(instrumental music)
- [Host] This week on Wisconsin Life.
Meet a young boy from Richland County
whose wish led to his very own field of dreams;
a country music star in Milwaukee using
his talents to give back;
a La Crosse librarian
more likely to share blooms than books;
and a Stevens Point man who runs
an oddity shop on Wisconsin Life.
(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] 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're here at the Washington Park Velodrome.
What's a velodrome you might ask?
It's an arena for track cycling
which is a bicycle racing sport.
This particular velodrome is located in Kenosha
and is the only one in Wisconsin.
In fact, the Washington Park Velodrome is
celebrating its 90th anniversary.
It looks like the racers are warming up.
I'm gonna head inside while you catch up with our team
as they travel to Ithaca to meet a young boy
who combined his love for baseball with a special wish
to bring a community together.
(soft music)
The small town of Ithaca lies in the heart
of southwest Wisconsin's driftless area.
(soft music)
It's home to some of the Midwest's
most beautiful scenery.
The perfect place for a Richland County boy
to carve out his own field of dreams.
(crack of a bat)
Brad and Rhonda Lewis were high school sweethearts.
Their oldest son Jaxon had two loves, playing baseball...
- He was hitting off the tee as soon as he could walk.
- ...and watching baseball.
- I was a big Brewer's fan so I started him out.
Maybe I brainwashed him a little bit, too.
- Jaxon's room is a journey
through Milwaukee Brewers' history.
From balls to bats to bobbleheads,
it's obvious there are few fans
more fervent than Jaxon.
- I'd have the Brewer game on
and Rhonda would come out and go,
"Why are you watching the Brewers.
"Doesn't he want to watch cartoons?"
I said, "Watch, I'll flip it."
I flip it to a cartoon and he'd want
the Brewer game back on.
- He'd start crying until he switched
it back to Brewers.
*
- [Host] The beauty of baseball is that it's open ended.
The game continues as long as you keep circling the bases.
There's no clock.
No time limit.
Baseball had always brought the Lewis family together.
Even when time was the one thing Jaxon didn't have.
(somber music)
- Jaxon was seven years old and it was on April of 2013.
And we just found out we were expecting our fourth child
and Jaxon started having headaches.
- He'd bury his head in the corner of the couch
and he just wouldn't--
He just sat there and he just--
You knew something was wrong. Yeah.
- [Host] They took Jaxon to the hospital.
They hoped it was anxiety or migraines.
It wasn't.
- They did a CT scan and found a tumor in his brain.
- [Host] Jaxon was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma,
brain cancer.
He began chemotherapy and radiation treatments
in Chicago every day for seven weeks
followed by six more months at UW-Madison.
- No, it was horrible.
To walk away that first day and leave him in that room
'cause, of course, you can't stay in the room
with the radiation or anything, so--
- And then they would strap me down to the table
and they would put me in.
- To walk out that first day and they were like,
"Okay, you go to the waiting room."
And it was so hard to leave him there
and see him strapped in, yeah, and then knowing
that he was going through that every day.
(light upbeat music)
- [Host] Back home, the community rallied
around Jaxon.
Fundraisers were held and friends provided support.
One of Jaxon's friends shaved his own head
so Jaxon wouldn't feel alone.
Others carried a stuffed animal around school
to remember their missing classmate.
He would even get a boost from his favorite baseball team.
The Brewers invited him to a game at Miller Park.
- [Rhonda] And we were in the dugout until about 10 minutes
before the game so it was so much fun.
- [Host] While this whirlwind enveloped the Lewis family,
they were referred to Make-A-Wish.
- Their Wish granters came right to our house
and they pretty much-- - They talked to Jaxon.
- Yeah, they talked to Jaxon.
Just make a wish, just whatever your wish is
and we'll go from there.
- [Host] One day Brad found a story
about a Vermont man who created a replica
of Boston's Fenway Park.
- And my eyes just lit up.
- And he was like, can we do something like that?
- [Host] And that's how Jaxon
ended up with a baseball stadium
in his back yard.
[crowd cheering]
Make-A-Wish and the Brewers brought Miller Park to Ithaca.
Behold Jaxon's Brew Crew Park.
- [Brad] We have a quarter-inch scale
of Miller Park pretty much.
- [Host] Decked out with a jumbotron,
scoreboard, and of course
Bernie Brewer's slide.
- It's similar.
I mean it doesn't have the retractable roof.
(laughter)
- [Host] It's every young baseball fans dream,
a replica of his favorite ball park
just beyond his back door.
But Jaxon's wish wasn't just to build
a baseball stadium.
- The community support, he saw all that.
He witnessed that
and he just knew that, now--
- Yep, that's what he's going to do too.
- That's what we do when somebody's sick.
We've got to raise money for somebody.
- We've got to help them out.
- Yep, we've got to help them out.
*
- [Host] If you build it,
they will come.
And in Richland County, they do.
Every June, Jaxon's Brew Crew Park
hosts a weekend Wiffle ball tournament.
- [Announcer] A smash to the short stop.
- [Host] The proceeds go to GRACE,
Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination,
a charity that provides support
to local cancer patients.
- They're going through what I did
and I know the community helped me
so I wanted to help the community, too.
- It's low key and the families have so much fun
and they're always out there laughing
and people are just enjoying themselves
so it's nice to sit there and watch that.
- [Host] In its first three years,
the tournament raised nearly $30,000 for GRACE.
Jaxon's wish was a home run.
In January 2017, Brad and Rhonda would get their wish.
Jaxon went in for a checkup and doctor delivered good news.
- He came in and after the MRI and he said,
"Was it four years?"
- Mmhm, four years since diagnosis.
- Since diagnosis.
And he said with, he goes, "Everything looks good."
And he said there's probably this big a chance
of that thing coming back.
So I mean he said you're sitting--
- We're in a good spot.
So that was a good feeling.
- [Host] Today Jaxon is cancer free
and still circling the bases.
(uplifting choir music)
- I can keep up with my friends better now
because I have a little more energy
than I did at treatments.
*
- [Host] Baseball is measured in innings.
Life is measured in days.
The Lewis family has learned to make them all count.
- I think, it sounds a little cliché,
but it really does make you appreciate
everything you have because you never know.
(upbeat music)
- [Host] On the last night of the tournament,
everyone gathers around the infield to launch lanterns
into the southwest Wisconsin sky.
It's one final show of small town solidarity
made possible by one young man's remarkable wish.
- [Brad] Very humble, very humble little kid,
little boy, he really is.
- The competition has begun,
at the Velodrome here in Kenosha.
Cyclists come across the Midwest to compete
in multiple endurance and sprint races.
The bikes used on the track have one set gear
and no brakes, reaching speeds up to 45 miles per hour.
[announcer] Nice job, number 51.
(crowd cheers)
I'm headed out to explore more of the Velodrome
while you watch our next story
that takes us to Milwaukee.
We meet a teacher and gospel singer
who's making a name for himself
as a national country music artist.
* Well I guess beauty's
* in the eye of the Miller beerholder *
[Host] This basement in the heart of the city is home
to a little slice of country.
- Country is a lifestyle.
It's what you live.
It's not something that you just put on a hat
and say yee-haw.
No, it's a lifestyle.
* I love the morning in the state of Georgia
* I wasn't born in Tennessee
KC Williams was born and raised in Milwaukee,
but spent summers on his uncle's farm
in Greenwood, Mississippi.
* I'm just a small city boy
* With a country mind
- And my uncle in Mississippi, he basically,
there's only two types of music you listen to in his house,
that's gospel and country.
We couldn't play no R&B, nothing else.
* I'm running through the school house *
- [Host] He fell in love with country music.
Growing up in urban Milwaukee,
that meant line dancing to the beat of his own drum.
- It just became a part of me and with that,
it came a lot of ridicule.
You know, because I got teased in elementary,
middle and high school.
And I used to always say one of these days,
you guys are going to be seeing me on the stage.
That was my, always have been my dream.
Music has been my life.
*
- [Host] KC began writing songs, playing concerts,
and moving up the country music ladder.
In an industry with few black artists, KC stood out.
- In the beginning, there was a lot of obstacles,
but... I know who I am.
*
I had black people telling me I shouldn't be singing country
and I had white people telling me I shouldn't sing country,
but I tell me country is where,
that's where I want to be.
- [Host] His big break came
during a 1998 festival with one
of country music's biggest stars.
- Tim McGraw was the headliner
and I opened up for Tim McGraw for that
and he saw me and he sent his band leader over
and he says, "Man, hey, Tim likes you."
"He wants to work with you."
And so from there his band, we started recording together.
(country music)
- [Host] KC's career took off.
He went on to record multiple studio albums
with Tim McGraw's band
which led to European tours across Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, and Poland.
His childhood dream had come true.
- Tim was the reason why I'd been touring Europe
for the last 10 or 15 years,
because he really, really gave me a boost.
What does this mean?
(kids respond) Silence.
Nope.
- Stop. - Stop.
- [Host] In turn, KC's used his success
to give others a boost.
- Give me an example of staccato
singing the A, B, C song.
One, two, three, and...
- [All] A, B, C, D, E, F, G...
- [Host] He stepped out of the spotlight to become a music teacher
in the Milwaukee Public School system.
- Giving back pretty much is where it's at with me now,
helping the young kids in the inner city and things
and let them know that there are other ways
and means of life.
(children chant in choral)
So I bartered with the kids.
I say, "Okay you teach me what you know
"and I'll teach you what I know."
* One note here we go.
[kids] * 1, 2, 3, 4...
- [Host] KC has no plans to ride off
into the sunset just yet.
He still writes music and performs occasionally
with his band, The Big Dogs.
- It's almost like being in the mob.
(laughs) Once you in, you know, it's in you.
[Williams] * He wears a cheesehead hat
* and his shoes are green and gold *
(kids echo) * Green and gold
- * Green and gold
- [Host] But these days, his favorite gig
is in the classroom.
- And I'll probably do a show or two,
but my life now is gearing more toward the kids
and raising them, and
making men and ladies out of our young inner-city kids.
- [Host] And teaching a lesson he learned long ago.
If you stay positive and be true to yourself,
you don't need to walk the line.
- Be yourself.
So if you like what you're hearing,
if you like country music or whatever you like,
and it's not what the norm likes, it's okay.
It's okay to like different things.
It's okay to be different.
Let's just be us. Let's love us for who we are.
That's just the bottom line.
* I'm in the castle
* And I'm running fine
How you doin' Milwaukee?
- After watching these races, I had to talk
to someone who had tackled these tracks.
I'm here with Lynn Rivier who has finished
her first race this year at the Washington Park Velodrome.
This sounds exciting. So, how'd you get into racing?
- I was riding my bike.
I enjoyed riding my bike just for exercise
and then I met some women who raced
and they convinced me to race.
And my first races were time trials
which are just long and hard and boring,
then I discovered the track.
So I started coming to some clinics
where they taught you how to ride,
the techniques, all about the bikes
which is all alarming because the bikes don't have brakes.
The first time out you think well,
once you get started you think well, I'll never get off.
I'll just be doing this 'til I die, but you learn.
- What makes this track so unique?
- This track is unique because its steep banking.
Going around the corners is a lot more fun,
because its banking, you get the feeling
of the speed, acceleration.
- So what do you like about the racing culture here
at the Washington Park Velodrome?
- The feeling of sprinting is what's fun
because you're going around, you're gaining speed,
but at one point you find everyone suddenly takes off hard
and the idea is to sprint past everyone
and that's really exciting.
It's exciting when you're training,
it's exciting when you're on the track.
- Well what do you recommend to someone
who might be interested in getting into racing.
- I recommend they come to a clinic where
they can borrow a bike because they are special bikes.
And someone will help you learn,
get familiar with the track, the feel.
You just learn the techniques.
- So when I go to a clinic, I can
eventually race around this track like you do.
- Yes. - Okay.
- There's a first time for everything. (laughter)
- I might try that.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us.
- You're welcome. Thanks for having me on.
- And we'll explore more of our state
in this next story.
Next up, a story from La Crosse
where we found a seed library you just have to check out.
The Roman orator Cicero said, "If you have a garden
"and a library, you have everything you need."
- When you think about it, that's probably pretty true.
I think you might want to throw a house
and a stove in there, but--
Yeah, it's two vital things
that make for a good life I think.
- [Host] Cindy Mischnick is living that good life.
- [Cindy] You taste a vegetable
that's grown from the heirloom seed or grown locally,
has no comparison to something that you buy
in the grocery store.
- [Host] As a gardener and librarian,
Cindy was a driving force behind Wisconsin's first seed library.
Seed packets can be checked out
from the La Crosse Public Library
in the spring to plant your garden.
- We're not only gardeners, but we're also catalogers
and we collect information of all types
and catalog it and make it available to the public,
and it just so happens that seeds can be
in that category.
- [Host] The La Crosse Library was initially
stocked by Seed Savers, the nonprofit Iowa farm
that preserves heirloom plant varieties.
Seed Savers also provides training on how to save seeds
so they can be brought back to the library
to keep the collection growing.
- If you wouldn't mind splitting open a pod or two.
So this is how we do the real work at Seed Savers,
we get audiences to do it.
- [Host] Whether it's separating beans from pods
or letting tomato seeds stew in their own juices,
each variety has a best method for saving the seeds.
- There's a lot of junk that's also getting in there.
- [Host] And Cindy found that holding events
around seed saving helped grow
a community of fellow seed collectors.
- It seems like you can't stop talking
about the excitement of seeds and the plants that you grew.
- Did the squirrels get any of it?
- [Woman] They did not. It turns out squirrels...
- [Cindy] And the recipes that you make.
- And what did you use the arugula in this year?
- Just salads.
- It's a real sense of community
and we're finding it grows and grows.
- And you had a good crop?
- Very good crop.
- You'll be back next year then?
- I sure will. - All right.
- It's an heirloom seed swapping group on Facebook.
- [Cindy] Great libraries grow communities.
We want to be a dynamic part of a growing community.
- [Host] Keeping heirloom seeds in circulation
ensures that a wide range of plant varieties survive.
- [Woman] I think we're losing some genetic diversity
because of more commercial seeds.
- [Host] Seed companies once offered
thousands of crops, but over time,
companies consolidated and offered only
a limited range of best sellers.
So the genetics of less popular species were lost.
Seed librarian Cindy and the seed library
keep more variety in circulation.
- We are actually keeping information, then,
that's really important to the planet.
- [Host] And that's just what a librarian does.
- To be a librarian that has seeds
in your life is just a really good personal fit for me
and it's been really, really fun.
I couldn't have asked for anything better.
- The Velodrome opened in 1927.
These arenas were the go-to place
to mingle with friends.
But as the years went on, track conditions became
a little worse for wear.
But recently the track was repaved
and the city hopes that this place
will once again become as popular as it once was
during its heyday.
It's time again to take another look
at life in Wisconsin.
Our team explores an Appleton Oddity Shop
run by a man known as a "Skull Boss."
His collection is one you have to see to believe.
On Wisconsin Avenue in Appleton...
in the lobby of a tattoo shop...
there's an inkling of something strange!
- Just about anything from human skulls
to antique vaporizers.
If it looks cool to me, I put it in the store.
Did you see the football Steve made?
- [Host] Scott Watzlawick runs an oddity shop,
called Forty Three Skulls,
out of this tattoo parlor.
As a child, Scott always repurposed things
other people threw away.
- My father in a lot of cases was less than thrilled
with the things I brought home.
- You know somebody would have a broken doll
and he'd bring the little parts and pieces home
and make a design out of them and I'm like,
there's a reason they're throwing this stuff away.
It's no good. No, it'll be okay, really.
I can make something out of this.
- [Host] Scott still dabbles in recycled art
but he's gained notoriety for collecting
and repurposing animals into his work.
From skulls to skeletons to folk art,
his store showcases his eclectic collection.
- This is an old chemistry cabinet from the science lab.
This is a panther skull, some tattooed pig skin,
some old quack medicinary that used to sell
off of wagons years ago.
Marmoset monkey.
Skeleton of a snake.
I would rather see an animal go into an art piece
that could educate a child
as opposed to go into a landfill and rot with garbage.
All my things are ethically sourced
so nothing has been killed for the art
or killed to be put into a jar.
This actually comes from a scientific dissection lab.
- [Host] Scott sees this as preserving
an animal's legacy while educating people along the way.
For instance, he says he sells a lot of items
to science teachers.
- To me, that's the most fun of it.
It's teaching kids and keeping them focused
and interested so they want to go home
and hit up Google and go, "Where did this bat come from?"
Or, "What's a flying fox bat?" or "I saw a giraffe
"at Forty Three Skulls. Where do giraffes come from?"
- [Host] Scott's father Ron, once a skeptic,
is now a believer.
- Yeah, there have been things that he has asked me to do
and I'm like you've got to be kidding,
nobody's going to want this.
And then he'll put it in the store and it's gone.
The more time goes by, the more I learn
there's a collector for everything.
- Now they work together to create new pieces of art
like this walking stick.
- My father routed out with a Dremel
so we could inlay the skull here.
In all the trial and error,
you come up with some pretty cool, unique items
and you know, I can say I built that with my father.
*
- [Host] Scott realizes that many people
find his hobby strange,
but it's actually brought his family closer together.
- Over the last five years, I think we've
probably gotten closer than we've ever been.
I burst at the seams telling people about it
'cause yeah I couldn't be happier.
I couldn't be more proud of him.
[Host] And that's not so odd, after all.
- The old saying goes, a family that plays together, stays together.
Well, I'm living proof of that.
- [Host] If you're interested in stopping by Kenosha
and hopping on the track yourself,
the Velodrome is open for the public to ride
on nights when professional races aren't being held.
To learn more about the Washington Park Velodrome
and other people's stories you've seen,
visit wisconsinlife.org.
Share your story by emailing us
at wisconsinlife@wpt.org.
Thanks for watching.
I leave you now with some highlights
of the races here.
I'm your host, Angela Fitzgerald,
and this is our Wisconsin Life.
Bye.
(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part by
Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.