Team 1 Week 1 Journal

Monday June 13,

Dear Diary, we arrived on the reservation today. After crossing the beautiful Missouri River, we met with Derek Madsen and Lisa Pung. We immediately drove to Swiftbird and introduced ourselves to the youth and the community. One girl—TC—was so proud because she had only missed one day the previous summer.

We continued to LaPlant and made a great community connection with Theresa, who recently has taken charge of the Boys & Girls Club there. We were excited to learn that the B&GC is running programs around food, youth development, and GED classes.

We enjoyed a dinner with Carol, the Executive Director of the Sioux YMCA. Carol invited us to tour the Sioux Y and take a look inside the pole barn and gather supplies for the week.

Tuesday June 14,

Dear Diary, the weather today was overcast with a touch of rain, but our spirits were high. Our first matter of the day was to visit a new community, Bear Creek, that the Y has never programmed in. There we met a boy named Nevyn who was excited to see us. He seemed eager and ready to connect with us. Bear Creek houses a community center where different programming is done throughout the year. The community center needs extensive cleaning, there are mice feces throughout the building. We connected with two community elders that recently worked on cleaning up this community center.

We survived a slippery, wet, mess on our way to Cherry Creek, the road was as slippery as a Minnesnowta winter street. Cherry Creek is a community with many kids who were immediately eager to play with us. Youth recognized Lisa from past years and knew upon arrival what the YMCA is.

That same evening we were privileged to attend a board meeting for the Sioux Y. We met 10 board members that graciously welcomed us and thanked us for the work we would do. We learned that connecting with a community contact is essential towards success in programming in the communities.

Wednesday June 15,

Dear Diary, today was a good day. We accomplished our goal of sitting down with Theresa from the B&GC of Laplant and establishing a positive partnership. Theresa is starting a five-day program from 11am-5pm Monday through Friday that includes education, life skills, and fitness. As a group, we recognized that our programming fits in perfectly to their fitness component. We decided that we would take on the fitness component of the B&GC summer program on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12-3pm. Caitlin is an emerging leader who has been in Y programming for several years and has taken on her first job helping with summer programming. Caitlin helped us recruit 13 youth to come to our first day of programming! We started playing kickball together and then split into two groups, the boys went and played football, and the girls played ball-tag and had bonding time.

In between programming we found time for a quick tour of the Sioux Y’s Camp Marrowbone. It is the first summer in five years that it has operated and the staff was working hard to prepare the camp for the first week of campers arriving Monday June 20th. One way we are working to support the Sioux Y is by promoting camp sign-up in the communities we are working in.

Diary, Swiftbird was our next community. In the past Alyssa has been a strong Y contact in the community. She just had a baby and will not be able to participate as much as she used to. Instead, we have connected with Jewell and her daughter Jenni, who are the key holders to the community learning center. Due to the fact that there is not a mowed field in Swiftbird, we held programming in a cul-de-sac in the center of town. We taught youth the basics of baseball through a base-run game. An intense match of kickball followed where teamwork was emphasized. Swiftbird’s youth are younger than many of the others communities we work in. One of the youth leaders that emerged was Austin, an older sister who guided and showed strong sense of caring for other youth.

Thursday June 16,

Dearest Diary, the late morning was crisp and clean in the rolling valley of Bear Creek. Nevyn is our youth contact in BC and his mom appears to be a supportive woman that cares for her children. After walking through the small loop of houses, only three boys joined us. By the end of programming we had ten youth actively involved from ages 3-13. We included kickball, basketball, hide and go-seek, duck duck goose, and frogger. During basketball Ethan had a fit and ran into his house. When he emerged from the house, he was carrying a bb gun that he started to shoot in his yard (close to the basketball court). We spoke with Ethan and clearly communicated that he could not bring the bb gun to group. He understood this and set the gun down and eventually brought it back inside. Later in group, as we continued games, Ethan invited us to sit in his backyard. At this point, we did not have a mowed area to sit down. Because of Ethan reaching out, we were able to utilize his backyard as a programming area. Even more, Ethan offered bottled water to everyone in our group. We felt that this was a caring effort by Ethan and his family. His backyard can potentially be used for programming for the future, as it is next to the b-ball court.

Cherry Creek was a hit. We started with a name game throwing a baseball back and forth to learn names. As we continued, more kids joined and really enjoyed Ships Across the Ocean, Giants, Wizards, and Elves and Frogger. Some of the kids were too young to understand Frogger. We ended early to respect the Mennonite’s Last Supper with the kids; they will be back in August.

That same night we met one of the board members—Mona—a great contact for all programming. We treated her to a DQ treat and she treated us to an extensive tour of Eagle Butte. Included in the tour were different neighborhoods, housing facilities, and the highlight—Men’s Softball League. It caught us by surprise that children of all ages were out and about at the late-night baseball game.

Friday June 17, 2011

Dear Diary, we’ve become close now, I trust you. Today was a short day; we did programming in Cherry Creek from 10am-1pm. There were only two youth outside when we arrived. Mayana helped us knock on doors and recruit kids. An older youth—William—also helped us find youth that had come on Tuesday. Ball tag and Clear the Ice were a hit with the youth and really enjoyed running around. We went through the rules of kickball/baseball and played a competitive game. Youth were adamant about playing kickball. At this juncture we’ve started incorporating discussion about the Y’s core values. Youth participated and added great ideas of what they mean. As group ended, we reminded youth about Camp Marrowbone.