SoDakSACA SACCY Awards

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Annual ‘SACCY’ Award
This award is given annually to recognize one individual, organization or business from South Dakota who has shown distinguished service to an OST program, or the OST field in general; and exemplifies dedication to, support of, and advocacy for school age care. Established in 2000, the award is presented at the SoDakSACA conference each year.

Past Award Winners

2010 - Amy Rans - Spearfish

2010 South Dakota School-Age Care Alliance SACCY Leadership Award

Amy Rans is the 4-H/Youth Development Extension Educator serving Lawrence County. She has worked with the H.O.P.E. Afterschool Program in Newell, SD for the past two years once a month, doing special projects with the students. She has taught Robotics, Wellness programs, Science projects for all levels, Project Wild and Solar & Wind Energy projects.

Amy has also been very helpful to the Newell Adult Community Education Programs by either helping to find valuable resources or by teaching the programs. For instance, they had a family reading night scheduled last winter which brings in the whole community: parents, students and staff come to this event. It grows bigger each year. The HOPE program had scheduled the Discovery Center out of Pierre to provide their portion of the Science Based Reading Night and also to assist community businesses with science projects at their booths. The central part of the State was in the middle of a blizzard, and the Discovery Center staff were unable to make it to Newell that day. The HOPE administrators called Amy about noon to ask if she could fax over some ideas of easy, inexpensive science projects they could do. Amy came to their rescue! She drove to Newell from Spearfish with all the science experiment supplies needed, got each business booth set up with experiments and ran a room herself for all the students and parents to enjoy. This event could have been a disaster, but it was a triumphant success because of Amy. She really saved the day!

Amy goes above and beyond the call of duty and has a true passion for the education of youth and adults. The HOPE Afterschool Program feels truly blessed to have her as part of their program because she has a way of bringing out the best in people to make them feel special and intelligent. The HOPE students look forward to the days she comes to work with them on projects. Her knowledge and passion for science and education is catchy.

2009 - Marianne Freng - Huron

Marianne Freng has been in the child and school-age care world for over 30+ years in Huron, SD. I first got to know Marianne in my work with DSS in the early 80s when I handled the old Work Incentive Program (WIP) and the day care payment program. Even at that time, Marianne was actively advocating improving quality and for state registration of all child care facilities, which continues to be one of her passions.

Through the years, Marianne has served in various capacities on local and state boards and understands the importance of promoting her programs and the child/school-age field at each of them: SDAEYC, SDACCD, SoDakSACA. Her wish is that these associations could work together better so they all have a greater knowledge of school age care and its importance to the communities of our state. Marianne is currently serving on the SoDakSACA board as Northeastern Regional Representative, and is also the President of the SD Child Care Directors Association. In her spare time, she is involved in various committees involving children and youth in Huron. She was recently honored as a Champion for Children (Honor Roll) by the SD Voices for Children. Marianne also has had a Jungle booth at Afterschool Day at the Capitol advocating for afterschool programs.

One of her passions is to help those less fortunate. She has been involved with the Lions Club and the SD Optometric Association’s Mission to Mexico project for several years, and has travelled there with fellow South Dakotans annually to assist in disseminating and fitting eyeglasses to needy children and adults in Mexico. In 2008, she spearheaded a statewide afterschool service project to collect eyeglasses for this worthy cause. This project was able to collect over 800 children’s glasses for the Mission!

Marianne is also very well respected by her staff....some of them have been at her program for over 20 years, so it is evident she treats her staff well. She understands the importance of quality staff and she does what she can in her programs to support their training interests and sending them to new trainings when available. She has always supported the regional training offerings by the regional ECE office in Brookings, sending many of her staff if the topic pertained. The families at her program really respect her and she has great ideas to involve them as well. She also has The Jungle do various community service projects in the Huron area to much success. The program also sponsors Lights On Afterschool activities annually.

2008 - Enemy Swim Afterschool Program - Waubay

Becky Bergquist, Director, and the Enemy Swim Day School (ESDS) Afterschool Program staff were the recipients of the 2008 SACCY Award presented on Oct. 4, 2008 at the SoDakSACA Conference in Watertown, SD. ESDS Afterschool Program is a 21st Century Community Learning Center which became nationally accredited in late 2007. The program believes that a highly trained staff contributes to a high quality program. Several staff have completed the SD OST training series or are in the process, and four staff have earned the state OST Credential. “I am very thankful our program was nominated to win the SACCY award, and very pleased that our entire program staff could be recognized for their hard work and dedication to the program at the SoDakSACA conference,” said Becky. “They deserve it. I am glad we were given the opportunity to publicly acknowledge our staff at the awards ceremony.”

Becky paid tribute to the regional OST training specialist, Lori Schocker, with Early Childhood Partners in Aberdeen. “You are a great contributor in helping us achieve our professional development goals”, said Becky. “Your technical guidance has helped us work through issues and create quality programming for the children of Enemy Swim Day School.”

In attendance to accept the award were (Left to Right Above): Terra Williams, Deb Anderson, Mary Anderson, Renee Kwasniewski, Julie Grothaus, Becky Bergquist, Allen Owen and Rebecca Dargatz.

2007 - Jan Stange - Brookings

Jan Stange, long-time director of the Great Afterschool Place (GAP) in Brookings, was presented the 2007 SACCY award at the fall SoDakSACA conference in Rapid City. Jan has a degree in Elementary Education from Moorhead State University. She taught in the St. Paul School system before moving to Brookings. After volunteering many hours to the program, she joined the Great After-School Place (GAP) staff in 1991 as Coordinator of that program, which began in 1989.

Jan helped take the lead with regard to school-age care issues in the early years of school-age development in South Dakota, attending planning meetings, facilitating work groups, providing training, and being available to provide technical assistance to new programs statewide. She is one of the founding members of SoDakSACA, and has held the positions of VP of Governance, President-Elect, President, and Advisor for the SoDakSACA board. Jan has also presented workshops at the state SoDakSACA conference and at the state Afterschool Directors’ Retreat; and represented SoDakSACA’s affiliate at the national conference and national affiliate summits for several years. She has always been willing to be a spokesperson on a local and state-wide basis for after-school issues.

Since Jan has been with GAP, the program has grown to include before school and summer programs, and also a kindergarten program. In the past year, she and her staff worked very hard toward achieving national accreditation from the National AfterSchool Association of the kindergarten site.

2006 – Women of Wessington - Wessington

The Women of Wessington [WOWs] received the 2006 South Dakota SACCY Award for their outstanding contribution to the children of Wessington and their community. Every year the South Dakota School Age Care Alliance [SoDakSACA] recognizes an
individual or group that has made an exceptional contribution to the children of
South Dakota. This year the award was given to the Women of Wessington. They
have helped the after school children by supplying a TV, DVD and video player, helping with the reading program through books and volunteer time, helped with the gardening program as students put in their library garden, memorial rose garden, and highway box bulb gardens. They have provided nutritious food for snacks and supplies for community service projects. They supported the students in their St. Jude's Bike-A-Thon and with other public fund raisers for the center.

Wessington is one of only two communities in South Dakota that has lost its k-12 school but maintains an after school center for its children. Their committment and caring is a model to other communities struggling to keep their young citizens safe and involved in the life of the towns.

Photo left to right: Mary Kuper [teaching assistant Wessington After School Program], John Hanks [mayor of Wessington], Rhonda Mehling [President of the Wolsey- Wessington School Board, WOW], Carol Rowen [Elementary Principal and k-8 computer science teacher, WOW] Diana Runge [WOW], Betsey Rowen [Wolsey-Wessington After School Direcor/teacher], Karen Clarke [WOW, Wolsey-Wessington teacher], Rosemary Moeller [Wessington After School Director/teacher].

2005 - Pat Hinricher – EBB Program – Flandreau

 

Pat Hinricher has been at the Everything But Boring (EBB)Program in Flandreau since it first started back in 1998, asone of the first SD grantees of the new federal 21st Century Community Learning Center program. Pat is a dedicated advocate for school-age children, and has beenactively working with the program towards receiving national accreditation. Pat has also participated in the state OST training program and has earned her SD OST Certificate. Pat lives on a farm and has two children and one grandchild. She loves working with her flowers and children since she gets to see them all grow!

2004 – Cindy Teer – EBB Program - Flandreau

 

Cindy Teer is the director of the Everything But Boring (EBB) Program in Flandreau , which first began back in 1998, as one of the first SD grantees of the new federal 21st Century Community Learning Center program. Cindy stepped up to the plate several years ago and made sure Flandreau’s program was represented at Afterschool Day at the Capitol each year, encouraging other programs to become involved! She also makes sure EBB actively participates in Lights On Afterschool! each year. Cindy commutes to her program from Sioux Falls, now that she is married. She has been, and continues to be, a dedicated and energetic advocate for school-age programming.

2003 – Billie Jo Bakeberg – Kids Club Kids Program - Spearfish

 

Billie Jo Bakeberg is the director of the Kids Club Kids program in Spearfish. Billie Jo is considered one of the ‘founding mothers’ of SoDakSACA, stepping up to the plate in 1999 at our first ever membership meeting in Aberdeen at the SD AEYC conference, becoming President-El lect for 1999-2000. She went on to serve as President, Advisor, VP of Membership (Newsletter), and also served as Conference Chair. Billie Jo has been astrong voice and passionate advocate for afterschool programs in SD. She was an outspoken promoter for treating ‘child care’ and ‘afterschool’ programs as separate and unique services when the SD Alliance for Children was forming. She is married and has two children, and enjoys spending time ‘on the family ranch’ with her mother, whenever she can.

2002 – Rosemary Hayward – SD Dept. of Social Services - Pierre

 

Rosemary Hayward is the State OST Program Specialist with the Department of Social Services – Division of Child Care. Realizing that school-age children were an entire group that were possibly ‘under-served’ in SD, except in the larger communities, she began focusing on afterschool program development in SD in 1997. Rosemary is a passionate advocate for school-age care, and has enjoyed seeing the number of programs grow statewide. She continues to push for strong networks among OST directors in SD, and actively campaigns for Lights On Afterschool in SD each year. Also a ‘founding mother’, Rosemary serves on the SoDakSACA board as the State CCS Liaison. The best part of her job has been meeting so many dedicated and caring professionals across South Dakota and the nation.

2001 – Karla Johnson – Youth Enrichment Services – Sioux Falls

 

Karla Johnson was the CEO for Youth Enrichment Services (YES) in Sioux Falls when she received the SACCY award in 2001. She had been with YES for 29 years, retiring from her position in 2005, and is considered one of the ‘founding mothers’ of SoDakSACA. Karla is a passionate and true advocate for school-age care in SD. She stepped up to the plate in 1997 and attended two regional planning meetings sponsored by NSACA; and led the charge to establish our own SoDakSACA in 1999. She was overwhelmingly supported to serve as the first President of the board of directors, and has also served as Advisor, and Vice President of Finance. Karla accepted the ‘newbie’ award at NSACA in 2000, when SoDakSACA became officially affiliated with the national organization. She continues to live in Brandon, and is now the Director of Child Care Services for the YMCA in Sioux Falls. Summers, she enjoys heading to Yankton to camp and enjoy the Missouri River.

2000 – Loila Hunking – SD Dept. of Social Services – Sioux Falls

 

Loila Hunking received our very first SACCY award. She was appointed by then Governor Bill Janklow in 1996 to help Child Care Services with their vision of child care development issues in South Dakota. With her extensive background as a school teacher, school board member, city council member, and state legislator, Loila was a great visionary and actively promoted the Governor’s initiative to develop quality afterschool programs across the state. Traveling statewide, she attended numerous school board and community planning meetings and conferences with her message. As a result, school districts began keeping the school doors open after the bell rang. Although semi-retired now, Loila continues to be a passionate advocate for children’s programs and youth issues. She is married and is enjoying her current passion for gardening and spending time with grandchildren.