Sign Up Now to Receive a Discounted Annual Membership — and Participate in This Year’s CRYP Christmas Toy Drive!
The Cheyenne River Youth Project® in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, is reminding community members throughout the 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River reservation to start new memberships in its Family Services program, or renew existing memberships, by Thursday, November 15. Those who sign up or renew by that date will receive a discount off the annual membership and will be able to participate in this year’s eagerly anticipated Christmas Toy Drive.
“Prior to November 15, we’re offering annual memberships for $25 instead of the usual $30,” explained Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “That one-time payment covers all members of your family for the entire year. And, if you’re sponsored by Child Fund International, you’ll only pay $10 for the year. CFI will pay the rest.”
For the annual membership fee, a Cheyenne River family is able to participate in all of CRYP’s Family Services distributions throughout the year. Those include Baby Day, the School Supplies Drive, the Winter Clothing Drive and the long-running Christmas Toy Drive. In addition, families can pick up much-needed household supplies, including baby items, on a regular basis, and they can receive heating and home improvement assistance.
Surveys have shown that most member households use Family Services once per quarter, although a sizable group does come in once per month. Within the last two years, most households participated in the organized distributions — including the Christmas Toy Drive, which served nearly 1,200 children in communities across the 2.8-million-acre reservation last year.
“It’s our longest-running and most far-reaching program,” Garreau said. “When you’re a member of Family Services, you can fill out ‘Dear Santa’ letters with, or for, each of your children, letting us know which gifts are on their wish list as well as their sizes for winter clothing and shoes.”
Because each participating child receives one or two gifts from his or her Santa list, plus the winter clothing, CRYP staff and volunteers must sort, wrap and distribute literally thousands of presents in advance of the Christmas Eve pickups at the Cokata Wiconi Teen Center and the Christmas Day distribution in Eagle Butte’s neighborhoods.
“That’s why it’s so important to get all the ‘Dear Santa’ letters in house by the middle of November,” Garreau explained. “We need to send the letters to our many supporters around the country, who fulfill the Christmas wishes of our children. They need time to shop and send everything to us, and we need time to sort the gifts, wrap them and prepare them for the families.”
Again, all families who would like to participate in this year’s Christmas Toy Drive and receive a discount on an annual Family Services membership: Please stop at the CRYP offices in the Cokata Wiconi Teen Center on East Lincoln Street. For more information, call (605) 964-8200.
“Christmas is right around the corner,” Garreau advised. “Please sign up for the Family Services program, or renew your memberships as quickly as possible, because we want to make sure we’re serving as many families across Cheyenne River as we can!”
CRYP’s annual Christmas Toy Drive is a major component of its Family Services Program, created in 2002 to manage the increasing amounts of donated supplies that the youth project provides to local families year-round.
To learn more about the Cheyenne River Youth Project® and its programs, and for information about making donations and volunteering, call (605) 964-8200 or visit www.lakotayouth.org. And, to stay up to date on the latest CRYP news and events, visit the youth project’s Facebook “Cause” page. All Cause members will receive regular updates through Facebook.
The Cheyenne River Youth Project®, founded in 1988, is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a wide variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities that ensure strong, self-sufficient families and communities.