WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 121 NO. 38 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Golf, tennis get underway. PAGE 10
Interim administrator keeps Osceola’s wheels turning BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
The Village of Osceola is on the hunt for a new administrator, after the departure of Joel West late last year. Meanwhile, Frank Pascarella is working behind the scenes to keep business in order. Pascarella has decades of experience in public administration. He served as Chippewa County’s administrator from January 2012 through the end of 2017. From 2005 through 2011, he was Shawano County’s administrative coordinator. And from 1998 to 2004 he served as Polk County’s administrative coordinator and finance director. Last week Pascerella told Osceola board members he’s been enjoying working with the people of Osceola. Although he currently
Pascarella lives in the Town of New Richmond, Pascarella and his wife raised their children in Osceola. “We have roots here,” he told The Sun. “We have many acquaintances and friends in Osceola, and we’re familiar with the area.” Pascarella said he’s been getting up to speed on projects and business that need to be addressed to leave a clean slate for the next SEE VILLAGE, PAGE 8
Osceola team wins Destination Imagination state competition BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Osceola Intermediate School’s Destination Imagination team, Boogie Knights, took first last weekend in the statewide DI contest. Destination Imagination is a creative problem solving competition with seven categories: scientific, fine arts, improvisational, structural, service learning, technical and a noncompetitive early learning challenge for young students. Teams select a category in the fall and work on it until the competition date. Under the guidance of coach Rebecca Bystrom, team members Claire Johnson, Ava Schueller, Reegan Kulzer, Jasmyn Walstead, Carter Stueve, Owen Cherney, Ruby Demulling took on the scientific challenge, “Medical Mystery.” Students were asked to research the inner workings of the SEE GLOBALS, PAGE 8
SUBMITTED
Osceola Intermediate School’s team Boogie Knights took first in their category at the state Destination Imagination competition last Saturday. Left to right: Jasmyn Walstead, Ruby Demulling, Owen Cherney, Reegan Kulzer, Carter Stueve, Ava Schueller, Claire Johnson. The team is eligible to attend the global competition in late May.
Father offers insights, hope for parents of autistic children BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
When doctors diagnosed Alan Clark’s son, Adam, with autism in the late 1980s, Clark didn’t know what to expect. He’d hardl even heard ly t word the b before. He a his wife, and P Patricia, h sought had d doctors’ Clark opinions only because they’d noticed their one year old had stopped making eye contact and responding to them. “At the time the word ‘autism’ was out there but the general public hadn’t heard it yet,” the St. Croix Falls man said. “My son was diagnosed in 1987. That was about the time the movie ‘Rain Man’ came out.” The 1988 film, a box
office hit, brought public awareness to autism. Still, because the traits of autism vary greatly from person to person, it was not entirely predictive of the Clark family’s experience. For instance, at 32 years old, Adam remains nonverbal. Seen on a spectrum, autism includes a wide range of behaviors with underlying commonalities. These include challenges with communication and social interaction. Current research suggests there are actually many types of autism spectrum disorder with different genetic and environmental causes, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Before Adam’s diagnosis, Clark described his family’s life as average in every way. Afterward, all he knew was that his life would NEWS 715-294-2314 editor@osceolasun.com
SUBMITTED
St. Croix Falls author Alan Clark is sharing insights about what that future held in a new book, “Silent Partner.”
never be the same. “You’re confronted with this,” he said. “And you ask yourself, ‘What’s this world we’re entering into?’ I think it’s human nature, you find yourself asking, ‘How is this going to affect me?’” ADVERTISING 715-294-2314 ads@osceolasun.com
Decades later, Clark is sharing insights about what that future held in his book, “Silent Partner.” The book delves into the many challenges the Clarks experienced in raising an autistic child. But readers also watch Clark’s perspective shift gradually from apprehension to appreciation. “You start to see a lot of goodness from this type of thing,” he told The Sun. Other children’s acceptance of Adam, for instance. After Adam started school, accompanied by an aide, Clark found himself surprised when, again and again, classmates approached Adam at the beach or county fair to say hello. “Somewhere along the line we’ve raised a generation of children who are accepting of this,” Clark said. “Our society has PUBLIC NOTICES 715-294-2314 office@osceolasun.com
evolved to accept Adam and others more openly than when I was a child. You kind of keep in the back of your mind, what if this was 20 or 30 years ago? There are more institutions out there to help and guide you and do all the things it takes to put a disabled child out into the world.” When Adam was diagnosed, only recently had diagnostic criteria and behavioral therapies for autism been developed. Treatments tested just decades before included psychotropic drugs and electric shock therapy. And parents, especially mothers, had been blamed for causing autistic behaviors. “One of the things you learn right away is how lucky you are to have this problem now,” Clark said. “In the past it would have been so much worse.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS 715-294-2314 office@osceolasun.com
There were other benefits, too. Indirectly, Adam brought people together who otherwise might never have met. One friendship began with Clark’s phone call to a neighbor, asking for permission to bring Adam on a ride across his expansive acreage. The man on the other end of the line, Blair Klein, quickly became a companion. “We just hit it off,” Clark said. “It turns out he had the same type of wanderlust Adam did. All the sudden there were three of us in the car. This went on for years and turned into this beautiful thing. None of it would have happened if it hadn’t been for giving Adam a ride. “You gotta look at the good that came out of SEE AUTHOR, PAGE 8
BREAKING NEWS, UPDATES Whenever, wherever you are! Scan me with your smartphone