Fr. Steve’s updates – Page 4 – St. Joseph's Indian School

On a slushy, icy morning

On a slushy, icy morning this week, a garbage truck knocked over an electrical pole in downtown Chamberlain and knocked out power to St. Joseph’s whole campus just as school was beginning. Teachers had to scramble with their lesson plans, and go back to pre-technology activities like reading poetry and solving math problems with pencil and paper. The classrooms have enough windows and natural lighting to get by, but the littlest Lakota students were reluctant to go into the darkened bathrooms and were very relieved when the lights finally came on an hour later.

Over the weekend, the Hogebach Home (HS girls) made a trip to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. I stopped by their home for supper to hear all about their adventures. For many, their favorite event was shopping. I’ve been to the Mall of America before and was overwhelmed by too many choices. But they loved the variety, and were even happy window shopping before making a choice. Most of the students in this home work part time jobs, so they had saved up money to buy some fashions not easily found in our small South Dakota town.

When our St. Joseph’s homes travel as a group, we ask them to include some educational or vocational activity during their time.

Erika, one of our seniors, has been accepted to an art school in the Twin Cities, and made a special visit to campus to receive more information and orientation. She and houseparent Robb were impressed and pleased by what they heard and saw.

Many of our students come from low-income families and often qualify for grants and financial aid. St. Joseph’s also helps with some scholarships. I tell our students that if they have the perseverance to stay in school and do well with their studies, we will help them find the funds to make it through.

Varied and generous gifts

Some of our donors generously remember St. Joseph’s Indian school in their estate planning. A couple of times since I’ve been here we’ve actually been willed a home, which we then sell and put the funds toward our endowment.

We recently received word that we were left a house in Germany! I’m sure there will be a few more complications selling that property than we’re used to, but the gift is greatly appreciated and will go to a good cause – helping the Lakota (Sioux) children.

Our network of support continues to astound and amaze me.

Shooting hoops after school is a favorite pastime of the Lakota boys and girls at St. Joseph’s. — The Lakota children will love a new outdoor basketball court!

Our newest staff members from our Donor Care Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, were recently on campus for orientation. While some people who work phones and answer email have high turnover rates, my hope is that they stay for the long term like so many other staff. Though they won’t work directly with the Lakota (Sioux) children and will be more in touch with our donors, they are very much an important part of our mission at St. Joseph’s. I look forward to getting to know them as we work together to accomplish great things.

Later in the day, I spoke to a donor who found out we are planning to build an outdoor basketball court this summer. He offered to pay for the whole thing as a memorial to his brother. I know our Native American students will love it when that goes up next to the junior high homes! Our Planned Giving office frequently helps people who want to give memorial gifts.

Wopila tanka – many thanks – for sharing so generously with the Lakota children!

A week in review

Last week, I was talking to one of St. Joseph’s newer employees who is also quite young. What impressed me most was his expressed desire to make a difference. Sometimes, my generation complains about the younger generation. Too often, we underestimate youth who very much want to be part of a group that has high ideals and wants to address the problems of the world in a meaningful way. That fresh attitude and enthusiasm helps light the fire under me and spurs me on.

That evening, hot dogs for supper at Giles Home (high school boys) wasn’t a gourmet feast, but the satisfying conversation and connection with the guys there was good food for the soul. The whole house is made up of freshmen. As they sprint toward the school year’s finish line, they’re finding their way together. They all have their days where they are moody and flighty teenagers, but I notice a maturing and growth – satisfying to see.

…

Mike, one of our Family Service Counselors shared he was having a difficult time getting information to the family of a Lakota student who has been accepted into our high school program. The family struggles with the basics, and last month didn’t have the money to pay the deposit on the Post Office box rent. The same happens with dropped phone coverage or even loss of home utilities when times get hard.

Wednesday

I joined 24 students who had achieved perfect attendance for a trip downtown to see the movie “The Croods.”

This cave family didn’t live up to my favorite, the Flintstones, but the kids enjoyed the movie and the outing.

– As an adult, do you still enjoy animated movies from time to time?

The Summerlee Home (fourth and fifth grade girls) was my supper stop. My table got talking about cooking – dishes they can prepare (mostly involving noodles or eggs) and favorites from home, like fry bread and smothered burritos.

These girls just moved back into the newly remodeled home a few weeks ago, and showed me how they’d decorated to give the rooms a homey feel. They like dinosaurs, and a model T-Rex was perched on an end table. The T-Rex was wearing an improvised Easter bonnet, complete with homemade rabbit ears to be in the spirit of the season!

Kids can be fun and creative that way, and so can our houseparents. Cante wanted me to check out the guest bathroom, since that was her weekly responsibility and she worked hard to clean it. With the home so new, they take extra pride in keeping it looking good.

Thursday

The priests, sisters, and permanent deacon who live on nearby Indian Reservations and serve on the Lower Brule and Crow Creek Pastoral team make up an important part of our outreach ministry.

I attended their team meeting and we discussed some long range strategic planning to address the pressing social needs they meet every day. I enjoyed being a part of the opening round of sharing again.

Recent snows and ice kept attendance down in some of the missions. Fr. Hendrik actually slid off the road and had to be towed out by parishioners behind him who happened to have chains in their pickup truck.

Fr. Vincent took Fr. Jose for his first experience of a Native American funeral yesterday. They left at 8 a.m. and didn’t get home until 4 p.m., which is not unusual. Native Americans observe much more cultural ritual surrounding death and burial.

Helping one another learn

I’ve been taking Fr. Jose, SCJ, around campus to have supper in several of our student homes so he gets the chance to practice his English and get to know St. Joseph’s staff, students and programs. At the Cyr Home (4^th-5^th grade boys) with a dozen 10 and 11 year old Lakota (Sioux) boys animatedly chatting around the table on every subject from sports to movies to comic books, it was obvious that he was experiencing English overload, especially with all the cultural references he wasn’t familiar with. But he’s a good sport about it.

After supper was a different story. As the boys started in on their homework and an atmosphere of calm quiet took hold, Fr. Jose started working with the students one at a time, reviewing quiz questions and spelling words. Darius had extra homework to make up. He helped Fr. Jose read the questions and together they figured out the answers. In that way, Darius became the teacher for a while, and they were mutually pleased to be able to help one another.

They say you really haven’t learned a subject until you’re able to teach it to another.

Preparing for a future without cancer

Last week St. Joseph’s High School Staff met with our eighth graders who will continue on in our high school program. A few of our Lakota (Sioux) graduates already have plans to go back to their home reservations and finish school there. They will meet with their Family Service Counselors to prepare for that.

Those who will remain here receive the schedule and expectations for the 3-week high school prep program. They were asked to pick one of our current high school students – often a sibling or relative – to shadow in the next few weeks as they learn what it will be like to go to the larger Chamberlain Public School.

While some people ask if we’d ever consider our own high school, we have a good working relationship with Chamberlain. If our students can make the jump into a mainstream high school, I believe it makes taking the next step to college or vocational training that much less scary and more attainable. We continue to see the importance of support and encouragement for the students through all the important times of transition.

Our St. Joseph’s staff has been active in supporting efforts to help those in our community who are battling cancer.

Our Relay for Life team decided to have some fun with a different kind of fundraiser last weekend, and tried a “beauty pageant” for 17 men in our community.

All the contestants in the “Mr. Relay for Life” competition were incredibly good sports. Several of our staff joined Chamberlain’s mayor and other local dignitaries in scouring our St. Joseph’s Thrift Store for evening gowns and fancy get ups for a runway walk. They were each give a humorous philosophical question to answer. And, of course, the night had to include a talent competition. Contestant challenges ranged from juggling rubber chickens, to catching tennis balls with a fishing net, and stringing plastic Barrel-O-Monkeys together.

The crowd who poured into the community center filled the bleachers, and extra chairs had to be brought out. There were constant belly laughs and a tremendous spirit of fun and community. Originally, the committee had hopes of raising $500 for the cause, but as spectators voted for their favorites by filling donation jars, over $4400 raised in support of local people with cancer!

When the Master of Ceremonies read the thank yous and included the names of a dozen St. Joseph’s staff on the planning team, I overheard a person in the bleachers behind me surprised that we could get so many volunteers. In our community, volunteerism is not dead. Besides their commitment to their jobs on campus, I’m impressed by the spirit of our staff to make a difference in the community.

St. Joseph’s Relay for Life Team hosted the Mr. Relay for Life Pageant. It was a great fundraiser for the fight against cancer! — Several men from the community came together to make the Mr. Relay for Life Pageant a great success!

Meeting with St. Joseph’s Board of Directors

After the Mission Education conference on St. Joseph’s campus, the Board of Directors meeting went off as scheduled. Half the folks had to phone in since winter storm Walda closed Interstate 90 in South Dakota from Sioux Falls all the way to Rapid City, a distance of 350 miles!

St. Joseph’s Board of Directors met last week with the SCJ Provincial completing his 3-year term. — Fr. Tom, our SCJ provincial, finished his 3-year terms on our board; we showed our appreciation by gifting them with a Lakota star quilt.

The dynamics of a meeting change considerably when you can’t view power point presentations. After reports from Child Services, Development and Human Resources, we heard from those groups who work so hard to make a difference on the reservations.

The main work of the day was to consider and vote on next year’s budgets. Fr. Tom, our SCJ provincial, and Fr. Jack finished their 3-year terms on our board, and we showed appreciation to them by gifting them with a star quilt.

The generous support we receive from our donors makes the wide range of our programs for the Lakota children and their families possible.

After the meeting, I ran into James and Marion, two such donors, touring the museum. They were on their way home to Montana and were stranded in Chamberlain by the storm. At first, they were just looking for something better than watching TV in their hotel room. It was their first time St. Joseph’s Indian School, so I took them on a tour of the school. They were delighted to meet students and staff, and see the students’ campus homes. They said the stop was far more than they expected, and a highlight of their trip.

Back in class after the storm, St. Joseph’s students were busy with Dakota Step testing, and the school halls were again very quiet.

St. Joseph’s Indian School presents a Lakota star quilt in appreciation for Fr. Jack’s time on the board. — Fr. Jack receives his Lakota star quilt.

The SCJ novices from Chicago stayed with us a few days after the Mission Education conference. They were originally hoping to hear South Dakota reflections from the priests and brothers who’ve served many years on the Indian Reservations here, but the snows limited them to our crew at St. Joseph’s. We shared around the supper table and they reflected on what they had learned and observed from the conference. Hopefully, in a few years when their schooling is complete, we can interest them in this great work.

Mission Education… in the snow

Last week, St. Joseph’s Indian School hosted a Mission Education Conference for members of the Priests of the Sacred Heart and our co-workers. Large contingents came from Wisconsin and Mississippi, and others from Texas, Illinois and even two from our sister school in Handrup, Germany.

An excellent and full article on the events, complete with many pictures can be found here. Be sure to look at the “I am Dehonian because. . .” statements!

I was so proud of the work and planning our staff put into the snowstorm-abbreviated conference!

Our Lakota students were also excited to have visitors tour the classrooms and take part in the interactive class lessons planned specially for the day.

Our guests had to leave after only one day because of the record-setting storm that was on its way. As a result, second day activities had to be cancelled. Our students were very disappointed they didn’t get to give cultural demonstrations they practiced for – archery, hand games, drum and powwow dancing – because school was canceled during the snowstorm. One student was actually disappointed to have a snow day, which says something about the excitement generated with visitors on campus!

An entertaining way of informing our guests about the nature of the work at St. Joseph’s was the production of “commercials” from each department. Each of our departments came up with a presentation, video or skit that gave an overview of their part in the mission. Our staff shared their passion for their work with both creativity and humor.

Foster, head of the grounds crew, got out his guitar to do a fun spoof of Johnny Cash’s song “I’ve Been Everywhere.” The facilities crew brought down the house with a clever and imaginative overview of the work they do:

Oh we can: oil it boil it lift it tease it,     weld it broom it whisk it fleece it

Shine it buff it wax it grease it,      wrench it bench it, max it freeze it

Borrow it buy it sell it lease it,      Good Lord help me I can’t stop or cease it

REFRAIN: We can do anything ma’am, we can do anything ma’am

No matter the time or hour, we have got the power

To make it all better, we can do anything

So as you walk around our campus here you’ll notice it looks fresh and green

The buildings look strong and stout, the windows fixed, the floors are clean

We’re proud to be a part of St Joe’s and I want to know as far as facilities goes…..We can do anything!

As we ended the conference at supper with some of our Wisconsin confreres, they were most disappointed the reservation tour got canceled due to highway closures. We told them it was a good excuse to invite them back another time.

A visit from Fr. Jose

Fr. José, an SCJ from our Portuguese province, recently arrived at St. Joseph’s Indian School to begin a four-month stay with us. He is finishing a Masters degree in the area of Economy and International Action at Catholic University in Paris. He is studying human rights as it relates to minority communities and we will be very interested to hear his observations about life in South Dakota.

A significant part of his time here will be devoted to research and study. But, he also wants to improve his conversational English. Children are wonderful language teachers because they have a limited and simpler vocabulary. Where adults are often too polite, kids will laugh when you use the wrong word and correct you. We ate supper in the Dennis Home (1^st-3^rd grade girls) and the Lakota girls helped Fr. Jose make sure he knew the names of all the foods, plates, utensils and condiments on the table.

We had some fun moments on the playground with the kids. We didn’t quite know how to translate “Red Rover” into Portuguese! The girls had fun trying to break through clasped arms. Fr. Jose also had his first attempt at tetherball. To me, it is a monotonous game, but our younger kids love to play it for long stretches at a time.

When the kids asked Fr. José to say something in his language, they sat spellbound as they heard the Lord’s prayer for them in Portuguese, and the Hail Mary in French. Then they in turn began teaching him some of their bedtime prayers.

Friday, our Native American drum group had a practice scheduled in the church, and I took Fr. Jose for his first experience of a Lakota drum song. I could see him tapping his foot in time to the drum beat. Drum music truly is contagious, and you can almost feel your heart beating along.

Prom for our high school students

St. Joseph’s seniors enjoy prom as part of their high school experience. — Erica, a senior, and her date are ready to go!

The highlight of last Saturday evening was the Chamberlain High School Prom. I don’t know what it’s like in bigger cities but, in our small town, almost everyone from town crams into the gym for the Grand March!

Our sharply dressed young couples are introduced and walk around the court so family and friends can shoot pictures before the actual dance begins. We had a dozen of our St. Joseph’s High School students take part.

The Lakota girls love dressing up for prom! — The Lakota girls in the Hogebach Home show off their beautiful dresses.

The Lakota boys sport tuxes for the special evening. — The Lakota boys in the Sheehy Home flex their muscles in their tuxedos.

Afterwards, the community organized a lock-in with lots of fun activities until early in the morning. The hope is to keep students safe and make the evening memorable in a good way. Our students clean up well and looked so grown up! It was an exciting night for everyone who participated.

Finally back on campus!

After some travel during spring break, I’m back on St. Joseph’s campus! Here are a few recent highlights:

Easter Sunday

I completed my week long stay with our retired SCJ elders by celebrating with them the great feast of the Resurrection. I was with them to present some days of recollection about the religious life we share. While they said they appreciated my input, I probably benefitted more from being with them.

I was inspired by their dedication and faithfulness to the daily routine of prayer. None of us quits learning, and these men keep up an active intellectual life. The living room tables were filled with magazines and journals to keep abreast of the issues of the day. In addition to recounting interesting stories from the past, they talked politics and current events, religion and business, with a little sports mixed in for good measure.

One day while I was out walking, I came across 91-year-old Brother Gabriel, far from home with rosary beads in his hand and a steady, determined step. He walks 3-5 miles each day. Instead of complaining about what he can no longer do, he does what he can, which is a good help to good health. Should I live to such a ripe old age, I hope I’m like that too.

Tuesday

I spent a morning at St. Joseph’s new donor care center to see how staff there is doing. I try to be a resource in our office to answer questions about school and programs, but even those in the business office are very aware and engaged about what’s going on for the Lakota boys and girls.

I didn’t “accomplish” many practical things, but walked around the office and heard about donors whose stories touched the hearts of those who answer our phones. Sometimes I describe my role as Director of St. Joseph’s as being the head cheerleader! I am grateful for all that our staff does in all areas of campus that contributes to our goals and mission.

Our Parent Advisory committee had their spring meeting.

Looking at our high school data, we were impressed to see that, in the past three years, the number of Honor Roll students has more than doubled, while the number under a 2.0 GPA has been cut in half. We make an effort for each student to succeed, but ultimately, they have to be the ones making the determined effort.

With 40 Native American students this year, our St. Joseph’s students make up a significant portion of the total Chamberlain enrollment of 300 students. As we prepare our eighth graders to transition to high school, next year we may have closer to 50. The Chamberlain High School principal told us that, with the vast rural nature of our part of the world, 50 students is larger than the entire population of 25 High Schools in the state of South Dakota!

Our parents are very concerned about our bullying policies and efforts at prevention, so we reviewed those at the meeting. Later in the month, we are training a group of 20 staff in a new prevention program. We plan to expand the training to all our Child Services workers at orientation before the new school year.

We showed the parents our new historical center. One alumnus looked at the display case with items our development office has sent out over the years and saw one of the glow-in-the-dark rosaries that used to earn him a penny allowance for stuffing into envelopes to be sent all over the country. Other displays triggered many memories.

Thursday

The hallways at school were unusually quiet as state-required academic testing was underway. Bathroom breaks were staggered for one class at a time, and silence even reigned there. Our teachers are experimenting with an incentive package. The students get to pick a reward or activity they enjoy, and if they pay attention, participate and complete their tests in a timely way, they can earn extra of their favorite time. We’ll see how it goes.

We have a lot of phones on campus, but also lots of activity, so when people call they may get a recording instead of someone live. I spent this afternoon recording new messages for our list of options. It’s strange when I call the school and hear my own voice! But we are trying to do a better job of getting to calls as quickly as possible.

Friday

We practiced today for this weekend’s first communion and baptisms. When I practice for a church event, one of my goals is that the practice shouldn’t take longer than the actual ceremony, but I don’t think that worked today. With 18 students ranging from grades 2 through 8, it takes some time to organize and get everyone in the right places with the right idea of what they need to say or do.