Kossuth Connections

Welcome back...

2011-11-07T08:22:00.000-06:00

Well really we have been gone and now we are back. As always we have had a ton of great things happening so to highlight just the top 10 of recent:

10. The Caddyshack closes for the 4th successful season
- THANKS everyone!!!

9. Local youth participated in a statewide leadership training at Camp Dodge
8. College kids return to Kossuth Connections to visit on their fall break
- we love you guys!!!
7. 5th and 6th grade leaders planed a Halloween event for all of
Kossuth County the 1st Annual Halloween Party for 70 some 5th
and 6th graders from all over Kossuth County. Haunted house and
all - Jodee was able to scare kids from her platter post.
6. Remaining 2010-11 DFC funds purchased two portable
ID Machines to help carding at local events.
5. Together with KRHC, EMS, and Sheriff Department,
Kossuth Connections coordinated the 2nd bi-annual drug drop and
collected 35 pounds of drugs.
4. Angie presented at Statewide Prevention Conference on
Environmental Strategies
3. Nick Larson educated coalition meeting on what to look for regarding drugs.
2. New Kossuth Connections Board begin their year of leadership with Pastor Ed Harp as chair,
Marcia Yeoman, vice-chair; Vicki Mallory, treasurer; Nick Bitz, secretary.
1. JOANN JOHANSEN - has joined the Kossuth Connections staff - creative and resourceful
that sums it up!

To stay connected join us on FACEBOOK and find the link on the left of our Facebook page to join our monthly e-mail list. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kossuth-Connections/168564283183553

February/March Mental Health Focus Newsletter

2011-02-15T14:42:00.002-06:00

Check out

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kossuth-Connections/168564283183553#!/photo.php?fbid=186363384736976&set=a.171523259554322.34548.168564283183553&theater

for this our latest newsletter!

Flavorful Coffee-Mate Office Party

2011-02-07T11:26:00.003-06:00

On Friday, February 4th, the HOPE Resource Center had a Flavorful Valentine's Coffee Party hosted for them by COFFEE-MATE (R). Included in their party kit was a NESCAFE (R) Dolce Gusto (R) Piccolo machine, which we had a lot of fun playing with and trying out COFFEE-MATE (R) liquid creamers with. Also available was some Haitian coffee, straight from the Port-au-Prince airport. Jodee was a little wiry after a couple of cups of that.

Everyone who came had a really good time!

January 2011 off to a great start....

2011-02-02T13:13:00.000-06:00

Jodee Goche – summary for January2011

The weather has caused us to alter many plans this month but we continue to accommodate our members and reschedule meetings as necessary. We were scheduled to be out of town for our quarterly
AC4C meeting but the weather did not allow that to happen. We will be meeting next month and during that time we will be discussing the current issues regarding substance abuse. Members from AC4C will also discuss the status of Social Host at the state level and current bills addressing salvia and K2. These are issues that continue to affect our youth and work to educate our communities with current information. Please let us know if you are interested in being added to our AC4C mailing list.

The Services Provided group continues to recruit members and email information to the media and other sources. We have presentations for groups if you are interested in various topics. Our PACT 360 for parents has local data and can be presented to any group regarding drugs and alcohol. We can present on specific topics like marijuana, alcohol, energy drinks, salvia, and other topics.

The Resources Generated group has been working to make our coalition more visible and on ideas for the Caddyshack. We are working on building relationships with our hole sponsors at the Caddyshack so they can advertise that they are hole sponsors. We discussed packets for those who become sponsors. We are going to work with Kyle at the library to advertise current trends and our organization. Kyle was going to post our calendar and/ or newsletter at the library. Kyle also asked the hospital to post our information.

Our Community Changes group will be working to highlight the businesses regarding local policies – we have had difficulty meeting due to the weather and other commitments. We will be meeting at 11:30 prior to the coalition meeting February 3^rd. We will be working with local businesses to discuss policies and regulations regarding alcohol distribution and advertising.

I was contacted by Joanne Roepke Bode to be part of the health fair at KRHC in March. We will be using our fatal vision goggles to demonstrate the effects of alcohol at various BAC levels. We will be having participants do various activities to see firsthand the difficulty in carrying out simple tasks. We will also offer information at our booth about timely current trends and data.

We are moving! Our new location will be the past location of Curves on Thorington Street and offers us the room that is needed for our growing needs. We are very excited to have the opportunity to expand our projects and be more visible in the community. If you are interested in helping us move, give us a call. We will be moving throughout the month of February and would appreciate your time.

This new space will allow us to have meetings, conduct trainings and a space for our Cinderella’s closet dresses to be viewed in an easier manner.

Cinderella’s closet is open for business! We are currently taking dresses and scheduling appointments for young ladies to come check out the dresses. We would love to add to our inventory so if you have dresses from the past couple years to donate we would appreciate adding them to our supply. Morgan Coleman, Senior at AHS, and Morgan Schonert, 7^th grade student at OB Laing Middle School, spent an afternoon with me and they cleaned and organized. Morgan Coleman has been placing posters around school and advertising for Cinderella’s Closet. We have also had information on Facebook and sent out emails to organizations. Let us know if you would like to donate dresses or make an appointment.

Brooke Preston, youth member from NSK high school, became interested in a service project that she viewed while we were at a youth conference in San Jose last year. There was a One Warm Coat organization that collected coats in the San Jose area and distributed them to area shelters and other needy organizations. We worked on posters and plans for distribution and the project will be taking place through February 15^th. You can contact our organization to donate coats – youth, men’s and women’s will be accepted. The Care Team will benefit from the donations that are collected. Other drop off sites include Sentral School in Fenton, First United Methodist Church – Algona, Faith Assembly of God – Algona, and Kossuth Connections. If you are interested in donating, you may contact our office to make arrangements.

Our annual townhall meeting will take place on March 1, at our new offices. We will be conducting this through a panel style presentation and world café. There will be tables with various information and youth and adults speaking about their organizations and causes. We will open our doors at 6 p.m. for the public. Please let us know if you are interested in having materials or a table at our event. We will have the latest information from the state and Federal level and share the events going on in our coalition.

On April 30^th, we will be conducting our first drug drop in Kossuth County. In partnership with the DEA and Kossuth County Sheriff’s office, we will be hosting a site for anyone in the area to bring prescription medications for disposal. This project is part of a national initiative and the second annual efforts of the DEA to properly dispose of prescription medication in our country. Prescription drug abuse is on the rise in our country and it is believed that having access to proper disposal can greatly reduce the risk of abuse. Sheriff Steve Kollasch will be at our coalition meeting February 3^rd to discuss the part of the Sheriff’s office in this event. The Sheriff’s office and the DEA will be supervising this event and Kossuth Connections will help organize volunteers to assist with the process. If you are interested in volunteering for this event, please contact our office. The location and time is yet to be determined but will be posted through media sources and our social media sites.

The Evaluation group met and discussed our evaluation system and the reports the reports that will be produced. I have kept track of all in-kind match through volunteer hours, meeting locations, and money or other items donated. It is very important that we keep track of the hours to produce reports showing our match. This is required by our grant and our system will be an excellent way to show others what their efforts are doing for our coalition. I will be collecting hours at our coalition meetings monthly. If you are unable to attend our meetings, please contact me if you have done any coalition work for the month. This time includes phone calls, emails, meetings, material items (donations, advertising), and any time that you have spent as a volunteer on behalf of our coalition. We appreciate your time and efforts for our organization.

Kossuth Connections Alive and Well

2010-08-28T22:01:00.000-05:00

We have survived the many events of the summer and we are gearing up for the Fall. In order to get all the things done we have planned we need you and your neighbor and your brother / sister. We need the community to join us in what we do. Who would not like to make Kossuth County a safe, healthy, crime and drug free place to work, live, and raise children?

Come join us.... check out our website for more about us at http://www.kossuthconnections.com

2009 Youth Summary for December

2009-12-18T11:02:00.001-06:00

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 5^th 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 2^nd 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 22^nd 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.

December 2009 Executive Board Minutes

2009-12-18T10:22:00.000-06:00

Kossuth Connections Executive board

Meeting Minutes

December 17, 2009 515-395-8336(TEEN)

. The Following Persons were Present

Julie Wolf, Angie Asa-Lovstad, Vicki Mallory, Jeanne Wunder

. Angie presented 2009 in review. DFC (Drug Free Community) Grant will be expiring this year. She will be working on a new DFC Grant. Angie has been in contact with Deacon, CADCA Academy trainer, about helping her with this grant & what the fee would be. She has negotiated her lease to 6 mos. As to the United Way Venture Grant they are no longer doing them. Kossuth County Foundation Funds went towards the rent on the upstairs. City of Algona gave us $1000 last year so we need to get on their calendar. Angie & Jodee will be heading to Washington DC for the annual CADCA Conference February 6-13. The can cage so far has raised $1220. We received $1000 from the Methodist Cookie Walk. 1000 Lights of Hope produced $1250 which was enough to help 9 families. High Lights acheived this year Compliance Checks, Sticker Shock, In the Know Presentations, Invite To Roundtable with Gil Kerlikowske, US Drug Czar,& Independent Fiscal Agent. Plans are moving along for the Battle of the Bands to be held at the VFW on January 2, 2010. Right now 4 Bands are planning to particpate. It is being advertised on Facebook,radio & Flyers. The event is for High School age Kids. There will be free chips, bars, and cookies. Calling on any BAKERS, let Angie know. Lisa Louscher is once again looking for dresses for "Cinderella's Closet". Please let others know. Dates for appointments will announced in the new year. A December summary was handed out.

. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 1:15 Next meeting will be at the Chamber on January 28, 2010

Minutes submitted by: Julie Wolf

November 2009 Kossuth Connections Minutes

2009-12-18T10:21:00.000-06:00

Kossuth Connections

Meeting Minutes

December 3 , 2009 515-395-8336(TEEN)

. Call to order

Vicki Mallory called to order the regular meeting of the Kossuth Connections at 12:00 on December 3, 2009 at the EMS room.

. The Following Persons were Present Introductions Julie Wolf, Linda Vaudt, Donna Nielsen, Kyle Neugebauer, Vicki Mallory, Jeanne Wunder, Angie Asa-Lovstad, Joleen Frideres, Ron Glissan, Steve Kollasch.

. Approval of minutes from last meeting

. Treasurer’s Report

Coalition Account $1593.97 Fundraising Account $4316.30 Caddyshack Account $894.23. Hope to have reports by next meeting from Quick books

. Committee Reports

Angie & Jodee have updates from committee's included in our agenda for review before meetings. The new format makes our meetings run very well.

New Business Reports from Kossuth Connections Director(Angie) & Youth Coordinator(Jodee) were sent out in an e-mail. First United Methodist Church will be donating their procedee's from their "Cookie Walk" to be held on Saturday December 5th. If you can donate some cookies take them to the church kitchen by Friday or 6 am on Saturday. The "1000 Lights of Hope" tree lighting at the Curtis home will be at 6pm on Saturday,Dec.5. If you can donate wrapping paper or your time meet at the Kossuth Connection's at 12:00 on Saturday December 12th. Wrapping of the gifts for the families from the moneys raised from the donations of 1000 lights will take place. Cinderella's closet will be open again this year, Lisa Louscher is busy collecting dresses. Please pass this on to anyone who has a dress to donate or would like to purchase one. The next "In the Know" will be held on Jan. 13th. Our "Townhall" meeting will return to Algona this year sometime in April. Angie discussed the rent will be going up at our current location with the use of the upstairs. Currently it is $675 per month proposed is $950. The current DFC (Drug Free Community) Grant will expire this year so Angie will be working on putting pen to paper to get our application approved for new funding to keep our organization going. Angie would like to see a Social Host Ordinance passed in our community. She provided input & knowledge to those in attendance. We will continue to research this subject.

Old Business We our continuing to work with Marcia's bookkeeping to seperate acccounts for reports. We still have a Vice Chair vacancy. Vicki & Steve met with BGHS administration regarding the JEL/YEL grant to inform them of the circumstances regarding the funding. New attempts will be made next year to involve the youth at Seton & BGHS.

. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 1:00. Next meeting will be at EMS room at 11:45 on January 7, 2010 (Have a safe & Happy New Year)

Minutes submitted by: Julie Wolf

Do kids who are in sports stay away from alcohol more than kids who are not out for sports?

2009-10-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

We are looking at an ad campaign that talks about the number of training days are lost by drinking alcohol. Do you think that is a concern of the atheletes?

Open Forum September 30th

2009-09-30T12:18:00.000-05:00

Please click on comment and add your questions here for the open forum September 30th - the youth (hopefully) will be able to respond to our questions ....

Where do most kids get their alcohol?

2009-09-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

Can you describe where and how most kids get alcohol?

Is it easy to get?

Do kids ever fail at finding alcohol if they want to drink?

Where is most alcohol consumed? (Parents house - no parent there; Parent house - parent there; Friends living on their own...older teen/early 20; Cars; Abandon farms/homes; other...)

Teen Talk: How To Talk to Your Kids

2009-09-03T17:05:00.000-05:00

On September 30th we will demonstrate this website "LIVE" with an audience of adults who will be asking questions of our teens. We will allow the audience to ask frank and candid questions that they want to know.

Do kids have too much homework?

Washington DC 2008

2008-12-09T10:39:00.001-06:00

100_2921
Originally uploaded by asaloang

From our trip to Washington DC in February 2008. Courtney and Ian joined Jodee and Angie and Steve on this trip for the CADCA Leadership Conference.

Flickr

2008-12-09T10:29:00.001-06:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Snow Ball Dance - 3rd Annual

2008-12-09T10:09:00.000-06:00

On December 20th teens from all over the area will come together for a dance of their own at the VFW Hall in Algona Iowa. Headlining the event will be a LIVE band "Fighting with Shadows" and each school will have events planned thoughout the night. Awesome prizes are being collected - no high schooler will want to miss this event!

This will be the final day to purchase your chance at a Wii - between now and the 20th we are selling raffle tickets $1 / chance or $5 for 6 chances. We will draw the winner this night, you need not be present to win but how cool would it be to be there when YOU WIN!

Plug it in your calendar now - Saturday December 20th starting at 8pm! Be there!!!!!

Kossuth Connections grows up

2008-05-06T12:54:00.000-05:00

Kossuth Connections is 10 years old this year. As a major step to sustainability, the coalition has applied for its own 501c3 status. This has allowed the coalition able to go out on it's own.

We have new address / location

107 North Moore Street Algona IA 50511

It is located behind the Algona Chamber of Commerce Office. This works well as Vicki, the Chamber Director, is the current secretary of the coalition. We have a room dedicated to the youth to hang out in and welcome all kids to come check us out. Come Fall we will be here every day after school from 3:00 - 6:00 pm. We hope to have 5th - 8th graders stop by afterschool until mom and dad get off work.

We also have one room that will be a meeting room during the day and afterschool we will offer homework help.

You will find Jodee, the youth coordinator, and myself, the coalition director in the last room of the hall. If you are in the area - stop by and check us out.

In the Know: Teens Wired

2008-03-14T17:10:00.001-05:00

"IN THE KNOW…"

Learn about the

TOXIC CULTURE

youth face:
TOPIC:

Teens
Wired