Largest Ski Swap in Midwest to Take Place Dec. 7-8 in Madison

Contact Information: Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Office: (608) 262-8862
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu

LARGEST SKI SWAP IN MIDWEST TO TAKE PLACE DEC. 7-8 IN MADISON

Hoofer Ski and Snowboard Resale will feature discounted new, used winter sports gear 

MADISON – The 56th Annual Hoofer Ski and Snowboard Resale will take place Dec. 7 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Dec. 8 from 8 a.m.-noon at Union South’s Varsity Hall and will feature local and national vendors with discounted new and used winter sports gear for the entire family. 

Resale customers can expect items to include downhill and cross-country skis, snowboards, winter recreation apparel, and more at significantly discounted prices for customers of all ages. Event organizers recommend that customers bring height, weight, and European and standard boot/shoe size information for all those for whom they will shop. 

Current vendors include the following: 

• Bliz Eyewear
• Expedition Supply, Inc.
• Extreme Ski and Bike
• Fitzharris Ski and Sport
• Focus Board Shop
• Fontana Sports
• Gear West
• Lakewood Ski and Sport
• Shepherd and Schaller Sporting
• Sol Alpine
• Wayne’s Ski and Cycle

“This is a unique experience in that we offer the largest ski swap event in the Midwest, with over 12,000 greatly discounted new and used products,” Hoofer Ski and Snowboard Club President Owen Tortora said. “Attendees are sure to find any equipment they desire, from top-of-the-line freestyle skis and snowboards, to goggles and jackets, to Nordic gear.”

The Hoofer Alpine and Nordic Ski Teams will also offer ski and snowboard waxing and sharpening at the Resale. Each waxing or sharpening service will cost $10 per snowboard or pair of skis. 

The Hoofer Ski and Snowboard Club also welcomes individuals to each bring up to 10 items for the Club to sell during the Resale. To participate, an individual can drop off up to 10 items with on-site salespeople, who can assist in pricing the items, if needed. For information about items that the Club can accept, visit hoofersns.org/resale. 

Proceeds from each sale will help fund the Club’s ski and snowboard teams as well as Club trips, including free ski trips with local non-profit groups, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County. 

The Hoofer Ski and Snowboard Club hosts the resale, which has been an annual tradition for more than 50 years. The Club includes the Hoofer Alpine, Freestyle and Nordic Ski Teams. The Club is one of six outdoors clubs that make up the Wisconsin Hoofers, which has nearly 2,000 members, including students, staff, faculty and other community members. From sailing on Lake Mendota to climbing at Devil’s Lake, Hoofers welcomes people of all abilities to learn outdoor skills and enjoy outdoor activities. 

More information about the Resale is available at union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/56th-annual-hoofer-ski-and-snowboard-resale. 

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About the Wisconsin Hoofers

The Wisconsin Hoofers is the largest student organization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with thousands of members comprised of students, faculty, staff and community members. Formed in 1919, the Hoofers have six clubs with members that love spending time together outdoors. Learn more about the Hoofers, including their excursions and their outdoor education opportunities: union.wisc.edu/wisconsin-hoofers. 

[Note to the editor: Click here to download a photo from a past Hoofer Ski and Snowboard Resale in Varsity Hall in Union South. Photo provided by the Wisconsin Union. Photo by Owen Desai.]

To read this release online, visit union.wisc.edu/about/news/sns-resale-2019. 

Joshua Murphy Named Commercial Banker, VP at Wisconsin Bank & Trust

CONTACT: Curtis Chrystal
President & CEO
608.203.1224
CChrystal@wisconsinbankandtrust.com

Beth Rowe
Marketing and Public Relations Director, VP
563.589.2059
BRowe@dubuquebank.com 

JOSHUA MURPHY NAMED COMMERCIAL BANKER, VP AT WISCONSIN BANK & TRUST

October 31, 2019 — MADISON, WI — Wisconsin Bank & Trust is pleased to announce that Joshua Murphy has joined the organization as a Commercial Banker, Vice President. Joshua will primarily be responsible for providing customized, consultative commercial banking, treasury management and payment solutions that will help business clients achieve their financial goals. He has over 10 years of experience within the banking industry, which consists of consumer lending, retail management and Treasury Management/Commercial Banking.

“Joshua is an experienced Commercial Banker with a demonstrated history of providing business clients with solutions that accelerate growth, build efficiencies and much more,” said Curtis Chrystal, President and CEO of Wisconsin Bank & Trust. “We are happy to have him help deliver financial expertise and experience to our clients.”

Murphy earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management & Finance from Maranatha Baptist University (MBU) in Watertown, Wisconsin. He currently serves as Vice President for a local business networking group, is an active member of the First Tee of South Central Wisconsin’s Young Professional Advisory Council as well as the Monona East Side Business Alliance (MESBA). He is also involved with a local non-profit, Affordable Health Care.

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About Wisconsin Bank and Trust Company

Wisconsin Bank and Trust Company (WBT), a subsidiary of Heartland Financial USA, Inc., (NASDAQ: HTLF), is a state chartered bank with more than $1.031 billion in assets and serving customers throughout our 14 different branches within Wisconsin. The bank specializes in business lending and deposit services, and provides a wide variety of personal credit and deposit services along with complete electronic banking programs. For more information visit www.wisconsinbankandtrust.com or call 877.280.1855. Wisconsin Bank & Trust is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and an Equal Housing Lender.

About Heartland Financial USA, Inc.
Heartland is a diversified financial services company with assets of approximately $12 billion. The company provides banking, mortgage, private client, investment, treasury management, card services, insurance, and consumer finance services to individuals and businesses. Heartland currently has 115 banking locations serving 84 communities in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and California. Additional information about Heartland is available at www.htlf.com.

StartingBlock Announces Pilot Parking Project with ParqEx and City of Madison for S. Livingston Garage

Contact: Chandra Miller Fienen, Exec. Director, StartingBlock Madison, (608) 334-7522, Chandra@startingblockmadison.org

StartingBlock Announces Pilot Parking Project with ParqEx and City of Madison for S. Livingston Garage

MADISON, Wisconsin – October 30, 2019 – StartingBlock announces a pilot project with a locally-connected startup, ParqEx, and the City of Madison at the City’s newest public parking garage at S. Livingston and Main Street, adjacent to the Spark Building at 821 E. Washington Avenue.

The pilot will allow StartingBlock’s members – currently a community of over 250 members — to make parking reservations from the parking spots in the S. Livingston Garage that were allocated to StartingBlock. With ParqEx’s technology, StartingBlock members can make hourly or monthly parking reservations online or using the ParqEx app.  The platform increases the number of users that can access StartingBlock’s limited parking allocation.  Rather than a few persons having an assigned monthly permit in the traditional one car, one permit model, the ParqEx platform will allow any StartingBlock member to reserve parking online and through an app.  “By sharing the monthly permits, the entire StartingBlock community can take advantage of cost-savings as well as greater flexibility,” explains StartingBlock Executive Director, Chandra Miller Fienen.  With ParqEx, participating members can reserve parking for the times they need it, rather than locking it up for the full month.   

Other advantages include a guest parking solution that allows members to make reservations for guests.  Guests will receive a guess pass on their cell phone that will provide access to the garage, eliminating the inconvenience of dealing with reimbursements or sharing physical access cards.   “The ParqEx solution allows a limited resource to be shared more fairly, efficiently, flexibly, and cost-effectively than the one-permit per car status quo,” says ParqEx CEO Vivek Mehra. ParqEx is a 2016 alum of the nationally-ranked accelerator, gener8tor, which is headquartered at StartingBlock.  Founded in 2014, the company is the “Airbnb of parking” by allowing parking owners to rent their parking spots to drivers on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.  The StartingBlock-ParqEx pilot, which will allow StartingBlock members to access the spaces leased from the City at the South Livingston Street Garage as well as other parking locations on the platform, will be ParqEx’s largest community in Madison and the first at a public parking garage.

“The City of Madison is excited to continue its partnership with StartingBlock and participate in this pilot.  We need more innovative solutions, especially around parking, to make our transportation system successful in the long term,” says Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.

The pilot will provide StartingBlock with the opportunity to understand members’ parking trends and usage in a more robust and detailed way, and for the City to trial the technology and explore options to enhance the convenience and ease of parking in public parking structures. 

The public parking garage, which opened last December, is the City’s first public garage outside of the central downtown and campus area, and was part of the three-development project that included the Spark Building where StartingBlock and American Family Insurance are located and the Gebhardt Building with the Sylvee music venue.  Madison Gas and Electric, to support the redevelopment project and growing Capitol East District, sold the property to the City of Madison to construct the public parking garage.

ABOUT

StartingBlock Madison is Madison’s startup hub.  Our mission is to create the meaningful intersections that cultivate entrepreneurs, grow successful companies, drive innovation and build a startup community that gives back.  Since opening in June 2018, StartingBlock has housed 50 local startups that raised over $15.5M in 2018 and support over 160 full-time employees.  Through collaborations with existing business leaders and partner organizations, such as Capital Entrepreneurs, Doyenne Group, gener8tor, and others, StartingBlock is helping galvanize Madison into a global leader in entrepreneurship. 

Chandra Miller Fienen, Chandra@startingblockmadison.org

ParqEx is a smart parking platform for real estate owners and managers to better manage & monetize their parking assets. By improving efficiency & utilization, the platform delivers value by reducing operating costs and generating new revenue. ParqEx is a gener8tor company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and operates in 9 cities including Madison and Milwaukee, WI.   

Vivek Mehra, vivek@parqex.com

S. Livingston Garage opened in December 2018.  The first public parking garage east of the Capitol Square, the S. Livingston ramp reflects Madison’s commitment to the growing Capitol East corridor.  

Wisconsin Union Will Hold Veterans Day Events Nov. 11

Contact Information: Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Office: (608) 262-8862
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu

WISCONSIN UNION WILL HOLD VETERANS DAY EVENTS NOV. 11

Union’s Veterans Day events to include morning breakfast and program and showing of ‘The Greatest War’

MADISON – In observance of Veterans Day, the Wisconsin Union team will hold a free breakfast and program on Nov. 11 at 9 a.m. in Memorial Union’s Main Lounge and a showing of “The Greatest War” on Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Shannon Hall. 

The Veterans Day event will include remarks at 9:30 a.m. by Bill Davis, a Marine Corps veteran, University of Wisconsin-Madison student and a member of Student Veterans of America; UW-Madison Veteran Services Coordinator Jolene Anders; Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor; and Wisconsin Union Director and Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Mark Guthier. The event will include free, light refreshments on a first come, first served basis and is open to the community. 

The program will also feature a performance by the Wisconsin National Guard’s 132nd Army Band. The band travels the state, country and even the world, playing a variety of music. 

More information about this event is available at union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/veterans-day-recognition-breakfast.

Later that evening, rock ‘n’ roll, images and video will come together to tell the story of World War I during “The Greatest War.” This multimedia event will explore the living legacy of WWI, including its impact on Wisconsinites in the past and today. 

“The Greatest War” is presented by Four Seasons Theatre in partnership with the Wisconsin Union Theater. Tickets can be purchased online or at the Memorial Union Box Office. Tickets cost $15-$35 for non-students and $10 for UW-Madison students. Non-student Wisconsin Union members are eligible for $3 off “The Greatest War” ticket prices. 

The Union is holding these events in recognition of the heroism of Badgers who have served our country, including fallen UW-Madison service members. 

“We are grateful for this opportunity to thank our university’s service members for their service and to remember those service members who didn’t come home,” Wisconsin Union Communications Director Shauna Breneman said. “We endeavor on Veterans Day and every day to never forget members of our military and their heroism and service.”

Memorial Union’s honoring of service members began in 1928 with the dedication of the building as a memorial to UW-Madison’s service members. In addition, the names of more than 200 Badgers who died in active duty are inscribed on wooden plaques on the walls of Memorial Union’s Memorial Hall, outside of the Main Lounge. 

In 2017, the Wisconsin Union also debuted an electronic Gold Star Honor Roll, which tells the stories of more than 900 alumni who were killed during active duty. Their stories can be read at uwgoldstarhonorroll.org, on a computer in the Hamel Family Browsing Library, and on a kiosk outside of the Main Lounge.

The Veteran Services & Military Assistance Center assists the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s more than 400 military-affiliated students with transitioning to campus life, coordinating education benefits certification, and connecting to needed campus resources. 

“I didn’t connect with the Student Veterans group on campus until my second semester, and, when I did, it was comforting to know that there were others who had experienced the same things and frustrations,” Davis said. “I am very grateful for the veterans around me, both on and off campus, for the support and camaraderie they give.” 

In addition to the Wisconsin Union-hosted events at Memorial Union, on Nov. 11, the UW-Madison chapter of Student Veterans of America will host a Veterans Day display of flags on Bascom Hill in honor of veterans. The chapter’s leaders welcome community members to take part in this display immediately following the breakfast program by placing flags on the Hill for veterans in their lives. Those interested in participating can obtain flags at a table at the bottom of Bascom Hill on Nov. 11. Those unable to take part in-person can submit flag placement requests for veterans online at no cost: https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_41uW2AvAJ1yZCIZ.

The student organization will also host a free showing of the film “Dawn of the Red Arrow” on Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. in Union South’s Marquee. This film follows the stories of Wisconsin National Guard soldiers returning from Europe after serving with the 32^nd Red Arrow Division during WWI. 

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About the Wisconsin Union

The Wisconsin Union enhances the lives of members and visitors through recreational, cultural, educational and social opportunities. Formed in 1907, the Wisconsin Union is a membership organization that blends study and leisure to create unique out-of-classroom opportunities. Learn more about the Union and its tradition of providing experiences for a lifetime: union.wisc.edu.  

About the Wisconsin Union Theater
For more than 75 years, the Wisconsin Union Theater has served as a center for cultural activity in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The Theater hosts performances in multiple locations, including Memorial Union, and has an expansive history of remarkable performances. The Wisconsin Union Theater is part of the Wisconsin Union. Learn more about the Theater: union.wisc.edu/wisconsin-union-theater.

[Note to the editor: Click here to download a photo of guests viewing the Gold Star Honor Roll kiosk outside of the Main Lounge. Photo by Sara Warden. Photo provided by the Wisconsin Union.]

To read this release online, visit union.wisc.edu/about/news/veterans-day-2019.

Joanna Trygstad joins NGL as Vice President, Policy Administration

National Guardian Life Insurance Company (NGL) is pleased to welcome Joanna K. Trygstad to the team as Vice President, Policy Administration. Trygstad oversees the policy administration services, claims, underwriting, agent support and customer services.

“Joanna is a results-driven collaborative leader who empowers the people on her teams to focus on customer service excellence. Her background in the insurance industry and ability to inspire her teams will help guide our company as we focus on growing and transforming our preneed line of business,” said David M. Anderson, NGL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Most recently, Trygstad was Vice President, Business Transformation at Thrivent Financial. She spent 12 years at the organization in a variety of operations, human resources and strategy leadership roles, with a focus on organizational and operational effectiveness initiatives to continuously improve business alignment and performance.

Prior to joining Thrivent, she served in an operations management role at an online university dedicated to providing equal access for higher education. Additionally, Trygstad is an experienced international corporate and executive coach for all management levels.

“I’m excited to join NGL. I look forward to collaborating across all teams to further strengthen our top-notch customer service for agents and policyholders,” said Trygstad.

Trygstad holds a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis on Finance and International Business from University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and German from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minn. Trygstad participated in exchange programs during both undergraduate and graduate programs at University of Freiburg in Germany and University of Sankt Gallen in Switzerland, respectively. Trygstad earned a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt in 2011.

Growing up in the mountains of Northern California, Trygstad is passionate about conservation and global resiliency. Trygstad has been active with various organizations engaged in the development and deployment of micro-insurance solutions in emerging markets, and she has volunteered multiple times internationally with Habitat for Humanity. She currently lives in Appleton, Wis. with her husband, Andy, and two sons.

About NGL

Since 1910, National Guardian Life Insurance Company (NGL), a mutual insurance company, has been located in Madison, Wis. Licensed to do business in 49 states and the District of Columbia, NGL markets preneed and individual life and annuities, as well as group markets products. Information about NGL can be found at www.nglic.com; Facebook: Facebook.com/NGLIC and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-guardian-life-insurance-company.

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