March Madness: Texas Wins By A Tidbit

Free For All Friday question at the end...

Good morning, Highlowaha! It's Katie here again bringing you the results from yesterday's semifinal match-up between the Wisconsin Cheese Hens and the Texas Tidbits. The crowd was truly split yesterday on which idea was the most creative or valuable, but the Texas Tidbits pulled out the win by a very close margin! This means they will advance to the finals of March Madness next week. As a result, we say farewell to the Wisconsin Cheese Hens by sharing their remaining ideas, products, websites, etc. with all of you.

Pudgie Pie Camping Dinner- Iron Chef Edition
Each summer the hens and their families go camping and on Saturday evening, we cook pudgie pies-aka tonka pies, aka- pies with a pie iron. Any way- we use a pie iron and use bread or a bread substitute (tortilla, etc). Once it's filled the iron is placed into the campfire and cooked to perfection. Each family is assigned to bring a secret ingredient and then the families go to town creating the most inventive and tasty treat possible. We have a blast concocting creations- ingredients have included crab, guacamole, blueberry jam, chipolte, and pineapple!

Social Networking Sites
We can personally attest to how helpful sites like facebook, linked in and twitter have been in helping us reconnect with old friends -CLAUDIA! They are also a great way to professionally network.

Studying Technique- let your kids test you!
For those with school aged children who need assistance studying for tests: Have them create a test for you and let them grade it. Through the development and grading process they learn more than rote memorization and it has proven to be quite successful!

Thank you to the Wisconsin Cheese Hens for their participation in March Madness! Your ideas have helped to enhance our community and we have enjoyed having you around! Best of luck to the Texas Tidbits on Monday versus the California Golden Girls!

Free For All Friday
As mentioned above, since today is Friday, we do have a Free For All question for you this week! On February 23, 2009 we introduced our new service project, the Gift of 218, to our community. The "Gift of 218" coordinated fundraising efforts to provide an experience for a family that might not otherwise be able to afford it. We spent that day raising money for the project and just a few days later we were well on our way to providing our first experience or memory to a family in Louisville, Kentucky.

We are now in search of more stories and nominations of families in need throughout the country. Claudia, Cheryl, Heather and I have brainstormed some possible a way to begin collecting these stories. Our idea is to create a blurb of text that we will place in a number of places to gain exposure and encourage others to nominate a family in need. We have discussed placing this text in church bulletins, PTA newsletters, sharing it with the Big Brothers Big Sisters, Salvation Army and Boys & Girls Club organizations. Now, we are in need of more ideas!!! What suggestions/ideas do you have of other places we could share our text with in the hopes of gaining stories of families in need? Let us hear it in the comment section!

Signing off until tomorrow...