Introduction
I am excited to “introduce” myself and excited to have opportunity to serve our community through RUSC Kinship! I am Kay Feuchtenberger, a lifelong resident of West Central MN. I have grown up here, married here, raised our children here and now are watching grandchildren grow up in this area. It is an honor for me to be able to serve the youth in our community through RUSC. My primary duty here is administering the Lunch Buddy program but I also have opportunity to pitch in for community mentoring. Strong families and resilient youth have long been a passion of mine.
RUSC’s community mentor program continues to grow. Some of the early matches have now become “years” old. The impact of mentorship roles grows deeper with age so we are thankful for the dedication of these matches. We currently have young people waiting for mentors and look forward to the day when we can provide matches for them.
Lunch Buddies is a fun and rewarding program for both the adult and student buddies. The excitement on students’ faces on “Lunch Buddy” days is truly inspiring! We have expanded our program to cover 3 of our 4 county’s schools. I can’t help but admire the dedication on the part of adult buddies, parents and teachers to bring this program about, knowing the impact it may have on each of the students.
Many of our outreach activities are currently on hold due to Covid-19 but Erin and I are keeping busy: planning, refining, organizing and fine tuning so, when social distancing comes to an end, we will be more ready than before to offer resources for resiliency to our community. We are so excited about our Joy Bonds presentation that is in the works for May, (hopefully). What an opportunity for the community to learn about big and small ways to help build resiliency in Stevens County and farther out.
