By Bill Petzold
Editor
CARO — Dennis Anderson doesn’t like being put on a pedestal and being made a fuss of.
But since push came to shove, he’ll acquiesce to riding in a car and smiling and waving — as long as he gets to share the experience with a very special young lady.
Anderson, 66 of Cass City, a longtime Caro Community Schools employee and former superintendent, has been selected as this year’s Grand Marshal for the Tuscola County Pumpkin Festival Grand Parade. The parade is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday in downtown Caro.
Anderson has invited Lauren Hood, a four-year-old Caro girl around whom the community has rallied to assist in her battle against Hurler Syndrome. Lauren, daughter of Shane and Colleen Hood of Caro, was diagnosed with Hurler Syndrome or MPS-I in 2012, one of a group of metabolic storage disorders in which the body lacks an enzyme needed to metabolize a substance, such as sugar.
Anderson is being honored for his volunteer efforts, including working with My Friends Care to organize fundraisers for Lauren’s treatment. Anderson knew Lauren’s grandfather Roger Hood and father from his involvement in Ducks Unlimited.
“I’ve asked that she could ride along,” Anderson said. “She will start school here in October, preschool, and she’s doing well. I think there will be a lot of people (at the parade) who know me and who know Lauren and who have worked on Lauren’s behalf, and they know that … her being in that vehicle with me that day is a ‘thank you’ to the community. … It’s just a good opportunity for me to share this experience with this little girl, and I think it will mean a lot to her.”
Anderson, with the help of Senator Mike Green, also arranged for a flag to be flown over University of Minnesota Children’s Amblatz Hospital, two places in Caro and Kingston Elementary School before being presented to Lauren to keep.
Twelve years ago Anderson retired as Caro Community Schools superintendent after 34 total years with the district, but he’s kept busy working with various community organizations. Anderson was involved with Caro’s Knights of Columbus, and has had plenty of experience in the effort to help bake the Tuscola County Pumpkin Festival’s famous pumpkin pies.
“I’m a member of the K-Cs, and I have been out there helping bake pies and pack pies,” Anderson said. “I have at least 10 years in on that. … We worked three shifts around the clock. It was highly organized. One year I was actually baking pies, working the ovens, and they kind of break you in on various jobs. … It was a lot of fun and they had a good group of people.”
Anderson came to Caro Schools in 1971 as a speech teacher, and found a wealth of talent as the Tigers’ debate coach in his early years as an educator. Caro enjoyed a run as one of the most well-respected debate teams in the nation.
“I had some really good kids, and I could drive the van; I was really good at driving the van,” Anderson joked. “We had five state championships here. We were a Class B school, but there were many times we would go undefeated for the entire year in Michigan, and we had the opportunity to debate out of state a lot. I’ve had kids all over: Harvard, Texas, Pittsburgh — we debated on a national circuit a lot and did quite well. … It was really quite an experience. I had some kids who were really motivated to do well and put in a lot of time and sacrificed a lot, because we were gone pretty much weekends. We were fortunate because when we went to Pittsburgh we flew there, and the community supported this. It was quite a unique experience for these small-town kids from Caro.”
Anderson said he grew up “north of Cass City or south of Elkton.”
“I went to Laker High School — I never made it farther than 25 miles from home,” Anderson joked. “Other than teaching one year as a grad assistant at (CMU), all my educational experience has been here. I never had the desire to be a traveling superintendent — three to five (years) in a district and keep moving up to a bigger district — It’s always been Caro. All the way through I had good people. That teamwork allowed me to survive. Besides I rode a Shetland pony and they had to shoot low if they wanted to get me.”
Anderson said his selection as Grand Marshal is a credit to the teammates he has relied on both in his professional career and volunteer efforts.
“I have no idea — you asked why I was picked to be Grand Marshal — I was sort of surprised, I just never thought about it,” Anderson said. “It could be that you get involved in the community, you different projects, you’re involved in different organizations — and I’ve decided that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel. (He laughs).
“I think I represent a lot of people. I didn’t do anything special. I was in the right place at the right time with the right people. It’s sort of been that way all the time I’ve been here — everything I’ve ever done, I’ve worked with good people. You can’t do it alone, you can’t do everything, know everything. You need to put trust in people and give them the authority and the power and the support.
“They’ll make some mistakes, but that’s OK. It’s not the end of the world.”
Bill Petzold is the editor of the Tuscola County Advertiser. He can be reached at petzold@tcadvertiser.com.