Category: Interview

Flying Horse Farms Makes Magic for Special Kids

WNZR’s Eric Brown speaks with Stacey Keyser with Flying Horse Farms. Stacey talks about the camp located near Mount Gilead and is a medical specialty camp. They serve kids with chronic and serious illnesses that can’t go to traditional camp settings.

Click HERE to hear the full interview

She talks about how the camps has grown in 15 years and has served over 10,000 campers including having family camps in both the spring and fall.

Stacey says camp is not just good medicine for kids and families to heal and grow, but it is great medicine. She says camp gives these kids a sense of belonging and just focus on being a kid.

She says this past summer marked the most camp sessions in the camp history including adding more opportunities for family camps.

Stacey says 1/3rd of campers experience camp for the first time at Flying Horse Farms and she talks about being a part of these kids “firsts.” She said they see as many tears from parents as they do from the campers.

She says that trust is a huge part of making the kids and families trust the staff.

She said they have campers from 15 different states due in part because camp is COST FREE thanks to donors of the farms.

Stacey says that demand exceeded availability this year and explains who their new rolling admissions works and how it allows more campers to attend camp.

She says that family camp welcomed 19 families this summer. She says when a child experiences an illness, the whole family is impacted. When families come together, the entire family can bond with different families, and it can grow into friendship.

Stacye says they had over 300 volunteers contributed this summer and how they build the “magic” for campers so they and their families can have fun and are the “Lifeline of what they do.

Stacey says that Flying Horse Farms recently joined the ACA’s Program quality cohort and explains how that benefits the campers and their families.

Stacey explains a unique ceremony they do at Flying Horse Farms to celebrate the campers dreams, hopes and essentially a way for you to pray for the Farms

Click HERE to find out more about Flying Horse Farms!

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WNZR talks with a member of Elevation Rhythm ahead of Sonfest 2025!

We are so excited to get the opportunity to share a conversation with Davide Mutendji, a member of Elevation Rhythm! Davide and his crew will be performing at Sonfest 2025 here at MVNU tomorrow and you are not going to want to miss this extremely powerful event.

Davide shares his background, gives us an insight on the songwriting process, and he talks about big upcoming news for the band!

Ethan and Davide also have a good time playing rapid fire!

For more info on Sonfest 2025 click HERE!

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John Mark McMillan comes to Sonfest 2025 at MVNU

John Mark McMillan is coming to Sonfest 2025 at Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Saturday, September 20.
John Mark McMillan is something of an anomaly: an artist and Platinum-selling songwriter bending genres and defying categorization by carving out his own unique and independent path. With an ear for melody and a poet’s eye for metaphor, no topic has been off-limits. While each of his albums over the past decade have continued to explore new territory, it’s McMillan’s ability to give lyric and language to the human experience that many consider his greatest gift.

John talks with WNZR about his approach to songwriting, his history in music and how God has always part of his journey in life and music. Rapid Fire reveals the first concert he went to and his favorite movie and snack.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation with WNZR’s Ethan Hershberger.

You can see John Mark McMillan at Sonfest at 6:30pm on Saturday.

Click HERE for all the details about Sonfest 2025.

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2025 Festival Latino to be held at MVNU!

WNZR’s Marcy Rinehart spoke with Joseph Joe who is the Assistant Director of Intercultural Life about the Festival Latino, which will celebrate Latino students and Latino culture.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation!

Lola’s is catering for the event, bringing tacos, tortillas, and chips and salsa; it’s a free event and all are welcome to attend.

During the event, there will be a salsa class with alumni coming back to teach attendees which starts at 6:45pm

The annual event will be held Thursday, September 18th starting at 5pm at the Print Student Union.

Click HERE to see the MVNU Community Calendar!

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Brook Abella is Opening at MVNU’s Sonfest 2025

Brook Abella is playing at Sonfest 2025 on September 20th and she talks about how she grew up in Bellefontaine.

She’s a double major in Communication and Media and Visual Art. She also has a minor in Music.

She talks about how she grew up around music, what she is looking forward to at Sonfest, and some of the opportunities she has had in the music industry so far.

Click HERE for more information about Sonfest.

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Tyler Maddux Ready to Open for MVNU’s Sonfest 2025!

Tyler Maddux is playing at Sonfest 2025 on September 20th and he talks about how he grew up in New Philadelphia.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation!

He’s a worship arts major and has a minor in youth and family ministry; he’s hoping to become a worship pastor when he graduates. He talks about how he got into music in 7th grade and around high school he decided to go all in on music.

Some of Tyler’s biggest influences in music are bands like ‘Colony house’ and ‘Sons of Steven Curtis Chapman’ and it inspires him for when he writes his music. For a long time, his style was acoustic guitar, it wasn’t until he started making his second album that he started to find his style of Rock music. He draws inspiration from his own personal life experiences to come up with his song lyrics, he also likes to write songs about the bible.

Tyler talks about what he’s excited to see at Sonfest, he’s excited to see people who are impacted by the music outside of his regular friends and family, it helps inspire him. Tyler Maddux is opening at 1:35pm at Sonfest on September 20th.

Tyler talks about his new album he released in late January, he’s really proud of it because of how it defined the sound that he like to use. You can stay connected to Tyler Maddux on Instagram, Facebook, and on TikTok. Tyler talks about the purpose behind writing his music, he likes to write about how he feels at the time of his writing; he’s getting married soon and so a lot of his music he’s writing is about how he feels about that. He’s got a few songs he’s been writing recently and a few songs at Sonfest and hopes to record and release them soon.

Tyler goes over some rapid-fire questions, his favorite worship song is ‘tear my house down’ by Chris Renzema. The first concert he ever went to was a ‘Colony house’ concert in college in his freshman year. He’s a night owl, he likes cats, he likes coffee and he normally gets a caramel ice late, his favorite snack is cheez-its and his favorite movie is called ‘about time’.

Click HERE to find out about Sonfest 2025!

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Mariya Tatarin talks to WNZR about Operation Christmas Child

Mariya Tatarin is from Ukraine and received a shoebox at the age of 10 and she talks about how she felt from this, the box had hygiene items, school supplies and toys.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation!

Mariya talks about her favorite toy when she got her shoebox growing up as well as some of her story when she grew up and the massive impact receiving the shoebox made on her life. She also talks about the book she received “the greatest story ever told” and she ended up gifting that book to her neighbors and it helped share the gospel to them.

Mariya shares more of her story and because of the shoebox, the kids around her saw that God knew who needed that shoebox and how people all over the world who do his work.

She talks about how she moved to America due to religious persecution and the how the process took a long time. Now she travels to Churches, schools and communities to share her story and get to be a real person to see the impact of Operation Christmas Child. Mariya shares how you can pray for the people of Ukraine struggling with the war, she says to pray for God to intervene and bring and end to the war.

Mariya shares a message for people packing shoeboxes, she’s very grateful and thankful for people taking their time to help pack shoeboxes; so many people who receive the shoeboxes have never even heard of the gospel and it makes a huge impact on the lives of kids. She says 11.5 million shoeboxes are packed each year and she talks about how important it is to see the people who sent the shoebox. She still keeps the picture of the family who packed the shoebox for her in her bible in hopes of meeting them.

She talks about why you should take the step to help support Operation Christmas Child and shares a message to people who haven’t ever packed one before. Its intimidating at first, but Mariya says to just start with the basics and you’ll start coming up with new things to put into your box. It makes an impact and it makes a difference.

Mariya Tatarin is sharing her story this Friday at 7pm at Gilead Friends Church, and she talks about how you can pray for her and how she wants God to speak through her to the people listening. Pray for Operation Christmas Child to have all their volunteer needs filled with people trying to share God’s love and good news.

Click HERE to learn about Operation Christmas Child.

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WNZR presents the September 2025 MVNU Presidential Update

MVNU President Dr. Carson Castleman stops by to give his September update to WNZR’s Marcy Rinehart.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation!

He is excited to start the 2025-26 school year and is happy to see the students back on campus and out in the community.

He says enrollment is growing in both traditional and non-traditional students and they have added 13 new faculty members.

Dr. Castleman talks about the restructure of the university into two schools. CAPS stands for College of Arts and Professional Studies for non-traditional students. CAST which is the College of Arts and Sciences is the traditional 18–22-year-old students. They also restructured the deans and administrative roles of the staff.

Dr. Castleman talks about the 4 C’s which was a focus on the recent Faculty and Staff Awards earlier this month: conviction, conversation, care, and connection.

He explains how the 4 C’s are a centerpiece for the MVNU community.

Dr. Castleman shares a special bible verse as a focus for the university this year from Isaiah 43:19 (NIV), “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

He says that the cabinet helped determined the verse because MVNU is stepping outside the normal doom and gloom at other campuses and that God is doing something new here at MVNU and we are changing the world.

Dr. Castleman gives an update on the construction at the Chapel. He said there was an issue with carpeting over the summer and that put the project behind. He said God provided both in time and financially to help get the campaign finalized.

Dr. Castleman gives an explanation on the opening of the entrance at front of campus that had a security hut. He said that he received some feedback and believed that the entrance needed to be re-opened for several reasons.

He also gives an update with the Hunter Wright hub in downtown Mount Vernon.

Dr. Castleman gives an update on his plans are for the fall and he is planning on staying on campus this fall as some transitions take place and is getting back in the classroom.

Dr. Castleman gives some words of encouragement to the students, faculty and staff.

Dr. Castleman also explains how we can pray for the students, faculty, staff and university this fall.

Click HERE to find out more about Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

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Sandy Cheeks gives us the details on SpongeBob The Musical!

MTV Arts presents SpongeBob the Musical tonight!

On the Morning Thing Friday, Marcy Rinehart spoke with Kiarah Smith who is playing Sandy Cheeks!

Kiarah details the big production coming up! She talks about her love of theatre and her preparation for her role. Kiarah’s favorite part of the production and some of her best memories so far are also a highlight!

For more information on the show click HERE!

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NO! THIS IS PATRICK!!!! Carpenter Talks about Role as Patrick in SpongeBob the Musical

WNZR spoke to Karma Carpenter about her role as Patrick Star in the performance, she says she watched a lot of the show to play her favorite character.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation!

Karma gives an example of what voice she’s doing for the show.

Karma talks about how her character Is perfect in the way where she’s able to be creative in how she plays it.

Click HERE for information on SpongeBob the Musical!

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