we're gonna get into that back end of the raffle requirements depending on, at least here in Wisconsin, there's a lot involved with having a raffle license.
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So then they changed it to selling, I don't know what they were doing, 100 tickets maybe at $600 each last year So I followed up with them to see.
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They did sell all the tickets at 600, but they said it was really hard to sell the tickets at 600.
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So that's why I stressed earlier, we spent a lot of time talking about that dollar amount, right? Like, how much are you personally willing to spend on something, right? And knowing that for many in a raffle, it is a charitable donation.
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It is not that they're gonna win the prize.
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Yeah.
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That's awesome.
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And Amy, you had, we, the club had people that bought multiple tickets too, didn't we? Yes.
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The majority of the people did only buy one.
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We did have one person buy five.
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We had a few people who bought two.
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We had people who bought from, I should have relooked, but I believe it was 17 states.
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Wow.
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We had Oregon, Florida, Arizona.
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We know Florida and Arizona could have been some of our snowbirds.
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Sure.
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A lot of East Coasters, and then of course a lot of Midwest, Great Lakes region folks.
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But yeah, I connected with a high school friend actually, 'cause I was- the one, I'm filling out the name on the raffle ticket, and I'm like, "Hi, are you actually this person?" They're like, "Yeah."
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I'm like, "Oh, my maiden name was such and such."
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They're like, "Oh my God, small world."
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You don't have to have the prize donated either, right? No.
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We're doing this thing locally for an e-bike.
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We just asked the retailer, "Could you give us your cost? Gi- give us the bike at cost."
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And he did.
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So that was worth $600 right there.
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So we're buying the bike at cost.
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He gets a little promo, and if we sell all the tickets, we'll make, it's, $4500 I think.
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But it's for very little effort, we're not thinking quite as big, but it's, we just needed to fill a fundraising gap, and we did it.
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So it's y- you don't think you have to get everything donated.
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You can just find something that, you know at a reasonable value that people, And the other thing is you want something that a lot of people would covet.
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A lot of people- really want to do that thing.
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You don't wanna do something so specialized that, only very few people would be interested in it, randy.
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Yeah, so the question, and you kinda mentioned it Amy, was about the raffle license, and did your club have one? And tell us the process of going through and getting a license if you didn't have one and why that's so important for this.
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Yep.
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So in the state of Wisconsin, you're required to have a raffle license if you're doing a raffle like this where you're selling tickets for a period of time, or even if you're just doing like a one-day raffle at, say you're doing a Polio Plus event and doing a raffle there.
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So you're required to have a raffle license in the state of Wisconsin.
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There's an application process.
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It takes anywhere between a month and three months to get your raffle license approved, and then there's things you can and can't do.
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I think in the past we all remember that churches, not to throw churches under the bus, but they would mail you raffle tickets as a member to sell.
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You can no longer mail raffle tickets.
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Up until two years ago, you couldn't sell raffle tickets online.
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Luckily, now you can sell raffle tickets online, which is what made this so easy for us.
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We are, were already working with a software system for ticketing ticket sales.
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And they had the ability to also sell those raffle tickets for us on that software system, so it was great.
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You have to track...
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so I still had to do a written paper ticket for everyone who bought online.
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That was part of the Wisconsin state law.
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So I had to hand write those 200 tickets we sold.
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We have to keep those on hand for one year.
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And I have to report, just like I did here.
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We had X number of tickets for a certain amount.
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This is what we made.
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I have to keep this ticket stub.
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This is our winner.
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I have to keep that, though for seven years.
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So there's just all of those little things, and you have to report back at the end of each year to renew your raffle license.
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And there's a cost, which I don't know off the top of my head.
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It's $25.
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Thank you.
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I was gonna say- Yeah, it's minimal it's 25 or $35- Yeah for your raffle license.
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Yeah.
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So the, The, a reminder that we have show notes for this.
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And so I will provide links in the show notes to the raffle license application page or whatever, State of Wisconsin, so you'll have that.
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And also Amy will get from you the link to the whatever the ticket software that you used.
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Yeah.
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There are various options for doing that as well, some are more- Yeah, we- expensive than others.
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Yeah, we used Zeffy, which is completely free.
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I'm the executive director of our United Way here and we use it for United Way, but a lot of our other nonprofits use it as well.
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It's a great tool, and it...
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We could set it to sell those 200 tickets, and it...
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or 150 tickets, excuse me, and it turned off automatically.
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So that was the great part, too.
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I didn't have to be sitting there at 10:00 one night being like- "Oh, God, I gotta turn this website off."
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So that was really nice.
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And did that system, that Zeffy, did, does that allow for a person then to pay for the ticket online- Yep as well? Yep.
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So they could pay for the ticket online.
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They could also make an additional donation if they wanted.
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And we had several people do that.
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I think we raised another probably $250.
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Since- Wow this was already a higher price ticket we didn't get as many of those additional donations.
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But we used this when we did a tour, a boat tour thing a few years ago, and we did get several additional donations then, too.
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So people will round up that purchase or donate specifically to your club.
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Excellent.
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Well- so you explained well the raffle the idea and I guess the oth- the next question I have is anything else that we haven't covered that you're like, "You know what? Be sure you know this if you're going into," be for either you or Brian or Amy I think the marketing for this one was key because this wasn't for everyone.
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So we said earlier, if it's an e-bike, right? Almost everyone wants an e-bike.
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Packer tickets, a suite for a Bucks game, right? Those are things most people would want.
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This, I will say, I did buy a ticket.
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But this was not something I would have been like, "Oh my God, I have to buy 10 tickets.
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I have to win this."
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So we were really relying on our guest list from our f- our previous, our shipyard tour fundraiser that we had done, knowing that those are people who are interested in the Great Lakes freighters.
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And then we relied a lot on Facebook.
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So there are a lot of Facebook pages dedicated to all of these different ship watcher groups, boat nerd groups, those sorts of things.
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And one of our members is really savvy with social media that was kinda his job, to push this out to all of those different Facebook groups.
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I thought that you did you and the other folks did a really good job when we did the drawing and how we set that up, too, and invited the people that bought.
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G- I, I think that would be helpful for those other clubs looking at this, how you actually did the final drawing.
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Sure.
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So our club does the fifth Thursday as a social, so we're normally a lunch club.
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The fifth Thursday of the month we do the evening social.
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So we held that at a location that was right on the water.
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So tying that in with the theme.
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And then we did invite everyone who purchased a ticket.
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So with that online system, I have their email addresses, so I was able to email them, "Hey, a reminder, the drawing's gonna be on April 30th at 6:00 PM.
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If you're close to Sturgeon Bay, feel free to join us.
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Cash bar, complimentary pizza," that sort of thing.
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And we did have quite a few people join us, which was really nice to see.
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Members did a great job of engaging in conversation with them, talking about Rotary and the work that we do in the community.
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Yeah and I remember...
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I don't know if I saw this on a Facebook Post or if I watched it live, right? We did.
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We recorded it, yeah.
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We had it as Facebook Live.
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'Cause I'm like, I remember watching it, and I think Mich- it was Michelle Lowery, right? Yep.
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And she did a wonderful job of talking about the club, what you've done in the community, and extending a j- a gracious invitation to anybody- Yeah present who wanted to be part of the club to, to consider joining.
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So a really nice job following through there on the membership front.
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Great job.
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Wow.
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Thank you.
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Any other key pieces of advice if someone is going to do a raffle at this kind of level this big? Anything else that you guys can think of? I would say from doing other raffles last year we did a calendar raffle which is a whole different beast in and of itself for cash prizes.
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But I would say that's where you really can get your club members engaged.
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The e-bikes that you were talking about, Packer tickets, I think that's more of an opportunity then for club members to have those physical tickets in hand to be able to talk to their friends, businesses, not only about buying tickets, but what Rotary is and what your mission and purpose are in the community.
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So I think doing paper raffle tickets when possible is a great way for that outreach to let people know about your club.
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And I, I would assume, Brian, because of that relationship that you had, that your advice would be, build a relationship.
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You just don't wanna call some company out of the blue and say- "hey, give us this package," which is This is probably a package that's worth 10, $15,000 to get if you were to value this, I'm guessing to ride along on a s- a freighter like this.
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You need to have that good relationship, correct? Yeah.
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To your point, yeah, it was three staterooms.
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If you were to convert that to a Great Lakes cruise, that's, you're right, around $15,000.
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Yeah, g- think about who your business leaders are in your community or your region and, do they have something unique that may, they may be able to offer? I'll reiterate, think big.
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And one thing that probably most clubs have is someone that owns an Airbnb in Florida or Gulf Shores or Arizona.
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I think that's an opportunity that a lot of clubs could take a look at.
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Would somebody be willing to donate a week or five days or even, a five week days of one of their rentals? And then you've got something that multiple people could use, not just one winner at that point.
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And I think that was really key.
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As Amy said, we had a couple people that bought more than one ticket.
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One individual bought five.
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Making sure that you sell the value.
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I hate using the word sell, but you convey the value of what you are raffling off and that it isn't just for one person potentially.
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So anyway.
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Yeah.
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Excellent And I will say, be sure then to thank the company.
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So we've talked, obviously Brian connected with Brandon, the CEO, right away, but how are we gonna recognize them? They've said please don't ask in the next year.
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But, you can ask in two years, right? Positioning that ask, being respectful of their wishes.
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So any company, whether you're buying something at cost or if they're donating it, really be that good steward.
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And obviously as a professional fundraiser, that's ingrained in me, but I think just making sure, we respect their wishes, how do they wanna be recognized and things, and then being sure to thank them.
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Wonderful.
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You raised $30,000.
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What are you gonna do with the money? So lots of great service projects in our community.
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So scholarships we just wrapped up our scholarships for this year.
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We usually give out $10,000 in scholarships annually, both technical scholarships and then advanced four-year degree scholarships.
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And then a lot of our communities do other work or a lot of our other committees do work in the community.
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So we have an environmental committee.
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They've done some work with Little Lake, which is a park area where we've had to do some restoration on that lake.
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Crossroads, which is one of our environmental preserves.
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We have our human and community development committee, so investing in some of those different human service nonprofits in the community, supporting work of childcare, housing, mental health.
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We've done those things in the past with some larger gifts even of $10,000 towards affordable housing.
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Five, $6,000 towards affordable childcare.
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So a lot of work in those areas.
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And then internationally, our international committee has done some work with a local Ukraine relief effort that we're affiliated with, things like that.
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So both that local and that international focus, which is I think something, as Rotarians, we appreciate.
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All good things.
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You've been listening to our interview with Amy Conley and Brian Henrichs from the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club, and we'll return to learn more about them in just a moment.
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And we're back with Amy and Brian from the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay.
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In the first half of the show, we talked about their Great Lakes Freighter Cruise raffle and how successful that was, and now we're gonna learn a little bit more about them personally.
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So I'm gonna ask both of you, just give me a little bit of your background.
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We'll start with you, Amy.
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Where are you from? Are you from Sturgeon Bay? And what do you do? You alluded to that already, but tell us a little bit about yourself personally.
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Sure.
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So I grew up in Pulaski, Hobart area near, near Green Bay.
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And I was a 4H kid, so volunteering, community service is just very natural to me.
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After a variety of jobs right out of college, I landed here in Sturgeon Bay at the ripe old age of 27.
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And I was hired as the first full-time executive director for the United Way here in Door County, and I'm still here.
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So you can all do the math.
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Everybody always says now we know how old you are."
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Yep, I've been here 26 years.
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Grown the organization and I joined Rotary probably 24 years ago.
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Service is just ingrained in with me.
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It's what my parents did.
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It's how they raised us, and then that 4H component.
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So I love Rotary.
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At first, it really was the work commitment.
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This is how to get to know the business people I need to know for my job, and I think that's not to be underrated, right? That networking piece of it is so valuable.
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But when I served as p- president last year, I said this a few times, that, Rotary is my people.
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This is my place.
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I love our club.
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I love the sense of community in our club.
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And it gives me the opportunity to meet great people such as Brian 'cause otherwise our paths would have never crossed.
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Wow.
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That's awesome.
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And you I- I just So you were put in a position of executive director of United Way office at 27 years old.
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At 27.
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I was their- that's something right there I was their first- You must have been impressive full-time executive director, so not a huge responsibility.
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I had a one part-time staff, and we were raising about $300,000 a year.
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So obviously we've grown in those 26 years I've been here.
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But yeah, somebody took a chance on some crazy young kid who thought she could change the world, and she kinda has.
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Yeah.
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Awesome.
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Yeah.
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So Brian? Brian? I am from Reedsburg, Wisconsin.
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I grew up and took over the family dairy farm in my late teens.
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I got tired of milking cows in my late 20s, and I went back to the University of Wisconsin and got a degree in the School of Agriculture.
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And right away started working for an engineering firm out of Madison.
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And I've been working in the engineering world for- 40, no, 50 years.
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Wow.
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Ended up matriculating into the, developed a port and harbor practice for a firm out of Green Bay, and part of that was finding state and federal funding for projects.
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Initially my projects were in the million-dollar range and so finding state money.
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But then I got really good at finding federal money for port and harbor projects.
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And I retired about six years ago, and then another firm teased me out of retirement- to come and work for them part-time to put together a funding practice.
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And so that's what I'm doing now for an engineering company.
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I still do the port and harbor engineering, but I also I run the funding practice.
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And they just totaled it.
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I've I've secured just under a billion dollars for port and harbor projects- Wow throughout America as of the end of 2025.
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So i- it's been fun.
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I'm doing it because it's fun.
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As far as Rotary, we...
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When I retired the first time we moved to Door County, and I was looking for an organization to do some good for the community and to meet people, and the Rotary was just a m- natural fit.
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Exceptionally welcoming people.
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Love the mission, love the outcomes of their mission.
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00:29:52,852.3777551 --> 00:29:56,92.3777551
So that's how I ended up at the Sturgeon Bay Rotary Club.
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00:29:56,552.3777551 --> 00:29:56,922.3777551
Yeah.
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00:29:57,702.3767551 --> 00:29:58,332.3767551
I just have to...
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00:29:58,432.3777551 --> 00:29:58,982.3777551
what is your...
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00:29:59,652.3777551 --> 00:30:06,702.3767551
The port and harbor are we as a nation under-built- Oh, yes in that area? That's what I assumed.
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00:30:06,922.3767551 --> 00:30:07,652.3767551
Oh, yeah.
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00:30:07,652.3767551 --> 00:30:08,332.3767551
And most of...
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00:30:08,622.3757551 --> 00:30:15,472.3767551
There are still a lot of World War II era port infrastructure that's being utilized right now.
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00:30:15,552.3767551 --> 00:30:15,572.3767551
Yeah.
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00:30:15,572.3767551 --> 00:30:18,362.3767551
I guess it really came to during the pandemic.
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00:30:19,302.3767551 --> 00:30:25,622.3757551
I guess it was a pandemic, right? You had all those ships just sitting off the- Yeah like Los Angeles, like where else can they go? Yeah.
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00:30:26,82.3747551 --> 00:30:26,832.3747551
And there just wasn't...
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00:30:26,862.3757551 --> 00:30:33,392.3757551
There's not enough ports and harbors were- And one, one project I'm really proud of is in Port Milwaukee.
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00:30:33,502.3757551 --> 00:30:39,492.3757551
I built the first, transatlantic port for shipping grain out of Wisconsin and the Midwest.
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00:30:39,962.3757551 --> 00:30:49,52.3757551
There weren't usually the grain would get put on trucks or rail and taken to East Coast ports, and we're shipping transatlantic ocean-going vessels out of Milwaukee now.
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00:30:49,112.3757551 --> 00:30:53,412.3757551
Change the skyline and change the market for Wisconsin agriculture.
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00:30:53,842.3757551 --> 00:30:54,172.3757551
Yeah.
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00:30:54,172.3757551 --> 00:30:58,232.3757551
I was gonna say the trickle-down economic impacts of that sort of thing have gotta be humongous.
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00:30:58,542.3757551 --> 00:30:58,922.3757551
Yeah.
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00:30:59,462.3757551 --> 00:31:00,232.3757551
Just humongous.
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00:31:00,282.3757551 --> 00:31:03,230.3757551
Yeah Terrific.
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00:31:03,430.3757551 --> 00:31:05,990.3757551
Randy Should we go to the good question? I don't have any other questions.
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I think it's time for the good question of the day.
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All right.
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I could talk to Brian about ports and harbors all day long.
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00:31:13,50.3757551 --> 00:31:20,670.3757551
All right, so the question was pretty simple: What is your fondest Great Lakes memory? Randy? Okay, so I'll start.
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And eh, just a family vacation a number of years ago.
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My wife and daughter and I stayed on Mackinac Island.
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00:31:28,510.3747551 --> 00:31:39,140.3747551
So when you're at Mackinac, you are at Lake Huron, but you can also, as you're driving across the Mackinac Bridge, you're seeing Lake Michigan.
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00:31:39,680.3747551 --> 00:31:44,60.3747551
And we decided that we were gonna go up through the UP of Michigan on the way home.
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00:31:44,520.3747551 --> 00:31:50,930.3747551
So we went up and went over to Munising and Marquette, and we were able to see Lake Superior.
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00:31:50,940.3747551 --> 00:31:54,800.3747551
In one day we saw three of the five Great Lakes, so that was a cool thing.
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00:31:54,820.3747551 --> 00:31:57,160.3747551
Our daughter was like, "Wow, that's pretty impressive."
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00:31:57,630.3747551 --> 00:32:04,740.3757551
I'm sure other people have probably seen more, in a day, but for us, that was a pretty good deal, seeing three of five in one day.
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00:32:05,210.3757551 --> 00:32:05,450.3757551
Yeah.
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00:32:05,450.3757551 --> 00:32:17,70.3737551
So Chuck, what about you? When my wife and I moved back to Wisconsin seven years ago, we had these plans to take a lot of day trips and stuff like that, but it wasn't until last year that I saw Lake Superior for the first time.
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00:32:17,810.3737551 --> 00:32:20,940.3747551
Just, I just, grew up in Wisconsin, but just never got up there.
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00:32:21,40.3747551 --> 00:32:40,110.3757551
But I have to say that the thing that I'm probably the, when I write this question down, the first thing that occurred to me was when I, my when I was a kid, my family go camping and over in Ludington, and the sand dunes over there, and I just have a very vivid memory of that area and the beach and the water, and the sand dunes.
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00:32:40,810.3757551 --> 00:32:50,160.3757551
And, a- as just a secret gem that if you showed somebody a picture of that area and said, "Where are you?" They would have no clue- whatsoever.
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00:32:50,170.3757551 --> 00:32:52,310.3767551
The last place they would mention would be Michigan.
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00:32:52,630.3767551 --> 00:32:52,730.3767551
Yeah.
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00:32:52,860.3767551 --> 00:32:55,780.3767551
So yeah, it's just, for some reason, that just came to mind.
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00:32:56,640.3767551 --> 00:33:03,674.3767551
Amy? Having grown up in Green Bay essentially there's so many memories.
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As you guys are talking, I'm like, "Okay.
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00:33:05,424.3767551 --> 00:33:06,384.3757551
Oh that, that."
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00:33:07,4.3767551 --> 00:33:13,664.3767551
I think two that stand out sailing on Lake Superior and then the sand dunes.
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00:33:13,664.3767551 --> 00:33:16,704.3767551
Yes, the sand dunes in Michigan are incredible.
365
00:33:17,294.3767551 --> 00:33:24,774.3767551
Living here in Door County, I have to say I try to remind myself how blessed I am and how fortunate I am every day.
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00:33:25,154.3767551 --> 00:33:28,804.3757551
So those sunrises and those sunsets are precious to me.
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00:33:29,84.3757551 --> 00:33:40,794.3747551
So any time I can get up early, or now that the sun sets at, almost 9:00 to sit on the beach somewhere and watch that sunset that's incredible to me.
368
00:33:43,774.3747551 --> 00:33:54,344.3757551
And Brian? My wife and I own a pretty good sized boat, and we took it to Isle Royale during COVID, when the only time you could get...
369
00:33:54,344.3757551 --> 00:34:00,164.3747551
They shut down the ferries during COVID, so the only way you could get to Isle Royale was by float plane or your own boat.
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00:34:00,954.3757551 --> 00:34:03,374.3757551
So we virtually had the island to ourselves.
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00:34:03,744.3757551 --> 00:34:03,814.3757551
Wow.
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00:34:03,824.3757551 --> 00:34:12,864.3757551
So having Isle Royale with maybe 20 other people on the entire island, that was a very unique and very special experience.
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00:34:13,264.3757551 --> 00:34:15,724.3757551
The moose and everything were just and wolves.
374
00:34:15,724.3757551 --> 00:34:17,444.3747551
We did get to see some wolves too.
375
00:34:17,934.3757551 --> 00:34:22,144.3757551
They were just, since they didn't have people around, they became very tame for that period of time.
376
00:34:22,144.3757551 --> 00:34:24,334.3757551
So yeah, that was a very special experience.
377
00:34:24,844.3757551 --> 00:34:25,154.3757551
Wow.
378
00:34:25,554.3757551 --> 00:34:26,84.3757551
That's amazing.
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00:34:26,84.3757551 --> 00:34:28,334.3757551
How long were you there? 10 days.
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00:34:28,744.3757551 --> 00:34:29,124.3757551
Wow.
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00:34:31,316.3757551 --> 00:34:32,86.3757551
That's amazing.
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00:34:32,736.3757551 --> 00:34:36,556.3757551
All great experiences related to the Great Lakes.
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00:34:37,46.3757551 --> 00:34:39,806.3757551
And that's a wrap for this episode of Doing Good 6220.
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00:34:41,46.3747551 --> 00:34:51,476.3757551
Special thanks to our guests Amy Conley and Bryan Henrichs of the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay for their story about the Great Lakes Freighter Cruise Raffle.
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Please share this episode with other members of your club or connections you may have across Rotary, and check out our growing list of episodes, and if there's a topic you'd like to learn about or a person you'd like us to feature on Doing Good 6220, you can email us.
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Our email address is part of the show notes.
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I'm Randy Winter, and on behalf of Chuck Reynolds, thanks for joining us and for doing your part as a Rotarian to make your community and the world better for all
