Todd Yandre and Jim Maurer shared a love of challenge coins.
Throughout their time together at the Lake Mills Fire Department, and later a yearslong friendship, the two men would carry the tokens—symbols of one’s dedication to a value or organization—at all times, making a competition out of testing the other to produce their coins at random moments.
An exercise in consistency and commitment, it was a fitting ritual for Yandre.
“Todd, he made one coin that said service, dedication, valor, courage,” Maurer said. “That’s who he was. All of those qualities were what he displayed and distilled in Lake Mills.”
Those qualities are also the legacy that Yandre, chief of the Lake Mills Fire Department, left behind when he passed away unexpectedly on Feb. 15, from an apparent cardiac event.