Dear GreatLIFE Member, Team Members & Support Team,
Hope you are enjoying the Fall weather and colors! The school year is in full swing with GreatLIFE busier than ever. We are in 8 elementary and middle schools with our PLAY Everything program as well as Compassion Child Care and Downtown Central Church. We are also working with the Community Campus at our 39th and Phillips GreatLIFE location as well as doing programing for the Boys & Girls Club down at the Y. We have over 35 teachers trained for the Youth Entrepreneur program at several of the public middle schools and O’Gorman Junior High School.
With TeamMates Mentoring of Sioux Falls, we have begun weekly mentoring sessions with students from 12 different Sioux Falls School District schools. TeamMates was started over 31 years ago by legendary Nebraska football Coach Tom Osborn and his wife Nancy. TeamMates mission is “To positively impact the world by inspiring students to reach their full potential through mentoring”. It is school one on one mentoring program that is relationship based. Because hope is the greatest indicator of success for students, TeamMates Mentees report +73% of higher levels of hope as well as 86% of Mentees say that their Mentor makes them excited about the future. For Mentors, 92% report talking to their Mentee about their strengths and talents. 85% of Mentors leave their mentoring sessions feeling more hopeful and 82% return to their workplace/home more engaged. You can learn more at www.siouxfallsteamates.org. if interested.
We are again partnering with Feeding South Dakota for the month of October where you can donate any canned food items at any GreatLIFE location. Feeding South Dakota has been around for over 50 years and provides food to 37,000 needy people every month. In their last fiscal year, they provided over 14.8 million meals. They are headquartered here in Sioux Falls and have operational centers both in Rapid City and Pierre. You can learn more at www.feedingsouthdakota.org to learn more.
Through our Awaken program and the Stand Together Foundation’s Phoenix program, we are working with the Avera Addiction Care Center and Face It Together program in helping address substance issues. The idea behind Awaken is own your morning, own your day and own your life. The Phoenix program is free to both GreatLIFE Members and non-members with the only requirement being sober for 48 hours. It’s mission is “to build a sober active community that fuels resilience and harnesses the transformational power of connection so that together we rise, recover and live”. You can learn more about the Phoenix program at www.thephoenix.org if interested.
You may have heard that Kansas GreatLIFE has merged with Brown Golf to form GreatLIFE Golf. The merger means they now operate over 50 golf courses in the Kansas market and seven Southeastern states that is independent of our GreatLIFE Golf & Fitness here. We currently have reciprocity with their Kansas golf courses and are in negotiations for reciprocity for their Southeastern golf courses.
Lastly, our daughter Molly Christianson has joined our GreatLIFE Team as Executive Director for our GreatLIFE Cares Foundation and look forward to her leadership. Thanks for being a GreatLIFE Member, we really appreciate your support and involvement. Hope you enjoy the video!
Tom Sr