Recreation

8th Grade

2006-2007

Coach: Sara Buechmann

Members: Harli, Matt, Jack, Amber, Cynthia, Caitlin

Journal Entry:

December 2006

Our issue is the lack of activities and places to go for younger teens in Mankato. There are five girls and two boys in our group. Only two are Public Achievement Venterans. Public Achivement has been a little unusual this year with so many weeks between meetings, but we're off to a great start.

During ou meetings we've learned about Public Achivement core concepts and related them to our meetings, written a mini-grant application and filled out an action clerance form. We've had our successes and our setbacks, but we learn from our mistakes and try new approaches.

The Veterans in the group know what worked for their issues last year, and they help guide us through the process. Our team has gotten really good at brainstorming ideas and reaching a consensus. We've accomplished a lot in that last two meetings.

Our team is planning what we hope will be the first of several events open to younger teens. Many people have generously offered to donate their places or services to help us. All we have to do is set a date, organize the event, and get permission from the school. It sounds like a lot, but with this resourceful highly motivated team, I'm sure we'll be able to pull it off.

 

April 2007

There have been a few changes in our group this term. One of our members dropped out, one moved away, and we gained another. Still, our issue remained the same.

There are plenty of activities in town for elementary age students, but very few for young teens. We planned to have our own event for the seventh through ninth graders from both schools, but a free location and serves of a DJ donated to us, but our plans violated school policy and we had to cancel at the last minute.

We found two weekends when Dakota Meadows was free and rescheduled. This time we felt we had the potential of raising money which we planned to donate to the local youth center. Unfortunately, we could not get permission to have our event this time becuase there were too many other school activities going on in the same month.

We discussed the option of workign at a Student Council dance to fundraise, but decided against it. We wanted to have our own Public Achievement project, not owrk for someone else. By this time, it was too late to reschedule. At our final meeting decided the best thing we could do is raise awareness for our issue, indiviually help the local youth center with thier move this summer, and give next years team some good advice.