Contact: Cheri Karch,
715-344-9600
Released: Aug. 12, 1998
| There will be an opportunity for photographs and videos when the book is coming off the manufacturing line at Worzalla on Monday, August 17 and at a presentation of the book on Thursday, August 20. Two to four of the students who worked on the project will be available for photographs and interviews. Cheri Karch, a member of the Woman’s Club who worked on the project, serves as corporate relations director for Worzalla. Please contact Karch at (715) 344-9600 for exact times of these events. |
Children’s history book published
A book for third and fourth grade students that tells the history of Portage County has been created by students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
"Journey Through Portage County Past: Travel in Time with Hunter and Friends" will be distributed to local schools and libraries through the efforts of university students, the Stevens Point Woman’s Club and Worzalla of Stevens Point, a book printing and binding company.
When Woman’s Club members wanted to start the project as part of Wisconsin’s sesquicentennial celebration, Michelle Ristau, Green Bay, came forward to help with research and writing. She assembled a group of university students to do the creative work. Worzalla took them on as interns and agreed to do the printing and binding of the book as a community project.
The students were all studying full time in addition to the work they did on the book. "We all worked really hard," Ristau says. "It was rewarding to see the results when it was finished."
"We followed the book through all aspects of publishing," says Christina Bando, Fremont, one of the students who worked on the project.
The book is intended to help third and fourth graders and their teachers study Wisconsin history. The university students collected drawings and historical photographs to tell the story of four cartoon characters who use a time machine to explore various decades. The characters were drawn by Stephen Schlactenhaufen, Neenah. Many of the historical photographs were selected from the collections of the Portage County Historical Society and the postcard collection of John Anderson, the late director of UWSP News Services.
The students referred to the writings of local historians for the text of the book. They included information about every decade of Portage County history to the present. While the photographs and postcards are black and white, the cartoon characters are in color.
When the manuscript was completed, it was edited for age appropriateness by Diane Dieterich, Stevens Point, a former editor for the National Council of Teachers of English who taught fourth grade for several years in Stevens Point.
Other university students involved in the project were Jason Renkens, Appleton; Tara Zawlocki, Green Bay; and John Binkley, Wausau.
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03/30/01
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