Scotland, SD

The Horizon’s project brought about some needed change in Scotland. With a plan of action and actually taking the time and effort to put together a plan and then set goals and dates for those actions to take place, there has been actual progress on projects that this community has been working on for years. By getting more people involved, some of the projects have taken some twists and turns because of ideas that were never thought about before. Sometimes it gets frustrating trying to see some actual change or progress when some projects take a lot of time and effort. But I think that in the long run, the community of Scotland will truly have benefited in a lot of ways by stepping out and taking some risks which some people were afraid to do before Study Circles and LeadershipPlenty came to this community

GOOD STUFF is a community project which provides an opportunity to share unneeded household good stuff with a neighbor in need rather than send it to the landfill.

It’s funny, but after some of the community members took Leadership Plenty, they saw that the Horizon’s project was just what this community needed. Some of the people stepped up to the plate and have taken this experience and used it to develop their plans for the boys and girls club, the Good Stuff project and the newcomers project. Others took off, but are now stalmated and will need to get revitalized and pumped up to see their goals and efforts come through.

The city council and the economic development group are working hard to make the Main Street a more viable location for potential new businesses and with that the possibility of more jobs. In April, the city wide cleanup is held and this year a group of community members will be working with the Horizon’s project to make this community a cleaner and prettier place to live. One community member has been thinking about providing a garden area for children, to learn how to plant, water and care for a garden. Hopefully with all of these projects happening this spring and summer, Scotland will be working towards the goal of making this a place the people will be proud to call home and encourage friends and families to come here to live.

During the November meeting of the Scotland city council, two high school students approached the council about constructing a skateboard park. Both students are freshmen in Scotland with one of them being black. They asked the council what it would take for them to consider the park. The council told both boys what they would need so in the December meeting, the boys brought their pictures and their proposal. The city engineer happened to be at the meeting and he was so impressed with their ability to present their request that he offered to help them with the project at no cost for the engineering aspects of the project. It was very encouraging to see the council consider the request of these two young men.

The Good Stuff project was started to help individuals who still had GOOD STUFF, but didn’t want to throw it way, find a home for it. It was amazing to the project coordinator to see all of the items donated for this cause. The even more amazing factor was that when individuals became aware of the project, how many people actually were in need of these things and did not have the means to purchase the essentials, such as a bed and bedding. This project has truly been a God send to those in need in the Scotland community.

The Horizon’s Project has brought new light to the Scotland community in that some of the young people in this community have taken the iniatative to work on a boys and girls club/youth center. They have gone to other communities to check out what they are doing and then have started looking in this community for actual locations to start this project. Through this project they have found a real need for youth activities after school, especially those that are too old for day care. These individuals’ leadership skills have grown and are providing new faces in the community when new tasks are being needed to be done.

The Horizon’s group that is working on the Youth Center/Boys and Girls Club held a Harvest of Soups December 15 over the noon hour. Erin Odens gave a presentation about the findings and survey results they gathered with their work on the youth center. The group has traveled to Avon and Tyndall looking at their facilities and trying to determine what would be best for the Scotland community. It was suggested that they may be a little bit of a combination of the two.
Businesses were asked to donate soup for the cause. There were 18 crock pots of soup with just about that many different kind of soups to choose from. For their first venture, the group did very well receiving about $1000 in freewill donations. It was decided that this type of fund raiser may be done again in the early spring.
It was a learning experience for the group and more results will be seen in the near future!