When Joseph Scala isn’t traveling all over the state in his role as the commercial sales and marketing manager at Menomonee Falls-based Monroe Equipment Inc., he’s singing songs.
But not in the shower or in his living room.
Scala sings before crowds of thousands. And he has a specialty: the national anthem.
Around five or six years ago, when Scala was working in Wausau, he was active in the local chamber of commerce. Some of the other members had heard him sing before – something he liked to do as a hobby – and asked him if he would like to sing the national anthem to open a Wisconsin Woodchucks baseball game. The Woodchucks, like the Lakeshore Chinooks and the Kenosha Kingfish, play in the Northwoods League.
Scala agreed, and friends and family members took videos of his performance that were posted on YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.
“The requests started coming in after the post made its rounds,” Scala said.
Since then, he’s performed at dozens of charity events, baseball games and other events across the state.
In 2014, he sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” for a sellout crowd at the Kohl Center in Madison before a University of Wisconsin men’s basketball game.
“It’s a great honor,” Scala said of being asked to sing. “You have a debt of gratitude to sing well.”
