Gio’s Garden – Respite, Therapy and Resources for Families with Special Needs Children

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Hilary Berning – Gio’s Garden

Listen as Hilary explains the needs and complexities of these children and their families and how Gio’s Garden is a place that is doing all they can to help these children and their families.

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 “Local, Unique, Community Focused”
06:03 Supporting Families Through CLTS
08:49 Greek Life Fundraising Show
11:10 “Sanfilippo Syndrome Journey Shared”
13:51 “Growth, Funding, and Strategic Planning”
19:18 Franchise Expansion Plans
20:56 Inclusive Childcare and Respite Plan
25:14 Emergency Presidency Amid Crisis
27:07 “Sun Prairie Location Announcement”
30:07 “Navigating a Life-Changing Diagnosis”
35:42 Sun Prairie Studio Renovation Details
38:07 Wiseman Center Connection Insights
40:48 “Planning Ahead for Kids’ Safety”
44:38 “New Podcast Venture Launch”
47:10 “Reinventing With Youthful Engagement”
51:00 Nonprofits: Vital, Challenging, Impactful
52:00 Supporting Local Nonprofits

Podcast Transcription:

Hilary Berning [00:00:00]:
Um, because you have the big nationwide organizations, right? Make-A-Wish, Boys and Girls, like they’re all over the nation. They’ve got nationwide people telling them what to do when providing all these things. And then you have organizations like mine, like there’s no one else that does this. We are the only one that does it. We’re doing it on our own. We are local. We’re serving local people. All the money stays here and goes back to the kids.

Hilary Berning [00:00:22]:
People can really think that through a little bit where we don’t have We are local, we’re serving local, and we’re doing good. Goal and focus on those nonprofits.

James Kademan [00:00:35]:
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link from drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today we’re welcoming slash preparing to learn from Hillary Berning of Gio’s Garden. So Hillary, how is it going today?

Hilary Berning [00:00:58]:
I’m good. Thanks for having me.

James Kademan [00:01:00]:
So let’s start with the foundation here. What is Gio’s Garden?

Hilary Berning [00:01:03]:
So Gio’s Garden, so we are a respite center. We are located in Middleton, which is our original location, and we recently just opened a new location in Sun Prairie.

James Kademan [00:01:11]:
Nice.

Hilary Berning [00:01:11]:
So what we do is we provide therapeutic respite for children with special needs from ages 0 to age 7. So respite means to take a break. So it’s really hard for parents of special needs kids to get a break.

James Kademan [00:01:23]:
Mm-hmm.

Hilary Berning [00:01:23]:
Because you can’t just leave your special needs child with the teenager down the street. So we provide that opportunity for them to come leave their child with us and they can go and have a break.

James Kademan [00:01:33]:
Nice. So when you say special needs, tell me the gamut there.

Hilary Berning [00:01:36]:
We will see, um, everyone with, from autism to cerebral palsy to diabetes, to babies who have had strokes in utero to rare genetic disorders. We have kids with seizure disorders, so we kind of really don’t say no very often. There’s a few higher-grade medical needs that we can’t see, like if they would have a tracheostomy or something like that. But otherwise, we don’t— our motto is we don’t like to say no.

James Kademan [00:02:04]:
Fair. And what does the care look like? Because I imagine it’s not just an empty room.

Hilary Berning [00:02:09]:
It isn’t, no. So our original location in Middleton, it’s a house. It’s a 100-year-old house. But we have specific rooms set up for different activities. So we have a sensory room. A lot of our kids have sensory sensory issues. So it’s a quiet, subdued room where they can go and have quiet time. We have a reading room.

Hilary Berning [00:02:26]:
We have an arts and craft room. We have a gym that has swings that hang from the ceiling and an indoor play structure that kids can play on. Wow. Um, in Middleton, we also have outdoor, um, fenced-in yards so kids can run around and we have a place, a play structure out there as well.

James Kademan [00:02:42]:
Okay. I imagine you need people to be there present, right?

Hilary Berning [00:02:45]:
Absolutely. Yes.

James Kademan [00:02:46]:
It sounds like you’d need a lot.

Hilary Berning [00:02:47]:
We need a lot of staff. Yeah. So we provide one-on-one care. Oh, you do? Oh, wow. For every child that’s in our care, they have an adult with them.

James Kademan [00:02:54]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:02:55]:
So we currently have, including our executive director, 6 full-time employees. And then we have around 24 part-time employees that kind of comes and goes depending on the semester.

James Kademan [00:03:06]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:03:06]:
And then we have a ton of volunteers that work with us. We are blessed to be in the Madison area where we have 3 colleges essentially that we can pull from and a lot of students who are going into medical fields or educational fields or occupational therapy or recreational therapy who need experience working with children with special needs. So we’re able to provide that opportunity for them. So we’re lucky that we have a large pool of students to pull from.

James Kademan [00:03:33]:
That’s amazing.

Hilary Berning [00:03:34]:
But also means we have a lot of turnover and their availability changes every semester.

James Kademan [00:03:38]:
So that’s just the nature of students.

Hilary Berning [00:03:40]:
It’s just the nature of the, the, our staff that we work with just because we working with students, but we’re blessed to have them and we, we give to them just as much as they give to us.

James Kademan [00:03:50]:
So nice.

Hilary Berning [00:03:50]:
It’s really great.

James Kademan [00:03:52]:
So I got a lot of questions for you.

Hilary Berning [00:03:53]:
Nice.

James Kademan [00:03:53]:
So I’m gonna try to keep on task somehow. How do you let the students know that you exist even as an opportunity for them?

Hilary Berning [00:04:00]:
So we are on like all the job boards, like through the university and we’re well connected within the different disciplines in the universities at Edgewood and at UW and at, is it Madison College? MATC? I don’t— sure.

James Kademan [00:04:13]:
Sounds good.

Hilary Berning [00:04:13]:
Yeah. Yeah. So we are heavily involved in word word just kind of has gotten out about us and the people. And there’s a special program, especially at UW-Madison, where they can get— part of a class credit is to volunteer at organizations. So they know about us. So they send a lot of students our way as well.

James Kademan [00:04:29]:
Gotcha. I imagine there’s an interview process.

Hilary Berning [00:04:32]:
There is. Yep. There is an interview process. It’s not just like, hey, come on in. Yes. There’s a background check that we put all of our employees through. And it all varies depending on if you’re coming in as a volunteer basis or you’re coming in as a paid employee.

James Kademan [00:04:44]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:04:44]:
Because your level of Um, if you’re coming in as a volunteer, you’re kind of paired with a full-time or part-time paid staff member, um, versus we won’t just have 6 volunteers and 6 kids in the house at once. We will have paid staff to kind of help balance with that.

James Kademan [00:05:01]:
All right, let’s talk funding.

Hilary Berning [00:05:03]:
Funding is— with nonprofits, yes, it is. My life revolves around funding quite a bit.

James Kademan [00:05:08]:
With for-profits, it’s a big deal.

Hilary Berning [00:05:10]:
It really is. Yes.

James Kademan [00:05:11]:
Tell me a story. The parents of the children, are they paying?

Hilary Berning [00:05:15]:
They, yes and no. So when we first, when they first started opening Gio’s Garden back in 2012 is when they opened their doors. It was a small subset of parents that got together and be like, we need help, we need help. We have special needs kids and there’s no one to help us. So they, the idea of Gio’s Garden was born. It’s named after Charlotte de Lassiter. She used to be on Channel 3 News and her husband, Ron, it’s their son Gio. Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:05:39]:
Is kind of what stirred and came, made them come up with this idea. So it’s named after Gio. So they had fundraised for like 2 and a half years before we could even open the doors. Wow. Of GIOs. So they’ve opened the doors and when we opened in 2012, parents did not pay. You could pay what, give what you could kind of philosophy. And then GIOs got to be known in the community and they got very busy.

Hilary Berning [00:06:03]:
I think shortly after I had joined the board, we ended up needing to explore what other options we could. We would never, again, going back to, we just don’t say no. So if a parent say, I really have no extra money to give you, that’s fine. Bring your kid, you need this, we will do this. So there’s a program through the state called CLTS, that’s Child Long-Term Waiver Support. It’s based off of Medicare. So if a child has a disability, they qualify for the Katie Beckett Medicare. And then there’s a CLTS program through the state.

Hilary Berning [00:06:32]:
So essentially every kiddo who qualifies for the program gets a budget.

James Kademan [00:06:35]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:06:36]:
They get so much money that they can spend through the year. And a lot of ’em choose to spend that on respite. You can use it for home modifications, you can do it for therapies that your insurance might not cover. Equine therapy or horse therapy, horse riding therapy. Most insurances aren’t covering, so you can use your waiver money to cover that. And then like insurance doesn’t cover respite. Insurance is not gonna cover your respite for your 2-year-old child. So the CLTS money goes to that.

Hilary Berning [00:07:01]:
So we did end up, we are now a partner with the CLTS program in the state. So we do get reimbursed from the state for respite services for some of our kiddos that qualify. What we get reimbursed is not what it costs us. I suppose not to pay to see every child that comes through our door, but it has helped and allowed us to grow and see more kids.

James Kademan [00:07:23]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:07:23]:
We have some kids who are— it’s a waitlist yet to get in CLTS. So there are some families who are on our waitlist and then we do a fee-based scale, which is very, very minimal. And again, if a family says, I can’t pay that, then okay, that’s fine. You can still bring your kiddo. All right. So we do get some reimbursement from CLTS, but obviously it does not cover all of our expenses.

James Kademan [00:07:46]:
Gotcha.

Hilary Berning [00:07:47]:
We have some dedicated long-term donors who, you know, donate to us every year. We have a big fundraiser that we put on every December. It’s called the Gio’s Garden Holiday Party.

James Kademan [00:07:56]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:07:57]:
So we just got done with that in December.

James Kademan [00:07:59]:
All right.

Hilary Berning [00:07:59]:
So that has turned into my new baby and I’m suddenly figuring out how to be a party planner. But we have— yes, last 2 years we’ve been at the Concourse. So we just kind of throw a big party and let people just have fun, eat some good food, and then learn a little bit about Gios. We do silent auction items with that as well. And then we usually have a video or two that we work with Big Dreamers United on and kind of share what’s new with going on with Gios and ask, and then ask for money, of course. Nice.

James Kademan [00:08:27]:
Sure. Yeah. That’s, I mean, people that attend know the game.

Hilary Berning [00:08:30]:
They do. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we, you know, we look at grants and other forms as well. Right. So, and this year we have a huge opportunity. We’re working with UW Humorology.

James Kademan [00:08:41]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:08:42]:
So Humorology is an organization on campus. It’s actually the largest student-run philanthropy organization in the state of Wisconsin.

James Kademan [00:08:49]:
Wow.

Hilary Berning [00:08:49]:
And it’s essentially, it’s all the sororities and fraternities on campus join together and form Humorology. And they put on a variety show every April, which is a huge competition between the houses. And it’s a really big deal if their house wins, but, The big goal of them is to raise money for a nonprofit that helps children. So Gio’s was lucky enough that we were chosen to be the recipients this year. So we’ve gotten to spend last semester and now this semester working with a bunch of the children from— the children, they’re adults. I said children. But through the students at UW and the Greek life and educate them about Gio’s Garden and tell them what we do. And then they have just raised, from what we hear from them, a ton of money for us already.

James Kademan [00:09:34]:
That’s incredible.

Hilary Berning [00:09:35]:
It is really incredible. And it’s really inspiring to see these young adults, yeah, really passionate about an organization and all the work that they’re putting into not only putting on their show, but to raise money and educate people about Gio’s Garden for us.

James Kademan [00:09:50]:
So tell me a really quick story. Let’s go down that tangent with the Humorology thing.

Hilary Berning [00:09:54]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:09:54]:
Is that available in person only, or is that— will that be available? Yes.

Hilary Berning [00:09:59]:
So they will have— it’s an in-person live show. It’s on the 24th of April and the 25th of April. You’ll— the tickets will be coming available probably within the next month, um, and it’s at the Memorial Union Theater.

James Kademan [00:10:09]:
It’s 2026.

Hilary Berning [00:10:11]:
2026, yes. So that everyone can, um, people can buy tickets and come to the show. And then on Saturday, they do offer a live streaming option.

James Kademan [00:10:18]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:10:19]:
For a ticket, so people can stream it online as well.

James Kademan [00:10:21]:
All right.

Hilary Berning [00:10:21]:
Yeah, and they’ll do the check presentation to us on the 25th.

James Kademan [00:10:24]:
So will it be available beyond that?

Hilary Berning [00:10:26]:
Yes, it’s always found on YouTube after.

James Kademan [00:10:29]:
Gotcha.

Hilary Berning [00:10:29]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:10:29]:
Yep. Very cool.

Hilary Berning [00:10:30]:
Yeah. So it’s really neat and we’ve had some really great stories come out of it already. We’ve had an influx of volunteers and people wanting to work from Humorology.

James Kademan [00:10:39]:
Oh, incredible.

Hilary Berning [00:10:40]:
Yeah. Jeff, my executive director, and I presented to them in October for 900 students. We presented it 3 times, you know, in 3 sections and just kind of told our story, told my personal story about how Gios has affected my life and Jeff’s life and what we do and some of the, We’ve had an influx of students wanting to like, I wanna volunteer, I wanna help you out more than just raise money for us, which is really incredible. Incredible. Yes.

James Kademan [00:11:04]:
All right. Well, you hit on that, so let’s run down that tangent, right? How did you get involved with Gios?

Hilary Berning [00:11:10]:
So my son Colin was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder at 21 months old. It was called Sanfilippo syndrome. So it was a progressive neurological disorder. So he developed normally till age 4 and then lost all of his skills. And then I had heard about GiO’s garden, right, when it was opening on the news, but we have family in town and I was like, that’s for people who don’t, who don’t have help. But our, my neighbor Joe came over and he’s like, have you heard about this? And I was like, yeah, but we have help. He’s like, no, just do it. So I did it.

Hilary Berning [00:11:42]:
I went over, I met with them. And the wonderful thing about GiO is we also help families with other resources. So we sit them down when we intake with them, like, do you know about this resource? Do you know about this resource? Just to make sure that they’re well connected in the community, especially especially if they’re newly diagnosed, because it’s overwhelming to get that kind of diagnosis. So Colin ended up being the third kiddo to attend Gio’s Garden. So he would go every Tuesday night, and so my husband and I would have a date night every Tuesday.

James Kademan [00:12:09]:
Whoa, crazy.

Hilary Berning [00:12:10]:
Like, most people can’t say that. No, we got to learn the restaurants in Middleton very well and then got a Costco membership because it was right there, right?

James Kademan [00:12:18]:
Yeah, date night at Costco.

Hilary Berning [00:12:19]:
Exactly. Um, but he— Colin loved it. It was his absolutely favorite place on earth. He would get mad at me if I drove in that direction on the Beltline and go to Gios. Oh, okay. Was mad. And he would walk in and he would say, I’m home.

James Kademan [00:12:34]:
Wow.

Hilary Berning [00:12:35]:
He was just so— so to see how it impacted him and how much a difference it made. I mean, not only in his life, he loved it, but it gave my husband and I time to just be together and talk and like just have some time. Made me want to stay involved. So I was asked to join the board of directors when he graduated. So like I said, we only see kids till they turn 7.

James Kademan [00:12:56]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:12:57]:
So when he turned 7, he had to stop going to Gios, which was really hard for all of us involved. There was a lot of tears that day, but then I was asked to join the board, which it feels good to help push, make sure other people can still have the experience that Colin did at Gios. So I think I just started my 10th year on the board of directors and my— what is my 4th year as board president.

James Kademan [00:13:20]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:13:22]:
I’m Ken. My— we lost our son Colin in 2020. Right before COVID So like 6 weeks before COVID shut everything down, we lost Colin. So I feel like it’s a way to continue his legacy a little bit too. I like to say through Gios.

James Kademan [00:13:35]:
I think hugely, yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:13:37]:
And it’s helped, I think helped with my grief and just helped given me a purpose after him.

James Kademan [00:13:44]:
So that’s fair. Interesting.

Hilary Berning [00:13:45]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:13:46]:
So you’ve been with them 10 years.

Hilary Berning [00:13:48]:
Yeah, on the board.

James Kademan [00:13:49]:
What have you seen for changes over the course of a decade?

Hilary Berning [00:13:51]:
We have changed a lot in 10 years. So like I said, we end up now where chart, you know, we are able to get some funding through the state, which has helped us see more kids more regularly and grow. So my, when I took over with presidency, I really want, we had just had a donor graciously buy land for us in Sun Prairie to build a new facility. And then when I came on as president, I really didn’t feel that we were in a place to do a capital campaign and raise multimillions to build a facility when we hadn’t really tested the market. Like we knew there was people on the east side of Madison and Portage and Lodi and Cottage Grove who wanted to use our services but weren’t because driving to Middleton is a half hour, 40 minutes. And you do that twice, that really cuts into your 4-hour respite period. So people just weren’t using us because of our location. But we didn’t know, like, it’s kind of that if they build it, will, you know, if you build it, will they come? I wanted to test that theory before I put all this time and energy and money into a— Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:14:54]:
So I convinced the donor who had bought the land for us to let me sell the land, which in the end ended up being a very good investment. Let me tell you. And that has allowed us to then look at leasing a space. Like I was, and I had gone to the board like, I need, we need to prove ourselves that we, that we can do it, that we can handle two locations, that we can get enough staff to handle two locations. And let’s just make sure before we really commit to brick and mortar, let’s do that. So then we started the process of looking for leasing a commercial space and we were— we didn’t really limit us too much on where we wanted to be. I always wanted to be in Sun Prairie, but like East Side— it is East Side of Madison. We looked a little bit in Monona.

Hilary Berning [00:15:39]:
Sure. It took us a year and a half to find a spot. It was very— it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

James Kademan [00:15:45]:
Okay. From a cost point of view or a specific location?

Hilary Berning [00:15:49]:
And what we needed in a facility.

James Kademan [00:15:52]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:15:52]:
So we see special needs children, and I was surprised at the number of commercial spaces that share a restroom.

James Kademan [00:15:58]:
Oh yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:15:59]:
You know, you walk in, there’s a shared lobby, shared restroom, and then everyone has their place up. I can’t have a shared bathroom when I’m changing diapers on a 6 or 6-year-old, right? And special needs children, I can’t. I needed to have our own bathrooms in our space, and we needed a washer and dryer. That’s really kind of— can be kind of tricky too. It’s not common in a commercial space, or to have an owner that will let us vent out a washer and dryer. Oh sure, in a space. Yeah, so that was really tricky. Um, we wanted it easily accessible to parents, um, you know, whether off the interstate or off some of the bigger highways.

Hilary Berning [00:16:38]:
In the perfect world, we would have had outdoor space. We have outdoor space in Milton. The children love it in nice weather that they can run around outside side, that is extremely hard to find in a commercial space. Yeah. And one that we could afford, ’cause we’re also a nonprofit, right? So we have to be very conscious of how much I’m spending. Right. On rent. Right.

Hilary Berning [00:16:58]:
Right. We own our house outright in Middleton. We had a generous donor pay off our mortgage years ago. So we own that property, but so you have to be conscious of that bottom line. Yeah. So it took a long time to find the space, but we did.

James Kademan [00:17:14]:
That’s awesome.

Hilary Berning [00:17:14]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:17:14]:
That’s awesome. And for the people in Sun Prairie that know or should know, where is the location currently?

Hilary Berning [00:17:19]:
Yeah, we are at 365 East Linnear Road Drive. So we’re right in that strip mall with Rosati’s Pizza and the Nitty Gritty. And then CI Therapies is right next door to us. And CI Therapies, they do pediatric therapy. So PT, OT, speech. They actually see a lot of our kiddos that come to us. So it’s a really nice partnership to kind of share a wall with them.

James Kademan [00:17:38]:
That’s cool.

Hilary Berning [00:17:39]:
Yeah. So I had a convince my executive director and the staff that we could be okay without outdoor space. But the Dream Park is a 3-minute walk away.

James Kademan [00:17:48]:
Oh yeah. So that’s beautiful space.

Hilary Berning [00:17:50]:
Yeah. So I think that was the nice compromise and we were able to find a space that has 2 bathrooms, which is really nice. And they were— they let us do our washer and dryer when we had just a very small buildout and we started seeing kids in November.

James Kademan [00:18:03]:
Wow. No, we’re talking a few months ago.

Hilary Berning [00:18:05]:
A few months ago. Yes. We’re still actually putting the finishing touches on it. Like I’m planning on having an open house But I want it to be beautiful and pretty yet. So we’re still getting the final touches on it, but we’re open enough and say that we can start seeing kids. So we have pretty much kids there every day.

James Kademan [00:18:21]:
I’m thinking the Sun Prairie Chamber’s Friday Coffee would be—

Hilary Berning [00:18:24]:
Yes. Yes. So we have looked into that and we’ll be in touch with the chamber and the office and everything. Once I can get a date nailed down for my open house, which I was hoping to be this month, but it’s not quite pretty enough.

James Kademan [00:18:37]:
The name of the game is construction. It really is.

Hilary Berning [00:18:39]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:18:40]:
So interesting. Yes. It’s interesting listening to you talk about the, the growth, which is phenomenal.

Hilary Berning [00:18:46]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:18:47]:
And the money thing where you’re always chasing money.

Hilary Berning [00:18:50]:
Always.

James Kademan [00:18:50]:
Because as you grow, it’s interesting with the business typically.

Hilary Berning [00:18:53]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:18:53]:
To a point, right? As you grow, more money comes in.

Hilary Berning [00:18:55]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:18:55]:
With a nonprofit, as you grow, it’s just, you need to bring more money.

Hilary Berning [00:19:00]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:19:00]:
So that’s interesting. 10 years from now, will Gios be beyond the borders of Wisconsin or where?

Hilary Berning [00:19:08]:
If I’m dreaming big, yes. I’ll have it.

James Kademan [00:19:10]:
I don’t know if there’s any other way.

Hilary Berning [00:19:11]:
I know, right? Ideally to franchise it. There is no other, there’s nothing like this in ever. Like no one else does what we do.

James Kademan [00:19:18]:
All right.

Hilary Berning [00:19:18]:
And the way that we do it and the model that we do it. So yeah, the dream would be to franchise it to some extent, whatever that means. Sure. And we can be like, here, this is what you need to do this in your city. Right. So yeah, I mean, at least the two, we’ll have the two locations in Madison area, like maybe, Can we look at Milwaukee? Can we look at La Crosse? Can we, yeah, look out of state. But we’re also in a nice place in the state of Wisconsin. They have very good programs for people with special needs children in the state.

Hilary Berning [00:19:49]:
So we’re very lucky in the state that, I mean, it’s never perfect, but no, we have the CLTS waiver and that seems, that’s a priority of like the governor and stuff. So we are in a place that families can have these resources to be able to use it for respite.

James Kademan [00:20:05]:
Right.

Hilary Berning [00:20:05]:
And other states that are not that lucky. So.

James Kademan [00:20:07]:
Sure. Fair.

Hilary Berning [00:20:08]:
That will play a factor in it too.

James Kademan [00:20:10]:
I can tell you, so my brother has a daughter with cerebral palsy. I always mispronounce that. Yeah. Um, she’s, I want to say 19 now. And it’s interesting looking at her when she was like that big.

Hilary Berning [00:20:25]:
Yeah. Yep.

James Kademan [00:20:26]:
Right. To now.

Hilary Berning [00:20:27]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:20:28]:
Grown and it’s just him taking care of her.

Hilary Berning [00:20:31]:
Oh wow.

James Kademan [00:20:32]:
Oh my God.

Hilary Berning [00:20:33]:
It’s, yeah.

James Kademan [00:20:34]:
Right. It’s, it’s crazy for me to think what would she, where would she be without him?

Hilary Berning [00:20:40]:
Absolutely.

James Kademan [00:20:40]:
And then how does he keep his sanity?

Hilary Berning [00:20:42]:
Absolutely. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:20:44]:
I can’t do any one thing for more than a couple hours.

Hilary Berning [00:20:48]:
Yeah, I know. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:20:49]:
Taking care of a kid that constantly needs your attention.

Hilary Berning [00:20:52]:
Correct.

James Kademan [00:20:52]:
Or very often. I mean, let’s just say 23 and a half hours a day or something like that.

Hilary Berning [00:20:56]:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that’s another goal was like, do we, can we expand beyond age 7 and start seeing kids beyond age 7 so that we have, you know, we have floated around the idea of like, let’s just have a big facility where we have a daycare that’s, you know, heavily special needs focused, but yet also typically developed children. ‘Cause they need those role modeling and they go to, they go to daycare. And then when daycare closes at 5, they come over to GIO’s respite and they have their respite hours. Or if they’re afterschool, they have our afterschool program. Or teen program.

James Kademan [00:21:30]:
Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:21:30]:
So that, those are the big dreaming things that I don’t know if I’ll get those all done.

James Kademan [00:21:37]:
Yeah. Well, I mean, you gotta just keep trying.

Hilary Berning [00:21:39]:
So you gotta keep trying. You gotta keep pushing cuz the need is there.

James Kademan [00:21:41]:
Where did the age 7 get?

Hilary Berning [00:21:44]:
Um, it came because when they originally started it in 2012, there was a really long wait list to get, um, the CLTS funds to use for respite. To, you could even bring in your own respite workers, like you could pay grandma to help respite or a neighbor.

James Kademan [00:21:59]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:22:00]:
Um, there’s ways to do that. Um, but the waitlist was 4 to 6 years.

James Kademan [00:22:04]:
Years?

Hilary Berning [00:22:05]:
Years. It took 4 years to get my son off of the waitlist. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:22:09]:
All right.

Hilary Berning [00:22:10]:
Um, that has since gone away. I think it was the Walker administration that really put a lot of energy into making that waitlist disappear.

James Kademan [00:22:17]:
Okay. Well, that’s good.

Hilary Berning [00:22:18]:
Which it did for a little bit. It’s back up, but it’s usually like 6 to 9 months now versus So still a long time, but not— still a long time in the, you know, in your world when you’re needing this service.

James Kademan [00:22:29]:
Right.

Hilary Berning [00:22:30]:
So we want, they wanted to cover that gap while you’re waiting for the funding to be able to use other things.

James Kademan [00:22:35]:
Got it.

Hilary Berning [00:22:36]:
Was the initial thought. And when we, our house in Milton is small, right? We have, it’s a 124-year-old house. We have that and the garage, like, which is our gym. So we, and with doing one-on-one care, we just physically didn’t have the space Okay. To see bigger kids.

James Kademan [00:22:52]:
Once kids got much bigger, like it’s just, you know, it’s interesting when you mentioned that you had a gym, but it was in a house. I was trying to think, where is the gym in the house?

Hilary Berning [00:23:00]:
It’s technically our garage.

James Kademan [00:23:00]:
It’s a garage. So when it’s a 5-year-old kid, you don’t need that huge ceiling. Exactly. That makes way more sense. Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:23:07]:
So we put it in the garage, like insulated the garage, put an air conditioning and heater in the garage.

James Kademan [00:23:12]:
Sure.

Hilary Berning [00:23:12]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:23:13]:
Okay. So it’s not some huge monstrosity.

Hilary Berning [00:23:15]:
It is not.

James Kademan [00:23:16]:
No. Play football inside here.

Hilary Berning [00:23:17]:
I wish, but no. Um, yeah. And my next big adventure is we are gonna remodel Middleton this fall, hopefully. Yes. It’s in the process. I shouldn’t say hopefully it’s going to happen. It has to happen. So our kitchen needed to be redone and our bathroom desperately needed to be redone.

Hilary Berning [00:23:33]:
And the board, like, we’re all in, we’re all in on helping kids. And we have, you know, hematology is raising a ton of money for us. And so we’re gonna, hopefully we’re gonna do an addition and a remodel to Middleton starting this fall if we can get all of our ducks in a row.

James Kademan [00:23:49]:
Tell me, this is more just curiosity prying here. So when you work with the city for approvals and all that kind of stuff, you’re not residential, but it’s a house. So I imagine you’re in a residential area.

Hilary Berning [00:23:59]:
We are technically residentially zoned at the moment. We’ve gotten special accommodations for like, but especially the city of Middleton since we’re in a house to do what we do under that. Yeah, we haven’t quite talked to this. We’re talking to the city next week, so we’ll see what they say about my remodel plans.

James Kademan [00:24:16]:
Has that been difficult? Or no, for the most part, no, they’ve been really great.

Hilary Berning [00:24:20]:
Yeah, absolutely. Really, really great.

James Kademan [00:24:23]:
I’ve chatted with other businesses and worked with other businesses that are in houses that are typically nonprofits. And it’s interesting how most of the time it’s a non-issue issue.

Hilary Berning [00:24:32]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:24:32]:
Yeah. They make the world a better place.

Hilary Berning [00:24:33]:
Absolutely.

James Kademan [00:24:35]:
It’s not like they’re creating an airport in the middle of a neighborhood or something like that. They’re not making noise.

Hilary Berning [00:24:41]:
And I, hopefully with our remodel, it’s going on the backside.

James Kademan [00:24:43]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:24:44]:
So we’re gonna keep like The part of the house that faces the street will be the same. We’re just gonna add on a little bit and make it a, make it nice.

James Kademan [00:24:53]:
Were you there when they chose that original?

Hilary Berning [00:24:55]:
I was not. Okay. So I was just a parent to start. So that originally started, I was not involved whatsoever.

James Kademan [00:25:03]:
All right. Pre your decision.

Hilary Berning [00:25:04]:
Pre me. Yeah. That was always, see, that was pre me. I had no choice in that matter.

James Kademan [00:25:08]:
So tell me, when you’re on the board, how do you become president?

Hilary Berning [00:25:14]:
I would like to say that they all wanted me to be president, or was the lack of anybody else volunteering to be president. So I was, our current president had resigned from the board abruptly. And so then our vice president stepped in, Christie, and then we were, I was actually in the hospital with Colin, like the week before he died when we had an emergency board call.

James Kademan [00:25:37]:
Wow.

Hilary Berning [00:25:38]:
And I said that I would do it. So dang, whether that was, cuz when that happened, I did not know that he was going to pass away, you know, 4 days later.

James Kademan [00:25:48]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:25:49]:
Um, so I don’t know if that was what that was, but yeah, it’s given me a purpose.

James Kademan [00:25:54]:
So, okay.

Hilary Berning [00:25:54]:
So then I, um, did my 2 years as vice president and then took over as president since.

James Kademan [00:25:58]:
All right.

Hilary Berning [00:25:59]:
Interesting. Yep. And I can’t walk, I can’t give that role up yet until I get all of my plans done.

James Kademan [00:26:06]:
Check the boxes and get—

Hilary Berning [00:26:08]:
I had to get the second location open. Okay, done. All right, got Humo, I gotta get that done, and I want to get through the remodel of Middleton, and then we’ll—

James Kademan [00:26:16]:
nice—

Hilary Berning [00:26:16]:
evaluate if I’m still the right person for this role.

James Kademan [00:26:19]:
That is, that is interesting. That’s almost motivation for any leader, right? To be like, hey, these are my goals, once I achieve those goals, then we can look at next chapter. Yeah, that is cool. Yeah, that is very cool.

Hilary Berning [00:26:30]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:26:31]:
Has Sun Prairie— how has it been working with Sun Prairie?

Hilary Berning [00:26:34]:
Great, great. Like, everything has gone really, really smooth. The parents like it. We’ve had— we, I think we have, last I heard, we have 20 new families waiting to get onboarded. Wow. Some— a large majority of them are because of Sun Prairie.

James Kademan [00:26:48]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:26:49]:
They’re like, oh, you’re in Sun Prairie? Yeah, I can make that work.

James Kademan [00:26:51]:
Nice.

Hilary Berning [00:26:52]:
And we’ve had, we had a parent that we interviewed for our holiday party video, and they were driving from the east side to Middleton. Okay. And they did it because they went once, their child loved it. All right. He was so happy there and it gave them a break.

James Kademan [00:27:05]:
They got to know Middleton restaurants as well.

Hilary Berning [00:27:07]:
They got to know, right, right, exactly. But then like when we heard, when we told the families, okay, we’re opening a location in Sun Prairie, here’s the address. If you wanna move over to Sun Prairie, we can totally do that. And yeah, they’re like, this was so awesome. Like, I have a 15-minute drive to, to Gio’s now. I can, I can go home, you know, and do laundry or take a nap or mow the lawn or whatever I need to do versus Oh, I’ll just tootle around the west side of Madison for 3 hours.

James Kademan [00:27:33]:
So yeah, I guess that would be the challenging part, right? You have this time.

Hilary Berning [00:27:36]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:27:36]:
But that the practicality of that time is diminished when there’s travel time involved.

Hilary Berning [00:27:40]:
So that was kind of the big push to get some of these families over here. And I know we have a family in Portage who really wanted to use our service and tried it in Middleton, but it’s just, it’s a lot. It’s a lot sometimes for these families to load up their child. Drive them somewhere, unload their child, and then do it all over again in reverse. It can be a lot.

James Kademan [00:28:01]:
No doubt. I can remember, um, my, so my brother, my dad, and I went out for breakfast or lunch, whatever, um, in Eau Claire where they live.

Hilary Berning [00:28:11]:
Mm-hmm.

James Kademan [00:28:11]:
And I watched my brother lift his daughter into a vehicle he had at the time. Um, but whatever it was, all I could see is that dude’s gonna break his back.

Hilary Berning [00:28:21]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:28:22]:
And so I helped him get a van with a ramp.

Hilary Berning [00:28:24]:
Oh, nice.

James Kademan [00:28:25]:
Because I’m like, she’s not getting any smaller.

Hilary Berning [00:28:28]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:28:28]:
Because kids keep growing, right?

Hilary Berning [00:28:29]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:28:30]:
And he’s just going to get older.

Hilary Berning [00:28:32]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:28:32]:
And yeah, going to break your back and then what?

Hilary Berning [00:28:36]:
I pulled the trigger on a wheelchair van very early with Colin. All right. Because it was like, I can’t. Yeah. I’m going to break my— like you said, I’m going to break my back or I’m going to get hurt and be incapacitated.

James Kademan [00:28:47]:
And then what?

Hilary Berning [00:28:48]:
And then you can’t help them. Then my husband, who’s the primary bedwetter, is going to have to take time off work. Like, you know, it just kind of snowballs. Also.

James Kademan [00:28:54]:
Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:28:54]:
But it’s a hard decision to make those, like, I felt like give into that and be like, oh, we do need this. We do need a ramp into our house. We do need a wheelchair van. That can be a very emotional decision and struggle for parents. Yeah. At least for a lot that I have talked to.

James Kademan [00:29:14]:
Listen, let me see.

Hilary Berning [00:29:14]:
Cause it’s like the disability wins, right?

James Kademan [00:29:17]:
Oh, I guess you’re adapting, I guess.

Hilary Berning [00:29:21]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:29:21]:
From my point of view, I look at it.

Hilary Berning [00:29:21]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:29:21]:
Logically, like to make sure you don’t die.

Hilary Berning [00:29:23]:
Yeah. But yeah, but like the disease is winning or it can be an emotional— asking for help can be a really hard, emotional thing.

James Kademan [00:29:32]:
I never thought about it like that.

Hilary Berning [00:29:34]:
All right. So there’s a lot of mental factors to it.

James Kademan [00:29:37]:
So help me with this, right? So is the battle, I guess the internal monologue more to just do what normal people do kind of thing. Don’t have a ramp.

Hilary Berning [00:29:47]:
You want to keep that as normal. A lot of parents want to keep that as normal. As you can. Okay. To what other typical families look like. Like when you go to have a child, you have this dream scenario in your head, right? Mm-hmm. You have the perfect pregnancy and the perfect delivery and the perfect bundle of joy. Right.

Hilary Berning [00:30:04]:
And everything’s perfect. And you go to the pediatrician and everything’s great.

James Kademan [00:30:07]:
Mm-hmm.

Hilary Berning [00:30:07]:
And then all of a sudden the rug is pulled out from underneath of you. And here’s this horrific diagnosis that’s going to forever change your life and change your child’s life. And you may end up living longer than your child and needing all these things. So it, there’s a sense of needing to be normal and let your child feel normal too. So that plays, it can be, and accepting help can be hard for some people. Um, because I’m the parent, I should be able to do this. Right. It’s my job to take care of them and I’m going to do it.

James Kademan [00:30:40]:
That’s fair. I’ve told my kid that many times, but it’s okay.

Hilary Berning [00:30:44]:
To need help and to ask for help.

James Kademan [00:30:45]:
Sure.

Hilary Berning [00:30:45]:
And to accept it. But it can be a struggle to get some families to let us do that. Or, you know, they’re— it’s their baby, right?

James Kademan [00:30:54]:
Right.

Hilary Berning [00:30:54]:
They’ve— they have this medically fragile child that they’ve never let out of their sight. So to like hand it over—

James Kademan [00:31:01]:
I wonder about that as well—

Hilary Berning [00:31:03]:
to a woman, like someone in their 20s, like, yeah, really? You’re right. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:31:10]:
So we— Do you know what this kid needs?

Hilary Berning [00:31:11]:
Correct. Absolutely. And our staff are like ridiculously overtrained and well-trained and, you know, trained on every individual kid that walks in the door. We know what their plan is, what they need.

James Kademan [00:31:23]:
I imagine to the point, to a point, right, with the experience that your staff has, they may know more than the parent, not necessarily about that individual kid, but from a broad experience point of view.

Hilary Berning [00:31:32]:
Yeah. Or this has worked with— we had another kid with this diagnosis and this really worked and helped them. Can we try that?

James Kademan [00:31:38]:
Sure.

Hilary Berning [00:31:39]:
And so, yeah, we’ve helped and we’ve, you know, and just some organic friendships have happened.

James Kademan [00:31:44]:
Oh, I bet.

Hilary Berning [00:31:44]:
Out of families meeting or connecting and stuff like that.

James Kademan [00:31:48]:
So I bet just, you’re talking about between, I don’t wanna say members. I don’t know if that’s right.

Hilary Berning [00:31:52]:
We just call ’em our families.

James Kademan [00:31:53]:
Families.

Hilary Berning [00:31:54]:
Okay. Families. Yep. Oh, yeah.

James Kademan [00:31:56]:
So, so they like, hey, my kid’s got, goes to Theo’s garden or whatever.

Hilary Berning [00:32:01]:
We’ve connected parents who have asked, um, before COVID we used to have like a family support group type thing. Um, we, it’s in the thoughts of starting that back up again. We have a Gio’s Garden private family Facebook page where families can just go and, hey, my son needs orthotics. Where do I get those from? Or who have you worked with before? Or some people are like, I have this stroller. He outgrew. Does anybody need it? Like, you know, just sharing equipment that’s expensive to buy.

James Kademan [00:32:29]:
Oh my gosh.

Hilary Berning [00:32:30]:
It’s hard to find. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:32:32]:
Insane. My brother was telling me about the wheelchair.

Hilary Berning [00:32:34]:
Oh yeah.

James Kademan [00:32:35]:
Yeah. This little piece that broke and just going through, I think he ended up buying the piece because insurance was taking 6 months or it was just like, yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:32:44]:
And you can’t wait.

James Kademan [00:32:45]:
You can’t wait.

Hilary Berning [00:32:45]:
6 months, right? I can’t get her out of the house because—

James Kademan [00:32:48]:
Yeah, this isn’t a vacation or something. Like this is literally how she moved.

Hilary Berning [00:32:51]:
Right. Yeah. It’s like her independence.

James Kademan [00:32:54]:
Yeah. Very bizarre.

Hilary Berning [00:32:55]:
It is.

James Kademan [00:32:56]:
So I imagine as, like, as she outgrew her equipment.

Hilary Berning [00:32:59]:
Yep. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:33:00]:
I always wondered, what do you do with it? Right. Cause somebody else needs it.

Hilary Berning [00:33:04]:
There are, yeah. There are some organizations that take equipment, um, like used equipment and help and like let other families borrow it. And while they’re waiting for their insurance approval process, with most of these kids, it has to get approved by their initial insurance and then whatever they don’t cover, then it has to get approved by Medicaid and Katie Beckett. And then they always have questions and then you have to like, So yeah, it’s a 6 to 9 month process just to get a wheelchair that my son stopped walking. Like, no, I really need, right. Some way to get him from point A to point B.

James Kademan [00:33:37]:
Should I have just thrown him over my shoulder?

Hilary Berning [00:33:39]:
I know, right? School’s not gonna do that.

James Kademan [00:33:41]:
No, no, no, no. Yeah. It’s interesting. I get even dealing with a van, cuz I think my brother got some money from, I don’t know where it was. Yeah., to help with that.

Hilary Berning [00:33:53]:
We did too. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:33:54]:
They get an appraisal of the vehicle and all this stuff. Yeah. Because we weren’t buying new because that’s cycle. Um, I had no idea. Yeah. Holy cow.

Hilary Berning [00:34:03]:
Yeah. And they would only pay, like CLTS would cover the, um, conversion portion of the van, but not any other.

James Kademan [00:34:10]:
Not the van itself.

Hilary Berning [00:34:10]:
Not the van itself. Okay. Because you would need a vehicle, like you would have a vehicle anyways, but they’ll pay, help pay for the conversion portion of it.

James Kademan [00:34:19]:
Yeah, it was very interesting. A lot of paperwork. Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:34:23]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:34:23]:
And I understand you don’t want the system to be worked over or whatever, so I get it to a point. On the other hand, I’m like, there’s a lot of people looking at this. Yep. I feel like we probably have $5,000 worth of hours. Yeah. Of people looking at this, so we could probably just put that towards the van.

Hilary Berning [00:34:37]:
Right. Yeah. And everything that has this, you know, special needs label on it, the price gets It’s like throwing Corvette on a car part, right?

James Kademan [00:34:46]:
Pretty much. No, it’s twice as much. Exactly. Oh, that’s funny. Yeah. Cause when he was telling me about the part that was wrong on his wheelchair, on her wheelchair, I should say, and he was talking about the cost, I’m like, is this an airplane? What is going on here? It’s a chunk of metal.

Hilary Berning [00:35:03]:
Exactly. Bizarre. It really is.

James Kademan [00:35:05]:
So is that similar to pharmaceuticals where they know insurance is going to pay for it?

Hilary Berning [00:35:09]:
So just Chalk it up to some extent, probably. And especially with when you’re looking at some rare disorders and stuff like, oh, so they make 3 of them.

James Kademan [00:35:17]:
Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:35:18]:
Okay. Not because they’re, you know, oh, we only have, you know, 100,000 kids that have this disorder, so we have to, got it. We’re only gonna be able to bill for this 3, you know, $100,000 times. So we have to charge $3 million for it at a time or whatever.

James Kademan [00:35:30]:
Yeah. All right.

Hilary Berning [00:35:31]:
Interesting. The whole thing.

James Kademan [00:35:33]:
Tell me, as far as the buildout goes for the the old house in Middleton as well as the place in Sun Prairie. What did you have to do? Like doors bigger, ramps?

Hilary Berning [00:35:42]:
I mean, I’m luckily in Sun Prairie, the doors and everything was fine. I needed to put a kitchenette in, which was the only little thing that we needed. I know. Okay. I was surprised. Um, like it used to be a piano studio, so she had like 5 individual, like soundproof rooms along one side and a big open area and the 2 bathrooms. So I just took one section in the back corner and we put a— we really just need a sink and a dishwasher and countertop and some storage in our, our lovely washer and dryer and a refrigerator. So yeah, our build out wasn’t too, too bad.

James Kademan [00:36:15]:
Well, that’s cool.

Hilary Berning [00:36:16]:
Which was great.

James Kademan [00:36:17]:
Yep. And everything was big enough to move pianos through there, so.

Hilary Berning [00:36:20]:
Yeah, exactly.

James Kademan [00:36:21]:
So you’re fine.

Hilary Berning [00:36:22]:
All right. I did learn a lot about commercial real estate, which I did not know.

James Kademan [00:36:26]:
I’m like, oh, it’s a mess, isn’t it?

Hilary Berning [00:36:27]:
I’m a nurse by trade, so it was a big learning curve for me. And then we had bought a dishwasher Okay. Which fit the specs, but it ended up I needed an ADA dishwasher. Okay. Because they put the countertop at ADA height. Okay. So my dishwasher I bought was half an inch too tall.

James Kademan [00:36:45]:
Half an inch?

Hilary Berning [00:36:46]:
Oh no. Didn’t know that. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an ADA dishwasher.

James Kademan [00:36:51]:
I did not either.

Hilary Berning [00:36:52]:
You do now. All right. And luckily everybody does now. Right? And I would say a plug, shout out to Brothers Main because they were really great. They let us cause we had picked like the contractors needed it by Monday and they couldn’t deliver. So my husband and I took our truck and picked it up ourselves. And then we found out Monday that it’s half an inch too big. And they Brothers Main like took it back, no questions asked and gave us the ADA one in exchange.

Hilary Berning [00:37:18]:
So they really did us a solid on that.

James Kademan [00:37:21]:
That’s crazy.

Hilary Berning [00:37:21]:
I know, I know.

James Kademan [00:37:24]:
We’re so close.

Hilary Berning [00:37:25]:
So close, but I’ll never make that mistake again.

James Kademan [00:37:27]:
No, I bet not. Interesting. What is— so just so I know, ADA height, is it shorter, higher?

Hilary Berning [00:37:33]:
It’s shorter. Okay.

James Kademan [00:37:35]:
Yep. And what is the idea, that someone could reach something if they’re on a wheelchair?

Hilary Berning [00:37:39]:
Yep, exactly. Okay. Yep. So it’s tall enough for a wheelchair to roll under it, but also be able to— that if you’re in a wheelchair, huh, get on top, you know, do things on top of the countertop.

James Kademan [00:37:50]:
What’s the half-inch difference?

Hilary Berning [00:37:52]:
Yep. At least for the dishwasher it was. Maybe it was an inch, but it was not—

James Kademan [00:37:55]:
whatever it was, it wasn’t feet or anything.

Hilary Berning [00:37:58]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:37:58]:
Not at all.

Hilary Berning [00:38:00]:
Interesting. So that was the one big hiccup.

James Kademan [00:38:01]:
All right. All right.

Hilary Berning [00:38:02]:
It’s fine. It’s, it’s in.

James Kademan [00:38:05]:
How do families learn about you?

Hilary Berning [00:38:07]:
We are well connected. Like a lot of these families will get diagnosis through the Wiseman Center. Okay. We’re luckily with the University of Wisconsin to have great medical care on campus. And the Wiseman Center is usually the one that makes these diagnoses with whether it’s autism or cerebral palsy or whatever. So we’re well connected with them, so they know about us. I had actually completed a program through them called the LEND program, and I got to observe like a diagnosis of someone actually getting a diagnosis of their child having autism. Oh, which was kind of— it was neat to see it from like— I mean, I’d been on— I’d been the parent getting the diagnosis at the Weissman Center, but to see them and the case manager social worker coming in and telling— laying out all of their resources that are available.

Hilary Berning [00:38:51]:
And then when she said Jill’s Garden, I was like, yeah. Yes, go do it. So that, so we are well connected with them. So, I mean, but of course when you get a diagnosis, you’re like, you know, that white noise that’s in your head, right? I bet here’s 50 brochures.

James Kademan [00:39:07]:
Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Let me tell you everything.

Hilary Berning [00:39:10]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:39:10]:
And then when they’re—

Hilary Berning [00:39:11]:
start seeing a doctor. Connected with, when they get on Katie Beckett and Medicaid and CLTS, which the Wise Men Center’s really good at making sure those steps are happening, they get assigned a case manager to help them navigate and set up the quote unquote their budget for their funds. And they all know about us. Okay. And promote us wildly.

James Kademan [00:39:28]:
And very cool.

Hilary Berning [00:39:28]:
Very cool. Yep. And like most of the pediatricians, you know, all right, we’ve been around too. They know about us. The hospital knows about us.

James Kademan [00:39:34]:
Nice.

Hilary Berning [00:39:35]:
Okay. And all the social workers at the hospital, at the perinatal center, which is at Mariner, where most of the diagnoses of like Down syndrome in utero or things that are diagnosed in utero. Mm-hmm. They know about us. So, wow. It’s mostly, I would say, like through that system. Okay. The process of getting the diagnosis.

Hilary Berning [00:39:52]:
Nice.

James Kademan [00:39:53]:
Yeah. And you, so 7 was the height. What is the floor? Is it newborn or how old?

Hilary Berning [00:39:59]:
Yeah. As soon as they’re willing to let us have them.

James Kademan [00:40:02]:
Wow. Mm-hmm.

Hilary Berning [00:40:02]:
All right. I don’t know that we’ve ever gotten like a 6-week-old. I think the closest we’ve had, lowest is maybe a 9-month-old that came in.

James Kademan [00:40:10]:
That’s still pretty young.

Hilary Berning [00:40:11]:
That’s still pretty young. All right. Yeah. But you know, it takes some families a little bit to be comfortable leaving their baby.

James Kademan [00:40:19]:
Sure. No, that’s right.

Hilary Berning [00:40:20]:
Just leaving their child with anybody.

James Kademan [00:40:21]:
And that’s reasonable, right? It’s very reasonable. From an equipment point of view, that means that you have to have cribs or all the things that babies need.

Hilary Berning [00:40:28]:
Yep. So we’ve got pack and plays and all that stuff. We have a ton of toys and sensory toys and—

James Kademan [00:40:33]:
All right. Is it difficult to keep? Now this is me guessing. So I imagine there’s certain kids that can play with toys. There’s other kids that They probably shouldn’t be near those toys.

Hilary Berning [00:40:46]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:40:47]:
How do you keep them all separate?

Hilary Berning [00:40:48]:
It’s all about, it’s, we all, we plan ahead. Okay. So we know in advance which kiddos are coming and what day they’re coming and what they can be allowed to be around or to do. Um, just for safety purposes. Sure. And they, um, we set goals with all of our families to help work, work on stuff with them. So if they’re working on, I remember when Collin was there, there was a little boy named Max. And the goal was to get him to not cry when his mom left.

James Kademan [00:41:14]:
Get Max to not cry or Colin?

Hilary Berning [00:41:16]:
No, Max to not cry. Okay. When Colin didn’t care, he was like, bye mom, I’m home. Who says mom? Hey, right? But to get Max to not cry. Okay. And they, you know, they worked on it and worked with him and got in there enough. And by the end, Max was waving goodbye and telling his mom to leave. Like, so there’s like something as simple as that.

James Kademan [00:41:36]:
Stop talking, mom.

Hilary Berning [00:41:37]:
Right. Or sensory like goals or stopping at a door and not, you know, running through it. We have a lot of kids who are escape artists and they know how to open doors and gates and get out. And so we have a very nice fence around our yard and everyone’s well contained. So yeah, we work on goals and help the families with things. We help them with potty training, with Reading, like whatever they need, we are there to support them.

James Kademan [00:42:07]:
That’s cool. So it’s more than just a babysitter.

Hilary Berning [00:42:09]:
It’s more than just a babysitter. Yep. Yeah, it’s what kind of— we put the word therapeutic on it. We will set goals and work with you on something as simple as my kid doesn’t cry when I drop them off here, or my kid will wave goodbye, or sure, my kid will sit and color for 1.2 minutes, you know, or something. It can be simple as that.

James Kademan [00:42:31]:
I remember dropping my kid off at daycare and he would cry initially. And then eventually it came to the point where you drop him off and he just goes to play and there’s not even a wave goodbye.

Hilary Berning [00:42:41]:
You’re like, oh, which is hard. It’s also a good feeling when that happens.

James Kademan [00:42:47]:
Yeah. There’s an independence.

Hilary Berning [00:42:49]:
Yep. Yep. And it’s a good feeling when the parents can walk away without crying. That’s huge too.

James Kademan [00:42:55]:
Oh, I bet. We feel, you got to work on that too.

Hilary Berning [00:42:57]:
It’s always a big goal for us. Like, okay. That mom’s okay leaving him, dad’s okay leaving him with us. Sure. And excited to leave him with us. All right. Because they know that their kid’s excited to go.

James Kademan [00:43:07]:
Right. It’s good for the kid. Yep. All right. Good for the parents.

Hilary Berning [00:43:10]:
Yeah. We’ve had, you know, families call us, they’re part of our team now. They’re part of our family. Like, Julius is part of our team.

James Kademan [00:43:16]:
Nice.

Hilary Berning [00:43:16]:
And that’s how we like to look at it. We’re all, we all have the best interests of the child. Mm-hmm. And the family as a whole. Mm-hmm. In, in, in mind and at heart. And we’ll do what we can to support them in any way.

James Kademan [00:43:28]:
Yeah. The original founder of GIOs?

Hilary Berning [00:43:29]:
Yes.

James Kademan [00:43:30]:
Are they still involved?

Hilary Berning [00:43:31]:
Yep. So Charlotte is still on our board. Okay. Their family’s still involved. Okay. But they, you know, as good founders do, have started to, you know, step back and not—

James Kademan [00:43:41]:
No, that’s good.

Hilary Berning [00:43:41]:
You don’t need to, you don’t need to run it all. You don’t need to worry about it all anymore.

James Kademan [00:43:45]:
Right.

Hilary Berning [00:43:46]:
They’ve gotten us to where we’re at and have been able to, you know, hand it off, but still be involved to the level they want to be.

James Kademan [00:43:53]:
Yeah. Let the butterfly fly.

Hilary Berning [00:43:54]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:43:54]:
That kind of thing. Sure. That makes sense. Yep. So how old is it now?

Hilary Berning [00:43:57]:
How old is Gio’s?

James Kademan [00:43:58]:
Gio’s?

Hilary Berning [00:43:58]:
So we started in 2012. So what is that, 14? Yeah. I got a big party to do next year, don’t I?

James Kademan [00:44:05]:
Oh, nice. More party planning.

Hilary Berning [00:44:07]:
Yes. More party planning. But yeah, so we started in 2012. All right. We’ve come and it’s taken a while, but we’re excited to have the second location and yeah. See where we go from here.

James Kademan [00:44:18]:
So it sounds like from a marketing standpoint, you really don’t have to market to families because they find you through referral. Uh, you do have to market for your fundraising.

Hilary Berning [00:44:28]:
Fundraising.

James Kademan [00:44:29]:
Yep. All right. So what has worked for that?

Hilary Berning [00:44:33]:
Um, we’ve had—

James Kademan [00:44:34]:
oh, what has worked?

Hilary Berning [00:44:35]:
I know what has worked.

James Kademan [00:44:37]:
Um, we are—

Hilary Berning [00:44:38]:
podcast, right? Yeah, right. Yeah. No, this is a new venture. This is my first podcast. I’m very excited. Um, so yeah, we— it’s an area that we need to grow in, definitely. But we are, we are blessed to have some really key dedicated donors and key dedicated board members who are bringing donors and sponsorships from their organizations that they’re, you know, their businesses that they work for and stuff. So we’ve been very lucky in that regard to have that.

James Kademan [00:45:07]:
Most of the key donors, have they had children that went through the program or relatives or something?

Hilary Berning [00:45:12]:
Some have, and some are just, we’re so like moved and touched by the, by the story and by Gio’s story that they have found the— they truly care and believe in what we’re doing and will support us.

James Kademan [00:45:25]:
Okay. It’s interesting because in Madison we have 5 gazillion nonprofits, right? Yeah. If you wanted to go to a gala or whatever, you could probably pick any weekend, any Friday or Saturday night, and you have your option. Yes. Yeah. So it’s interesting that there’s a lot of competition that way, but there’s also a lot of people that are willing to give. Yep. So there’s, uh, good and bad, I suppose.

Hilary Berning [00:45:46]:
There is.

James Kademan [00:45:46]:
I don’t know if bad’s the right word.

Hilary Berning [00:45:47]:
No, but, but it’s, yeah. It’s competition. Yeah. There’s a lot more competition. Sure.

James Kademan [00:45:51]:
Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:45:51]:
So that’s why we always, we’ve kind of reinvent ourselves with our big fundraiser every, okay. You know, 3 to 4 years just to kind of keep it fresh and new and different. Um, before COVID we used to, you know, be at the Edgewater with the sit-down plated meal and all that. Of course. And then when COVID hit, we couldn’t do that. Switched to a virtual kind of put on our own variety show. A virtual one. Virtual one.

Hilary Berning [00:46:15]:
Yeah. Where people just pay, you know, donate $50 and you get a link. And we had this, we entertained you. We had like People’s Brothers Band. I don’t know if you know that band, local band. They did a song for us, like for free and filmed it on their, on their phones. And we had help putting it together. So, and then when we could get in person, we were at the Garver Feed Mill for a while and did a small intimate, like.

Hilary Berning [00:46:38]:
Live studio audience while we put on the show and play with commercials and stuff. And then now we switched. We’ve been at the concourse the last 2 years and not doing the sit-down dinner. It’s more of a party. Like we got tunes pumping and DJ and very cool. We have a mashed potato martini bar, mashed potatoes in a martini glass, mashed potatoes, all the toppings.

James Kademan [00:47:01]:
Oh, okay. So it’s not literally a martini on mashed potatoes.

Hilary Berning [00:47:04]:
No. It’s like you just take a martini glass and fill it with mashed potatoes and all your toppings.

James Kademan [00:47:07]:
Oh, that’s pretty cool.

Hilary Berning [00:47:09]:
I know.

James Kademan [00:47:09]:
Martini aren’t bad either.

Hilary Berning [00:47:10]:
So it’s like, oh yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s a big hit. So we’re trying to reinvent ourselves that way and bringing different live entertainment in and just keeping it young and fresh. And this year we had a really young population at our holiday party, which was it students or just like, how did the word get out that way? We had some students cuz the hematology students came, like the executive committee came and okay. They spoke and Got to introduce them to a bunch of people, but yeah, I think it’s just like word is getting out and families help get the word out. And our demographic of 40 and, you know, people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s was higher than the 60s, 70s, and 80 people in their 60s and 70s that usually come to these kinds of things.

James Kademan [00:47:51]:
That’s fair. It’s fair.

Hilary Berning [00:47:53]:
Always trying to reinvent ourselves a little bit.

James Kademan [00:47:55]:
Yeah. It’s, it’s interesting. Cause I’ve, I don’t know, the past few years I’ve gone to more and more. And at first you’re like, what are we doing here? And then, then you realize what you’re doing here. Yeah. Yeah. It’s more fun. You can let loose.

Hilary Berning [00:48:08]:
Yeah, absolutely.

James Kademan [00:48:09]:
You meet some people. There’s certainly some great context.

Hilary Berning [00:48:11]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And we have a great MC, John Urban. I don’t know if you know John Urban, Big Dreamer.

James Kademan [00:48:16]:
That name sounds familiar.

Hilary Berning [00:48:17]:
But yeah, so he’s always our MC and keeps it fun and light. And he always makes a couple videos for us. All right.

James Kademan [00:48:24]:
Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:48:25]:
Wow. So it’s really crazy.

James Kademan [00:48:26]:
All right. And you are the planner or—

Hilary Berning [00:48:28]:
I am. Yeah. All right. Me and Christy. Okay. Christy Maurer. So she’s my vice president and helps me plan the holiday parties. So nice.

James Kademan [00:48:37]:
Yeah. Is it, how do you pick a location?

Hilary Berning [00:48:40]:
We had a connection, like we had done the Edgewater. We were looking for a change. We had had a connection at someone, like one of our board members knew someone at the Concourse. Mm-hmm. And just change a venue and they were really really great to work with. Oh, very cool. Really, really great to work with. Yeah.

Hilary Berning [00:48:57]:
Um, and so we did one year and it went like really, really well. And so then we went back last year and we did even better. Nice. So we’re gonna go again, huh? December 4th, 2026. Yeah, no, it’s great. Um, we used to have a golf outing.

James Kademan [00:49:11]:
Okay.

Hilary Berning [00:49:11]:
But we, I stopped doing that 2 years ago.

James Kademan [00:49:14]:
Yeah, everybody’s got a golf outing.

Hilary Berning [00:49:15]:
Everyone does have a golf outing. And the, what I had found, the amount of time and effort I put into that event Did not pay off. Like I made $8,000 to $10,000 after expenses.

James Kademan [00:49:27]:
Oh, when you count your time.

Hilary Berning [00:49:28]:
And you count my time, that’s—

James Kademan [00:49:29]:
$1.50 an hour or something?

Hilary Berning [00:49:31]:
Yeah, exactly. And then, uh, so this, I didn’t do it last year, which was the first year. And then I put all that energy and time into the holiday party and I raised $25,000 over what we normally do. Wow. Over the holiday party.

James Kademan [00:49:45]:
All right.

Hilary Berning [00:49:46]:
So I was like, okay.

James Kademan [00:49:47]:
That more fun, worked out, didn’t have to worry about rain.

Hilary Berning [00:49:51]:
Yep. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:49:52]:
Yep. Doesn’t sound terrible.

Hilary Berning [00:49:53]:
Yeah. I mean, we have some people who miss our golf outing cuz we did have a really fun golf outing.

James Kademan [00:49:58]:
Sure. I imagine so.

Hilary Berning [00:49:59]:
Yeah. And we were out at Hawks, which not many get to be out at Hawks. And so that was great. And they were amazing to work with and maybe someday we’ll restart it up, but right. Just don’t have the bandwidth for me to do it.

James Kademan [00:50:09]:
So it’s the, so golf outings are fun.

Hilary Berning [00:50:11]:
They are.

James Kademan [00:50:12]:
So nothing against that, but yeah. It seems like the weather risk. Yep. I mean, that could make or break. Exactly. How much money you’re raising.

Hilary Berning [00:50:19]:
Yes. And you can only have a golf outing on certain days. Mm-hmm. ‘Cause certain courses will only let, like, so we can only have it on Mondays. All right. Which then limits who can come. Who can come. Sure.

Hilary Berning [00:50:28]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:50:29]:
So, yeah, it’s interesting.

Hilary Berning [00:50:30]:
So yeah, it was, it was hard to say no. Mm-hmm. ‘Cause it was Gio’s dad’s baby, like his— Oh, for sure. That he took on, but it kind of handed it to me and I was like, well, I’m not gonna do it. At least not this year.

James Kademan [00:50:41]:
Sure. Only so much bandwidth.

Hilary Berning [00:50:43]:
Really? Yeah. I mean, and that’s what it comes down to is I need to put my time and energy into where I can reap the most benefit.

James Kademan [00:50:50]:
Well, I suppose if it was raising $80,000, then you’re like, let’s do two.

Hilary Berning [00:50:56]:
Absolutely. Let’s do a two-day event. Yeah. But yeah, so you have to—

James Kademan [00:50:59]:
different game.

Hilary Berning [00:51:00]:
You do. And you really— and like going back to the nonprofit, like I have to look at the bottom line and the time and the energy and that goes into it. And are they bringing me new donors and new names and So tell me, what are some things that you wish that people just knew about nonprofits that you’ve learned since being in it? Um, that we do good. We do such good work and it, it is hard to do what we do on the level of what we do. And I know for some people it feels like they just write a check and what, you know, what impact is that? Like, I just, I don’t want to be just a checkbook. But truly, and for nonprofits, it’s what we need. Like, it’s dollars that makes us be able to hire staff to pay, you know, to see these children. And that’s what it comes down to, which is as hard as it— and it’s hard to ask for money.

Hilary Berning [00:51:51]:
I’m very, very bad at it. Really? Yes. Yes. Like, I’m very uncomfortable doing it, but it’s unfortunately what we—

James Kademan [00:52:00]:
that’s the game.

Hilary Berning [00:52:00]:
It’s the game. And it’s what we need. Yeah. And we, there are so many nonprofits out there and it’s, there’s only so much dollars to go around. So I just really wish, like, take a look at, especially us local nonprofits, I think is huge. Um, ’cause you have the big nationwide organizations, right? Make-A-Wish, you know, Boys and Girls, like they’re all over the nation. They’ve got, you know, nationwide people telling them what to do when providing all these things. And then you have organizations like mine, like there’s no one else that does this.

Hilary Berning [00:52:32]:
We are the only one that does it. We’re, doing it on our own. We are local. We’re serving local people. All the money stays here and goes back to the kids. So I like if people can really think that through a little bit where we don’t have— we are local, we’re serving local, and we’re doing good local and focus on those nonprofits.

James Kademan [00:52:52]:
Right. Yeah. It’s interesting. I guess when I’m donating, try to think, how is this making the world a better place? Yep. So I do a fair amount with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Oh, nice. And that’s where you can see like, what part of the world do I wanna make better?

Hilary Berning [00:53:06]:
Better.

James Kademan [00:53:07]:
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Kids start there. Yeah. Because then when it, when they’re adults, that makes it much more difficult.

Hilary Berning [00:53:12]:
Yeah. And that’s like Humorology. It’s really nice. They do only local.

James Kademan [00:53:16]:
Very cool.

Hilary Berning [00:53:17]:
Nonprofits mostly.

James Kademan [00:53:18]:
So nice.

Hilary Berning [00:53:19]:
Which is nice.

James Kademan [00:53:21]:
And that’s how long has that been going on?

Hilary Berning [00:53:23]:
Oh, I don’t even know, to be honest, but it’s been, It’s been a— decades.

James Kademan [00:53:28]:
Yeah. And I am so outta touch.

Hilary Berning [00:53:29]:
Me too. I didn’t know about it until 2 years ago.

James Kademan [00:53:31]:
You’re telling me about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Madison.

Hilary Berning [00:53:34]:
I didn’t know anything about that, which we will be taking part in, but very cool. Very cool. Geels will be there with Humo. All right.

James Kademan [00:53:40]:
Yep. And is it to get the word out, to have a good time so the kids get to do stuff?

Hilary Berning [00:53:44]:
Yeah. I mean, it’s with Humorology, we wanna give them the opportunity to hang out with us and hang out with their families and like, and help get the word out about humorology, which is a big goal for them this year, is to like make their presence known amongst more people.

James Kademan [00:54:00]:
Um, so kids under rocks like me know what’s going on.

Hilary Berning [00:54:03]:
Yeah, can be like, oh, humorology, what is that about? Yeah, let’s check it out. Look into a bit and maybe, yeah, get some companies to back them and stuff like that.

James Kademan [00:54:12]:
That’s fair. I love it.

Hilary Berning [00:54:13]:
And make connections for those college kids who are— hopefully go on to have good paying jobs and Right. Remember Jill’s Garden? That’s further into the year.

James Kademan [00:54:22]:
Give me that time 20 years ago.

Hilary Berning [00:54:24]:
I know, like, can I keep all your emails, email you all?

James Kademan [00:54:29]:
I mean, that’s the game, right?

Hilary Berning [00:54:30]:
It really is.

James Kademan [00:54:31]:
The game of life is you, the connections you make, and the spider web and all that jazz.

Hilary Berning [00:54:35]:
But hopefully we’ve made a lasting impact on them too. Yes.

James Kademan [00:54:39]:
Yeah, I love that. I love that. Do any of the kids that you take care of get to be part of the Humorology, or is that—

Hilary Berning [00:54:46]:
no, it’s, it’s independent. Yeah. Um, they’re like, we Some of our families can go to the show and stuff if they want to, but so many of our kids have sensory issues. Oh, it’s a big, loud, bright spectacle, you know, spectacular show. So I don’t know that a ton of them will actually be able to come, but my board of directors are required to be there.

James Kademan [00:55:11]:
You’ll suffer through it, right?

Hilary Berning [00:55:12]:
No, it’s not. It’ll be amazing. I’m excited.

James Kademan [00:55:14]:
No, it sounds cool. Yeah. So let’s get some dates so that people understand or know what’s going on. I’ll let you say what they are because I imagine you have a whole calendar in your head.

Hilary Berning [00:55:22]:
Yes, so for Gio’s Garden, we have the— with our partnership with Humorology, they have their show coming up on April 24th and 25th. It’s Friday and Saturday night at the Memorial Union Theater. The tickets will be on sale, I think, by the end of the month. I hadn’t heard the official date yet. End of February, beginning of March. And then Saturday, there’s a live streaming option. So if you just Google UW Humorology, you’ll find their website and all that information will be there. So that’s not that not only supports Humorology, but all the funds then now come to GioScope.

James Kademan [00:55:55]:
So all the people all over the country, all over the world.

Hilary Berning [00:55:57]:
All over the world.

James Kademan [00:55:58]:
Can see that.

Hilary Berning [00:55:58]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these students, they reach out all to all their past alumni and their parents. Like some of the exec committee are from the East Coast. They’re like, my parents can’t fly in for it, but they’re gonna watch it online. Nice. So we have that coming. You can come in sooner.

Hilary Berning [00:56:10]:
You can come March 15th to the Madison St. Patrick’s Day Parade and watch us in the parade. All right. And then just, we have an upcoming open house for Sun Prairie sometime soon. So keep an eye on our website. Just waiting for it to get beautified in our vinyl decals and stuff. Sure. And then our big holiday fundraiser holiday party is December 4th, 2026 at the Madison Concourse.

James Kademan [00:56:36]:
Concourse. All right. December 4th, 2026. Yep.

Hilary Berning [00:56:38]:
All right. Come and join us.

James Kademan [00:56:40]:
A lot going on.

Hilary Berning [00:56:40]:
You should see the decorating I do.

James Kademan [00:56:42]:
Amazing. Well, now, challenge accepted, right?

Hilary Berning [00:56:44]:
Right. Come on. See it.

James Kademan [00:56:46]:
Yeah. Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Hilary Berning [00:56:49]:
Thank you. I appreciate your time.

James Kademan [00:56:50]:
This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’re watching, listening, or I don’t know, feeling this episode on the internet, if you don’t mind, give us a big old thumbs up, subscribe, and of course share it with your entrepreneurial friends and those friends that need to donate someplace, which should be everyone. Yes. Or those kids with special needs. Is that safe to say? Yep. In the Madison, Sun Prairie, Middleton area, Gio’s Garden is a place to check out. We’d like to thank your wonderful listeners as well as our guest, Hillary Burning of Gio’s Garden.

James Kademan [00:57:31]:
Hillary, do you have, is there a website?

Hilary Berning [00:57:33]:
Yeah, we’re at https://giosgarden.org.

James Kademan [00:57:35]:
So very— https://giosgarden.org. Yep, easy enough. All right, past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night at the podcast link found at https://drawincustomers.com. Thank you for joining us. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome, and if you do nothing else, enjoy your business. And Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Calls On Call, offering call answering and receptionist services for service businesses across the country, on the web at https://callsoncall.com. And of course, The Bold Business Book, a book for the entrepreneur and all of us, available wherever fine books are sold.