Tag: Dreamcatcher

Fr. Joe and Fr. Vincent stopped by from Lower Brule, where they are in charge of pastoral work on the two Indian reservations nearest St. Joseph’s Indian School. They are replacing a 30+ year old heating and cooling system and we needed to talk about that project. Since I was pastor there before coming to the school, we also caught up on people and events in the parish.

I was looking forward to hosting them for lunch at our community house, but we had some complications.

To help get ready for our 35th annual powwow, we decided to trench in a water line to the pavilion. That will help make clean up for the supper and concession stand a lot easier. They had to shut off the water to our house in order to do that, and I had set some pots of water aside. But in digging there was an older electrical connection that wasn’t correct on our underground maps, and power got knocked out too. Besides all the computers going down for a while, we got things up and running in short order, and it didn’t interrupt the school day. But with no water or electricity, going home for lunch wasn’t happening, I treated Fr. Joe and Fr. Vincent to a café in downtown Chamberlain instead.

Going by the Benedictine Homes after school, I saw some of our youngest girls twirling a long jump rope. I was in a playful mood, so I jumped in and joined them. I used to jump rope a lot when I was training for basketball. I lasted a long time, which is another sign the nerves in my foot are continuing to heal and grow stronger. And I got some smiles and laughs out of the little ones to see me joining their games.

The campus was unusually quiet over the weekend. Many of the students got checked out by their families to enjoy some activities over the long holiday weekend. On Sunday, we had a much smaller than usual crowd for mass as well. Several of the homes were gone on day trips – some made a run to the South Dakota State Fair in Huron. Others went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to take in the LifeLight Christian Music Festival.

On Sunday our SCJ community hosted four overseas visitors. Three priests from Indonesia and one from Venezuela have been studying English this summer before they return to Rome for advanced degrees in Formation and Spirituality. They decided to take advantage of the long weekend and explore the South Dakota prairies.

Although today there were no classes, the campus sprang back to life as students poured back onto campus. A treat for Labor Day was a trip to downtown Chamberlain to the movies. It’s about a mile away and most of the homes walked down. We practically filled up the theater with just our St. Joseph’s kids. While “Smurfs 3D” is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, I was chaperoning 1^st – 3^rd grade girls and their laughter and glee made the movie going experience unforgettable for me.

As each child came into the theater, they got a pop and popcorn. Rose is a new third grader this year, and she remarked, “Did St. Joseph’s pay for all this? That’s really nice of you!” I appreciated her gratitude and explained to her that I didn’t deserve the thanks as much as the many folks who send donations in so our students can have some fun once in a while, in addition to being able to run all the good school and home programs we have.

We ended the day with a cookout in Wisdom Circle before the students had to go inside for showers, homework time and to get ready to start another full school week.

The high school girls are making a trip to an Arts Fair in Sioux Falls, South Dakota next week. Since Chamberlain High School had an early dismissal for the holiday weekend, they decided to have a car wash. It was timely for me, since I had lots of bugs all over the grill and windshield. They did a thorough job cleaning the inside too. They were scheduled to be open for business from 1:30 – 4:00 but with lots of interest and volume, they were in the parking lot until 5:30, and made a nice pile of change to spend on the trip.

After school, I walked by the Fisher field, where students were playing different games. I joined a group that was passing and punting footballs, and found it relaxing just to be out there with the crew, tossing back and forth and batting the breeze. My enjoyment of sports has always proven to be a nice ice breaker with the students. Daniel, one of our new houseparents, was grilling burgers, so the juicy odors led me over to Speyer Home (6^th-8^th grade boys) to join them for supper.

Today I spent time touring campus. The loading dock by the Development Office needs some major concrete and drainage work done. The building is 20 years old. While the work on the homes makes the campus look new and different, there is a lot of infrastructure work just to maintain the campus that our crew has to stay on top of.

I ate super with the Raphael Home (1^st-3^rd grade boys). They were full of energy after getting back from a hike around campus. You’d think it would calm them down, but still they were excited and had lots of stories to share. Being a guest, I had lots of requests of youngsters who wanted to sit next to me. Alas, there are only two chairs on either side, so I can only say yes to the first two to ask.

Afterward, I listened to and helped the readers along. The first graders had an 8 page book, with about a dozen words repeated in every possible combination. “I am Sam. Matt sat on a mat.” I remember having to start at that level too, once upon a time.

Becky and Chantel inventoried the safe and found some older coins that had been donated and stored for safe keeping. We decided to get them appraised and found that we could earn about $12,000 by selling them, so that was a nice day’s work.

Erica is a freshman in high school and I walked by a meeting with her family service counselor Julie. “Did you ever hear of a high school student who missed the rules so soon – after just one week?” Erica was telling Julie what she missed was the group structure of the junior high homes, where everything including homework time was done in common. In high school you have to organize your own time – an important task we all must learn.

With Fr. Steve Huffstetter, SCJ on his way to New York City for donor lunches this weekend, I have the chance to serve again as guest blogger.  My name is Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ and I am the chaplain here at St. Jospeh’s.

The school year has been underway for about a week and a half.  We had the official ‘opening’ on Wednesday afternoon with the Opening of School Liturgy and student picnic.  It was also the opening of school for the Chamberlain School system which meant that our high school students were back and ready to go after their orientation and the children of our houseparents were starting their studies for the year as well.

We have a large number of high dchool students this year, as 8^th grade graduates over the last two years have made known their desire to continue in St. Joseph’s program.  Several of the students came back early to take part in pre-season athletic activities—soccer, football and volleyball.  The soccer is already underway and the football team has their first game Friday night against Hot Springs, SD.  The volleyball team has their first game on Saturday against Mobridge/Pollock.  To encourage support of the various teams, St. Joseph’s rec department buys several season passes so that our students can attend and lend their voices in cheer for the teams and their players, especially those from St. Joseph’s.

Fr. Steve may have mentioned that St. Joseph’s hosted the 2011 Chamberlain/Oacoma Youth Triathlon which consisted of swimming, running and bike riding.  Students could take part individually or as part of a 3-man team.  In the 9-10 year old boys, Maleke came in second and in the team category, Moses, Dylan and Bradley came in first and Ramez, Richie and Dustin came in second.  In the 11-12 year old category, Angel was first and Cassidy second in the individual girls and Nate, Joseph and Louie won third along with Hialle, Trinity and Justis winning fourth in the team category.  It was interesting watching them speed around campus on their bikes and then hit the pool and then run various distances depending on their age group.  Many from town and the local area also took part and had some nice compliments regarding the facilities St. Joseph’s had to offer in hosting the event.  Your generosity helps make the campus and facilities available to share with the local community.  We extend our thanks for your help to enable us to host something positive for the local area.

One drawback from getting the year underway, is the necessity for meetings as we prepare to welcome students and new staff and get ready for upcoming events. We have already had a meeting on the up-coming powwow in September.  Though they take up time, they do help us all get on the same page and thus better prepared to be of service to students and staff.  I bring this up since I’m on my way to a meeting now.  Will touch base with you again on Monday to share what went down over the weekend.  May God’s blessings be with you to reward you for your interest in St. Joseph’s Indian School.

Sincerely,

Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ

Chaplain