The Place

Feburary News

2012-02-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

23rd Annual Southern Plains Conference A Success:

This year's Southern Plains Conference took place on Feb.8th and 9th in Muleshoe, Texas. Over 100 people of all ages attended the two day event. Here are a few words from those who came:


A student from Whiteface Elementary inspects a spring	at MNWR

Everyelement of the Conference was outstanding; the Wildlife Refuge tour, thesausage/buffalo stew/venison chili dinner (oh boy, that warm, buttered homemadebread was out of this world) and program at Pep, the meaningfulpresentations on Thursday, all the people and the group of college kids, theinspiring tour of the Heritage Center,….the conference was one of the mostenriching I’ve ever attended.
Tuda LibbyCrews, Bueyeros, NM

Thanks so much fororganizing such an informative and enjoyable conference in Muleshoe. For thoseof us usually confined to hotel meeting rooms for conferences, this wasliterally a breath of fresh air!
Barbara Brannon, TexasTech University Press, Lubbock, TX

Nita Padaphony and Harry Mithlo speak at the Conference.

"This conference wasamazing! I told Darryl I would never miss another one and I meant it. Thanksfor everything y'all did to put on such a wonderful 2 day event. Your monthsand months of preparations are appreciated!"
Laura Wilbanks, ElementaryScience Teacher, Whiteface, TX

Billand I are still talking about the conference. Pulled out our notes and wentover with friends in late night discussions already. A great example of doingthings right.
Jan& Bill Nieman, Native American Seeds, Junction, TX

In addition to these comments, OC Community Intern Laura Zak wrote this short piece to sum up her experience...

What if our fingers were tape recorders? Whatif knuckles had buttons and our chapped skin was a red light clicked on to sayyou’re recording? We could remember every word. Our hands would tell each otherstories and we wouldn’t have to retell or recreate what people said.
My hands would say this: two weeks ago, at theSouthern Plains Conference, women and men told their stories about water. Waterin the Ogallala Aquifer under our feet. Water that moves beneath us and sometimeswe don’t even know. And then. All the water we pull from the aquifer at ratesit can’t recharge so that one day, sometime soon, the water’ll be gone and theOgallala will be a story we can only remember. A farmer raised his hand becausehe didn’t want it to be a story we can only remember. He grows potatoes inMuleshoe. He said he felt like Darth Vadar because he's trying really hard tocut back on water use— he’s done research, bought new equipment and has managedto grow the same amount of potatoes with half the amount of water as he diddecades before. But he knows. He knows he's draining the Ogallala, andsometimes you hear these reports and think "well just stop pumping it foragriculture" but that answer is so simple and the issue is so complex.
And then. After the conference, people shookhis hand. I like to think that in the moment their hands touched, they weresaying you aren’t Darth Vadar. Theywere saying this isn’t just your fault.No one person is to blame, and we are all part of the problem.
I like to think they shook hands and in theirshaking, told each other: we can use ourhands to listen. I will listen to your story and you can listen to mine. And inthe space where they meet, maybe we’ll find something like understanding. We’venever gotten anywhere far without understanding. So maybe through thisunderstanding, through the stories we hold in our hands, wecan find a way to help.

SpringInternship Profile: Rebecca Hopp

OC Community Intern, Rebecca Hopp

Youth of all ages areinvited to use their camera as a tool to explore agriculture in theircommunity. Exploring the Future of Agriculture Through Photography is a programdeveloped by Texas Tech University student Rebecca J. Hopp, and will be themain project of Rebecca’s Ogallala Commons Community Internship Program, withfunding from CHS Foundation.

The goal of this project is to begin adialogue through photography that addresses why local agriculture is importantfor the future of our nation and how agriculture based communities arechanging.

While it is impossible to know what thefuture holds for the entire nation, this project will look at the direction ofagriculture in four specific communities:

Brownfield, Texas

Nazareth, Texas,

Campo, Colorado

Larned, Kansas

Atwood, Kansas

The youth involved in this project will notonly gain photography skills, but also will learn about their community andspecific career options in agriculture. Local speakers will help pique interestin specific careers; provide possible mentorship, and present additionalcommunity resources.

This collaborative projectwill result in a collection of unique images that will add to each of thecommunity’s conversations about the future of agriculture. Selected studentwork will be displayed at local and national exhibitions as well as in aself-published book about the project.

Rebecca currently works as a freelance photographer and ispursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography at Texas Tech University.She ultimately plans to pursue a career in education. Rebecca’s goals as aneducator revolve around service learning through art. Rebecca is currently aGraduate Part-Time Instructor at the Texas Tech University School of Art, afellow in the Teaching Effectiveness And Career enHancement (TEACH) Program atTexas Tech University, member of the Society for Photographic Education and anationally exhibiting artist. She is currently a community intern for theOgallala Commons. Her work and project blogs can be viewed at www.rebeccajhopp.com.

OC Community Intern and Partner Recruitment Underway

The spring is busy for OC Staff as they work through the process of recruiting both interns and communities for the internship program. If you are interested in learning more about the Community Internship Program, visit our Intern Webpage at: http://www.ogallalacommons.org/communityinterns.html or our Community Internship Blog at http://www.ogallalaintern.blogspot.com/.

If you are a student (High School, Undergraduate, or Graduate) looking for an internship opportunity or if your community or organization would like to host an internship, email Julie Hodges at juliehodges@prairieworkshop.com.

January News

2012-01-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

Come To the 23rd Annual Southern Plains Conference!!!

On February 8 & 9, the general public can increase their knowledge of the natural world at the 23rd Annual Southern Plains Conference, with its theme, “Beyond the Windshield: Dwelling in the Natural World “. The conference, presented by Ogallala Commons, will be held at the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge and Bailey County Coliseum in Muleshoe, Texas.

The Feb. 8th Field Day begins at 11:30am with a lunch in the Bailey County Coliseum, before moving out to Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge for afternoon workshops on springs, prairie chickens, playas, amphibians, birds, controlled burning, and prairie restoration. An Evening Soiree’ will be held at St. Philip Neri Church Hall in Pep, TX, from 6:00-8:45pm featuring food, music, and a performance art piece.

The Feb. 9th conference begins in the Bailey County Coliseum at 8:15am. Speakers include Dr. Kevin Mulligan, Dr. David Haukos, Tish McDaniel, Nita Pahdopony of the Comanche University, and stockman-grass farmer Kim Barker of Waynoka, OK.
Those who wish to attend the Field Day, Evening Soiree or Conference can register online or by mail. For more information, contact Darryl Birkenfeld at 806-945-2255, or to see a complete brochure and register online, visit: http://www.ogallalacommons.org

Turbines + Transmission: a performance art show is a work of creativewriting, visual art, and music by Laura Zak

OC Intern Laura Zak

The stories told are pulled from work I’ve donewith the wind energy oral historycollection housed at Texas Tech University’s Southwest/Special CollectionLibrary. My boss at the time, Andy Wilkinson, started the project to capturethe changing landscape of wind industry through the voices of those involvedand impacted by areas of development. We have interviewed farmers, landowners,wind developers, municipal leaders, and environmentalists.

Right now, the transcriptions are on digital files in the Southwest/SpecialCollection Library. Outside of those involved, the stories of turbines,transmission line, and the farmers and ranchers with towers on their land areoften untold. Visual artist Kim Cypret and I want to stir these stories andshed light on the changing landscape of Texas because the rural space, thecotton fields, yellow grasses, and mesas are being strung with lattice, metal,and wire. Landscapes turn industrial as cities reach toward towns and the ruralareas are left on the edge, waiting for the touch. The performance art showdocuments this moment of brief suspension.

We don’t want to change minds, forcean agenda, call one side bad while the other is good. Rather, the show asksquestions. Each piece was made so that the audience could ask for themselveswhat is beautiful, what is industrial, what we can get used to and what wecan’t.

Click here to visit Laura's Blog at http://turbinesandtransmission.tumblr.com/

Upcoming performances:

Junction—January 26^th—DiningHall at the TTU Junction Campus. 6:30pm reception, show starts at 7:00.

Pep—February 9^th—St.Philip Neri Church Hall. 6:00 pm show as part of the Southern PlainsConference: Beyond The Windshield: Dwelling in the Natural World SouthernPlains Conference.

TBA shows in Nazareth and Lubbock

OC Social Media

To date Ogallala Commons operates and maintains a total of10 blogs! Each discusses various activities that OC is involved with. The blogs are:

1. Ogallala CommunityIntern Blogs: In the spring of 2009, we began the Community Intern blogs asa way to keep up with the community interns. (There are 7 total blogs in orderto accommodate many interns at once.) All interns blog regularly, posting photos and documenting their journalthrough their internships. Theblog really gets hopping during the summer months, when as many as 30 internsare posting weekly! Use these links to learn about their experiences and leavewords of encouragement for our interns!

www.ogallalaintern.blogspot.com

www.ogallalaintern1.blogspot.com

www.ogallalaintern2.blogspot.com

www.ogallalaintern3.blogspot.com

www.ogallalaintern4.blogspot.com

www.ogallalaintern5.blogspot.com

www.ogallalaintern6.blogspot.com

2. You are currently reading The Place, which is Ogallala Commons Newsletter Blog. This blog is where we update friends ofOC once a month about what we have been up to and share information aboutupcoming events. Thanks forvisiting!

http://ogallalacommonsnewsletter.blogspot.com/

3. Playa FestivalBlog: This blog chronicles Playa Festivals, an outdoor education programconducted by Ogallala Commons in the Fall and occasionally in the spring. Playa Festivals are one-day eventswhere students, their teachers and communities learn about regional waterissues, the Ogallala Aquifer, local flora and fauna, soils, playa wetlands andmore! We take the kids outside and have a lot of fun learning about our amazingecosystem!

http://playafestival.blogspot.com/

4. Local Llano: This blog was begun inOctober of last year and explores all things related to local foods. It has seen a lot of traffic in lessthan four months. Each week, Local Llano offers information abouteating, purchasing, preparing, and celebrating local foods. We hope you will take a moment to havea look.

http://localllano.wordpress.com/

Ogallala Commons and Local Llano also have facebook pages! So go on and "like" us.

December News

2011-11-30T09:39:00.001-08:00

Community Partnering in Kansas

On November 3^rd,Ogallala Commons conducted a Community Partnering Meeting at the Community Buildingin Leoti, Kansas. Communityleaders, agency personnel, growers from the area interested direct marketing,and a group of high school students from Campo, Colorado comprised the group of35 who participated in the gathering. The morning session focused on OC’s Community Internship Program andyouth engagement strategies in general. After lunch, the topic shifted to the future of agriculture, especiallythe opportunities for new producers for the High Plains Food Cooperative inwestern Kansas and eastern Colorado.

Chris Sramek, OC Board President and Mark Nightengale of Heartland Mills, Inc. present at Leoti Meeting.

Playa Field Day
Ogallala Commons held a Playa Field Day at the OC Playa Classroom in Nazareth, TX on November 19th. It was a brisk morning, but landowners, Master Naturalists, university students, and kids clearly enjoyed seeing live amphibians and reptiles that depend on playa habitat, as well learning about migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. Another big hit was a presentation by science teacher Laura Wilbanks and four of her 5th Grade students from Whiteface, TX. The students demonstrated how to make a soft cheese using Silver-leaf nightshade berries as a rennant, and how to make jelly from the tunas of a cactus plant. In all, 35 people attended the Field Day, which concluded with a field trip to see geese and ducks at ponds in Hart, TX.

Robert Martin of TNC, gave a presentation about amphibians and reptiles.

Youth Entrepreneur Fair in Plainview is a Success

The fifth annual Ogallala Commons Regional Youth EntrepreneurFair was held at Plainview Civic Center on Tuesday, November 15th with studentsfrom Plainview, Tulia, Dimmitt, Booker and Nazareth competing forcash prizes totaling nearly $5,000.

The event was a collaboration between Ogallala Commons and several partners, including: Plainview Entrepreneur Guide Alliance(PEGA), South Plains College, Wayland Baptist University's StudentsIn Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, Plainview ISD, Plainview Chamber ofCommerce and Texas AgriLife Extension-Hale County helped withmake the fair possible for local and area students.

Winners of the E-Fair were:

1st Place Kristin True

($1000) Chance Rollins

2nd Place Kierra Proctor & Shayla Perry

($750) Brandon Hart & Devin Gunstream

3rd Place Brian Acker

($500) Jordan Smoot

Consolation Prizes ($100 each) went to Alex Duarte & Miranda Montgomery and Sierra Dubrule

November News

2011-10-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

Partnering to Build Internships and Careers

By Darryl Birkenfeld, OCDirector

Ogallala Commons and HighPlains Food Cooperative are conducting a Community Partnering Meeting on Thursday, November 3,2011 in Leoti, Kansas. The meeting will focus on tools and information to assist partners increating pathways to bring youth and adults back to our hometowns--throughinternships, new agricultural markets, and other job opportunities.” Those attending will receive anewly-updated, detailed Community Internship booklet for Community Partners andIntern Supervisors.

The morning session willfocus on creating Community Internships, and cover topics such as how to buildsuccessful internships, how to finance them, how to build work plans, etc. After lunch, the meeting will shift toa panel presentation on the future of agriculture. Chris Sramek from Atwood, KS, will introduce the work of theHigh Plains Food Cooperative as one approach to creating new agriculturalmarkets. Sramek will also coverthe creation of a new marketing route along Highway 96 that could connect areafood producers to HPFC’s consumer members in the Denver Metro Region. Contact Simone Cahoj, Director, WichitaCo. Economic Development for more information or to make a reservation for themeeting (620.375.2182)

5^th Annual Youth E-Fair Coming inNovember

Business ideas from over 60 high schools students will be ondisplay at the 5^th Annual OC Regional Youth Entrepreneur Fair onNovember 15^th in Plainview, TX. The Fair will be held on at the Plainview Civic Center,located at 2902 W 4th Street in Plainview, TX. During the lunch hour from 12noon to1:15pm the general public will be able to tour the booths that display both potentialand already-operating businesses of youth entrepreneurs from Plainview, Tulia,Dimmitt, and Nazareth, TX.

Entrepreneurs will be awarded points bya panel of three judges based on the following criteria: Business Plan,Interview with Judges, Booth Presentation at the Fair, Network of Support, andFinancing Strategies. Besides earningvaluable experience in business planning, conducting interviews, and selling abusiness idea to the public, top finishers in the contest received cash prizestotaling nearly $5,000, and plenty of encouragement from people who attendedthe Fair. Keynote speakers at the11am session will be 12 students from Booker, TX who operate Kiowa Recycling,and who also receive dual credit in Environmental Science for their work.

Local Llano: A New Way to Learn About LocalFood

Ogallala Commons is not one uniform region. Rather, it is a commonwealth of manydistinct regions and localities…each with unique soils, cultures, andcuisines. Through its RebuildingLocal Food Systems Program, Ogallala Commons works to educate and increase useof fresh, locally-grown produce and foods…something that helps farmers andconsumers in our communities.

In October, Ogallala Commons worked with a group of CommunityInterns and volunteers to launch a new weekly blog called Local Llano, to offerinformation and education through stories and photos about locally-grown andprepared food in the Llano Estacado region. OC Community Intern Briony Haechten handles the maintenanceand updating of the blog, and each Wednesday, a new story about growing,purchasing, preparing, and celebrating local foods is posted. Using the link below, you can check outour blog, and please be use and take a moment to “like” our Local LlanoFacebook page!

http://localllano.wordpress.com/

Campo High School Continues toEncourage Students to be Dream-Followers

by Megan England, President, CampoYouth Advisory Council

OnWednesday, November 16^th, 2011, the students of the Campo YouthAdvisory Council will host the 2^nd Annual Campo Youth EngagementDay.

Thisyear’s event will be bigger and better than ever, with exciting break-outsessions led by presenters from various businesses, non-profit organizations,colleges, universities, and high schools. The youth are the future of ruralcommunities such as those in Baca County, Colorado and by hosting thisleadership, entrepreneurship, volunteerism, and career-building day, theEngagement Day planning team hopes to encourage these rural students to followtheir dreams, dreams that hopefully include returning home to the Great Plainsof Southeast Colorado.

September News

2011-09-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

Fall Playa Festival Season isUnderway!


A student reaches into a deep crack in the OC Playa.

Thisyear, Ogallala Commons has a full schedule of Playa Festivals at schools inTexas and Eastern New Mexico. During September and October we will be conducting fifteen PlayaFestivals that will include twenty-four schools and over 1200 students, theirteachers, parents and community members.

EachPlaya Festival includes presentations from scientists, naturalists and OgallalaCommons staff. Our presentationsinclude: What is A Playa?, How to Use a Nature Journal as a Resource in theField, Playa Soils and Plants, Bird Identification, Prairie Raptors, PlayaAmphibians and Reptiles, Rainwater Harvesting in Playas and At Home, and PlayaBuffers and Waterfowl. After studentsrotate through presentations, they take a field trip to an actual playa! Wewalk through a playa, write in our journals, make observations, collect coolthings--seeing, touching, and exploring all of the things we have learned aboutduring presentations.

EveryTuesday and Thursday for the next six weeks, we will be dawning our hikingboots, loading up our bird calls, bags of clay soil and assortments of fieldguides in order to help children across the Southern High Plains discover thetreasures in our own backyards! Wish us luck.

Playa Management Day on Sept. 14—a Welcome Sight!

The sun sets over a wet playa near Silverton, TX, a rare site in this dry year.

A group of 24 attended our OCPlaya Management Day on September 14^th in Silverton, Texas. Based on returned surveys, 14landowners with playas attended the event, and our presentations potentiallyimpacted over 80 playas totaling more than 900 acres.

After introductions and somesuperb presentations on playa hydrology, soils and general playa geomorphology,our group went on tour to see some of the only wet playas for hundreds of milesaround (thanks to an 8-inch rain that fell one night in late June). Our first stop was to a gigantic wetplaya south of Silverton near the Briscoe-Floyd County line. This site gave participants a chance toview typical playa plants: barnyard grass, pink smartweed, curly dock, andarrowhead. On the way to a secondstop just into Floyd County northwest of South Plains, the tour encounteredlarge flocks of ducks and shorebirds on a wet playa along a county road.

Our main stop was at the farm ofJanet Minton (where no big rain fell), to view a recently-established playabuffer. The buffer, planted in2009, encircles a 65-acre playa and consists of native grasses as well as4-wing saltbush and dryland alfalfa for wildlife food. Adequate buffers are essential forpreventing soil erosion from washing into a playa basin, and for offeringwildlife habitat.

Theworkshop was sponsored by Ogallala Commons, in collaboration with its partners:the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks & WildlifeDepartment, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, and Playa Lakes Joint Venture.

Fifth Annual Youth Engagement Day -Plainview, Tx

Thefifth annual Youth Engagement Day was conducted in Plainview, Tx on09/13/11. Growing Entrepreneurs Building Businesses is the focus of thisevent and it was time well-spent on tomorrow's community, state and countryleaders. I was impressed by with the city leaders and businessowners who came together to make this year's event successful. Thestudents were welcomed by Mayor John Anderson who was pleased to have us comeand explore ideas and listen to the stories of local business owners.After our keynote address, the students were divided into 7investigation teams that interviewed two local businesses after whichthey gave a 5 minute presentation to the whole group.

A Plainview High School students shares what she learned during the business tour that was a part of the Youth Engagement Day held in Plainview on September 13, 2011.

Myteam visited the Crisis Center of the Plains where we learned that you need isa degree to be considered for a position; the training is provided foryou. Our next visit was to the Perry Buildings. Dr. Collinsintroduced us to the idea that you can have a job and do other things...idea...passive income! This can be accomplished when you find abusiness partner with your goals but also with the talents that you are weakin. Combining talents and strengths sounds like common sense but itis difficult to "trust" that the other person is equallyinvested. David Splawn spoke of how the Broadway Brewer came to be andwhy. David and his wife knew there was a need for this business and werethinking of ways to have a sustained income that would allowhis wife to stay home with their young children. The business now takesmore time to run than anticipated but it is a successful business inPlainview.

A group reports their findings after visiting several local businesses.

Studentswere challenged to develop a business plan to enter in the Youth EntrepreneurFair in November. The students were provided detailed instructions on howto develop a solid business plan and inspired by a usable roadmap called"e-DREAMS." (providing a means by way of directions)

Thiswas time definitely well-spent with the youth of Plainview and Hart, Tx.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: August (Week 2)

2011-08-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

“Be Willing”: Terri Hendrix Concert

(left-to right: Lloyd Maines and Terri Hendrix are joined by Logan Samford on stage at the Home Mercantile)

Despite the best efforts and intentions of our Community Interns, only Julie Hodges and Darryl Birkenfeld made it to the Terri Hendrix concert (along with Advisory Council member Andy Wilkinson), held at the Home Mercantile Building in Nazareth, TX on August 14th. However, Terri had looked over the Intern Blog pages in advance, and dedicated a song during her concert to the interns, our program, and to Miss Julie! The song is titled, "Be Willing" and it is recorded on her "Left Over Alls" album from 2009. A verse from the song is truly reflective of Community Internships: "Be willing/To travel far. The answers are/in the Great Beyond. Be willing to open your mind/to all you'll find/in the Great Unknown."

Another cool Intern-thing that happened at the concert was the affirmation that Terri and Lloyd gave to Logan Samford, an aspiring singer-songwriter from Nazareth, who opened the concert with three songs he penned. Though Logan is only a junior in high school, he in already interested in applying for a Community Internship in Summer 2012, that could help him explore and learn about a career as a locally-based musician.

Where Have all the Interns Gone? (Part 2)

This article is the second half of an article written by OC Intern Megan England, which gives the whereabouts of numerous OC Community Intern alumni.

Katie Hancock (’10) of Lubbock, TX graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Communications in December, then began getting her teaching certification in Technology Applications and Agriculture. She is currently working on her Master's in Secondary Education and recently got hired to teach 8th Grade Exploring Careers at Brownfield Middle School (TX). She also plans to continue her photography business on the side of teaching.

Julie Hodges (’10) of Lubbock, Texas is the Owner/Heritage Planning and Environmental Education Consultant for Prairie Workshop, LLC and Education Coordinator for Ogallala Commons. She graduated in August of 2010 with my Master of Science in Heritage Management and her future plans are to continue working with Ogallala Commons and expand her business with her husband, Jason.

Keshian Hoeffner (’10) is a senior in high school at Campo, Colorado and a Certified Nursing Assistant. She will graduate in May of 2012.

Erin Hoelting (’08) left for Peace Corps in July 2009, and is currently wrapping up a two-year stint with an aquaculture project with small farmers in Zambia. She will be returning to Lubbock, TX in October to wrap up and defend her Master's thesis at Texas Tech University by semester’s end.

Shancee Howell (’10, ’11) of Tribune, Kansas graduated from college in May of 2010, and is currently working on her Masters in Agricultural Business at New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, NM).

Kendra Huseman (’10) graduated from high school (Nazareth, TX) and is enrolling at Texas A&M University (College Station, TX).

Catherine Jenkinson (’11) of Sharen Springs, Kansas is a high school senior and will graduate in May of 2012. She then plans attend university to major in some sort of liberal arts.

Tabitha King (’10) recently received a job at Dell as an Epic Healthcare Systems Consultant in the Dallas area.

Weston Nieman ('11) is living in Lubbock, TX after graduating with an MBA from Texas Tech University. He is currently exploring job options and looking for a career in sustainable construction and building.

Scarlett Olsen (’10) of Burdett, Kansas is a senior in high school and will graduate in May of 2012, after which she plans to attend college.

Paige Ownbey (’09) of Campo, Colorado is recently married, is a volunteer firefighter, and currently provides day care services at her alma mater, Campo School, where she is also the assistant high school volleyball coach.

DeLesa Perez (’09, ’10, ’11) of Hart, Texas is currently working on a degree in Advertising and Public Relations at West Texas A&M University (Canyon, TX). She will graduate in 2013, and then plans to move to a city and run a public relations business.

Daniel Ramos (’10) recently graduated from high school (Dimmitt, TX) and has enlisted with the United States Army.

Sarah Reeves (’11) of Munday, Texas, is working on getting a degree in elementary education/pharmacy technician at Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, TX). She plans to graduate in December of 2012, and if she doesn’t get a job in the spring, she plans to become certified as a pharmacy technician.

Katy Reynolds (’11) of Tribune, Kansas is majoring in Mass Communications at Northwestern Oklahoma State University (Alva, OK) and has a minor in English. She will graduate in December 2011 with her bachelor’s, then plans to complete her Master’s degree and find a job in the Tribune, Kansas area.

Tess Robben (’09) is currently attending school at Fort Hays State University (Hays, Kansas).

Valeria Rodriguez (’09) is majoring in Biochemistry at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. After graduation, she plans to attend medical school at Texas Tech University.

Alexis Schwarz (’10) is currently attending college at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln, Nebraska), and majoring in Advertising.

Kevin Von Feldt (’10) of Larned, Kansas is a senior in high school. He plans to graduate in 2012 and attend Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.

Kerra Wait (’11) is a high school senior in Pritchett, Colorado. She plans to graduate in 2012 and attend college to study sports medicine, chiropractic medicine, and business. She plans to open her own business after graduating from college.

Kaili Wait (’09) is majoring in Crop Science at Otero Junior College (La Junta, Colorado). In the future, she plans to start a family and work for the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Clay Wimmer (’10) is presently a high school senior in Abernathy, Texas. He is involved with Future Farmers of America and is working on a ranch. He is interested in soil and water conservation and plans to graduate in May 2012.

Sara Wheeler (’10) is currently beginning her sophomore year studying biology and chemistry at Oklahoma Panhandle State University (Goodwell, OK).

Cara Young (’11) and her husband, Justin, are taking on full-time jobs at High Plains Food Bank and Community Gardens in Amarillo, Texas upon the completion of her internship.

Intern Profile: Delissa Villa Hello everyone,
My name is Delissa Villa. I am from Tulia, TX and attend St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. I am an international business and marketing major and will be graduating in May of 2012. This will be my third summer interning through Ogallala Commons. I am very grateful for the opportunity I’ve had in working with OC...I’ve learned a lot and have grown to value my rural community.

This summer I carried out a one-month marketing internship. I interviewed different business owners in Plainview, Texas, learned about the marketing department at Soil Mender Products, LP, in Tulia, TX, and worked with Casa del Llano, a small nonprofit organization in Hereford, Texas.

The entrepreneurs that I interviewed have been very successful in their businesses and here are some key lessons I learned were: what inspired them to start the business, marketing techniques, and how they are successful in rural communities. These interviews provided valuable information that I will use in the future when I open up my own business. I would like my business to focus on “health education”. With the growing rates of obesity in the United States, there is a need to educate. In my community, I believe there is a particular need in educating Hispanic women. My ideal business would incorporate healthy cooking classes, fitness classes, and health education classes.

Intern Profile: Weston Neiman
My name is Weston Neiman and I grew up in Junction, Texas. I went to college at New Mexico State University where I earned a Bachelors of Business Administration and played football. After NMSU, I decided to further my education by attending Texas Tech, and graduated with my MBA last December. I am now trying to make the transition into a meaningful career, and in doing so, I was referred to an Ogallala Commons Internship by my sister. The weekend I graduated, all of my family was up in Lubbock. After my graduation, I went snowboarding in Colorado and somehow my parents set up a tour with Darryl. The first couple of months after my graduation, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and decided I was interested in sustainable building. That's when it clicked for my sister, and how I ended up as an OC Community Intern this summer.

My whole life I have been interested in sports and hunting. I am very competitive and if you want to motivate me, turn the task into a game and you will be surprised at how much more productive I am. I grew up very connected to the earth and being respectful of our resources. My parents started a small business called Native American Seed that sells only native wildflower and grass seeds to landscapers, government projects, and individuals.

During my internship I met so many people and made so many connections in the sustainable development world. I feel like this internship has been a little blessing in the disguise of a little bit of work…I am very grateful for…the learning experiences and friends I made along the way.

Intern Profile: Adan Peña
My name is Adan Peña, but everyone just calls me Adam. I was born in Dimmitt, Texas and raised in Nazareth, Texas. My parents’ names are Joann and Gilbert Pena. I have two sisters: April and Angelica, and a cousin who was raised in my household named Ramon. I am bilingual--fluent in Spanish and English. I recently graduated from high school in 2011. I am [going to] attend Baylor University in the fall and double major in Economics and Philosophy

I was asked by Dr. Darryl Birkenfeld to participate in this internship and was very excited to join. Although this is my first year, this internship has done a lot of good in our small community. I [have done] many projects, such as: helping my community with a weekly salad, helping another intern with a cemetery history project, and [improving] on a community map. I [even got] my first experience with planting a garden, and launching a new blog for our “Swift Kicks” or our community news.

In my spare time, I enjoy being with my family, reading the bible, playing video games, and living this gracious gift called life to the fullest.

The OC internship was definitely a great way to end my senior summer in my small community. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure if anyone would benefit from my summer internship; I came to discovery that I benefitted from the internship most of all.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: August (Week 1)

2011-08-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Where Have All the Interns Gone?

Our hardworking Community Intern, Megan England, has spent a good part of her summer tracking down intern alumni. She has written a two-part article with updates on what is happening with Ogallala Commons Community Interns from 2007-2011 (Part II will appear in next week's OC Newsletter: The Place).

Part One (Interns appear in alphabetical order)

Carolina Balderas (’10) is currently employed at a dairy farm near Hereford, TX.

Lacey Barker (’09) is a junior Business major at University of Central Oklahoma in Edmund.

Kyle Birkenfeld (’09) is attending Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas) and majoring in Agricultural Engineering. He is currently interning with an agricultural engineering company in Dalhart, Texas.

Steven Birkenfeld (’09) just finished his sophomore year at Texas A&M University. He is majoring in Ag Engineering and is currently interning with Texas Cotton Ginners Association.

Mary Bitter (’11) works as a Para at Barton County Academy. She will graduate from Barton County Community College (Great Bend, KS) with a History degree in December of 2011. After graduation, she plans to stay in Great Bend and take classes online to get her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Fort Hays State University.

Sydney Busse (’09, ’10) will graduate from Baylor University (Waco, Texas) in May of 2013 with a degree in Health Sciences Studies with a Pre-Physical Therapy major. She then plans to obtain her doctorate in physical therapy and find a program, such as Doctors Without Borders, that would allow her to serve Third-world or underprivileged areas. Eventually, she would like to return to a rural area (ideally Bird City, KS) to live and practice physical therapy.

Simone Cahoj (07, ’08, ’09) graduated from the University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas) and is currently employed as the Wichita County Economic Development Director in Leoti, Kansas.

Blenda Cooper (’10) of Denver, Colorado is a personal trainer currently in the process of starting a non-profit to help fight childhood obesity. She specifically wants to help under-served people who could not afford such health services normally.

Emma Cress (’10) will graduate from Northwestern College-Iowa (Orange City, Iowa) in May 2012 with a degree in Athletic Training, Pre-Physical Therapy and a Spanish minor. Soon after, she hopes to attend physical therapy graduate school.

Allison Dunbar (’10) is currently attending college and working at a research lab in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thomas Edwards (’10) is currently studying at Asbury University (Wilmore, Kentucky).

Elisa Elizondo (’11) is currently studying Ecology/Natural History and Ecological Design at Prescott College in Arizona.

Megan England (’09, ’10, ’11) is currently a senior in high school at Campo, Colorado and plans to attend Oklahoma Wesleyan University in the fall of 2012 to study Communications/Media Writing.

Jayme Flores (’07) of Amarillo, Texas is currently going to school for Paralegal Studies and plans to graduate in 2013. She then plans to work for a few months before attending law school.

Larissa Gardner (’10, ’11) is currently a graduate student in History at West Texas A&M University (Canyon, Texas). Her primary focus is Public History, and she is very fond of making history relatable to the public. She plans to finish her degree in the next year and a half, after which she hopes to teach or work in a museum.

Alex Gerber (’09) is currently a sophomore at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. She will soon be entering the nursing program.

Melanie Hartman (’09) of Happy, Texas is presently a wildlife biologist for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. She is stationed at Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge and also works at Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.

Jordan Hergenreder (’10) is interning for the National Farmers Union in Washington, D.C.

Allyson Hochstein (’08) is enrolled at the School of Nursing at the University of the Incarnate Word (San Antonio, Texas). She will graduate in May 2012 and begin her career as a registered nurse.

Michelle Hochstein (’10) is a senior in high school in Nazareth, Texas where she will graduate in 2012.

Shauna Koester (’11) is studying History at Barton County Community College (Great Bend, KS). After her graduation in 2012, she wants to become a history professor.

Kathleen Wyly ('10) is attending Lubbock Christian University, majoring in Organizational Management, and plans to graduate with her Bachelor's degree in December 2012.

Former OC Intern Returns Home
By Megan England, OC Intern

Above: Paige LeBlanc (far right) during her 2009 internship

During the summer of 2009, Paige (Ownbey) LeBlanc became one of Campo, Colorado’s first Ogallala Commons Community Interns. She worked on several projects, but specifically created a website for the town of Campo. Since that time, Paige has graduated from high school, attended college at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado, and has returned home to work at her alma mater.

“Miss Paige”, as the students call her, is currently the daycare provider and assistant high school volleyball coach at Campo School. Recently married, both Paige and her husband, Anthony, volunteer with the local fire department.

Like several former interns, Paige is a wonderful example of what Ogallala Commons hopes to accomplish with community internships: that is, “to inspire home-grown talent to return in the future--to live, work, play and raise their families.”

Intern Profile: Sarah Reeves My name is Sarah Reeves and I've lived in Munday, Texas for my entire life. I graduated from Munday High School in 2009, and am currently attending Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX. I am majoring in Elementary Education and plan to graduate in the fall of 2012. This summer I worked with the Knox County Visioning Group, which is dedicated to bringing together the communities in our county and helping to get everyone involved in community-wide events. My biggest project this summer was to help create a county-wide brochure. None of the cities in our county have brochures, so this was an interesting process and learning experience. I can't wait to see the final brochure, which will be something that everyone can enjoy and use to help them learn more about Knox County. We had “Knox County Adventure Days” one weekend in June and had loads of fun activities including: geocaching, bus tours, an “Amazing Grace Race”, a lunch to benefit our fire departments, and a photo scavenger hunt. We also hosted the Bobby Boatright Western Swing Music Camp in Goree, TX at the Knox Prairie Events Center this July. This camp was almost a week long, and students learned how to play guitar and fiddle, as well as simply learning how to better their technique. All in all, I’ve had an amazing summer and become a better person because of it. I have learned valuable skills such as: finding my voice, and finding new ways in which to relate to my community.

Intern Profile: Tia Hadley
I’m Tia Hadley and I'm from Atwood Kansas. I'm a sophomore at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and I'm majoring in biochemistry and theater. I recently got engaged and am really excited to get married when I'm done with college. I found out about this internship from reading about it in my town's newspaper. I hope I can help my community through this internship and work on skills that will help me with my career in the future. Also I'm really excited to learn more about my community and the people who live in it.

I have a very big family. I have three sisters, one brother, three step sisters and two step brothers. In my spare time I love to read as much as I can, listen to music, play video games and hang with friend. My career goals are to get my doctorate in biochemistry and work as a biochemist doing medical research. I want to do research on diseases like cancer and diabetes. I have already got started doing research on diabetes last semester. I wrote a paper over my research and it got published

Intern Profile: Kara Lacey
Hey! I’m Kara Lacey and I am from Tulia, Texas. I attend Texas Tech University and I love it! My major currently is Ag. Education, and I am planning on being a County Extension Agent someday. I found out about the OC internship through my county extension agent, Calley Runnels, because I was wondering if they had any work I could do for the summer at the extension office and she told me about the internship opportunity! I then applied, and was very excited to learn that I got the internship! I expect to learn a lot about how a rural community functions, and also different things that my advisors have to teach me about their job. I also expect to learn about leadership qualities, and what skills you need to be an effective leader.

In my spare time I like to hang out with my friends of course, and I love going to concerts. I like to play tennis a lot when I can find the time for it, which is hardly ever. I also enjoy spending time with my family! And Texas Tech football of course! I am also in Collegiate 4-H, so that takes up time as well. My all time favorite type of music is Texas Country. My favorite bands/artists are Brandon Adams, Turnpike Troubadours, and Brandon Rhyder.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: July (Week 4)

2011-08-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Intern Profile: Michelle WaitI am Michelle Wait from Pritchett, Colorado. I am a high school math and business teacher at both Pritchett High School and Campo High School which has given me the opportunity to work with some amazing staff and students at both schools.

The biggest part of my internship has been spent working to create an entrepreneurship curriculum for teachers to use in their classrooms. I’m very excited about teaching this curriculum this fall because many of the lessons will be hands-on activities that will allow the students to learn about real-life business processes. My hope is that this curriculum will allow students to bring their ideas about business to life, and perhaps entice them to start their business in our small town areas where they grow up.

In my “spare time,” I like to help my husband on the ranch. My children are 5th generation ranchers and in just a few years, our family will have been ranching in southeast Colorado for 100 years. Kaili, my oldest daughter, will be attending Otero Junior College this fall to study crop sciences. Kerra will be a senior at Pritchett High School this fall and is very active in most everything. Kerra is also participating in the OC Internship Program this summer. Megan will be a 3rd grader who loves to do everything from playing basketball to riding her horses to reading her favorite chapter books. My family is my greatest joy, and it seems like the best times we have together are the days we spend working on the ranch.

Intern Profile: Kerra WaitHi All, I am Kerra Wait from Pritchett, Colorado. This fall I will the youngest senior in my class at Pritchett High School at the age of 16. At school I am involved in everything that is offered that I can; I am in FFA, FBLA, STUCO, 4-H, National Honor Society, Honor Roll, Knowledge Bowl and I have been participating in volleyball, basketball and track since 5th grade. However injuries to my ankles and hips have kept me off the courts and track for the past two years.

This year was my first time to do an internship of any kind and I am really happy I chose to do it with this great organization. Several years ago my older sister, Kaili, was an intern, and this year my mom, Michelle, is a teacher intern as well. So my family is getting really involved with OC and I think it is great!

My internship has been working with the Baca County Economic Development and improving our county. I have had a ton of fun learning about my county and what I can do to improve it. I have also had the pleasure to work a lot with Megan England. One thing I will never forget from my internship was the Connecting Kids to Community Leadership Day that we put on. I had a blast doing that! Also I can’t wait until the Youth Engagement Day that we are also planning because it might actually be more fun! However, I have had a great internship and I have learned so much more than I thought I would about my county and even myself. I can’t wait until I can apply again and have another great summer with great people!

Intern Profile: DeLesa PerezHello everyone my name is DeLesa Perez. I am 19 years old and attending West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. This summer was my third consecutive summer to participate in the Ogallala Commons Internship Program; every year I have grown and learned a lot more. I have met many new faces and have become a better person. This summer throughout out my internship, I have helped at the Hart elementary school with the summer school kids. I also got to help out with the local Lions Club, St. Johns Catholic Church Jamaica, our annual Hart Days Celebration (which was a great hit) and last, but not least, work at City Hall. All together, I have learned so many new skills, each year has become more interesting, and the work has increased. I will also have the opportunity to use what I have learned throughout my internship in my college career and everyday life. Specifically in my internship, I have made the main flyers to advertise the events to bring people from around the community to Hart. I also helped Sue Hawkins at City Hall with mail runs, taking water bill payments, and answering the telephones. I also got to help with the Miss Hart Pageant by encouraging the girls, organizing and helping decorate, and designing a t-shirt for the girls to wear for opening number that night. I may have a few big jobs throughout my internship but with my help on the little jobs, I get to be a part of the bigger picture.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: July (Week 3)

2011-07-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

A Final Chance to Gather The summer break is coming to an end, but there is still one more event that can bring Community Interns together: a concert by Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix, accompanied by legendary Texas Music producer, multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Maines, in concert at the Home Mercantile in Nazareth, TX on Sunday afternoon, August 14th from 3-5pm. Any OC Community Intern can attend this concert for half-price ($10).

Terri Hendrix exemplifies much of what Community Interns strive for: helping their hometowns, being an entrepreneur, and building a creative career path. Between filling Internet orders alongside her team at Wilory Records from her e-commerce store, working toward the launch of her OYOU (“Own Your Own Universe”) community arts center and keeping up with her three beloved, rambunctious mutts and an organic garden with a mind of its own, Terri Hendrix has certainly had her hands full of late on the San Marcos, Texas, home front. But it would take a lot more than all of the above to keep her from pursuing her insatiable passion for writing and performing music. For more information, please visit Terri’s website: www.terrihendrix.com

By the time she got around to recording her debut album, 1996’s Two Dollar Shoes, Hendrix did what most artists still did at the time, and shopped around for a record label. She was turned down by three, none of which are still in business. She released the record independently, and never looked back. Now, twelve self-released albums later, Hendrix is still thriving — and grateful she made the fateful decision more than a dozen years ago to not only follow her own path through her music career, but to ultimately “own her own universe.” A classically trained vocalist and deft multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin and harmonica), Hendrix is a ﬁrm believer in the theory that “life’s too short for one genre,” dodging musical pigeonholes by weaving folk, pop, country, blues and swinging jazz into an eclectic style all her own that plays like a lovingly compiled mix-CD. Add to that her charismatic stage presence and reputation for always delivering an energetic and spiritually uplifting live show (from intimate listening rooms to huge outdoor festivals), and it’s no wonder why she’s been embraced by three generations of loyal fans around the world. As the San Antonio Express-News observed, “Part of the beauty of Terri Hendrix’s music is she’s among the best at recognizing, writing about and celebrating resilience and common ground, the things we can all cry, and laugh, about.” To get the specially-priced intern tickets for the August 14th concert with Hendrix and Maines, please contact OC Director Darryl Birkenfeld by email or phone.

Intern Profile: Aleece Methvin
Hello folks.

My name is Aleece Methvin and I am a Spring 2011 graduate of Texas Tech University earning a degree in General Studies; the focuses being Geography, Psychology, and Photography. I am currently in the process of applying for a Fulbright scholarship to Ethiopia where my proposed research topic will be to work with the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital and document personal experiences involving obstetric fistulas through photography and interviews (that of the patients, their family, doctors, nurses, volunteers, and so on).

A little history: I was born and raised in Levelland, Texas (home of South Plains College, alleged UFO sightings in the 1950s, tumble weeds, cotton, etc.) I currently live thirty miles east of my homeland in Lubbock, Texas where I am participating in a summer internship with Ogallala Commons. Up until now, my duties this summer have consisted of organizing the Ogallala Commons archive within the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University so that the community may have access to first-hand information concerning one of the most important subjects of our time-water; at a time when recognizing the fact of its depletion has become unavoidable. Starting this week, however, I will begin helping Andy Wilkinson (the Artist in Residence at the SWC/SCs Library and visiting assistant professor in the School of Music and in the Honors College) with a photo project documenting before and after panoramic images of the landscapes where transmission line segments will be placed around the Texas Panhandle and South Plains regions. (Take a look at http://www.caprockenergy.com/ for more information).

I had the honor of having my final project in Advanced Documentary Photography (a photography book) accepted into the Millennial Collection within the SWC/SCs Library during the Fall 2010 semester, so it has definitely been an honor to work within this constantly evolving archive of West Texas.

Intern Profile: Heather Mitchell
Hello, my name is Heather Mitchell and I live in Roy, New Mexico. I will be a senior this fall at Roy High School. I am active in volleyball, basketball, 4-H, FEA and FFA. I am very passionate about FFA. With every single one of these activities I have done, I have learned a lot, from teamwork to leadership. I always try to do anything that is needed in our small community. I have lived here my entire life and I really care about this town.

This summer of 2011, I have been working for the Harding County Economic Development Board. We have been working on asset mapping this summer. We have been looking at old buildings around our community to see what houses need to be torn down and which ones are good enough for us to rebuild so that we have more house for more families to move in our little town. We have also been asking people questions to see what they know how do like health care or computer skills. So if there is someone that is really good at health care and someone needs help with that then they know who to go to for help. We are also asking them questions trying to see what they think our communities need so we can get more people in our towns. By doing this internship I have started to learn more about myself, like my work ethics, I have also learned what conditions I work best in.

Intern Profile: Jennifer Zavaleta By way of quick introduction, my name is Jennifer Zavaleta and I am a graduate student in the Natural Resource Department at Texas Tech. I was asked to write about the importance of program evaluation and how program evaluation fits in with my future plans after graduation.

My first semester with Ogallala Commons has been a learning and meaningful experience. At the beginning of this internship I was a little unsure of my skills in terms of developing surveys and analyzing their results. However, I have been learning through an independent study with Dr. Todd Brashears in the Agricultural Education Department and now feel much more confidant. In return for helping me with program evaluation for Ogallala Commons, I have worked with him on analyzing surveys, which compare the knowledge and attitudes of meat possessing managers at private and state-operated plants. While the subject matter greatly differs from that which I measured with Ogallala Commons, one fact remains: Program evaluations are essential for program development. Program evaluation is important because it highlights unobvious assumptions, indicates where lessons may need to be bolstered, and provides hard numbers and evidence that an organization is making a difference.

While interning with Ogallala Commons I developed four different surveys for four demographics Ogallala Commons works closely with. This includes landowners who attend management days, teachers who attend playa festival training day, students currently partaking in playa festivals, and former playa festival attendees. Each survey measured knowledge, attitudes and behaviors before and after Ogallala Common’s programming. I have only had the opportunity to analyze the data from the prescribed grazing management day.

The results were, at times, surprising and seemingly contradictory. For example, landowners claimed that management decisions were not primarily driven by economic concerns. However, they were not willing to implement prescribed grazing for financial reasons. After learning this information, I suggested that staff at Ogallala Commons add specific information on the economic advantages of prescribed grazing to better encourage behavioral change. The information I collected helped staff at Ogallala Commons adjust curriculum to better meet the needs of its intended audience, better allocate limited funding, and present hard-data to their board of directors.

The theme of unexpected results is not limited to my experience with Ogallala Commons. Dr. Brashears and I have collected and analyzed data related to organizational climate and culture of meat packing plants in central Mexico. We found that while knowledge-based education is important to improved food safety, it is not sufficient for successful implementation of safety directives. We determined that management’s attitude toward the food safety and work-culture of the plant influenced quality of processed meat. This information changed food safety curriculum. Instead of solely focusing on food safety procedures, now education also includes the importance of food safety and appeals to changing people’s attitude toward safety issues. This small yet meaningful change in curriculum is a significant step toward improving meat quality such that it may be possible to trade with the United States, a goal of Mexican meat production.

Not only are program evaluations valuable because they can show surprising results, they also provide hard numbers as opposed to impressions that people have understood the educational materials and will change their behavior. In our survey to landowners we were able to prove people gained knowledge from management days by asking content-based questions. We were also able to measure that people planned on changing their behavior based on their interactions with Ogallala Commons. The survey asked participants what their behaviors were before the management day and what they hoped to do after. There was a significant intent to change in terms of implementing prescribed grazing, identifying plants on their playa, and providing an adequate buffer zone around their playa. This information demonstrates that Ogallala Commons is having a significant impact in the community. This is powerful information when writing grants and impressive to share with a board of directors. I look forward to analyzing more surveys related to playa festivals once the school year starts.

The program evaluation that I have participated in while working with Ogallala Commons and Dr. Brashears has motivated me to apply for a Fulbright to work in Chile. Chile’s Long Term Socio Economic Research Program has started to link scientists from different universities, field stations, and private industries as well as community members and politicians. This network has the potential to drastically improve collaboration efforts throughout Chile. I would love to be granted the opportunity to work with the LTSER network and help them measure how effective their current efforts are on spreading awareness of the organization and make suggestions for how to improve recognition and collaboration of the network. I will have the opportunity to meet the directors of this program when I attend the Ecological Society of America meeting in Austin this August. I look forward to learning more about the LTSER program and how I can contribute to its success.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: July (Week 2)

2011-07-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Intern Profile: James CoffeeMy name is James Coffee and this summer I am interning in Pampa, Texas. I will be a senior at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, this year and I am majoring in Landscape Architecture and getting a minor in Geology. I have grown up in Pampa most of my life so it has been nice to come back to my hometown and work this summer. Along with working in Pampa, I will be splitting my time in White Deer, Texas, at the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District.

This summer, I have been focusing on two major projects; one is the renovation of the Xeriscape garden in White Deer and the other is helping out the Chamber of Commerce with the planning of their main summer events. The Xeriscape garden was created to show people how you can create a nice looking garden that does not use a lot of water but over the years it has been neglected and overgrown. I have come up with a new design and we have started working on the garden and hope to complete it by the end of summer. In Pampa, I have been helping out the Chamber director with the Boomtown Block Party and the Summer Celebration. The Boomtown Block Party is a business expo for the businesses of Pampa. The Summer Celebration is where News Channel Ten does the evening news, live in Pampa. This year it will be near the new water park in town and a live band will be playing as well as having tons of booths for food and games. I have really enjoyed my time back home and I feel that these projects have made a positive impact on the communities.

Intern Profile: Greg Laudenslager
Hello, happy summer everyone!
My name is Greg and I am thrilled to be working with the collective of farmers, ranchers, and consumer Foodies that make up the High Plains Food Co-op. We have a wide selection of amazing foods that are raised with TLC instead of chemicals and antibiotics. You can certainly taste the quality of the foods, and the prices are comparable to what you pay at King Soopers. (Shop online at HighPlainFoods.org)

A bit about myself: I am a native Coloradan with a strong pioneering spirit and insatiable curiosity. I am fascinated by the world around me and I like to surround myself with people that challenge me to wonder, imagine, explore, and discover. I am a brother, son, and CU Buffalo. I am an Earthling and have a high regard for Mother Earth & her creatures. Life is such a precious gift and I am thankful for everyday. I feel a spiritual connection to the land and believe passionately in using thoughtful ecological design, whether it be in agriculture or urban planning. Biodiversity allows for the amazing functions of nature to replace the use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. Permaculture (agro-ecology) is the practice of doing just that, stewarding the land to develop a thriving Edible Ecosystem. I just pulled the term Edible Ecosystem out of nowhere, but it is certainly a good way of thinking about Permaculture techniques. You probably get the picture that I enjoy being an advocated for thoughtful, functional ecological design. I also enjoy backpacking, mountain biking, climbing (trees included!), snow!, cooking, eating, gardening, traveling, relaxing in my hammock, and spending time with friends & family!

Peace & Love!
Greg

PS I am thankful that Bees and Worms do so much to sustain our existence!

An Intern’s Perspective on the 2011 Ogallala Commons Retreat
Megan England

Above: A few of the “Commoners” at the retreat toured “The Garden” at Hi-Plains Food Bank (Front Row L-R: Darryl Birkenfeld, Megan England, Nikki Johnson, Mary Libby Campbell. Back Row L-R: Tom Giessel, Bob Mailander)

I just returned from the 2011 Ogallala Commons Retreat in Amarillo, Texas. Having never been to such a thing previously, I had no idea what to expect. I’m not super-great friends with the unknown or unexpected. (Must be a Gold thing).

What I didn’t expect was the respect. Sure, I knew everyone would be nice, but really, who wants a seventeen-year-old girl hanging out at a board meeting for a non-profit organization? What I found was that I was taken seriously, even though they knew I was still in high school!

I decided quickly that God gave me two ears and one mouth for a reason, so I must have seemed pretty quiet. I was intrigued (and yes, slightly intimidated) by the conversation of the incredibly talented, motivated, and passionate people on the OC Board. Who needs to talk when there are so many interesting things to listen to?

While the meetings I attended were great, I must tell you they didn’t compose the entire event. On Monday evening, we attended the Ogallala Commons Funding Dinner, and it was exciting to hear from several other interns on their projects. I read the blogs, but hearing the stories in person is always amazing!

Above: Myself and fellow intern Kerra Wait, at the Ogallala Commons Funding Dinner

On Tuesday, we toured the West Texas A&M University Enterprise Center and learned about entrepreneurship. Then, after an afternoon Retreat session, we got to eat dinner at the house of an Ogallala Commons friend—with a gorgeous view of the canyon—and I was reminded that not only are the OC board members good at what they do, they are just plain fun! (By the way, if you haven’t been to the Palo Duro Canyon area—go!). We finished up the Retreat on Wednesday with a wonderful tour of the Hi-Plains Food Bank Community Garden, led by intern Cara Young, and later, the final Retreat session before we adjourned at noon.

Attending the OC Retreat was a great eye-opener for me, and to top it all off, I got to meet some amazing people who didn’t seem to mind taking time out of their day to hear from “kids” like me, really listen to our ideas, and give us great input. I was shown a side of Ogallala Commons I’d never seen before, and I would love to be able to bring something to the OC table—even after my internship—because I believe their purpose is absolutely priceless!

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: July (Week 1)

2011-07-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

Intern Profile: Rebecca Garrison

I’m Rebecca Garrison from Mosquero in Harding County, New Mexico. I just graduated from Mosquero High School this May. In the Fall, I’ll be a sophomore at Clovis Community College where I’ve been earning dual credits since my sophomore year of high school, and will be majoring in Early Childhood Development. I actually have only lived in Mosquero for about 2 ½ years, but since being here I’ve been amazed by this small, thriving community.

This summer, I’m interning under Mary Campbell and Daniella Johnson who work for the Harding County’s Economic Development Office. One of the many goals we want to accomplish is to get our youth involved in the county by heartening teens to get an education, by graduating high school and college, and coming back to their hometown. Also, we would like to get businesses to help by promoting and encouraging teens to come back and work in the county. We are trying to get ideas from everyone on how to motivate the community's youth and adults to build local economy. During my internship, we are going to do a mass survey involving covering at least 300 community members (half our county population), asking them what they would like to see come into the county; and asking for ideas on how they think we can go farther in improving our community. From this intern experience, I am gaining a better appreciation for the hard work that community members and businesses like the Economic Development Office do to help keep our community on the map.

Intern Profile: Liz Hill

My name is Liz Hill. I’m 19 and this summer I’m completing an internship in my hometown of Dimmitt, Texas. I attend Texas A&M where I’m majoring in marketing with a minor in communications. I’ve loved living at home this summer and giving back to the community that has given so much to me.

The biggest project I’m working on this summer is a renovation of the Dimmitt City Park. We hope to replace some old playground equipment first and add a splash pad, some trees, and a parking lot. I’ve been working to secure grant funding for this project with the City Manager’s office. Writing the grants is really difficult because of the level of detail required and the planning you have to do beforehand. But I’m enjoying the challenge and I hope that this renovation is a huge success! I’ve also been helping the City Manager come up with some ideas to revitalize our city recycling plant. We hope to implement some changes by the end of the summer.

I’ve been working with the Chamber of Commerce here in Dimmitt to organize an exciting event for the community. On July 19th, the local news will broadcast from Dimmitt as a part of their Summer Celebration Series. The four newscasts will feature stories about Dimmitt and surrounding communities, there will be vendors on the square, live music, food, and lots of fun! I’m excited to get to help showcase my community, and as the day draws closer we just work harder.

Intern Profile: Raylyn Bowers

My name is Raylyn Bowers, and I will start my senior year at Tulia High School (Tulia, TX) this fall. I learned about this internship from a former intern and I thought it sounded interesting. After high school, I plan to attend the University of Texas at Austin to study Engineering.

During my internship, I will work at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulia, putting all of the names and dates from the headstones into the computer. Then, when that is finished, hopefully we can make an easy-to-read map. The map would be made so that when people come to visit their loved ones, they will be able to find them without searching an entire section for them.

After the cemetery, I will work at the hospital, exploring what it takes to keep a rural community hospital running. I will work with the doctors, nurses, medical records, and central supply.

Next, I will be at a different cemetery. The cemetery in Happy, Texas, needs someone to transfer information from a card into the computer. I will be working with the City Secretary and Patricia Sims to get this work done.

Then I plan to work for the Tulia Chamber of Commerce, getting everything prepared for the town picnic and parade. During picnic, I plan to volunteer for the hospital, while they set up inflatable slides and jumping toys on the town square for the children to jump on.

Immediately after Picnic is over, I am on my way to Europe for a week, then back to Tulia to finish up my projects.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: June (Issue 3)

2011-06-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

Intern Profile: Elisa Elizondo

My name is Elisa Elizondo, I'm 20, and I have finally decided that I will transfer to Prescott College in Arizona in the fall as a junior. I lived in Fort Worth all my life up to now and went to TCU for two years. Home used to be all the way at the end University Drive and now it's far, far away and about to get farther.

My internship is in Amarillo, TX at the Wesley Community Center and the Maverick Boys and Girls Club. Both aim to establish community gardens that will provide food for the people they serve. Wesley serves as a place where people (mostly children and the elderly) come to learn and have fun. The Maverick Club serves only children and is pretty much the same thing on a larger scale.

Most of the volunteers I work with are in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade and they absolutely love being out in the garden and learning about it. At this point both gardens only grow annual vegetables, but in addition to caring for it (not an easy job with all this wind!), my job is to ensure more perennial and long term edible shrubs, rain catchment, and composting, and community support are in place to sustain the garden when I leave.

Intern Profile: Tara Fox

My name is Tara Fox and I am serving in my community of Plainview, Texas this summer. I have been living in Plainview for almost 7 years now. I have completed my undergrad as well as my master’s degree at Wayland Baptist University. This summer I am taking on the task of creating a financial banking and education curriculum geared towards lower income and unbanked individuals and families in the community. The end goal is to provide information and education to break the poverty cycle in families to give future generations a chance at something better.

We are also working on beginning an IDA (Individual Development Accounts) program for women who are or have been in a domestic family violence situation. By providing a program that will not only assist them in meeting a goal, whether that be owning a home, going back to school or starting a business; but also teach them how to make a budget and stick to it; we are taking away a piece of power and control that this family has been under. Economic abuse is one of the main reasons why women stay in abusive relationships for as long as they do. Most of these women were never allowed to work, or never able to so teaching them some basics is exactly what they need.

I believe in this project and am so honored to be a part of this opportunity to change families’ lives not only right now but for future generations as well.

Intern Profile: Larissa Gardner

Hello,
I'm Larissa Gardner, an Ogallala Intern working in Nazareth, TX. I live in Amarillo and have two daughters (12 and 19) who live very nearby, so I can see them as often as I want to. My parents grew up in Happy, Texas, and I spent summers in the Texas Panhandle helping my grandfather on his farm. What I really love about the program is the opportunity to work in my field before I graduate with my Masters' Degree. I feel very lucky!

My main project is an exhibit entitled “A Woman's Touch.” It celebrates the Benedictine Sisters who taught in Nazareth from the early 1900s until 1990 as well as the Sisters who received vocations and left Nazareth for the St. Scholastica Monastery in Arkansas. I've done research on the History of Nazareth and the History of Supreme Court decisions on Separation between Church and State. I've also interviewed Sisters who are still in the area and have gathered stories from many of those they taught! The exhibit is planned for seven panels and will be presented at the Nazareth German Sausage Festival on July 9th.

Other portions of my internship center around the Cemetery's Oratory Index and map as well as production of an exhibit book for “A Woman's Touch” and “Pioneer Pastors” exhibits to be used on future displays as a takeaway. I am also following up this summer on work I did last summer to help get the Holy Family Cemetery designated as a Historical Site so they can get a Historical Marker.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: June (Issue 2)

2011-06-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Color Us Blue (as in Caring)!
Fr. Ken Keller, OC Intern Supervisor

As an overall group, the 2011 Ogallala Commons Community Interns are compassionate! At least that is what a summary of the “Colors Test” indicated when the individual results were tabulated together as a group.

Recall from your Intern Orientation a few weeks ago, that a Personality Quiz called “True Colors” was taken by the Interns and 22 returned their results for a collective look at their “intern-ablity”. In this particular personality assessment tool, those whose primary color is Blue are compassionate, while Oranges are courageous, Greens are conceptual, and Golds are detail-oriented.

Not enough information came in to attempt to answer fully the question “What personality type is most common in a Community Intern?” However, 2011 Interns whose primary personality color is Blue are more noticeable (37% in the group rank it as their primary color), while the group’s other three personality colors are equally placed at 21% each. Nationally, when one looks at an average for all groups, each color shows up at a 25% occurrence in a group.

When one looks at the collective results, from intern’s most-to-least ranking of colors, one can picture a “bell curve” type of perspective on color. Thus, for the highest color – Blue -- 9 rank it first while 5 rank it last. For the lowest color – Gold – 5 rank it first while 8 rank it least. Green and Orange seem to be the balancing factors for our group.

However, the True Colors test helps interns not only by understanding their strengths, but also their weaknesses. When consideration is give to the last place ranking of a color, 36 percent of our 2011 Interns listed Gold as their least color. This can indicate that our interns are not as “practical”, “managerial”, or “detail- oriented” as the average group of persons.

In summary, here are some generalizations about our 2011 Interns as a group (not each individual). They are caring with a strong desire to make a contribution to society and help others. They are enthusiastic, communicative, and sympathetic.

A side of their “group personality” that might be worked on more during their internships would be: maintaining a schedule, doing more organizing, and making efforts to leave their community or organization in August with more established and practical solutions. Thus, the True Colors Personality Assessment gives us another level of insight into the gifts offered and the challenges faced by Community Interns.

Learning About Natural Resources...Attend Field Days
Across the Great Plains region, interns, supervisors, and interested citizens can learn more about our natural resources by attending a Field Day. Throughout this summer, on any given week or weekend, an agency or group of organizations is conducting some sort of Field Day. These events usually occur in the morning and end with lunch. It's a great opportunity to get outdoors and learn about wildlife, plants, water, and soils in a hands-on way, with the instruction of local experts. Remember, stewarding natural resources is one of the key skills for a Community Intern, and attending a Field Day may be your best chance to engage in this work. Upland Field Day at Dimmitt Unit of the Playa Lakes WMA in Castro County on Saturday, June 25th from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

Down in the Texas Panhandle, there are two Field Days coming up. There will be an Upland Field Day at the Dimmitt Unit of the Playa Lakes WMA, 4 miles west of Dimmitt, TX in Castro County on Saturday, June 25th from 9:00 a.m. to noon. This event is free and everyone is invited, but they would like folks to RSVP (in order to have plenty of bottled water and information packets on hand that day). We would love to have as many hunters, landowners, and youth as possible (boys and girls…the future of land and wildlife in our states). Another outdoor event will be held on Saturday, July 9th, with a Playa Field Tour at the Playa Classroom in Nazareth, TX from 8:30am-11am. You can learn about amphibians, playa plants, birds, and soils at this gathering. When it is over, you can attend the Nazareth German Festival, and enjoy a delicious German sausage dinner for $10 per person. If you are interested in either Field Day, please contact Darryl Birkenfeld (806-945-2255).

Intern Profile: Karen Bone
Hi all,
I am originally from South Texas, went to Sam Houston State University in East Texas, and currently live and work in West Texas. All this moving has made me appreciate the diversity and size of our state, and I like to joke that I have lived in 3 different states since the regions all have their own particular personality and the distance between them is so large. It takes me a good eight hours to visit where I grew up. In my spare time I read a lot of nonfiction, run a discussion group called Feminist of Lubbock, hike and bike with my partner, and play fetch with my extremely energetic two year old lab.

For my internship I am currently working at Sherry Pullen’s organic farm and, later in the summer, I will be teaching kids a little about food and nutrition. So far I’ve learned about picking vegetables, hoeing, laying down mulch, making organic pesticides, and maintaining moisture in the garden. I’m looking forward to learning more about butchering chickens, planting, putting the implements on the tractor and driving it, and picking fruit in the orchard, to name a few. It’s been interesting because while we have a rough work plan in place, so much of the work is dictated by the weather conditions and nature in general. My favorite activity thus far has been picking the vegetables, especially the root ones like beets, radishes, and onions.

Intern Profile: Savanna Bragg
Hey! I’m Savanna Bragg. I am 17 years old, and just recently graduated from Tulia High School this May. In the fall I will attend the University of North Texas in Denton in pursuit of a minor in Photojournalism and my degree in Public Relations or Marketing. I am passionate about photography, I actually own my own photography business, SavannaBPhotography. You can check out my website at savannabragg.smugmug.com. My other interests include running cross country, working out, motocross, journalism, traveling, and meeting new people. I am a very social person, and an entrepreneur, but I am probably also one of the biggest procrastinators you will ever meet.

This summer I am interning under Patsy Hooten, who is the owner and editor of the Swisher County News. Most of my internship will be working here at the newspaper office, but I will also be working with the high school cross country team. I will be helping with the Jr. High and High School Cross Country training/camps throughout the summer. I have been part of the student newspaper, The Sting, for two years now. This past school year I was student editor, which led me to being interested in fulfilling my internship at the newspaper office. Throughout the internship I will be writing weekly articles, taking photos, editing articles, and putting the newspaper together on Adobe InDesign. Last year was my first year to work for Ogallala Commons, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to be an intern this year as well. I am a bit of a city girl, but my internships have drawn me to appreciate the rural community assets.

Intern Profile: Samantha Carter
My name is Samantha Carter. I am a transplant here in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I moved here about two years ago and I plan on being here at least one more year. Currently, I am a student at Mesaland’s Community College and am doing an internship at the Tucumcari, Historical Museum for nine weeks of this summer.

During my internship at the museum I will be getting the chance to catalog as many of the items in the museum that I can get done. First I had to help design a system in order to catalog all the different artifacts properly without doubling up on the items, confusing the numbering system, or losing any of the important information that is part of the history of all the artifacts.

The Museum is a great place to intern at. I am really enjoying all the people that come in and the different stories I am privileged to hear. The other day I met a military boy who was traveling through New Mexico on his temporary leave because his best friend in the Army always told him about how great New Mexico really is. His friend died tragically in the military tank right in front of his vehicle during their last mission. The boy who died had no family so his friend had brought the remains of his things to the museum to donate in his memory. The boy’s boots, knife, and military papers were all that there was to show he even existed and gave all he had for this country. It was heartwarming and heart breaking all in the same emotion. I am truly lucky to have this experience.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: June (Issue 1)

2011-06-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

Tools of Your Internship: How to use the Work Plan & Time Sheet
By Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, Ogallala Commons

Now that your internship is off to a great start, interns and supervisors might wonder, “What is the purpose of the work plan?” Even though interns have hit the ground running with 3 or 4 projects, the work plan is still a handy tool—something that you want to take a look at least once a week for the following reasons.

First of all, your work plan should list a weekly schedule of activities from now until the end of your internship. It’s a reminder that what you are working on is not a sprint, but an 8-9 week marathon. Some activities will require a day or two to complete, but your main internship objectives need more time and planning to bring them to completion. Having a work plan will help you to divide up a big objective into weekly increments, so that by the end of your internship, you will have done enough work to wrap it up.

In addition, the work plan offers a way for you and your advisor to check in on the status of projects and activities—to discuss these projects and to make adjustments. It may happen that a task listed on your work plan can’t be completed in the week when it is written down. Reviewing the work plan allows you to move the activities to different weeks. Also, sometimes projects are finished sooner than planned, and once again, you can fill in your internship week with tasks that are listed further down the schedule on your work plan, so that you make effective use of your internship hours.

So this week, take time to look over your work plan with your supervisor, and use the plan as a gauge for what has been accomplished in your internship, and a planning guide as to how to proceed over the coming weeks.

Now, here are a few reminders on your time sheet. First of all, be sure to write down your internship hours and work description on a weekly basis. If you wait until the end of the third week when the first timesheet is due to send in for your stipend check, it will be very difficult to remember what you did in the first and second week. So again, start keeping your timesheet now, following the sample that is available in the Intern Guidebook. Also, you are to submit your timesheet on the Friday of your third and six week of internship (unless you are doing a 4-week internship), and the third timesheet when you have completed all the products required at the end of your internship. Finally, you will need to allow 8-12 days for your timesheet to be processed and to receive your stipend checks.

And the Blogging has Begun…
Julie Hodges, Education Coordinator, Ogallala Commons

Most of the 33 OC Community Interns posted their introductory blog on Friday, June 10th, providing great photographs and a nice introduction to themselves and the various projects they are working on.

Ogallala Commons would like to invite anyone interested in learning about grassroots community projects ranging from food bank gardens to hosting 800 bicyclists in Kansas to check out our intern blogs and leave comments to encourage, advise or ask questions of an Intern.
This year we have 6 OC Community Intern Blogs. They can be found at:
http://ogallalaintern1.blogspot.com/
http://ogallalaintern2.blogspot.com/
http://ogallalaintern3.blogspot.com/
http://ogallalaintern4.blogspot.com/
http://ogallalaintern5.blogspot.com/
http://ogallalaintern6.blogspot.com/

To leave a comment for an intern, simply click on the word “comments” at the bottom of the post you wish to comment on. A “Post a Comment” Box will appear for you to leave a message in. Once you finish writing your message, you must choose and option from the “Comment as” drop down menu located just below the “Post a Comment” box. If you do not have a profile, simply choose “anonymous” If you choose anonymous, you may want to include your name in the text you have written so the intern will know you are.

Intern Profile: High School Experiences Provide Background for Internship
By Catherine Jenkinson, Community Intern

This summer, I will be working for Ogallala Commons through my local community foundation. I will be working on fundraising, mailing lists, research, planning a community Christmas party, and starting an oral history project dealing with coyote hunting. Coyote hunting was a 'sport' very popular in the sixties and seventies in rural Kansas. 'Hunters' attached special boxes to old pick-ups to hold their greyhounds trained to track coyotes. When a coyote was spotted, a lever inside the truck was cranked, allowing the greyhounds to attack. Though this is widely known in my community, no one has ever documented its history or interviewed the 'hunters' themselves.
I am very excited for what I will learn this summer and I'm sure that my eyes will be opened to a huge amount of possibilities and opportunities. In my school, I am involved in several leadership organizations including 4H, Peer Helpers, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Teen Leaders, Wallace County High School Leadership Team, National Honor Society and Student Council. I hope that my experience with working with others has prepared me to intern in this job well. I look forward to a great summer full of great opportunity!

Ogallala Commons Internships Benefitting Greeley County
Christy Hopkins, Director, Greeley County Community Development Above: Greeley County interns at their finest during the Bike Across Kansas stop in Tribune

Greeley County Community Development is fortunate to host two Ogallala Commons Interns this summer. Shancee Howell, an agri-business graduate student at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, returned for a second-year internship. She has been joined by Katy Reynolds, a mass communications major completing her undergraduate degree at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma.

The foundation of the Ogallala Commons internship program is engagement in the local community. While no two internships are the same, each is focused on providing the interns with a deeper understanding and appreciation for their community and the assets that make it a special place. Undoubtedly, Shancee and Katy (and all other Ogallala Commons interns) will end their internships with a greater understanding of their local communities and the hands, hearts, and minds that make it work.

Katy and Shancee bring intelligence, drive, and a fresh perspective to our community. They tackle projects with energy and enthusiasm, whether it’s setting up a lemonade stand at the Biking Across Kansas event, introducing trivia on the Facebook page, designing a community brochure, assisting with the adult co-ed softball league, brainstorming interior décor for Tribune’s community-owned theater, or scoping out ideas for a complete website re-design. Our office is enhanced by their talents and passion; the community benefits from their creative ideas and new approach to old challenges.

As the local supervisor for our Ogallala Commons interns, I am constantly amazed by what these two young women see and how they respond to their experiences in the community. Hearing discussions after returning from an errand, reading their weekly blogs, and asking for their feedback is eye-opening. Their reflections on the community, the talented and friendly people who live here, the ongoing projects and the opportunities to get involved are insightful and thorough, and they help me to see and understand potential areas for improvement in communication, beautification, and additional opportunities to further our mission of stability and growth for Greeley County.

Intern Profile: Katy Reynolds
Hello! I’m Katy Reynolds, and I’m from Tribune, Kansas. I am finishing my bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications with a minor in English at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma. I am on the rodeo team at Northwestern and I am also the editor of the university’s newspaper. I will graduate in December and hope to move on to completing a master’s degree.

I found out about Ogallala Commons from Christy Hopkins and the Community Development office in Tribune. There was an advertisement in Tribune’s newspaper for the summer internship that Ogallala Commons and the Community Development were providing, so I called Christy, the director of Greeley County Community Development, and got some information about the internship. I was really interested, so I logged on to the Ogallala Commons website and learned what the organization was all about.

I expect to gain more knowledge in my field of study, Mass Communication, and how my major can be used to help rural communities. I really love and enjoy Mass Communications and the different facets of the field, but I also really love living in a rural community, so I hope that this internship can help me find possibilities to use my major to benefit a small town, as well as create venues and opportunities to work in Tribune and rural communities in the future.

In my spare time, I like to rodeo and work with horses and help run cattle. I am newly married, and I also enjoy doing things on the farm with my husband. I enjoy travelling, being involved in the church, and spending time with family.

Intern Profile: Shancee Howell Hello again,
I am Shancee Howell, I am originally from Greeley County, and I very excited to be back for the summer. I received my bachelors in Animal Science for Oklahoma Panhandle State in Goodwell, Oklahoma with a minor in biology, and I continued my education at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I am currently working on my Masters in Ag Business. I absolutely love the land of enchantment, but my roots brought me back to my rural community.

After being away, I realize how nice it is to come back where everyone knows you, and where you do not have to worry about locking your vehicles. I am truly blessed to call Tribune home.
I was fortunate enough to hold the Ogallala Commons Internship last summer, and loved it. When I found out there were offering it again, I jumped at the opportunity. The people I would with (Christy Hopkins, Carol Miles, and Katy Reynolds) are absolutely amazing, and this year we are privileged to have another intern in the office. I am excited to work with Katy, she is fun, creative, knowledgeable, and brings lots of energy to the office.

Working here last summer really broadened my horizon; I realized just how much this office does for our community. I am very thrilled to be a part of it again. This kind of work is not something I am used to, I come from a cattle background, and it is neat to be involved in a different field of work.

Spare time, well [it] appears I do not have a lot of it. However, I spend most of time dealing with horses, cattle, or family. My whole life has been evolved around rodeo, so it is kind of my building block. In fact, that is how I have paid for my college career is through rodeo scholarships. I rope, tie goats, and run barrels. In the past, I have qualified for both the National High School Finals, the College National Finals, along with the Kansas Professional Rodeo Association Finals. When I am not in the office, I am assisting my brother. He rides several colts, and runs cattle on the side. I am a very family oriented and enjoy spending time with them. I am looking forward to a wonderful summer :)

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: May 2011

2011-06-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Above: OC Community Interns at their Orientation in Nazareth, TX
Back row (l-r): Cara Young, Liz Hill, Weston Nieman, Briony Haachten, Reba Garrison, Greg Laudenslager, Tara Fox, Larissa Gardner, James Coffee. Middle row (l-r): Elisa Elizondo, Karen Bone, Kristin Bingham, Samantha Carter, Heather Mitchell, Catherine Jenkinson, DeLesa Villa, Kara Lacey, Michelle Wait, Aleece Methvin. Front row (l-r): Megan England, Adan Pena, Sarah Reeves, Raylyn Bowers, and Teresa Gonzales
(Interns not pictured: Delissa Villa and Savanna Bragg)
Photo courtesy of Julie Hodges, OC Education Coordinator

Intern Orientations: Starting off on the Right Foot
by Darryl Birkenfeld

After 8 months of partner prospecting, intern recruitment, and organizing, Ogallala Commons has launched over 30 Community Internships in the past two weeks. Successful internships require an orientation, and because of the size, number, and diverse schedules of our interns…we held orientations in Kansas and Texas.

On March 24, I traveled to Tribune, Kansas to give an orientation to Shancee Howell and Katie Reynolds, their supervisor, Christy Hopkins, and two supervisors from Wallace County, Kansas. On March 25th, I drove over to Great Bend, Kansas with OC Board Member Tom Giessel, to conduct an orientation with two interns who are students at Barton County Community College: Mary Bitter and Shauna Koester. Both of these women were bringing their spring semester-long internships to a close, but both are interested in doing a fuller Community Internship in 2012.

A grand two days of Orientation was also held in Nazareth, Texas on June 2-3 for 26 Community Interns and 28 supervisors and community leaders from Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado. This particular gathering featured a Bus Tour on June 3rd, which traveled to a nearby booming agricultural-based business, Soil Mender Products, LP, to the cities of Silverton and Quitaque, Texas, and to Caprock Canyons State Park. The tour helped interns to enjoy more one-on-one visiting, to visualize the unique sense of place they are gifted with, and to learn information about wind energy, nonprofit work, and additional tools for exploring their communities and potential careers.

Each of the three Orientations was enhanced and supported by a fantastic Intern Resource Book that Julie Hodges and I designed for Ogallala Commons. But the most important outcome from the Orientations is a chance for interns to meet, get acquainted, learn helpful information and insights (like their Personality Type), and to recognize that they are part of an amazing program. Clearly, this group of interns is highly accomplished, talented, and capable of returning tremendous value to their communities and institutions. Community Interns are truly our commonwealth, and I hope you will follow the weekly OC Newsletters during June and July, to learn more about each one of these 32 interns.

Above: Interns on the Bus Tour at Caprock Canyons State Park

A Place of Power: An Intern’s Perspective on the 2011 Intern Orientation
By Megan England
While attending the intern orientation and bus tour on June 2nd and 3rd in Nazareth, Texas, I was constantly reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Meade

It was thrilling to see interns and supervisors sharing ideas, laughs, and conversation. Throughout the two days I spent with over forty interns and supervisors, I was struck by the potential our group has to change the world. We come from at least four different states, representing over twenty communities. We are high school students, college students, graduate students, educators, community leaders, business people, lawyers… and the list goes on. Even more thrilling however, was the passion visible in each of those attending the orientation.

The work of Ogallala Commons and Ogallala Commons interns is proof that small groups of people with passion have great power to change communities and I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the 2011 interns and their communities.

Good luck to you all!

Intern Profile: Cara Young
By Cara Young

The High Plains Food Bank is well known for their can drives, but did you know that they also have a large garden that contributes to their food production? I will spend my summer as an intern in this garden with Marc Jansing and Morgan Dezendorf of the food bank. Marc and Morgan have created quite a garden which contributed over 20,000 pounds of produce to the food bank last year! But they didn't achieve this by themselves. Volunteers are crucial to the garden's success. They not only help increase production numbers, but their participation encourages others in the community to share in the education and awareness of something that many in the nation have become far removed from, the ability to cultivate your own produce. With effort and education, we can all produce delicious, fresh foods that can virtually go straight from our yards to our plates, and the food bank garden is the perfect place to learn these processes for yourself while helping to provide nutritionally valuable food for others. You can learn to compost, weed, trellis, plant from seed or seedling, identify beneficial and harmful pests all while getting to spend some time outside getting a tan and making a positive influence in your community. The garden is a resource for food production and education, and its free. Workshops are offered in the garden on a variety of topics. Last year the topics ranged from staring a garden to cooking classes, and this year there will be so many more! I have learned so much in the short amount of time I have been there and I am looking forward to the many other things there are to learn and what I personally will be contributing to my community as a result.

Intern Profile: Local Foods
By Kristin Bingham

Above Left: Apple Blossom Festival at the Orchard.
(Photo courtesy of Susan Britts)
Above Right: Apple Country Orchards Information

This summer, I am working as a local foods community intern for the Ogallala Commons. I have had the supreme enjoyment of working with the Commons over the last two years on various projects and events and am so excited to continue promoting local farmers and producers in the Lubbock community.

I began my internship in late April working from home to develop a new website and update content for Hi-Plains Apple Country Orchard of Idalou, TX. Apple Country has been owned and operated by Cal and Susan Brints for over thirty years and is a wonderful place for families and friend to gather and celebrate the changing seasons. Not only does Apple Country offer a wide variety of apples and apple products, they have also begun a community supported agriculture (CSA) program this year. Apple Country also participates in four farmer’s markets in and around the Lubbock area, including one hosted at the Orchard on Saturdays. The Orchard is also an amazing place for educational tours and special events including weddings. During this first facet of my summer-long internship, I have focused on updating and migrating content from their current website to a new site that provides a very navigable interface as well as creating a unique Facebook page to increase visibility in the Lubbock area. The Brints and Apple Country Orchards are very involved in the local foods movement in Lubbock, and provide many services to serve our community including Farm-to-School and Farm-to-Work programs. The Farm-to-School program has been an incredible success in the Lubbock school districts, and I will be working later this summer to develop an extension that will serve the Nazareth, Hart and Olton school districts. You can view the work I’ve been doing at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Idalou/Apple-Country-Orchards/145961765437488
http://applecountryorchards.wordpress.com/

Next week, I begin the next portion of my internship, working with Lubbock producer Dr. Ellen Peffley Harp of From the Garden to help harvest and distribute fruits and vegetables to customers in Lubbock. I will also be working to help create a “local foods” blog for the Commons that will showcase various Lubbock producers and what is available around the South Plains.

Intern Profile: Megan England
By Megan England

My name is Megan England and I am a senior at Campo High School in the beautiful little town of Campo, Colorado. I’m part rancher, part emergency rescuer’s daughter, and part teacher’s kid—usually a bit of a crazy combination!

I first heard of Ogallala Commons as a shy seventh grader through a community service group at my school. That group (the Youth Advisory Council or “YAC”) and Ogallala Commons have opened some amazing doors of opportunity in my life and I can’t tell you how honored I am to continue working with them this year!

Through those venues, I’ve traveled/spoken in seven states, met hundreds of great people, spoken in front of hundreds of people, learned how to conduct oral history interviews, interned for a professional film crew, helped to plan community events, hosted children’s leadership camps, participated in numerous service projects, led tours, built websites, and most importantly gained an even greater passion for rural communities!

This is my third year working as an intern and I love it. This summer, I get the pleasure of bugging all the interns about writing for the newsletter, blogging, attending intern events, getting the intern equipment and a variety of generally fun stuff! In my own community, I will be hosting another leadership camp, and volunteering with our city clerk by helping create a community map and updating our town’s website.

I am really excited for this summer’s internship, and even more excited about learning what all the other interns are doing in their communities. Like everyone else, I will blogging every week, so you can keep up with me at http://ogallalaintern6.blogspot.com/, as I hope to keep up with many of you!

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: April 2011

2011-04-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

Intern Profile: Learning the Contributions of Local Food Production

By Shauna Koester and Mary Bitter

Shauna (left) and Mary stand in OC Board Member Tom Giessel’s shop in Larned, KS during a visit to his farm.

When our history teacher (Linda McCaffery) at Barton Count Community College (Great Bend, Kansas) first came to us with an idea of doing a Community Internship with Ogallala Commons, we were not quite sure what to expect. It was an exciting idea and after learning the details (Rebuilding Local Food Systems), and both of us were ready and raring to go. At first we tried hard to keep on a single topic and find one bit of information, but with the plethora of info out there, especially in the World Wide Web, it was something slightly difficult to stop from following a lead that would guide us astray. Still, we were slightly unaware of the world we were opening up. It wasn’t until the teleconference with Ogallala Commons that we got the set guidelines we were supposed to follow. Our first project was an oral history. We spoke to Shirley Smith about her growing up in Russell, Kansas during the World War II era. She opened our eyes to how important gardening and canning was to the entire family and community in the 1940’s. Our next interview was with Julie Peterson, a teacher at Barton County College. She gave us insight into her life and how she is making the switch to almost completely organic foods. She has a very large garden and she plans to sell the excess food with her granddaughters at a local farmer’s market. Along with looking at past and present local food growth, we researched the Oklahoma Food Coop and the High Plains Food Coop, which is out of Kansas. We then went on our third interview with the man who first came to Linda with this idea of an internship, Tom Giessel. During our interview, he took us around his farm to show us the equipment he used and the farm land that was his. One thing he stressed to us was the importance of farming to our local community and to the world. He also explained to us that out of the entire countryside around his home, only two out of the many houses actually belonged to a farmer who farmed land. We do have future plans to do our last oral history with a WWII veteran. He will be talking to us about his time farming his family’s land with mules. Throughout our time working with Ogallala Commons Internships, we have learned many things about food production and are very excited to keep on learning!

Add Value…Earn College Credit Through Your Community Internship

By Darryl Birkenfeld, Ph.D., OC Director

Next month, Ogallala Commons will be welcoming 30 new Community Interns into our program, as they begin summer internships. For all our interns, here is something to consider. When calculating the value of a Community Internship, many things come to mind: receiving a stipend, meeting and networking with interesting people, great learning opportunities, and working on exciting projects. Don’t forget another excellent benefit that you can attain: receiving college credit for your internship!

In 2010, many Ogallala Commons interns received from 3 to 6 hours of college credit for their summer and semester-long internships. Our internships offer short-term immersive opportunities for students and adults in pursing deeper knowledge and hands-on experience in various career fields. This makes an OC Internship an excellent addition to your education experience and helps you to meet the internship and/or hours requirements for your degree program. Here are the steps to take if you are interested in earning college credit:

First, you as an intern must take the initiative to inquire with a professor in your degree program, and/or an Intern Supervisor or appropriate official at your college or university. Make an appointment and inform your professor or administrator that you are doing a supervised community internship, and ask if it is possible to receive college credit for your internship.

Second, make sure that you work with Darryl Birkenfeld or Julie Hodges to have a official draft summary (2-pages) of the main objectives and outcomes of your proposed internship. This is a valuable document to present to your professor or administrator to see the scope of what you will be doing in your internship, and how your outcomes relate to your degree program or other requirements that your work experience can fulfill.

Third, if your professor or administrator has questions or needs clarification, give them contact information (email address or phone number) to contact either Darryl or Julie.

Fourth, ask your professor or administrator to fill out and sign OC’s College Credit for Community Internship form and make sure this document is turned in to Julie Hodges before your internship begins.

If earning college credit through an internship is your goal, be sure and start the process early. Ogallala Commons is ready to help you, but the responsibility lies with you, the intern.

2011 Rawlins County HTC E-Fair

By Chris Sramek, OC Board President

Rawlins County HTC held its 2011 Youth Entrepreneurship Fair on Friday April 1^st at the Rawlins County High School Gym. This was the 6th year for the fair. Over the previous 5 years, 73 youth have participated with $12,500 in cash prizes awarded. In addition, each year local business Bison RX Compounding and Therapy has awarded $500 to the school or youth program of the 1st place winner.

Every year, a guest speaker has presented to an all school assembly of the 7^th -12^th grades, about entrepreneurship being a viable career choice and an opportunity to stay and return to your community. This year’s speaker was Paul Tamburello a Denver, CO community developer and philanthropist who spoke about social entrepreneurship, local food opportunities and boredom not being geographic, but a state of mind.

This year's fair consisted of 17 entries, 14 from Rawlins County FFA, Jr High and High School and 3 winners from the Cheylin Entrepreneurship Fair held two weeks earlier. This was the second most entries and the highest quality all around to date. Due to the quality, additional monies where raised to include a People’s Choice, Best Concept and Social Entrepreneur awards.

This year’s winners were Golden Fields Honey (1^st and People’s Choice), Jason’s Magnificent Manure (2^nd), Wilhelm’s Custom Reloads (3^rd and Social Entrepreneur) and GTP Bucket Calves (Best Concept). Junior High students Jesse Sis and Jacobi Castens comments afterwards: This was the best day they've ever had in school; because they got to talk to others about something they like and want to do.”

(l-r) E-Fair winners: Brodie Malsom, Jason Sis, and Wilhelm Orten)

Playa Classroom Visit by Home Schoolers and NET PBS Film Crew
By Julie Hodges, OC Education Coordinator

PCHEA members at the Playa Classroom on April 12, 2011

On Tuesday, April 12, 2011 the Ogallala Commons Playa Classroom was visited by the Panhandle Christian Home Educators Association (PCHEA) and a film crew from Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Center (NET) for a Playa Festival.

The film crew was joined by OC friend Michael Forsberg, a Conservation Photographer who’s most recent book project: The Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild is being turned into a documentary. For a preview of the film, visit: http://www.michaelforsberg.com/

Dave Haukos of USFWS, Jim Steiert, Author and Waterfowler, Gail Barnes, Animal Rehabilitator along with Julie Hodges and Darryl Birkenfeld of OC, engaged approximately 45 home schoolers and their family members through presentations and a tour of the Playa Classroom. Groups roamed through the Playa for an hour scouting for plants, birds and evidence of macro invertebrates. Lisa Davis, a PCHEA Mom wrote in an email after the Festival, “My girls are very excited about playas and ask all the time if we can go back to the classroom. In the car, they even look for playas! It is very refreshing to hear, “Mom, is that a playa?”

This event marks the first Playa Festival for a home school association, paving the way for other regional associations to have a Festival of their own. As for the documentary, we are excited to see the film when it is completed!

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: March 2011

2011-03-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

Grazing Field Day Increases Knowledge and Tools

by Darryl Birkenfeld, OC Director

(Landowners along with agency personnel discuss grazing techniques at the Playa Classroom in Nazareth on March 24^th.)

On a blustery, chilly morning, 22 landowners and agency personnel (not to mention 43 cows) braved the elements to learn about benefits and challenges of prescribed grazing at a Playa Grazing Management Day conducted on March 24^th in Nazareth, TX. It was an opportunity to share knowledge between landowners, ag producers and educators who have years of experience and expertise. In addition to learning out on the land, presentations before and after the field tour provided on overview of playas on the Southern Great Plains, with a focus on how grazing, when properly applied, can help create healthy playa habitat.

The Management Day will began with an overview of playas and their ecological services, given by Dr. David Haukos, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Out at the field site, Julie Hodges, Ogallala Commons Education Coordinator, introduced attendees to the Playa Classroom. Next, Charles Coffman of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department led the group on a walking examination of grazing paddocks, while giving key pointers regarding prescribed or planned grazing in playas and their adjoining uplands. After about 90 minutes in the brisk outdoors, the group returned to the Home Mercantile building for a hot lunch, and some brief remarks on playa wildlife opportunities given by Ken Cearley and outdoorsman Jim Steiert. The event finished with a special presentation on saturated thickness and current depletion rates in the Southern High Plains region of the Ogallala Aquifer, given by Dr. Kevin Mulligan, Dept. of Geosciences at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX.

The workshop was conducted by Ogallala Commons, with its partners: the Dixon Water Foundation, the Xcel Energy Foundation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and Playa Lakes Joint Venture. In the coming months, Ogallala Commons will conduct Field Days on playa buffer establishment and playa plant identification.

Conservation Education Days Enliven Teachers and Landowners

By Julie Hodges, Prairie Workshop, LLC, OC Education Coordinator

On Tuesday, March 8, Ogallala Commons completed the last of a series of five Conservation Education Days for educators participating in Playa Festivals, regional agency personnel, landowners and community members.

Each of the Conservation Education days provided educators with basic information about playas and Playa Festivals, as well as opportunities for teachers to share tools and activities that enhance TEKS-based learning before and after the Festivals. In addition, landowners were invited to join the sessions to learn with educators. This interchange allowed landowners to see that there is interest in playa conservation at local schools, with a new generation of students, provided educators to meet landowners who might have an interest in playa conservation and/or schools visits to their playas and enabled teachers and landowners to learn some pertinent information about playas, conservation of the Ogallala Aquifer, and natural resources in general.

A total of 95 teachers, educators, landowners, agency personnel and community members attended Conservation Education Days in Brownfield, Friona, Portales, Clovis, and Amarillo.

Ogallala Commons was assisted by many of our partners at the trainings, including The Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife, US Fish and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the Xcel Energy Foundation, Texas Tech University Professors, city officials and regional Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

OC Semester Intern Profile

By Jennifer Zavaleta

(Jennifer poses in her office with a program evaluation text she is studying to conduct surveys that will assist OC in its playa education work)

My name is Jennifer Zavaleta and I am a graduate student in the Natural Resource Management Department at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. For my thesis, I will be analyzing data about vegetation restoration in prairie chicken habitat. Prairie chickens’ habitat has changed dramatically with the suppression of fires and loss of playas. My research interests and personal interest in environmental education overlap nicely with the goals of Ogallala Commons.

For my semester-long internship, I am developing program evaluation tools, or surveys, to measure how effective Ogallala Common is at transferring information and changing attitudes about water conservation. Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about a program’s effectiveness.

Since Ogallala Commons works with a variety of groups, I will have to make a few individualized instruments. Each of the instruments, however, will include information related to knowledge acquisition, change in attitude, and intentions to change behavior. The first evaluation will be for producers who will be attending a conference in Nazareth at the end of the month. Next, I will develop two instruments to evaluate how much students and teachers are impacted by playa festivals. Finally, I will develop a tool to evaluate the experience of people that visit the outdoor classroom.

This internship will help me develop skills in evaluation and provide some experience with consulting. After graduation, I hope to spend some time working abroad before coming back to continue my education. My future is uncertain, but luckily people are beginning to recognize the value of natural resources, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a worthwhile project!

Seeding the Spring: High Plains Food Coop Partners with GrowHaus

By Chris Sramek, OC Board President, Atwood, Kansas

(Participants check out tomato and chile seeds at the Seed Swap)

On March 5^th in Denver, Colorado, the GrowHaus (www.thegrowhaus.com) held its first annual Seed Swap and Planting Party, followed by a "Growing our Urban AgriCULTURE" potluck hosted by Grow Local Colorado. Over 400 gardeners stopped in over the course of the day to trade seeds kicking off this year’s growing season, and $1000 was raised for the community farm program!

The High Plains Food Co-op (www.highplainsfood.org) and The GrowHaus are partnering to bring Urban and Rural Agriculture TOGETHER and develop a local food system for the Elyria – Swansea, Five Points and Curtis Park neighborhoods located in the heart of Denver County. These communities are in a food desert with the closest grocery store, being Wal-Mart 3.5 miles away. The High Plains Food Co-op and The GrowHaus’s urban farm will work together to supply fresh and local food to a new farmers market, emerging corner stores and schools. They will use a combination of donations and a pay what you can model to ensure everyone has access to the food.

The Seed Swap was the first event the HPFC co-sponsored, and on April 1^st, folks from the GrowHaus will be in Atwood, KS at the Rawlins County Youth Entrepreneurship Fair speaking on Aquaponic Systems, Food Justice and Social Entrepreneurship. Plans for the two entities are to continue co-hosting educational events, have urban and rural youth exchanges, and be key players in the developing Denver local food system.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: February 2011

2011-02-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

Program Takes Stock of Future of Agriculture

by Tom Giessel, OC Board Member, Larned, Kansas

l-r: Derrick Schacher, William Nelson, and Tom Giessel brought represented multi-generation experience and thoughtful remarks to the Feb. 15^th evening program

On February 15^th, the Home Mercantile Building in Nazareth, Texas was the venue for a public program focused on “The Next Generation of Agriculture.” Following hors d’oeuvres and a celebration of music and poetry “Mirroring Agriculture on the Southern Plains”, by artist and OC Advisory Council member Andy Wilkinson, his daughter Emily Arellano, and Andy & Alissa Hedges, the gatherings’ attention focused on a panel presentation featuring William Nelson, President of CHS Foundation, Derrick Schacher, a young farmer from Nazareth, and your truly,Tom Giessel, a life-long farmer from Larned, Kansas.

Nelson provided a broad overview of today’s agriculture. His decades of experience and exposure to food and farming issues from the viewpoint of a regional cooperative provided a perspective which very few individuals have experienced. Growing up in rural Minnesota, his roots run deep in rural communities and the family farm. His career has exposed him to the full spectrum of agriculture. His message for the next generation in agriculture to “aim for the middle,” resonated with the audience and set the tone for the meeting.

Local farmer Derrick Schacher, provided a glimpse of what most young families experience as they begin their journey in a rural farming community. The difficulties in securing land and capital are the most common obstacles in getting “a foot in the furrow.” He spoke of doing custom farming, sharing of equipment and utilizing his skills of welding and repairing machinery. Derrick echoed the partnership of his wife and family in the decisions he makes, as well as the commitment to community. Woven throughout his comments was the strong determination to succeed.

As the final panelist, I suggested our efforts to maintain rural communities and family farms have another dimension, beyond the importance opportunity of beginning farmers. At 58 years old, I’m still a few years from retirement, but I suggest that we should take a second look at how “mature” operations ultimately exit farmland and communities. I believe we must re-think how to grow our farms and mold them to be “harvestable” by the next generation. I believe many of today’s farms are not transferable in the current structure and we must find ways to allow the next generation to build their own farms to meet the needs of communities and society.

The most important aspect of the meeting was audience participation, with question and comments. Kim Barker, Waynoka Oklahoma farmer, suggested the family farms of the future would succeed by growing inputs [instead of purchasing them] and re-discovering ways to farm without being a slave to intense capital needs. Other questions revolved around workable ideas on how to begin farming. As with virtually all local issues and problems, answers do not come from afar, but from within. The evening program provided a great opportunity in that regard. Ogallala Commons wishes to thank our sponsors, CHS, Inc.-Dimmitt, TX and Peoples Bank in Nazareth, TX for making our program possible.

Annual Southern Plains Conference Explores Community Health

by Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, Ogallala Commons

A diverse crowd from two dozen communities and 6 states listens to speaker J. Michael Harter at the morning session of the 22^nd Annual Southern Plains Conference

When counting up their blessings, most people will list “good health” as one of the gifts for which they are most grateful. Yet, how many realize that individual health depends not just on personal choices, but on the health and wellness of the communities that we live in?

On February 16, Ogallala Commons and its partners illustrated the commonwealth of health at the 22^nd Annual Southern Plains Conference…with its theme, “What Makes Communities Healthy? “ The event drew more than 110 people from scores of communities and six states to the Community Hall and Home Mercantile in Nazareth, Texas.

“Probably the most important realization that people took away from the conference is that community health is not some vague notion; rather, it is an every day, concrete experience, and in all its dimensions, it constitutes our economic, social, mental, physical, environmental, emotional, and spiritual wellness,” noted Darryl Birkenfeld, Director of Ogallala Commons. “Rather than being a realm only for experts and professionals, community health is exactly the place where the interest and activity of ordinary citizens can make a profound contribution.”

Among the many excellent speakers at the conference, Elaine Albracht Sullivan from Dallas, TX (a Nazareth native) gave a powerful keynote presentation that explored six dimensions of wellness (social, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, emotional, physical), and helped attendees look at wellness in their own lives and how it is linked to community wellness. Luckily, the weather was just perfect before lunch, when all the participants went on walking tours around Nazareth…participating in a Community Health Observation exercise, where teams of five worked together to make observations and learn about 20 different aspects of community health. After a delicious lunch, Fr. Ken Keller, pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Nazareth, also spoke eloquently on “Dealing with Unhealth: the Flipside of Striving for Health”…compiling his list of “Six Illnesses” that our rural communities struggle with and need to overcome. Other conference speakers and exhibit booths also offered excellent resources and tools for improving community health…through entrepreneurship, community health assessments, and affordable housing. The conference closed with a panel entitled, “The Promise of Health: Action Steps” moderated by Tabitha King, a Texas Tech University student and a Rural & Community Health intern for Ogallala Commons.

Sponsors for the 22^nd Annual Southern Conference are Ogallala Commons, the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Castro County HealthCare, Swisher Memorial Hospital, Moore Than Medicine, and Texas Farmers Union.

Faith Community Nursing: A Resource for Building Community Health

By Sharon Hinton

(Sharon was to be a presenter at our Southern Plains Conference, but was prevented from attending by frozen pipes thawing and water leaking in her building. The article below provides an overview of faith community nursing as a community health action tool)

A parish-faith community nurse (FCN) is not just a nurse in the church! Parish-faith community nurses are trusted healthcare experts who walk with one foot in the medical world and the other foot in the everyday life of the people they serve. Parish-faith community nursing is a specialty practice where registered nurses (RN) work in partnership with clergy in a church setting to serve a congregation and the surrounding community. Experienced RNs attend additional training to provide customized wholistic care of body, mind and spirit that is appropriate for the faith beliefs of a particular congregation. FCNs are found in all major Christian denominations and religions. A few of the many roles include health educator, health advocate, resource & referral for health services, coordinator of health advocate volunteers, health coach, and clergy health advisor. Examples of programs provided include support groups, health and wellness education, home/hospital visitation and coordination of care, parenting classes, how to age well programs, understanding diabetes, blood pressure checks, and flu shot clinics. FCNs work with a health committee to plan services for the congregation and community. Health ministry is a powerful tool for community outreach and youth involvement as volunteers. Your congregation has many valuable assets in the talents of its members! For more information contact Sharon T. Hinton (806)983-8096, sth.rnr@door.net or visit these websites: http://www.ruralnurseresource.com/, www.gbgm-umc.org/parishnursing, http://www.parishnurses.org/, http://www.hmassoc.org/ or contact the national office of your denomination.

Sharon T. Hinton (RN, MSN) has more than 20 years experience in nursing. She is the Executive Director and lead instructor for Rural Nurse Resource, Inc. Sharon and her family reside in Floydada, TX.

Reflections on the Conference: A Youth Perspective
by Savanna Bragg, 2010 OC Community Intern, Tulia, TX

The weather was so warm and pleasant at the Southern Plains (the exact opposite of the bitter cold one week earlier), that students attending from Tulia High School decided to take their lunches outdoors, to soak up good health and delicious nutrition after the Community Observation Team exercise (photo by Rebecca Cobb).

Since so many of the people who are reading this article are from small towns, he or she will understand how vitally important the health of a community is. Small towns are generally known to have a higher “death rate” in comparison to a bigger town, just because of less resources. The Southern Plains Conference hosted by Ogallala Commons displayed several ways to keep a community healthy, striving, and most importantly, alive. The conference was based off of the circle of interdependent dimensions that support communal wellness. Physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social, economic, and environmental are the seven key dimensions. Speakers from all over the Texas Panhandle, and even from out-of-state, attended the conference to speak about how their job position helps keep a community healthy. Mrs. Elaine Sullivan from Dallas, Texas presented the “Understanding and Appreciating the Development of Wellness.” In her presentation, she covered the six dimensions of wellness, and how each one influences both the community and the individual. Julie Hodges, OC Education Coordinator, guided everyone on a tour around Nazareth. The point of this exercise was to help everyone visually understand what parts of a town are assets to the health of a community. After everyone returned from the tour and finished their locally prepared lunch, representatives from three local towns, Tulia, Nazareth, and Hart, displayed their specific town's healthy community plan. Father Ken Keller from Nazareth presented “Dealing with Unhealthy… the Flipside of Striving for Health.” He explained the importance of having a recovery plan for a community in the event that an emergency were to happen. In mid-afternoon the conference to resources for building a healthy community, with presentations from Jeff Reid on entrepreneurship, Shannon Kirkland on Community Health Assessments, and Joe Franco on affordable housing.

Southern Plains Conference Follow-up Coming Soon to OgallalaCommons.org
By Julie Hodges, M.S.

Be sure and check out http://www.ogallalacommons.org/ for follow-up information to the 22^nd Annual Southern Plains Conference in the next week or so. We have been working hard to gather and digitize the Walking Activity Worksheets, PowerPoint Presentations and other items presented at the conference last week. We will send out an email to everyone when the page is up and running.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: January 2011

2011-01-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

High Plains Food Coop Builds Success for 2011
By Donn Teske, OC Advisory Council Member & President, Kansas Farmers Union

Back in 2005, the Kansas Farmers Union collaborated with Ogallala Commons to host a two-day training workshop in Lindsborg Kansas focused on direct-sales of agricultural production. The theme was “Regional Food Systems & Marketing Opportunities” and the workshop looked at the Oklahoma Food Co-op and their success up to that point. A farm couple attending the meeting who I had never met before was Chris & Sherri Schmidt from Oberlin, KS.

From that meeting, efforts were launched to form the High Plains Food Co-op, with the help of many but mostly the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Co-op & Economic Development Center and Ogallala Commons.

I’m proud to say that Kansas Farmers Union and Ogallala Commons are two of the charter members of High Plains Food Co-op (HPFC), which is a group of over 40 niche food producers in NW Kansas, NE Colorado, and SW Nebraska. Chris Schmidt is now the NW Kansas state director for KFU and he is the president of HPFC, and is doing a great job. Their customer base is the Denver, Colorado-Front Range area, and orders for their products are taken online and then delivered by volunteers on scheduled routes to designated delivery points where the customers come and pick up their products. I was shocked last year at the HPFC Annual Meeting when it was reported that their annual sales for 2009 exceeded $29,000! The co-op was hardly off the ground, just in existence since May of 08! I was REALLY shocked at this year’s Annual Meeting, when reported sales for 2010 exceeded $49,000! Trend lines are suggesting that they should double in size again by next year!

Kansas Farmers Union had a very, very small role in the development of this co-op with almost all credit due to the producers themselves (like Chris Schmidt) and organizers like Chris Sramek, and the technical support of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. So please take the opportunity to check out all the products and the ever-expanding producer list at the High Plains Food Coop website (www.highplainsfood.org). Where else would you have a chance to taste Yak meat?

Community Health Spotlight at Southern Plains Conference
By Darryl Birkenfeld, OC Executive Director

Living a healthy life doesn’t just depend on individual choices, but also on the health of the community where people live. On February 16, Ogallala Commons and its partners invite the general public to learn more at the 22nd Annual Southern Plains Conference, with its theme, “What Makes Communities Healthy? “ to be held at the Community Hall and Home Mercantile in Nazareth, Texas.

“Community health is multi-faceted…it involves economic, social, mental, physical, environmental, emotional, and spiritual wellness,” notes Darryl Birkenfeld, Director of Ogallala Commons. “Community health is exactly where involved citizens can have a great impact. Participants attending the conference will learn the basic indicators of community health, along with factors that indicate a lack of health. There will also be excellent resources and tools offered for improving community health.”

The conference begins at 8:15am with opening remarks, and historical presentation about health on the Southern Plains by Michael Harter entitled, “A Salubrious Country.” Elaine Sullivan, an educator and counselor from Dallas, TX will offer a keynote address entitled “Understanding and Appreciating the Development of Wellness.” At 9:15am, a 5-member panel will illustrate the basic aspects of community health in their presentation, “What Makes Communities Healthy?”

After a morning break for refreshment and viewing exhibit booths, conference participants will be assigned to teams of five members, and given a walking and interviewing task. The assignments will be conducted in the village of Nazareth, to help participants learn through making observations about community health and discussing assets and challenges in their own communities. After a delicious lunch, Fr. Ken Keller, pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church, will speak on “Dealing with Unhealth: the Flipside of Striving for Health” In addition, there will be two presentation on resources for building healthy communities, and a closing presentation entitled, “The Promise of Health: Action Steps” moderated by Tabitha King, a Texas Tech University student and a Rural & Community Health intern for Ogallala Commons.

Those who wish to attend the Feb. 16th conference can register online or by mail (a $40 Early Bird Discount is available until Jan. 28th). It is also possible to register at the door for $50 per person. To see a complete brochure and to register online, visit: http://www.ogallalacommons.org/southernplainsconference.html

Sponsors for the 22nd Annual Southern Plains Conference are Ogallala Commons, the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health at Texas Tech University, Castro County HealthCare, Swisher Memorial Hospital, and Texas Farmers Union. For more information, contact Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, Ogallala Commons, at 806-945-2255 (darrylb@amaonline.com)

OC Stewarding Natural Resources - Teaching about Playas
By Julie Hodges, MS

Playa Festivals and Conservation Education Days would not be possible without the amazing folks who give their time and energy to making memorable presentations during these events. Recently Ogallala Commons hosted a luncheon to thank these talented and dedicated folks for all that they do. Also, OC Intern Sarah Le has produced a video about Playa Festivals. It is available to watch on our Playa Festival Blog (http://playafestival.blogspot.com) or on You Tube!

Below is a brief description of all of the folks who help make Playa Festivals possible.

DAVID HAUKOS, Ph.D.
David Haukos, Ph.D is a professor at Texas Tech University and a biologist for US Fish & Wildlife. At each Playa Festival Dr. Haukos presents two learning modules. The first is "Playa Overview" where Festival participants learn what playas are, what they do, and why they are important from this leading expert. Dr. Haukos also teaches "Playa Plants," a natural fit for the co-author of "Common Flora of the Playa Lakes." Dave will be relocating to Manhattan, KS in February, but will continue to assist where possible in OC events.

GAIL BARNES & JASPER THE BARN OWL
Gail Barnes is the Educator for the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and Nightwings, two nonprofits in Lubbock, Texas dedicated to rehabilitation of injured, orphaned, or ill wildlife. Gail is state and federally permitted to do programs with educational animals (wildlife that could not be released back into the wild). She is usually the highlight of Playa Festivals delighting the children with Jasper the Barn Owl, and several other raptors that travel with her.

JIM STEIERT
To delight Playa Festival participants with duck calls and pseudo thunderstorms is author and waterfowler, Jim Stiert. Jim's presentation, titled "Playa Buffers & Waterfowl" illustrates challenges faced by playa wetlands and the ducks and geese that depend on playas for habitat.

DARRYL BIRKENFELD, Ph.D
Not only is he Executive Director of Ogallala Commons! Darryl Birkenfeld teaches students about an array of subjects, including soils, macro invertebrates, and amphibians. His presentations are filled with stories about his personal experiences on playas. Dr. Birkenfeld also assists in leading the field trip to a playa on Day 1 of each Playa Festival.

JULIE HODGES, MS
Julie Hodges is the Education Coordinator for Ogallala Commons. She teaches Bird Identification and Nature Journaling at Playa Festivals, as well as serving as a guide at each Playa field trip.

USDA-NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE Personnel
At each Playa Festival a representative from the county NRCS office assists in teaching and scouting out field trip locations. This is an important and vital role for Playa Festivals.

From left to right, Jim Steiert, Darryl Birkenfeld, Gail Barnes, Julie Hodges, Dave Haukos

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: December 2010

2011-01-01T06:57:00.001-08:00

Adventures in Community Leadership Training:
Early Efforts, New Initiatives

By Chris Sramek, OC Board Member, Atwood, Kansas

Back in 2006, Rawlins County, Kansas initiated a Community Leadership Training Program, through assistance and training from Ogallala Commons. Those efforts built a foundation for a stronger leadership training initiative in the fall 2008, with consultation Rawlins County leaders and our local HTC - KHP Leadership Team, The group began planning a Community Leadership Program which included content from S. Covey’s book, Speed ofTrust, and integrated portions of the adaptive leadership framework from the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC). The program’s design was to link community youth linked to adult members, to provide relationship building and mentoring opportunities between generations, and provide a more challenging extension of previous community leadership programs. The program would engage participation and cross generational dialog with others in the community through an interview process. The original goal was to start the new Leadership Program in the fall of 2009, with a $1,000 grant obtained from Atwood Second Century, but scheduling to the school calendar and planning challenges delayed the start until the fall of 2010.

Here are the main goals of our Speed of Trust Community Leadership Program:

1. Work on community trust building: Based on J. Williams’s surveys in 2007, trust was identified as a central issue in the community slowing development progress.
2. Connect older and younger community members: Based on the HTC - KHP youth assessment completed in 2008, youth engagement and involvement was identified to be a significant concern.
3. Build leadership capacity: Building stronger, more competent leaders is a key factor in being an even more successful community in the future.
4. Engage more leaders: Major community challenges require more ideas, input and assistance from a broader segment of our community than ever before.

Program invitations were mailed to 20 high school youth leaders and 40 adult community leaders with the intent of having an equal representation of youth and adults of varying ages in the program. The first Speed of Trust class had 16 enrolled in session 1 in September 2010 and 14 graduated in session 4 in November. The program consisted of (4) two hour working sessions held in the new RCHS band – concessions addition and homework assigned was to conduct 2 to 3 community interviews and various readings from S. Covey’s book and KLC curriculum.

In session 1, the class was paired into youth and adult partners based on outcomes of a Color’s personality mapping exercise, and then partners chose community members of various ages with whom to conduct an interview. Ten community assessment questions were assigned to be used in the interviews. In session 2, the class discussed and analyzed the responses from 36 interviews, and then prioritized the issues and outcomes to importance to them. In session 3, the class dug deeper into the core issues from the interviews using KLC technical vs. adaptive diagnoses and S Covey’s 13 Trust Competencies. Then they choose the key youth leadership issue of “Getting youth opinions and involvement in community decision making” and diagnosed it deeper. In session 4, class partners made interpretations and observations from another community stakeholder’s perspective on the youth leadership dilemma, using KLC technical vs. adaptive diagnoses and S Covey’s 13 Trust Competencies. The community stakeholders considered where government, school, business, health, families, youth, middle age, elders, ag community and rural County residents north and south. When diagnosis was completed the class discussed several experiments or interventions they could do as a class to fix the dilemma. They also discussed the choice to do nothing, because the issue was too big to make change. To conclude, the class evaluated likes, dislikes and the effectiveness of the program meeting original goals and had a graduation pizza party.

The course had three main outcomes:

1. The class wants to participate in two more sessions this spring to: 1. Work on including
leadership curriculum in the class room and 2. Include more KLC and SOT content.
2. The program should be repeated next Fall and Spring with a more diverse group.
3. Individual interest in KLC training in Wichita and the Ogallala Commons Summer Internship program.

The Speed of Trust Leadership Class (Back Row left to right): Kurt Dillon, Heather Horinek, Heidi Foster, Keaton Argabright, Rachael Grafel, Delbert Schmidt, Cody Green (Front Row left to right) Chris Sramek, Jenni Sramek, Summer Castens, Abbey Wolters and Pattie Wolters. not pictured Sarah Green, Audrey Basgall and Julie Britton.

Regional Meetings Bolster Internships
By Darryl Birkenfeld

Ogallala Commons recently conducted three regional meetings with partners in our Community Internship Program. On Nov. 16^th, Darryl Birkenfeld traveled to Atwood, KS to meet with partners from Western Kansas and Nebraska. Similar meetings were conducted by OC Education Coordinator Julie Hodges and Darryl at Clarendon Community College in Clarendon, TX on Nov. 28^th and at Abernathy City Hall in Abernathy, TX on Dec. 2^nd. Those who attended these meetings included: County Judges, business owners, high school teachers, Community College faculty, community leaders, and personnel from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

A key outcome of the morning meetings was to obtain feedback from partners regarding the benefits of Community Internships, and the challenges that need to be dealt with and improved upon to build successful internships. Another main outcome was to provide information and new tools to partners, in order to help them recruit capable candidates and build realistic work plans to engage the interns. After a lunch break, the afternoon session was spent reviewing the OC Community Internship Guidebook, so that partners would have a more comprehensive understanding of the main elements of the program.

In the aftermath of these meetings, OC received helpful comments and some new pathways for recruiting new partners to support Community Internships. Besides giving information, the meetings allowed partners to meet and interact with one another, re-igniting the enthusiasm it takes to build and sustain internships. Above all, the gatherings were about making sure that our partners are equipped to work with us to support the 40 Community Internships that we expect in 2011!

Community Internship Partners from Texas share ideas at the meeting in Abernathy (l to r): Morgan Dezendorf, High Plains Food Bank, Amarillo; Clay Wimmer, 2010 Community Intern from Abernathy; David Graf, Texas AgriLife Extension Agent from Tulia; Lydia Villanueva, Director of CASA del Llano in Hereford; Mark Castillo, Spanish Teacher from Hart High School; and Fr. Ken Keller, pastor of Holy Family Church in Nazareth.

2010—Ogallala Commons Best Year Ever!
By Darryl Birkenfeld

Starting a nonprofit with a mission targeting parts of 8 states is an ambitious undertaking. Can it truly be done? In the years 2003-2008, Ogallala Commons had to work through building an identity and overcoming limitations. Now we are finding our niche, and 2010 can be remembered as the pivotal year when OC really turned a corner. Here is a list of several highlights of our banner year:

First, OC was greatly aided and dramatically improved by the work of Julie Hodges. During her 6 month internship from January to July, Julie designed a new OC website, helped conduct 5 Conservation Education Days, while working on the Southern Plains Conference and 2 Local Food Field Days. Julie also completed the materials and interpretative panel for the opening of the Playa Classroom. Just as important, Julie created our Community Interns Blog, a year-round, real-time resource for our interns spread across five states. During her succeeding 6 months as OC Education Coordinator, she coordinated 14 Playa Festivals in Texas and New Mexico (check out the Playa Festival blog:http://playafestival.blogspot.com/ ), in addition to designing guidebooks, brochures, and flyers.

Second, OC established a significant education outreach in 2010. After years with only a few annual events, OC now offers monthly education events that included Youth Engagement Days, teacher trainings, youth entrepreneur fairs, conservation education for landowners, intern orientations, tours, and Playa Festivals at school sites—all told, 30 educational events that instructed over 2,500 attendees in one year, the most ever!

Third, OC grew another vital part of its mission: fostering a sense of place. Our commemoration of the 75^th Anniversary of Black Sunday and the Dust Bowl at the Southern Plains Conference was certainly a highlight for the 150 who attended. Our illustration of 12 Key Assets of Commonwealth of Ogallala Commons resonated with hundreds of people who viewed it on our website or saw it as part of our “Treatise on the Commons” that was published on the website: On The Commons (to read the treatise, link on this link:http://www.onthecommons.org/content.php?id=2749). A growing number of communities are learning about the commonwealth embedded in the unique landscapes, cultures, and stories that form their sense of place.

Fourth, through our evolving Community Internship Program, OC is actually building resilient communities. In 2010, OC and its community and institution partners created 33 internships in Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. These interns added tremendous value to their communities and institutions, while developing their skills and gaining work experience. These interns also learned much more about their hometowns, and were able to explore career options that can bring them back in the future. In 2010 alone, OC interns earned $65,000 in stipends from their work experiences, contributed 330 hours of community service, earned 27 hours of college and graduate credit, and submitted over 200 blog entries and 600 photos through the OC Community Intern Blog (www.ogallalaintern.blogspot.com). By year’s end, OC community building work of engaging youth and creating community internships was recognized in the December newsletter of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.

Thanks to all our partners for making the vision of reinvigorating the commonwealth grow into reality. Finally, OC would not have had a banner year without the committed work and insights of our Board of Directors and Advisory Council. With your continued involvement and support, we look forward to 2011!

Teri Reed from Friona, TX, a 2nd place winner at OC's Regional Youth Entrepreneur Fair on Nov. 9th, receives her $1,000 prize check from the two donor partners: Cargill Feeders, Inc. (represented by Bil Anderson of Lockney, TX), and John Bertsch, a Certified Financial Planner based in Plainview, TX. (Photo taken by Thomas Reed)

My First Official Year with Ogallala Commons
By Julie Hodges

When it came time for me to find a place to do my internship, Ogallala Commons seemed a natural fit. First of all, it operates in my home - a place with landscapes, history, culture and other “heritagey” things that I am passionate about preserving. Second, the people associated with OC are interesting, talented and inspiring. And to top things off, it was a place where I could use my skill, training and talents to do something good and not be trapped in a windowless basement in the process!!

I was honored and excited in June when Darryl asked me to stay on with Ogallala Commons not as an intern, but as the Education Coordinator.

Throughout my internship and as OC’s Education Coordinator, I have worked harder, more passionately, with earlier and later hours, and on the most diverse set of projects than I have ever encountered at any other job in my life. I have done much of this from my home office. However, I have also traveled a total of 7,683 miles to 19 communities in 4 states, given my “how to id birds” talk over 50 times, introduced 1,500 students to the idea of nature journaling, read over, reviewed, graded or logged in over 3500 assessments, surveys, evaluations and questionnaires, given 5 big presentations (“big” means presentations to large groups of grownups at meetings where jeans were not appropriate), helped to coordinate 31 community internships in 6 states, managed 3 blogs, overhauled one website, completed an outdoor classroom, written one grant and a couple of grant reports, attended countless meetings, upgraded my cell phone to the “unlimited plan”, etc.

In my “spare time” I was a mom, a grad student, a volunteer at the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, added a bedroom onto my house and in November my boyfriend and I eloped in New Mexico and then came home and began a consulting firm called Prairie Workshop, LLC. I am now Julie Hodges and I have gained two new sweet daughters (to go along with my daughter Rhiley) as well. I look forward to another busy year at home and with OC.

Julie Hodges and Jason Hodges in Taos, NM after the wedding!

Stewarding Natural Resources,
A letter from the Education Coordinator…

2010 was an exceptional year for Playa Festivals and other Ogallala Commons (OC) environmental education efforts. Here are a few highlights:

We conducted a total of 5 Conservation Education Days throughout the panhandle of Texas during the early spring of 2010. These events were similar to past events where we train teachers and educators before they host a Playa Festival. The 2010 twist was to invite landowners to learn alongside and network with educators over a meal. We offered a delicious lunch, intriguing presentations on playas, the Ogallala Aquifer and federal programs for playa conservation as well as a unique opportunity to mingle. Through all 5 of these Conservation Education Days, Ogallala Commons educated a total of 68 teachers and landowners. The events were a great success, reaching a new group and continuing to energize area educators.

On June 8^th of this year, OC opened the world’s first Playa Classroom, an outdoor education center with interpretive panels, classroom space, rainwater harvesting, a xeric garden--- all set along the edge of a 20-acre playa in Nazareth, Texas. Dubbed as “A place to see, touch and experience a prairie wetland,” the Playa Classroom was visited by an estimated 400 people of all ages.

The Playa Classroom was the site for Ogallala Commons’ first-ever Playa Management Field Day on August 20^th. The Field Day was attended by 45 people—NRCS staff, OC interns, and 17 landowners! Of those 17 landowners, 14 reported one or more playas on their properties, and based on the acreage estimate that they wrote down in the surveys, our Field Day education presentations can potentially impact the management of 445 acres of playa basins.

September and October 2010 were busy months for Ogallala Commons and the wonderful folks that help us put on Playa Festivals. This past fall we bravely dove head first into 7 weeks of full calendars, logging hundreds of miles on pavement and dirt roads, criss-crossing the Southern High Plains with binoculars and journals in hand. All in all, over 1,500 5^th graders, their teachers and communities were engaged in hands-on learning through 14 Festivals. We also created the Playa Festival Blog – check it out - http://playafestival.blogspot.com/ and a Playa Festival Web Page!! – check it out too! - http://www.ogallalacommons.org/playafestival.html

Coming in 2011…

We have a few things up our sleeves for 2011 including:

1. A Playa Trunk full of resources for educators
2. A Video about Playa Festivals that will make you smile
3. Even more Playa Festivals than last year!!!!!
4. Playa Classroom expansion and additions

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: November 2010

2010-11-28T20:04:00.000-08:00

Forming Observations

By Tabitha King

Internships are funny things. There is always the chance that being an intern means becoming the office’s official new “coffee getter.” Lucky for me, my Rural and Community Health internship has been anything but mundane. I am not stuck in an office, and have the opportunity to visit rural communities such as Dimmit, Olton and Tulia that I may otherwise never see. The internship has many aims including the aforementioned site visits, volunteering, setting up a panel discussion and creating a community observation tool. The observation tool is arguably the most challenging part. It will be used by attendees during a breakout session at the 22^nd annual Southern Plains Conference.

The idea is for attendees to walk around Nazareth, Texas and answer questions about how they view health in the community. The hope is after the conference they can use this same tool in their own town. Questions range from the environmental to the physical health of the community and its members. The main challenge for me has been forming a cohesive and complete observation tool on one front and back piece of paper. The idea of rural healthcare is extensive and each time I visit a new hospital or interview someone actively involved in rural healthcare I learn one more piece of the puzzle. The conference, in February, which seemed so far away in August, is quickly approaching. It will be the culmination of my work, and where I finally get to see what the impact of my observation tool will actually be.

Tabitha King is from McKinney, Texas. She is a senior at Texas Tech University majoring in Natural Histroy and Humanites with an emphasis in Pre-Medicine. She is also a Community Health Intern for Ogallala Commons.

Intern Video Created in Hopes of Creating Even More Excitement

By Alexis Schwarz, OC Intern

As many of you know, I’m the PR and Multimedia intern for OC this fall. One of my main jobs these past few months was to make a movie that would be presented at conferences, meetings, and trainings in hopes to create buzz and excitement for the many internship opportunities that OC offers.

This short video is informative…but it’s also something that most are not, shown through the eyes of the interns. Who better to give input and insight into the internships than the interns that have already completed them first-hand?

The five minute video highlights accomplishments by individual interns, the overall goal of OC itself, and rules and lessons learned throughout your experience with OC. The presentation is complete with pictures, quotes, articles, and hopefully recorded interviews with several interns a little later on…and of course the perks, including free college credit-what can beat that?

Hopefully with the addition of this new intern video, it not only provides interested individuals with information on the OC internships, but gives it a personal spin into what it really means to be a part of Ogallala Commons.

Youth Entrepreneur Fair
By Darryl Birkenfeld

Aspiring teenage entrepreneurs demonstrated exciting business ideas at 4th Annual Ogallala Commons Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Fair, held on Nov. 9th at the Plainview Civic Center in Plainview, TX. During the public viewing session from 12noon to 1:15pm, a large crowd examined the exhibit booths of the 34 contestants in the E-Fair from Castro, Swisher, Parmer, and Hale Counties. The three top finishers in two categories received cash prizes and abundant encouragement, which was the main objective of the Fair.

The following prizes were awarded to four students and their business ideas in the “Ready-to-Go” Business Category: 1st place ($1,200) Savanna Bragg, Tulia, Savanna B Photography; 2nd Place ($1,000) Teri Reed, Friona, Teri’s Online Treasures; 3rd Place ($750) Shyann Rainey and Haley Beasley, Lazbuddie, TekNoob. The three judges for this category were: Matty McLain, Entrepreneur Alliance, Amarillo, TX; Deana Sageser, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Plainview, TX; and Donald Schenkel, , Lubbock SCORE, Lubbock, TX.

In the “Still-in-the-Future” Business Category, the following prizes were awarded to four students and their business ideas: 1st place ($1,200) Lane Birkenfeld, Nazareth, High Plains Wind Power; 2nd Place ($1,000) Phylissa Kinser, Dimmitt, Kinser’s Equine Therapy; and 3rd Place ($750) Keeley Burris and Kaileigh Edwards, Lazbuddie, K& K Wind Farming. The three judges for this category were Debbie Gonzales, Assistant Vice President, First Financial Bank, Hereford, TX; Heath Acker, Business Lending Officer, Amarillo National Bank, Amarillo, TX; and Andy Hart, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Plainview, TX.

Savanna Bragg, an OC Community Intern for Swisher County, TX in 2010,  displays her exhibit booth for her business: Savanna B Photography at  the Nov. 9th Youth E-Fair.  Savanna received good information and  resources for launching her business website at the OC Youth  Entrepreneur Camp back on July 7th.

Consolation prizes were also awarded to these five students and their business ideas: ($300) Cale Wilhelm and Carl Huseman, Nazareth, C&C’s Custom Landscaping and Mowing Service and ($300) Johnny Padilla, Alex Duarte, and Jonathan Diaz, Tulia, P & Double D Cinemax.

In addition their interview with the judges and displaying their business ideas, contestants were treated to a bus tour of programs at South Plains College-Plainview Campus, and Wayland Baptist University. Paul Henderson, Workforce Solutions Director at South Plains College-Plainview, also shared stories and insights with the youth entrepreneurs. Texas Department of Agriculture and S.I.F.E. (Students Involved in Free Enterprise) set up displays with pertinent information to further aid the entrepreneurs.

Ogallala Commons wishes to thank the following companies for their donations of cash prizes for the winning projects: CHS Foundation and Tulia EDC ($1,000 each)as well as Holy Family Church-Nazareth, Peoples Bank-Nazareth, Entrepreneur Alliance, Amarillo National Bank, Happy State Bank , Cargill Feeders, and John Bertsch, CFP, Plainview, TX ($500 each). Donations of $250 were also contributed by First Bank Muleshoe-Dimmitt, Swisher Electric Cooperative, and the Swisher County Industrial Foundation, and $200 from Tulia Rotary Club.

Winners of the OC Regional Youth E-Fair held in Plainview, TX (l-r): 
Savanna Bragg, Tulia; Lane Birkenfeld, Nazareth, Teri Reed, Friona; 
Shyann Rainey, Lazbuddie, Haley Beasley, Lazbuddie; Keeley Burris, 
Lazbuddie; and Phylissa Kinser, Dimmitt.

The Regional Youth Entrepreneur Fair is a project of Ogallala Commons, a nonprofit community development network offering leadership, education, and technical assistance to rural communities. Additional Youth E-Fairs are held in Atwood, Kansas and Springfield, Colorado in spring 2011. The top three winners in each division from the regional Youth E-Fairs will be invited to complete in a multi-state Champions E-Fair in Amarillo, Texas on July 25, 2011. For more information, please contact Darryl Birkenfeld, Director of Ogallala Commons (806-945-2255).

Campo Youth Engagement Day is Exactly That
By Megan England

On Wednesday, November 17^th, 2010, the Campo Junior/Senior High School was filled with the sounds of over one hundred students from all five schools in Baca County attending the very first Campo Youth Engagement Day.

A Youth Engagement Day is just that—a day to engage the youth and get them involved in their communities and excited about their future. In its most basic form, the Youth Engagement Day was a leadership conference encouraging today’s young people not to wait to “grow up” to do exciting and challenging things in preparation for their future.

Sponsored by the non-profit organization, Ogallala Commons, and hosted by the Campo School District, the day consisted of a keynote speech by Ogallala Commons’ executive director, Dr. Darryl Birkenfeld, and eleven different breakout sessions. However, what made this ‘leadership conference’ unique was the fact that it was planned and organized by students, for students—specifically the Campo Youth Advisory Council (YAC). The YAC is a group of students in leadership of a program at Campo School called Service-Learning who believe that it is very important for youth to have a voice in their communities. As a result of that belief, and with priceless help from the Superintendent Nikki Johnson, the Campo School staff and students, and UCCS Leadership student, Lani Finck, the YAC planned and organized everything from the food and door prizes, to the day’s schedule.

During the keynote speech that began the day, Dr. Birkenfeld informed the students about Ogallala Commons, and more specifically, the internships the organization offers that “provide experiences that illustrate both the key assets and the serious challenges present in rural areas.” Dr. Birkenfeld also encouraged students to think about returning home after getting their education and making a life in the rural communities that make the area so unique. “These internships enable rural communities to constructively utilize the skills of their youth and adults, and to inspire home-grown talent to return in the future--to live, work, play and raise their families.”*

After Dr. Birkenfeld’s presentation, students were given the opportunity to choose three interactive breakout sessions that applied to their interests. The sessions throughout the remainder of the day were presented by representatives from Oklahoma Panhandle State University (OPSU), Lamar Community College (LCC), University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS), Otero Junior College (OJC), and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Other presenters included the Campo YAC, the Baca County CSU Extension agent, and the coordinating team for Campo School’s ‘Healthy Schools’ grant. Topics ranged from college rodeo to a career in nursing, from the danger of digital footprints to living the American Dream from rural areas, and that’s just listing a few.

The Campo YAC extends their sincere thanks to Ogallala Commons and director Darryl Birkenfeld, area school administrators, especially their own Mrs. Johnson, the attending students, the Campo School Staff, and the rest of the day’s leadership, organization, and planning team. The event was very well-received, and upon reviewing students’ evaluations of the day, the YAC got a lot of positive feedback and great suggestions on how to improve on future Youth Engagement Days.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: October 2010

2010-10-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Interning in Washington DC…Priceless!
by Simone Cahoj, 2007-2008 OC Community Intern

I am currently doing an internship for Congressman Jerry Moran. He is the U.S. representative for Kansas’ First District which covers 69 counties. My daily tasks do not change much. I am responsible for answering phone calls, entering data, writing letters to constituents and leading tours of the Capitol building. While these tasks are the norm, I do get assigned special tasks such as updating the website, helping with scheduling and writing articles for our weekly newsletter.

This internship is quite different than the Ogallala Commons internship program, as the daily tasks are often the same. This internship is, however; especially important for building key relationships and skills for a future job on Capitol Hill. I feel that interning for Congressman Moran is a great experience because I’m getting the opportunity to expand my horizons in Washington, DC as well as learn more about public service from a national level. I have enjoyed working with Ogallala Commons for many years helping build local communities and have been able to use these skills from a national standpoint.

I have seen different opportunities to start a career working on Capitol Hill and internships in Congressional offices are the perfect way to do that. While the tasks seem menial, learning how to research, write in a certain way and use the databases are actually important skills to have when searching for jobs out here. I can see myself working for a Congressman or Senator after graduating in May for a while. There are also interesting groups the Heritage Foundation and Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) that represent my interests and I would enjoy working for. The beauty of working in Washington, DC is that things are always changing and working here and then moving home, wherever that may be, is seen as normal. I still want to return to Atwood and start my own business in the future. I miss open spaces and starry nights too much to stay in the city forever.

Two important things that I have learned are that first, internships are still the best way to figure out what you want to do in life and build some skills. I now possess knowledge about legislation that I wouldn’t have had otherwise and this experience has helped me grow as a person. Second, I’ve learned that it’s important to get away and discover yourself, but there’s no place like your hometown. Your experiences there helped you grow into the person that you are and you will always be welcome there.

Internships Uncover Agricultural History
By Tom Giessel, OC Board Member

Historic Fort Larned, in Pawnee County, Kansas is the site of a recent Ogallala Commons internship. Established in 1859 for the protection of travelers, commerce and mail, its military history spanned a brief nineteen years. The sturdy buildings and rich soils easily transformed into a working ranch following the decommissioning of the facility. In 1964, the National Park Service purchased the ranch and incorporated the Fort into the National Park System.

The military history of the Fort is well documented. However, the era of the working farm and ranch has little recorded history. In addition to the traditional crops and livestock raised in our area, the ranch produced sugar beets, onions, kaffir corn and many other foods. There was an extensive irrigation system of flumes and ditches, as well as a large garden. Only a few employees of the Frizzell Ranch survive. Our internship centered on identifying these people and gathering history by conducting oral interviews. Kevin VonFeldt, Larned, KS and Scarlett Olsen of Burdett, KS worked with National Park Service [NPS] staff in identifying these individuals, interviewing and transcribing the history.

While the focus of these two internships center on Kevin, Scarlett and a small slice of local history, the results are far reaching. A local conversation sprouted about the significance of Fort Larned history. The area media covered the project. People were calling and suggesting names of individuals to interview. Many were anxious to tell their story. Locals renewed with the sense of place. The NPS witnessed a revitalized connection with the community. The project has taken a life of its own.

Structuring internships may not be as much of a science, as it is an art. My adventure of molding a local internship became easier, as I listened to others and engaged our commonwealths. Our ancestors came to the Plains with visions of what might be. Nothing manmade was in place. In time, a place was manmade. A gainful internship extends roots, cultivates communities and sows the seeds to feed the future.

Symbols: Understanding OC's Logo
By Joe Franco, OC Board Member

A symbol is loosely defined as something that represent something else by association, resemblence or convention. Furthermore, a symbol can convey certain invisible or intangible principles, patterns or values through material objects or signs. It is this definition which will best serve to discuss the logo of Ogallala Commons and its meaning.

”Nature is written in symbols and signs.” John Greenleaf Whittier

The Ogallala logo is not an artistic design of egotistical genius; rather, the design was developed with the clear understanding of the principles and values that Ogallala Commons represents. The entire logo is comprised of two circles and two arrows with three different colors.

The circles or rings of the logo shows wholeness and continuity, everywhere the same and containing no diffferences within it. The central circle is reddish-brown in color or earthtone. This central ring is our first boundry of influence. It presents Ogallala Commons commitment to protecting our natual resources. One of the first places to start this work is literally in our own back yards through an understanding of our impact on the environment. The outer ring or circle forms a boundry around the central princples. Keep in mind that the circle is a two-dimensional shape of a sphere. The blue color reminds us of the clear sky and life-sustaining water of the the Ogallala Aquifer. The arrows represent flow or flow of energy. The flow is represented with arrows which change directions at 90 degrees. This denotes focused energy. The arrows seek the center/centre of the ring, then flow back out to the boundries. The green arrow shows the focused energy of nature’s seed as it springs from the earth toward fruition, then to harvest. The blue arrow represents the rain which falls to the earth and filters it’s way back to the outer ring of the Ogallala Aquifer. This directed energy also represents the flow of ideas and energy which starts in the communities, flowing toward the center to be reinvigorated, then flowing back out to effect change. Although not all-inclusive, I hope that this presentation serves as a start to understanding Ogallala Commons mission and values from a symbolic level.

Youth Entrepreneurs Gear Up for OC Competition
by Darryl Birkenfeld, OC Director

Next month, 34 teenagers from around the Texas Panhandle and South Plains will be entering 20 business projects at the 4^th Annual Ogallala Commons Regional Youth Entrepreneur Fair, to be held at the Plainview Civic Center in Plainview, TX on November 9th.

Besides earning valuable experience in business planning, conducting interviews, and selling a business idea to the public, top finishers in the contest received cash prizes totaling $4,850, and plenty of encouragement from people who attended the Fair. There will be two categories for this Fair: already created and existing products or services, as well as conceptual products or service ideas. The three top three products or concepts exhibited in each division at the Fair will receive cash prizes: first place: $1,200, second place: $1,000, and third place: $750. The Fair is sponsored by Ogallala Commons and its community and business sponsors who are donating the cash prizes.

To be eligible for the E-Fair, aspiring entrepreneurs had to submit a business plan for their idea or product by October 22nd. At the November 9th event, contestants will present their idea or product with a booth, a short interview, and their business plan. Winners of the top three prizes will be selected based on total points earned in the following criteria: Business Plan, Interview with Judges, Booth Presentation at the Fair, and Adaptability or Feasibility of Concept or Product to a Rural Area.

OC Website Update is 90% Complete
By Julie Boatright

In January of this year, Ogallala Commons began working with Griffin-Wink Advertising, Inc. in Lubbock, Texas on a major overhaul of our website, www.ogallalacommons.org. The former website was completely erased, leaving us to start from scratch. The fresh start was a chance to review and revise many documents and lead to the addition of several new features.

One such feature is Google Analytics, an enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives insight into our website traffic. Using this feature we can see how many people visit ogallalacommons.org, when they visit, where they visit from and how they got to our website, what they look at, and how long they spend on the website. Here is what Google Analytics is telling us:

Since we launched the new website on April 1, 2010 we have had a total of 1,211 visits with 4,741 page views. Analytics reports that of these visits, 788 were unique, meaning we have had a total of 788 different people look at our website. The average person looks at 4 pages of our website per visit, spending an average of 2 minutes per page. Half of all visitors arrived at our website via search engines, 30% came directly to the website (meaning they typed in our address on their web browser) and the remaining 20% came from websites that referred them to us (links). Most visits (96%) came from the United States – see picture.

Being somewhat of a technology geek, I could go on and on and on with more numbers and interesting facts about visits to our website, but I will spare you. More importantly, I should point out some of the new additions to ogallalacommons.org:

The Playa Festival Page – Complete with downloadable materials for educators, links to news articles, information on the outdoor classroom and more.

Contribution Page – Folks interested in contributing to Ogallala Commons may now make donations on our website using PayPal.

News & Events – The new website features a link to “The Place” where the latest news, calendar and info about Ogallala Commons is posted monthly.

There are still a few updates and a couple of web pages that we plan to change, but overall the website is 90% complete. If you haven’t visited ogallalacommons.org lately, please do and let me know what you think.

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: September 2010

2010-09-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

OC Puts Time and Energy Into Youth Engagement

By Darryl Birkenfeld

On September 15^th in Nazareth, TX, Ogallala Commons worked with community partners to host its eleventh Youth Engagement Day. Back in October 2005, Ogallala Commons held its first Youth Engagement Day at Rawlins County High School in Atwood, Kansas. Since that initial event, OC has conducted other Youth Engagement Days in Texas (6), New Mexico (1), Oklahoma (1), and Kansas (1), with the twelfth Youth E-Day set to be held in Campo, Colorado on November 17^th.

OC’s process of engaging youth has evolved with practice and experience. At first, our Engagement Days were more like a youth rally, with 100 or more teenagers from different towns gathering in a school gym to receive a key message: your community needs your involvement now, and we want youth to know we want them to come back to our communities in the future, if they choose to. The rest of the event consisted of workshops or tours of the local community that introduced youth to businesses or possibilities that could bring them back to their hometowns, or increase their involvement in their community. In the past two years, OC Youth Engagement Days still bring together students from several towns and the message about coming home is remains central, but we focus more on introducing youth to a group of entrepreneurs from the community…allowing high schoolers to meet and learn from people who they might not hear from otherwise…adults who have actually chosen to return to their hometowns and have built a promising career or business.

At recent Youth Engagement Days, we now offer teenagers a different roadmap for their future: the 12 Key Assets of the Commonwealth. This map gives teens more options for future careers, as well as a greater appreciation for the place where they currently live.

Thirdly, our Youth Engagement Days include and involve every youth who attends because we acquaint them with something every youth already has: a dream. We call it the E-Dream--a powerful vision in which “E” can represent a multitude of adjectives: educational, electronic, entrepreneurial, exciting, etc. Maybe the only word that “E” doesn’t stand for is easy, because no realistic, worthwhile career dream will be easy. We make sure that every young person can start their journey by reflecting on the five components of their E-Dream: start at home, start with what you have, start with who you are, start with where you are, and start now.

The atmosphere and the foundations set down by Youth Engagement Days blends very well with Entrepreneur Fairs and Community Internships, two other vital components of OC’s overall approach to engaging youth.Ultimately, youth engagement is exciting, but it is not primarily about entertaining teenagers or setting them apart from adult society. At a successful Youth E-Day, adults receive the chance to become just as engaged as youth, because both groups are learning together and exchanging energy and passion that can rejuvenate the community.

Recap of September 15 Youth E-Day

It was a bit warm on that Wednesday morning, but 50 students hiked around the playa and classroom south of Nazareth, TX, to get an up-close view of 6 promising career fields that have do with natural resources management, at the 4th Annual Youth Engagement Day. The high school and junior high students came from Dimmitt, Hart, Nazareth, Tulia, Happy, and Kress schools. After gathering in the morning at the Nazareth Community Hall to tour 12 career information booths set up by South Plains College, Amarillo College, Texas Tech, WTAMU, and Wayland Baptist, as well as TX Dept. of Ag and Texas Workforce Solutions, everyone headed to the outdoor site for the 2-hour Career Exploration Walk-About--where 25 adult teachers, presenters, and career exhibitors joined in.

Out on the land, a group of students at the Youth Engagement Day who listen intently to Mario Avila of the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service in Lubbock, TX, as he describes internship and career opportunities with NRCS in rural counties or anywhere in Texas or the nation.

The students were able to learn about the general fields of conservation education, Natural Resources Conservation Service careers, using livestock to build a profitable business, as well as wildlife biology, wind and solar energy, and water-wise landscape design—fields in which young people can build careers, jobs, and businesses that they could bring back to their hometowns. Returning to the Community Hall, the group enjoyed a fine hamburger lunch catered by Christy Acker, with whole wheat buns donated by Lowes store in Tulia, and patties from Paidom Meats, a local entrepreneur. In the wrap-up session, students and teachers learned about further opportunities through the upcoming Regional Youth Entrepreneur Fair on Nov. 9th in Plainview, and potential community internships through Ogallala Commons in summer 2011. An inspiring closing presentation was given by Chris Bunnet, a college-age youth who started KB Recycling in Amarillo. Bunnet operates this growing business while attending college classes, and the business now has over 160 customers in Amarillo and Canyon who pay for their innovative service: curbside recycling. By the close of the event, everyone left the Youth Engagement Day with new ideas, resources, and inspiration to design their own successful career paths.

OC Board Member Shares Her Experience
By Mary Libby Campbell, Bueyeros, NM

If you want to feel inspired by the youth of today, try attending a Youth Engagement Day. I was honored to be asked to present information about our ranch, Yesterday's Valley Ranch, located in Northeastern New Mexico. We have a small cow-calf operation and raise "All Natural" "Angus Source Verified" Beef, and my topic was "Harvesting Solar Dollars Through Animal Grazing."

It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with young people from several area schoolsand explain to them that a career as a Cattle Producer can be fun and sustainable, provided you keep our natural resources in mind and utilize them to reduce expenses. As I explained about "rotational grazing" it was fun to watch them "get it" that there are different ways to do the same thing that has always been done on a ranch. The concept of keeping cattle in one herd and rotating them throughout the ranch so that vehicle, labor, and fuel expenses are reduced while the grass is allowed to grow made sense to them.

Mary Libby Campbell used great props at her station to illustrate how sound ranch management positively impacts that land, the watershed, and the community.

I was very impressed by the students as they listened attentively, asked questions, and each one thanked me for being there. The future is in good hands with these wonderful students. I experienced a great sense of pride in speaking with these young people -- almost as much as I felt the first time I saw our "All Natural" Beef displayed in the window of a meat case.

Playa Festivals are Well Underway
By Julie Boatright, OC Education Coordinator

Landon Kirby of the NRCS strolls across a spikerush covered playa basin with students from Whiteface, Plains and Morton, Texas.

Throughout September and continuing into October, Ogallala Commons will present a total of 14 Playa Festivals for 5^th grade students from 20 different schools throughout the panhandle of Texas and in eastern New Mexico.

Simply put, a Playa Festival is a two-day crash course on regional water issues, ecology, and nature. OC, along with experts in fields ranging from wildlife biology and plant id to creative writing and duck calling take over an entire 5^th grade for two solid days of hands-on, outdoor learning. We educate students about the water cycle, soils, and looming global challenges focusing on our region’s unique playa basins. The experience is interdisciplinary, exploring complex issues through science, history, biology, art and creative writing. Mostly, however, our goal is to encourage and foster exploration, understanding and admiration of the natural resources we have all around us.

Hundreds of students from Oak Grove Elementary in Brownfield, TX toured a playa. Reporters from the Lubbock Avalanche Journal covered the experience. Read more at http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2010-09-25/brownfield-fifth-graders-learn-importance-playa-lakes

None of this would be possible without the dedication and effort put forth by our crack team of educators. Dave Haukos, Jim Steiert, Gail Barnes, Bill Johnson and several Natural Resource Conservation Service agents will have driven hundreds of miles, made dozens of presentations, and hiked several (possibly chiggery) miles to do their part at each Festival.

To read first hand accounts of some of the 2010 Playa Festivals, visit the Playa Festival Blog at www.playafestival.blogspot.com. For more information on Festivals, visit the OC Playa Festival webpage at www.ogalla lacommons.org/playafestival.html

Students compare soil types at the Playa Festival in Abernathy, TX on September 16th.

Intern Intro
By Sarah Le
Hello! My name is Sarah Le and I am attending Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. This is my last year of my undergraduate career, and I am majoring in Natural History and Humanities. Essentially, my major is the study of nature/ natural surroundings and how it affects people, along with how people affect their natural environment.
2010 intern, Sarah Le, pictured at the Grand Canyon.
Growing up in t
he suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas, I was completely oblivious to the many different flor

a and fauna that surrounded me on a daily basis. Being here in Lubbock and having this major
has opened my eyes to the natural world. I am constantly learning how cruc
ial it is to be a good steward of natural resources. In this internship with Ogallala Commons I hope to learn how to affectively equip people with knowledge of
their natural environment. My major project with O.C. is putting together a Playa Trunk that can be checked out by fifth grade elementary teachers. This playa trunk will contain several different
lesson plans that will teach students
about the different aspects of playas and why they are important. If we desire to see change in the way our natural resources are being used, we must close the gap of ignorance by educating. What I have learned in my Natural History and Humanities classes have been indispensable to me; it has reshaped my life. I have come to love nature, and my hope is to share that passion with others.

Click Here to follow Sarah Le, and the rest of the OC interns as they blog about their experiences.

A wet playa east of Brownfield, TX....visited during Playa Festivals

Ogallala Commons Newsletter: August 2010

2010-08-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Harvesting Season
By Darryl Birkenfeld

Trucks are rumbling down our rural dirt roads and highways these days, hauling in silage and dryland corn—the beginnings of the fall harvest. Following similar patterns, Ogallala Commons has instituted harvesting ceremonies of all our OC Community Interns.

Carolina Balderas from Hereford, TX, poses with her intern medallion after finishing her Harvesting Ceremony during the High Plains RC&D Quarterly Meeting at Mariposa Ecovillage in Amarillo, TX. On the left of the photo is Lydia Villanueva, Carolina’s supervisor, who is Director of Casa del Llano, a nonprofit community organization in Hereford, TX (on the right, Darryl Birkenfeld presented the medallion on behalf of Ogallala Commons).

Things got underway back in late July with Harvesting Ceremonies in our northwest Kansas communities, with additional August ceremonies scattered around Texas. As just as one example, on a Monday (Aug. 9th), I was able to attend two harvesting ceremonies on the same day. It started at 9am at the Swisher County Commissioners Court meeting in Tulia, TX. I listened as Thomas Edwards and Savanna Bragg spoke to the County Commissioners and showed powerpoint presentations of their blog entries…to illustrate all they had done during their 8- weeks of interning. It was a very educational for the Commissioners, and a good accounting for the $2,000 that Swisher County invested in these interns. Later in the evening, I witnessed two Harvesting Ceremonies for interns Larissa Gardner and Michelle Hochstein at the Holy Family Church Parish Council and Finance Council Meeting in Nazareth, TX, attended by 20 people. Holy Family Church and the Knights of Columbus had invested $4,000 in three community interns. Over the past week, I attended two more Ceremonies (see photo captions)

Ethan Pruitt (left) from Whiteface, TX, receives his medallion from OC Director Darryl Birkenfeld, following Ethan’s Harvesting Ceremony during the Playa Management Field Day on Aug. 20^th in Nazareth, TX. Ethan is beginning his freshman year at Texas Tech University as a Natural Resource major. Ethan’s supervisor, NRCS District Conservationist Landon Kerby, also attended the Field Day.

Because they are public presentations, Harvest Ceremonies are a cause for some nervousness and trepidation. How do you put into words and images all that you have been working on for so many weeks…in front of people that you may not know? Though it can feel a bit overwhelming and tedious, harvesting is crucial for gathering up, for giving an accounting, and for savoring and bringing closure. No matter where they have taken place, here are some important things that I see happening at Harvesting Ceremonies:

• Interns offer excellent presentations where they give voice to what was accomplished through their internship, what the community gained, and what the intern learned.

• Interns gain valuable experience in public speaking – a prerequisite to their careers development, and an aspect of being a leader in a community, organization, etc.

• Interns and their supervisors are affirmed for their work by the community, and can answer questions and receive comments from the community.

• Dozens of local citizens and members of intern investing organizations are hearing first-hand accounts of what Community Internships are and how they impact interns and communities.

An additional feature that OC would like to see at Harvesting Ceremonies is the Presentation of the OC Medallion. These round Medallions are made of pewter, with the OC logo in the center circle, surrounded by 18 stars, attached to a green and white cloth band. On the back of the medallion is the inscription: 2010 Ogallala Commons Community Intern. We want all interns to receive this special medallion as a symbol of their growth, accomplishments, and their membership as a “commoner” in Ogallala Commons. Since we didn’t come up with the idea of medallions until mid-July, we will be sending medallions to all interns who didn’t have them at their Harvesting Ceremony.

Intern Reunion Scheduled for 2011

Interns and supervisors, mark your calendars for our Ogallala Commons Community Intern Reunion! This event will take place in Amarillo, Texas on July 24th and 25th. Our OC Intern Program will be in its 5th year in 2011, and we believe it is high time to gather and celebrate all of the unique individuals that have contributed to this program. The ultimate goal of the Intern Program is to create homecoming career development, and the best way to find out if we are accomplishing this goal is to hear from our former and present interns and supervisors, and establish a way to continue communication with them. The Intern Reunion will coincide with the Annual Retreat for the OC Board and Advisors. We promise a fun, enriching couple of days in Amarillo—so please save the dates!

Re-Engaging: Action Steps For Interns and Communities

By Julie Boatright

The wave of activity brought on by thirty-one Ogallala Commons Community Internships is finished and now is the time to shift our energy towards remaining engaged in our communities. There are some simple steps that both former interns and community supervisors can take to encourage re-engagement.

For Interns

Now that your internship is complete you can look back upon the experience to gain insight and grow. Here are a few tips:

• If you haven't finished all of your intern work, take the time this weekend to finish up your blogs, send in your evaluations, and turn in your harvesting folders.
• Reflect, savor, and write in your journal. It is important not to lose all of the valuable experiences from your internship. Ask yourself: What did I gain this summer? Is there anything I see differently because of my experience? Where did I grow? What are some things I need to work on?

• Update your resume. Through your internship you gained new job skills and you should make note of those on your resume! This will be helpful in applying for jobs, scholarships, etc.

• Look for new volunteering opportunities. If you can be active in your hometown – do it! If you are away at college, look for opportunities in your new setting.

For Community Supervisors

Now that Summer Community Internships have finished, the attention of communities wishing to engage youth must shift to finding new ways to keep former and potentially interested youth involved. Over the last few months our community interns gained new skills and knowledge of their communities. It is important to continue to use these new insights into community life and to stay involved throughout the fall, winter and spring. This can be accomplished in many ways:

• Keep in contact with former community interns. Simply send an email, make a quick call or send a note to let your intern know that you are interested in what they are doing.

• Encourage organizations, clubs and businesses can invite former interns to participate in planning events, conducting activities, or as volunteers in the organizational events throughout the year.

It is also important to begin planning for internship candidates and intern duties for next summer. Consider these questions:

• What projects do you have coming up?

• Does your community have needs that could be met by a community intern?

• What jobs/tasks do you have that an intern could complete?

• What kind of intern will you need – high school student, college student, graduate student or an adult in a continuing education program?

Ogallala Commons held a successful Playa Management Field Day on Aug.  20th in Nazareth, TX. The event was attended by 45 people--NRCS  personnel, interested folks, presenters, a couple of interns, and  amazingly:17 landowners! Of those 17 landowners, 14 owned one or more  playas, amounting to a total of nearly 500 acres of playa basins. Those  who attended the Field Day were a diverse and energetic bunch: about 55%  men and 45% women--and they enjoyed learning about playa plants and  grazing options at the Playa Classroom and interpretive trail (photo  taken by intern Clay Wimmer from Abernathy, TX).

Round Two
By Lexi Schwarz

Hi everyone, I’d like to quickly introduce myself, as I am the one that will be maintaining this newsletter for the next several issues. My name is Lexi Schwarz, and I am a sophomore Advertising major at the Univeristy of Nebraska-Lincoln. This past summer, I had the opportunity to be a PR and Communications intern for my hometown, working with local nonprofits, through our Economic Development program. By the end of the internship, I had gained knowledge, and acquired job opportunities that I never would’ve imagined possible.

One of the criteria for the internship was to post a weekly blog on Ogallala Commons’ intern blog site about what I was doing, how I was doing the task, and how the process was coming along. Through doing this, my work caught the attention of other OC supervisors and I was offered another internship that would start in the fall. I jumped at the opportunity, and am now the Media and Public Relations intern for Ogallala Commons.

This position directly relates to what I want to do in the future. Using my writing, communications, and networking skills, all at the same time. Not only am I lucky enough to have a job that works around my messy class schedule and has given me free college credit, not once, but twice!...it's also one I enjoy and can use to expand my resume in the future.