The Litchfield Area Mentorship Program is partnering with the Litchfield Blues and the Kiwanis Club for a special evening at Optimist Park. There will be a focus on children tomorrow night for the Blues game at 7:30 with free popcorn and prizes for kids.
Judy Hulterstrum says they have also scheduled their annual drive-through pork chop supper for July 7th in the area of the old Burger King parking lot and will be teaming up with the Fieldgate Cheese Store that evening where there will be special deals. She says LAMP has selected 7 individuals for the “Those Who Light the Way” award and each of them is raising funds for LAMP.
Hulterstrum says she presented Paul Johnson’s award at the last Meeker County Board of Commissioners meeting where he serves as chair. She says the adults and children in the mentorship program both find it rewarding and the children are not necessarily in troublesome situations – they could just use a little extra support, and the adults aren’t necessarily retired, but can be of any age.
Paul Johnson says there weren’t programs like LAMP when he was growing up in the 1960s and he had several friends and neighbors who all lost their fathers about the same time, and his father unofficially became a mentor to several boys who were part of his life. He says raising money for LAMP is not too difficult because – as former Meeker County Social Services Director Paul Buchovich once told him – there are lots of generous people in Meeker County.
Johnson says the Lunch Buddies program is available through LAMP and it’s a great way for people to get involved in the program. He says LAMP has been the recipient of a grant from PACT 4 Families. For more information about LAMP or to make a donation, call Judy at 320-699-1616 or contact her at info@lampkinship.org. LAMP is hoping to soon hire a 20-hour per week person.
June is Dairy Month and members of the Meeker County American Dairy Association are busy getting the word out about their products this month. One of the organization’s big events is coming up this Saturday – Dinner on the Dairy – at CoJo Dairy northwest of Grove City from 5:30-to-8 p.m.
Meeker County Dairy Princess Paige Frenchick, who is one of the ten finalists for Princess Kay of the Milky Way, says they will be serving grilled cheese sandwiches, chips, cookie and milk for a freewill offering and there will be root beer floats available for sale with proceeds going to the ACGC FFA program and to the Meeker Area Food Shelf. She says the Meeker County dairy royalty will have a 1980s theme on their new float this year which can be seen in area parades.
Frenchick says they will be in the Paynesville parade next week, in the Valley Daze parade in Eden Valley later this month and in the Litchfield Watercade parade on July 12th. She says they will be attending lots of Watercade events from July 10th through the 13th.
Frenchick says she just completed her first year of college at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul where she is a biology major and plans to go into dairy cattle reproductive services. She says her family’s Jersey dairy farm is near Manannah.
Litchfield Community Education is off to a busy start this summer with all kinds of activities. Several of the youth activities began on Monday and more will get started next week.
Litchfield Community Education Director Grant Solem says many children got signed up for activities as soon as the summer program guide came out on May 1st, but it’s never too late to get signed up. He says one of the more popular activities each summer is swim lessons and kids travel from all over the area to attend the lessons offered in Litchfield.
Solem says the schedule gets shuffled a bit as they will block out June 17th for the Parade of Bands and June 19th which is the Juneteenth holiday, and they do have some evening swim lessons. He says private swim lessons for adults can also be arranged.
Solem says there aren’t as many activities scheduled for adults during the summer months, but they have a trip scheduled to see the “Church Basement Ladies” later this summer and to see “Grease” this fall. He says Litchfield Community Theatre is getting its production of “Guys & Dolls” ready for later in July and tickets will be going on sale soon. For more details about Litchfield Community Education, look for the link on the Litchfield School District website or call 693-2354.