Draper’s Diary

For Immediate Release

$7,500  IN ARTS SCHOLARSHIP GRANTS AWARDED TO BROWN COUNTY YOUTH

The Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council is pleased to announce that grants of $25,500 from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund have been awarded to students in grades 7-12 throughout the region.  The Youth Scholarships and Mentorships of $500 will provide these students the opportunity to study their chosen art with a practicing professional artist, taking lessons, attending classes, or performing with a youth arts organization.  The Arts and Cultural Heritage fund was created by the people of Minnesota to support the arts and preserve our heritage.  The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, passed by the voters in November, 2008, created new resources for land conservation, water conservation, parks and the Arts.

The following students will be using their scholarship for piano or violin lessons in 2010 with the New Ulm Suzuki School of Music:  Lydia Balge, Emily Curtis, Stanley Draper, Ellen Goedtke, Mary Goedtke, Erin Hauth, Karlie Heiderscheidt, Luke Irmiter, Micayla Irmiter, Allison Rosenhamer, Kyrie Sellnow, Silas Sellnow and Noah Stocker. Anne Goedtke will take cello lessons and Katie Steffl will take harp lessons from independent instructors.

Anne Goedtke, Ellen Goedtke and Mary Goedtke are from Comfrey. New Ulm youth are: Lydia Balge, Luke Irmiter, Micayla Irmiter, Allison Rosenhamer, Kyrie Sellnow, Silas Sellnow and Noah Stocker. Sleepy Eye youth are: Emily Curtis, Stanley Draper, Karlie Heiderscheidt and Katie Steffl. Erin Hauth resides in Springfield.

Prairie Lakes provides grants for arts activities including dance, music, theater, literature, and visual art classes and exhibitions. March 1, 2010 is the next deadline for $500 Small Arts Projects by community groups and Arts-In-Education school residency grants.  Grant program information and applications are available at www.plrac.org or contact Brenda Flintrop, Executive Director, at the PLRAC office in Waseca, 1-800–298-1254 or plrac@hickorytech.net for information.  The PLRAC serves a nine county area in south central Minnesota.

Brown County Youth Scholarship Arts and Cultural Heritage Grantees

Row 1 (L to R): Allison Rosenhamer; Karlie Heiderscheidt; Kyrie Sellnow and Noah Stocker. Row 2 (L to R): Brenda Flintrop, PLRAC Executive Director; Judy Martens, PLRAC Board Member representing New Ulm; Stanley Draper and Denice Evers, Springfield, PLRAC Board Member representing Brown County.

Minus 24 … in the sunshine

Trying Out a Picnik Slide Show

Here’s some of our Christmas pictures put together in a Picnik slide show, just for fun.

Welcome 2010

The Draper boys enjoyed a fun game of Dungeons and Dragons to kick off the new year (Click to view large).

In the Name of Jesus

Here’s video of Kevin’s New Year’s Day sermon, “In the Name of Jesus”

Christmas News 2009

Greetings from Sleepy Eye in the name of our newborn King!

The “word cloud” above is a representation of the busy year of activities we have enjoyed, full of blessings and challenges and abounding in God’s forgiveness and grace.  Some of the highlights included:

• The joy of being members of the St. John’s family
• Vacations to Mississippi (with two lay-overs in Branson) and Sioux Fall
• Stanley’s confirmation, Camp Phillip fun and first semester of high school, including parts in two plays and first year Latin
• Luke’s diagnosis with Diabetes and adjustment to a “new normal” plus participation in Lego robotics camp, Forensics and violin
• Ben’s unending consumption of books, Scratch programming and violin
• Sallie’s summer adult and kid computer classes
• Kevin’s full schedule filled with services, catechism classes and baptisms
• An increasingly digital lifestyle with the addition of several iPod Touches, a new laptop for Stanley and an under-the-counter kitchen computer

For photo highlights of the year, we invite you to view our online scrapbook at bit.ly/draperschristmas, and as always you can visit us all year long on the web via our family web site, The Draper’s Diary www.txnetstars.com, and our church and school web site, www.stjohnsse.com.

May God bless you and yours with a joyous Christmas and a very happy new year!

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things
they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” - Luke 2:20

Decorating Draper Style

We spent a few hours decorating our Christmas Tree this afternoon and took photos along the way.  We’ve turning them into a time lapse video for your enjoyment.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Demonstrating Legos Mindstorms

Luke recently participated in the MLC Forensics Meet, doing a demonstration speech on Lego Mindstorms and earning a blue ribbon in the process.  We thought you might enjoy the watching speech.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

And here’s Luke with the rest of the all blue 2009 St. John’s Forensics Team!

The Supers

We’ve spent the last two evenings being entertained at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School (MVL) as they put on their fall dramas.  They did a series of nine 10 Minute (+) plays, and Stanley was in two of them.  Here’s video of him as “The Curdler” from November 6, 2009.  Enjoy the fun!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Brown County Free Fair

We had a great time at the fair last night. First stop were the livestock barns. My favorite had all the poultry. Click the image to view a larger version.

Next we took in the Combine Derby. Imagine nine decorated combines going after each other until only one is left running. There were some who lost tires and other parts in the process. Our friend Stephanie went along to watch with us, and we all agreed it was pure fun! I think the combine owners in the crowd were pulling for their favorite brand. In the end it was a John Deere that outlasted them all.

Enjoy the video of the action …

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

We took a few family pics to round out the evening. What fun!