Whitewood

Thanks to the City of Whitewood workers (Ross, Cody, and Ken) and the Horizons visioning the ice rink is ready for everyone to enjoy. The new ice rink is located at the top section of Oak Park. There are a few picnic table benches set up around the rink too. Please go and check it out. Ice Skating is great fun for the whole family and a good way to bring in some laughs too! There is parking available by the rink too!!

If you or your organization is having a community event and you would like it posted on the calendar of events, please email me at whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com and I’d be happy to get it added to the calendar on the right side of this page.

Recently, we had a blog training and several citizens showed up and learned how to blog. We would love to see some of those citizens beginning to use their newly acquired skills and start blogging and making comments on this site. In order for us to win the laptop for our community we need atleast 5 active bloggers in our community and currently this is the only area that we are lacking in. So I’m imploring each and everyone of you to post comments and blog. If you haven’t gone through the training, but you are interested in blogging please email me at whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com and I will be happy to assist you in learning how to blog!! Come on Whitewood let’s get on the blogging train and start blogging for results in Whitewood! I need everyone’s help and assistance for this one.  THANKS VERY MUCH!!

Please answer the following poll questions. If you are answering yes and you want to get involved please email us at whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com.  Thanks!!

Hi everyone just wanted to let you know about the message we received from blog head quarters!

The blog system (everything that has communityblogs.us at the end of  the web address) will be down starting at noon on Friday, December 28   It will be down for no more than 24 hours (and may be up again as   early as the evening of December 28). We will be upgrading to the new version of Wordpress MU. You should   see no significant change in how the blogs work or look. This upgrade   will fix some potential security issues and add some features.   

For the techies in the crowd:   We are upgrading to WordPress MU 1.3, which incorporates the changes   in WordPress 2.3.1

This shows that our community is more aware and committed to one another and is working to make Whitewood a better place to live.  
 
 

The Whitewood library has a system that can help you. The Learning Express library offers interactive skill building courses and a broad range of practice tests. Some of these practive tests include exams like SAT, GED, ACT, ASVAB, Praxis, firefighter, police officer and many more. The staff at the Whitewood library will assist individuals in locating the exams they wish to practice with. They will also be there to answer questions regarding the program. This is a great opportunity for everyone in the community to practice for exams that may have to be taken. There are approximately 300 tests that can be taken on this system, so I’m sure there is something for everyone. So, if anyone has a test coming up go to the library and see if they have the right practice test that will assist you in bettering your grade!!

This week the Horizon’s Blog received more attention by our local paper. Actually the paper printed 4 of my blogs in the paper!! I just scanned the paper, check it out! I thought this was great news that our blog was getting more pub in the paper. The word is getting out on the blog and more and more people are telling me how much they really like reading about Whitewood news on the blog as well as our local papers.

The library open house was on Tuesday December 18th and was a great success. Thanks to both Rea and Donna for hosting this event!! Please go into the library and check out this fabulous case!! Below is a comment from our librarian Rea Weyrich.

Whitewood Public Library ‘Heritage Hunt’ Open House was well attended.  A big Thank You goes out to Joe Nonnast for bringing over some items for us to display in our new Heritage Case.  If you missed the Open House, not to worry,  all items are available for you to view.
 

Tonight was the weekly BINGO at the Senior Center, and as usual it was LOTS of fun! We had a surprise visitor tonight at Bingo too, and he was passing out CANDY CANES!! Can you guess who it was??? Yes, our surprise visitor was none other than SANTA himself!!! Santa even called a game of Bingo! We had several winners for the night and several people won more than once. Elizabeth B won “4 TIMES”!!! She was even nice enough to try and give me one of her winning cards, because she felt bad for me. However, I couldn’t take the money from her…. Way to go Elizabeth!! Q was calling Bingo as usual and he did a fabulous job, and of course had us laughing through most of the night.

For anyone who hasn’t tried Bingo yet, please come it is LOTS and LOTS of FUN! We had a wide variety of ages playing and everyone jokes and laughs and has a great time. It’s a great way to get to know new people and possibly win a few bucks too! There will be no Bingo next Tuesday due to the holiday, but Bingo will resume again in 2 weeks! So mark your calendars and come on down and have a great time with your fellow neighbors! Here are some pics from tonight!

Council man Wily Freidel briefed the council and the citizens of Whitewood about the question of changing the name of Hooker St. He advised that the City Street Commission had talked to residents on Hooker St about the potential change, and all residents on the street were opposed to the change. He also advised them that the poll on the blog shows that approximately 69% of the people polled would like to keep the street the same. Therefore, Wily then made a motion to keep the street the same and the council agreed.

The chili feed following the Parade of Lights was a welcomed event by both the parade participants and the parade goers. The chili really helped warm everyone up after they were outside in brisk cold air. The chili feed was held at Hale Hall and the entire place was packed with residents. Everyone was also able to vote for their favorite floats in the parade! The crowd voting was fun for all involved and really seemed to bring about a sense of community pride in the floats. The crowd favorite for the night was the Save Hooker St banner that was marched down the street with several of our local youth. I don’t have all of the actual winners of the event tonight except that I do know that the Cub Scouts Pack 41 won first place in the kids category. I will post later the top 3 prize winners in the adult float category. A big thanks also goes out to the 8-10 club for sponsoring the Chili Feed! Once again this was a spectacular event for the citizens of Whitewood!!

The parade of lights in Whitewood was a huge success tonight. There were some amazing floats in the parade, and you could really sense the community spirit in the town. Our little town really shined brightly tonight and everyone should be extremely proud! It was truly great to see such community involvement in this event. Not just with the float participants, but also with the amazing crowd that came out to watch the event! Amy and I are both very happy to be part of Whitewood, and were also so EXCITED to be part of the parade!

There are a lot of pictures attached. Some of the pictures were taken by my husband Fred with the Horizons camera and the other pictures were taken by Renee from Dakota Images of Whitewood! Thanks to both of you for the help and with photographing this event!!

The WW bloggers were out spreading the news of the blog tonight at the Whitewood lights parade. Tammy and Amy were spreading the news with their BLOG MOBILE float. There was a little bit of problems with their lights as the lights on their float stopped working right as the parade began. However, even without the lights it was fun being part of the parade and letting the community learn more about the Whitewood Blog!

Santa was at the Hub today taking pictures with the kids. Not only that but The Hub sponsored hay rides to the children for donating non perishable food for the Whitewood Food Pantry. The children all had bright smiles on their faces after they visited with Santa and had their Hay Ride. What a great day in Whitewood!! We would like to thank Santa for coming to this event! Also thanks to the Hub for sponsoring this event for the children and even the adults of Whitewood. Finally, thanks to Renee at Dakota Images of Whitewood for donating these pictures to be shared on our blog!

Last night was the Christmas performance at Whitewood Elementary. The gym was packed with parents, friends and other relatives. Many people had to stand, because there was not enough room for everyone to sit in chairs. The night was a pure success! All of the children did a fabulous job and they all looked great too! The event included all children K-6th grade. A big thanks goes out to all of the teachers and staff at Whitewood Elementary that helped with this wonderful event. A special thanks goes out to Mrs. Kotab the music teacher at the the school that coordinated the event. I know everyone that went truly enjoyed themselves and thought the children were awesome. Here are some pictures of the event. I’d also like to thank Dakota Images of Whitewood for sharing some of the photos with me to display here.

All around Whitewood the past several days citizens have been building their floats for the big Parade of Lights that was held tonight. Here are a few pictures of a couple of the groups getting ready for the big night! This is only a few of the groups and is NOT even close to being all of the floats in the parade. However, there will be another post of the actual parade which I believe all floats should be a part of.

The kids at Whitewood Elementary have been going full force in adding new links to their giving chains! The hallways in the school are filled with their chains. It’s great to see. Attached are some pictures of the chains in the hallway. I will let everyone know what they collected at the end of their project.

Saturday December 15th from 10am to 2pm Santa will be at The Hub! Dakota Images Photography will take pictures of kids with Santa. Please bring a canned food item for the Lords Kitchen Food Pantry.

The annual Whitewood Elementary Christmas program is being held this Friday December 14th at 7pm in the Whitewood School gym. The children have been preparing for this event for the past several months and the show is going to be awesome! The PTO will also be selling the famous popcorn balls for $1 during this event. This event is sure to be a fun time for all!!

The City Hall’s face-lift is almost complete. The improvements in the City Hall are phenomenal and if you have not checked it out please do so. Brenda would be happy to show you around she is so happy and proud of all of the changes.

The custom council table will be completed this weekend. I have attached a few pictures that show part of the council table. The other half will be delivered in the next day or two and it will be stained to match the rest of the wood in the room. Also a new addition to the room is the custom City of Whitewood sign with the engraved train.

Credits for these projects can be attributed to:

TRAIN:  original artwork of the passenger train that travelled to Whitewood by Don Lindstrom …… custom routing & wood-burning by Tim Lechner ….. both reside in Spearfish.

COUNCIL TABLE:  original custom design for us by AKER WOODS COMPANY, owner is Allen Aker and his sister, Deb Schmidt of Whitewood cut & prepared all the wood at the sawmill in Newell ….. Allen Aker donated the pine …….  their carpenter, Erik,  from the company hand constructed the table and is the only cost to the city of $500.

Again I encourage everyone to take a peek in the City Hall it really does look great!!

Whitewood Public Library to host
 
 ‘Heritage Hunt’ Open House    18 December 2007    1:00-8:30           
 
The staff at the Whitewood Public Library would like to thank all their patrons.  Please join them for Holiday treats and door prizes. 
 
‘Heritage Hunt’ is the theme for the day.  Be a part of history in the making.  Do you have stories, pictures or artifacts of Whitewood? Please join us for refreshments and add your name to our list of contacts.  Previous residents Vern Haas, his daughter, Vernita  and their family are on our list.  They have donated stories and many pictures to the Whitewood Library Historical Collection.  Their most recent donation included many old ‘Whitewood Plainsdealer’ newspapers dating back to 1917.  ‘We really appreciate all the Haas family has donated.  They filled in some gaps that had not been covered.’  said Reata Weyrich, Library Director.  ‘We hope that others will share their Whitewood history with us.’
 
Whitewood Library has been collecting information through out the years and had a special cabinet built to house everything.  Recently Dan Schmidt donated a very large trophy case that the Library is turning into a historical case.  We will need items to display in this case.   ‘Hanging pictures of Whitewood and our surrounding area hanging here in our library is at the top of our list.’ commented librarian, Donna Willson. 
 
Please let us know if you have items, stories or pictures or are interested in helping to collect our history.  Call the Whitewood Public Library at 269-2616.
 

Contact Reata Weyrich 269-2616

The annual Holiday Parade of Lights is Saturday December 15th. Parade participants should meet at Whitewood Restaurant at 4:30 for check in. There is no need to pre-register for this event. The parade begins at 5pm.

Immediately following the parade is a Chili Feed at Hale Hall which is sponsored by the 8-10 club. Free will donations will be accepted at the door for this event.

We hope to see everyone at the parade. It is going to be a fun event that should not be missed. Be sure and also stay and eat dinner at the Chili feed!

The float prizes are as follows:

Best Kids’ float $35

First prize $50

Second prize $35

Third prize $20

Winners will be announced at the Chili Feed after the parade and Whitewood buck prizes will be mailed out from City Hall the following week.

Wait that is not all!! The Whitewood Chamber of Commerce is also holding the 2007 home lighting contest too! There will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes in the following categories.

Mobile Home Courts                         Homes inside city limits                                   Homes outside city limits

1st place $50                                              1st place $50                                                   1st place $50

2nd place $30                                             2nd place $30                                                2nd place $30

3rd place $15                                             3rd place $25                                                  3rd place $20

                                                                     4th place $20

And finally a traveling TROPHY will be awarded to the 1st Place Business for their lighting decorations.

Yesterday we had our PTO sponsored Karoke at the Hub! Thank you Debbie for letting us use your equipment and thank you for the hospitality in your wonderful business! We didn’t have as many kids as we had hoped, but for those of us who came had a great time! We collected cans for the food pantry and the box will remain at the Hub through this week as well. They will continue collecting cans for the food pantry through next weekend when they have their sleigh rides next weekend. So please stop by at the Hub and drop off a few cans for the food pantry.

All kids are welcome today to come and Karaoke at the Hub today from 2pm to 4pm! All kids are asked to bring one canned good item that will be given to the Whitewood Food Pantry. It is sure to be a lot of fun so please come down and enjoy a good time of singing. This event is sponsored to the Whitewood PTO.

JUST LETTING YOU KNOW I MADE AN ERROR ON THE LAST BLOG ABOUT THE PRESENT GIVE AWAY

THE AGES FOR THE CHILDRE ARE  3YRS TO 12 YRS OF AGE AND THE DRAWING IS DECEMBER 20TH ..

Take a look at the new visit counter installed on the site, now we’ll have an idea of just how many folks are reading our blog! I just added this today and I borrowed the idea from Newell! Thanks Newell for the help!! This will be really cool to find out many people are checking out the blog!

Also added is a recent comments section on the right sidebar - instead of searching through old posts trying to find unread comments, new comments will be listed as they are posted on the sidebar.

**The counter was reset on 12/6 as it was changed to count unique visits rather than just hits (hits means it would could every time you went from a post back to the main page). Counting visits should give us a more accurate idea of how many visitors our blog receives. As I understand it, it will now count each time you visit the site in general, not count each time you go back to the main page.

Tonight we had our first blog training session in Whitewood at the library. We had Kellie M, Kristi W, John F, Ann F, Alona W, Rhea W, Jackie H, and Deb P attend our training tonight. We got off to a bit of a bumpy start with the sign in id’s, but we worked through it. We will learn from our mistakes, so we are sure to have everything right on the next training. Overall, the training went well and we have some excited new bloggers that should be posting soon! We plan on having another blog training session some time again in January. Kellie and Kristi won the 2 door prizes that we gave away tonight too! The door prizes were $10 Whitewood bucks that can be spent at any of our local business! Congrats to both Kellie and Kristi!!  yeah!! Thanks to everyone who attended!! It was a lot of fun! Please view the slideshow from tonight too!

HEY EVERY ONE ITS KELLIE HERE I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WHO EVER

HAS CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES 8 AND 12 TO BE SURE AND STOP AT THE PLAZA AND SIGN UP FOR THE CHRISTMAS PRESENT GIVE AWAY..HURRY IN …….HAPPY HOLIDAYS  EVERY ONE …..

I borrowed this idea from Newell who borrowed the idea from Presho, but I think it’s a great idea? Please comment and give your ideas?? Thanks!!!

Could Change in Presho lead to some spare change in Whitewood?

This blog post from Presho & Newell caught my eye! Anyone think this could be a viable option for Whitewood???

Presho Blog Post: The idea behind the “Change Presho” campaign is to ask folks to donate to a community project the change they receive from local businesses . For example, your bill at Husman’s could be $23.12. If you wrote your check for $24, it would be easier to balance your account and you could donate 88 cents to a community project. I think we would all be surprised how much money we could raise this way for really very little effort or expense on any one person. What could a community project be - maybe some possibilities would be trees in the boulevards, community signs, the community resource booklet, there are many ideas that could be pursued. What do others think of this idea?