Armour, SD

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.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 1:47 pm and is filed under 02. Poverty: Skills and Mobilizing, 05. Leadership: Knowledge and Awareness, 06. Leadership: Skills and Mobilizing, 07. Leadership: Action, 09. Community: Knowledge and Awareness, 10. Community: Skills and Mobilizing, 11. Community: Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.