Faith, SD

On February 5th the Faith Chamber of Commerce hosted the 31st annual Ranchers Forum at the Community Center in Faith. With the help of Morris Lemke, SDSU Extension Agent in Ziebach County; the Chamber was able to bring a strong slate of speakers in for the afternoon program. Prime Rib supper was served by the Chamber prior to the grand finale. The banquet speaker this year was the SD Secretary of Agriculture Mr. Bill Evan. He talked about his background in the ag industry, his thoughts about some of the current and upcoming issues facing ag producers and what his department, the Govenor’s office and the legislature is doing on some of these things. He also spent some time answering questions posed by the audience and visiting with people afterwards (he and his staff actually left the same time we did after everything was cleaned up). Over the years this really has been a great program the Chamber and especially Mr. Lemke put on and this year was no exception. A big Thanks goes out to the people that worked to put it together, those who donated door prizes(a LOT of them), the sponsors of the meal, the speakers and the producers attending. Remember comments and suggestions are always welcomed and encouraged.

 Every month, we are asked questions and need to blog on them.  If you have anything at all to add or to answer these questions, please comment below and help us out!!!        Thanks.

Please choose one or two questions in EACH category to address on your blog:

Category 3: Taking action on poverty

What kinds of concrete steps are being taken by your community to address poverty?

Category 7: Taking action on leadership

How has your community leadership expanded?

ü Are more people participating in leadership?

ü Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership?

ü Does the community leadership reflect the community’s demographic profile?

ü Are more low income people participating in community leadership?What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders? Sustains existing leaders?

We are also hosting a Health Fair to help with the launching of our new fitness center at the Legion Hall from 2:30 until 6:00 with speakers starting at 5:00pm. The cost for a booth is $5.00.  If anyone is interested in having a booth and/or a presentation. Please let us know by commenting to this article and someone will contact you.

Jim and Sandy Rasmussen had an open Christmas dinner at their home this year.  Anyone who had no place to go for dinner was invited.  They would like to thank everyone for coming.  They plan to do this next year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Faith Horizons group has seen an interest in promoting better health for our community. For a starting block the committee would like to open a small fitness center for the community to use. Memberships will be available at a minimal cost with all proceeds going towards building a large fitness center for everyone to use and enjoy. We are asking for assistance from the community members to donate equipment for the fitness center. The center will be available flexible hours for your use. For more information or to donate a piece of equipment for the fitness center please contact: The City of Faith at 605-967-2261 or Sandy Rasmussen 967-2585.

After noticing that not all the kids at school didn’t have caps and mittens they felt an urge to help.  The Bethel Lutheran youth group, grades 6-12, collected winter hats, scarfs, mittens, and gloves for both children and adults and presented them to the Faith Community Action Team (CAT) on December 12, 2007.  The students felt that this was just one way to help the less fortunate in our community.  Great Job Guys!!!

A group of people saw a need for some of the local children. To answer the call of helping others, a group of citizens have set up an angel tree during this holiday season.  Any person can take an angel from the tree which has an age and sex of a child. They then purchase a gift and bring the unwrapped package to the City Office or Chamber. At this time, most of the gifts have already been wrapped and delivered.  The great thing about this project is that the community members can give to the less-fortunate without making anyone uncomfortable about accepting help.  That is one of the reasons that this community is awesome to live in!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

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On December 3rd, despite the bitter cold temperatures, the citizen’s of Faith gathered together to celebrate the holiday season.  At 5 pm, the street lights were extinguished and the festivities began.  With eleven entries, the parade was very colorful and full of lights.  I heard several positive comments on how glad that the holiday parade has returned to Faith.  The idea to bring the parade back to Faith was the Faith Ambulance committee. The most talked about entry would have had to be the City of Faith’s “Sue” entry.  Very nice!  After the parade, the Horizon’s committee held a social at the Legion Hall.  Snacks, cookies, bars, and lots of other treats along with apple cider and hot chocolate warmed approximately 88 people including a special appearance by Santa.  Most of the treats were provided by Faith businesses.

Paul Peterson, a Horizon’s member gave the audience an overview of the new strategic plan that the Horizon’s committee developed.  Nancy Reimer gave a short presentation about the community blog and invited the community to send items to post, comment on the current posts, and basically use the blog as a unified community bulletin board. 

The prizes for the floats and door prizes were also presented at this time by Deb Brown and Shawn Peterson. The presentation concluded with an invitation to the audience to volunteer to help on the current projects that the Horizon’s team is working on.  In other words, the social was a huge success!!!

There was an account set up under Horizon’s II/ CAT team from the first phase of Horizon’s that was used to help families who qualified,  to help pay bills within the City of Faith. For example clinic and/or medical bills, Vila’s, auto repairs, utilities, ambulance, and rent.  However, the fund is restricted to local businesses.   The account was used quite a bit in the last year, and we hope to continue this service in the future.