Anne Gilfry Schierl 

Above & Beyond Award

 For 2020, I am recognizing a person who has been involved with our Boys & Girls Club for over 10 years. Unfortunately, her first experience with our Club was not great. You see, we forgot about picking her up for our staff retreat event. It was her first day of employment. She sat waiting and waiting. Fortunately, she was gracious and forgiving... but still holds it against me! By the way, I was NOT the one to pick her up! 

But seriously, I have watched this person grow from being a part-time staff member to Director of School Sites, and to Director of Operations. She has been a HUGE part of our success and history! She is the heart of our Boys & Girls Club, the cheerleader, the motivator, the quality control, the Mom for our staff, and so much more. 

In 2020, she had to be incredibly adaptive during a global pandemic. Instead of being worried about having to be closed, and having to limit our numbers, and facemask, cohorts, vaccinations, etc, she instead focused on what we need to be focused on – how can we help children and families? She developed Grab n Go program kits for parents to pick up, virtual programs that kids could join from home so they could still interact with our staff, we provided homework help virtually, we opened our Clubs during no school days, we even served 50,000 grab n go meals in one months to families throughout Portage County. 

In 2021, this person certainly went Above and Beyond and quite frankly it’s created more work for me! In 2021, he volunteered to become Chairperson for our Boys & Girls Clubs of WI Area Council for Board Members. This is a 2-year commitment to lead Board Members from all Clubs in WI. This group defines Board business for the state Clubs, recognizes individuals, provides training opportunities for Boards, and votes on key business decisions. So now I am his Secretary for this new role. I take notes for him.  I schedule meetings for him.  Oh, he also volunteered our Club to host the WI BOYS & Girls Club conference which happens in two weeks! Thanks Sam for doing so much in 2021 and 2022 and 2023! (Turn to Next Page)

Of course, I am just kidding around. Sam Dinga has been involved with our Club for 17 years! In 2005 I hired him as staff member fresh out of college. He came to UWSP all the way from Cameroon in Africa. He was our first Teen Director. He was good at it and excelled! He quickly developed into one of our leaders. He then moved on to even bigger roles outside of the Club, earned his Master’s and then Doctorate, and now works for the School District. He never left the Club though, becoming a Board Member of 10+ years, our Board President, and now WI Area Council Chairperson and Area Council Liaison. 

Our honoree for 2022 has certainly gone Above & Beyond for our kids – and for many years. After years of annual, generous contributions, he attended our Wine & Cheese Event and picked one of the priciest items from our Wishing Tree. You see, at the event, we have a row of trees decorated with lights and little tags that are “wishes” of our Clubs. These items include markers, providing dinner for 20 kids, field trips, and playground balls. In 2016, we were ambitious by including a tag for a shuttle bus for field trips. 

Didn’t really know that someone would actually pull that tag down since the price tag was $50,000, but he did. He came up to me with the tag and said I want to do this and will pull a few others to help make it happen.  I think it was figured out in about 15 minutes and soon we were celebrating during the event! 

Each year now, we try to think of very expensive items to put on a tag! Why not go above and beyond for kids?!!  Always have to shoot high!

Then we were gifted another shuttle bus the next year. Then he joined our Board of Directors. Then he donated a refrigerated truck so we could manage the supplies to provide grab and go meals to the tune of 50,000 in one month. Then he recruits more donors to help with Wine & Cheese event and we are auctioning off yacht packages and golf at Sand Valley, and a condo in Belize. All of these efforts have generated major funding for our programs! 

It doesn’t stop there. He continues to serve on our Board of Directors, he continues to help with Wine & Cheese, he has helped us cover rent at our newest facility, he has volunteered to serve on our new Teen Center Committee, and he always ensures we hit our Annual Campaign goal at the end of the year. 

Jon Vandehey is a VERY generous man. He is passionate about helping children and the Club and giving back to communities. Through his business, Mid-State Truck, he supports many causes, in addition to our Boys & Girls Club, in communities across Wisconsin where he does business. He fills his large trucks with toys for tots at Christmas time in several communities so that all children have a special Christmas. He provided a lead gift that created a new water park in Marshfield called Vandehey Waters.