Mar 18, 1997
Students and staff of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College (LCOOCC) look forward to spring activities, workshops, and greenery soon. The college celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a limerick contest, along with Beef Stew and Green Frybread. Staff and students will travel to South Dakota for an annual tribal college conference. A certification workshop in child day care is scheduled for mid April.
LCOOCC held a Limerick Writing Workshop on March 17th to celebrate the St. Patrick's Holiday and prepare participants for the Original Limerick Contest. The First Annual LCOOCC Original Limerick Contest, co-sponsored by LCO Casino Buffet and Subway, was held on Tuesday, March 18th. Students also held a Beef Stew and Green Frybread sale during the Original Limerick Contest to support student activities.
The limerick is a silly nonsense poem with five lines in it. No one really knows how the limerick began. However, historians believe that the poetry originated in Limerick, Ireland. Maureen Platt, an English teacher at LCOOCC, said the name of the poetry came from an expression the poets used: "Will you come to Limerick?" when they invited each other to meet in the town of Limerick to write. The poets often made up silly verses to tease each other, and then their form of silly poetry became a popular folk poetry, according to Platt.
"Edward Lear, a well known write, made the limerick famous in his "Book of Nonsense," published in 1846. Most people know the limerick is a source of amusement and fun for children to write poetry," Platt said. However, teens and adults can write limericks too, just to make silly versees, tease each other, or comment upon their surroundings.
The winners of the LCOOCC Original Limerick Contest are: Karen Redfield winner of the LCO Seafood Buffet; Delores Belille winner of the Famous Dave's Breakfast Buffet, and Doug Adams, Mary Blauback, Jenny Checchin, Anna Heath, Jan Homesky, Gert Kingfisher, Sean Pugh, and Dorothy Tate who all received a Subway Sandwich Certificate./p>
Later this week, the college will hold a potluck "Traveling Feast" for staff and students attending the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) conference in Rapid City, South Dakota during spring break. The "Traveling Feast" is an Ojibwa cultural practice of ensuring a safe journey and a safe return home for travelers.
The 16th annual AIHEC conference theme is" "Affirming Our Tribal Nations: Quality, Integrity and Accountability in Tribal Higher Education." Tribal college prisidents, staff and students will discuss tribal sovereignty issues. Members of the AIHEC organization said that many federal, state and local governments don't understand or recognize tribal sovereignty. Tribal colleges can provide steps for tribes to articulate, maintain, and strengthen sovereignty, according to Sammi Bordeaux of Sinte Gleska University, a co-sponsor of the AIHEC conference.
Next month, LCOOCC will hold a 40 hour workshop on "Child Day Care Certification," from April 7th to April 11th, 1997. Wendy Sanders will teach the workshop from 8:00 AM till 4:30 PM each day. Anyone interested in the course can contact the Registrar's Office at (715) 634-4790 extension 104 for more information.