(Whitewater Unites Lives submission) Sheila and Melvin Juette are WUL Hometown Heroes, and have been nominated for “Fostering and adopting many children, and just recently extending their love and welcome during Covid when the unexpected death of a Whitewater High School student’s mother caused him to need a family. During a time when most families are closing off, they did what they do best and opened up their home and their lives.”

The nomination includes:  “The Juettes are working hard to do virtual school with all of their children, elementary level through high school. They are working hard to make the best of this situation and doing it with love.  Because hard work and love is what the Juettes do. 

And I’d like to end my nomination for the entire Juette Family as hometown heroes by quoting Sheila Juette, ‘Love will give us the strength and inspiration to get through this together.’ Together and love are what the Juettes do best and how the greater Whitewater community will come out of this better on the other side. Thank you to the Juettes! You are my heroes.”

The Juettes are currently parenting eight children at home, and have parented 80 children together. 

Melvin Juette said, “We are always thinking about what our community needs, and one of the things we thought the community really needed was providing a temporary, stable, environment where kids can come in and be loved and nurtured and being able to excel.  Even though we have them temporarily, we still consider them a part of our family.  We have had over 80 kids in our home so we still keep the connection…they reach out to us and we are always there to support them.”

WUL (Whitewater Unites Lives) is a locally-focused civil and human rights group that works to connect the people in our community and to create opportunities for all people to learn and support each other in our common humanity.   

 Anyone who would like to nominate a local hero of any age should send their nomination, with a short description, to whitewaterunites@gmail.com