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!!!!

We have two youth that have decided to make a difference in our community. The first one is Crystal Thomas. She has purchased the Hair Affair from retiring owner-operater Mavis Carter. The second one is Joshlyn Odegaard. She has taken over the management of the Rock Lake Cafe. Thanks to these two individuals the businesses will stay open.

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.

This is North Dakota’s handle for tourism promotion. I think it fits ND pretty well!!! I attended the ND tourism conference in Mandan on April 20-22. This was the first conference I have attended and thank you to the Horizons program for sponsoring the trip for me. It was a very interesting and educational conference. There were alot of attendees that are very passionate about tourism in their communities. I had the privilege of visiting with numerous attendees from our area of the state. There were 3 speakers by the names of Bill Baker, his presentation was on destination branding for small cities. Scott Deming’s presentation was on ultimate customer experience and Garrison Wynn’s presentations was making the most of difficult situations. Scott and Garrison did their presentations with fast paced energy and humor. I attended 2 break out sessions on RVing presented by Dottie Maitland. This is a booming tourism industry. RV’s and motorcoaches make vacationing anywhere easy access. These travel machines are used by everyone these days not just senior citizens. People want vacation packages and learning vacations. They don’t want the same o, same o!!!! I came away from the conference excited about tourism. Our tourism dept in ND is excited about tourism so it gets kinda catchy!!! Visit the ND website on tourism and see what they promote. www.ndtourism.com is the website.

So what does Rock Lake, ND have to offer tourists????? This is a question that needs to be answered if we want to survive. Can we think out of the box or are we the same o, same o!!?? Rock Lake, ND needs to become legendary………………….

11 students from the Rock Lake School attend the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Leadership Meeting held in Bismarck. It was April 6-8 at the Ramkota. Crystal Haberstroh, Alyson Leas, and Nicole Jacobsen did a STAR Event in Entrepreneurship. They received a gold star and first place in their division with the opportunity to go to the national level. Congratulation ladies! Vicki Lonier, Danielle Wiener, and Rachael Lagein did a STAR Event in National Programs in Action with emphasis on Community Service. They received a silver star. The students attended seminars about self-defense, ways to prevent violence, peer leaders for positive choices, binge drinking and alcohol poisoning, and financial fitness. Josh Sundquist was a keynote speaker. The Northern Lights Students Against Destructive Decisions did a presentation called Breakdown.

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.

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!

There was a Dig In To Tourism conference held at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake on March 11. It was an all day discussion on tourism. There was a panel discussion on How to Start a Tourism Business. There was a panel discussion on Marketing Your Tourism business. Kyle Blanchfield, Woodland Resort owner and Holly Mawby owner of Gardendwellers Farm offered insight into what they have done for their businesses working in partnership with the ND Dept of Tourism. After lunch there was round table discussion with individuals from other communities as to what they were doing to promote their towns and their tourism businesses. The end of the day was a group discussion with ND Tourism officials. There were presentations on vacation packages, media, advertising, brochure distribution, website use, and research to name a few. This was a very interesting conference and a learning experience. Tourism is a business that is constantly changing so never say never when it comes to tourism ideas. What you take for granted may be another person’s idea of a vacation…………………….

The boys and girls Rolla-Rock Lake basketball teams held their awards banquet on Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. Dessert was served. Coach Wilkes started the banquet by presenting the Girl’s Basketball Awards. From Rock Lake, Rachael Lagein received JV Most Improved, Nicole Jacobsen received the 4 Year Award, Captain Award, Most Rebound Award, and Defensive Player of the Year. Donna Marty recapped the Cheerleading Awards that were awarded the previous night. Coach Loing presented the Boy’s Basketball Awards. From Rock Lake, Cole Mitchell received JV MVP.

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.

Horizon leaders met, at the hair affair, to check on progress of the action ideas. All the communities in the county went together on a brochure highlighting what each community has to offer. JoAnn Rodenbiker brought up a sample, to show what it would look like. Planned a community event to show the progress that is being made and what ideas are already up and running. The leaders at the meeting were Mavis Carter, Jannell Lagein, Kelly Mitchell, JoAnn Rodenbiker.

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!

On Tuesday, February 12 at 2:00 p.m., Gretchen Dawley, Miss Teen North Dakota 2008, visited the Rock Lake Public School. She is a senior from Munich. She described herself and the Miss Teen North Dakota program. Her platform is literacy and building character. She stressed the importance of reading everyday. She explained the importance of respect to yourself, and the people around you. At the end of her program, she handed out signed pictures.

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! 

Check out the new Rock Lake website. Another accomplishment thanks to the Horizons Program. It’s amazing all the businesses in the community, that you don’t realize, until you look at the list. If you or someone you know has a business that is not listed on the website let me know, so it can be added. The main ones behind this project are Eugene Norheim and Myron Jacobsen.