14 Granby High School Students Will Travel To South Dakota

In just over two weeks, 14 students from Granby Memorial High School will travel to South Dakota and spend their April vacation building houses on the Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte with Habitat for Humanity. 

The students are part of the Granby Memorial High School Native American Outreach group, which began this year, and are all US history students. They will travel to South Dakota on April 17 with two teachers, including social studies teacher Joe Jarvis and consulting teacher Elaine Chagnon, as well as one parent. The group will return April 23. 

The outreach group spent Tuesday evening at The Flatbread Company in Canton. Each Tuesday, Flatbread donates part of flatbread sales to a local non-profit. The students were able to educate the public on their trip, as well as raise additional money through a raffle of donated item from local businesses. 

“I’m so excited,” said 16-year-old Katie Sulzinski. “It it just another part of our country in need. Hopefully we can make a lasting impact.”

For Nicole Geick, 16, the trip will have a tie into her own roots, as she is part Native American. 

“I am looking forward to meeting people and seeing what their life is like,” Nicole said. 

In addition to building homes on the reservation, the students will also get to experience the culture of the Lakota. They will have the opportunity to visit a local high school and speak with students, take a tour of the reservation and spend two evenings with the Lakota elders engaging in cultural activities. 

According to the Republic of Lakotah Web site, 97 percent of the Lakota people live below the poverty line. Additionally, the website states that over half of the reservation families don’t have telephones, the death rate is the highest in the United States and 60 percent of the homes are infected with potentially fatal black molds. 

The students will experience these conditions while in South Dakota, and Jarvis said the experience is going to be eye-opening. 

“There’s 97 percent poverty out there,” Jarvis said. “They are in for seeing some of the most poor people in the world. It’s going to be a culture shock.”

Jarvis said he hopes the experience will be life changing for a lot of the students. 

“We’re hoping just to open their minds and let them realize that not everyone lives like the people in Connecticut,” he said. 

Rob Flanigan, 16, said he thinks the trip will prove to be eye-opening.

“It’s going to really open my eyes and make me not take stuff for granted,” he said. 

Chagnon said she is interested to see the impact the trip will have on the students.

“I don’t see how you can go on a trip like this and not be changed,” she said. “I’m interested to see how the kids go in and come out.” 

For more information on the trip, visit the outreach group’s website. Once the students have returned home, the site will have photos, videos and stories from the trip.