- [Voiceover] Coming up next on Wisconsin Life :
- We did not know how talented they were.
And we're like, "Ohhh.
"We're gonna love this."
- Harness racing is my life.
I mean, it's in my blood, it's what I do.
- If you close your eyes and then
once you get that picture in your brain, now you can go.
- Wow, there's a group of people like me out there
that wanna build Star Wars costumes.
*
- [Voiceover] Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- We're the Magees and this is our Wisconsin Life .
* (First Call bugle fanfare "Call to Post") *
- [Voiceover] Starter's call.
- Harness racing?
To me, harness racing is my life.
I mean, it's in my blood, it's what I do.
- [Voiceover] Fourth-generation harness racer Mike Magee
is about to take the track
at the Vernon County Fair in Viroqua.
- You better have some butterflies when you go out
to the track or you're going to wind up hurt or dead.
(laughs)
- You always go to the track feeling you're going to win.
There's that much excitement.
Just thinking 'bout the competition.
And you've got a chance to win.
And everybody's just wound up.
- Okay, drivers, bring 'em to the gate.
We will score three wide.
- Then you start to go toward the starting gate.
Everybody maneuvers to get into position.
- You get to the gate, and as it picks up speed,
so does your heart.
- And you have to decide,
do I try to go to the front with my horse?
Do I hold my horse back?
Do I try to find a position in at the rail
to shorten the race a little bit?
- By the time you hit the wire,
the horses are going all they can go.
- [Announcer] Ready? Go! That's a go!
- Everyone's next to each other,
and the nostrils are flaring on the horses,
and you're going as fast as you can go.
And that's when your plans go out the window.
- [Voiceover] Planned or not,
Mike shares his family's long-term love
for harness racing and a sporting tradition
that dates back to the country's earliest days.
(crowd cheering in background)
- It started early 1800s
with the farmers racing their horses up the road.
- Come on!
- [Voiceover] The Magee family's association with horses
goes back to ancient Ireland.
- Usually, I just turn him loose
and he walks down to his stall.
- [Voiceover] Gary and wife, Donna,
keep the tradition alive on their horse farm near Shawano.
- My grandparents bought this farm.
At the end of the driveway, it says, "Magee Family Farm."
And it is.
We look at it kind of like we're the caretakers.
- [Voiceover] Gary's great-grandfather started
the family racing tradition.
Gary's dad pursued it professionally,
and Gary grew up splitting his time
between here and the Chicago harness racing rack.
- Growing up fast, and by the time I was 14,
Dad was leaving me alone with his stable in Chicago.
- It wasn't your typical...
...typical life, I guess, of a family.
- It's exciting.
It's a business, so it's not as much a family atmosphere.
Mom and Dad did an awfully good job with us because
there's an environment there that could lead you astray.
-[Voiceover] While other members of the extended Magee clan
are among the winning-est drivers in the sport,
back home in Wisconsin,
there aren't professional tracks and wagering.
Here, harness racing is done mostly at county fairs,
where it all began.
- The county fair that we're at, the Vernon County Fair,
this is here because of harness horse racing.
That's why the county fair exists.
Because they needed something
for all people who came to watch the races to do.
It's the reason for the rides
and the games and the demolition derbies.
We're the reason they're here.
(horse feet galloping)
- [Voiceover] And at the fairs,
harness racing is done just for the joy of it.
A timeless thrill ride where time almost stands still.
- You're thinking things so fast
that the whole race slows down.
- As long as the race feels in slow motion,
I will keep racing.
You try to get your horse into a position
where they got a chance to win.
If you're in front, it's one
of the biggest thrills you're going to get.
- Well, this is Gary and this is Mike.
- Chasing that thrill has been the shared passion
for generations of Magees.
- This is Gary's grandfather.
One of my favorites, too, with father and son.
- Mike was like, about a month old, two months old maybe,
when we first took him to a fair.
- And sharing the passion
with fellow harness racers around the state
has made the Magees an even larger family.
- A lot of these people, I grew up with them.
Because that's what we are, we're a family.
We've known each other, like I said, for our whole lives.
- The county fairs is family.
- We've graduated to almost "Mom and Pop of the Fairs."
- [Voiceover] The "Pop of the Fair's" practice track
has the new Shawano Hospital going up next door,
but there are no plans to leave the farm,
or abandon their traditions.
- Fourth-generation driver and I'm still gonna wear
the red and white, just like the rest of the family did.
Gives you some pride.
- [Voiceover] For the Magees,
time has become like a flat oval,
where you're always coming home again.
(horse hooves trotting)
(lively music)
- Hi, I'm K.C. Williams
and this is my Wisconsin Life .
- One, two, three and...
(choir singing "la, la, la...")
- [Voiceover] Most days, Milwaukee's Arts High School
rings with the sound of young musicians growing up.
(feet shuffling)
Saturday mornings, though...
(feet shuffling)
...it's home to a sound just as sweet.
*
(clapping to piano music)
The sound of people growing older with grace.
- Here we go!
(clapping, shaking maracas)
- [group] * Give me your * give me your hand
(singing)
- These guys are amazing.
To me, this is one of the better groups I've ever worked with.
- [Voiceover] Vanta Jones and K.C. Williams
direct a choir that meets here each week.
- We're just, like, managing them,
but they're the ones that's doing all the singing,
and doing the harmonies and learning the new songs.
(singing and clapping along with piano)
- [Voiceover] They're called the Amazing Grace Chorus,
and each singer has a story.
Lonnie Wade and her daughter, Rhulene, were teachers.
- I helped a whole lot of people to get somewhere.
- [Voiceover] James and Ella McKinley were
among the first couples to meet
through computerized dating.
- Almost 30 years now.
- [Voiceover] And Catherine Vance has been singing
since she was a child.
- I sang with my mom when
I was a little girl at church.
- [Voiceover] As different as they are,
each singer's story shares one common thread.
- I don't actually remember that day.
It was my granddaughter's concert in Mississippi.
And I was looking forward to that concert,
but it's just that I don't remember getting up,
getting ready, going to that concert.
They told me what I did that day.
And in the afternoon I woke up, and I said,
"How did I get these clothes on?"
- [Voiceover] The singers in this chorus have
all been touched by memory loss.
Some have Alzheimer's disease.
Others come with someone who does.
Pearl Cannon comes because of her husband.
- Yes, he was active at our church.
He was an elder at our church,
taught Bible lessons,
he would tell you, like 40-years plus.
And just did a lot at church.
So he was the one that discovered he had Alzheimer's,
or something was going on with his memory.
(singing, snapping fingers)
- [Voiceover] In 2014, each of them got an offer.
An invitation to join a choir
just for people with memory loss.
Those invitations came from
the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute.
They were interested in research that suggests,
among Alzheimer's patients,
music can remain, even after memories are gone.
To draw that music out, the Alzheimer's Institute
turned to directors K.C. and Vanta.
(singing, clapping)
- They were looking for directors that would be able
to be versatile, to deal with...
ah...
people who love music, love to sing,
but have the disease.
- It's been a journey.
I mean, when they first came in, they didn't know us
so they didn't really take to us at first.
About the fifth week, we were all family.
Everybody coming in,
hugs, kisses, like with your grandparents.
"How you doing?"
- When they came in, we did not know how talented they were.
So we just threw out a few songs
and these people start singing in harmony.
And we're like, "Ohhh.
"We're going to love this."
- [Voiceover] As weeks went by,
the choir grew.
And so did the musicians.
Ella saw it in her husband.
- He sang "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"
a few weeks ago and I just choked up
because I hadn't heard him sing
all the way through like that, in key and everything.
This music has definitely been helping him.
- [Voiceover] Rhulene saw it in her mom.
- One day during the winter, I came with mom
and it was very cold and we were running late.
And I got frustrated.
"I really shouldn't have brought her.
"I should have just stayed home."
And so finally we got parked.
And before I had her coat off, she was singing.
- And K.C. heard it in all their voices.
- And it's like,
when they start singing, the disease is gone.
- [Voiceover] Which begs the question,
what's behind that change?
Researchers believe
music engages the motor center of the brain.
It stays intact, even when other brain functions are gone.
But the singers say there are other factors, too.
Like the sense of community they get from singing together.
- I just look forward to coming
to see Mr. Ward and Mrs. Ward and all of the rest of them,
Ms. Gohoffski, and everybody.
(piano, singing)
- Maybe it's the power of these songs
with lyrics tailor-made for times of trial.
- I sing because I'm happy.
I like that.
You know, it's like there's some hope in this song,
and that's the reason why I sing.
I can carry on.
- The words, "I need you, you need me.
"We're all a part of God's body.
"Stand with me, agree with me.
"It is his will that every need be supplied.
"You are important to me.
"I need you to survive."
Just saying that openly, "I need you.
"I do need you."
They need us, we need them.
Right?
(male singing)
- [Voiceover] Still, these singers say
there's more to it than that.
That what they do
takes something hard to hear
and even harder to explain.
- And it's driven by, you know,
their spiritual enlightenment, their spiritual guidance.
(singing)
* Come on!
And that's what drives all of them, the choir members.
It's their spirituality and their connection with God,
and the songs that they sing.
* Oh, I was blind
- [Voiceover] They call it grace.
- * But now
* I
* See-ee (* See )
- [Voiceover] And they say, "It's amazing."
(vocalizing final note)
- Amen! (clapping)
- [Voiceover] Still to come on Wisconsin Life ,
Gary and Darcy Hess
set out a meal fit for a monarch,
later on Wisconsin Life .
(lively music)
- Hi, my name is Ray Tallman and this is my Wisconsin Life .
- Now we're gonna make some dust.
(chainsaw engine starting, revving)
- [Voiceover] Ray Tallman says he was 11-years old
when he first picked up a chainsaw.
But back then he was sawing logs up, not carving them out.
- You know, here I just kinda' made
the basic outline of the brim of the hat.
(chainsaw revving)
- [Voiceover] Ray is a carver.
His medium is wood.
And his chisel comes with a motor.
- I feel comfortable with that
and I feel that's my instrument or my tool.
- [Voiceover] This block of white pine
has a mountain man inside.
- As you see it coming, it just puts a glow in you.
It's like a child on Christmas morning.
It's all of a sudden like you're warm and fuzzy all over.
- [Voiceover] Ray started carving five years ago,
and has been steadily improving over time.
- You just got to take your time.
You just keep kind of slabbing it off.
- [Voiceover] A walk down memory lane
shows Ray's early work,
a bit blocky, but recognizable.
- They quickly transformed from the blocky ones
to this one here, and I call these big fat-head bears.
- He's carved bears and beavers and eagles
and frogs and firemen and loggers.
- You're always trying to find that happy medium
to make it realistic.
But if you want to stay in that caricature form,
you can exaggerate something,
but it's only forgiven to a certain point.
- [Voiceover] If he gets stuck, Ray has a simple trick.
- And when things aren't real clear,
the best thing to do is always close your eyes.
- [Voiceover] Closing his eyes
is what sent Ray down this path.
Although at that time, losing his sight wasn't voluntary.
- As it came on, the first thing I lost was faces.
Your faces would just kind of whiten out
and all I'd have was the voices then.
Like take and throw mud all over your windshield,
now try to look through it.
As it progressed, it got worse and worse.
It got to the point that I refused to drive anymore.
- [Voiceover] Ray could only see in a dark room
with a single light.
- Well, then I'd sit down there and I'd start drawing
because now I could actually see
the pencil hitting the paper, otherwise I couldn't.
And I'd just start drawing from things I remembered
because that's all I had was memories.
- At the time I never thought they were important.
They were just doodling.
- [Voiceover] Eventually, his eye doctor realized
Ray had cataracts in both eyes.
- It's one in million that at your age,
you got cataracts.
This is an old person's disease.
- Ray had surgery and his world changed.
- Because all the sudden I was seeing things
I'd never thought I'd seen before.
- He also needed to express the creativity
he'd found in the darkness.
- I've got to find something to do, and it's like drawing was...
I tried to do that, but it was like,
"No, I gotta do something more creative than this."
And it was like, I told my brother,
I said, "I'm going to go out and chainsaw carve me a bear."
And he just kind of laughed at me, like "Yeah, right."
- [Voiceover] The result was 'Clyde.'
- Not much to look at,
but he's got a lot of memories for me.
- When I first made him, I was so proud
that it even looked anything like a bear.
- It's important to Ray that Clyde has a place
of honor among his more advanced brothers.
- You like looking back to where you were,
and that's what keeps you striving to go forward.
- [Voiceover] It was only a couple years after carving Clyde
that people offered to buy some of Ray's work.
- People would drive by and go,
"How much you charging for that bear?"
Like, "You'd actually pay for this?"
It's like, "Okay!" (laughing)
(chainsaw revving)
- [Voiceover] Ray only has to close his eyes
to remember his darkest days,
which is why he enjoys this sight so much.
- But this here makes me feel way better than anything.
(chainsaw revving)
(lively music)
- I'm Gary Hess.
- I'm Darcy Hess.
- And this is our Wisconsin Life .
- Gary and I don't watch reality television.
We watch caterpillars!
They are just the sweetest little creatures.
See, like this guy.
He could just wander everywhere, couldn't you honey?
(laughing)
Isn't he beautiful?
- We cross our fingers.
We hope that what we're doing is having some effect.
About this time of year, five, six years ago,
we could just walk along the edge of the driveway.
We'd count 15, 20 caterpillars.
Then we noticed they were starting to decline.
In fact, in the last few decades here,
most of the common milkweed in this country was existing
out in the margins of farmers' fields.
And all of a sudden with the Roundup Ready crops,
they can come in there and spray everything with Roundup.
And, of course, Roundup kills milkweed.
We've got 20 acres, and we just let it go.
There's no grass here other than native grasses.
For the Monarch Watch Waystation Program,
all you have to have is 10 milkweed plants
of two different species and four species
of nectar-bearing plants.
We basically said we're going to maintain a habitat that's
friendly to the butterflies and the caterpillars.
In the natural world, there's like a 96% mortality rate
in Monarch caterpillars
before they get to the chrysalid stage.
It wouldn't be a problem in the natural world
if there were still billions of butterflies.
Somebody's gotta try to do something.
And that's what we're doing out here.
We started going out and bringing caterpillars in.
Then one day we said, "Well, if we're gonna bring
"caterpillars in, why don't we find the eggs?"
There's a Monarch butterfly egg right there.
It just gets kind of--
I don't know if you want to say obsessive, but it gets to be
almost a game of finding the caterpillar eggs.
What we do is we break it off and take the whole leaf in.
- One more for my home.
And then from there, I usually remove them
at the point they've hatched.
This one has two on it.
There is one little caterpillar,
and there's a little caterpillar.
They're just beautiful, and they're inquisitive
but all they want to do is eat.
And then they just eat, eat, eat.
If you see one that's a good size,
this is pretty much full grown,
wandering, wandering, they just don't seem to want to eat.
And something inside their body is telling them,
"I'm done eating, I need to form my chrysalid in it."
It's looking for that place to form its chrysalid.
It's just the most amazing thing.
This is normally my last place where they end up.
Where they can form the chrysalid in a safe place.
And actually, I'll leave 'em there
and they'll stay there 'til they come out as a butterfly.
- We have our Monarch Watch data sheet
that we get from the Monarch Watch program.
And this is where we record the tag number,
the date of release, male or female
and whether we caught it wild or whether we reared it.
We take the little tag.
There's no indication that that tag, the weight of that tag,
has any impact on their ability to fly.
It's very, very light.
And I'm just going to set, set it right on there.
And then, they'll usually sit there
and they flex their wings.
Sometimes they're not perfectly ready to fly yet.
This would tell us if any of our Monarchs
make it down to the mountains of Mexico.
Of course, somebody has to find the tagged butterfly,
but that would provide the information that says,
"Here's where it came from."
Hopefully, the few that we release
have an exponential effect.
That we're doing something for the overall population.
If it's 50 butterflies we release or whether it's 500,
we know that we've helped push
that species forward a little bit.
It's a labor of love, and it's a labor of necessity.
We feel that it has to be done
or we're going to lose these animals for certain.
(lively music)
- My name is Zach Wagner and this is my Wisconsin Life .
(upbeat music, scraping)
- I use a lot of Velcro,
elastic, Dremel, sandpaper,
epoxy, glues to hold everything together.
Usually, you have to paint it yourself.
They always ask, you know: is it uncomfortable,
are you warm, and things like that.
I usually crack a joke.
(whimsical classical music)
- [Voiceover] Yeah, buddy, let's go there.
- [Voiceover] Let the force be with you.
- It's a lot of fun, you know, being a part
of the 501st Legion and the Wisconsin Garrison.
And I said, "Wow!
"There's a group of people like me out there
"that want to build Star Wars costumes."
We have about 70 members.
All of our costumes are made by us.
We don't take any payments; we're not paid.
It's all volunteer work.
I went to my first hospital event actually last year.
And this kid was running up to me, booking it.
And I'm like-- I take a step back-- I'm like,
"Hey, whoa! What's going on?"
My friend just says, "Hey man,
"they're just coming to get a hug.
"They just want to get a hug."
So, I'm like, "Oh, okay."
Just being able to see the characters in real life,
it really gives them a distraction
and lights up their day for at least a little while.
It shows them that universe is real and exists here, too.
The first Star Wars costume was my biker scout.
The reason I chose the biker scout,
just that it looks so different
from storm troopers, snow troopers.
Most of the costumes are made out of ABS Plastics,
similar to car bumper material.
This is just nice 'cause it resists damage
and things like that.
You can reinforce 'em with fiberglass if you want,
but it depends on what costume you're doing,
and that's mostly what they're made out of.
I'd say Star Wars is a big part of my life.
I met my wife on a dating website [sweetongeeks.com].
I probably wouldn't do it or do it as much
without her being a part of it.
When we can go to an event together
and both have a great time.
It just makes it that much more special.
(crowd noise, turnstile clicks)
I can go to these baseball game charity events
(baseball charge music)
(bat striking, crowd cheering)
in a Star Wars costume.
It's really fun.
* (" Star Wars Main Theme") *
When I put on the costume,
I do feel like I'm really that character.
You get kids running up to you,
asking for your autograph on baseballs, shirts, hats.
The Garrison means, to me,
being with friends.
It's hard to imagine my life without that,
without the friends that I've met.
All these things together make it so much fun
and it's always going to keep getting better.
You've got the new movies coming out,
and new costumes being made.
It's never gonna stop
and that's one reason I love it so much.
* (" Star Wars Main Theme") *
(jets vroom, vroom)
- [Voiceover] Go to [WisconsinLife.org]
to learn more about
Ray Tallman,
the Amazing Grace Chorus,
the Magee Family,
Gary and Darcy Hess
and Zach Wagner and his friends in the Wisconsin Garrison.
We want to know, "What's your Wisconsin Life ?"
This week, Lauren from Madison sent us "Freedom on a Trike."
Go to [WisconsinLife.org]
to find out how you can have a chance
to see your Wisconsin Life moments
featured in an upcoming program.
(laughing, babbling)
- [Voiceover] Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.