Summer in the Black Hills

Summer hasn't officially begun yet, but since it is officially June, I trust that western South Dakota will end its wishy-washy relationship with Winter and finally allow the ground to thaw. The weather man says it's supposed to be sunny and warm for an entire week. Though this could change as early as tonight, it is still a great relief to the thousands of people who live here who cannot wait to unpack their climbing shoes and dust off their tents and sleeping bags to enjoy one of the most scenic and adventurous areas in America.

I have always looked forward to warmer weather in the Hills. As a child, it meant the end of school, baseball, grilled hamburgers, and nights when the sunlight wouldn't completely disappear until 9 o'clock or later. As I grew up, it came to mean expeditions. Trips to Pactola and Sheridan lake. Fishing in Rapid Creek, Canyon Lake, and Angostura. Camping. Riding my bike. The Black Hills area is a beautiful place to spend the summer.

If you get the chance during your VISTA year, please check out the Hills. Rapid City is called "The Gateway to the Hills" and is a must-stop place on your visit, mostly because you need to visit with Morgan, Emily, and Derek when you come.

I'm looking forward, for what may be the last time in years, to visit Hill City and Spearfish, see Mt. Rushmore in the summer-time, and get some salt-water taffy from Keystone. I know I'm going to miss this place when I move in a few weeks, and there are certain things I want to take with me when I go. I want to remember driving through the hills with the windows rolled down. The smell of pine trees and that smell that happens as soon as it starts raining. I have never smelled rain as fresh as in the Black Hills.

I am thankful for the opportunity I had to return to my hometown for another year and another summer. Take care, VISTA's, and do what you can to come and explore at least a little bit before Winter comes knocking again.

AmeriCorp Week 2011

For AmeriCorp Week the North Central Region RSVP and Foster Grandparent Program along with the Volunteers of America Dakotas staff spent an evening packaging food for Kids Against Hunger. Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian food-aid organization, whose mission is to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed starving children throughout the world. A total of 18 volunteers packaged 1,728 meals to be delivered all across the globe including Pine Ridge Reservation right here in South Dakota.

Someone has friends in high places!

Not everyone has a town named in their honor, after all.

Enchiladas

Started with sliced onions and carmelized them in Balsamic vinegar.
Meanwhile, back at the front burner, saute some Boulder Chorizo with sliced mushrooms, diced onions and a can of fire-roasted, diced tomatoes. Let it simmer for a while.
Slice some avocados and shredded some Mexican melting cheese, cheddar and asiago. Mixed the cheeses and steamed some corn tortillas.
When the tortillas are flexible, spread the meat mixture on a third of the tortilla. Add two or three slices of avocado, some cheese, and roll. Place roll in a baking dish. Repeat until you've filled your dish or run out of ingredients.
Bake, covered, at 350 for a while.
If you have some shredded cheese left over, sprinkle it over the enchiladas about ten or so minutes before you're ready to take them out of the oven, and allow to finish baking without the cover to crisp the tortillas. 


Serve hot with a dallop of sour cream or creme fraiche, salsa, and/or whatever you like with your enchiladas!!


Ing
Chorizo
Onions
can of fire roasted, diced tomatoes
mushrooms
olive oil
package corn tortillas (use the flour wraps and you got some burritos!)
Cheddar
Asiago
Mexican melting cheese
balsamic vinegar
garlic and other seasonings (I used cumin, chili powder, cayenne, paprika, cholula hot sauce, sometimes use cilantro or episote)

BV Community Christmas Tree

The Volunteers of America, Dakotas Brandon Outreach Office helped with a Community Christmas Tree and the Brandon Valley Challenger published an article about it. You can see it here: http://brandoninfo.com/article/20101231/NEWS/101230006/1001.

Congrats Michelle!

Look at what great things South Dakota's AmeriCorps VISTA Members are doing for the communities they are serving. Great Job, Michelle.

A good resource I just found

http://learningforsustainability.net/about.php

CAPn Kangaroo!

I was lead to believe the roos would not taste good since Aussies don't eat them so I went to my old friend the internet to see what I could find after a friend gave me some roo steaks. A very lean meat, I learned it's best to marinate 'roo steaks in oil-based marinades. I read that native Aussie spices of course pair well with the meat but was unable to locate Australian spices in Rapid City. So I mixed up a variety I found in my cabinets and had a delicious meal. Served this time with Fried Green Tomatoes, pickled beets (delicious!) and whole-grain, gluten-free bread. I just wish I'd brought my camera!

Marinade:
1/2 c Coffee grounds
2 T cocoa
1 T cinnamon
1/2 c honey
1 c white wine or ww vinegar
1 c olive oil
1/4 c crushed black pepper
1 T cayenne
1 T salt


I put four 'roo steaks in the marinade and added enough water to cover, put it in the fridge for two days, and then grilled the steaks to medium rare. Yum! 

The Historic Adams House

This weekend I went to see a Spirited Tour of the historic Adams House Museum in Deadwood. The Adams were one of Deadwood's founding families and their family home has been restored to its original condition. The Spirited Tour is an October special for Halloween and the tour guides act out some of the more famous legends associated with the house and the family. I don't want to spoil the surprises, but some of the legends were gruesome!
I spoke with the curator of the museum when I was making my reservation and told him I was exploring South Dakota as a VISTA member for the year. He didn't know what AmeriCorps or VISTA was but after I explained our work, VISTAs get member prices for the tour this weekend. It's a great opportunity to see a part of history here where I am serving, something I wouldn't be able to see without VISTA to bring me to SD!

Who do you ask for donations?

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_235e3e82-dd13-11df-9851-001cc4c03286.html

Cram the Closet Diaper Drive

We were able to get a Mayoral Proclamation signed in honor of our Diaper Drive and in conjunction with Make A Difference Day

Just look at all those diapers!

Debbie and the live remote staff from Rushmore Radio's Magic 93.9

Carrie's on the radio!

Carrie and Debbie kick off Cram the Closet!

Early in my VISTA service, a chaplain from the hospital came to Mommy’s Closet to request diapers for an emergency. A family with six children, three in diapers, was in a horrific auto accident. The children were fine but the parent was not, so the children would go stay with a relative. The relative, however, was financially unprepared to diaper three children. The chaplain came to Volunteers of America, Dakotas to explain the circumstance and find out what we could do for that situation. With enough diapers, we could ensure that no child would go undiapered for long. But diapers are difficult to come by, even for us. So we got to work.

Saturday, October 16, was the culmination of Mommy’s Closet’s first Diaper Drive to Cram the Closet, and it was a success. We spent time gathering community support and hanging posters to raise awareness. Rushmore Radio’s Magic 93.9 joined us at the Family Thrift grocery store on Omaha for a live remote to promote our endeavor, and KEVN created and ran a fantastic commercial. All area Walgreen’s placed their store brand diapers on sale for the week to help us Cram the Closet and advertised on their marquis. While driving on LaCrosse  Street last week, my son shouted, “Look! Mommy’s Closet is on that sign!” when we passed the Walgreen’s by WalMart and I saw Cram the Closet flash across the marquis, a great way to raise awareness but too fast for a photo!

Since Huggies is promoting their Every Little Bottom study that focuses on diaper need among low income families, Sam’s Club was able to allow us to utilize a collection bin that featured the national drive sponsored by Huggies for our local event. Mommy’s Closet has helped low and very low income families in the Rapid City area for three years, and we are working towards becoming a Diaper Bank which will allow us to accept donations from the Huggies national campaign as well as help other agencies that also provide tangible assistance throughout the area.

We would like to extend our gratitude to all of our sponsors: Simpson’s Printing, EPIC, Family Thrift Stores, KEVN and Magic 93.9 of Rushmore Radio. 

Crispix Mix!

Here's the recipe for the Crispix Mix that I brought to the retreat:

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white syrup

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1 pkg. Crispix cereal

1 (10 oz.) pkg. pretzels

2 cups peanuts

1 lb. M&M's

Combine butter, brown sugar, and white syrup; microwave on high for 2 minutes then stir. Microwave 2 more minutes; add vanilla and baking soda. Pour cereal into a brown paper sack and pour caramel mixture over; microwave 1 1/2 minutes. Shake and microwave 1 1/2 minutes more and shake again; add pretzels, peanuts, and M&M's, stirring until well mixed.

(Tip: I usually wait to add the M&M's until after the mixture has dried. Otherwise, they tend to melt.)

Fantastic online seminars for volunteer management

Hi everyone,
I'm listening to a Webinar on how to engage Pro Bono and skilled volunteers, and remembered a while back telling everyone about VolunteerMatch's webinars. I just wanted to share the link to those with you. They are free to sign up for and to attend.

Click here for the list.

Good luck.
- Mike

New Opportunities with the Black Hills Workshop

Hello, all!

Getting volunteers is proving as difficult as I expected it to be. A lot of the problem, I think, is the term "volunteer." As most of us know, being a "volunteer" carries a lot of different connotations, not the least of which can be an attitude shared by coworkers that you aren't as valuable or capable as they are, just because they are getting paid.

However, I am dedicated to recruiting and equipping as many people as I can to be a part of what the Black Hills Workshop is doing in Rapid City: providing excellent services and support to people with disabilities to help them live a full, satisfying life.

In order to help me accomplish my goal, I have enlisted the aid of a wonderful little site known as VolunteerMatch.org. I have created an organization profile for BHW and have began listing various volunteer opportunities that can be viewed online. Anyone wishing to help can request information and volunteer their time directly through the site! It really is wonderful.

Check out BHW's organization profile, and all of our volunteer opportunities.

If this site can help you out, I encourage you to make a profile for your organization and begin posting your organization's opportunities. Then, find simple ways to advertise that you are on the site, otherwise people might not know to look for you, and many might not even know about the site. You could be the reason they end up using VolunteerMatch for years to come!

Good luck.
- Mike

Homeless Count in Rapid City

This past week the Homeless Coalition in Rapid City undertook their annual homeless count. Counting the homeless is important for all non-profit organizations who deal with homelessness as it helps us understand exactly how big the community need is for our services. By knowing the size of the need we can properly tailor the size and scope of our programs and—most importantly—know how much funding we will need to carry out our programs. It helps when asking for funding from different government and private sources to be able to include how many homeless there are in your community.

Counting the homeless presents several challenges, however. By HUD definitions of “homeless”, the count includes anyone who does not have a permanent place to stay. This includes hotels and motels, living in cars, living with friends. Many people living in these situations don’t consider themselves homeless. Also, many people living in these situations don’t trust official looking people with clipboards knocking on their doors. Often, families living in hotel rooms will be doubled up and are worried that you will report them, getting them evicted. Homeless families living in cars or even on the streets will be worried that you will report them and get their children taken away. Official looking people in clipboards don’t always have the highest track record of keeping the interests of the poor in mind.

So to count those who don’t want to be counted, you have to get creative with your approach. Knocking on doors and digging through brush by the creek is an important part of the homeless count that does achieve results—but will only count a percentage of those who are actually homeless. We need more. The Cornerstone Rescue Mission counts at its meals during the 24-hour counting period. The VA office allowed the Homeless Coalition to count at the Veteran’s Stand Down that coincided with the homeless count.

At the Teton Coalition, we followed a well known saying in the non-profit world “If you feed them, they will come.” We partnered with the United Urban Warrior Society and sponsored a community meal right in our own parking lot. We went to the neighboring motels to invite the residents out to eat with us. Once people arrived they were given surveys to fill out while they waited in line to eat. Of course, if you weren’t comfortable filling out a survey you didn’t have to. Thanks to the great folks who showed up and volunteered, we were able to gain a little bit of trust and convince our homeless neighbors that the surveys were harmless—and only used to provide more effective services. Over the course of 2 ½ hours, we served 300 people in our parking lot. Nearly all of these people filled out their surveys.

If we are serious about counting the homeless and making sure that every person in our cities gets counted and helped, we have to get beyond the traditional methods of community interaction. We no longer live in time where most people will respond to door-knocking. I know there are even more innovative ideas than what the Teton Coalition did, just waiting to be tried. Given the success of something as simple as having a community barbeque I know that in the future my fellow VISTAs will come up with even more successful, more creative ways of counting and aiding the homeless.

Make a Difference Day 2010

For Make a Difference Day the North Central Region RSVP and Foster Grandparent program partnered with the Aberdeen Optimist Club for their annual Pumpkin Patch for Kids event.
Hundreds of families came to Centennial Village to pick pumpkins and participate in pumpkin and face painting, storytelling by our fabulous Foster Grandparents and many more activities.
For our part of the event we provided hours of delightful story telling by Grandma Sr. Verna and former Grandma Sr. Mary Lou. After everyone enjoyed a story from Grandma we had the children choose a brand new book to take home. Grandma Arlene and Grandma Violet helped the children pick out their new book. All in all we gave out over 420 books and had a lovely day at the pumpkin patch.

Sr. Mary Lou

Sr. Verna

A family listens to a story from Grandma

Tough decisions on which book to choose

Pumpkins as far as the eye can see

Families wait patiently in line to hear

Grandma read a story

Cram the Closet Diaper Drive

Mommy's Closet will be hosting our first annual Diaper Drive to Cram the Closet on October 16! Check us out: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_73f01242-d0ae-11df-970c-001cc4c03286.html

Go Robbie!

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/vmix_25379468-cfc8-11df-82bd-001cc4c002e0.html

Save money at the grocery store

As a VISTA, the grocery store is actually the only place I don't feel I need to conserve as much but this is good information anyway. Cutting up a whole chicken is more than just saving money: it's a skill!

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/lifestyles/article_c578c8e0-ca85-11df-bc89-001cc4c03286.html

Homeless count in Rapid City

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_3b5b2b4c-cb7c-11df-998f-001cc4c03286.html