Mayor adds author to resume

Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke has a new title to put next to his name — author.

“Duke’s Storm: A Story of Courage,” which Neitzke wrote and 16-year-old Allison Disch illustrated, came out last week.

Neitzke, whose career has taken him from teacher to superintendent to administrator of the education consortium CESA 6, said writing a children’s book wasn’t something he ever saw himself doing.

“It was not on my bucket list to write a children’s book,” he said.

But that was before he met Disch, a sophomore at Waupun Junior/Senior High School.

Disch attended a talk Neitzke gave last April in which he mentioned that buffalo will face a storm and run through it, facing the problems that come with it and more quickly coming to a resolution and happiness.

“I struggle with anxiety a lot, dealing with friends in high school, all that stuff,” Disch said. “I took what he talked about and used it in my life as a guide to be more positive.”

It made a huge difference, she said, noting that “every time I caught myself being anxious, I thought about it and about not letting fear stop you.”

Disch, a talented artist who has been commissioned to create art since she was 10, created a mock up of her own story of the buffalo, including an illustration of the lead character, a buffalo she named Duke —  the same name as her dog.

When her dad Doug attended Neitzke’s Smart Thinking leadership retreat, he showed him his daughter’s drawing.

“I was blown away,” Neitzke said. He sent her a video massage, telling her he was “blown away, honored, excited” and would help her get her story published.

And with months of hard work that started last July, they did just that.

They had to change the story a bit because it turned out that Disch’s tale had already been told.

Neitzke offered to write the story, which tells the tale of Duke, who is left alone just as a thunderstorm was about to hit. He checks with his cousins, the cows, to try and find his family before the storm, then learns of the buffalo’s determination to face the storm and go through it from his sidekick Tootsie, a whimsical buffalo bird.

When the storm hits, he gathers his courage and runs through it and finds his family, garnering congratulations from them in the end.

Neitzke said it took a while to write the story, adding he created storyboards at his office in Oshkosh so his tale and Disch’s drawings would work seamlessly.

As the book progressed, Neitzke said, he shared it with members of his team at CESA and other teachers for their feedback.

His mother, a retired teacher, read the book and said simply, “That’s nice. There are a lot of words.”

That forced him to go back and edit his story, trimming the word count to the essential pieces.

“This is a leadership book, but it’s really written for little people. I learned a lot about the science of teaching reading,” Neitzke said, adding, “There are a lot of people behind this.”

Perhaps the most striking part of the book are the illustrations by Disch, who said she spent 217 hours and 15 minutes working on it, studying the animals she drew, perfecting their facial expressions and even working to ensure she represented lightning properly.

“I studied buffalo so much,” she said. “The biggest thing I wanted was for it to be accurate, but I also wanted it to be fun so it’s not like a creepy animal on the page.”

The book, which was published through CESA, came out in mid-February, along with resource guides for teachers and parents.

The response, Neitzke said, has been positive, adding that people have been texting him about the messages they find in the story.

He and Disch are planning to “hit the book circuit” to promote the book, and they are planning to continue their collaboration, writing other stories of Duke and Tootsie.

Disch, who was paid for her work, receives half the royalties from the book. Neitzke said his portion of the royalties will go to the CESA 6 Foundation and benefit the school districts that make up the consortium.

“Duke’s Storm: A Story of Courage” is available at Locally Inspired and Java Dock in Port Washington and online at store.cesa6.org/products/dukes-storm.