Guest Blogger: Mike P

Happy Holidays from the William Home!

Each year, we host an open house and invite our teachers, mentors and other staff that work with our kids to come over and have some Christmas goodies. This is a great chance for the girls to show off their home and use their social skills and manners in a larger setting.

Kira grabs a loose ball in her last basketball game!
Great hustle Kira!

We just completed our fourth and fifth grade basketball season and the girls went out with a victory in their last game at a tournament in town.  This was such a fun bunch to spend time with! It was great to be able to watch the different skills we try to coach begin to appear in the games.  At this age, we spend a majority of our time in practice working on basic skills and how to play the game properly from dribbling the basketball, to sportsmanship on and off the court.

The girls also had the opportunity today to go through the Christmas store and pick out gifts for their families.  After that, they went to see Santa, wrap their presents and enjoy some treats.

We have also continued our walking program with the girls. We are happy to announce that we are currently at a total of 10,789 laps in the gym, which is a little over 500 miles!

From the William Home, may you all have a very Merry Christmas and all your travels be safe!

Guest Blogger: Mike P.

Week 3: 3,077 laps

Greetings everyone from Mike and the William Home (4th and 5th  grade girls)!

This is my tenth year working in the William Home and it is hard to believe that we are finishing up the first quarter of school this week.  As always, St. Joseph’s Indian School’s powwow was very enjoyable and our Lakota kids love showing off their homes, campus and dancing.

The girls are now getting excited for the start of basketball season. We signed up October 18 and our first game is November 5!

If you have followed the William Home activities from last year, you may recall that we set a goal to walk 500 miles (10,00 laps in the gym) as a group.  Well, this year the girls have a new plan. We have worked to find the mileage to all the girls’ hometowns and have set up a map to track our walking.  Our tour is set to take us 760 miles or 15,200 laps around the gym. So far, we have made it to Fort Thompson and Lower Brule and are headed to Winner, South Dakota next.

Thank you for all you do to help the children of St. Joseph’s, and we will keep you updated on where the William Home is on our walk!