A Veterans Day homecoming

By Matt Dolbey
Staff Writer

FONTANA — Eight years ago, infantry rifleman David Blizard was a student at Fontana Elementary School. He graduated in 2004 from Big Foot High School and now, four years later, Blizard has completed his active duty with the Marines.

He served three combat tours — two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

Blizard took part in Veterans Day ceremonies in Walworth and Fontana Tuesday morning, giving a short address and then visiting with students.

“Here’s a bit of reality for you older students,” Blizard said. “Eight years ago, I was sitting where you are.”

Born and raised in Fontana, Blizard said that Veterans Day gives him a similar feeling to Memorial Day.

“I think of it as a time for reflection on the brothers I’ve lost,” Blizard said.

Peter Kahl, commander of American Legion Post 102, helped organize the events and bring the veterans to the programs.

Kahl, a teacher at Walworth Elementary School, said he knew Blizard recently completed his commitment to the Marines and wanted the community to recognize the former student’s service.

“This was a wonderful opportunity to be able to recognize somebody,” Kahl said, adding he wishes he could do it for each veteran returning home.

Kahl said Veterans Day should show students the importance of the military and those who serve.

Blizard said it’s nice to see schools take part in the ceremonies. He says he sees a lot of anti-war sentiment, which feeds the view that “to serve is not as admirable.”

Kahl, who has taught for 15 years, says a number of his former students have joined the military.

“That’s a moving thing,” Kahl said. He added that he holds mixed feelings about it, because he wants to know that his former students will be safe.

Blizard said some of the smallest interactions left the biggest impression on him during his time in the Middle East.

He told the audience about seeing a girl on the other side of a fence from him when he was in Iraq. She was obviously upset and looked like she had been crying.

He used his basic Arabic skills to ask what was wrong and found she had disobeyed her father and was being punished.

Blizard said he reached into his pocket to find some paper, drew a smiley face and gave it to the girl through the fence. He said her face “just lit up,” adding it was a testament to the nature of the Iraqi people.

“Kindness comes back tenfold,” he said.

It’s the same kindness that came back to the soldiers in Fontana and Walworth on Veterans Day

There’s room at the Inn

By Matt Dolbey
Staff Writer

ELKHORN — Despite the nation’s souring economy, Edward Kalashian is confident his new business will succeed.

Kalashian, the general manager of the Hampton Inn being built near the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and state Highway 67 on Elkhorn’s north side, believes the city and surrounding area is due for another hotel. Currently, Elkhorn has a 58-room AmericInn near State Highway 67 and Interstate 43, as well as several smaller hotels and bed and breakfasts.

“Elkhorn is a growing market,” Kalashian said “Studies showed it needed another upscale facility.”

He added that an economic slowdown doesn’t stop businesses from needing to travel, especially to a growing market.

“The impact will be minimal,” Kalashian said. “People will still need to go down and do business.”

Kathleen Seeberg, the executive director of the Walworth County Visitors Bureau, said while many industries are losing business, but the hotel industry isn’t one of them.

“Lodging has stayed steady,” Seeberg said. “I think this is not necessarily going to hurt the Hampton Inn.”

Kalashian said the hotel will focus primarily on attracting business travelers, although he believes it will get a mix of both business and leisure travelers, “and get a lot of overflow from (Lake Geneva), as well.”

Construction began in August, and Kalashian expects the hotel to open its doors Feb. 24. Workers spent last week putting up drywall and installing windows, while groundskeepers planted bushes and developed the landscaping. Kalashian said the construction has created between 30 and 40 jobs.

The Hampton Inn is a branch of the Hilton Hotels Corp., which operates more than 2,000 facilities worldwide. Kalashian said brand loyalty and the company’s frequent-guest program is a “huge advantage” for luring customers.

The Elkhorn Hampton Inn will have 64 guest rooms, a swimming pool, fitness center and meeting room, as well as wireless and wired Internet access.

Sales Manager Sara Droster said Hilton representatives have made several visits to see the progress and make quality checks.

Meanwhile, Droster is busy networking and introducing the hotel to area businesses and chambers of commerce.

“There’s a lot of different aspects, letting people know that you’re here,” she said.

Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Steve Hatcher said the city is a logical choice for a new hotel because it is the fastest-growing community in a county that also is growing quickly. Recent population figures released by state agencies show Elkhorn has around 9,000 residents.

“We’re really in a prime location,” said Hatcher, adding that he hears from visitors who can’t find rooms during major events in Elkhorn or the immediate area.

Hatcher said vacationers from the Chicago area also may look closer to home for leisure, rather than traveling to northern Wisconsin or Michigan’s upper peninsula.

“If we look past, toward this last summer, a lot of people are on shorter trips than what they normally would’ve taken,” he said. “Maybe those people weren’t going to the U.P., but they’d go this far.”

Heavenly inspiration

By Lynn Vollbrecht
Staff Writer

BELOIT — Joyce Berg had no idea when she picked up a small, bisque angel in a thrift store more than 30 years ago that her purchase would someday spawn a tourist attraction.

But that’s exactly what happened, and now she isn’t as surprised.

“We started in 1976, my husband and I; it was something that just happened. We were on vacation in Florida,” she remembers. “That’s kind of how it started, and it just snowballed. I do feel it was something that was meant to happen.”

The angel collection started by the Bergs eventually became the basis for The Angel Museum, an inspiring collection of thousands of angels, in all shapes, styles and artistic renditions. This year, the museum celebrates its 10th anniversary.

“Since we’ve opened in 1998, we’ve had over 185,000 visitors from every continent in the world and every state in the United States,” said Ruth Carlson, the museum’s executive director. “We have on exhibit, now, 11,000 angels,” she said, though the museum has even more catalogued in storage.

The idea for a museum, housed at 656 Pleasant St. on Beloit’s riverfront, came out of a mutual need.

The building that is now The Angel Museum was constructed in 1914 as St. Paul’s Catholic Church, a mission serving Italian immigrants in Beloit. According to the museum’s history, the church was typical of the types of structures often seen in small Italian villages.

When the church’s long-time priest, Father Joseph DeStefano, died in 1988, the church was closed and eventually wound up under the city’s ownership.

“In the early ’90s, when the riverfront development was just getting off the ground, there were a lot of buildings that were scheduled to be torn down,” Carlson said. St. Paul’s was one of them. However, former parishioners did want to see St. Paul’s meet its fate at the hands of a wrecking-ball, and went to the city of Beloit to see if the building could be saved.

“They were told that if they could find an appropriate use for the building, it could be saved,” Carlson said. “The church was pretty dilapidated.”

By that point, the Berg’s angel collection had grown to almost enormous proportions.

“It grew rapidly, because we didn’t just go on vacations, we went on angel hunts,” Berg said. “We felt from the beginning that we should enjoy it,” she said, of their collection. Friends and visitors began to stop by the Bergs’ home specifically to see the collection, and Joyce Berg began wearing a pair of angel wings whenever guests came to her home to see her angels.

It was only a matter of time before the Berg’s and the group of St. Paul’s parishioners trying to save their old parish made a connection.

“One day we went by the church and thought — ‘what did we hear, about that building?’” Berg remembers. “We had thought of an angel museum ourselves — we had looked, oh, for about a year.”

It was a match made in heaven.

“People were wanting to visit their home and come see their angels, so they were looking for a home for their angels,” Carlson said.

Through the work of volunteers, St. Paul’s was renovated and the Bergs’ angel collection found a new home.

“It’s beginning started with volunteers, and we still rely on volunteers,” Carlson said. She said without the museum’s volunteers, who do everything from cleaning to greeting visitors, running The Angel Museum wouldn’t be possible. Berg herself makes a point of helping out, still, donning her angel wings to greet bus tours or helping out wherever help is needed.

“I really had never been into angels, and when I walked in, I was really impressed, and I thought ‘I hope they accept me as a volunteer,’” said Jeanne Frick, of South Beloit. “It’s fun to meet the folks who come from all over the nation to see the angels.”

Word of the museum has spread so far and wide, in fact, that talk-show host Oprah Winfrey has even had a hand in donating to the collection.

“She donated over 700 angels to the museum,” Carlson said. “Oprah had Cher on her show,” and when the host and her guest started talking about angels, Winfrey wondered aloud whether black angels were available.

“Fans from all over the world sent them to her,” Carlson said. “She had them on stage on her show, and said they were going to a museum in Wisconsin. We have probably 600 on exhibit.”

Looking forward, the museum is looking for new ways to engage its guests and provide a unique experience to visitors in Beloit. A small café-style area looking out into The Angel Museum gardens is available for rent to small groups for any sort of event — even weddings — and a gift shop provides a variety of unique gifts, including an angel pendant designed especially for the museum.

On Nov. 29, the museum is hosting La Cucina Italiana fundraiser, a dinner with a nod to the museum’s Italian heritage.

“I think it’s great that we’ve succeeded for 10 years now,” Berg said. “It was kind of a destiny, I guess, for the church building itself, too. It’s been a great opportunity for the collection. One of the best things,” she said, “is the fact that we’re able to share it with people.”