Love Maine Review 2014 #172

Scott Wentzell:

I'm leaning against the wall looking at Scott. He hooked up to all this equipment. And I look over to my right and there's a donor plaque for a capital campaign that had happened when they built the hospital or built that part of the hospital. And it said all the equipment in this room provided by Jim and Barbara Flint. And those are my grand so they were Scotty's great grandparents. I'm getting sort of emotional as I'm talking about it right now, and it kind of told me right from the start that, you know, everything's going to be okay.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Young heart attack victims would often have a whole lot of risk factors. They would have diabetes or they would smoke or they would have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Many different risk factors. But what I kept finding was very young people with very high cholesterols. And I started looking into the subtype of patient people with familial hypercholesterolemia.

Julia Clukey:

You have to be ready for challenges, and life is a roller coaster sometimes, and you have to have plans in place so that when things do get a little rough or you find yourself facing a tragic situation, that you have a good support system and you have a good plan to allow yourself to heal, whether it's mentally, physically or whatnot, and move forward from that positively.

Christina Baker Kline:

As anybody who writes fiction knows, you often don't know why you're writing a story until you're telling it. The writing begets the revelations. It's usually not the other way around that you calculatedly kind of figure out what the elements are and put them into a story. You often have to follow your instinct and trust that you're being led somewhere that will be fruitful. And that's what happened to me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 172, Love Maine Review 2014, airing for the first time on Sunday, December 28, 2014. This year we had the good fortune to interview many intriguing individuals who clearly have a passion for the state in which we live. We were inspired by the love of Scott Wenzel for his son Scotty, the cutting edge work being done by cardiologist Dr. Dervilla McCann, the drive and dedication of Olympian Julia Klukey, and the story of America's orphan trains as written by Christina Baker Klein. Each of our guests represents why we do the work we do with Love Maine Radio. Thank you so much for listening and being part of our Love Maine community in 2014. Happy New Year and we'll see you in 2015. Each of us has access to a different set of attributes, skills, talents, and physical characteristics. For some of us, the attributes are more readily apparent than for others. This is especially true of individuals who were in the past referred to as handicapped. We now understand these individuals to be differently abled and often capable of accessing attributes that many of us have never even considered, largely as a result of learning to work with the world. I met our next guest at an art opening for art collector Maine through Thomas Mosher, which I think a lot of people will recognize as being one of Maine's top furniture makers in the state. And actually it's national now. This individual, Scott Wenzel, is actually in marketing with Thomas Mosher, but perhaps equally important, is also on the board of directors with the Morrison center and probably more importantly, is father to Scotty Wenslow, who has celebrated his 13th birthday.

Scott Wentzell:

That's correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And brings a really interesting sort of story into the world. So we thought we'd have Scott Wenzel come on and talk about Scotty Wenzel and his adventures with Scotty and with his wife Lisa. Thanks for being with us today.

Scott Wentzell:

My pleasure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Scott, you didn't really. You weren't really thinking that your life was going to kind of turn out the way that it did when it came to having a child who has the syndrome. Dubowitz syndrome, Correct.

Scott Wentzell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Which is very rare.

Scott Wentzell:

It is very rare.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Not a lot known about it. So tell me a little bit about that, about the beginnings of this.

Scott Wentzell:

Sure, sure. Well, my wife and I actually went to high school together, didn't date until after college, but we're familiar to each other and so we go back a long ways. And when we got married in the 90s, we were living up at Sugarloaf and thought that it was going to be a great place to start and raise a family. And when Scotty came along, we were surprised to learn at first it was a cardiac issue that he was born with. An issue called tetralogy of Fallot, which means essentially he had four things wrong with his heart. He was born in Farmington, and immediately we were transported down to Maine Med, which has one of the most amazing cardiac units in the country. And specifically pediatric cardiac professionals in the country are based there. He had heart surgery at five days old and another full bigger surgery at about six months old. So we were immediately put on this sort of path of the unknown with Scotty and. And immediately felt like we couldn't be in a better place. It did mean that we left Sugarloaf and moved down closer to the Portland area to be a little bit closer to the services that he needed then and that we came to realize he'd need long term. But there's so much here in this community that we never knew about because we never had reason to access the different programs and organizations that are here. So I love talking about his story and the sort of world that opened up to us in having to understand how we could help him reach his full potential as our son and as going through childhood. And he's 13 now. So we just entered the teenage years, which is a little daunting for, I think, any parent. But we got great support system.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Did you know that Scotty had issues

Julia Clukey:

before he was born?

Scott Wentzell:

We didn't. My wife's pregnancy was completely normal, which is fairly typical for Dubowitz involve children. And the first sign that we had that anything was wrong was when she was about a week overdue and went to have a stress test administered, Just what they would normally do for any woman who's past her due date. And they wanted to make sure everything was okay. And one of the things they realized when they do this test is they're looking for the baby to react in a certain way. And one of those reactions is seeing the heart rate go up and his heart rate was going down, which is the opposite of what they'd like to see. So they decided pretty much on the spot that they needed to do a C section and get him born and figure out what was going on. And they knew pretty much right away that he had a pretty serious heart issue at play. Called an ambulance to come up, a pediatric ambulance to come up from Portland to Farmington and pick him up. And it was interesting. We're standing in the neonatal unit, which some odd reason, was just us there that night, which I think is fairly unusual. And he had pretty much every piece of equipment in the room hooked up to him. And Farmington is where my family is from. My mom grew up there, and her parents grew up there, and their parents grew up there. So I go way back in the community there, and I'm leaning against the wall looking at Scotty hooked up to all this equipment. And I look over to my right, and there's a. A donor plaque for a capital campaign that had happened when they built the hospital or built that part of the hospital. And it said, all the equipment in this room provided by Jim and Barbara Flint. And those were my grandparents. So they were Scotty's great grandparents. I'm getting sort of emotional as I'm talking about it right now, and kind of told me right from the start that everything's going to be okay. And it was just one of those moments where it's like you look around and go, there is something bigger at play here. But it did have a calming effect. And we found out the next morning that tetralogy was the diagnosis. And the cardiologist said, it's a serious condition, but we know how to correct it. We know what to do, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure he's okay. And they did. And the heart issue right now is kind of in the background. It's a yearly checkup, but not something that's on our mind on a regular basis.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Scott, thank you for the work you do at the Morrison center and for bringing Scotty into the world. Thank you. And, Lisa, because obviously he is, I would say, an ambassador. An ambassador of light, perhaps.

Scott Wentzell:

Yeah, that's kind of the way we look at it, I think.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I encourage people who are listening, who would like to find out more about the Morrison center, to Google the website and learn more and perhaps donate and, you know, somehow contribute to the efforts, because this even. It may seem as though this is something that impacts a small number of people, but as you've shown, even through your experience with Scotty, it usually has a much broader reach than we realize. Thanks for being with us today.

Scott Wentzell:

It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We all know that Maine is a small state, and especially when it comes to things like public health. I was privileged to work with Dr. Durvala McCann on a public health project through Maine Health several years ago, and today we have her with us again. Dr. McCann is formally the director of the cardiology division at St. Mary's Regional Medical center and is on the medical staff and is a full time cardiologist with Central Maine Medical center in Lewiston. Thanks for coming in.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Thank you for having me, Lisa.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Dr. McCann, you have a very interesting background. You spent some time out of the state before you chose to come to Maine. Tell me a little bit about what brought you here and your background.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

My first real full time exposure to Maine was when I came here as a freshman at Bates College and I fell in love with the at that time. I left after graduation, but I had planted a little seed. I talked my parents into moving to Portland. So they moved while I was still in college and I left, went to medical school, joined the Navy, got married, and came back eventually to the state in 96. Drawn both by the fact that my parents were still here and I wanted my kids to get to know them a little bit. I had a job, so that was another pull. But basically I'd always loved the state and had always been looking for a way to get back here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And your family's originally from Ireland?

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

My parents are both Irish. They met in medical school and emigrated initially to Newfoundland, Canada, and then to New England, eventually settling in Portland.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What type of physicians are they?

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Both my parents are physiatrists, which is a specialty focused on rehabilitation medicine. And my dad was really one of the founding members of the Wheelchair Sports association and was a real pioneer, as was my mom, really. They both were very interested in sports for the disabled and were part of that early movement and have remained very active in that element of sports ever since they started.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So was the fact that your parents were physicians and in basically what is a public health related field, did that influence your decision to go into cardiology?

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

You know, I think I decided to be a doctor when I was about 7. And I really feel that you select your profession in part because you're selecting a peer group. You know, you want to continue to grow intellectually, you want to be challenged and you want to help people. And medicine was a really great way to do that. I was an internist for a number of years, but I found that my personality really matched my better with cardiology. There was pretty immediate return on an intervention with cardiology. Of course, when I became a cardiologist, cardiac catheterization was relatively new and intervention was in its infancy. So many technologies have advanced dramatically since I started. It's been really challenging to stay current and to stay as well informed as you can be for your patients. But that's part of the beauty of it, I suppose.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you ever speak with your parents about the Irish medical school system or the Irish medical system and how it differs from the American system and where we are today?

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Yeah, we talked about it a lot, especially at the beginning of my American medical training. And actually I went to Ireland to experience it with my husband. I was married at the time, and we did a rotation in Dublin. And that was really an interesting experience. The focus was quite different. The Irish medical students relied far less on labs and technology. They really focused on physical diagnosis and the history, the bedside examination. I couldn't believe the stuff they memorized. It was really impressive. Very, very bright. Also, when I was there, and this was years ago, but the medical system was also very informed by religion, you know, Catholic, Ireland. So there were some social differences that we observed, My husband and I observed when we were there, regarding the communication with the patient, the communication with the family. But it was a really good thing to experience and see people up close and personally so that I understood much better how my parents had been trained and what their focus had been.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why did you choose to go into the Navy and how did that shape your money?

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Had none. Was married, Wanted to be independent. Seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, the uniforms were definitely a pull because they look great. No, seriously. Medical school at the time that I entered was during the Reagan administration. I went to Tufts. The tuition doubled the year before I got there because federal subsidies were removed. So private medical schools around the country were suddenly seeing a very dramatic acceleration in cost. My husband and I both had to find a way to get through this. And so we applied for a Navy scholarship. He got his the very first year. I got mine our second year. So I worked as an audiovisual tech during my whole first year of medical school to pay the bills. And I have no regrets about this at all. It really turned out to be a fantastic experience, a great adventure. And believe it or not, it turns out that after Tufts Medical School, I applied to Bellevue Hospital and was accepted there for my residency. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, We had no idea what was in store for us during those three very difficult years. 50% of my patients had AIDS or AIDS related illness, and 50% of the ones who had AIDS died while I was caring for them. So it was an inundation with one type of disease. And it was a very sad time with very little that I could do. After I got done with my residency, that was the time that I started my Navy payback. And I learned more internal medicine in the Navy because they specifically excluded HIV positivity. So it was really helpful for me to have had those two experiences, one very much based in a public health crisis with intensive care medicine emphasis and very poor outcomes. So I became really, I really understood the critical care elements of medical care. The Navy taught me a completely different side, the outpatient side, taking care of people who are essentially well but who have chronic medical problems as they age. So it was a really terrific double teaching track, so to speak.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here on Love Maine Radio, we've long recognized the link between health and and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom Shepard of Shepherd Financial. The most important thing you need to begin a personal evolution is heart. To start your journey, you have to

Scott Wentzell:

take the first step with your eyes

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and your heart wide open, open to

Scott Wentzell:

new experiences and possibilities. Without this openness, your efforts, your path toward growth and positive change will be

Julia Clukey:

fraught with obstacles that seem insurmountable.

Scott Wentzell:

So if you find yourself looking forward

Julia Clukey:

to good things to come, open your heart and take a brave step toward the future.

Scott Wentzell:

If you're interested in evolving your relationship with your money, get in touch with us. I'm here to help. @tom.com we'll help you evolve with your money.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you've had to be somewhat nimble as you've gone through because you've dealt with different demographic groups, you've been to different places, and now you find yourself in Lewiston and you have this interest in what's going on with the Franco American, the French Canadian, formerly French Canadian population. Tell me about that.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Well, there's no question my life has zigged and zagged. I have not been sort of a shooting star with a linear arc. That has not happened. But that's the greatest thing about, you know, America, I suppose, and about the opportunities that we can all take if we want to. But. So I've been exposed to a lot of different ethnic groups on the West Coast. I, you know, met a lot of Pacific Islanders in the Navy I met a number of Cuban refugees in Boston. I met, you know, my. The Irish Americans that, you know, sort of certainly informed my understanding of that group. But definitely in Lewiston, we have a high population of Franco Americans. I believe it's 29% of the city, which is more than the state as a whole. And the state has a very high percentage of Franco Americans. And that is fine with me. I find my patients of Franco descent, particularly the ones who speak French as a first language, to be a really interesting and wonderful group of people to take care of. I really enjoy them. I can remember. And I speak a little bit of French, which is helpful when you go to, for example, the emergency room sometimes, especially at the beginning when I first got there, I can recall the French speaking nuns would be behind the curtains speaking French to the patients. It was almost. It was a lovely thing, sort of a spiritual thing. And that continues to inform the community. Although Lewiston is rapidly changing and becoming far more cosmopolitan. And unfortunately, that French culture is not, you know, completely sustainable. Although some wonderful leaders in the community are really trying to hang on to the history and the culture and the language.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As you've been taking care of this particular population, you've noticed some things about them medically that have been noticed before, but it just has caught your interest as a cardiologist.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

When I first arrived in Lewiston and started seeing really young people with heart attacks, it was a bit of a surprise. Often these folks, young heart attack victims, would often have a whole lot of risk factors. They would have diabetes, or they would smoke, or they would have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. You know, many different risk factors. But what I kept finding was very young people with very high cholesterols. And I started looking into the subtype of patient who called people with familial hypercholesterolemia. When you look at cholesterol, we divide it up into all sorts of subgroups. And there's this one genetic tendency that gives people very high LDL cholesterols. That's the bad, you know, what we used to call the bad cholesterol. Individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia inherit this from their parents. If they get both genes, one from the dad, one from the mom, they're called homozygotes. And those types are very sick at a very early age. They typically have strokes or heart attacks, sometimes in their teens. And they often don't survive past the age of 30. But if you get just one copy of the gene from either one of your parents, you're called a heterozygote. And heterozygotes do have very high LDL cholesterols, but they're less likely to have that very early childhood form of heart disease. But they succumb to coronary artery problems. That's arteries of the heart in their 30s and 40s, much, much earlier than normal.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Dr. McCann, how do people find out about the work that you're doing, the programming that you're offering the people in Lewiston?

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Well, you're a big part of it, so thank you very much. It's really fantastic that we had the chance to talk about this today. I'm personally going to be talking to all of my primary care providers. I've already done that once. I've talked to the leadership in the primary care community, and I'm planning on spreading the word almost one to one, giving every primary care provider a list of the patients that we've screened that have their high cholesterol. So that's how we're going to start. But by starting with a small pilot project, we're also going to be looking at a small group of these individuals really providing intensive support and seeing what works and what doesn't, and tweaking our system so that what we do is the most effective, highest quality program we can build. And I'm more than happy to share that with anybody who wants to duplicate this, because I think this is the way to go. This is the future of medicine, in my opinion.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, thank you for the work that you continue to do for patients in the Lewiston area and the state of Maine. And. And thank you for really making an effort to embrace medicine where it is right now, because it is an exciting time to be in medicine, and there are a lot of things we can offer patients now that we weren't able to offer them 10, 15 years ago, before the age of electronic medical records. So we've been speaking with Dr. Dervilla McCann, who is a cardiologist with Central Maine Medical center in Lewiston. Thanks for coming in.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

Thanks so much for having me, Lisa. I really appreciate it, you giving me this time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today we have Olympian Julia Kluecke, who is a member of the US luge team. And Julia competed in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. She's also a spokesperson for the Maine Beer and Wine Distributors Association. Each summer, she hosts Julia Kluge's camp for girls on Maranacook Lake in Reedfield, Maine. Julia, thanks for coming in and bringing your presence into our studio.

Julia Clukey:

Thank you. I'm very happy to be here, you're

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

doing something that's important to you. And it came out of, I think, an earlier, an experience in your life that maybe didn't have as much to do with the Olympics. As a spokesperson for the Maine Beer and Wine Distributors association, it seems like it's not something that every Olympian would choose.

Julia Clukey:

Yeah. After the 2010 Olympics, the President of the Maine Beer and Wine Distributors association approached me me about their responsibility campaign, that they were looking to grow in reaching young people and trying to keep them away from their products and make them be responsible for themselves and make good decisions, because that's what we all want. We want kids to be healthy and safe. It really was perfect timing. I was just moving back to the state of Maine from living in Lake Plaza, New York for almost a decade. And I was looking for a way to reconnect with my community and give back in the way that I felt I had been given over the course of my career. And that's really where the partnership started. And it's just grown every year since then. And I'm very passionate about connecting with Maine youth and sharing my story, you know, athletically and personally with them, so that they go home, you know, realizing that, one, you can do anything, it doesn't matter where you come from. Two, you know that they own their own potential and they decide how hard they're going to work, where they're going to go with whatever activity they're passionate about, and then also to stay healthy and to make good decisions for themselves. Because if you make bad decisions, those can follow you down the road. So it's important to be thinking about where you want to go and how you want to get there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell us about your story.

Julia Clukey:

So I got involved in this border luge very randomly. The US luge team came to Portland, Maine in 1997, and a friend and I read about it in the paper in the very bottom part of the ad was that we'd get a free T shirt if we came out for the day. So being 11 year olds, that was all it took for us to go out for the day to try the sport of luge. From there, I got invited to go to Lake Placid, New York and try the sport in the wintertime. And that's when I got hooked to the sport and made the US Development team, which is the lowest level. So I was on the team for many years, and 12 years later, I made my first Olympic through lots of ups and downs in my career.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For people who don't watch the Olympics. Which sport is luge?

Julia Clukey:

So luge is a sliding sport and it's the one where the individuals are lying on their back going feet first. So it's the fastest of the three sports.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That sounds a little crazy.

Julia Clukey:

It's a little bit. You know, we do have quite a bit of control with our sleds. We spend a lot of time with our equipment fine tuning them. You know, when you first start in the sport, you start really low down on the track and you work your way up until you're comfortable with the higher speeds and the equipment. So, you know, I do have quite a bit of control and it certainly isn't a sport for everyone, but I enjoy it very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Julia Clukey:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

what was it like being part of a sport that didn't have as much understanding as sports like hockey or in the wintertime or figure skating?

Julia Clukey:

It certainly made it difficult, you know, starting out as far as fundraising, you know, trying to cover my expenses, my equipment needs, you know, in 98, 99, this was before the Internet was really very popular. And so I spent a lot of time just explaining what the sport was. Now it's a little different because everything's so accessible. But it, so it was tough at the beginning, but you know, year after year I kept doing it, kept doing it, kept improving in the sport and then, you know, got more fans, more followers and my community got behind me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about your family and their impact on what you've managed to accomplish.

Julia Clukey:

Oh, my family has been a huge influence. You know, first off, my parents for allowing me to do the sport of Luge is a great sacrifice. And by the time I was 13, I was traveling to Europe with the Junior World cup team, and I was gone six or seven months a year. And that's a big sacrifice for a parent to let their kid go off into the world. And, you know, so I owe a big, big thank you to them for selflessly allowing me to go after my dreams.

Dr. Dervilla McCann:

And.

Julia Clukey:

And then my sisters, you know, they all. They're both athletic growing up, and, you know, I think there were certainly times where they didn't understand why I was gone for so long, and it got frustrating, you know, coordinating all my travel and whatnot. But, you know, they, too, have been very supportive of me, and, you know, nothing's better to me than having my family watching me compete. You know, Lake Placid, New York's the closest track, so every winter they try to get out there and. And watch me do my thing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Where did you grow up and go to school?

Julia Clukey:

I grew up in Augusta, Maine, and I graduated from Coney high school in 2003.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this must be one of the reasons why you've chosen to have a camp in Readfield.

Julia Clukey:

Yeah, so I moved back to the Augusta area in 2010. I've lived there ever since in my off seasons. And, yeah, I wanted to, you know, to give back to the community where, you know, my childhood was so important to me. I feel like I had a great childhood. I was exposed to so much, you know, being growing up. Augusta is a relatively small town, but there were so many great rec programs and art programs, and, you know, my parents just did a great job of exposing us to a lot. And I want to do the same to kids coming behind me to make sure I can give back and give them opportunities to try new things.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've also had some real tragedies in your life. Your father passed away when you were only 19 of a heart attack. That's a very young age to lose your father.

Julia Clukey:

Yeah, it was just after his 51st birthday, and it was really tough to deal with, you know, but especially mentally. He was kind of my person always. He was a big sports guy, and so we had a similar mindset. And it was very easy to talk to him about my career, about, you know, problems I was facing on the track or whatnot. So to lose him so suddenly was, you know, it took me a while to adapt that. A couple years to really get over not having him to talk to every day about what was going on, especially as an athlete.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you also lost your sister Olivia in 2010.

Julia Clukey:

Yep. That was probably the hardest thing I've ever. Or it is the hardest thing I've ever dealt with. My sister passed away from mental illness about six weeks after I competed in the Vancouver Olympics. So I went from the highest moment of my life quickly to the saddest moment of my life. And. And there's not a day I don't think of her and think of the struggles she faced. And that's another part of my summer camp is giving back to young girls to ensure that they never feel poorly about themselves. And if I can give them skills as they enter middle and high school, so they're finding activities that they're passionate about and they're comfortable in their skin and they have a positive self message for themselves, then hopefully that'll carry with them through life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about some of the things that you do with the campers so that this type of message is put out there.

Julia Clukey:

Yep. So half the day is spent with me doing different activities around setting goals. So we do a lot of, you know, we talk about why we set goals for ourselves, how we set goals for ourselves, and then understanding the difference between, like, a big goal and then small daily goals that you can do for yourself. You know, whether it's improving your school grades or a sport. You know, it's really the little goals you set that are going to carry you through to reaching that, you know, that final goal. Some of the other things we do is we look at magazines and advertisements and the way they're targeting girls and the message that the media is sending out there and trying to understand that, one, you can't avoid it, it's going to be there. And two, you don't have to not read magazines, but make sure you're making opinions for yourself and you're not allowing this outside force to decide how you feel about yourself. And then a lot of the other activities we do is just understanding how important it is to love yourself and to be who you are and to be proud of that person. So we do arts and crafts projects and discussions again, and then focus on positive body image, how to build a positive body image, how to take care of yourself, you know, mentally and physically.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You also impacted 10,000 high school students. As of May, you've presented at more than 30 high schools across the state. And part of this is your association with the Maine Beer and Wine Distributors association and responsibility. What are some of your major themes?

Julia Clukey:

Yeah, so at my high school presentations, there's really three things that I hit. First is how important it is to Try a lot of new things, especially when you're young, because I got involved with the sport of luz so randomly, like I said. And when you find things that you're passionate about, it makes it so much easier to live a healthy life, I think, because you love what you're doing and you want to pour all your energy into that. Second is how important, how much hard work goes into things, that you can't just rely on your talent or skill, that you have to be ready to work hard day in, day out. And it can take 12 years to reach a big goal like it did me to make the Olympics. And lastly, or actually, I guess four things. You know, my most important thing is understanding that you own your own potential yourself. You know, you have to set goals for yourself. You have to set big goals for yourself if you want to go far in sports and school and that you get to decide, you know, your future and those things. And lastly is you have to be ready, you know, for challenges. And life is a roller coaster sometimes. And you have to have plans in place so that when things do get a little rough or you find yourself, you know, facing a tragic situation, that you have a good support system and you have a good plan to allow yourself to heal, whether it's mentally, physically or whatnot, and move forward from that positively.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I have children who have gone through the school system and I know that the athletic code is a big part as athletes. I know the athletic code is a big part of what keeps them from drinking. I would love to believe it's because they're just really great kids and they would never want to drink. But. But that code kind of keeps them on track. But there have to be bigger messages that we're giving to our kids about that.

Julia Clukey:

Yeah. And certainly, you know, the Maine Beer and Wine Distributors association, they're eight family owned businesses in the state of Maine. So they're very passionate about their communities. They all have kids and families and mostly most school age. And so, you know, they care very much about keeping kids safe and keeping them away from their product. They understand that their product comes with a responsibility and they want to be out in front of that, you know, so with our partnership, the message that I'm giving to kids is, you know, bad decisions can follow you and you're not invisible. You know, as well, you know, we read. No one wants to read in the paper about a fatal accident or, you know, an injury or sickness from. From over drinking. And so trying to get kids to realize that they're not invisible, that it can happen to them. And you know, we live in a great state. There's so many things you can do to fill your time, you know, so just to focus on those and wait till you're older and able to make those decisions for yourself.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So there is also a role modeling aspect to being an athlete. And really at any level, I know that in our town in Yarmouth, if you're a high school athlete who's been going up through the system, you've been an athlete, but you've also coached the younger kids. You're recognizable on the playing field. And so to act responsibly in whatever area, whether it's not drinking or whether it's living a goal oriented life, that's something that you're not just putting out there for yourself, you're putting that out there for people around you.

Julia Clukey:

Yeah, certainly. And you know, I especially think so many high schools are the community. You know, if you the high schools, everyone in the town reads about them and they want to read good things about their kids and the community. And you know, I feel the same way. And that's another thing. In my summer camp we talk about like, it's okay to stand out for good things. I think, you know, sometimes at middle school and high school level, kids don't want that positive recognition. They feel uncomfortable with it. And that's kind of a sad thing when you think about it, that kids feel bad about getting good recognition because they're worried about what their peers are going to think.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This past season you did very well on the World cup scene. You missed qualifying for the 2014 Olympics by 13,000ths of a second.

Julia Clukey:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That must have been pretty devastating.

Julia Clukey:

It was. It was, very much so. You know, I came into the season one of the strongest athletes. And early in the season I had a couple small problems with equipment, a couple bad races, and then finally got things back where where they needed to be, but came up just a hair short, literally, in that quest for the Olympics. But you know, really I'm able to sit here today not looking back with a list of what ifs. I really feel that I gave it everything I had to make it back to the Olympics and I came up short. And you know, that's another important message, that sometimes you're going to set goals and you're not going to make those goals, you know, on that day. And it's okay to reset, refocus and make new goals for yourself and not allow yourself to be defined by that failure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You also had to work your way through an Injury. An injury that could have been career ending, really. You had a knee injury?

Julia Clukey:

Yeah, I tore my knee in 2009, just a couple weeks before the season started. My meniscus and mcl. And fortunately, I was in late class in New York. We have a great medical staff there. And we went into surgery, and nine days later, I was competing again. And I wasn't off my crutches yet, but I was very determined to not let anything get in my way of making that Olympic team. You know, everything I'd gone through to that point in my career, you know, had prepared me for that moment.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have a lot of grit.

Julia Clukey:

So I'm stubborn, but in a good way. I think.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

No, it's a good thing. I say this in a. I'm very admiring of your grit, because it's not everybody that could have that significant knee injury. Go forward, compete. Deal with the loss of a father at a young age. Deal with the loss of a sister at a young age. Deal with finishing 13,000ths of a second away from making it to the Olympics. And you're still sitting in front of me. And you seem like a genuinely happy individual in your life.

Julia Clukey:

Yeah, I am. I don't have a lot to complain about, really. You know, athletically, when I do come up short in races, 13,000ths of a second short, honestly, my life experiences have made that easier to handle with because that's not the bigger picture, you know, of what matters to me. And through losing my father, my sister, I've learned those lessons the hard way, of what really matters to me, you know, in the core of myself. And my sister had a son, Lucas, who's my nephew. He's five. And we're very fortunate to have a big involvement in his life. And so, you know, that's really where most of my energy goes to, is raising him and being there for him and being a person in his life. And, you know, luge is what I do, but it's not who I am as a person. And I think that's what allows me to not shrug it off. Of course, I care very deeply. It hurt a lot to not make the Olympic team, but it doesn't define me at the end of the day, and I'm okay with that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Julia, how do people find out about your Julia Klukey's camp for girls or the work that you're doing as a spokesperson?

Julia Clukey:

My website is klukeylouge.com, c l u k e y l u g e.com and there's a lot of information there about both the camp, my high school presentations, high schools can sign up there. It's a very easy, you know, one form and then we look at dates and, and figure out something that works as well. I'm on Facebook and Twitter, the social media avenues, so I'm very accessible and I like that way because I love when I visit a school and then six months down the road I get a Facebook message from a student telling me they decided to go to this college or they tried softball and they're now on the softball team and things like that. So I try to make myself very accessible.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been speaking with Olympian Julia Kluecke, who is a member of the US luge team and a competitor in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I'm so impressed with your grit, your determination and the foresight that you have and the work that you're doing to connect with the kids in Maine. So thank you.

Julia Clukey:

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

anybody who listens to the radio show on a regular basis knows what a big reader I am and one of my favorite things to do is to pick up a book, read it, find myself completely engaged and then get a chance to meet the person who wrote the book that had me spellbound for hours at a time. Today we have that individual with us today. This is Christina Baker Klein. She is a novelist, nonfiction writer and editor who wrote the number one New York Times bestseller Orphan Train as well as Bird in Hand, the Way Life Shows, Be, Desire, Lines and Sweetwater. Christina lives with her family in Montclair, New Jersey and spends summers on Mount Desert Island. Thanks so much for coming in and talking with us today.

Christina Baker Kline:

Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This book is truly a great book. I really enjoyed it in part because of the writing. Obviously the writing is great, but also it was such an interesting story. The Orphan Train tell people who are listening, who may not have read it before, what this book is about.

Christina Baker Kline:

So my novel is about a 91 year old woman who lives on the coast of Maine. She's a wealthy widow in a big old house. And the 17 year old girl who comes into her life who is a troubled goth, part Penobscot Indian foster kid who's had a really hard time of it, steals a book from the library and has to do community service. So she comes to work for this old woman and her job is to to help clean out the attic. And her attitude is that she just wants to get it over with because she thinks they have nothing in common. And it's just this old woman who has a lot of money and really doesn't look anything like her, act anything like her either. And so over the course of the novel, however, as she begins to unpack the boxes, she realizes that this woman has a hidden past as an orphan train rider. And so not only that, which I'll explain in just a second, but they also come to understand that they have a lot more in common than they ever would have imagined in terms of the kind of childhood that they both share. So through their friendship they discover things about themselves that they never would have known. And the Orphan Trains are this kind of incredible piece of American history that's been hidden plain sight. 250,000 children, perhaps more even, were sent from the east coast to the Midwest over 75 years. It was the largest migration of children in our Nation's history from 1854 to 1929. And very few people know about it. And it was a labor program. The children were between the ages of 2 and 14 years old and they were sent to the the Midwest specifically indentured and contracted to work for farmers and other people who chose them randomly. There was no screening process. They were just given to whoever showed up. They had to line up by height and they stood on platforms and people tested their muscles and their teeth and made them run in place. It really was, in some ways it resembled a slave auction. The children aged out at 18, but until then they were sort of the property of the people who took them. So it's a sort of chilling and surprising I Think bit of our own past again, that we don't tend to know much about.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The main character or one of the main characters in the book is actually a modern child who is being taken out of a family situation situation and put into a different family situation. So there is a parallel there with the woman, the older woman that she meets that is a train rider.

Christina Baker Kline:

That's right. I work with a lot of foster care organizations now since the book came out and there's a foster child in it. But I also did a lot of research and I have friends who've taken in foster children. And I know that even though actually I did a benefit the other night and a former foster child spoke, he was so amazing and he was about 21. And he came up to me at the end because I spoke as well. And he said the feeling, the situation of the train riders is its own unique thing. But I have to tell you, reading your book, the feelings I had as a foster child are the same. The circumstances are different. But the feelings you have, being displaced, feeling unwanted and unloved and that you don't have a home is exactly the same way it felt to me. So when I wrote the book, I actually wasn't calculated about the connections. I stumbled into their relationship having these resonances. Instinctively, I felt that having this 91 year old woman, like many train riders, had never told her story. And I didn't think that she would tell it to just anyone. I thought it would have to be someone who was sort of on the social fringes maybe who wouldn't be asking the normal questions or just politely wanting to know, but instead would have a motivation for asking. And so that's how I came up with the idea of Molly, the character. And there were many other reasons that I chose this, the Penobscot Indian angle and all of that stuff. My mother was very involved with the Wabanaki. She was a state legislator in Maine. I grew up in Maine. So I was drawn to her, I think unconsciously understanding that there were connections. But as anybody who writes fiction knows, you often don't know why you're writing a story until you're telling it. The writing begets the revelations. It's usually not the other way around that you calculatedly kind of figure out what the elements are and put them into a story. You often have to follow your instinct and trust that you're being led somewhere that will be fruitful. And that's what happened to me in this book. The connections between them only became obvious as I wrote my way into the story.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a result of the success of Orphan Train, you're being asked to do many events, lots of community reads. And it seems as though this has really touched people in a big way. Why do you think that that's true?

Christina Baker Kline:

I thought about that a lot because this is my fifth novel and honestly, I like them all. And the other ones have done pretty well. But nothing on the scale of this novel, which we'll see soon, have sold a million copies. It's a completely different experience. And honestly, it feels like a fluke to me and I feel both lucky to experience it and a little overwhelmed. I do think that, believe me, I've thought about this a lot because when I was writing the book and I and my publisher had no idea. In fact, I remember at one point they said, well, we're not sure that you're going to, you know, after I'd finished it, if that you're going to hit the demographic because you've got this odd 17 year old and then this cranky 91 year old and who's going to read about those people? We don't know. So it kind of unfolded slowly and in fact, the book has been out for over a year and it climbed the best seller list slowly and then it just hung on. So it's been a kind of slow build. I think the truth is that a lot of people are interested in this story about America that they didn't know. I have a lot of men who come to events and write me who say they never have read any of my books and thought that they were women's books and that now with this historical angle, they're interested in it. So there's that aspect. I think a lot of people are wondering how to handle displaced children in our society. There's a lot of talk about the foster care system and how to improve it and make it better. I think there's that part of the story. And I also think probably that the connection between generations is something that a lot of people are interested in and thinking about as people live longer. I have a lot of mother and daughter book clubs who come up to me at events. I have grandmothers and granddaughters reading the story together. So there's something too about that connection between these unlikely friends that has, I believe, struck a chord. I'm not sure. Do you have any other thoughts on that? Those are the ones that come to mind for me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think that you probably have hit it. I mean, when I read this book, book, after I was done with it, I gave it to my 18 year old and I also have a 13 year old daughter. And I said, you really need to read this book because there was something about it. I think I felt the same thing and I'm not in a mother daughter book club and she and I don't always read the same books, but there was something about it. I think that the bond between the two women in the book and it was sort of a family bond Even though the 91 year old and the 17 year old weren't actually related.

Christina Baker Kline:

Yeah, exactly. I think I've heard that a lot. A lot of parents say it was so wonderful to talk to my girl or boy or children about what it really was like to be a child in that period because they have no idea. And we, these people who come up to me at readings often say we have a sort of fairly comfortable life and they just didn't know that children have not always lived this way. The idea that children were considered labor and that there was no such thing as childhood is shocking to people, especially children who have never really heard about that before. And by children, I mean teens really, I would say 13. I have a number of 13 year olds who have communicated with me who've read the book. I would say most readers started around 14. It seems 14, 15, because there are a few scenes in the book that are a little disturbing, although not particularly graphic.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Christina, what can we look forward to from you in the future?

Christina Baker Kline:

My next novel is inspired by the painting Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. And it's actually her story. It's written in the first person and she tells the story of what she's doing in that field and what she's looking at and what it has to do with her very interesting real life story. I've been working with several tour guides at the Wyeth House in Cushing, Maine. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on and I've discovered that her story, her ancestry, how they got to Cushing and how she ended up there and what her passions were and how they manifested themselves is so interesting that you almost don't need to write a novel about it. But I am. But I am writing a novel. So I'm using as much as I can from her real life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I look forward to that and I know that people who are listening also will look forward to it. And also anybody who has not yet read Orphan Train, I highly recommend it. How do people find out about your work, Christina?

Christina Baker Kline:

Well, actually on my website, which is just my name.com christinabakerkline.com or my Facebook author page, which is my public page. I have events and if people want to catch up with me in the summer, I'll be doing some events with Ayelet Waldman, who has a new novel called Love and Treasure in Maine. I'll be doing that. And also on my website I have a tab called Book Clubs and it has tons of information about the nonfiction aspect of Orphan Train. And I also answer the top 10 questions that people tend to ask we

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

are so pleased that you were able to come into our studio. Talk with us today for people who are know the show. You may know that we schedule people far in advance and we actually just accidentally called you up and got you to come in at the last minute. So we're really privileged to have you here. We've been speaking with Christina Baker Klein, novelist, nonfiction writer and editor and author of the number one New York Times bestseller Orphan Train. Thanks so much for coming in.

Christina Baker Kline:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 172, Lovemain Review 2014. Our guests have included Scott Wenzel, Dr. Dervilla McCann, Julia Kluecke, and Christina Baker Klein. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my daily running photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our love Main review 2014. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life and a bountiful New year.