December summary
We had many good things happening in December. We started off the month with our 1000 Lights of Hope project by visiting the Kiwanis and Rotary for donations. The 5th of December, we were at the Curtis family home for their tree lighting. Most of us who were attending brought goodies to share with the youth and adults in the community. It turned out to be a nice evening and we had a nice group of youth come and share the event with us. Maddie Pfeffer, Ashley’s sister, was in attendance which was a neat thing to happen for me. Ashley was one of the first youth that I worked with and I am glad to see the tradition continuing. Ashley and about 5 other OB Laing students were in attendance along with a few of our Caddyshack “regulars”.
Angie and I took the youth shopping where they were way under their budgets and we were able to adopt two more families. The students wrapped on two different days. On their second round of shopping, the students also helped deliver the gifts to Algona Realty.
The middle school students at NSK also wanted to be involved with the 1000 Lights of Hope, so I took some gifts there during their free period and we wrapped presents. They have been involved with this every year in their own way and always enjoy this. In the past, we have been given names through their church or the Care Team. There are always an abundance of helpers but I manage to convince them that 20 kids cannot wrap at the same time.
The students are also planning a battle of the bands for January 2nd at the VFW in Algona. They are very excited and a good group of kids that I have never worked with before. The idea came from a conversation Angie had with one of the AHS students in her home. Since then, they have worked this idea from the ground up. I did emphasize to them that they need to step up and be responsible to make this work. We met yesterday and outlined a definite schedule and other details such as a pie in the face which Nicole Person (AHS) convinced me “would be awesome”, and then asked if I would do it. If any of you know Nicole, you know it is hard to say no to her. So, I called our local sheriff to see if he was interested because of course the kids were. Right now, Steve, myself, and a teacher will be voted on to get the pie. I also assured Howard that the mess would be contained so there will be no pie wars when we are done. We have worked out the main details but could use extra food and some muscles to help with our equipment but the calls have all been made. I am really impressed with these kids and you should be too. These are the artistic youth in our community that just want an outlet to express themselves. We would love to have you stop and listen to their music, but you may want to bring some earplugs just in case.
The youth in my AHS JEL group are also going to sponsor some activities during the Battle of the Bands. When we met, they were not sure at first what their part would be but they are now in the process of planning stupid human tricks and a skit for the battle of the bands night. I really encourage anyone to attend this. Colin Fett and Blake Mills are going to be the stars of our skit and both are very humorous. Colin will also be sharing emcee duties with Rob Bauer for this event.
AHS students Rob Bauer and Nicole Bosworth made a video in the past year regarding the smoking ban and how it has affected Iowans. They will be showing this at the Battle of the Bands and possibly at other events that we host. We were very excited to hear that the youth have interest in this and will support their future endeavors in this process.
I have put out the information for all students in the surrounding counties for the Battle of the Bands. JEL students will also be helping with the JEL table but Nicole Person is in charge. She also put everything up on facebook and hopefully the weather will hold out. Howard broke down and is allowing chips for our event so we will have free chips, bars, and cookies. If anyone would like to bake, give me a call.
We had an AMAZING Youth Development meeting. It was nice to have new faces at our meeting and our table was FILLED!!! Thank you to Vicki and Jan for helping recruit Adrianne Magill and her husband. They are going to be awesome for input at Seton/Garrigan because they have teens who can tell them what they want to do. We are very excited and have great ideas to get the kids involved. We did talk about having more opportunities at our office after school for meetings/events for this group. I believe in the New Year we will bemaking changes to our approach and I have confidence that we will have great results with the help of our new volunteers. One of the things that we talked about was using a bus from one of the local churches to bus youth to Burt to use their complex and have a middle school county activity with video games, board games, and a kickball, dodgeball, or a sport type tournament. My middle school kids that I have talked to thought this was an awesome idea and they have a church that would possibly bus the kids around the north. We have some great minds working on this and I am very anxious to have an event in January. One a side note, we are sad to be losing Pastor Dave Watson, but he will still be in Iowa and available to give us more crazy ideas for activities with the students. Best of luck to Pastor Dave and his family.
Lisa Louscher is out hitting the streets for Cinderella’s Closet. So far, we have around 9 new dresses and have moved them upstairs to our “fitting room”. The middle school students love these dresses and played dress up the other day. We will be setting up times in the near future for girls to come and look but we do need more donations.
I recently had a legislative meeting with my AC4C legislative group. Matt Wilber, the Pottawattamie County Attorney, will be speaking at our Day on the Hill event. He will be talking about social host ordinances and the importance to our communities. We are inviting the youth to this event on February 22nd in Des Moines. This is a chance for them to express their views to the state legislators and meet peers interested in this cause. I will be taking part in another meeting next week and we will meet in Des Moines in January. At this time, we will be discussing other topics such as medicinal marijuana, salvia, minor consumption, and the social host ordinances.
This is a brief summary of what is going on. As you know, the month is not over and we always have something happening. Please do not hesitate to contact us for ideas and other opportunities.
