You could be standing grabbing trash next to a multi-millionaire to next to someone who is a plumber. No one does anything more. No one does anything less. And that's how this truly works. I was on Franklin Street for 35 seconds and I had a brain sandwich shoved in my and it [music] was like, "You have to eat this right now." And it wasn't until I was like four bites in that I was like, "Oh, wow."
Like you mean brain brain. All $1. 3 million directly back to all the nonforprofits that we get [music] to support. Hey, I might want to be part of this and help put this uh event on. What does it take to get [music] into the Nut Club? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today.
I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Before we get into the show, I need to tell you about something wild that's happening this Saturday, October 24th. It's Champions Day at Horseshoe Indianapolis down in Shelbyville. and smoking hot justice. An Indiana bred stakes [music] winning Philly is entered in the $150,000 Lady Fogghorn Stakes. What's even cooler is that you could own a share and join [music] the Indiana Racing Club.
Through my racehorse, you could purchase a share in Smoking Hot Justice and actually have a horse in the race. You don't need to know about pedigrees or have grown up around horses [music] to know what it's like to root for your own. Check out the link in the show notes to see more info or go to myrahorse. com and explore becoming an owner. I actually picked up a share this week and I can't wait to see what happens on Champions Day down in Shelbyville. Now, let's get into the show.
Today, we're diving into [music] all things Evansville and the Westside Nut Club Fall Festival. We are live on the main stage at the festival and I'm so excited for this show. We're going to be talking shop, trying some delicious food, and talking to a few different voices that help put this festival on. So, first up, I've got Brandon McClish talking all things economic impact and volunteerism uh that comes with the Westside Nut Club. And though we might be live here and everyone in Evansville might know what the Nut Club is and know about the 105 years of tradition, we've got viewers and listeners from all over the state of Indiana. Really, if you had to summarize what the Westside Nutub Fall Festival is, how would you summarize that, Fish?
Oh, that would be a very hard thing to do because this is a week-long festival that is put on by 100% volunteer hours by 100% volunteer booths, nonprofit organizations. So, it is a street festival. We have 121 food booths here that are all nonforprofits. These are not food trucks. These are not what you see on the side of the road. We have churches, PTAs, youth organizations, uh, all I'm looking at a rights instrumental band.
Down here, we have a, um, uh, fraternity and sorority, everything along those lines. 121 different food booths that all of their profits this week go back to them. The Nut Club just puts on this event, weekl long festival. We also have rides going and a half pot that we're going to get into as well. Well, so the first thing everyone says is when you say, "I'm going to the Westside Nut Club fall festival." Well, people kind of look at you a little funny like what in the heck is a nut club?
So, where does the nut club even start from? So, it's funny you say that. So, I went for a job for Lefield Sports, which is a national organization. I put Westside Nut Club on there as a board board member and the first question I got in my interview, they thought it was a joke. They were wondering why I wouldn't take it serious. But it was great because I got to explain to them what the Westside Nut Club is.
And it started in 1921 down at the park on uh West Library down here. A group of businessmen sat and had lunch under a acorn tree. So they would have to move an oak tree. Yes. So they have to move the acorns off the table in order to have lunch. Then they created something that was the fall festival.
When they did that, well, what should we call ourselves? Well, we're on the west side of Evansville. We meet under this tree. So therefore, we would become the Westside Nut Club. And then created the fall festival. Talk about like when you really get into it, it's very simple.
like they're on the west side of Evansville under an oak tree meeting for lunch. The Westside Nut Club and they host a fall festival. We host a fall 300 active members that put this on and I said 100% volunteers. So 300 active members. How many members have there been in the history of the Westside Nut Club? Oh, that would be in the thousands.
We're 105 year tradition. U so we have 300 active members and I think we're about 420 total because once you become a lifetime member, you are not required. you lose your vote, but you're not required to do your volunteer hours as much. And a lot of people uh either age out or what's really funny is there's members of the Westside Nut Club who have moved away from their job. They might live in Texas or Florida, but they stay active because they pay their minimal uh dues, but they come back this festival just to work shifts. That's crazy that someone would come from from Texas back to be part of the Westside Nut Club and put on the fall festival.
Uh I think that is a testament. What does it take to get into the Nut Club? Like if there are people out here walking the streets saying, "Hey, I might want to be part of this and help put this uh event on." What does it take to become a member? That's probably the number one question we get this week if we're walking around with the straw hats. So, you have to live and or work on the west side of Evansville.
That's the main rule of it. Live and or work. So, if you live in Newberg or if you live in even Jasper, wherever it may be, but your office or your location is here on the west side, you qualify. if you live on the west side and we have the parameters set up. But what truly is everyone wants to be a member, but you have to put in the work. So Nate, you were here last night, you were here uh last year, it's all about the throwing the trash.
You think it's really bad, but we have people who want to be members. We ask them to show up every night and throw trash. If they can do that, then all they do is submit an application. That application is all their information, where they live and things like that. And then we have three, you have to have three members sign for them. So very simple, but the problem is we get 30 to 40 applicants, but we have to have 300 active members.
So if we only have nine spots, we only can only take nine of that. So there would be some years where you might not even have space for one new member. Yeah, there could be. No way. Yeah. So typically you'll see about eight.
Uh we've had a group of 17. The year when I got in, it was a group of eight. So it just varies to be Okay. So 300 active members in the Westside Nut Club help put on this festival. I know you've done some data and analytics and studies. How many patrons come and visit the Evansville Westside Nut Club fall festival?
So years ago there was a a gentleman in the nut club named Matt Wuer who he did land in how many people can do it and they now we're in the world of technology. So we use placer AI to find the cell phone pings and things like that. and last year's fall festival and the year before, we are between 270 to 295,000 unique patrons of the Westside Nut Club. And when I say unique, that doesn't include me showing up every single day. That is a different cell phone ping that's coming. And what's really cool about it, it's not only just the uh area codes of Evansville.
So you got 47712, the 20's, things like that. We see a lot of people from the Duboce County, from Warick County, Posey County, Gibson County, and all we actually get a good portion of Knox County, but there's 82. How many counties are in the 92 counties? We're missing We need about 82 more counties to come. Hey, we're proudly representing Marian County. I think actually one of our staff members is from Hamilton County.
So, we're representing two counties uh coming down here to visit it. And I will say that was my biggest eye opening experience. So, this is my second time at the fall festival. And I think in initially when you hear about fall festival, you think pumpkins, scarecrows, hay rides, you know, maybe a corn maze. And I was like, "Okay, I guess I'll come down and check this thing out." And as soon as I stepped foot on Franklin Street, my jaw dropped.
Yep. 120 plus food booths that aren't just like the traveling midway type, you know, the general like nachos or pretzels or whatever. Like there are some of the most creative and delicious food items that I've ever seen anywhere across Indiana. And I've been up to like Whiting in the far north and the furthest north and west corner of Indiana to Fort Wayne down to Jeffersonville along the Ohio River. And this is truly a oneofone kind of festival. It's it's insane.
I mean, how long does it go for? So we start uh we have actually family day. It's the first full week of October. So we're not set on certain days every single year. It's the first full week. So this year obviously started a little bit later.
So the Sunday is family day which we set these booths. All 120 booths get set on Sunday. Then we have family day where we have kitty rides. Then that Monday morning we start at 10:00 a. m. and we go Monday to Saturday and we end on Saturday night.
And what's really crazy, Nate, and you're going to show pictures and B-roll. You're I want you to show all the pictures. We are driving on this road by sun Sunday at noon. That's how fantastic this thing is. So we're a full week. It's from 10 to 10 typically.
What's really great is a lot of these booths do so well that they sell out of their food, so they have to close at 8:30, which is a great thing to have. Yeah. What does the process of being a vendor? Like if there's a nonprofit leader out here that's like, "Oh, I' I'd like to get my organization involved, but I don't know how to get a booth." Like, how do you get a booth here? So, we're actually on a waiting list, and everyone thinks they can just show up with a booth.
That is not it. So, if you look around through here, everything is hardwired in. We have an electrical team that is that works around the clock to make sure you we have no generators on any of these booths. So, a lot of these booths, uh, prime example down the road here, we have the African-American Museum. They bought a booth from the church that was originally there. The church just didn't have the volunteers.
So, we knew because as I'm looking at Eric Hillbrand right behind us, he went and measured every single booth to the inch. So therefore, we can't if you're at booth spot right here at say uh number 56 and you don't want to come back, we have to find that perfect booth for booth 56. That's how close we are on everything. It's like a multiblock jigsaw puzzle that you have to fit together, which is we set the all every single one of these booths set at 7:00 a. m. on Sunday and we are done by 9.
That's how jigsaw puzzle this thing is. That's wild. So where do you set like while everyone's getting set up for the week? What was your role? Oh, I uh I got soft hands, so I don't want to get it dirty or anything. So, what I did, Nate, you'll love this.
I actually wore a shirt that was already dirty and everyone walked around. Oh my gosh, what happened? I actually washed a pin in it. So, things like that. [laughter] So, I am I'm next year's chair. So, what I'm doing, it's actually pretty interesting.
I went around I probably have 150 pictures of this festival so I can make the changes because, you know, this sign that we're looking at across here, this donor sign, I want to put somewhere else. I have to measure this year and take pictures because I have to order that. So that's what I did this year. And then truly I just kind of stayed out of everyone's way. One of the pieces that I love the most about the fall festival is the economic impact that it has for nonprofit and charitable organizations here in Evansville. So, not only do the nonprofits each run the booth, but since starting the halfp pot and generating sponsorship dollars and all the money brought in by the Westside Nut Club, you're able to have grants and you have founders day and you're able to give money back into the community.
Talk to me about the size and scale of the economic impact that the money raised from the Halfpot or from any of these different ventures that you guys have makes in in Evansville. For sure. So, I actually work for Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. Basically, your chamber of commerce here. That's what I do. Actually, it's like my part-time job because my full-time job is fall festival and nut club.
So, we ran many reports and we reached out to every single one of these booths. And once again, all of these booths take their own profits. They they do not give any percentages back to us, any of that sort of things. So, the average booth and then we actually did an aerial shot. Mike Fetcher did a drone shot and we did aerial shots of the parking lot and we have about 45 different parking lots where nonprofits sell spots did turnover. Then we add in the halfp pot.
Then we add in the rides. This festival for 6 days is $8. 1 million that goes back into our community. And when I say goes back in our community, it truly does. The halfp pot. Yes, it hits $2 million today.
That means that when Nick Spangle wins this halfpot, I am I'm really hoping that is the case. I did say if I win the halfp pot I will buy a house in Ev. Absolutely. So therefore then we'll get down here and then I'll be on the west side and I'll become a member. Yes. You get more than the new shirt you got.
Yes. So Nate, what'll happen is that million dollars will go to that winner. Then the way that we are set up, the other $1 million will go into our community. Not a dollar here, dollar there. We missed. $1 million.
We have founders day a month ago. We wrote checks that day for $865,000. And we dispersed checks that night of that much plus all the other 500 here, a,000 here and things like that. But just that night, $865,000 for the $865,000 that you guys gave out on Founders Day. How much how many different organizations did that represent? So that was the big portion of that is the schools.
The Evansville Vanderberg School Corporation gets a massive portion of that because of all the high schools, things like that's about 240,000. And then we give another to the dascese which is your modern days, memorials, things like that. And I think that'sund 140 160,000. It's almost 400,000 just so off the jump you're giving almost three or $400,000 to the school corporation. Yeah, which is incredible. And then on top then it's the youth football programs and then the family shelters.
Then we give a lot to our LEO law enforcement officers, the $15,000 to the sheriff's, EPD, fire department, dispatch, AMR. So, we just keeps adding up every single year. Well, cuz that's one of the things that a lot of different stakeholders within Evansville have to come together to put this thing on. If you walk down there, it's like you have like command centers for security. You have I mean, obviously, the different pieces like you run these electrical lines. Like, there's just so many different moving pieces.
I feel like managing that would take It's crazy that you do it with no full-time staff. Exactly. Yes. And so we're very flexible and it's with my job per say um my work I submitted PTO for this week and they denied it because they said you actually work harder this week than you ever will anywhere else. like about time you start working, right? And what what's really cool and I was telling uh your team last night and what we said last night to you last year, it is you could be standing grabbing trash next to a multi-millionaire that was a hedge fun person, next to someone who works in sports, next to someone who works in oil, to next to someone who is a plumber, next to someone who's a doctor, next to someone who's a gravedigger, and we're all on literally a grave.
Yes. And we are all in the same play level. No one does anything more. No one does anything less. And that's how this truly works. No, I think that the what I've noticed, so this is my second time at the fall festival, is that the Evansville community is truly generous.
You talk about one, the Nut Club members that come down here and volunteer so much time year round to put this thing on, but also all the volunteers out here at the booths. like you get to be a patron and come out here and shop at 120 different booths and try the deep fried Oreo and the the fried brain sandwich and all the stuff because like volunteers come down here for 14 hours a day and give up their time and then you raise a bunch of money that goes back into your community and you do the thing all over again next year. Yeah. You said it's we tried doing the math today. There's got 120 food booths down here and I'd say an average of five people per booth and they're here from the setup. 8:00 a.
m. until 11:00 p. m. at different shifts all the way through. Said I shout out to my wife. She was actually in the Cynthia Heights booth.
She's PTA. She was here all day as the lead yesterday. She could barely get out of bed today. Uh exhausted, everything along those lines. So, you know, there's a family um that I know they are so active in the community. They are at a different booth every single day volunteering with churches and organizations.
And that's truly what makes this work. It's not just the Westside Nut Club that's doing volunteer hours. We're talking hundreds of thousands of hours in volunteers. Yeah, it's incredible. I do want to dive into so law enforcement, the school systems for other booths that get funded on Founders Day or throughout the year. How does a nonprofit organization in Evansville become eligible to ask about a grant?
Absolutely. So, we open our grant process and we make it very easy. We have actually, it's kind of funny, everything's a committee. We have a committee of called internets, the internet guys. Um, you know, we have to be fun on that. Yeah, you need puns.
So, we have a form that's on our website and what you do is you go there and submit it through the form. The biggest portion of that is you have to be a nonprofit 501c3 because of our funding. And then we have a board of directors that sits at the table every Tuesday or I mean sorry, one Tuesday a month for three hours going through hundreds of applications. And what we will look for me personally is I typically don't turn down anything youth sport programs because it's what I do. Um, then different people have different alliances of we want to give to the bands or we want to give to this. And we sit through and we go through the process.
Okay, this group here, it affects 450 kids and they're asking for $5,000. Okay, well I think we should give them 75 7500. Well, I think we should give them 10. We've just come to numbers to be able to disperse that out through a board. Like it's crazy to me that the majority of fundraising needed to do for a year, if you think of a youth sports organization, for instance, you typically have cookie dough sales and popcorn sales and ticket sales and merch sales and like you're like a you're like a halftime football player and a full-time door-to-d dooror salesman in your neighborhood. But to have an opportunity to come down here and raise a bunch of that money in one false swoop is pretty is pretty interesting and and an awesome part of the community I would say.
Yeah. And we people these organizations build their budget around it and that's what I find fascinating. So when it's beautiful weathers like this we encourage everyone to come down. We got 300,000 people that pile through here and said we still have room for more and that's Nate. That's why we asked you to come down here to be able to tell this story. This is 100% volunteers.
These organizations are what I've always said and I because we have the halfp pot and everyone's your naysayers, your keyboard warriors. This is all fake. This is rigged our halfp pot. We're taking the other portion. You've been in our office. It's not that nice.
We're hanging out in a at a trailer back here that's a uh former semi. So, we don't get ourselves nice things. So, the the true story of it is there is not a single person in the city of Evansville or the surrounding counties that is not affected by the Westside Nut Club. And what I mean you said the schools you have an your daughter your cousin your something goes to the schools we give to your law enforcement Nate we bought a horse for EPD we bought midnight a new patrol horse they had two and they wanted 30 they came to us we purchas we helped purchase a horse and now if you go down there tonight in the rides you see three horses the little one is midnight they wouldn't let us name it I had little red ride ticket a festival 5 they went with midnight it's fine I'm not sour by any means but that's what's really so cool about this and that's why I wear so much pride with this hat. Yeah, absolutely.
No, just every person that I've met from I mean the person who's throwing trash to the person doing marketing internet, the person that's I don't know literally cleaning the bathroom. Absolutely. The greasy boys. Shout out Greasy Boys. Shout out to the greasy boys. Everybody brings a great attitude.
It doesn't matter like what your 9 to5 is. It's like you come here and you just roll up your sleeves and do the work. I love it. We're actually about to get into a whole portion just on the halfp pot. how it was created, how it's grown, how the money gets dispersed, all the things there. I'm excited to bring John on in a second.
But as we close out, I have three different guests today. Fish was the first one. I have to know one, what is what are two must visit booths while you're at the Evansville Westside Nut Club Fall Festival? So, two of the must are the easiest questions for me. Oh, so I I live down here every day at 8 and things like that and I've had most of everything. I'm going to give you the biggest shout out and I'm actually shameless plugs here.
You're going to be eating them here shortly. The number one thing in this entire fall festival is booth 95, the Golfmore walk-off chop. I'm telling you right now, bang for your buck. The number one thing, there's a nut club member, Dan Fulton, he wants a punch card. He's an older guy. He gets it right when it opens every day and when he leaves at day.
So, he's about three a day. So, that's number one, the walk-off chop. Number two, I'm gonna go 2A and 2B because I have to say 2A. Cynthia Heights booth 105 chicken and waffle sandwich. And the reason I say that, it's my that's where my kid goes to school and they they moved the locations and that was actually created in my kitchen. So, I really love the chicken waffle.
But German Township over there has that that catfish creel that you had last night. It's good or crawfish creel, I'm sorry. Crawfish creole. And I absolutely love those three. Now, I can't say a negative thing about it. We got the prondo papa in here.
You got your French waffle over there. So, you're putting me on the spot with the two. Y, but that's where I'm at with it. Well, I g I put him on the spot with two and he gives me three. Classic. You've been We've known each other for a couple years now, so therefore, you know, this is what I'm doing.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, man, this has been such a pleasure to get to catch up and learn a little bit more about the volunteerism and about the impact that the Westside Nut Club has on the city of Evansville. And as we're out here stuffing ourselves, I literally think my caloric intake is like 5,264 calories and I haven't been here for 24 hours. It's pretty nuts. But as we're eating amazing food, you're also helping give back to your community and getting two birds. Wait, killing two birds with one stone.
Uh I appreciate it, man. We'll uh we'll talk to you soon. We're going to bring John up real quick. While we do that, I do have to say shout out to the sponsor of this live show, Donut Bank. Since 1967, they've been serving coffee, donuts, and all sorts of delicious pastries across the tri-state. I was actually over there this morning.
I had to take a tour of the doughnut bank, like factory, production area. It I guess not factory, the bakery, commercial kitchen, some might say. It's insane. Oh, absolutely. I was like beard cover, hair cover, the whole thing. Like they have a legitimate like 22 hours a day process going on at Doughut Bank serving all their different locations.
So So what you're saying? It's a hidden gem of Indiana. you I might you might need to keep your eyes open for the internet. Uh there might be a video dropping soon about all the cool stuff that's happening at Doughnut Bank. But Fish, we appreciate you and all the hard work. We're going to take a quick break as we bring John on to talk all things halfp pot.
We're back [music] and we're going to talk all things halfp pot. So where I'm from in northern Indiana, we call it a 50/50. Have you ever heard like the different names of a half pot? Yeah, I've heard 50/50. I've heard split the pot and I've heard half pot. And halfp pot's been a uh more of a coin term down here and worked really well for us.
Yeah. Well, I want to know now. I think last year the number was $2. 6 million for the grand total of the halfp potbot. Meaning someone in the Evansville community walked away with $1. 3ish million.
We're not going to go into all the taxes and stuff cuz that's public math and we don't do that. But then $1. 3 million went right back into the community, right? Yeah. uh all $1. 3 million directly back to all the nonforprofits that we get to support in the Evansville area.
Yeah. I want to know whose idea was it to start a halfp pot and how do you even begin to build one of these from scratch that now is the United States of America's largest halfp pot across the entire country. Yeah. Uh we have a member, his name is Heath Rup. Smart guy. He uh he uh went to a Cardinals game and was kept going to these Cardinals games and noticed they had a halfp pot and how successful that half pot was and he wanted to apply that to ours and thought it would work and uh I mean it exceeded our expectations.
Yeah. So take me through year one. Like everyone has good ideas. The world is full of people that go to a baseball game, drink 10 beers, and come back with a great idea. But you get this great idea. How do you actually start to build one of these and bring it to life where people like can purchase tickets and it becomes a real thing?
So, so that goes back to our 300 members. So, uh Heath Heath petitioned for this thing for a few years. Had these booths all built out. We had we built five booths here. You see them on the street. They're big orange booths.
They say that half pot total to where you can come and buy from them. So, it was years in the making. Okay. So, year one, take me through like you get accepted or you like the nut club decides we're going to do a halfbot. I'm sure there's like government agencies and like the gaming commission and like phone calls to make. Like how long did the process to get like certified take?
Uh we were pro we were working on that for over a year. Okay. And then you get through certification and you're like like what did year one look like selling tickets? And was there was there like messaging to give out to people that hey, we're not just gambling for the sake of gambling. We're we're gambling for a cause. I would say our our local media is is is great to us and they they really pushed it and supported it and day one we we exceeded expectations when we hit 18,000 on day one on the first year of festival.
We were our minds were blown then. What year did you guys start the halfbot? 2019. So 2019 you start the halfbot. First day of ever of ticket sales, 18,000. And you're like, "Oh my gosh, like we did this thing."
What did What did year one end up getting up to? We were We were uh just over a million dollars in year one. It went wild. It went wild the last few days. Like take me through what was the expectation going into year one? Like what did you guys realistically think it would be?
Uh I think I was like probably 60,000 number is what I was was kind of hoping. I was like, I hope we get our money back from building these booths and doing all the all the things we have to do to make this thing happen. So you [laughter] that's crazy. You're saying I hope we hit the 60,000 bucks. Day one, you're a third of the way there. Take me through like as money started pouring in.
Like were were you guys equipped for what was going on? Uh again, 300 members, we adapted very well. We had there was a there was a lot of there's a lot of things to adapt to with that. I mean, if you go from thinking you're going to have $60,000 in this thing to having a million dollar, like I don't even know like the physical like what a million dollars would look like. Like, is that like a 10x10 box or like a 2 by two box? Like that's just like wildly outside of my imagination.
Yeah. We we we spent the entire week counting it all and we had we had guys up there through the night printing tickets, counting money cuz it was all physical at that point. Like you got like actual lottery tickets or like actual numbered tickets and it like got rolled around and you had to like draw out a real number, right? Yeah. So every ticket you buy, say you buy a 50 for 40, all 40 are all 50 are printing out into a drum that first year. Oh my.
How big was the drum? Well, we I we had three different drums. So we started with a small one. We had to build a bigger one cuz it wasn't big enough. And then it was midweek and they built an even bigger one. It was about the size of about Yeah, it was massive.
That's wild. And so you finish up the first year of the halfp pot, you get it over a million dollars, someone in the community walks away with half a million, and you guys has uh like before the halfp potbot, what did the economic like like how much money were you giving back into the community before that extra $500,000 came in 2019? Uh we were given about 250 300,000 a year. So, in one year, someone at a Cardinals game has this idea, decides to like petition to start this halfp pot. You go from giving away a quarter of a million dollars to giving away three quarters of a million dollars in the community in year one. In year one, then this crazy little thing called the global pandemic happens and 2020 comes around and that was the year there was no fall festival, right?
Correct. And the the community really rallied behind the nut club that year and we did a drive-thru halfbot and we exceeded our number from the first year. So what number did you expect to get at year two? Like you did a million bucks. Uh did you think that it was like okay people just like something new and fun? We were hoping we could repeat and we did better.
What what was year two with the drive? 1. 2. So you end up then going from a million dollars raised to $1. 2 million raised. And this is I always have an interest in like who's your lottery winners?
You know, like if you win the Powerball, do you stay hidden? Like do people who win this, do they do they come out publicly and like collect a big check or do they like stay in the shadows? Yeah, I they've been coming out publicly in the last few years and I think it's cuz they trust the Nut Club and they trust what we're doing and they they they like to they like to tell everybody how great of a club this is and whatnot. Dude, I just imagine like if you're stumbling down Franklin Street after you've eaten about like 10 doughut burgers and some like some like other just delicious foods, you like buy a ticket to a halfp pot and you get a million dollars like the next week. That would be like just an insane trip to Evansville. I mean, yeah.
I mean, yeah. And we have we have guys we have three guys in that uh hit me up yesterday that came from Canada just to buy halfbot tickets. No way. Flew in. That's the other piece. So, when you first started off, was it only in person?
Like, you had to be here physically buying a ticket? Yeah, up until last year, uh we were in venue only uh other than our drive-thru that we also have uh prior to festival. But last year, the state of Indiana legalized uh online sales for all of the state. So, you can be anywhere, whether you're in Southbend, whether you're in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and you can take part in this charity. Halfpot. Yeah.
Just Halfpot. org. Yeah. Lit. Wait, you own the URL? Halfpot.
org. Halfpot. org. Type it in. No way. What?
Backnate. Back/nate if you want to like give a little credit to your boy. But that's insane. Halfpot. org goes to your guys' you can get I mean 200 bucks for 500 tickets. I'm definitely doing that.
Oh yeah, absolutely. Talk to me about logistics of running something like this. Like how early on in advance are you talking to different partners and how do you run something like this? So we have we have we're four chairman out. We're four chairman deep right now for Halfpot. So every single one of those chairman is planning for their year.
So it could be anywhere from a year out to four years out that people are planning stuff. Wow. That is wild. And this year Okay. So well I want to say last year it was $2. 6 million at the the top.
That's what it ended at, right? Yeah. Saturday night. Okay. So where are we pacing at this year? I I'm looking over at this board and I see 1.
461360. 461360. How does that compare to previous years? We're ahead. We're We're way ahead. We're pacing.
We're pacing for over 3 million. Pacing for over 3 million. Cuz where's the Yeah, I'm going to I love this guy. Bringing the energy down low. Um pacing for 3 million. What What are the biggest days for halfp pot sales?
Um well, so this year we also did we also did an early bird 25 $25,000 prize. That that that winner is also eligible for the main prize. So, um, honestly, it's every day, but your biggest days end up being later in the week. Yeah. Friday, Saturday. That's huge.
Yeah. Now, this is what's interesting. The Fall Festival has been going on for 105 years. A lot of times when things have been done a certain way for a long period of time, change is hard. Like, people aren't eager to bring in new ideas and build up new things, even if there is this potential for success. take me through the iteration of the Nut Club uh and how this came to be because it ends up being a home run, right?
You go from giving out a quarter of a million dollars to today you give out I mean I think Founders Day was just like 800 and something thousands not that long ago in one day in checks and grants for the community. How did you guys go through the process of still being a legacy organization that honors the 105 year historic tradition, but also like push this new innovative way to make a big impact in your community? Yeah, I mean it took a little bit to get uh to get the idea through to the membership, but we voted on it. The vote went through. I mean, yeah, you had some naysayers, but you know what? With the nut club, everyone, no matter how you vote, is going to step up and get behind something.
Yeah. I think that that is just a testament to I don't know. I think sometimes across the state as I go again from literally every corner sometimes like giving young and new ideas a seat at the table and like letting you know people carry that and championing it can make a huge impact and clearly like this is the impact it makes financially like I don't know we're going to get if you get $3 million that means you're going to get $1. 5 million to spread out through the community. Yeah. Yeah.
It is it's it's awesome. And you know, like you like you said to the legacy stuff, but we're a club that's always innovating. And this year we we added an app to to store. Wait, tell me about this app cuz I pulled it up and it's like kind of crazy. Yeah. I mean, the front page says the total for the Halfp Pot.
So you can just type in Nut Club uh Westside Nut Club and and then in the app store. Yeah, dude. I have to wonder if that like flagged any lists like for Apple as you like put it into the Westside Nut Club. And they're like, "Wait, what's going on here?" Honestly, they approved it really quick. And it's also an Android, too.
So, yeah. So, it's on the app store, but I think you told me an interesting stat that for daily downloads, the Westside Nutub Fall Festival app has more daily downloads than the McDonald's app. Yeah, we we were above Hardies, McDonald's, Carl's Jr. last night. They were right around us. So, which So, you said there's 70,000 plus downloads of the app already.
We're we're we've surpassed 75,000 downloads and it's it's gone amazing. and the public has just been all on board and and like I said, I I can't tell you how many people I see just pull it out to see the halfp pot total cuz it's on the front page and yeah, it's been amazing. That's wild. And it's cool to see like these new ideas and initiatives come like 75,000 people doing anything is crazy. So, I love it, man. Well, as we kind of round out the segment, we do have to talk about I put everybody on the spot and say uh what are the two booths that you have to stop by while you're at the fall festival?
I I'm a big fan of the Croh Corpus Christi. The I love their sausage. I'm a sausage burger kind of guy. And then, you know, another one I I really like. I love some shrimp and grits. So, I'm down at Riverbend getting that every every year, too.
Yeah. Well, and I have one final question that I kind of just thought of because I see a lot of Nut Club members out here hanging out and watching. I just want to know, what does it mean to you to be a part of the Westside Nut Club? And how much pride do you take in being part of this organization? I mean, I probably spend 40 plus hours a week working on the treasure this year. And there this is this is a highlight.
This is awesome. I love this club. And every member would say that they love throwing tons of hours into this club. Every single one of them takes off the entire week and puts in hundreds of hours and it's just it's amazing. Yeah. I do wonder like how actual like other jobs and things get done during this week in Evansville because it seems as though everyone and their brother is down here this week.
Yeah. Evansville shuts down for the week other than West Franklin. Uh all these booths are manned by by volunteers that they're not at work either. They're down here helping us. It is crazy like when someone said, "Yeah, you come down at like 12:00 on a Tuesday and grab lunch." One, if I did a doughut burger for lunch and tried to go back and sit at my desk, no chance.
I'm definitely going to need a nap. So, I love it, man. Thanks for stopping by and hanging out. And uh I think we're going to move on to our third segment here where we're going to sample some fun food from some different booths around the festival. So we appreciate you and let's get this Halfbot over $3 million. I'm going to go buy some tickets right after this.
Halfbot. org. Halfbot. org. Thank you guys. Okay, we're back for our third and final segment here talking all things Westside Nut Club Fall Festival.
And I'm joined by a legend, Dennis. I'm so excited to have you on here. a legend in in somebody's mind, right? Um because our first two guests are super involved with everything they're putting on the festival, but the west side of Evansville runs deep deep deep deep within your veins. Like you are a a lifelong Westider. I am.
Yes. Yeah. And I'm excited to dive into all the things that not only the fall festival, but just the pride that you take in the west side uh of Evansville. I mean, you are a Well, one I don't Are you a rights guy? I am a rights guy. You're right.
But then you you split your household. Didn't you have two kids? One went to modern day, one went to Rights. I knew this was going to come up and I'm not sure you found out about this, but that that is true. And this is what's great about the West Side and and we'll talk later about this football game coming up, but actually my oldest daughter, my my kids went to Resurrection, was as a feeder in the modern day. And my oldest decided that, hey, I'd like to go to Writes, which is common around here.
And so she went that way. Now my youngest is a freshman at Modern Day. And for one week of the year, they're bitter rivals. next week, right? Next week. That is the the big one.
And I'm excited to dive into I got to go check out the Rits Bowl last year. I did run a bull buster, everyone. It was It's a It's a workout, man. Um, but I want to talk about growing up on the West Side and just like how did you imagine and how did you envision the fall festival as a kid on the west side? Like what did it mean to you as you were growing up? So, to me, it's the greatest time of the year.
You get to come down and ride rides. You eat food. You see everybody, you know, you run into your buddies, you get to run around the park. And I remember as a kid finally getting that freedom about maybe my 10 or 11 years old when my mom would let me loose in the park with my friends. And it was just amazing. It was like going to the big city but here on West Frank Street and the freedom that it came with that and it was just, hey, you know, I won this goldfish.
I won. And back then the mirrors with Kiss and Metallica were on it and we could, you know, we we always looked and compared those and it was just nostalgia. Yeah. I mean, you just look forward to it every year. What year is the first festival that you remember going to? Oh gosh.
I remember coming down when I was about 5 years old and I rode the Ferris wheel with my mom and when we got off, my mom took a left and I took a right and I remember being lost down here for about a total of what felt like forever. It's probably only 10 minutes. So, I would say probably in that 5year range, maybe. Okay. What What year would that have been? Oh gosh.
I'm not I'm asking you to date yourself a little bit. Maybe 83 84. So 1983, 1984, over the last 30 years, how have you seen the fall festival evolve? And and how has it like kept the legacy, but also modernized? It's like a tradition like none other. I mean, some stuff stays the same, but yes, we're always evolving.
The food's always evolving. You get your booths that have their staples, but then you get boosts that bring in new items to kind of up their sales a little bit, like a a Gripples grilled cheese from Perry Heights. Never would have thought about it till you had one and boom, they're on the map. Yeah. Uh with the Halfp Pot, the rides have gotten bigger. Uh safety has always been concerned.
We're a big safety festival. Has evolved with the times. What's the oldest booth here? How maybe? How Baptist? What do they What do they have at the booth?
Now you're getting me now. I can't remember what that what they got in their fetch. Pronto pups. Pronto. And And it's not a corn dog. It's a pron.
See, I have gotten that again. I'm from like northern northern Indiana. I live in Indianapolis. And I was like, what the heck is a pronto pup? So, a pron pup is a corn dog, but we use pancake batter instead. So, gives it that sweetness with that hot dog a little bit.
Okay. So, you said that Baptist church is one. Are there other like institutional legacy booths that have just been here since as long as you can remember? All your schools, especially all your Westside schools and all your Westside churches. Uh you've got Corpus Christie over here that's been here forever. You've got HAL, like I said, that's been here forever.
uh and a lot of your churches that are westside based, Resurrection, all those guys have been here for a while now. One thing that I'll say is if you can get someone from across the state on Franklin Street for the festival, it's like game over. It's like I'm coming every year. As soon as I got here last year, I was like, my mind was blown. What would you say to people that maybe didn't grow up on the west side that maybe have heard about it like what is this big festival down here? It's fall f like what would you say to those individuals that aren't here today?
Well, it's funny you say that because the company I work for is actually based out of Fisers, Indiana. Yeah. And so when I first got involved with this company, they never understood why four or five of us took this week off for this festival. And they couldn't grasp it. So we'd explain and explain it to them, hey, second largest street festival. We have got overund and some odd food booths, nonforprofit.
We give back and they still didn't believe me until I got them down here. And Nate, once they hit the street, were able to walk, look at the food booths, and come in, their mind was blowing on what we actually do down here. Yeah. Absolutely. Like you could I I don't even know how many years it would take coming every night at the festival, eating lunch, eating dinner to like go and sample all the booths. It would take decades.
Like it's insane. I did get So the first food booth at the Westside Nutub Fall Festival was set up by Howell Baptist Church in 1952. And according to the church website, this booth was the first to serve pronto pups, which have been a signature item ever since. 1952. That's insane. Amazing.
I mean, to to be setting up at a place and doing something for 10 years, 20 years is incredible. But since 1952, that's wild. But you're totally right though, talking about like getting people from Fisers, getting people from Indianapolis down on Franklin Street to understand that. Like when you think about growing up and being a legacy Westsider, like what is the impact like for I feel like um if you grow up and you're always ingrained in it, it's kind of hard to see the forest through the trees about how like unique and different this is. What do you feel like it means to the west side to host this festival? Well, it's everything.
It's tradition and it's pride. And since I've moved through the board and when we take this money that we earned down here from these booths and from halfp pot and we sit in that boardroom like fish, you know, hit on earlier and give this back out. When you go into these schools, I was in a school two weeks ago uh promoting some different things and they came up and shook my hand. This is a totally east side school. This is not a westside school, but they thanked us because we were able to give them money back to them. And at that point, you get a sense of pride like, hey, what I'm doing is really making an impact in my community.
Now, the other piece that's interesting, I want to dive into a little bit of the history. Uh, 105 years ago, so this was 1921, uh, guys got together for lunch underneath an oak tree. They had to clear off the acorns. They became the Westside Nut Club. How does an an organization like continue to show up for 105 years? Like, what are the stories passed through the generations and and the why?
Like I feel like it's really easy to host a festival or do a thing, but to keep it coming back for 105 iterations is I mean it's absurd in a good way and a lot of us are generational. You've got you know my father-in-law was a past president so I I married into that kind of side of it stuff and you've got kids you know that their parents and grandparents were a part of it. So it works its way down and I I tell you just the pride and parting being of it. It's just something that you can't explain it until you actually feel it and live it. I'm I'm going to put you on the spot and it's okay to say if you don't know, but who is the oldest living member of the Nut Club? That would be Alan Becker is 95 years old and he's actually the oldest living past president that'll be honored in our parade on Saturday.
Wow. He's 95. Does he still come down? He does. Yes, he does. No way.
So, if anyone sees this legend walking around later, you got to definitely shake his hand. That's definitely he'll let you know. I was going to say how many he's had to have been to like 90 festivals or something like that. Got in 63. Oh my, that's crazy. 63.
He's 95 years old. The oldest member. Uh, how many festivals have you been to? So, I'm going on my 25th year in the Westside Nook Club next year. So, I'm I'm I'm trending into that. We like to say fish and I like to say the class of 2002 is probably the most impactful class that we've had.
Wow. Ever. Yeah. The the class 2002. What a year. [laughter] Um I do want to talk to a like younger generations.
You talk about volunteerism. We live in a time where a lot of things are inspired by what's in it for me. Sure. You talk about like starting a business, entrepreneurship, whatever it might be. It's it's what's in it for me. What do you think the value of giving up so much time to volunteer to be part of the nut club?
Why is that so important to this community? I just think it shows an example. It's just you good person. Good things happen to good people that put back in their community. I myself have two girls and so they've seen us volunteer and they go out into their community and volunteer in other organizations as well. And to me looking back as a father I'm like hey what I am doing is setting an example that I want my children to see as well.
Yeah, I uh I think that's important as the volunteerism kind of changes through the years and the generations to have legacy. Like I don't know what the most is, but I'm sure there's like multi-generational members of the nut club, right? Where someone's grandfather's father was probably part of it, right? I would say it's up in the at least 10 generations deep easily, I would think. Wow. Some of them.
Yes. Incredible. Well, hey, this has been super fun to talk about the history, but it is my lunch hour at 2:30. I think Fish is back here somewhere staging some food for us, and we're going to try a couple different items from around the PL. Oh boy, I already know what this one is. There's actually a restaurant that's a Westside tradition.
It was an old stage coach called the Hilltop in voted America's most manliest restaurant, I think a few years ago, if that's correct. And they specialize in this kind of sandwich. So, it is native to the city of Evansville. I mean, yeah, cuz there is just something special about people who decide that eating a fried brain sandwich is a good move. But we have from booth number four, we're doing a brain sandwich. I will say uh last year tastes good.
It was just like the mental the mental fact of like you're eating brain that kind of got me towards the end. But I'm ready to rip it. Oh, go ahead. Please. You're going to make me eat alone? All right.
Here we go. Yeah. Come on now. It's good, right? This is good. Just think about how smart you're getting as you eat this brain.
I just say it's a pork tenderloin. It's just a pork tenderloin. It's just a delicious pork tenderloin. I will say last year when I got here, I parked the car. I was on I was on Franklin Street for 35 seconds and I had a brain sandwich shoved in my and it was like you have to eat this right now and I was like okay. And then I was like wait what is it?
And it wasn't until I was like four bites in that I was like oh wow like you mean brain brain. Oh yeah. Um booth number four that's down if you can see us here down that way. It's a staple. I feel like if anyone comes to the fall festival for their first time they've got to get the brain sandwich. Now we're going to booth number 95.
Of course, this is Fish's favorite thing. I had it last year. This is incredible. We've got the walk-off chop. Correct. I've had one today already, actually.
Oh, this is Yeah, the walk-off chop. I believe it got the big trophy two years ago. Now, that is fire. Oh my goodness. So this is Golfmore uh baseball association and they since they brought this in like we spoke about earlier if you get a gimmick and it sells it'll take off from there. So they started this one probably about I don't know five or six years ago maybe and they [clears throat] have done nothing but sell out ever since then.
It's the seasoning for me. I do have a question for you. I hear there's a pretty big football game next Friday night. Talk to me about I haven't been to a game at the bowl yet. Yeah, what is the experience of a Rights football game? So, I've seen you guys talk on your podcast where you guys will hit up in that central Indiana football and all that.
And you've mentioned rights in memorial last week, the battle of two unbeatens, uh, which I feel like Rice probably should have won that game anyway, but we'll go somewhere else. But I will say this, and this is what it goes back to, like you hit on earlier, like I had a kid that went to Rights, I had a kid that went to modern day. That's what makes this rivalry so special is because you've got brothers against brothers sometimes, cousins against cousins, families against families, and for that week it gets pretty heated. And I'm telling you, there's not a better atmosphere in the state of Indiana than there is next Friday night. Great. I mean, it it is just a sight to see like the big concrete like built into the wall, like the whole thing.
Um, I think next year I'm going to put it on my list to come down for the tail end of fall festival and just stay down here and go to the game because it's always the Friday after fall festival. Right. Correct. And that team, they are playing for the Westside Nut Club Acorn Trophy. So, it's kind of bragging rights for a year on the uh on the West Side and and I believe the uh the Rights Panthers have kind of had that for the last couple years. Oh, well, I want to like look up what the alltime series is at.
Ooh. Writes extended its winning streak to four straight games and leads the series 51-23. That's pretty lopsided. Now we're moving into the doughnut tenderloin. This is from booth 133 and it is in fact a doughnut bank donut. Correct.
Oh, it's called the glazed pig. Glazed pig. What a great name. All right. I have tried some of the states I have tried some of the state's best tenderloins, but never on a donut. It's not bad.
It's not bad. A donut itself is just amazing in itself, but when you add a little flavors to it, like some meat or sweet and salty to it, it just amplifies it. Seeing the production line over at Donut Bank, like seeing I mean, I don't know, they probably did like 400 donuts or something while I was there and just like it was so tempting. I wanted to like reach in and grab one like off the conveyor belt, but they're they're like 105 degrees or something like they would be so like they have to go through like 40 minutes of cooling and um but it was tempting. I was like, "Oh my gosh, the icing waterfall." I just want to like put my face under that.
But all right, we've got another one. The You got to have booth 105. This is over at Cynthia Heights. This was actually concocted at Fish's Kitchen Table. the chicken and waffle sandwich. Those late night munchy things or what?
Yeah. Throwing everything together. When did we decide to turn our kitchen into a mad scientist laboratory? What was going on? Um I'm excited though. Chicken and waffles.
Odd combo at first. It's like, who originally thought to combine chicken and waffles? But this is booth number 105 at Cynthia Heights. Not bad. Not bad either. Sweet and savory is a good combo.
It's like I'm always like I don't know like do I want sweet? Do I want savory? Good combination. Um I got to know we have I think we have one or two more things in here. But for you to kick off your week, like the first day the festival opens. What's the first booth you're going to?
I I'm a traditionalist. So I And after you do this for so long, you kind of hit your favorites, but I usually start off at Westside Catholic with a Prono pup. uh then work my way down to resurrection to get a piece of pizza. I know it's lame. Uh but uh I love to support those guys and they've been good to me and to me that's that's how I get the start to the week. I get my panop pep in, I get my pizza and then I can kind of expand from there.
A resurrection and a resurrection cucken and we're probably the best dessert you have in your life. Now what is a cucken? A cucen is kind of like a cake substance with uh cinnamon flour. Uh kind of like a coffee cake, maybe I guess you could describe it. Yeah. But with a little westside flare to it.
A cucen. Yes. All right. And this is like a I think it's like a German dessert, right? Cuz there's a lot hearing the history of kind of Evansville up to Jasper and this whole region. I just am I'm a history buff for anyone that listens to the podcast.
And hearing the history of like the German settler settlers here is pretty cool. I've never had a cucken before though. So I can tell you during this week, my wife actually makes these at resurrection. Oh. And uh for about two weeks, this is what my kids eat every day for breakfast. And it's a fight to get one in the microwave and warm it up.
Put a little butter on it sometimes. Enjoy it. Amazing. What I do want to know, if someone hears this episode and they come down to Evansville, but it's not fall festival week. If it's a different week, what are the must-hit things while you're in Evansville? Everything.
I mean, Evansville is just a great small town atmosphere with some big city stuff. Uh, we've also got historic West Franco Street that's open all year round. Uh, there are stores, there's shops, there are restaurants. the West Franklin Street itself. Besides Fall Festival, we have many stores and shops you can choose from. Uh downtown, we have an LS3 325, which is a World War II warship that was actually made here in the city of Evansville.
Not that one. They made that style, but it's docked here all the time where you can tour it. Evansville was a big production town during the war. Like Rosie the Riveter type like history of production here in Evansville. We made ammunition, we made planes, and then some of those factories after that was done transition to automotive uh refrigerators. And in fact, Evansville used to have an NFL team for at one point.
I think it was like two seasons. The Crimson Giants. Yes. Yes. Oh, we went in a deep dive. So, did you know that Evansville Central High School has the most professional football players of any high school in the state of Indiana?
And number two is Hammond Central. And we did a whole deep dive. I learned about all the different players from the It's the Crimson Giants, right? Correct. And there was a guy, we literally looked it up, the earliest professional football player, his name was Dick Spain. And this guy was like 5'8, 160 lbs and played guard.
And I just like did a deep dive and all of a sudden I'm on Wikipedia on this professional football player from Evansville's page. It was incredible. Like there I think there's 16 like 16 professional football players graduated from Evansville Central High School. Oh wow, that's amazing. Yeah, and like I said, you know, we're we're kind of that hidden gem here in the southern part of the state. Uh so yeah, come down and experience.
There's a lot to learn. We've got uh a lot of history like Bossy Field. Bossy Field is probably one of the best venues you could ever watch a baseball game. Did I Did I see I think it's the third oldest ballpark uh behind Fenway and Wrigley. Wrigley. Yeah.
Oh wow. I kind of know I kind of know ball when it comes to Evansville. Uh but I saw something. Yeah, it was the third oldest ballpark. I believe it was the away team during a league of their own. Correct.
It was so homefield was up in Huntingburg. I think away team maybe home locker rooms were shot at Bossy Field. It's incredible. There's a lot of sports history here right along the Ohio River. It is it's amazing. Uh you know from football to baseball basketball I mean we've got some great basketball players that have come out of Evansville Indiana.
Uh Calbert Cheney, Walter McCarti, those guys that went on to have professional careers. So, uh, it's it's the probably the biggest little city in Indiana. Maybe you could you could call it the biggest little city. I I will take that. I mean, it's definitely it's just cool to see honored traditions, but also like adapting for 2026 and beyond. I just always have such a good time.
We got in yesterday. We're staying till Friday. I got to go to a wedding this weekend or else I would stay and go see a football game. Um, but I just love it down here. It's always so great. The people are friendly and I think that the fall festival really encapsulates generosity at its core.
Like again, I've said it probably like five times in this episode, but I don't know what it probably takes five people to staff one of these booths and it's 14 hours a day. And it is and and and you know, unfortunately when CO hit, a lot of the elderly people that didn't have jobs during the day would come down and and and participate. And that's one thing we've struggled and and we're trying to get better at is getting volunteers and booths and it's coming back up. But you had that generation that once COVID hit, they didn't feel comfortable coming down and they were at the point where they were done with it. But you look now, you look at some of these guys that are working multiple booths, multiple hours a day just to keep things going. And like I said, the younger generation is seeing that and it is coming back up.
So, we're rebounding nicely. If there are people walking Franklin Street right now, maybe they're not part of the Nut Club or they aren't a volunteer, how would you advise them to get involved? like what are the ways that someone could get involved with everything fall festival? Well, I mean the good thing is too is these these food booths represent multiple organizations throughout the city. So chances are you go to church there, you've gone to school there, your kids played an instrument there in a band or something like that. So chances are there is a food booth on this street that has directly impacted your family somewhere.
And even ask I mean there's some food booths that we've had in the past that will hey we've had people come up and just say can we help you out? Uh, and and they put them to work. I love it. I just love coming down and exploring all along the Ohio River. So, I've now been in most of the spots. So, from like Madison over to Jeffersonville, down along there, Cordon, and I actually, so fun.
I I did a stop in Tel City. Uh, and while I was in Tel City, I went to one of the greatest bakeries ever. So, if anyone finds themselves in Tel City, uh, you've got to go to Behind the Times Bakery. We were over there and it was like the craziest bakery I'd ever been to. And as I continued exploring and like just driving the Ohio River scenic byway, it was electric. Like there's just so many cool spots to visit.
And it's a part of the state that I think historically has felt disconnected maybe from the Indianapolis. And I always tell my friends like if you can make a trip out of it, go start in Madison, drive down the Ohio River, come hang out in Evansville. Like it's an awesome like 2, three, 4 day trip. Well, and something to think about too, if it wasn't for these sudden states, you know, starting with Madison down to Evansville, Tel City, that river was a lifeline down here. I mean, if you look at our first capital was in Cordon, which is not too far from the river. So, how much of Indiana would be Indiana if we didn't have that river system starting south and moving north?
So, it's something to think about there, too. I could talk history all day long. This has been so incredible. I do need to go get a walk-in. I feel like I got to burn some calories and like recharge for dinner here. I have had such a great time diving into all things Westside Nut Club, the fall festival, the rights and modernday rivalry.
I will say that was like the hardest thing for me to get of like FJ rights versus rights memorial. Like just knowing which school is which school and like locals are probably like you're an idiot like you should just know this. But it's definitely a hard like everything seems to be idea. So Memorial is the east side private school pretty much. Yes. FJ Wrights is the public school on the west side and Modern Day is the private school over here on the west side and they're really good at wrestling.
Yes. Yes. There you go. All right. I think I know what I need to know now when it comes to all things fall festival. It's awesome to see over 120 volunteer organizations out here with the greatest food booths.
I do have to ask since I asked it to all three of our other guests. Two must stop visits on uh on Franklin Street for fall festival. What do you have to go do? So I'm again I'm going to go with Westside Catherine for a pron my favorite. And get you a cooking at Resurrection. A cucking.
A cooking. So you got breakfast tomorrow. You can take it home. There we go. And our final question as we wrap out the episode. What does it mean to you to be part of the Westside Nut Club?
I mean it means everything. um you know I I can watch my kids, they can watch what their dad's doing. You know, I'm president next year and I get a lot of compliments for that. So, it's just everything to put on this hat, come down and support the community because it's not just this week. What we do gives out year round and there's a lot of organizations that depend on what we do. And it's just such an honor to be a part of such a great group of guys.
It's a melting pot. We've got doctors, we've got plumbers, we've got electricians that all come together and judges to get things done. And I think that's what's made us so successful and just to be a part of that is just a lot of pride. A lot of pride when you put this hat on. All right, I lie. I have one more question.
Where did the cowboy hat come from? I'm not sure on that. Fetch could probably start that. But one thing that is nice about the cowboy hat is we we we have that but and we wear this for a reason. We stand out in the public and so if there's a question or a kid that's lost or something going on, they know to look to the cowboy hat. But we'll we'll get you an answer on the tradition of that.
Yeah. There we'll have to come back and do that next year. Absolutely. All right. Well, I appreciate it. Uh it has been awesome diving into all things Westside Nut Club, the fall festival.
105 years. The Halfpot is trending towards getting over $3 million, which means a million half dollars is going to be poured right back into the community. It's awesome. Y'all are doing great work. Uh it's been a pleasure. And uh anyone that's out there listening that watches the episode, set it on your calendar.
Come down here for Fall Festival. It is a must stop attraction here in the state of Indiana. I appreciate the time and we'll talk to you soon and thanks for coming down and help promote our little festival little. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level. Click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater.
[music] If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik [music] Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get