National Family Week Encourages
Families to Play Together -- and
provides 200 free tickets
to A
lancers game to do just that!
On November 5, 2004, Council Bluffs-area school families attended "Family Night at
the Lancers," a hootin', hollerin' good time
for young and old alike. The Lancers Hockey Team played Cedar Rapids that night, winning the game 6 to 4. The Lancers play at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs.
Half-time intermission entertainment included our own Joanie Spitznagle and Mary O'Neill teaming up against an Army team to scale a huge climbing wall brought in by the Army just for that night. Joanie is program director of our Pottawattamie County Homeless Link and our "Transitions" transitional housing facility. Mary O'Neill is program director of our Iowa substance abuse and professional counseling programs. Both women gave the Army guys a good show of their competive spirit . . . even though they scaled the wall just a little slower than their athletic challengers.
To observe National Family Week, celebrated annually during Thanksgiving Week (November 21-27 this year), families are encouraged to take time during the busy holiday season to focus on the importance of their own family. Dinner conversations, family meetings and outings are great times to get the kids to talk about what family qualities are important to them. Parents might consider completing the Family Report Card to assess the strength of their own family, and to learn more about the qualities of a strong family.
Heartland Family Service and Children's Square USA co-sponsor the annual National Family Week in Southwest Iowa. Thanks to a mini-grant from the Alliance for Children and Families, our Family Week national sponsor, we were able to offer 200 free tickets to the Friday evening event, with $5.00 off for those over 200 who presented the National Family Week coupon. 387 students and parents participated.
  
Additional National Family Week activities:
- The development of a four-year strategic advocacy plan, to operate from 2003 –2006, to culminate in the proposal of an Iowa legislative bill to advocate for the needs of families in Western Iowa. Advocacy plan contacts are Nancy Schulze, VP of Heartland Family Service Iowa Professional Services, (712) 322-1407; and Mike Barker, VP of Professional Services, Children’s Square USA, (712) 322-3700.
- Family Week proclamations by Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Governor Mike Johanns of Nebraska, and a joint proclamation for Family Week of the Midlands signed by the twelve mayors of Council Bluffs, Carter Lake, Glenwood and Logan in Iowa; and Bellevue, Fremont, Gretna, Omaha, Papillion, La Vista, Ralston, and Plattsmouth in Nebraska. This is the only joint proclamation signed annually by metro area mayors.
- National Family Week B&W advertisement in Omaha City Weekly newspaper and color inserts in the Omaha World-Herald and several Sarpy County newspapers including the Papillion Times/LaVista Sun w/Spring Field Monitor, Ralston Recorder and Gretna Breeze.
- A Nov. 11 "Salute to Families" event in Council Bluffs, honoring four families in the categories of Leadership, Community Service, Challenged & Successful and Commitment to Family.
- A "Salute to Families" event was also held in Omaha on Nov. 18, honoring four families in the same categories.
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