Scotland, SD

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.

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 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!

Remember those “FUN” pre and post surveys that the Horizons Staff had you take during Study Circles and LeadershipPLENTY?

Believe it or not - it was for a purpose!  Those pre and post surveys help us to understand how much your community learned about poverty and about leadership by your participation in those specified curriculums.

As a result, we have assembled a community profile with the results of the pre and post surveys for both Study Circles and LeadershipPLENTY.  Check out your community results by clicking on the links found under “Survey Data” on the right hand side of your community blog.

The GOOD STUFF project provides an opportunity for sharing unneeded household good stuff with a neighbor in need rather than sending it off to the landfill.

GOOD STUFF came into being with the ENCOURAGEMENT and PUSH of Horizons. We received a grant of $800. for our start up. $600. will be used for 12 monthly ads in the Scotland Journal. $100. provided a Waiver/Agreement prepared by our City Attorney which covers any liability and $100. is on deposit with our hardware store for necessary minor help for our donations. We have been given (rent free) the use of an empty downtown shop which belongs to our dentist, Curt Johnson. We do not feel that it will be necessary to heat the shop and should be able to manage this project without additional financial funding.

Posters and hand outs have been given to local churches, organizations and added to our welcome brochures. Our second ad in the Scotland Journal will appear this month. We are currently working on a list of volunteers with pick ups and strong backs to take care of transport.

Our initial donations include a complete bedroom set, an additional box spring/mattress, sofa bed, recliner, 2 upholstered chairs, small bookcase, 2 cribs and bedding. And a friend called last week to offer an artificial Christmas tree!

Several months ago Scotland started a project – Horizons – it is aimed at improving our town.
“Welcome to Scotland” project is now being put into motion.
The packet contains a list of businesses, gift cards from businesses, folders about the town and the museum. There is a bulletin board in the council room that offers folders telling about ‘help’ programs that are available.
We will be delivering packets to recently new citizens of the community and as new families arrive, they will be given their Welcome packet at the finance office.
Much effort went into this project. Peggy Schelske de-signed the folder (isn’t it attractive?) Scotland Hardware gave the bulletin board and then there was the legwork – contact-ing the businesses, which was done graciously by Harriet Schaeffer.
We still have more to go: the houses need identification numbers- the EMT and fire de-partment needs them as well as your friends. Tell your neigh-bors, if they lack the numbers on their house.
Harriet Schaeffer worked hard on the Welcome Wagon project and she appreciated the help and cooperation from all those who assisted with this project.
The Horizon’s project is now in it’s final stages of completion with the visioning aspect taking place. At the first meeting of the strategic planning committee, the vision and mission state-ment and the broad goals of the group were set.
The Scotland vision statement reads as follows:
Families of all ages of the community will be working together to support a produc-tive and appealing business dis-trict. They will have an envi-ronment that supports a suc-cessful school district and is abundant in indoor and outdoor recreational opportunities. Ad-vocates a variety of community resources including excellent healthcare facilities, successful commerce providing job avail-ability, and a safe environment. Scotland will be a place that people will be proud to call home and encourage friends and families to come join them.
The mission statement reads – The Horizons Strategic Planning Committee for Scotland will implement the following com-munity plan – to improve the Scotland community and to en-courage people to come and live here. The plan will be imple-mented using the skills and tal-ents of our residents to carry out the vision of our future.
The broad goals identified at this meeting were as follows:
Welcome Wagon- To develop a welcoming program for new residents to Scotland.
Boys and Girls Club- To de-termine the interest and feasibil-ity of creating a boys and girls club.
Parents, youth and business owners survey will be done.
Exploring programs for this project
Citywide volunteer cleanup- Improve the appearance of homes and yards of our com-munity.
volunteer cleanup
house painting
fix-up team
time bank-volunteer hours
Business development- To enhance the business climate in Scotland by strengthening our current businesses and seeking new ones and marketing to new ones. Developing our own en-trepreneurs.
Good Stuff- To develop a Good Stuff program that gets quality, preowned household items to people who need them.
inventory and exchange
have use of build-ing/fundraising garage sales
Scotland Community Founda-tion- To assist the community members in the creation of a Scotland Community Founda-tion that will benefit all aspects of the community.
The next meeting of the stra-tegic planning committee will be Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. at the community room. The purpose of the meeting will be to develop the objectives for each of the goals – the who, what, when and how.