Farmers market manager Bade named ‘Friend of Chamber’

By Chris Spangler

The Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce recognized one of its own when members gathered for their Fall Open House Tuesday evening.

Alisha Bade, Fort Atkinson Farmers Market manager, was presented the 2021 “Friend of the Chamber” award during the event at The Bridge.

“By now, we are all familiar with the word ‘pivot,’ and many of us have learned exactly what it means to reinvent our business practices in the midst of this new normal,” chamber Executive Director Carrie Chisholm said in presenting the award. “Our chamber was no different, and our first big challenge was to reconfigure our farmers market, now in its 19th year.

“Deemed an essential business, we felt it was important to continue this weekly program of connecting people to locally-grown produce, and to enable our smallest businesses, our market vendors, to continue to operate, if possible,” she added.

So pivot, the chamber did, Chisholm recalled. While it had to cancel two of its 2020 winter markets, the chamber opened in the spring with a new layout to allow for more distancing between vendors and customers, an online ordering and curbside pick-up option, and an entirely new set of rules regarding music, dogs, payment and masking.

“The popular kids’ art tent was converted to take-home projects which were prepared each week in advance with the help of Fort Community Credit Union employees, who help sponsor this activity,” she said.

The December Holiday Market was notably smaller, with fewer than 40 vendors, she noted, but some were situated outdoors at Blodgett’s Garden Center, which introduced a new venue the market never had used before. 

“When 2021 arrived, we welcomed back our art vendors and dogs and musicians,” Chisholm said. “We added a kids’ garden in partnership with the Dwight Foster Public Library, which provided space along its building for kids to tend and harvest their seedlings. Because the Blodgett’s location was so well-received for the Holiday Market, we created two evening markets there, and if you went, you saw how packed they were with people hungry for a new experience.”
She said that event welcomed new vendors, new customers and new volunteers. And now, the chamber is planning for another successful Holiday Market. 

“I keep saying ‘we,’ and it’s true that there are a whole host of people who enable the market to exist, not the least of which is our presenting sponsor, Fort HealthCare,” Chisholm said.

She pointed out that there would not be a market were it not for the dedicated vendors who show up each Saturday around 6 a.m., the volunteers who collect produce for the food pantry and man the welcome booth, and the loyal customers who come each week to visit their favorite producers.

“But it also would not be if not for the efforts of the chamber’s part-time farmers market manager, Alisha Bade, who took on this role in late 2019 with no first-hand knowledge of how the market had operated previously, and then was tasked with reinventing everything about it,” Chisholm said.

It was Bade who initiated the children’s garden at the library, worked with Blodgett’s to create a magical evening market and advocated for the vendors and their customers to ensure that the market continued in spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic, she noted.

“Alisha created a newsletter to keep the vendors informed. She worked to ensure our sponsors received their due recognition. She wrote press releases and leaned on the talents of her associate manager, Kaity Smearski, to educate the public on the market’s special offerings,” the chamber chief said.

“In short, she ensured that our market would continue,” Chisholm concluded. “As the one chamber program that is the most visible in our community, it is Alisha that keeps it running.”

“This was a complete and utter surprise to me,” Bade said upon accepting the honor. “… I look around here and I see all the people in the community, I see faces that I see at the farmers market each weekend, and I just want to say thank you, because it’s not just one person. It’s all of us and I think that we are a strong community because of everybody in this room.

“Thank you very much. I am very touched,” she concluded.

Also during the open house, Chisholm introduced her staff. In addition to Bade and Smearski, they include 

Katie Carey, tourism manager; and Anna Jensen, the new associate director.

Chisholm also reminded attendees that October is National Manufacturing Month and voting is \open for the “Coolest Thing Made in Fort Atkinson.”

“Visit our website to view some of the very cool things made right here in our own backyard,” she said. “This year’s programming is sponsored by Johnson Financial 

Group, and includes tours of some of our largest employers.”

She noted that the registration deadline for the holiday parade is Oct. 15, and the Holiday Open House is being planned for the first Saturday in December.

Chisholm also introduced new chamber members who were attending their first Fall Open House.

“In spite of these trying economic times, our business community continues to grow, and we are honored to represent and advocate for all of you,” she said. “In order to survive and thrive though, we need to intentionally build strategic alliances, and that is what we hope to do by connecting you with our newest members here tonight.”

Introduced were Jason and Nova Marin, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation; Julie Davis, general manager of the Comfort Suites in Johnson Creek, one of a trio under the Minkin Management Hotel Portfolio that joined the chamber; Jonathan Kooiman, PK Contractors; Marianne Bardenwerper, Cappy Fabrics, located in the lower level of Feather Your Nest; Anthony Zuelsdorf and Samantha Siegel, TKB Building and Remodeling; Elizabeth Costa and Sara Jones Costa, Piper Mae clothing boutique.

New faces in the crowd included Bryan Spangler, who purchased Fort Ace Hardware; Lane Liebergen, of the Daily Jefferson County Union; and Quingze Lv, a new dentist at Bender, Kind & Stafford; and Kaylee Kidd, marketing coordinator for the Fort Community Foundation.