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The official BluesFest website |
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Our
Annual FFA Auction in 1950
Auctioneer Martin Fromm, Rotarians Fred Rode
and Owen Rowlands, and FFA president Al Basse
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To salute our non-member
farm friends, from the beginning of our club's life we invited
them as our luncheon guests during the week of hte local Dairy
Show in June. The dairy industry declined during the 1950s
and 1960s and our Farm Day ended along with the Dairy Show.
Another farm program
was the annual auction beginning in 1947 where high school
members of the Future Farmers of America brought their farm
products, mostly dressed poultry and a few fresh cuts of meat,
for sale.
Soon after our
club's formation in 1921, we
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created a
Youth Committee to coordinate our civic activites such as sending
boys and girls to camp, sponsoring athletic teams, and awarding academic
scholarships. |
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In 1925 we studied
the Boy Scout program and were instrumental in forming the
Potawatomi Area Boy Scout Council and hiring a Scout executive.
We contributed toward the purchase of Camp Long Lake in 1945,
and in 1967 we paid for a new Aquatic Building at teh camp.
Through the years we have supplied a variety of camp equipment
and sponsored several Boy Scout troops.
To help raise money
for our civic activities, we held a Community Rummage Auction
in the Stock Pavilion annually
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Boy
Scout Camp at Long Lake, 1967
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for three
years starting in 1948. "What you dont want, WE DO!" |
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The
supply of rummage rapidly diminished, however, and soon we were searching
for new revenue. The answer was a Pancake Festival, proposed by club
president Tom Stine in 1951 and first held in 1955 in the cafeteria
of Waukesha High School on Grand Avenue |
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Rotarian
Charlie Williams Flips 'em in 1955
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when Lloid Grout
was president. As a new member, I sold advance tickets and
mixed batter for the griddles.
The annual Pancake
Festival was an immediate nd lasting success. In 1958 we moved
to the larger cafeteria at Waukesha South High School. The
next year, to speed production, Al Hardy and Bill Green designed
adn built large rotating grills which are still in use.
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In 1986 we
moved the Festival from South High School to the county's Expo Center
on Northview Road, and the crowds followed. Pancakes have been a steady
source through the years to fund a wide variety of worthwhile community
organizations and activites. |
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Our most recent
Festival, on February 17th, 2001, under the chairmanship of
Rotarian Bryan Van Deun, served 2,581 people and netted a
typical $17,500. As usual, I mixed the batter all morning
- my 45th year on the job, having missed only two years while
serving in the U.S. Army.
To maximize our
financial strength, Bill Wolfe established the tax-exempt
Waukesha Rotary Club Charitable Fund in 1963. Led by Rotarian
Wayne Williams in recent years, it
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Aunt
Jemima with Rotarians Cliff Fritz,
Bob Rowlands, and Joe Burk in 1959
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has been
the vehicle to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to myriad local
groups such as the YMCA, YWCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Waukesha Memorial
Hospital, Junior League Baseball, American Field Service, Salvation
Army, Christmas Clearing Council, Women's Center, Hebron House, La
Casa de Esperanza, Waukesha County Food Pantry, Mental Health Association,
Waukesha Training Center, Project Literacy, Ethan Allen School for
Boys, Haertel Field Tot Lot, First Call for Help, Parents Place, Womens
Development Center, The Caring Place, Richard's Place, and Make-A-Wish
Foundation. We have contributed scholarships for Waukesha's high schools
and colleges. |
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