December

Hello everyone,

The first real snow of winter has fallen, and temperatures have dropped; breathing in, you can feel ice crystals forming in your nose, and gratitude rises for the warm hearth waiting you inside. A good reminder that nature must be respected; that we live only so long as we remian wise.

A lot of happened, none of it very visible but all of it slowly moving forward. The Horizons group in Republic has struggled to stay afloat, but hope never fails. October and Novemebr saw two meetings; at the last it was decided that Stone Soup would carry the grant funds earned during the past year of study circles and such. A grant writing training was presented by Betty Buckley of Stone Soup. Shop the Frontier, the non-profit rural arts support shop, agreed to make copies of the grant application available through the month of December, so community members could apply.

All applications are due on Jan 5, 2009, to be turned in to Sikander at Shop the Frontier, on Clark Avenue. A committee will then look at the applications and decide which would serve the mission of the Horizons project to address community poverty and development.Anyone wishing to apply may come to the shop for an application or for information.

Just before Thanksgiving, staff at Shop the Frontier and the local paper, the Republic News Miner, collaborated on a holiday issue. Ads were collected from local businesses, and staff at Shop the Frontier wrote articles for the paper, stressing the idea of shopping local and why it makes sense to do so. In addition, local businesses were cited in the articles as resources for winter gifts and needs. We were proud to see this collaborative effort create a unique issue for the local paper.

The local Business and Professional Women's club sponsored a winter dance and ran a drive to collect holiday gifts for local families in need. The dance was a wonderful event. It was held at the K Diamond K, a local dude ranch and featured live music and a DJ.