Anamoose, ND

I attended an excellent workshop, Rural Community Forum, yesterday at Bismarck at the Heritage Center.  Many communities shared their stories about reusing school buildings, community operated businesses, using local foods & starting community endowment funds.  Annette Schilling, ND Tourism, also talked on Learned Based Vacations. 

The facilitator, Cher Hersrud, in introducing the Community Foundation Funds topic, stated “If I ruled the world, every town in ND would have one”.   Patricia Bowen, Ellendale, stated “People can give back to their communities”.    This topic was of great interest to me since we just started an Anamoose Area Community Fund.   We have over $13,000 so far. 

    Several city residents gathered together at the future home of Katie & Zach Fitzgerald and children, to plant a garden as a surprise, when they arrive in Anamoose in July.  Katie loves gardening but just had a baby girl in Jamestown recently (in fact after the garden was planted).  Seeds and labor were donated by these caring people of Anamoose.  I’ve been waiting for pictures of the actual action but have not received them to date - (they will be added if I get them as I didn’t have my camera with me).  The picture is of the planted plot waiting for the little seeds to sprout.

Twelve ladies made the glass decorated block lights as shown ( click on picture to make larger).  As you can see there were as many variations as there were ladies making them.  Mardelle Helm was craft leader this month.  Craft classes are offered monthly to anyone interested, for the cost of materials.

   Participants at the first class were Kathy Rademacher, Marlene Whitaker, Arla Mae Vanette, Phyllis Zimmerman, Janice Buchholtz, Angie Kesler, Barb Martin and Lois Rott.    Participants at the make up class were Lillian Schmidt, Leela Sprenger and Alyce Heer.                                                                                                                          

Usually when I go to Minot I am lucky if I see a couple of people that I know, but yesterday at the annual Verendrye meeting there were many people from Anamoose and other area communities.  Maybe the free meal and a chance to win $3000 attracts us!  I didn’t win the money, and nobody won the $3000 either. 

They had many interesting vendors, with four from our Anamoose area, and one from McHenry County.  This is a good way to promote our small businesses & our county.  Booths pictured are: 1.  Deb Reinowski-Park Lane jewelry  2.  Keith Reinowski-Midwest Graphics & Signs. Also Angie Mack, Brenda Kenney, & Kristin Reinowski.  3.  Jackie Fix & Brad Mincher-Sage Hill Bed & Breakfast  4.  Mabel Forschen-Home made gifts & Watkins.  5.  Maria Effertz Hanson-McHenry County   Also there were people there like Shirley & Bill Nitz who were there just to enjoy the food, etc. 

Yes, Joe Moose is patiently waiting for his marriage to Ana-Lope on Saturday, June 28th.  The Ana-Day committee met last night for final plans for the wedding when Ana will join Joe on the Welcome sign, and change her name to Ana-Moose. 

The program will start at 3pm in the Anamoose Park.  Rev Danelle Olson is the MC.  The men’s Centennial group will sing; Helen Nolden, Eleanore Dossenko, and Senator Ryan Taylor will speak.  Richard Derrickson will read a poem about Anamoose and the wedding that was written by his wife, Judy.  A mock wedding will be held after the program.  The wedding party consists of: Minister: Maurie Becker, Bride: Ron Cartwright, Groom: Barb Martin, Bridesmaid: LeRoy Becker, Best Man: Judy Derrickson, Flower Girl: Doug Rademacker, and Ring Bearer: Susie Littrel.  Following the wedding a free picnic meal will be served along with wedding cake and moose nugget favors.  You will be able to have a photo shoot with the wedding couple, or Joe and Ana cutouts in the park for a small fee.  There will be a Moose Shoe Contest and some games for kids. 

Plan to join us for the wedding Saturday, June 28th. 

First picture: around the table from left to right-Maurie Becker, Pam Heim (behind),LeRoy Becker (trying on antler), Doug Rademacker, Fern Reinowski, Judy Derrickson, Richard Derrickson, Susie Litrell, Phyllis Zimmerman(behind), and Bonnie Dockter. 

      The first night of the Farmer’s Market brought vendors and customers to the Anamoose park shelter.  A wide variety of items were for sale: fresh eggs, homemade noodles, cookies, handicrafts, painted mailboxes, jewelry, canned fruits and vegetables and fresh rhubarb to name a few items.  I left with arms full and a promise to be back next week!  Vendors present this week were: Rosemary Vollmer, Wayne Vanette, Gertie and Alma Rau, Mabel Forschen and Gladys Schnase.  It will be held every Monday from 6 PM to 8 PM - come out and get something fresh, homemade and home grown.  Contact Farmers Market Chairman - Bonnie Docktor @ 465-3088 for information.

Another of our Horizon goals has come about.  Woody and Kathy Selzler purchased land next to them that was called “the stockyards”.  They have been getting rid of old buildings and trees, and put part of the land into a community garden.  Anamoose area residents can put in a garden at no cost.  USDA is offering free seeds for a study on new varieties.  If anyone is interested please contact Bonnie Dockter at 465-3088. 

As you drive down main street in Anamoose you can see the new Anamoose Area Community Fund sign.  Dennis Zimmerman made the sign and painted the background.  Phyllis Zimmerman and Pam Heim worked on the wording, and Pam spent hours on her hands and knees painting the design.  Then Joe Weninger and Dennis dug the post holes and put the sign in place.  It was definitely a group effort!

Several Anamoose Horizon Board members brought out their paint brushes today and brightened up the front of the former grocery store that now stands vacant waiting for a new tenant.  Members on the painting team were: Alyce Heer, Janice Buchholz, Joe Weninger, Bonnie Dockter and Mardelle Helm.  One Anamoose resident, Rudy Wohl, came to check out the job while the work was being done.  Sorry Bonnie - bad photographer!

The Anamoose Memorial Day Program, to honor the Veterans, was well attended.  The Memorial Address was presented by Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Sells from the Minot Air Force Base.  Rachael Rott and Kaya Engen  sang “Song for the Unsung Hero”  and “Sleep Soldier Boy” and the honor guard marched to the City Park where flags flew at half mask and the gun shots were heard as well as the taps that were played by Andrew Rott and Brandon Rudnick.  This was followed with a delicious potluck lunch at the Oswald Wohl VFW Post #6931.

Saturday evening 5/17/08, Anamoose High School celebrated their commencement with 8 graduates.  As usual, it was a beautiful ceremony.  It has been a tradition for many years that the graduating class invites the 50 year graduates.  Eleven members ( and some of the spouses) of the class of 1958 participated.  They gathered at the senior center for reacquainting, remembering and conversation, had a delicious meal at the Anamoose Cafe prepared by Connie Rudnick, and then on to graduation.  After the ceremony all alumni were invited back to the senior center for cake, coffee and punch.   

Thank you graduating seniors for remembering us ( I, too, have been there and done that) on your special night.  It also brings back and gives us memories we will forever cherish.  

Pictured below are sitting from left to right, Dorothy Berndt Leier, Rose Hornbacher, Frances Lemer Lageson, Gilbert Gienger and Ramona Buxa Bender.    Standing are, Eileen Wick, James Essig, Vernon Wick, Dalton Kohlman, Terry Roe and Harold Spletto.

Mardelle Helm just spent last week in Fargo taking a course to become a Parish Nurse.  She was sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and St Francis Xavier Altar Society.  A Parish Nurse is a melding of nursing and ministry.  She ministers wholistically to individuals and families, in and through a faith community, using her health education and spiritual maturity to promote wellness of body, mind and spirit. 

The functions of a Parish Nurse are:  1.  Integrator of faith and health  2.  Health educator   3.  Personal health counselor  4.  Referral agent   5.  Trainer of volunteers       6. Developer of support groups  7.  Health advocate.  She is not expected to provide home health-care nursing.  When such care is needed, she makes the appropriate referral to a community agency. 

Mardelle will be serving St Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Anamoose, St Margaret Mary Catholic Church at Drake, and Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Orrin.  She already has been helping give communion to shut-ins. 

That’s what we need to get our Anamoose Area Foundation Fund moving. The Foundation concept is simple-to create a fund where gifts from many people are pooled together and professionally handled through the ND Community Foundation.  Each year the income will be used to fund projects in the community.  Through a matching grant program in the ND Community Foundation  we need to collect $25,000 in the first year, and the ND Community Foundation adds $5,000.  In subsequent years, the ND Foundation will match dollar for dollar up to $10,000, with a bonus if we can raise $25,000.

To start, we are using the $10,000 that we will receive at the end of June for our 18 month committment to the Horizons Leadership program.  We have received over $7,000 from businesses and individuals, so we have less than $8,000 to go to reach our goal for the year.  We have mailed out letters to Anamoose area people and businesses, and made some personal contacts.  This week we are mailing out letters to all alumni that graduated before 1971. 

Dennis Zimmerman and Bill Goodwin will be putting up a thermometer on Main St. that will keep track of our Foundation Fund.  Pam Heim is our artist for the project. . 

     A small group of crafters met at the Anamoose Senior Citizens Center today for the April Craft’s Class.  The ladies made a photo display using 6 of their personal photos and hanging them on fishing line and chipboard from a 7″ wire ornament hanger.  Participants this month were: Leela Springer, Marlene Whitaker and Kathy Rademacher.  Instructor was Mardi Helm.  Classes are open to everyone and are held monthly.

The city of Anamoose is happy to announce the wedding of Ana and Joe on June 28th, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. at the city park.  Ana is at last joining Joe on the welcoming billboard as you come into town.    A program is planned with speakers, music, poetry, pictures  in the park, mock wedding and a free catered supper.  Shirts and buttons will be sold and the proceeds will go to the Anamoose endowment fund.  We certainly hope that you will mark this day on your calendar and help us celebrate  this great event.

EVERYONE WELCOME!!!!!

I attended the Grant Writing seminar at Devils Lake yesterday.  Lynette Krenelka from UND did an excellent job in explaining the difficult process of grant writing.  She gave us a big fat folder for our evening reading enjoyment.  After the initial planning, the next step (and the hardest) is to find a company that gives grants that fit our needs.

Moose Wally from Walhalla was at the meeting.  At least I know there was someone else there that didn’t have a clue before Wednesday on how to write a grant.  Liann Zeller, Walhalla, said they are going to have to bring Wally to Anamoose June 28th when Joe and Ana-moose are getting married and maybe Wally can find a girlfriend here.  If you have any girl-moose friends please let me know so I can line up a little match making at the wedding. 

Pictured are:  Grant writing class, Towner County at Grant Writing class, Luann & Wally, Dr. Lynette Krenelka & Wally, myself & Wally

Janice Buchholz & I discovered that Anamoose is not the only community with housing concerns.  There were many communities represented at the Housing meeting in Steele yesterday.  It was interesting to listen to the towns tell of their housing situations.  Hazelton had advertised they would give 2 free lots & a cash incentive to people coming to live there.  They got 500 calls!  People told them “we want out of the city-the crime, the cost”.  If any community needs help with housing they should contact: Jolene Kline, 701-328-8072, or 1-800-292-8621 or email her at jkline@ndhfa.org

In Anamoose right now we have some very nice affordable homes for sale.  The ads for them are on the Anamoose web site at http://www.anamoose.com/  You can email aheer@gondtc.com  for more information on homes.  Pictured is 5 of the 7 homes that I know of that are for sale.

Pictured- Back- Kari Weninger, Kellie Sieg, Brianne Johnson
Front- Rachel Rott, Ashley Weninger, Jessica Rott
On Saturday April 5 the Drake-Anamoose High School choir attended the regional music festival in Minot. This festival is very large with many Class B schools throughout North Dakota attending. Only about 1 of 5 songs are allowed to star to go to the State Festival. Two Anamoose Girl’s pieces did star, one being a small group song and the other a duet which both will be going to state on May 3 in Minot.

We are lucky in Anamoose to have a wide age spectrum in our bloggers.  Kaya and Brianne know what is going on with the school and young people activities.  Mardi, Phyllis and I are involved in many Anamoose organizations and activities. 

Pictured are:  Brianne Johnson, Kaya Engen, Phyllis Zimmerman, Alyce Heer and Mardi Helm. 

We had our informational public meeting Saturday on Home Rule.  Jerry Hjelmstad of the League of Cities explained to us how we would benefit from home rule.  He told us that 1/3rd of the ND communities now have home rule and 4 are in the process of setting it up.  The advantages of home rule are: 1.  Flexibility. 2.  More power for us community members as we can refer and initiate petitions.  3.  The city government will have the ability to add a sales tax.  One hundred twenty ND communities now have sales tax.  4.  The city government can combine mills and put them where needed. 

We will be voting on home rule at the regular election on June 10th.  Home rule is one of our goals in our strategic plan. 

Janice Buchholz and I attended a tourism conference in Cooperstown last week.  I just got a new computer so I am finally able to blog on the conference.  Annette Schilling, ND Tourism Dept, told us that ND tourism brings in 3.8 billion dollars.  The average visitor is 41 years old with 64% married & 1/2 are college graduates.  I just heard on TV that a college graduate makes one million dollars more in his life time, so over 1/2 of the tourists have a good income.  Later we learned from Sara Otte Coleman, Director, ND Dept. of Tourism, (pictured below) that we would be paying $636 more in taxes if not for tourism.  For every $1 spent on tourism, we get back $1.35.  ND is promoting the “Legendary theme”. 

Web sites are important to attract tourists.  Fifty two % of the visitors book on the Internet and only 4% book with travel agents. 

Ben Klipfel, UND Marketing Director, gave an excellent talk on Innovative Marketing.  He stressed “know thy community” and know what you are good at.  One place in Alaska charged $5000 a night for a shack to watch the northern lights and people were very willing to pay that amount.  One lady in the audience told how she heard that they were promoting that Japanese children conceived under the northern lights are smarter.  If only we could think of a good promotion like that in Anamoose. 

Tuesday I took this picture of Jonathan Asmus who lived in Anamoose from 1960 to 1957.  He is a typical visitor who comes back to visit friends or family.  Jonathan was on his way to serve as a pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in West Bank, BC. 

Donna Anderson, our facilitator for the Horizons program, met with us yesterday.  We went through our Strategic Plan (again !) from start to finish, which is 18 pages of projects. 

We have accomplished many things, such as:  more meals on Sundays, a Welcome package for people moving into Anamoose, a Farmer’s Market planned to start in June, empty lots and homes identified and listed, a blog site set us and Anamoose web site continued, 12 people took an Excel Computer class, people informed of happenings in Anamoose by a monthly calendar, Christmas letter sent out that promoted Anamoose, Ana-Day planned for Saturday, June 28th, Blood Pressure Clinics being held once  month at the Anamoose Senior Center, Home Rule Charter set up ready for voting on in June, and an Anamoose Foundation Fund started with our money from Horizons.  We are working on many more projects that hopefully I will be able to blog on in the future. 

Pictured are Mardell Helm, Donna Anderson, Dennis Zimmerman, Alyce Heer, and Shirley Nitz. 

The Anamoose Speech Team attended the Harvey High School JH Speech meet on Tuesday, March, 18. All of the team members did an excellent job in placing. So well, in fact, that the team placed second overall. The team is coached by Corinne Engen.

We started out Sunday evening at the Lutheran Church annual potato supper with potatoes, toppings, salads and bars.  From there we went to the Firemen’s annual Turkey/Ham Bingo at the VFW Hall.  As if we weren’t full enough we had to have ice cream sundies and popcorn.  They have lots of bingo prizes, but I wasn’t one of the lucky ones. 

Pictures are ticket takers: Steve Heim, David Gienger, and Joe Weninger.  Picture 2 shows the ice cream and popcorn counter, and in the third picture Vernon Heer, Dorothy Thomssen, Angie Kesler and Emanuel Kesler are in the front of the large crowd.  Angie was one of the lucky winners and won both a turkey and a ham. 

Even though there is still snow on the ground we are thinking of gardening.  As a result of the Horizon Program a Farmers Market will be started June 1st.  It will be in the Anamoose Park from 6 to 8 pm every Monday evening.  So if you are interested in selling homemade crafts, baked goods, or fresh fruit and vegetables contact Bonnie at 465-3088 or email her at bonniedockter@yahoo.com  Or you can plan to come to buy a little of everything and visit with friends.  Let the kids play at the playground while you shop.  We hope to make this a fun evening out for everyone.