Bob Vigue volunteers to cook for many dinners at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Keshena
He also does volunteer cookouts with John Newton for the Boys and Girls Club, and he will be ringing bells for The Salvation Army for the Knights of Columbus. He has been a member of the Knights for 15 years.
He was born and raised in South Branch before his family moved to Chicago, where he graduated from Lane Tech High School. He also graduated from ITT Tech. Vigue owned a machine shop.
He and his wife, Cookie, have been married 32 years and between them have four children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. They have a home in Oshkosh and one on Legend Lake that used to be the home of his father, Louis.
Q What do you do to help the Knights of Columbus?
A “I help with just about everything the Knights do. I’m financial secretary, and I do all the newsletters once a month. I put information on the computer of what we’re doing next. We do a lot of cookouts at the Wolf River Express and we cook for St. Anthony in Neopit. We also cook for the festival in June and the bazaar that is coming up.”
Q How long have you been having the Thanksgiving dinner?
A “It’s been 10 years. The guy who was the Grand Knight’s father passed away and we wanted to honor him and do something for him. It started with a little under 100 people attending and we had 374 last year. We start serving at 10 a.m. and serve until the food runs out. We kind of know how many people we’re getting. If there are leftovers we take them to Maehnowesekiyah Treatment Center. I help cook the turkey, potatoes and gravy. We had 19 turkeys last year and will probably make more this year. Last year we had 160 deliveries to shut-ins. It’s free but people can give a donation. Bult’s Bakery cooks the turkeys for us for free. We pick them up on Saturday and start preparing them after Mass on Saturday evening. We have a lot of help besides the Knights. A lot of extra people come to help just for Thanksgiving.”
Q Why do you volunteer?
A “I like to help. The Knights do it to help the community. It’s nice and you get to meet a lot of new people when you get a break and can talk to them.”
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