Windsor advocate applauds Rotary Club for seemingly removing controversial sponsor

The Rotary Club of Windsor has dropped a controversial sponsor from this year’s Art in the Park.

A Windsor community advocate is commending the Rotary Club of Windsor (1918) for removing a “controversial” sponsor from the Art in the Park event.

Syx Langemann has spearheaded the conversation on social media and is applauding the Rotary for removing Chick-fil-A as a sponsor.

The Rotary Club says in a social media post: “Following recent discussions and feedback, they decided to move in a different direction regarding sponsorship.”

Social media posts from the Rotary Club of Windsor (1918) and Art in the Park are filled with multiple comments from the public who were unhappy that Chick-fil-A was included this year.

Chick-fil-A has a long history of controversy, primarily due to past donations to organizations with anti-LGBTQ+ ties.

Langemann says having a sponsor like Chick-Fil-A taints the reputation of the event which is supposed to be an inclusive environment.

“There may have been some blindness due to seeing green, and thinking that they were getting a great sponsor, or at least a lot of money so they could do something with the sponsor, but the mission statements of those two companies - that being Chick-fil-A and the Rotary - don’t line up at all.”

He adds that he’s proud of the community for stepping up and making their voices heard.

“It is a local franchisee, but as a person getting into business as a franchisee or as a person looking to buy a franchise, I would want to work for a company that I respected. And I think that there’s a lot of people in the city that stood up and said, ‘Hey, we don’t respect their money, we don’t respect this as a business in this area, and we don’t want to see this at especially something like Art in the Park.’”

Langemann says there should be continued support to Art in the Park for the Rotary’s decision to remove Chick-fil-A as a sponsor.

“I think it is commendable that the Rotary took the public’s opinion, and changed or recourse themselves for this event, but I think maybe moving forward these sorts of thoughts should be brought up at a committee level, or at the procurement level of any sort of sponsor to vet them,” he said.

AM800 News has reached out to Chick-fil-A for confirmation but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Art in the Park is held annually at Willistead Park and typically sees thousands of visitors over the two-day event in June.

This will be the 47th year the event has been held.