Kidfest 2010 was a great success for SJSCI, our UmattR program, and the event. The UmattR Teens gave away many cards, met children and spoke with them personally, signed each card individually, and were all around excellent role models for the children. The teens danced and laughed with each other and the children, oftentimes being called up on the stage to take part in a dance competition with the children. This year’s theme for the teens seemed to be the Chacha Slide, which they danced to many times and even taught the crowd how to do the dance. You can watch a bit of it here: Chacha Slide
Many prizes were given away at the event as well. After talking to all 13 UmattR teens and receiving one of their cards, the children were put into a raffle for many different prizes donated by local businesses. We gave away a guitar, two bikes, a digital camera, a GPS, and many different toys and games. Thank you to all the businesses who donated for the drawing.
The UmattR Teens were each presented with a $1,000 scholarship check from The San Juan Safe Communities Initiative for participating in the program. The checks were presented by SJSCI’s president Dr. James Henderson, and vice president T. Greg Merrion. The scholarship is to be used towards the UmattR Teen’s college education. Each teen has plans to go to college for many different things, all of which can be seen on UmattR.com.
Safe Communities gave away a lot of information to the parents who were present at Kidfest. Everyone is extremely supportive and happy that we are working in the Four Corners region and that we have awesome programs for kids such as the UmattR program. Thank you to everyone who is supportive of The San Juan Safe Communities Initiative, Inc.
Safe Communities is taking nominations for the 2010-2011 UmattR program. You can nominate your teen here. Remember, the teen must be a high school senior in the 2010-2011 school year (homeschool is ok too!), and have never (not even once) tried illegal drugs (including abusing Rx or OTC medications), alcohol, or tobacco products. Religious ceremonies are OK for some instances.
If you would like to become a sponsor of the 2010-2011 UmattR program, please click here for more information and call our office at (505) 599-1492. We look foward to your support, and we can’t do it without you!
Enjoy the following Kidfest 2010 picture gallery!
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Riverfest is a unique opportunity for all of Farmington and the surrounding communities to come together along the banks of the Animas River to enjoy the sunshine, events, booths, food, rafting, animals, and to peruse the different local vendors. San Juan Safe Communities was also present to hand out material and information to those present. A special thanks goes out to Susan and Stephanie Allen who volunteered Friday to stay at the Safe Communities Booth.
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Skate Into the Future!
Unique Sponsorship Opportunities
Sycamore Park Community Center would like to invite you to support “Skate Into The Future.” With enough funding we will be able build a small, supervised skate park at Sycamore Park as part of this program to provide at-risk youth living in South Farmington with physical recreation, educational opportunities, and nutrition education – as well as character development and job skills training.
Tax Deductible
Sycamore Park Community Center is a non-profit agency as part of the City of Farmington. While the City of Farmington is not a 501(c)3 organization, donations are still tax-deductible.
Fundraising Goal
These sponsorship opportunities are one stage of a four-stage fundraising strategy to raise nearly $100,000 through grants and fundraising to completely fund the skate park.
Sponsorship Levels
360 Hardflip – $1,000 (5 spots available)
- Your corporate name, logo, address, phone listed as a top-level sponsor on a large, permanent donor board in the Sycamore Park Community Center.
360 Hardflip – One of the most difficult tricks for any skateboarder, no matter their skill level, is the 360 hardflip. Aptly named, the hardflip is a difficult combination of a kickflip and a shove-it. This trick is performed by making the board rotate 360 degrees on both its x-axis and y-axis.
Backside 180 Kickflip – $800 (10 spots available)
- Your corporate name and logo listed as a 2nd-teir sponsor on a large, permanent donor board in the Sycamore Park Community Center.
Backside 180 Kickflip – This is a stylish and powerful advanced skateboard maneuver.
Heelflip – $500 (20 spots available)
- Your corporate name listed as a 3rd-teir sponsor on a large, permanent donor board in the Sycamore Park Community Center.
Heelflip – The heelflip is an aerial skateboarding trick where the skateboarder kicks his board in order to make it flip 360 degrees along the board’s long axis.
Ollie – $100 (20 spots available)
- Your name listed in the “Individual Donor” section of a large, permanent donor board in the Sycamore Park Community Center.
Ollie – The ollie is a fundamental trick in skateboarding. As so many other tricks depend on it, the ollie is often the first trick to be learned by a new skateboarder.
For more information, contact:
Natalie Koehn, Sycamore Park Community Center at (505) 566-2480.
Please make checks payable to:
City of Farmington
and mail or deliver to:
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Hello Safe Communities members and friends,
I hope your May has been very productive for all. I want to personally thank all those who helped us make our Spring Conference, 2010, a success. For those who may have missed it, we combined our conference with the Farmington Public Library’s Dia de Los Libros tailgate party, the San Juan College/Enlace Cinco de Mayo celebration and a New Mexico Youth Summit. My many thanks to all those who partnered together to make the whole thing work, including the Library staff, San Juan College, Enlace, the Farmington Boy’s and Girl’s Club, and the NM Forum for Youth. What a great community, and a great State we live in.
Last week, Donal Key and Minerva Simon, with the Farmington Municipal School District and I attended the Bridges Out Of Poverty certification training, hosted by Aha! Process in Albuquerque. Their attendance is yet another example of how the school system has grasped the idea that if the community is doing positive things in the neighborhoods where their students live, it can benefit the district’s mission. Our job as certified instructors will be two fold; to teach others the Bridges constructs, and to work with employers, service providers, and community groups to spread the message that we can use these constructs to create a more sustainable community by concentrating on helping people in resource poor neighborhoods achieve a higher standard of living. One of our goals is to create a seamless integration between the experiences of the children and parents in our neighborhoods and what they experience in our schools. The long term strategy is to create a more sustainable community by reducing our overall crime rate, dependence on substances, gang membership, the instances of juvenile delinquency including truancy, the dropout rate, teenage pregnancies and the strain on our social services systems. We also are looking to positively impact the learning experience in our schools, help improve the available workforce, increase our tax base, and increase the number of people who can afford to own homes. Obviously this will not happen overnight, as the road to building more sustainable communities is a generational process, but the steps we are taking now is building a firm base from which positive community change can occur.
We intend on using our Bridges work in conjunction with the rest of our “Drill Down” prevention efforts to continue our work in the south Farmington neighborhoods and take the lessons we have learned to expand out on to Crouch Mesa and beyond. One of the funding mechanisms we are wanting to utilize is the Promise Neighborhoods grant, designed to help integrate our work in the neighborhoods with what is happening in our schools. It is a planning grant and I will keep everyone posted as to our success. We will also be making a special effort to present our ideas to local business and corporate partners in an effort to generate local support.
We are continuing to discuss the early childhood development needs of San Juan County with the Kellogg’s Foundation, specifically, how we can expand services out into the neighborhoods where resources are lacking. I will keep everyone in the loop as to our progress on this front as well.
Changing gears, I would like for all our readers to please pay special attention to the article we have under the “Suppression” section of this newsletter entitled, Mexico, a “Failed State?” This article really spells out the real challenges our nation faces in dealing with the drug supply coming out of Mexico, and indeed the entire issue of “immigration.” It is a great read, so please take the time.
As most of you already know, due solely to the economic situation we find ourselves in, we had to reduce our staff by one position. I would like to take this time to thank Wilann Thomas for her dedication and unselfish service to me, Safe Communities and to our community. I would hope everyone else who knows Wilann would also thank her for her service as well. She will continue to be active as a volunteer for various projects, so we will all see her around from time to time.
I think this fairly well sums up what we have been doing, but if you have questions or comments about anything, please call our office at 505-599-1492 or by sending an email to info@sjsci.org.
Until Junes edition, take care.
Dan D.
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Make sure to come out to Kidfest 2010 at McGee Park on June 5! You can learn more about the event at www.sanjuancountykids.com/kidfest! From the Kidfest website:
We are setting off for some high flying fun at KidFest 2010! This is our fifth year for KidFest and we are going to celebrate with quite a show. Plan early to exhibit your service or business! Kidfest is a FREE one-day event held at McGee Park for children and children at heart. Exhibitors are encouraged to provide hands-on activities for children between the ages of two and fourteen. KidFest was designed to focus on youth education, summer program planning for families and offer local services and goods for kids. KidFest is the only event of its kind in the Four Corners and is the Largest Free Event for Kids in New Mexico! The event is always held the first Saturday in June. This year, it will be held June 5th. The 2009 crowd exceeded 9500! So plan for tons of people, kiddos and fun! Kidfest has been labeled as San Juan County’s Kickoff to Summer for a reason!
Make sure to come visit the SJSCI booth where we will be handing out free Chili’s kids meal vouchers, and say hi to the 2010 UmattR teens! They will all be present at the event to personally sign your UmattR trading cards and to encourage you to stay drug, alcohol, and tobacco free! For those who have been collecting the 2010 UmattR Trading cards and have all 13 at Kidfest, you will be entered in a drawing for many different prizes including: restaraunt gift certificates, sports equipment, a guitar, a camera, toys, and much more! We hope to see you there! You can see the 2010 UmattR teens at www.umattr.com and for those who would like to sponsor the 2010-2011 UmattR program, you can visit www.umattr.com/nominate/nominateyoursenior.htm.
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This radio interview with Dan Darnell for the 4-Corners Spotlight is about a year old, but it is worth listening to in order to see where SJSCI was just a year ago, how much we have progressed as an organization, and what we have accomplished so far. As always, there is more to be done!
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SJSCI recieved a “Thank You” card from the Farmington Public Library for providing services and partnering with the library for the youth of San Juan County. This card was in response to the successful NM Youth and Community Summit which was held April 30-May1, 2010. More can be found about the 2010 NM Youth and Community Summit here.
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SJSCI was present at Bloomfield Days where we gave out information about meth, drugs, what we do, and our UmattR program. We also met a man who wanted to be a part of SJSCI’s Speaker’s Bureau, which is a group of individuals who volunteer to speak at various events about many different topics. This man wanted to speak about methamphetamine, and share his personal story. You can listen to other testimonials about methamphetamine on our Meth in San Juan County page.
Also, Marlyn Wyatt, candidate for SJC sheriff, was kind enough to share his space and shade with SJSCI, which was much appreciated on the hot, sunny afternoon in Bloomfield. You can find out more about Marlyn here and visit his opponent Ken Chritensen’s Facebook page here.
There were many booths and people in attendance at Bloomfield Days, the event was a great success for the community.
*SJSCI does not endorse nor support any candidate in any race or election.
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May 12-13, 2010 was the San Juan Oil and Gas Conference. SJSCI was represented there with a booth to give out information about our organization, to highlight the UmattR program, and to present our Meth360 designed for the Oil and Gas industry. Drugs, meth specifically, are present in this industry and we intend to inform workers, managers, and upper level managers and owners about the symptoms of this drug. Not only is it unhealthy for the worker, it often times creates an unsafe and volatile workplace. The Meth 360 presentations can be tailored to many different groups i.e. parents, teachers, civic organizations, and employers. If you would like a Meth360 presentation, please email info@sjsci.org.
Secondly, the San Juan Oil and Gas Conference was a success for San Juan Safe Communities because we were able to hand out many sponsorship forms for our UmattR program. We are currently looking for sponsors for the 2010-2011 school year, as well as those who would like to contribute to the 2009-2010 UmattR program. If you would like to learn more about the program, visit www.umattr.com. If you would like to become a sponsor, again please email info@sjsci.org.
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