Team 3 Week 1

Monday July 11th
After picking up Rikki from the Sioux YMCA in Dupree, Team 3 drove out to La Plant and Swiftbird for a day full of programming. When we arrived in La Plant, we found three kids at the Boys and Girls Club and sent Chris out to recruit more. He was unsuccessful so we played games like SPUD and dodgeball. The boys wanted some baseball practice, so we went over catching grounders and pop-ups and batting off the tee. As we played, we spied a pick-up truck packed full of kids driving up and down the neighborhood. We discovered that it was the Simply Smiles group (a bible-based camp operating Monday – Thursday in La Plant) and they were recruiting kids early that day. Theresa, the director of BGC in La Plant, and the previous Teams had worked out an agreement with Simply Smiles that they would not do programming until after the Y leaves at 3 pm. Apparently, there was a mix-up due to the time change between La Plant and the location where Simply Smiles was staying! Theresa resolved the problem by allowing Simply Smiles to operate out of the Boys and Girls Club after the Y leaves. She hopes this will get kids used to the BGC so when the Summer volunteer groups and the Sioux Initiative leave, they will still know there is a place with activities for them at the BGC.
Swiftbird was next with similar games of SPUD and baseball. One of the older boys in the community who we have identified as a great role model and leader, Cotton, made up a new game. He placed hula hoops in a vertical row lined up with a baseball tee, and assigned each hoop a point value ranging from 50 – 500. If you hit the ball past the last hoop, you were awarded zero points, so skill was more important than might. All of the kids were able to play, even the “big” kids like Megan and Chris. We are still working on a name for it (I call it the Awesome game). We plan on using Cotton’s game at other communities as well.

Tuesday July 12th
We headed out to Bear Creek and Cherry Creek today. Rain clouds in the distance made me nervous so we tried to get a hold of the key holder to the Community Center in Bear Creek. No luck. When we arrived in Bear Creek only a few kids were outside but they were happy to see us and willing to find more kids to play. I noticed an awning at the playground that would be perfect for circle games so it could rain as much as it wanted and we would be ok! We played Cotton’s game and softball activities, throwing songs in once in awhile (they LOVE “la tush”). When we felt the first few drops of rain, the kids helped us pack up the van and we headed up to the playground to play under the awning. By the time we got there, the rain had stopped but the kids did not want to leave. We played some freeze tag and ball tag and finished up with the Beat game. We learned our lesson about the rain though, don’t go to the park unless it’s pouring. The pull to the swings and slide is too strong for the kids to resist.
We weren’t sure what to expect when we got to Cherry Creek. We stopped there for a couple hours on Sunday to tell them about the softball game we were planning for them in Eagle Butte on Friday. Tyson, a youth leader in Eagle Butte, came with us as a representative of the Eagle Butte team that Cherry Creek would play. We played a pick-up game with Tyson and the kids which showed them how good they would need to be for the game on Friday. When we left Sunday, the kids seemed excited and definitely looked up to Tyson already as a role model, but we weren’t sure how many would be willing to play. Tyson had two teams lined up for us, the 8 – 13 yr olds and the 14 – 18 yr olds. How would we find 20 kids to play in one week’s time?
Anyway, when we got to Cherry Creek we saw that a game was already going on at the baseball field. About 15 kids were playing a pick-up game which they organized in preparation for Friday!! Tugboat, an older teen in the community had brought the kids and the baseball materials together. They had been playing for hours when we got there and the day before they practiced for hours in the rain! It was awesome! We let the kids continue playing softball on their terms and offered a little extra programming on the side, playing kickball and SPUD with the younger kids that didn’t want to play softball. We left the community with BIG smiles.

Wednesday July 13th
We got up early to help out with a FIT challenge that Tyson put together in Eagle Butte. Unfortunately it was a very rainy day and not a lot of kids showed up. Tyson planned on offering a second day so he could reach as many kids as he had planned. It showed our group that even the best laid plans don’t always turn out. We’re a bit nervous for the softball game Friday. We hope everything works out.
The rain continued all day so we did indoor programming in La Plant and Swiftbird. The kids learned about cows and dairy products and colored in pink puddings and blue ice cream (yum). The Beat game and Assasin were both fun games played. But the highlight of the day was the colorful gymnastics mat. The kids showed us their tumbling and cartwheeling skills. Afterwards, we had a big dance party and Chris taught them how to “doug-ie.”

Thursday July 14th
It will be a short day of programming since we are going to Camp Leslie Marrowbone for the firepit dedication to former Sioux YMCA Director Bill Weitzel. We arrived in Bear Creek early hoping that we would find a couple of kids awake. We were pleasantly surprised to find a group of kids outside and ready to race the van to the park. We played Frisbee games then split up the group so some could do friendship bracelets and others could do softball practice. We had a request for “La Tush” (makes them giggle every time) and were on our way to Cherry Creek for a brief visit.In Cherry Creek we found the kids practicing for the Big Game. We handed out permission slips and explained the logistics of transportation to Eagle Butte; “there will be a van to pick you up at 3 pm (fingers crossed), But just in case please see if a family member or friend can take you up to Eagle Butte. We will reimburse them for gas! Please!”At the dedication to Bill Weitzel at Camp Marrowbone we were able to make connections with many Sioux YMCA board members; Manny, Rene, John, Mona, Michelle, and Myra and met a fellow staff from Minneapolis, Robbie! We Were able to see what a great space the Sioux Y has to offer kids in the area, and to see how the kids responded to it. Three of our kids from La Plant went swimming in their jeans and t-shirts not once, but twice! As we left, we were already having withdrawls, hoping someday we could come back to Camp Marrowbone.

Friday July 15th

The day of the BIG GAME in Eagle Butte. It was set for 5 pm with the younger kids playing from 5 – 7 pm and the older kids playing from 7 – 9 pm. Snacks for both teams would be donated by the Youth Diabetes Prevention center.
Chris drove down to Cherry Creek to oversee the transportation of the kids and collect permission slips. Megan and I stayed back to do the finishing touches on signs cheering for both Eagle Butte and Cherry Creek. A total of 20 Cherry Creek kids showed up in Eagle Butte at 5 pm sharp, but the other team was nowhere to be found! It wasn’t until later that we discovered that Dean, the staff from Youth Diabetes Prevention that volunteered to transport the kids to and from Cherry Creek, was also the coach for the other team and had to get his Eagle Butte kids together after dropping off our team.
Although there were some set-backs, like the scoreboard remote being overcharged and not working (oops) and the game starting at 5:45 instead of 5:00, the kids were excited to be there and Cherry Creek parents kept arriving to cheer on their team.
The mother’s especially were excited to see their kids play, but not so worried about winning. Several kept encouraging the boys by saying it was their first time and that they still had a lot to learn but by the end they were shouting out advice and chastising the boys when they made silly mistakes. By the end of the games they were out of protective mode and into competition mode.
When the 5th inning hit in the second game, the other team was exhausted. There team had played both games in very hot weather while we had enough kids to switch it up every once in awhile. We decided to cut the game short, ending in the 6th inning. When we asked the boys to shake hands at the end of the game they were upset that the games were over so soon, “I will only shake their hands if they play another inning against us,”–Malik. Several boys were visibly upset that they couldn’t play longer and we were only able to calm them by reassuring them we would set up another game for them to play in.
After we saw that the kids all had rides home and cleaned up the softball field that the Eagle Butte City Office graciously rented to us for free, “anything for the kids”, we headed to Dairy Queen to celebrate with a Chocoholic Ice Cream Cake shared with Mona, John, and Tyson. We were excited to accomplish what we had come to do by setting up a softball team and transporting them to Eagle Butte to play a real game and by creating a successful collaboration with the Youth Diabetes Prevention center and with youth worker Tyson White. And now we get a vacation.