20 years of leadership

Leadership Shawano County graduated its 20th class last week at The Gathering, continuing a tradition of creating and maintaining needed community programs by training local people to be the next generation of movers and shakers.

The ceremony also marked the last class under the direction of Wendy Crawford, who has stepped down from the program after 15 years. Crawford was honored by present and past graduates of Leadership Shawano County for being the person who kept the program running smoothly year after year while changing things up to reflect the evolution of Shawano and other communities.

Even at the ceremony, Crawford was making sure everyone was comfortable as the graduates and their guests gathered under a tent outside The Gathering, ensuring the sun wasn’t causing issues for those who weren’t in the shade and asking if everyone had a beverage prior to talking about the graduates.

“What a journey it has been the last few months,” Crawford said, talking about how even the leadership program fell prey to the coronavirus pandemic, requiring the final sessions to be conducted online. “Graduation typically happens the evening of our last session, so that would have been May 17. Well, we all know we couldn’t be together on May 17.”

It became evident to Crawford how serious the COVID-19 issue was when she called the Capitol building in Madison on March 11 to confirm the class’s visit the following day, to which she was informed that everything was business as usual. However, during the visit itself, she learned that the Shawano group would probably be the last to tour the building before everything was shut down.

“We could almost hear the doors closing behind us as we were leaving the Capitol,” Crawford said. “The reality of COVID-19 was settling in.”

Even though she was able to get the last couple of sessions done through the online meeting application Zoom, she noted it was not the same as the sessions when everyone gathered to learn and discuss.

“There’s less discussion, less creativity,” Crawford said. “There were fewer conversations and less laughter, but we learned that we have to just be adaptable.”

The 2020 class created three community service projects — a review of the county’s 4-H program, the creation of a Friends group for the Mountain Bay Trail and an area resource center for nonprofits to be housed in Shawano at the Fellman Center, where the county’s social services and job center used to be.

The 4-H review looked at ways to increase the amount of youth participation in the program, according to Megan Suehring, the 4-H coordinator for Shawano County’s Extension program, to the point of doubling enrollment nationwide. That included checking to make sure the program is robust and that communication on what 4-H is all about helps people to understand how open it is to all youth.

“Leadership Shawano County has a reputation for getting things done,” Suehring said. “If you look at our 4-H program in Shawano County, it’s a fantastic program, and it’s one we can make even more fantastic.”

The review resulted in the creation of an expansion committee, which will look at updating materials to show modern programs and develop ways for children who age out of the program in adulthood to continue to be involved. There was also the recommendation of creating mentor families to help out new families entering the program.

The creation of the Friends group came about after learning that 51 miles of the 83-mile Mountain Bay Trail is in Shawano County, but most of the trail passes purchased are in the neighboring Brown and Marathon counties, according to Sander Flanderijn, a 2020 grad serving on the Friends’ board of directors. That creates a lopsided care system for the trail, as the majority of the trail is in this county, but little funding is available for the upkeep.

“We formed our nonprofit corporation. We created our mission and our vision, and we got five members on our board,” Flanderijn said. “We got a unique logo, and we’ve got a brochure with all the information.”

The Friends group has partnered with the county parks department and Shawano Pathways to raise funds through the Bike the Barn Quilt event and develop an adopt-a-trail program, Flanderijn said. He encouraged his fellow graduates to write “big, fat checks” to support the program.

The idea for an area resource center was crafted as an outlet to house multiple nonprofit programs, according to Karli Schreiber, another 2020 Leadership Shawano County graduate. There are about 100 programs in the county, she estimated, and half of them have no place to meet.

“The project proposal included the overall mission of the area resource center, which is to provide free space for administrative activities, leverage resources including volunteers to build capacity to carry out the missions of these organizations,” Schreiber said, noting that the plan is to also provide “common space, meeting rooms, free individual office space, internet, anything else they would really need.”

The place could also be a hub for anyone seeking to volunteer but unsure of what the area’s needs are. However, the process of moving into the Fellman Center has been paused due to the pandemic.

In its 20 years, Leadership Shawano County has facilitated 47 projects, according to Crawford. Among the projects still in operation today are the Shawano Area Young Professionals, Taste of Shawano, the Boys and Girls Club of Shawano and Sun Drop Dayz.

Crawford encouraged the graduates to keep learning even though the 2020 program has concluded.

“I really enjoyed being able to attend the sessions with you,” Crawford said to the graduates. “I consider myself a lifelong learner, and I assume the same is true of you.”

Marla Sparks is taking Crawford’s place as coordinator for Leadership Shawano County, which is conducted through the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce and the University of Wisconsin-Extension Office.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com