Northside News

The Northside Planning Council (NPC) received a record number of nominations for the 15th Annual North Star Awards, and gathered to recognize the award winners Friday, Nov. 15, at Warner Park Community Recreation Center. NPC began the North Star Awards in 2003 to recognize community leaders and those who contribute to building a better Northside through their everyday actions and dedication to supporting people who live, work and play in our community. 

This year, many of the awards went to community members who have made a positive impact on the lives of youth on the Northside. It was a theme that emerged without our intention, but speaks to the commitment this community has to its children. Additionally, the work done by so many doesn’t simply serve our youth, but equips them to become leaders, mentors and change-makers themselves. Whether a young person follows one path or another almost always depends on whether the adults and mentors in their lives recognize how much that youth has to offer, and many of our recipients this year are working to ensure that our youth can make the most of their skills and potential.

Nominated by Terrence Thompson and Jamie Pratt (Warner Park Community Recreation Center) and Ruth Hellenbrand (NewBridge-North)

Janet has lived and worked on the Northside for over 20 years. As the current interim executive director and a long-time supervisor for Madison School & Community Recreation (MSCR) over a 33-year career, she has been influential in delivering programs to thousands of kids. Her colleagues joke that Janet isn’t good at job interviews because she’s never had to do one.

Janet has been an important member of the leadership team at WPCRC as the MSCR representative and has held an office at the center since its construction in 1999, where she oversees Kids Kamp and supports the extensive MSCR programming at the center. On top of raising her family on the Northside, she has personally mentored kids, provided guidance, coached sports, and acted as a role model to countless young people who have crossed her path. Most importantly, Janet leads with a lens of racial equity in everything she does and genuinely cares about the young people in Madison. Her work has resulted in more programmatic and leadership opportunities for people of color throughout the Madison school district. 

Janet’s leadership with MSCR, commitment to excellence and her passion for youth and families on the Northside make her an outstanding recipient of a North Star Award.

Nominated by Sabrina Hilton and Fiona Stoner (Northside Farmers Market)

The Northside Farmers Market is a Northside institution. It is a gathering space for neighbors to find community and connection with farmers and producers, and Winnie Bade has been a vital part of making that happen since 2008. Winnie first began as a volunteer and then went on to join the board in 2013. She immediately got to work revising bylaws, as well as developing plans for the winter market. She has served as secretary and treasurer and has had a disciplined approach to long-term planning for the market that maintains its financial stability. She keeps superb track of the finances and has supported budget decisions that have kept the market operating at a surplus for many years.

Winnie has taken on many tasks outside her role as treasurer. The market had been storing its supplies in vacant storefronts for the past several years, but due to the popularity of retailers in the Northside TownCenter of late, Winnie led the charge to invest in a new trailer in the market parking lot, so the market now has its own storage space. 

Winnie has an effervescent personality that comes in handy in her other role for the market as the volunteer coordinator. When she is volunteering nearly weekly at the market, she is cheerfully recruiting new volunteers to support the efforts of the market to distribute SNAP/EBT and Double Dollars benefits. Winnie is a strong and powerful advocate for community as she demonstrates in her devotion to the Northside Farmers Market.

Nominated by the Northside Planning Council & Robin Amado, Lakeview Branch Library

As a native of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Terrence got his degree in Recreation Management from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He moved to Madison in 2009 to take a job with the YMCA of Dane County, and then quickly transitioned to MSCR, where he oversaw adult recreational programs.

In 2017 Terrence came to us on the Northside and took over the role of facility manager at the Warner Park Community Recreation Center, and we are very lucky and grateful that he did.

Since Terrence arrived here, he has opened the doors to communities that had never found comfort or opportunity at the center before. He expanded the open gym hours and dramatically increased youth participation by waiving the $1 fee on weeknights. That policy change meant that youth visits went from 350 a month to 1,000 or more a month. He instituted monthly Friday Teen Nights and 3-on-3 basketball tournaments, and piloted weekly Friday Teen Nights during the summer, as well. He collaborates with multiple partners to regularly bring youth programming into the building. Most of all, Terrence did this work for two years without specialized staff or resources for teen programming. 

Terrence brings his lived experience to the job. He said in an interview with the Capital Times in September, “I was one of those kids where I really looked at rec centers as a place where I could go — not always from a programmatic standpoint, but just somewhere to go and be safe and just enjoy being a teenager.” He’s done on-the-ground outreach and built one-on-one relationships to identify kids who aren’t being served by other programs and make sure they know they have a place at the center. And then when he gets them in the door, he involves them in setting expectations and co-creating rules so they can play well alongside the center’s other users.

He is resourceful, creative, collaborative and visionary, and he works as hard as anyone I’ve ever known, all the while raising two young children who attend Mendota Elementary. He’s also our local deejay ‒ he helped make our series of summer block parties a hit with his positive, friendly vibe. Personally, our partnership and friendship is one of the most rewarding parts of my job. When Terrence and I go too long without being in a meeting together, we both notice it. That’s an indication of how tightly knit Northside organizations have become as we try to optimize our resources and impact, and Terrence has been at the center of much of that collaborative spirit.

All of this good work has not gone unnoticed. Terrence was recently honored with the 2019 Alix Olson Award at the Mayor’s Neighborhood Roundtable (read more about that award on page 18). In collaboration with the Parks Foundation, Terrence was able to raise $80,000 this summer for his “Kids Need Opportunities at Warner” or KNOW initiative. And, with the passage of the city budget, Warner Park center will be getting a full-time teen specialist staff position and is slated to be expanded in 2021 or 2022 to add dedicated youth spaces to the building — a major win for the Northside, made possible by Terrence’s hard work.

I’ll end with Terrence’s own words when asked about his favorite moments: “Seeing the kids being able to be here on a daily basis. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. That’s the power of what we’re doing — that sense of belonging and kids feel like ‘This is our place too.’”

Charles McLimans, President & CEO of The River Food Pantry, was the emcee for the 15th Annual North Star Awards, with awards given by Alder Syed Abbas, District 12 and Alder Rebecca Kemble, District 18.