My doctor said he saw a story on KOTA TV about our Horizons group and here it is….

Local group helps town grow

Makenzi Henderson

That’s right Friday February 29th the Whitewood PTO is sponsoring kids Bingo. It will be at the senior citizen center. Bingo runs from 6-7:30 pm. Prizes will be awarded.  The price is 10 cents a card. Come and have some fun on this leap year night!

We have a new business in town! I’ve tried the products and they are great! So if you like nuts, pretzels, and other snacks then you should check out their website! Some of the items they have are

Candy  Chocolate and Yogurt Covered Treats  Dried Fruit  Natural Raw Nut Products  Roasted and Salted Nut Products  Snacks  Trail Mixes

A new company, bringing the Black Hills healthy snacks to “fuel” your appetite!

You will taste the difference and appreciate the quality and freshness of their products.  They are custom mixed and packaged exclusively for us when we place an order - they are NEVER pre-packaged, sitting on a warehouse shelf.

Our pledge to you: Quality products, courteous service and complete satisfaction!

To order visit their website at: www.chopperchow.com you will not be disappointed!

Then maybe you should attend a Whitewood Genie meeting at the library…. Please read below about the most recent meeting. Anyone who has old photos of Whitewood or old newspapers is encouraged to bring them to the library so they can make copies for the library records! Rea will welcome anything you can give her!

The WHITEWOOD GENIE MEET met Wednesday for their monthly meeting at the Whitewood Library.  Anyone interested in family history is welcome to attend.  We received a photo of the Whitewood High School Class of 1941 today which will be put in the Whitewood School History Notebook at the Library.  Also received was a 1942 photo of the Whitewood High School .  Anyone having photos of the highschool classes through the years are encouraged to share them with us - we can zerox them at the library and return your originals to you. The question was also brought up of DAR publications and the library has a number of publications for the early 1920s which can be read at the library.  See you next month - 3rd Wednesday at 1:30. 

Here we are at our meeting on the 17th of this month at library getting ready for out cookie sales that started the 22nd and getting to try the new cookie Cinna-Spins, so if you want to know what they are like just ask the girls……yummmmmy.

There is a new business on Meade Street. Sacrison Paving who previously operated their business from their home has recently taken up space on Meade street. Their new business is located next to City Hall and Dakota Images Photography studio. I just wanted to say it is great to have them in town!

In November Whitewood’s Strategic Plan was laid out, and now committees are grouping up again and it’s time to see the plans through! If you are interested in being on a committee to help with these projects then we would love to have your help! We will take any help we can get no matter how big or small.

Some of the committee’s that we have are:

Economic Development

Community Development

Communications

Beautification

Recreation

Please let us know if you are interested in working on any of these committees. We will have our next group meeting on the second Sunday in March. We would love to see more faces in attendance. The meeting will be held at 6pm at the Whitewood library!

On February 18 some of the Whitewood Wrestlers traveled to Union Center for their tournament. Attached are some of the pictures of the boys from the tournament! Yeah Whitewood.

Last Saturday February 16th the Whitewood Wrestling team hosted their annual tournament in Sturgis. The event was a huge success! There were about 350 wrestlers from all over the area that showed up for the event. We had a few of our Wrestlers that were down with the flu, but the boys that did wrestle made the most of it. I had fun during the event working one of the head tables. It will be fun to do again next year now that I know what I’m doing! Thanks to everyone that volunteered their time for this event without your help this event would not have been possible!!

There are a few pictures of the tournament itself and the after party at Whitewood Restaurant.

Whitewood Centennial dated December 1974 recaps the year

Cleaning out an old box of collectibles that his parents, Jennie and August Nonnast, had saved Joe Nonnast donated ten newspapers to the Whitewood Public Library. 

Whitewood Centennial 27 December 1974  x3
Whitewood Centennial  9 May 1975
Whitewood Centennial 27 June 1975
Whitewood Centennial 11 July 1975
Whitewood Centennial 20 February 1976
Whitewood Centennial 18 June 1976
Deadwood Pioneer Times 14 October 1974
Rapid City Journal 30 April 1950

Some of the Headlines and first lines of articles uncliding in this collection are:

“Whitewood Merchants Plan for Sales Weekend” - Many Whitewood merchants have gathered together to promote an end-of-February cooperative sales weekend.
“Pony Express to ride again: Will visit Whitewood today” - The Whitewood centennial office in Campbell Lumber on Meade Street will be one of the pick-up points today (Friday) for the 1975 March of Dimes Pony Express.

“Old, New councils both act on Questions Involving Water” - Water was involved in motions before both the old and new councils on Monday
“Storm Report” - Sheds at the Roping Club facility were rearranged by Wednesday’s twister.  Howard Peterson was saved from injury when the twister hit a shed on his property.

“Death, Flooding result in County” - Whitewood Creek roars on toward the Belle Fourche River Tuesday after the Monday rains. 

“Chamber finalizes planning for Days” -  Whitewood Celebration Days planning was finalized Monday when Whitewood Chamber of Commerce members met for dinner at Koffee Kup Kafe.

Thank you Joe for your thoughtfulness.   

*******Please answer these questions by including it in your blogs for February: *******

Please choose one or two questions in EACH category to address on your blog:

Category 3: Taking action on poverty

What kinds of concrete steps are being taken by your community to address poverty? I believe concrete steps are being taken to reduce poverty with our strategic goals. The objectives that we have layed out on the plan address poverty in some way or another. When we begin seeing our goals and ojectives to fruition then we will be stepping in the right direction.

How are low income involved? EVERYONE is welcome to join in on ANY of the Horizons activities. We actually would welcome in put from all areas of society. Currently our committees have a wide array of people involved from all economic backgrounds. To anyone interested in joining a committee it is not too late! We are always looking for help! Please let one of the steering committee members know that you are interested in helping. You can call Rea Weyrich at 269-2616 and I know she’d be happy to steer you in the right direction.

How does your plan for poverty reduction link with existing leaders, groups and organizations? I believe that poverty reduction in the community goes full circle. I believe all aspects of the community play a role in educating the people on poverty in our area as well as reducing poverty. Our plan is a community wide plan that ultimately involves others in the community. For instance we have a beautification committee that will plant trees etc…. they may also work with the 8-10 Club in the future and help them to plant flowers in the spring.

What other partnership will help your community carry out its poverty reduction plan? I believe that in order to make our plans work that we need the help of everyone in the community. We must all work together to see our goals through. Many times I hear people comment that nothing is getting done, so why should they bother helping anyways?? Well my answer to that is nothing will get done unless WE do something about it. One suggestion that another community member said was let’s have a city wide clean up. I think this is a great idea! If everyone worked together and we could accomplish a lot. Maybe it’s also worth talking to the City about, and finding out if there is a City wide cleanup coming up. Possibly the city could work something out with our trash company if we were to have such an event!

Category 7: Taking action on leadership

How has your community leadership expanded?  More people have taken on leadership roles since the implementation of Horizons. I have also heard that more people are involved and attend more community wide functions. More people are attending City Council meetings since Horizons. Also this year the Chamber’s membership has doubled over last year!

ü     Are more people participating in leadership? Yes more people have stepped up into leadership roles that didn’t do them previously. I for one stepped up and became a leader to help run our blog for Whitewood. Prior to this I did not have any kind of leadership role in the community. However, Horizons made it possible for me to step up and fill this position.

ü     Are more low income people participating in community leadership? There have been more low income people involved, but honestly we’d like to see more participation. As I stated earlier everyone is WELCOME to participate. We are happy to have anyone that wants to help. The more we work together the better off our community will be!

What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders?  Sustains existing leaders?    Horizons offers a multitude of training opportunities for our community to be involved in. There are upcoming trainings that several people from our community have signed up for an expressed an interest in. We have also had others in our community that have gone through other types of training and then they shared their knowledge with the community. Amy and I learned to blog and since that time we have held a class at the library and trained 10 people how to blog. I also conducted a blog training with elementary and middle school children and trained all of them what a blog was. Each of the kids wrote an entry for the blog, but I trained 3 kids how to input the information on the blog. I have also given one on one training to about 5 community members at the library.       

Sometimes talking and listening to others in a similar situation is helpful.  Join the Discussion Hour Mondays at 5:30pm at the Spearfish Artemis Office.  One time monthly, the group meets at a community location.  Call 642-7825 for this Monday’s group location.

In 2007, 172 women and children went to the Artemis House for shelter.  Many more men, women and children came to the Artemis House seeking help to escape domestic violence or sexual abuse.  In excess of 16,000 services were provided to residents of Butte and Lawrence Counties. 

On Friday February 15th the student council sponsored a Valentine dance at the school. Not only was there dancing with a DJ, but there was also BINGO and face painting for the kids. There were about 50 kids at the dance and everyone seemed to have a really good time. The kids really loved the face painting, so Katie and Cory Heckenlaible stayed busy all night painting faces.

There was even some fun on the dance floor when our police Chief Jerry Davidson was doing the YMCA with several of the kids. Several of the kids even danced to the Macarana and the Chicken Dance too!

The student council sponsored this event. They asked for a $1 donation at the door and the proceeds from the event will go towards the school beautification project. Thank you student council for sponsoring this event. Everyone had a great time!

Answered by Del Zambon

The questions for Feb are specific and tough.  From where I sit I do not see much happening.  As I mentioned earlier, A good tool to get the poorer people involved is the newspaper “Whitewood Edition”.  Could we list such things as Birthdays?  Or, stories about Whitewood businesses and especially their Employes (The trailer business employes around 50 people).  Or, the log home builders-what are they doing specifically.  Get some meat in the Whitewood edition with pictures and names (not the names of the same bunch).

What about getting our Representative to visit on her next annual visit?

What about mailing the Whitewood Edition to the local ranchers? 

The chili cookoff was a great success.  Whitewood did get some of the less fortunate to attend.  However, discussions at church indicated that not all were informed and they missed the feed.  I really liked the multitude of prizes given out.

I really like the Spring town wide cleanup.  But I am at a loss as to how you get the general population excited and involved.  What about giving the boyscouts, girlscouts, church congregations, clubs etc $50 for each pickup load with extra for tires, appliances, concrete etc.

I would like to start with wow what a great wrestling tournament yesterday. We have alot of people at our tournament and we had alot of great help. Thank you to all of the ones who came and helped us out with big day. It was alot of fun working with you all. Hope we get a great group of people next year like we did this year. I also want to say thank you to April, Howdy and Sue for the support for our concession.

The events page has been updated. See events tab on the right side column to check it out. If anyone has any events they would like posted please post a comment or email the blog at whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com.

The SD Housing Authority out of Pierre is sponsoring Paint SD. They are now accepting applications from those who qualify. The paint and primer will be funded by the SD Housing Authority the person who wins this honor will just have to have volunteers to do the work. The deadline for applications is April 4th, 2008. For more information please see the website listed below. The application is linked on the website as well.

Yes it is finally cookie time for Girl Scouts. We will start selling door to door on the 22nd of this month. We do have a new cookie also very exciting.  I am happy to say we actually have a large amount of girls in our two Whitewood troops for the small town that we have, it is a nice way for the girls to learn and meet new people.  Troop 72291 we will meet this Sunday the 17th at 4pm at the Whitewood Library. I would like to thank Reah for letting us hold our monthly meetings there. If there is anyone interested in Girl Scouts you can contact Mona Smith.

This weekend Feb. 16, 2008 is the Whitewood Wrestling Tournament in Sturgis at the middle school. If you would like to support the Whitewood Wrestlers you are more then welcome to come watch. I would also like to say thank you to all the people who are helping us with this event. We could not do it without your help and support. Good Luck to our wrestlers and club.

Was last night at the library at 6pm. We had about 8 people in attendance. We would have liked to have seen more people at the meeting, however the weather was cold and the roads were icy, so it was understandable. We discussed a variety of different things at the meeting and gave Carolyn an update of what we have been doing. The next step now is moving to the action stage! We need to begin to work towards our objectives that were layed down in our strategic plan goals. We are in the process of contacting all the different people that expressed an interest to be on the committees in the past, so we can begin to get to work. If you are interested in helping on any committee in any way please contact Rea Weyrich and she will get you on the list! If you have any questions you can email the blog at whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com or you can also post a comment right here under this post on the blog!

Our next meeting is March 9th at 6pm at the Whitewood Library. If anyone is interested in the minutes of our meeting I’d be happy to email them to you.

This year’s Chamber of Commerce sponsored Chili Feed had a record number of participants. This year there were 17 contestants and there were 22 different types of Chili. Although, the weather on Saturday for the event was snowy and cold, there was a good turn out for the event. Everyone that attended appeared to have a good time as well. There was also entertainment by Marty and Archie O’Dea, and we even had Q Lindstrom out there playing the string/bucket!

The blog even had an entry in the Chili Feed! Check out the pictures! WE are always trying to promote the blog whenever we can, so we can spread the word about the blog and to get more people involved! I had a lot of fun doing this event!

The following are a list of the judges and the prizes that will be awarded in Whitewood Bucks! (keeping the money in our community!)

ALL PRIZES WILL BE IN “WHITEWOOD BUCKS”

JUDGES:  Mike Weyrich

                  Jim Barker

                  John Lindstrom

CHILI – HOT:

1^ST PLACE …… $50  Cory Heckenlaible, Whitewood

2^nd PLACE ……. $40  Amy Dughman, Whitewood

3^rd PLACE ……..$30  Bob Haiwick & Tammy Olson, Whitewood

4^th PLACE ……..$20  Hans Rindelaub, Sturgis

CHILI – MILD:

1^st PLACE …….  $50  Tim Verhulst, Spearfish

2^nd PLACE ……. $40  Ron McCormick, Spearfish

3^rd PLACE ……. $30  Howdy Hobernicht, Whitewood

4^th PLACE ……. $20  Whitewood Forest Acres

PEOPLE’S CHOICE:

1^ST PLACE ….. $50  Cory Heckenlaible, Whitewood

2^nd PLACE  ….  $25  Ron McCormick, Spearfish

BEST DECORATION:

1^st PLACE …… $25  Lynn Hill “Whitewood Police Department”

2^nd PLACE …… $15  Bob Haiwick & Tammy Olson “ A Good Ole Country Fair”

3^rd PLACE …… $10  Tammy Bourne “The Whitewood BLOG”

4^th PLACE ……  $ 5   Duane Myers “Cactus Display”

I want to thank all of the participants who entered the event to make it a record year! I also want to thank all of the people that came out in the snowy cold weather to eat some hot chili. Finally, I want to thank the Chamber for hosting the event!! It was great!!

Category 3: Taking action on poverty

What kinds of concrete steps are being taken by your community to address poverty? — Education.  the upcoming Health and Safety Fair will provide educational as well as actual health and safety information for community members and their households.

Category 7: Taking action on leadership

ü     Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership? — The recent development of the 1st Whitewood Health and Safety Fair brought together some leaders of current community organizations as well as those who do not hold an office in any community organization.  The Health Fair was just an idea.  An email and a Blog brought  an immediate response  from community members straight into the planning stages.   Another example of changes in Leadership in our community is our Chamber of Commerce.  Our Chamber of Commerce has and still does maintian a very strong cast of officers.  That has changed.  What has emerged is others new and old to the organization that have taken on duties to enhance the Chamber’s role in our community.  This is evident in the recent jump (double) in the Chamber’s membership

Category 7: Taking action on leadership

How has your community leadership expanded? The leadership plenty classes really brought out a lot of new ‘leaders’ in our community.

What changes have been made in who is now involved in leadership positions?

ü Are more people participating in leadership? We have some committees (i.e. Econ Dev, Parks, etc) that include many members/chairpersons that normally are not in leadership positions in the community.

ü Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership? Definitely.

ü Does the community leadership reflect the community’s demographic profile? Yes

ü Are more low income people participating in community leadership? Yes

What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders? Sustains existing leaders? Not sure….

I received this response from Del Zambon from the January blog questions:

Cat. 10 Community has definitely improved. Chamber of Commerce membership is up. Newspaper is outstanding. A couple of new businesses. Great new young leadership. However, the poor seem to be intimidated and dropping out. Sadly, WFA residents are viewed as rich and WFA residents are taking charge. I do not have an answer, but it seems that community activities at Hale Hall with food seem to get fairly decent participation. Would personal invitations to the families work. I would like to see a Spring City Wide Cleanup. Invite families to participate by using thier own pickups to haul the old wood, broken concrete, metal to the Belle Landfill-maybe pay for gas etc. WFA should be an indirect supporter.

Getting the low income people involved, cat 6, would definitely assist in bulding community pride. Maybe if we asked the community for old pictures of Whitewood, with people in at least some of the pictures, scan them, print them, ask old timers about each picture, print one or two each week in the newspaper. We might get some lower income involvement. Give the persons that helped - recognition.

Please post your thoughts and ideas about the questions below or comment on this post. If you don’t want to comment you can send your thougts and ideas to whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com and I’ll be sure that your comments are posted on the blog. We really need the support of everyone and would love to have your input.

*******Please answer these questions by including it in your blogs for February: *******

Please choose one or two questions in EACH category to address on your blog:

Category 3: Taking action on poverty

What kinds of concrete steps are being taken by your community to address poverty?

How did your community make choices about the actions most likely to have an impact on poverty?

How are low income involved?

How does your plan for poverty reduction link with existing leaders, groups and organizations?

What other partnership will help your community carry out its poverty reduction plan?

Category 7: Taking action on leadership

How has your community leadership expanded? 

What changes have been made in who is now involved in leadership positions? 

ü     Are more people participating in leadership?

ü     Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership?

ü     Does the community leadership reflect the community’s demographic profile?

ü     Are more low income people participating in community leadership?

What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders?  Sustains existing leaders?          

About the 5th annual Chamber of Commerce Chili Feed tomorrow! There are 17 contestants entered this year so it is sure to be a GREAT success! I’m even entering the contest too, and I am having a BLOG table. Come and check out all of the pictures I will have displayed at my table!

This event is open to the public between 12pm and 2pm! Come hungry!

Today, I talked with Elaine Albrandt about why she painted the 3 paintings of how Whitewood looked in the early 1800’s. Elaine told me that she decided to do this because she loves old history. Elaine grew up on Crook City road as a child, and prior to that lived on a ranch just outside of town. Elaine has fond memories of those days and can still remember riding to school in an old horse and buggy. She also told me that she can remember when she was 4 years old and they finally got electricity in their house. She said she can remember the “Old Whitewood” and how there were lots of buildings in town with lots of activity. She also has fond memories of the old “Whitewood Days” that were held at Oak Park. She remembers going when a whole cow was roasted in the pit and there were lots of people that attended. She said that those were fun days. She also told me that she use to really LOVE the train. Living on Crook City Road the train was very close to her house. She use to love riding the train to Deadwood to visit her cousin who lived there. She just had to make sure that she caught the 4pm train back to Whitewood, because in those days it wasn’t as easy getting up to Deadwood and her parents didn’t want to have to pick her up.

Growing up Elaine’s father was a carpenter and a rancher. Her mother worked at the local library, but was also artsy and good with her hands. Elaine thinks she inherited her love and talent of art from her mother. Elaine has only been painting about 10 years now. The pictures that Elaine painted came from a Centennial Calendar that she received as a gift from her son Ryan and daughter in law Jenny. She told me that the pictures in the Calendar were kind of fuzzy and hard to make out, so she had to use a magnifying glass to see all of the fine details in the pictures.

She painted her first painting and brought it down to the City Office and showed Brenda Lindstrom. Brenda just thought the painting was fabulous and told Elaine that the painting would look great on the walls in the City Office. Elaine agreed and the painting went on the wall at City Hall. Brenda then went on to tell Elaine how great it would be if the paintings were in triplicate. Elaine went right to work and a few months later there were 3 paintings of her series hung on the wall at City Hall.

Please stop into City Hall and take a look at the paintings. It is wonderful to step back in time in these pictures and imagine how Whitewood was in those days. Elaine has truly done a remarkable job recreating the atmosphere of the time. These paintings are a wonderful rendition and will really help in preserving some of Whitewood’s history.

Friday , February 15, 2008 there will be a Soup Supper at the Whitewood Senior Citizens Center from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.    Ham and bean soup and turkey noodle is on the menu with pie for dessert.

If your interested in knowing some of the events that are going on in the community look on the right side column under pages and then click on events. This will take you to our events page. If you have an event that you would like added to this page you can post a comment on the blog or you can email us at whitewoodblogger@yahoo.com and I will be happy to get your event posted.

Saturday February 9, 2008 at Hale Hall is the 5th annual chili cook-off contest. Sponsored by the Whitewood Chamber of Commerce.

Prizes will be awarded.

Teams are welcome! Set up and registration at 8am. Prepare and cook from 8:30am to 12:00p.m.. Judgine at 11:30a.m.

Please let your imagination run wild and decorate your tables.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FROM 12:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M.  ALL YOU CAN EAT CHILI FEED!!

Horseshoe 4-H Club to sell bottled water, Ice Cream served by 8-10 club.

Donations will be gladly accepted at the door.

Entertainment by: Marty O’Dea and his famous Banjo!

Any questions please contact City Hall at 269-2247