Volunteer with CRYP
This Fall!
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CRYP is actively seeking volunteers to work in our Cokata Wiconi teen center and The Main youth center.
If you are interested in applying for our volunteer program, please visit our website and click on the volunteer link for more information.
You also can read our recent article about our volunteer program here.
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| Sponsor Enrichment Activities for CRYP Youth
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The Main youth center and Cokata Wiconi teen center are looking for sponsors to support art and athletic enrichment activities for our after-school and summer programs.
CRYP works hard to introduce the youth who attend our centers to the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle. As part of these efforts, we will be offering weeklong lacrosse workshops in the upcoming months for both children and teens. In order to hold these classes, we will need to purchase lacrosse balls, sticks, padding, and goal sets.
The art program at CRYP is also looking to expand in the upcoming months. We are looking to introduce kids to many different forms of artistic expression, including graffiti art, pottery, and painting. To allow the kids to experiment with these new art forms, we will have many diverse needs including canvases, paint, paint brushes, clay, glazing supplies, pottery supplies, acrylic paint, spray paint, exterior paint, and sealant.
We are actively looking for people willing to make monetary or in-kind donations to fulfill these needs. You can donate online by clicking the link below or by mailing donations to the Cheyenne River Youth Project, P.O. Box 410, Eagle Butte, SD 57625.
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Sponsor a Birthday Cake at The Main!
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Few days in a child's life are as precious as his or her birthday. Unfortunately, for far too many underprivileged children, that day passes with little celebration - if any at all. CRYP wants to make sure that the young children who attend The Main youth center have the birthday festivities they deserve.
Each month, The Main hosts a birthday party for the children whose birthdays fall during that month. To offset the cost of each party, CRYP seeks monthly sponsors to contribute $40 for the birthday cake. Please consider sponsoring a birthday cake in 2014-15! Every dollar makes such a difference in the lives of Cheyenne River's children.
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Meet Our
Board of Directors
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PRESIDENT
Jeremy Patterson
VICE PRESIDENT
Karla Abbott
SECRETARY/TREASURER
Jeffrey Meyer
DIRECTORS
Guthrie Ducheneaux
Peggy Gallipo
Lonnie Heier
For more info and bios, click
here!
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Support CRYP When You Shop Online!
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What if CRYP earned a donation every time you searched the Internet? Or, what if a percentage of every online purchase you made supported our cause?
Amazon, for example, will donate 0.5% of your purchase price to CRYP when you shop at smile.amazon.com. To make shopping even easier, you can add the AmazonSmile 1 Button to your web browser.
Then there are GoodSearch and GoodShop.
GoodSearch.com is a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up.
GoodShop.com is an online shopping mall that donates up to 30% of each purchase to your favorite cause. Hundreds of great stores have teamed up with GoodShop so that every time you place an order, you'll be supporting your favorite cause.
And, if you download the
"GoodSearch - Cheyenne River Youth Project - CRYP toolbar," our cause will earn money every time you shop and search online EVEN if you forget to go to the GoodShop or GoodSearch sites first! Click here to add the toolbar.
While you're online, you even can make a secure donation with your Capital One credit card. Simply click here. You even can add an easy-to-use widget for future contributions.
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| Needs List |
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CRYP relies on in-kind donations as well as funding to continue our mission. If you'd like to help, please check out our
Needs List. You also may contact us at (605) 964-8200 if you'd like a copy of our most up-to-date list and price quotes for particular needs. Thank you for your support!
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| Our Mission |
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The Cheyenne River Youth Project is dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities, ensuring strong, self-sufficient families and communities.
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Enter to Win Handmade "Winter Watercolors" Lakota Star Quilt
To celebrate the spirit of the season, and continue to raise much-needed funds for its annual Christmas Toy Drive efforts, CRYP is once again hosting a Holiday Star Quilt Raffle. Tickets are on sale until Thursday, December 24, and on Saturday, December 26, CRYP staff will announce the lucky winner who will be receiving a handmade, queen-size Lakota star quilt.
This year's quilt is titled "Winter Watercolors." Bonnie LeBeau, a Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member, hand-crafted the art-inspired quilt for the holiday raffle.
"We love the theme of this quilt because it resonates on more than one level," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "Here, at The Main youth center and the Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") teen center, our kids are always involved in artwork. One of the most popular mediums, particularly with the little kids, is watercolor. When I look at this quilt, I see a celebration of winter color and holiday festivity; I also see a celebration of our children, their creativity, and the healing power of art."
Garreau noted that the public can support this important fundraiser in three ways: buy tickets, offer to sell tickets, and help spread the word by telling family and friends and by sharing raffle details through social media.
Click
HERE to find out how you can buy or sell raffle tickets!
 All funds raised through the raffle will benefit CRYP's
Christmas Toy Drive program, which serves approximately 1,500 children across 20 reservation communities each year.
Click
HERE to find out how you can support the 2015 Christmas Toy Drive!
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5th Annual Holiday Artists' Market is Coming Up on November 21
It's going to be an exciting week. This Saturday, CRYP will host its
5th annual Holiday Artists Market - and it will unveil its first-ever Festival of Trees. Cheyenne River community members may purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win one of five Christmas trees decorated by local businesses and artisans.
The market is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") teen center's gymnasium. It will feature community artisans, craftspeople, chefs and bakers from around the community, as well as wares from CRYP's Keya Gift Shop. In addition, the Keya Cafe & Coffeeshop will be open to the public throughout market day, with special menu items and baked goods; CRYP will be taking orders for holiday goodie boxes; and Santa Claus will spend the afternoon meeting children and posing for photographs.
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Festival of Trees will be a special highlight. CRYP is providing the trees, while participating local businesses, organizations and individuals will bring their own lights and decorations so they can decorate their trees as they see fit. After the November 21 premiere, the trees will be available for public viewing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Christmas Eve. CRYP might provide later evening hours between mid-December and the holiday, depending on public demand. But there's more.
"For the first time, some of our young people have signed up to sell their artwork at our Holiday Artists' Market this year," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "We're thrilled that we can help encourage these young entrepreneurs."
And, the Word Carrier Trading Post will be on site that day for its CRYP Book Fair, offering a large selection of Native American literature and an array of fair-trade products - including vintage clothing and jewelry - for purchase. All books will be available at a 20-percent discount to Cheyenne River community members.
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CRYP Wins 2015 Bush Prize & Wellmark Foundation Grant
It's been a big month for CRYP, which has served children and families on South Dakota's remote 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River reservation for 27 years. The not-for-profit, grassroots youth organization has won the Bush Foundation's 2015 Bush Prize for Community Innovation and the Wellmark Foundation's Community Kickstarter grant.
CRYP is one of eight organizations to receive the 2015 Bush Prize. Along with its fellow award winners, it will receive an unrestricted grant equal to 25 percent of the organization's budget for the previous fiscal year.
CRYP also won a Wellmark Foundation Community Kickstarter grant, designed to support projects that would make communities more active or improve access to healthy foods. The youth project was one of 22 award recipients in South Dakota.
The public voted for their favorite project among 130 entries, with more than 57,000 coming in during the two-week voting period. CRYP's project, a walking path in the year-old Waniyetu Wowapi ("Winter Count") Art Park was a clear favorite. The quarter- to half-mile Waniyetu Wowapi Art Walk will loop through the art park and CRYP's Winyan Toka Win ("Leading Lady") organic garden, providing people of all ages with the ability to access the park, experience the artwork, go walking or running, enjoy the fresh air and reconnect with the earth.
Learn more about these two awards
here!
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Partner of the Month:
Diabetes Action
For the past 25 years, Diabetes Action Research and Education has made it a priority to help reduce the extremely high incidence of diabetes in native communities, especially in South Dakota. In 1993, Diabetes Action helped fund construction of the first Indian-owned and managed kidney dialysis centers on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; then, in 1998, it turned its attention northward, to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.
That year, Diabetes Action provided much-needed funding for the original Billy Mills Youth Center (affectionately called The Main) at the Cheyenne River Youth Project® campus, and a long-term, steadfast partnership was born.
 More recently, Diabetes Action supported the construction of CRYP's Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") teen center in 2006. Four years later, it launched the American Indian Diabetes Prevention Program.
Diabetes Action also provided critical funding to produce CRYP's "Diabetes is Not Our Way" video series and public awareness campaign in 2012. The campaign, dedicated to preventing youth diabetes on the remote, 2.8-million Cheyenne River reservation, incorporated a 30-minute "Diabetes is Not Our Way" documentary (click on thumbnail above), three public service announcements for TV and Internet distribution, three audio PSAs for radio, and a 10-part "Indigenous Perspectives" short-video series for social media, each of which highlighted a tribal member's views on the diabetes issue.
The videos are available through our YouTube video library, and you can read more about our partnership with Diabetes Action here.
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November Hall of Fame:
Nathanial Fast Wolf
Nathanial Fast Wolf, 14, is a member of CRYP's second cohort of Waniyetu Wowapi ("Winter Count") Art Interns. He also served as a Sustainable Agriculture Intern in 2014, spending the summer in the Winyan Toka Win ("Leading Lady") organic garden, and he's a regular participant in the Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") Book Club.
Nathanial says Book Club has been, by far, his favorite activity at CRYP. He's completed two sessions to date, reading a total of eight novels, earning a new Kindle, and hiking Hinhan Kaga (Harney Peak) in March 2015 as part of a special session focused on Native American literature.
"Reading is my biggest hobby," Nathanial says. "Some of my favorite books are 'The Outsiders' by S.E. Hinton, 'IQ84' by Hruki Muraki, and 'Gone With the Wind' by Margaret Mitchell. My advice to readers? Pay attention to the themes of what you read. That's the best part!"
Read more of Nathanial's story
here!
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WE NEED YOU!
Volunteer Positions Are Available Now
Now we are into the fall months, CRYP staff members at the are facing a critical shortage:
VOLUNTEERS!!!
CRYP needs to staff its Main youth center and Cokata Wiconi teen center, operate the Keya Cafe and Keya Gift Shop, stage the weekly Leading Lady Farmers Market, manage Family Services distributions, and harvest the Winyan Toka Win garden. The youth project's staff is simply too small to manage the entire East Lincoln Street campus without volunteer support.
Most people may not be aware that CRYP relies heavily on volunteers to keep its doors open, its programs running, and its services flowing to the Cheyenne River community. The youth project welcomes individuals and groups for short- and long-term stays.
"In the beginning, it likely was more obvious," said Tammy Eagle Hunter, CRYP's youth programs director. "When the youth project began in 1988 in a run-down former bar on Main Street, it was 100-percent volunteer-run. Although we've expanded to include The Main, Cokata Wiconi, Family Services, Winyan Toka Win garden, Keya Cafe and Coffeeshop, Waniyetu Wowapi Art Park, and full-time staff, we still depend on volunteer support. We simply couldn't continue with our mission in the community without our volunteers."
Learn more about our volunteer program, and how to apply, here!
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Thank you so much for your interest in our youth project, and for your ongoing support as we pursue our mission in the community.
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, follow the youth project on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Sincerely,
All of us at the
Cheyenne River Youth Project
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