Snow in April

The Lakota children enjoyed mild temperatures while playing in the April snow!
An unpredictable South Dakota spring brought lots of snow, but mild temperatures.

As St. Joseph’s Indian School starts to wind down for the year, several factors have come in to play this spring.  It is unbelievable the amount of snow we have received in South Dakota for the month of April!!  St. Joseph’s even missed a day of school due to the weather – that rarely happens since our Lakota students live on campus.  The students truly enjoyed being outside to play in the snow as the temperature was in the low 30’s, which is relatively warm.

St. Joseph’s track team has been diligently practicing, either in the Recreation Center because of snow or outside when the weather is clear. Needless to say, with all the snow, our track meets have been canceled so far.  We are hoping that the next one on Monday will take place as the temperatures are suppose to be in the 70s. Hurrah for the Glorious South Dakota Sunshine!!

Last week, I was involved with the Mr. Relay For Life Pageant that St. Joseph’s Relay For Life hosted at the Oacoma Community Center. The pageant was a spin-off of the Miss American Pageant, but with gentlemen of the community participating as contestants.

It was awesome to see the wonderful turnout from the community to support us in our endeavor to raise money for the fight against cancer! Of course, it really helped that our gentleman were such great sports with their choice of evening wear, talent and interview questions for the night’s competition.  It was an evening enjoyed by many family and community members.

I would like to thank all of St. Joseph’s donors for your support and donations throughout the school year.   You are a blessing to our school and the Native American students.

“Wealth and honor come from you O’Lord; you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

–Chronicles 29:12–

The Lakota students enjoyed playing in the snow in April!
A mild April day is perfect for making a snow dinosaur!

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.

Inquisitive Minds

The other day while I was cooking I felt a tap on my arm. I looked down and saw Arthur (one of our first graders).
“Right Luisa that humans can’t walk on water?” he asked.

“Right!” I responded.  Before I could say anything else he hurried away back into the toy room.

[3 minutes later]

“Luisaaaaaa!!! Tell Uriah to stop lying to me. He keeps saying he can walk on water. Tell him he can’t!”

Arthur was back in the kitchen clearly upset that Uriah was making false claims. Uriah trailed in right behind him.

“Yes huh, I can walk on water!”

I asked Uriah why he was lying to Arthur.

“Only Jesus can walk on water, please don’t lie to Arthur anymore ok?”

“Nuh uh!” he responded.  “What about lizards?!?!”

That’s when it hit me. I was so busy being a logical and reasoning adult who does important adult things that I couldn’t think like a child. It never crossed my mind that Uriah might have been playing a game.

“You’re right! I’m sorry. Arthur. Uriah is just pretending to be a little lizard.”

I knew about basilisk lizards, but what’s striking is that little Uriah learned about them somewhere and did not forget.

The Lakota (Sioux) children take field trips on weekends.
Uriah tries out the space suit at the museum the Lakota boys visited on a weekend trip.

Boys: one moment they are superheroes and another they are basilisk lizards! Their minds are so inquisitive. They inspire me on a daily basis to keep creating, trusting, exploring, believing, learning, and of course: to not turn into a grumpy adult.

This past weekend during our three days off, Jachin and I tagged along with the other set of house parents on a home trip with the boys.  The destination was Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is only about two hours away.

They took a St. Joseph’s mini bus and we drove behind them in our car. We took them to Falls Park, they swam their hearts out at the hotel’s pool, and we visited Chuckie Cheese as well as the Washington Pavilion. Needless to say, the boys had a blast.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was going to the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences. There, we visited the Kirby Science Discovery Center, which has more than 100 interactive, hands-on exhibits. I was amazed by how interested and entertained the boys were. They looked like little explorers on a mission!

Here’s a video clip from part of their adventure:

http://bit.ly/11ws2n3

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 (4th-5th 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!

Next up: Poetry

The end of the school year is quickly approaching at St. Joseph’s!

As always, there are many extra activities occurring before we dismiss for the summer, which keep the Lakota children (and their teachers!) very busy.  In reading, we have finished up our first unit on poetry.

This was a big change from our previous units on nonfiction informational texts. Everyone seem to enjoy the change.   In the next couple of weeks, students will be putting their knowledge to the test and engage in the art of writing a few short poems.  I always enjoy seeing their imaginations come alive!

Last week, we had some visitors from the Mission Education Conference come into our classroom.  We decided it would be fun to see what they knew about the elements of poetry, so we made up a bingo game using poetry terms.

Our Native American students and visitors helped each other out; everyone had a good time and it proved to be a good learning tool for the students and visitors as well!

~ Linea – 6th – 8th grade reading teacher

Mission Education visitors spent time with the Lakota children in their classrooms at St. Joseph’s.
The Lakota students and Mission Education visitors helped each other play bingo with poetry terms.

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.