Cascade, ID

Congrats to Judy of Cascade, she’s our weekly winner!  Thanks to all the new bloggers who’ve signed up.  If you’re part of the steering committee, hopefully these questions will help you work on the final report that is due June 30. Please let us know if you have any questions about the blog or the report.There is a Blogging Handbook available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page… Thanks to MJ for writing this beginner’s guide! Also, for those communities that may be looking for a little more training, please contact MJ at merijoz@uidaho.edu / 208-885-8949 to see how she can help you.Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, June 3 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles… I will be at a conference May 27-30 so this will give you a whole extra week…NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.Reflective Questions:

•  Of all the things you have done during the last 18 months in the Horizons program, of what are you most proud? 

Scavenger Hunt Question:·         Which Idaho Horizons community is working with the University of Idaho to help with their vision to “rebuild a community center to assist local families fight back against the ravages of poverty. They are looking to the future when they will have a center that provides central business offices for the city, a town library and public computers with Internet accessibility, expanded recreational facilities for youth and adults, a hall for future leadership and life skills training.”The winner will receive a copy of the book: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People will Follow You by John C. Maxwell.

The Educational & Lifestyles group has sought out support and assistance from some of the local churches to help house a pre-school daycare. There is a lack of affordable daycare which puts children at risk. Some working parents are forced to commute their children additional miles for child care which causes added strains to already reduced budgets. The Horizon project has been a catalyst in bringing together groups with common needs to help leverage these efforts.

Also, the Educational & Lifestyle group has approached the Cascade School District about making changes to the lunch room, to provide a better atmosphere for the children to eat. Future goals for this program is to offer a whole foods type of menu which will help with the overall nutrional needs of the local children.

The Lifestyles & Education Group are continuing their efforts in conjunction with the Cascade Public Library and the Friends of the Library in building a used book store for the community. Construction started late last fall and has picked up again now that the weather is nice. The book store will free up desperatly need space in the main Library, so that community education classes can be held. The target date for the Grand Opening has not yet been set, but we are working towards a huge celebration in July. The addition of this book store will help get books to the public in a inexpensive way while generating funds for the library to expand their reading programs.

On Saturday May 3, 2008 the Lifesytles & Education Sub-Group of Cascade Horizons sponsored a “Community Family Fun Day” to promote support for the upcoming vote on the consolidation of the City of Cascade Fire Department with the Cascade Rural Fire District. Over 150 attendees were treated to hot dogs, chips, soda and water while the children enjoyed face painting, games and an Astro Jump. The consolidation is important to the City of Cascade and all of its residents, it will help save money in the way of insurance premiums and provides a more efficient use of tax dollars that will benefit all residents. City voters are asked to vote “Yes” during the upcoming Primary Election on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

Saturday, May 3 was a busy day for the Cascade Horizons Groups. Lifestyles & Education put on an open house at the fire department, promoting the upcoming merge of the city and rural fire departments, which is on the ballot for the primary election. They had games for the kids, free hot dogs, and conveyed a lot of info to locals about the merger. Hopefully it will pass. Curb Appeal was busy with lots of volunteers at the same time, cleaning up the dirt in the tree planters along Main Street and making room to place landscape mat and fill the planters with gravel. Over half the trees were done, in a very long & exhausing day. The crew will be back on May 17 to finish the job.
Main street looks much cleaner with this upgrade, and the Garden Club is pleased to not have to worry about the trees. The Garden Club will be planting flowers in wine barrels at the main intersections in town, to give Cascade some summer color.

Horizons came from U of I to Cascade, and now Cascade has gone to U of I for help. The Landscape Architecture Department at U of I, with guidance from our Steering Committee, and input from Friends of the Cascade Whitewater Park, is proceeding with a design for an expanded (95 new acres) park that integrates with the existing Armstrong Park and Fischer Pond Park and the proposed Cascade Whitewater Park. Exciting stuff. The Curb Appeal Group has worked with the Garden Club on the Main Street improvements, and the Airport on landscaping now underway. Our Lifestyles & Education has worked with the Fire Dept on their merger election and the Library on construction of their annex. Lots of people are talking and e-mailing each other in Cascade, and things are getting done. Many thanks to Horizons.

Congrats to Andrea of Grangeville, she’s our weekly winner!

Thank you all for the interesting responses about your community and what makes it ‘unique’ to you compared to other rural communities in Idaho.

I grew up in a small farming community in Idaho near the Utah border and I still think about it every day, the views and colors and smells and intense farm work we did (pulling rye, driving around and around in a tractor for 12 hours a day, herding cattle, etc) helped shape my life and world view. It’s that sense of place that helps define who we are and how we relate to the world around us.

I hope you’re all getting comfortable and familiar with the blogging process. Mary, MJ and I thank you for all the time and hard work you’ve devoted to this part of Horizons and know it’s just a small part of what you are all doing in your communities.

Please let MJ (merijoz@uidaho.edu) or me (dgray@uidaho.edu) know if we can help you with any questions you might have about blogging.

A ‘how to blog’ handbook is now available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page…

Reflective Questions:

As we near the ‘end’ of this phase of Horizons, take a moment to look back on the past 18 months to answer these questions.

Has your community sought any additional resources outside of Horizons for your projects? 

How has your community partnered with communities and/or organizations beyond Horizons?

Scavenger Hunt Question:  Which Horizons community has an organization sponsoring a ‘Volcano Breakfast’ and what IS a Volcano Breakfast?

This week’s winner will receive a copy of:

One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All / Mark Robert Rank

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by May 20 (midnight) and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Congrats to Christine of Kooskia, she’s our weekly winner! Thank you to all who have recently signed up and started blogging.

Please let MJ or me know if we can help you with any questions you might have about blogging.

Reminder: MJ has created a ‘how to blog’ handbook that is now available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page… Thanks MJ!

Also, for those communities that may be looking for a little more training, please contact MJ at merijoz@uidaho.edu / 208-885-8949 to see how she can help you.

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by May 6 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…
NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:
What is something unique about your Horizons community that you’d like to share with the rest of the world? What makes your community different from the one right down the road? Is it a strength your community can capitalize on or a burden you have to bear? Or both? For example, Sun Valley has the beautiful landscape, ski resorts, etc. but the tourism industry has also left behind many local people who are now unable to afford to live in the town they work in…

Scavenger Hunt Question: This week the scavenger hunt is a simple assignment. Find an entry on one of the Horizons community blogs (or even your own blog) and leave a comment to the author. It’s fun to give and get feedback about things we’re doing and talking about.

This week’s winner will receive:
The working poor: invisible in America by David K. Shipler
And
Building Communities From the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight.

Going to the City Council in May, is a request to clean up and fix up the signage related to the recreation opportunities in Cascade. Curb Appeal is volunteering to do the work, asking the City to only pay for the new signage. We hope to clean up a really messy sign jumble at the intersection pointing to Lake Cascade. Also we are proposing changing the signage for Armstrong Park to read that name and not ‘City Park’. Finally, with the support of the High School Advanced Biology Class, who recently won a $10,000 award from AARP, we propose signage for the park where their class project ‘Fischer Pond’ and the sports fields are, naming and signing the park ‘Fischer Pond Park’.

Idaho Power has volunteered equipment, and Idaho Power employees along with the Friends of the Cascade Whitewater Park will be performing a bathymetric (underwater) survey of the whitewater site sometime in May. This survey will provide necessary information for the engineering of the Whitewater Park.

Saturday, May 3 at 9am, volunteers will meet at Cascade Lake Realty, with hand trowels, shovels, brooms & buckets to spruce up Main Street. We will be removing several inches of dirt from the tree boxes that line Main, and placing a couple of inches of gravel into the boxes where the healthy trees live. Some of the trees are not so healthy due to being planted along with most of the plastic buckets they came in. The plastic will be dug out & removed to help the ill trees. Also, 10 planter barrels will be set up at the main intersections and planted with flowers by the garden club.

Congrats to Mountain Mama of Kendrick/Juliaetta, she’s our weekly winner! Even though she took me to task for forgetting about those of you in remote areas with only dial-up internet access… she persevered after many grueling hours on the scavenger hunt! I will definitely keep in mind your technology limits in the future…

MJ has created a ‘how to blog’ handbook that is now available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page… Thanks MJ!

Also, for those communities that may be looking for a little more training, please contact MJ at merijoz@uidaho.edu / 208-885-8949 to see how she can help you.

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 29 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:
• Looking back, what is one (or more) skill or leadership trait you have developed from participating in Horizons (maybe from Study Circles or LeadershipPlenty or from the hands on work going on in your communities right now)? How has participation in the program changed you? What about your community? Are there specific examples of things happening in your community that wouldn’t have happened without Horizons?
• Bonus reflective question: How has the blogging experienced affected you? (please edit any inappropriate language, hahaha trust me, I feel your pain!!)

Scavenger Hunt Question:
• Which of the Idaho Horizons community blogs has information about April being Child Abuse Awareness month? This website also provides information about Youth Suicide Prevention.

The winner will receive:

Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World: Building Your Resources for a Better Life by Philip E. DeVol
And

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, et al

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 22 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:

• What’s next in Horizons for your community? Are your Action Teams planning activities in the next 2 months? How do those activities relate to the 3 legs of Horizons: Poverty reduction, Leadership Development and Community Mobilization?

Scavenger Hunt Question:

• Let’s broaden our scavenger hunt world a little… Of the other Horizons states, which one has interesting information about using Chicken Tractors to help maintain community gardens? Check out the link section of the Idaho Horizons Blog that lists the blog addresses for Montana, NorthDakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa Horizons. Feel free to explore and be inspired by other community groups just like yours!

This week’s winner will receive a copy of each of the following books:
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler

Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World: Building Your Resources for a Better Life by Philip E. DeVol

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 15 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:

• What words of wisdom would you give to a community just starting a program like Horizons?
• Words of warning?
• What kind of changes in their community and its leadership might they expect?
• What kind of changes in themselves might they expect?

Scavenger Hunt Question:

• Which community’s chamber of commerce recently met with high school youth to work together to involve more youth in the community?

This week’s winner will get to choose ONE of the following books:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John Maxwell

Or

Leadership for the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in a Shared-Power World by Barbara Crosby and John Bryson

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 8 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for a fabulous prize.

Reflective Questions: What does the phrase ‘living in poverty’ mean to you? How has your definition of ‘poverty’ changed in the past year? Does your community think differently about poverty now? How can you tell?

Scavenger Hunt Question: Which community (in partnership with ComBAT (Community Based Access to Technology)) will be having a FREE concert on April 23, 2008?

This week’s winner will get to choose ONE of the following books:

One Nation, Underprivileged, Why American Poverty Affects Us All / Mark Robert Rank

or

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community / Robert D. Putnam.