Back in December, in either one of my diaries or one of the other diaries, I made a pledge. That I would give 10% of any takehome income I made in 2012 to the Okiciyap Food Pantry project. It looked like I'd have at least a bit of contract work early in the year, and of course I still have hopes that some of my clinicals (which still have yet to be arranged, the Hospice Education Coordinator is still trying to find me someone to team up with on staff) might lead to a job offer.
Well, today I got the first (of what I hope will be more) paychecks for the year, for some contract computing work I did a week or so back. Today, I'm bringing home $330, of which $33 is going right now to Okiciyap. They've made excellent progress towards their goal of $20000 to get the Food Pantry / Education Annex in place and running, as I'll show beneath the squiggle.
Right now they are working out of a trailer lent them by a board member, but a 30x60 building has been donated. All they have to do is take it to Isabel. Here's the breakout of what it will take a bigger pantry up and going. It's really not much. Then Georgia will write grants for the youth program.
Moving the Building
Transport 30 miles $7000.00
Building forms to set building down $2500.00
Skirting of building and new ramp $2500.00
Hook up to the to Town sewer and
Water pipes $2000.00
Total $14,000.00
This will be done by a contractor that knows how to transport the building and is a professional and will set and put the building together when it gets to Isabel. The Build of the forms will be done by a cement contractor Jackson’s cement out of Timer Lake SD. The skirting and Ramps will be done by volunteers with the SD specification of disability Ramps.
One year Electricity $3000.00
One year water and sewer $780.00
One year Propane and Tank set up $1800.00
Total $5580.00
We are requesting a one year utility for the building and when this year is up we should be able to have fund raised and applied for grants to run the building. We will need to get hooked into the city sewer and water so we will have this done by the city.
Total amount requested $19,580.00
YOUR DONATION IS TAX-DEDUCTIBLE
If you would prefer to send a check:
Georgia Little Shield, Board Chair
Okiciyap
PO Box 172
225 W. Utah St
Isabel SD57633
You can also send clothing donations to the food pantry.
While we raise this money don't think they're just sitting around. This is a serious grassroots organization that is functioning on a shoestring.
That's right, we've got the money needed to actually move the building and build the forms needed to set it in place, and are well on our way towards getting the building skirting and handicap accessibility ramp in place.
From an email from Georgia Little Shield:
"The Moving company that we are using called and will come to the community of Isabel to see where they will be moving it to and to see what needs to happen and the building will be moved Monday. I will be taking pictures Monday to see the progress. So I can send you some up date pictures."
I'm standing by my 10% of takehome income pledge, and putting in $33 today. If you've got the money to spend (I don't want anyone shorting themselves, or running up debt in order to give!) can you match my donation? Or even drop five bucks in the jar to help Georgia and her crew get the pantry up and running? We've come so far already in the last two months, I'd love to see us hit the $14000 mark and have enough to get the physical plant part of the drive done, maybe by Valentine's day, and be working on operational expenses thereafter.
If you don't have the money to give, don't worry, just send good thoughts, and if you're religiously inclined, a prayer or two. But if you can join me in helping sponsor a project that will keep giving back to the Cheyenne River Reservation community for years to come, welcome aboard :)
7:49 PM PT: Also, from Chun Yang in the comments:
I have been in email contact with Georgia Little Shield, to make sure she got the mittens and scarves I made and sent. She let me know that they have a need for some art supplies for the kids, so if anyone has crayons, color pencils, art paper around, please send it along.