Christmas presents arrive for Cheyenne River reservation

By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer | Tuesday, December 07, 2004

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EAGLE BUTTE — It's Christmas in a truck.

A semi-truck filled with toys, shoes, clothing and more is scheduled to arrive today to help American Indian families celebrate the holidays on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

Joseph Lafferty, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said the gifts will be distributed at its Christmas party.

"It's the highlight of our year," Lafferty said.

The organization's Christmas party begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at H.V. Johnston Cultural Center. A meal will be served after the gift distribution.

"This is the shindig of the holiday season," Lafferty said.

Lafferty worked with other volunteers to unload the Glastonbury, Conn.-truck for the community party. Hawk Wing, a charitable organization in Connecticut, collected the toys. Lafferty said the Boys and Girls Club of CRST would hand out 1,600 gifts to area Lakota children.

"Applicants will receive jackets, clothes, toiletries and shoes, as well as a gift," Lafferty said.

Last year, Rochelle Ripley of Hawk Wing contacted Lafferty to use several of the 12 club sites to distribute the children's toys and other items for Christmas.

In January, Ripley again contacted the Boys and Girls Club's office to ask for help in creating a better application and outreach to more families in need.

The Eagle Butte office distributed applications to its 12 clubs from Cherry Creek to Timber Lake. The applications were successfully completed and returned in June with each family's information, including clothing size, ages and genders of the children.

"It's going to be centrally distributed in Eagle Butte," Lafferty said.

Volunteers from service clubs, businesses and possibly some of the churches were going unload the items from the trucks. Lafferty said the distribution of presents would not take long to complete.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com