If not for the higher than expected asking price, Northwoods Greenhouse & Ice Cream likely wouldn’t exist. Last fall, Charpentier was prepared to buy a greenhouse in Prentice. “I mean, there’s not much better environment to be working in.” “Something where I’m going into a greenhouse at six o’clock in the morning and seeing the unbelievable beauty when it’s around Mother’s Day, and it’s just full of stunning flowers,” he said. In the ensuing years, he said the more he learned, the more he fell in love with the work. Unemployed and new in Ixonia, a town about 40 minutes northwest of Milwaukee, he found a job as an assistant grower at a greenhouse. So it was by accident that he came into horticulture 11 years ago after his father died. Carpentry was his life, before and after his stint in the Navy. Like Lincoln Logs, he handcrafted each interlocking timber beam in the family basement, which doubled as a woodworking shop. native who loved the experience saying, “It was a beautiful country.” Another year he lived in New Zealand for ten months.Īs a teenager, Charpentier built “Timber Logs” for Toys for Tots. His crew transported cargo and equipment to researchers from the National Science Foundation living on the unforgiving continent.įor Calif.-raised service members, Charpentier recalls with a laugh, Antarctica’s harsh temperatures were an “eye-opening experience.” Not so for the Wis. Every six months, his squadron flew to New Zealand, then Antarctica, as part of Operation Deepfreeze. With so many visitors streaming into Prentice’s two square miles, Charpentier saw a sweet opportunity to raise money for veterans by hosting an ice cream fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the Gary Sinise Foundation.Ĭharpentier served in the Navy in the 1990s assigned to Naval Air Station Point Mugu in Ventura County, Calif. Bands perform on stages set up in parking lots scattered around Prentice and at the park, which also hosts an evening movie screening. There are softball and volleyball games, a classic car show, and food and craft vendors hawking homemade and artsy goods.
High school marching bands and first responder vehicles, their sirens blaring and lights flashing, parade through town. For the town’s 563 residents, it is one of the busiest times of the year.
Since the 1960s, the Village of Prentice in Price County has hosted an annual “Progress Days” over Labor Day weekend.
The Navy veteran and owner of Northwoods Greenhouse & Ice Cream hung 13 flags side-by-side on the wall from inside the scoop shop.
service members were killed last month at Kabul airport, half a world away in Prentice, Wisconsin, Dave Charpentier felt called to do something to honor their sacrifice.
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