Things are getting back to “normal” now that I and much of the support staff are all on campus. I had a run of five meetings, which covered the gamut from finances, to the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, to student admissions, to strategic planning. A committee I’ve been working with is looking at suggestions for how to improve our collaboration with parents, local schools, alumni and mentors. Our goal is collaboration and finding new ways to network with the good things already going on in the community. We’ve gotten input and good brainstorming ideas from a wide range of staff and caring people outside the school. Now we begin to prioritize and look at which will make the biggest positive impact on our students.
The facilities crew has been working hard all summer. Lately the heat waves, high water and humidity have made for trying conditions. But they took a break from all that and shared a meal downtown at the Anchor Grille as a way of saying thanks for all they have accomplished. HR did a little skit and passed out gloves with each worker’s name spelled out in glitter. After lively conversation, it was time to get back to all the projects, as the countdown to the start of school is ticking ever closer.
The weekend was a quiet one, with plenty of time to read, write, pray and exercise. While I did go into the office for a few hours each day, St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus has been rather quiet. Except for the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center’s visitors, campus has actually been quite empty. This Lord’s Day was indeed a day of rest, and I savor these days when they come.
The work I have been doing these past two days is nothing grand or big, but lots of fifteen and twenty-minute tasks that I never seem to have time for during the busy season. I try to get these little everyday tasks out-of-the-way, so when school does begin I don’t have as much baggage holding me back and I can more freely respond to God’s call through people and events. I also know it’s these little acts done with care and love that may not be important in the world’s eyes, but matter to the Lord.
Fr. Bernie spent several weeks in the Philippines working in remote villages with Youth Missionaries. He previewed a slide show of the ministry so we could get a better perspective of SCJ efforts there. Very edifying and inspiring.
We had a board meeting for the Sacred Heart Center in Eagle Butte. The adolescent program can serve up to 18 Native American youth, ages 11-19, and for the past seven months it has been running over 90% capacity. The program underwent changes and revamping, and the different social service agencies are pleased with what is happening in terms of service plans and reintegration of young people into the community, so placements are up. Unlike St. Joseph’s Indian School, which doesn’t receive tuition or service income from student placements, the Sacred Heart Center does receive per diem monies, and with a full house comes better financial stability for the program. But the best news was the positive reports about the kind of care these youth have been getting.
Another bright spot came from the staff member in charge of community outreach. She herself was a client in the women’s shelter several years ago, seeking escape from her own difficult situation of domestic violence. She is now an advocate for those going through similar struggles, and in great demand to speak to school and community groups.
While there is heart wrenching problems on the Indian reservations, there are a lot of good people striving to make things better.
Fr. Anthony and I sat down with calendars and began to map out our schedule of liturgical responsibilities for the semester. We have many times and types of prayer throughout the year and we want to make sure to be able not just to cover them, but have some time to prepare. As chaplain, Fr. Anthony oversees the majority of home prayer and when my duties don’t take me away from St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus, we try to split up most of the rest.
But afterward, I was on the road again. Today my travels took me through Pierre and Fort Pierre, South Dakota. Those towns have suffered much from the flooding along the Missouri River, far more than Chamberlain has. (Watch this video of aerial footage of flooding along the Missouri River in Pierre and Ft. Pierre, South Dakota.) Several hundred people have been evacuated from their homes and the flood waters are still quite high and not expected to go down any time soon. Crews worked feverishly to construct earthen levees between the river and town, and sandbags and standing water are everywhere. Much of the country suffers from drought, and here we have the opposite problem.
This morning, about 20 of our staff took part in another strategic planning session. Besides preparing for the future, I’ve enjoyed the chance the past two days to see and catch up on the summer activities that have been going on around campus and in people’s lives.
This afternoon, I went to maintenance shop for break. After being gone for several weeks, I’ve been very impressed to see the progress the crew has made in fixing and renovating the St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus. It’s easiest to notice the home remodeling and new paint jobs. There’s a lot of unseen preventative maintenance that goes on over the summer that is no less important.
Our hot weather continues, and I saw Mark and Gary on the roof at different times. They are unplugging vents and making sure the air conditioning systems don’t overheat. But the triple digit temperatures made for hot feet while on the roof. Everyone has been asked to drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks. The crew has gone hard at the home remodeling project during the morning hours, but once the heat starts to climb, they have to shift to different jobs elsewhere. Unfortunately, with the remodeling, one of the first things to come out of the homes is the heating and cooling system so a better, energy-efficient one can be installed.
Our Admissions Board began meeting today. Over the next week, we will review case files, applications and determine which students will be accepted into St. Joseph’s Indian School’s upcoming school year. We also prioritize the waiting list so that if one child ends up not coming, we can quickly invite someone else. We try to service many on the waiting list, but can only take as many students as we have room for in the Homes. We look to be full for the start of the year.
At 5:00, as I drove west to Lower Brule, the thermometer peaked at 104 degrees. With all the water on the river and moisture in the soil, it’s also unusually humid for South Dakota. Instead of spending the evening in a cool place, I was in the sunshine on a hill overlooking the prairie. I attending a ceremony to dedicate and bless a tombstone for a family cemetery. A Lakota prayer leader blessed the site with sweetgrass and an eagle feather. I sprinkled Holy Water and used some traditional prayers of the church, before offering words of support and comfort to the family. When it is extremely hot or cold I think God understands when my prayer style speeds up a bit, and my reflections get a little shorter and more concise. Perhaps a hundred family and friends gathered to remember their mother and grandmother on what would have been her birthday. Afterward, we gathered in a shady spot in the backyard for a meal – frybread, soup and many delicious side dishes.
I arrived back in Chamberlain, South Dakota Friday evening. The first thing I noticed is how high the Missouri River is from the flooding – higher than anyone here has ever seen it. The road leading to the campground south of St. Joseph’s Indian School is now being used as a boat ramp, since the campground itself is completely submerged. One of our pumping stations near the campus is under water, but we are high enough up to have escaped any further damage so far.
Today, I went downtown to the parish to welcome Fr. Guy, who is the new pastor at St. James. We lived in community together years ago when I was in college and he was finishing his theological studies. I tried to treat him to brunch after mass, but when I went to pay the bill we learned that one of his parishioners already picked up the tab for both of us! Apparently they wanted to welcome him as well. While taking care of parish duties, Fr. Guy will also be part of our local religious community, so we’ll regularly see him on St. Joseph’s campus for prayers, meals and other events.
I stopped by the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, where travelers are steadily visiting our campus. I met a retired couple on a large circular tour of the national parks, a young navy family moving from Illinois to Washington State and a Wisconsin youth group headed to the Lower Brule Indian reservation to begin a week’s service project. I enjoy hearing of people’s connection with St. Josephs’ Indian School and what brought them out our way. Besides giving information about the campus, I sometimes also serve as a travel guide, with recommendations of what to see and do further down the road.
An intimidating part of returning from an extended time away is going through all the mail and messages waiting in the office. The past couple of days I made a solid start, yet it’s easy to get discouraged at what remains to be done. And the more I do, the more connective threads I see of things that can be done. I’m reminded of the slogan that slow and steady wins the race, but I have many laps to go.
Hello there! My name is Neoma and I am the Relationship Marketing Director at St. Joseph’s Indian School. I have a very fulfilling and exciting job, with no day being like the one before. In my role, I supervise three very important areas at St. Joseph’s.
First of all, I oversee the direct mail program. If you are on our mailing list you know we regularly send letters (and sometimes little gifts) to friends who support our programs. We are blessed that people across the country share donations with St. Joseph’s Indian School so we can provide for the educational and daily needs of the Lakota (Sioux) children we serve … all at no charge to the families. It is a great honor for me to share stories of our students with our benefactors.
As of July 1, 2011 I took over supervision of the web and online marketing efforts. This is a new and exciting area for me. We regularly send emails about our students and keep busy with updates to our website and Facebook pages. If you haven’t yet “liked” St. Joseph’s Indian School on Facebook, please do so. We also “tweet” within Twitter and have some very nice videos on YouTube. Check them out for yourself!
Please know every message you send, whether through the mail, email, Facebook … is read and acknowledged. I’m honored to work with the staff who helps in this area of relationship marketing. This department is in charge of making sure every special correspondence is handled in a professional and prompt manner. We thank you for your messages of hope and love for the kids we serve. Keep them coming!
Today (July 15) is St. Joseph’s 13th annual community golf tournament as well, and guess what, I oversee that too! Our community has a small golf course and we use this annual event to invite business partners and community members out for a fun day on the course to raise money for our recreation center program. In addition to golf we also have an auction and putting contest. I’ll also use this tournament to celebrate my birthday … I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate!
Pilamaya – thank you – for all you do for our students! God bless you!
Hi, my name is Tom and I am the Facilities Supervisor here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. In a few months, I will have 30 years of experience in the maintenance department. When I started, I planned to work just during the winter; but I’ve been here ever since.
St. Joseph’s is a multi-complex campus that has residential homes, a school, dining hall, maintenance garage, chapel, health care facility, museum, maintenance shop, printing shop, central receiving building and business offices. We have a geothermal system that uses the warm water from artesian wells to heat our buildings. Over the years the cost-savings from this renewable heat source have been tremendous. We also do as much recycling as we can to save and help the environment.
We have a great maintenance staff that includes licensed electricians and plumbers. We have qualified and experienced carpenters, painters, grounds workers and custodians. We also have an electronics technician, two vehicle mechanics and a safety supervisor.
Like other departments on campus, the summer is a very busy time for the maintenance department. We are responsible for 51 buildings and several acres of outdoor spaces that require upkeep. In addition to these day-to-day duties, our crew also works continuously on upgrades and renovations.
This summer we are renovating the last of the Lakota homes. There are four Lakota homes which were built in 1984 and after 27 years they were in need of a face lift. Our maintenance staff does about 90% of the renovation work and it takes about a year to complete each remodel.
There are many other projects that go on over the summer as well. The custodians are kept busy getting the school and dining hall ready for the coming school year. With all the rain we have had the grounds department is kept busy mowing daily. They also trim trees and bushes, plant and water flowers, repair parking lots and sidewalks and keep St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus looking beautiful.
The plumber, electronics technician, painters and electricians are busy doing daily maintenance work and repairs when they are not working in the home remodeling. The mechanics work on all of our vehicles and equipment and always have one of the vehicles or pieces of equipment in their shop for repairs or general maintenance.
With all the buildings and grounds that are within our campus you may wonder how we get all the work done and keep track of it. We have a great facilities administrative assistant who doesn’t miss a thing!
Hope you are all having a great summer. If you get a chance, stop at our campus and visit our Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. We’re proud of the work we do and enjoy showing it off.
I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about campus activities from all our guest bloggers here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. I’ve enjoyed my time away – three weeks of vacation and a week for retreat. This week I will be in Milwaukee for SCJ community meetings and to celebrate the jubilees of priests and brothers who have been in vows for 50 and 60 years. I take a lot of inspiration from those men who have given so much of their life in service of others. I’ll return to St. Joseph’s campus next weekend. While a lot happens at St. Joseph’s Indian School over the summer months, I know the school has been in great hands even in my absence.
My time away has been a nice combination of visiting family and friends and seeing some sights I’ve long wanted to visit. One of my sisters now lives in upstate New York, and after a few days with Anne, I got to fulfill a long time dream and spend a day at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. On my way to Baltimore for retreat, I stood in Independence Hall in Philadelphia and reflected on the events of our nation’s history. I wondered how we can do more to preserve life, liberty and freedom in our communities. While in the city of brotherly love, I also made it up the steps that Rocky Balboa sprinted up in the movie. As I look back over the city, I also looked back over the past year with a great deal of gratitude for the prayers and support. I’ve come a long way since surgery and I will keep running the race with faith and hope and love.
Each year I look forward to retreat week as a time of prayer and reflection. One of the reflection talks was on self-care for priests. Since surgery, I’ve been good about the physical self-care, taking time to stretch and exercise. It showed results as I walked many miles each day with few problems. I suppose what I do have to work on is self-care that avoids procrastination and tackles the hardest but most important tasks first, instead of doing the easy things first and causing stress as deadlines approach. Time along the trip spent with those I love, and quiet times with the Lord are the best self-care there is.
