Greetings To Our Empower Learner Supporters,
We hope this newsletter finds you healthy and well. We start off this letter with CONGRATULATIONS to Nemer who completed his requirements for graduation this week! Many of our Learners have exceeded their goals by earning so many credits lately; we anticipate more graduates soon. Last week ended with a very successful Thanksgiving-Miigwich feast. Learners made all the wonderful food & desserts - the loaded potato skins were the big hit. We spent Monday and Tuesday morning preparing and decorating. Then all 27 of us gathered around our L-shaped table for good food and conversation. Our Feast day is always a favorite of the staff and this year was no exception. This week we had a guest teacher, Mrs. Kohl. She is finishing her teaching license and joined us to lead advisory for a few days with fun activities and great advice. We certainly won’t complain about the donuts she brought, either. On Thursday we learned that our holiday break has been extended so there is NO SCHOOL on Dec. 23rd or Jan. 3rd which means we will be having our annual Christmas Tea on Wednesday, Dec. 22nd from 12 - 2 pm. Speaking of Christmas, our decorations went up this week, too & we are starting to plan which goodies we will make for that special family day - we hope you can join us for the food, fun, & reindeer games. It is time for our Family Holiday Cookie Bake-Off. We tried this last year, and it was a success, so we are bringing it back. For the next two Fridays, Dec 10th and 17th, we open the Empower kitchen to our families. We encourage you to pick out a favorite cookie recipe and come in and make a batch of those cookies. You provide us with the recipe, and we will make sure all the ingredients are here. So just show up with your learner and start some holiday fun whipping up a tasty treat to take home to the rest of your family. In other exciting news, the learners and staff at Empower are very excited to announce the opening of Empower Hour: Foods & Nutrition - our new food pantry for Empower families and the community. See the attached flyer for details about our offerings. Coming Events: Remember all events are updated on our website Dec 8 - ASVAB Makeup and Review Dec 10 &17 - Family Cookie Baking Dec 22 - 12 pm - 2 pm; Empower Christmas Tea *new date Dec 23 -Jan 3 - Winter Break Jan 6 - Visit the Museum of Failure We are now firmly in the second quarter of the year, and many Empower learners have started the quarter working hard to achieve their learning goals. Unfortunately, with the concentration on academics these last two weeks, there is not much to update in this newsletter.
Our learners have completed the prepping of the new laundry room, and now we are just waiting to get the plumber and electrician scheduled for the installation. The learners have also been busy prepping our Empower Food Shelf by arranging shelving and stocking them with food donated by Family Pathways. The Empower Staff is scheduled to train on the management and paperwork involved with running a food shelf in the next couple of weeks. We hope to be operational in the first week of December. More news on both of these projects will be coming out shortly. In addition, Empower learners continue to be a crucial part of the district food backpack program transporting food items from Sandstone to the Transition program at the high school. Empower staff and several learners were able to help a 9th-grade HFHS student gather data for his science fair project. We were each timed in a sprint of the length of the gym, then ended the activity with some friendly races between students, ELC Staff, and HFHS staff. Next week, we have a short week with the Thanksgiving/Miigwech break coming up, but the learners are excited about the annual Empower Feast on the 23rd. The menu has been set, and we will be cooking up another wonderful meal and thoughts of things to be thankful for over the last year. Coming Events: Remember all events are updated on our website Nov 23 - Empower Miigwech Feast Nov 24-26 - No School Thanksgiving/Miigwech Break Dec 8 - ASVAB Review Dec 23 - Empower Christmas Tea Dec 24-Jan 2 - Winter Break Greetings To Our Empower Learner Supporters,
One quarter down and three to go in this Empowering learning year! It has been a great start to the year. So many Empower learners are engaged in learning to meet their education goals, get out of the building, and support the community. It is wonderful to see our learners taking charge and building a solid foundation for future success. Two significant developments excite us at Empower. First, a huge thank you to the Finlayson-Giese Lions for their generous support in providing funds allowing us to install a washer and dryer in our building. Empower learners have been busy prepping a laundry room, and we hope to have them installed soon. Second, we have been working with the Pine County Public Health Educator and the Director of Family Pathways to start a food shelf here at Empower. We hope to have this up and running this month as well. We look forward to providing these two services to our Empower learners and their families. These last three weeks have been a busy time for our Empower learners as well. As mentioned above, learners have been active in their academic work and have met or come very close to meeting their educational goals for the quarter. We also had several additional activities. Anna Nelson from Members Credit Union stopped by and talked with our learners about money matters and the keys to managing money successfully as a young adult. Some learners took advantage of the opportunity to take the ASVAB test to gauge their vocational aptitude. We also spent some time carving some ghoulish pumpkins prepping for Halloween fun. A few learners also took the opportunity to help the Hinckley Elementary School prepare fresh fruit snacks for the little ones. With all that going on, a few learners still found time to visit Fond Du Lac Tribal Community College and check out the programs that may interest them in the future. In the weeks to come, we have a few community service projects supporting the school backpack program picking up food supplies. In addition, we will be working on setting up our Empower laundry and food shelf. We also hope to have Mark Foster stop by to review the ASVAB scores with our learners and help them use it as a tool to prepare for their future. Coming Events: Remember all events are updated on our website Nov 9th - No School Deer Day Nov 23 - Empower Miigwech Feast Nov 24-25 - No School Thanksgiving Greetings To Our Empower Learner Supporters,
We want to begin this newsletter with a big thank you to the parents/guardians/supporters of our Empower learners who participated in the virtual conferences over the last two weeks. We had one of the best responses in recent history and enjoyed talking about the progress and potential of our learners. Remember, formal conferences are nice, but you are encouraged to contact us anytime to talk about your Empower learner. Empower was abuzz over the last couple of weeks, with a number of our learners digging in and getting work done. It was a good feeling to keep busy guiding, tutoring, and supporting them as they worked. Many of you will see that reflected in their progress reports. That said, there were several other activities that our learners had the opportunity to participate in. The last two weeks started with a little chaos with Sadie’s sister Molly, a 10-week old puppy visiting us. We continue to support the backpack program by loading, transporting, and unloading food for the backpack program. Some learners also completed a service-learning project, building a handicap ramp for one of our community senior citizens. There was also a college visit to the U of M Morris campus, which inspired a couple of learners to apply. Michele from Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services came to talk to us about the many opportunities within their program, such as Youthbuild, welding certificates, manufacturing tours, testing equipment with the 49rs, etc. Her information can be a big help in exploring options for life after our learners graduate. In the weeks to come, we will continue to have guest speakers dropping in. We will also be conducting ASVAB testing soon. This is a good gauge for our learners on academics but, just as important, their natural abilities in different practical skill sets. Finally, we are working on scheduling a time to get out to Changing Gaits, horse ranch, for life skills training and team building. Coming Events: Remember all events are updated on our website Oct 19th - Members Credit Union classroom presentation Oct 21-22 - No School MEA Oct 26th - ASVAB Testing Nov 5th - End of 1st Quarter/Next Progress Report Nov 9th - No School Deer Day Greetings To Our Empower Learner Supporters, 17 Sept 2021
It is good to see the familiar faces and the new people joining our Empower family this year. We are looking forward to a big year for the learners and the program; we are so glad to have you as a part of this year's experience. It is also lovely to start with some bits of normalcy with a few positive things learned over last year added to the mix. We will have several activities this year, and we encourage you to keep checking our website and these newsletters to keep up on Empower happenings. We are so proud of all the learners' attitudes coming into this year. They have all hit the ground running, spending time mapping out their academic and personal goals for the year. They are engaged in life skills activities and have taken ownership of our learning space by pitching in to keep things clean, giving everyone a functional learning environment. We had our first successful Waffle Wednesday and French Toast Tuesday, where our learners did a fabulous job making breakfast. In preparing for our annual apple cider pressing, we harvested apples from our small orchard. Sadly the weather and the bees were not cooperative this year, and we will not have the usual volume of cider for some of our future family events. Some learners stepped up to pick up food for the district backpack program and deliver it to the students in the Transitions program. We wrapped up the week with a day trip out to Rhine Lake Resort. We spent the day canoeing, kayaking, paddle-boating, playing volleyball, playing horseshoes, and celebrating summer birthdays. We are happy to hear that the community knows more and more about the great community service projects our learners have completed in the past. This year is no different. Soon some of our learners will begin researching, planning, and building a handicap ramp and portable greenhouse for some of the elderly in our community. We have plans for many events this fall but have yet to nail down exact dates. Our plans include going to the school forest a couple of times, visiting Changing Gates, and completing the service building projects mentioned above. Finally, a big shout out to Chris Stout for earning his diploma. Chris worked hard this summer and fall, finishing up the last of his graduation requirements. Coming Events: Remember all events are updated on our website. Sept 28th - School Forest Oct 1st - School Pictures Oct 13-14 - Tentative MAAP STARS Leadership overnight Oct 19th - Members Credit Union classroom presentation It's That Time Of Year!!!!!
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