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Waupaca Rotary goes live

Chuck Reynolds is the new president of the Wauapca Rotary Club. His father, Ron Reynolds, found the Waupaca chapter in the early 1990s. James Card Photo

Club puts positive wheels in motion

By James Card

On the first and third Wednesday morning of every month, three men hunker down in the basement of city hall for a live broadcast on Waupaca Radio FM 96.3.

Josh Werner, the city’s tech chief, and Wayne Netzler, the media specialist, handle the technical details. Chuck Reynolds’s job is to fill a one-hour radio show with all the good things happening in Waupaca.

Reynolds is the new president of Waupaca’s Rotary Club and one of his first initiatives was to create a radio program that spreads good will in the community.

The program format features a local guest working on something noteworthy and there is Our Money, Your Cause which works like this: a person that likes the Rotary radio program on Facebook will have their name put into a drawing. During the program, a name is drawn and that person is given $50 to donate to a local charity of their choice.

There are updates on things the Rotary chapter is working on, and also featured are stories of good things happening in Waupaca—some of which are pulled from this newspaper. The program is also simulcast on WAUP 99.1 FM.

Reynolds also got the Rotary Youth Exchange up and running again after two years of pandemic limbo.

This year two new students from France and Finland will attend Waupaca High School and stay with local families and two Waupaca students will study abroad in Columbia and Spain. There is an initiative within the club to create a satellite club with the sole focus of building the youth exchange program throughout the district.

The district that Waupaca is part of ranges from Wautoma to Wausau to Lake Michigan to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula. “There is a real strong belief among the people involved in this club, all of them without exception, have hosted students and I think also all of them have had their kids go overseas so they have seen it and lived it and know the value of this international exchange,” said Reynolds.

Of the 43 chapters in the district, Waupaca is the biggest. There are currently 83 members.

Civic-minded civility

With the radio program launched and the exchange program brought back to life, there are two other initiatives that he and other club members have identified but they are much harder to pin down.

Reynolds admits they are works in progress and will take time to conceptualize. They are figuring out how to bring people together in an increasingly divided world and how to get more people involved in building a sense of community.

“There seems to be recognition of the need for civil conversation. When you think about it, there is a generation now, maybe, two, who have grown up in a very strange world of digital communication. Everybody knows that things [said] online is not normal. They don’t say the stuff online that they would say face-to-face. That will be one of our key focuses. Is there something we can do to promote and encourage and equip people to have more civil conversations? The long-term vision would be that people would say: ‘You know in Waupaca, when they have difficult issues, they have a way of talking about it,’” he said.

“We have 83 members from deep red to bright blue and it doesn’t stop us from working together to do good things in the community. I see people working on committees and I know that guy is red politically as he can be, and that guy is a very blue person and they just work on getting something done. If anybody can lead or help and encourage and model this stuff, I think the club is in good position to do this,” said Reynolds.

Music makes the meetings

Reynolds has some big shoes to fill: his father, Ron Reynolds is the club founder. He’s been a Rotarian for 52 years.

In 1991, Ron decided to retire. He sold off his industrial supply business, sold his house in Appleton and built a house on the Chain O’ Lakes. He learned that Waupaca didn’t have a Rotary chapter so he started one and it was officially chartered in January of 1993.

On their July 6 breakfast meeting at St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church, the event started off with some announcements and inspirational quotes. Guests were introduced and suddenly a small band off to the side of the room cranked out quick five-second jingles much like on a an old radio show.

Later, it was time to sing and the group of troubadours, including Ron, belted out the Charlie Chaplin classic “Smile” and Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World.”

This Waupaca tradition of having live music at meetings is unique to the world of Rotary Clubs. “It’s the only Rotary Club in the world that I know of that has a band,” said Ron.

When one member long ago mentioned he played the piano, and another the guitar, and another the drums, a band was formed. Ron has always been a crooner and he has sung Frank Sinatra covers at clubs and conventions throughout the country.

After founding the Waupaca chapter, he became district governor and visited all of the clubs in the northeastern Wisconsin-U.P. Michigan district.

“I put 11,000 miles on my car that year,” he said.

He saw firsthand how other clubs operate and it has allowed him to reflect on the enigma of why Waupaca has the biggest and most active chapter of the region.

“The people in this city are very willing to get involved. An example would be I’m in a club and we’re going to have a big major fundraiser and everybody comes and throws money at it and then goes and hides when it comes time to do the hands-on stuff – putting up stands or a tent or knocking on doors. Most clubs are like that. But Waupaca is just the opposite. We say we’re going to have a fundraiser. They all say: ‘What can I do?’ They are ready and willing,” said Ron.

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