"We make a living by what we get ... We make a life by waht we give"
Winston Churchill
A Truck From Lawarence Trucking
Diversity Foundation of Minnesota recently delivered two semi-truck loads of furniture and other goods to the Santee Indian Reservation in Nebraska.
Diversity Foundation of Minnesota wishes to thank all those who made donations towards this cause.
Here is an email letter that was sent out April 19, 2011 to Roger Trudeau, Tribal Chair of the Santee Reservation and Lila Mechaley, ICRO Program Coordinator and Santee Sioux Nation Housing Resident Counselor.
Lyle Rustad Diversity Foundation Executive Director
April 19, 2011
Greetings Roger and Lila & Santee Friends & Volunteers:
Here's the approx Inventory List of our DF/Rochester Semi-trailer now on its way to your Santee Rez..and being driven by SE Tech College Truck driving students of Winona...a similar semi trailer load of beds & furniture is enroute to Crow Creek.
We are extremely Grateful to Lawrence Transportation & Nate, Tom & SE Tech College driving students, and Larry & Josh for helping to load.
Delivering Furniture
A BIG THANKS to the city of Rochester's Tom Hexum for his helo providing storage, and thanks to the continual efforts of Bill & Jane Nicklay for helping make it all Happen!!
Inventory List
An assortment of approx 30-35 full, queen & king sized mattresses with box springs (lot of kings). More other smaller sizes will come later.
35 large flatscreen TV's (All practically new & working condition) from Rochester's Kahler Hotel
4 couch sofa beds
2 recliners
2 hospital beds
3 love seats
60 blankets
4 boxes glass ware
30 hair dryers
2 dryers
5 washing machines
3 stoves
1 room fan
5 entertainment centers
3-4 floor lamps
6 counter high padded chairs
3 rocking chairs
1 swivel desk chair
assortment of other padded chairs
several boxes of clothes
other assortment of misc. "surprise" boxes???
PLUS:
Another approx 40 large Toys for Tots boxes for your infant thru elementary school age!!!
Boys & Girls aged 3-5 ... 20 boxes
Boys & girls aged 6-7 .....5 "
Boys & Girls aged 8-10...2 "
Boys & Girls 11 -17........2 " (rare commodity)
stuffed animals .......4 large boxes
boxes of books.......3
assortment of other books & 5 misch boxes
Sorry there's many other boxes & misc. household items we missed on this Inventory list, but hopefully this is fairly accurate.
Thanks
Lyle
Delivering Furniture
A couple of days later, on April 21, 2011, Lyle Rustad received the following email from Lila Mechaley.
April 22, 2011
Dear Lyle,
Thank you so much, I was not at work on Monday to receive your message that a truck was coming in, so on Tuesday it was a little suprise for me LOL. But no problem we made due as usual.
We also appreciate the volunteers from the trucking school. They were very pleasant and helped unload the truck.
We were able to provide services from that load for 192 people that signed in to receive donated items.
The children here will have a very good Easter.
Thank you so much for the gifts. I didnt see the 11-17 yr. old box but I am sure it was delivered. The toys were much appreciated by all of our families.
We had Low income, General Assistance, TANF, and Social Security recipents come thru first. Then we called up the employed community members to come in.
Everyone was all happy and glad for the furniture, lots of bright faces. We still are getting alot of requests for dressers. If you can ever find any, we need those.
Well I will be in Minnesota in June, I have been excepted for the Native American Museum Fellowship Program in St. Paul, Minnestota, I will be there for a week or so then in Lower Sioux. I am all excited.
Well my friend, thank you again. I will be writing a report for tribal council in a few days and will send you a copy.
Lila Mechaley
ICRO Program Coordinator Santee Sioux Nation Housing Resident Counselor
Click On A Thumbnail Image Below to Bring Up A Larger Picture
Diversity Foundation's Semi-Truck Deliveries to Santee Indian Reservation, Nebraska and Crow Creek Indian Reservation, South Dakota.
The Diversity Foundation of Minesota is looking for people, corporations, missions, etc. to partner with us so we can continue our work providing needed services to to those who need a helping hand. Although some reservations are now doing well from casinos, etc. the majority of them are not. Only tribes located in a major metropolitian area are able to take advantage of this new winfall. The majority of reservations still suffer from high unemployment rates (as high as 90% in some cases) and low income. (The mean income for people living on the Crow Creek reservation is $5,000.0 a year!)
