Thanks from Our Friends at Pine Ridge Reservation!
|
Kiyuksa O'Tipi Reintegration Center Lakota Oyate Wakanyeja Owicakiyapi, Inc. (LOWO) Little Wound Elementary School Little Wound High School Library Red Shirt School Sewing Circle |
May 15, 2008 Dear Chris, Thought I’d better check in and give your readers an update on our situation in addition to the BIG thank that you all deserve. You have truly found the best hearts across the United States. I have to tell you...we are surrounded by shoes and clothes and all the other goodies the good-hearted readers of Friends of Pine Ridge keep sending. I had such fun today. I hope all those folks out there who sent goodies can picture the grandma and I in two storerooms and the garage going through boxes and bins. She's oohing and ahhing about how it's new and the little kid's clothes are sooooo cute! Pretty soon the kids are in with us and they're oohing and ahhing and trying on shoes, etc. It was so absolutely lovely! Grandma takes care of seven grandchildren. She kept saying that she didn't want to keep me from my job and I had the privilege of telling her that putting a smile on her face and the faces of her grandchildren is my job! It doesn't get much better than that! As far as our Rapid City shelter situation...thanks to the readers who sent cash since we have to purchase two stoves and a refrigerator. We are fortunate that Indian Health Service has two houses across the street from each other that we will be using as shelter. We have to negotiate a few items in the lease and since it involves government...well, we hope to be relocated in the houses within the next week (or so). In the meantime, the advocates are still busy assisting women and their children. So, much thanks to you Chris and all the wonderful donors who took time out of their busy days to think of us. We do appreciate you all and brag you up all the time. Again, our thanks and remember that the coffee is always on and waiting for you here with us on the Pine Ridge.
Karen Artichoker
February 18, 2008 Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation Dear Chris, I'm on the road with our national organization, Sacred Circle, (www.sacred-circle.com). We're conducting a training on developing tribal domestic violence response and strategies. There are many different tribes gathered here talking about the issue and it is exciting to hear about what other domestic violence programs are doing. I think we're making some progress! I wanted to drop this quick note to let you know how thankful we are for your donations. The space heaters are a godsend since we've been experiencing some very cold weather. And children's shoes! My goodness! A visitor asked me if we were opening a shoe store! Oh well, it gave us a chance to brag all of you up. Our thanks for these and all of the other wonderful items your wonderful readers have sent. Wopila tanka (Thank you very much). Blessings and great joy to each of you. Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker
November 27, 2007 Dear Chris, Just a quick thank you to all your good readers who took the time to send dollars and goods to make Thanksgiving a lovely day for Oglala families. We divided the goodies between the eastern and western Reservation and sent a few baskets up to Rapid City since our shelter in Rapid City was not able to get all the baskets they needed for the women there. We tend to think that Rapid City (since it’s a city) would have more resources but we’re finding that is simply and unfortunately not true. They do get more small appliances and used clothing donations since people will drop items off when they move or after a garage sale but it’s very difficult to get women into housing and then get them the help they need to get established. Oops! Sorry for the moment of frustration...my intention was to write and thank you for your assistance in getting Thanksgiving baskets out to needy Oglala families. You accomplished that mission and we thank you. I was at a meeting today and one of the men attending was talking about our children and how powerful and healing it is for children when people locally and throughout the United States and world reach out to make a beautiful meal for a child. He talked about children who this year, for the first time, experienced an entire turkey dinner. He said several children told him they would go here and there on Thanksgiving day and eat dinner piecemeal. He said it broke his heart that our children were big-eyed at eating a lovely turkey dinner when it should be the norm for this family holiday. (Gosh, I’m getting teary-eyed, again!) Anyway, dear readers...you all made some big-eyed, greasy faced children last week and we thank you. Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker, Director
November 9, 2007 Dear Chris, Thanks to the generosity of all you good people we are officially divas! I'm happy to report that we had over 100 women attend our 1st Annual Diva for Day that was held in Kyle, SD, the heart of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on October 22, 2007. We held the event in the local Catholic Hall and set up in various stations. Volunteers gave women manicures, facials, makeovers, hair-braiding, acupuncture, and massage. Women received gift bags and we also had raffle prizes. Each child was given a stuffed animal. Cangleska provided a meal of spaghetti, salad, and bread. We all had sooo much fun! It was wonderful to hear women visiting, laughing and teasing each other. One young mother came in with two little ones in tow. She looked so despondent, so defeated. After a manicure, a makeover, and getting her hair done, she was laughing and visiting and she looked so beautiful and bright! The transformation was incredible! We didn't limit the event to women who are battered. Any and all women were welcome. Grandmas who needed assistance walking came, middle-aged women and young women gathered together to celebrate being women. It was truly remarkable. And it is because of all of you good people that this was possible. The advocates had a great time making up gift bags, oohing and ahhing over all of the lovely cosmetics and other products that most women here don't have the financial resources or transportation to obtain. Four massage therapists volunteered, three local women and one traveling from Rapid City. They were busy all day and didn't get through their sign-in sheets. Kids ran in and out with their stuffed animals. It was just a good time for all! I hope you can feel our excitement and pleasure at being able to offer this event. (You can probably tell by the exclamation marks what a success it was)! We learned some things and we'll do some things differently next year. We also learned that local women are eager for a day of being and feeling pampered and beautiful and we know this will be an annual event. The pictures of the event will soon be on the website. Some are already on for the Diva Day that was held in Rapid City. Over 200 women attended that event � our third annual. Check it out at www.cangleska.org. So readers, you have our thanks once again. And, of course, the coffee is always on!
Karen Artichoker, Director
August 28, 2007 Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation Dear Chris, First of all, my apologies to you and the website readers for not writing sooner. We have been busy trying to work some kinks out so we can get the women settled into our new shelter. For those readers who couldn't join us at the grand opening, please visit our website at www.cangleska.org for some pictures. There are still little odds and ends that have to be done but we expect the women to move in next Monday, September 3rd. Our shelter is beautiful and we are honored to be able to offer this safe space to women who are battered and their children. We want to thank everyone for the outpouring of donations. You all truly embody the Lakota value of generosity! We have been busy stuffing backpacks for school kids. One grandma has eleven school age children in the home! She asked for four (4) backpacks with school supplies saying that she had received seven (7) others from some donations that had been sent to a community. Later she called back and said the zippers were broken on all of the backpacks! I assured her that the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation donors sent items that are new and/or of good quality and we could help her. She was so relieved! It also does all of us a world of good to watch the children open the backpacks. I hope you can visualize their little faces as they pull out their brand new school supplies and show their moms all their goodies. It's almost like Christmas! We'd also like to thank all of you that are sending books. Our outreach advocates and other staff are also taking books into homes and reporting that children are crawling up onto mom's lap and opening the book so mom will read to them. We firmly believe that exposing children to books early will make a difference for us as a People and assist us in reclaiming our nation. Thank you. So good-hearted readers, you once again have our thanks and appreciation for your thoughtfulness and generosity. The advocates think we should build another building so to house all your lovely donations! As always, the coffee pot (or tea kettle) is always on and our doors are always open so feel free to stop in for a visit. Pilamaye (Thank you). Please know that our prayers and best wishes are sent out everyday for you and yours. Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker, Director
April 8, 2007 Dear Chris, I want to extend our thanks to the generous donors who have been sending Easter basket items and to those assisting us in furnishing the children's playroom in the new shelter as well as the wonderful kitchen and baby items that are pouring in. The Easter baskets were delivered so lots of kids should be eating eggs, munching on chocolates and enjoying small gifts. We are once again drowning in boxes as the generous gifts of your readers are coming in, and, we have ordered playroom toys. We're going to start moving some things into the new shelter next week. The following week our new phone system will be in and the walk in freezer and cooler will be installed. We'll finish up our move. It's going to be chaotic, lots of work and oh so exciting! Our future plans include renovating the old shelter for use as a women's substance abuse treatment facility. And, at our grand opening we will announce our new campaign � raising funds to build a shelter in Rapid City. We're still working on raising the funds for landscaping and blacktop for the new shelter compound. I hope your readers feel they can continue to support our effort and will watch our progress on our website, www.cangleska.org. Again, our thanks and good wishes for all your readers. Please know that we appreciate you all--whether you've supported us with prayers and good thoughts, goods, or a financial contribution. We think of all of you often. And finally, a special thank you to you, Chris. I know you put lots of time and energy into the website and keeping readers informed about our needs. You are appreciated. Blessings and great joy to each of you.
Karen Artichoker
December 24, 2006 Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation Dear Chris, I wanted to send this thank you before Christmas and let you and your readers know that Christmas food baskets and gifts have been distributed. You wouldn�t believe it! We couldn�t believe it - the outpouring of kindness we�ve experienced! We were drowning in lovely, wonderful presents at the shelter. You could hardly turn around in our little shelter! You can see by all the exclamation points how excited and happy we are. The advocates wanted to call the construction company that is building our new shelter and tell them they had to put more shelves in our storage spaces so we could accommodate future donations! Honestly, you should have seen the babies crawling around boxes and navigating through the sea of presents. It was truly amazing and really cute! I was truly amazed because I�ve been out of the office for a couple of weeks at various trainings and meetings. I walked into the shelter and thought the advocates all had grown pointy ears since they looked like elves as they wrapped presents and oohed and ahhed over how this present was perfect for this child and that present just had to go here or there. It truly lifted everyone�s spirits, especially since our tribe is going through such a hard time right now. One four year girl had been bothering her mother to write a letter to the Christmas spirit. Wazi (what we call Santa Claus) will make many, many stops tonight. That little girl's letter didn't end up in the dead letter room because one of you readers found it and responded to it. I hope your readers can hear and smell all the good they've done for children here on Christmas morning. Children giggling and tearing at presents and eating a good meal. We hope you can feel their happiness. We're hopeful that for one day the violence, pain and anxiety about the future will abate and families will be able to simply enjoy each other and cherish the look of contentment on their childrens faces. We'd also like to thank those of you sending donations for utilities. Although the weather hasn't been severe here, we still have families and elders that just don't have the financial means to make ends meet. The homeless grandma with four grandchildren that we've been helping now has six grandchildren. She stays here and there and asks if we can help pay part of a light bill for the person she is most recently staying with. The young mother who is getting her own place but has to pay the outgoing tenant's old light bill before she can get service in her name. (Isn't that crazy?! But that's the way it works here). And, of course we're always nervous about any pending storm and it helps to know we have some means to help because the calls for propane assistance come in steadily at the hint of a storm. We have tentatively set the grand opening for our new shelter for the first Friday in May and an announcement will be posted on our website, www.cangleska.org. A generous donor has committed to helping us with our feed and giveaway. It is our tradition to feed people and give them a gift as a way of honoring and thanking those people who have been helpful in making a particular event or journey successful. We're looking forward to sharing the day with our community and invite everyone to join us in celebrating our new and sacred space. Without a doubt, that sacred space shall some day become a women's resource center and daycare center instead of a shelter for women and their children victimized by domestic and sexual violence. We are going to end violence here. It's not a matter of if but when and how. Again, our thanks to all of you. Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker P.S. We think you're all elves, too. December 10, 2006 Dear Chris, Cangleska, Inc. would like to thank all the readers of the Friends of Pine Ridge website who responded to the call for Thanksgiving dinner donations. We were able to purchase Thanksgiving turkeys, trimmings, and with the trimmings that were sent to the shelter..well, let's just say that we had lots of full tummies on Thanksgiving Day. On behalf of all the families who had a feast on Thanksgiving Day, thank you. Holidays are an especially stressful time for families in crisis. Women who are battered are often homeless and/or without resources to meet their children's expectations that include lots of good food and gifts. We appreciate the good people from across the country that think of others and give so those who are struggling might have some bright moments. The propane, utilities, Christmas dinner and gift donations are pouring in. Since our storage space is very limited, we have all this "wonderful stuff" piled around us. It is a pleasure to walk into the shelter and see food, gift wrapping, and all the lovely gifts that we know will put a smile on the faces of so many children. We know that many families will be warm and have electricity through the holiday season. We want to encourage your readers to check out the progress of our new shelter at www.cangleska.org. We have a slide show with lovely pictures of the progress being made in constructing a new shelter, the supervised visitation center activities and women's wellness program that will be conducted in a manufactured home, and a maintenance building. We are working to obtain resources to put a chain link security fence around the acreage, a privacy fence and children's playground equipment, underground sprinkler system, and a blacktop road and parking lot. As you can see from the pictures, the site for the new buildings was a totally undeveloped field. Anyway, we will have adequate space to house donations of goods and food and the advocates were chuckling about how we'll probably miss seeing everything piled around us. It really is fun to ooh and ahh over all the wonderful donations we receive. Again, a big thank you to you, Chris, and all those who have made donations to help families on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker, Director August 8, 2006 Dear Chris, Wanted to send you a quick thank you and let you know how much we appreciate the school supplies donations. I hope your web visitors can share a visual with me and see the smiling faces of children as they look through school supplies. We can tell they're anxious to go back to school and many are playing school. It's so cute to watch the older children play school and teach the little ones. I also have to share the story of the grandma who has 21 grandchildren living in her home - five are in diapers and SIXTEEN need backpacks and everything that goes in it. So, your donations are a real blessing for her as well as her grandchildren. Again, our thanks to the many generous web visitors and to you, Chris. We'd also like to encourage your web visitors to check out our websites at www.cangleska.org and www.sacred-circle.com Karen Artichoker, DirectorCangleska, Inc. December 29, 2005 Dear Chris, Thanks for everything, and please thank all of your members for us; due to them, many women and children benefited. I'd like to share our experience with one family. A woman called who takes care of four grandchildren plus a teenage daughter. This woman has really been through the mill and should probably write a book about her experiences and her survival. She is extraordinary! Anyway, she was feeling down about the fact that she couldn't get her grandchildren any presents. We picked out some gifts for the children and my daughter spent two hours wrapping presents. Then we took the presents and left them at their back door. The woman says that she heard the children get up Christmas morning and open the front door. No presents. Then one said, "Well, we lived with auntie last year so maybe Santa left our presents there." The little boy replied, "Maybe we weren't nice enough!" The woman got up and told the children that maybe the presents were at auntie's but she was thinking that maybe it got too late and we didn't get to deliver the gifts. Anyway, finally one of the boys went out the back door to look for the cat and saw the gifts. This woman had a big smile on her face as she described how excited and thrilled her children were to open the presents. She said the children were chattering a mile a minute and chastising each other for doubting that Santa might not have been able to find them! She asked me to send your readers her thanks and had big tears in her eyes when she told this story. I also need to share that your donations also made Marie cry. Marie is a woman who lost her home and everything in it in a fire. Her advocate called and said, "I just had to call and tell you how grateful Marie is. She didn't even look at everything in the boxes when she exclaimed, "An electric skillet, oh thank you, thank you!" I'm happy to report that Marie found a nice enough trailer house to rent. Even though getting into the trailer (rent and deposit) took all of her money so she doesn't have furniture yet, she said that getting the boxes made the day for her and her children. Of course, the women in shelter were all smiling as they watched their children tear open presents and we all know that the babies had as much fun with the wrapping paper as they did the presents! There are many more stories of the happiness that your members brought to families here. Please let them know that we appreciate their thoughts and prayers as well as the tangible manifestation of those thoughts and prayers. Again, our thanks for your hard work and best wishes to you and your members in the new year. Also, we send a special thank you to those who have donated dollars for propane and utilities. We received approximately $730 in PayPal donations so there are families here who were warm and had the lights on over the holidays. It was especially helpful since we it was very cold here just before Christmas. It was a brown Christmas for us and unusually warm but we were all relieved because the high propane costs have everyone nervous. It's snowing now but could turn warm again tomorrow. That's South Dakota for you! Take care and best wishes from Cangleska, Inc.
Karen Artichoker September 16, 2005 Friends of the Pine Ridge Reservation Dear Chris, What can I say? You and all those good folks out there have done it again! We have been receiving box after box of sewing supplies plus the machines! So many women enjoy sewing so it's really wonderful to have everything that's needed. Thank you all so much. You've all been so kind and generous and we want your readers to know that we really do appreciate their gifts. We appreciate the time and energy as well as the hard earned dollars that people spend to help us. If you would be so kind as to let everyone know that Cangleska, Inc. now has a website www.sacred-circle.com. The website showcases Sacred Circle, National Resource Center To End Violence Against Native Women, and provides information on the tribal title contained within the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act 2005. We will be expanding the website to include information specific to Cangleska's work on the Pine Ridge. We are especially excited because we will be able to share the good news--we are building our own shelter! Please let all those wonderful people out there know that we think of them, brag about them, and appreciate their thoughtfulness. Anyway, until next time... Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker, Director 5/17/05 Dear Chris, Just a quick note to let you know that we received the towels and kitchen items. Towels are always welcome in the shelter and it's ironic that the day towels started arriving the advocates were asking me what we were going to do about getting some towels! I said not to worry because our prayers for help are out there in the universe and there will be activity. Isn't that just too wild!? Anyway, once again you and the kind-hearted contributors have put a smile on the faces of women in the shelter. Please share with others how thankful we are that someone thinks of us. Life is hard here but when I walk into the shelter and see a baby fresh out of the bath with a towel that arrived from someone we don't even know...well, it gives me hope that the world can be different. Thank you. Sincerely,
Karen Artichoker, Director March 28, 2005 Dear Chris, We were truly amazed at the outpouring of generosity and friendship that the Friends of the Pine Ridge Reservation website has generated for our shelter. Everyone is so excited when UPS shows up and we wonder what we are getting that day. The women residing in the shelter are anxious about what the future holds and it is wonderful to see anxiety change to laughter as the women speculate about what might be in the various packages and items that we've received as a result of the website. It's fun and makes, what might otherwise be just another day that's filled with uncertainty, a little brighter. We're working to get a new shelter that will better accommodate the space needs of women who are victimized and their children. A bigger space means more women and children will be able to seek safety at the shelter so any items sent will be used by someone at some point. The donations that your readers make to Cangleska let our people know that we are not invisible or forgotten and compassion does exist. Thank you and all those who have made donations to Cangleska, Inc. Sincerely, Karen Artichoker, Director |