REGIONAL—Girls everywhere have been meeting the Savior for 50 years.
It’s been happening a lot longer than that, but GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior) Girls’ Clubs have had a role for that long.
The organization, which is offered by local churches and other Christian organizations throughout the United States and Canada, was initiated in 1959 by Barb Vredevoogd, who was a member of the Christian Reformed Church in Wyoming, MI.
Vredevoogd, who had two young children, wanted a Bible program for young girls, so she took it upon herself to create Calvinettes, which over the years has morphed into GEMS Girls’ Club.
The relationship-building club created specifically for girls in grades 1-8 has its roots in the CRC denomination but now is nondenominational. GEMS is offered throughout N’West Iowa with programs in Hospers, Hull, Inwood, Ireton, Ocheyedan, Orange City, Sanborn, Sheldon, Sioux Center, Sibley, Rock Rapids and Rock Valley.
Birthday celebration
Paulette DeWeerd and Loretta Vander Streek of Rock Rapids have served as officers for the Northern Iowa coalition for three years — DeWeerd as the leadership trainer and Vander Streek as the area coordinator. Both also are counselors for the Rock Rapids chapter.
The two are ringing in the club’s birthday with a special celebration 1-4 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at the walking trails in Rock Valley.
With the theme, “Walk the Micah Road Experience,” club members will host a walkathon to collect pledges for individual chapters and to cover any expenses for putting on the event. A portion of the proceeds also will help GEMS Girls’ Clubs in Africa.
Three stations will be set up.
The first, “Doing Justice,” will shed light on poverty across the world, particularly for children in Africa who do not have the opportunity to go to school.
“Loving Mercy” will be the theme of the second station, where three plates will be set out — one with the typical American meal of steak and potatoes, one with the typical world meal of beans and rice and one with the typical poverty meal, an empty plate.
An activity also will allow participants to chose a story line for a fictional character named Sarah.
“You have to make all of her life choices for her,” DeWeerd said. “They are all really difficult questions, and the outcome turns out different each time you do it.”
The story has participants go through a series of choices, including whether Sarah should continue to stay at her job and remain below the poverty line or go back to school but have no money because she cannot work.
“It’s really an eye-opener,” Vander Streek said. “At least for me it was.”
The third station, “Walking Humbly with God,” is focused on recycling and other green-related activities.
At the station, participants also will be encouraged to paint words or encouraging pictures on a dining fly, which Vander Streek will send to the American Red Cross chapter in Sioux Falls, SD. The dining fly will be used as a place to eat under in disaster areas.
“Hopefully, they will never have to use it,” Vander Streek said.
Over the years
Vander Streek and DeWeerd have recognized changes throughout the club’s history.
When Vredevoogd formed the club in 1959, each member was required to wear a uniform consisting of a white top, blue bottoms and a badge scarf.
That has changed significantly.
“Now, we can’t get the girls to wear uniforms or their scarves,” Vander Streek said.
Instead, the Rock Rapids chapter has taken it upon itself to create its own uniforms each year by making colorful T-shirts.
“The girls have a lot more fun doing that,” Vander Streek said.
The organization still is biblical based, but DeWeerd said the club is quite a bit more exciting now — at least more so than when she was a member.
“They’ve definitely spiced it up a little bit,” she said.
While the club offers a different look at the Bible, it challenges the girls to break out of their comfort zones and try activities they normally wouldn’t. Similar to Girl Scouts, each member has the chance to earn many badges pertaining to God’s world, God’s Word and each girl’s talents and gifts.
“The badges require a lot of Bible work, but it’s not like they’re actually sitting down and reading it,” Vander Streek said. “They look up verses, and that adds a little more excitement.”
Through community and church involvement in the chapter, the girls who come from West Lyon, Central Lyon, Hull Christian and Ellsworth, MN, schools have the opportunity to express their creativity, become involved and interact with new people.
“It’s a place for them to come and feel like they belong,” DeWeerd said. “They don’t need to worry about not knowing enough about the Bible.”
BY THE NUMBERS:
23,000 GEMS Girls’ Club members in the United States and Canada.
5,200 women serving as counselors for GEMS in the United States and Canada.
800 clubs in the United States and Canada.
400 members in the Northern Iowa region.
18 clubs in the Northern Iowa region.
150 women serving as counselors in the Northern Iowa region.
15 girls who are members of the Rock Rapids GEMS Girls’ Club.
3 counselors who serve the Rock Rapids GEMS Girls’ Club.
This article appeared in the June 20, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sioux Center man creates out of wood
SIOUX CENTER—Art Kamerman’s yard is a magnet for animals.
Each day, passers-by can observe a flock of eagles perched next to the 86-year-old retired farmer’s front porch at his home in Sioux Center.
But, that’s not the only habitat Kamerman has attracted over the years.
Not a foot away from the eagles, a skunk family makes its home surrounding the bushes adorning the front of his residence.
Kamerman doesn’t mind in the least.
In fact, he put them there.
About 20 years ago, Kamerman partially retired from farming and decided he needed something to do to occupy his downtime.
“I had always liked cars and trains,” Kamerman said.
But, he decided to scale down his interest a little bit, and decided upon the perfect hobby — woodworking.
During the winter months, Kamerman began ordering car, train, truck and animal patterns from woodworking magazines like Toys & Joys and Meisel Hardware Specialties.
Each pattern comes complete with wheels and dowels, but Kamerman constructs everything else by hand.
Typically, Kamerman uses pine wood, which he buys locally and cuts himself, but for special projects, like the medium-sized fire truck he has on display in his basement, he uses oak.
The project, which Kamerman regards as one of his favorites, took him nearly six weeks to fully complete in 2005.
“It took a lot of technical work,” he said.
It did, indeed.
From the circular swiveling ladder to the miniscule muffler and door handles, Kamerman certainly had to pay close attention to detail.
It’s not Kamerman’s only pride and joy, though.
Surrounding the small-scale truck are shelves covered with a variety of cars, trains, tractors, combines, semitrailers and even a Hummer.
Each project is scaled down from 12 inches to one, so if a full-scale car is six feet wide, Kamerman makes it six inches wide.
And, with the exception of the fire truck, each vehicle also is painted, staying true to its real-life replica.
Blue and red ribbons also grace the shelves, which Kamerman has won from years of entering his projects in the Sioux County Youth Fair.
Although Kamerman used to produce such projects on a much heavier basis, now he is more particular with the time spent creating. If he only feels like working for an hour or two a day on a winter project, he is perfectly content with that.
While the number of great-grandchildren Kamerman keeps increasing, he continues to supply them with a special gift.
“If there is a boy, I make him a pickup,” Kamerman said. “For girls, I make mini rocking chairs that they can sit in for a while and when they get too big, use them to put their dolls.”
And, throughout the years, Kamerman has continued to see the advantages of his hobby.
“It’s just a good pastime,” he said. “It’s also good for my mind.”
Don’t be concerned when passing by Kamerman’s home, though.
Although realistic looking, the animals adorning his yard also are homemade.
This article appeared in the June 20, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Each day, passers-by can observe a flock of eagles perched next to the 86-year-old retired farmer’s front porch at his home in Sioux Center.
But, that’s not the only habitat Kamerman has attracted over the years.
Not a foot away from the eagles, a skunk family makes its home surrounding the bushes adorning the front of his residence.
Kamerman doesn’t mind in the least.
In fact, he put them there.
About 20 years ago, Kamerman partially retired from farming and decided he needed something to do to occupy his downtime.
“I had always liked cars and trains,” Kamerman said.
But, he decided to scale down his interest a little bit, and decided upon the perfect hobby — woodworking.
During the winter months, Kamerman began ordering car, train, truck and animal patterns from woodworking magazines like Toys & Joys and Meisel Hardware Specialties.
Each pattern comes complete with wheels and dowels, but Kamerman constructs everything else by hand.
Typically, Kamerman uses pine wood, which he buys locally and cuts himself, but for special projects, like the medium-sized fire truck he has on display in his basement, he uses oak.
The project, which Kamerman regards as one of his favorites, took him nearly six weeks to fully complete in 2005.
“It took a lot of technical work,” he said.
It did, indeed.
From the circular swiveling ladder to the miniscule muffler and door handles, Kamerman certainly had to pay close attention to detail.
It’s not Kamerman’s only pride and joy, though.
Surrounding the small-scale truck are shelves covered with a variety of cars, trains, tractors, combines, semitrailers and even a Hummer.
Each project is scaled down from 12 inches to one, so if a full-scale car is six feet wide, Kamerman makes it six inches wide.
And, with the exception of the fire truck, each vehicle also is painted, staying true to its real-life replica.
Blue and red ribbons also grace the shelves, which Kamerman has won from years of entering his projects in the Sioux County Youth Fair.
Although Kamerman used to produce such projects on a much heavier basis, now he is more particular with the time spent creating. If he only feels like working for an hour or two a day on a winter project, he is perfectly content with that.
While the number of great-grandchildren Kamerman keeps increasing, he continues to supply them with a special gift.
“If there is a boy, I make him a pickup,” Kamerman said. “For girls, I make mini rocking chairs that they can sit in for a while and when they get too big, use them to put their dolls.”
And, throughout the years, Kamerman has continued to see the advantages of his hobby.
“It’s just a good pastime,” he said. “It’s also good for my mind.”
Don’t be concerned when passing by Kamerman’s home, though.
Although realistic looking, the animals adorning his yard also are homemade.
This article appeared in the June 20, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
A date to remember
ORANGE CITY—Tim Swart’s 23rd birthday holds a special place in his heart, but not for the obvious reason some might expect.
A native of Oostburg, WI, Tim transferred to Northwestern College in Orange City at the start of his junior year. He shared an apartment with a couple of his male friends during his senior year.
One of their next-door neighbors was Bethany Hegstad of Sanborn, a 2004 graduate of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School in Hartley and a junior at Northwestern.
“We just started hanging out and eventually started dating,” Tim said.
A year later, on Oct. 5, 2007 — Tim’s birthday — the two took a trip to Oostburg to visit Tim’s family, but Tim had something special planned for the autumn day.
“We live right on Lake Michigan, so Bethany and I took a walk on the beach,” Tim said. “I had put a message in a bottle, and she opened the bottle and read the message.”
But, by the time Bethany finished reading the message, Tim was down on one knee.
“I was really happy,” Bethany said. “I think I was in shock for a while. It didn’t really seem real.”
Tim and Bethany got married June 28, 2008, at Christ Chapel on the campus of Northwestern College.
Although Bethany’s father, Gary, is a pastor at First Reformed Church in Sanborn, their church was undergoing some remodeling at the time and was not large enough for the ceremony Tim and Bethany had planned.
“Plus, I’ve kind of always wanted to get married there since I was a little girl,” Bethany said of Christ Chapel.
Although the ceremony was traditional, Tim and Bethany still added their own special touches.
Instead of having the typical one pastor officiating, they had two.
What’s more, they were relatives.
While Gary walked Bethany down the aisle, Tim’s grandfather, Calvin Bogaard, a retired Air Force chaplain from Sugarland, TX, stood at the altar.
After Gary gave his daughter to Tim, he took his place next to Calvin and the two tag-teamed the ceremony.
“It was a little unique,” Tim said. “It’s something not a lot of people get to have.”
And for Bethany, it was a heartwarming experience.
“It was a lot more emotional to have my dad marry me,” she said.
After the two said, “I do,” a specially-themed reception was held in the form of a fundraiser.
Instead of supplying each table with a bag of party favors, the newlyweds placed a $5 bill in its place.
If anyone decided to strike knife to glass, signaling for the couple to kiss, they had to hand over the $5. And if they wanted another kiss beyond that, they had to pay out of their own pocket. Wedding guests also could have other couples kiss by handing over $5.
The nearly $900 raised at the reception was in turn donated to victims in Parkersburg, the northeast Iowa town that was devastated by a deadly tornado on May 25, 2008.
Bethany’s family had lived for nine years in Aplington, which is five miles away from where the tornado hit.
“We had a lot of friends from Aplington and Parkersburg at the wedding,” Bethany said.
Following the wedding, Tim and Bethany moved five miles outside of Oostburg and have spent the last year preparing to serve.
After visiting Bethany’s family in Sanborn for a week, the couple departed for Milwaukee on Monday, June 8.
In Milwaukee, the pair boarded a flight to Philadelphia, where they stayed for two days, undergoing pretraining sessions for their 27-month assignment in the Peace Corps.
After any needed vaccinations or medication was prescribed to Tim and Bethany, they flew into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, boarded a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, and took one more flight to their assigned location: Chisinau in the Eastern Europe country of Moldova.
“We were actually originally assigned to Sub-Saharan Africa, but the economy has been not so friendly,” Bethany said. “The Peace Corps has had to cut over 400 programs in Africa, and we were delayed and our location was changed as a result of that.”
Once in Moldova, Tim will work in agribusiness and Bethany will teach grades 4-12 English and team-teach a core subject with a Moldovan teacher.
Although the two are experiencing mixed emotions, they have no doubt they are doing the right thing.
“During my junior year of college, when Tim and I weren’t even dating yet, I kind of felt called to go overseas. It was something I toyed around in my mind a lot with,” Bethany said. “Through different service projects in college, I became aware that there are just so many needs around the world, in our own country and in our own communities.”
Bethany thought she could do her part to help someone somewhere.
“I felt like I was equipped to do something, or God could equip me,” she said. “We’ve been blessed with a good education, we’re healthy and we have strong family support, so I feel like we can give back.”
While Bethany and Tim will serve in Moldova for a little more than two years, they are not quite certain what the future holds.
“I feel like this will clarify that more,” Bethany said. “Whether we will want to go into the mission field and serve abroad longer or we’ll be ready to come back, I don’t know.”
This article appeared in the June 13, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
A native of Oostburg, WI, Tim transferred to Northwestern College in Orange City at the start of his junior year. He shared an apartment with a couple of his male friends during his senior year.
One of their next-door neighbors was Bethany Hegstad of Sanborn, a 2004 graduate of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School in Hartley and a junior at Northwestern.
“We just started hanging out and eventually started dating,” Tim said.
A year later, on Oct. 5, 2007 — Tim’s birthday — the two took a trip to Oostburg to visit Tim’s family, but Tim had something special planned for the autumn day.
“We live right on Lake Michigan, so Bethany and I took a walk on the beach,” Tim said. “I had put a message in a bottle, and she opened the bottle and read the message.”
But, by the time Bethany finished reading the message, Tim was down on one knee.
“I was really happy,” Bethany said. “I think I was in shock for a while. It didn’t really seem real.”
Tim and Bethany got married June 28, 2008, at Christ Chapel on the campus of Northwestern College.
Although Bethany’s father, Gary, is a pastor at First Reformed Church in Sanborn, their church was undergoing some remodeling at the time and was not large enough for the ceremony Tim and Bethany had planned.
“Plus, I’ve kind of always wanted to get married there since I was a little girl,” Bethany said of Christ Chapel.
Although the ceremony was traditional, Tim and Bethany still added their own special touches.
Instead of having the typical one pastor officiating, they had two.
What’s more, they were relatives.
While Gary walked Bethany down the aisle, Tim’s grandfather, Calvin Bogaard, a retired Air Force chaplain from Sugarland, TX, stood at the altar.
After Gary gave his daughter to Tim, he took his place next to Calvin and the two tag-teamed the ceremony.
“It was a little unique,” Tim said. “It’s something not a lot of people get to have.”
And for Bethany, it was a heartwarming experience.
“It was a lot more emotional to have my dad marry me,” she said.
After the two said, “I do,” a specially-themed reception was held in the form of a fundraiser.
Instead of supplying each table with a bag of party favors, the newlyweds placed a $5 bill in its place.
If anyone decided to strike knife to glass, signaling for the couple to kiss, they had to hand over the $5. And if they wanted another kiss beyond that, they had to pay out of their own pocket. Wedding guests also could have other couples kiss by handing over $5.
The nearly $900 raised at the reception was in turn donated to victims in Parkersburg, the northeast Iowa town that was devastated by a deadly tornado on May 25, 2008.
Bethany’s family had lived for nine years in Aplington, which is five miles away from where the tornado hit.
“We had a lot of friends from Aplington and Parkersburg at the wedding,” Bethany said.
Following the wedding, Tim and Bethany moved five miles outside of Oostburg and have spent the last year preparing to serve.
After visiting Bethany’s family in Sanborn for a week, the couple departed for Milwaukee on Monday, June 8.
In Milwaukee, the pair boarded a flight to Philadelphia, where they stayed for two days, undergoing pretraining sessions for their 27-month assignment in the Peace Corps.
After any needed vaccinations or medication was prescribed to Tim and Bethany, they flew into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, boarded a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, and took one more flight to their assigned location: Chisinau in the Eastern Europe country of Moldova.
“We were actually originally assigned to Sub-Saharan Africa, but the economy has been not so friendly,” Bethany said. “The Peace Corps has had to cut over 400 programs in Africa, and we were delayed and our location was changed as a result of that.”
Once in Moldova, Tim will work in agribusiness and Bethany will teach grades 4-12 English and team-teach a core subject with a Moldovan teacher.
Although the two are experiencing mixed emotions, they have no doubt they are doing the right thing.
“During my junior year of college, when Tim and I weren’t even dating yet, I kind of felt called to go overseas. It was something I toyed around in my mind a lot with,” Bethany said. “Through different service projects in college, I became aware that there are just so many needs around the world, in our own country and in our own communities.”
Bethany thought she could do her part to help someone somewhere.
“I felt like I was equipped to do something, or God could equip me,” she said. “We’ve been blessed with a good education, we’re healthy and we have strong family support, so I feel like we can give back.”
While Bethany and Tim will serve in Moldova for a little more than two years, they are not quite certain what the future holds.
“I feel like this will clarify that more,” Bethany said. “Whether we will want to go into the mission field and serve abroad longer or we’ll be ready to come back, I don’t know.”
This article appeared in the June 13, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Friendship garden
ROCK VALLEY—Friends of the heart.
Amigos del corazon.
“That’s who we are,” said 67-year-old Bernie Maas of Rock Valley.
Bernie and his wife, Elly, are trying to make a difference in the Rock Valley community.
That’s why this spring, the two created Friends of the Heart, a “friendship” garden located in a lot east of Faith Reformed Church in Rock Valley.
The garden, which is divided into five 12-by-18-foot plots, allows space for 12 Hispanic and six other families in the community to plant and grow their vegetables of choice.
Among the produce being grown in the garden are beans, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, tomatoes and watermelon
Those with plots in the garden provided their own seeds, and the Maases supply the water for them to nourish their plants as well as free space and buckets.
“There’s no cost to anybody to have this garden,” Bernie said. “It’s all free.”
The Maases, who have a multitude of Hispanic friends in Rock Valley, wanted to diminish any fences or walls that had been established between races within the community.
“Why not try to be a little more proactive and accept the fact that they’re here and try to build roads of communication and relationships? That’s basically what has to be done in order to keep the fences down,” Bernie said. “As a result, the Hispanic community can take ownership in a community and not be ostracized. That’s our responsibility, not theirs, to create that concept with the situation.”
The Maases wanted to take responsibility, but they wanted to do it through Christianity.
“We have sent out missionaries all over the world, now the Lord has sent a whole new group of people to this country, and he’s going to see what we’re going to do,” Bernie said. “We should all be evangelists, missionaries or disciples and show them what Christianity really is all about.”
The Maases initially wanted to create a gathering place for both Hispanic and other community members to gather for various programs, English as a Second Language classes, speakers, banquets, movies and Bible stories, to be used as tools for the two races to relate to one another.
But, during the spring, Bernie attended a conference, where he heard about “friendship” gardens within communities.
And, although he said Friends of the Heart is not a community garden, nor is it affiliated with any particular church within the community, he thought it was the perfect idea.
“There is nothing negative. It is all positive. They’re all accepting that property, and I thought that was the most natural tool to be able to relate to one another,” Bernie said. “It’s something they can all appreciate. The garden was the tool to get that concept going.”
While Bernie said some of the Hispanic families involved have had previous gardening experience, others came from small mining towns in Mexico, where the dirt was not sufficient enough to grow anything.
No matter, all of the families involved have taken ownership and have come together for one similar purpose.
“The concept really came from me, but it doesn’t really make any difference,” Bernie said. “We’re all doing it together.”
While this is the first year for the garden, those involved are learning what works and what doesn’t as they go.
The gardeners work together 7-9 p.m. each Wednesday.
“That’s our night,” Bernie said. “It’s our time.”
After the gardening season is over, the Maases would like to continue the relationship by finding a building or a church within the community where the group can meet on Wednesday nights to relate to one another.
“It’s just so much fun to see all these families together, doing things,” Bernie said.
This article appeared in the June 6, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Amigos del corazon.
“That’s who we are,” said 67-year-old Bernie Maas of Rock Valley.
Bernie and his wife, Elly, are trying to make a difference in the Rock Valley community.
That’s why this spring, the two created Friends of the Heart, a “friendship” garden located in a lot east of Faith Reformed Church in Rock Valley.
The garden, which is divided into five 12-by-18-foot plots, allows space for 12 Hispanic and six other families in the community to plant and grow their vegetables of choice.
Among the produce being grown in the garden are beans, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, tomatoes and watermelon
Those with plots in the garden provided their own seeds, and the Maases supply the water for them to nourish their plants as well as free space and buckets.
“There’s no cost to anybody to have this garden,” Bernie said. “It’s all free.”
The Maases, who have a multitude of Hispanic friends in Rock Valley, wanted to diminish any fences or walls that had been established between races within the community.
“Why not try to be a little more proactive and accept the fact that they’re here and try to build roads of communication and relationships? That’s basically what has to be done in order to keep the fences down,” Bernie said. “As a result, the Hispanic community can take ownership in a community and not be ostracized. That’s our responsibility, not theirs, to create that concept with the situation.”
The Maases wanted to take responsibility, but they wanted to do it through Christianity.
“We have sent out missionaries all over the world, now the Lord has sent a whole new group of people to this country, and he’s going to see what we’re going to do,” Bernie said. “We should all be evangelists, missionaries or disciples and show them what Christianity really is all about.”
The Maases initially wanted to create a gathering place for both Hispanic and other community members to gather for various programs, English as a Second Language classes, speakers, banquets, movies and Bible stories, to be used as tools for the two races to relate to one another.
But, during the spring, Bernie attended a conference, where he heard about “friendship” gardens within communities.
And, although he said Friends of the Heart is not a community garden, nor is it affiliated with any particular church within the community, he thought it was the perfect idea.
“There is nothing negative. It is all positive. They’re all accepting that property, and I thought that was the most natural tool to be able to relate to one another,” Bernie said. “It’s something they can all appreciate. The garden was the tool to get that concept going.”
While Bernie said some of the Hispanic families involved have had previous gardening experience, others came from small mining towns in Mexico, where the dirt was not sufficient enough to grow anything.
No matter, all of the families involved have taken ownership and have come together for one similar purpose.
“The concept really came from me, but it doesn’t really make any difference,” Bernie said. “We’re all doing it together.”
While this is the first year for the garden, those involved are learning what works and what doesn’t as they go.
The gardeners work together 7-9 p.m. each Wednesday.
“That’s our night,” Bernie said. “It’s our time.”
After the gardening season is over, the Maases would like to continue the relationship by finding a building or a church within the community where the group can meet on Wednesday nights to relate to one another.
“It’s just so much fun to see all these families together, doing things,” Bernie said.
This article appeared in the June 6, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Last bell rings in Ocheyedan
OCHEYEDAN—Amidst heavy boxes packed full with textbooks, supplies and educational materials, the scene did not appear much different than a last day of school anywhere.
Maybe the excited fourth-graders roaming the empty hallways singing Alice Cooper’s infamous “School’s Out” made it seem more real.
Only, school is not just out for the summer at Ocheyedan Elementary. Like Cooper sang in his hit 1972 single, school’s out forever.
The Sibley-Ocheyedan School District Board of Education voted 4-1 in favor of closing the Ocheyedan facility on April 20. The decision was based on decreasing enrollment and financial concerns.
At the April board meeting, superintendent Jeff Herzberg said enrollment drives school budgets. The district receives about $5,400 in state aid for every student. The district saw a decline of 45 students for the 2008-09 academic year, creating a loss of about $240,000 in its budget.
“We weren’t ready to lose 45 students this year. We thought we’d be down five or even up a little,” Herzberg told the more than 100 district residents in attendance. “We know we’re also going to lose about 30 students from the senior/kindergarten exchange next school year.”
He said a mobile society is partially to blame for the declining enrollment. Sixteen families with three or more students moved out of the district prior to the start of classes last fall.
That drop is an issue that the Iowa Department of Education predicts the district will continue to deal with in the near future. Besides the number of students lost between this year’s graduating seniors and next year’s incoming kindergartners, projections show the district enrollment dropping by about 50 more students over the next five years.
Herzberg cited a number of reasons the district would save money by closing the Ocheyedan site. He said having the building open will cost the district about $143,000 this year. Closing the building will save the district an estimated $106,500, and if the school were to have remained open, the district likely would have been forced to spend $90,000 to repair a boiler.
Although many Ocheyedan residents were not pleased with the decision, it still became a reality Friday, May 29, as both the students and the teachers prepared for the move to Ben Franklin Elementary in Sibley.
“It’s been a crazy week,” said fourth-grade teacher Kate Wedge.
Although the students were excited to embark on their summer vacations, Wedge said they were anxious to help her box up her belongings during the last week of school.
Jill Menke, who joined the fourth-grade staff at Ocheyedan at the beginning of the school year, is looking forward to the move, although she would be moving regardless of the school closure, as she is switching from fourth to first grade.
Nevertheless, Menke still thinks the change will be good for the elementary students.
“It’s isolated over here, so it will be good to have everyone together in one building,” she said. “Everyone will be able to learn from each other that way.”
Wedge anticipates the new environment and learning process will take a little getting used to, but she looks forward to the challenge.
“It will be nice to have other teachers to collaborate with, but I think it will be an easy transition for the teachers,” she said.
No official plans have been decided upon for the Ocheyedan building.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet moment for all of us,” said Sibley-Ocheyedan elementary principal Cory Jenness. “They’re sad because the school is closing, yet they’re glad they are going to a new building with more staff members, collaboration and resources at hand.”
This article appeared in the June 6, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Maybe the excited fourth-graders roaming the empty hallways singing Alice Cooper’s infamous “School’s Out” made it seem more real.
Only, school is not just out for the summer at Ocheyedan Elementary. Like Cooper sang in his hit 1972 single, school’s out forever.
The Sibley-Ocheyedan School District Board of Education voted 4-1 in favor of closing the Ocheyedan facility on April 20. The decision was based on decreasing enrollment and financial concerns.
At the April board meeting, superintendent Jeff Herzberg said enrollment drives school budgets. The district receives about $5,400 in state aid for every student. The district saw a decline of 45 students for the 2008-09 academic year, creating a loss of about $240,000 in its budget.
“We weren’t ready to lose 45 students this year. We thought we’d be down five or even up a little,” Herzberg told the more than 100 district residents in attendance. “We know we’re also going to lose about 30 students from the senior/kindergarten exchange next school year.”
He said a mobile society is partially to blame for the declining enrollment. Sixteen families with three or more students moved out of the district prior to the start of classes last fall.
That drop is an issue that the Iowa Department of Education predicts the district will continue to deal with in the near future. Besides the number of students lost between this year’s graduating seniors and next year’s incoming kindergartners, projections show the district enrollment dropping by about 50 more students over the next five years.
Herzberg cited a number of reasons the district would save money by closing the Ocheyedan site. He said having the building open will cost the district about $143,000 this year. Closing the building will save the district an estimated $106,500, and if the school were to have remained open, the district likely would have been forced to spend $90,000 to repair a boiler.
Although many Ocheyedan residents were not pleased with the decision, it still became a reality Friday, May 29, as both the students and the teachers prepared for the move to Ben Franklin Elementary in Sibley.
“It’s been a crazy week,” said fourth-grade teacher Kate Wedge.
Although the students were excited to embark on their summer vacations, Wedge said they were anxious to help her box up her belongings during the last week of school.
Jill Menke, who joined the fourth-grade staff at Ocheyedan at the beginning of the school year, is looking forward to the move, although she would be moving regardless of the school closure, as she is switching from fourth to first grade.
Nevertheless, Menke still thinks the change will be good for the elementary students.
“It’s isolated over here, so it will be good to have everyone together in one building,” she said. “Everyone will be able to learn from each other that way.”
Wedge anticipates the new environment and learning process will take a little getting used to, but she looks forward to the challenge.
“It will be nice to have other teachers to collaborate with, but I think it will be an easy transition for the teachers,” she said.
No official plans have been decided upon for the Ocheyedan building.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet moment for all of us,” said Sibley-Ocheyedan elementary principal Cory Jenness. “They’re sad because the school is closing, yet they’re glad they are going to a new building with more staff members, collaboration and resources at hand.”
This article appeared in the June 6, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Bogenrief dome heads to home in Florida
SUTHERLAND-After three strenuous years, Bogenrief Studios has created a stained-glass masterpiece.
While it might not be the largest, it definitely has been the most complicated project for the Sutherland-based glass artwork studio.
In 2006, Bogenrief Studios, owned by Mark and Jeanne Bogenrief and their son, Seth, was commissioned to create a 7-foot-tall, 23-foot-4-inch-wide dome, a 7-foot diameter circular entryway window and two 28½-by-114-inch powder room windows for a 90,000-square-foot private home owned by David Siegel in Orlando, FL.
“He lives in the same gated community as Shaquille O’Neal and Tiger Woods,” Seth said.
Siegel, an Orlando-based billionaire, is the founder, owner, president and chief executive officer of the time-share company Westgate Resorts and its parent company, Central Florida Investments.
When construction of his Orlando mansion is completed, Seth said it will stand as the largest private home in America.
As the home will be decorated in an Italian, Versailles style, Siegel thought stained glass would be appropriate.
The dome, which Siegel purchased for $325,000, will be situated inside a ring in an enclosed skylight in his 800-square-foot ballroom.
“A chandelier will hang from the center, and the design that appears in the center of the dome will be replicated on the marble floor situated directly below,” Seth said. “Artificial lighting will also be installed for evening events.”
Seth, along with three or four other individuals from Bogenrief Studio, will depart in one week to hand deliver and install the four pieces.
While the dome is assembled in the studio now, the Bogenrief team soon will deconstruct the piece into nine sections of 153 glass panels so it does not get damaged on the flatbed truck during the more than 1,500-mile trek from Sutherland to Orlando.
Seth estimates it will take a day and a half to install all four pieces.
Although Seth, Mark and Jeanne have made multiple trips to the home over the past three years and have provided Siegel with progress photographs, he still has yet to see any of the artwork in person.
“He seems to have loved the progress photos, though,” Seth said.
Having the pieces finally be a reality, it was well-worth the three-year wait for Seth.
“It’s a huge relief,” he said. “It’s really nice to see something you envisioned in your head turn out so close to the way you saw it in your mind. We started with a colored pencil drawing, and it came awfully close.”
HISTORY IN THE MAKING:
Workers at Bogenrief Studios in Sutherland two weeks ago put the finishing touches on four masterpieces that will soon grace a Florida mansion.
Those projects were three years in the making.
Mark and Seth Bogenrief began work in 2006 with a Florida-based interior designer to begin color selections for the glass artwork.
But the team faced a slight challenge when it was learned that the homeowner, David Siegel, is color blind.
“The only color he sees is blue, so we knew we had to incorporate blue,” Seth said.
From there, warm complementary hues were selected, and preliminary sketches of the designs were made.
When a design was settled upon, the various shades were created into glass platelets, which turned out to be quite difficult.
“The project was so big that we would make one model of glass, and the next time we would run the same pour through, it would turn out totally different,” Seth said.
Perfection finally seeped through, and employees began cutting, grinding, beveling, foiling and soldering each tiny piece of glass.
The building process did not start until a year ago.
“It was two years of frustrations and one year of actual building,” Seth said.
Now completed, the four large-scale glass pieces are like history in the making for the Bogenrief team.
“When you take into account the level and complexity, this is the largest, most complicated thing we’ve done,” Seth said. “When we’ve done pieces to this magnitude before, it’s always been a simpler design.”
This article appeared in the May 30, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
Sheriff alerts sent via texting, e-mails
ORANGE CITY-Technology is working to the advantage of the Sioux County’s Sheriff Department.
With the recent hype of social networking and messaging Web sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, sheriff Dan Altena had been looking for a way to communicate important messages countywide.
“There are a lot of good things out there,” Altena said.
While he was looking into the possibility of joining Facebook or Twitter, information on another alternative, called Nixle, came forth.
“It’s a secured Web site, there is no cost to emergency providers like law enforcement, and it would do everything we were looking at doing,” Altena said. “We decided to go with that company, and so far, everything has worked out really well.”
And, already, the service provided by Nixle has proven to be beneficial.
“We saw a traffic situation last week because of the high winds,” Altena said. “We put out a notice that we were closing a portion of the road, and one of the local radio stations had registered, so they received the information and announced it over the radio. It was a real help and benefit to us. Already, stuff like that has made it a success for us.”
By using the service, messages concerning weather alerts, traffic problems, road closures and criminal investigation information, will be sent throughout Sioux County
“We’re going to use it a lot for different situations,” Altena said. “We’re also going to use it for things like crime prevention programs, as an announcement form to let people know to attend the event on a particular date at this location. There is a never-ending supply of reasons to use it.”
While Altena said members from other communities can register for the service, they need to put down a Sioux County address.
“We had somebody that works in Rock Valley, but lives in Sheldon, so they put down their work address,” Altena said.
The service extends to a 20-mile radius surrounding the sheriff’s department in Orange City and includes the entire county.
In addition, the sheriff’s department has the ability to put messages out to a quarter of a mile radius or to the entire county, depending on how big of an area the alert will affect.
Users who register via the Nixle Web site, www.nixle.com, are permitted to provide multiple addresses, which is something Altena encourages.
“There is an advantage to putting down a couple different locations,” he said. “I live in Sioux Center, and if I’m away from the office and put a Nixle message out to a one-mile radius, I would get that, but I also put down our Orange City location, so if I put one out in Orange City, I’ll get that, too.”
Users can select if they would like to receive alerts by e-mail, text message or by logging onto the Nixle Web site. Selecting all three also is an option.
“Almost everybody carries a cell phone,” Altena said. “Some people don’t have a text message plan, but really, the messages we send out are fairly important. It costs very little money to receive a text, so it’s probably worth it. If you don’t want to do that, you can shut that particular part off and just receive e-mails.”
But whatever the way of receiving the Nixle alerts, Altena hopes those who take advantage of the service see a direct benefit.
“Being in a law enforcement agency, our No. 1 goal is to keep the public safe by keeping them more informed as quickly as possible, but it could also potentially be a benefit for the law enforcement side,” Altena said. “If we’re looking for a suspect and put out a description of the vehicle, there are more eyes out there than just the officers.”
Since Altena has a phone that allows for him to send and receive text messages and e-mails, he can easily administer a message no matter where he is.
“It appears to us to be a great program to us at this point,” Altena said.
This article appeared in the May 30, 2009 edition of The N'West Iowa REVIEW.
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