A Shrinking Population: Door County Losing Young Families

Though we live in the age of the Blackberry, dominated by electronic media and social networking Web sites, Tara and Aaron LeClair were drawn back to their hometown through the most traditional of networking methods.

“It was chance actually. Someone saw our wedding announcement in the Door County Advocate and saw that Aaron was an EMT,” Tara said. “The county had a position open, and they contacted him.”

When Tara graduated from Sevastopol High School in 1996, she didn’t expect to be back living in the district before her 30th birthday. She earned a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, then settled with Aaron in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, where she worked for the city of Menominee Falls.

She liked the city life, and though the couple thought they might one day come back to Door County, it wasn’t in their immediate plans. Aaron’s opportunity forced their hand, but leaving the city for Door County’s quiet side in 2005 wasn’t exactly a no-brainer.

“I was definitely conflicted,” Tara said. “I had a job with Menominee Falls, and I liked the city. It was hard, different, to come home. It took some time. But the adjustment was easier because we were originally from here.”

Tara grew up on a dairy farm in Valmy, while Aaron grew up in Jacksonport, where his mother owns the Square Rigger Lodge. They came home and became part of a shrinking population of young families in Door County, where school enrollments are plummeting, and the peninsula’s workforce is getting older every year.

Though they were back in their hometown and had many established relationships, slipping back into life on the quiet side of a quiet peninsula wasn’t easy.

“It was a big culture shock to come back here,” Tara said. “The biggest challenge for younger people is the social scene.”

It’s hard for Tara to pinpoint exactly what makes it so hard for young adults to make a life here. She points to a combination of several factors. Not having the stores to browse, or the natural gathering places is one part of it. The fact that most places close when the sun sets and the lack of dining variety are others. But perhaps most glaring is the absence of other young people around the community.

“Sometimes you just want to see other young people,” Tara says.

She would love to see a major employer move in to revitalize the base but realizes that is a remote possibility. There are many who daydream about leaving the corporate grind to return home, but finding a job that feels stable enough to take on a mortgage or start a family is rare.

“If young people knew there was a stable business here, that could drive a lot more people back here,” she says. “If it wasn’t for us getting an opportunity we wouldn’t be here. It’s especially hard at our age because it’s too risky to relocate your family if there aren’t a lot of job options.”

In the meantime, she focuses on her own position, doing her part to create opportunities for a couple of young Door County students at a time. She manages the Door Kewaunee Business and Education Partnership out of the offices of the Door County Economic Development Corporation. The partnership offers job shadowing, mentorship, work-study and on-the-job training for area high school students.

It features the High School Home Construction Program, now in its third year. The program gives 12 – 15 area high school students 43 weeks of training building a home as part of their school day. Eighty-five percent of first-year participants moved on to local construction employment or continued their education in the field.

The partnership also offers a high school Certified Nursing Assistant program in cooperation with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.

“These programs give them the confidence that they have these skills and they’re not novices when they’re searching for a job,” Tara says.

Today every student is encouraged to go to college, and high schools gear their efforts around the college-bound. Tara applauds the college prep improvements but says we often lose sight of all those who won’t complete college.

“Each year about 350 high school students graduate in Door County,” Tara explains. “Maybe 150 – 200 go to four-year colleges. That leaves a large number of students for which we don’t know what we’re doing for them in school and after graduation.

“Fifty percent of those college students drop out,” she continues. “Where do they go? These kids need to be addressed. That’s the time that they really need to be approached.”

Tara sees potential in making stronger alumni connections with area high school graduates. At last year’s Sevastopol alumni softball tournament contact information of returnees was collected. She hopes that information can form the base of a pool of potential job candidates when positions open up in Door County but also generate data about what the skill sets of recent graduates are. That information could help entrepreneurs determine what types of businesses could attract workers back to the area.

Despite all the hurdles a young person must overcome to make a go of it here, Tara believes it’s worth the effort and the sacrifice.

“My husband and I both like it, and we know so many people,” she says. “We have no regrets now. The quality of life is great. We wake up near the water, we take advantage of the parks and scenery, and we like the life. You can’t put a price on having a family close by.”