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Whippet Track Teams Compete at UW-Whitewater

The Whitewater girls track and field team got off to a solid start on Friday at the Nelson/Daniel Invite at UW-Whitewater.  Brianna Tillett had a strong start in the long jump with a jump of 15’10” which took 7th overall. Allisan Barrett led the distance runners with her performance in the 1600 which earned her 12th out of 32 runners.  The girls finished up the meet with a strong 4×400 meter relay consisting of junior Morgan Radaj, sophomores Hailey Murphy and Jenna Lee, and freshman Emme Bullis. The relay team took 10th with a time of 4:37.

Sashi Popke led the Whippet boys by placing 4th in both the pole vault and the long jump.

The Whitewater boys also got off to a very strong start.  Leading the team was junior Sashi Popke who placed 4th in both the pole vault and the long jump.  Senior Jacob Korf placed 6th in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:09. Sophomore Will Leibbrand had a great debut, placing 8th in the long jump in his first-ever track meet with a jump of 19 feet 9 inches.  Junior Joe Gmur, also a new athlete to join the team this year, took 5th in the boys high jump with a jump of 5 feet 6 inches. The boys finished off a strong meet with the 4×400 meter relay which consisted of senior Tyler Sheffield, sophomores Juan-Jose Cuellar and Jack Mayer, and freshman Trenton Zahn.  The 4×400 team took 4th place with a time of 3:44 and solidified a 10th overall team finish.

 

Seed Starting at the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library – Tuesday March 20

 

When: Tuesday, March 20, 6:00 p.m.    

Where: Irvin L. Young Memorial Library    

Learn the fine points of starting seeds at home with Master Gardener, Ruth Flescher. Starting seeds for your garden is less expensive than buying nursery grown sets and often gives you more choices.  It’s also easy and highly rewarding. Discover how to choose the appropriate plants, assemble and use the proper equipment and test seed viability prior to planting.  Before you leave you will have a chance to start seeds of your own.

This program is free and open to the public.

Virginia Mae Pitt passed away on Friday, March 9, 2018, at the age of 90.

She was born on May 1, 1927, in Whitewater, Wisconsin.  She was the daughter of Edward and Evelyn Strunk.  Virginia married Glen Pitt on August 21, 1947, in Whitewater.

Shortly after getting married they left Wisconsin and spent more than 40 years living in California.  Retiring to Alabama for the next 20 years.  In 2011 they returned to California where Virginia spent the last 5 years in Manteca.  She lived at Prestige Senior Living and attended St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

Her surviving family members are her sisters: Mildred Stanton, Ethel Fischer and Shirley Grant; her daughters: Donna Shafer of Dallas, TX, Cheryl (Mark) Berger of Ripon, CA, and Karen (Duke) Ames of San Clemente, CA; grandchildren: Daryl and Tracy Shafer, Jessica (Carlos) Gutierrez and Kevin Ames; great Grandchildren: Carlos Gutierrez III, Chevy Cansler and soon to arrive Gabriel Gutierrez.

Funeral service will be held on Monday, March 26, 2018, at 10:30 am at First English Lutheran Church 401 W. Main St., Whitewater, Wisconsin.  Friends may call at the church from 9:30 am until the time of the service.  Burial will follow at Hillside Cemetery in Whitewater.

www.nitardyfuneralhome.com

WHS Academic Excellence Scholarship Winners

Whitewater High School is proud to announce that Lydia Wiley Deal and Zachary Gross are the Class of 2018 Wisconsin Academic Excellence Scholarship winners. Lydia and Zachary will each receive $2,250 per year for four years ($9,000 total) while they attend college in Wisconsin. Recipients chosen each year must have the highest cumulative grade point average in their class. If there is a tie for the highest GPA, winners are selected based on the highest number of honor points and ACT / SAT test scores.

Congratulations Lydia and Zachary!

 

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for New Lincoln Elementary Gym, Fine Arts Night at Lincoln – Tuesday, March 20

Tuesday Evening, March 20

Come celebrate the 1st event in the new Lincoln Gym, featuring every K-5 child in the school.

5:30 pm – Ribbon Cutting and speeches

6:00 pm – Kindergarten and 1st Grade Concert

6:35 pm – 2nd & 3rd Grade Concert

7:20 pm – 4th & 5th Grade Concert followed by LINCS World Drumming Ensemble

Throughout the evening, stroll the halls to enjoy student artworks and stop by the art room to create something new!

Bring a canned good for the Whitewater Food Pantry if you are able!

 

The SweetSpot Bakehouse Brings Home Statewide Awards

The bakers of  The SweetSpot Bakehouse participated in the Midwest Foodservice Expo’s 2018 Baking & Cake Decorating Competition in Milwaukee. This year’s competition had a record 80 entries representing 37 bakeries. The SweetSpot’s bakers entered six items and came home with three awards.

Sarah Hoots won second place in the Best of the Midwest Pie Contest for her peach crisp pie. She spent several weeks developing the recipe for this crumble-topped pie, which will be available at The SweetSpot in the near future.

Natalie Meyer took home the second place prize for her gold and ivory wedding cake in the Extreme Wedding Cake Challenge / Student Divison. This was the first time Natalie has decorated a wedding cake.

Karen Moline, owner and lead decorator at The SweetSpot, brought home the Best of Show award for her black and white wedding cake in the Extreme Wedding Cake Challenge / Professional Divison.

Seven WHS Students Participate in Youth Government Day

The Walworth County Council of the American Legion sponsored a Youth Government Day. The program is geared toward Junior and Senior year students. This year’s event was held at the Walworth County Judicial Center on Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

Students from 9 schools throughout Walworth County had the opportunity to engage with county-government officials and learn about the process of local governance. This year, seven students from Whitewater High School participated in the program.

Back Row (L to R) – Hunter Martin, Logan Williams, Michael Kuhl, Lauren Staller
Front Row (L to R) – Eliott McCullough, Jose Villegas, Karime Villarreal

 

Walworth County Administrator David Bretl addresses students as they participate in a mock Walworth County Board meeting.

Whitewater Arts Alliance Seeking Artists and Sponsors for “Windows on Whitewater”

June is quickly approaching, and the Whitewater Arts Alliance continues to seek artists and sponsors for the 2018 public art project.  This year’s theme is “Windows on Whitewater.” The idea is to think about what you might see – or what is your favorite image – when you think of Whitewater. It might be the fireworks or the 4th of July parade. It could be children playing in the park; it could be a baseball game (or any other athletic event). It might be the birds in your backyard or the church steeples that come to view when you drive into town. Use your imagination!

Interested artists (of all ages and levels of training) should pick up their form, at no cost to them, at the Cultural Arts Center, 402 West Main Street, Whitewater, during regular hours (Thursdays-Sundays, noon – 5:00 pm) There are also forms available at Quiet Hut Sports.  Anyone can sponsor an artist and one of the forms for a $100 donation by contacting Linda Long at 262-473-5538.

The wooden frames are 24: wide x 42″ long. They need to be painted on both sides and can be a different view of the same image or a completely different image.  Finished “windows” will be due back to the CAC around May 10.

Kick-Off Event Marks The Start of Young Auditorium’s 2018 NEA Big Read Project

The Hoard Historical Museum hosts FREE, family-friendly event – Saturday, March 24 at 10:00 am

With over 15 events spanning nearly two months, UW-WHITEWATER’S YOUNG AUDITORIUM is proud to officially launch the 2018 Big Read Project with a free kick-off event on Saturday, March 24th at The Hoard Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson.

Starting at 10:00 am, the event will serve as the starting point for a series of community-based experiences throughout the spring designed to show how sharing a good book can broaden our understanding of our world, our community, and ourselves. Managed by Arts Midwest and funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Big Read initiative offers grants to support innovative community reading programs designed around a single book. This year’s selection, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, focuses on the effects of a traumatic event for a Native American family in North Dakota, most specifically Joe, the 13-year old protagonist. 

The Round House opens out to become a detective story and a coming-of-age story, a story about how Joe is initiated into the sadnesses and disillusionments of grown-up life and the somber realities of his people’s history. ~ The New York Times

Those attending the kick-off event will be eligible for a free copy of The Round House (while supplies last), and can also view works by local artists at the Mary Hoard Art Show, tour the Mysteries of the Mounds and other permanent exhibits, and be eligible to enter a free raffle to win tickets to a show at Young Auditorium. Children can take part in a story time reading of a passage from Erdrich’s children’s novel The Birchbark House, and participate in a Storywalk featuring the book Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie.

This event is just the beginning! A full listing of all Big Read activities and experiences, including children’s activities related to kid-friendly reading selections by Native American authors, can be found at www.youngauditorium.wordpress.com.

Highlights include the following:

Fairhaven Lecture Series presents Amy Casselman Hontalas | April 9, 2018 at 3:00pm

Lecturer at San Francisco State University, Amy Casselman Hontalas presentsSeeking Justice for a Legacy of Violence Against Women in Indian Country, a lecture challenging the argument that violence against Native women in Indian country is simply collateral damage from a complex but necessary legal structure. The lecture will place Louise Erdrich’s novel The Round House in a contemporary political-legal framework and a historic context, and will draw meaningful connections between the experiences of the protagonist and the lived experiences of Native women in Indian country today.

Mark Denning at Irvin L. Young Memorial Library (Whitewater) | April 12, 2018, at 6:00 pm
Mark Denning at Hedberg Library (Janesville) | April 18, 2018, at 6:00 pm

Mark Denning will speak about Anishinaabe cultural perspectives in The Round House that may be invisible to the casual reader. Denning is enrolled in the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin and his ancestry includes Menominee, Mille Lacs Ojibwe, Stockbridge-Munsee, French and English. His experience as an educator, lecturer and curriculum specialist in American Indian history and culture has taken him all over the world, working with people, communities, and organizations. In his words, “I cannot speak for over 500 Tribal Nations, but I can speak from my own experience as a tribal person, to develop understanding between people in the best way that I know how — and that is with humor, intelligence, and authenticity.”

Big Read Finale Event at Old World Wisconsin (Eagle) | May 6, 2018 | 10:00am-2:00pm

Join us at Old World Wisconsin (Eagle, WI) on their opening weekend to participate in the following Big Read activities. A Storywalk, featuring Thunder Boy, Jr. by Sherman Alexie will be available on the grounds all day. We will put the final touches on the new Little Free Library for Young Auditorium between 10:00 am and noon. Artwork inspired by The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich and created by students from Lakeview Elementary in Whitewater and Monroe Elementary in Janesville will be on display; and a reception with artist, Sally Koehler, will be held at 1:00 pm.

Seasonal Position with Town of Whitewater

Help Wanted – General Laborer

The Town of Whitewater is hiring a seasonal, part-time person to perform lawn mowing, street maintenance, and other miscellaneous duties. Flexible 16-20 morning hours per week.  Must be 18 with a valid driver’s license. CDL beneficial but not required. Pay is $12.50 per hour.

An application is available at www.townofwhitewater.org, at the Town of Whitewater Town Hall, W8590 Willis Ray Road, or call 262-473-4639.  Application deadline is April 5.