Armour, SD

As we close out 2007, I thought I’d write a post about how the Horizons project has increased awareness in Armour of what is good about living here.

I think it is irrefutable that our Horizons work has brought us closer together as a community. I’ll single out the Parents-Teachers Together (PTT) group as a prime example of how that is true. Before Horizons it was true that parents of children in the Armour schools were concerned about their children’s education, but there was no real mechanism for them to participate, offer suggestions or ask questions. Our teachers are professionals, but for their part, too, there was no official way for them to meet with parents as a group to work on school-related issues.

Now, the PTT group meets on a monthly basis. Participation has been strong and next week when students return to school the new breakfast program will launch. That program came about as a result of the PTT meetings.

This success makes a difference in our town. When I run my errands around town throughout the week, I am frequently drawn into conversations about Horizons. People express their views about what’s going on. And many … many have told me how excited they are about the PTT group. You can’t buy enthusiasm like that.

Our school and its stability in the future was one of the primary concerns expressed by Horizons participants from the very beginning of our work as a community in this program. People see an intrinsic link between having a school in town and having a community that has a future. We definitely recognize our school as a community asset that needs to be nurtured and supported. By starting the PTT, two groups — parents and teachers — have had the opportunity to get to know each other better in a setting outside of school, away from events such as parent-teacher conferences and in place where working on shared goals draws them closer together.

Here’s your chance to comment and let me know if you agree, disagree or have suggestions on how to make things even better. What has been your personal experience with the PTT group?

Throughout the Horizons program in Armour, we’ve been asked to consider how our goals and actions will reduce poverty in our community. I think that many of us did not give poverty a lot of thought before we started Horizons, but now it is a topic of consideration and discussion within the community. Our Study Circles, in particular, put poverty into perspective for many of us who participated. I will never forget how one member of my circle shared that a number of our elderly citizens must live on Social Security checks that are less than $500 per month. How is that even possible? My husband and I can easily blow through five hundred bucks by taking a weekend trip to an antique show. What if that was all we had to live on?

Armour’s Horizons participants have shown their commitment to reduce poverty by staying committed to the program and continuing to follow through on the goals we wrote in our Strategic Plan:

1. To support and grow the business sector of Armour and the surrounding area.
2. To determine the feasibility of seeking funding from outside resources for community enrichment officer in collaboration with other communities.
3. To develop housing within the city limits of Armour.
4. To enhance and improve the facilities at Lake Alcazar and Lions Park to allow people of all income levels to experience outdoor camping activities close to home through construction of one or two one-bedroom cabins at Lake Alcazar by September 1, 2008.

As you read here earlier this month, we have been busy promoting our Strategic Plan. We held a celebration during our Christmas In Armour celebration at the beginning of December to present the plan to the community. The feedback we received was very positive. Members of our town are excited about the plans and goals set forth by the Horizons group and want to see the efforts reach successful conclusions.

In further detail, our Strategic Plan addresses poverty reduction by explaining how our various goals will impact poverty. For example, our lake cabin project is a quality of life issue. If the cabins are available at low cost, they will provide a recreational opportunity for families who do not have a lot of financial resources. The cabins will also showcase a beautiful part of our community and add an additional amenity to an already well-used park.

Another example of poverty reduction that’s built in to our Strategic Plan is the objective of working with Planning and Development District III to compile a list of all housing programs that are available in South Dakota. There are programs available to assist lower income families with upgrading their current housing situations. Our Horizons works has shown us that people with limited resources are working hard just to keep their families above water. They may not have the time or resources to research programs that may be beneficial. If our Horizons members do the legwork, we may be able to assist people who have little time to investigate options on their own.

If you haven’t taken time to read our Strategic Plan, I’d still encourage you to do so. And Horizons members, if you haven’t taken a look at it in a few weeks, it might be a good time to refresh your memories and re-connect with the projects we are working on. The holidays have been a busy time … the beginning of a new year is a good time to pause for reflection and gear up for new work on our goals.

City Finance Officer Janice Wright reported at Monday’s Community Club meeting that she is broadcasting Armour Happenings every Wednesday morning at 9:20 a.m. on Mitchell radio station Q107.3.

If you have an event to submit, please contact Janice at 724-2167 and she will include it on the next edition of Armour Happenings.

The Armour Parent Teachers Together did not meet in December. We thought we would give everyone a break so they could take care of some things in their busy schedules. The good news is the school received the paperwork on the Breakfast Program and everything is great. The Program will start after the Christmas Break. My understanding is that the first day will be Belgian Waffles so we hope there is a good turnout and sign up for the breakfast. We plan on meeting again in January and we also encourage parents and teachers to notify us if there are any special speakers or topics they want brought to the meeting. We encourage everyone to participate. There is a lot of good information out there and we are always looking for input and participation. Even just coming to the meetings for that hour is greatly appreciated. It is considered an investment in our children. Thank you to everyone and Merry Christmas!!
Nicole Neugebauer
Parent Teachers Together

First of all, sorry it took so long to get this posted but this is a busy time of year. Well, the cabin committee met last week with the Armour City Council and it was a very positive discussion. We have the city behind us 100 percent, which is good. A couple of Horizons representatives also met with the Armour Lions and after a lot of questions that need to be answered they are in favor of the idea as well. Some of the questions were concerning liability, rental amounts, monthly expenses, cleaning and other small things that need to be worked out. There will be more questions that need to answered in the future I’m sure. The good thing is it is positive and were still moving forward.

Another view of the type of cabin we want to build from the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks Web site. This shows a cabin in a campground setting.

As we watched the ice & sleet come down on Saturday, Dec. 1st it was debatable as to the wisdom of continuing our event. However we do live in SD and it was December. Yes it would have been nicer if the weather was warmer but it was great to see the main street aligned with cars for bingo and later for the parade of lights. The celebration event for our horizon project was planned for this evening because of the chance to have people to view our plans and ideas who may not have ventured out for “another meeting”. The time of year is so hectic one with Christmas parties, church programs, basketball games and just holiday seasonal plans. We felt to combine it with our Christmas in Armour would be a way to combine some of the December events.

Click on photos to open a larger version.
The Horizons Strategic Plan Celebration was held Saturday, December 1. It was combined with Armour’s annual Christmas Promotion. A variety of events drew a large crowd to town. Visitors were treated to a band playing holiday tunes on Main Street.

As I stood at the booth that afternoon and evening and visited with people it was a pleasant surprise to have such positive feedback. The lake cabins and housing projects were very popular. One gentlemen from Sioux City was very excited about the cabins. They visit quite frequently in the area and would use them. The youth were very excited about being able to use them for family & scout outings. The cabins will allow an outing for families who are unable to afford the camper and trip to the campground. It would allow some relaxation and family time during a time when that is hard to come by.

We created a display with information about all of our Horizons goals. We also distributed copies of our Strategic Plan to those who attended the celebration.

Young families were interested in the housing ideas we had on display. It gave them thoughts of upgrading to a larger home to accomodate growing families. We have come to realize we are in housing shortage. Many young families who have a member working in town live out of town because of no housing. Thus less young families living in town and children not attending our local school.

One exciting item of interest was visiting with a young adult in high school. This YA commented on how they read the blogs all the time and how exciting it is for them to see what is going on in our community. I encouraged the person to “blog’ too and let us know their viewpoint and ideas for our community. This is our future - without the young people we will no longer exist.

Overall it was a good evening. Yes it could have been better but as in anything it could always be better but it was successful evening. During my years in extension when I would worry about if a program had reached enough people a professor friend always told me - if you helped one person gain information it was worth it. We hope to find a place to display our boards for public viewing and questions. Thank you to all who helped in the organizing and displaying of the Horizon project.

I just created a separate page for our Strategic Plan. Check it out on the right sidebar under the heading “About.” I thought it would be a good way to link to the plan in the future since the post announcing its approval will get buried here as more posts are added.

The annual holiday light parade was held last Saturday. We also held a celebration for the completion of our Horizons Strategic Plan. Lea will be posting an update about the celebration with photos from the event. Click on the small photos to open them in a larger size. Thanks to Don Putnam for submitting the photos.

One thing we probably all take for granted in a small town is our personal safety. We don’t lock our car doors and we certainly don’t spend much time worrying that someone will enter a public place with a semi-automatic rifle and start shooting. We do need to plan for emergencies, though, so I’d like to tell you about an event recently sponsored by Armour’s Arcania Lodge.

The local Masons along with the South Dakota Dental Association and South Dakota Sheriff’s Association held a South Dakota Child Identification Program (CHIP) event in Armour. The CHIP program provides parents with a kit containing several items to help identify their child in an emergency situation such as a kidnapping. Statistics show that a child is reported missing every 43 seconds and most parents don’t have the proper items ready that may help save their child’s life.

The CHIP program provided participants with a kit containing:

• Dental impressions since teeth, like fingerprints, are unique,
• A DNA cheek swab,
• A digital photo of the child,
• Fingerprints,
• A video imaged interview, which captures the appearance, speech, mannerisms and important personal characteristics of the child.

The completed kits were given to participating parents to take home for safe keeping.

If you look on the right sidebar, I just added a summary of recent comments. That way you can easily see what others are saying without having to click the comment links under each post.

I also added a counter that will help us see how many hits we’re getting on the blog. It’s set up to count each unique visitor rather than every page view. I set it to zero at 4 p.m. on Thursday, December 6. It will be interesting to see how many people are reading Armour’s blog.