ILI Weekly Updates - Mar/Apr '06
ILI Home

From ILI Project Coordinator Bob Kovar

 

March 31, 2006
March 17, 2006
March 10, 2006
March 3, 2006

April 7, 2006
April 14, 2006
April 21, 2006
April 28, 2006

 


 

Friday March 31, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI:

  • PLEASE NOTE: ILI 7th grade sessions next week (April 3 & 4) will be held at LUHS School due to the melting snow and mud in the school forest.

  • On Thursday we held our final 4th grade session. On Wednesday we held sessions at LUHS.

  • The ILI staff meeting this Wednesday focused on the upcoming sessions as well as the ILI Summer Institute plans- we have decided to postpone the Institute until the following summer-it became apparent that in order to this the way we want, that there are too many details to get done before June. Also, despite all of our efforts, we have been getting quite a rash of denials for funding of late that is making us careful to consider our cash flow for next year. We also have a tremendous amount on our plate with our sessions, transition day and fundraising. So, we will continue our planning process, just at a pace that will enable us to put together a terrific program for next summer!

  • ILI staff continues helping with the LdF 5th grade on Friday mornings. We are hearing some positive feedback from teachers and students and glad that we can help!

  • We were denied our request for funding from the Milagro Foundation in California. This is the foundation that Carlos Santana and his wife Deborah founded. They have supported ILI the past three years which was quite an honor. Unfortunately, they have decided to reorganize their giving and no longer plan on taking unsolicited grant requests. They will be focusing their resources on the possible development of a college prep school for underserved children in their community. We wish them the best of luck and thank them for their past generosity to ILI!

  • ILI In the Media: ILI has been mentioned in a number of positive ways in local media the past few weeks, particularly a kind comment from Terry Hoyt in his candidate interview for LdF school board.

  • ILI sessions next week:

    • Monday April 3: LdF/MHLT/AVW 7th grade. LUHS School. 9am-2pm.

    • Tuesday April 4: LdF/NLES 7th grade. LUHS School. 9am-2pm.

    • Wednesday April 5: LUHS ILI Junior/Senior. LUHS School 9:40-10:10.

    • Wednesday April 5: LUHS ILI After School Program. LUHS School. 3:45-6:00.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • We held a Transition meeting on Thursday at LUHS this week. We discussed Transition Day and about the plans for the day, logistics, permission forms, letters to parents, busing and food etc. LUHS is paying for food and ILI is going to pay for busing that day. Schools who order buses for their students can send original invoices to ILI for reimbursement. A small grant from Wisconsin Public Service will help defray our costs. ILI will help train students facilitators as well as help set up the structure of the day. We also offered to help train teachers in advance who may be interested in facilitating certain elements in the forest on that day.

  • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers:

    • Monday April 3: LdF/MHLT/AVW 7th grade. LUHS School. 9am-2pm: Cindy Brodhead

    • Tuesday April 4: LdF/NLES 7th grade. LUHS School. 9am-2pm. Joe and Bev Strauss.

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials.

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $345,229 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday March 17, 2006

Happy St. Patricks Day! This will be the last ILI Weekly Update for 2 weeks due to spring break next week. We hope you all have a great break! Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI:

  • Our Monday ILI session for LdF/NLES 4th graders was cancelled due to the AWESOME snowstorm. This session has been rescheduled at Camp Jorn on Thursday March 30 from 9am-2pm.

  • Due to the snowstorm, we had to reschedule our meeting in Mole Lake with their education committee to March 28.

  • The 5th grade sessions have been rescheduled from April 17 & 18 to the following week April 24 & 25. These sessions will also be held at Camp Jorn-9am-2pm. Thanks for helping us reschedule-we’re sorry for any inconvenience.

  • On Tuesday and Thursday we held 4th grade sessions. On Wednesday we held sessions at LUHS.

  • The ILI staff meeting this Wednesday focused on the ILI Summer Institute plans- it’s a lot of work and we’re trying to put a syllabus together for early April release on our website-still many details to follow up on.

  • ILI staff continues helping with the LdF 5th grade on Friday mornings. We will be evaluating our efforts at the end of the school year and are in the process of developing that process.

  • We’re completed our work with Azael Meza on a proposal for some local organizations to help support a series of motivational speakers we’d like to bring to the area over the next few months.

  • We were denied our request for funding to both the Winchester Lions Club and the Manitowish Waters Lioness Club. They have both supported us in the past and have encouraged to keep trying-they both have their funds committed to other very worthy projects in their communities this year.

  • We continued work on the Milagro Foundation and Otto Bremer Foundation grant applications this week.

  • ILI In the Media: Nothing to report this week.

  • ILI sessions in two weeks:

    • Thursday March 30: LdF/NLES 4th grade. Camp Jorn 9am-2pm.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • The next LUHS Transition Committee meeting for Thursday, March 30th at 4:00 in the LUHS SpEd. Conference Room.

    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers:

    • THANK YOU John and Gretchen Spickerman and Joe and Bev Strauss for your wonderful help cooking for our sessions. You all do THE most important part of our sessions: feed all those hungry, smiling faces!!

  • March 30 at Camp Jorn: John and Gretchen Spickerman

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials!

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $345,079 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org. The calendar can be viewed at http://www.ilileadership.org/calendars/main_calendar.html

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday March 10, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI:

  • The ILI Overnight was a great success last weekend-what a beautiful day at Winter Park!

  • Our Wednesday LUHS ILI sessions during the day and after school were cancelled due to schools being closed because of the weather.

  • ILI staff has been working hard preparing for the upcoming 4th grade sessions at Camp Jorn next week. We also continue with our Summer Institute plans that are moving forward.

  • We have redone our ILI Calendar for the remainder of the year with changes in scheduling due to changes in the SEL program at LUHS which no longer occurs during homeroom activity period (see link to calendar below).

  • ILI staff will once again be helping with the LdF 5th grade this morning. We have spent the last few weeks observing students and helping counselor John Lohoff on Friday mornings and now are beginning to do some session work with small groups of students. We appreciate this opportunity to work with these students as well as provide the role of extra support for LdF staff. We think its going very well.

  • We held our final 8th grade sessions this past week at Camp Jorn. We also met at LUHS on Wednesday with LUHS ILI students on Wednesday during and after school.

  • We’re continuing our work with Azael Meza to bring some motivational speakers to the area over the next few months. This week we’re working on a proposal that we hope to share with some supporters later next week.

  • We were denied our application to the RGK Foundation that we worked on ealier this winter.

  • We continued work on the Milagro Foundation and Otto Bremer Foundation grant applications this week.

  • We received a check for $10000 this week from Community Mental Health Foundation-we talked about this last week and we are incredibly thankful for their continued support at such a high level-thank you!

  • We received a check this week for $1000 from the NLES PTC group. They have supported us in the past and we’re very excited that they continue to do so! Thank you!

  • ILI In the Media: There was a picture in last Friday's Lakeland Times of WPS donating to ILI.

  • ILI sessions this coming week:

    • Monday March 13: LdF/NLES 4th grade at Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm

    • Tuesday March 14: LdF/MHLT 4th grade at Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm.

    • Wednesday March 8: LUHS ILI Freshman/Sophomore at LUHS multi-purpose room. 9:40-10:10 and again After School (open to all LUHS ILI students) 4:00pm-6:00pm.

    • Thursday March 16: LdF/AVW 4th grade at Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • The next LUHS Transition Committee meeting for Thursday, March 30th at 4:00 in the LUHS SpEd. Conference Room.

    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers:

    • March 13 at Camp Jorn: John and Gretchen Spickerman

    • March 14 at Camp Jorn: John and Gretchen Spickerman

    • March 16 at Camp Jorn: Jeanne Olp, Joe and Bev Strauss

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials!

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $345,079 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

The calendar can be viewed at http://www.ilileadership.org/calendars/main_calendar.html.

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday March 3, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI:

  • The ILI Overnight: our second annual Service Learning/Overnight Retreat experience is set for this weekend. Students will be spending most of the day on Saturday volunteering at Minocqua Winter Park for the Lakeland Loppet Ski Races. Saturday night will be spent in the lodge in the LUHS school forest. Sunday morning we’ll go to Ella’s for breakfast and then to the Waters for a few hours of FUN in the waterpark. Any questions please call Craig Kerr at 358-8455.

  • We held our final 8th grade sessions this past week at Camp Jorn. We also met at LUHS on Wednesday with LUHS ILI students on Wednesday during and after school-you’ve already received all of these summaries.

  • ILI staff met Wednesday morning to work on setting up lesson plans for all of our sessions. Staff will now be preparing these plans for all of our activities beforehand. Work is continuing on the Summer Institute.

  • We have made arrangements to meet with the folks from the Sokaogon Chippewa Community in Mole Lake later in the afternoon on March 14.

  • On Thursday we met again with Azael Meza to discuss making a proposal to local supporters for two motivational speakers we’d like to bring to the area this spring and summer. We talked about the possible ways to connect our programs (he is working with students in the LUHS Extended Resources program) by bringing our students together. We had a long discussion on how to help motivate students rekindle their inner spark-what does that take, how can we facilitate that and how the community needs to help. We are going to try and use our After School Wednesday ILI sessions to connect students. We then discussed May 11 (the day Azael has booked one of the speakers) and talked about some ideas to bring all of our ILI students together at one school for this presentation. We also talked about a larger community presentation that evening. We’ll keep you posted as this develops.

  • Erv Teichmiller from the Community Mental health Foundation in Rhinelander called this week to let us know that their board approved $10,000 for ILI at their meeting last Thursday evening. We are incredibly honored and thankful for this very generous donation. This foundation granted us our first dollars 8 years ago and have continued to be a major supporter of ILI ever since. Our community is very fortunate to have this very giving Foundation here-we sincerely appreciate their support!

  • We received $300 from the Boulder Junction Lions Club this week. They have supported ILI for many years and we thank them for their continued support!

  • We continued work on the Milagro Foundation and Otto Bremer Foundation grant applications this week.

  • ILI In the Media: There was an interesting article in the Tuesday Lakeland Times this week about LUHS academic achievement in which Mike Dailey mentions ILI as one of the strategies being implemented to help decrease the gap in achievement between American Indian students and their peers from other communities. This particular article is not on their onlibe site so we can’t give you the link here.

  • ILI sessions this coming week:

    • Saturday/Sunday March 4-5: ILI Overnight Retreat/Service Learning Experience.

    • Wednesday March 8: LUHS ILI Freshman/Sophomore at LUHS multi-purpose room. 9:40-10:10 and again After School (open to all LUHS ILI students) 4:00pm-6:00pm.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • The next LUHS Transition Committee meeting for Thursday, March 30th at 4:00 in the LUHS SpEd. Conference Room.

    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers: Thank you to John and Gretchen Spickerman and Joe and Bev Strauss for helping out with our ILI sessions this week. They cooked almost 70 pizza’s in 2 days!!

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials!

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $334,079 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

FOR MORE INFORMATION!! Please check the ILI website at www.ilileadership.org. The calendar can be viewed at http://www.ilileadership.org/calendars/main_calendar.html.

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday April 7, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI:

  • Save the date!! May 11, 2006 will be the 6th Annual ILI Cultural Fair. 5pm-8pm Motivational speaker, powwow and feast in Lac du Flambeau! Details soon!

  • Here’s an email from the mom of ILI student Anne Johnson (now in college) that we’d like to share with you: “I thought you might be interested in how the seeds that your group planted are growing. Anne applied for a job as a student mentor for incoming first year international students. She was ecstatic that she got the job. She will be responsible for mentoring 10 students next fall. Thank you for all that you do to sow the seeds of peace and tolerance.” Thanks for the nice email Barb! Congratulations Anne-all of us in ILI are very proud of you. We know that Anne will be a great mentor!

  • On Monday and Tuesday we held our final 7th grade sessions. On Wednesday we held sessions at LUHS.

  • On Tuesday Bob and Ernie went to Mole Lake and met with the Mole Lake Sakaogon Chippewa CommunityTribal Education Committee to discuss ILI. We had a wonderful meeting there that was well received. We talked at length about what we are doing here with ILI and then we talked about ways we can connect our program with youth in their community. We invited them to bring students to our upcoming sessions as a possibility and it sounds like they may bring a few 6th grade students next week to join in our activities! We’re excited to have them come. In addition we also talked at length this week with a member of the Forest County Potawatomi Education Committee and we may also see some folks and students from there coming as well. There are many possibilities to consider as we connect ILI with other communities-and we are really excited about them all!

  • The ILI staff meeting this Wednesday focused on the upcoming 6th grade sessions. We are going to try and hold these sessions in the LUHS School Forest. We will call the schools (and volunteers) early Monday morning to confirm location once we see what the weather is going to be like. Please have students come ready to be outdoors! If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we will be at Camp Jorn. We also discussed Transition Day and what our role is going to be. We then met with Kim Wasserburger and Kim Olson from LUHS to discuss details of the day, structure and a tentative schedule.

  • Bob and Azael Meza of the LdF Youth Entrepreneurship and Leadership Program (YELP) met on Thursday with Laura Stoffel from the Lake of the Torches Resort and Casino to propose an event that will be hosted jointly by ILI and YELP. On May 11, YELP has arranged for internationally acclaimed motivational storyteller, author and success coach, D.J. Eagle Bear Vanas, to come and speak to students and their families. Mr. Vanas will be coming to LdF school for an hour performance during the school day and then ILI will be working with YELP to host Mr. Vanas for another performance in the evening at the Lake of the Torches Convention Center which will include a powwow and feast. This event will be our ILI Cultural Fair for this year and we will be inviting all of our ILI students and their families to be a part of this fun evening. As we make arrangements and gather the details we’ll keep you all informed- it should be a great event!

  • ILI staff continues helping with the LdF 5th grade on Friday mornings. Our staff is building some great relationships with many of these children, and we continue to feel that this is a very positive experience for all involved.

  • We received support this week from some new supporters of ILI. We received $100 from Citizens Bank and $50 from the Harmony Lions Club (Rhinelander). A big THANKS to these new sponsors of our program-we are really appreciative of your generosity!

  • We received $100 this week from “Friends of ILI”. Some folks are donating to ILI to honor people’s birthdays, becoming grandparents and other big events in people’s lives. What a nice way to gift! Thanks so much J

  • The Wisconsin Community Fund (out of Madison), one of our supporters over the past few years, is coming up to our April 25 ILI 5th grade session at Camp Jorn to film our program. They are making a film of programs they are supporting-that should be fun, especially for the kids!

  • ILI In the Media: Nothing to report this week.

  • ILI sessions next week:

    • Monday April 10: LdF/MHLT/AVW 6th grade. LUHS School Forest. 9am-2pm.

    • Tuesday April 11: LdF/NLES 6th grade. LUHS School Forest. 9am-2pm.

    • Wednesday April 12: LUHS ILI Freshman/Sophomore. LUHS School 9:40-10:10.

    • Wednesday April 12: LUHS ILI After School Program. LUHS School. 3:45-6:00.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers: We will call you Monday morning to confirm location!

    • Monday April 10: LdF/MHLT/AVW 6th grade. LUHS School Forest. 9am-2pm: Joe Strauss, John and Gretchen Spickerman

    • Tuesday April 11: LdF/NLES 6th grade. LUHS School Forest. 9am-2pm. Still looking for volunteers!

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials!

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $345,329 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

 

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday April 14, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI- Happy Easter weekend everyone!!

  • On Monday and Tuesday we held our final 6th grade sessions for this year. On Monday we had a small group of 6th grade students from the Sakaogon Chippewa Community in Mole Lake join us with their Education Committee-it was wonderful! ILI has hopes for expanding to other Tribes and maybe this is how is gets started.

  • On Wednesday we met with LUHS ILI freshman/sophomore group and then again after school with a group for two hours. ILI staff also began final planning for the 5th grade sessions coming up April 24 & 25 at Camp Jorn.

  • There was an excellent meeting, The LdF Education Summit, on Wednesday here at GLITC that Chris Rencontre from the LdF Education Committee organized for the LdF Tribal Council. She brought together the whole range of educational service providers from Head Start through College to share with the Tribal Council their efforts. This was a landmark day as never before has this been done. The beauty of it was that the Tribal Council had the opportunity to hear all of the amazing things going on in the schools and community, and it provided a forum for building trust through discussion and constructive criticism and an honest appraisal of the state of education for LdF students. LdF and LUHS school officials gave presentations as well as Nicolet Technical and Lac Courts Oreilles Community Colleges. Quite often, the Tribal Council hears from folks in the community when things are not going well and this was an opportunity for them to hear about all of the positive things. There were many! The meeting ran all day long until 5:30-and we could have used another day! ILI was mentioned quite often and our association with many of the strategies being employed throughout a students’ life were highlighted (ILI sessions, transition, PAC etc.). Meetings like this are a positive step to providing the forum for a continuing dialogue in a supportive atmosphere-something that we believe is critical to moving our community forward. We were glad to be there-thanks Chris for pulling it all together.

  • ILI staff continues helping with the LdF 5th grade on Friday mornings. Our staff is building some great relationships with many of these children, and we continue to feel that this is a very positive experience for all involved.

  • We sent in a letter of intent to apply for a grant through Indian Health Services. This grant is due May 25 and is one of the first federal grant offerings we’ve seen in a long time that seems to be a good match for ILI!

  • The Wisconsin Community Fund sent us our last installment from our grant in their 30th cycle-$625. Thanks to them for their support!

  • The Lac du Flambeau Lions Club sent us $500 this week-thank you! They have been strong supporters of ILI since nearly the very beginning. We will be giving a talk at the Lions Convention being hosted by them here on Saturday April 22.

  • ILI In the Media: Nothing to report this week.

  • Next ILI sessions:

    • Monday April 24: LdF/MHLT/AVW 5th grade. Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm.
    • Tuesday April 25: LdF/NLES 5th grade. Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm.
    • Wednesday April 26: LUHS ILI Junior Senior. LUHS School 9:40-10:10.
    • Wednesday April 26: LUHS ILI After School Program. LUHS School. 3:45-6:00.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • ILI staff met Wednesday with LUHS staff to sketch out the activity plan and schedule for Transition day.
    • One of the points that came out of the Education Summit this week was the importance of supporting Transition activities in our community.
    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers:

    • Monday April 24: LdF/MHLT/AVW 5th grade. Camp Jorn 9am-2pm: Cindy Brodhead, Joe Strauss,
    • Tuesday April 25: LdF/NLES 5th grade. Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm. John and Gretchen Spickerman

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $346,454 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday April 21, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI- Happy Earth Day everyone!!

  • On Tuesday ILI staff attended the Link N learn meeting hosted by the Vilas County Youth Coalition and the Positive Alternatives Coalition. There were 45 people there including 13 youth. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss issues regarding “Engaging Youth in Vilas County in their Communities”. We helped facilitate the discussion-it was a great day! Lots of great ideas and insight from youth-we’ll give you a summary of the day-long meeting when it is complete.

  • On Wednesday we met with LUHS ILI junior/senior group and then again after school with a group for two hours. Here’s the list these students came up with for ideas for the future of this group:

    1. More get-to-know-you games, even with high school ILI.

    2. More challenges besides games.

    3. We should switch it around during day time ILI so we can be with juniors and seniors and not just the freshman.

    4. More time for ILI.

    5. Have kids write a paragraph why they want to be in ILI before they join and let the kids already in it know it’s optional if they don’t’ wanna be there.

    6. Have self-presentations, like poems, posters, PowerPoint, etc, to know each other and how we’ve changed in the past years.

    7. Big trips.

    8. Getting together with students outside of our group and introduce them and maybe invite them into the group.

    9. Video record our sessions and activities to show communities, to get us recognized and more appreciated.

  • ILI staff completed the final planning for the 5th grade sessions coming up April 24 & 25 at Camp Jorn.

  • We met on Wednesday with the LdF Tribal Council Executive Committee and gave them a review of our efforts for this year. They are very supportive of ILI and had some great suggestions for possible efforts in the future. We will be submitting our proposal for 2006-07 school year funding needs in early May.

  • We met Wednesday with Lake of the Torches staff regarding the annual “Carry The Torch Golf Classic” which will be held this year on Monday June 5 at Timber Ridge Golf Club in Minocqua. Sunday evening June 4 from 6:30-8:30 there will be a chance to meet the pro football players who will be playing in the golf tournament and get their autographs. Each charity will also be doing a short presentation. This benefit raises funds for 4 local charities: ILI, Special Olympics, Lakeland Sharing Foundation and The LdF Youth Center. This is always a big fund raiser for ILI and we are so grateful LOTC has continued to support ILI as one of the beneficiaries of this great event. One of our biggest jobs with this event this year will be to sell $500 worth of raffle tickets for a drawing on the day of the event. There will only be 2000 tickets sold and 1st place will win $500, 2nd place $300 and 3rd place $200! So let us know if you want to buy some!!

  • Ernie and Bob went to Cable, WI yesterday to give a presentation on ILI at the annual Adolescents and Families Conference at Lakewoods Resort. We had about 20 people in our breakout session and it went really well. There always seems to be more communities that have a need for a program like ILI in their schools. We made some great connections there yesterday.

  • ILI staff once again helped with the LdF 5th grade this morning.

  • We received $5000 from LUHS this week as part of our agreement that we signed with them at the beginning of this school year. Thank you to them for their continued support!

  • We received $200 this week from Friends of ILI! We are so thankful to all of you who have contributed to help ILI through this effort!

  • ILI In the Media: Nothing to report this week.

  • Next ILI sessions:

    • Monday April 24: LdF/MHLT/AVW 5th grade. Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm.
    • Tuesday April 25: LdF/NLES 5th grade. Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm.
    • Wednesday April 26: LUHS ILI Junior Senior. LUHS School 9:40-10:10.
    • Wednesday April 26: LUHS ILI After School Program. LUHS School. 3:45-6:00

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • Planning continues to move forward.
    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006

  • ILI Volunteers:

    • Monday April 24: LdF/MHLT/AVW 5th grade. Camp Jorn 9am-2pm: Cindy Brodhead, Joe Strauss,
    • Tuesday April 25: LdF/NLES 5th grade. Camp Jorn. 9am-2pm. John and Gretchen Spickerman

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $351,654 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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Friday April 28, 2006

Here’s what’s been going on this week in ILI:

  • Last Saturday we presented ILI at the Lions Club Convention that was being held at the Lake of the Torches Convention Center in Lac du Flambeau.

  • On Monday and Tuesday we held our final elementary ILI sessions of the school year! Hard to believe the school year is coming to an end- but we still have a number of sessions, activities and important dates left (see below for details).

  • On Wednesday we met with LUHS ILI freshman/sophomore group and then again after school with a group for two hours. We continue to train these students to help co-facilitate during Transition Day.

  • We have almost completed assembling our year-end packets for all ILI students. We have put together 630 of these for all of our ILI students, their teachers and parents. These packets will go to ILI teachers in the next few days and will contain:

    1. End of the Year ILI Teacher Attitudinal Surveys
    2. End of the Year ILI Student Attitudinal Surveys
    3. Parent packet: end of the year ILI Parent Attitudinal Survey, Invitation and agenda to the 6th Annual ILI Cultural Fair on May 11, end of year ILI letter from ILI staff to parents and a self addressed, stamped return envelope for parents to mail their surveys back to us in

  • We’re asking that all of these surveys be completed by May 9 if possible. Teachers, please help your students through their surveys-they are brief and should not take longer than 15 minutes. These surveys are one of our most important annual measurement tools so we greatly appreciate you helping us get these done. Parents, your opinions are critical, so we also greatly appreciate you sending these back to us by May 9. It is a substantial expense for us to provide stamped return envelopes for your convenience so please use them to give us your feedback and help to improve our program!

  • We spoke on the phone on Wednesday with one of the guidance people at Hayward High School. There has been a significant rise in racial tensions in their school lately and they have asked if we can help them. We have also been contacted again this week by folks in Mole Lake so we are busy trying to connect other communities with our process. This is a real compliment to our community and the efforts we have all made over the past 8 years.

  • Today, ILI staff was part of the Wellness Day at LdF School. This was a great event put on by their Healthy Lifestyles Action Team and included a number of booths, activities and hands-on things to do-all having to do with healthy living. We ran ILI activities outside-it was great fun! We worked with ILI students and had them help us do familiar ILI activities that they could play with their parents-what a hoot! This was great event put on by LdF School.

  • Two of our 4th grade ILI teachers, nancy Saykally from LdF and Lori Berryman from AVW have made arrangements for a special overnight ILI session on Thursday/Friday May 11/12 at Camp Nawakwa in Lac du Flambeau. ILI staff will facilitate the overnight and we will bring the students to the Cultural Fair that evening. It is just wonderful to have some of our teachers use their enthusiasm for bringing their students together on their own initiative. They have done almost all of the planning! This shows some of the great things that can happen as a result of what two teachers and ILI being in our schools can accomplish. Thanks Nancy and Lori, and LdF and AVW schools for believing this is a valuable experience for their children!

  • The 6th Annual ILI Culture Fair is near and we’d like to extend an invitation to you all to attend. It is free and will include food, Powwow and a talk by motivational speaker DJ Eagle Bear Vanas. The date is Thursday May 11, 5:00-7:30 at the Lake of the Torches Convention Center in Lac du Flambeau. This years’ event is co-sponsored by ILI and the LdF Youth Entrepreneurship and Leadership Program (YELP).

  • ILI staff once again helped with the LdF 5th grade this morning.

  • Our grant writing has been slow of late due to the high number of sessions-but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we should be back on writing track soon!

  • We received another $100 this week from Friends of ILI! We are so thankful to all of you who have contributed to help ILI through this effort!

  • ILI In the Media: Nothing to report this week.

  • Carry The Torch Golf Classic: We still have raffle tickets for this great event that will be held on June 5. There will only be 2000 tickets sold and 1st place will win $500, 2nd place $300 and 3rd place $200! So you have a great opportunity to support ILI and possibly win some big cash at the same time! Let us know if you want to buy some tickets-they are $1 apiece.

  • Upcoming ILI sessions and events:

    • Friday April 28: 9am-11am: LdF 5th Grade guidance activities. 11am-3pm: LdF School Wellness Event. We’ll be doing ILI activities with LdF students and their families.

    • Wednesday May 3: LUHS ILI sessions (morning and after school)

    • Thursday May 4: 10am: ILI Volunteer Meeting at GLITC office. We’ll be discussing the Golf Classic and Transition Day.

    • Friday May 5: 9am-11am: LdF 5th Grade guidance activities.

    • Wednesday May 10: LUHS ILI sessions (morning and after school)

    • Thursday May 11: All day: LdF/AVW 4th Grade ILI Overnight. 5pm-7:30pm. 6th Annual Cultural Fair at the Lake of the Torches Convention Center. Join us for a feast, Powwow and special guest motivational speaker DJ Vanas.

    • Friday May 12: LdF/AVW 4th Grade ILI Overnight. Students back to their schools by early release time.

    • Wednesday May 17: LUHS 5a-5b lunch period: end of year lunch for LUHS ILI students. Lotsa pizza! UW-Madison interns arrive!

    • Friday May 19: 9am-11am: LdF 5th Grade guidance activities

    • Wednesday May 24: LUHS all area 8th grade Transition Day. All day LUHS school forest.

    • Sunday June 4: 6:30pm-8:30pm: Lake of the Torches Golf Classic Reception and Dinner. Convention Center.

    • Monday June 5: 6:30am-4:00pm: Lake of the Torches Golf Classic. Timber Ridge Country Club.

    • Thursday June 8: UW-Interns leave.

    • Wednesday June 14: 6:00pm-9:00pm: Wisconsin Youth Conference activity session. ILI staff will lead activities for group of college-bound high school students.

  • ILI/LUHS Transition:

    • Transition Day is Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

  • ILI Volunteers:

    • Meeting Thursday May 4 at 10am at GLITC. Hope to see you all there!

  • The “Friends of ILI” membership drive: If any of you would like to join “Friends of ILI” just let us know and we’ll send you the materials!

  • ILI Annual Fundraising: We have raised $351,754 of the $392,136 budget for the 2004-06 budget.

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

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