Federwitz retires from Edgar HS after 31 years

The end of this school year at Edgar High School meant celebrations for the graduating seniors, and mixed feelings for teacher Kris Federwitz, who was also leaving — retiring after 31 years at the school.

Federwitz taught Family and Consumer Science, was advisor to the Family Career and Community Members club, and served as the district’s School to Career coordinator. She came to Edgar for her first teaching job and never left.

“I am very blessed to have had this opportunity,” she said. Federwitz grew up on a farm in Stratford, just miles away from Edgar. She remembers that everything was homemade, and there was a huge garden. She started making meals for the family when she was nine, and received her first sewing machine when she was also very young. With that background, she naturally gravitated to classes in Family and Consumer Science in high school and in college.

When times were tough, she vividly remembers a Christmas when a local church helped them out with food and gifts. That experience taught her the importance of community service, a message she emphasized to her students at Edgar.

“I always stressed the importance of giving back to the community because you never know when you may need it,” she said.

Many of her favorite memories from her years at Edgar were of the many community service projects she and her students participated in. They started a fall festival in a local park that was a free, family-friendly event. There was a hay maze made from donated straw bales, with donated pumpkins that children could decorate and take home. There was a petting zoo and free rides on an older fire truck.

There was a Christmas in October event for a young local girl who, sadly, was dying and would not make it to Christmas. Federwitz’s students and other volunteers bought gifts, decorated the house with lights, and planted a live Christmas tree in the back yard.

Her students also helped at the Winter Wonderland event at the Marshfield Zoo. The event collected so many donations for the local food pantry that they were well stocked for months.

One of her former students helped start what became known as Cupcakes beCause, a cupcake decorating contest open to the public. There were judges and prizes, and the extra cupcakes were sold. Profits from the event went to a different cause each year. The first year was for autism, and the second year was for a young boy with cancer.

Her students were involved with Special Olympics and helped with a dance for the Special Olympics athletes. Her students got dressed up in formal attire and danced with all the athletes.

“They told me they had more fun at that prom than at their own prom,” Federwitz remembered.

Federwitz and her students also helped make an existing community service day at Edgar High School an annual event. Students take time that day to do a service project like cleaning trash along the highway, cleaning up yards of residents who aren’t able to do it themselves, or even cleaning up a cemetery. Her students also helped make “meals that heal” for people in need.

A common denominator in the projects was that they were student-driven.

“We listened to what they wanted to do,” Federwitz said. “I know it had an impact on them. The life lesson was not just what you learned in the book.”

Giving back to the Edgar community is important because the community helps out the school district. As School to Career coordinator, she was impressed by the number of businesses that helped with mock interviews and other career preparation for students.

“They are so embedded in the school,” she said.

Federwitz keeps up with many of her students and was pleased to see several go on to become valuable members of the Edgar community.

“I know that the students had as much impact on me as I did on them,” she said.

During her first year of teaching, she kept a journal. On the last day of her first year she wrote “this job is a keeper.”

She had no idea how right she was.