Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Today is another beautiful day, I wish I could say it is something I ordered, but it isn't. Today my dad and I are going to go to the SEK Recycling Center to donate our recycled bottles, plastics and paper and make a donation, and then to Salvation Army to drop off some clothes that we are still cleaning out of the basement closets....UGH!!! I didn't realize I had so many clothes.
My mom is out of town on business, so I guess I have to make the informed decision of what to choose to donate. Mariah stayed the night with me last night, and we went skating. David Lowe was nice enough to mention the RAK website again while we were skating. How very thoughtful him and his wife Alisia are. Alisia is a dog groomer and grooms our dog Pierre, she does an excellent job if you know someone that needs their dog groomed. I'll enclose a video eating ramen noodles from a fork, totally hilarious, of his new-do!!!


Oh, and they had an article about the SEK is SEK conference/presentation in the Morning Sun, I'll post it here as well.

Morning Sun, The (Pittsburg, KS)Groups unite at domestic violence conference ANDREW NASH The Morning Sun Published: February 21, 2009

Typically, one group or another will claim responsibility for a particular event or activity. In that case, the Regional Domestic Violence Conference was a rare production. At least 13 businesses, school districts and other groups combined efforts to put on the event.
One organizer, Julie Allison, the president of SEK is Safely Educating Kids (SEK is SEK) and director of Pittsburg State's office of violence response and prevention, said the regional conference was important to many groups, which explained the response.
"Domestic violence is an epidemic that affects not only this community, but across the United States and the world. It's an impact everywhere," Allison said. "It affects the victim, it affects the perpetrator, it affects the kids. It also has an intergenerational affect."
The conference featured the Rev. Al Miles, a national expert on religion and family violence from Honolulu, Hawaii. Miles has written three publications on the subject of domestic violence.
Attendees said Miles' involvement brought a lot to the proverbial table.
"He was very informative and very good. He offered good pointers on how we could get in and offer help," said Tracy Jackson, a social worker with the Kansas Social and Rehabilitative Services in Parsons. "We just have to try not to just jump in there and try to fix the problem right off, but to work with the person at their speed."
Another attendee said the event, as well as Miles, provided an ample opportunity to hear from the angles of others who deal with domestic violence situations.
"I enjoyed the way he mixed the tables up so you get various perspectives," said Vicky Polen, victim's advocate with the Crisis Resource Center. "He was a dynamic speaker, and this was the best training that I've ever been to. I've learned that there's a hope we can work together with the religious-based community."
Allison agreed that the event was important for all the agencies to unite in solving the problem of domestic violence.
"We got the chance to share our frustrations and our successes," Allison said. "Even with our frustrations and successes, all of us want to make a difference. This just reinforced the opportunity to collaborate for the victims and for children."