In recent months, I have been made aware of the financial struggles of the Wisconsin Heights School district through friends, family, and ex-classmates.  As a WHHS graduate of 1993, I find it sad that a once thriving community and educational force has come to a point where divided thinking and near-sighted planning has lead to a community at a crossroads.  Our own country’s bipartisan thinking and other divisive environments in our workplace, locker rooms, and homes should be lesson enough on the destructive path to which these behaviors lead.

  

In my years as a Black Earth elementary, junior high, and Wisconsin Heights High School student-athlete, I took full advantage of our excellent teacher to student ratio and extracurricular activities.  Had I been raised in an otherwise larger school district, I am confident that I would not have had the ability to participate in as many of these scholastic, athletic, and intersocial endeavors.  “Average” athletes and “run of the mill” pupils can quickly get buried in larger student pools and looking back, I am so proud of what I was able to accomplish and thankful to the school district that provided me with such opportunities. 

  

Upon graduating from WHHS, I attended the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse where I majored in Biology, minored in Chemistry, and emphasized Pre-Chiropractic Science.  College can be a big step for a small town boy, but the lessons learned back home helped me juggle my studies, part-time work, intramural activities, and a 4-year letter in intercollegiate baseball.  From UW-L came marriage and a move to Iowa where I eventually graduated cum laude with a doctorate degree and President’s distinction from Palmer College of Chiropractic.  Once again, my hometown experiences allowed me to juggle 32-credit hours per semester, part-time work, intramural activities, a 3-week missions trip to Vietnam, and the wherewithal to keep my act together long enough to graduate a semester early from the most prestigious chiropractic institution in the world.  My degree and licensure in chiropractic complete, I came back to the greater south central Wisconsin area, where I currently run a highly successful chiropractic clinic in Baraboo, WI.

  

In my newly adopted hometown of Baraboo, we, too, have seen the struggles of diminished funds, fledgling programs, and deep district cuts jeopardize our community’s standing.  Drawing on past experiences in the Black Earth-Mazomanie area, I started a fundraising organization in Baraboo called Support Our Sports, Inc. (S.O.S.).  Modeled after friend and ex-boss Steve Schmitt’s athletic fundraisers for Wisconsin Heights, my group has raised over $100,000 for Baraboo area boys and girls sports programs once on the brink of elimination.  So not only has my experience in the Wisconsin Heights School District enriched my life, but it has trained me in how to enrich the lives of others.

  

As we get older and our own scholastic experiences fade from memory, it is easy to turn our back on the able hands that helped shape us.  We often say that grade school and high school were the “best times of our life.”  But will your children and grandchildren look back as fondly if the same opportunities are not afforded to them?  Just as I frequently encourage my patients to rethink their actions, I encourage you, as well, to reconsider your financial commitment to the health and well-being of our schools and that of our community, as a whole.

  

Out of the area…but not out of mind,

Dr. Jason C. Theobald

Baraboo, WI