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Hello Everyone, I received a call for help regarding propane shortage on Pine Ridge. Now if any member here lives on the Ridge, you can verify this person and the need. I do know that there is a propane company there has set up a fund for Pine Ridge for donations and I will verify later this morning if it is this one..maybe someone from the Ridge can verify it as well. But here is the message I received in full text. The text in red is what I will be trying to verify. I do know that I send Blankets, coats, gloves, sweaters and etc. out there each year with a friend and that there is an "Adopt an Elder" program in place thanks to President Clinton (as worthless as he was he did ONE thing right)...but...here it is.
Many Blessings
LadyHawk
Urgent Need; Elders and Low Income Families Facing Winter With NO HEAT!
>
> By Dale Dieleman
>
> When the wind chill drives Michigan winter nights below zero, nothing seems more reassuring than that kick of the furnace sending blasts of warm air through this drafty old house of mine.
>
> One evening this week, the phone rang forcing me out from the blanket wrapped around me. It was my friend Fedelia Cross calling from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Her voice was that cheerful tone I have come to expect.
>
> "Could you and people you know there find some way to help us get some propane heat to the elderly and poor families out here?" she asked.
>
> For those uninitiated to blustery, winter's night on the rolling plains, believe me, it cannot be described without superlatives.
>
> Fedelia explained how scores of elderly or very low-income families must face the remainder of this winter without the tribal Energy Assistance funds, which have run out. These federally-based funds are among the government's budget cut-backs.
>
> As Fedelia described the conditions, I wished I could have patched in her call to all of you readers.
>
> She said that typically, those on Social Security or fixed incomes receive approximately $400 per month, which may include up to a family of three or four. Those funds must pay for housing, lights, food and, yes heat. That propane, or course, is also used for cooking.
>
> Families in poverty everywhere make those daily choices no parent wants to make - electricity, food, or heat. And who would ever want to see their own elderly parents chose between these essentials either?
>
> "When they can't pay the gas bills, they have to move in with relatives," Fedelia said, recalling her own childhood and the cramped conditions in her house at times. "It's just the way we are," she said. "We always take people in."
>
> I have heard stories on the reservation of as many as 15 or more people living in one small two-bedroom home some winters. Other accounts tell of how such houses have burned to the ground when make-shift wood stoves fail.
>
> Fedelia added the scarcity of wood this winter too drove firewood prices beyond reach for many, and wood doesn't help in the newer government-subsidized housing units built for propane.
>
> All this to call on you, dear readers, to consider your winter's trials in comparison.
>
> Might you consider dialing down, saving a few dollars, and donating the savings to elderly persons and families at Pine Ridge?
>
> I especially ask churches to do the same. Drop a degree or three in your sanctuary to warm the feet of those with no heat at all. What more charitable gift can one give at this time of year?
>
> I applaud how area churches have created funds to help local burned-out families where tragedy struck. This is what we are called to do. And, now, the call comes from a place known as Pine Ridge.
>
> Pine Ridge is no strange place to so many in West Michigan. Scores of volunteers have crisscrossed the reservation, summer after summer, fixing up houses, bringing firewood, and leading Vacation Bible Schools.
>
> Yes. We come. We go. We come back again. We wave. We retreat and we forget. There is always next summer, and always there is a Pine Ridge somewhere for "mission teams."
>
> But winter also comes to Pine Ridge and the cry for heat cuts that vast starry sky.
>
> So, I will save for a future column, the questions, "How many more Pine Ridge winters without heat? How long must reservations like this one have to endure unemployment as high as 70-80 percent? What must we all attend to so justice and economic sustainability can flourish there as plentifully as summer sage?"
>
> My prayer tonight is, "Please respond to my friend Fedelia's request.
>
> Midwest Cooperative is a member-owned propane fuel company, based in Martin, South Dakota, which delivers throughout Pine Ridge reservation.
>
> I called the co-op and donations can be sent by check payable to: "Midwest Cooperative." In the memo portion of the check, write - Pine Ridge Propane.
>
> Mail the check: c/o Fedelia Cross, Box 42, Oglala, South Dakota, 57764.
>
> Fedelia and others are identifying those in most need of the fuel assistance. She will send a receipt to every donor with the thanks and gratitude of the people of Pine Ridge.
>
> For those who wish a tax deductible receipt, arrangements have been made with West Michigan-based Concern, International. Send a check payable to: Concern, International. Indicate "Pine Ridge Propane" on the check. Mail to: Concern, International, 253 Dee Road, Muskegon, Michigan, 49444.
>
> For additional information, contact me at my email address: [email protected]
>
Many Blessings
LadyHawk
Urgent Need; Elders and Low Income Families Facing Winter With NO HEAT!
>
> By Dale Dieleman
>
> When the wind chill drives Michigan winter nights below zero, nothing seems more reassuring than that kick of the furnace sending blasts of warm air through this drafty old house of mine.
>
> One evening this week, the phone rang forcing me out from the blanket wrapped around me. It was my friend Fedelia Cross calling from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Her voice was that cheerful tone I have come to expect.
>
> "Could you and people you know there find some way to help us get some propane heat to the elderly and poor families out here?" she asked.
>
> For those uninitiated to blustery, winter's night on the rolling plains, believe me, it cannot be described without superlatives.
>
> Fedelia explained how scores of elderly or very low-income families must face the remainder of this winter without the tribal Energy Assistance funds, which have run out. These federally-based funds are among the government's budget cut-backs.
>
> As Fedelia described the conditions, I wished I could have patched in her call to all of you readers.
>
> She said that typically, those on Social Security or fixed incomes receive approximately $400 per month, which may include up to a family of three or four. Those funds must pay for housing, lights, food and, yes heat. That propane, or course, is also used for cooking.
>
> Families in poverty everywhere make those daily choices no parent wants to make - electricity, food, or heat. And who would ever want to see their own elderly parents chose between these essentials either?
>
> "When they can't pay the gas bills, they have to move in with relatives," Fedelia said, recalling her own childhood and the cramped conditions in her house at times. "It's just the way we are," she said. "We always take people in."
>
> I have heard stories on the reservation of as many as 15 or more people living in one small two-bedroom home some winters. Other accounts tell of how such houses have burned to the ground when make-shift wood stoves fail.
>
> Fedelia added the scarcity of wood this winter too drove firewood prices beyond reach for many, and wood doesn't help in the newer government-subsidized housing units built for propane.
>
> All this to call on you, dear readers, to consider your winter's trials in comparison.
>
> Might you consider dialing down, saving a few dollars, and donating the savings to elderly persons and families at Pine Ridge?
>
> I especially ask churches to do the same. Drop a degree or three in your sanctuary to warm the feet of those with no heat at all. What more charitable gift can one give at this time of year?
>
> I applaud how area churches have created funds to help local burned-out families where tragedy struck. This is what we are called to do. And, now, the call comes from a place known as Pine Ridge.
>
> Pine Ridge is no strange place to so many in West Michigan. Scores of volunteers have crisscrossed the reservation, summer after summer, fixing up houses, bringing firewood, and leading Vacation Bible Schools.
>
> Yes. We come. We go. We come back again. We wave. We retreat and we forget. There is always next summer, and always there is a Pine Ridge somewhere for "mission teams."
>
> But winter also comes to Pine Ridge and the cry for heat cuts that vast starry sky.
>
> So, I will save for a future column, the questions, "How many more Pine Ridge winters without heat? How long must reservations like this one have to endure unemployment as high as 70-80 percent? What must we all attend to so justice and economic sustainability can flourish there as plentifully as summer sage?"
>
> My prayer tonight is, "Please respond to my friend Fedelia's request.
>
> Midwest Cooperative is a member-owned propane fuel company, based in Martin, South Dakota, which delivers throughout Pine Ridge reservation.
>
> I called the co-op and donations can be sent by check payable to: "Midwest Cooperative." In the memo portion of the check, write - Pine Ridge Propane.
>
> Mail the check: c/o Fedelia Cross, Box 42, Oglala, South Dakota, 57764.
>
> Fedelia and others are identifying those in most need of the fuel assistance. She will send a receipt to every donor with the thanks and gratitude of the people of Pine Ridge.
>
> For those who wish a tax deductible receipt, arrangements have been made with West Michigan-based Concern, International. Send a check payable to: Concern, International. Indicate "Pine Ridge Propane" on the check. Mail to: Concern, International, 253 Dee Road, Muskegon, Michigan, 49444.
>
> For additional information, contact me at my email address: [email protected]
>
