February, 2006
 
President's Letter
Goings On In Damon Woods
Our Neighbors in Damon Woods
Tosa Goings On
News in Lowell Damon Woods

Hi,
 
I have to admit that writing this month’s President’s Letter has been somewhat difficult. Not only has my computer started randomly shutting itself down and refusing to start up again, taking with it anything I have written, but great ideas for the letter completely escaped me.
Then one night I actually dreamed about a LDW board meeting. (Clearly I need help!) This dream meeting, though, was a little different than our usual get-togethers at the Firefly room or a coffee shop - this one took place in front of a first grade class at Lincoln. At the meeting, three Board candidates were challenged to make brief presentations to the Board and the 1st graders on the history of Wauwatosa.
 
I awoke at that point, glad that in reality no such requirement is made of LDW board members, but also thinking about what great and interesting historical information is available to us in Damon Woods. Take a look at the web site (www.damonwoods.org) under “about us” to learn the history of our street names. Tour the Lowell Damon house. Visit the Historical Society to learn of the development of this area. And perhaps most interesting, talk to long term residents about how things have changed, and how they have remained the same, here in Damon Woods. We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood which is vibrant and lively, but still retains the flavor of times past.
 
Here in the present, I would like to thank Linda O’Brien, Robin Bloczynski and Dean Teofilo for their assistance with the Winter Party, and all who attended for making it a success. If you haven’t made it to a neighborhood event check out the calendar in this newsletter - there are plenty of opportunities coming up. TGIF parties in February and March (St. Patrick’s Day, no less!) and the Easter Egg hunt for the kids are all fun times. I hope to see you there!
 
Anne Fee
President

PS: Don’t forget to send in your 2006 membership!
 


Goings On In Damon Woods

PLAY GROUP NEWS
If it's been a long winter for you and your toddler, we have a great way to counter cabin fever. Join us for playgroup! It's a fun social time for kids, newborn through kindergarten, and their parents. We generally meet every other Thursday from 9:30-11:30am (check the schedule as sometimes days vary). The host house provides light refreshments for all.

It's free, it's fun… it's worth the trouble of bundling up the little one! Questions? Contact Julie Janisch with questions at info@damonwoods.org.

Feb 9: Stacey Muller
Feb 23: Erin Castagnozzi
Feb 9: Michele Matthai
Feb 9: Julie Janisch
Apr 12:   Laura Lynn MacDonald
Playgroup Easter Egg Hunt; bring a basket to collect eggs.

UPCOMING LOWELL DAMON WOODS ASSOCIATION EVENTS

Apr 8th - Easter Egg Hunt
June 9th/10th—Neighborhood Rummage Sale
Aug 12th—Second Annual LDWNA Golf Outing
Oct TBD—Harvest Fest
Oct 31st—Neighborhood Association Trick or Treat
Dec 2nd—Cookie Exchange and Tree-dition Tree Pickup

UPCOMING TGIF PARTIES
The next neighborhood TGIF is Friday, February 17th at 7:00 pm at the home of Kris and Jim Gehrke of N. 83rd. In keeping the spirit of them just returning from Mexico on the 11th, the party will be take on a Mexican theme. Please bring a beverage and appetizer in keeping with the theme of the evening. (Sombreros are welcome!) As a special treat, John Schaal Jr., co-owner of Tosa’s newest business establishment, Vino 100, will be stopping by to do a brief wine tasting. RSVP to the Gehrke’s at info@damonwoods.org.
 
The March TGIF will be March 17th (yes on St. Patrick's Day) will be hosted by Anne and Pat Fee at their home on Church St at 7:00 pm. RSVP to the Fee’s at info@damonwoods.org.
 
Remember that these parties are open to all neighbors and it is a great way to meet fellow Damon Woods residents in a casual setting.
 
Upcoming TGIF hosts: Leslie and Bill Duyser will host the June TGIF at their home on Church Street on June 16th .
 
If you are interested in hosting an upcoming TGIF, please contact Kris Gehrke at info@damonwoods.org.

BOOK CLUB
Date: March 20th, 2006 at 7:30 pm 
Place: Tom and Jeanine Schoen's home on Jackson Park Blvd
Book: The Bookseller of Kabul, by Asne Seierstad
 
Asne Seierstad, a female journalist from Norway, moved in with the Khan family in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Disguised as she was behind the bulky, shapeless burka and escorted always by a man and even in Western dress, she was somehow anonymous and accepted readily into the bookseller's large extended family. Her account is of the tragedy, contradictions, rivalries, and daily frustrations of a middle-class Afghan family. The title character, "Sultan Khan", is the patriarch of the family, a successful bookseller who owns three shops in Kabul. (Who knew that there were chain stores in Afghanistan?) Because of his love of books, he's done some courageous things in his life and served some time in prison for it.

However, the book is not really about Khan, but about several members of his family, especially the women. Though, as the patriarch Khan shapes everything that goes on in the family, he seems unaware of what shapes him. Seierstad accompanied the women as they shopped and dressed for a wedding and was privy to the negotiations for the marriage. She tells of the death by suffocation of a young woman who met her lover in secret, the bored meanderings of a 12-year-old boy forced to work 12-hour days selling candy in a hotel lobby, and of going on a religious pilgrimage with a restless, frustrated teen. All this is recounted with journalistic objectivity in spite of her close ties to the Khans. Events that the author doesn't actually witness or participate in, she recounts from conversations with members of the family, primarily Sultan Khan's sister.

NEXT BOARD MEETING
The neighborhood association's next Board meeting is at 7:00 pm, on March 16th in the Firefly Room at the Wauwatosa Library. Please join us and share your ideas.
 


Our Neighbors in Damon Woods

 
NEWS TO SHARE?
Has someone in the neighborhood had a birth? How about newsworthy items or accomplishments in your family. Pass it on to Larry Kopperud at info@damonwoods.org for inclusion in the next newsletter. 

 
NEW TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD?
Have you recently moved into the neighborhood? You can go to our neighborhood association web page and select the New Neighbors button from the list along the left hand side to go the New Neighbors Form page. Fill in the information to introduce you and your family…. Or, you can contact Amy Giampetroni who is in charge of newcomers. After receipt, the New Newcomers Group will stop by with a nice welcoming packet for you and your family. 

ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP
David Philleo and Agnes Radabaugh (seniors) recently moved from Tosa to New Berlin. They chose to renew their Neighborhood Association membership because they want to stay connected with the Damon Woods neighborhood. What a great testament to our neighborhood.

New members and new to Damon Woods are:
Nancy and Chuck Cooney on N. 83rd St.
 
Just a reminder, if you have not yet renewed your membership or you would like to join for the first time, you can get the membership form off of our website and drop the form and fee off at Laurie Lehman’s house.

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT
Lauren and Kevin Rea of Forest St. were blessed on January 8, 2006 with the birth of a beautiful baby boy, Brendan Dwight Rea. At birth he weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz and was 21-1/2 inches long.


 

 

 
A TASTE OF DAMON WOODS
While Marcy Minix continues to compile recipes for the neighborhood association cookbook, the submittals at this time are not enough to create a substantive cookbook. We think the cookbook has merit and Marcy will accept all recipes submitted, but unless enough are submitted soon we may have to drop the idea. The target date for printing will be late spring to early summer to make the cookbook available at the Annual Meeting and Pig Roast this summer.
 
So dig out those recipes for hors d’oevres, salads, casseroles, recipes for grilling, cookies, cakes, and other desserts and either e-mail them to Marcy or drop them off at her home. And don’t forget recipes for summer fruits and vegetables.
 
You may drop off recipes at Marcy Minix' home or e-mail recipes to her at nfo@damonwoods.org.

PINEWOOD DERBY
Cub Scout Pack 474 at Lincoln School held their Pinewood Derby on January 21st. From left to right Noah Wells (Den 2 winner), Merrick Wells (Den 1 winner), Ethan Radecki (Den 4 winner), Agu Ibanez-Baldor (2nd place overall), Damon Woods residents Dan McNeely (best original design) and Bracken Heiges (first place overall), Carl Behlmer (1st place guests), and Miles Brooks (craftsmanship).
 
For the first time ever, the event was open to guests to enter their creations in a separate race. Favorite designs included Pink Panther by Stephanie Chin and Gumball Machine by Jessie Maude McNeely.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL REMINDER
We are now a month into the new year and we have received many membership renewal forms back for 2006. However, many of you may have been busy with the holidays, misplaced your newsletter with form stuffed inside, or maybe you just plain forgot. Well, it’s not too late to get your membership renewed or even join for the first time.
 
You can search through the house to find the form or you can even download a form from our website www.damonwoods.org. Take the time today, tomorrow, or even the next day. Just don’t procrastinate too long. We would like to get all the renewal work done and over with. Forms should be dropped off at Laurie Lehman’s home.
 
We are working out the details and are thinking about providing the option of renewing memberships online through our web-site. It would likely cost an extra dollar for the convenience. We would like your feedback on the viability of using this service. You can use the back of the form to indicate whether you would use it or not, or you can e-mail one of the board members to let them know your thoughts.

DAMON WOOD INFORMATION
Keep in touch with upcoming events and news as it happens. Sign up to be a member of our neighborhood news list at Topica.com. Send an e-mail to damonwoods@topica.com with “subscribe” as the subject. Follow the online Topica instructions. The information you fill out is confidential and you will not get e-mail spam. If you find out that you don’t like it, you can unsubscribe from the service.
   


Tosa Goings On

 WAUWATOSA NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION COUNCIL
Quarterly Meeting held on January 11, 2006

At a meeting centering around the theme “Communication,” new NAC President Denise Lindberg explained changes the NAC is trying out. A pool of past officers from over the 11 years of NAC has formed an Executive Committee that will meet every other month “to leverage the experience, knowledge, networks and talents of those people.”
NAC itself will meet four times a during 2006, with themes: April 12th (volunteers, boards, committees and youth service opportunities); July 19th (by-laws, incorporation, insurance and 501(c)(3) status; and October 11th (city and county government). The quarterly schedule will be re-evaluated next fall to see if it’s meeting associations’ needs.
NAC will communicate through as-needed eBlasts, which have a distinctive, newsletter-like design and are intended to let residents know about quality-of-life issues, meetings and events which are distributed via e-mail to NAC members and newsletter editors.
The NAC’s goal is to educate, strengthen and energize neighborhood associations. NAC will continue to foster new associations, such as one that may soon be starting on the city’s northwest side. Like the associations and NAC, the Executive Committee is non-political and is made up of residents. An additional goal is to educate residents on the processes of local government.
NAC hopes to establish its own Website this year to further its mission of resident education and information dissemination via new technologies, such as email “Blasts” and Websites.
 
Hoyt Park Pool
Laurie Panella, chief of recreation services for Milwaukee County Parks, would like more people to fill out a survey on what the county should do with Hoyt Pool, which closed after the 2002 season because extensive and expensive repairs are needed. The survey is available as a pdf file at www.countyparks.com. Laurie wants additional surveys sent to her as soon as possible and no later than February 15th.
An Aquatics Master Plan the County Board adopted in 2002, the 75 to 100 surveys received so far, and citizens who attended an Aquatics Advisory Committee meeting last November have recommended the current pool be replaced with a leisure pool similar to those at Wirth Park in Brookfield and the Cedarburg Community Pool. The County Aquatics Committee is strongly leaning toward making a recommendation this spring that the county build a leisure pool. (This would be a family-friendly complex with zero-depth entry along one side, play equipment, heated water, lap swimming, shade and lounge areas, and a concession area, among other amenities.) If the existing building could be retained, removing the old pool and building a new one could cost $3.5 million to $5 million. The earliest the County Board and County Executive could approve money for a new pool would be November.
Interested citizens are urged to attend three meetings concerning the pool, as a strong show of support may sway the County Board. Denise Lindberg will give a NAC PowerPoint presentation at the Wauwatosa School Board meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 in the Longfellow Middle School cafeteria. (The presentation is based on information gathered during a citizen-based Strategic Planning Committee process that resulted in a final report in 1999.) The Hoyt Park Pool issue also will be discussed at Aquatic Committee meetings at 10 a.m. Feb. 3 and 2 p.m. March 2 at the Parks Administration Building, 9480 Watertown Plank Rd.
 
Hart Park Senior Center
Merry Johnson, director of the YMCA’s Hart Park Senior Center, needs volunteers of all ages to serve lunches at the center in the Muellner Building. She will e-mail information to Denise, who will distribute it through a NAC eBlast. Merry also asked that neighborhood associations make an effort to find out which senior citizens need help, even if it’s just some camaraderie.
 
Friends of Hart Park
A Friends of Hart Park group is forming primarily concerned with restoring the riverbank in Hart Park with native plants rather than gravel. The group is asking MMSD to put dirt along the creek bed so that volunteers can do the planting. Everyone, particularly people interested in gardening and ecology, is encouraged to attend a meeting Jan. 19th at the Muellner Building. The group is gathering at 6:30 pm, with a panel at 7:00 pm followed by a discussion.
 
National Night Out
Mary Van Derven noted that plans for the 2006 National Night Out are being worked out. Because of the Hart Park construction, the Night Out may be at Wauwatosa West High School, or it may revert to a very grassroots effort centering around small block watch parties.
 
Wauwatosa Police Reserves Benefit
Saturday, February 18th, 2006 at Alioto’s
 
The Wauwatosa Police Reserves have scheduled a benefit for one of their members who is currently fighting cancer. Reserve Officer Tom Slattery is in the midst of his third bout with cancer. Tom has been an active part of the Wauwatosa Police Reserves since 2004.
He has volunteered hundreds of hours to the citizens of Wauwatosa, including many hours after being re-diagnosed in 2005.
Tom is married with four children and will likely miss at least a year of work during his treatment and recovery. All proceeds from the benefit will go directly to Tom and his family. Tom’s doctors at Froedtert have consulted with Lance Armstrong’s oncologist team. Tom’s treatment will involve his own stem cells and will be extremely drastic.
Officer Paul Leist requests that the NAC pass the following information on to your neighborhood association about this event.

 


News In Lowell Damon Woods
 
NEW HISTORICAL DONATIONS TO THE DAMON WOODS MUSEUM
  

Numerous Damon descendants have visited the Damon House since June 2004. Of course we are all aware of the visits from Tom Damon and the involvement of Bob (great-great-grandson of Lyman Damon) and Kathy Damon and their daughters from Appleton at the Harvest Fest in October 2004. Their visits were prompted by the initial visit of Bob's brother (great-great-grandson of Lyman Damon, Lowell's brother) and his wife from Colorado Springs.
 
Since then, we had a couple more surprise visits from Steve (of Madison WI) and Mrs. Hartley (of Kenosha WI, Steve's Mother), the great -granddaughter and great-great grandson of Luther Damon, Lowell's brother. They returned late in 2005 with the donations of a Damon family spinning wheel and numerous original photos of Damon family members.
 
Peter and Beth Bagley of Duluth, MN visited in June 2005. Peter is the great-great-grandson of Lowell Damon's nephew, Lowell Jr. They returned in the fall to donate family bibles to the museum.
 

DAMON WOODS POLAR BEAR CLUB
The “Damon Woods Polar Bear Club" made their New Year’s dip into Lake Michigan on New Year’s day at Bradford Beach. Pictured after they finished their swim are (left to right): John Rutkiewicz, Josh Riley, Bill Duyser, and Jim Gehrke.

 

 

 
NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION WINTER PARTY A SUCCESS
Once again Damon Woods neighbors gathered at the historic Kneeland-Walker House for the annual Winter Party on January 7th. The party was well attended by neighbors who were treated to a large array of hors d'oeuvres as well as a wide assortment of wines and beers.


 

 

NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTION
THANK YOU—to those who helped deliver the December newsletters! Ellie Bjorkman, Tiffany Bruett, Pam Christopherson, Kris and Jim Gehrke, Lori Lehman, Kathy Mannebach, Linda and Erin Merklein, Steve and Sam Nolinske, Kathleen Romfoe, Jeanine Schoen, and Frank and Joanne Shansky. If you would like to help deliver, contact Karen McNeely.