Two consecutive big weekends in Wittenberg kicked off July 17 with the Wittenberg-Birnamwood FFA Alumni Association’s 48th annual corn roast.
Wittenberg Village Park will also be busy this coming weekend with the village’s annual Community Days celebration, set for July 24-26.
Dave Schmidt is the alumni association’s treasurer and has attended all 48 of the organization’s corn roasts. He is also one of several volunteers that helped out at the event, taking care of roasting hundreds of cobs of sweet corn and preparing and selling food.
“All the money raised here goes to scholarships for our FFA kids who are here running the cheese curd stand,” Schmidt said. “We give up to six scholarships. The highest they can get is $1,000, and some are $500.”
Visitors started standing in line for sweet corn long before it became available at 6 p.m.
“We moved it up from 6-10 (p.m.) vs. what it used to be, 7-11,” Schmidt said. “Years ago, all these guys were farmers. We no longer have any small farmers. We’re all getting older, so we went with 6-10.”
Weather doesn’t play a factor into how many people show up for the corn roast, according to Schmidt.
“In 2019, we had a tornado go through and we had to evacuate to the grade school,” he said. “As soon as it was done, we got the all-clear. We had rain, but the crowd came right back out to have their corn. We also have steel that we put on top of the coals so in case we do have rain, it doesn’t put the fire out.”
This year’s roast included 375 dozen ears of corn that came from Peck’s Farm Market near Spring Green and 300 pounds of cheese curds.
“We’ll give away 100 ice cream bars and 130 12-packs of soda and water,” Schmidt said.
The food stand also included brats, hamburgers and beverages.
The association has used Peck’s Farm Market for corn for 47 of the 48 years, Schmidt said.
“All except one year when we had to get it from Indiana,” he said. “We’re usually the first (corn roast) in the area. The first planting at Peck’s Farm Market was under black plastic. They had corn on the Fourth of July. It’s worked out well.”
Schmidt said the corn roast is a great way to get the word out that the organization is always looking for new members.
“We’re becoming elder statesmen here, and we have to get some young blood in,” he said. “We’re working on it. With the scholarships that we give, we’re hoping that they come back the following year and pay it back.”
He encouraged anyone who participated in Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School’s FFA program to join the alumni group.
“It’s important, because our members are getting older and we need the young ones to step up to the plate with new ideas,” he said.
Besides raising money for scholarships, the alumni association also supports local FFA students and programs, Schmidt said.
“We give proficiency awards to kids for different projects,” he said. “We donate some money for the state (FFA) convention and national convention.”
Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s FFA chapter has won several awards over the years.
“There aren’t a lot of family farms, but there are still kids in FFA because it’s not just farming,” he said. “There are different things for them.”
This year’s corn roast was held a week before Community Days, which has been moved back on the calendar.
“They couldn’t get the carnival to come in August, so that’s why they moved it to next week,” Schmidt said. “Some families have reunions and some classes have reunions around this weekend. It’s always the third Friday in July.”
Jason Rosenow, of Wittenberg, volunteered to shuck cobs of corn to be eaten at the Wittenberg-Birnamwood FFA Alumni corn roast. (Greg Seubert)
Tim Jauernig and his band, Blindside, performed on the stage at the Wittenberg-Birnamwood FFA Alumni Association corn roast. The band filled in for 49 Deluxe. (Greg Seubert)
