Platteville Optimist Club

Right: City Manager, Caz Muske, holding her son, Atlas, and Optimist President Terri Ellis Platteville's new city manager, Caz Muske, was our speaker this week. She was accompanied by her son Atlas, who was wide awake and very attentive while his mom spoke to our club. Caz grew up in Texas and has served in local government since 2015. She earned her bachelor's degree from McNeese State University and Master of Public Administration from Penn State. She is an ICMA Creden

Paul Budden, Amber Monroe, and Terri Ellis Hosting two exchange students was a challenging and rewarding experience for fellow Optimist Amber Monroe. Shortly after moving into a new home Amber saw a Nacel Open Door posting about hosting exchange students. She decided to do it and ended up hosting two 15 year old girls, Nadia from Spain and Mattie from Germany. Not having children of her own, she soon discovered it does take a village to raise a child. The very talented gir

L-R: Optimist Member Paul Budden, Rev Dr. Dale Young, Optimist President Terri Ellis Rev Dr. Dale Young spoke to the Optimist Club about "Navigating the Headwinds" at the July 24, 2026 meeting. Dale graduated from Platteville High School and UW-Platteville. He graduated from the Navel Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and was commissioned a navel officer. He served in combat in Vietnam and later served as a communications officer at the Pentagon in Washin

Fire Chief Ryan Simmons Fire Chief Ryan Simmons was our speaker today. He spoke about the new fire facility and offered some helpful life saving tips that everyone can use at home. The new fire facility is progressing very well with occupancy of the new station hopefully around Aug 1st. The old station’s footprint could almost fit into the new stations apparatus bays it’s that big. The old station’s doors are only 10 ft x10 ft forcing the department to purchase custom built

Nicole Peterson Maggie Kleisath, Nicole Peterson, Terri Ellis Nicole Peterson Nicole Peterson visited our meeting to tell us about her Girl Scout Gold Award project. This is the highest honor available in Girl Scouts and requires the scout to identify a root-cause community issue and dedicate at least 80 hours to creating a sustainable, measurable solution. Nicole’s project was building raised garden beds at Family Advocates, allowing Family Advocates to gr

L-R: Optimist Club Vice President Barb Stockhausen, Bart Neis from Delta 3 Engineering, and Optimist Member Jerry Schewe Bart Neis, President and Owner of Delta 3 Engineering, spoke to the Optimist Club about community planning and project financing. Delta 3 Engineering works with 91 communities throughout Wisconsin and Iowa. Bart personally works with 80 of them taking care of their public works needs and grant writing. He estimated that they work with ~400 projects/year a

Josh Grabandt, Platteville Chief of Police with Optimist President, Terri Ellis Josh Grabandt began his career with the Platteville Police Department in January, 2000. On March 2, 2026, he began his duties as Platteville Chief of Police. Chief Grabandt spoke about his transition from officer to chief noting that the biggest adjustment is that everyone looks to the chief for directive. He's responsible for writing policies, setting goals, and engaging staff and keeping them

Nathan Manwiller, Angie Wright, and President Terri Ellis After receiving our donation of $2,117, Angie Wright and Nathan Manwiller, of the aquatic center fundraising committee, provided additional details on the new center. Overall, construction has gone very well. The only snag, and the reason why the grand opening had to be delayed, is the continual delay in receiving some filters that were originally scheduled to arrive April 1. A positive to the delay, though, is th

Carley Borcherding arranged an Optimist Club field trip to Pioneer Farm to learn about their Lely A5 robotic milkers. We were greeted by Tera Montgomery, Full Professor of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences in the UW-Platteville School of Agriculture, Campus Liaison for the Dairy Innovation Hub and the Director of the School of Agriculture. Tera gave an update on the 430 acre farm which primarily a teaching, research and outreach facility. She talked about their preparat

Sporting his favorite t-shirt, fellow optimist member Bob Hundhausen brought a lot of humor and heart to our club meeting on May 22 as he spoke about the history of comics and his comic book collection. He began by saying his wife would say he has two PhD's, one in comic books and a second in Star Trek. His interest in comics began in 1974 when he was seven years old watching TV shows such as Superman, Aquaman Action Hour, and the 1960s Batman on a 13" black and white TV.

Wayne Wodarz President Terri Ellis, Wayne Wodarz, and Carley Borcherding Optimist Carley Borcherding invited fellow Optimist Wayne Wodarz, Executive Director of the Platteville Area Chamber of Commerce to speak to our Club. Wayne highlighted three different areas of interest; 2025 State Tourism, Travel and Tourism Week, and Day Trips in our area. The latest tourism results showed that room tax revenue in Platteville hit a new record in 2025. It rose a whopping 17%,

Karin Peacock Wendy Johnson Kathy Kubitz L-R: President Terri Ellis and Master Gardeners Wendy Johnson, Kathy Kubitz, Karin Peacock, and Carley Borcherding Three Master Gardeners, Karin Peacock, Wendy Johnson, and Kathy Kubitz spoke to our Club on Friday, May 8, 2026. A Master Gardener is a volunteer who has become certified by the Master Gardener program. They explained that they may not have all the answers but they know where to look or who to ask. They present o

L-R: Optimist Members Scott Onson and Amy Coffey, Darin Shireman from Wayfarer Coffee, Optimist Club President Terri Ellis Darin Shireman is the former owner of Badger Bros Coffee and current owner of Wayfarer Coffee. Wayfarer Coffee is a coffee roaster and shop in Dubuque known for ethically sourced, small-batch roasted beans, and a mission to promote community connection. They also supply their roasted beans to other local businesses. Darin admits that after many years in

Mattie Schutte Mattie Schutte left her home in Berlin, Germany to spend the school year as a foreign exchange student at the Platteville High School. She and last week's speaker, Nadia de las Rivas are both staying with Optimist Amber Monroe. Mattie has had to adjust from living in a large metropolitan area to the much slower pace of our small city. She shared pictures of festivals in Germany, which almost always include German beer. Both large and small Christmas markets a

Left and center: Nadia de las Rivas, PHS foreign exchange student. Right: Nadia and Optimist Victoria Hundhausen share a few words in Spanish. Nadia de las Rivas, a foreign exchange student at Platteville High School, is spending the school year with Optimist Club member Amber Monroe. Nadia is from Spain but more specifically from Palma the capital city of the island of Mallorca. Located in the Mediterranean Sea, Mallorca is the largest of the five islands comprising the Bal

Robin Fuller Pastor Lex Liberatore Today's speakers were Pastor Lex Liberatore & Robin Fuller from First Congregational Church. They spoke primarily about what they are trying to do to combat loneliness and depression through some of their secular outreach programs. Contrary to what many believe, loneliness and depression is more prevalent among teens and young adults than in senior citizens. Part of this is due to the excessive screen time in the younger generation

Center: Victoria Hundhausen shows her "Alien" green card. Far Right: Victoria Hundhausen with Optimist President Terri Ellis Optimist member, Victoria Hundhausen, is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city in Argentina with a population of 17 million people. Victoria grew up in the city, where approximately 3 million reside, being a resident for 30 years. She shared her personal immigration story, prefacing it by saying she is n

Speaker Michael Bottrell Michael Bottrell, a retired dentist, maintains a Master Personal Trainer certification. Throughout the years, he has had on going knife, handgun and jiu-jitsu training. He has earned a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Michael spoke to the Optimist Club about the world of violence, specifically about sexual assaults. One in four women report that they have experienced sexual violence. Most cases go unreported. While we like to think that these

L-R: Optimist Member Beth Frieders; Tera Montgomery, Pioneer Sweets; and Optimist President Terri Ellis Tera Montgomery is originally from the Fond du Lac area and earned her undergrad from UW-River Falls in Equine Science. She went to Maryland to earn her graduate degree and earned her PhD from the University of Illinois. In 2009, she came to the UW-Platteville School of Agriculture where she was initially assigned to teach a dairy products class. At the time, she had li

Far Right L-R: Optimist Member Beth Frieders, Juli McGuire from Blue Roof Orchard, and Optimist President Terri Ellis The Optimist Club was delighted to have Juli McGuire speak this morning about her passion for sustainable farming and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA's). Juli is a native Hungarian. After she graduated from college in Hungary, she had the opportunity to come to New York state for a year. It was there that she met her husband, Chris, who worked in a col