June 04, 2010 –
MAYETTA: Two Tribal Council members received thank you cards today from Native American youth who are enrolled in the USD # 501 Indian Education Summer Enrichment program being held at Hope Academy in Topeka. The PBPN gave a $5,000 charitable contribution award to the program last year.
Joyce Guerrero, Vice Chairperson, and Carrie O’Toole, Member, watched as students learned to bead in one of the classes. The two-week summer enrichment course is geared to Native American families and also partially funded by a formula grant from the Title VII Office of Native American Education. Over 30 percent of Native American children in the USD #501 school system are PBPN youth.
Karen Shanks, liaison for the USD # 501 Native American Education Program, said the donation from the Prairie Band was a huge boost to this summer’s program and that they were able to fund an extra teacher and other services with the donation.
In closing, Guerrero told the students to keep learning about Native American history in order to keep their heritage strong and O’Toole stressed to the students to get a good education so they can come back to work for the Nation someday.