From all accounts it seems that students, parents, faculty and volunteers were all feeling the "good vibrations" of this summer's Milwaukee POE 2010 held at Carroll University in Waukesha last week. (July 18-23) Matthew Wahl, aged 16 from Elgin, IL wrote on his Facebook page, "The Milwaukee POE was the most awesome experience of my life!" Jamie Watkins of Mukwonago, WI is already asking about the possibility of attending a POE next summer. Faculty member and performing artist, Chelsea Chen of New York City was overheard to say that this was the best of the POEs on which she has had the opportunity to serve as a faculty member.
Much of the success of our week had to do with the dedicated and talented faculty our chapter was fortunate to pull together. We owe a great deal of gratitude for our local faculty Martha Aslakson, Brian Eggers, Lee Erickson, Michael Hey (Waukesha native and a sophomore at Juilliard this coming fall) Joyce Ruck, Drew Rutz, John Schubring and Audrey Timm-Rhinehart. Our guest faculty consisted of Charles Barland of the University of Dubuque, Chelsea Chen, performing artist and composer, Marilyn Schempp of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, Wyatt Smith, a junior at University of South Dakota, Vermillion, and performing artist, Daniel Sullivan of Eau Claire, WI.
All of these faculty members were involved as teachers and performers. Guest faculty performances were varied, inspiring and of the highest imaginable quality.
Our faculty, staff and volunteers kept the students moving with a daily schedule of lessons, faculty presentations, daily meals and some coveted practice time (often lasting late into the evening) at the Schantz organ at Shattuck Auditorium. There were opportunities for worship, daily organ recitals at Carroll or at one of the many participating churches throughout the Milwaukee area. There were organ demonstrationsby David Beyer and Scott Riedel, organ crawls, and a Hymn Sing led by Bruce Bengtson. There was a trip to Organ Piper Pizza to hear Ron Reseigh dazzle us with his virtuoso talents and even time for sampling Gilles famous frozen custard, a trip to Discovery World and a cookout hosted by Ss. Peter and Paul parishioners.
| The success of this weeklong event was only possible
because of the efforts and dedication of so many members of our
Milwaukee AGO chapter. We are grateful to Phyllis Stringham for
initiating the dream of having our chapter sponsor this event already
several years ago. Although she has passed on, her presence was
definitely felt during the week and during the course of our years of
planning.
We are extremely grateful for the efforts our POE Task
Force (Craig Bodoh, Charles Habeck, Mark Davidson, Fr. Tom Lijewski,
Ingrid Pierson, Todd Anderson and David Beyer) who spent many months and
hours preparing for this week. We thank all of you who so generously
contributed funds to make this week possible. We thank all the many
volunteers during the POE week who served as chaperones, bakers,
librarians, registrars, van drivers and more.  Finally, we all owe a big
debt of thanks to our out going dean and POE Co- Director, Larry
Wheelock for his dedication and expertise on so many levels. Larry was
instrumental in convincing National Headquarters that the Milwaukee AGO
was up to the task and in selling the idea (to them and ourselves)
through his many skills at organization, communication, attention to
detail and his many practical skills like graphic design. These talents
were generously shared throughout the course of our planning and
continued up to the closing day of the event. Thank you, Larry! And
thank you Milwaukee AGO for an inspiring week and a job well done!
-Tom Koester, POE Co-Director |
