We continue our Community Helper series by introducing the work of a woman named Chris Marcks, a Shawano resident for just over five years. It didn’t take Marcks long before she became heavily involved with a number of local groups to instantly better the community of Shawano.
“I became active first and foremost in rotary and I now serve as President there,” Marcks explained of her involvement. “I joined the United Way Board a couple of years ago at this point and before that, I was part of the group that brought Big Brothers Big Sisters here to Shawano, and got to make the first 65 matches in Shawano. I’m now a Big Sister and continue to serve on the Advisory Board.”
Marcks did play an integral role in the start-up of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Shawano, which continues to expand, most recently with their new Bigs in Blue Program. For Marcks, she couldn’t be more proud to see the program take off, something she remains involved in.
“There’s definitely a sense of pride,” said Marcks. By no means was just me doing it, but it’s something that I’ve had a lot of fun with, and it’s something I get to hang my hat on, so to speak, and just look back with nothing but adoration.”
While Marcks is no longer the Program Lead for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Shawano, she admits her involvement in its initiation is one of the things she feels has been most rewarding.
“Getting to see all of these kids, that could really use an adult mentor in their life, get matched, and see them at activities just having fun, enjoying themselves, and hearing stories. It’s been awesome and probably the most fulfilling just because of the duration of it.”
Marcks stays busy however, and she adds he position as Rotary Club President has also been valuable.
“We’ve been doing a lot of neat things,” Marcks said of the Rotary Club. “The circus came to Shawano, we’re doing a recruiting initiative to grow our club, coming up we are going to be one of the major sponsors of Phase 1 of the Franklin Park project here in Shawano, and we have our first outbound foreign exchange student heading overseas. We haven’t had an outbound exchange student in a while, so that’s a neat thing we’ve got in place now too.”
A new endeavor started by Marcks is the Shawano Area Mamma’s Fitness Class, that recently started up. The women’s only class at Hope Community Church has been held twice so far, but is expected to grow. The class provides child care during, and provides women with something not seen in the area.
“I’ve always been really passionate about fitness, health and wellness in general, and I saw the need to have an ability to work out as a parent and have child care provide,” Marcks said. “Mondays and Wednesdays Total Fitness is providing a certified instructor to come and teach us from 8:30 until 9:30, both with child care available. Fridays we have also a time at 8:30 that I’m going to be leading with just stretching and toning. That’ll provide three days a week a good workout.”
She has also made it a goal to make the class affordable, so the most any woman would pay is $25 for the entire month, including child care during the workout. With such an active lifestyle, it’s hard to look too far down the road for what may come next, but Marcks says whatever that may be will likely be related to health and wellness.
“That’s probably where you’re going to see me continue to be more active,” Marcks said of her plans to be active in the health and wellness field. “For now, I’m just going to continue to learn more about rotary and helping other mothers and young kids because that’s really where my passion is, and helping nurture them and their development.
Chris Marcks says she can be contacted on Facebook to learn more about Rotary or any of the other programs she is involved in.
Chris Marcks, this week’s Community Helper.