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In This Issue
Volunteer with CRYP!
CRYP's Sponsor Enrichment Activities
Sponsor a Birthday Cake at The Main
Meet Our Board of Directors
Support CRYP with Amazon Smile, GoodSearch & GoodShop, and Capital One
Check Out Our Needs List
Our Mission
Support CRYP's Passion for Fashion!
P4F Keynote Speaker: Darrell Redleaf
February is "Heart Health Month" at CRYP
CRYP Remains Committed to Youth Wellness in 2016
Winter Intern Offers Valuable Workshop Series to 75 Teens
Order "Home: Cheyenne River Lakota Nation" Today
February Hall of Fame: Elijah Brown Wolf
We Need You This Winter: Consider Volunteering with CRYP
Quick Links
  News

 

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




 

Sponsor Enrichment Activities for CRYP Youth

 

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. 

 

 

 

 

 


Sponsor a Birthday Cake at The Main!
Main Birthday Party 1
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.




Meet Our
Board of Directors
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!



Support CRYP When You Shop Online!
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.

Needs List
Three girls

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!
Our Mission


Spanish Class at The Main
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.
 
Join Our Mailing List
February 2016 News

Just Three Weeks Remain to Support CRYP's Passion for Fashion!

March is around the corner, and just weeks remain before the Cheyenne River Youth Project®'s annual Passion for Fashion event, where young women from across South Dakota's 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation come together to celebrate that classic American rite of passage, their high-school prom.

Passion for Fashion 2010-7 This year's Passion for Fashion event will take place on Saturday, March 12 at CRYP's Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") teen center. This year's theme: "The Force Awakens."
   
At the daylong event, Cheyenne River's teens will take part in a formal luncheon and hear a keynote speaker; receive manicures, pedicures, makeovers, and hair styling; find their dream dresses, shoes, and accessories; and celebrate their transformed selves on a formal catwalk. Along the way, they'll share stories and laughter with staff, volunteers, family members and each other - and make priceless memories that will last a lifetime.

And we need your support!

Click here to find out how you can help make Passion for Fashion a day to remember!


Passion for Fashion 2016:
Darrell Redleaf Will Be Our Keynote Speaker

At this year's Passion for Fashion event, Cheyenne River's young women have a very special treat in store for them.
   
CRYP has announced that its keynote speaker will be Darrell Redleaf, a top celebrity hair stylist, makeup artist, product developer and TV commentator with 30 years of experience in the Hollywood glamour business. He also has personal ties to Cheyenne River.
  
Redleaf styled Helen Hunt's hair for seven seasons of her TV series "Mad About You" as well as for her movies, including "Twister" and "As Good As It Gets." Today, his resume is filled with A-list celebrity clients, such as Cameron Diaz, Selena Gomez, Britney Spears, Jewel and Scarlett Johansson. He's received a First American in the Arts award (2000), IATSE's "Best Contemporary Hairstylist in Television" (2000) and an Emmy nomination for styling Jewel's hair in the Lifetime movie "Ring of Fire" (2013). You can learn more about Redleaf, his background and his current projects here.

"My philosophy, like that of my ancestors, is 'walk in beauty,'" Redleaf said. "If I can motivate one person to step out of her comfort zone and pursue her dreams, then I have succeeded."
 

February is "Heart Health Month" at the Cheyenne River Youth Project
 
February is "Heart Health Month" at CRYP, and the 27-year-old, not-for-profit youth organization's staff has been hard at work organizing youth programming that has a special focus on diabetes prevention. It's a cause close to staff members' hearts, as the numbers are truly frightening; diabetes has reached epidemic proportions.
   
American Indians and Alaska Natives are 2.2 times more likely to have diabetes than non-Hispanic whites. Thirty percent of the
Wellness Interns 1
Teaching teens to grow and prepare heart-healthy, nutritious foods is part of CRYP's ongoing youth diabetes prevention efforts.
indigenous population in this country has pre-diabetes, and of those who already have it, 95 percent have type 2 diabetes. And, there was a 68 percent increase in diabetes from 1994 to 2004 among native youth ages 15 to 19. Half of Cheyenne River's population is under 18, and 30 to 40 percent of those young people have or are at risk for developing diabetes.
   
"This is a huge issue for us," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "The children born here since 2000 have a life expectancy that's shorter than their parents' or grandparents.' Many of these kids already have health issues, some as young as 8 to 10 years old."
   
While this is a health disaster for native communities, most of the risk factors are socio-cultural and environmental. That means diabetes is preventable. Learn more about what CRYP is doing to secure a vibrant, healthy future for the community's young people here, and visit our YouTube Channel to view our Indigenous Perspectives on Diabetes video series, as well as our full-length documentary (click thumbnail above).


CRYP Remains Committed to
Youth Wellness in the New Year

For nearly three decades, CRYP has been dedicated to fostering holistic wellness among youth. That means the not-for-profit youth project does more than provide a safe, positive place to play, study and socialize with friends. It also prepares nutritious snacks and meals using foods grown organically in CRYP's 2-acre Winyan Toka Win (Leading Lady) garden. It encourages healthy self-expression through teen arts internships and the free, public Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park. It teaches job and life skills through a variety of additional internships, workshops and classes. And, it devotes a large percentage of its time and energy to physical fitness.
   
MBB 2010 - 1 In 2015, teens who attend the Cokata Wiconi (Center of Life) teen center had the opportunity to participate in circuit training, Midnight Basketball, "open run" basketball games, basketball obstacle courses, Walking Club and much more. In the year to come, CRYP will continue to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to wellness through a basketball tournament for grades six, seven and eight; a lacrosse program; strength training, cardio training and continued circuit training in the Cokata Wiconi fitness center; Walking Club; and regular basketball programming and fitness challenges.

"As they pursue their fitness goals, our teens are developing leadership skills, improving their self-confidence and positive body image, and unleashing their creativity in unexpected ways," explained Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "They're also learning effective teamwork, which goes such a long way toward combating bullying issues, and they're becoming a force for meaningful change in the community."
 

Winter Intern Offers
Valuable Workshop Series to 75 Teens
 
This winter, the Cheyenne River Youth Project® hosted a two-week series of teen workshops at its Cokata Wiconi (Center of Life) teen center. Seventy-five teens attended the workshops, which focused on preparing for college, valuable job and life skills, positive relationships and healthy sexuality, and the 30 teens who participated at least one session each week were able to attend a special participants-only Midnight Basketball event at Cokata Wiconi on Friday, January 22.
   
At the helm of the Winter Workshop Series was CRYP's winter intern, Emilie Carr. A third-year history major at Ohio's Oberlin College, Carr works as a tutor leader with the Ninde Scholars Program and is co-chair of Boys and Girls in Motion, a local after-school program. She's dedicated to creating educational change, improving college access for all, and fighting the devastating school-to-prison pipeline.
   
"College isn't the right choice for a lot of kids, but the skills that I'm teaching will benefit even those who want to go right into the workforce," Carr said. "Workshops like Interview Skills, Resume-Writing and Financial Aid Night can benefit a wide range of students. Even if I end up drawing just five kids to my workshops... I'm start the conversation about college, which hopefully will spark more interest among high school students."
 

Order "Home: Cheyenne River Lakota Nation" Today!
 
Four years ago, a Colorado-based creative team embarked on a fine-art photography project designed to celebrate life on the Cheyenne River reservation, home to four bands of the Lakota nation. Richard and Heather Steinberger, a photographer-writer team from Bailey, Colorado, joined forces with Evergreen, Colorado-based photographer Matt Normann to develop a coffee table book that would introduce Cheyenne River's landscapes, flora and fauna, communities, traditions and residents to a larger audience.
   
Matt Normann and Richard Steinberger.
That book is now available to the public through Amazon, and the creative team has announced that 100 percent of the proceeds from book sales will benefit the 27-year-old, not-for-profit Cheyenne River Youth Project® in Eagle Butte.

"We've always strongly believed that Cheyenne River's story is one of hope, not one of despair," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "So when Heather, Richard and Matt first approached us with the idea for this project, we were very excited. Our community really got behind them, and the end result is a beautiful book that really was a team effort. We're all very proud of it."

The creative team also has made limited-edition fine-art prints available for purchase; 100 percent of the proceeds from these sales will support CRYP as well.
   
To order books, click here .

Be sure to also click "See all 3 formats and editions" and then the arrow next to "hardcover" - three versions are available, from 8x10 to 11x13, in hardcover and paperback. To order more than 10 copies, please contact the creative team at heather@timberlinemediallc.com, as discounts may be available for large orders.
   
For more details about the project, and to order prints, visit cheyenneriverfineart.com and click "Photography."


February Hall of Fame:
Elijah Brown Wolf     

In recent years, the Cheyenne River Youth Project® has devoted significant resources to its wellness programming. We believe the best way to serve our children and provide for a positive, healthy future is to address their holistic well-being - from nutrition and fitness, to community service, to connecting with the land and Lakota traditions.

These efforts have resonated with Cheyenne River's young people, particularly with our teens. One of them is Elijah Brown Wolf, 17, who started participating in CRYP programming as a small child at The Main youth center for 4- to 12-year-olds, and he began attending the Cokata Wiconi (Center of Life) teen center in spring 2011. His involvement at Cokata Wiconi has inspired CRYP staff members on multiple levels.

"He's very involved with volunteering, leadership, wellness programming and helping us get the word out to other teens," said Jerica Widow-Rivers, youth programs assistant. "He's opened up so much, and he's gotten out of his comfort zone. He's an all-around great kid."

Learn more about Elijah's story here
Volunteers 2006
WE NEED YOU!
Volunteer Positions Available Immediately

We were extremely fortunate to have more than 20 volunteers converge on our East Lincoln Street campus during the 2015 Christmas Toy Drive. In the winter and spring months of the new year, however, we face a critical volunteer shortage.

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.

Learn more about our volunteer program, and how to apply, here!

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