'Christmas Wish' Touches Lives in Unique Ways

By Jane Fyksen Crops Editor
Monday, December 22, 2008 9:06 AM CST

Santa?s elves at the North Pole are working overtime, but so are Mike Schaefer, Karen Dahlvig and other ?elves? involved in a northcentral Wisconsin cooperative effort to deliver Christmas cheer and very practical help to those who need some of each this season.

?Christmas Wish,? in its 12th year, has become a tradition in Taylor, Clark and Price counties, where rural cooperatives of all sorts have teamed up with a Medford-based radio station to help those who are struggling during the holidays. Maybe it?s poor health or a farm injury, job loss, loneliness or loss of a loved one, or simply advancing years ? the needs are many, but Christmas Wish volunteers are as determined as Rudolph on a foggy night.

Agri-View caught up with Mike, a former farmer who is president and CEO of the Taylor Electric Cooperative, and Karen, co-owner of WKEB/WIGM radio (otherwise known as K99 on the FM dial) in Medford. These head elves spearhead a Christmas project that?s gotten bigger every year.

People call the radio station with ?wishes.? A big-hearted team of volunteers representing sponsoring cooperatives meet each week during the Christmas countdown to sift and winnow through the requests for assistance. The needs are great and cover the gamut, but the Christmas Wish elves are up to the challenge. Many, like Mike, and Karen, who was raised on a Christmas tree farm in Taylor County, also have that farm work ethic. Tirelessly, for over a decade now, they?ve devoted huge amounts of time during an already hectic time of year to help others in their community have a better Christmas in a myriad of ways. The Christmas Wish sack is, in fact, as full of surprises as the Jolly Ol? Elf?s.

Christmas Wish volunteers deliver Christmas gifts to kids in financially struggling single-parent families. They drop off food baskets and help pay utility bills. They?ve even dropped off a new stove to someone who frequently gives of herself to reach out to others, but who was struggling to cook on a stove with only one working burner. Cards and ?Remembrance Angel? figurines are hand-delivered to people still grieving the loss of a loved one. These days, it?s sometimes parents or the spouse of a soldier.

The Christmas Wish elves have plowed driveways for the elderly, dropped off plants and given gas money to someone needing to travel for kidney dialysis treatments. Gas money has also gone to someone whose college-age son was hospitalized long-term in Milwaukee for many trips down and back. Bikes were given to children of an injured farmer. A widow received helped with bookkeeping and learning to balance her checking account from one of the sponsoring credit unions; household finances had been her late husband?s responsibility. Wreaths were made by high school students and delivered via the Christmas Wish project.

One year a larger lady received a new outfit made just for her. ?She said it was the best Christmas she ever had. The wishes don?t cost a lot of money. They take time and thought,? says Karen who ?feels blessed to live and work in a community? where people care about one another ? evidenced countless times by the Christmas Wish year after year.

Perhaps one of the most memorable wishes granted was in the project?s second year. Christmas Wish was instrumental in reuniting a mother and the son she?d given up for adoption as a tot. The young man, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton in Texas, received help in flying to northcentral Wisconsin to meet his birth mom. When a local beautician heard about the effort on K99, she volunteered to give the woman a makeover so she?d ?look beautiful? for the reunion with her long-lost son. Christmas Wish volunteers even secured a limo to take her to the airport, in order to make the tearful meeting of mother and son all the more special.

Twelve years ago, Mike heard about a similar program in southern Wisconsin involving cooperatives and took the idea home to the Taylor County Association of Co-ops (presumably one of only two such countywide associations left in the state anymore). He took the idea to grant Christmas wishes to K99, which took off with it like Santa?s sleigh from a rooftop.

Mike says one of the cooperative ?principles? is ?Concern for Community,? which is the ?theme? of Christmas Wish, which has, at its core, remained a cooperative initiative.

This year?s sponsors are: Taylor Electric Cooperative, Medford; Clark Electric Appliance and Satellite, Greenwood; Jump River Electric, Ladysmith; Price Electric, Phillips; Dairyland Power Cooperative, LaCrosse; United FCS (i.e. ?Farm Credit,? Medford; Co-op Transport, Stetsonville; Harmony Country Co-op, Colby; Heartland Co-op, Dorchester and Athens; Lakewood Credit Union, Rib Lake; Medford Cooperative, Inc. and Medford County Market, Medford; People?s Choice Credit Union, Medford; RCU (i.e. Royal Credit Union), Medford; Taylor Credit Union, Medford; and the Taylor County Association of Cooperatives. Other sponsors include area dairies like Grassland Butter, Greenwood; LaGrander?s Hillside Dairy, Stanley; Lynn Dairy, Granton; and North Hendren Dairy, Willard; as well as Mayville Market. Food baskets in Wisconsin wouldn?t be complete, of course, without cheese and other dairy products. And last but certainly not least, is WKEB/WIGM Radio?s crucial involvement in getting the word about Christmas Wish every year. The word gets out in a geographic area approximately from Wausau in the east to Eau Claire in the west, Phillips in the north to Marshfield in the south.

This isn?t about local businesses simply donating money for positive PR. It?s about the owners and employees genuinely taking the spirit of the Christmas Wish project to heart and selflessly devoting their own time; employees of the co-ops also open their pocketbooks. It?s about neighbor helping neighbor, and rural communities coming together to demonstrate in very tangible ways what Christmas is all about.

Karen says when listeners call in with Christmas Wish suggestions, she personally takes their confidential calls, and later brings them to the project?s oversight committee, consisting of volunteers from the participating co-ops and other business sponsors. Weekly, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, they meet to go over the requests and grant wishes. Then, all those Christmas Wish volunteer elves spring into action to make things happen.

For Mike and Karen, and their respective families, Christmas Wish has superseded personal holiday preparations. Mike was raised on a dairy farm near Athens. He dairy farmed himself across the road from his dad Arnold Schaefer, for over 15 years, selling to one of his brothers and existing farming. He and his wife, Debra, live near Gilman. They have five grown children and three grandkids.

Karen, as noted, co-owns WKEB/WIGM (the latter on the AM dial) with husband Brad. On FM they provide adult contemporary music, on AM, ESPN radio/sports talk. Both provide lots of local coverage. Just as a family farm passes through the generations, so Brad took over the radio station from his father. The Dahlvigs live in Medford and have three children, Emmy, Katie and Eric.

Either Karen?s and Mike?s children have at one time or another have helped with Christmas Wish. ?Last year,? recalls Karen, of her college daughter, ?Katie went with Santa to make a delivery to a single mom with twin infants.? Katie was so moved that she ?came home and got together another box for her,? Karen shares.

Karen is scrambling at this time of year to shop for the gifts given out by the Christmas Wish project. She tries to personalize them as much as possible. For wrapping, various elves in the community lend a hand. That?s how it is with Christmas Wish ? the volunteers coming forward to pitch in with this and that are too numerous to individually name.

Karen gives one example after another of folks who simply feel moved to help out. For instance, she notes a woman stopped by the radio station wanting to take her grandkids out shopping for gifts for Christmas Wish recipients. Quilts have been donated. Last year, the Medford High School history club helped with deliveries.

Karen herself is used to hectic days building up to the holidays, being raised, as noted, on a Christmas tree operation, Handel Evergreen Farms at Medford. Her brothers, Doug and Dave Handel, have taken over from her dad, Roger, who continues to be involved. Karen and Brad have followed in the family tradition, planting Christmas trees on their own land, and selling them through her family?s farm. Handel Evergreen Farms wholesales trees and has retail lots in Chicago. ?Brad does all the work,? Karen confides with a grin.

Karen reveals that Mike has helped make deliveries every year, always spending extra time just being neighborly, visiting, for example, with an elderly woman about the birds and deer she dearly loves seeing in her yard and then stopping in again at another time just to chat.

Mike confesses he?s particular moved by situations involving children. His eyes get teary as he shares what it?s like to walk up to someone?s door and ?seeing the eyes of those kids light up.?

The Willow Tree angels in remembrance of loved ones who?ve passed away, or ?courage? angels for those fighting cancer, were Karen?s idea. She says recipients are ?so glad someone remembers they lose someone. They want to talk about it.?

?We all get busy with our own lives, but that 15 or 20 minutes you spend with someone (who?s lonesome or grieving) really makes their Christmas,? she softly adds.

?It?s a very busy time for the radio station. But hearing all the stories?Things are okay with me and my family,? says Karen, stumbling for words. ?I become so personally connected. This is our Christmas.?

Over the years, hundreds and hundreds of wishes have been bestowed. Mike and Karen have been bracing for more requests this winter, what with layoffs and benefit issues for people with medical problems. So great is the need and worthwhile the wishes that Mike has his co-op employees, instead of doing their regular work, make deliveries.

The greeting card delivered with the ?wishes? sums up the project best: ?Family friends, a neighbor?someone thought you were deserving of special thoughts or monetary help this year. We?re here today to convey those sentiments. The sponsors of Christmas Wish along with our holiday helpers hope you feel that you are thought of and wished blessings of good fortune and good health, today and always!?

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