Cyr Home- Spotlight

Every Tuesday for the next few months, we will be highlighting one of our 20 homes on St. Joseph’s campus.

Here at St. Joseph’s, we provide nationally-accredited home-away-from-homes for Native American children in grades one through twelve.

There are no dorms at St. Joseph’s. Children live in one of our campus homes with two specially-trained houseparents. They live and play together as any family would. The boys and girls learn life skills and enjoy spending time with their ‘St. Joseph’s family’.

St. Joseph’s Cyr Home is one of our 4-6 grade boys’ homes on campus.

Theresa and Odis 6-day houseparents. Theresa has an interesting story and has been at St. Joseph’s since the fall of 1986. Here is what she shared:

 “I have been here since the fall of 1986. When I came in ’86, I re-started the yearbook program and was the editor for a number of years. Through this process, I got to know everyone on campus!

 Throughout my time at St. Joseph’s, I have been a houseparent, houseparent trainer, director of religious education, religion teacher and then back to being a houseparent. I enjoyed all my positions, but with houseparenting you get to know a smaller group of kids better than when I was a teacher and had all of the children in my classes. 

I found out about St. Joseph’s when I was in Canada working as a houseparent for a high school program in British Columbia.  A couple I knew from there had come to work at St. Joseph’s after leaving Canada.

I like to garden, and in August when the boys come back to school I usually have cantaloupe growing – they help me water it and really enjoy helping me eat it. J

Why I enjoy the work I do?  I wouldn’t enjoy it if I didn’t have great partners.  It really does take two of us to do the work and still have time to enjoy doing things with the kids. Of course I also enjoy the kids – it is fun to watch them mature and working with them keeps me young.” Continue reading “Cyr Home- Spotlight”

Although it’s spring break, there’s still much to do!

Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School.

Things are a bit quiet here on campus since the elementary students are on their Spring Break this week.  Our high school students are still in session, but they are enjoying a day off today since the Chamberlain High School team has qualified for the State A Basketball Tournament.

BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The Chamberlain Cubs are the #2 seed in the tournament this year and played in their first game last night. Two players on the team, two cheerleaders and the mascot are St. Joseph’s students! Please keep them in prayer- that they’ll play their best and that no one is injured. Continue reading “Although it’s spring break, there’s still much to do!”

Youth group raises money for their community

Some of the boys here at St. Joseph’s are part of a group called the Explorers.

Over the past few years, this group has raised over $60,000 towards charitable giving in the local communities!

This year’s group has donated money to those battling cancer in and around the community of Chamberlain.

A large amount of the money comes from doing chores like raking leaves for community members who have a hard time getting around … or simply would rather have someone else do it.

The latest thing the Explorers did was go to Pierre, South Dakota and spent the day doing various educational activities in our State Capital.

The day started with a tour of the Capital building. We then went to the State Crime Lab, which the boys really enjoyed because of the shooting range.  Obviously, the boys couldn’t do any shooting, but they enjoyed watching the officers shoot.

After the Crime Lab, we went back to the Capital and meet with Governor Dennis Daugaard. The day ended with the Explorers being introduced on both the House and Senate floors of the Capital, where they received standing ovations for their work in the community!

While the day was educational for all the students, I think the highlight of the day for the kids was the buffet at the Pizza Ranch. Below is a picture of the boys enjoying themselves the restaurant.

Houseparent Nate

Native American boys eating at Pizza Ranch.
The boys really enjoying themselves the restaurant after a full day!