Bill Mielke Volunteer Educator Award

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles profiling winners of the Celebration of Giving awards presented annually by Shawano Area Community Foundation Inc. for outstanding volunteerism. The winners will be honored at a gala Tuesday.

Dr. Jeff Zander has made a career out of creating bright smiles in the Shawano area. He’s a dentist, but some of those smiles come without the aid of fluoride.

Zander spends his Fridays at Shawano Community High School, helping students learn about anatomy and physiology through a Northeast Wisconsin Technical College science course. He also sits on the anatomy and physiology board for NWTC.

Zander’s longtime presence in the classroom earned him the Bill Mielke Volunteer Educator Award from the Shawano Area Community Foundation. Zander will receive $1,000 from the Mielke Family Foundation, which he will give to the high school science department.

“I would describe myself as pleased and surprised” about getting the award, Zander said. “I know that with school budgets as tight as they are, there’s a need for equipment and supplies in the science department. I figured that, since I already teach up there, it would be an appropriate place (for the donation).”

Zander selflessly donates his time to help students learn science and how to critically think about what they learn, according to a letter from SCHS science teacher Angela Kowalewski, who nominated Zander for the award.

“Because of his interaction with the students during laboratory experiments and classroom discussions, Dr. Zander has created a positive learning environment that nurtures students growth,” Kowalewski wrote. “Dr. Zander shares his passion for learning about the human body by bringing in current news, related stories and personal experiences to the curriculum.”

Outside the classroom, Zander has offered tours of his dental office on Woodlawn Drive to SCHS students in the Science Society. The students who visited participated in creating cast impressions of teeth and fillings on teeth that have been extracted, according to Kowalewski.

Zander has been a dentist in Shawano for 36 years, and he grew up in the community. Volunteering, he said, is a way to repay the community for believing in his ability to learn and become a productive member of society.

“I thought about what a valuable thing my college education was, because it led me into this wonderful career that was very successful. Then I thought about how that nine years of college was based on 13 years of education here in Shawano,” Zander said. “I don’t know what it costs to educate a student for 13 years in the Shawano schools, but it has to be a significant amount of money. I thought that there is a debt that needs to be repaid.”

The repayment of the debt started as contributions to every school fundraiser possible, but then he realized that writing checks was an easy out, and he needed to do more.

“The really valuable thing is your free time,” Zander said. “That’s the most precious thing you’ve got.”

That’s when he met Kowalewski, who was organizing the NWTC anatomy and physiology class. He offered his services as a guest lecturer, and things took off from there.

“She asked, ‘Do you have the time?’ and I said, ‘No, but I’ll make the time,’” Zander said, noting it is not easy to juggle the dental practice, family time and his volunteer work. He’s found a way though, noting that “I’ve been there for eight years now.”

When he’s not working with high school students, Zander also volunteers for the Shawano Jazz Foundation, which manages the Shawano Jazz Festival every year, and helps with fundraisers for the SCHS auditorium. He is also involved with the Shawano Optimists, Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce and Shawano Dollars for Scholars, and when those entities don’t demand his attention, he is active with committees for the Wisconsin Dental Association.

“We’ve virtually been volunteers since the day we moved back to Shawano,” Zander said, noting his wife, Holly, also volunteers. “We moved back to Shawano in 1979, and we’ve both been up and running with various organizations right from the very start.”

While retirement is still in the distant future, Zander plans to increase his time helping at the high school once he bids farewell to dentistry.

“I want to get out into the other science classes, as well,” he said. “I have an interest in chemistry. I have an interest in physics. I want to spend some time helping out there, as well.”