By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Pam Dreiling loves to laugh. She loves laughter in her classroom, and her peers often say she is as silly as the 3- and 4-year-olds she teaches.

“I am not afraid to show them that I have made a mistake or do something silly,” she said.

The kids help Dreiling in a constant comic hunt for her glasses. They tell jokes and funny stories.

“There is a lot of laughter in my classroom,” she said. “We try to have a lot of fun, but it is never laughing at anyone. It is laughing together. We try to have a lot of fun. If I can’t have fun with my kids, I don’t want to be doing this.”

Dreiling, 50, has been teaching for 25 years and is January’s Hays Post Teacher of the Month. She is in her 11th year of teaching Head Start preschool for Early Childhood Connections and is currently based in an Ellis classroom.

Makenzie Henman said in her nomination, “Pam is so compassionate about her job. She goes the extra mile to make sure that children are learning, and she really builds a bond with the kids. She is an amazing teacher and it is hard to find teachers like her these days!”

Tammy Wellbrock, Dreiling’s sister, said, “Pam is truly a walking hug and children love her. The student population she serves is in a lower-income bracket and many of the students are from broken homes or involved in complicated domestic situations. Pam is the perfect person to provide them a safe, nurturing, encouraging classroom while also meeting their academic needs.”

Dreiling is Tia Miller’s former teacher, and she said in her nomination, “Pam is the most outgoing, loving, dedicated teacher I have ever met. She taught me when I was 5, and I am now 21 and still keep in touch with her. If that doesn’t say something as a teacher, I don’t know what does. She’s amazing!”

Dreiling has spent most of her career teaching 3- to 6-year-olds and said she really enjoys helping younger children discover their world.

“I really like when they are excited about learning something — when they are excited and you can just see it in their faces, ‘Whoa I get that! That’s cool!’ — that discovery by them. They discover something, and they are interested, and it piques their interest, and they want to learn more,” she said. “(I like) when it is just starting to all come together.”

When Dreiling was in high school, she swore she would never be a teacher. She tried teaching Bible school in the summer, but she became frustrated when the children acted up.

However, Dreiling found teaching was a calling she couldn’t escape.

“It was almost if I always knew I should be a teacher,” she said. “My mom has always compared me to my grandma in my personality. It was just what God wanted me to do. You know you were just born to do something. I know that is where my heart lies.”

Her grandmother Helena Duus was a teacher for 29 years in the Sylvan Grove area and was quite strict. Dreiling said she was ornery as a kid, and to some extent still is. Grandma Helena never let her get away with the same things her other grandparents did.

However, she said she still sees ways in which she and her grandmother are similar.

“God puts us on this earth and has a plan for us,” she said. “and I think my grandma knew that being a teacher was also the plan God had for her, and I think that was true for me. It is not a job as I look at just being a job. I take it very seriously. I am forming the future of these children or helping them to form their future, so I can’t let them down. I can’t just go clock in. There is a lot at stake. Their little lives are at stake. I take that very seriously.”

Even though Dreiling works with the smaller children, she stops in the hall and gives the older children hugs. She said she has always has been drawn to the underdog and seeks out those children who need a little extra attention and encouragement.

Dreiling enjoys her breaks and off times, but even then, she seems to be drawn to children. She has three children of her own and one grandchild.

“At this point in my life, it is sometimes hard to differentiate between being a teacher and being a mom,” she said, “and now that I am getting older, it is being a grandma. Sometimes I feel like I am a mom to the parents. A lot of the parents are around my daughter’s age. I feel like a mom to them and a grandma to the little ones.”

If there is anything she would like to impart to those parents, it is you don’t have to do elaborate and exciting things with your kids. Just read to them, talk to them and help them discover and help them to grow.

“If they do those things as a rule, love their kids, then they will do just fine in school,” she said.

Dreiling said her classroom runs like a family with family values.

“We all have importance,” she said. “We all have a job. If someone is missing for the day because they are sick, we wish them well. We try to develop a family because families have each other’s backs, and that is what I am trying to teach the kids is to have each other’s backs, to be friends, to use kind words.”

One of the best things Dreiling said she has done in her classroom is ask the children if they want a toy to tap the other child on the shoulder and ask for it. It seems simple, but Dreiling said it has been amazing how well the technique has worked.

Learning to get along with others is the most important skill children learn in preschool, she said. The second is teaching children to self-regulate their emotions.

Dreiling still gets frustrated when the children act out, just like she did when she was a teenagers, but she has found taking care of herself by getting enough sleep and deep breathing helps her get through rough spots.

She teaches the children the same deep breathing exercises to help them deal with their own frustrations. It is part of ECC’s conscience discipline program. She puts the smaller children in her lap and exaggerates her own breathing so she is breathing with them. She said she wishes she would have known these techniques when she was a young mother because she would have used them.

“It is really pretty amazing when a child is really upset, and you start breathing with them,” she said. “Of course, they fight you at first. They don’t want to do it because they are mad. When you finally get them to breathing, it is as if their eyes soften and you can tell they are back to rational thinking again. It really is pretty amazing.”

After 25 years, Dreiling said she has good days and bad days. She doesn’t look to retire any time soon, put looks forward to a time when she can spend more time on herself.

“If I start getting down, I will have a good day, and it sucks me back in,” she said. “Those good days are like a drug.”

She described a good day.

“No big behavior problems, and a day where we laughed. We got our work done. The lessons went well. People were listening. Children were engaged. That is a good day for me, and there is laughter. There’s got to be laughter. I do not want to work in a place where there is not laughter because, again, I am kind of ornery.”

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Otter Juice Co. is set to open next Thursday, Feb. 1, at 2306 Vine in Hays.

Jess and Curt Braun, owners, will offer 10 juices plus a make-your-own option. The juice bar will also offer a weekly smoothie option, coffee and an assortment of pastries.

Both Jess and Curt juice for their health and are excited to offer a clean eating/drinking option in Hays. All the ingredients in the beverages will be fresh. Jess even makes her almond milk from scratch.

“I am passionate about two things — animals and clean eating — and there is no place to eat clean here,” Jess said. “We love to juice. It is so healthy. We juice everyday.”

Most of us don’t get enough fruits and vegetables, and juicing is an easy way to get the nutrition your body needs, she said.

Jess said juicing is a good way to lose or maintain weight as well.

Unlike cooking vegetables, juicing preserves the nutrients, Curt said. No sugar is added to the smoothies or juices.

The Brauns insist getting your daily serving of fruits and vegetables doesn’t have to be chore.

Take, for instance, the Red Otter, one of the juice bar’s drinks. It contains beets, pineapple, apple and ginger. This is one of Curt’s favorite drinks, but he normally hates beets. You can’t taste the beets over the sweetness of the pineapple and apple, he said.

If you want something savory with a little kick, the Sassy Otter contains cucumber, celery, carrots, jalapeno, parsley, tomato and spinach.

Jess said juices can be a way parents can sneak some vegetables into kids’ diets.

Jess used the example of the Funky Monkey smoothie, which will be the Otter’s first smoothie offering next week. It has peanut butter and chocolate almond milk in it.

“When my daughter was doing the sign for me, she gets down to the peanut butter and said, ‘What else did you say?’ I said kale and spinach and she goes, ‘Oh, you just ruined it.’ I swear you cannot taste the kale and spinach in there. That is a kid-friendly smoothie right there even for kids that don’t like veggies because you cannot taste them.”

Jess said she hopes to eventually offer a juice flight, which will allow customers to try a variety of juices so they can see what they like.

The pastries, which will include bagels, scones and muffins will be made from scratch and will be all plant based, which means no eggs or butter.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t good, Jess said. Her baked goods have a handful of natural, fresh ingredients compared to a supermarket bagel, which might have a list of 20 ingredients, including preservatives.

Jess uses both hemp seed and chia seed in her muffins and bagels. Hemp seed is a good source of protein and omega fatty acids, and chia seed is a good source of protein and fiber.

Otter Juice will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The Brauns have made an agreement with Sake2Me, which is next door, so dinners in the that restaurant can order juices and smoothies if they wish.

Otter Juice has a Facebook page and is developing an ap. Customers will be able to order through the ap and have their orders delivered curbside. The Brauns had hoped to have a drive through, but that is not possible at their present location.

A 10 percent discount is offered with student ID, and customers can buy reusable Otter jars that will earn them a 50 cent discount on beverages.

Most juices will run $6 each, which fresh orange juice $4, smoothies $5 and coffee $1.25. Pastries will be $2 to $3 each.

The decor in the building is a happy yellow. The Brauns used reclaimed and recycled materials as much as possible. The tables were made from old pallets and are painted with rainbow colors and encouraging sayings. On the walls are pictures of cute otters.

The straws and cups will be compostable.

Why otters? Jess, who is also a vet, said, “Otters are just so cute. I love otters. … Otters are fun, and they are carefree and are super cute.”

Once the business gets up and going, the Brauns would like to give a portion of the proceeds from the juice bar to an otter conservation organization.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Kathylea Wolf has an overwhelming fear of leaving her apartment.

She only leaves to go to doctor’s appointments and once a month to go grocery shopping with her mother, and sometimes the anxiety is so intense she can’t even do those two things.

Even those trips can be excruciating. She looks around corners and carefully plots her way through aisles to have the least contact with other people. She has memorized stores so she can spend the least amount of time in them. If she hears a couple fighting, she freezes and goes numb. She starts saying she is sorry repeatedly even though she is not involved in the fight. She becomes terrified if she hears a child screaming.

She won’t even go outside to pick up her mail.

Kathylea, 43, is a survivor of years of physical and sexual abuse from the time she was 3 years old in addition to domestic violence as an adult. She has PTSD and suffers from agoraphobia, severe anxiety, panic attacks and night terrors.

Kathylea has applied for a service dog that she hopes will give her the confidence and stability to regain her independence and take back her life. But on disability, Kathylea does not have enough money to pay for the dog. Her insurance refused to pay for the dog, so she needs $3,500 to pay for the dog and another $2,000 to travel to Concordia and stay two weeks for the training.

Kathylea has been on the waiting list at CARES of Concordia for two years. She is hoping to have the funds by this summer.

She has started a GoFundMe page in attempts to raise the money. However, Kathylea’s isolation means she has no friends. As of Tuesday morning, she had only raised $30 toward her goal. Her GoFundMe account is listed under Kathylea’s name under Medical “PTSD trauma service dog needed.”

Kathylea had a dog before that helped her with her intense anxiety. His name was Stormy, a Burmese mountain dog. Stormy was not a certified service dog, but she did have him trained to help her through her intense anxiety. She would take Stormy for walks in the park, and if Kathylea became startled, Stormy would help ground her.

“He gave me comfort. He gave me something to concentrate on other than the people,” she said. “He could tell in an instant if I was starting to heighten. He would nudge me. If that didn’t work, he would leap on me. I had him on- and off-leash trained. He would turn and walk away, and if I didn’t follow, I would lose my dog. He had me trained as well.”

However, Stormy became so sick she had to put him down.

CARES has placed more than 1,400 dogs in the last 25 years for people with a variety of disabilities. This includes service personnel and rape and domestic violence survivors with PTSD. Sarah Holbert, CARES CEO and a trainer, could not speak specifically about Kathylea’s case, but discussed other examples of dogs the organization has trained for trauma survivors.

People who have suffered traumatic situations can be triggered to have flashbacks by everyday noises or sounds. For a veteran, this could be fireworks or a car backfiring, Holbert said. In that moment, the person is taken back to that traumatic moment in time. They freeze and are unaware of their current environment. Holbert explained this can be very dangerous for a person in public.

The dogs are trained to nudge the person in attempts to help coax them back to the present. For a person having a panic attack or night terror, the dogs are trained to provide gentle pressure, nudge them or lick them. Most of the dogs CARES trains for this type of service work are Labrador retrievers, due to their calm and friendly temperament, Holbert said. The exact training for the dog, however, will depend on the needs of the client.

CARES maintains a foundation that helps defray the cost of training the dogs. The national average cost for a service dog is $18,000, but CARES’ average cost is $5,000. For more information on CARES and its foundation, see its website.

After Kathylea’s dog Stormy died, she became more secluded, was more fearful and had more night terrors. She sleep walks, and often wakes up with cuts and bruises.

She became homeless for a time in 2012, before finally landing a place in state subsidized housing in Hays in 2014. At that point, she stopped going out.

Kathylea also has intense panic attacks, and Stormy helped comfort her during times when she had these attacks. She said her heart pounds, she hyperventilates and she cries uncontrollably. Kathylea described an anxiety attack.

“There’s an elephant that sits on my chest,” she said, “and then your skeleton is trying to vibrate out through the top of your head.”

Stormy gave her something else to concentrate on and comforted her.

“I could just sit there and smooth his face and look into his eyes,” she said, “and it was very nurturing. He was there for me, and you could see in his eyes that it hurt him to see me like that.”

Kathylea’s high anxiety came from years of physical and sexual abuse. Her stepdad sexually abused her and eventually involved her in sex trafficking. He kept her quiet by threatening to sexually abuse her younger sister and force her into prostitution.

Her mom’s next husband was physically abusive and his son molested her.

“That was the first time I started sleeping with a knife under my pillow,” she said. “When I informed them about it, they wouldn’t do anything about it, so I ran away when I was 15.”

After this Kathylea was in a series of violent relationships. She had two children by the time she was 17.

Her last husband was extremely violent and controlling. She couldn’t have friends. She wasn’t allowed to go to a doctor. She was only allowed to have a job until she started to make friends or enjoy herself, and then he made her quit.

Kathylea pointed to a scar on her forehead where her ex-husband hit her in the head with a hammer, another scar on her neck where her ex-husband held a knife to her throat and her gnarled hands from him smashing her fingers with hammers.

Her son was also violent, putting her in the hospital multiple times before he was 12. She wanted to get her son psychological help, but her husband refused.

Her last straw came when her ex-husband threw an office chair at her face and missed her by inches.

“The only thought that went through my head was which one was going to kill me first,” she said, “and that is when I knew I had to leave.”

When she tried to divorce her husband, he refused, giving her the address of a vacant lot to send the divorce papers. She waited four years, before the court granted her a divorce without her husband’s signature.

Even though it has been almost eight years since she left and her ex-husband doesn’t know where she lives, Kathylea still is very fearful he will find her.

“I still live in fear of being hit by him,” she said.

She still carefully spaces the hangers in her closet equal distance apart, because he would beat her if they were not. Every item in here medicine cabinet is also equally spaced and all facing front, and even the tabs on medicine bottles are aligned as her ex-husband used to demand.

“He doesn’t live here,” she said, staring into the row of neatly spaced hanger. “I shouldn’t fear being hit or anything else, but I still live my life like he is right behind me.”

Kathylea yearns for independence.

“A dog would help me integrate into society and help me learn how to adapt to people. Inside my house, he would help with night terrors, but he also would be a companion and help me feel safe so maybe I could feel as if I was not living in that shadow all the time.

“I would like to be able to go to store on my own,” she said. “I am almost 44 years old. I would like to be able to go shopping by myself. I would like to be able to take walks around the park and start exercising and just enjoy life — go see a movie, go out to dinner, even if its McDonald’s.”

Her mother likes to go out to dinner when she is town. Kathylea can only stand to spend five minutes in a restaurant—long enough to quickly eat her food, and then she leaves and sits in the car.

“My entire life is ruled by absolute fear,” she said. “It is not like the fear of a monster under your bed. It is a crippling fear. I get nauseated to the point where I will get physically ill. I break down in tears. I hyperventilate. People say you have two responses to a situation — flight or flight. There are actually three — fight, flight and freeze. I have a really good grasp of flight and freeze. I would like to find my fight.”