GMHS is Headed to South DakotaApril 17-23, 2010

A humanitarian team from GMHS is going to be traveling to the Cherokee River Indian Reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. We will be working with Habitat for Humanity to aid in the construction of new homes on the reservation. This trip will compliment the 11th grade U.S. History class.

While there, we will be helping the Lakota Sioux build desperately needed homes for their people. We will also be given a glimpse into this thousand year old culture and have an amazing opportunity to partake in the Lakota traditions.

We are looking for a few corporate sponsors to make this trip a sustainable reality. Please read through this packet and think about a tax deductible donation to a worthy humanitarian cause.

As always, we thank the community for their support.

The Lakota Sioux Indians were the last to give up their struggle against the Americans in the late 1800s. They were a proud people who were forced into one sided treaties with the Americans who in turn reneged on almost all of their promises.

In the mid 1800s, the tribe was given land that included their sacred Black Hills that stretched over parts of North and South Dakota and into Montana and Wyoming. When gold was discovered in the hills, the government asked them once again to move. This time they refused thus beginning the wars against them. During this struggle, General George Armstrong Custer and his army were defeated by a combined force of Lakota Sioux led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

The government sent in a large force to avenge Custer and forced Crazy Horse to surrender. Upon his surrender, the army executed him. Sitting Bull fled to Canada with a small number of followers and returned to lead his people when things had calmed down. By this time the Lakota were living on a government run reservation that operated like a prison camp.

On the reservation, the government told Sitting Bull to tell his people to stop performing a religious ceremony that they did not agree with. Sitting Bull refused and for that, he was shot in his own bed. The government then sent a small army to eliminate Sitting Bull’s followers, which they did in the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

The Lakota have been living in squalor ever since.

The Lakota Sioux

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing ministry founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat and its homeowner families have built or rehabilitated more than 350,000 houses. Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build together in partnership.

www.habitat.org

GRANBY MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL

NATIVE AMERICAN OUTREACH

Tribal Flag of the Lakota Sioux

Conditions on the Sioux Reservations

•Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.

•97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line.

•Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.

•Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States.

•The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.

•One out of every four Lakota children born are fostered or adopted out to non‐Indian homes.

•Diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, etc. are present. Cancer is now at epidemic proportions!

•Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average.

•Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.

•Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).

•1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricity.

•60% of Reservation families have no telephone.

•60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.

*The most basic need on the reservation is decent housing!

Sponsorship

We Are looking for some corporate sponsors to help with the costs of this trip. This sponsorship comes with a number of different advertising possibilities.

1. For a $500 donation, your business logo will be placed on our team banner that will be displayed during our community events. Your business will also be listed on the sponsorship section of our group website, made available to the community. Your business will also get a framed thank you letter that can be proudly displayed to your customers.

2. For a $1000 donation, your business will get everything above in addition to your company name and logo on a sponsorship section of our video that will be shown to the community and circulated on the web. Your business will also receive an engraved hardwood plaque announcing to your customers that you were a proud sponsor of this trip.

3. For a $1500 donation, your business will get everything above in addition to a short section of the video dedicated just to thanking you for your support. Your business will also get to put its logo on the homepage of our website with a clickable link to your site. Your business logo will also be placed on our group T‐Shirts that will be worn on our trip and during the community events that we will host.

4. Any donations over $1500 will get everything above and will be mentioned by name as often as possible throughout our community events.

Thank you so much for your consideration. Any donations in any form will work towards fostering a relationship between your local high school youth and the Lakota Sioux people, building lasting philanthropic values in today’s youth.

Rationale and Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in being a corporate sponsor, please complete the following form.

Company Name:_________________________________________________________

Company Address:______________________________________________________

                                    ___________________________  _____________  _________________

Company Website:__________________________________________________________

Contact Person:_____________________________________________________________

Contact Phone:______________________________________________________________

Contact Email:_______________________________________________________________

Pledge Amount:         $500            $1000            $1500            Other: $________________

Please make checks payable to GMHS. Remember, your donations are tax deductible.

Once your paperwork is submitted, you will receive an email from the outreach team. This email will contain more information about the trip and will have instructions on how to submit your company logo for display on our various advertising materials. If you do not have a digital copy of your company logo or would rather submit a paper copy of your company logo, please send that along with this form.

We greatly appreciate your help and support as we go out and try to touch lives. You will be kept up to date of all of our activities.

This form can be mailed to:

Thanks,

        The GMHS Native American Outreach Team

GRANBY MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL

NATIVE AMERICAN OUTREACHCORPORATE SPONSORSHIP FORM

Street

Zip CodeStateCity

GHMS Native American OutreachC/O Joe Jarvis

315 Salmon Brook StreetGranby, CT  06035