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.

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.

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.

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.

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.