Rocklake, ND

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?

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!

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.

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!

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.

The community enjoyed an evening at the new beach area to the West of the park in Rock Lake. This was the show off day for one of the Horizons projects that was worked on during the summer and fall months. The event was held on a Sunday afternoon in Sept. Over 150 people from the community and surrounding areas attend the event. There was good food prepared by some awesome cooks!! Games were enjoyed by the youth and whoever was game enough to play and show up the young people. There were numerous positive comments about how nice the beach area looked . Carl Swanson was the man behind the machine that put the landscaping touches to the beach area. The park/beach is a place that if free of charge and is accessible to anyone who would like to bring their family and friends to a nice quiet place, grill some burgers and enjoy the scenery. Bring the binoculars and watch the numerous species of birds on the lake. What better place to spend a day at the beach!!!!

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.

Vicki Lonier, Danielle Wiener, and Rachael Lagein decided to help their community by becoming community bloggers. Their training session took place Saturday January 19. Their instructor was Darrel Lagein. It was held at the Rock Lake Fire Hall. 

If you would like to become a Rock Lake Blogger, like these three are, contact Darrel.

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…………………..