Scotland, SD

The community of Scotland has had a number of programs in place to aid the needy for quite some time. The Food Pantry housed at the UCC Church sees a great may patrons. Various community organizations assist in collecting goods for the Pantry. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and our churches hold food collection drives. Our local Chapter AE, P.E.O. donated $250.00 as their Christmas philanthropic gift.

The Scotland Life Enrichment for the Elderly has a large collection of wheelchairs, walkers and about every kind of medical equipment on hand. Anything they have can be used by anyone in need for any length of time and at no charge.
Our volunteer transport group is ready to drive anyone unable to take care of their own transportation.

My project is the Good Stuff household furniture, bedding, small appliance. etc. collection to be shared with anyone in need. (no fee involved) The director of the Scotland Food Pantry, Rev. Neumeister and I are working on finding a location in Scotland to combine both projects. We feel that the families who come to the Food Pantry would possibly be interested in taking home some of the household goods to be shared. In order to keep this project up and running for a long time, I want to find unused space in an existing facility which would be donated rent free for the Food Pantry and Good Stuff. Good Stuff is currently quite successful in an unheated vacant store. In order to combine the Food Pantry in the facility it would be necessary to have heat. We are hoping to find such a donated facility as soon as possible.

Our Horizons committees are probably not an exact demographic portrait of Scotland as we have a very large elderly population. However, we do have members who correspond to all of the age and financial segments of our community. The Horizons program has found new leaders who have not previously been a part of local service organizations and through their encouragement we are expecting success in all of our endeavors.

With our projects currently in place to help the needy and the help and promotion received through the Horizons staff with projects in progress to improve our community, we are excited about the future of Scotland.

Our Good Stuff project of sharing household goods with those in need is progressing . One of our Scotland friends heard that a fellow employee in Yankton had a couch no longer needed. When he heard about our Scotland Good Stuff project, he hauled the couch to work, helped load it into our friend’s pick-up and it is now part of our collected furniture. Cold winter weather is not a time when people are chosing to load up and haul household stuff and we feel that warmer weather will make a difference. We have a number of offers including a sewing machine in good condition. And we are definitely expecting lots of donations during our up-coming City wide clean-up and collection of discarded goods in April.

The community foundation committee is working on setting up a meeting with the South Dakota Community Foundation to establish the Scotland Community Foundation. Board of directors have been identified and now the initial meeting needs to be set. Dates for the initial meeting will be worked on.

The Good Stuff project has been collecting items and have given four families some needed household items. The facility is located at the former Ted’s TV store by Dr. Johnson’s office on Main Street. Lorry Schmidt or Kerrie Knakmuhs needs to be contacted for donations or to acquire the items on hand. It was suggested that when the next city wide rummage sale is held that a No-Sale garage sale be held as a fundraiser for this project.

The beautification committee will need to meet before the February 27th meeting to bring a plan of action in helping residents with cleanup efforts during the citywide cleanup held in April. Anyone needing help with cleaning up their yards or getting rid of old furniture should contact the city finance officer at 583-2320. This way the volunteers will know what they need in the way of equipment and manpower.

The Boys and Girls Club project have met objectives one and two. The group has been looking at other facilities in the area and trying to determine how they would like to implement this project. They would like to have a structured youth center providing a happy medium between the Avon and Tyndall projects. The group is working on funding possibilities as well as a location. They would like to provide a place for tutoring and recreational activities. Their focus is on a supervised and structured center.
It was suggested that locations be identified along with activities suitable to the location. Adult supervisors will also need to be identified.
Following the monthly meeting, the group has found a location which looks like it will work pretty well. Volunteers will be needed to help clean it up to get it ready for use. Donations will also be accepted for a good couch, tables, chairs and microwave. Ideas for activities as well as adult volunteers are also needed for this project.

The final phase of the Horizon’s II project, the action phase, has now begun in Scotland. The last Wednesday of the month is the scheduled time for the groups to come together and discuss where they are in their projects. The meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. in the community room.
The first of the project discussed was the Welcoming program.
The Welcoming Program is up and running. Ten welcome packets have been handed out since November. It was suggested that an evaluation survey and an activity survey be put together to be included in the packets. We know that the packets have been looked at as many of the businesses in the community have noticed the newcomers coming in with their blue card which entitles them to some type of welcome gift from each business.