Susan Alleman (right) hands bags of clothing to Jesse Franklin to load on to the moving truck on Sunday. The annual winter clothing drive for the Pine Ridge Reservation had its most successful year yet.
Volunteers from Stand In For Nebraska help load bags of clothing to be taken to the Pine Ridge Reservation on Sunday.
An outpouring of donations will send a moving truck full of warmth to the Pine Ridge Reservation this winter.
On Sunday morning, volunteers gathered to load coats and other supplies to be taken to the reservation in southwest South Dakota.
The yearly donation to Pine Ridge was started by “Farmer” Bill Hawkins three years ago. This year, Hawkins and Lincoln Indian Center vice chairman Kevin Abourezk worked with Stand In For Nebraska to collect donations. They collected not only coats and other winter clothing items but also computers, guitars, art supplies and hygiene items.
Donations were collected through blue barrels set up across Lincoln, and local retailers also pitched in. Hawkins said the amount of donations has grown in the past few weeks, and he picked up 10 truckloads full of items in the past three days.
Both Abourezk and Hawkins said the decades of alcohol sales from Whiteclay to the reservation’s residents were a reason they felt like they needed to give back.
“I feel that the state still owes something back to the reservation, because of the damage that was caused there,” Abourezk said. “This is about giving back to that community that was so hurt by those beer stores for so many years.”
Abourezk said he thinks Stand In For Nebraska’s partnership helped this year’s donation become even larger than last year’s.
“I'm convinced that one of the reasons for such the incredible outpouring we've had this year, which is bigger than last year and that's saying something because we took a huge truck last year, is because of Stand In For Nebraska's involvement,” he said.
Stand In For Nebraska also worked with Susan Larson Rodenburg to secure a 26-foot moving truck from Penske to transport all of the items, and several people stepped up to pay for the gas and insurance for the trip.
The larger truck will allow everything to be taken in one seven-hour trip Monday instead of the three or four trips it would have taken with the smaller truck and trailer they had previously used, Abourezk said.
Stand In For Nebraska co-founder Carol Flora gathered with other volunteers Sunday morning to help move items. She said the donation drive aligns with the local group’s mission of advocating for justice for indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups.
The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the poorest communities in the country, and other factors have made the conditions there more dire this year and the donations even more needed.
The reservation’s BEAR Project facility was broken into recently. Computers, guitars, gaming systems, art supplies and Christmas gifts that had been collected for children were stolen from the nonprofit, Abourezk said. Stand In For Nebraska leaders rallied to help gather donations to replace what was stolen.
BEAR Project leader Eileen Janis said the need on the reservation is definitely greater this year because of the pandemic, as access to stores and money for purchasing items are scarce.
“A lot of people don’t have rides to go off the reservation, they don’t have the cash to get a lot of stuff themselves, and a lot of people were laid off, too, because of the casino closing,” she said. “So they don’t have the money to get the kinds of nice clothes that some of these donations are providing.”
Once the donations are delivered to the reservation, they will be distributed to the reservation’s district leaders and given out to families from there, Janis said.
Abourezk said he was happy to see individuals from across Lincoln working together to make the donation possible.
“It's just been incredible, amazing, that people have been willing to do so much to make this all happen,” he said.
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December 14, 2020 at 07:02AM
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Lincoln community rallies to send big winter donation to Pine Ridge Reservation - Lincoln Journal Star
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