After a busy weekend, a meeting with AMAZING volunteers was necessary to plan for all of the excitement coming up. Monday is the Savage Community Fall Festival at Prior Lake High School. Tuesday is the Lakers4Change School Board Candidate Town Hall. So much more planning in the works. Get some rest, we are going to need your help! Sign up to volunteer and don’t forget to order your candidate yard signs here!
Author Archives: L4C
Join the FUN!!
Lakers4Change is hosting a booth at Chamber Fest Strikes Again today near downtown Prior Lake. There are lots of amazing vendors, goodies and inflatables. Bring the family and join the fun! At the Lakers4Change booth the kids can stop by to color, read a book, have their face painted or crazy hair paint! We also have stickers and candy for the kids. Stop by to get some information about our endorsed candidates and maybe even have a chat (or have Bill Markert read you a book.) Also, head downtown for Chalkfest! What great events for an amazing community!
Busy, busy, busy!
Lakers4Change spent last evening with over 200 fabulous ladies at the downtown Wings Financial Ladies Night event. We gave away 12 prizes last night and chatted up lots of amazing women. What a great evening and we can’t wait to participate again! Now onto tomorrow… Visit our booth at Chamber Fest Strikes Again! Weather kept us from participating in Chamber Fest and we vowed that our AMAZING float wouldn’t go to waste. We are so grateful that the Prior Lake Chamber of Commerce was able to coordinate a redo of Chamber Fest and for Rod Dehmlow’s Auto Sales for allowing the use of the space! Come out to the Lakers4Change booth and learn about our mission. You may even be able to chat up some of our endorsed candidates when they stop by throughout the day. We will have some “parade candy” and activities for the kids and lots of good information for the adults. It has been a busy week, but nothing short of amazing! Looking forward to meeting you and spreading the word about Lakers4Change!
Ladies Night…TONIGHT!
Don’t miss out, the Wings Financial Ladies Night Out in Downtown Prior Lake is this evening! OKTOBERFEST STYLE! Location: Downtown Prior LakeWhen: TONIGHT! Thursday, September 15, 5-8pm Join over 200 ladies for an enjoyable evening of relaxation, fun and prizes! Check out the Chamber of Commerce event page to see what businesses and groups are sponsoring booths. Online registration has closed but walk-in registration is available for only $20 cash or check. Must be 21 to attend, wristbands required for the event. PROST!
Sept. 13 Candidate Town Hall
Last evening, Lakers4Change hosted a School Board Candidate forum at Prior Lake City Hall. The event was well attended by community members of ISD 719. All nine candidates were invited and three of those nine were present to participate; Amy Bullyan, Bill Markert and Lisa Atkinson. The event was live streamed on our Facebook page for those not able to attend in person and the recording will be added to the website as well. Chip Sharratt, one of the nine candidates and long time resident of ISD 719, asked for a statement to be shared in his absence. Please read below: My name is Chip Sharratt and I’ve been a resident of this PL-S community for 25 years. After spending much of my adult life guiding young people through my teaching, my coaching, and also mentoring as a college guidance and leadership advisor, I’ve been a regular and frequent voice for optimizing student educations to provide our community the best graduates and citizens possible. Occasionally, “life” can put a fork in the road, and then we ponder, “Which is the correct path forward for me?” I’ve been in NY assisting a terminally ill brother with their family business for about a month this summer, which may extend for another month, or longer. But I’ve also been a regular family guest and consultant there for over 30 years. Although my intentions to register as a School Board candidate were good and honorable, my timing was not. This situation and other family circumstances have recently required that I suspend any further campaign initiatives and focus on those family members nearest to me with their immediate needs. So, just as I will suspend my campaign, I would also have to decline the opportunity to serve on the ISD 719 School Board, if elected. Therefore, I would ask that all voters look closely at the other candidates who best represent your children’s academic priorities. They should also reflect your vision for what ‘student learning’ should exemplify and accomplish. And you should mandate that your candidate is fiscally sound and wise in their use of our valued taxpayer dollars. Many challenges exist now, and lie ahead over the next few years, both for our schools and for our nation. I will continue to be a strong voice supporting optimal school experiences for all our youth. Hopefully our schools will also instill in students the value of lifelong learning, an ongoing respect for one another, and a quest for leadership in all who will guide our nation into her future. Time and memories are invaluable gifts. As we get older, we realize how treasured they both have become. Thank-you.Chip SharrattSavage, MN If you would like to watch the recording, it is available on our Facebook page and will be added to the website soon. Don’t forget to go to the State of the District tonight at the PLSAS District Services Center or watch the live stream on the district website.
Don’t miss tonight’s PLSAS Candidate Town Hall!
If you are unable to be at Prior Lake City Hall tonight to attend the first of two Candidate Town Hall events hosted by Lakers4Change, that’s ok! We are live streaming the event via Facebook and will also have the recoding available for access after the event. If you want to get updates on more events with Lakers4Change, subscribe here. Make sure you visit our Events Calendar for a list of upcoming events and if you want to volunteer, visit our Volunteer Opportunities page. See you soon!
Candidate Town Hall Tonight
Two School Board Candidate Town Hall events hosted by Lakers4Change are scheduled in the next week. The first of these events will be held tonight at 6:30pm at Prior Lake City Hall. All 9 candidates were invited to participate in these events. Questions were solicited by the public and will not be shared with candidates prior to these events. Questions for each night will be different but will fall into the following categories: Background/Qualifications, Priorities, Finance, Policy, Conflict Resolution. Candidates were asked to RSVP by Friday, September 9. Bill Markert and Lisa Atkinson will be participating both evenings. Amy Bullyan will be present tonight. Jessica Olstad and Geoff Zahn will be participating in the September 20th event. Jonathan Drewes and Michael Nelson respectfully declined. Chip Sharratt is unavailable and Enrique Velasquez provided no response. RSVPs are still available for this evening but there is a waiting list for the September 20th event. Lakers4Change will be reaching out to the city to see if there is any way to change locations within City Hall to create a more inclusive event and allow ALL interested parties to attend. We will update this status as soon as possible. Doors open at 6:15 this evening to begin check-in and the event will begin at 6:30. The event will be live streamed on our Facebook page and the recording added to our website following each event. Thank you for following Lakers4Change.
Got a minute? Be a volunteer!
We are less than 100 visits from reaching 20,000 views! Word is traveling fast about all of the amazing events we have already scheduled and we are continually adding more. You know what that means… Yep, WE NEED HELP! We are looking for people willing to give as much time as they are able. We want to keep adding as much to our calendar as we possibly can so we can continue to get the word out about Lakers4Change and our mission. If you are able to volunteer for one of the roles already defined on the volunteer opportunities page, great! We’ll take you! If you have a different idea about how you can help, let us know! If you don’t have time to spare (trust me, we get it.) Donations are greatly appreciated because it costs money to participate in events and to get materials out to people that don’t know who we are yet. But most importantly, keep spreading the word. We are in touch with new people in the community every day and the momentum to make positive change in our district and our community is UNSTOPPABLE. As always, thank you for supporting Lakers4Change!
Wishing you a great 2nd week of school!
Preparations for the busy week ahead!
This week is jam packed with events and we could not be more thrilled about the interest from the community! Tomorrow, the team will be working hard to make sure we are ready to take on all of these commitments. The interest in our upcoming events is incredible and our website is fast approaching 20,000 views! Check out what is on the calendar for this week! Monday, September 12 – PLSAS Regular meeting of the School BoardTuesday, September 13 – Lakers4Change School Board Candidate Town HallWednesday, September 14 – PLSAS State of the DistrictThursday, September 15 – Wings Financial Ladies NightSaturday, September 17 – Chamberfest Strikes Again Due to Prior Lake City Hall capacity requirements, please make sure to RSVP for the town hall event. There are a lot of volunteer opportunities with Lakers4Change, follow this link if you are interested. Keep reaching out and sharing your concerns. You are not alone. So many people in our community have similar frustrations and we are dedicated to figuring out how to get back on track. Let’s make the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District the top MN school district it once was.