Union, Nebraska

UNION NEWS
August 23, 2004

FUNDRAISER:
On Saturday, August 16, 2004, the Union Rescue Squad held a fundraiser in which the Rescue Captain, Gaille Brown, would stand on top of the fire truck until $1200.00 was raised. And if they raised $3000.00, she would shave her head. Well, they didn’t raise the $3000.00, but Gaille did get a buzz cut since they exceeded the $1000.00 mark! This is just an example of her dedication to the mission of the rescue squad. Many thanks to her commitment & guts!

COMMUNITY PICNIC:
Don’t forget the annual community picnic & auction is this coming Saturday Aug 28th. The schedule of events is as follows:

Children’s games 3:00 to 5:00 for children ages 12 & under. Each child will receive 5 free game tickets when they arrive & more tickets are available for 25 cents each.

Horseshoe tournament 3:00 to 6:00

Picnic 6:00 to 7:00. Bring a covered dish. The meat & drinks are provided by the park committee.

Raffle & auction @7:00. This year the raffle prizes are Fire & Ice Thermos portable grill; Family sized dome tent & a pair of canvas chairs.

Also, come & dunk the Mayor & other board members @ the dunking booth.
Hope to see you all there!

PAWS:
Meri Meredith is a teacher at Conestoga & a resident of Union. She told me about a play some of her students are putting on about bullying and after talking to her & one of the students about this subject, she supplied the following brief:

Positive Attitudes Will Succeed
Conestoga High School

PAWS is a program that was developed by two Conestoga high school (Murray, NE) teachers; Meri Meredith & Robin Frost. During the past few years, there has been increasing concern about bullying, so during the 2003-2004 school year, Ms. Meredith and Mrs. Frost started investigating the problem at Conestoga. They spent a year gathering data and attending bullying workshops to learn as much as they could about Conestoga and bullying in general.

At the end of the last school year, Ms. Meredith and Mrs. Frost approached their administration with a plan to address the bullying problems at Conestoga. The plan which Meredith and Frost call PAWS involves three basic elements:

1. In-service teachers on bullying and tactics for dealing with bully situations.
2. Develop advisory groups that focus on teaching students strategies for dealing with bullies.
3. Create a student organization to promote a positive attitude in the school.

Conestoga is now ready to launch the PAWS program. On Thursday, August 19th, they kicked off their first day of teacher in-service with a presentation by the newly created “Peacekeepers”, a group of students who are dedicated to improving the climate at Conestoga. The presentation was seen by the Conestoga staff and by crisis team leaders from other area schools and members of the Cass County Sheriff’s department, and they received a standing ovation for their work.

These students spent part of the summer learning about bullying and working with Ms. Meredith and Mrs. Frost to write a 15-minute play about the effects of bullying. It is based on true stories that have appeared in local and national news over the past 5 years and also contains information from the book “The Bully, The Bullied, and the Bystander”, by Barbara Colorosa (2003).

This play was a part of the opening convocation at Conestoga on Monday, August 23rd, 2004. Following the presentation of the play, the students attended their first PAWS advisory group meeting to talk about how the play affected them. The students will meet with their advisors every week, to complete lessons that Ms. Meredith and Mrs. Frost have prepared. These lessons are all designed to help students learn strategies to combat bullying.

The Play:
The play the students have written is composed of a series of scenes about real people who were bullied. Some of the stories end tragically, but the final message is that violence is never a solution for bullying. Bullying will never go away completely, but if students learn how to handle bullying in a constructive way they can protect themselves and others.

We should take the time to thank all of the people involved in this project. It may be sensitive to some, but very appropriate in these times.

EMT Dee Brazzle & Rescue Capt Gaille Brown stand on top of a fire truck trying to get drivers’ attention during a fundraiser held Aug 14th.