Christmas Charity

 

One of our favorite charitable activities is making Christmas happen for children who would have very little Christmas cheer without our intervention. It all began a few years ago, when we started receiving requests from reservation parents to help them supply Christmas presents for their children. It is important to understand that the reservations in South Dakota are really equivalent to third world countries housed inside the continental United States. Unless you have ever visited the Lakota Indian reservations, you would have no way to guess at the extreme poverty and distress that many people living there experience.

For children who live in households where even food is scarce, Christmas presents are a luxury that can only be wished for. These children might see kids from other families with presents, but never have hope for many of their own. This kind of situation gradually erodes a young child’s self-esteem. Our hope at the Hochoka Healing Center is that through our bringing an abundance of presents and goodies into their homes, these children will feel the Creator’s love for them.

Since, one of our Hochoka Healing Center ceremonial sites is located in Hot Springs, SD, near the Pine Ridge Reservation; we receive requests for help of all kinds. But, making kids happy at Christmas has been one of our most satisfying charitable endeavors. The photos below indicate Christmas Charity deliveries that were made in 2005. For more recent delivery photos, please select "Delivery Photos '07" from the navigation bar at the left and prepare to enjoy some beautiful, happy faces.

These are pictures of Beverly Red Elk accompanied by the youngest and oldest of her eight children at the Community Food Bank where the Hochoka Healing Center was buying them multiple boxes of food for Christmas. We were also delivering the kids’ Christmas presents and stockings at this meeting. I snapped a candid picture of Little Ben digging into the candy bin.

These pictures are of Mike Little Boy and one of his two granddaughters that received Christmas presents and stockings.

We invite you to join us in expanding our Christmas Charity program. Remember, all donations are tax deductible through our non-profit status. Gifts other than cash can be evaluated for tax purposes, also. Cash gifts are helpful because they can be used to purchase presents for specific kids on our list and the purchases can be made right here in South Dakota, at a great savings in terms of shipping costs. For more information, you can contact either Paula Rooks, President of HHC at (605) 745-4816 or JoAnn Gann, Business Office HHC, at (706) 397-8416.