Pine City, MN

Angel Food is a non-profit, non-denominational food program dedicated to providing food assistance to families in 43 states across America. Every month Angel Food provides boxes of high quality, cost effective food items at over half off grocery store prices. Angel Food is open to everyone! There are no applciations or pre-qualifiers and no limit to the number of food boxes purchased.

Order ONLINE at: www.angelfoodministries.com

Order IN PERSON at: Pregnancy Resource Center, 315 Main Street S, Suite 20. MWTH 10am - 4pm

Order DEADLINE: Sunday, September 19th

Order PICK-UP: Saturday, September 25th from 10am - Noon at the Pregnancy Resource Center

For many of you, the weekend will begin tomorrow and extend through Monday’s holiday, so I wanted to be sure to share information about what’s happening in the neighborhood this holiday weekend!

Today through September 6th: Wild rice at the North West Company Fur Post. Learn about wild rice and the steps involoved in harvesting, parching treading and winnowing of this important food source. Daily demonstrations Thursday through Monday. Call 320-629-6356 for more details.

Friday, September 3 & Saturday, September 4: Visit the Farmer’s Market in the Park from 11am - 1pm each day. Fresh fruits, flowers and vegetables are available to purchase alon with other homegrown or homemade items. There are always great finds at the Market!

Friday, September 3 - Sunday, September 5: Pine City PRCA Championship Rodeo comes to Rock Creek this weeknd. The rodeo begins at 6PM on both Saturday and Sunday nights. Rodeo tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for kids. Come for the rodeo and stay for live music, dancing and more. New this year, Friday night is Amateur Night. See Amateur and Mechanical Bull riding, a dance, and mutton busting tryouts.

Sunday, September 5: Stoffel Family Museum will be open for visitors from Noon to 4PM. The museum is housed in a refurbished 1900s log barn and features family collectibles, pictures, historical documents & household and farming paraphernalia from the early 20th century. The admission to the museum is FREE! This is the final chance this summer to see the Stoffel Museum.

The Pine City Yellow Ribbon Committee is hosting a meeting on September 2nd at 5pm to plan the community’s support for our military and for Master Sergeant Daniel Fedder (USMC) who was killed in Afghanistan on Aug 27th. This meeting will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall (315 Main St S).

Please show your support for our men and women of the military by attending this important meeting and learning what we as a community can do to show our support. You may also email Jessica Paulson at yellowribbonpc@yahoo.com for more information.

Perhaps you or someone you know needed assistance with getting school supplies for a child this year.  That help was given to those students soon to be attending their first day of school at a recent school supply giveaway.

All of the supplies needed for a succeessful school year ahead were given away at the First Presbyterian Church Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 via a partnership of churches throughout the Pine County area, assisted by the Pine City Horizon’s Program.  There were no income guidelines or verification forms necessary…if a child was in need, supplies were readily available.

For more information about the event, contact Judy at (320) 629-1149.

Looking for a way to jump start your Horizons groups after a long, hot summer?  Sat., Sept. 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Horizons will host a regional training workshop open to any Horizons community member at the North West Company Fur Post.  Come pick up new ideas and strategies to aid in your local Horizons projects.

The program is designed specifically for Horizons communities and will complement the work already begun by communities in the areas of leadership development and poverty reduction.  Workshop programming includes “Preserve, Change, Create: What’s on Your Horizon?” from the Leadership and Civic Engagement team and a showcase of Community Economics programs geared at strengthening Minnesota’s local economies through informed community decisions.

Peer learning opportunities will also allow communities to give updates on their Horizons projects—share your successful strategies with others.  Last, we’ll introduce new opportunities available for Horizons communities in the upcoming year.  The workshops are FREE.  Breakfast, lunch, and learning materials will be provided.  Hotel rooms will be available for those traveling over two hours to the workshop site.

Various Workshop Locations

• Starbuck: Thursday, Sept 16, 8:30am-5:30pm @ Community Center Starbuck, MN
• Chisholm: Friday, Sept 18, 8:30am-5:30pm @ Valentini’s 31 West Lake Street, Chisholm, MN 55719
• Callaway: Monday, Sept 20, 8:30am-5:30pm @ Maplelag Resort 3051 Maplelag Road, Callaway, MN 56521
• New York Mills: Tuesday Sept 21, 8:30am- 5:30pm@ City Hall 28 W Centennial 84 Dr, New York Mills, MN 56567
• St. James: Wednesday, Sept 22, 8:30am-5:30pm @ First Presbyterian Church 706 3rd Avenue South, St James, MN 56081-1745
• Pine City: Saturday, Sept 25, 8:30am-5:30pm @ NW Co. Fur Post

Agenda (tentative)

        8:30am, Breakfast
8:45am, Welcome and Introductions
9am-12pm, “Preserve, Change, Create: What’s on Your Horizon?”
12-2pm, Peer Learning
2pm, Break
2:30-5:30pm, Community Economics Showcase

Come for all or part of the day as your schedule and interest allow!

Register
Click here to register. Alternately, contact 866-407-4906.

The Pine City Schools Music Department is currently registering new fifth and sixth grade students for band.  Lessons are available free to all students at Pine City Elementary and St. Mary’s School.  Parents of home school students should call to learn about availability or to schedule testing.

Registration is Thursday, September 16 from 2:45 to 6:30pm at Pine City Elementary.  At this time you can schedule lessons and learn more about renting an instrument.  If you are unable to attend registration, contact director Brad Mariska by emailing bmariska@pinecity.k12.mn.us or calling 320-629-4129.  Parents should not purchase an instrument before the registration date.

Nearly 350 students in grades 5-12 played in the band program last year, when Pine City was named one of the “Best Communities for Music Education in America” by the NAMM Foundation.

The Braham Area Community Center Task Force has been working hard to raise funds and awareness about their goal to build a community center in Braham. This task force has been very successful in rallying the community around this project.

Let’s help our neighbors reach their goal by voting for this project at the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi will donate funds to the top vote getters to help them build their dreams of helping and bettering their communities. You may vote for the Braham Area Community Center by visiting the Pepsi Refresh Project and typing the word “Braham” into the search bar. You may also learn more about the community center in Braham by visiting www.brahamcenter.org.

Operation Community Connect is a multi-organization event that provides goods and service information to those in need. Last years event served 283 individuals with items like school supplies, hats, socks, mittens, coats, food and valuable information about local assistance organizations.

For 2010, this event will be hosted in Pine City and is being chaired by Pine City Horizons member, Wendy Johnson. If you or your organization would like to continue to be involved with OCC or would like to become involved for the first time, please make note of the following opportunity.

On Thursday, August 26th, an informational meeting will be held at 5:30 at the Pine City Chamber of Commerce office at City Hall (315 Main St S). Anyone interested in helping this great cause should plan on attending to learn more about volunteering, gathering donations or any other efforts to assist this effort.

You may also contact Wendy at aha.wendy@yahoo.com or phone her at 651.442.5880

For over one year we’ve been talking about implementing the Voices of Rural Minnesota program. We are happy to say that the application materials are available and the program will launch this fall!

Purpose Statement

The Voices of Rural Minnesota program seeks to increase awareness of the rural and tribal experience by educating key stakeholders on the realities of small rural and tribal communities through storytelling and information dissemination.

Program Goals

The Voices of Rural Minnesota Program will engage a group of up to 30 individuals from across Minnesota to:

1. Identify and develop individual public presentation skills
2. Recruit and train a diverse group of speakers representing all regions of MN
3. Provide speakers with accurate information to use to move audiences to action
4. Educate, motivate, and empower community members to play a larger role in community issues
5. Identify and collaborate with partners to identify and research impact of current policies on rural issues
6. Identify venues for speaking engagements
7. Create powerful public presentations that highlight life in small rural communities
8. Create and implement evaluation processes to access impact of program

Please forward this post and the attached application materials to anyone you think would be a good candidate.

Voices of Rural Minnesota Application Packet