’05 tackles urgent needs one by one

There have been many urgent needs during recent months — educational, pandemic, social justice and poverty. Even though she has physical limitations that require her to stay quietly at home much of the time, Juanita Baatz Gutbrod ’05 of Sussex, Wisconsin, still finds solutions.

She continued to teach her Pre-K classes from St. Bruno Parish School in Dousman, Wisconsin, online. This summer, she is experimenting with mask designs to make for her students that the 3- and 4-year-olds MIGHT want to keep on their heads when school opens up again.

While her husband, Shane, was unexpectedly quarantined for several weeks at an Army National Guard camp at Fort Leonard Wood, Gutbrod used the time to turn their house into a “mask factory” and produced hundreds of masks for primarily healthcare providers, essential workers and even members of her husband’s unit so that they could safely travel home.

She mailed hundreds to her good friend, Cady Sinnwell Gerlach ’05, in Iowa City, Iowa, for staff at a homeless shelter and permanent supportive housing units.

She sews dresses for the Waukesha County chapter of Dress a Girl Around the World, which supplies dresses to girls living in poverty.

“It’s important to be a good person and use your time to improve the quality of life for others,” Gutbrod says. “I wanted to do some kind of charity work from home, especially on those days that I don’t feel well. I use my talents to help other people within the limitations I have. I do it to stay busy, stay positive and use my time, energy and resources to give to others. Ripon College made me very peaceful, wanting peaceful solutions and talking things out.”