WAUPUN — The Waupun Food Pantry received a total of $10,000 from a Waupun Lion’s Club fundraiser raffle held earlier this summer.
The check was handed to the Food Pantry at the Lion’s Club meeting held Tuesday evening at The Rock Golf Club.
The money was raised through the “Can of Kindness” raffle contest, with tickets sold over the last few months. $5,000 were raised by the Lions in the raffle, and the other $5,000 were provided through a matching grant by the fraternal insurance company GBU Life.
“I just want to thank everybody involved, especially Rob [Schatz], and everyone that’s donated and caused this thing to grow so much bigger than I ever thought it would,” said Terri Respalje, who works as the Food Pantry manager. “It’s an amazing thing for this community to just rally around us and this project and just watch it come to life.”
Tickets had been sold at several events in Waupun in the weeks leading up to the drawing, which was held at the Lion’s Club Annual Golf Outing on June 21. This included the 2024 Wine Walk, Antique Tractor Show, and the 50th Anniversary Homan Auto Car Show.
“I also wanted to thank the food pantry for helping us sell tickets, we worked jointly together to raise this money and it worked out very nice,” said Robert Schatz, president of the Waupun Lion’s Club. “We might not have been able to raise as much if we wouldn’t have had the Food Pantry’s assistance, so I’m grateful to their help and I’m glad we’re able to get this much for them.”
The money from the fundraiser will go towards food for various programs and the purchase of new equipment, including larger refrigerators.
“What’s really exciting about this is this check got us to our goal to raise for the food pantry,” said Joel Sterk, president of the Food Pantry. “So this check actually got us and probably put us over a little bit of our fundraising goal. We truly appreciate what the Lions have done.”
The Waupun Food Pantry board is made up of Joel Sterk as president, Terri Respalje as manager, David Vogel as treasurer, and Pastor Barry Lang as secretary.
Pictured: Members of the Waupun Lion’s Club present the check to the board of the Waupun Food Pantry, with Terri Respalje and Robert Schatz holding the check.
