Wood City Tavern benefit has already raised more than $10,000 for deputy’s family
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
GLENWOOD CITY — When Kent Kletcher decided to donate the proceeds from the Wood City Open golf tournament to Deputy Leising’s family, he was only looking for t-shirts and hats.
The next thing you know, people were donating $500 crossbows and flat screen televisions.
“I decided Monday or Tuesday of last week to donate the proceeds (of the golf tournament) to the deputy’s family,” said Kletcher, the owner of the Wood City Tavern in downtown Glenwood City.
The funeral for St. Croix County Deputy Kaitie Leising, who was shot and killed just outside Glenwood City the evening of Saturday, May 6, was held last Friday at Hudson High School.
Since the proceeds from the golf tournament, the second annual Wood City Open at the Glen Hills Golf Course on Saturday, May 13, were going to the deputy’s family instead of as pay-out to the golfers, Kletcher said he had started asking for donations of t-shirts and hats to give to the golfers.
“Suddenly, I had a $500 crossbow donated,” he said.
“The more I posted on Facebook, the more they kept donating. The outpouring from the community has been (phenomenal),” Kletcher said.
By Sunday afternoon, the fund raiser had generated $10,600.
On his Facebook page, Kletcher wrote: “Good Afternoon Everyone. Just an update and an adjustment to the Wood City Open this weekend. I have made the decision to donate all of the proceeds to the Kaitie Leising Family. After the tragic events of the weekend I can’t imagine the pain and suffering her family and friends are going thru. I know this doesn’t do much but it’s what we can do to help. With that said, thanks to a very generous donation from Sean Lybert at Glenwood Hardware we have a prize, a Bear X Intense Crossbow valued at over $400.”
Kletcher says the fund raiser has been a way for people to do something positive following a horrific event in the community.
“Glenwood City is a nice little town. Things like this just don’t happen in places like this,” he said.
The vast majority of law enforcement and the vast majority of the people they encounter “are good people who just want to do their jobs and go home at the end of the day,” Kletcher said.
The tragedy of Deputy Leising’s death has traumatized people in the area, he said.
“This just doesn’t happen here,” Kletcher said.
Except that it has happened.
And the community has stepped up in a big way.
“It shows that people in this town really do care,” Kletcher said, noting that small towns are known for taking care of their own.
Donations
In addition to the numerous items that have been donated, Hiawatha National Bank in Glenwood City has donated $3,000.
Two 50-inch Hisense televisions were on donation boards at Wood City Tavern and at the golf tournament.
Packman’s Concrete donated a $500 gift certificate.
Herdsman Feeds donated a $300 gift certificate for Red Wing boots.
Clinton and Molly Rassbach donated a 16×16 foot concrete patio valued at $2,000, which will be up for auction at Hansen’s Auction out of Downing.
Ross’s Locker, Fiddlers Green, M&M Bar, Leakers Place, Carquest Auto Parts, Countryside Cooperative, Thrivent Financial, Nilssen’s Foods, and Fleming Insurance also made donations.
At the risk of leaving someone out, the Tribune Press Reporter is not going to try to compile a complete list now of all the donations.
Kletcher has listed many of the items on Wood City Tavern’s Facebook page.
When the fund raiser finally winds down, Kletcher says he will put together a comprehensive list to post online and to publish in the newspaper.
According to Wood City Tavern’s Facebook page, Nate Mrdutt won the crossbow. One television was drawn at the golf tournament, and the winner was not in attendance but had been notified.
The donation board for the other television is at the Wood City Tavern.
Kletcher said he will continue to have fund-raising activities at the tavern, and by the middle of the week, an online auction will be set up with Hansen Auctions out of Downing.
“People have given so much. They have been so generous,” he said.
The Wood City Open, he noted, had 43 golfers who participated.
Golf
During Deputy Leising’s funeral, a representative for the St. Croix County’s Sheriff’s Department read a tribute to the memory of Deputy Leising written by her father.
The deputy was a premature baby born seven weeks early.
“You came into my life too early, and you left my life too early,” her dad wrote.
When Deputy Leising was a little girl, her father enjoyed taking her golfing.
Her dad said that he continued to enjoy taking her golfing — right up until the time she got good enough to start beating him.
Deputy Leising continued to improve her golf game and golfed during high school and at college.
When asked if he knew that Deputy Leising had been a golf enthusiast, Kletcher replied, “I had no idea.”
Donating the proceeds from the golf tournament “just seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.
Her smile
At her funeral, Deputy Leising’s co-workers at the sheriff’s department, her friends and members of her family talked about her professionalism, her fierce determination, and the positive impact the deputy had on all of those who knew her.
Small children flocked to her, they said.
Kaitie’s smile always lit up the room, they said.
St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson noted that if you were having a bad day, you only had to talk to Kaitie, and your day suddenly got better.
Deputy Leising is survived by her wife and their three-month old son.
Kletcher said he would be getting together with the Hansen Auction Group of Downing on Monday to set up the auction for the donated items.
Donations for Deputy Leising can also be made at any WESTconsin Credit Union location and can be mailed as well to the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Department, 1101 Carmichael Road, Suite G200, Hudson WI, 54016.
