Chilean student who inspired Log Game returns

WAUSAU — Tina Castro Morales felt like she was 18 years old again as she walked through the halls of Wausau West High School.

She and her husband, Carlos Perez, traveled from her hometown of Antofagasta, Chile, to attend the 45th annual football game between her alma mater and Wausau East High School. It's a long way to go for a football game, but there's a little more to the story — in a sense, Tina is the reason Wausau has its Log Game, which in over four decades has become a fall tradition for the entire city.

The real reason why Morales traveled halfway across the planet is because she was an American Field Service foreign exchange student who attended West for the 1971-72 school year, and her host family was Ted and Dorothy Harenda and their four children. Dorothy has passed away, but Ted Harenda is 83 years old and living in Rothschild. Tina and the Harenda family developed such a close relationship 44 years ago that Tina still calls Ted "Dad," and they haven't seen each other in person since she lived the United States in late spring of 1972.

"He's a very kind person," Tina said. "When I came to live with Dad and the family, he received me like one of them."

When the opportunity arose for her to visit Ted and the place that had a pivotal role in her life, she said, "I had to come."

In 1971, as Ted became more and more involved in AFS, he started to look for a way to raise money for the exchange student program to support the effort that brought Tina into his family's life. Wausau West opened just a year before, and Harenda, then director of sales and marketing for Hammerblow Corp., saw potential in the sprout of the sporting rivalry between the new West and the more-established East high schools. He came up with the idea for the traveling Log Game trophy, the massive slab of tree that's housed in the school of the game's winner. He also sold programs for the game, and the proceeds were donated to AFS.

Ted wrote a small book titled "The History of the Wausau Log" in 2011. The endeavor spurred him to think about Tina. After Tina returned to Chile, she and the Harenda family kept in touch for a few years. But Chile was in the midst of a civil war, and the mail became increasingly unreliable and they lost touch.

After writing "The History of the Wausau Log," Ted contacted AFS to see if Tina could be reached. Through that effort, the two connected via email a couple of years ago.

Tina, Ted learned, is a bank president. She has been married to Carlos for 41 years and has four children and two grandchildren. Circumstances finally allowed Tina and Carlos to visit for this year's Log Game.

Ted, Tina and Carlos visited Wausau West on Thursday, and it's as if time had melted away.

"This place was very important to me," Tina said. "I lived here when I was 18. For me, it was very different to know a high school like this, and to know the country. And to know my Dad. ... Now all those feelings are alive."

Ted choked up as he talked about the reunion with Tina. He was thinking about Dorothy, who also welcomed Tina as a daughter. He felt the presence of Dorothy, he said.

"I am," Ted said, "happy."

Keith Uhlig can be reached at 715-845-0651 or at keith.uhlig@gannettwisconsin.com. Find him on Facebook or on Twitter as@UhligK.