With the new year just a week old, our staff and long-term volunteers are already busy with January programming, filling the weekly schedules at the Cokata Wiconi teen center and The Main youth center with exciting, fun and educational activities for the young people flooding through the doors after the long holiday break. But we’re also taking the time to reflect on the many accomplishments of 2012.
“With such a small staff, it’s easy to get swept up in our to-do lists as soon as the New Year’s holiday is behind us,” Garreau explained. “But we need to take a short break to talk about the last 12 months and highlight our successes. It’s a great exercise for team morale, and it gives us a solid set of benchmarks for the year to come.”
The nearly 25-year-old, not-for-profit organization has seen significant expansion and enhancement in its youth programming. At Cokata Wiconi, teenagers enjoyed art classes, writing groups, movie nights, “Storytellers” events with respected Lakota elders, walking and running clubs, Zumba fitness classes, sports camps, sports tournaments and the official opening of the new CRYP Fitness Center, where teens now can participate in circuit training, personal training and much more.
Last March, Passion for Fashion allowed 74 girls to experience “Fashion Week” at Cokata Wiconi, visiting London, Paris, Milan and New York while shopping for dresses and accessories for prom. They also made their fashion debut on a real catwalk and posed in a professional photo shoot.
Also CRYP welcomed nine universities and colleges from around the country to its campus last spring. The visiting students served as group volunteers in the longtime Alternative Spring Break program; they also made weekly “College Night” presentations to local junior-high and high school students and their families, introducing them to the different schools and answering questions about the application process, financial aid, choosing coursework and college life in general.
In May, six Power of Four teen interns traveled to Washington, D.C., for five days of high-level meetings and visits to attractions that included the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the U.S. Department of the Interior / Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Vietnam War and Korean War memorials. Later that month, CRYP kicked off its annual Midnight Basketball program for the summer season, welcoming between 50 and 100 teens every Friday to the Cokata Wiconi gymnasium for late-night sports and socializing in a safe, positive and fun environment.
The 4- to 12-year-olds who attend The Main also got to take part in the Midnight Basketball fun through the popular “Junior Midnight Basketball” program earlier on Friday evenings. In addition, they enjoyed their own movie nights, and they participated in summer and fall literacy programs, arts and crafts, sports camps, Garden Club in the 2-acre Winyan Toka Win Garden, monthly birthday parties, the annual Carnival and Luau, the annual Haunted House and the fall semester of Main University.
Thirteen children graduated from MU in December. Last semester’s classes included The Art of Imagination, Cooking & Nutrition 101, Backpacking Through Europe, Mythology, Acting, Zumba, Beyond Your Backdoor and Lakota Culture.
The Family Services program easily kept pace with youth programming, conducting its critical School Supplies, Winter Clothing and Christmas Toy Drive distributions while maintaining ongoing services for members who needed assistance with routine household items, heating and home repairs. And, CRYP saw an increase in memberships.
“We had 261 Family Services memberships in 2011, which grew to 300 in 2012,” reported April Bachman, CRYP’s finance manager. “In addition, we helped 18 families with home improvements last year, which was up from 14 in 2011; and we assisted 201 families with heat-match funds, which was up from 162.”
CRYP’s community involvement didn’t end with Family Services, however. In 2012, it hosted craft fairs, book fairs, the eagerly anticipated Family Day celebration, the weekly summertime Farmers Market and creative local fundraisers like the Japanese Bistro in Cokata Wiconi’s Keya Cafe, which introduced community members to Japanese food, music and dancing.
And the youth project took a major step in a new direction, taking a leadership role in addressing the youth diabetes health crisis in native communities. CRYP’s Youth Diabetes Prevention Campaign launched last fall, comprising a 30-minute “Diabetes is Not Our Way” video, a 10-part collection of “Indigenous Perspectives” short videos and a series of video and audio public service announcements.
“We want to share these tools with as many people as we can, and we want our message to reach beyond the Lakota community here on the Cheyenne River reservation,” Garreau said. “Indigenous people nationwide, and worldwide, are facing the same challenges. We need to share information, learn from each other and stand up together to fight this latest threat to our long-term health and well-being.
“It’s been quite a year,” she continued. “Despite limited resources, our staff and volunteers worked incredibly hard and were so resourceful and creative. I’m proud of them, and I’m deeply grateful for the ongoing support of our many friends around the world. Great things happen here every day, and it’s because we have such an amazing group of people working together in pursuit of a common cause — to provide our kids, and their families, with access to a more vibrant, healthy and secure future.”