Discover Janesville at Janesville Academy for International Studies

For a while I have wanted to do an episode of Discover Janesville which would showcase the charter schools in Janesville. Designed to help students who either struggle at traditional schools or need something that public schools may not necessarily offer, Janesville charter schools have grown over the years and feature a number of dedicated educators. My goal for this particular program was as always to highlight the people involved, but also to provide some information for students and parents considering whether these would be helpful to their situation.

First interview is with Carrie Kulinski, ATODA and CRES Academy coordinator. CRES Academy was started for youth who completed alcohol and/or drug treatment programs but for whom returning back to regular classes is only likely to return them to behavior patterns that got them in to trouble in the first place.

Next interview is with Dr. David Parr, mentor and on-line teacher for the Virtual Academy. Besides his involvement with the Virtual Academy, Dr. Parr also serves as the president of the Janesville Education Assocation.

Next, please take a look at this interview with Jane Thompson, lead teacher at the Janesville Academy for International Studies. International Academy's goal is to provide extra educational opportunities for students who want to learn more about international relations. Students spend part of their day at regular high school - Parker or Craig - and spend the second part of their day at the Academy. Besides being a teacher, Jane Thompson also serves as Rock county Supervisor.

Next, please take a look at the interview with Jon Simon, at-risk teacher at TATE Center. TATE is a place for students who were expelled from the Janesville School District.

Next, take a look at this interview with Mary Hathaway. Mary is at-risk teacher and Dean of Students at Rock River Charter School, the original charter school of the Janesville School District.

Finally, here is my interview with the Superintendent of the Janesville School District and current principal of TAGOS Leadership Academy, Dr. Karen Schulte.

Discover Janesville at Woman's Club

This episode was a culmination of several ideas: one is that I am always on the look out for a good theme for a show. The next was that I am interested in history and the historic building at 108 S Jackson in Janesville has attracted my attention for a while. It is a regal building in its appearance yet it is hidden so unless you know it's there or remember to turn your head while driving down the street, you may never notice it. Thanks to a suggestion by my friend Meredith Helgerson and with help from JATV and Julie Richardson, I was able to put together an episode highlighting the 108 S Jackson Street building housing several women organizations in Janesville. Thanks also to Vivian Creekmore who helped me with research as I prepared for the taping of this episode.

First interview is with Julie Richardson. Julie is the past president of the Woman's Club and is the current president of the Foundation for the Preservation of 108 S Jackson.

Next is the interview with Wendy Facinger, co-president of the AAUW (American Association of University Women). I originally got to know Wendy through the Janesville Noon Lions and thanks to Discover Janesville, I learned of Wendy's involvement with AAUW.

Doing this program gave me a wonderful opportunity to sit down for a taped conversation with someone who deserves the name of Janesville Institution as much as anyone, namely Jackie Wood. It is hard to imagine all the things that Jackie has done in Janesville from working endlessly to help the downtown to having served as a County Supervisor and on and on and on, suffices to say that her small stature can't hide her energy or track record of getting things done in Janesville for very long. Jackie is also a past president of the Woman's Club and is a wealth of information on history of the building.

Next, please take a look at this interview with Anne Wanke who represents Daughters of American Revolution in her position as Regent. Anne provided an absolute wealth of knowledge about this organization and should inspire anyone who thinks they may be related to anyone involved in the Revolution to research and certify their family roots.

Next, please take a look at this interview with Claudiadair Fitzgerald. A woman who has done so much to shape our community, Claudiadair has been involved with the visual arts for many years and while she is technically credited on the show as being the 2nd VP of the Arts League, in the past she has been the President and practically everything else that the Arts League needed over the years. Claudidair has also been inducted in the United Arts Alliance Rock county Arts Hall of Fame.

Finally, here is the interview with Frieda Lubkeman, treasurer for the MacDowell Music Club. The club is an organization that supports music and has been part of Janesville for many decades.

United Arts Alliance presents: Summer Acoustic Series

During the summer of 2010, Discover Janesville took a vacation and instead, I worked with Teresa Nguyen and Judith Detert-Moriarty to produce United Arts Alliance: Summer Acoustic Series. Jointly with JATV we put together 3 concerts, featuring 8 local performers performing mostly acoustic, mostly original pieces. Designed to showcase local talent, these 3 tapings resulted in 8 shows, which air for 8 consecutive weeks on Saturday and Sunday at 10 am, 4 pm and 10 pm on JATV 98. Once the shows air on JATV, they are uploaded on YouTube and are available for viewing to those who do not have access to the station, which is currently available only to Charter subscribers.

To those who may not be familiar with the United Arts Alliance, the organization started in 1996 with the original goal of creating a performing arts center in Janesville. Clearly that mission was a success and these days UAA continues to work to bring local performers together in order to bring the arts to Rock county residents. Members of UAA include many local theaters and performing organizations, but we are also looking for more local individual artists to become members. Learn more about the United Arts Alliance and upcoming events at www.RockCountyArts.com

Important note: While the tapings were free to the invited audience, we did ask for donations, which went in their entirety to support United Arts Alliance Scholarship Fund. From this fund, UAA gives scholarships every year to local students. Donations for UAA Scholarship Fund are still being accepted. Please send your contributions to PO Box 8132, Janesville, WI 53547-8132. We appreciate your support.

Check out this performance by Teresa & Anthony Nguyen!.

Second program featured Yuri Rashkin & Theresa Carroll

Check out United Arts Alliance Summer Acoustic Series concert featuring Greg Winkler and Bill Hatfield!

Here is the performance by Gaia Galvan and Friends!



Here is the performance by Al Hulick!



Here is the performance by Claire Olsen, JP Merz and Brandon Stottler!



Here is the performance by Bethany Conway and Michael Bachmeyer!



Here is the performance by Chris Kohn!

Discover Janesville at Rotary Gardens

John McCally
General Manager of Janesville Jets





Meredith Helgerson and Brad Cantrell

Tallman House committee








Christine Rebout
Executive Director of Janesville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau







Mark Dwyer
Director of Horticulture
Rotary Botanical Gardens

Discover Janesville at Best Events - David Marling

Underwritten by Alliant Energy, this episode of Discover Janesville is titled "Future Leaders" and features interviews with people who are likely to be involved in shaping our community in the future. Take a look at this interview with David Marling and see the passion that Dave has for his community and his family business - Marling Lumber.

Discover Janesville at Best Events - Sam Liebert

Underwritten by Alliant Energy, this episode of Discover Janesville is titled "Future Leaders" and features interviews with people who are likely to be involved in shaping our community in the future. Take a look at this interview with Sam Liebert. Born and raised in Janesville, Sam has already been involved with several political campaigns and was a part of the Obama administration.

Discover Janesville at Best Events - Matt Kealy

Underwritten by Alliant Energy, this episode of Discover Janesville is titled "Future Leaders" and features interviews with people who are likely to be involved in shaping our community in the future. Take a look at this interview with Matt Kealy. Born and raised in Janesville, Matt already is the owner of several restaurants in the area and shows no signs of slowing down.

Discover Janesville at Best Events - Britten Grafft

Underwritten by Alliant Energy, this episode of Discover Janesville is titled "Future Leaders" and features interviews with people who are likely to be involved in shaping our community in the future. Take a look at this interview with Britten Grafft. Born and raised in Janesville, Britten is back in town after graduating from college where she studied architecture, which is extremely important considering that Monterey Hotel is one of several important historic structures owned by her family in Janesville. Watch for Britten and her brother Jay in the coming years to become more involved in shaping the future of Janesville.

Discover Janesville at Basics Cooperative - Allison Rollette

Sustainability efforts in Janesville has long been a subject I wanted to address on Discover Janesville. Grassroots efforts in general have always been important to me, and sustainability has provided an excellent platform for many in our community in becoming more politically active.

The first interview I would like to share with you is my conversation with Allison Rollette. Desire to become more self-reliant as well as more economical in her expenditures, led Allison to do research on chickens in private residences. Her efforts coincided with efforts by another Janesville resident who at first generated substantially more publicity for his interest in this subject than Allison. Yet it was Ms. Rollette who put together a 30-page report outlining the benefits of this idea, which she presented to the city council, and consistently responded to criticisms of those opposed to allowing chickens (or rather hens) in private residences, on the Gazette's website and in other venues. Allison also showed a great deal of organizing skill in bringing together a group of citizens who supported the idea of allowing residents to have up to 4 hens within the city limits, an ordinance similar to the one passed by the Madison City Council. The Janesville City Council ultimately voted down the idea but I was impressed with Allison's tenacity in her desire to improve the lives of others and to change a government regulation her common sense told her made no sense.

Discover Janesville at Basics Cooperative - Julie Backenkeller

Next, I sat down for a conversation with Julie Watson Backenkeller. Long an advocate of increased awareness of the impact that development activities have on the environment, Julie is known to many for her ongoing crusade to promote sustainability efforts in the city of Janesville as well as in the entire Rock county. An eloquent speaker, Julie also regularly writes on sustainability issues for the Janesville Gazette.

Discover Janesville at Basics Cooperative - Al Hulick

In the conversation on sustainability, I felt it was important to have as many different points of view represented, and a very important side to this discussion are the efforts undertaken by the city of Janesville in order to become more sustainable in its operations.

Al Hulick is a Management Analyst with the city of Janesville. Al is also one of the most educated members of the city staff when it comes to sustainability issues. I was glad to sit down with Al and have him list the many initiatives, old and new, efforts and accomplishments that the city has been able to claim to its credit. After all, when activists speak of the many things that can be done still, its important to remember that sustainability efforts are on-going, which means that some goals are yet to be accomplished, while some initiatives are already paying off.

Discover Janesville at Basics Cooperative - Chris Blakeney

Finally, no conversation about sustainability would be complete without understanding how these efforts are resonating with the general public, and I felt that a good way to do this was to interview a business that functions according to the sustainability principles. Basics Cooperative fit that part - a successful local business that's been around for many years - Basics was represented on the program by Chris Blakeney, floor manager at the cooperative.

In the interest of full disclosure, the episode was taped at Basics and Basics Cooperative was a partial sponsor of the episode.

Discover Janesville at the Elks Club - Rob Phelps

Rob Phelps was on Discover Janesville just over a year ago and back then he was talking about his journey from being a laid off worker at Lear corporation to becoming a culinary student at the Blackhawk Technical College. Rob struck me by his positive and proactive attitude and by a great saying: Rob said that there is no magic "job fairy" out there and it's up to us to figure out what we want to do with our lives.

By now, Rob is well on his way to successfully completing the program. He has recently competed as part of the Blackhawk Technical College team of chefs in a competition in Milwaukee where the team placed second, and Rob's desert was even featured on the front page of the Janesville Gazette! Best of luck to Rob and to all the other nontraditional students who are pursuing their dreams as the complete their education and become successful in areas they may have never expected.

This interview was underwritten by the Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board (SWWDB). Learn more about the SWWDB at their website: www.swwdb.org

Discover Janesville at the Elks Club - the Service Clubs round table

I wanted to do an episode of Discover Janesville about the service clubs in Janesville for sometime. The culture of service clubs in Janesville is strong and many great people I've met in our community belong to one club or another, and in fact some people belong to more than one!

The tradition of service clubs was fostered for many years by the corporate culture where local businesses and organizations felt that it was important to have representation in a service club. These days this approach is on decline, and it is forcing the clubs to be more proactive in seeking out new members, which should not be difficult as all of the service clubs do great things to make our community a better place.

Once a year all the clubs get together for a join service club breakfast (this takes place in December) but other than that, the clubs function separately from each other, though as different fund-raisers and events come up, it is not uncommon to find a member of the Lions, for instance, addressing the Rotary and vice versa.

Because my goal is to bring spotlight to great people in Janesville, doing a show on the service clubs was an obvious choice. However, I also wanted to showcase the positive interaction and communication between the clubs who ultimately have the same mission - to make the community a better place. To accomplish this purpose, Dave Haldiman who tapes the Discover Janesville shows and myself did something that we have never done before on the show - we taped a round table discussion - which is quite a challenge considering the not-so-big budget of the show, and I think we pulled it off very well.

I want to thank all the guests - Jon Wangerin representing the Lions, Laurie Huml Eckert representing the Kiwanis, David Arndt representing the Noon Rotary and Jim DeWitt representing the Elks.

The clubs are facing somewhat of a perennial challenge in getting each new generation of community-minded folks to recognize service clubs as a great opportunity to get involved. It is my hope that by watching this program, you the viewer will see the benefits of service clubs to you as well as to the community and will join one of the many service clubs in Janesville, of which by some count there are nearly 15! So the choice is yours.

Each club is also known for their fundraisers, which in some cases have become so popular that they eclipse the club itself in their name recognition. Still, each club their own structure, mission, and goals and so doing some research on the club that makes the most sense for you is a very good idea.

Finally, I want to thank the Elks club for graciously letting us tape the show in the lodge, and I want to express my gratitude to all the clubs one more time for doing all the great things for our community that you do! Enjoy the show and get involved!

GM Stories - In Their Own Words

This latest episode of Discover Janesville involved interviews with three people who spent many years working at the General Motors plant in Janesville. This is only the latest of several projects looking to document the experience and impact that the General Motors had on Janesville over its long history here. One of the most comprehensive attempts to document the history of GM in Janesville can be found at the Hedberg Public Library website. Titled "In Their Own Words", it is a series of first-person accounts of people who worked at the plant. These interviews were recorded in the mid-1970s and at this point certainly deserve some recognition for becoming a historical artifact themselves.

Check out the interviews for yourself by clicking here

Discover Janesville at Fagan Automotive - Tom Westrick

Tom Westrick was employed at the General Motors plant for many years and during that time he went from working on the line to running the education center. Currently a chair on the Blackhawk Technical College board, Tom talked about the experience of working at the plant and about the difference that education made in the lives of workers, some of whom decided to continue their education after years of working at the plant.

Discover Janesville at Fagan Automotive - David Jennings

David Jennings was part of the management team at the General Motors plant and in our interview he talked about joining GM as a young local kid and what it was like to work at a plant that was such a big part of our community for so many years. We also talked about David's new adventure as the Executive Director of the Rotary Botanic Gardens, one of Janesville's jewels.

Discover Janesville at Fagan Automotive - Tom Brien

Tom has been at the General Motors for 42 years, which is a long time by any measure. But on top of that Tom also spent 16 years on the Janesville City Council. In our conversation we touched on all of those things as well as Tom's more recent involvement with the Janesville Noon Lions.