Local Service Projects

For a service project this week, a lot of time was spent at the home of an elderly woman in Kidder cracking black walnuts and pecans. When the female residents started they had four full grocery bags of black walnuts and after two hard days of work, they had barely dented the supply.

The girls used everything from a nutcracker to a pair of pliers to crack the walnuts in what turned out to be a very time consuming project. The girls enjoyed their turn of listening to the sweet woman's stories as they worked together on the nuts. The female residents commented that they especially enjoyed the afternoon because the woman reminded them of their own grandmothers.

During the three days that the girls spent cracking the walnuts their time was split between working inside or out depending on the weather. While they were outside they went to the park and sat under the pavilion. Half of the girls would crack the nuts and the other half raked leaves at the park. They filled about a dozen large, black trash bags with leaves and then hauled them to a burn pile.

The significant drop in temperature at the end of the week resulted in the cadets working inside, either on their crocheting or cleaning the school. It snowed again on Friday, so on Saturday some of the students went around to the local churches and other buildings to sweep off the sidewalks.

There were many advancements at Ceremony was also this week. There were also a lot of talents shared, including basketball skills from the males and some singing from the females. The wonderful talents and the number of advancements gave everyone reason to smile.

Bake Auction

The first part of this week was spent in the nearby city of Gallatin. The male residents were the first to visit Gallatin and they did a lot of cleaning, mostly sweeping. A lot of dust was swept up into the air so the males wore dust masks. They got quite a kick out of making jokes about the masks. Some of the male residents mimicked mortal combat characters and practiced their air kicks and punches saying, "I'm Sub-Zero attack" or "I am Scorpion...Strike!".

This Thursday a local Boy Scout troop put on a fundraising bake auction to raise some money for their troop. The female cadets had a lot of fun helping bake items to auction off. The female residents had to compete for a chance to help. The female residents were given a challenge to see who could clean the chow-hall floor the fastest, with an emphasis on the quality. They equally divided the chow hall then the race was on. The first seven girls whose portion was cleanest and done the fastest got to help bake pies for the auction. One of the teachers came down to help show the girls the correct way to make pie crusts. The female students made three pies (blueberry, cherry, and apple) which were a big hit at the auction.

The auction went well due in large part to the generosity of the bidders. The female junior staff made four pumpkin crunch cakes to donate to the local scouts. The ingredients cost around twenty dollars total and that was the amount received for each cake! What a profit! Some of the larger cakes went for around sixty dollars and the apple pie sold for thirty. The scouts walked out with large smiles on their faces because of the large amount of money raised that night. All together they earned over a thousand dollars the night of the fundraiser!

Towards the end of the week the female residents went to the local park to rake leaves and then the next day the males went to the park to pick up the leaves and put them into bags. That day the male residents also stopped at an elderly lady's home to warm up a bit. She was very excited about the visitors and told them many stories of her life. The male residents really enjoyed this cozy time spent warming up and listening to stories. They agreed it was a very nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Local Community Service

For community service this week, a few of the female residents visited a sweet lady named Ina in Kidder and helped her to clean out her home. The six female residents who went did an extremely good job on the deep cleaning jobs they were presented with. Even the sergeants thought the cleaning was the toughest they had ever seen.

The hard job of cleaning was made enjoyable by the small detours made along the way. Ina owned an antique record player, something many of the female residents had never seen. It was too old to ever be played but the female residents kept insisting they wanted to hear it play. Ina also made French fries for all the girls and provided them each with ketchup out of a large tub. Ina said she didn't want the ketchup to go to waste so she gave each girl with a large bowl full. Suffice it to say, the females ran out of fries long before they could run out of ketchup.

The male residents went up to the Kidder Post Office to rake leaves. This service was much appreciated by the local post master who might not have been able to get it done by himself.

At Ceremony this Friday, one of the prize options was a chance to watch the super bowl on Sunday. The cadets were really excited about this prize and put forth their best effort to win. Ironically, the group that won the march did a football play in the beginning of their march.

Another work area meriting serious attention this last week was the old chapel at TLC. The cadets began deep cleaning the chapel so that the restoration project could begin sometime this summer.

Service Projects & New Exercise Room

This past week many of the cadets spent their service time in Gallatin helping construction workers repair a building. The workers were replacing the roof, which created a lot of debris. The students were able to do a little duct work and a lot of cleaning and organizing.

We are very excited about the large number of students moving from boot-camp to residency. The current male residents have had the opportunity to assemble the beds for the new residents. Sleeping on soft mattresses is a privilege residents receive when they move up from boot camp.

On Thursday, TLC received some new weight machines and other fitness equipment for the cadets. Some of the male residents helped unload the truck and then hauled the equipment up a large staircase into the new exercise room to assemble it. Each piece of equipment was set up by one or two male residents who really took some well-earned pride in their finished work. They made sure that the exercise machines were set up correctly so they would be safe for all the students to use.

A couple of students spent about an hour assembling one of the exercise bikes and just as they were putting the last piece together, they discovered the electronic monitor was broken! These cadets were very disappointed to realize that their hard work would not pay off in the form of a working piece of equipment.

The ceremony this Friday was a big deal to many of the cadets. Most of the students look forward to ceremony and like to put some time into getting the gym ready. Some of the students might grumble under their breaths as they carefully scrub the sand out of the tiles with brushes and then polish the floor, but most of the cadets know it is a necessary job and want the floor to look great for ceremony.

Some of the talents being shared this week at ceremony include two female boot campers doing a square dance and a male resident doing "The Panda Dance", from the movie The Pacifier. Ceremony went extremely well this week and all of the students put out some great cheers and marches.

Freezing rain followed by snow on Friday made the usual job of snow shoveling a huge ordeal. First the snow had to be shoveled and then the ice lurking underneath had to be scraped off. However, this interesting weather gave some of the cadets a service opportunity when they helped some of the residents of Kidder shovel their driveways.

Holiday News

The weather this past week has rapidly fluctuated between freezing temperatures and balmy, almost summery days.

At a ceremony this Friday many students took part in singing and playing Christmas Carols. Also many of the residents moved up to senior residency at the ceremony.

With the Christmas season here, there was a lot of preparation that went into getting Thayer Learning Center ready to make that day very special for the students. A lot of hours were put in by the TLC staff in getting everything ready for Christmas.

Some of the things included wrapping close to one hundred gifts for the white elephant gift exchange in which each student took part. We would like to thank the parents of the students here at TLC who sent a gift to be wrapped and put in the gift exchange. It was much appreciated and very needed. THANK YOU!!!

The students helped an elderly woman in the community to clean her home. She had learned of Thayer Learning Center from a friend who had also received some much needed service from the cadets and approached a member of the staff to ask for help herself. This sweet lady was in her seventies and works full-time, so she needed a little help keeping up with the housework. The students said the home really wasn't dirty, it mostly needed dusting and organizing. Because much of the Kidder community is involved with farming, the odor of fertilizer hung in the air outside the home after the cadets were finished cleaning. One of the females turned to the others and asked, "What's that smell?" Another female cadet replied simply, "It's the country".

Holiday Preparations

The cold weather this winter is keeping the students very busy. When the cadets aren't outside doing yard work and shoveling snow for some of the neighbors, they are inside making winter accessories like blankets, scarves, and stocking caps. Crocheting is a new experience for many of the students. The female residents wholeheartedly enjoy being able to choose the colors they will crochet into beautiful winter scarves and hats that they will soon be able to wear. The male residents are a little stiffer in their crocheting; they appreciate the chance to learn new things, but they have broken many of their crochet hooks in the process.

With the Christmas season fast approaching, a lot of preparation has gone into getting Thayer Learning Center ready for the holidays. The male students are dispersing an entire horse trailer load of Christmas trees throughout the school. Each group is given the responsibility of decorating and maintaining some of the trees. Our requisition office is also staying busing while preparing for the holiday season. They check in all of the Christmas gifts and packages which are arriving for the students.

The male and female Junior Staff members have spent numerous hours hanging Christmas lights on the outside of the buildings, along the fences, and on the playground equipment. The school is probably the most festive, brightly-lit building in the small town of Kidder, MO. Many residents of our small town love to drive by Thayer Learning Center to admire the Christmas decorations.

Gravel Pathways

The students have been preparing for the change in season by constructing pathways between the school's buildings. The students hauled over five tons of gravel and then created the pathways by neatly spreading it out. The result is not only functional, but has added to the aesthetic quality of the grounds.

The students' hard work was finished just in time. On Wednesday and Thursday, a large storm covered the ground in about half a foot of snow. The residents who shoveled the school sidewalks and driveways were excited about being in so much snow; many of them having never seen it before. Playing and working in the snow was a fun and educational experience. The students were very interested and asked questions such as "How do icicles form?" and "Will it get any colder than this?"

Leaf Raking

For the past few weeks the male and female residents have raked literally tons of leaves from some neighboring homes and the Kidder Park. Every time the students march to their destination they sing one of their cadences. Many of our neighbors really enjoy seeing them march down the road while singing a catchy little song; some will even sit on their porch and wave while they pass by. Some of our students have never raked leaves before; either because they wouldn't, or because they didn't have the opportunity. The very first day we went to the park the female residents kept pleading to jump into their pile of leaves. As soon as they got permission they made a huge pile from the softest leaves in the park. These pictures are just a few examples of the fun they had that day. The male residents had a similar experience a few days later. They were more concerned about the quantity of the leaves, rather than the quality, so they dove into an even bigger pile. It's amazing how much work they can do in just a couple of hours. It's not a rare occasion to fill twenty 33 gallon bags in a two hour period. Even though Kidder is a very small town we have a lot of kind neighbors that we care about, so this will be an ongoing project for at least another month...unless it snows.

Eagle Scout Project: Wooderson Cemetery

Early this Spring of 2005 one of the cadets had a desire to complete his Eagle Scout Award through Boy Scouts of America. All he was lacking was the Eagle Scout project, so he started searching for something that would benefit the community. He came across an old, rundown cemetery by the name of Wooderson. This cemetery had numerous headstones that had fallen over. Some were completely covered in lichen and a pillar at the front entryway had been completely destroyed. This cemetery was definitely a worthy project for an Eagle Scout.

Immediately, he began making calls around the area to get permission to take on the cemetery project as his own. He received approval from Jim Cochenour, who had maintained it for about fifteen years in the past. Once the approval was given, he started writing a proposal which then had to be approved through the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout committee agreed that this project would be worthwhile and gave him the permission to start the project. He knew this was going to be a big project and was able to get volunteers from both T.L.C. and also the local troop. He made calls to local stores for donations to help fund the project and was able to get two loads of crushed gravel for the front entry way, a few bags of mortar to fix the broken pillar, and some adhesive to fix the headstones that were fallen over.

Next, he started arranging trips to the cemetery with some of the other cadets at T.L.C. During the first trip to the cemetery they had to pick up all the broken limbs covering the ground and mow down the tall grass. Then, they focused on scrubbing the headstones to get them clean. The cadets were amazed at how much better it looked after only completing a little work in the area. Other trips to the cemetery consisted of fixing the broken pillar, re-setting the fallen headstones, debris removal and creating a rock border to hold the gravel in place for the drive way. It was hard work and the cadets put a lot of effort into fixing up the cemetery. In total, over 200 man hours were put into rehabilitating the cemetery. The people in the surrounding area keep commenting on how beautiful the cemetery looks! Now that the initial restoration has been done our next project will be to keep maintaining the cemetery and to research those who rest at Wooderson.