RIPON, Wis. – The apartment-size chocolate-chip cookie that Peter and Laurie Kasuboski had a role in creating for Ripon’s successful Guinness record-setting attempt in 1992 was good for about 637,000 calories. That’s enough energy to fuel a 3,400-mile run together or two-plus decades of service (and counting) to the Ripon community. Peter and Laurie chose the latter, and for that they are being recognized with Ripon College’s 2008 Founders’ Day Award starting at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29 in the Great Hall of Harwood Memorial Union.

As Riponfest president that year, Peter and his committee met with Ripon Foods (now Bremner) to discuss the idea of a world-beating cookie. Intrigued, executives and engineers put their heads together and said they thought they could make a 17-foot cookie. Peter looked at them and said, “I’m not interested in a 17-foot cookie. I can spit 17 feet. I’m talking about a 40-foot cookie.”

Ultimately, the cookie measured 34 feet across, good enough for a spot in the 1994 Guinness Book of World Records. The successful attempt was the capstone in an ambitious campaign to make Ripon “Cookie Town USA.” When it came to celebrating cookies for their own sake, though, Riponfest was missing a key ingredient: kids. Peter and Laurie recognized this, and so it was that in 1996, Cookie Daze came to be.

Born and raised in Ripon as the youngest of 14 – yes, 14 – kids, Peter started his own business in 1972 and met Laurie in 1974 when she moved here from Minnesota. Ripon Area Builders, the business they own together with Lynn Pollesch, opened its doors in 1986. Since then it has grown to 10 employees and broadened its services include rentals, which helps keep the lights on when housing and remodeling projects are slow. Laurie says it’s their ongoing involvement with the community, however, that has helped keep business humming.

“It’s an important criteria for choosing a business,” she says. “People get to know you because you’re out there mixing it up with them. They know your face. More importantly, though, you end up making a lot of friends.”

If you don’t know Laurie and Peter by name, chances are you’ve seen them around. Their community-service resumes are so long, it’s easier to list the stuff they haven’t been involved in. Laurie has chaired the Cookie Daze celebration since its inaugural year. She served on the Riponfest board for three years, the last as president. She chaired the Dickens Tour of Homes for eight years; the St. Patrick’s church picnic for 25 years; the Tsunami Relief Dinner; innumerable Ripon Rotary events; and was a key member of the Ripon College Arts & All That Jazz committee. For her efforts, she’s received the Chamber Distinguished Service Award (1997), Rotarian of the Year (2001-2002), the Chamber Community Service Award (2003), and the Ripon Commonwealth-Press Person of the Year (2004).

Peter also served on the Riponfest board for three years and was president the third year. As previously mentioned, he was instrumental in building the World’s Largest Cookie. He was a Big Brother to a Ripon area youngster for four years; taught 8th-grade Sunday school for 11 years; and chaired the St. Patrick’s Festival for 25 years. He’s donated or deeply discounted construction services for many projects, including the Shelter House in Barlow Park; playground equipment and fencing at the Ripon Children’s Learning Center; the addition to the Ripon Historical Society; and personally oversaw the restoration of the Little White Schoolhouse. He received Community Service Awards from the Chamber (2007) and Kiwanis (1997).

If there was an award for having the most awards, they’d probably get that, too.

The next big project for Peter is another trip to Panama to assist his brother, better known as Father Wally. In his eight trips to the impoverished country, he’s built churches and managed other major infrastructure construction projects such as roads and bridges. This spring’s project is an ambitious effort to build the Padre Pablo Dam and Reservoir, ensuring access to clean water for some 30,000 area residents during the dry season. Twelve Ripon College students will to make the journey with him, forgoing the usual spring-break trappings as many others have done before them. For details on Father Wally’s work, see www.frwally.com.

About Ripon College
Ripon College, founded in 1851, prepares students of diverse interests for lives of productive, socially responsible citizenship. Ripon’s liberal arts curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education. Ripon has consistently been recognized as a “best value” and “Best 366 College” by The Princeton Review, a “Best Buy in College Education” by Barron’s, a “Best Liberal-Arts College” by Washington Monthly, and is listed among the 160 best schools in the nation by Colleges of Distinction.

Peter and Laurie Kasuboski