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Ever wondered what makes Hanford's Winter Wonderland a magical annual event? Join us as Brad Albert, the energetic director of Hanford Parks and Community Services Department, uncovers the secrets behind the transformation of the Civic Park into a winter fairytale with attractions like the ice skating rink and the inviting North Pole Lounge. We also discuss the dynamic marketing plans implemented to ensure that the festivities reach as many people as possible, using both traditional media and the power of modern social platforms.
Switching gears, we delve into the heart of Hanford. We chat with Jeff Detlefsen, a local teacher and founder of Hannah's Helpers, a remarkable nonprofit organization that brings smiles to special needs children and pediatric patients during the holiday season and beyond. Get inspired by their initiatives, such as Christmas Eve dinners and making public places more accessible for children with special needs. Not forgetting sports lovers, Eric Bentley is on hand with updates on our high school girls' basketball and soccer games. Don't miss out on this episode, and remember to sign up for the Hanford Insider email list to stay updated.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!
Send me a text and give me feedback on this episode!
Ever wondered what makes Hanford's Winter Wonderland a magical annual event? Join us as Brad Albert, the energetic director of Hanford Parks and Community Services Department, uncovers the secrets behind the transformation of the Civic Park into a winter fairytale with attractions like the ice skating rink and the inviting North Pole Lounge. We also discuss the dynamic marketing plans implemented to ensure that the festivities reach as many people as possible, using both traditional media and the power of modern social platforms.
Switching gears, we delve into the heart of Hanford. We chat with Jeff Detlefsen, a local teacher and founder of Hannah's Helpers, a remarkable nonprofit organization that brings smiles to special needs children and pediatric patients during the holiday season and beyond. Get inspired by their initiatives, such as Christmas Eve dinners and making public places more accessible for children with special needs. Not forgetting sports lovers, Eric Bentley is on hand with updates on our high school girls' basketball and soccer games. Don't miss out on this episode, and remember to sign up for the Hanford Insider email list to stay updated.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!
On this episode of the Hanford Insider we'll get an in-depth look into the Hanford Winter Wonderland with our guest Brad Albert, and Jeff Detlison stops by to update us on the annual Hannah's Helpers Christmas Dinner. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, november 27th.
Speaker 2:Welcome to this episode of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, rob Bentley. I'd like to thank you for listening to the show. Be sure to stop by my website at HanfordInsidercom and leave a review of the show. It helps grow the podcast. Those of you listening to the show should check out the special video version of this week's show on my YouTube channel at Hanford Insider. That version will have a video portion of the Hanford Winter Wonderland segment.
Speaker 2:The weather this week will be partly cloudy, with highs in the 60s. Let's check our community calendar. The Miss Kings County Organization is now seeking applicants for the 2024 competition. This is open to single females ages 13 to 28. Email MissKingsCountyOrg at gmailcom for more information.
Speaker 2:The Storybook Garden and Museum is holding a very merry princess party on Saturday December 9th and a pajama party with Santa Claus on Friday December 15th. You can register for both events at childrenstorybookgardenorg. On Saturday December 9th, the Central Valley Regional SWAT team and Hanford Police Officers Association will be hosting its annual Stuff the SWAT Truck Toy and Food Drive in the Target parking lot and that same day the Kings County Sheriff's Office Stuff the SWAT Truck will be next door in the Walmart parking lot. Tickets are still on sale for the Main Street Hanford Wine and Chocolate tasting event on Friday December 1st at MainStreetHanfordcom. The Hanford Fox Theater will be showing you home alone on Saturday December 2nd at 2. The Hanford Branch of the Kings County Library is hosting a winter open house on Wednesday December 6th from 4 to 6 pm. There will be raffles, refreshments, face painting, a model train display and, of course, a visit from Santa Claus. The Carnegie Museum of Kings County presents the Hattala's exhibition of Portuguese history each Friday, saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. They're also currently selling tickets to their December 9th fundraiser to restore their original 1905 Wood flooring in the old Carnegie Library building. For more information, visit Carnegie Museum of Kings County dot org.
Speaker 2:I want to let you know that I'm planning a very special Christmas episode on Christmas Day for my YouTube channel. I'm looking for local musicians willing to submit videos of their performances so that I can put together a Christmas special for my listeners to enjoy. If you're interested, contact me and I'll give you more information. The annual Hanford Rock and Rudolph run will be held Sunday December 17th. It's a two-mile run or walk through the streets of downtown Hanford, starting and ending at Hanford Winter Wonderland. It begins at 7.30 am. The event supports the Hanford Police Activities League program. Register now, before the prices go up at runsignupcom. You can visit the Hanford Rock and Rudolph Facebook page for more information.
Speaker 2:I'll be grabbing more events as I see them on the Hanford Sentinel calendar and social media pages. If you have an event coming up that would like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmailcom. Well, we're here with Brad Albert, who is the director of the Hanford Parks and Community Services Department. And Brad, this is beautiful. We are here in the North Pole Lounge at the Winter Wonderland. We are.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful day, so what a great place to be.
Speaker 2:So, brad, a lot of people want to know what kind of things can people find at Winter Wonderland this year? There's certainly a lot going on.
Speaker 3:There really is. We've got, of course, a 60 by 100 natural ice skating rink, so that's the big attraction. But in addition to that we have a lot of things for people, whether you skate or you don't skate. We call them attractions or just things to see. So our first new addition is Wonderland Village, and that is just west of the ice rink and it is a village made up of our food and craft vendors, so they kind of have a permanent home and it's decked out with lights and a big Christmas tree and just a wonderful place. We've got the North Pole Lounge, which is available for private rentals, and so a lot of people have their corporate Christmas party, their business Christmas parties, and we have the carousel, of course, that runs every Saturday during Winter Wonderland, so that continues. We have a new miniature golf, mini golf, nine holes. We've got the Carnival Games back and again, so a little bit for everybody.
Speaker 2:What's wonderful. If you're watching television, we see those advertisements. Come on and go. Wait, that's in Hanford. Those are some great spots for winter wonderland. How does the marketing approach change this year?
Speaker 3:Well, we've really stepped up our marketing this year. Our primary markets are Kings and Tulare County, but more and more we're seeming to get into the Fresno market, as you mentioned. We have 15 second commercials on TV ABC 30 now they're a sponsor of ours. We're also on momentum broadcasting radio stations. Really big on social media. You may have seen some of our fun posts that we have out there and we're doing some print. We're really trying to do a little more on the Visalia marketing, since the Vossler Farms Ice Rink is not coming back this year, so we feel like we have an opportunity to invite people into Hanford to see what we have.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of social media, you have your own media influencer for the city of Hanford. How does that feel.
Speaker 3:I never thought we'd say that, but it's really nice. And she goes out and films silly little tidbits here and there but it's really refreshing. Because I guess I'm an old timer, I'm not as much on social media as others are, but the power of social media to get the word out to thousands upon thousands, hundreds of thousands of people has really become a very strong marketing tool that we needed to embrace to just let people know what we have to offer.
Speaker 2:Well, there's certainly lots of different ways to get the word out. That's actually one of the reasons I started this show is because not everybody has Facebook, not everybody has Instagram, not everybody subscribes to the paper, but there are people that listen to podcasts and that's just another way of getting the word out, the way that I look at. So, speaking of getting the word out, I know that you have a great way to get the word out to all of your sponsors. I know you have many sponsors that are represented here. We had Emery Marple on the show last week to talk about all the different sponsors and the way that people could become sponsors. One of the unique sponsors that we have is Amtrak. Can you tell us about the partnership with Amtrak?
Speaker 3:We've partnered with Amtrak our first two years. This is our third. So with Amtrak, of course we have an Amtrak station just a few blocks from here. It's important to work with them to market Winter Wonderland and we're seeing more and more people coming on the train on a Saturday we try to pick them up with Freddie the Fire Engine, bring them to the park, and just what a great morning or afternoon to be able to do that and just visit Hanford Winter Wonderland, of course at Civic Park, but our downtown is nearly across the street from us to visit our restaurants, our retailers. So really, winter Wonderland really is economic opportunity and development during the winter months.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad you mentioned Freddie the Fire Truck because a lot of people are excited about the Christmas Lights Tour and I've been telling that I'm excited because someone else is taking over the actual list of houses this year. Shout out to Hanford Holiday. But can you tell us, about the rental of the Freddie the Fire Truck, how people can go about making an arrangement to be able to go around and see the lights?
Speaker 3:Understanding, as Freddie is filling up very quickly for this holiday season. They could go to the city website, go to the Parks and Recreation page and you will see Freddie the Fire Truck. You click on that and then it will tell you what available dates and, as I said, they get filled. I think last year we sold out for the season and then Freddie will also be here when he's not out and about on the town, be taking people for rides around Civic Park and in the downtown. Again, I did it Friday and had a wonderful time just going downtown and seeing everything that's going on down there during this busy time.
Speaker 2:So, getting back to the Winter Wonderland ice rink behind us, man, what an amazing event, and I'm sure a lot of Hanford people are saying how in the world did they pay for this? All I know you have sponsors. I know the city of Hanford provides tremendous support, but can you tell us a little bit about this financial undertaking?
Speaker 3:Winter Wonderland. Actually we've built the business model to have several streams of revenue. So first and foremost, as you mentioned, our city council supports this through our general fund and we have an annual budget. So we rent the rink and some of our bigger expenses are paid through from that. Our revenue from our sponsorships is slowly gone up. It's over $100,000 now, so that's another revenue source. We have a revenue split with all of our vendors. So, and of course our biggest revenue stream are ticket sales and we sell tickets online and you can go to winterwonderlandcom and find out, you can pick your session, your date and all of that. So in year one, two years ago, coming out of COVID a little bit at a much smaller rink, we ended up at a 92% cost recovery. Next year we hit 101. So we're just barely so. That means revenue exceeded expenses. This year we're hopeful, with our upgraded marketing and word of mouth, that will be even greater than that. We would love to set up a reserve account to purchase the rink. That would be the long-term goal and then revenue would really, I think, multiply from that. So it seems now in our third year we're going to be around a while. So yeah, it's been very.
Speaker 3:I think it's advantageous to have those different revenue streams and the North Pole Lounge Rental is part of that. You can rent the ice rink for private. We do that also. We do ice skating lessons, we do broom ball, we had turkey bowling last Saturday. So little events and things like that that we have and that all goes into the revenue. We watch it. I look at our daily revenue and see how it's tracking. Normally we open. Our first week is big, we have grand opening. This Friday is parade night, which is crazy. Then we go into a little bit of lull. The kids are still in school and then when the kids get out of school we come back up and we actually add a session that begins at two o'clock in the afternoon on the weekdays and then our revenue goes back up. Last week we're almost sold out because maybe it's last chance to skate.
Speaker 2:So, brad, I know you're doing a lot of hits with the local TV stations and media, but come on, this is Hanford, hanford Insider. So, as an insider now, I'm going to ask you what are you most proud of about the Winter Wonderland and what's something that you would like to tell our, my listeners? That doesn't necessarily fit into a TV spot, but you're just open up your heart a little bit and tell us about what this means to you and the community of Hanford.
Speaker 3:Great question For me personally. I try to come over every day four, 30, the first session starting. I've never come over to the ice rink and watch people and they all have smiles on their faces and oftentimes it's families, young and old, teenagers, seniors, and they all just seem to be having fun. And I think fun is very important in this world, especially these days, that it's a place to, I think, embrace the holidays. There's that special feeling of family and people coming back and visiting and traveling that just I think that's a wonderful moment and it just seems like the ice rink and Winter Wonderland really kind of just it puts a T on it that you're really here making memories and you know something that most people may not know.
Speaker 3:We've been here for three weeks getting this set up and to take a piece of grass and build an ice rink is a lot of work, so a lot. I mean we have our parks division out here, we've had our engineers, we've had our streets team out here, we've got Hanford Police Department. We've got so many people that help us do this. And then we had our tree lighting this last Saturday. Thousands of people came and that just makes me feel good because it's right here in Hanford, right, we don't have to travel. Oftentimes people have to leave Hanford for various reasons. We think people need to come here and so you know it's a two-way road. But to have this for the Hanford community and to call it their own, I think is really special.
Speaker 2:Well, you and everybody out here with the bloers and putting down the hay, everybody had played such a big part in the success of this and I, just on behalf of you know the people of Hanford who maybe have not expressed their appreciation to you and your staff I would like to express my appreciation to you and everyone who makes this possible and make smiles happen, right. Well, first of all, thank you.
Speaker 3:You know, at the end of the day, happiness, family smiling and I don't know if they're smiling because they're scared they might fall or if they've never done it. You know, ice skating is not big in California. There's just a uniqueness to skating on natural ice and it's been an attraction and we hope people come down and just experience. Like I said, whether you're a skater, you don't Come out and check it out. We don't close. We're open now all the way through January 7th, including holidays, and so the only time we close if it's pouring rain, and other than that we'll be here. So we just want everyone to come on down and see it for yourselves and, you know, tell your neighbors and bring a group down and just have fun.
Speaker 2:Well, you heard Brad, come on down to the ice rink. The website is hanfordwinterwonderlandcom and we hope to see you down here. Well, during this season of Giving, we have a special opportunity to bless families of children with special needs. I've asked Jeff Detlison, who's a teacher here in Hanford, to come on the show. He's begun a nonprofit called Hannah's Helpers. How are you doing, jeff? I'm great. How about you, rob? I'm doing great. Jeff, can you tell me about your inspiration for Hannah's Helpers and what are some of your current projects?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Hannah's Helpers started initially back in 2018. I have a daughter, hannah, who has a very rare genetic condition. In fact, when she was diagnosed with it back in 2017, there was 60 in the world that were known. We've gone through quite a bit of learning, and, as she gets older and as she gets bigger, we're noticing the needs in our community to allow us, as families, to participate in some of these great locations we have in the Valley, and so we actually started, though, doing dinners on Christmas Eve for all of the pediatric patients and families and nurses that are at CRMC in downtown Fresno on Christmas Eve. We were inspired by a similar program that happens at Valley Children's, and so we started providing dinners there in 2018. And we've done it every year every Christmas since then. We get a group of volunteers together and we actually work with Viagraense here in town. They're wonderful and give us a great deal on our food costs, and so they help prep it all on Christmas Eve, and we do enchilada dinners for all of the pediatric patients, the nurses, the doctors, the residents and anyone that's stuck there in the hospital on Christmas Eve. We normally do around 400 to 500 meals each year, so we're always looking for donations on hannishelperersorg. You can go on and click to donate specifically towards our dinner or towards our other projects.
Speaker 4:Our main focus is really making places more accessible. We had a great partnership with the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. There are now two adult-sized changing tables available at the zoo for families to use when they visit. We've worked with the Storybook Garden here in Hanford. They also have an electronic adult-sized changing table available, along with some sensory boxes for kids to interact with the books as they do some of their storytelling. And our current one that we're fundraising for right now is the Imagine you Museum in Visalia. We are hoping to purchase by the end of the year a slew of seating, supportive seating devices throughout their museum to put in the different exhibits, so children that might need assistance sitting can participate at the arts table or can play in the infant room. We also are getting one that's waterproof and can be outside for the fishing and the ducks with their little fountain they have. And we're also going to place two larger five-foot changing tables in each of their bathrooms, one in the men's and one in the women's. A manual adjust so they'll drop as low as 20 inches off of the ground and we'll be able to be raised up, which makes it a lot easier.
Speaker 4:Hannah is now seven, just turned seven, and she's over four feet tall. She doesn't fit on those infant tables anymore and she is very she's getting long and heavy and harder to put up. So we're doing all this, hoping that we can get families. It's hard to get out, it's hard to get out with any kids, to get your family, convince your family to go out and try these awesome things in the community. But I'll tell you, it's even harder with a special needs child, and so we're really trying to make it accessible for everybody, and so that's our big goal.
Speaker 4:We'd love for some donations If you're actually interested on Christmas Eve to come and volunteer again at Hannah's Helpersorg. There's a link If you go to our current projects page. You can sign up to be a volunteer on Christmas Eve and you can meet us in Fresno. We need help packaging meals, we need help delivering meals tons of different ways that you can participate. If you can't help, the day of donations are always wonderful, as we have to pay for the food and all the packaging to get those meals delivered.
Speaker 2:That's such great work that you've been doing there at CRMC. I do have to tell you I have a friend that has gone through a recent crisis with a family member and they have had to stay up at Terry's house and I know that you have serviced their Terry's house where you're stocking the pantries. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, not just at Terry's house but in the hospital itself. But Terry's house, I'll tell you, my family has been a recipient of the blessing of Terry's house more days than we ever wanted to be, but we definitely have spent our time there and the best thing about it is that it's across the street from the hospital. They always have meals, they always have food available. I think, actually, hannah's Helpers is going to do a breakfast in December, I think on the 10th. We're signed up to provide a breakfast there on December 10th, but we do constantly ask for donations of snacks and non-perishable food that we put in there. They have an area downstairs where, if you want to grab a granola bar, if you want to grab a quick bite beef jerky is a popular one that everyone likes or a candy bar, because everyone deserves a candy bar when you're dealing with a family in a hospital, and so we have a Hannah's Pantry that's set up there, as well as a process tree in the hospital, on the pediatric intensive area unit and on the pediatric floor, and we stock those.
Speaker 4:Another thing that happens at the hospital that I forgot to mention is we have a wonderful group of sewers that sew pillowcases for all of our pediatric patients.
Speaker 4:So any pediatric patient that goes to CRMC. We try to make their hospital room not feel like a hospital room because nobody wants that. And so something little that we thought would help is having a decorative pillow. Sometimes they're snoopy on it, sometimes, if it's an older kid, there's a Dodger's logo or a Giants logo I don't want to pick sides here and Mickey Mouse or Peppa Pig and all these different pillowcases that are sewn by these wonderful members of our community.
Speaker 4:If you are a sewer and you're interested, you can also, like I said, visit hannishelpersorg and click on current projects and you'll see that you can sign up to become a sewer. If you don't have fabric yourself, we have had wonderful donations of fabric that we have prepped and ready to be sewn and we add a little tag on each of the pillowcases that says this was sewn by and we've write the name of the person that sewn it. So a little bit of heart goes into all of those pillowcases and it just helps lift the room a little bit and it's something that they get to take home afterwards and hopefully think back fondly that there was some nice love community going on in that hospital when they were stuck there.
Speaker 2:Well, it definitely does provide a lot of community for a lot of people and I, along with many others, really support the work that you and Mary do and all of your volunteers, and I know that Hannishelpers is going to have a wonderful Christmas dinner there at CRMC. Hey, before I let you go, you know us band directors have to stick together. I know that you've got a big event coming up with the CR Pacific High School Band. Can you tell us about your event coming up at the Hanford Civic Auditorium?
Speaker 4:Sure, I'd love to put a plug in for that. So yeah, as band director at CR Pacific, I'm definitely never short of things to do, so we are excited for our annual Chill Out with Santa event, which is coming up on Monday, december 4th. This is a wonderful event We've sold out the last three or four years. You can come and get live music provided by the CR Pacific Jazz Band the entire night. We have silent auction items that are normally killer things that our volunteers get and donate and always go well. And then unlimited pasta. We have the never ending pasta bowl, hanford style, and it's provided by the COS Culinary Department and the culinary team there comes and brings their students and they prepare all the pasta, the salad that comes with garlic bread and then a dessert, and it's phenomenal Let me tell you, these kids want to get their A in their culinary class, so they're putting everything into their food.
Speaker 4:So for $15 an adult, it's unlimited, never ending pasta, along with bread and salad. It's $7 for kids ages five to 10 and $3 for toddlers ages two to four. Anyone under two is free, so we'd love to have you out. It's like I said you get to. Oh, and how did I forget. Santa and Mrs Claus are there too and you can go and take pictures with them. We do have a photographer available. We post the pictures for free afterwards, but if you want them printed on house, you can buy a print while you're in there or you can take your own pictures. There's no limit, and the nice thing is is it's not just a waiting in line to go take your picture. You also get to interact with Santa and Mrs Claus and they'll go walking around from table to table and they'll work through the room so the kids can interact with them multiple times.
Speaker 2:Well, Jeff, it's so wonderful the work that you do for the community. We're just so happy for you and Mary and the work that's going on with Hannah's Helpers, and I know the Sea of Pacific band looked great in the Hand for Christmas parade. You've got a lot going on and I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season.
Speaker 4:Happy holidays to you too, Rob. Thank you so much for having us on.
Speaker 2:And now it's time for Hensord Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.
Speaker 1:Due to the holiday, there wasn't a lot of action in local sports, but let's get you caught up on the results from the games that happened this past week. We'll start with a pair of dominating victories in a high school girls' basketball, as two of our teams were in action. The Hanford West girls were able to pick up a solid win, as they took down Washington Union by a final score of 50 to 22. The Sea of Pacific girls had everything clicking for them in their victory, as they were able to beat LeMore by a final score of 71 to 24.
Speaker 1:In girls' soccer, there were a trio of different results. Let's start with the winning team, as the Sea of Pacific was able to pitch a shutout, as they picked up a victory against Sanger West by a final score of 5 to nothing. On to Hanford High, as neither team was able to find the back of the net. As they took on Porterville, that match ended in a nil-nil draw. And on to Hanford West, where they scored once, but unfortunately it wasn't enough, as they dropped their match by a final score of 2 to 1 to LeMore.
Speaker 1:And in boys' soccer, there were two teams in action. We'll start with Hanford High, as they were unable to net one, as they dropped their contest to Porterville 4 to nothing the final score and Sea of Pacific was able to play some stout defense in their matchup against LeMore, as they came away with a 1 to nothing victory over the Tigers. As always, if you're a coach or a fan, please send us an email if you want your team featured at HanfordInsider, at gmailcom. And obviously we hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving with your friends and family and we look forward to keeping you updated on all of the local sports as we close out 2023. With that, I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.
Speaker 2:Well, that's it for today's show. If you enjoyed the show, I'd like to ask you to leave a review on your podcast player or on our website. It helps me with the growth of the show. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by our website at HanfordInsidercom to sign up for updates. I also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at HanfordInsider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.