Two members of the diverse Waunakee Rotary Club – a chiropractor early in his career and a farmer who attended UW-Madison in the 1960s – gave their classification talks at the Dec. 15 meeting.  
Dr. Mike Blodgett, with LSM Chiropractic, was born in the Washington, D.C., area but moved to Appleton when his father began working at Lawrence University.
Right now, Mike and his wife, Chelsey, are closing on a house on Madison’s West Side, conveniently located for both.
Mike is a graduate of Monmouth College in Illinois where he met Chelsey. He competed in track and football and was an All American wide receiver. It was a competitive Division 3 team, and the quarterback now plays with the Titans. Mike also competed in long jump and triple jump in track. Chelsey was a 4-time, all conference volleyball player.
The couple married in May as soon as Mike was finished with chiropractic school at Logan University. There he was selected as one of three students to help treat athletes at University of Missouri. With a deep interest in sports medicine, Mike earned a master’s degree in sports rehab along with his doctor of chiropractic degree at Logan.
As he was finishing school, he got the job at LSM and later went on to open the Waunakee clinic at the Village Mall. LSM has 15 clinic and takes nearly all insurance plans.
Mike said he learned about Rotary while working in Stoughton and has embraced the Service Above Self motto.
********
Don Hoffman is a lifelong Waunakee resident. Both of his parents were from farm families – his mother from Roxbury and his father from Verona. They moved to a farm three miles west of Waunakee and raised four girls and four boys. His father had a stroke when Don was 12, so he and his brother, Steve, 14, took over the farm.
“We survived,” Don said. “Mom had eight kids and she took care of my dad.”
Don graduated from Waunakee High School and went to UW-Madison from 1966-69, during the Vietnam protest era. He worked as an orderly at a hospital, then summers at the university’s research farm in Arlington during the beginnings of genetic research.
Don was also a Big Brother during college and then served in the Peace Corps in Kenya. He returned when his father died and took over the family farm.
He met his wife on a canoing trip on the Boundary Waters in Canada when he finally caught a fish for dinner and Mary agreed to clean it.
“That was the beginning of a 44-year marriage,” he said.
After they had their first child, Mary decided she wanted a foster child. The couple has had 12 foster children, two of whom they adopted, and three children of their own. Some have become very successful, including a physician who is head of an intensive care unit.
Don once asked him why he thinks some succeed and others don’t.
“Kids that make it have families who care about them,” his adopted son told him.
“I’m very proud of our kids and what they’ve done,” Don said.
Don and his family now have about 1,000 animals, including cows and steers.
Ten years ago, Don returned to Kenya and later started a nonprofit, SOAR Kenya,, that has built a school and is helping an orphanage.
Don has also served on the Springfield Town Board for about 30 years, eight as the chair.

 

Other News:
•We are halfway through the Rotary Lights season at Village Park. It’s gotten cold, Bill Erickson said, so they will move more wood to the park on Saturday morning for the warming station. Help is needed to load up the trailer and take it down to park at 9 a.m.

 

Guests: Kim Langfeld, guest of Phil Willems; Dave Blanchard, guest of Mark McFarland.

 

Visiting Rotarians: Harry Ripp, Madison East.

 

Birthdays: Dec. 25, David Weishoff; Dec. 27, Jim Kattner
 
Anniversaries: Dec. 27, Rich and Sue Wipperfurth

 

Greeters: Dec. 22, Martin Lackey and Alan Langeteig; Dec. 29, Drew Lawrence and Bob Lenz; Jan. 5, David May and Mark McFarland.