Neisha Dahlstrom Circle of Honor Award
The Neisha Dahlstrom Circle of Honor Award was named after one of the STEPMC founders. This award is chosen to someone who has given time, energy, purpose to fulfill STEPMC's mission and to continue the growth of the program.
2024
Angela comes to STEPMC with extensive experience in the local school system having most recently served as a teacher in USD 418. Along with teaching, Angela has a passion for swimming and serves as the head coach for the USD 418 Girls High School Swim Team. In addition to these professional duties, Angela is deeply involved with the local community through service, including trail maintenance along the Meadowlark Trail with the high school swim teams and volunteering in multiple capacities for The Refuge Church Camp.
2021
Growing up we did not have a lot of money, I struggled with fitting in, and feeling accepted. I then turned to drugs to numb all the negative feelings I was dealing with from growing up. I became a single teen mother, struggling to just make it in everyday life. My life was nothing but chaos, while dragging along my innocent child in my chaos. I was in a very dark place in life, I could not see a way out of the darkness. I was feeling hopeless, worthless, and considered myself a major failure in life for myself and I felt I had failed my children. In 2021, I found STEPMC which was my light, leading the way out of my darkness. For the first time ever, I g
2023
I was so lucky to work with Rebecca, who had just graduated from our Getting Ahead Class. She brought that experience to develop our future classes. I was more on the Administrative side - organizing our policies and procedures for our participants, working on our finances, speaking to community groups to introduce Circles, and what our mission was. And most importantly. FUNDRAISING! We found that developing relationships with our Getting Ahead participants, Circle Leaders, and Allies, transformations just happened, and lives were changing for the better.
2022
"I graduated from the Getting Ahead class of 2021 and became a Team Leader at STEPMC. Before joining STEPMC, financially speaking, I didn't have much hope in getting myself out of the hole that I had dug. I'm so grateful for this opportunity and also for the new life that I'm building on my way out of poverty. Outside of working and STEPMC programming, I have a toddler at home and I enjoy growing spiritually, cooking, food, art, music, reading, going for walks, feeding the ducks, watching nature, family time, and friends."
