Rib Lake teacher Natalie Winkler featured as part of Disney+ episode

Emily Gojmerac

Report er

Natalie Winkler is a Medford graduate who found her love of teaching in college. After her freshman year at Viterbo University, in LaCrosse, she then taught at a camp in Northern Minnesota where she was a tennis instructor. It was there that she found her true calling to become a teacher.

She graduated from Viterbo in the winter of 1999 and moved to Colorado in 2000, where she taught middle school English and Reading for the Clear Creek School District.

During this time, she went back to school to get her master’s degree in counseling and graduated in 2007 from University of Phoenix. After seven years of working in the district, a position of counselor opened up, and she continued to work there until 2018. It was there that she met Gavin Arneson.

Gavin came from a very unfortunate situation in his personal life, he always knew there was a better life waiting for him. He always knew he wanted to break the cycle of poverty.

Growing up in Nebraska, life was hard and he just was waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

His earliest memory of Nebraska was his mom taking him and his brother to live elsewhere. This would be the start of a string of moves that would become part of his childhood. Shortly after that his parents got divorced and his parents had split custody of him and his brother. He was with his mom Monday through Thursday and with his dad Friday through Sunday.

At his dad’s house he was able to be a kid and at his mom’s house they were typically struggling with money. Even though his mom was a CNA, she was always switching jobs. Even at a young age Gavin was very aware of his mom’s money troubles.

After his dad got remarried, Gavin’s dad went to fight for full custody of him and his brother.

While going through the process of full custody, his mom’s money troubles worsened with the addition of lawyer fees. Gavin remembers his mom getting evicted from several places each one worse than the last. In the meantime, Gavin’s dad went to treatment for alcoholism.

One day Gavin’s mom came to pick up him and his brother from school and she told them that they were moving to a homeless shelter that day. Gavin’s mom originally said that they would be at the shelter for a weekend, and they ended up staying for eleven months.

School was an escape for him where he was able to be a kid. He did really well in school.

Around this same time, Gavin and his family moved into a house with his mom’s girlfriend and it became a very tense situation. His mom started drinking heavily and became abusive toward her girlfriend.

After his dad got out of rehab, he moved to Colorado and wanted to make a new start for himself and his sons. Gavin and his brother moved to Colorado to be with their dad full-time. Gavin thought that this would be the ticket to the stability in his life that he was craving for so long.

In the beginning they were doing good, they were able to keep food on the table and his dad had a steady job.

Now Gavin was in middle school, that’s where he met Winkler.

Winkler recalls “He never left my side during lunch, I knew I would always have Gavin as my shadow.”

Gavin connected with Winkler because she was an honest person and a great listener. It was at this time that Gavin started wrestling with the feelings of being gay.

Winkler was the first person that Gavin came out to as gay and he was very surprised at how she reacted. She was so supportive of this fact that it reassured Gavin that it’s okay to be who you are. This news only brought them closer.

Gavin and his dad’s relationship continued to grow apart after he came out to him. His dad was in denial at first because he was a very religious man, and thought it was just a phase. Along with this nonacceptance, depression and anxiety seeped into Gavin and so he started to see a therapist. It was at this time he had found a healthy outlet: running.

“It can make you feel so powerful and that you can take on the world,” Gavin said.

When he thought his life was finally on track, Gavin’s dad’s health started to deteriorate. He was a diabetic and started getting dizzy spells and would start losing his eyesight. As he got worse, he went to various doctors, wracked up medical bills and was unable to go back to work. Gavin’s dad refused government assistance and figured out a way to make it work. As a result Gavin went hungry a lot of the time.

Gavin realized that his education would be his shot out of poverty. The summer of his junior into senior year Gavin was working full time, he wasn’t able to pay all the bills, the debt just continued to climb. Desperately searching for a way out, Gavin considered dropping out of high school to be able to care for himself and his dad.

His dad convinced him to continue to go to school and told him not to worry about the finances. It was after that, that Gavin quit two of his jobs and tried to focus more on school.

Beginning his senior year off on the right foot, Gavin started applying to colleges. Winkler encouraged him to apply for as many scholarships as he could to be able to afford to go to school. As Gavin was doing this, Winkler continued to remind him of his tenacity and of his potential.

“I had this dream of going to New York City for the longest time. I knew that’s where I wanted to go to school,” Gavin said.

Gavin applied for a Coca Cola Foundation scholarship, which is a scholarship that is awarded to only 150 students throughout the country each year. He did win this scholarship along with many others. Afterwards he nominated Winkler for the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation: Educator of Distinction Award. This award is given to a teacher or mentor who has had a significant impact on the student’s intellectual and personal development.

He wrote in his college essay that he had something to prove, both to himself and his community. He also wanted to break the cycle of poverty that he was accustomed to. After taking a final at school, he came home around 3:45 that evening and found his dad had passed away.

Gavin felt lost and he felt he was so close yet so far away from his goal of making it to college. He credits his friends, family and community for helping him get back on track to be able to finish high school.

The community rallied around Gavin and helped him if he needed food, support, or whatever it was that he needed, they were there for him.

“I made sure I told him that if he needed anything, even if it was just to talk, I’m there for him,” Winkler said.

Gavin graduated and was Valedictorian of his class because of the persistence and hard work he put in along with the community support he had.

He was accepted to New York University on a full scholarship.

Today he continues to be a nurse in New York and feels like he can help his family understand their own health needs. He lives by the motto “If you change one person’s life, you can change the world.”

Winkler continued to be a major support for Gavin throughout his high school and college years.

Gavin submitted his story to an Instagram post, and a production company picked it up. In his interview he mentioned how much Winkler helped shape him into the person he is today.

The production company then called Winkler and invited her to come out to New York to do an interview with him. She agreed and she and her sister flew out to New York.

“I felt very privileged to be able to tell his story through my point of view as his counselor,” Winkler said.

The show is called Growing Up and it’s a Docuseries on Disney+. Gavin’s episode is the tenth episode.

Today Winkler teaches junior and senior English at Rib Lake High School, along with her husband Dan, who teaches Special Education. Her son Atticus is 12 years old and is in 7th grade at Medford Area Middle School.

Throughout this experience Winkler feels honored to have represented the Clear Creek community through Gavin’s story.

Natalie Winkler, pictured here with a former student Gavin Arneson, was featured as part of a Disney+ series as making a difference in Gavin’s life.submitted