Chambers Island Nature Preserve
Partners in Conservation
SUMMER 2022
HOLY NAME RETREAT HOUSE: In the SPIRIT of FRIENDSHIP By Barbara Frank with Terrie Cooper, DCLT
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oly Name Retreat House (HNRH) was famous for its chocolate cookies, a hallmark of its hospitality. You could smell that wonderful aroma when you came in the front door. My husband Rick and I remember going to the retreat house when we had a crisis opening up our cabin one cold April day in 2008. Non-Catholics, we’d rarely been in the building, but we knew it was the place to go when you needed help. As we walked in, Charlotte Duran, co-manager with her husband Ben, called out, “Welcome! Chocolate chip cookies just came out of the oven! Get yourself some coffee and cookies and come to my office.”
For 62 years, it provided a spiritual focus, all kinds of practical help, and a center of hospitality for Chambers Islanders. The majority of HNRH’s some 70 acres is slated to become part of the Chambers Island Nature Preserve later this year. Many islanders are sad the retreat house is gone but are relieved that by becoming part of the Nature Preserve, it is no longer at risk for development. The Door County Land Trust, owner/manager of the preserve, will install historical markers in key places on the property to commemorate the unique contribution HNRH gave to Chambers Island.
BAUDHUIN FAMILY’S KEY ROLE IN HNRH
Gratefully, we sat down with Charlotte and explained, “We Dick Baudhuin and Donna turned on our new hot water Baudhuin Thenell display their catch heater and it leaked all over in front of the original HNRH. the cabin floor! We don’t know what to do.” Charlotte picked up her walkie-talkie. “Wally, Wally, come in please. Wally, where are you?” Soon she had dispatched Wally Graves, a plumber who came to help open up the retreat house every spring with 30 other loyal HNRH volunteers, and a buddy to our cabin. On the way down, our truck blew a tire! They picked us up, solved our hot water heater problem in about 10 minutes, and said, “We’ll tow your truck back to the retreat house workshop and get that tire changed.” By the end of that weekend, HNRH folks had solved all our problems. This included Sigrid Weber, longtime retreat house cook and head housekeeper, loaning us her Jeep to get back to our cabin to load up and deliver our gear and dogs to the East Dock. Such was the friendly help the retreat house often offered islanders. Holy Name Retreat House, operated by the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, first opened its doors on Chambers Island in 1951 and officially closed its doors for good on January 16, 2014.
The Baudhuin family played a critical role in the establishment of HNRH and in sparking the idea of creating a nature preserve on the island. George “Butch” Baudhuin, father of Dick Baudhuin and Donna Baudhuin Thenell, attended a mainland retreat in The first retreat was held in the log cabin in 1951. the late 1940s and found it a profound experience. On his boat excursions to Chambers, it occurred to him that the island could be a wonderful location for a retreat house. He persuaded his four brothers to go in together on the purchase of the Drake estate, located on land between Lake Mackaysee and the bay of Green Bay, and donate it to the Diocese of Green Bay. It included a beautiful log cabin that had been shuttered there since 1929. Father John K. Mueller held the first retreat there on August 3, 1951, after Dick and his brothers spent weeks hauling out furnishings including pews, tables and chairs, beds, dishes, and a refrigerator that nearly fell in the bay on a particularly rough ride to the island. By the end of the summer, after
The renovated Holy Name Retreat House.
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Chambers Island Nature Preserve
Save — Sustain — Study
four retreats for a total of 97 men, the diocese declared the retreats a success and officially accepted the Baudhuin brothers’ generous donation. The log cabin with its beautiful log walls and fireplace became the center of the HNRH building. Fr. Mueller was appointed the first director of HNRH. That was many years ago when hundreds of parishioners from Wisconsin, Illinois and other locales would cross the bay of Green Bay to Chambers for mid-week and weekend retreats. Initially, retreats were for men only. However, as the years passed, retreats were offered to women, couples, recovering alcoholics, and other groups as well. In 1952, a 38’ boat with twin engines was purchased for $5,000 to transport attendees. It was christened the Quo Vadis, which means “Where Are You Going?”— a fitting theme for a contemplative weekend. This
prayer maze was created in the meadow near the East Dock. According to an article in the Green Bay Diocesan magazine, The Compass, on January 23, 2014, more than 68,000 people attended retreats at Holy Name Retreat House during its 62 years of existence.
SILENT RETREATS All retreats on the island were silent. As HNRH’s 1999 brochure explains, “Retreats in the spirit of silence have been a long and cherished tradition of Holy Name Retreat House. A retreat is an opportunity to give oneself an oft-neglected disposition: an openness to listen to God. The quiet of silence is a much-needed ingredient for this disposition.” Carol Kennedy noted that islanders who lived near Lake Mackaysee “worked very hard,
The first retreats were for men only. Leisure activities included horseshoes.
boat was replaced in 1956 by the second Quo Vadis, a sturdy metal boat 42’ long with two one-hundred horsepower engines for 60 passengers, that cost $15,000. John Thenell, Donna’s husband, Joel and Jim Blahnik and Mike Kennedy all piloted the Quo Vadis through the years. Many islanders fondly remember the Quo, as we often called it, for we were welcome to get rides if there was room on its scheduled trips twice Fridays and twice Sundays to and from the island. Today, the same boat, still titled the Quo Vadis, is owned by the Fish Creek Boat Tours Co. It resides in its same dock in the Fish Creek Harbor and provides boat excursions around the bay for tourists. In the summer of 1952, the HNRH bell was set up, blessed by Fr. Paul Van Norman and christened Raphael, after the Archangel Raphael. For 62 years, the bell was rung at the beginning and end of each retreat and the beginning of every meal. HNRH had several expansions to accommodate the growing number of people served, all built with the help of parishioners’ donations and the labor of many volunteers. The garage and workshop were built in 1953 for $900. The chapel, with a large cross visible to boats as they approached the East Dock, was dedicated on June 11, 1957. Donna Thenell noted that the chapel was built with Chambers lumber from Matt Theis’ lumber mill. All told, the entire complex eventually included a large commercial kitchen, dining room, bedrooms for a maximum of 80 people (including some rooms for couples), the chapel, a conference room, a workshop, a dock on Lake Mackaysee with a pontoon boat, and the East Dock. Stations of the Cross were established in the woods, and a
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Devotionals were made at the Stations of the Cross.
if we had to drive through the retreat house area during the retreats’ afternoon reflection time, to go through very quietly. We were respectful of the silent retreats.” One attendee wrote the following testimonial about her HNRH retreats: “My annual Holy Name retreat is truly the highlight of my summer. I’ve lost track of the number of years (over 10) that I have made “the pilgrimage” from Chicago to Chambers Island. There is really no way to describe adequately the sense of renewal this place provides. It is the perfect place to be in touch with God’s grace, no matter what your situation in life. In good times, it is refreshing and exhilarating. In times of stress or grief, it is a refuge and a balm.”
NUNS AND TEEN BOYS FOUND COMMON GROUND For many years the retreat house staff included not only the director, but also several nuns who lived in a trailer or the Helena House, along the Baseline Road, and several teenage boys. The nuns were notable walking around the grounds in their white habits, cooking, supervising the teens, and making sure attendees’ needs were met. Tom Lardinois and Mark Letter both worked at the retreat house for several summers. They worked hard! They cleaned all the rooms on Mondays after the Friday-Sunday retreats and on Fridays after the Tuesday-Thursday retreats including all bathrooms and toilets, made up all 80 beds, served food at meals in shirts, white jackets and ties, painted, did laundry, cut the grass, and worked as deckhands on the Quo Vadis.
Over time, the nuns and teen boys became good friends. There was time for some fun in between retreats. The nuns would occasionally cook special meals for the boys. Sometimes they would all go out on Lake Maykaysee in the pontoon boat to fish and share a beverage together. “The nuns were great handling us 16-year-old boys!” noted Mark. Tom said, “My mother wanted me to be a priest. In the back of her mind, she thought the retreat house would help me become one.” Instead, he met and married Cindy Baudhuin, Dick’s oldest daughter! His retreat house summers also taught him important life lessons. Tom said, “The retreat house changed the course of my life. I was raised with the idea that kids should be seen and not heard, but at the retreat house we were treated as equals. I learned responsibility and acceptance of others, and that the nuns were regular people.”
Passengers prepare to board the Quo Vadis.
Mark said that he was particularly influenced by Father Gary Crevier, retreat house director, during his summers there. “Father Crevier was a special person. The way he dealt with us knuckle-headed teens, how he valued us, corrected us without tearing at our souls, gave me the tools to deal with my own staff.” Mark sdded, “That place showed me what it was like to be a part of something larger than myself; to work with islanders, staff, volunteers and retreatants, all with a shared goal with God in the mix. It was pretty powerful; that’s why it was such a special place.” As the years went by, the nuns aged out, and the retreat house began to hire teen girls to work in their place. All five of the Johnson kids, Andrew and Olivia Letter, two of the Kennedy kids, Matt and Shelby Matzke, Nick and Ryan Rogers, and Mike and Connie Baudhuin’s two older daughters all worked there. Part of training involved passing Coast Guard trials to work on the Quo Vadis and being drug tested. Heidi Dauffenbach said, “My kids complained in spring that they didn’t want to work at the retreat house, but then they didn’t want to go home in the fall.”
RETREAT HOUSE: AN ANCHOR AND GOOD NEIGHBOR Younger islanders today probably cannot imagine Chambers Island without cell phones. Up until sometime after 2000, however, communication with the mainland was severely limited. For a long time, the retreat house had a special marine radio connection to the mainland. The director called in at 10 PM to the Town of Gibraltar Fire Department every evening
to see if there were messages, and the radio was available if there was an urgent situation on the island. By the 1980s and 1990s, however, most islanders had put marine band radios in their cabins, using their boat call signs to talk to one another, but the retreat house remained an important resource in many ways. For example, the visiting priest conducting the retreat each weekend held a mass for islanders in the dining room on Saturday afternoons. Eventually it was moved to the chapel and held on Sunday mornings. All islanders were welcome, Catholic or not, and all were invited for coffee and HNRH’s famous chocolate chip cookies in the dining area afterwards. In addition, the retreat house, as the island’s heaviest consumer of propane gas, became the logical storage location for propane tanks. Before Charlie Kinsey began delivering propane to people’s cabins, islanders were welcome to
Nuns work in the retreat house kitchen.
return empty tanks to the retreat house and take a full one home for $35. HNRH was also generous in providing ice cubes with anyone who came to ask, hopefully for a donation. The workshop was a treasure trove of tools that were occasionally loaned. The island defibrillator was stored at the retreat house where access was available all summer. Mary Ann Blahnik said the retreat house “was an anchor, a moral compass, and a good neighbor.” HNRH hosted the annual CIA meeting in the conference room more than once, and one year sponsored a pig roast. As mentioned earlier, for a small fee, rides to and from the island on the Quo Vadis’ scheduled runs were always available to islanders if it wasn’t full. This was immensely helpful to many who didn’t own a boat or had family members or guests arriving at different times. Remember that prior to construction of the Chambers Island Marina, safe mooring places off the coast of the island were extremely limited and vulnerable to sudden weather changes. Reciprocity went both ways. Some islanders, including Mike Kennedy and Jim Blahnik, helped the retreat house with repairs and other needs.
LIFE CHANGED IN AMERICA AND THE CHURCH As the years went by, however, American culture and the Roman Catholic Church were both changing. Fewer people signed up for retreats. Suggestions by islanders on the HNRH board that the facility be made available for retreats by other religious denominations, birders, yoga practitioners, or other organizations were not pursued. And so, after years of dwindling attendance, Holy Name Retreat House closed its doors in early 2014. Islanders whose children had worked Continued on back page
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Continued from page 3 were particularly sad. Toni Matzke, whose two oldest, Shelby and Matt, worked there, said, “Without the Holy Name Retreat House, we wouldn’t have met so many wonderful people in such a short period of time… As much as it saddens us it is gone, we are grateful it existed, and we were able to be part of it.”
role in its creation and in the future of the property. The historical marker, to be strategically located on the property, will provide an invitation to learn about the unique contribution that Holy Name Retreat House made to Chambers Island. As Mike Baudhuin noted, “I still miss the retreat house. It created Working at the retreat center brings back fond memories years after the last shift. a community, a gathering Life on Chambers Island was place, and a stability for the changing too. Gene Sperber Sr. and Reinhard Krause had island.” Carol Kennedy called the retreat house area with its both passed away, passing their large logging tracts on to practice of silent retreats, “sacred ground”, a quality we can their children. Dick Baudhuin noted recently that he observed continue to protect in this historic part of what will be the these changes and knew that logging would become much 830-acre Chambers Island Nature Preserve. more difficult as more individuals would own smaller tracts, and the logging companies would have to negotiate with more different people to assemble large enough tracts to make logging financially viable. He suggested to Mary Jane Rintelman and Suzanne Fletcher that putting all that land in When we first came to the island, Matt and Shelby were a nature preserve would be a good way to keep Chambers 15 years old. Matt was very eager to stay on the island Island the way it has always been, with large tracts of the following year to work at the retreat house. Shelby forested land undivided by interior driveways and homes, and needed a strong hand to push her through that door. logged on regular intervals. They took that idea to the Door When spring came, so did the excitement of being back County Land Trust (DCLT). Thus the Chambers Island Nature on the island . By that time, Shelby came to the conclusion Preserve project was born. she was willing to try it out. All the kids on the island After the retreat house closed, the Diocese’s plans to sell welcomed them with open arms and it was an amazing some of its acreage worried islanders. Much of the land was summer. Matt survived an ATV accident and Shelby went zoned commercial/recreational and would be available for from thinking that it was an “OK” idea in May, to her condo or business development. Concerned about this risk, crying and saying, “I don’t want to leave,” in August. That 15 island families came together to purchase all the HNRH summer and the next, gave them long -lasting memories property in order to control its future. But first, they had to and close friendships. finance deconstruction of the retreat house main building,
A letter from Toni Matzke ...
which was falling into disrepair with bats in the attic and mold in the basement. Tom Lardinois did a heroic job of masterminding the monumental task of bringing heavy machinery and dump trucks to the island to pull down the building, pulverize and haul the construction material to the barge dock, take it to the mainland, and dispose of it. Jim and Linda Rintelman and other islanders also deserve kudos for organizing and conducting a two-week rummage sale to sell all 80 beds, tables, chairs and other furniture from the dining room and conference center, all the bedding and contents of the kitchen to islanders, and donate some items to charities on the mainland. Then the property could go on the market. When a potential sale fell through, DCLT saw an opportunity to expand the nature preserve and completely protect some of Chambers Island’s most scenic vistas and ecologically fragile Lake Mackaysee shoreline from any development at all. Completing purchase of the final retreat house parcel will require raising some more private funds to match public monies being requested. Assuming all that happens, the closing will happen later this year. DCLT plans to create and install a historical markers that tell the story of Holy Name Retreat House and the role of islanders like the Baudhuins who played such an important 4
In her last summer, Shelby visited the island more than she had since high school. We had a glorious summer that has given us so many wonderful memories. We all are the best versions of ourselves when on Chambers Island and Shelby was no exception. We are so honored and proud to have shared that time with her and everyone else. Many people that knew her but did not ‘know’ her got the chance that last summer. It helped Alan and I with our grieving in a way that cannot be conveyed in words. To say the HNRH had a positive impact on my family is an extreme understatement. Matt’s accident started so many safety interventions that still are being used today. Shelby’s death strengthened and deepened the already profound relationships that were had on the island. Without the Holy Name Retreat House, we would not have met so many wonderful people, in a short period of time, and our children would not have the deep connections they have today. As much as it saddens us it is gone, we are grateful it existed and we were able to be a part of it before it closed.