Estelline, SD

The next outdoor movie night is Friday August 1st at 9:30 at City Park.  The movie is Shrek.  Bring your lawn chairs and blanket.  Concessions will be available.

Come see the Lister Donley Memorial Community Garden with the accomplished Pumpkin Patch Kids and Minnikins as your hosts to their plots on Friday, July 25th 10 am until 2 pm.  There will be adults working in the greater garden, and  refreshments will be available including light lunch over the noon hour.

Sioux Falls Argus Leader has expressed interest in the Garden and Farmers’ Market and will have photographer and reporter at the sites.

Estelline Journal, our newspaper ‘flagship’ has published lots of great copy, some written and filmed by the children, and we look forward to more coverage there as well.  Thank you,  Archers and Marge too. 

As Seth takes a vacation from the lemonade stand, we’ll have a fundraising booth for the Mural in his usual spot offering STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE.  Have you made your suggestions for the Mural?

Also on July 18th, there will be a fun race for any age contestant making use of the season’s first overgown zucchinis.  Come early to get authorized wheels and your pick of squash — or maybe you want to bring some out of your own garden before you ‘have’ to eat them.  Race at 6:30

Farmers’ Market at the Bandstand Park 4-7pm Fridays

Friday evening Farmers’ Market 4-7pm in the Bandstand Park.  More vendors are welcome!  We will continue to have fresh produce as well as spring chickens freshly dressed, doggy treats by the bag, and decorative guords.  Our lemonade stand may take a break to participate in the Theater….

Missoula Children’s Theater presents “Wiz of the West” a musical play with a huge, well-costumed and dancing cast.  Two adult directors play the lead roles, and with local piano accompaniment the performances Friday and Saturday evening 7:30 to about 8:30 will be a delight.  Tickets at the door — the air conditioned school gym will be open at 7pm.

Meet the Movie Screen  Saturday evening at 9:30 for a showing of  Grease.  Concessions of Popcorn , beverages, and candy bars available.  Bring your own lawn chairs, blankets, and insect control to Bandstand Park. 

There will be handouts soliciting your input for further movie selections and explaining Horizons opportunities.  Look forward to seeing you….

• Water Lines and Electricity are in the trenches;  there will be some settling in the trench area so drop the sod bits and more soil in there,  and WATCH YOUR STEP AROUND THE GARDEN  -THE GROUND IS UNEVEN-
• Children’s Garden plans this year are bolstered by grants from Homemakers (FCCA) for seed and equipment and the Master Gardener Program for programming;  congratulations to Mary B for success in bringing proposals to fruition.  Watch the newspaper for specifics of the Pumpkin Patch Kids 8 weekly sessions, 2 hours each, for students in grades 3-5 to be held at the Community Garden.
• Applications for garden plots are now available at Country Corner and Reliabank.  There are 23 plots tilled, and more space available.  Please send your application in as soon as possible to make planning speed along-  We hope to complete assignments before the middle of May. 
• Conquering the sod in this inaugural year will take effort — for optimal growing conditions we will try to till the garden and remove the grass (please bring your rakes) every 7 to 10 days before the crops go in.
• First garden work day: May 3rd  4-5:30pm        Bring rakes and a trash bag.  We’ll collect ALUMINUM that day as well, so magnets will be helpful.   Bring your own beverage — we’ll have cookies. 

Check out progress in the Community Garden.  The blackened rectangles represent a pumpkin and children’s garden on the east, two big sites for rental and public use sites.   The poles for a shelter are in the northwest corner. 

Anyone who cares to help can start raking and removing sod, tree roots, and rocks from the tilled areas.  The tillage crew sited some glass pieces and other rubbish, so be careful and remove that dangerous stuff to the trash pickup at your home.  Please put the organic material to be composted at the edge of the plots for later pickup to the compost area. 

Application forms  for renting a 20X25 plot will be available at Reliabank and Country Corner soon. 

What do you think of having the SD sanctioned chili cook-off in Estelline?  It is one of the ideas that came up after the Tues. meeting.

Who would like a job in Estelline?  Can you help us find a  Farmers Market manager (every Friday night for 18 weeks and promotions time), and a unit director (full time) and a part time staff person to serve a Boys and Girls Club.   Here are three new jobs for Estelline — exciting      YES!     Job descriptions need to be developed: can you help?

We also need leadership help for getting the Club going.  So speak up if you could help out with working or giving ideas.   Contact Tonya Williams.

SDSU Cooperative Extension Service and our community coordinator popped the question  –HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO CELEBRATE  — achieving intermediate Horizons goals?  After mid July sometime they’ll provide the cake and funds!! Whoooopeee!!!!

April 15th we mulled it over a bit and thought a party on Friday in conjunction with Farmers Market would be good.  What do you think?

And “thank yous” to Northwest Area Foundation, and SDSU,and CES staff, and especially the always cheerful Cheryl Jacobs, our coordinator.

Horizons Program is taking applications for the 2008 Community Garden growing season.  The Lister Donley Memorial Garden located at the southeast end of 6^th Street South in Estelline will be tilled and marked with 20 feet by 25 feet plots which will be made available to individuals, families, local organizations and truck gardening entrepreneurs.  Rent for the season is set at $15 per plot; for the inaugural year of the garden this amount will be refunded if the garden is clear of debris at the end of the growing season. 

            If you are an experienced gardener, you will find this location full sun and well drained.  The underlying sandy stratum makes it excellent for melons.  Water source will be available 

            If you would like to begin as a gardener, this is an excellent site, with plenty of opportunity for assistance and we will even hold some classes if interest is expressed. 

            Produce for home use and sharing is encouraged.  We will organize some distributions through the Food Pantry. 

            Those who would like to be involved for fun, food, and profit as well are welcome to participate in the Horizons Farmers’ Market as well.  Horizons is taking applications for vendors (contact Linda Svec with questions, forms at Reliabank).

            Should you have questions about the Garden or be interested in volunteering with developing the garden, helping with the children’s plot or the general use plots, or contributing resources to the effort, please contact Harvey Donley (cell phone # 690-9494 or local 873-4000).

            Applications can be picked up from Country Corner or Reliabank.

            The Horizons program which seeks to address poverty in rural communities is funded by Northwest Area Foundation with administration by the Cooperative Extension Service through SDSU.   

At the school cafeteria we will start an effort to get some monetary support for your interests.  Bring writing materials and, if you have some idea or proposal already, bring it along.  We will be presenting basic information from the experts, a glossary, and some suggestions for funding sources.

You do not have to be aiming your effort towards a Horizons project to participate, but we surely welcome your help and a community orientation. 

Introductory evening everybody will get the vocabulary and some “moral support” so we can move ahead with preparing a preliminary draft.  There will be some sample materials to work with, and teamwork is encouraged – a few of the ideas are for individuals though, and some are for youth age 8-18.  Then we have one week to think and work on the project.

On the second session we will have some of the experienced assess our efforts.  And remember, a full proposal is usually months in the making, so consider this community work just a beginning in the process of asking for help in reaching our dreams.  Also remember that over 80% of funding supporting non-profit agencies comes from individuals ( that is you and me buying memberships, making donations, sharing our aluminum cans, eating at fundraisers and patronizing sales, and putting our charities in our wills), so our begging from people/foundations with deep pockets is the tip of the iceberg when all is actually done.  And grant agencies expect the applicant to have a plan to continue the good work after their participation is complete.  Northwest Area Foundation expects Estelline Horizons to move forward on our own after June 2008, for example. 

Additional sessions will be arranged — Horizons will fund professional assistance as we progress in the preparation process.  We have several volunteer editors in our network wanting to help, and at least one has multiple projects he wants to see funded through his program.   

Light supper provided; child care provided in the Kindergarten room (more kids have more fun).