Fox Valley Initiative (FVI) held its monthly public forum on April 6, 2026 at Freedom Project Academy in Appleton. Rose Bunker, regional coordinator for Turning Point Action, and Zach Currier, a student at Lawrence University trying to start a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter, were the presenters.
Rose explained that Turning Point Action is for all age groups and has a focus on registering voters, GOTV activities, and increasing turnout from citizens who tend to be conservatives but have low voter turn-out, such as Christian groups and hunters. Rose signed up multiple people at the forum to assist Turning Point Action.
TPUSA focuses on starting clubs for students—including middle school, high school, and college students—to educate about and advocate for conservative values.
Zach is a senior football player at Lawrence and will graduate in the fall. He was accompanied by another student, Brandon Whaley, who will take over leadership of the TPUSA effort on campus. They initiated the process to start a chapter in November 2025 but have run into obstacles from the university administration.
Their application for registration/recognition, originally sent to the Lawrence University Community Council (LUCC), was referred to the student-run Steering Committee. The latter took the very rare step (unprecedented?) of holding a student referendum asking to disallow a TPUSA chapter on campus. The referendum, held in February, failed because too few students voted.
Zach and Brandon have resubmitted their application to the LUCC and Steering Committee but are receiving very slow to no response. The efforts to start a TPUSA chapter and the obstruction by the administration are receiving local and national media coverage. Lawrence is also starting to receive negative feedback from high-donor conservative alumni.
Notably, some of the other recognized clubs at Lawrence include the Young Democrats, the Queer Alliance. and the Jazz and Queer Study Group. Any citizens wanting to help the TPUSA effort at Lawrence University were encouraged to contact the institution’s president, Laurie Carter.
About Fox Valley Initiative
FVI has received 501c4 status and is changing its name to Fox Valley Conservatives (FVC). The mission of FVC is to inform and activate the voting public.
The next monthly public forum of FVC will be on May 4, 2026, from 6:30–8PM at the Freedom Project Academy in Appleton. The May 4 forum will include a review of the results of the April 7 spring election and a presentation on modern uses of voter ID data to improve candidate name recognition, fundraising, and voter turnout. Morgan Bonwell of Right Strategies, recently hosted at the White House for her efforts assisting a conservative State Senator candidate in Indiana, will be the featured speaker on May 4.
