WAUPUN — The Waupun Community Fund held an exclusive dinner event last week, inviting members of the Waupun business community to learn more about the organization and their mission.
The event was held at Hoya Hop House Brewing on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Cocktail hour began at 5:30PM, with dinner at 6:30PM served by Chef Chanse Cuisine.
Tyler Schultz, a member of the Waupun Community Fund board, spoke at the event briefly after the dinner, thanking all those who attended. Tyler began by introducing the members of the board, including Jan Harmsen as president. He then explained the history of the group, and what they hope to accomplish for the community.
“In 2021, Mike Werner called [City Administrator] Kathy Schlieve and said ‘Hey, I’ve got some money and I want to figure out what to do with it,’” Tyler said. “And Kathy said, ‘We’ll take it,’ but she didn’t know exactly what to do with it at that point. So she asked me, ‘Hey, what should we do with this money?’ and I had no idea. So she came up with a list and said we should start a community fund. We then put a group together and we started this community fund.”
“In the last few years, we were able to do a couple projects from our donations,” he continued. “We were able to do the fountain at the mill pond, the driveway at the cemetery—we don’t do just cemetery stuff, I promise.”
The largest project so far was the reconstruction of the shared Shaler Park and Forest Mound Cemetery road, which was done through the first $52,000 contribution from Mike Werner in 2022. In 2024, the Waupun Community Fund also distributed grants to four local nonprofits, including Create Waupun, REACH Waupun, Church Health Services, and St Vincent De Paul.
“It all started with Mike who donated $100,000 and we were able to put some of that away and raise a bunch of other money. We just thank Mike for kicking us off the ground, and we hopefully raised a bunch of money tonight so we thank you all for coming—we’re hoping to do some fun things with that money.”
Schultz then invited board member Adam Vande Slunt to speak.
“We’re really looking for what the vision of the community is,” Vande Slunt said. “How can we best put forward the resources we’ve been blessed with by donations from the community? Where can they go? What can they do? So we’re looking for help in getting off the ground with some traction that we can do.”
Vande Slunt outlined some ideas they’ve been working on, including replacing the sign in front of the Police Department/Safety Building, constructing a permanent band stage, or putting a splash pad in at McCune Park. The Community Fund has looked into similar charitable organizations in other communities, at what they’ve done to raise money and what they put that money towards.
“It would be my goal, and I think the goal of the community, not just to raise a whole bunch of money to sit in some account somewhere, but to almost immediately turn around to give away,” he said. “Mike Werner had a vision with the help of the City. And if you have some cash you would like to donate, and a vision of how you want to deploy that, it can be something we can help bring that dream forward.”
Mark Homan then introduced the entertainment of the night, “Magical Mentalist” Jym Elders. Elders previously performed for a REACH Waupun fundraiser banquet in 2023 and a Homan Auto event in town. Waupun Pioneer News interviewed Elders after the REACH event in 2023.
There were about 90 members of the Waupun business community in attendance at the event.
