Archives

(Lima 4-H submission) One of the four H’s in 4-H stands for “Hands” for a larger service.  In November at the Rock County 4-H Awards night, Lima 4-H received a Silver Award for Outstanding Commitment to Serving the Community.  In a time where we cannot come together in person for meetings and other club activities due to COVID-19, Lima 4-H has continued to find ways to serve the community safely. 

This past month has been a busy month for Lima 4-H.  In November, a small number of club members helped to assemble the Thanksgiving meals baskets at the Whitewater Food Pantry.  In December the club members made fleece tie blankets at their homes which were all gathered up and delivered to the House of Mercy homeless shelter in Janesville.  The club also “adopted a family” for the holiday through Rock County Human Services.  The gifts were a combination of new gifts, homemade gifts (4-H projects) and gift cards for food for the family.  Finally the club members wrote out over 250 Christmas Cards for the residents at Fairhaven in Whitewater.  All of these community service projects would have been completed together as a group but our club members have found ways to come together as a group to serve the community without physically being together! 

Lima 4-H continues to meet monthly via Zoom.  If you are interested in joining Lima 4-H, please reach out to lima4h1@yahoo.com for the meeting times and to get the Zoom link!

(Whitewater Lions Club press release) – We Got Your Hide and we truly appreciate it. The Whitewater Lions Club has received over 150 deer hides this season! Congratulations to the successful hunters and thank you for giving us your hides. The Wisconsin Lions Clubs collect the hides to help support the Wisconsin Lions Camp in Rosholt, Wisconsin. The last day of hide collection is December 26.

This quality camping experience is provided free-of-charge to eligible children and adults with disabilities from Wisconsin. We serve children and adults who are blind or visually impaired, Deaf or Hard of Hearing, children with intellectual disabilities or autism, children with diabetes, and children with epilepsy. A chance remark, “Blind kids can’t go to outdoor camps and stuff like that…” started it all in 1955 and in 1956, the Lions Clubs of the State of Wisconsin founded the Wisconsin Lions Camp and the Wisconsin Lions Foundation, Inc. to administer the Camp program. From that humble beginning with 26 campers, we are proud to serve 1,200 campers a summer.

(Whitewater Arts Alliance submission) On January 1^st, 2021, the Whitewater Arts Alliance will be launching a virtual exhibition on the WAA website, whitewaterarts.org, of work created by Nicole Holder of Harta Art. This virtual exhibition will be on display through January 31^st.

This exhibition helps to introduce Nicole as the new gallery manager for Whitewater Arts Alliance (WAA) to the community. The previous gallery manager, Taylor McDarison, has stepped down to dedicate more time and energy to her art business, Arttaysia, LLC, though she will still participate in WAA as a member.

Nicole has recently moved to the Whitewater area. As a former member of Geneva Lakes Art Foundation, she stated, “I am really looking forward to being part of an artist community again.” She is a UW-Whitewater student studying for her master’s in Counseling with an emphasis in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is also an artist; she is the founder and sole proprietor of Harta Art, a business creating custom art. She most recently has worked with New Generation RV, an RV dealership in Burlington, WI, which commissioned 12 murals of landscapes and destinations across America. Though graphite and charcoal pencil are her preferred medium, Nicole has experimented and crafted with many mediums, including acrylic painting, wood burning, ink, and photography.

A quote from Nicole Holder: “I enjoy bringing people’s ideas to life through art, though my absolute passion is capturing life’s beauty in my art. I started my relationship with art for this very reason, and I think I will predominantly be an observational artist for the rest of my life to continue that. I love memorializing beloved pets, noting nature’s gorgeous designs, and representing the emotions of a relationship or event through my art. It enhances my gratitude for life, allowing me to focus for long periods of time on the moments that make life beautiful.”

By Al Stanek
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
December 19, 2020

Whitewater City Manager Cameron Clapper has chosen to withdraw from consideration for a similar position in Fort Atkinson.

“I have decided that the time is not right for me to be leaving Whitewater,” said Clapper.  “I believe that there is still work for me to do here.”

Clapper told ‘The Banner’ on Saturday that after having completed the first stage of interviews for the Fort Atkinson position he has decided that he has work to finish here and that he was happy here. “I was very impressed with what I saw and heard of the (Fort Atkinson) community but have decided to stay in Whitewater,” he added. Fort Atkinson has yet to make any formal announcement of their preferred candidate.

Clapper has served as Whitewater’s city manager since 2012. Prior to that he served as interim city manager for four months upon the resignation of city manager Kevin Brunner. Before that Clapper had worked as Whitewater’s Assistant City Manager for two years.

The City of Fort Atkinson announced on December 11 the names of finalists for their City Manager position. Clapper was one of the four that had moved to the top of the City’s list of candidates. Fort Atkinson’s population is 12,368, compared with Whitewater’s 15,035 but has more full-year residents because of UW-Whitewater’s effect on population totals. Fort Atkinson’s operating budget for 2021 is approximately $11,063,000 while Whitewater’s is approximately $9,641,000. The key factors in determining compensation for a city manager are generally the size of the budget to be managed and the number of employees.

(UW-Whitewater submission) Eight graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Doctorate of Business Administration program will be named at the Dec. 19 virtual commencement ceremony celebrating all May, August and December graduates of the Class of 2020. These new terminal degree-holders will join the 37 others who have completed the program since 2014.

The individuals are Linda Bartelt, Suanne Barthol, Amy Fairfield, Ronald Pegram, Alecia Reinhardt, Derek Rowland, Dawn Shearrow, and Yi Xu. They include business consultants, corporate executives and university professors.

“While we cannot celebrate in person, we extend our congratulations as the graduates take the next steps in their careers,” said John Chenoweth, dean of the College of Business and Economics. “Their success helps characterize the quality of the program and the faculty supporting it.”

“Students from four cohorts have now graduated,” added K. Praveen Parboteeah, professor of management and DBA program director. “We can showcase a strong collection of theses and dissertation defenses, as well as the quality academic articles our alumni produce or their advancement as business leaders.”

The UW-Whitewater DBA was designed as an applied, practitioner-orientated degree program. Students are taught to use a theoretical lens when framing their area of study and use academic-level research and analysis to solve real-world problems.

DBA candidates have embraced this framework and flourished. They are conducting research that is leading to dissertations with immediate impact.

Linda Bartelt, who is launching Mobius Learning Academy, a new STEM-based after-school and summer camp experience in Bentonville, Arkansas, shared some of the challenges and rewards of the program.

“One of my goals for my DBA journey was to build on my professional experiences working with college interns,” Bartelt shared. “It was a challenging endeavor to develop qualitative and quantitative research based on business management theories, and provide findings on the significant, positive impact of college interns on work teams. The good news is that businesses do benefit from intern talent.”

Ronald Pegram, a vice president and general manager at Federal Sign Corporation in Chicago, conducted his research on factors that can affect the success of minority entrepreneurs. He also spoke about the impact of his DBA experience.

“Since my dissertation defense, I’ve been approached by several industry groups to discuss my research, and that is very fulfilling,” said Pegram. “I hope to bridge to full-time academia one day, and these opportunities to prepare and discuss applied research will be critical for reaching that goal.”

“My first article will likely appear in print in March 2021 in a well-respected industry journal, and I am working on several articles for academic journals,” Pegram added. “I’m hopeful that I may get a chance to present in one or more academic conferences in 2021.”

Suanne Barthol, a first-generation college student who is currently an assistant professor of business at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, shared her motivation for completing the DBA.

“Many people considered me nuts as I took out student loans to start a new career later in life, while many of my friends are winding down their careers,” she said. “However, the transition to teaching is my retirement plan. As I reflected on all of my corporate roles, I had incorporated some teaching, coaching, or training in each one. But, little did I know that the program’s research side would also be a natural fit for my never-ending questions of ‘why?’”

Barthol responded to the differences between the Ph.D. and the DBA.

“The focus on solving practical problems means that the DBA is different from a Ph.D. However, when we start talking theory, constructs, and results, as students at UW-Whitewater, we have been classically trained to hold our own in any of these types of discussions in our area of specialty. And for that, I am most thankful.”

Parboteeah says he is immensely proud of the DBA graduates’ success.

“I am always delighted to hear from our alums with a new article or award, and to find out where their skills and talents are taking them,” he said. “Their achievements are truly impressive.”

The UW-Whitewater Doctorate of Business Administration is a 60-credit program that allows professionals to maintain their full-time careers and complete their degree in three years. As the largest AACSB-accredited business school in the region, the UW-Whitewater College of Business and Economics offers excellent facilities, as well as highly-qualified and credentialed faculty working on a wide range of projects and internationally-recognized research.

For questions about the UW-Whitewater DBA program, contact K. Praveen Parboteeah, DBA program director, at 262-472-3971 or dba@uww.edu.

(MSOE submission) The following student(s) received academic honors from Milwaukee School of Engineering for the 2020 Fall Quarter:

Gwynne Sahyun, Honors List, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Undergraduate students who have earned at least 30 credits and have a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or higher (out of 4.0) are on the Dean’s List. Students who have maintained a 3.70 or higher receive “high honors.”

Undergraduate students on the Honors List have earned a GPA of at least 3.20 (out of 4.0) for this quarter and are not on the Dean’s List.

Milwaukee School of Engineering is the university of choice for those seeking an inclusive community of experiential learners driven to solve the complex challenges of today and tomorrow. The independent, non-profit university has about 2,700 students and was founded in 1903. MSOE offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering, business and nursing. Faculty are student-focused experts who bring real-world experience into the classroom. This approach to learning makes students ready now as well as prepared for the future. Longstanding partnerships with business and industry leaders enable students to learn alongside professional mentors, and challenge them to go beyond what’s possible. MSOE graduates are leaders of character, responsible professionals, passionate learners and value creators.

 

(Whitewater Historical Society submission) In November 1946, the Whitewater Register featured a promotion following the Uglow family of Heart Prairie on their Saturday Shopping Tour of Stores in the Business District.”

Let’s check out some of the stores that Ellis and Dorothy, along with their children, Charlotte, Thane, and Bonnie, visited on their trip into town!

In the photo below, Ellis, Charlotte, and Dorothy watch as Bonnie tries out a new tricycle at Ledman’s Western Auto store, located at 88 West Main Street. Western Auto stores were all-purpose hardware and household goods stores that specialized especially in toys during the holiday season.

Over the years, Whitewater was home to many different Western Auto franchise locations:

1940-1941: Roy Crouch opens the first Western Auto Store.

1941-1942: Elmer Lubbers takes over from Crouch, yet ends up selling “everything but the store cat” by late 1942.

1945-1947: Hal Ledman opens up a new Western Auto store, pictured here.

1947-1948: Bill Swendsen buys out Ledman, but goes out of business himself just over a year later.

1955-1960: Eddie O’Donnell opens a new store in the space formerly home to Burns Electrical.

1960-1963: O’Donnell and Tony Willegal sell out to Tom and Ruth Burns in early 1960, however, the business only lasted a couple years beyond that as the space was transformed into a pool hall in 1963.

1969-1974: Jack Forrest opens a new Western Auto Store at 125 West Whitewater Street, closing down in late 1974. On Christmas Eve 1974, a fire raged through the building for several hours. Arson was suspected, but the culprit was never caught.

Join us next week for more from the Whitewater Historical Society collections!