Deer Park youth remembered for spirit, smile

The Deer Park and Columbia Falls communities last week lost one of its special young people. Michael Wilke passed away March 11 from complications of Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. He was 16.

Wilke went to school his entire childhood at Deer Park and graduated in 2011, Deer Park principal Dan Block said.

“He was one of those students who made you feel better,” Block said. “He was an inspiration to all of us. He had a charismatic personality.”

Wilke was given the citizenship award by the school staff when he graduated. The illness, which gradually causes a person to lose control of their muscles, restricted Wilke to a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop him.

In 2010, he shot a bull elk from his chair when Safari Club International set up a hunt for him on the 25,000-acre CB Ranch near Darby.

In 2006, the Montana Highway Patrol, through its Montana Hope Project, arranged a trip for Wilke and his family to Disneyworld in Florida.

Wilke at the time wanted to see an alligator.

Lori Craner was his aide at Deer Park for five years. She remembered him fondly.

“He touched everyone’s heart,” she said. “He was treated like one of the guys.”

Craner said he also had a stubborn streak. He once didn’t want to go to class, so he ran into her with his powered wheelchair. But that stubborn streak rarely showed, and he was a happy kid.

“He taught passion and patience to kids here,” she said,

Craner remembered a time when they all went ice skating at the rink in Whitefish. They got his wheelchair out on the rink, and then everyone started pushing Wilke in a train behind him.

“I’m thankful he was happy,” Craner said. “He’s in a better place now.”

A celebration of life for Wilke will take place at Deer Park School on Saturday, March 23, at 2 p.m. Wilke is survived by his mother Beverly, his father Sonny and his brother Matthew.