By Elizabeth Altman

This year marks a new era of leadership for the Irish Community and Heritage Center in the form of recently appointed director Kristine Carrigg Pluskota and board president Karen Prendergast. 

Seeking to continue the center’s long-standing tradition of community service, as begun and developed under former director John Maher and longtime board president Tom Wiseman, Pluskota and Prendergast are working to build upon the foundation of their predecessors. Active members within the Milwaukee Irish community, both women have long involved themselves in the creation and leadership of the ICHC. 

Kristine Pluskota, former sergeant -at-arms and vice-president of the 45- year-old Shamrock Club, has been with the non-profit social, educational, and cultural group since 1991. Employing her college background for Shamrock Club events —- Pluskota has an associate degree in restaurant hotel management from MATC - she joined the group as her son Bobby entered his senior year in high school. Ten years ago, one could find her at work with the club manning food preparation and distribution at its multiple fundraisers to help secure the ICHC building. 

Recognized for her work as this past year’s Shamrock Club Irish Rose, Pluskota clarified that the title came as a "a thank-you honor, not a beauty pageant;" some unsuspecting fan had previously mistook her dedication to the Irish community as an extension into the realm of the swimsuit competition. 

Pluskota has also volunteered yearly at Irish Fest, originally working with her mother, grandmother, and son, baby-sitting for discarded bagpipes and kilts, as their owners and wearers enjoyed time out on the grounds. She counts that among her total 26 years of service within the community.

"I’m Irish through and through, don’t let that Polish name confuse you …We come from a town called Ballyvaughan," which is in Co. Clare. My grandmother and mother were very proud of our heritage," she offered.

Pluskota, after all her years of service, comes to her appointment with a new vision to maintain the ICHC while concurrently moving it forward.

"We’ll be doing some grant writing for major improvements," she said in reference to the heavy construction work that the ICHC hopes to get underway. "We purchased the building for a $1 ten years ago," and laughing, continued to explain why the former Grand Avenue Congregational Church may have let it go at such a deal. 

"It’s slowly getting renovated. We had to put on a roof. That’s huge, and now that the roof is on, now we can start doing repairs of plaster. We need to bring the plumbing up to code, we need to bring in all brand new bathrooms that are handicapped accessible, we need to update the electricity. We need to get all new windows; our windows are falling apart…We don’t technically have a functioning kitchen, we would like to get a kitchen going again," she said, almost breathless.

Banking on Pluskota’s restaurant management background, the ICHC staff hopes to help the center begin running more lucratively and garner the income necessary for such heavy renovations. With plans for bringing back large fundraisers such as "Half-way to St. Patrick’s Day" and grant writing for major improvements underway, facility is also investigating organizing its own feis, a large dance competition. 

Pluskota hopes that any such event would include participants from Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as Wisconsin. In addition, the ICHC is considering a pub/sessions night to showcase local entertainers, Pluskota said the ICHC entertainment committee has already "done a fantastic job with booking bands for concerts," named Schooner Fare, which will perform a fundraising concert on Nov. 18. 

Pluskota is also heartened by recent economic growth in the neighborhood, noting the newly renovated Ambassador Hotel and 2040 Lofts for Marquette student apartments. "This part of the avenue is getting more visibility," said Pluskota. "People tend to come up over the bridge more than they used to, once the bridge is back up," she said, referring to the construction of the Marquette Interchange which involved rebuilding the Wisconsin Avenue bridge linking downtown with the university. 

As the only paid employee within a sea of volunteers, Pluskota continues to look to a future of similar progress for the ICHC, hoping to maintain the open atmosphere to which volunteers may flock. She also recognizes the drawbacks of a system where maintenance, library work, and even bartending depends on the willingness of the community to help out. 

"We’re at the mercy of volunteers. So, if you need repairs done, you need to wait for your volunteers to come forward," Pluskota said. "So that sometimes can be a hindrance in getting things done, but at the same difference, much more pride goes into the job being accomplished. It’s very heartwarming to hear someone say, ‘Oh my goodness, look at what they’ve done, look at, you know, the changes.’"

Pluskota’s specific duties at the ICHC include acting as the building’s booking agent for those seeking to rent it for events or meetings. She also oversees upkeep and the dispensing of concert tickets. And there’s the alcohol distribution. Acting as the building’s agent, Pluskota is also the one to see about keeping hearty pours of malt beverage flowing. Married four years ago, all this certainly keeps her busy.

Equally integral in the ICHC’s success, although not perhaps the keeper of its bar tab, Karen Prendergast has been involved since joining the board in 1996 as the Cashel Dennehy School of Irish Dance representative. The board recently appointed this mother of four and grandmother of two as their new president in the January officers’ elections, held annually. 

Prendergast, who works as a middle school English teacher in Whitefish Bay, chalks her appointment up to experience. She previously served as secretary and then vice president of the facility. She says she has long been in love with all things Irish. 

"Maybe it’s because my birthday is in March," she laughed, continuing, "People think I do [have an Irish background]. This is gonna be the big unveiling…which is interesting because I’m sure nobody even knows this, but, um no, my heritage is probably, it’s half German, half English, but…I’ve always just, I’ve loved all things Irish. You know, when I was little and in geography it’s like, ‘I want to go to Ireland."… I was fortunate enough to marry an Irish man." A number of gasps and giggles delightedly punctuated her commentary. 

Prendergast, a member of the four-person search committee that sought out and eventually hired Pluskota as ICHC director, found it "fortunate in that we found someone who has a passion as much as John (Maher). For working with the Irish community and for our mission and everything that it represents and stands for, I think she’s pretty committed. We were worried about finding anyone to fill those shoes. And, say, who wants to work that hard?"

Both women share a similar vision for the ICHC and the roadblocks it must overcome. Along with Pluskota who considered the building a "kind of a secret," Prendergast herself is aware that, "from day one we’ve probably had an identity problem, mainly because with the Irish community, Irish Fest is very much in the forefront of what the Irish does in Milwaukee. And it’s a wonderful festival and everybody knows of that, and I think when you say the Irish Community Center, they kind of just think right away of, you know, the festival." 

Prendergast hopes the community becomes more aware of the ICHC and all its resources, from the many varied group meetings held in the building, to crafts schools, to the large concert hall that can host weddings and to one of the most complete collections of Irish genealogy in the state. The building is "there for their use," said Prendergast, echoing Pluskota’s sentiments in an unconscious show of solidarity across the lines of board and director. Obviously, under her direction, the center’s board will ensure that the ICHC will be much more than merely be a well-kept secret.

Acknowledging the dedicated work of past ICHC director John Maher and former president Tom Wiseman, along with all the early participants who Prendergast said kept the building running from day to day when "there were a lot of people who thought, ‘oh geez, within a couple years we’d have to let go of it,’" the new president also sees a future more heavily dependent on funding. 

In addition to the fundraising and grant writing for those windows and bathrooms, Prendergast considers bringing in revenue from such means as annual community sponsorships or paid memberships that would include a subscription to the An Gael Talk newsletter, although, she, like Pluskota, also seeks to continue the ICHC’s tradition of volunteerism. Considering the uniqueness of the ICHC’s volunteer force, which both president and director say they can always use more of, Prendergast discussed Irish Milwaukee’s difference from that of other cities.

"You know, maybe that’s it, because with our center, I mean I don’t know how the other centers might work, but because we really are totally volunteer based it’s amazing that people will keep doing it year after year, I guess, you know just because they believe so much in the center and what goes on there." The board will further discuss fundraising ideas at their upcoming meetings, which occur on the fourth Wednesday of every month. 
 

As far as her specific role as president and her new affiliation with the board, Prendergast said, "I don’t feel like I have to do anything different, because a lot of the board members have been there a long time. But we all just kind of work together." 

She does, however, seek to guide the board as it embarks upon amore fiscally conscious path. "I think the biggest thing for me, this year, is just trying to get a real long-range plan going. It seems like we’ve been living day-to-day for quite a while just to make sure the center is open and that people have something to do."

She said the board will be working on a dream list and needs to figure out how to accomplish these goals. 

Both Pluskota and Prendergast come to their positions at a time of building, from increasing the numbers of Milwaukee Irish involved in the center to building awareness of the ICHC. Both share a vision of 2133 W. Wisconsin Ave. that might seem surprisingly in tune with the past. But that’s fine.

In a structure founded by abolitionists across different church lines, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once addressed the city, Pluskota and Prendergast hope to maintain the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center’s similar accepting atmosphere and its drive to give back to Milwaukee. 

Along with their entire battalion of Irish supporters, both leaders will continue to work to live up to the weight of the past and the promise of a shamrock-green future. 
 
 

Elizabeth Altman can be reached at lizzyaltman@hotmail.com.