MONROE — About 15 Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern employees piled through the doors Monday morning to get to work pulling down $7,576, tallied up after about 16 months of donations, which will be donated to the Monroe Clinic Hospice program. 

Owner Chris Soukup estimated it would take at least a couple of hours to pull down the bills, but employees had all of the money down in about an hour.

“We overestimated how long it would take,” Soukup said.

Previous takedowns have usually taken place after the Green County Cheese Days festival held every other year in September. Employees would come in and complete the task over night.  However, due to the ceiling getting filled with money so quickly, Soukup decided changing it to an annual tradition would be more ideal. 

In November 2017, donations totaled $8,288 in just over 13 months. Soukup said he is hoping next year to close the store the last week in January while business is at a slower pace. This year, the store was closed Feb. 25 to 28 to spend time removing the bills. It was not closed only for the takedown, but also so employees could help Habitat for Humanity move to their new location. They also took a CPR class.

Baumgartner’s has collected plenty of cash over the years from customers who take part in the initial donation by giving a dollar bill to an employee. Patrons then watch as employees wrap the bill around a thumbtack and a quarter. The unlikely combination of items is thrown onto the ceiling, and somehow, the bill sticks while the quarter falls back down. 

Previous owner Bob Hahlen brought the practice to Baumgartner’s in the 1960s after seeing it done in Door County. The money has been donated to charitable organizations since the 80s. 

Baumgartner’s has pledged to donate the dollars to Monroe Clinic Hospice for four years. Soukup said this will be their second year, and that they plan to give the donations to the hospice program for two more years. 

Throughout the three decades it has donated, Baumgartner’s has partnered with a number of groups. In September 2016, $13,499 was collected over two years, which was divided among Habitat for Humanity, Green County Humane Society and Green Haven Family Advocates.

Beth Heidenreich and Annie Guenther have worked at Baumgartner’s for about three years and said the money takedown is always their favorite time of year. 

“I think we have more fun,” Guenther said jokingly about taking the money down overnight. “But doing it in the morning, I feel like we’re more coherent.”