Rib Lake pride is an example for area
On Sunday morning a large tree branch fell on the Lions food tent at Ice Age Days, smashing it.
The tree disaster came after a soggy Saturday that saw attendance, and by extension sales drop for the popular summer event. As with many other clubs and organizations in the Rib Lake area, Ice Age Days is their big chance to make their budgets for the year and the difference between a good year and a bad year can be felt for months to come.
It would have been easy for members of the Rib Lake Lions to have thrown their hands up in disgust, or to have taken the fallen tree and smashed tent as a cosmic sign that their efforts were ill-fated — the final straw to break the proverbial camel’s back.
It would have been easy to imagine people giving up, but that is not the Lion’s way, nor does it fit with the scrappy can-do attitude of people from Rib Lake and throughout northern Wisconsin.
Instead of giving up, and going home for the day, the Lions volunteers rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Chainsaws were fetched and the help of a tree removal company sought out. Many hands make for short work, and the clean up effort was no different.
Volunteers relocated tables and tents, shifted the Lions beer stand, removed the offending branch, and re-erected the food tent. In under three hours, the crew had the food tent up and serving visitors. If it wasn’t for the fresh cut pile of firewood logs, and the lingering sawdust on the blacktop parking lot, and the slight bend in the roofline of the tent you might not have known anything had happened.
When faced with adversity, there are those who are quick to give up. There are those who are quick to cast blame or to leave any clean up to be someone else’s problem.
Lions Club members, and members of all other service organizations, see things a bit differently. Instead of what could have been a day-ending disaster, it became an opportunity for club and community members to pitch in and do what was needed to move forward.
This can-do attitude is sadly lacking among a growing segment of the population, and most disturbingly among young people. It was grit and determination that saw Wisconsin go from forested wilderness to America’s Dairyland. It was grit and determination that raised cities from the ground up and that connected people across the country by rail and road. It was grit and determination that saw America prevail against enemies foreign and domestic.
The quick efforts to clear the debris and get things back in operation showed that this grit and determination is alive and well in Rib Lake and throughout Taylor County.
