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WISCONSIN RAPIDS SUNRISE SCRIPT Volume 25, Issue 7 Website: wisconsinrapidsrotary.org August 16, 2018
District 6250 Wisconsin Rapids Rotary – Sunrise – Club No. 31198, Chartered 12/29/95 Box 1181, Wisconsin Rapids WI 54495
Karen Brzezinski – Mid-State Japanese
Global Experience
Aug 23 Erman Blevins – WRPD German Olivares, New LHS School Resource Officer
Aug 30 Avenues of Service
Sep 6 Todd Buntroc
Sep 13 District Governor Bill Hoel
Sep 20 DaNita Carlson
Sep 27 Kyle Cronan
Oct 4 Avenues of Service
Oct 11 Carol Davis
Oct 18 Bob Ebben
OFFICERS 2018/2019 District Governor – Bill Hoel President – Dean Veneman
President Elect – Dave Guse [email protected] Past President– Mary Jo Green [email protected] Treasurer – Mary Wirtz
[email protected] Secretary Bill Lindroth for RI reporting [email protected]
Dennis McCarville for meetings [email protected] Sergeant at Arms – Kyle Cronan [email protected]
Script Editor- Rick Merdan [email protected]
Paul Harris Fellows Fred Stich (2) Bob Plucker Ellen Dahl Pat Schuetz Ed Heuer Dean Ryerson Kurt Heuer Tom Schneider Jere Johnson Larry Schmick Joe Lane Larry Koopman Lynda Almonte Josh Mason Sue Siewert Dave Mueller Joey Marshall (2) Ida Lee Siewert (2) Steve Sternitzky Wayne Johnson Elaine Semrow Ken Hanson Kim Auman Rosie Anderson Sally Young George Hathaway Ralph Lau Dan McCarville Mary Jo Green Dean Veneman Dennis McCarville John Moffat (2) Lorraine Schmutzer Tim Krueger Kristopher Gasch Barry Jens Tom Paul (3)
Club Chairpersons
Vocational Service
Gus Mancuso, co-chair Carol Davis, co-chair
Community Service
Dave Guse, chair
International Service Nancy Mischnick, co-chair
Tom Schneider, co-chair
Club Service / Membership Rick Merdan, chair
R.I. Foundation Liaison
Karen Kienert
Polio Plus Chairperson Tom Schneider Youth Exchange Officer Felicia Gardner
Youth Exchange Counselor Tom Schneider Youth Protection Officer TBD
Rotary News • We welcomed our new Mentoring Scholarship recipient, Jared Strangfeld.
He plans on attending UWSP in pursuit of a degree in Computer Information Systems.
• Preliminary results of the Mini-Ryder fundraiser are close to $3,000 in total proceeds with the YMCA/B+GC capital campaign winning the match in a two hole playoff. They will receive 60% of the proceeds and ShelterBox, the runner-up, will receive 40%. We had a full compliment of golfers, 72, and a good time was had by all. See the pictures on the last page.
• The Packer Pool will start with the last pre-season game, look forward for more details.
Attendance: 20 Happy Pig: Around $20 was donated to the pig.
“American Hero’s Café” Kathy Kolo, a volunteer with the American Hero’s Café shared this origin story from the founder William Haack. While living in Kenosha County and working at Great Lakes Naval Base, he had many opportunities to visit the original American Heroes Café located in Festival Foods there. This project was run by two ladies who served coffee and donuts to veterans on Fridays from 8 to noon. I could never figure out why more people in other communities didn’t latch onto this idea. I vowed to myself that if I moved up north after retirement, I would do something very similar. In December of 2014 we closed and moved into a nice home in Nekoosa, 8 miles from Rapids. Once all the moving was done and we settled in for the long haul, I knew it was time to put my plan into action. My priority was to find a place where we could operate the Café. I estimated that I would need a space large enough to accommodate 30-40 people. None of the local grocery stores had a space that large that they could do without for a few hours once a week. Eventually my search lead me to the Lowell Senior Center. After I explained my plan to her, we agreed that the Brehm Room in the Center would serve the purpose on Wednesday mornings. Next on the agenda was to find sponsors and suppliers. I wrote letters to local businesses soliciting donations. Soon the checks started to come in and we settled on a Grand Opening of Sept. 23, 2015. To increase our potential clientele, we included police, fire, corrections and EMT personnel. About two weeks before we were to open, I received a call from a local grocery store to come pick-up my coffee. I didn’t know what he was talking about until he explained that they had received a call from St. Peters, MO and payment for 12 cans of regular and 12 cans of decaf coffee. A shipmate from 1965 had found the newspaper article on the internet and wanted to help. This got us off to a great start. Opening day was Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. Fifty-four people shared coffee and donuts with us on that first day and we were off to a great start. The next two weeks saw the numbers go down slightly to average 30-40 which is what I expected. The fourth week saw a major uptick to over 60 and we have steadily increased a little at a time since then. Over the course of the next year we entertained many VIP’s including a U.S. senator, 2 state senators, the mayor, 3 police chiefs, fire chief and many other local officials. Our biggest honor was the fact that we were able to host Wisconsin’s only two living Medal-of-Honor recipients, Gary Wetzel and Kenneth Stumpf. Thru a mutual agreement with the Material Girls local quilting group, 48 local veterans have received their Quilts of Valor during ceremonies at the Café. Turnouts at these ceremonies has always been great. On Nov. 2, 2016 a Veterans Expo was held at the Woodlands Church (now Crossview). The Café participated, and we served over 160 people that day. This was also the day that we made our permanent move there as we had outgrown our room at the Lowell Center. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we would average over 100 people a week. The support of the local community has been fantastic. I receive monetary donations as well as several local people donating food items. Ocean Spray donates 15 cases of juice each quarter. Graces Restaurant, across the parking lot from the church, brings over serving pans of eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, biscuits and gravy. Several people bring in cookies, hard boiled eggs, brownies, Rice Crispy treats and other food items. Mike Clark of Minneapolis sends me 30 pounds of Caribou Coffee beans 2-3 times a year. I certainly hope he doesn’t stop because my clientele will probably throw things at me if we go back to regular store-bought coffee. All in all, this has been a tremendous success and I would like to see this spread throughout Wisconsin.
From left to right: Heroes' Cafe founder Bill Haack
with Brigadier General Mark E. Anderson.
From the Mini-Ryder Cup Classis Fundraiser, August 8, 2018
