Jason Arndt, jarndt@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Jason Arndt Celebration of Giving awards winners honored Tuesday include, from left, Dr. Jeff Zander, Bill Mielke Volunteer Educator; Kathryn Kugel, Youth Volunteer; Sue Dionne, Shawano Community Service; and Fred Pape, Health Care Volunteer. Dr. Susan Hanson, winner of the Wittenberg Community Service Award, was unable to attend.
Five area volunteers were honored Tuesday night at the sixth annual Celebration of Giving awards at the Gathering.
The event was presented by the Shawano Area Community Foundation, which is celebrating its silver anniversary.
“This is our 25th year, so it is a great time to celebrate,” board chairman Todd Raether said.
Event co-chair Wendy Crawford said the honorees serve as an example to the community.
“Although recognition is not what our award winners are looking for, the Celebration of Giving is a platform that promotes, encourages and recognizes our community volunteers,” she said.
One of the awards was renamed this year. The Wittenberg Community Service Award will now be known as the Bob Nueske Wittenberg Community Service Award in honor of the late Robert Nueske, former owner and president of Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats.
Nueske, who died in January, was among the early supporters of the Celebration of Giving and sponsored the Wittenberg award.
Crawford recalled a time when she and this year’s Wittenberg Community Service Award winner, Dr. Susan Hanson, met with Nueske to discuss starting the event.
“We discussed of volunteer work and the impact it has in our communities,” Crawford said. “(He) was passionate about volunteerism and supported our idea.”
The following volunteers were honored Tuesday:
• Dr. Jeff Zander received the Bill Mielke Volunteer Educator Award, sponsored by the Mielke Family Foundation, for helping Shawano Community High School students learn about anatomy and physiology through a Northeast Wisconsin Technical College program. Zander will donate his $1,000 prize to the SCHS science department.
• Sue Dionne received the Shawano Community Service Award, sponsored by the Don and Marion Nemetz fund within SACF, for her work with the the former Jaycee Women organization, Shawano/Wisconsin Women of Today, Safe Haven of Shawano and the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign. Dionne will split her $1,000 prize between Safe Haven and the Salvation Army.
• Dr. Susan Hanson received the Wittenberg Community Service Award, sponsored by Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats, for her involvement in Walls of Wittenberg, Wittenberg Historical Society and Wittenberg Area Development Corporation. She will contribute her $1,000 prize to the Wittenberg Historical Society furnace fund.
• Kathryn Kugel, 17, received the Shawano Area Community Foundation Youth Volunteer Award, co-sponsored by Shawano Rotary Club and Shawano Optimist Club, for her involvement in the Waukechon Wildcats 4-H Club, National Honor Society, Students Against Destructive Decisions, student council, Bridge to Success and Future Business Leaders of America. She plans to split her $1,000 between St. Martin Catholic Church of Cecil and Shawano County 4-H.
• Fred Pape received the Shawano Area Community Foundation’s Health Care Volunteer Award, sponsored by ThedaCare, for giving his time to residents at Maple Lane Health Care and Birch Hill Care Center, shoveling sidewalks and donating clothes. He will split his $1,000 prize between the Wolf River Lutheran High School fund and VCY America, a Wittenberg-based Christian broadcasting station in need of a new transmitter.
Thirty-nine area volunteers have been honored since the Celebration of Giving began. The event also has raised $39,000 for various area nonprofit agencies over that time.
The SACF’s mission is to preserve and improve the quality of life in the community, including serving those in need.
The foundation holds 75 charitable funds with nearly $5 million in assets. The foundation awarded $195,000 worth of grants in 2014, according the annual report.