Carola Home Trip

The Christmas tree and decorations are put away.

The New Year’s resolutions have been made.

A group shot of the Carola Home on their skiing trip.
The boys had so much fun on their home trip to the Black Hills!

Now it’s time to get cracking with those books and getting through second semester. You would think the fun and exciting times would be over. That is not the case. This time of year for many homes here at St. Joseph’s begins with what we call the home trip.

Every year, each home on campus takes a home trip. Home trips are a wonderful time to relax and enjoy time together as a home without the stresses of homework, schedules and responsibilities. It’s a time to step out of the home routines and just be ourselves. It’s a time to get to know one another better and build friendships and relationships.

Two boys posing for a picture while on the slopes.
Derrik and Tommy stop for a picture while skiing.

We took our home trip this past weekend. The adventure took us to Terry Peak in Lead, South Dakota. This is the second year our home has made this trip. The boys enjoyed it so much last year that they voted to do it again this year. The boys have looked forward to this trip all year and now they have the memories.

We stayed in the beautiful Buffalo Trail Lodge. This is where the boys played in the snow, where they laughed at times, played games and watched movies.

The boys spent most of the two days skiing while others did snowboarding.

The boys had a lot of fun. They were very appreciative that donors help provide such an amazing experience. As one of the boys stated, “You guys are spoiling us!”

Laughter and reconnecting with old friends

My name is Mary Jane.  I work with the alumni of St. Joseph’s Indian School.  Each year we try to have three to four alumni luncheons at various places in South Dakota.

On Sunday, December 18, a group of us traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota for an alumni luncheon.  Four of our high school students, RJ, Erin, Cody and Makayla along with another staff member, Maija who was a houseparent and is currently working with our high school students.

During the course of the luncheon we had twelve alumni along with their families join us.  We had a total of 40 people for lunch.

We had so much fun reconnecting, sharing and learning what was new with each other.
We had so much fun reconnecting, sharing and learning what was new with each other.

Henrietta, who currently lives in Rapid City went to St. Joseph’s Indian School in the 50’s.  Henrietta’s cousin LeAnn attended St. Joseph’s in the 70’s and also joined us for lunch.  Both ladies shared their stories with Erin and others about their times in the dorms, school days and chores that they had.  Currently LeAnn owns her own cleaning business.  She stated that she learned to clean so well as a student at St. Joseph’s.  Erin, our high school senior, shared her stories of being able to travel to Florida for a donor luncheon and Germany for an exchange with our sister school.

Three others had been students here during the transition from the dorms to the homes and were able to share many experiences.  Kory, David and Janice all were classmates in the sixth through eighth grades during those days.  Kory and David were in the high school program and a year in the college program together.  It was amazing to watch them reconnect, share their stories and learn what each other have done since their ‘St. Joe’s days’.

Parents of several of the alumni came as well.  They too talked about how much they appreciated all that St. Joseph’s had done for their children while they were here.

Steve, our 7-8th grade science teacher and Kara, our 2nd and 4th grade teacher also came.  They too enjoyed seeing former students and joking about their times together in ‘the olden day’ as they call it.

The day was filled with laughter and reconnecting with old friends.

Fr. Steve’s updates

This morning, I prayed and did a fair amount of spiritual reading. The challenge is to do that consistently, even on days when I don’t feel reflective, because it helps keep me going through the hard times.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Some days are very quiet and if I want, I can use the time almost like a retreat.

This morning, I prayed and did a fair amount of spiritual reading. The challenge is to do that consistently, even on days when I don’t feel reflective, because it helps keep me going through the hard times.

My dad’s cousin Julie lives just an hour and a half away. With no treatments, I hit the road and had no problems traveling.

After a delicious home-cooked meal, we spent time in their rec room with a CD of her nephew Neil singing Irish music in the background. Every nook and cranny of the walls are full of memorabilia leading to stories – the picture of her brother’s naval ship from the time everyone surprised him at port for his birthday, the trip to the Oslo Olympics to see our cousin speed skate, the autographed baseball from a visit to Chicago … many family stories are so good you want to regularly hear them again, and the laughter left me feeling wonderfully blessed.