Harlowton, MT

Excitement, curiosity and exploration all took place at Harlowton Community Garden this past Thursday, as forty-three children from the H.A.P.Y. after school program made their way from Hillcrest Elementary to the community garden. They snacked on fresh picked cauliflower and with sounds of “ummm, that’s good,” more children asked for a taste. By the time we arrived at the garden, the bowl was nearly emptied of two large cauliflower heads.

Everyone had a chance to view, smell, pick, and taste the numerous vegetables and herbs that were ready for harvest. As the children finished their visit, they were served zucchini bread made with fresh zucchini from the garden. The day was a huge success. Little was left to be harvested after the visit, but the remainder was picked, washed and taken to the Wheatland Memorial Nursing home and made into relish trays to be enjoyed by the residents.

Our goal is Fall 2008 Preschool Enrollment

Wheatland Memorial Hospital, Harlowton Schools and Central Montana Head Start are working on a plan to bring Head Start to Wheatland County.  The group is working diligently for a fall 2008 enrollment.  Hillcrest Elementary is working on finding a space, Wheatland Memorial Healthcare is working to provide the healthcare needs and Head Start will provide the teacher for the preschool.  Together we can make sure that all the preschool age children in Wheatland County have access to preschool and get off on the best foot!

Head Start is a comprehensive child development program that has served low-income families since 1965.  These child-focused programs serve children birth to 5 years of age, pregnant women, and their families with the goal of increasing school readiness of children from low-income families.  Head Start provides a range of individualized services in the areas of education and early childhood development; medical, dental, and mental health; nutrition; and parent involvement which are responsive and appropriate to each child’s and family’s developmental, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage and experience. 

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.

Larry Steuben, owner of Snowy Mountain Trading Post, has generously provided the community of Harlowton with a plot of land to cultivate into a garden that will serve a diverse group of the town.

Through use of the local newspaper, word of mouth, posters on community bulletin boards, windows of local businesses and fliers distributed within neighborhoods, word is spreading about the Harlowton’s Community Garden. There will be weekly activities revolving around the garden throughout the summer, starting on Thursday, July 10 at 7:15pm. The theme of the first activity will be rhubarb,  involving an educational piece on the dangers of ingesting the leaf, what rhubarb tastes like fresh from the garden and a number of ways to prepare rhubarb. A sampling of prepared recipes will be enjoyed by all that attend.

Groups and individuals have come forward to participate in the growth of the garden, such as H.A.P.Y. (Harlowton Advantage Program for Youth) who came to plant the garden with over 40 youth in attendance. Some of these children had never worked in a garden. Questions arise as the children see me in their neighborhoods; “are the plants growing yet?” or “when can we eat the tomatoes?” The concept of food growing out of the ground is new to many of Harlowton’s youth.

Senior citizens are enjoying participating in the community garden with such comments as: “we have moved to a home that has no space for a garden”, “we enjoy being outdoors and being useful” or something as simple as, “what a wonderful idea”.

Volunteers have come forward from all walks of life represented in Harlowton, especially those who have never volunteered before. I imagine the list of helpers will continue to grow as does the needs and care of the garden.

The garden is built around the idea of growing a community and what better place to grow a community than around a garden.

Please join in making Harlowton’s Community Garden a place where community grows together and learns!

Laughing Yoga has come to Harlowton through a partnership with the Wheatland Memorial Healthcare, Adult Education and Hillcrest Elementary. Adrie Min, physical therapist at Wheatland Memorial, is leading participants through gentle breathing techniques, stretching exercises and laughter.

Classes are available, free, to anyone in the community and meet on a weekly basis, Tuesday evenings, 5:30-6:30pm at Hillcrest Elementary. With all the busy schedules of summertime, classes will resume when schools are back in session mid-August.

Laughing Yoga is something anyone can do!!! There are no age barriers, no socio-economic barriers, no barriers period. The only requirement is the ability to laugh. Classes have a contagious element and bring you back wanting more of that calm and peaceful sensation. Tools that enable us to relieve stresses from our everyday lives helps to create a more peaceful home life, interactions with others can begin with a smile and a sense of wellness is just a laugh away.

Please join in and bring a friend or two for Laughing Yoga classes with Adrie Min.

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.

    On behalf of the Harlowton Ministerial Association, I would like to thank the over fifty volunteers that distributed 8,316 pounds of food during the June 12 Thrivent Food Truck event co-sponsored by the Montana Food Bank Network.  These are amazing numbers, but what is more amazing and inspiring is the enthusiasm with which you went about the hard work of setting up, distributing, and cleaning up.  I believe that we positively affected the lives of 131 families (335 individuals) in our surrounding communities.  This event showed the need that exists outside of our local food bank operations.  The Montana Food Bank Network has graciously donated three more pallets of food.  This food will be distributed after the Harlowton Area Food Bank is relocated to the basement of the Federated Church, 15 1^st NW, Harlowton, sometime this summer.  We also appreciate the use of the ambulance barn – it was a perfect venue!    We are interested in your impressions of this event.  Please blog your comments reflecting upon the following questions:·        What was the best aspect of the distribution?·        What are your suggestions regarding the improvement of the distribution process?·        Were you satisfied with the event?·        Would you participate again?·        In what ways did you participate? Submitted by Pastor Mark

Your passwords are like your toothbursh, they should never be shared! 

That is only one of the many great tips that participants learned at the Internet Basics Training sponsored by Triangle Communications and Wheatland County Extension.  7 participants took part in the training that covered internet use, saftey, passwords, e-mailing and many other topics.  The training was free of charge and enjoyed by all, regardless of age or experience. 

Wheatland County receives $400.00 from a Triangle Communications through their Community Vitality Grant to begin their Drug and Alcohol Free Scholarship! 

The scholarship is a positive incentive for youth in the community to remain Drug and Alcohol Free through their school career and to serve on the Youth Team to promote a safe community.  The community is honoring their choice to serve as community leaders and positive examples.  When youth grow up in a culture tolerant of alcohol use, they are likely to continue that cycle. We are working promote a culture where the underage use of alcohol is not tolerated to prevent poverty and alcohol abuse later in life. If you would like to contribute toward the scholarship, please contact Jean Wallace with the partnership for youth or Mandie Reed with the Wheatland County Extension Office. 

Our second Town Hall Meeting on Underage Drinking was held on April 2, 2008 at Hillcrest Elementary School.  Over 45 people attended and broke into small groups to discuss possible action steps to help address the issue of underage drinking in our community.  Each group choose one item as a starting point for action and then presented that item to the group.  The Beginning Action Items are:

• Fundraising for Bowling Alley
• Hang Out for High School and kids under 21
• Panel Discussion or Listening Session with Law Enforcement/Judicial/City and County Attorney/ Youth Probation Officer
• Volunteer Mentoring to help youth complete community service
• Drug and Alcohol free Scholarship
• Survey Adults and Parents regarding Educational needs
• Increase Communication between Parents and Kids

Each member of the community signed up under the action item they felt they wanted to work on and each action has a volunteer chair person. If you are interested in serving on an action committee or have any questions, please contact the Extension Office at 632-4728.