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***

This was the sound the contents from the “Change Murdo” canisters made as it was being counted at the bank.  The canisters have been in several of the businesses in Murdo for just over a month and $77.04  was the total amount collected so far for our “Welcome U to Murdo” program!!  WAY TO GO PEOPLE!! 

Thank you for supporting these Horizon projects that have been started in Murdo.  It truly is amazing to see how a “little bit of change” can really add up to help MAKE changes happen!! 

We will be needing new ideas for projects to sponsor with the “Change Murdo” money.  How about starting a much needed FOOD PANTRY or some type of THRIFT shop??  Please comment here on the blog with any ideas you may have for our community.  Ideas from other communities welcome too!! 

A big THANK YOU to PRESHO for the great idea you started with your “Change Presho” idea.   

Another Murdo Area Horizons project is becoming a reality as the Murdo Area Volunteers are in the process of getting their program off the ground.  Michele M. and Cheryl M. have volunteered to coordinate and organize this program.  The idea behind the program is to help people with projects they can’t do on their own.  Once they know what your needs are, they can then match those needs/jobs to the list of volunteers.  Here are some examples of tasks that a person might need help with:

INSIDE EXAMPLES:  Minor house cleaning, changing light bulbs, moving or arranging furniture.

OUTSIDE EXAMPLES:  Cleaning out gutters, changing storm windows, mowing yards, shoveling snow from sidewalk, etc.

 OTHER EXAMPLES:  Rides to places in town, groceries picked up, rides to personal appointments, etc. 

The community is asked to spread the news about the Murdo Area Volunteer Program to everyone in the community.  They will be placing posters around town as a reminder that the volunteers are only a phone call away.  Please call Michele M. at 669-2553 (anytime) or Cheryl M. (evenings) at 669-2674 with your volunteer needs. 

One of the first projects include volunteers to give rides on June 3 to vote in the primary election.  Give them a call if you would like a ride!

If you would like to be one of the volunteers in the program, they will certainly take your help.  Give Michele or Cheryl a call to get your name on the list. 

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.

I was up early (6:45 a.m.) and on the road to Rapid City on Wednesday, April 16th to attend the School of Mines Grant Writing Workshop.  I sat at a table with 2 other Horizon people from Hot Springs!!  I would like to thank the Murdo Area Horizons for sponsoring me to attend this workshop.  It made for a long day but I learned a lot!!

The workshop was taught by Stephanie Schweitzer Dixon, who has worked as a grant writer and a consultant for non-profit organizations for ten years.  We learned the key steps involved in planning a project, seeking grant funding, writing the grant proposal and managing the grant-funded program.  All of this information is also in Stephanie’s Introduction to Grant Writing Workbook. 

I won’t go into the many details of grant writing here on this blog because it would take too long!  I will share one thing that with you though.  I learned that writing a grant for a private foundation is a lot easier than writing a grant for the Federal/State government!!    :-) 

Each person attending this workshop received Stephanie’s Intro to Grant Writing Workbook and a personal certificate of completion. 

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.