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Most years, Steve Fuchsteiner doesn’t get to see much if any of the Holmen Kornfest parade. He’s typically too busy working on the Holmen Lions Club’s other contribution to Kornfest, the annual car show.

For about a dozen years, Fuchsteiner has chaired the car show, even though that duty was supposed to rotate to another Lions Club member every two years. Fuchsteiner doesn’t really mind that he’s kind of stuck with it, though. “If you’ve got it down and you don’t mind doing it, why not?” he said.

In recognition of the efforts he’s given to the car show as well as his other community service over the years, Fuchsteiner was named this year’s Holmen Kornfest parade marshal.

“I was a little bit surprised, humbled and shocked that they would even consider me,” Fuchsteiner said. “I just figure there’s a lot more people in the Holmen community that are more deserving of it than I am.”

The parade marshal is chosen by a vote of past parade marshals, though, and Fuchsteiner wasn’t about to refuse the honor. “I’ll humbly honor their request,” he said.

Now retired, Fuchsteiner grew up in La Crosse and worked for Skogen’s IGA and Festival Foods for 34 years. He got involved in the Holmen Lions Club about 18 years ago when he was given the task of managing the Holmen Skogen’s IGA store (now Festival Foods), a job he had for seven years before he was transferred to the Onalaska Center 90 store.

Since joining the Lions, he has held about every office the club has, from tail twister to president. In addition to the car show, Fuchsteiner also chairs the pancake breakfast held every July in conjunction with the Chileda run in La Crosse.

“Yup, we serve a lot of pancakes,” he said.

Fuchsteiner, who lives with his wife Judy in the town of Onalaska, also worked for three years to help get the United Way off the ground in Holmen.

“I thoroughly enjoy serving the community in any way I can,” Fuchsteiner said.

While he enjoys looking at the cars at the Kornfest car show — usually about 300 of them — he said he doesn’t have the time, money or patience needed to be a car collector himself.

So it’ll be a special treat for him to ride down Main Street on Saturday in Marian and Barry Bertelsen’s Thunderbird convertible. “It’ll be fun to ride in the parade,” he said.