Formed out of pain of Wausau-area shootings, this group inspires people to 'Be Amazing'

Keith Uhlig
Wausau Daily Herald

WESTON - About 20 students huddled together in teacher Josh Wood's classroom after school on Friday, their hands stacked like football players before a game.

"OK, on three," Wood said, "One, two, three..."

"BE AMAZING!" the group yelled in unison.

The students are part of a one-of-a-kind, grass-roots and multi-generational service organization called Be Amazing. Group members do public service projects such as writing cards to veterans or making visits to hospital patients. Be Amazing also highlights the good work of other groups or organizations, and the plan is to ultimately raise enough money to help pay for projects that will make the Wausau area a better place.

It is all an attempt to make some good out of deep pain. The group takes its name from words spoken by Anna Weiland, the 10-year-old daughter of slain detective Jason Weiland, at her father's funeral on March 29.

"All of the amazing people in the world will always outnumber the criminals," she told a crowd of more than a thousand mourners.

Jason Weiland was one of four people killed in the Wausau area by a shooter, who later died after he was shot by police. Be Amazing is designed to honor and remember the four innocent victims of that day: Marathon Savings Bank employees Dianne Look and Karen Barclay, attorney Sara Quirt Sann and Weiland, an Everest Metro Police detective.

Today, Anna Weiland is 11 and she is a part of Be Amazing. The group is preparing for one of its first big events, Be Amazing's Family Fall Fest, to be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Greenheck Field House, 6400 Alderson St., Weston.

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Be Amazing started with Cheryl Goetsch, Anna's fifth-grade teacher at Evergreen Elementary School, who was going through her own grieving process in the wake of the shootings. Goetsch had Anna's older sister, Ella, in her class in the prior school year and she knew the Weiland family well. School was on spring break in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, but she knew that Anna would be returning to class. She wondered how she could help Anna grieve, and how to help the other students cope with the tragedy.

Anna Weiland helps teacher Josh Wood prepare for a craft project that will be offered at the Be Amazing Family Fall Fest. They were working at a Be Amazing meeting Nov. 10 at D.C. Everest Middle School in Weston.

The conclusion she came to, influenced by Anna and others including Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven, was that the best way to help Anna and her classmates was to "move forward and be amazing," Goetsch said.

"I thought: We need to prove her right."

Classmates band together

When the class convened after spring break, the students in Anna's class were "very compassionate, very concerned about their friend and classmate,"  Goetsch said.

Goetsch talked about her idea that the best way to honor Anna's father and the other crime victims was to be amazing themselves. And then she asked the children what it meant to be amazing, and over the course of a few weeks, the class homed in on their own definition, and how they could be amazing themselves.

"I thought, Lord, guide me through this," Goetsch said. "I didn't know where this was going to go." 

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The kids "truly focused on what their passions were," she said. And they decided that being amazing meant being kind and helping other people. The children brainstormed and came up with a list of people who might need help, including the homeless, people with health problems, war veterans, those who grieve and people with disabilities.

From there, guided by Goetsch, the students came up with their own projects to help those people. Among the projects: Taking get-well cards to patients at Ascension St. Clare's Hospital in Weston; creating an obstacle course for students with disabilities, and helping them get through it; creating and sending care packages to families who have lost a love one, including for the families of the shooting spree and the family of a northern Wisconsin police officer who died in the line of duty.

Kara Weiland, right, rips a piece of cloth from a tie-dye shirt during the Be Amazing meeting Friday, Nov. 10, 2017, at D.C. Everest Middle School in Weston.

As the students in Goetsch's class were doing this, their work was gaining more and more attention from outside the classroom. The Evergreen Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization got involved early on. And slowly the word spread.

Helping others, helping themselves

Anna, her sister Ella, 13, and their mother, Kara, all have embraced the group. They say that working to help others helps them, too.

"When we help people, and see smiles on people's faces," Ella said, "it makes me smile."

Anna said the phrase "be amazing" came from her father.

"My dad always told me that there will always be some criminals," Anna said. "But he said we also would have good people, and there would always be more of them."

Jason Weiland loved his job, Kara Weiland said, "and the community. So did the other victims. I just want us all to remember them and be amazing, too. ... Ultimately, that's how we as a community move forward."

Now the Be Amazing group includes other schools, such as the D.C. Everest Middle School and John Muir Middle School in Wausau.

Deb Heilmann, a principal at South Mountain Elementary School, is a friend of the Weiland family. Her husband worked with Jason Weiland, and her daughter, Emily, is friends with Anna and Ella.

Because Emily attends school at John Muir, Heilmann approached Jeff Salzman, a math teacher there who also was friends with Jason Weiland. Together, they helped begin a Be Amazing group there.

The John Muir students have made cards for veterans, recognizing their service, and posted positive notes of encouragement in fellow students' desks and lockers.

"I also hope one of the key messages we can begin to spread is that even if you aren't part of the Be Amazing group, there is still an opportunity for anyone to be amazing. We all have it within us, and we just need to let it shine," Heilmann said.

'It made my day'

Jorden Ukpong, 12, got involved in the Be Amazing group last school year with Anna Weiland at Evergreen Elementary School.

"In the beginning, it was kind of sad," Jorden said. The sadness, he said, spurred his classmates and him on to do something good — to raise money for cancer patients or do something else to help others. 

"We wanted to do something for the community," Jorden said.

He was part of the group that visited St. Clare's Hospital with small gifts, well wishes and get well cards for the patients.

Some of the people were so happy to see them "they cried," Jorden said.

It was a good feeling to be part of that day.

"I now want to do more things," Jorden said. "It made my day."

You can Be Amazing 

People can learn more about the Be Amazing group at its Family Fall Fest, to be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Greenheck Field House, 6400 Alderson St., Weston. It's one of the group's first big events and will allow people to learn more about how they can get involved. The event also will include fun activities such as crafts, skating, a bounce house, projects for shelter animals and a silent auction.