Julie Hermanson Wollinger has had a huge impact on many Evansville residents because of her caring personality and impressive initiative.

Julie Hermanson Wollinger has had a huge impact on many Evansville residents because of her caring personality and impressive initiative.

Julie is the daughter of George & Janice Wollinger. She grew up on the family farm along with her siblings: Jim, Jackie, Joe and George.  The family all had chores to keep the dairy farm operating smoothly.  Julie’s jobs included feeding the dairy cows every day. The family also raised tobacco, which among farmers is sometimes called a “mortgage lifter”, because it is a cash crop. When it came time to plant the tobacco, her jobs included setting (planting) the little plants while sitting on a little contraption that was pulled slowly behind a tractor. She also watered and hoed the plants, broke off suckers and cut the plants when it was time for harvest. Once the plants had dried in the sun for a few hours, they were “strung” or put on a narrow lathe with a sharp end that made it easier to spear the plants on to the lathe. When I was a young man, I worked on tobacco farms as a cutter and a hanger, standing on poles that ran the length of the barn. I can tell you that nothing about raising tobacco was easy.

All the kids had chores on the farm. It was certainly a benefit to have several children to serve as “free labor”. Haying was another chore that all the children helped with, Julie’s job was to get the hay bales off the hay wagon and set them on the elevator for a ride up to the hay mow, where her brothers would stack them neatly. Again, lifting heavy bales was not an easy task for a young boy or girl.

Julie did not have any farm chores in the morning before school, but in the evenings and weekends she fed the cows and helped cook and clean. The whole family ate dinner together while watching Hogan’s Heroes on tv. For fun they would go to Big Gibbs Lake to swim and play kickball and baseball in a field. In the winter they went sledding on a farm hill and ice skating on Little Gibbs Lake. All the children worked and played together. It was a close-knit family. 

Julie’s parents encouraged the kids to do extra-curricular activities. Julie was in the pit band for musicals and in the cast of the Sound of Music. She also played sports and was on the student council. 

After High School, Julie enrolled at U.W. Madison. She initially studied education to be a teacher, but she later switched majors and began studying to become a surgical technologist. After graduation, she worked in Madison assisting with C-sections. She later left to work at an insurance company.

In 1984, Julie married Dean Hermanson, a local man who was the son of Harlan and Ethel Hermanson. Dean worked as a lineman for the Evansville Water & Light Department. He also did taxidermy during his free time. Dean passed away in 2015. Julie and Dean had three children, Chad, Kari and Jackson.

During her free time, Julie served as a teacher at Evansville’s St Paul Catholic Church and the coordinator of religious education for high school students. It was here that her active involvement in community service began.

The children in the religious education classes helped collect and wrap toys for local families who were struggling to make ends meet. In 1998, Julie realized that people in need required assistance during the entire year and that hunger does not go away just because a child received toys and a holiday meal at Christmas. She began to think about how to create a safety net that would provide support to families throughout the year. Thus, AWARE was born in Evansville!

Julie had two visions for AWARE. She wanted the community to be aware that there were families right here in Evansville who were struggling financially and she wanted families that were struggling to be aware that there was help for them right here in the community. The first big hurdle for Julie was to obtain a not-for-profit status. She secured this by forming an advisory board, followed by affiliating the new organization with and then coming under the umbrella of the Community Action of Rock and Walworth Counties. Later, AWARE became an official program of Community Action. 

AWARE required funding to provide its services. Julie proved to be a successful salesperson in promoting AWARE’s services, soliciting volunteers, securing grants and obtaining donations from the community. The initial funding came through a $5,000 venture grant from the former United Way of North Rock County. She then asked the City of Evansville to match this. They said yes and voila, she had $10,000 to establish AWARE and open its doors to the community. 

Managing AWARE soon became a full-time job. AWARE’s services first included Diaper Days, the Sock it to Big Foot Sock Drive, Coats for Kids, Toys for Evansville, Dental Drives, Rub-a-Dub-Dub Hygiene Product Collections, Week of the Young Child activities, and more. Over the years she has added Emergency Assistance with rent, utilities, car repairs and prescriptions. It was soon followed by SnackPackers, which is the program that provided weekly food distributions to students; assistance with school supplies; drivers education scholarships; an Easter holiday meal complete with candy-filled eggs for the children; free swim lessons and passes and more! Toys for Evansville was modified to provide specific toys and clothing wanted and needed by each child. Whenever she created a new program, our Evansville community stepped up financially and enabled it to thrive.

In the year 2000, AWARE secured the donation of the former Dean Clinic on Church Street and partnered with the City to create the Evansville Youth Center, an after-school safe place for kids to do homework, crafts, and hang out with their friends instead of going home to an empty house. Kids flocked to it and soon AWARE and the youth center outgrew their space and relocated to a new location on First Street.

As a result of her connection with young teens, Julie became aware of teen dating violence. She worked with local students to create a teen dating violence education program, which they named Refuse to Bruise. It was the first program of its kind in the State of Wisconsin and they presented their work at a state conference. The following year when they returned, they learned that they had inspired other communities to create similar programs!

After 17 years of running AWARE on her own, Julie hired a part-time assistant. Deb Arnold came on board and together they created mentoring programs to provide extra support for Evansville’s children. The Lunch Pals program matches a caring adult volunteer with a child who is struggling in some way. It could be low self-esteem, a death in the family, trouble making friends, divorce, etc.. 

They also created Girl Talk - now called Girls Empowering Girls - for middle school girls. In this program high school girls meet weekly with middle school girls to discuss the issues they face as teens and learn ways to cope with their everyday challenges. This can include self-esteem, friendships, self-care, dating, homework, parents, etc..

In June of 2021- Julie joined the planning committee for Courageous Conversations, a partnership of the YWCA of Rock County, Rock County’s Diversity Action Team and Community Action. Each month committee members research racial justice topics and select materials to present to the community via Zoom meetings. Courageous Conversations encourages discussion no matter how difficult or uncomfortable the topic may be. 

In May of 2022 Julie learned of a racial incident that had occurred in the community involving a young child. Julie contacted her boss, Community Action’s Executive Director, Marc Perry and Evansville school superintendent Laurie Burgos to discuss the issue. Together they formed the group Becoming Better Neighbors (BBN) and invited the community into the conversation to address issues of race, stereotyping, implicit bias, prejudice, equity, sexual orientation, diversity and inclusion. Marc provided education to the group and BBN members have begun to organize events to educate the greater community and to help our local children feel safe so that they can grow to reach their full potential. 

In October of 2022, Julie hired a new employee to train and replace her as the AWARE Program Manager so that she could spend more time with her family. Amy Floan came on board and is a wonderful asset for the families who are struggling to meet their basic needs. She began to oversee SnackPackers and the mentoring programs. 

On June 1st, 2023, Julie officially demoted herself and promoted Amy to the position of program manager. Julie reduced her hours and is excited to work in the role of support staff. Amy has taken the reins for all AWARE programming and will soon add additional services for our local families.

Julie Hermanson Wollinger has made a significant contribution to the health and economic needs of the Evansville community. It is amazing that the ideas and drive of one woman can accomplish so much!