A Day At The Track!

As usual, the beginning of a new school semester has been hectic at times, but always interesting, and rewarding for both residents and staff of Reynolds Group Home. In addition to all the regular school activities, this year two of our young men started the year involved in athletic programs at Wausau East. Matt showed an interest in running cross country, and Darrick is playing football in what looks like another very promising season for the Lumberjacks. In fact, Darrick has seen playing time every week, both as an occasional JV member and as a varsity defensive player. While this has caused Rick Ferree a little "conflict of interest" (his team would be the Merrill Blue Jays), nothing has stopped the staff and residents from enjoying and cheering for Darrick. It certainly adds an element of interest to the weekly games at Thom Field…

In a repeat of what has become a nearly annual event at RGH, staff and residents made a trip to the Columbia Correctional Institute at Portage, WI this month. The following report of the activity was submitted by staff member Mike McCabe:

On Thursday, September 18, Tim Harvey of the Storefront Alternative School invited all of our guys to accompany him and the young men of his program to the ‘Reaching Out Program’ at the Columbia Correctional Facility in Portage. This is the second time we have participated in the program with Tim. Nick Simonis and I took our seven boys down to the facility. Prior to our visit, the boys were asked to write a two page paper profiling their backgrounds, behaviors and current life circumstances.

The Reaching Out Program is facilitated by inmates at the prison in order to expose youths to what prison is all about. The inmates "reach out" to the boys to tell them to avoid the mistakes they made that led to them being incarcerated in prison. The inmates related their presentation to the boys and addressed some of the inappropriate choices they may be doing now and how those same things are what started them on their way to prison.

Sharing the realities of prison life was a very emotional experience for the inmates, our boys and the staff that were looking on. We were allowed to tour the facility and talk to the inmates. The inmate group did a good job of being very direct on how that was not the place they wanted to be…and if they could do it all over again…

Time will tell about how much each of the boys learned from the trip. Each person pulls away different things to reflect on when you go into a prison. I am quite certain that this is a trip that none of our boys will soon forget.

Michael T. McCabe, youth worker

You may recall that last month Doug Adams extended an offer to one and all to experience the thrill of driving a racecar on a real track. In fact, several people turned out and tried their hand, resulting in the following report submitted by Doug:

How many of you ever dreamed of driving a real racecar? Well, as you know from last month’s newsletter, we arranged for such an opportunity and scheduled a ‘Day At The Track’.

A handful of brave souls turned out for what was a perfect day at Golden Sands Speedway, a premier Wisconsin race facility. We arrived the morning of September 9^th and were given access to the track. We fired up both of our fine Team Marathon Youth Services, Inc. racecars (with 26+ wins to their credit) and took to the track. We had four rookies

For the past months of summer, Mike, a resident at Prospect Place has befriended a barn spider he’s named Charlotte. She has been living in the corner reaches of the front window at PP, going about her business quite unaware of Mike’s diligent eye. Mike has shown such persistent interest in Charlotte that staff has encouraged him to learn more about barn spiders, and write a brief piece for the newsletter. With Shanon’s assistance, Mike submitted the following picture and article, both of which are also on our web site (www.marathonyouthservices.org):






























She enjoys us catching months, June bugs, and any other bugs that meet her taste and placing them in her web. We enjoy watching her spin and repair her web in the morning; she works very hard and puts in many hours at doing this.
At first we thought that she was a common house spider and that she was going to have babies but we where wrong. Mike spent many hours looking on the internet and in a book that Josh brought to see what kind of spider she was.
Charlotte has been a joy to watch over the last couple of months. With fall and winter right around the corner we will miss her when she goes off to hibernate. I guess that we will have to find something else to write about then.

Mike S. (and Shanon)

I’m sure Mike would be thrilled to hear your thoughts about his interest in Charlotte. He’s willing to write more for the newsletter and web site, but would like to know what his readers are interested in…send him comments and questions at prospectplace@charter.net.

Each month Debi McGregor, Community Initiatives Coordinator of The United Way of Marathon County is kind enough to provide an Asset Of The Month. I thought the current asset would be of interest to our readers.