Today, we're officially launching a fundraising drive to provide a small thank-you for each of the 17 regular volunteers at the Okiciyap food pantry on the Cheyenne River Reservation in Isabel, South Dakota.
This is the brainchild of betson08, who first brought the Okiciyap project to this community, just as she did years ago with Pretty Bird Woman House. She worked closely with the late Georgia Little Shield, the warrior woman who founded both organizations, and is continuing to work with her sister, Cindy Taylor, who has since assumed Georgia's role at Okiciyap.
Before I show you what these incredibly dedicated Okiciyap volunteers have accomplished over the last year, though, I want to show you what YOU have accomplished. Over the last several years - first for Pretty Bird Woman House, then for the Propane Project (ongoing), and then for Okiciyap (also ongoing) - when we've brought the crises in Indian Country to this community, you've responded. And while it's easy to see that response in the comment threads to each diary what community members do, it's a little harder to quantify impacts outside of Daily Kos.
However, during last week's Propane Project drive, I got a message from a lurker who admires Daily Kos and the good that we do here. He was inspired to make a propane contribution of his own. We'd asked people to let us know in diary comments that they'd contributed, but since he's not a site member, he tracked me down via e-mail to let me know. In that message, he wrote:
I called Sherry on Nov 21st. and paid for 5 orders of Propane = $750 that she said should be delivered this weekend, I want to thank you and all the concerned people that are doing this and thanks for letting me be a part too.But he wasn't done. Two days ago, I came home to a new e-mail message:enjoy the season,
Tom
I just want to let this caring, sharing, alert, compassionate group of people know that more help is on the way..So please don't think that what we do here goes unnoticed by the outside world. Your efforts to support these projects led directly to two major propane donations in the last week - donations that have ensured that Indian families at Rosebud have heat (and may very well have saved lives).I just called Sherry again and made a new donation for $945 for propane to help some people stay warm and at the same time it makes me warm inside. Here is the story of the Circle that sent the money.. 13 years ago I bought some boxes of cards for a Japanese game called Pokemon, I just sold some on Ebay to someone in Norway and now the funds are going to made heat...
thanks again for your effort to help and letting me help too...
enjoy the season,Tom
Now, I want to show you what the efforts of the volunteers at Okiciyap have produced over the course of this year. These folks have given of their time and resources repeatedly, often, I have no doubt, without thanks. Certainly without financial compensation. And so betson08 has found a way that we can help thank them (the same method she used for the Pretty Bird Woman House volunteers several years ago): gift cards that they can use for virtually anything.
PLEASE NOTE: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS GIFT-CARD FUNDRAISER ARE NOT TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.
Over the jump, some examples of what these dedicated folks have done:
