I’ve wrestled with what to say in this diary. Unlike Meteor Blade I have little relevant personal experience with poverty. What ever economic challenges I have had have been minor compared with the people that are helped by this Okiciyap.
Yes this is another appeal to join DK Quilt Guild to benefit the Okiciyap (we help) the Isabel Community . Ok, Okiciyap is more than just another good cause. In a world where there are so many worthy causes this one resonates with me because it is so totally grass roots. The needs and wish list isn’t generated by well-meaning ladies sitting in their comfortable home in Shaker Hts., Scarsdale, or Potomac. The organization isn’t run by an idealistic, but well paid professional in a DC office. Nope, its totally controlled and run by the people who are in a position to know what they need and who volunteer their time to help their own community. And this makes it highly effective and very special.
Likewise the quilters and the bloggers who have joined in to assist, give their time and effort with a kind of joy in community that I find refreshing. I hope you do too.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/...
Okiciyap Quilt 2013
Bidding and match challenges continue through tomorrow for the DK Okiciyap group's fundraising auction of the stunning quilt (detailed image at link) created by our DK Quilt Guild to benefit the Okiciyap (we help) the Isabel Community—a food pantry and youth program on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in Isabel, South Dakota. This quilt is a work of art, and the bidding reflects its value as such. Our goal today is to reach $7000.
from nomandates:
As group bidding continues to drive up the price for the quilt, I want to highlight Okiciyap's Objectives:
1. Provide a low- or no- cost food program and an emergency food program for those without sufficient means, serving approximately 325 families a month.
2. Provide regular weekly recreational and cultural activities to 75 youth, encompassing youth from grade school, middle school, and high school.
3. Provide adult recreational and cultural programs for an additional 50 individuals, and health education and services to 300 children and adults.
4. Increase the proficiency of 60 adults in Isabel by making available Lakota as a Second Language, G.E.D., and life skills classes.
Let's work on providing recreational and cultural activities for youth today. Here are Okiciyap's wish lists:
Arts and Crafts
modeling clay
acrylic paints
watercolors and finger paints
popsicle stix and
easels
Recreation Supplies
Volleyball net
volleyballs
Portable basketball goal
Wii game console with sports, super mario, toy story3...
Board games (we have Scrabble and Clue now)
Supplies for Kids' Movie Nights
The closest show hall is 65 miles away off the rez. We had a popcorn machine on one of the proposals we sent.
DVDs:
DVD and VHS player as we have some VHS movies yet!
Any that teach different dancing forms of our people ie; fancy shawl, traditional men's and women's jingle dress dancing, men's grass dance, men's fancy.
Educational films
Any kind of kids learning software from k-8
Updates regarding Youth Library Challenge
Yesterday a diary requesting donations of books for Okiciyap's Youth Library was posted. I'm going to reprint the list and challenge here for everyone's convenience:
So I would like for us to focus today on helping Okiciyap's youth to realize their potential, by helping to fulfill Okiciyap's Wish List for a Youth Library (I've added links to Amazon where possible, but feel free to shop at your local bookseller):
These are the authors of many books native:
1. Cynthia Leitich Smith (mostly children's books) Jingle Dancer etc. (HarperCollinsPublishers: Jingle Dancer, Indian Shoes, Rain Is Not My Indian Name)
2. Joseph Ele Joubert (translation) The First Council Fire
3. Carol Dana (poetry) When No One Is Looking
4. Alice Azure, Along Came A Spider
5. Joseph Bruchac (any of his books)
6. Zitkala-Sa (Sioux) Interpreted By Charles Eastman and Luther Standing Bear
7. Mourning Dove (Colville) Coyote Stories
8. Pamela Greenhill Kaizen (Dakota) Lakota and Dakota Animal Wisdom Stories (The Greenfield Review Press)
We have gotten somewhat of a start with these books but always need more.
Challenge: According to their site, Okiciyap serves 75 youth, so I am setting a goal of one book for each. I will donate 5 books regardless. And for every 9 books donated by others, I will donate the 10th. Just announce in comments or send me a message by this Sunday.
Please note: Hardcover, school, or library binding is preferable, but in some instances only paperbacks are available.
Additional Challenges
Make Weck Dig Challenge:
I will add $10 to my donation for every person
who donates 10 bucks or more in response to this challenge (up to $100).
Make me dig up my money from under the tree in the back yard!
Tell me here or in a PM before 8:00 pm EDT tonight!
$50 is still on the table for weck's challenge.
mimi's $50 Challenge:
I am in for another 50 bucks to match whoever makes a donation in that amount.
NMRed's Challenges from yesterday's comments:
Already have $500 pledged, and if we raise another $3k before Sunday night, I'll donate $500 more to the general fund and $500 to the library as well. Now get out there and hustle to make me write the biggest check I have written all year too e organization, will ya?
From Mimi a special challenge.:
I bet you, the families the Okiciyap project wants to help feeding, never were.
But if you like to try it out how it feels to be fed with a silverspoon, all you have to do is donating ten times $ 70.00 til tomorrow and I'll give you one of the finest silver spoons ever made in Denmark by Georg Jensen, one for each $ 70.00 coming in to Okiciyap.
To tell you the truth, I am in a hurry and just lost the first comment I wrote to post this here. So, the abbreviated message is, Weck told me I should dig out my treasure chests and that's what I found.
I have no better pictures right now, but I hope you get the idea. The spoons are "Jahresloeffel" (yearly spoons), a series from the late 70ies and early eighties.
My mother, God bless her soul, somehow had a hard time to spend the money my father earned, and she gave her girls each Christmas one of these spoons ... "for the bad times in war, when you have to bribe someone to get food" ... she said. And she would say ..."I don't want to feed you with silverspoons, but looking at them and dreaming about it, can't hurt".
So, here I go and bribe you for some donations, in memory of my mother and for the many, who need support and in memory of Georgia Little Shield.
Mailing address for donations:
Okiciyap (we help) Food Pantry
P.O. Box 172
Isabel, SD 57633
Or donate thru the Okiciyap site
Or click on the WePay button below the Okiciyap logo =>
Thank you, nomandates, for another great diary much of which I have stolen.
.