PHOTO BY ALLAN GERKING

Phil, Jason Jr., Jason, Todd and Bryan stand in front of the frame of a GREAT camp summer cabin March 22.

Giving time for the kids

By Tribal News

The GREAT program depends a lot on people volunteering their time to make life better for kids. In the last year employees from Chief Leschi, Kwawachee and the community have given about 3,100 hours of their time to help the GREAT program serve kids.

They have done so many different things that it is hard to list all of them. They have cut and hauled brush. They’ve stayed all weekend at camp acting as mentors for 20 or more children. They have hiked in the dark up to two miles and cooked for up to 30 people. The kids in the program also volunteer time doing anything from helping younger students during summer camp to running the school store two days a week. They also do various projects to help improve the camping experience at the Graham property. Recently our focus has been working on making cabins for summer camp. The students worked on them one weekend. On March 16, Deanne Gardner, Chief Leschi employee brought her husband and some friends to help build cabins for summer camp. Bart Brewer and Berta Lopez, Chief Leschi employees, also came and helped. Todd Salois, whose daughter is part of the GREAT program, brought some people from his work and helped on both days the weekend of March 22.

Both groups volunteered their time and expertise in construction to help build these cabins, which still have a ways to go before they’re fininshed. They all saw that what is being done will have a positive outcome for kids that use the area in the future and decided they wanted to help. Todd Salois summed it up when he said that his daughter is part of the GREAT family and so he would like to do something for that family. I would like to thank everyone who has helped get us to where we are in our construction.

April 19 and 20 we are having a work party out at the Graham property. Rumor has it that Kwawachee is going to bring about 12 people. We can always use more people to come out and help. If you would like to help, please call Officer Allan Gerking at (253) 606-9569.

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