Archives for April 2017

So proud of our mentee Brian Sherman Jr. – a 2017 Running Strong For American Indian Youth DreamStarter! Only 10 young people are chosen for this honor. Brian and Tiny traveled to Washington DC for the DreamStarter Academy where Brian learned about becoming a Running Strong For American Indian Youth Ambassador.

Brian will be traveling to Los Angeles in June to do an intensive training with us to start his DreamSteps dance program on Pine Ridge. Brian will train at different professional studios, receive one on one training in curriculum development and class structure and complete his Zumba certification.

One of the main goals of our trip was to do a big push push for our 24 hour hotline: the LIFELINE. We held an art contest to have students design a poster for the LIFELINE. The two winning artists got to work with a professional graphic designer in Los Angeles to turn their designs into print ready posters. We brought out hundreds of copies to share with the students and the schools and did a fun exercise with all of the students to help them remember the number. These posters are up all over the reservation and in Rapid City! Over the summer kids will participate in a music video to promote the LIFELINE.

It was a whirlwind tour around the rez – we made 15 visits in 4 short days!! We handed out awards to Monthly Art Contest Winners, presented membership kits to our Creator Club participants, shared the new LIFELINE posters, handed out applications for the Summer Arts program and watched videos created at Mitakuye programs!

We had dresses and make up for the young ladies of Pine Ridge who were getting ready for prom. Volunteer Paula Cantu set up shop in the BEAR cave so the young ladies could get their prom make up done by a professional hair and makeup artist. Our super-hero Tiny D even got a makeover!

Worked hard with Brian Sherman to create the name and logo for his new program DreamSteps! Brian is our Mentee who received a 2017 DreamStarter grant to start a youth dance program on Pine Ridge.  The Beautiful logo was created by Pine Ridge Artist Billy Janis. Brian will be traveling to Washington DC this weekend to attend the Dreamstarter Academy where he will get training in being a DreamStarter Ambassador!  Brian will travel to Los Angeles in June where we will train him and help him develop curriculum for his program. Yay Brian!!

Congratulations to all of our winners in March for the theme of FIRE! And congratulations to everyone who participated! We had a great time handing out awards in person to all of our winners and Creator Club members on our trip.

Gearing up for a week of visiting schools all over the reservation! We have a busy week planned visiting with students, sharing the beautiful new posters for the LIFELINE, sharing info about our HOYE WAYELO  SUMMER ARTS WORKSHOPS, handing out awards to our MONTHLY ART CONTEST winners and membership Swag Bags for our CREATOR CLUB participants, screening Mitakuye videos and handing out Mitakuye stickers for all!

 

Theme for April is SPRING! So many ways to interpret this! Deadline April 30th.