The American Family Insurance Badger State Games, one of the Nation's largest winter amateur sports festival is proud to announce they will receive help from a group of nearly 40 students from the local GEAR UP program to insert items into the athlete bags TOMORROW, Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at the Youth Building in Marathon County Park. "This group goes out of their way to help us. They initially had something planned and moved it so they could come back and help again this year," said John Eisele, Volunteer Coordinator for the American Family Insurance Badger State Games. "They are extremely efficient at the job they do and it makes it so easy on us having so many of them there helping. It's really neat to see this group working together so well." The Gear Up group will be inserting items into the athlete bags for the Winter Games. The 'bag stuffing' event will take place at the Youth Building at Marathon County Park TOMORROW, Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 3:30 pm. "Their help saves the staff a lot of time. Many hands make light work," said Eisele. "One wouldn't expect a group of 40 teenagers to be so helpful, but this Gear Up group really has it down. It's neat to see the youth in the community coming together to help out. The Games have such a history in Wausau, it's nice to see the younger generations getting on board." The 2007 American Family Insurance Badger State Games will take place the last weekend in January and the first weekend in February. Archery, Bowling, Indoor Soccer and Youth and Women's Hockey will take place January 26-28, 2007, while the remaining sports, Alpine Skiing, Badminton, Billiards, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Men's Hockey, Nordic Skiing, Quadrathlon, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, Snowshoe Racing and Speed Skating will occur February 2-4, 2007 in and around north-central Wisconsin. For more information on the American Family Insurance Badger State Games, log on to www.badgerstategames.org or call 608-226-4780. The American Family Insurance Badger State Winter Games major sponsors include Charter Communications, the Ho Chunk Nation, Time Warner Cable, Wausau Insurance the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and Ministry Health Care with special thanks to TravelWisconsin.com. Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation is a nonprofit sports management organization that helps develop sports tourism in Wisconsin and promotes positive lifestyles and physical fitness through amateur athletic events and health education programs. WSDC owns the American Family Insurance Badger State Games, the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, the Wisconsin Sports Foundation, Paddle & Portage, Shape Up Wisconsin Kids, Lighten Up Wisconsin and the Fit Kids Challenge. WSDC is also the local host of Ironman Wisconsin