Seymour Scholarship Banquet 2013

We excited to show you another successful year of funding future skilled craftsmen graduating from Seymour Community High School.  We hope you enjoy the video of this year's scholarship banquet.

(CLICK HERE to see the 2012 Seymour Scholarship Banquet)

Thank  you for your continued support of Joel's Craftsman Scholarship, and all you do for to celebrate his life and ongoing legacy. 

Words cannot describe how truly grateful we are.

Thank you.

You can browse more posts related to the scholarship here.

Joel's Golden Birthday

Joel R Marsh
February 27, 1986

Joel in the powder up in the UP.

This year would mark Joel's 27th Birthday, which makes this day and celebration all the more dear to our family and friends.  This year we celebrate Joel's Golden Birthday on February 27th.

Joel waving as I learn how to walk.  Matching pants are a nice touch!

Each time February comes around, we are always unsure how we should celebrate and remember Joel.  We particularly like celebrating Joel's life on the day that he first blessed us with his presence.  Birthdays should be fun, and we want to continue this tradition.  In saying this, we try to focus on the many wonderful years, months, and day that he touched our lives - and try not to count the days that we have been missing him so.

This year for Joel's Golden Birthday - if you wanted to do something little or something special in honor of Joel's gifts to us and to others - we thought it would be neat to celebrate by continuing Joel's legacy through his Scholarship Fund at Seymour High School.

Grandpa VanBoxtel and Joel working on the pallets with C&J!

The scholarship is set up to fund students who plan to pursue careers and advanced training in the crafts, skilled trades, and hands-on professions.  Joel loved shop class, and much of the furniture that we have in our home came from his love of labor and the art of woodworking.  We hope to encourage students to pursue these impressive, skilled careers, that may be overlooked by the traditional scholarship requirements.

In saying this, if you wanted to donate something small to the Joel Marsh Scholarship Fund as a way to celebrate his Golden Birthday, you can do so through the mail by making the check payable to:

Joel Marsh Scholarship Fund

We would prefer you send the donations to:
Curt & Deb Marsh
N9590 State HWY 55
Seymour, WI 54165

(so we can appropriately thank you for your generosity...)

Or, if you would like, you can send them directly to Baylake Bank:
Baylake Bank Seymour Financial Center
106 East State Road 54
Seymour, WI  54165

To read more about the scholarship, and see last year's ceremony, please CLICK HERE.

After a long days work at Lake Eva - Joel is the greatest tool in the bucket of the New Holland!

We would like to emphasize that small donations (even $5-$10) go a long way, and in no way do we want to pinch your pocket books in these hard times.  Joel would want to make sure you are able to go out to eat and spend quality time with friends and family - so please do not feel obligated to donate.  We simply wanted to make the information available, since many have asked how to donate to Joel's Scholarship.

We look forward to giving out two scholarships again this year, and will be working with Seymour High School to identify the perfect candidates for the special award.

We cannot thank you enough for your support in this endeavor - as many of you have already given generously to this cause.  We appreciate everything you continue to do for our family and in helping us carryout Joel's dreams and goals.  We are blessed to have you in our lives.


Happy Golden Birthday Joel!

We miss you Buck, but you remain close to us everyday, in that special place in our hearts.

Joel R. Marsh Craftsman Scholarship

We were really looking forward to this year's academic scholarship banquet at Seymour Community High School.  Each year a large crowd of graduating seniors and their families gather into the auditorium for the awards and recognitions that students have worked so hard for.  We were very excited that the Joel R Marsh Craftsman Scholarship was going to be featured as one of those awards. 

In addition to our excitement and appreciation, we are so grateful because this very special scholarship was made possible through the generous donations of the community, and the hard work of Joel's friends and extended family.  The fundraising banquet that was held in Seymour allowed us to increase the amount donated to local graduates each year to support their continuing education. 

To bring the award full circle, we were pleased that some of Joel's friends from High School were able to present it to this year's selected students.  The students chosen were both so deserving of the award, and demonstrated many of the unique, compassionate qualities we were looking for.  We want to thank John Kollath, Robert Jankowski, and the Seymour High School Tech department and administration for making this all come together.  We feel honored to be a part of this event and to sponsor students in Joel's name.

We hope you enjoy the video of the event!

Thank you again for your overwhelming support and generosity.

Sincerely,

The Marsh's

The Buck Scholarship Benefit!

The Basket Prep Team! Getting in touch with your feminine side JED!

I'm sure all of you have been waiting for this post - because many of you had the opportunity to come to the benefit, and others want to how it all went down!  First, a little insight into the the planning!  Rickert drove up from Milwaukee early Saturday morning to hit up a round of golf and freeze his hands off before the big benefit - nice!  Later that morning, all those in the preparation party gathered the donations we received, baskets, stuffing, markers, and their creativity and headed over to Bergy's for the party preparation!  We invaded his house and slowly filled it full of sparkling tinsel and signs!  It was the hub of Operation Buck Benefit!

Bergy's Place - Operation Buck Benefit!

After getting everything prepared and inventoried - we loaded up the minivan (man I love Curty's Man Van - so handy!) and brought the loot to Jackson Point!  It was fun to get it all set up for the evening, and time was flying!  We were competing with DJ Skip for stage space and he was running around like crazy - DJ Skip is a busy man apparently!

The MAN VAN loaded up!

Right around 7PM is when the ticket selling began - the boys posted up in front of the baskets and manned the ticket station!  The lady's were running around and selling 50/50 raffle tickets!  Oh, and I forgot to mention - the place WAS PACKED!  The turnout was absolutely amazing!  It was only a week ago that Sam was plastering Seymour with fliers!

Our 50/50 Raffle Team!  Nice waist bank!

The night went by quickly and we tossed in a few door prize drawings of pint glasses and hats for those who came out to the benefit!  The 50/50 raffle winners were so generous and donated some of their winnings back to the cause!  It was just awesome - I can only imagine Joel's reaction to all this!  He probably wouldn't have liked the spotlight, but I am positive he is grateful we all got together to share some laughs, some shnuffka, listen to some country music, and help young bucks in the Seymour Community!  That's a perfect Saturday night in my eyes!

When the time came, DJ Jed jumped on the microphone and started raffling off the baskets!  There was such a variety - so it was fun for everyone to throw tickets into their favorite basket!  You could win pampering at Kapture Salon and Spa, at Sun Drop basket, children's toys and games, and the movie Kindergarten Cop!  There was something for everyone!

We cannot say thank you enough to the local businesses and individuals that donated items for the silent auction, basket raffle, door prizes, and gave monetary donations.  We never imagined the out-pouring of support that arrived for the benefit.  Absolutely amazing - words cannot express how thankful we are.




There are just too many pictures to include in one post, so I decided to include a large photo slide show for you to feast your eyes on!  You can also CLICK HERE to go to the web album of pictures from Buck's Benefit!

You are all so wonderful - thank you for your support!

Thank you from all who made this benefit possible, especially Justin Rickert, Jed Roffers, Kyle and Sam Bergsbaken, Van Gompels, Chris Westerhoff, Marc G, Jackson Point, and all those who contributed to making the benefit a huge success! 

As always, a warm and heartfelt thank you from...

The Marsh's

Joel's Memorial Benefit

I forgot to place the flyer of the recent event on Joel's page - but I think it's definitely worthy of a post in its own to compliment Joel's friends in managing to pull off such an event so quickly!  When people from a small town come together, we can do great things...

My parents and I had nothing to do with the planning and idea of this benefit - Joel's closest friends thought up this fun and exciting event to hold in honor of Joel and to contribute to Joel's scholarship! We feel so blessed that Joel's friends continue to keep Joel's memory, legacy, and mission alive.  I am excited to post more about the benefit and outpouring of generosity and support that family, friends, and Seymour businesses all contributed!  A deep thank you to all those who planned and made this wonderful event possible...

(...there's more to come!)

The Marsh's

Congratulations to our local scholarship recipient!

We were so excited to be able to present this award....

 our first

Joel R. Marsh Scholarship

We invited the Rottier family over on a Sunday evening for pizza and cake because it was Jeff's Birthday!  We were so excited that the whole family was able to come over and celebrate because they were in for a unexpected surprise!  I had called home to the party with Skype to say hello to everyone and be there for the presentation of the scholarship (don't worry, we practiced answering Skype video calls before the big event).  Paul and I were in Pittsburgh, with our Whipp's shirts matching Curt's, and were able to say hello and ask Tony if he wanted to jump into the hot seat in front of the webcam!

Tony - Recipient of the Joel R. Marsh Scholarship! Congratulations!

Once we had Tony sitting front and center, that's when we revealed that it was not only a celebration for Jeff's Birthday but for Tony's achievement and hard work as well.  He was presented with the first Joel R. Marsh Scholarship for his dedication to emergency services in the community and continuing his health care education to further serve our area. In addition to this being the first scholarship awarded, it was also awarded on February 27, 2012 - a very special date of dedication.

Curt, Tony, Deb - The Joel R. Marsh Scholarship

We are very fortunate to have such a close community with dedicated volunteers and professionals.  We, among many other families, have used Seymour's emergency medical services and couldn't be happier with the care and commitment of those who arrive on the scene. We wanted to express our sincere appreciation to all of the volunteers who continue to support the community.

We wish Tony the best in his continued and pursuit of  higher education and training - Thank you so much for all you (and your family) do for our community!

-The Marsh's

This was in the local Times Press - Thank you Tony!  We're so proud of you!

Thank you for your generosity...

We cannot thank you enough for all of your support and contributions to our memorial and scholarship fund for Joel...   We hope it will further Joel's passions withing our local community.

Here are some photos that motivated us to target Joel's scholarship to those pursuing crafts and trades...  It was truly what made Joel happy and also excited for Friday afternoon to be able to head north...

Building the deck at Eva...

Joel loved all stages of building projects from drawing up the first floor plan to installing the finishing touches and last piece of trim and enjoying a evening with friends and family within the warmth of a cabin sitting next to a wood stove...