VOTING -
Each clubber will receive one ballot and should vote for a person to hold one office. In other words, do not vote for the same person to hold more than one office. Of course it is acceptable for you to vote for yourself in the position you’d most like to accept.

Here is a brief description of the offices and their responsibilities.

President- regularly runs meetings.
Start meeting on time & run according to schedule.

Vice-president- assists president, lead pledges. Recruit demonstrations.

Secretary- takes attendance, announces calendar events, notes “meeting summary”. Gets familiar with paperwork filing of the club papers (Ellen will oversee that part).

Treasurer- keeps monetary record, reminds people of money related items. Adult help will be provided.

Sergeant of Arms- facilities: set up & clean up. Chairs, tables, flags, posters, handouts, etc.

Hospitality- welcome guests and coordinate any refreshments. Make sure we have hand sanitizer, napkins, plates, cups, etc. Recruit volunteers and give reminders.

Historian- create/keep scrapbook; use a three ringed binder to keep a record of our year. Be creative with photos, fliers, notes (secretary can help). It is important to be neat and as complete as possible, as this record will stay with the club for future reference to history.
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As an officer it is important to come to club early if possible so that you are ready to fulfill your duties. You will be a representative of what it is to be responsible young 4-H leader. So be a good example not only to our club, but to others you meet. My goal is to be at club at 6 p.m. so you can arrive anytime after that. That is also a good time to come to club early if any clubber has need for additional information (like missed previous week).

Don’t worry about uncertainties of your office. As a club leader I will make sure you are equipped and help you in any way possible. You will get the hang of it, develop skills as you serve in your office and be good at it.

As officer you are chiefly responsible for your duties, however — you may ask for help from others. One of the greatest characteristics about our club is the willingness of fellow clubbers and even adults to offer help. Just ask for help when you need it, or offer it when you have it to give.

I am very excited about our 2010 Warren Waggers 4-H Club Year.
Now vote for who you believe to best fulfill the office.
We will announce the results at the end of club on Thursday (4-15).

THE OFFICER BALLOT

President: Shelby Trees, Erin Lego,

Vice President: Kiersten Tuggle, Melissa Miller, Allissa Arnold

Secretary: Matthew Uhrig, James Reed

Treasurer: James Reed , Mackenzie Carr , Shelby Trees

Sgt. of Arms: Erin Lego, Shelby Trees, James Reed

Hospitality: Melissa Miller, Shelby Trees, Kiersten Tuggle, Shelby Cleek, Erin Lego, James Reed

Historian: Shelby Trees, Erin Lego, Melissa Miller

If you are voting early send your ballot selections to ellenspencer22@gmail.com
BEFORE 1 P.M. of this Thursday.

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In order for your dog to attend our Warren Waggers 4-H Dog Club the following must be true:

* the clubber is (or is in the process of getting) registered as a 4-H member with Marion County. NEW MEMBERS need to leave their dog at home for at least their first meeting.

* the animal is healthy: Current on required vaccinations (you need to be able to prove it with vet papers, so keep a copy of papers with you), dog is not “in season”, and mustn’t show fleas or other communicable malady. Returning members may utilize last years vet paper for first few meetings IF shots are still current to allow for vet visit. Please have current year 4-H Vaccination Form completed & signed by your vet by May 15! 

* Dog’s age – the animal will be at least six months old at show time. Dogs under one year must not jump in agility. 

* Dog’s Behavior – a dog that the leaders deem as a danger to any other person or animal may not attend club. Dogs which have excessively disruptive behavior may be pulled aside for additional behavioral training.

There you have it. I hope that helps make it clear for you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

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Marion County Fairgrounds
7300 E. Troy Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46239
Click here for interactive Mapquest map!

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We are happy to see that so many of our 4-H families are responding to our on-line enrollment system. We think giving them the option this year to enroll either electronically or with the traditional paper method is making it very easy for new and existing members to sign up.

It’s hard to believe that we’re already into our first full week of April and our Marion County fair enrollment deadline is coming up next month. We want to make sure every family understands that while they can enroll in 4-H at any time over the course of the year, if they wish to enter their projects in the fair they need to enroll by May 15. Can you please assist us in getting the word out to your 4-H families that it’s time for them to send in their enrollments? They can visit www.indy4-hyouth.org and click on “Enroll in 4-H” to begin the process. As leaders you also have the capability from the site to click on the “Forms” tab and print out enrollment forms for those club members without computer access.

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So, if you would like to enroll in 4-H in Marion County, just click that link above and then on the Green Link that looks like this >>Click here to ENROLL IN 4-H
and follow the detailed instructions including the printing and signing part. This enrollment process needs to be completed by May 15th, 2010 to be able to show in the Marion County Fair.

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Eastside Ellen and Fishers Fran shake up a local Steak 'n' Shake. ---Photo by waitress Cloe.

medical condition that causes a person to speak with a foreign accent that is not their own) and live in the Indy area.

Fran had some friends tell her about hearing me on the WIBC 93.1 FM radio spots I’ve been doing over the last couple Tuesday mornings by invitation of the Morning Show personalities Terri Stacy and Big Joe Stayzniak. Her friends told her that she must listen. Then Fran took the initiative to call the radio station and they passed along my name and told her I was on FaceBook where she sent me a message.

Last Tuesday evening when we first spoke by phone, Fran had her normal voice. Her foreign accent came on suddenly for her along with left side neuromuscular symptoms back in 2005. Unlike me, her regular voice has returned, but she does have episodes where the accent returns for a few days. In fact she recently was interviewed about her Foreign Accent Syndrome story in an article for the April Issue of a magazine that is popular with the Catholic faith. I am sorry that I do not have the publications name right now, but I will edit this post when I have it.

Today she called to say that her voice has “flipped” so that she has the accent again. Her voice does have strong similarities to my own, but is definitely different. She can say some long “A” sounds that I cannot, and I can pronounce the “SK” sound that she cannot. So it was very enlightening as we met at a northeast side Steak and Shake for a friendly supper. Many patrons stared as we spoke and laughed together. Our waitress asked the inevitable “where are you from” question. To which we both smiled and replied “where do you think?”  “Think” was  pronounced “Sink” by Fran and more like “Tink” by me. Our waitress took a while to understand the fact that we are not FROM Europe and now living in the Indiana. Rather, we are both Midwestern Americans who are speaking with very strong foreign accents.  She guessed Fran as more Eastern European and me she placed as Irish. LOL. Anyway our waitress Cloe was kind enough to snap our photo with my camera.

Given that there have been reportedly less than one hundred cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome ever reported worldwide and that so very few people, including medical professionals, have even heard of the affliction, I believe our budding friendship is an answer to prayer! It was encouraging to talk to someone who understands what it feels like to not have the voice/accent you have had your whole life. I feel greatly blessed by meeting her, and especially since she is within short driving distance.

We may have discovered a new comedy team in the making as well. We thoroughly entertained Fran’s daughters and husband with our silliness as we each corrected the others accent.  Though our accents have some similar qualities, Fran sounds more Eastern block European (more Russian), whereas my accent sounds more French mixed with Norwegian. Her husband said that we sound like we are from different parts of Europe, but European all the same. I think it was an encouragement to her family as well as we were able to lightheartedly share our stories. Her family was able to see another person with the same thing happening so that they could feel less alone in the peculiarity of it.

Below is the link to a video that her daughter Celia shot of us. Please be kind to us as this was totally impromptu shooting so I am not wearing any make up and am looking more unkempt than I would have liked. However, the spontaneity of the shoot makes it too good not to post.

Foreign Accent Syndrome Friends

Now, I really would like to hear what you think about this post so please leave a comment. Thanks.

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As it turns out, Mr. Hopkins should not have been out driving at all because he was under house arrest. Though I have yet to see the scene in the daylight, the reports are saying that a bush, a pine tree and a gas meter were the major damages done by the vehicle. The house was spared from major damage and no injuries were reported.

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The other odd thing, along with the policemen who were arriving, there must have been a dozen or so neighbors milling about. Standing at the edges of their lawns, sidewalks or drives and looking up and down the street. There were several people shining flashlights along the side of the road, sidewalk and into some lawn edges. From where I stood, I could see one neighbor and he son paying quite a bit of attention to something large lying in the road near the far curb. But it was too dark to see very well, I could just make out it’s size from the flashlights beams dancing across it. Several different people acknowledged this thing lying in the street but kept a respectful distance from it. What was it? Was that a body?

Since the neighbor and his son were going over to the house of my newer neighbor friends, I decided that a real investigation was in order. I put on my shoes and headed to David and Ann’s house (not their real names).

This is what I discovered:
David and Ann had been watching T.V. in their living room when they heard a racing car and a very loud “BOOM”. Ann said that it sounded like a blowing transformer only multiple times louder like an explosion. They both jumped up out of their chairs and ran through their front door that was only about 10 feet from the couch. As they emerged out onto their front yard they could see the car it had come to crash into a house at the other end of the block!!

See the satellite photo with markers:

Neighborhood Crash Map
Originally uploaded by Ellen5e

This is what is surmised at this time: (see the photo with numbers)

[1] The boulder rock at the edge of David and Ann’s front yard was struck by the speeding car which was reportedly driven by a young man with a young woman. Although David and Ann did not see the young people, someone reportedly saw them run from the scene.

Left in the Lawn
Originally uploaded by Ellen5e

[2] There was a piece of the car at the edge of their yard (it looks like a piece of bumper or undercarriage). David and Ann’s boulder rock was yards east and across the road near the far curb [3]. It was this boulder that I had seen from the distance lying in the road.

As I walked with my camera along the north sidewalk, I noticed a good deal of wire that appeared to be either telephone wiring or some kind of cable broken and lying along almost the entire walkway as I went down to where the police activity was happening at the far end of the block. There was a teal colored car [4] with its passenger front end crashed into the brick of a house where a state trouper lives!

I stayed on the far side of the road and took a few photos though it was dark and rainy and my camera is not of professional quality. I did my best to hopefully document some neighborhood news. As I was taking photos Channel 13 local TV news trucks were arriving and setting up. I could smell the faint odor of gas and there was a gas utility truck in the area, but there appeared to be no real danger.

As I was body-tripodding my camera shots, another car drove up and the gray headed woman started talking with me. She said that this crashed car was her son’s. He was at his apartment right now and told her that he had been hit on the head and someone took off with his car. She asked me if it would be able to be driven away. I told her, that it looked too smashed into the house to be able to drive. She got a cell phone call and started to get into her car, so I ran to the group of officers saying “officer, quickly, that lady over there says she is the driver’s mother and she’s getting ready to take off.” Two officers went straight to her, and another listened to what I had to report. He chuckled when I repeated the part about the son claiming to be hit over the head. “I am sure that’s not the first time you’ve heard that one,” I said to him, as he laughed and nodded.

I then asked that officer if I might get some closer photos. He then asked if I were a reporter. I said that I do some neighborhood reporting with IndyChristian.com but that I live nearby and just want to get a few pictures. He told me that since any photo I took may be evidence he didn’t want me taking any more photos. I told him that I would gladly hand over anything I took, but sadly I would comply.

Luckily, I had already taken some photos, though the darkness and all the lights reflecting off the rain hindered my photographic abilities. At least I have a couple of shots to prove that I was there. Maybe I’ll even scoop the Indianapolis Star. LOL

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(photo from WRTV; link is below)
It seems peculiar to me that it so often takes a force from outside the community to come in to motivate people to help each other right here. So many local vendors and businesses are donating materials. Those resources and the volunteers were here all the time. It just took the spark of a national TV show to fan the flame of community action? Why is that?

Hoosiers are known for their “Hoosier Hospitality,” yet I have to admit that sometimes I don’t understand why it is that it is so hard for people to treat their neighbors as well as they treat visitors.

Though, I still don’t understand why this is, it reminds me of what Jesus says in the Bible about a prophet not being as well received in his own home town as he is elsewhere: Luke 4:24 (New American Standard Bible)”And He said, “Truly I say to you,no prophet is welcome in his hometown.” Perhaps we are simply so accustomed to the status quo that it takes outside inertia to get us to become fully aware of what is already all around us.

Do we believe that we are simply “too busy” to take a little time to get familiar with our neighbors? We may have become so focused on striving for the “newest, greatest and best,” that we become blinded to the needs of others. People may think they don’t have enough time or money to offer to help others. How do we know unless we at least endeavor to find out? So often, what seems as a very trivial thing to us, means the world to someone else.

By being thankful for the many blessings that we already have, we can see that we DO have something to offer. We can make an impact on the world around us… and not just the physical environment either. More importantly, we can show people that we value them; each and every person matters.

So, while Indianapolis is all abuzz with the happenings of a national TV show taping in our midst, I want to encourage you… that is you reading this article… to keep the ball rolling. Those of you who have tried volunteering or seen for the first time how very much can be accomplished when people work together for good, be encouraged. See what a mighty thing can happen when we come together in love and caring for others.

Practical application: some thoughts on how to makeover the neighborhood.

1. Take a Walk. So many of us are bustling from here to there by car, or bus, barely making it to our destinations on time, that we do not “stop and smell the roses.” Have you considered taking a walk with your family after supper? Make a game of it by asking the kids to see how many people they can get to smile or wave back at you, how many dogs bark as you pass, take a few trash bags and collect litter as you go, etc.

2. Get to know your neighbors. How many different neighbors could you tell me about right now? What do you really know about them: kids, pets, career, school, church, or are they a gardener, might they pair up with you for exercise class or walking or like to golf?

3. Ask Questions. How have you been? Is there anything I can do to help? How can I pray for you? Would you like to join us for a bar-b-que Saturday afternoon?

4. Just be available. Everyone needs to feel valued and you can help that happen for someone. By simply flashing someone a smile or wave, you have acknowledged them, and done something of value yourself. How cool is that? By saying something like, “I am going to the store, do you want me to pick anything up for you? I am going to be there anyway,” you have let the other person know that you are happy to be of service to them.

You see, it doesn’t really take much to makeover our neighborhood. Let us not rely on outside forces to bring to our attention that we have within us the ability to make our community a better place to live. May God spur our hearts into action by helping us be more aware of those around us and any needs that we may help meet.

You can follow updates of Twitter: EstridgeHomes
Here is a link to the local ABC News affiliate WRTV Ch.6

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Click here for additional photos of the event

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