Fr. Steve’s updates – Page 18 – St. Joseph's Indian School

New recipes and new ideas

Houseparents work for a six day shift and then get three days off, which gives them personal time to recharge their batteries and keeps them fresh over the long haul. Every three days, a third of our houseparents start a break and a fresh group takes over. Each home has one set of six day houseparents, and two homes share a set of three-day houseparents. Changeover days like today, are one occasion when all of the houseparents are here at the same time, and have a chance to exchange information about the students in the homes. It’s also a day when we can do staff training once in a while.

As the school year winds down, today’s changeover featured a fun gathering – a healthy recipe exchange. About a dozen staff created platters of healthy snacks they’ve found the students in their homes enjoy. Everyone could sample them for themselves, and pick up recipes and new ideas. I enjoyed the time to wander and chat, as people start to make their end of the school year summer plans. When the votes were tabulated, Wanda from the Stevens Home (6^th – 8^th grade girls) was awarded Best Tasting, Daniel from the Matthias Home (6^th – 8^th grade girls) was proclaimed Most Creative and Theresa from Cyr Home (4^th-5^th grade boys) had the Most Student Involvement.

While stopping by the Akta Lakota Museum, I ran into Sally and Matt from Wisconsin. Their parish priest, Fr. Pat used to be our chaplain and recommended they visit. I had some time to show them around. Sally is the parish Director of Religious Education, so I made sure she got to hear from our Religious Education teacher. When we stopped in the Art room we got to see some beautiful creations. Bob Miller is our Artist in Residence for the week and he is working with our students to make art that glows fluorescently under black lights. Our students generally like art, but have gone at this work with a real passion. Some are using highlighters or paint, and the work definitely jumps out and make a favorable impression. After school, we stopped by the Afra Home (1^st-3^rd grade girls) where the students proudly showed our guests around the home before they hit the road with many memories.

Summer preparation at St. Joseph’s Indian School

When I finished morning mass I ran into 2nd grader, Dorian on his way back from the Health Center. Dorian had bruised his forehead and was coming back with an ice pack. He smiled about the frozen gel pack with a colorful picture of Garfield the Cat on one side. I remember the old days when nursing our owies meant ice cubes wrapped up in a wash cloth. Our nurses have created a child friendly area to help the youngsters through life’s bumps and bruises. We work with the local hospital to provide a doctor or physician’s assistant each morning for checkups and to make sure our students’ health needs are addressed. If kids are too sick to go to school, they stay in the health center with our two school nurses. After school, evenings and weekends, our houseparents take charge, just as you would do with your own kids at home. With spring in full bloom and outdoor activity increasing, the health center is less about colds and coughs this time of year than it is about healing cuts and scrapes from the playground.

A couple of college students that have worked here in the past summers showed up today to begin another round of summer work. With colleges already letting out, our graduations are not far away at all. Our facilities crew has an ambitious summer schedule that includes finishing two home renovations and beginning another two, in addition to all the ongoing maintenance, painting, landscaping and preventative work that keeps St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus looking beautiful. The extra help is already hard at work.

As our 8th graders prepare for the transition to Chamberlain Public High School next year, two of the coaches from high school visited with our aspiring athletes to get to know them. Students had a chance to learn about expectations and practice schedules. Some are excited about the chance to play on a bigger stage, but most are nervous and wondering if they are up to the competition.

It will take dedication and lots of practice, but I know many of the kids do have it within them to succeed not just in sports, but in life.

Youth learning charitable giving

Yesterday morning a violent thunderstorm with grape and ping pong-sized hail roared through our area. I was with the SCJ community at morning prayer when it hit and you literally could not hear the words the others were praying because of the noise on the roof and against the building. A few screens got ripped up, but we didn’t have any broken windows. Flowers that had bloomed were smashed down and the trees on campus were pummeled, leaving a thick carpet of green leaves covering the road and playground.

The clearing storms gave way to a couple of festive activities. We have a “Big Sisters” program, in which our high school girls help mentor our younger girls in grades 1-5. They gathered for a picnic in back of the Crane (high school girls) Home. I got to be an “honorary” big sister to help with the relay races where students balanced a balloon between their foreheads and raced an obstacle course around the yard. After a cookout, Maija had a couple of piñatas hanging from the apple tree in the back yard, and the little girls put a blindfold on and swung away with a broomstick until candy and small toys rained on the ground for the group to dive into.

Students at the St. Joseph's Indian School dance. — The kids had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with each other!

We hosted a 6^th– 8^th grade dance in the school gym for both our St. Joseph’s students and kids from town. In lieu of an entry fee, we asked people to bring food items to donate to a local charity or make a freewill cash offering. Towards the end of the night we had a cheer contest to determine where the food and money collected at the door would go. I closed my eyes and listened carefully as three worthwhile charities were announced. The loudest cheer came for the Missouri River Crisis Center here in Chamberlain. They shelter victims of domestic violence, and I know that some of our own students have spent some time there. Together, students collected 132 food items and $42 from the door will go to help those in need. Proceeds from the concession stand were also contributed to the cause.

Doug, the DJ, took requests under one condition – if you asked for a song, you also had to get out and dance. That was a clever ploy to increase the number of dancers on the floor. A fair sized group danced in the middle of the floor, but far more youth were plastered against the wall, wanting to ask or be asked to dance, but too shy to do so. I noticed a few boyfriend/girlfriend pairs not dancing, but holding hands and walking around the gym. With our students interacting more regularly with Chamberlain youth, I noticed a little more interaction and friendships forming with each event.

Another program that helps our students interact with kids from the community has been the Explorers Club, which was a pilot program for St. Joseph’s this year. The Explorers Club teaches junior high boys about responsibility and giving back to the community. These young men were engaged in projects like shoveling snow and raking leaves for the elderly, and raising money for charities in town through car washes. They worked on the gentlemanly art of learning how to tie a tie and dress a little fancier once in a while. Today at mass Doug, the leader of the Explores Club, came to honor Adrian, William and Isaiah from our eighth grade class for the contributions they have made.

Cansas, Janis and Adrian presented Carol Riggins, director of the Missouri Valley Crisis Center, a check from the proceeds of the dance.

National Day of Prayer

For today’s National Day of Prayer, the Chamberlain ministerial association sponsored a community prayer gathering at one of the downtown churches. Representatives from local government, the public school system, the hospital, farmers and ranchers, and the Native American community spoke about issues close to their hearts. I talked about the concerns we at St. Joseph’s pray for, and asked the community to lift those issues up in their prayer as well.

I am thankful that because we are a faith-based organization, not only can we pray, but we do regularly pray – in the homes, in the classrooms and dining hall, and of course in Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel.

What I hear our Native American children praying most for is their family. Most of our students’ families face some big issues, and our students are all too well aware. About one-third of our students don’t live with either of their parents, so we pray for a strengthening of families in our world.

We also pray that, in the face of high drop out rates, our young people will stay in school and fulfill their potential. We pray they will avoid the scourges of drugs and alcohol that are so problematic in our country, but particularly in the communities our students come from.

From another perspective, we get many prayer requests from our donors when they send us a note along with their donation. The economy is such a huge issue right now. People are praying for better employment opportunities for themselves or a family member. We frequently hear from people when they are facing major health struggles or are grieving the death of a loved one. We try to include all those intentions in our prayers. I was heartened to be in such an ecumenical gathering where we could pray for each others’ needs and the needs of our bigger world.

Basketball crazy boys

Becky, who works in accounting and I went to Brule County Abstract this afternoon to close on a building downtown that we purchased and pick up the keys. The old grocery store on Main Street has been vacant for a couple of years and it will give us a lot of room to expand our thrift store.

Since it is just a block away from the post office, it will also make it easier to handle the boxes and packages that people send us each day. The building needs a good cleaning and then quite a bit of work, but our maintenance staff is up for the challenge. When we went to check inside the store we invited Chantelle, who manages the current thrift store to go with us. She and Becky have done a lot of work to get the plans and proposal ready and were as excited as two St. Joseph’s kids at the Christmas Store.

After shooting a few baskets with the Raphael Home (1^st – 3^rd grade boys) I joined them for supper. The boys are basketball crazy, especially with the NBA playoffs in full swing. I remember third grade as the time I got so excited about baseball and basketball cards. These boys are just at the age where all of a sudden sports becomes such a central part of their life. They vied for my attention to tell me about their favorite teams and players. They asked me all kinds of sports questions, like which stars I had actually seen play. When they asked about who was champion the most times, I turned on my cell phone and pulled up a list off the internet. Then they crowded around and learned some of the history of the sport, cheering each time their team was listed.

St. Joseph the Worker

May 1st is a day the church celebrates St. Joseph the Worker. Fr. Anthony lead a prayer service after school. He used a shortened version of evening vespers, and the left side/right side response pattern worked much better than I anticipated with our students. Their responses were loud and clear.

At the assembly, we presented the Leo John Dehon Circle of Courage Award for this school year. Staff nominate students each quarter for their efforts at Generosity, Independence, Mastery and Belonging. For the first time, we had a tie in the number of nominations, so we awarded both Alyssa (4^th grade) and Malaina (6^th) the honors. Besides getting their name inscribed on the plaque, they will have a special lunch at a restaurant downtown with Kathleen, our principal. Then, they get to choose a staff member whose job interests them and job shadow them for a day.

Melissa in HR had one of those milestone birthdays today, so her co-workers found an excuse to get her over to central offices where about 20 of us waited with hairbrushes in hand to lip sync “You say it’s your birthday…” She laughed mightily and then ice cream cake was shared by all.

Letters and donations to our development office slow down a bit as summer approaches, but spring is very busy, so we had our spring appreciation lunch to thank our folks for all their dedicated work. Summer is busy in different ways, as it allows us to clean up files, organize and update mailing lists. We’re switching over to a new software system soon, and lots of people are heavily into their training.

Houseparent Tia hails from Louisiana, and invited me to a special supper at the Carola Home (high school boys) to celebrate Louisiana’s bicentennial of statehood. She cooked a bevy of regional Cajun delicacies that our boys and their never-ending appetites scarfed down.

On a wonderful spring night, as I walked home I saw the fourth and fifth grades playing softball. I stopped and pitched a couple of innings. I’m pretty good at lobbing the ball right over the plate so they can get a good swing at it.

What were your track specialties?

Tasha runs her best at the local track meet. — Keep up the great work Braves!

After the weekend travels, today was mostly a catch up day in the office. I left early to cheer on our 6^th– 8^th graders as they competed in a track meet at the public high school track here in Chamberlain, South Dakota. We only have about a dozen kids out for track. Eighth graders Irene and Kyle are our two strongest athletes, competing for ribbons in most of their events. Many of the others, especially the sixth graders running for the first time, were mostly in the middle of the pack. Our relay times showed good teamwork, and improved their hand offs and their times. I noticed a couple of our shot putters running the 100 and 200 meter sprints, and finishing well in back of the leaders. But it helps build their endurance and improves health. I cheered loudly for them for the effort, even when they didn’t expect to win. Trying makes them winners and all the better for it.

My junior high events were 880 (yards) and, believe it or not, pole vault. What were your track specialties during your own school days?

Donor luncheon on the East Coast

Errol and Kyran, two of our high school students and I returned this evening from a couple of donor appreciation luncheons in Concord, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine. I was the one who felt appreciated as we ran into so many people delighted to be with us and meet students and staff. Many have been long time supporters of St. Joseph’s, but this was the first chance they had to meet any of us. One donor from New Hampshire presented me with a hand carved walking stick made from white birch, the state tree. It is almost 5 feet tall and thicker than I can wrap my hand around. As I left the luncheon someone looked at me and quipped, “Do you walk softly?”

We were graced by the presence of Shea Keck, an internationally known Native American performing artist. She is from the Eastern Band Cherokee from North Carolina, and led off the luncheons by singing Amazing Grace in both Cherokee and English. She has a soft spot in her heart for Native American children’s issues, and we were meeting to arrange a visit to the school. She remembers her grandmother giving to St. Joseph’s and said her journey has brought her full circle.

In Concord, we visited the Alan Shepherd/Christa McAuliffe Discovery Center, and took in a movie about Black Holes in the Planetarium. As a good museum should, it tricked us into learning something about science by making it fun. Our houseparent and chaperone Frank, who grew up on a farm, marveled at the thickness and durability of the rubber on the Space shuttle tire. Frank has been a houseparent for 25 years and reflected on the changes and improvements he has seen over the years. We constantly look for ways to improve, but it was encouraging to hear his perspective of how we have strengthened our team approach to child services.

Since New Hampshire is known for it’s dairy farms, several people told us a must-visit spot on our tour of the area was Johnson’s Dairy Bar for ice cream. They suggested I try the “kiddie-sized scoop,” which was as big as a soft ball. With chocolate chips and cherries, the Maine Black Bear flavor definitely lived up to the locals’ rave reviews.

I always imagined Maine as being a small state, but several people who live up north in “The County” drove three, four and even seven hours to join us in Portland. A few people spoke of a long association with St. Joseph’s Indian School through their parents or grandparents, and carry on a tradition of giving in their memory.

Though the weather was cold and blustery, we couldn’t come all the way to the East Coast without letting our students get their feet wet in the ocean. Fort Williams State Park holds a scenic and famous lighthouse, with a commission all the way back to George Washington. Our crew was captivated by the rocky beaches and tankers pulled by tug boats going by. Then we strolled around the waterfront in downtown Portland, where the boys bought a few souvenirs and mementos. We tried some of the local seafood specialties, and I had my first Whoopie Pie.

Delightful days of Mission Awareness

We finished several delightful days of a Mission Awareness exchange with our SCJ sister schools and programs located in Mississippi. Twelve adults and eight students from the South spent time touring and learning about South Dakota and sharing part of their culture and heritage with our students and staff. The group began their tour in the Black Hills and Rapid City, and made the pilgrimages to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse on Saturday. Driving here on Sunday they came via Wall Drug and the Badlands. More than anything else, the group was tickled by seeing prairie dogs scampering around the Badlands.

Monday and Tuesday the Mississippi youngsters rotated around our classrooms to present information about their part of the country. One group presented on famous Mississippians, like Brett Favre and Oprah Winfrey. One section was on entrepreneurs, like the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith. In the 2^nd grade classroom Kathryn remarked,

“Entrepreneurs is a big word for second graders. Those are people who have a great idea, and make it into something important. Can you think of any entrepreneurs?”

While most were puzzled, one student’s hand shot right up. “God” he wisely said.

A second group put together a musical presentation that taught our Native American students about Blues and Gospel music. One of their eighth grade students sang beautifully for us. Our students made percussion instruments out of corn, rice and beans and shook them in time with the beat. One group showed our students about the agricultural products the Mississippi River Delta is famous for, and yet another introduced our students to famous people involved in the Civil Rights movement.

We split our staff into two groups, so that each morning half of them could attend presentations about the pastoral ministry, educational programs, housing efforts and social services that go on in their part of the country. I saw many of our staff nodding heads and agreeing that working in economically disadvantaged areas, many of the issues are the same. Our staff was impressed and appreciative of their efforts, and we got many compliments about what we are trying to accomplish here in South Dakota.

Both days our guests prepared regional foods for our students and staff to feast on at lunch time. Yesterday’s menu included turkey with cornbread dressing, yams and turnip greens. Today we had pulled pork BBQ. Our kids love it all, except maybe the greens, but a certain yuck factor at anything new, especially in the line of vegetables, is typical of school aged children.

Monday afternoon the group toured the nearby Lower Brule and Crow Creek Indian Reservations. The trip included stops at a reconstructed Earth Lodge, typical of a Mandan village, St. Mary’s Church in Lower Brule, and a guided tour of the Sundance grounds. This afternoon our students had a chance to host and present. Our drum group played traditional songs, and our third graders were dance ambassadors. They demonstrated different powwow dance styles and got all the guests on their feet to try hoop dancing.

Our archery students demonstrated the skills they’ve learned. Irene impressed us all by showing that she could hit the center of the target even while shooting lying on her back. (the next Katniss Everdeen?!) Our visitors were tickled to be asked to try their hand, and Rob, one of theeighth grade visitors, even got a bullseye! Our students sat with the guests and taught them how to make dreamcatchers. The end of the school day brought time to tour the homes and Akta Lakota Museum. We shared a meal of Buffalo Burgers, and parted with many joyfully shared memories.

Power outage makes an interesting Sunday

Six hours of no electricity made for unusual dynamics on St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus today. Power went off just before 9 a.m. and didn’t get restored until after 3 p.m.

We have church at 10, so getting ready with darkened bathrooms and no blow driers made for some interesting looks on students walking into church. We do have an emergency generator, to keep emergency lights, heat and crucial systems on campus going in case of problems, but 90% of campus was without power.

After church, darkened homes, and no televisions or computers made for a perfectly easy way to get everyone outside on a lovely day. Bikes were popular, and the playgrounds were full of activity. A couple of the homes hiked to the park. The Carola boys asked me to let them into the Rec Center so they could get some fishing poles for the home and go down to the river and try their luck at landing some walleye.

Cooking was an inconvenience, but we have lots of grills around campus, and most houseparents fired those up and threw on hamburgers or chicken that were thawing out and had to be used anyway.

Around three was the best part of the day, from a kid’s perspective. By that point the freezers were starting to lose their chill, and the ice cream was reaching the critical point of no return. Since no one knew how long we would be out, the freezers were opened and the homes had an ice cream feast. Just as the students were digging in, the power came back on, so the evening ritual of getting ready for the start of another school week could continue.

While I was walking around campus checking in on everybody, I saw the Stevens Home (6^th-8^th grade girls) taking a walk together. Their home is getting remodeled this year, and almost complete. I asked them if they wanted a preview, and the students and houseparents couldn’t believe the changes that had taken place in a few months. There is still a sizable punch list, but the kitchen is complete, and even the plaque with the names of donors who contributed to the project is neatly hung by the doorway. Hopefully before the end of the school year they can start transferring their home supplies over.