Tractors for Autism finds new headquarters
Ever since it started back in 2016, Tractors for Autism had a few symbols that people could easily associate with the local organization: a barrel train making its way through a parade down a city’s main street or volunteers wearing their blue t-shirts. Now, the organization is in the process of moving into the old St. Anthony Catholic Church convent, giving them a real place people can associate with their name and that they can call home.
The Tractors for Autism organization is planning on completing the move into the former convent at St. Anthony Catholic Church by October. According to Mary Laschen, a member of the organization’s board, Tractors for Autism reached an agreement with St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and the Diocese of La Crosse to lease the former convent back in April. Finding a location was very important for the organization, she said, which has continued to grow since its founding by Mike and Brenden Collins in the fall of 2016.
“We were looking at buildings,” said Laschen. “This building came up and has been sitting here vacant. We worked with the Diocese of La Crosse to get this done and come up with a lease.”
In the agreement, Laschen said Tractors for Autism was to take on responsibility in the first year to get the building updated for use, after which a normal leasing agreement would take effect. Not used in any real capacity since the late 1990s, the convent needed to be cleaned, have minor repair work and fixtures added, and items moved in before it could be used.
“It’s a work in progress,” Laschen said. “We hope to be in here by October. We got the convent back in April and started working on it about a month ago, doing landscaping and interior work. We have been working a lot cleaning the walls and putting up decor and furnishing new bathroom fixtures that were old and not working.”
While the work has been going on, Laschen and other members of the board said people have begun hearing about the new use of the former convent and have expressed approval. From St. Anthony, parishioners have even offered their help in bringing the building up to date and are eager to see their building being used after being vacant for so long.
“It has been going good so far,” said Craig Brandt, another member of the Tractors for Autism Board. “They were very re- ceptive to the idea. We had a meeting with them and they had said it is a win for us and it is a win for them because it allows the building to be used. In talking with people from the church they tell us that they are happy that the building is being used instead of just sitting here.”
The move into the convent will provide Tractors for Autism with several benefits, said Laschen. One of the most important of these, she said, is visualization. Since its start, Tractors for Autism has relied on donations to help others, but without a physical location to call home, Laschen said it made it difficult for people to see where their dollars were going.
“One plus to having this (location) is that there is now a place people can identify with us,” she said. “People can’t donate to what they can’t see.”
Another benefit, Laschen said, is that the location allows them to grow and expand the things they do to help members of the community. In the past, Tractors for Autism has held several events to help people with disabilities, donating to families and individuals who needed help, and that is something they hope to continue to do.
“We are not just helping kids,” said Laschen. “We also give blankets to veterans because they need help, too, a lot of them come home with disabilities. We donated money to someone who lost their home and we donated a threewheeled bicycle to someone who wanted to learn how to bike and never could ... With this building, we could grow with it.”
Once the building is ready for use, one of the first planned uses for the space will be for an after-school program the organization has ran in various spaces over the past five years. Two days a week, Laschen said the group has volunteers run the program from 3:30-5:30 for kids who want extra help with their homework. In the past, the program has been held in the Recreational Center on Main Street and in Trinity Lutheran Church, but now they will have a space that is all theirs to work in.
“We plan on using the downstairs for our after-school program and we want to start that in October when we open,” she said. “We started this five years ago and have had 10 to 12 kids come in for it. It has been pretty consistent over the years.”
If everything goes according to plan, Laschen said the new location in the convent should allow Tractors for Autism to hold their after-school program on more days during the week and eventually hold a summer program to help retain school skills when students are out of the classroom.
“It is a work in progress,” she said. “We typically do this two days a week and we are hoping to go up to three days. Eventually we would like to have this open in the summer for kids, especially those kids with disabilities so they won’t lose their skills over the summer.”
A ribbon cutting for the new Tractors for Autism location is to be held on Sept. 15. The public is invited to attend.
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