Tim Dotson (far left) finds a groove with the J. Ryan Trio last Friday.

Employees broke donation records for the bank’s in-house campaign supporting the United Performing Arts Fund last week. “We had the MOST EVER number of donors and MOST EVER dollars raised during this campaign!” SVP consumer credit sales Mike Kellman wrote in an email.

The Milwaukee nonprofit helps fund 40 area music, theater, and dance groups, and is a major funder of groups including the Milwaukee Ballet, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

A trio from the Milwaukee Jazz Institute performed at the pancake breakfast on April 18.

The campaign kicked off last Monday, April 18, with a free pancake breakfast cooked up by Mike and VP facilities and services manager Tim Dotson, featuring entertainment by musicians from the Milwaukee Jazz Institute. Tim returned in a new role on Friday, joining jazz outfit the J. Ryan Trio on saxophone for the campaign closing event.

“I met Ryan playing music at Brookfield Lutheran Church for contemporary worship,” Tim said. “I now ‘jam’ with him and his group occasionally, as schedules allow. The best part about the group is that they donate all the money they make playing to various charities and have never taken any for themselves. When I told them about the opportunity to raise money for UPAF, they were enthusiastically in.”

Employees also got the chance to win UPAF swag and tickets in a raffle. Raffle winners were Maria Baumer, Tim Effertz, Dan Fregoso, Amber Gruhlke, Ann Marie Krecak, Jude Lengell, Kate Madderom, Jeff Marsho, Erika Milosevich, Annette Mueller, Ron Olson, Scott Pagliaroni, Wendy Repka, and Sara Swosinski.

VP security payments manager Lyneen Fischer and help desk and telecom tech Pam Bradley listen at Friday’s closing event, while deposit operations rep Debra Jones gets down to Tim and the J. Ryan Trio.

Mail services supervisor Colleen Moore ran the campaign, assisted by commercial loan servicing manager Cheryl Lang and Mike. If you are interested in helping out with next year’s UPAF campaign, please contact one of them. And if you’d like to join North Shore Bank’s team for the UPAF Ride for the Arts on Sunday, June 5, get in touch with Mike to see about securing a spot.