A Proud Community!

Student to Service Sendoff Celebration shows large support to local military recruits

By Danielle Boos
Posted 5/25/23

Close to 200 members of the Stanley, Boyd and Cadott communities came to show their support for eight local military recruits from Stanley-Boyd and Cadott High Schools on Thursday May 18 at the …

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A Proud Community!

Student to Service Sendoff Celebration shows large support to local military recruits

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Close to 200 members of the Stanley, Boyd and Cadott communities came to show their support for eight local military recruits from Stanley-Boyd and Cadott High Schools on Thursday May 18 at the Student to Service Sendoff Celebration held at the Stanley Community Center.  The Students to Service Send Off Celebration event was organized by Marthamae Kottschade and local Stanley business owner Nicole Witt. The event featured a social hour, signing event, games, presentation of recruits, dinner and speeches from local veterans.  As a military mother of two Marines herself, Kottschade can sympathize with the families as she has experienced the issues that many of them will be facing in the next few weeks.

“I was proud. I was scared. I had to trust knowing our government,” she shared explaining her range of emotions when her own sons were deployed.

Those experiences inspired her to co-organize this event for the eight military recruits including six Marine recruits and two Air Force recruits.

“Part of our mission is to show these recruits and their families how much we care and support them” she said.

Nicole Witt explained her purpose for the celebration that they hope to make a yearly event.

“The purpose behind the Student to Service sendoff celebration is to show the new recruits, their friends and family that the community is here to support them and rally around them,” Witt said.

At the event, Peter Johnson, Chippewa County Veterans Service Officer, Teresa Isensee, President of the Boyd American Legion Auxiliary and Steve Isensee, Finance Officer of the Boyd American Legion, shared with the recruits and their families the benefits available to Veterans and those in the Military and their families. Offering her congratulations to the recruits, Teresa Isensee commented, “We make sure that we take care of your families here at home for you so that you don’t have to worry about them.”

Teresa informed the recruits that after their first full day of basic training, they will be eligible for membership in the American Legion.

Maj. Bruce Wozniak, a 1974 graduate of Stanley Boyd High School with 33 years of military experience with Special Forces and the Wisconsin National Guard, along with 25 years in Wisconsin State Patrol duty, shared an inspirational speech with the attendees citing the camaraderie of the northern Wisconsin veterans and community.

“Here we take care of each other,” Wozniak said to the recruits and their families.  “In Wisconsin you learn to take care of each other, work with each other, and work together.”

That camaraderie and brotherhood is well known to local veterans, including former State Sen. Dave Zien, who came from all over the area to show their support and share their wisdom with the new recruits along with the support of members of the Stanley Fire Department and First Responders and Stanley Mayor Al Haas.

During the historic event, Stanley-Boyd High School was named the Marine Corps Western Wisconsin School of the Year for their significant contributions to the success of Recruiting Station Twin Cities. Brennan Schrader, high school counselor at Stanley Boyd High School, along with Robert Seidl, a longtime Stanley-Boyd teacher, attended the Student to Service Celebration event where they accepted the High School of the Year Military Award on behalf of Stanley Boyd High School from SSgt Don Shipman. Schrader says that having seven military recruit students graduating in one year isn’t typical of Stanley Boyd, and he remarked that winning the award was a surprise.

“The school is appreciative for being recognized for giving students the opportunity to see if that’s what is there fit. We are open with military and colleges coming in and so just happy that they are finding what they feel like fits best with them,” he said.

Shipman remarked on the impressiveness of Stanley-Boyd to be up against schools, like Eau Claire North High School and Memorial High School, and to be able to exceed the numbers of recruits.

“For a school of 85 to be able to put six people in the Marine Corps is pretty amazing,” he said.

Seven of the recruits hailed from Stanley-Boyd High School and included Amber Broughton, John Burgoyne, Adian Glidden, Connor Hakes, Nolan Packard and Noah Pollert, all with intent to enter the Marines, and Alexa Liszewski, who intends to enter the Air Force. Also in attendance was Cadott High School senior recruit Garret Nerdrum, who is following in the footsteps of his grandfathers, John Nerdrum and Gerry Gully, both Air Force Veterans, to enter the Air Force in geospatial intelligence. He shared how he felt seeing the support of the community.

“It was a lot more than I was expecting, to be honest. To see as many people there as there was, it made me feel amazing. I have this many people supporting me and my decision, it was amazing. It was incredible,” he said.

Stanley recruit, Aidan Glidden, son of Chad and Jean Glidden, chose to enter the Marines to honor the memory of his late brother who had wanted to serve his country. 

“I felt overwhelmed that there’s so many people that have been in the service. It was really overwhelming to see the support for future Marines,” Glidden said of the sendoff celebration. He remarked on what he will miss the most when he leaves for boot camp. “Family for sure. Friends. And maybe even school,” he said.

Amber Broughton, a senior at Stanley-Boyd, is the only female Marine recruit this year and will be leaving after graduation for basic training on June 12. Coming from a military family, Amber feels the support of her boyfriend and family including her parents, Alyssa and Arthur.

“I probably wouldn’t be where I am today without them,” Amber shared. “They are my biggest inspiration.” 

She mentioned how meeting and spending time with area veterans has impacted her. “I feel like that had a huge impact on how we all saw things. They all gave us pointers. They all gave us different points of views of how we’ll see things when we get there. That’s 100 percent opened up a lot of our perspectives,” she added.  Feeling the community support on Thursday night, Amber spoke on the impact that has had on her experience.

“I personally don’t think I would have had as much confidence if I didn’t have the community by me,” she said.

For more information on upcoming events, you can follow the Students to Service Sendoff Celebration event page on Facebook.