Announcer:The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Angela Fitzgerald:Coming up on Wisconsin Life: Hit the ice in Altoona to learn Crokicurl, a Madison embroidery artist stitching together folk art and community, an art professor from Menomonie turned board game maker, an exchange student finding a home in Monona, and a guide leading tours of a rare old-growth forest in Vilas County. This was the number-one tree in the Northwoods pre-settlement. That’s all ahead on Wisconsin Life.

Angela Fitzgerald:We’re kicking off Wisconsin Life. I’m your host, Angela Fitzgerald. We’re gearing up for Youth Night with the Superior City Football Club, a soccer organization with multiple teams competing across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Tonight’s game is at NBC Spartan Sports Complex in Superior.

Angela Fitzgerald:At Youth Night, first and second teams of Superior City FC players face off, with a chance for the crowd to get in on the fun. It’s a fun way to celebrate this soccer club from humble beginnings. It truly is a homegrown effort, as they formed a semi-professional, multi-team club with talented players from across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The match is about to begin here, so before the ball drops, let’s head into our first story.

Angela Fitzgerald:That takes us out on the ice in Altoona, where players throw stones for a chance to be crowned champion.

Kassandra Humke:We are here in the city of Altoona, Wisconsin. And we’re playing on the first Crokicurl rink in the United States of America.

Roy Atkinson:We’re the first, so we lay claim to the U.S. Crokicurl Championship.

Chris Staack:We took the tournament the second year, and we’re here to try to win our second title, let’s say, in Crokicurl.

Kyle Sorenson:I’m the national reigning champion with my partner at Crokicurl here.

Kassandra Humke:Crokicurl is a sport that is a mixture between curling and a board game called Crokinole from Canada.

Kyle Sorenson:So, Crokicurl is just a blown-up version on ice.

Kassandra Humke:Two teams are playing against each other. They each have two stones.

Chris Staack:The goal is to get it in the button.

Kassandra Humke:If they miss that, then they have to hit the opponent’s stone. It’s a lot of collisions. We want people to get outside, be active. It’s definitely growing. The word is getting out there to come and play it.

Angela Fitzgerald:Next up, we meet a Monona exchange student whose journey is marked by survival, resilience, and expanding her circle of family. When war broke out back home, all Jwana Rustom could do is watch.

Jwana Rustom:I called them, and I was like, “Hey, is everything okay? Where is my family right now?” And, like, if I don’t hear from them, like, I just panic. Like, are they alive still? I was like, “What should I do? Like, I’m in class right now. I can’t do anything.” And I just felt so powerless. I can just sit and watch. And that was like a nightmare for me.

Angela Fitzgerald:For Jwana, growing up in Gaza meant surviving war. Coming to Wisconsin meant finding a new home.

Jwana Rustom:I’m a Palestinian, one who was born in Gaza. It was my home, my people, my friends are like, everything there just makes me happy. I was born in 2008. I was born literally in the middle of a war. And I experienced seven wars until now.

Angela Fitzgerald:A State Department scholarship program called YES, Youth Exchange and Study, opened a door.

Jwana Rustom:My best friend, Nastia, she was a YES student. She got placed here, and, like, she had a great experience. She was like, “Jwana, you should do this.”

Angela Fitzgerald:With her parents’ blessing and plenty of nerves, Jwana boarded a plane to Wisconsin. Her new home looked different than anything she had known before.

Jwana Rustom:I heard about the cheese, the snow. I was so excited. People here are just so lovely. You don’t know them, and in the streets, like, “Why are you smiling at me?”

Angela Fitzgerald:In Monona, she moved in with the Atkins, her new host family.

Liz Atkins:We actually didn’t wanna host a student, but Jwana’s counselor at school had shared her GoFundMe. I had, you know, read her story, and as soon as that email was sent, I forwarded it to Caleb. And I was like, “Hey, I think we should do this.”

Jwana Rustom:Liz and Caleb are young, so, like, I never– I kind of never saw them as a parent, but I also do. Liz is like one of my sisters. Caleb is like a brother. Riley is the bigger one. She’s full of hope. Then Evie is so goofy and funny. They welcomed me a lot when I came here. I owe them so much.

Angela Fitzgerald:For Jwana and the Atkins, connection often came on a plate.

Caleb Atkins:I do pretty much all the cooking at home, and so I wanted to make sure that we incorporated Palestinian food into our repertoire.

Jwana Rustom:And when I ate that bite, I was like, “Oh, my God, like, my mom used to make it exactly like this.” So, I couldn’t handle it, and I cried.

Caleb Atkins:When she took a bite and she started to cry, ’cause it was like a taste of home. Food is powerful in that way.

Angela Fitzgerald:But even here, thousands of miles away, the suffering was never far.

Jwana Rustom:I came here, and I didn’t even enjoy, like, two months full until the war happened. I lost my cat. I lost four friends. One of my friends died under the rubbles. They cannot find, like, parts of her body to bury. And like, that’s not something, like, rare. And then now, they’re just totally gone and all that I have of them is just pictures and memories.

Angela Fitzgerald:She carries grief for family, friends, and the home she left behind.

Jwana Rustom:It’s super weird to losing a soul, cry so much about it, and then start losing more. And then you just feel, like, numb. So, you see those pictures and images and you always, always imagine your family being in that position. And you just don’t know what to do.

Liz Atkins:She’s going through all of this normal teenage stuff on top of surviving multiple wars.

Caleb Atkins:Our big message to Jwana was that, like, whatever you’re feeling, like, we’ll take it as it comes. You know, joys, sorrows, everything in between.

Angela Fitzgerald:Her journey isn’t over, but from Gaza to Wisconsin, from grief to belonging, Jwana carries her story and her hope with her.

Jwana Rustom:I just hope to see my country a little bit free, more than now. And have a little bit more peace than now.

Liz Atkins:I mean, it’s just grown. Like, our family and our extended family and our kids forever.

Angela Fitzgerald:For Jwana, home is no longer just a place. It’s the people who make sure she’s not alone.

Caleb Atkins:Draw the circle of your family bigger. Like, be willing to draw a larger circle because your family is so much more than just the people that are blood related to you.

Jwana Rustom:I hope that peace be upon you and everybody else, in their hearts and in their minds. I really wish that peace can be upon everybody.

Angela Fitzgerald:Now, we head to Madison, where an embroidery artist brings the community together to celebrate folk art and tradition.

Ireri Andrea Muiz Ortega:I like abstract forms. Yeah, I think it’s more freestyle exploration, being inspired by nature and colors. My name is Ireri Andrea Muiz Ortega. I’m from Mexico City, and I’m a textile artist. Coming from Mexico, specifically from Mexico City, if you go out to the streets, there are a lot of colors everywhere, you know? Like going to a market, the mercado or a tianguis, like all the fruit, all the sounds even. So, I always try to bring some of that to my exploration and to my creations.

Ireri Andrea Muiz Ortega:I studied communication, and in 2017, that year, there was a big earthquake that hit the city. And I was, after that, experiencing anxiety attacks, panic attacks, so I was looking for an activity to help me to, like, calm me down. All these loop movements with the thread and the needle, that helped me to calm my nerves. So, that not only helped me to, like, heal that really big thing in my life, but also, like, I was, like, hooked. I wanted to keep doing it. This is, like, a flower. And I just love these, like, signs that people put, like, in the markets. Since I’m here, I found that I’m not the only one having these feelings and these thoughts, right? So, we are always thinking about home, our casa. I think community activities, community spaces or projects can help us, like, heal that. The way I connect with the community right now is through my workshops. The Da de Muertos celebration that we organize in Viola, Wisconsin, and that event is pretty special for me because of the meaning of the celebration. We believe that starting the night of October 31 to November 2, the dead temporarily come back to visit the living from the Mictlan, that is the underworld of Aztec mythology. You know, when you migrate to a new country, there is this process of saying goodbye to this comfort zone, this, like, amazing space that you know. And then, like, start these new dreams and this journey to a new place. And I’ve learned, since I moved to the U.S., to try to carry this sense of home with you all the time. What’s home to you.

Angela Fitzgerald:It’s match time as we visit the Superior City Football Club, homegrown teams who bring the heat to the field.

Kaden Bergman:Hi, Mom! So, we are located in Hayward, Wisconsin. We started off in the amateur division of the Duluth League, and then we basically played in Hayward for five years. Decided we wanted to provide some high-level opportunities for our players, so we moved the organization up to Superior, Wisconsin in 2023, and we’ve been here for the last three years. Currently, all of our players are from the Twin Ports area or the surrounding greater area. So, we wanna really prioritize developing local talent.

Kaden Bergman:I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for some of the older guys to come in and teach the younger guys how to have a professional standard for themselves.

Angela Fitzgerald:And how many teams do you have currently?

Kaden Bergman:We currently have a men’s amateur team, a men’s semi-professional team, and a women’s semi-professional team.

Angela Fitzgerald:Teams supported by a community who show up rain or shine.

Kaden Bergman:It’s been pretty cool to see the growth. The community’s been fantastic in supporting us. And all of our board members, we have a lot of volunteers helping to run this club, so they do a fantastic job. We started off as something small, and it’s just continued to get better and better every single year. And the kid element was so adorable as well. Yeah, we love having the kids coming out and watching. You know, they could be on this field someday. So, we’d love them to come out and experience something to work towards.

Angela Fitzgerald:The day may come sooner for some lucky kids, who at tonight’s match get a shot at scoring a goal. At the end of the night… I even got my chance to take the pitch. And it’s a point added to the score board for Superior City FC, a team full of passion and promise.

Angela Fitzgerald:We now make our move to Menomonie to team up with a professor rolling the dice on a new passion project.

Angela Fitzgerald:When we first came across Dave Beck on Wisconsin Life, it was along the Saint Croix River. The spot became the inspiration for Tombeaux, a computer game where players explore the Saint Croix’s ecological history.

Dave Beck:As the player navigates through this game, they’re gonna see more and more that these towering white pines start to disappear.

Angela Fitzgerald:Like many children of the 1980s, Dave grew up loving video games.

Dave Beck:Christmas of 1988, I received my first Nintendo Entertainment System from Santa. Playing Zelda, the visuals, the complexity of being able to play that game, exploring worlds. That’s really what changed my life forever. That caused me to want to become someone who teaches video game design.

Angela Fitzgerald:And that’s what Dave did at UW-Stout.

Dave Beck:A couple announcements and then we’ll get right to it. So, we can start thinking about what you guys wanna do with your games after you’re done here.

Angela Fitzgerald:Now, Dave finds himself on a new path, one that also started with a gift.

Dave Beck:Dominion. So, this is the first-ever game I received from my wife. I unwrapped the game and I looked at it, and I kind of laughed, like, “I don’t know why you’re giving me a board game. I have really no interest in this.” I didn’t say that, but I smiled, and that’s it. And I played it, and it was kind of like this, like, I don’t know, something happened. My whole mind just opened up to realizing, “These exist out here. I’ve walked by these, these walls of games. There’s hundreds of these types of games out there.” And I just fell deep, deep, deep into a hole.

Angela Fitzgerald:Now, a wall of games forms the backdrop for Dave to play with family and friends.

Dave Beck:Every time I’d sit down at the table with these games was just such a joyous experience.

Angela Fitzgerald:All the while, two very important things happening: surrounded by friends at a table… and not dealing with digital technology. Okay, so now are we at the end of the round? That was it. That’s what sold me on the idea of that becoming a hobby that I wanted to pursue. And, little did I know, eventually become a way of life for me.

Angela Fitzgerald:A way of life that’s becoming a livelihood.

Dave Beck:When I get into something, I just go deep into that. I really jump into it and it kind of consumes me in a good way. The players would have lots of different cards. Water cards…

Angela Fitzgerald:Once again, Dave has gone from player to maker.

Dave Beck:My wife says to me one day, “You know what, Dave, I think the next thing you’re gonna do is you’re gonna design a board game.” And I said, “No way. I have no interest in that whatsoever. I’m making video games.” After that, we’re over in Scotland and I had been touring distilleries, sampling some whiskeys, and one night, I couldn’t sleep. And this idea came into my head about a board game that I could make that had to do with maybe running a distillery, making whiskey. This is one of the first prototypes of Distilled.

Angela Fitzgerald:Again, Dave immersed himself, this time into the world of game creators, taking Distilled to gatherings called protospiels, where games in development are tried out. And he crafted a social media network of followers, culminating in a crowdfunding campaign to cover Distilled’s creation.

Dave Beck:So, I set the funding goal for Distilled at $18,000. We raised over half a million dollars for this campaign, and I never expected to even come close to that.

Angela Fitzgerald:The extra cash meant Distilled could be what Dave calls a top-shelf game, with quality components and special touches game players love. And it’s been paying off.

Dan Leeder:Distilled has been doing really well, actually. It’s a very popular game. It’s doing so well, actually, that it’s currently out of print.

Angela Fitzgerald:Soon, Dave will have another game on the market. Luthier, a game based around an orchestra where players make and sell the instruments.

Dave Beck:The golden age of classical music in Europe, where you’re making instruments for the likes of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, other patrons.

Angela Fitzgerald:All because Dave Beck rolled the dice… and set off in a new direction.

Dave Beck:From creation to it sitting on a shelf, it was a brand-new experience. It was quite the journey.

Angela Fitzgerald:Our last story takes us to the trees in Vilas County, as we join a guide uncovering the diverse ecosystem found in an old-growth forest.

John Bates:People just absolutely love walking amongst these old trees. There’s another good woodpecker tree, yeah. It moves your heart, it moves your spirit.

Angela Fitzgerald:Follow John Bates into the woods, and he’ll make sure you won’t lose the forest for the trees.

Angela Fitzgerald:He will uncover hidden details.

John Bates:And you can age it by the distance between each one of the new stems. This was a good year.

Angela Fitzgerald:And illustrate the big picture.

John Bates:So, we’re in what’s called a hemlock hardwood forest.

Angela Fitzgerald:John knows well that whole forests in Wisconsin have been lost, tree by tree.

John Bates:We cut down, in northern Wisconsin, tens of millions of eastern hemlocks. This was the number-one tree in the Northwoods pre-settlement, and now it represents 1% to 2% maybe of the whole Northwoods.

Angela Fitzgerald:The Van Vliet Hemlock State Natural Area is one spot where these great trees still loom above, making this a rare example of remaining old-growth forest.

John Bates:I just wanted to find all these places. It was an adventure for me. It’s joyful. It was exciting to find places that I didn’t know about and to be thrilled by them.

Angela Fitzgerald:Thrills he shares on his tours.

John Bates:The song is “sweet D.”

Angela Fitzgerald:And in his guidebook.

John Bates:These trees are our living ancestors. They’ve been here for a very long time. These old trees tie history together. That time actually happened.

Angela Fitzgerald:But don’t mistake these ancient trees for antiques.

John Bates:They’re not something fossilized that we’re looking at in a drawer. They’re living, but they’re still 400 or 500 or more years old.

John Bates:What are they even dropping?

Angela Fitzgerald:The hemlocks are living, breathing. Trying to regenerate.

John Bates:Young hemlock cones right here.

Angela Fitzgerald:Old growth spawns new growth. A cycle of life that also means accepting death.

John Bates:When somebody dies and we mourn, we grieve, and rightfully so. But when a tree dies out here, is allowed to die, it has an ecological function that’s really significant. And it should be celebrated. All the salmanders now living underneath there, all those white-footed mice and voles that are feeding every, the barred owl that was keeping you up. Yeah, yeah, what do they eat?

Angela Fitzgerald:Toppled trees nurture new ones.

John Bates:We’ll see some old trees completely covered in moss and are called nurse logs because they’re nursing along all these seedlings on top. You can see the perfect lineup of Eastern hemlocks, and now we got a bunch of yellow birch on this end.

Angela Fitzgerald:That lineup of new life on a log includes more than growing trees.

John Bates:That a hand lens?

Hiker:Yes.

John Bates:A tiny little mushroom.

Angela Fitzgerald:Forest life comes in many sizes.

John Bates:It’s worth looking at.

Angela Fitzgerald:And many shapes.

John Bates:Slime mold. It’s really weird looking. This is called doll’s eyes, ’cause, yeah, it looks like doll’s eyes, right? This is white baneberry. Try to eat it, it’ll be the bane of your existence.

Angela Fitzgerald:A walk in the woods with John Bates includes lessons about the forest, but more importantly, lessons from the forest.

John Bates:So, the values of old growth are many. You can feel peace here. And what’s the value of that peace?

Angela Fitzgerald:Peace is one thing you can take from a walk in the woods. And that’s something that John shares gladly.

John Bates:Let me pass that on. Opening up that space to them, to fall deeper in love with the natural world.

Angela Fitzgerald:The whistle’s been blown, and win or lose, the Superior Football Club is making its mark in Wisconsin.