- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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The theme of the contest is, "What does 'community' mean to you?" The council is asking students to create their entries on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper in landscape orientation (a regular piece of paper turned sideways), and to get entries in by December 8th. That will give the council time to use the logo on all promotional materials starting at the beginning of 2007.
"The winning logo will go on our flyers, our banners, our rack cards... all of our promotional materials," Shattuck says. "We're even hoping we'll have it on at least one of the billboards here in town, prior to the event." The council has lined up Village of Lansing Mayor Don Hartill, Lansing Town Supervisor Steve Farkas, and Lansing School Superintendent Mark Lewis to pick the winner. "They were all gracious enough to volunteer their time, and I'm really excited about that," she says. "That's a nice representation of (Lansing's) leadership. The judges will look at every single entry, and the grand prize winner will be announced at the end of January."
The community council is a little known entity that has existed in Lansing for more than 50 years. Originally an active group that renovated the Lansing Community Center after the Lansing Lions Club donated it to the town, it funnelled funds to not-for-profit programs in the town. For more than ten years it hosted Lansing Day, a fund raising event for the council as well as non-profit groups within the community, such as the Boy Scouts and the Lansing Drop-in Center. That ended in the mid '90s, and activities diminished to the point where the council was simply funnelling United Way funding to a handful of Lansing programs.
Last year Frankie Lechner approached Town Supervisor Steve Farkas to ask his help in rejuvenating the council. As treasurer, she was holding it together so that funding would not be lost, but after 50 years she was ready to hand over the responsibility to new blood. The town put out a call, and over a dozen people stepped up to volunteer. New members attended training at the United Way, and the group decided they wanted to create a new event to celebrate the community and raise additional funding for the programs they serve.
The event will include entertainment, games, and activities, and has room for 300 booths featuring local businesses and not-for-profit organizations. "It's a community celebration," Shattuck says. "All the proceeds will go to support not-for-profit programs here in Lansing. The Drop-in day care center, Lansing Youth Services, Lansing Older Adults Program, the Lansing Food Pantry, and the Recreation Department. And a goal of the Community Council is to identify find additional needs in the community that we can support with financial aid, with energy, with whatever it is that we can do."
Shattuck says she hopes teachers will talk to students about what community means, both here in Lansing and in the larger sense. "Community is a topic that spans all disciplines," she says. "Every teacher can find a way to justify having a conversation about it and having the kids begin to think about it and begin to formulate their ideas for a logo."
The contest ends December 8th, and the council requires that the entrant's name, age, address and phone number be written on the back of each one. Shattuck says entries can be dropped off at any of the Lansing school offices, the Parks & Recreation Office at the Town Hall, or on weekends at Anticipation Antiques at 106 Drake Road.
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