Students of the wolf

MANAWA – A new chainsaw-carved wolf now stands guard outside Little Wolf High School, giving the district a mascot that matches its name.
Crafted from a large white pine log, the sculpture replaces an old wooden eagle placed in front of the school years ago.

The idea for the project began in early September, when sophomore class advisor and English teacher Michele Koshollek saw a Facebook post featuring a carving created by Little Wolf alumnus Ben Buschke for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

District Administrator Ryan Peterson said the detailed “Stevie Pointer” sculpture impressed Koshollek enough that she began to wonder if Buschke might create an original wolf for the school entrance.

For years, a wooden eagle that was rescued from a dumpster during a community spring clean-up had occupied the stump outside the Fitness Center.

Koshollek said that the eagle figure became a kind of student legend, but it never reflected the school’s wolf mascot.

Koshollek said she reached out to Buschke to ask whether he would consider creating a wolf carving tailored to the school. Buschke agreed to the commission at a substantial discount and pledged to maintain the carving for life, including re-staining and repairs as needed.

“As long as he is living, he will make sure that it is re-stained, that if it has any showing of weathering that he will take care of the upkeep, which is pretty awesome,” Koshollek said.

Rather than relying on district funds, the district turned to its current high school classes to finance the project. Koshollek said students from each grade level were asked if they wanted to use their class accounts, which are built over time through school fees, event ticket sales and other fundraisers, to purchase the monument.

“Anytime money is spent out of student account funds, a student has to sign off on the withdrawal that they wanted to do this,” Koshollek said, noting that past classes have funded benches and a podium in the building.

The classes agreed, choosing to give a “lasting gift to the school,” Peterson said. Once the funding was approved, Buschke sent several mock-ups of wolves in different poses, including sitting and standing designs. Students across the grade levels voted and selected a standing, howling wolf as the final concept.

Buschke is a 2007 Little Wolf alumnus and a Manawa resident who operates Buschke Carving out of a shop in Iola. He said he grew up working on his family’s dairy farm, began chainsaw carving in 2017 and turned it into a full time business by 2020.

The wolf took an estimated 16 hours to carve over several weeks and features a turning, howling pose designed to give the animal a lifelike sense of motion.

“It’s cool to be able to make something that can last at the school for people to see and enjoy,” Buschke said, adding that it means a lot to have his artwork on permanent display at his alma mater.

Buschke completed the carving earlier this year and coordinated installation for spring. On April 13, class officers from the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes joined Buschke outside the Fitness Center to watch the wolf set in place.

Though the original eagle carving was never an official school purchase or mascot selection, Koshollek said it was moved and remains on campus as part of the school’s history. The new wolf now stands where the eagle once did, mounted on the prominent stump by the Fitness Center doors.

A plaque on the front of the monument includes a line from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book: “The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack,” and “Gifted by the classes of 2026, 2027, 2028 & 2029.”
Koshollek said she is proud to have helped bring the monument to the school.

“Long after I retire, then there’ll be something here that I know that I had a hand in, and that made me really happy,” she said.

Koshollek said seeing the sculpture at the end of each day is a reminder of both student generosity and community artistry.

“Every time I leave and I look up there and I can see it sitting there, it just makes me smile,” she said.

Beyond the artwork itself, Koshollek said the project is an example of the close-knit nature of the Manawa community and the multigenerational ties to Little Wolf High School.

“There’s just a sense of pride and connection in this community that is unlike anything that I’ve seen in any other district that I’ve worked in,” she said.

For Buschke, the carving offers a message to students about chasing their dreams.

“If you work at something hard and you’re determined, you can make anything happen,” he said.