Event culminates in students versus staff in volleyball

By Robert Williams

Editor

Slam Fest is not a new concept to Frazee-Vergas High School, but the new youth group, My Voice is Powerful (MVP), is hosting the Snoball Week event that features a volleyball tournament for 9-12th graders with the victors taking on a team of staff members during the end of the week pep fest.

MVP Youth Group Leaders Amy Kilde and Sara Jacobson are both Hornet alums and although Slam Fest has gone through a number of iterations over the years, it remains a staple of Snoball Week. 

“Slam Fest has been around for many years,” said Kilde. “I just remember it from when I was in high school.”

The event began as a competition between junior and senior boys and has morphed over the years.

“Last year was so fun,” said Jacobson. “We had the senior boys and they were hilarious.”

The event began more than 20 years ago and was led for a long time by Jim Jacobson through the Frazee Students Against Drunk Motoring and More (FSADMM) group.

“It changed a little bit. Instead of being during Snoball, it was an after school/evening event,” said Kilde.

FSADMM also went through a transition, becoming the new youth group MVP, as part of the district receiving the 5-year Positive Community Norms Grant (PCN).

The Frazee-Vergas School District received the PCN grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services-Behavioral Health Division July of 2021 and a steering committee Grow Frazee-Vergas (GFW) has been working on how to best utilize the funds of the five-year grant to benefit youth in the surrounding community.

“The grant has very specific goals,” said Kilde.

Heidi Moen is the PCN grant coordinator and GFV facilitator at the high school. 

The grant is aimed at creating activities and environments that allow students to remain alcohol, tobacco and other drug free.

“That’s the goal of this: to give the kids something to do on a school night so they’re making better choices than using drugs and alcohol,” said Sara Jacobson. “Positive things that encourage positive behaviors.”

The kids square off against each other in a single-elimination tournament Wednesday, Feb. 7 from 7-9 p.m.

“It will be open to parents or anyone who wants to watch the students compete,” said Kilde.

The winning team gets to take on a team of staff members during the Snowball Pep Fest two days later during school.

The district and these groups are currently on year three of five with the grant proposal. Finding the best way to utilize funds for events has been a community-wide process.

“We do try our best to collaborate with the other organizations in the school and in the greater community to host events,” said Kilde. “We have a youth group that meets once a month where we generate ideas. It’s important that our ideas are youth-generated.

CornerStone executive director Mackenzie Hamm is also involved as MVP and CornerStone had separate attributes that make working together a necessity in some instances. Because MVP is tied to the PCN grant, there are more stipulations to follow, one being they cannot charge for events.

CornerStone can have events where they ask for an entry fee. For instance, the popular Haunted House that was held at CornerStone in October.

“We encouraged our kids to go help but we couldn’t be named on the event because they charged an entry fee,” said Jacobson. “We can host events or work in collaboration with CornerStone, but we have to be careful.”

“The idea of the grant is it’s supposed to allow access to all kids,” said Kilde.

MVP has approximately 30 active students between fifth through 12th grade. It is open to any students in that age range.

“They bring different ideas,” said Jacobson. “We have a member who really wanted to work in community service and she’s a ninth grader who really wants to promote change. We discussed the possibility of making volunteering a graduation requirement. We looked at policy and that was a really big step, so we changed things up a little bit to make it more of something we can work for, not mandatory, but possibly acknowledged with a graduation tassel.”

The MVP youth group works somewhat quietly behind the scenes but made a big noise when they sought out and invited The LionHeart Experience to come to Frazee, which has turned into multiple visits, all very well attended.

“The students did a really great job in that process,” said Kilde.

The group polled the student body on what their classmates thought were the biggest issues in school and the poll came back with mental health being at the top.

“And that really aligned with LionHeart, so it was a really well thought out process and the students did a lot of work to get them to come here,” Kilde said.

Kilde and Jacobson also recognize the need for kids to be the progenitors of ideas that will garner the interest of other students and also the different ways modern kids approach questions like alcohol use compared to when they were in school.

“When we were in school we had FSADMM, but I don’t know how that all worked,” Jacobson said. “I don’t think everyone got to be on FSADMM. It was very small and there weren’t very many kids in it. They did the mock car crash and that was about it. It was more of the scare tactics and that’s a big thing that our grant focuses on not trying to scare kids. Focusing more on the positives and that’s why our message is most students would rather not drink alcohol.”

“It empowers these kids,” said Kilde. “When they see it and believe it they realize I don’t have to do this. Hopefully, when they’re faced with that challenge they are able to stand up and say no. I do think something like this is needed in our community right now,” said Kilde. “The community has changed in the last 20-25 years.”

CornerStone Community and Youth Center has been an excellent partner for MVP.

“Partnering with CornerStone has been really important for us because our kids need a place to go,” said Jacobson. “These kids need a place to go and CornerStone has given them that opportunity.”

“We love partnering with Mackenzie (Hamm) and Sandy (Oelfke) at CornerStone,” said Kilde. “They’re always doing something fun with the kids. When you’re in a small community with a small population of kids, it seems like the same ones are involved in all the different things too. That’s another important piece of why we want to try to partner and support other organizations so kids aren’t stretched out as much.”

The groups have grown together on a similar timeline.

“When I think of where we started, CornerStone was still being established too,” said Kilde. “It was kind of a slow growth in getting kids involved and interested. Now that we’re finally a community and kids are learning more about what we’re about, we’re seeing how many more want to be involved and be a part of it.”

The group also includes Student Council Advisor Dani Adams and her group of student leaders.

“We don’t want to take kids from other groups; we want to all work together and support each other’s activities,” said Jacobson.

“When we do fun things; I think that brings in kids,” Jacobson said. “When we had LionHeart that first time, we had way more kids at the next meeting.”

Slam Fest is another fun event that the organizers and youth group members hope brings out more participation at this and future events.

The MVP group’s goal is at least one monthly activity for kids with the plan for March to be an escape room at CornerStone. Details are still being formulated.

Slam Fest is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 7, from 7-9 p.m. in the high school’s main gymnasium for freshmen through senior kids.

To register, send team name and team members to sjacobson@frazee.k12.mn.us by Friday, Feb. 2.