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Stoughton
Thursday, January 16, 2020 • Vol. 138, No. 26 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
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Stoughton Area Senior Center
Exciting pace for new hire New volunteer/ program coordinator hired at senior center EMILIE HEIDEMANN Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Mackenzie Krumme
Bill Amundson, a Stoughton native, believes that the city where he grew up has the potential to be a thriving arts mecca. After a 35 year career in Denver he came home to take care of his father and extract the potential of the dynamic culture.
Amy Lambright Murphy’s new position at the Stoughton Area Senior Center keeps her busy. The center hired her as its n ew vo l u n teer/proLambright Murphy g r a m c o o rd i n a t o r i n D e c e m b e r, tasking her with scheduling and implementing
senior center programs, activities and events. And Lambright Murphy seems to have settled in just fine. “The team I work with … has been the best to work with,” Lambright Murphy told the Hub. “Everyone has been incredibly welcoming, helpful and considerate. Several people have been here over 15 years, which tells me a lot.” Lambright Murphy said she recruits, orients and trains new volunteers. She also oversees the center’s RSVP driver escort service, in which volunteer drivers transport Stoughton seniors to medical appointments. “Any given day, I can
Turn to Volunteer/Page 3
‘Never gave up’ on Stoughton Helping students native Bill Amundson, and the short piece was a preview to a farewell party as Amundson was about to leave Colorado, where he had lived and worked most of his adult life. While he moved here then to help his dying father, he and his wife have stayed for one main reason – because he’s determined to extract the potential of Stoughton to become a thriving art destination. “(I) never gave up on the whole Stoughton thing,” he said. “It still has all the raw materials to become a really cool art town.” Now the most vocal
MACKENZIE KRUMME Unified Newspaper Group
A September 2010 Denver Post blurb said it all. “For the past 35 years, there has been no more beloved or influential figure on the Denver art scene than the enormously talented, if eccentric and sometimes neurotic, artist,” art critic Kyle MacMillan proclaimed. That artist is Stoughton
Inside Stoughton swimmers land 5 top-3 finishes at College Events Invitational Page 8
Courier Hub
member of the Stoughton Arts Council, Amundson said Stoughton has several destinations that provide a solid foundation. That starts with the century old Stoughton Opera House, he said, abandoned in the 1950s, then rediscovered and eventually turned into a favorite spot for national acts over the past 15 years. There’s also a combination of eccentric artists that come from Stoughton, like himself, and the galleries, music venues and the focus on heritage. Among those are the Abel Contemporary Art
Gallery, which moved to Main Street from Paoli – itself known as a small arts destination – and the Stoughton Village Players Theater, which has been operating for nearly 50 years. Another is the Stoughton Center for the Arts, which has taught thousands of students since opening. Sprinkled through the large, well known spaces are smaller art centric buildings like a pottery shop, photography business and other small galleries.
Turn to Art/Page 12
diagnose a career SHS health course connects students with local professionals SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
When it comes to helping his high school students find a career path, finding out what you don’t want to do can be as important as finding what you do. It’s all part of the learning process for Stoughton High School teacher Stephen Stokes, who has built from scratch his popular health science field study class working with local connections to help students find the careers that are right for them. Stokes, who started the class two years ago after
having “more and more kids” taking his health science classes, said since there aren’t similar classes around, he’s just working with what he’s got around. “There is no other class I’ve ever heard of that’s like this,” he said. “There’s no textbook.” Growing the fledgling course has focused on building partnerships to help his students, including an end-of-semester roundtable discussion last week with a panel of Stoughton Hospital staff that provided first-hand information about nearly a dozen real-life careers. The class has 21 students – mainly seniors — and is held fall semester to give students a better chance to look at scholarship possibilities for the
Turn to Health/Page 9
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Amundson believes city’s art scene has potential to thrive