- This week on "Wisconsin Life"...
Meet a farmer
who's happy to have the blues,
an artist finding redemption in self-reflection,
and a couple of broadcasting trailblazers.
Plus, a tale that cooks up memories of a rising romance.
It's all ahead, on "Wisconsin Life!"
- Funding for "Wisconsin Life" is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- Hello, and welcome to Wisconsin Life!"
I'm your host, Angela Fitzgerald.
We've got a wild episode for you today,
as we visit the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary
in Green Bay.
Located on the east shore of Green Bay,
this sanctuary has
the second-largest wildlife rehabilitation program
in Wisconsin.
Injured animals are brought in for care
while guests are welcome to roam the 600-acre park grounds
where they can see
a number of the rehabilitated animals up close.
We'll see what goes into the care of the animals here
in a bit, but before we do,
let's take this first look at life in Wisconsin.
Our team takes us to Monticello in Green County
to meet a dairy farmer who just can't stop singing the blues.
[windmill rattling]
[organ playing]
- C'mon girls.
- Jimmy Voegeli seems to have lived
the classic Wisconsin farm story.
- Definitely born into this. Yeah.
- His ancestors came from Switzerland
and settled just south of New Glarus.
- Our family homesteaded this
in 1854 I believe.
- His father was a pioneer in bovine genetics
and helped bring the World Dairy Expo to Madison.
He studied dairy science at the University of Wisconsin.
But something happened on the way to Jimmy
becoming a 5th-generation dairy farmer.
- About my junior year I started thinking, "Ehhhh,
you know, I'm not quite feeling this like uh, like I should."
- What he was feeling was the blues.
- Hey, everyone, welcome.
We're going to have a lot of fun.
- It turns out, Jimmy had the classic
musician's childhood too.
- Our whole family has always been musical.
My mom and dad met.
My dad was playing in a polka band
playing trumpet and they met at a show.
[Jimmy playing organ music]
- Gimme some low end. [low organ note]
- Like most young struggling musicians,
Jimmy was at a crossroads.
- Music was always one of the most important things in my life.
It always was.
But making a living is important too.
And they made me an offer to come home
and help out.
And again, I reluctantly did it.
[cow moos]
- But unlike most farmers, Jimmy has some flexibility
in his schedule.
[cell phone ringtone] - Here we go.
- With his brother running the genetics side of the farm...
- Another breakdown.
- ...Jimmy could focus on crops and equipment...
- If it ain't broke, it ain't ours.
That's our motto.
- ...and keep playing music on nights and weekends.
- When I take off to go on gigs, the guys are like,
"Oh you're going to screw around while we're here working."
Well, playing gigs is no vacation either.
Ten years of go play gigs,
come home, change,
go out to the barn and do chores
just like my father did.
- Eventually his day job took a backseat
after a certain festival in Wausau.
- We're playing
and I'm playing a solo.
And I get done with the solo and got a standing ovation.
It was great. It was really cool.
We get done with the show, my dad came up to me
and he said, "I was so proud."
And then choked up and just walked away.
And so, that was the day
that I became a musician first.
- Can you believe we get paid to do this?
We get paid to do this.
[blues music]
- Jimmy's band has had quite a bit of success since then.
- That is pretty cool
when it comes together.
And it comes together more and more and more
the more we play together.
So that, that's fun.
[pats cow] - C'mon.
- But the cows keep him well grounded.
- C'mon. They don't know any different.
You're late. Feed me!
[bluesy piano music]
- The farm has a heavy influence on his music.
- I'm constantly writing stuff down
or hearing a rhythm inside,
hearing a groove inside.
Yeah, that happens all the time.
Most of the songs that I've written
have, for sure, been down here at the farm.
? Please, please
? Baby, please don't go
- But you won't hear him sing about the Brown Swiss blues.
- It's almost, it's almost, like,
sacrilegious in a way.
I almost feel like I shouldn't do it.
It's too obvious in a way.
- He's found other ways to merge his two lives
like building rolling legs
for his 300-pound Hammond organ.
- This is what a farmer does--
when he's got a few extra minutes and bored--
with some metal.
- The most profound crossover is located
just outside his front door,
where an old barn will become his music studio.
- It was at the home farm.
It was built a 110 years ago
by my great grandfather and grandfather.
- When the old barn needed to come down,
Jimmy decided to rebuild it at his place.
- When we took the outside boards off,
it exposed some writing that was on the oats bin inside the barn.
And in there was signatures from my dad when he was a child.
And my uncle had carved his name in there.
- He thinks the wood came from trees on the property.
- Yeah, it says, "Horse barn raised
November 9, 1903."
This whole corner is going to look like the oats bin.
This is going to be my music studio.
- He believes his polka-playing father
would have appreciated this space.
- I can sense my dad and my grandfather in there
all the time.
I have to show you my little project I have going on.
- Jimmy's life is still a classic farm story.
[cow moos]
just now with a bluesy soundtrack.
- ? Where have you gone?
Goodnight, everybody!
We'll see you in a couple weeks.
Whoo!
[bluesy piano and horn music]
- The history of the Bay Beach Sanctuary
began during the Great Depression with this pond.
In a time when money and resources were scarce,
citizens of Green Bay,
with the guidance of Aldo Leopold himself,
saw the need to develop a wildlife refuge area.
The City granted the community five acres of land
and citizens donated money
to help dig up a pond for injured wild fowl.
Since then, the sanctuary
has continued to expand its rehabilitation efforts
and now helps more than 5,000 injured animals a year.
Many of the animals that come in for care
are treated and returned to the wild.
While other animals with more serious injuries
are given permanent homes here at the sanctuary
because they're unable to survive in the wild.
We'll see some of the rehab work and the animals here in a bit,
but first... another unique story from Wisconsin.
We meet an Oshkosh artist
who shares his extraordinary work with us--
and reveals the experiences that inspired
his award-winning creations.
- A good portrait
paints a picture of someone's personality.
- There's just more to capture in a person, I think.
You can capture a soul, a character, a mood.
- Jon Wos thrives on the challenge
of capturing those details.
A moment.
An emotion.
An idea.
He spends several hours a day in his Oshkosh studio,
bringing a blank canvas to life.
- A person just has so much story they can convey
just in and of themselves.
- Jon knows how to sketch someone's story
because he learned how to share a very special one...
his own.
Jon was born with "osteogenesis imperfecta."
Otherwise known as brittle bone disease.
It makes his bones more fragile than the average person.
At birth, he had 13 broken bones.
- My bones would never really heal well enough
before the next fracture.
So I would fracture several times a year, different bones.
First 10 years of my life, I...
I think, we didn't keep track,
but I probably had more than 50, 60 breaks.
- The slightest bump, twist or fall can lead to a bone fracture
and a long, difficult recovery process.
Everyday activities that most people take for granted
are risky for Jon.
It made life difficult,
but it also drove him towards his passion.
- I was always-- any extra time I had, was art.
- Still Jon struggled with self-image.
He carried the fear of a fracture
around with him constantly.
Art became his therapy.
He began experimenting with glass.
- There's just something about glass
that I've always been attracted to,
even as a little kid.
It may even have something to do with
my bones are basically glass.
I really like to just experiment with it and see what,
if I change this one thing,
what's going to happen in the end?
- His big breakthrough
came in college at UW-Oshkosh.
A professor encouraged him to transform his canvas
into a mirror.
He started a series of self-portraits.
- I started out exploring my past,
and the pain and struggle that I went through
with having "osteogenesis imperfecta."
- Soon he found himself looking forward.
- The whole process of the self-portraits
was very much a journey
into me finding my...
my happiness I guess.
How to get past the disability.
- Jon discovered that even though his body is fragile,
his spirit is not.
- No matter what you want to do,
there's always going to be something to stand in your way.
Most of the time I think it's yourself.
- Jon learned to manage his condition.
Bone fractures became less frequent,
and his art flourished.
- It gave me a sense of pride.
Something that I "could" do that others couldn't.
A lot of times I'd run up against things
that I couldn't do that others could.
So this was a big self-esteem booster for me.
- Today, Jon is a full time artist,
producing everything from portraits
to stained glass windows.
His works appeared
in galleries from Wisconsin to California.
It's been more than a decade since his last bone fracture.
Now, he's not just a successful artist.
He's a happy one.
- I don't see how I can't have a very positive attitude
considering the life that I was given
and then what has become of it.
- And that's a portrait of persistence.
- I like to show people with my art, I guess,
that life,
um,
is worth the struggle,
even if it gets pretty tough sometimes.
- We're here in the animal rehabilitation room
at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary
where we're about to feed some animals
that have been brought in for care.
I'm here with Mackenzie, who's going to tell us more.
How are you doing today, Mackenzie?
- I'm well. How are you?
- Doing well, thank you.
So tell us about the rehabilitation process.
- Sure, so people from the community will come in
or DNR or animal control officers
and they'll bring them in to us
and we'll get a history from when they got them
and the circumstances that they came in from.
And then, we'll take them in our exam room
and we'll look them over head to tail,
weigh them, give them fluids, feed them.
And then we bring them right into our nursery here.
And then they'll get warmed up in incubators
or in some of our heating pad drawers.
And then we look over them every day and feed them as needed.
- Is that hard for you?
Taking care of these injured animals?
- Yes, it's overwhelming of course
because there's a lot of them, especially in summer.
But also it can be hard when you're working on them
day to day, week to week and they might not recover.
But the goal is to get them released
and a lot of them are successful with that.
- So most of the animals you do take in
eventually do get released?
- Yup, that's our main goal.
Sometimes if there's wing injuries or other, like,
leg injuries we can give them surgery
or just rehabilitate enough that they can stay with us here
and be on exhibit for education.
But most of the time they get released.
- I guess that's great.
That's the objective.
- Yup. - So it's feeding time.
- It's definitely feeding time. They're ready.
- So what's the process for feeding time?
- Sure, so every morning, we make some of their new feeder.
- Mmmm.
- Yes, so this is made of eggs and cat food
and other calcium and other nutrients.
- Looks delicious. - Yes, and we add water.
And then we feed them through a little syringe here.
They open their mouth for us, like they do with their parents.
Most of them do anyway.
Some of them we need to cue, but they're ready to let us know.
They're loud and they'll open their mouths for us.
- So these guys sound kind of hungry
so tell us what we need to do to feed them.
- They're opening their mouths for us
and they're letting us know their noises.
These guys get fed every 15 minutes to an hour.
- Can we try to feed them or will some try to jump out?
- We can try. I think they'll be good.
- All right. Let's give it a try.
- All right. Perfect.
I'll grab one of our little guys in here.
- Okay. - We'll try a house sparrow.
Some of these guys in the middle.
- The little ones. - Yeah.
I might just take out their full nest here.
And you can pull up a syringe of their general feeders.
- Very cute. So I'm just dropping it in.
- Yup. - Open mouths that await.
- Yup. They should let you know.
You just kind of touch their mouth and they'll--
- Ooh, ooh. Okay, slow down.
I'm concerned. I don't want you to choke.
- Sometimes they try to take
a little bit more than they're able to but--
- At some point, do they get cut off?
- Yeah.
They're usually pretty good about stop,
stop opening their mouths when they're done.
- Thank you so much Mackenzie. - No problem.
- Our next stop is in Madison, where our team meets a couple
who created Wisconsin's first Spanish-language radio station.
- iiCompañera!
Programación aqui en La Movida,
catorce ochenta (1480) AM.
iiBuenos días!
- A day spent listening
to Madison's Spanish-language radio station, La Movida,
starts with Luis Montoto in the morning.
[speaking Spanish]
- I want the music to be
positive, inspirational, motivational.
That's what I want.
[speaking Spanish]
- In the afternoon, Lupita Montoto is on the air.
- I like more, like, rock and pop music.
- In between you'll hear them together,
talking with leaders of Madison's Latino community
or local officials
about issues important to their listeners.
- Centro serves as our eyes and ears in the community.
- It would be fair to say La Movida is the Montotos.
And the Montotos are La Movida.
- We did a great partnership.
We complement each other.
- People say, "You work with your wife?
How do you guys get along?"
I wouldn't want it any other way.
And honestly, it's the best thing for me.
That was my dream and that's what I've always wanted to do.
- It was also Luis's dream to run a radio station.
- Guillermo Ramos.
iiGuillermo, buenos días!
- Something he convinced his wife to believe in,
after persuading her to marry him.
- My husband is a very persistent man.
After nine months that we met, we got married.
A week after we got married,
we moved to Wisconsin.
- In Wisconsin, Luis had a cleaning job set up.
But back home in the border country of Texas,
his work as a musician had led to radio work.
Work he started looking for right away.
- He came to, to Madison and he started searching the dials
and see if there's any Spanish station.
[radio static]
- With no existing Spanish radio station in the region,
the Montotos set out to invent one.
First, by paying for weekend air time on a small rural station.
Then finding an audience.
- Where we went to Walmart and I had,
I always had flyers in my back pocket.
And that's how we got the word out, went to Walmart,
went to the Mexican stores, went to church.
"Habla Español? Si, si. Tenga."
- During this time, Madison's Catholic Multicultural Center
became a second home for Luis and Lupita.
- This, these are called flash cards.
- They helped us out with, Lupita, her English.
She didn't know English 'cause she just come from Mexico
when we got married.
So she went to take English classes there.
I didn't have any computer skills.
I went to the CMC to learn computers.
The first logo that I created for La Movida
was done on the CMC computers.
- Lupita had studied business in Mexico
and those skills came in handy in signing advertisers
eager to reach the area's growing Latino population.
But La Movida also needed on-air talent.
- Lupita was reluctant to get into radio.
So when we first started doing radio,
I said," I know how I'm going to introduce Lupita to radio."
So I sat her in the chair,
board op-ing, right at the board.
I said, "Look, this is microphone one.
These are the phone lines."
I said, "I'll be right back. I'm going to the restroom."
- Of course, he didn't come back that soon that he said.
It take him like ten minutes.
So, I did it what he says.
I pull up the channel
and then that song ends.
And then, what are you going to do next?
So I turn on the mic and I start talking, like natural,
"Hey, how you guys doing? And this is Lupita."
- That's how I introduced her.
I threw her into the swimming pool, if you know what I mean.
- So like a month later, I told Luis,
"I want to have my own show."
...ahora y por la mañana...
- After only a few years with their weekend broadcast,
La Movida
caught the attention of Mid-West Family Broadcasting.
The company runs many stations in the state
and wanted to add Spanish-language radio.
- And now that the Latino community has grown
in southcentral Wisconsin so has the station.
- La Movida has been a success with its audience.
But Luis and Lupita were surprised to be recognized
in 2015 by their broadcasting peers.
- Station of the Year goes to...
WLMV-AM, La Movida.
- The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association
awarded it station of the year
in the large market music category.
- I come here from very humble roots,
from very, very far, far away from here.
And I never thought in my life
that this truly would be reality.
So thanks to my husband, my kids.
Thank you, Michelle.
And thank you, everyone, for this wonderful night.
Thank you. [applause]
- It's not only in award speeches
that the Montotos remember their roots.
The Catholic Multicultural Center
remains very important to them.
- Going there makes me remember how we came here,
how we started here.
I mean we were receiving all of the services:
the English, the computers, sometimes food pantry.
But then, two years later, we were giving them back.
We were volunteers.
We were helping other families.
- They continue their support
through an annual fundraising radiothon in December
around the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
a traditional Mexican holiday.
- We are more than happy to do that
because that's the place that opened their doors for us.
- I know Luis and Lupita are not the first couple
that comes to Madison, Wisconsin
to grow, to thrive, to be successful.
I want that organization, I want that building,
to still be here to help other couples.
- And Luis and Lupita can also share
the example of their own story.
- So we, we... we dream big.
- It takes guts.
Um... It takes, it's hard work.
And it's dedication.
Having faith in yourself.
- Keep dreaming, thinking about something.
That one day
that dream can come true.
[speaking Spanish] [laughter]
Yay.
-Visitors are welcome year round at the Bay Beach Sanctuary.
They can see animal exhibits like this.
Take a hike on one of the many nature trails.
Or learn something new at the nature center.
The sanctuary itself is run by a small number
of full-time staff that rely heavily on community support.
They also depend on a large number of trained volunteers
to keep things running smoothly.
From birds of prey, to coyotes and even a few wolves,
this place offers a chance
to see and learn about the animals of Wisconsin up close.
It's nice to see a community-run organization
helping out animals in need.
Now it's time for another great story.
Our team heads to Fall Creek,
where they caught up with author Michael Perry
who told us in his own words
why kitchens have a special place in his heart.
- Early in our courtship,
my wife Anneliese took me to visit Tom and Arlene,
an elderly farm couple
she'd grown close to during her teenage years.
We stepped through the screen door
and seated ourselves in the kitchen.
The kitchen is small and close,
dominated by the bulwark of a cast iron wood range
dating to 1893.
Add to that encroaching cupboards,
the kitchen sink and dish-staked countertops,
a refrigerator,
a modern electrical stove and an overloaded coat rack,
and there's not a lot of room to maneuver.
The wooden floors are dark brown and unpolished
but worn to smoothness by over a century of boot soles.
The table, as I've come to know
over the course of many subsequent visits,
is always happily cluttered with mail and pens
and notepads and cookies and saltines
and always a Skippy jar filled with peanut M&M's.
The worn floor, the dim corners,
the bacon grease undertones,
this is the same kitchen I've known
from clear back to my grasshopper-size days
in Sampson township.
These are not the kitchens
of slick magazines and stainless steel appliances.
These are the kitchens of clutter and stack,
of the dishrag hung and the pans piled,
of the countertop bucket
spilling onion husks and potato peels.
Company is happily received
with no preemptive clearing of the decks.
Just clomp right in, boots and all.
Your chair is waiting.
More often than not, left at an open angle,
ready to receive the next visitor.
What I'm saying is,
"The first time I walked through Tom and Arlene's door
with Anneliese and stepped into that kitchen,
even though I had never been there before,
I knew exactly where I was."
When Anneliese and I left that night
and after I had dropped her off
and was headed by to my very bachelor home,
there had been a key change within me.
As I watched her laugh and trade stories,
I saw signs of an old soul.
A person who paid her respects
and paid them to the sort of people
much of the world passes by at top speed.
Prior to our night in Tom and Arlene's kitchen,
I saw Anneliese as beautiful,
desirable, smart and strong.
More than enough in other words
and easily more than I had earned.
But as I watched how she honored Tom and Arlene
with nothing fancier than honest talk and clear laughter,
I began to realize I had found a person
perfectly and unpretentiously matched
to the roughneck kitchen of my dreams.
- I had a fun day getting to know the people and animals
at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.
For more information on the sanctuary
or the stories you've seen today,
visit us at WisconsinLife.org
And, as always, we love to hear from you.
What's your "Wisconsin Life?"
Send us an email at WisconsinLife@WPT.org.
I'm Angela Fitzgerald, and this is our "Wisconsin Life!"
Stay wild! Bye!
? ?
- Funding for "Wisconsin Life" is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.