FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2010
Contact: Noreen Rueckert, Cheese Days Coordinator, 608.325.7771,
cheesedays@tds.net
CHEESE DAYS ANNOUNCES 2010 KING AND QUEEN
The history page on the Green County Cheese Days website is
full of facts. On the timeline are various noteworthy events,
famous firsts, and names of those who have served as parade
marshals, contest winners, and royalty. But it is the unofficial
and previously unpublished history of the festival from 1976
that tells the story of this year’s Cheese Days King
and Queen.
 For
many years, the banks in Monroe took turns hosting a VIP and
dignitary reception prior to the big parade on Sunday. In
1976, a young male employee at Commercial and Savings Bank
(now Wisconsin Community Bank) was happily enjoying the complimentary
wine when one of the young ladies serving as a Cheese Days
co-queen (now known as ambassador) noticed he was not wearing
one of the commemorative festival buttons. Call it fate or
just simple Cheese Days luck, but she knew it was her job
to make sure he got a button pinned to his shirt.
The bank employee and the queen both recall that the parade
was nearly rained out a few hours after they met, but the
sun came out almost immediately afterwards. Their story together
is definitely proof of a sunny ending, as by the following
festival they were engaged to be married. Now 34 years later,
Dennis and Janice (Wettach) Everson have been selected to
represent the festival as this year’s Green County Cheese
Days King and Queen.
Cheesemaking is an important part of Janice Wettach’s
family traditions. Her grandparents, John and Clara Rechsteiner,
operated the Mud Branch Cheese Factory near Argyle. Her mother,
Helen, who resides in Monticello, was a “cheese queen”
for a June Dairy Month celebration in Mt. Horeb back in 1938.
Janice’s 100% Swiss heritage is also a proud part of
the family history. Janice’s maternal and paternal grandparents
emigrated from the canton of Appenzell in Switzerland and
often spoke the Swiss language, particularly when adults had
conversations not intended for children’s ears. The
youngest of three children in the family, Janice was nicknamed
“the klie” (translated from Swiss – “the
little one”), and her family was active in the Old World
Swiss Club. Janice works as a registered nurse at Monroe Clinic
in the rheumatology department.
Monroe’s Wisconsin Community Bank has had a number of
name changes since it was known as Commercial Saving Bank,
and Dennis Everson has been an employee at the location since
1975. Throughout his tenure at the bank, he helped with financing
numerous cheesemaking operations in the Green County area.
Dennis has seen many changes take place in the cheesemaking
industry. Among the most notable are the transition from basic
varieties to specialty and artisan cheeses, technology and
automation in the cheese plants, and computer programs that
guarantee consistency in production.
During the festival, Dennis will overlook his Norwegian heritage.
“I’ll be a Wettach for the weekend,” he
jokes. His mother, Joan, resides in Monroe.
Throughout the years, Dennis and Janice have had many ties
to various aspects of the Cheese Days festival. Janice has
served on the ambassador selection committee. Dennis co-chaired
the festival several times, and served as both president and
treasurer for several terms each. Both are experienced at
the Cow Milking Contest, and both have “done time”
working at the Monroe Optimist Club deep-fried cheese curd
booth. Their niece Lindsay (Wettach) Brockert was an ambassador
in 2002, and niece Wendy Flanagan is the artist responsible
for this year’s button design.
The couple has two children who have also been involved with
the festival. “They’ve grown up with it, it has
been part of their lives,” says Janice, of their sons,
Erik and Kyle. As boy scouts, they rose early in the morning
to help with clean up of the festival grounds around the downtown
square. They often appeared in the Children’s Parade,
and both were candidates in the Prince and Princess Contest.
Erik is currently attending the University of Wyoming where
he is working toward his doctorate in Geophysics, and Kyle
is currently attending dental school at Marquette University
in Milwaukee.
The Everson family’s involvement with Cheese Days did
not always go smoothly. When bank president Jack Kundert suggested
that his employee, Dennis, serve as chairperson of the Cheese
Days raffle, the raffle committee selected a car as grand
prize. Shortly after the committee purchased the soon to be
infamous 1978 Ford Pinto, the news broke that the Pinto had
a tendency to explode in rear-end collisions. Sales were far
less than brisk, but by Saturday of the festival the car was
paid off. Dennis drove it in the parade on Sunday (thankfully
with no incident), and the tickets sold netted a small profit
that final day.
The Eversons are currently involved in many other community
activities, including the local literacy council, Monroe Arts
Center, and Grace Lutheran Church; and boy scouts and the
YMCA board in the past.
“We love Cheese Days, we always have, and this is like
coming full circle,” said Janice of their royal appointment.
Both Dennis and Janice are looking forward to celebrating
with family and friends, sharing the fun with festival attendees,
and adding new stories to the personal history they share
with the oldest and best food fest in the Midwest.
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