Breakfast club bids farewell, citing health issues

SHAWANO — A senior citizen breakfast club is another victim of the disruption caused by COVID-19.

Gundi’s Breakfast Club, also known to some members as “The Old Farts Club,” will no longer meet, according to Mary Jo Brunner, one of the organizers.

The group has been meeting for about eight years for regular breakfasts plus an annual picnic. The picnic will not be held this year, she said.

Gundi’s Breakfast Club was started by Donald “Gundi” Plass, a heart transplant recipient who passed away in 2013. He was the one who coined the name “Old Farts Club,” but more recent attendees preferred a less scatalogical name for the group.

Over the years, the group expanded, with as many as 150 attending the picnic at one point, Brunner said. Members have included the Shawano High School Class of 1953, or any Shawano or Gresham high school graduate. However, “anyone who came, we accepted,” Brunner said.

“It has been great meeting and seeing all of you, but it is too hard with all this is going on and the failing health of so many of us,” Brunner said.

Anyone with questions or concerns about the group can email Brunner at mjbob@gmail.com or call her at 715-526-5827.