By Chair Bob Finke, Family Health Medical Clinic 

  

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching and the Business and Education Committee has a few activities to complete this year while planning for next year is underway.

The Committee will be involved in prom week activities at both high schools the week of May 13th. 

  

Members of our committee will be sponsoring the car crash vehicles at each school as a reminder to students to drive carefully during prom week.  Also, we will be at each school on May 16th to hand out ice cream sandwiches and personally encourage good decisions during the prom activities.

Our next committee meeting will be held on April 26th at 7:30 at Lakeville North High School.  Our final teacher appreciation breakfast of the year will be at Oak Hills Elementary on April 12th at 8:00 AM.  All chamber members are invited to join us for any of these activities.
  

There are some new ideas that we are exploring for next school year.  Todd Bornhauser introduced the Young Entrepreneurs Academy at the Chamber Luncheon last month.  This is an extensive after school program designed to transform middle and high school students in to confident entrepreneurs.  Todd has asked the National Chamber Foundation for more information on this venture and will inform the members about future steps in developing this program.

At the same Luncheon the members were introduced to new academies that are being developed at each high school.  At Lakeville South a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) academy is being developed.  At Lakeville North a Business Academy will be introduced next fall.  Both of these programs will provide opportunities for Chamber businesses to be involved in the development or our high school students.

Kathy Bennett, a Business and Education Committee member, has been investigating how our Chamber can be supportive of reading programs in the school district.  After a great deal of effort and diligent work, Kathy has made contact with the Learning Buddy program sponsored by DARTS.  There was a meeting on March 29th at the DART office attended by Kathy, Bob Finke and Barb Knudsen from Lakeville Area Public Schools.  The Learning Buddy program is present in many schools throughout Dakota County and has a firm foundation of support in those areas.  Under Kathy's guidance we are developing a plan for introducing this program in Lakeville.  When this program is developed there will be an opportunity for Lakeville Chamber members to be involved through volunteering at the elementary schools.
 

Finally, our summer schedule of meetings will be on Wednesdays at 7:30 AM on June 26, July 24 and August 28.

By Kathi Lindau, Lakeview Bank, Ambassador Chair

The Lakeville Chamber of Commerce is planning a new and exciting opportunity to travel.