Renee Rongen - 2011
Author and Inspirational Speaker Renee Rongen held a combination of 5 public speaking engagements entitled “Life is Your Legacy – Live It! and three in-school presentations for both teachers called “Keeping Kids First: Our Legacy for the Future” and students called “The Gift Inside is YOU!” The programs were sponsored by the Lake Agassiz Renional Library. Renee Rongen is the author of Grandy’s Quilt...A Gift for All Seasons.
Event Dates, Locations and Attendance at each individual event:
- 03/07/2011- Lake Park Audubon Elementary School - 75
- 03/08/2011- Breckenridge High School - 20
- 04/04/2011- Ulen-Hitterdal School - 145, Ada Borup High School - 40
- 04/05/2011- Fosston Library Theatre - 35
- 04/20/2011- Frazee-Vergas Elementary School - 360, Detroit Lakes Library - 13
- 04/21/2011- Moorhead Library - 23
711 people attended Activity programs.
Measurable Outcomes may be collected by survey, anecdotal responses, pre-test/post-test, observations; Describe proposed end user change in Behavior, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Condition and/or Status.Life's Your Legacy...LIVE IT!Objectives:
- Create a deeper connection to your history and culture through life experiences.
- Learning more about yourself and how you can create a connection to your past to share with younger generations passing on a legacy of learning and passion for the arts and culture.
- Learn strategies for living a more purposeful and passionate life and how to become stewards for instilling those strategies with the younger generations
- You enjoy learning in a non-threatening, fun and energetic atmosphere.
Keeping Kids First: Our Legacy for the FutureObjectives:
- Reaffirm teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and others in the school setting of why they entered their professions was to make a difference in the lives of a child
- Provide tools and resources for promoting and preserving our regional history and the arts.
- Create a platform through sharingGrandy's Quilt...A Gift for All Seasonsto open up classroom dialogue about each individual child's gifts as they pertain to creating their own legacies.
- Provide tools and resources for new approaches when working with students
- Empower teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals to step outside the box and color outside the lines
- Introduce Legacy living philosophy
- Learn how to create an environment which focuses on life care and each students' individual and unique gifts
- Provide links and resources via website to books/outside sources for further development of the skills outlined
- Provide examples of looking beyond the bottom line
The Gift Inside is YOU!Objectives:
- Create a fun and safe environment where elementary students are encouraged to share their unique gifts with others in the classroom
- Demonstrate and display examples of old quilts and tie them to historical periods of Minnesota history
- Teach children that each of them has a story or book inside them and to write or journal every day. Encourage and outline the importance of daily writing
- Affirmation of talents/gifts from peers in classroom
- Learn age appropriate legacy living philosophy
- Reaffirm the importance of reading/writing and school fundamental curriculum through fun age appropriate exercises sharing the author's book.
A summary of survey results is as follows:Please rate the quality of this program: (Using 1-5 scale, with 5 being excellent and 1 being poor)
- Not rated - (2), 1- (0), 2 - (0), 3 - (1), 4 - (4), 5 - (86), Average (3.90)
What did you like best about the program?
- Light & entertaining - interaction
- Going with daughter
- Joy & inspiration of speaker
- I got to attend!!
- Very funny - what an awesome message
- Her casual presentation
- Great inspiration! (3)
- The laughter (8)
- How personal she was
- Personable & approachable
- Stories (3)
- Her smile
- Everything (3)
- Legacy (2)
- Her friendly attitude
- Humor (7) & wisdom combined
- Renee was wonderful
- The "boys" story
- Advice
- Life lesson we - u know but forget too often
- Faith
- The message
- Her style & ability to motivate
- Her ability to touch emotions - very inspiring
- Life pointer
- Renee's personality
- She really related well to the children and involved everybody
- Audience interaction with a story woven in
- Renee engaged everyone and maintained their attention through questions and stories they could relate to
- The message and enthusiasm!
- We liked it because it talked about helping people and sharing things with them; student demonstrators; we found out about what it is like to go to school in a big city and how dangerous it is
- The ability to tell a story and relate her life experiences with the children's; I felt her message really got through to the children
- Humor - motivation
- Renee kept your attention
- It was a refreshing outlook on how to keep perspective of how we work with students
- Her message
- Wonderful personality - good life lesson
- She is so real, she touched my heart
- Personal stories
- The story of Stanley & your smile
- Her topic & humor
- The humor & stories
- The cards
- Stories (24) and the pay it forward (6)
- The quilt (6)
- She was funny (3)
- Great, easy-to-follow topic
- That all people can be nice and not just on holidays and to be nice every day
- Entertaining; enlightening
- Her inspirational speaking and positive praise, very enjoyable experience
- Her honesty
- How she explains it; and she is really nice; going in front of the class
- She told interesting things
- She was easy to understand, follow, and always kept it interesting
- Importance of a smile
- How she interacted with us
What did you expect to experience or learn from this presentation? Were your expectations met?
- I had no expectation coming in
- Lots of laughs
- Yes (41)
- Some laughter & good tales
- Did not know what to expect
- What makes life worthwhile
- Joy in life (2)
- Smile
- How to be a happier person
- Enjoyment
- How to live your best life
- To laugh & cry (2)
- To be motivated
- About adding humor to your life
- Keep smiling - talking - keep an open mind!
- To be inspired
- An enjoyable weekend
- Motivation to appreciate life
- Inspiring stories
- Had no idea what the presentation was going to be about (3)
- I was hoping for something educational to sustain attention - she nailed it!
- Felt the program presented a wonderful life lesson that the children can carry out throughout their lives
- We needed a positive spark - and we definitely received it
- The outcome was great
- Positive attitude
- Laughter & inspiration
- I so enjoyed the message
- & then some
- I expected to learn about legacy & livery with a life of humor
- Life stories - particularly about using my gifts
- I thought it was awesome
- Telling stories (2)
- How to become an author
- About a book (4)
- That all people can be treated equal and just to be nice every single day
- She did a great job, very enthusiastic
- About her life
- I enjoyed it(3)
- Pay It Forward (4)
- To be nice
- To learn about authors
- Life is not all about you
- Helping out community/world
What other programs would you like to see offered at the library?
- More like this
- Anything like this one (4)
- Music, drama, storytelling
- More music
- More self worth lessons for Elementary students
- Author to come in and promote lifelong learning and the love of reading
- More speakers like Renee - promotion of reading or writing; we would like to see her come back and visit all of the classrooms
- 8thString quartet or blue grass music
- Tim Green (4)
- Mike Lupica
- More funny speakers (6)
- Anything interesting
- Other authors (9); illustrators, etc
- What bullying is about and to stop it
- Plays (6)
- A book program (2)
- Funny videos
- More movies
- About more books
- Quilting workshop
Prior to this program, have you ever attended a program at the library or sponsored by the library? Yes (71) No (39) How did you hear about the program?Program flier - 10Information/poster at the library - 9Information/poster in the community - 4Library newsletter - 1Library web site - 8Newspaper/magazine - 14Radio - 7Television - 2From library staff - 11From another person - 70 Check your age range: Birth to 5 (0), 6-17 (43), 18-54 (31), 55 and over (39) What is your zip code? 56544 (9) - 56501 (8) - 56578 (1) - 56520 (10) - 58075 (3) - 56542 (10) - 56716 (5) - 56715 (1) - 56557 (3) - 55447 (1) - 56511 (1) - 56554 (2) - 56551 (1) - 58078 (2) - 56520 (1) - 58104 (3) - 56560 (1) - 56585 (31) - 56536 (3) - 56549 (4) - 56584 (2) - 56552 (4) Do you have a current library card? Yes - 84 No - 26 NA - 4 # of evaluations received: 115