| Shop at Cokata Wiconi! |  |
For those seeking memorable gifts that will support a worthy cause, check out CRYP's Cokata Wiconi Gift Shop, located within the teen center. The shop is overflowing with homemade food items, created with produce from the 2-acre naturally grown Winyan Toka Win Garden. These include corncob jelly, jalape�o jelly, spicy apple chutney, mild and spicy salsa, pickled jalape�os, dried corn, dried tea, apple butter, zucchini pasta sauce and dried jalape�os and chili peppers.
Making use of traditional Lakota foods, the gift shop also features wild plum jelly, wild grape jelly, chokecherry jelly, chokecherry syrup and dried turnips. The staff and volunteers are still hard at work preparing foods for the gift shop, so there is more to come - including strawberry and raspberry jam.
The youth project also sells postcards, ceramic coasters and CRYP T-shirts and sweatshirts through the gift shop, as well as shirts screen-printed on site at the youth project. In addition, the gift shop features prints of "Four Horsemen of the Lakota," a painting by renowned artist and Rosebud Sioux tribal member Lynn Burnette Sr. The prints are available in three sizes.
Every dollar goes to benefit our youth programs and services. To place an order, call (605) 964-8200 today.
Or, if you'd rather order online, simply call us so we can determine your shipping costs, and then make your payment via the "Help CRYP" link at www.lakotayouth.org!
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| 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 2013! Every dollar makes such a difference in the lives of Cheyenne River's children.
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Meet Our
Board of Directors
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PRESIDENT Holly A. Annis VICE PRESIDENT Jeremy Patterson TREASURER Guthrie Ducheneaux DIRECTORS Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy Betsy Mitchell Peggy Gallipo Jeffrey Meyer For more info and bios, click here! |
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Support CRYP with
GoodSearch.com & GoodShop.com!
| 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?
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.
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| Needs List | 
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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 |
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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.
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From the Executive Director:
 Dear Friends,
Spring is here at last, and CRYP staff and volunteers couldn't be more excited. The last few weeks have seen an influx of happy news here at our youth project.
For starters, more than 70 young ladies enjoyed our annual "Passion for Fashion" event, which featured the theme "The '80s ~ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." As always, they had a blast choosing dresses, getting their hair, makeup and nails done, strutting their stuff on the catwalk and posing for photos. And, in addition to all the giggling and playtime, they made new friends, built a more positive body image and displayed a beautiful measure of self-confidence. It was a privilege to be part of this special day; if you'd like to enjoy some of the fun, please watch our approximately eight-minute video below.
Since the last e-newsletter, we've been busy with youth programming: hosting our first Teen Date Night to commemorate Valentine's Day and Teen Dating Violence Awareness; launching the 2013 College Night Series;
 | | Lily Mendoza y Ducheneaux at the Book Fair, cohosted by The Word Carrier and CRYP. |
staying open past curfew for special late-night basketball tournaments; celebrating monthly birthdays and so much more. We've also turned our focus to community initiatives like our recent book fair and our upcoming "brown-bag" lunch meetings with other organizations that are dedicated to providing youth services here on Cheyenne River.
We're also working hard on our sustainable systems initiatives, including our 2-acre, naturally grown Winyan Toka Win garden, our Gift Shop and our Keya Cafe. Look for more exciting news in the weeks to come, and as always, thank you for your friendship and support.
Pilamaye,
Julie Garreau
Executive Director
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More Than 70 Teens Enjoy CRYP's
2013 Passion for Fashion in March!
This month, teenage girls from across South Dakota's remote, 2.8-million-acre Cheyenne River reservation had a special opportunity to get everything they need for this year's prom, thanks to CRYP's annual "Passion for Fashion" in Eagle Butte. Approximately 75 teens will attend their 2013 high school prom wearing dresses, shoes, jewelry and other accessories they selected at the Cokata Wiconi teen center through this long-running, much-loved program.
But for the 55 girls who were able to participate in the special Passion for Fashion event on Saturday, March 9, the experience went far beyond selecting just the right prom look. These young women enjoyed a luncheon, a keynote speaker, spa-style pampering, shopping, a real catwalk fashion show and a photoshoot. They also got to travel back in time; this year's Passion for Fashion theme was "The '80s: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." To learn more about this exciting day, click here, and don't miss the video posted above!
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THANK YOU!
CRYP Secures Funding Needed to Begin Renovations at The Main
Thanks to generous contributions from Running Strong for American Indian Youth�, Tribal Ventures and countless individual supporters around the world, CRYP has raised approximately $91,000 to put toward much-needed renovations at its beloved "The Main" youth center on East Lincoln Street in Eagle Butte. According to CRYP Executive Director Julie Garreau, the current Main Rehabilitation Fund will provide an excellent foundation for rehabilitating the nearly 5,000-square-foot building, which opened its doors in 1999.
"Between all the kids and all the volunteers, that little youth center has seen a lot of use," Garreau said. "And now it needs more than routine maintenance. Our renovations are projected to cost upward of $120,000, but the funds we have in hand are more than enough to get started with the must-do items.
 "We are so grateful to our many partners for their help with The Main's rehabilitation project," she continued. "Running Strong generously provided a $25,000 challenge grant, Tribal Ventures donated $25,000, we received $25,000 from an anonymous donor, and our many friends and supporters around the world - including an incredible number of former volunteers - provided another $20,000. It's amazing, and humbling, to see how everyone came together to protect the little Main and give our kids the up-to-date facility they deserve." To learn more, click here.
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CRYP Receives $125,000 in TECA Funding That Will Support Additional Staff, Utilities & Facilities Maintenance
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TECA funding will allow CRYP to hire additional staff and expand programming at its teen and youth facilities.
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CRYP is pleased to announce that it has received $125,000 in grant funding from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's Tribal Equitable Compensation Act. TECA, which means "new beginning" in Lakota, is a landmark piece of legislation that allows more than $100 million in federal payments to the tribe to compensate for valuable lands lost during and after construction of the Missouri River's Oahe Dam in the 1960s.
According to the nearly 25-year-old, not-for-profit youth organization, the much-needed funding will allow CRYP to hire two youth programs assistants, who will be responsible for developing and delivering year-round programming to 4- to 12-year-old children at The Main youth center and to teens at the Cokata Wiconi teen center. In addition, TECA funding will help cover the sizable utility costs involved in keeping both centers open Monday through Saturday of each week, as well as the essential facility-maintenance costs associated with vandalism and routine wear and tear. Learn more about the TECA funding and CRYP's long-term vision here.
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CRYP Kicks Off 2013 "College Night" Series, Which Will Run Through May 1
 On Wednesday, March 13, CRYP kicked off its 2013 "College Night" program with a presentation from Madison, Wisconsin-based Edgewood College. The nearly 25-year-old, not-for-profit youth organization started hosting College Nights in 2007. The program allows visiting "Alternative Spring Break" volunteer groups from schools around the country to help educate local teens and applying for and attending college. Now in its seventh year, College Nights are still a mainstay of the spring calendar at Cokata Wiconi.In addition to Wisconsin's Edgewood College, this spring's ASB and College Night calendar includes visits from Iowa State University, University of Kansas, Virginia's Tidewater Community College, Tribal Colleges, Black Hills State University, Utah's Brigham Young  University and the University of Michigan. In a new twist this year, the roster also includes England's Middlesex University and Germany's University of Koblenz-Landau.
The free evening program takes place on Wednesday evenings at 5-6 p.m. in the Cokata Wiconi teen center's Keya Cafe, and CRYP staff is encouraging Cheyenne River middle- and high-school students to bring their parents and other family members. To learn more about the College Night series and to check the updated schedule, click here.
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CRYP Hosts First "Teen Date Night" to Commemorate Valentine's Day
 When you hear the phrases "domestic abuse" and "dating violence," you might think of adult men and women in toxic relationships. You might not realize that these destructive patterns may take root much younger than a person's 20s or 30s; the unfortunate reality is that many teens are in damaging and even dangerous relationships, suffering physical, emotional, verbal, sexual and even digital abuse as young as ages 13 or 14.
That's why CRYP arranged a very special Valentine's Day celebration for area teens at its Cokata Wiconi teen center. On Friday, February 15, it hosted its first Teen Date Night, which included appetizers and a romantic, formal Italian dinner in the Keya Cafe, live music, door prizes and a movie on CRYP's big screen, complete with specially decorated cupcakes for dessert. Young people also had the opportunity to buy flowers or stuffed animals for their dates. And, since February was Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, CRYP staff and volunteers participated in a variety of table games and quizzes that were designed to be both fun and educational, giving teens the opportunity to learn more about dating violence and appropriate ways to treat a boyfriend or girlfriend. To learn more about this special evening, click here. |
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CRYP Offers Variety of Homemade Foods Through Gift Shop Enterprise
 When CRYP first took responsi-bility for the 2-acre garden plot across East Lincoln Street from The Main youth center in 1999, it was a major step toward realizing a dream for CRYP Executive Director Julie Garreau. Garreau and her mother, Iyonne, who served for many years as the executive director of the Elderly Nutrition Center, had long discussed the potential for developing an all-natural, highly productive garden that would be a sustainable source of fresh, processed and canned foods - and that would reconnect young people with the earth.
Today, that 2-acre, naturally-grown garden - named Winyan Toka Win ("Leading Lady") in honor of Iyonne Garreau, who passed away in 2009 -is supplying bountiful produce for meals and snacks at The Main and at the Cokata Wiconi teen center, which opened its doors in 2006. It's also proving to be a valuable source of merchandise for the CRYP gift shop, located off the Cokata Wiconi lobby.  "Thanks to our garden, we can process, dry and can a variety of foods that are now available for purchase in our Gift Shop," Julie Garreau explained. "Not only are all the proceeds used to benefit our youth programming and Family Services, we use the garden and our commercial kitchen as critical venues for teaching our young people about planting, caring for and harvesting the garden, as well as preparing and processing fresh, whole foods."
Garreau notes that workshops and special activities related to the garden and gift shop fit beautifully into CRYP's youth programming efforts, fostering business skills, life skills, diabetes prevention and holistic wellness. To learn more about the Gift Shop, CRYP's sustainable systems initiatives and the range of available merchandise, click here. 
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Thank you so much for your interest in our youth project, and for your ongoing support as we pursue our mission in the community.
Sincerely,
All of us at the
Cheyenne River Youth Project | |
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