Harlowton, MT

Through a partnership between the Wheatland County Sheriff’s Office and Horizon’s , there will be two youth representatives at this year’s 10^th National UDETC Leadership Conference.  The conference offers an adult track and a youth track.  The Sheriff’s Office sends two adult representatives each year as part of an Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws grant.  The Sheriff’s Office was only going to be able to send one youth to this year’s event, but through the partnership, now the community will benefit from two attending.  This year’s conference is being held in Nashville, Tennessee.

The two youth will participate in networking and educational opportunities.  The youth track is centered around developing and maintaining youth run programs to help reduce underage drinking.  The youth are given assignments and topics to speak on.  The program assists in developing youth in the areas of public speaking and leadership.  This aids a community by providing training to already strong youth in successful ways of implementing programs.  The first youth networking event will be on Wednesday, August 20^th, this event will introduce the youth participants to what is expected of them, how the conference is organized and a general social event.  Over the next three days, the youth will be kept busy from nine-o’clock in the morning until nine-o’clock at night.  The information that is crammed into these days can help leaders of tomorrow, be leaders today.

Adult Mentors for Youth with Community Service 

Coleen Smith volunteered to be chair for the committee working on designing a program to find adult mentors to partner with at risk youth.  She has already laid the foundation for the program and is ready to begin accepting volunteers.  This program would partner a willing, qualified adult with a youth who has received community service and is in need of additional support to complete their community service hours.  The adults will assist the youth by providing support and coaching to the youth while they are completing their sentence.  Many at risk youth lack the family support needed to help them successfully complete their community service hours and this program will assist them in fulfilling their requirements, as well as create a connection with an adult in the community who cares about the youth and will support them in making positive choices in the future.

When Harlowton English students finished reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin, their teacher challenged them to pay-it-forward by thinking of something they could do to improve someone else’s life. She taught them that sometimes we make the world better—not by confronting terrorists or building schools on the other side of the world—but by simply being who we are. They were asked to write an essay describing what action they chose, what effect it had on the receiver and what effect it had on them. Following are some of the statements made by students about what they learned from helping someone else.

 “There are very few things that produce more meaning than a simple task aimed to help out a neighbor or friend.”

“I felt so light hearted. It made me feel good to know that I was giving something that could help comfort a child.”

“I realized that no matter the time or money I am spending…I am benefited from it.”

“Sometimes you do something so much you don’t even consider it a good deed.”

 “Even though I was tired after the work was done, I was very satisfied with myself. I had done a good turn for the town that has been so good to me.”

“I guess it is hard to say why I did what I did…I didn’t acknowledge the favor I was doing as a good deed until I realized the impact it had on her.”

“It put a smile on my face and made me realize I live a privileged life with people who love and care for me.”

 “We talked about how helping someone gave us a better feeling of accomplishment than when we did something for ourselves. I could not help but wonder: what would the world be like if everyone did something nice for some else every day?”

Our Town Hall Meeting on Underage Drinking

 Harlowton is one of 1600 communities nationwide to receive a $500 grant to hold town hall meetings on underage drinking. Around 100 Harlowton young people, public officials, parents, community leaders and organizations in health, education, law enforcement, highway safety, and business met at Hillcrest Elementary on Wednesday, March 19th to talk about the local problem of underage drinking. The town hall meeting was held to raise awareness of the dangers of underage drinking, and steps that parents, community leaders and concerned citizens can take to combat and prevent it. Using a survey developed and filled out by Harlowton junior high and high school students, small groups discussed the following questions: Is there a problem with underage drinking in Harlowton and what does it look like?  Why is there underage drinking in Harlowton? And what could be done to address the issue?            Eight groups unanimously decided that underage drinking is a problem in Harlo and suggested many possible reasons. Groups also suggested several distinct areas where Harlowton residents can make a difference in the local use of alcohol. First, all adults need to set a better example for youth by not drinking or drinking responsibly themselves. Second, parents need to know what their children are doing, repeatedly let kids know that drinking is not acceptable, and make sure there are plenty of alcohol-free activities available for their children. Third, the community needs to reduce advertising of alcohol products, increase early alcohol and drug education, and change the culture of acceptance of underage drinking, which includes equal punishment for anyone who breaks the law. The community needs to send a clear and strong message through their behavior and their legal system that underage drinking will not be tolerated. Detailed results of group discussion and information about future meetings can be found at the local web address: harlowton.communityblogs.us.       Harlowton’s second Town Hall Meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 2^nd at 7 p.m. at Hillcrest.  Everyone who is concerned about this problem is encouraged to participate in making Harlowton a safer and healthier community for our children.

In the fast pace of day to day activity it is some times hard to keep up, especially with the happening of the community in which we call home. The Midtown Market has just recently placed a community bulletin board in their entry way to help keep every one informed and intouch. The bulletin board will be used to post upcoming events, meeting, notices, etc. So stop by and what’s happening or post your own items so we can all stay connected as a community.

During Holiday vacation, the elementary students at Hillcrest are working on Paying it Forward projects around the community.  They are on the look out for things they can do to help out in their community!  Maybe shovel snow before sledding, or visiting a neighbor or someone in the nursing home.  It will be exciting to see all that they accomplished when break is over and they turn in their Mo-mentum cards.  Lets all keep the Mo-mentum going in Harlowton.

Harlowton is pleased to have recruited a new V.I.S.T.A, which is a Volunteer In Service To America. A V.I.S.T.A’s responsibility is to aide in areas that are needed around a community. The program is funded by Horizon’s Montana Community Foundation, Harlowton High School, Wheatland Memorial Hospital, and Wheatland County. The new V.I.S.T.A will be working in the field of wellness and health.

Lea comes to us from California where she graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbra. She is very excited to work with all the people in this community, she is here to listen and get involved, to be a service to the people. Lea wants to make connections and reach out to everyone to activate the ideas and goals that people see happening in the community. Her main goal is to uncover the gifts that she knows every person has. Lea is ready to get involved and meet the members of this community.