Rolette, ND

Holly of the “Entrepreneurial Center for Horticulture” in Bottineau is compiling a list of interested people who want to take some continuing ed classes this winter and produce vegetables next summer.  If you are interesting in operating a garden plot for profit give her a call at 228-4032 and get on the mailing list.  Holly is talking about using “high tunnels” to extend the growing season and getting the produce to market safely.  People on the list already are Iren Scott, Howard Lemieux and Jo Gilje. 

Call Holly at 228-4032

Saturday morning didn’t look like a good day to clean roadside ditches.  With SNOW on the ground and a cold wind it looked like the ditch leaning would be postponed.  But by 10am the snow was gone and the sun was shining.  By 1pm the weather was fine.  Three members from the Rolla club and 9 members for the Rolette club HAPPILY picked trash.  Some items of note were 1 skate board without wheels, sunglasses with 1 lens and 1 nail apron.  Pop cans were saves separate to be recycled.  Thank you 4-H kids for helping keep Rolette County clean.  For more information on 4-H call Jo Gilje at 246-3427 or follow this link   http://www.ext.nodak.edu/4h/4-h.htm 

How can we encourage our alumni and others to come back to live and work and thrive in their hometown?  This was the same question Patti Knobbe and the rest of the folks who formed the Norfolk Area Recuiters of Norfolk, Nebraska asked themselves and came up with a good answer:  Recruit! Recruit! Recruit! They have developed a recruiting program that has worked very well for their area, and Patti was in Rolette April 9 to present to all who gathered at the Valle Lutheran Church, what they did and how they did it.   We all went home not only with good food in our tummys–prepared by the Rolette Dollars for Scholars–but with good food for thought.  Through her presenation we learned several ways to begin a “Back to North Dakota” recruiting program in all our hometowns. 

It has been a few years now since Pat Beaver came up with the idea of having a book exchange in the Rolette Mall. It has been well received by the community and the people in the area. Four and sometimes five shelves of books are available free to the public for the taking. The books range from westerns, to thrillers, romances alnd everything in between. Even Reader’s Digest books if that lifts your kite. Just leave one or two or take one or two. Everyone is welcome and the books have been enjoyed by all ages. Stop by during mall hours and join in the fun.

The American Legion Thursday nite bingo is getting out of hand.  The pot is big and so is the crowd. They need people to be floor walkers, help with clean up,  bingo card sales, and the concession stand. The Legion does so much for the veterans and their families and not to mention how much they support our students.  If you are free for the next thursday and want to help. Please contact Gordy Boucher; lets help them have a great great bingo nite for all they have done for us; our community and our country.

How do you teach the children about money?  This is hard to begin with but if you have poor management skills to begin with it is even harder.  This Horizons group, thanks to the efforts of Janie Jung, Pat Beaver and the local school are going to tackle this problem.  Janie found the game “Cash Flow” and brought it to the director asking the group to purchase it and she would teach it to the children.  Pat Beaver volunteered her family to be the guinea pigs over Easter weekend; and thank goodness she did. The game is more involved then the advertisements lead you to believe.  Janie then took the game is and hooking up with the 21st century/ boys and girls club to “play” the game after-school at the school.  This will give the kids a snack, and Janie a stipend to play it with them. So all are happy so far! We will keep you posted.  I, personally, plan on playing a few rounds to try and pick up some better habits.   May I will be the next millionaire in Rolette…… wait maybe I would be the first….Ha! Ha!

The e-bay class at the Rolette Technology center was a great success.  Dan from Bowbells was a great teacher with real eBay experience.  He show how to research items to set the right price, add an item to sell on eBay with a good picture and how to use paypal and ship the item that was sold.  So much useful information.  This class taught students how to make a little extra money selling items.  Items sold were new and old, big and small, expensive and cheap.  Congratulations to the students for learning a new skill that they can pass along to others.  Thank you to Dan for bringing all of his experience to Rolette and sharing it.  It would not have been possible without the efforts of Karen Armstrong who organized the class.eBay

Its hard to know who is working harder  during this session of Leadership Plenty; the instructors or the students.  With a smaller groupof people involved, the dynamics are much different…and all are working their brains hard.  We are entering the 4th session; which we have a meal plan for. Hopefully the food will revitalize our tired brains.  See we are working hard!

A group of concerned citizens in the Rolette community is taking it upon themselves to remodel the memorial halls kitchen.  This is being done to increase use of the facility.  It is also being done with the questionable blessing of the American Legion Post, the auxiliary, the city and the county commissioners. We do have the full support of RADA and they are our parent organization.  Just to get permission to start this project has been strange.  The county owns the building, the city pays all the bills, and the legion rents it!  Crazy how life evolves.  Gordy has given us his blessing although he doesn’t know why we would want to start this without any money.  The city and the county also give us their blessings and blessing alone.   Although the city offered their tax id number for us; so they are our fiscal agent.  The thought process has boiled down to getting actual costs and estimates.  Now the process of finding the right grant for the right project begins.  Therefore we are calling ourselves the “Kitchen Nightmare”.  Not to be confused with the popular show that can be found at http://www.fox.com/kitchennightmares/.  Keep checking back for more info. and progress.  I am sure there will be a time when your help will be needed.

Rolette Art Students have 20 chosen from the 21^st Annual Student Art Show in Cando. We are excited to announce these winners chosen for the ND State Student Art Show 2008 in Minot, April 15-May 1.  These students are: Kindergarten: Connor Beck Grade 1: Chelsie Mattson, Harrison Snell, Everett Brown, Connor Grenier, Brooklyn Kavlie Grade 2: Kinze Martinson, Katelyn Pigeon    Grade 3: Kacey Mongeon, Lucas Johnson Grade 4: David Arstein, Bryce Leonard, Sonje Gilje, Lexi Wittmeyer Grade 5: Izak Snell, Clay Entzi, Delaney SelvigGrade 6: Cheriah Arpan, Michelle Biberdorf Grade 12: Samantha Pigeon, Tracy MortensonCongratulations to these students for their fine achievement!!! You may view their work at the Taube Museum downtown Minot.(838-4445) April 15 -May 1.  Both shows are free and open to the public.