Bethany students volunteer for a day of hard work
May 8, 2010 by Sarah
Nearly 30 students from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., spent Saturday cutting brush, pulling weeds and scrubbing walls at projects throughout Concordia.
The students are all enrolled in Fidel Iglesias’ criminal justice classes at the small Lutheran college, and the project was organized by Sister Bev Carlin of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.
The biggest team took on work on the Nature Trail at Joler Park in southwest Concordia. Along with Sisters Julie Christiensen, Anna Marie Broxterman and Bev Carlin, they pulled weeds, cleared dead vegetation and cut brush to make the trails easier to walk.
Another team, with guidance from Sisters Loretta Jasper and Jean Rosemarynoski, cleaned walls, floors and bathrooms at Club 81, the organizations for teens in downtown Concordia. All the students and sisters gathered there for lunch — a time that allowed the students to “negotiate” with Iglesias to better their grades through their participation.
Still another team tackled weeds in the asparagus patch at the Nazareth Motherhouse.
Afternoon projects included work at the Concordia Community Garden of Hope, spreading mulch to create pathways there, plus lots more weeding. The students also had a chance to tour the Motherhouse.
May 7, 2010: Protecting resources now protects a precious future, by Megan Thoman
May 7, 2010 by Sarah
What is the greatest problem future generations will face? This is one of the many questions young people now ask.
One answer to this is not having enough resources to continue living as people currently do. Water, fossil fuels, trees, metals and minerals are all resources that humans take from the earth and use in our everyday lives, and the constant advancement of society continues to deplete these limited supplies.
Water covers around 70 percent of the earth’s surface, but only about 2 percent of it is drinkable. Out of that 2 percent, much is trapped in glaciers or ice caps and is impossible to reach. So we end up with less than 1% of the water on Earth safe and available to drink and even that amount is slowly decreasing.
Progressive industrialization and rapidly advancing science have led to a dramatic increase in water pollution, which not only affects the water we drink but also water for the plants and animals we ultimately use as food. Being mindful of how much water is used and how it used is an important habit to gain.
Fossil fuels, metals and other products that are retrieved from below the ground are decreasing at a threatening rate. The use of fossil fuels and metals has continued to increase, and their limited reserves have only decreased.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy resources and once they are gone, they cannot be replaced within one’s lifetime. Metals can be recycled, but will deteriorate when exposed to the atmosphere, and each time they are recycled a little bit of their original mass is decreased. Looking at how these resources are used and being sensible about how they are used will be beneficial in the long run.
Depleting non-renewable resources is one thing, but it really says something when even renewable resources are beginning to run low. The rain forest that provides for a majority of the world’s wood supply is disappearing at a rate of one and a half acres per second; the trees are being cut down at a rate faster than they can be replaced. It’s not about becoming a tree hugger, but being careful of how fast the earth’s resources disappear is good idea so that future people have a chance to live rich lives.
It is important to remember that while Earth has been good to humans so far, if we take too much from the Earth, it will eventually stop offering us its precious resources. Remember Mother Earth is literally the ground beneath our feet, so be good to it, and it will be good back.
— Megan Thoman, the daughter of Lowell and Mary Thoman, is a senior at Concordia High School and a member of the Hollis Hustlers 4-H club.
Sisters get a first look at Neighbor to Neighbor center
May 5, 2010 by Sarah
The phone wasn’t connected yet, and workers were still moving building supplies around upstairs — but the cookies and punch were out and the doors open Tuesday afternoon at the new Neighbor to Neighbor center in downtown Concordia.
The three Sisters of St. Joseph behind the new center for women — Sisters Jean Befort, Pat McLennon and Ramona Medina — invited the rest of the congregation in for a first look before Neighbor to Neighbor opens to the public this morning (Wednesday) at 9.
The center at 103 E. Sixth St. will provide a wide array of services to women and women with young children from throughout Cloud County. Yet its most important function, the three sisters say, may be as a place for women to come together and meet other women who are facing or have faced the same kinds of life challenges. The three see Neighbor to Neighbor as a place for women to build informal networks and then learn from those.
This week Sisters Jean, Pat and Ramona hope to welcome women to the center, show them around and then talk with them about how Neighbor to Neighbor can help them. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and 1 to 8 p.m. Thursday.
A formal open house and blessing of the center is planned in a couple of weeks.
