Murdo, SD

Pictures of the “Paint SD” house that we did in Murdo.  The first/last picture is of the house before we started the project.  The middle pictures are of various volunteers working on the house.  The last picture is the house upon completion of the project! (Click on the captions for description of picture)

The Murdo Chamber of Commerce spearheaded the “Paint South Dakota” project by helping community members fill out applications.   The home of Claude and Betty Baker was chosen from the applicants and the paint was ordered.  We did have a bit of struggle finding the time and volunteers to begin scraping, taping windows and putting on a coat of primer and paint but we were able to complete the project before the final “extended” date of August 15th and finished the house the first weekend of August!!  Thank you to ALL the volunteers for your hard work on completing this project.  A special “Thank You” goes out to Lori W. for everything she did to help make this project a success!    

After many hours of volunteer work and diligence, we graduated from the Horizon II project.  We celebrated by having a potluck meal at our city park along with delicious cake for dessert.  After the meal, Dr. Gary Lemme, Dean of the SDSU’s College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, offered his congratulations to our community for completing the 20-month Horizon project.  Next, several of our community Horizon members spoke and gave updates on the projects/goals that have been started here in the Murdo Area. 

We saved the best for last and had Dan O. and Kari F. share their perspectives of our accomplishments throughout the project.  Several awards were earned for the community through our work in Horizons II.  A digital camera was earned in the first stages of the Horizon II project for work that was initially done on our blog.  Throughout the past 20 months we fulfilled the requirements for the blog and earned the laptop computer and printer.  All of these items are being kept at the city office and can be checked out to use by anyone in the community.  Two metal signs stating that Murdo is a Horizon Community were given to the community.  These signs will be placed at the east and west edges of town for people to see as they first come into Murdo.  The final award was the HUGE check for $8,500, which is the rest of the funds offered by the Northwest Area Foundation for participating in the Horizons II Project.  The Murdo Area has gained so much from this partnership with Horizons, SDSU, and the Northwest Area Foundation. Many citizens have gained a wealth of knowledge through leadership plenty trainings and other trainings that have been held over the past 20 months!  GOOD JOB FOLKS!!

Here are some pictures of our 2008 Community Garden!  So far we have gotten lots of leaf lettuce and some radishes from our Community Garden that we have shared with several of the Murdo Area residents.  There has also been a poster up on our community board, located at the post office, letting people know that they are welcome to come to the Community Garden and cut some lettuce and/or pull a few radishes.  Not sure if you can see them, but there are “blossoms” (or whatever they are called) on the peas and there are also a few beans on the bean plants.  As you might be able to see, I took these pictures of the garden on Sunday evening while the corn, radishes, peas and lettuce were being watered, and I was getting eaten alive by all those pesky mosquitoes!!  :-) 

HORIZON’S POTLUCK GRADUATION CELEBRATION!! 

WHEN:  THURSDAY, JULY 17^th 

WHERE:  MURDO CITY PARK 

TIME:  6:30 p.m. 

PLEASE COME AND JOIN US IN A POTLUCK GRADUATION CELEBRATION FROM THE HORIZON II PROGRAM 

THE HORIZON II GROUP WILL BE BRINGING CAKE AND BOTTLED WATER TO CELEBRATE WITH US!

Horizon’s will also be providing plates, utensils & napkins.

  ***Rain location—Mini gym***

 We had a VERY successful evening of training for our Murdo Area blog on Tuesday evening.  There were a total of nine people there for the training, and we were able to help each of them register as new users.  Since the training on Tuesday—there has already been one comment and one post done by the new users!   

I would like to thank all of the new users for coming to our blog training open house.  The training would not have been a success without each of you.  I would also like to thank those who helped with the details to make this training session possible.  A big thank you goes to Gary and the Jones County school for allowing us to use the tech room and their internet access.  A HUGE thank you to Kit for setting up the laptops along with making sure we had the correct connection to the school’s internet service.  Also, a big thank you to Jewell for getting the computers to use for the evening along with a thank you to Dan O. for taking them back to Rapid City for us.  Thank you to those who were there to help with the training, which included Kevin, Anita, Kit, Lori and Jim. 

Last but not forgotten is a big THANK YOU to those who baked cookies, Lori who provided water, Dan O. for the Horizon tablets and to the Murdo Area Horizon group for donating the “big” door prize of $20.00 in Murdo Bucks. 

I would just like to thank Michele for all of the hard work she has been putting into this Blog. It is greatly appreciated. I hope we can get more bloggers after the Training next week.

Thanks again Michele.

On Saturday the 12th of April, we had our 19th Annual Variety Show as several of our many talented residents stepped up to entertain us.  Deb Venard and Andrew Bork, along with members of the sixth grade class, were the emcees for the evening.  Each person who performed received a candy bar for their hard work.  The candy bars were donated by Wal-Mart in Pierre and were handed to each performer by Kade Brost.  The “show” started out this year by the Prairie Ranger’s 4-H club performing a rendition of the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”  Throughout the evening we were entertained by several of the grade school students performing their annual music contest pieces.  Some of these were solos and some were duets.  Sarah Dowling, a senior, played her guitar while she sang the song, “I Lied.”  The Jones County choral director Rose Comp along with Kathy Chesney and Jordan Boyle all on saxophones played “Buglecall Rap” along with senior Sarah Dowling on drum set and senior Katie Van Dam on keyboard.  The fourth grade class gave a dance performance to Hannah Montana’s “Rockstar” which was choreographed by Stephanie Freier and Missy Koester.  Kindergarten teacher Deb Venard, along with her class did a skit of telling jokes and singing the song “Wiggle in my Toe.”  Deb , who has organized the variety show for all 19 years, sang a solo of “You’ve Got a Friend” and dedicated this to Christy.  Alyssa Krogman sang “I Ain’t Gonna Take it Anymore.”  I may have missed mentioning an act or two since I did not write down each act.  I was just having so much fun listening and being entertained.  We are lucky that I remembered to take any pictures or videos!!

Somewhere toward the middle of the show, Joyce B. performed her “Cow Rap.” She was dressed in full gear with cow bell and all!!  I was able to tape a small part of her performance along with taking several pictures of her.  We ALL definitely enjoyed her “Cow Rap!!”  I do believe she is currently looking for more bookings if you would like to have her perform for you!! :-)

The 19th Annual Variety show was wrapped up by the local band “Westbound.”  During the few songs that they played, several of us got up and were dancing to the music.  Along with the free-will donation at the door, a bake sale was also held with the Thrivent for Lutherans and the local Modern Woodmen giving matching funds.  All of the money raised this year was given to Christy Brost and family to help them with medical expenses.  It is always a joy when a community comes together to help out families when unexpected things happen in their lives. 

There was an article recently in the Rapid City Weekly News about Senator John Thune, who is proud to be from West River South Dakota with Murdo being his hometown.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that the Republican Senator from South Dakota is someone I used to march in band with!! 

I actually grew up with John.  I graduated in 1978.  He was in the class of 1979, which is the class my brother Steve was in.  His dad, Harold Thune, was the girl’s basketball coach, and his mother was the high school librarian.  John was a very good athlete, played the bass in band and seemed liked by everyone.  I am not surprised that he is now a Senator for South Dakota.  As I read this article by Tom Lawrence, I couldn’t stop smiling and nodding my head in agreement with the memories that John shared with him. 

I really liked this quote about John from Jim Abdnor:  “There’s no showhorse to him,” he said.  “He’s down to earth.  Honest as hell.  Tells the truth.  I’m a great backer of this Thune kid.”   WOW!! 

I like the fact that John sticks to his West River (Murdo) roots and upbringing and is not afraid to stand up for what he believes.    One day last week on one of the news channels I remember the anchor man interviewing John and teasing him about maybe being on the Republican ticket this year as John McCain’s Vice-President!!   

I can only speak for myself, but would not be at all surprised if other South Dakotans agreed with me……..John is like a “breath of fresh air” for the U.S. Senate, and I am VERY proud of him and his Murdo “roots!” 

I need your help and support in answering the April questions.  Please answer at least one question for each category.  Feel free to add your comments in answer to any of the questions in either category. 

Please choose one or two questions in EACH category to address on your blog:

8. Sustaining action and creating structural change around leadership

What is your community’s plan for maintaining a strong community leadership system?

How can your community sustain the changes it has already made in its leadership?

What structural changes have been made in how the community does its work/makes decisions? 

What structural changes have been made so that your community leadership sustains partnerships with others?

12. Sustaining action and creating structural change around community

How will your community make decisions about seeking further resources to support its plans?

Is a system in place to seek, receive, monitor and report on new resources to support community work?

Is a system in place to maintain contact with, or to continue to work with other communities?  With your Delivery Organization? In other partnerships?

What new resources have been secured to assist the work of the community?

I was not aware of this site until I saw it posted on the SD Horizon home page blog, so I put a link to the directory here on the Murdo blog to share with you all. 

It is a searchable database of grants available in our area, and nationwide. The database is managed by the South Dakota State Library. If looking at finding grants, you can search by specific grants, fields of interest, keywords or specific grantor. Click on the underlined words to follow the link to the website. 

Once at the site, I clicked on the “List/Search by Name” and on that page I clicked on “All Foundations/Grantmakers to start searching alphabetically for grants.