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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Volunteer Month Spotlight -- Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation


My 11-year-old daughter Claire and I started sponsoring a young girl named Mercy last summer, and it's turning into a really neat experience for everyone. Mercy lives on the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation in South Dakota. People in Pine Ridge live in the worst poverty in the U.S. (see "outbind://53/www.friendsofpineridgereservation.org"www.friendsofpineridgereservation.org for more info). Typically 2-4 families live in a trailer, if they are lucky enough to own a trailer.

The organization that oversees the sponsors is a fledgling group called Spirit Rising. It's not your typical $22 per month sponsorship thing: instead, we send Mercy gifts for her birthday, Christmas, and Easter, and most importantly, we send school supplies in September. We sent Mercy and her mom a phone card and she's called us the last two weekends. She's very excited about starting on her school basketball team this month. She sounds like a great kid and we're happy to know her! It’s great to have direct contact with the person you’re helping, and know that every cent you spend goes directly to her.

Spirit Rising provides sponsors for kids and elders, and also runs a program to buy people beds to avoid spider bites from sleeping on floors, and a program to buy propane to provide heat. Their sponsorship program was so well-liked by the recipients that they had 500 requests last year for new sponsors. Folks interested in learning more can download the latest brochure (attached) or email Jeri Baker at "mailto:bakers2@ptd.net"bakers2@ptd.net.

Dawn Wendt
Computing
04/18/2006


Attachments:
icon newsletter April 06 (2).pdf