Change in leadership for CL Achievement Center

In 1971, a group of area parents with children who were developmentally and physically disabled formed an organization to ensure their children and others with similar challenges, would have access to educational services. In November 1974, the founders welcomed Alan Olson, a native of Marshall, Minn., and graduate of Southwest State University, to lead what became the Chisago County Day Activity Center (or DAC) two months later.

After nearly 40 years of coordinating services for youth and adults in the Chisago Lakes area, Olson has retired officially effective the end of this year. His successor is Barb Roberts, who had experience with the center and its services first as a speech therapist and later as program director about 30 years ago. “It was a godsend,” Olson said of Roberts stepping into his former role, after she has worked 23 years for the state of Minnesota as a policy consultant for crisis intervention teams. “(Barb) has the experience, tools and skills to do a wonderful job,” he stated.

With all of the services now in the newly-named Chisago Lakes Achievement Center (CLAC) it’s hard to picture the group first meeting in the Masonic Lodge and St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church in Lindstrom. By the time Olson arrived in 1974, adult programs convened in the basement of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chisago City, he said, while preschool sessions met in the Lindstrom building that is now home to the Virga Chiropractic Clinic. The center began to combine all programs under one roof when in 1976, the leaders acquired a former medical clinic totaling 2,925 square feet at 10985 Lake Blvd., in Chisago City, for a price of $20,000.

Olson credits family physician Dr. Keith Deason, since deceased, with securing that arrangement. Two building additions in 1981 and 1985 were necessary to accommodate growth in the organization’s services. The CLAC was able to eliminate its preschool program after Congress passed Public Law 94-142, in 1975. This required that states and their public school districts offer education for children with developmental and other disabilities. Services for adults grew to include training for them to become employed plus budgeting, money management and home maintenance lessons. From people in their late teens and 20s, up through a special group for senior citizens, the CLAC clients also build social skills on campus through work and recreation. Some clients earn income by working independently from CLAC staff.

Those individuals can receive staff transportation from the CLAC to job sites that have included McDonald’s, Menards and Walmart stores, and the Viking Coca-Cola distributor in North Branch, said Roberts. Other clients have worked together as crews, mostly in custodial service, cleaning Chisago Lakes Area Library, the Chisago City and Lindstrom community centers, and Anytime Fitness – North Branch among other facilities. Several clients have earned money by doing custodial work and other jobs at the CLAC.

After finishing a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Southwest State, Olson began his career in the Deep South as a psychology technician for a Georgia state hospital in Milledgeville. It was the second largest such institute in the world, he said. Olson said that based on his observations, disabled patients were not respected as people in that time and space 40 years ago. After just one year in that setting, he decided that he wanted to do more for them with his life. He completed a master’s degree in psychology and early childhood education through the University of Florida. He moved to Chisago City in 1974 for work with the Day Activity Center.

He had extra skills in management due to some experience with a farm implement business in Marshall. “The job (in Chisago) met interests that I had and skill sets that I had,” Olson said. “It’s been a privilege to work here all these years.” Many of today’s youngest workers seem to be unhappy with their jobs unless they can feel a sense of ownership, Olson said, and he is proud to have been with the CLAC when staff designed and opened a thrift shop and “bird shop,” open to the public, on campus in 2009. CLAC clients work in retail for both shops, which are generally open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Other clients clean, sort and label all clothing and other donated goods for the thrift shop. The “bird shop” merchandise includes bird houses that are made or built on campus, with some made from wood by clients in a workshop while other less traditional bird houses are painted, hollowed-out gourds that were grown in a garden on site. Clients receive income from sales of items they make, less the expenses for materials. The shop also offers bird seed which has been packaged by CLAC clients, plus other crafted items that you might find on or near a patio including painted or etched garden stones and drink coasters.

The store features candles that have been poured by disabled workers at a similar center in Kandiyohi County, Minn. “We’ve encouraged (our clients) to run the stores,” Olson said, “and for many individuals that has helped them turn the corner.” Roberts has been watching the progress for about six weeks. An Indiana native who studied speech therapy at the University of Minnesota, she kept her home in Franconia Township from when she earlier worked at the CLAC through her years of service for the state of Minnesota.

That position had her driving border to border usually for a total of 35,000 to 40,000 miles per year, she says, and she appreciates the short distance again from home to the CLAC. “I am really excited to have an opportunity to come back and work in my home community,” Roberts said, adding, “we really couldn’t have been where we are today without Alan’s leadership.”