AYF VALLEY NEWS chapter 114

UPDATE: Silverdale Whaling Days are over and so is the art show. I’m exhausted, but can’t get to sleep. My body wants to lay down, but my mind what to be up. Someday I may figure out how to get both parts to agree. The show was acceptable. I broke even. It sure beats going in the hole like I usually do. My doctor’s appointment was changed to Wednesday. Apparently the doctor is unsure if I can have a MRI with the two stints I have in my heart. Whoops! I am actually less concerned about my shoulder than a foot that is driving me crazy. Hurts all the time. Another whoops.

I swear Gladys was the alter ego of
our esteemed editor Dorothy

Dorothy Hildebrant, my teen editor and main writer, send me scanned copies of all 29 weekly issues a youth newssheet called “AYF VALLEY NEWS” which we published every week before the group began. I am going to begin including segments from time to time. We printed on 8/5x14 two sheets on both sides. It had to be done on mimeograph master (Melody (Boldt) Dreidger reminded me how hard it was to correct mistakes on those horrid inky messy things, Then they were folded and distributed as kids arrived the same night,

Lancc Atton wrote a weekly column that was remarkably clever weaving the names of kids in the group into a very inventive story. Then there was the wildly popular “Did You Know column with was little more that a funky gossip column. Most material was written before arriving but it all the stories and drawings were scratched onto the masters. Frankly, it is hard to believe we did that every week and hardly to believe how much fun it was. And it was all done without a computer.

I wish I could remember how the newspaper got started. The theory was that work projects bring people together. The most meaning part of my education at CBC was working on Youth Conference Planning Committee. We had a purpose a goal and it took everyone working together to make it happen. The Valley News was the same principle. I also started a District Zone youth retreat held at our church for the same reason. “Those who minister together grow spiritually together,” an unwritten motto for my entire ministry. I created programs, committees, quizzing and all small groups for this very purpose. Never announce you are teaching people and giving them the opportunity to serve — just do it.

Lets cut to news from Saskatoon AYF, November 1970. This is hot stuff.

If you know me, this is the story of my life. When I can no long tolerate the mess, I clean up.