MONTANA RANGE DAYS BOOSTER CLUB

DATE: April 27, 2009

TO: Montana Range Days Boosters

FROM: Amber Nordahl, Booster Club Chairman

RE: 2009 Range Days and Booster Club

Springtime in the northern plains and time for my annual Montana Range Days Booster Club dues letter. As I write this letter I have been thinking my life revolves around the 3 R’s. Not the grade school 3 R’s, but Ranching, Range Days and Running. So to get you up to speed on life in northern Stillwater County, here we go.

Ranching—At our place we are hoping the mud dries up before the last cow calves. I am pretty lucky here in that my muck boots still have no leaks. If it ever does warm up, I figure we should be able to hear the grass grow! The pairs are out, but we are still feeding.

Range Days—JUNE 15-17 IN MILES CITY

Last year Conrad did an exceptional job with the tours, workshops and meals. 285 folks took part and we are hoping to top that number this year with some new ideas and by inviting people from outside the Ag community.

We are going to provide the registration fees for 4 Montana science teachers and their teams to attend MRD. These teams will be winners of Science Fairs and Envirothons. We are also contacting the Montana Home School Association to tell them about MRD, inviting them to attend, and increasing our posters and publicity throughout the state.

Other news this year includes a plant list developed along with the State Ag Ed teachers and a permanent range manual to replace the 3 ring binders with the help of the State Extension Service.

We are pretty proud to support our Montana college and high school students.

Last year we increased our 3 scholarships to $1,000 each and tripled the number of applicants. We will give those out again this year to college students going into an Ag related field.

We helped send Shields Valley, our top FFA team from MRD, to the Old West Range Judging Contest and they WON! Now Jim Rose and the Shields Valley team head to the National Contest in Oklahoma, and we gave them $750 for that trip.

Running—My husband, Allen, and I just returned from the east coast. Last week I ran in the Boston Marathon. It was an incredible event that was a grand finale to a long cold winter of training alone. Being around all those 25,000 runners got me stoked up and planning my next race. Sometimes when you look at your pasture and fields it is easy to let things slide along. Don’t you do that. You need stoked up too. You get to Range Days, you join the Booster Club, you get around people excited about grass and plants and grazing. Make the most of your place and it’s resources. You be proud of what you are doing.

If you didn’t make it to Conrad – be sure to get to Miles City. You are going to have pasture grass up to your knees and you need to know how to handle that. It will be the land of happy cows and sheep this summer, you just wait and see. The registration forms are on the web site and also the schedule of events is there too.

The web site is: www.cartercd.org

Our budget has increased this year with the new ideas we are implementing and we are looking to increase our Booster Club as well. The dues are $25.00 a year and it all goes to fund Range Days. We also have a permanent endowment fund we use only the interest from. That might be an idea for a memorial or gift, or just because you want to invest in Montana Range Days for the next generation.

Check out the web site, mark your calendar for Montana Range Days in Miles City June 15-17, and bring the neighbor kids along with you. I’m including an envelope for the Booster Club dues. You would make your check out to Montana Range Days, and this year we are going to recognize Booster Club members at the banquet, so I hope you can be there. In the meantime listen for the grass and keep your toes curled, it helps keep your boots on in the mud.

Thanks for your time and consideration. My phone number is 669-3193 if you have any questions.

MONTANA RANGE DAYS BOOSTER CLUB DUES $25.00

Donation to MRD Permanent Endowment Fund ________

Total Contribution ________

We would appreciate your dues by June 30, 2009

You can mail it or bring it along to Range Days

Mail to: Montana Range Days Booster Club

c/o Amber Nordahl

2033 Columbus-Molt Road

Molt Montana 59057