[00:00:00] Fuzz Martin: Oh, I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. A quote from Lucy Maud Montgomery. From Anne of Green Gables, I’m quoting 20th century children’s literature, folks. Thank you for joining me on another episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. My name is Fuzz Martin, and this is a show about positive vibes.
It’s a show about things happening here in Washington County, Wisconsin that are positive and uplifting, and this week, also, things that are spooky. Emily Greene, Executive Director of the Youth and Family Project, joins me this week to talk about their upcoming Nightmares Around Elm Street event. Have you ever wondered about all the haunted, spooky things in West Bend?
Well, now’s your chance to learn about them and support the Youth and Family Project at the same time. The event’s taking place on Friday, October 25th, and there are going to be three walking tours that evening, so bring your walking shoes and keep your head on a swivel. Hehe. With that, here are 15 minutes on the Youth and Family Project’s Nightmares Around Elm Street event.
With Emily Greene on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
Emily, thank you so much for coming back on the show. I think it’s your third time?
[00:01:24] Emily Greene: I think so. Yeah, I think so.
[00:01:26] Fuzz Martin: All right. You, uh, you get a jacket. Uh, for those who maybe have not listened to every episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz, first of all, why not? There’s plenty of time. They’re only fifteen minutes long.
Can you tell us quickly about, or even not, not even quickly at your own pace. Can you tell us about the Youth and Family Project and its mission?
[00:01:46] Emily Greene: Sure. The mission of the Youth and Family Project is to provide supportive services to youth and families, helping them achieve an increased sense of safety, hope, and belonging.
So we provide a variety of services, all centered around that safety, hope, and belonging piece. So those include Individual and group counseling services, supervised visitation, holiday support, homeless support for youth ages 18 to 24, and then some LGBTQ support as well.
[00:02:12] Fuzz Martin: Okay, very good. And you guys, you’re here in West Bend.
Off Elm Street, which we’ll get to in a second. Uh, but you guys do some fun events throughout the year. You had the, uh, Christmas in July event that was a lot of fun at the West Bend High School. You have the Gingerbread House, which is your upcoming, piece that helps families who are, in need during the holidays have a good, holiday season, right?
Yeah, sign
[00:02:36] Emily Greene: up has already started. It’s awesome. Wild.
[00:02:37] Fuzz Martin: And, uh, and, yeah, people get really, yeah, involved with that. I think it’s, people love to give and there’s a lot of families to support, right?
[00:02:44] Emily Greene: Absolutely.
[00:02:44] Fuzz Martin: And this year, you’re doing one. The Nightmares Around Elm Street.
Is this a first year for this or?
[00:02:51] Emily Greene: Second year. Second
[00:02:52] Fuzz Martin: year, okay. I thought, I thought I had heard about this in the past. So. Second year, Nightmares Around Elm Street. It’s coming up on Friday, October 25th. First of all, how did the idea come about?
[00:03:03] Emily Greene: Well, our fundraising committee this year is really working on, figuring out ways to get creative and, host fundraisers for the agencies that aren’t annual galas and golf outings and the same old, same old.
Not that there’s anything wrong with those, but, we tried to bring a little creative flair to the table. So, this was one of the options that we came up with and thought it was just zany enough to go forward with.
[00:03:27] Fuzz Martin: Excellent. So, what can people who are attending Nightmares Around Elm Street expect from the experience?
[00:03:34] Emily Greene: Sure. So, the experience is primarily a haunted walking tour. So we’ll start at the Youth and Family Project Agency Building at 630 Elm Street, and, we’ll start off with some spooky stories at the agency building. The building itself was built in 1894, so it has quite a history. It’s had a few uses over the years, started out as Holy Angels Rectory, it was briefly a hospital, a school, an apartment complex.
So there’s definitely a lot of stories coming out of there. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So once we set off from Ethan Family Project, we will, kind of take a tour through the, more of the residential areas, of West Bend. Downtown West Bend and, here’s some spooky stories along the way. Get a nice hike in and, then return back to the agency building.
We’ll have, uh, fire in the parking area, with spooky stories and s’mores, raffle baskets, and other concessions like cocoa and, Cider, um, what else do we have? We have Cake Pops, um, Little Spooky Cookies, Build Your Own Trail Mix, so it’ll be a great event.
[00:04:37] Fuzz Martin: All those things for purchase to help support the Youth and Family Project.
Um, so, in your building at 630 Elm Street, have you yourself ever experienced anything spooky?
[00:04:49] Emily Greene: I personally have not. I tend to be one of those people, unless it’s like in my face, I won’t. Won’t necessarily believe it, but I do know other staff have felt things. Once when, well, when I was an intern at the agency many years ago, a member of the intern cohort, we were touring the third floor of the building and, she had felt, felt a presence in one of the rooms and, it was very strong.
And later we learned out that someone had indeed killed themselves in that room.
[00:05:17] Fuzz Martin: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:05:18] Emily Greene: Yes. So there’s quite a history with the building. Yes.
[00:05:22] Fuzz Martin: Definitely some
[00:05:22] Emily Greene: spooky things.
[00:05:24] Fuzz Martin: So we get told, so we’re, as we’re recording this, for those who don’t know, we’re at Epic Creative, which is, was 1939. It’s the old West Bend Mutual, which was the old Museum of Wisconsin Art, which was the old Delta Defense, and then us.
Everybody tells us that this building’s haunted. I’ve been here till, like, four in the morning. Many, many nights, like, working on projects. I’ve never experienced anything. I don’t want to, but I’ve never, I’ve never experienced anything, and some of the old people from Delta Defense tell me that, uh, they’re like, oh, yeah, it’s haunted, and I’m like, maybe they were just haunting you, uh, and not, maybe they, maybe they, maybe they like me and they just want to leave me alone, um, you know, I don’t know.
Maybe they’ll like the music I play at three in the morning, um, but, uh, but there are some buildings around because it’s, it’s a, you know, this community was built in the 1800s, so there’s plenty of, uh, old kind of Victorian type housing and things like that that lends itself to spookiness, creaky floors and things like that.
Yes,
[00:06:27] Emily Greene: absolutely.
[00:06:27] Fuzz Martin: Lots of plaster to fall, uh, unexpectedly. Absolutely. So. What kind of things go into planning an event like this because you’re you’re going on a walking tour So there’s there’s more to it than just centrally planning an event. That’s within a space, right? So what goes into it?
[00:06:45] Emily Greene: So throughout the year, we’ve been collecting stories So we have a number of stories from last year But obviously I don’t we don’t want to use the same material over and over again so that people Can get a fresh experience when they come this year so we’ve been collecting stories, making sure that there’s some, some good ideas out there and, new ideas that we can share.
And then obviously planning the route. We want to make sure that it’s long enough that we get enough stories in, but not too long that people are exhausted by the end. Sure. So people can expect to walk about an hour. Last year we did have one, one of the tours that lasted a little bit longer, but our tour guide got lost, so I promise that won’t happen again this year.
[00:07:21] Fuzz Martin: You do say on the poster to wear comfortable shoes, right? I do, yes. So do that. How do you balance making it both fun and spooky and, it’s, it’s geared for people at age 13 and up, right? Yeah. So how do you balance, you know, make that balance there?
[00:07:37] Emily Greene: So we try, try to balance some of the themes of the stories, trying to make sure that there’s not too many of those really heavy, stories about trauma and suicide, obviously with haunted stories, that does kind of go hand in hand, so we, we do try to bring in, some more humor.
Fun. Mm-Hmm. . Um, with it, we might, we might have a few jump scares. We all right. You know, we might have, some other spooky stories around the fire, and then obviously the sugar and the concessions is always a, a good , a good fix for getting a little spooked at the end of the night. Yeah.
[00:08:05] Fuzz Martin: And I, of course, if you’re signing up to go for a haunted tour, you should, you know, that’s something you’re probably into, right?
Yes.
[00:08:12] Emily Greene: Yeah.
[00:08:12] Fuzz Martin: Speaking of that, people are encouraged to wear costumes, right?
[00:08:16] Emily Greene: Yeah, sure.
[00:08:16] Fuzz Martin: Are you going to wear a costume?
[00:08:18] Emily Greene: Um
[00:08:19] Fuzz Martin: That’s a no.
[00:08:20] Emily Greene: Sort of. Okay, alright. I have a dress that has a large, like, Anubis outline on it, so it’s really the only day I can wear it.
[00:08:27] Fuzz Martin: I did notice you wearing a horizontally striped sweater today, much like Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street.
[00:08:33] Emily Greene: Gotta get in the mood. Yeah,
[00:08:34] Fuzz Martin: exactly. So I was like, alright, Emily’s going for a correct wardrobe today. The funds that you raise for, from Nightmares Around Elm Street obviously go to help support the Youth and Family Project. Can you tell us more about how events like Nightmares Around Elm Street support your organization’s initiatives and support those in the community?
[00:08:57] Emily Greene: Yeah, absolutely. One of the biggest things that we are focusing in on this year for our fundraising efforts is ensuring the safety of the building. So that does include, our security system. We do have security cameras throughout the building. They were installed in 2017, 2018 and unfortunately that means that they’re aging.
That doesn’t seem like that long ago, but all the technology is pretty much outdated. So we, find ourselves in the position that we need to upgrade some of those security cameras and make sure that when we are providing those supervised visits and other programming at the agency building that, you know, people have as safe as experience as they possibly can.
[00:09:34] Fuzz Martin: Perfect. So, for those who may be Aren’t into spooky tours, but still want to support your cause and the Youth Family Projects cause, how can they go about doing so? How can they get involved or contribute?
[00:09:48] Emily Greene: Yeah. So they can, go ahead and visit our website, and click on the donation links that are available on the website.
We also will have other, other events throughout the year. As you mentioned, we have the Christmas in July, so we’ll be doing that again next year. And our hope is to add a few more, fun opportunities next year as well.
[00:10:05] Fuzz Martin: Great. This event And like many other events, go, I mean, first of all, there’s, there is a, a fee to get tickets, right?
So is it 10 in advance and 15 at the door?
[00:10:15] Emily Greene: Yes, that’s correct.
[00:10:16] Fuzz Martin: And then you have three tours.
[00:10:18] Emily Greene: 7. p. m.
[00:10:20] Fuzz Martin: All right. And then, uh, but also, uh, these are supported by sponsors, right? So, um, So if people want to sponsor the event, same way they can, you know, get in touch via the website?
[00:10:30] Emily Greene: Absolutely, yes. Um,
[00:10:32] Fuzz Martin: so if you’re a local business or organization that want to support and, sponsor the Nightmares Around Elm Street, again, it’s youthandfamilyproject.
org?
[00:10:40] Emily Greene: Yep, that’s correct.
[00:10:42] Fuzz Martin: Last year, can you have any, like, um, fun memories of the The event last year, what was your favorite part of last year’s event?
[00:10:51] Emily Greene: , one, one funny story. Um, just as the last tour was about to set off at Ethan Family Project, I was leading that one. And, my, my kids were there at the agency building because they, there’s lots of toys there, so they like to play.
Good way to spend the time while mom’s working. And they had been in my office and nobody really knew that they were in there. So as I was telling this initial scary story at the office. In the kitchen area of the building, apparently my son was in my office like banging on the door and the other participants didn’t realize that it was a child in there and thought it was all part of the experience.
So that was pretty good.
[00:11:28] Fuzz Martin: That is good. Yeah, I was thinking you were going to say they heard little, little voices cause that also adds to spooky experience. Oh, definitely. Kids voices can be either, very cute or spooky if you’re not expecting them. Exactly. Or spooky if you are expecting them, but, uh.
Uh, need a, need a break. Um, uh, alright, as we wrap up, if somebody is, again, wants to join the tour , the date is?
[00:11:52] Emily Greene: Friday, October 25th.
[00:11:53] Fuzz Martin: And you can get your tickets at youthfamilyproject. org, 10 in advance. Fifteen dollars at the door, three tours, 7.
30, 7. 45, 8 o’clock. Fun event. Emily, thank you for coming in again, and, uh, you’re welcome back anytime.
[00:12:08] Emily Greene: Thanks for having me.
[00:12:10] Fuzz Martin: Thanks again to Emily Greene of the Youth and Family Project for joining me on this week’s episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. Nightmares around Elm Street. Sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and you can get your tickets today and learn about all the haunted and scary things that are looking in the basements and attics of all the 1800s homes that are here in West Bend.
If you ever have an idea for a guest on this show, don’t be scared. Reach out. Go to fuzzmartin. com slash guest and fill out the form. That is fuzzmartin. com slash guest. Or you can email me fuzz at fuzzmartin. com. I don’t bite. Uh, fuzz at fuzzmartin. com. New episodes coming on Tuesdays and you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, fuzzmartin.
com or wherever you’re. Spooky little heart desires. And with that, I will talk to you next Tuesday, right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
