Rocklake, ND

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!!!!

I attended a grant writing workshop in Devils Lake at the college. It was held on April 23 and sponsored by the NDSU Center for Community vitality. The presenter for the workshop was Dr Lynette Krenelka , director of Distance Degree Programs at UND. Grantwriting seems like a troubling word but when you get a little instruction in the art and some direction from a professional it doesn’t seem quite as scary!!! Dr Krenelka does a very enjoyable presentation and throws humor in when needed so the time seemed to fly by for a day long workshop!! Gayle Gette, Diana Sitz and Jo Rodenbiker also attended the workshop from our area. Grantwriting is no easy task and is very time consuming but if we need money for projects the time and energy may have to be put to the test. How bad do we want it????

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………………….

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!!!!

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.

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…………………….

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!

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.

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!!!!

Let me know what you think of the new header or if you got something else to put up there to reflect our community.

This is the new beach at the city park shortly after it was done. This is one of the action ideas that came out of the study circles. It goes to show that you don’t need alot of people on a committee to get something done. The head ones of the beach are Gloria Covert, Guy Mitchell, and Brock Mitchell. When you see them, tell them, thank you.

The beach is a nice addition to the city park. Come and spend the weekend or anytime here and enjoy it.

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.

Mark the date on your calendars for Rock Lake Winter Fun Day!  It is scheduled for Saturday March, 22.  LOTS of fun planned including the 2nd annual Around the World Experience!  Contact committee members Diane Schwandt, Cindi Swanson, Jennifer Lautt, Teresa Krumwiede, Chris McConnell or Kelly Mitchell if you would like to help!   

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…………………..