We serve and teach, we receive and learn.
Greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School.
Things were a bit hectic here Monday as students began returning from Christmas Break. Due to the recent snow storms and cold snap in the upper Midwest, we are still missing a few students who have been unable to return.
We hope all students will be here by Sunday, Continue reading “Welcoming in 2017 at St. Joseph’s Indian School!”
Holiday greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School here on the banks of the ‘frozen’ Missouri River!
There was an article in our local newspaper about ice fisherman enjoying this time of year, as they can now get out on the ice and have some fun.
As you may have seen on local weather reports, the upper Midwest has been blasted. Last week, a rain and ice storm closed the Interstate all the way from Chamberlain to the Wyoming border. The weather is predicted to be nice now until Tuesday. We hope this is correct since Monday is the scheduled day for our students to return and we do not want them to be out in a storm trying to get back to campus. Please pray for good weather on Monday as our students travel back to St. Joseph’s.
Aside from the weather, the holiday break seems to have been rather peaceful here. We’ll be hitting full stride again on Tuesday when we have the Prayer Service to kick off the third quarter of the school year.
Since it has been rather quiet on campus, I want to take this chance to bring you up-to-date on various activities our students were engaged in this month. In mid-December, the students took part in the annual Christmas program, where those who have been practicing musical instruments get the chance to share their newfound skills with staff and their peers. Each class also recited a poem or sang a song.
This year each song, poem or musical number was introduced, giving some background on who wrote the song or poem or where a musical number was first performed. The talent was impressive—there were songs done on the pipe organ, drums, flute, trumpet, guitar and clarinet under the guidance of our music instructor.
The students were very happy to see that several family members were able to attend the performance!
On Sunday, December 4th, a good number of our students took part in Dancing Dolls & Dudes! Dancing Dolls & Dudes is a dance group that includes dancers from pre-kindergarten through 6th grade. Each age group performed a few routines for the crowd.
For boys, this is the second year that they have been able to participate. 10 St. Joseph’s young men decided to take part.
The Chamberlain Armory was packed with proud parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and houseparents for the recital. As you watched, you could tell that a lot of time and effort had gone into the production—each group even had their own costumes!
Two of the adult leaders were members of St. Joseph’s staff and some of our high school girls even got involved as dance instructors for various groups.
We are so proud of everyone that took part!
As Christmas is more than just gifts, decorations and special music, it was nice to see the young ladies of Summerlee Home get into the spirit of giving and helping others. Their houseparent, Vicki, has been down with some medical issues and they wanted to help with her medical bills.
The girls created six baskets filled with various goodies, treats, games and a trip to the movies that students and staff could purchase raffle tickets for.
They sold the tickets at the wrestling match that gave our younger students the chance to show off what they had learned over the past month or so of practice. There was some great matches as the boys went at each other with great enthusiasm.
While that was exciting, the Summerlee Home girls were happy they had the chance to show their support, love and encouragement for their houseparent.
‘Flat Francis’ was a guest of Summerlee Home recently and enjoyed having the chance to share a meal or two and take part in the video game JUST DANCE. In the one picture, it looks like his hand raised in blessing is right in line with the reaching for the sky move the girls next to him are doing.
Over Christmas, our Religious Education teacher Joe has been fixing him up a bit due to some nicks and bruises he has picked up in the process of being passed from home to home. He’ll be in great shape once the students return and is anxious to see what his next adventure will be!
On behalf of all the students and staff here at St. Joseph’s Indian School, I would like to wish each of you a very Happy New Year filled with good health, much happiness, peace and joy now and throughout 2017.
Fr. Anthony Kluckman, SCJ
Chaplain
Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School.
It has been a busy, and snowy, last few days at St. Joseph’s Indian School.
On Friday, we were scheduled to send 12 hand game participants and 17 archery contestants to Rapid City, South Dakota to take part in the 40th Annual Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI), but the roads were projected to be too dangerous to travel. LNI is a yearly gathering of Native Americans to take part in arts and crafts competition along with athletic, cultural and language contests.
Our Knowledge Bowl participants headed out on Thursday, so they were able to compete over the weekend. St. Joseph’s team earned 3rd place overall! Lily and Justin, two of our high school students, were awarded 1st place
in Grammar and Literature, respectively. We are so very proud of them.
Continue reading “What a great week at St. Joseph’s Indian School!”
Hi All!
My name is Kelli. I serve as St. Joseph’s Indian School’s Development/Child Services Liaison… which means that I get to spend time with the children at St. Joseph’s on a regular basis. Pretty cool!
Recently, I was able to spend 10 weeks with our 4th and 5th grade girls through our Girls on the Run Program.
Girls on the Run is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to creating a world where every girls knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams.
Continue reading “St. Joseph’s Participates in Girls on the Run!”
Greetings from a snowy St. Joseph’s Indian School.
We were lucky it was not snowing on Sunday when our students and staff returned to campus after Thanksgiving Break, but the weather has been making up for it since with wind, snow and low temperatures.
While everyone was away for the holiday, it was rather quiet here on campus. We only had a few students in the Break Home, but they enjoyed themselves. On Black Friday, they Continue reading “Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown, Girls on the Run, Flat Francis and Healing at St. Joseph’s Indian School!”
Holiday greetings from St. Joseph’s Indian School!
SNOW
The good weather South Dakota has been blessed with took a harsh turn when snow, wind and falling temperatures all hit at once. Just across the Missouri River, nearby towns were hit with 3 inches of snow.
A special thank you to our maintenance staff who were hard at work early in the morning to keep our campus open.
The temperatures had dropped and the wind had come up the day before, which made for a chilly blessing for our new outdoor basketball court, donated by a benefactor from the Chicago area. The court will be a new spot for our students to develop their skills and have some fun. Continue reading “Snow, Graduation, Family Night, Basketball and Thanksgiving at St. Joseph’s Indian School!”
Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School!
The weather has really been cooperating and gifting us with mild days as we keep moving deeper and deeper into Autumn. This is beneficial for our students since it gives them the chance to run around outside and breathe in the fresh air.
Even though the football and volleyball uniforms have been returned to the athletic department, our students still have the opportunity to get involved! Currently, our students are participating in archery, wrestling, gymnastics, girls’ basketball and Dancing Dolls and Dudes.
Continue reading “Halloween, Voting Preparation and Lots of Activities at St. Joseph’s!”
Hello from St. Joseph’s Indian School.
It has been busy here on campus. We celebrated Native American Day on October 10 (South Dakota is the only state to recognize Native American Day in substitution of Columbus Day- read more below), hosted an Academic Acalympics Competition on October 19, and enjoyed a Halloween Dance sponsored by the National Honor Society students this past Friday.
Continue reading “Native American Day, Acalympics and a Dance at St. Joseph’s!”
Good day from St. Joseph’s Indian School.
What a whirlwind!!!! Our 40th Annual Powwow on September 17th is now in the books; but a great time was had by all.
Due to a lot of prayers, God blessed us with great weather and a nice turnout of benefactors and guests. We had 465 friends, donors and Continue reading “What a whirlwind weekend at St. Joseph’s!”
Hello! My name is Kathryn. I am a houseparent in the Mathias Home at St. Joseph’s Indian School.
On May 14, the Mathias home took their first ever mother-daughter trip in preparation for 8th grade graduation. The girls, their mothers and I enjoyed a day filled with shopping, eating, shopping, pampering, and shopping! We have three eighth graders this year and shopping for graduation attire was so much fun!
When we were done, we took a few pictures of the girls in their graduation dresses and one with all of the moms and daughters together. More than just preparing for graduation, this trip offered the moms and their daughters some much-needed time together.
Since the students are here on campus the majority of the year, opportunities like this are few and far between for our students and their parents. Many 14 year olds try to avoid their parents in public places, but our students relished in their time together.
It was a blessing to see how much love and joy everyone shared. As house parents, we receive those small blessings every day. Sharing a few moments with our students and some very incredible moms was amazing!
We laughed, we cried and we loved on this very special day.
It was a small way to say ‘thank you’ to our moms for all they do for their daughters and the other students in the home and a farewell to our beautiful 8th graders as they begin the next chapter in their journey.
We are so proud of these young ladies! They have worked hard throughout their middle school years and they finished this year with a cumulative GPA of 3.81 between the three of them.
All three students are excellent role models, are generous with their time by sharing it with younger students and helping peers, and have goals and aspirations that will carry them far in life.
We thank our students’ moms for doing such great jobs raising their daughters and supporting us as house parents. We also thank our students for being such wonderful role models. It has been an honor to have the privilege of being a part of their journey!
Kathryn
St. Joseph’s Houseparent
