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Today's Featured Biography

Dawn Kloida Pitzen

I can hardly believe that 20 years has gone by since our senior year at LHS! Well, let me update you on what I've been doing. College was relatively un-eventful. Being a music major meant a lot of practicing and performing. I pretty much kept my nose to the grind stone. I graduated Cum Laude from UWGB in December of 1993 and did my student teaching in Pulaski that same fall. The following summer (1994) I was hired by the Southern Door School district as the middle school band director and have been there ever since. Okay, that is the boring part, now for the fun stuff! My 13 year time stretch has been marked by many highlights. I was honored by being selected to conduct the UW Badger band at a concert at the Weidner Center. I've seen 8 of my private horn students go on to study horn professionally. Some playing in New York, Florida, Texas and Boston. My 7th year at Southern Door was marked with the chance to be part of the designing of the new addition which included a beautiful new music suite for the the middle school! The addition was finished and we moved in during the fall of 2002. Two years later our high school band director retired and I was offered the high school position and department chair. I chose to stay in the middle school by took the department chair. For anyone out there that is a middle school teacher, you will understand this decision. :) Middle school kids are a special kind of beast, but never ever are they boring! I've been active in our union as lead negotiator, teacher rights/grievance chair, and now Vice President. Other than a lot of boring teacher talk stuff that is about it for the teaching career.
Outside of school has been interesting also. I still perform with the Lakeshore Wind Ensemble, which means that I am in Manty every Tuesday. I've been on tour performing with the LWE in nine foreign countries; Japan, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Traveling has been by far the most life changing experience. I also spent 13 summers working with the UWGB summer camps as a counselor and a head/administrative counselor.
14 of the last 20 years was about playing my horn, building my band program at Southern Door and traveling the world. All that changed for me in September of 2002 when I meet the man I was waiting for. Laura Neidl, who was one of the only 88 grads I spent any time with after graduation, used to tell me that I was way to busy to ever find someone. I used to tell her when the right guy comes along I'll know and he will be worth changing my busy lifestyle. Well, Jonathan Pitzen literally towed my heart away. My beloved Dodge Avenger was having some engine issues in Sept of 2002. I called AAA and they sent me Jonathan! We went out for coffee after he dropped my car at the dealership and we have been together ever since! I always tell people that I kept Jon and traded the Avenger in for a Camry! He has been the center of my world and we have really enjoyed building a life together. Jon is an Army/Navy veteran and is a Veteran of Desert Storm where as part of the first Cavalary he drove tank. He is currently going to school for Computers. Before that (but after the towing job) he was a truck driver. Two of my summers were spent riding with him all over the US "lumping loads" and navigating him through places like Chicago and New York City. Believe me when I tell you I earned a new respect for truck drivers as I watched him drive a 53' semi through NYC during rush hour! We were married in October of 2006 in Green Bay, just 8 months before my sister Donna (LHS 91') was married to Tony LeRoy of Luxemburg, WI. I now have two step children, Jonanthan Jr. and Kenzie who we do not see nearly enough! We are also the "proud parents" of two sassy cats who are a constant source of laughter and love in our family. When Jon graduates from college we hope to start a family and a whole new chapter to our life. Well, believe it or not that was the abreviated version of my last twenty years! I wish we could have been at the reunion, but we had other commitments that had us going from Fish Creek to Shawano to Germantown to home again! Hope everyone had fun! I look forward to seeing the pics!

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