The Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, founded the Favorite Poem Project in 1997.

These readings gather individuals from different corners of a single community to share their favorite poems with each other, revealing personal ties to specific poems.  The only rule is that poems recited are NOT poems the readers or their friends or relatives have written, but ones they have read, perhaps many times, and to which they feel a personal attachment.

While several distinguished residents of the Fox Cities will read their favorite poems as our guests of honor, including facilitator Sarah Gilbert, every one is encouraged to participate or simply come to hear some fabulous poetry. 

Guests of Honor

Renee Boldt
Renee graduated from Lawrence University in 1985, never dreaming that she would become an Appleton resident in 1987 when she married her husband Tom.  Since that time she has been involved in volunteer activities, primarily focusing on education, the arts and social service not- for- profits.

John Hogerty
John J. Hogerty, II is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Bergstrom Corporation.  Mr. Hogerty received a B.A. in Roman History with a minor in Latin from the University of Missouri.  He received his Juris Doctor from the Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, LA.  Before joining Bergstrom Corporation in 1995, Mr. Hogerty practiced law with a large regional law firm in Kansas City, Missouri.  
Mr. Hogerty is active in numerous civic and charitable organizations.  He is former Board Chairman of the United Way Fox Cities and currently serves on the Boards of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and the Community Foundation of the Fox Valley Region.  Mr. Hogerty lives with his wife, Morgan, and their three children—Jack, Nora, and Tip—on the North Shore of Lake Winnebago.

Leota Ester
Leota Ester takes a lot of pleasure in having shared a co-chair position with Ellen Kort for the First Annual Fox Cities Book Festival. She attributes the success of this year's Festival to the many who have planned, worked, and imagined in order to bring authors and their readers together.  Leota taught high school English, a good start for appreciating writers and the work they do to help us understand life.  When she and her husband Lee moved to Appleton, she began a career as a recruiter and later opened Landmark The Temporary Service, a service for clerical workers.  She has served on community boards, committees, and writes a column occasionally for the Post Crescent.

John McFadden
John is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ who spent more than thirty years in parish ministry, including 23 years as senior pastor of First Congregational UCC in Appleton. More recently he has served as workplace chaplain for Goodwill Industries. Along with his wife Susan, he is author of Aging Together: Dementia, Friendship and Flourishing Communities, to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in June.  He enjoys reading, kayaking and playing the ukulele.  Especially playing the ukulele.  His blog can be found at http://agingtogether.blogspot.com/.

Kara Patterson
Kara Patterson feels it’s a lifelong passion and a lifelong mission for her to be an advocate for and participant in the arts, especially the literary arts. Patterson is the arts writer at The Post-Crescent in Appleton, and also is a published poet. She lives with her husband and their four-year-old daughter in Appleton.