October 11, 2021 at 11:06 a.m.
Camp American Legion welcomes new director
Klement: 'There's nothing like wanting to go to work'
Camp American Legion welcomes new director
Jim Klement, a 23-year veteran of U.S. military service, has succeeded Don Grundy, who had been the camp's director since 2017.
Klement has been married for 24 years and has three children, one of them a son who's currently serving in the U.S. Army and a daughter who's a senior at Lakeland Union High School.
Over the course of Klement's 23-year career, the first three years were as an active duty soldier assigned to the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division.
By the time he retired in January, 2020, as a full-time member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard, Klement acquired six different military occupational specialties.
"I went to a lot of schools!" he said.
During his 20 years in the Wisconsin Army National Guard, Klement was assigned to several different areas in the state.
"I was stationed everywhere from Antigo, Merrill, Wausau, Abbotsford and Eau Claire so generally, the northern area here," he said.
Following his retirement, Klement became a safety and training manager for Stratford Homes.
He said he'd heard of Camp American Legion but had never visited. He said he became aware of the open camp director position through a call from Grundy, who had actually contacted a mutual friend of both Grundy and Klement about the position.
He told Grundy he knew "the perfect person for it" - Klement.
"Don called me and we talked for a little bit and he was like 'Yeah, please submit your resume' and I did," Klement said and he's not sorry he did.
"I love it up here," he said. "It doesn't feel like a job, taking care of the veterans. Waking up in the morning at seven o'clock, there's nothing like wanting to go to work."
Klement's first day at Camp American Legion was June 14 of this year and after getting the feel for it, he said he "kind of took the reins" from Grundy on July 6.
"Like anything else, there's going to be challenges," Klement said, adding he has "big shoes to fill."
During his time as camp director, Grundy oversaw projects such as construction of a new director's home, major remodeling of the main lodge and a new cabin he said was his "legacy project, the American Legion Family cabin.
That cabin, designated primarily for use by families of Wisconsin military personnel killed in action or lost in other ways while still serving in uniform, was dedicated this spring and first used over the Memorial Day weekend.
In addition to physical improvements at camp over the course of the past four years, Grundy worked to make people more aware of what Camp American Legion is and what it provides for veterans and their families.
All that is something Klement, a veteran of two Iraq deployments, the first in 2004-05 and the second in 2009-10, said he'd like to build on.
"The number one thing I want to work on is the marketing and continuing to make people aware of camp, whether it's through things like social media or word of mouth," he said.
In talking to people about Camp American Legion, Klement said he encourages them to "tell three people."
"Have them tell three people ... you know, kind of build that momentum through word of mouth," he said. "It seems to be working because I'm getting a lot more phone calls from people asking about Camp American Legion and what it is we do here."
One of the things Klement has been doing is studying the history of the establishment of Camp American Legion nearly 100 years ago in 1925.
"I want to make sure it survives another 100 years," he said. "It's a pretty special place."
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].
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