ST. GERMAIN - Today many of us at Newswatch 12 joined the ranks of brave and chilly souls jumping into Big St. Germain Lake... It was definitely cold, but the cause for the jump, warmed our hearts.
This year was the 13th Annual Northwoods Original Polar Bear Plunge benefiting Angel On My Shoulder- a foundation started in St. Germain that helps families affected by cancer.
"It's hard to put into words until you see the kid’s faces that wouldn't have an opportunity to get away from their problems, get away from the things that are affecting them, forget about life in general for a while, and just have fun being a kid. Until you see that expression on their face, it's almost impossible to put into words," said Matt Reuss, a popular returning plunger, dressed this year as a shark.
The crazy antics bring in big donations for Angel On My Shoulder.
That means dozens of kids can take a break from cancer in their lives, and just be a kid at Camp Angel, and thankfully, Polar Bear plungers are ready to pull out all the stops..
"The higher we set the bar the higher they donate to us,” said Reuss, “This year $750. A couple thousand over the years."
The annual Polar Bear plunge is sponsored by WRJO Oldies. In the past 5 years they've raised over $250,000 for Angel on my Shoulder.
TOMAHAWK - Workers at Daigle Brothers in Tomahawk can build almost anything out of steel. Most of their business is creating custom parts and putting up buildings, but more recently, they've been building a new invention.
Daigle Brothers began in 1987. Back then they did a lot of construction related jobs like painting. Later they focused on steel construction.
"In the 90's we did a lot of school buildings, there was a lot of schools being built, so we supplied structural steel for these building projects... Currently our biggest markets are universities, hospitals, office buildings... we do a lot of fire stations," said Steve Daigle President of Daigle Brothers Inc.
MERRILL - Farmers in Lincoln and Langlade Counties may need to make a longer drive or call a different office for USDA services.
The Merrill Service Center will be temporarily split up between Rhinelander, Wausau, and Medford.
The Farm Service Agency will move to the Wausau Service Center and the Natural Resources Conservation Service will be relocated to the Rhinelander and Medford Centers.
MINOCQUA - These plants may look pretty but they're taking over our rivers and lakes. Michele Sadauskas is Oneida County's Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator. She is working to map and control the yellow iris, the plant you see here. She and two other conservation workers spent the day weeding Stacks Bay.
"They invade our wetlands. They're a really robust, aggressive plant. What they do is they crowd out our native species and make actually the wetland a lot less diverse," says Michele Sadauskas, Oneida County AIS Coordinator.
Removing yellow iris is a slow process. It takes three hours of work just to properly map and control 20 feet of shoreline.
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