By Emily Massingill

editor@

themonroetimes.com

MONROE - Cindy Ditter didn't have her sights set on teaching, but it's a path she's fallen into with grace in different aspects, and she loves and enjoys helping so many people reach their goals.

Ditter was born in Monroe and grew up in the country on a dairy farm just north of town. The farm was diverse, and there were many different animals at different times that brought fun for her as a young girl. The "farm kid" enjoyed helping with chores and could often be found feeding calves or enjoying the sheep and horses as the middle child of five.

She often found fun with her siblings by being outside, playing in the hay mow, meandering around the barn and enjoying the kittens and the sheltie dogs her mother raised.

"I'd consider myself a little bit of a tomboy," Ditter said with a smile.

She attended Northside Elementary School and then Monroe Middle School and said she was a pretty good student who enjoyed being busy. At Monroe High School, she was in the Distributive Education Clubs of America group, a business and marketing club. She also loved playing basketball all four years.

Her free time was often spent working at K-Mart in the sporting goods and automotive department and laughs that she used to custom drill and fit bowling balls for people.

"The job fit in well with my personality," she said.

She graduated in 1983 and attended Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, earning a double associate degree in marketing and management. She always had an interest in the business field, possibly stemming from her father owning a local Dog N Suds early on - she remembers finding old business checkbooks and playing with them.

She continued taking classes in the business field after enjoying them greatly. For a short time after her graduation, she sold janitorial supplies, but then moved on and worked at the Shopping News, selling ads for a couple of years.

She married her husband, John, and the couple enjoyed several like-minded interests, including exercising. Together they purchased a gym and health club. Ditter then decided to go back to school, earning her bachelor's degree from Upper Iowa University.

She was on a marketing and management path that complimented owning her own business and it was a great fit. Once she finished school, she then also received credentials to become a personal trainer. She was running the business mostly on her own, Fitness Connection, while John worked as the physical education teacher at the high school.

"It was small when we bought it," Ditter said. "I was able to grow with it. It really started as a hobby."

She implemented new equipment and several updates and the business continued to grow. She handled all of the sales, marketing and advertising and said it was lots of trial and error, but she was proud to find success.

"I wasn't a person to focus on things not going well," Ditter said. "I saw that as a challenge and would then just change something, or handle things differently."

She ran the business for 17 years, changing locations and expanding more than once. Things were going well, but were also becoming demanding for Ditter, whose children were getting older and becoming busier. She decided it was time to move in a new direction, and sold the business.

"I made the best decision for my family and for myself," she said. "I worked a lot."

She became a regular substitute teacher in Monroe for four years, enjoying the different classrooms and helping students learn. Teaching was something she naturally did well, and said it was likely the engagement with people and the challenge of figuring out new ways for students to learn that hooked her. Her favorite was the middle school.

"Subbing brought so many different scenarios," she said. "I really liked the challenge of finding out what type of learning is best for students."

She and John were also working together to teach outside the classroom at that time. Working together, they offered graduate-level classes for teachers around 2000. They taught and marketed through a company and, again found success. Ditter stopped substitute teaching to focus on teaching the classes from home.

The couple eventually developed the program to be offered entirely online and have now taught together for 17 years. John has a master's degree and Ditter teaches under him as a partner through the Institute for Graduate Studies. They focus on websites, videos and other ways for people to learn.

Some of the courses are geared toward athletics and implementing wellness into the classrooms. They also teach technology classes, which is more of John's focus. The classes are geared for teachers updating credits or working toward master's degrees.

Ditter said she's a person who is always reinventing herself and after a while, she needed to change her focus again. She missed her connection to people after working from home, and decided to offer personal training from her home again about five years ago.

"I'm a people person," she said. "I feel like I really engage with people and I really needed to find that again for myself."

She only offers training part time, and still focuses on teaching - the two bring a nice balance for her, she said.

While her two children were in school, Ditter was actively involved. She was a traveling basketball coach, and she and John worked and trained with several of the athletic teams their children were on. She was a soccer and baseball coach while her children were younger. She spent a lot of time fundraising, volunteering and being a big part of team dinners.

Ditter is now an empty nester, but she and John are still enjoying being active together. She loves to explore different modes of exercise and said it's an interest of hers - not a job - to keep learning and checking out the new fitness options that continue to come to the market. She enjoys offering functional training to help people continue to function fully in their personal lifestyle.

Although she loves to work out, Ditter said she stays more on the balanced side, versus the extreme. She enjoys traveling, and is up for anything. A special trip was visiting her daughter while she was studying in Europe and having a memorable vacation. She also loves reading, mostly business and fitness things, along with a variety of genres.

When Ditter was ready to reconnect with the community once her children were out of high school, she said she reached out to The Woman's Club. She's now in her second year as their recording secretary and has been a member for a while.

"They did a lot of projects I believed in," she said. "It was a great way to reconnect with the community. It was an honor to be asked to be the secretary."

For the future, Ditter said she hopes to continue to grow her classes and keep up with all of the education system changes. Training is also something that constantly evolves and she's always interested in learning how to best meet the needs and challenges of each of her clients.

"I'm always learning different things," she said. "I just want (my clients) to continue to achieve their goals and help them with their lifestyle."

She and John still enjoy being active, hiking at Devil's Lake or spending time with their son in Sun Prairie. They enjoy summer yard games and snow shoe in the winter.