News from Cheyenne River Youth Project

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!

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

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

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.

September 2015 News

3rd Annual Harvest Festival Dinner is This Friday!

CRYP will host its 3rd annual Harvest Festival dinner this Friday, September 25, at the Cokata Wiconi teen center in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. A community-wide celebration of a bountiful season in the 2-acre Winyan Toka Win garden, the Harvest Festival meal is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and is open free to the public.

The evening's festivities will include a large-scale community feed, board games, fun and fellowship. On the the menu: cucumber and tomato salad, melon salad, roast bison, harvest vegetables, veggie panini, peach and banana smoothies, and baked goods such as peach pie, chocolate zucchini cake and banana bread. Recipes will be available, and as always, CRYP staff and volunteers will incorporate fresh, nutritious, organically grown produce from the youth project's 5-acre Winyan Toka Win garden into the various menu items.

CRYP Announces October Programming & Halloween Fun

As the calendar officially turns to autumn, the Cheyenne River Youth Project® has announced its teen and youth programming for the month of October. The roster of special events and activities includes movies, native arts, academic courses, sports, games, food and treats, and of course CRYP's celebrated annual Haunted House and Ghoul-A-Grams.

"We usually see more than 200 kids come through the doors of our Haunted House each year, which has made it a major attraction on Cheyenne River's yearly events calendar," Eagle Hunter said. "It's the cornerstone of our fall and Halloween celebrations."

Don't Miss Our 2015 Ghoul-A-Grams!

Friends and supporters around the country can take part in the festivities through "Ghoul-A-Grams," a CRYP fundraising tradition that dates to the early 1990s. Our 2015 grams will incorporate $10 grams for a small treat, a dance, and a card; $13 grams for a bag of popcorn, a dance, and a card; and $15 grams for a caramel apple, a dance, and a card; and $20 grams for a Keya Cafe gift certificate, a dance, a card, and a small treat.

Grams can be sent to anyone, anywhere, on Cheyenne River; the ghouls will deliver the grams at 15-minute intervals from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The recipients also will receive goodie bags.

"We pick a theme each year, and that seems to really unleash the creativity of our staff members and volunteers," said Tammy Eagle Hunter, CRYP's youth programs director, who is known for transforming CRYPers into very believable ghouls through her spooky, and startlingly realistic, face-painting. "It's always so much fun, and it's an important community-wide fundraiser to support our youth programming. So consider ordering a Ghoul-A-Gram for a friend or loved one! Just call us at 605-964-8200, and we'll do the rest."

Acclaimed Artist Scape Martinez Visits Cheyenne River

Earlier this month, CRYP welcomed San Jose, California-based artist Scape Martinez to its East Lincoln Street campus for a week of mural painting and youth arts education. During the week prior to Labor Day, Martinez painted a mural on Eagle Butte's Main Street, painted a second one in CRYP's Waniyetu Wowapi ("Winter Count") Art Park, and engaged children of all ages in a special Youth Graffiti Jam.

An accomplished multidisciplinary artist and best-selling writer who has been involved in the graffiti art scene since the 1980s, Martinez has pushed the boundaries of both graffiti and street art, bringing them firmly into the fine art, public art and educational arenas. He also has written four books on creating graffiti-style urban art, and he frequently conducts workshops and lectures for teenagers, fellow artists and educators.

"One little boy traveled all the way from Rapid City to see him," said Tammy Eagle Hunter, CRYP's youth programs director. "That's more than a two-hour drive each way. That says a lot about how graffiti art resonates with today's youth, and it's validation for our many art initiatives here on Cheyenne River."

Learn more about Scape Martinez's visit here!

This Week is "Family Week" at the CRYP Campus in Eagle Butte

"When you give a little of yourself to a child, you give a little of yourself to their future," More4Kids CEO Kevin Heath once noted. He also has advocated the importance of being a role model, advising, "If you want your kids to dream more, then dream more; to learn more, then learn more; to do more, then do more. Be their inspiration."

To that end, CRYP has created a weeklong roster of special family-friendly events that staff and volunteers hope will encourage parents, extended family members and guardians on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation to spend quality time with their children. Family Week programming will take place from Monday, September 21 to Friday, September 25.

Activities include the Family Olympics in the Art Park on Monday, the Family Walking Challenge in the Art Park on Tuesday, the Healthy & Hearty Cooking Class for Families on Wednesday (which will include a screening of the 2014 documentary "Fed Up), Salsa Canning Class on Thursday, and the Harvest Festival dinner on Friday.

Executive Director Julie Garreau Earns Cordes Fellowship

CRYP is thrilled to announce that its executive director, Julie Garreau, has earned a Cordes Fellowship. On October 11-16, she will attend the fellowship's Opportunity Collaboration in Ixtapa, Mexico, and take part in all delegate sessions.

Cordes Fellowships are designed for exceptional social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders who are engaged in poverty alleviation and economic justice enterprises. The purpose of the fellowship program is to open doors, minds and networks for emerging social entrepreneurs and nonprofit executives; enrich the Opportunity Collaboration with new, emerging leaders; and infuse the collaborative discussions with a diversity of perspectives.

Partner of the Month:
Dietel Partners

This month, we'd like to acknowledge Dietel Partners, a family-owned philanthropic advising firm that represents anonymous donors' interests and awards grants on their behalf. Dietel Partners and its clients have supported CRYP for more than three years. (Ren Dietel, senior partner, is pictured here.)

Our relationship started in 2012, when Dietel Partners awarded a grant that allowed CRYP to purchase two large vans. Finally, after 24 years of running a youth center, we were able to transport youth and staff with our own vehicles! Then, in 2013 and 2014, Dietel Partners provided critical funding for two youth programming positions - and for a new Xerox machine when the old one died right before the busy 2013 holiday season.

In the last 12 months, Dietel Partners and its clients supported CRYP with special grants to put up fencing that would secure the 5-acre Waniyetu Wowapi ("Winter Count") Art Park property. They also underwrote the new art internship program for local teens; CRYP graduated the first cohort of interns at the inaugural RedCan graffiti jam in July, and the second cohort is starting the internship program this fall. Learn more about Dietel Partners and our relationship here!

September Hall of Fame:

Thomas Lucero

For the first time, we're inducting a young person from The Main youth center into our CRYP Hall of Fame. His name is Thomas Lucero. This bright, curious 11-year-old started coming to The Main last fall.

Thomas says he enjoys The Main's playground and the full-size gymnasium at the next-door Cokata Wiconi ("Center of Life") teen center, but the real draw has been Main University. He participated twice - and he has been named valedictorian twice.

One of CRYP's most popular and enduring programs, Main University was founded by long-term volunteer Tracie Farrell in 2002, and it is the recipient of a "Champion for Children" award from the South Dakota Coalition for Children. It's designed for the 4- to 12-year-olds who attend The Main, and CRYP offers both fall and spring sessions.

Learn more about Thomas's story here!

NOW HIRING:

Development Director

The Cheyenne River Youth Project® is still seeking a development director to join its staff full time. The salaried position will include benefits, with salary dependent on the select candidate's qualifications, and the position is available immediately.

"For us to continue pursuing our mission and long-term vision for CRYP as a holistic wellness facility for youth and an authentic gathering place for our community, we urgently need a development director to manage our growth activities," said Julie Garreau, CRYP's executive director. "And, while we would prefer to have that person on site in Eagle Butte or within reasonable commuting distance from our campus, we are open to hiring an off-site candidate who is willing to travel to CRYP several times a year, provided he or she is a good fit for us."

For details regarding the application process, and for a full position description, visit our Employment & Internships page.

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!

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