Rocklake, ND

Only in a small town does the whole community come together to support someone in need. On April 5 a benefit was held for Shane Oakland who is taking treatments for cancer. And on June 15 a benefit was held for Dakota Ray-Price who has Neurofibromatosis. The turn out was unbelievable at both of the benefits. Check out the CaringBridge site to follow along on how they are doing and give them some support.

Pictured are a set of sisters who know the value of participating to accomplish projects and develop their personal skills!  Everyone can benefit by helping out their local organizations and communities, and these organizations always have projects or events that need willing and dedicated people to get these things moving!  How many of us have sat in committe meetings and complained about what needs to be done, but then refuse to raise our hand to help out? Great things don’t get done by just wishing and hoping! And who else but US will step up and do what needs to be done?  The younger we start participating and volunteering in our local organizations and community, the better the chance that these behaviors will become a central part of who we are and who we become. All organizations and communities need people to help, so start young like these good-lookin’ sisters from Rocklake!  Get involved!  Step Up!  Get THINGS DONE!

The District 3 4-H Communication Arts contest was held in Langdon a couple days ago, and Towner County had three great entries by Rachael, Jill and Jessi L of Rocklake.  Communication Arts is a 4-H program that gives members the opportunity to develop and present a speech or demonstration of their choosing in front of a group.  What a great learning experience!  How many of us, as adults, still experience anxiety and stress when we need to give a report at work to a group of co-workers, or explain to someone how to learn a new skill, or even shy away from speaking up in a meeting?  Public speaking skills are used all the time in all types of career and social situations, and 4-Her’s who learn these skills at a young age are taking the first steps towards becoming valuable, confident leaders not only in their local 4-H clubs, but in their community and their eventual careers.  Communication Arts is a competitive contest at the District level, and pictured are Rachael, who won first place with her Serious Interpretive Reading “Ashes”, and Jill and Jessi, who won Honorable Mention with their commercial “J & J’’s Waves for a Day.”  Great accomplishment!

Agriculture is the backbone of our community. If it disappears so does our community. So the question is do you want cheap food or safe food? Our state is number one in eleven different crops and second in three other crops. You can get cheap food from other places but safe food comes from here. Once the American farmer & rancher is gone they won’t be back, and if you think fuel prices are high, it isn’t nothing compared to what food prices will be!!!! SUPPORT AGRICLTURE AND HELP KEEP OUR COMMUNITIES ALIVE!!!!

The Rock Lake School Senior Class of seven, six girls and one boy, graduated today. Is a class size of seven to small? Do they get a better or worse education than larger classes? How small, of a class, is to small?

Because of the Horizons program we now have a welcoming committee. When someone new moves into the community they are delivered baked goods and a flyer with the list of businesses and organizations along with other important information.

The committee consists of five people: Jannell Lagein, Kelly Mitchell, Mavis Carter, Jennifer Hunt, Gary Hunt.  

They are still working on the project as they would like a package of local coupons to share with new residents.

The Rock Lake 2nd Annual Spring Fling was held March 22, 2008 at various locations in Rock Lake. The day consisted of a free meal, Easter egg hunting, egg dying, ice golfing, BINGO, and an Around the World Experience. The free meal was served at the Rock Lake Cafe and was provided by the Horizons program. The Easter egg hunt was very entertaining for the children who came to participate in the days activities. Prizes were given out at the end of the hunt. The children also participated in the egg dying that was held at the VFW Hall. BINGO was enjoyed by a variety of people. It was also held at the VFW Hall. Ice golfing took place out on the lake and many people participated. The Around the World Experience was a chance for adults to try food and drink from different countries. The people were moved from site to site by pickups pulling trailers.

The Rock Lake city wide cleanup was held today. This is a annaul event every spring to get everything cleaned up after winter. They got the city park and the beach all ready for a season of fun at the lake. Stop in and have a look at how nice the town looks and spend the day at the beach. Have a fun and safe summer!!!!

Several members of the Handy-Thrifty 4-H club of Egeland and Rocklake have been busy sewing these past few months and are really doing a great job. 4-H members will be exhibiting their completed projects at the Towner County 4-H Achievment Day July 8, to be held at the Cando Armory. Skills they are learning will last a lifetime, even if their projects don’t!

Take a tour of our beautiful city either in person or sit back and enjoy it right here. See what our city has to offer. It may be small but you will be surprised at all the businesses it has. For a complete list of businesses check out our web site. We hope you will enjoy your tour and want to stop by some day to see it in person. It will be will worth your time and trip here!!!! Summer is almost here, come and stay awhile and enjoy yourself at the beach. Have A Fun And Safe Summer.

The pictures in the slide show are compliments of Connie Odegaard & Eugene Norheim.

The Rock Lake Ambulance Service held EMT training on March 1 & 2 at the ambulance hall.  The instructor was from Golden Heart Services out of Rugby, ND. They trained in medical and trauma emergencies. The medical emergencies included anything from an allergic reaction to food, to OB delivery, to diabetic reaction. The trauma emergencies was from broken bones, to penetrating objects, to a bad car wreck. Also trained on removing a helmet from a trauma patient.

The Rock Lake Ambulance has a very skilled and will trained staff of care providers and drivers. They also do training every month at the monthly squad meetings to keep up on anything that is new or different. These dedicated individuals provide a life saving service to the community. Giving many hours of their time to the service (24 hours a day 7 days a week). They deserve a big THANK YOU for all they do.

The ones that took the training were Danny Krumweide, Gary Hunt, Rob Peterson, Duane Kaleva, Connie Odegaard, Kinsey Oakland, Malynda Carter, Aja Odegaard.

Anyone interested in joining as a EMT contact one of the above members.

Nine students from the Rock Lake School participated in the District STAR events. STAR stands for Students Taking Action with Recognition. It is part of the FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America) program. Districts was held in Edmore on February 27th. Nicole Jacobsen, Crystal Haberstroh, and Alyson Leas did an Entrepenurship project in the senior divison. They rescieved a gold placing and are going to State. Rachael Lagein, Vicki Lonier, and Danielle Wiener did a National Programs in Action project with emphasis on Communtity Service in the senior divison. They received a gold placing and are going to State. Ashley Johnston and Julia Clouse did a Chapter Service project in the senior division. They recieved a silver placing. Caitlin Swanson did an Illustrated Talk project in the senior division. She recieved a bronze placing. Congratulations to all! Nicole, Crystal, Alyson, Rachael, Vicki, and Danielle will be going to the State convention on April 6, 7, and 8. Good Luck!

EVENTS:

ICE GOLF starting at 11:00-all ages welcome-$10.00 per person 

KIDS EASTER EGG HUNT at 1:00 at the City Park & EASTER EGG COLORING following at the Cafe 

BINGO from 3:00-5:00 at the Café-all ages welcome 

AROUND THE WORLD EXPERIENCE starting at 4:00-Meet at Cahill’s Pub–$10.00 per person-MUST BE 21!  ONLY 75 TICKETS WILL BE SOLD! 

KARAOKE at the VFW Hall at 7:00 and DANCE with R& R Entertainment until 2:00 a.m. -$5.00 per person 

**CAFÉ WILL BE OPEN UNTIL 7:00 P.M. FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE! 

This is us during our initial blog training in February.  We had fun learning how to blog, and even though some of us look a little more confused than others, you can tell by scrolling through our blog site that we really did learn a lot.

Being a 4-H member involves learning life skills by doing life skills! These Handy-Thrifty Helpers 4-H club members did just that on Sunday, Feb 3, when they met in Egeland for their meeting and project work.  Work began on sewing potholders, skirts, pajama pants and pillows.  Making an electrical switch was also accomplished by 4-Her’s that day.  Karly H, Adam H, Brenna D, Kayla D, Coty H, Casey H, Ben L, Traci L, Jill L, Jessi L, Rachael L, Corinna K, Vicki L and Danielle W all enjoyed working on their projects and were encouraged by leaders and volunteers Deb Odegaard, Dave Lagein, Gail Harder, Laura Dease, Lisa Held, Tina Koehn and Grandma Harder.  Quite a fun active day! 

There was over forty people, adult and youth, at the study circles. They were held in early Febuary 2007. At the study circles we learned there are many different kinds of poverty. We also learned that everyone has many skills and talants that on one knew about. By putting these skills and talents to work we are able to make many structural changes in our community and in poverty. We are able to make this a great community to live in and be a part of. We also learned that we have many leaders in our community that are very good at it. By the end of the study circle we had came up with a list of action items to act on. Of them ideas two of them are up and running already and one more will be up and running in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned to find out which one that is.

The leaders of the study circles were: Jo Ann Rodenbiker, Kelly Mitchell, Mavis Carter, Jannell Lagein, Brock Mitchell, Darrel Lagein.

These fine looking individuals represent the Horizons program in Rock Lake and there were a few individuals that were unable to attend the picture taking activity. They have been working hard to look at the poverty issues in the community. And with the poverty issue in mind they are looking at making our community a better place to live and make it inviting for a potential new comer to take a look and maybe stay awhile. Yea Team!!!!

Pictured left to right: Kelly, Cindy, Brock, Kim, Mavis, Gloria, JoAnn, Ron, Danny and Guy. The picture was taken by Mike Savaloja on our new beach front access to the lake.

On Friday November 30 the Rock Lake ambulance service went to the Rock Lake school. They told the students & staff what they do when on a call. The ambulance staff showed them how a patient is taken out of a vehicle that was is a crash. The patients were two volunteers from the audience,    one had a broken arm and the other

was seriously injured,    who had to be all packaged up.

  The audience even got to see how the defib can be used to monitor the heart. At the end students & staff were able to look over all the different equipment that the ambulance uses. Now if they need the ambulance they will know what to except & won’t be scared.

We have our blog site for the community up and running. Horizons have given our community the leadership and tools that a community needs to succeed. What are we going to do with these new found instruments??? Hopefully be a progressive community with a positive attitude for change and development. We have some exciting ideas in progress. A committee for the development of a website for the community is a great way to get information out there in cyberspace. A committee that welcomes new residents to our town and provides them with info that they need. A park/lake committee that is putting a new face on the park with the addition of a beach area with access to the lake. This is just a start as to what the Horizons program has done for our town. This is called working together, communicating together for progress. Please stay tuned for later happenings…………………..