Newell Summer Blast Off 

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 – Newell City South Park

8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

COMMUNITY YARD SALE

Noon – 4 p.m.

FARMER’S MARKET

PRODUCT VENDOR’S

COMMUNITY CARNIVAL

Inflatables, bingo, dunk tank, games, food and FUN!  

Vendors Wanted – Call Kim Smeenk 456-0200  

Due to weather this event is postponed until Saturday 5/3! 

Community Action Team Holds OH

On Thursday, May 1st the NVN CATS will be holding an open house at their new building in Nisland, which is also the former Nisland Town Hall.

Check out their new services, which includes a clothing store!

CATS provides commodities, senior care packs, the Meals on Wheels program and many others!

Boom Concrete poured the concrete floor for the new park shelter today!

Finshed product!

Spring Has Sprung!

And with it the construction continues on the picnic shelter. Boom Concrete is preparing for the pour of concrete. Cold weather is always more work with pouring a slab and presents more opportunities for the unexpected. Now, with the warming of things, we see construction begin again. Stay tuned to see how it progresses.

The shelter has been delayed due mostly to winter weather. The supplies are purchased and the work crews are on board. We just need some good weather and time to get the volunteers together to finish. The concrete floor and walk path is the next step which will be done by Boom Concrete and then Bob Newth will organize the work to finish the shelter. We are a little later than originally planned, but then this winter hasn’t exactly been conducive to concrete or volunteer labor. Please bare with us as we work toward finishing this project this spring.

We have scheduled this night for Thursday, March 27th. We will eat at 6:00 p.m. and then work will begin at 6:30. We will be meeting at the Senior Citizen building. If you need to have research done before you can begin planning, please try to have it done before this night. The committee and their chairs are listed below. Committee Chairs please call your volunteers and let them know about this meeting. It is very important that we work hard until the end so we can receive our $10,000 dollar grant amount. We have worked too hard to lose it now. The end is in sight! If you have questions, please let me know! Thanks so much!

Beautification- Committee Chairs
Carol McCarthy
Scott Wince
Ann Hodgman
Cheryl McCann
Beautification Volunteers
Harlon Robbins
Kim Wince
Mike & Diane Petts
Donavan DeBoer
Heather Kari
Pinky Catron

Signage Committee Chairs
Carol McCarthy
Scott Wince
Ann Hodgman
Cheryl McCann
Signage Volunteers
Kim Wince
Michelle DeBoer
Lisa Nelson
Donavan DeBoer

Community Unity Committee Chairs
Kim Smeenk
Lisa Nelson
Fred Sulzbach

Local Businesses and Fund Raising Committee Chairs
Bob Newth
Donavan DeBoer
Kelsey Morovits
Sean McCann
Local Businesses and Fund Raising Volunteers
Roger Monson
Melanie Williamson
Kim Wince   Assisted Living Center Committee Chairs
Bob Newth
Donavan DeBoer
Kelsey Morovits
Sean McCann
Assisted Living Center Volunteers
Fred Sulzbach
Pinky Catron
Happy CatronIf you are not on a list, please feel free to come and join any committee you would like to. We welcome everyone!

This was sent with the Report cards - FYI!

For ALL Horizons communities: 

It will be up to your community to decide what happens with your community blogs in the future. Some communities may see the value of continuing the blogs after Horizons is officially completed this summer. We also realize that some community blogs may choose to end when Horizons ends.  NWAF has told us that the blogs will be active for as long as your community wishes to use them. Some benefits of community blogging include: ·         A place to share ideas in your community.·         Open forum for discussion/decision making.·         Interactive way to measure your progress on projects.·         Marketing tool to attract new residents, potential project funders, positive press from local news outlets, etc.·         A way to stay accountable/build momentum/gather volunteers and resources for planned projects, dreams and goals.

Final Blog Report Card – Carolyn’s Communities

This is the last “report card” we will send to your community, but your work should continue through the end of the project. Many of you have followed the suggestions for improvement we had given you on the report cards sent in January/February.

 Shoot for the Stars (Laptop Computer) 

Faith, Newell & Whitewood – Would still like to see more active users, at this time there is one or two main bloggers, and a few others who have blogged once or twice. Technically you are meeting the requirement of having five bloggers for this incentive level, but only two of the five are “making contributions to the blog” consistently. Secondly, we would like to see posts specific to progress on your goals in the strategic plan. Overall, your community is still working at the Shoot for the Stars incentive…some, just barely. Your “to do list” through the end of Horizons:

1.       Get one or two more people to blog consistently though the end of the project.

2.       Add posts about the progress on strategic plans (Records of committee work, meeting minutes, photos of projects in action/completed, stories about people, how things have changed, etc.)

3.       If you haven’t already, include the answers to the monthly questions. We would like to read more than just one person’s perspective, for example, you may choose to give this as an assignment to committee members and/or other community members.

4.       Also, we would also like to stress quality versus quantity through the end of the project. We would really like to see specific posts on how your Strategic Plans are being implemented.

Newell Baptist Church is inviting everyone to Good Friday Services at 7pm on March 21st, and also to a Sunday brunch at 9:30am with Easter Worship Services to follow at 11am.

A few photos to get you thinking about where Newell Horizons was just a half a year ago…

The youngest Horizons members taking a quick break from painting benches at the Newell Church Museum.

Horizons members scrape old paint off, then paint primer at the Newell Public Library.

Horizons hosted the first Homecoming Festival on the Newell School Track!

3 on 3 Tournament

Girls & Boys

Grades 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th

March 22, 2008

Starting at 8:30 am

Newell School

If you would like to register a team, of a maxium of 4 players, register on-line at http://dd041.k12.sd.us/newell_hoops.htm

The Lip Sync put on by the National Honor Society was a great success this year. On March 17th at 7:00 pm there was a crowd roaming around eating cookies and juice waiting for the judges: Amy Gibson, Kevin Nakajima, and Mrs. Hogan to decide who won the prizes.  

March 15th began with the annual Community Club Easter Egg Hunt.

Lunch, fun and games provided by the Newell Horizons group.

Ending with roller skating sponsored by the local Cub Scout Pack at City Hall.

Proving that with three local groups cooperating and supporting each others events really is three times the fun!!!

Tonight from 4-7pm in the MPR at the Newell Schools the GBB & BBB will have a “Potato Bar”, cost is $5 a person. Come and support your Irrigators!

The Valley Irrigator recently put on an indoor garage sale in Newell, with all proceeds from booth rentals being donated to the Newell Horizons group!

Horizons members also ran a concession stand during the event.

Newell’s newest bloggers practice their newly learned talents!

Thanks to all who participated at the pancake supper at the Newell Christian Fellowship. Servers and eaters turned out in good form to cook, eat and clean on Saturday, March 1st. The pancake flipper was kept hopping from 5:00 to 7:00 and the kids especially liked the ice cream and cookies. If you missed the occasion, you missed a great time of stuffing faces and catching up on the latest Newell news. The money raised will go to the general fund of the church.

Thanks again to all who participated!

Learn to blog - TONIGHT!

At 5pm and 7pm at the Newell Public Library Horizons members will be on hand to teach you how to use the Newell blog. From setting up a free email account, basic web navigation to commenting and even posting your own blogs entries! It’s free, daycare and transportation are available if needed. So stop on by!

Horizons was planning a Family Fun Night for tomorrow night, but have decided to postpone it and hold it in conjunction with the Community Club Easter Egg Hunt on March 15th!  Watch for more details to come in emails and in the paper!  We hope you’ll join us that day for Easter Egg hunting, Ham Bingo, a Bake Walk (Cakes and more) and FREE FOOD!

Here’s a few pictures from the 5th Grade’s Enterprise Fair held in the MS Gym yesterday. Look for an upcoming article in the Valley Irrigator on this talented class of entrepreneurs!

Here’s the last set of questions for February - I’ll answer one to get the ball rolling, I’m hoping someone else will answer them also. Either add to the post or click and enter under comments. 

Category 7: Taking action on leadership  How has your community leadership expanded?  What changes have been made in who is now involved in leadership positions? 

Are more people participating in leadership? From my view, many folks have been inspired enough by the ideas of Horizons to take part when they might normally not. I think in general, there’s a core group in town that participates in many orgs, so burnout of long time members and recruitment of new members for any group seems to be an ongoing struggle. Hopefully due to the leadership training new people will feel comfortable enough with their new skills to play more active roles in the community.

Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership?

Does the community leadership reflect the community’s demographic profile?

   Are more low income people participating in community leadership?

What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders?  Sustains existing leaders? 

The Newell 5th graders have been working on a graded project lately - they have each come up with a handmade product they will be selling during during the Science Fair on Tuesday the 26th in the MSGym. Each students has made expense reports, learned about advertising and worked hard on their product - come see what they’ve got to offer - and don’t forget to bring a few dollars!

The Butte County Historical Society is putting on their annual program at 7pm on Saturday the 23rd at Newell City Hall. Several longtime area families will be spotlighted, the event is open to anyone interested.

Newell High School Student Council will be putting on a Indian Taco Feed on Saturday, February 16th from 11am-7pm in the Multi-Purpose Room at Newell School. The funds raised will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Parents Who Care are working to raise money for post prom events. They will be selling Irrigator hoodies for $30 each during tonights BBB game that starts at 5pm tonight in AA. For more info contact Mrs. Shaykett or Mrs. Waterland.