Hello everyone. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy. Flatwillow Homemakers will meet again September 8, 2020. We will determine later in the summer who would like to host the September meeting. It will be secret sister revealing and drawing for new secret sisters, opportunity table, and filling out our booklets. Linda picked up the quilt from Laura Finkbeiner. She did a beautiful job. Linda will get the quilt to Melody to do the backing. We will suggest to Melody to bring the quilt to the September meeting to let us all see the quilt and get a picture to put in the scrap book. Then we will take it to the courthouse to be hung up. Linda has seen it and said it was beautiful. I can’t wait to see it. Thank you to all of us for our work in getting a new Flatwillow Homemakers quilt done. Thank you especially to Bonnie, Linda, and Melody for spearheading this project and encouraging all of us to complete our squares and arranging for the quilting to be done. We are so lucky to be a part of Homemakers with a great group of ladies. Have a great summer and I can’t wait to see everyone in September.
Winnett High School held their graduation for the class of 2020 last Sunday on the football field. It was great to see our community show up, even with social distancing, to support our graduates and wish them well as they leave high school behind and move forward. It was a little breezy, but the weather wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t cold. There was a seating area in front of the “stage”, which was a gooseneck trailer parked for the seniors to sit up on. Then all those who didn’t sit in the seating area, we parked our cars all around the football field. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house. We tuned to an FM channel on our car radios and listened to the graduation as we watched. The sound system was surprisingly good so most of us could hear fine, without listening through our radios. Congratulations to Molly Nunn, Mya Olsen, Elena Nunez, Katie Zimmerman. You are an awesome class. You had to miss all those fun things like senior prom, jr./sr banquet, your senior trip that you had saved for, spring sports and all the other activities that you have worked for since kindergarten, but you handled it with grace and dignity. Covid-19 may have changed how you spent this last semester of school, but you didn’t let it defeat you. You won! I know you were disappointed but understood and didn’t whine or complain. All of you were involved in sports, band, pep band, did whatever you could to help your classmates and community. We will miss you but wish you the best as Molly, Mya, and Katie head of to Montana State Bozeman and Elena goes back to Spain. Molly plans to be a history teacher, Mya wants to be a Neonatal nurse, and Katie plans on becoming a doctor. Elena hopes to study hotel management when she returns to Spain and enrolls in college there. Four lovely ladies with lots of ambition to go anywhere and be anything they want to be. Good luck!
As our state begins to try and get back to some kind of normal, thank you to all our first responders who have been there on the front lines from the beginning and are still there. Also, thank you to all our teachers and school staff who continued to work as they tried to help their students transition from classroom learning to distance learning. The teachers worked as hard, if not harder to not let any of their kids fall behind. Mr. Gibbs has been at the school every day to answer questions, help out in any way, and be there to guide us through this uncertain and unprecedented experience. I heard a number of students saying that while they thought home schooling at first would be fun, they found they missed the social time of being with their classmates, seeing their friends at school, seeing their teachers. I think academics and the social interaction at school go hand in hand. Next school year is a new year. They’ll all be ready to get back with their friends and teachers.
Congratulations to both Babs Lea and Mary Meserve on their well deserved retirement. Both have both worked at the school for over 30 years. Babs has been the school cook, and Mary drove a bus route, as well as the activity bus for all those years. It won’t look the same to not see Babs in the kitchen, or Mary driving a bus. Thank you for your years of service, dedication, and love for the students of Winnett. We will miss you but are so happy for you as you now can take time to do what you have always wanted to do, and never had the time to do it. You will probably both be so busy; you won’t know how you had time to go to work every day.
We are sad to see our music teacher move on. Kimberly Baker is headed to Broadview. She has done a tremendous job for our K-12 music program here in Winnett. We had the best pep band around, the best band, and a super choir. Plus, she worked with the elementary kids and put on wonderful fall, Christmas, and spring programs. Good luck to you. Broadview is lucky to have you.
We are sad to say goodbye to the best superintendent ever. Mr. Josh Gibbs has been here two years and has done tremendous things for and with our school, and also been involved in the community. He and his wife Lindsea have a 2 year old son Beau, and just had a baby girl Reagan Marie two weeks ago. We are going to miss this wonderful little family as they move to Seeley Lake. Josh will be the principal of the 5/6th grade building and they are able to move closer to family. We wish them the best as they move on, but we will miss them!
We are glad we get to say welcome to our new superintendent Lindsay Wilkerson. She is from Miles City, but her grandmother taught in Winnett many years ago and is still living in this area. She is familiar with Winnett, small schools and small community and is looking forward to coming back to eastern Montana. She has taught in several cities and towns in Montana and has traveled in Europe and is currently teaching in Europe. She is looking forward to coming back to the United States and heading to Winnett. She should be in Winnett around July 5 or so to begin work in person. In the meantime, she is doing what she can over Zoom and e mail to get caught up on what is going on. Welcome Lindsay!
As we celebrate this Memorial weekend and Memorial Day, please remember all those who gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today and will continue to enjoy, thanks to their sacrifices. We have great men and women who choose to enter the military and serve our country, sometimes when it seems like a thankless job. As I heard at one time, “all gave some, and some gave all”. We want to say thank you to all.
We are receiving beautiful moisture, everything is green and bright, calving, lambing, planting, farming, is continuing on. Let’s hope that as spring turns into summer, this coronavirus fades away, everyone can get back to work and we can move forward. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, keep positive and we’ll be back stronger than ever. Happy Spring everyone
Vacation Bible School will be at the First Baptist Church of Winnett June 8-12, 2020, from 9:00am to 2:30pm. It is for age 5 to 6th grade. It is called Camp Kilimanjaro, an epic expedition through Proverbs. There will be inspirational Bible teaching, fun games, skits, missionary story, crafts, and Sunday School Charlie will be there. You will need to bring a water bottle, sack lunch, Bible, jacket, a friend and offering money (if desired). Counselors from Camp Lewtana will be putting on Bible School. We look forward to seeing you. Everyone is welcome.
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