Longtime CRYP staffer Tammy Eagle Hunter will serve as our youth programs director starting this month. She’s replacing Megan Guiliano, who will remain on site to mentor Tammy from May until July.
In her new role, Tammy will be responsible for program development and implementation at our Cokata Wiconi teen center and The Main youth center; youth and community outreach; grant writing and management; local fundraising; and managing CRYP organizational partnerships. She also will handle orientation, training and evaluations of new staff and volunteers.
Eagle Hunter was born and raised on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, and she is a tribal member. She graduated from Cheyenne-Eagle Butte High School and has completed coursework at Si Tanka Huron University, Presentation College and Oglala Lakota College in pursuit of her Bachelor of Arts degree in social work.
She joined CRYP in 2007 as a youth programs assistant, a position she held for two years before taking a position with the Pierre Indian Learning Center in South Dakota’s capital city. A talented artist who remained dedicated to the Cheyenne River community, she returned in 2010 to run the youth project’s summer arts program.
Cheyenne River continued to call her home. In January 2011, Eagle Hunter joined the full-time CRYP staff as the wellness coordinator. In the two years since, she has planned and executed programs that include Midnight Basketball, Junior Midnight Basketball, sports camps, tournaments, dance classes, yoga, and walking and running clubs. She has earned a Cooper Fitness Specialist certification through The Cooper Institute, which is based in Texas, as well as a CPR certification. She worked closely with other staff members and diabetes educators to help produce a powerful youth diabetes prevention campaign. And she oversaw the opening of the CRYP Fitness Center, which now provides circuit training and special exercise classes for Cokata Wiconi’s teen participants.
Eagle Hunter said it’s been an interesting journey, albeit one with a steep learning curve.
“Six years ago, I didn’t know anything about not-for-profit work, and I wasn’t even sure if I liked kids,” she remembered with a laugh. “Then I started having fun with our kids, I saw the impact CRYP made on their everyday lives, and I saw all the good things that this organization does. It gave me so much personal fulfillment. This isn’t just a job, and I’m not just working for myself and my family. I’m working for my whole community.”
She said her relationships with the project’s youth participants has meant so much to her, both personal and professionally.
“I’ve known a lot of those kids since they were grade-schoolers at The Main, and now they’re teenagers at Cokata Wiconi,” she explained. “There’s a level of trust and comfort, which helps me do my job. These kids need someone to supervise them, definitely, but they also need someone to interact with them — to listen to them, to look at their report cards, to ask how their day was.
“We need to continue to expand on what we’re already doing,” she continued. “We need to give our kids experiences that help them feel like every other kid, everywhere. We need to let them know that we understand what they’re going through, to help them feel normal, to give them outlets for their emotions and their energy, and to guide them toward being positive, whole, healthy people.”
Eagle Hunter said she’s looking forward to making an even larger contribution to the Cheyenne River community through her new position with CRYP.
“I really like the not-for-profit arena, and I love doing something for my community,” she said. “I want to give our children a better future. That’s what I want to do with my life.”