Dear Habitat Supporters,

“Volunteers” – as builders, advocates, educators, donors, advisers and ambassadors – have been the heart of Dacotah Tipis’ work for the past 20 years. In fact, the inspiration to grow and continue our mission of serving more families in need of decent, affordable housing comes not from our office, but from the many volunteers who truly manifest that which is Habitat. Whether a single woman from Thunder Bay, Ontario, a retired couple on a much needed church mission trip from Grand Rapids, Michigan, or the men and women of our regional community that serve consistently as board and committee members…

Volunteers remain essential to our success!

We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to help us celebrate 2012, our 20^th Anniversary Year by participating in a Habitat “Day of Giving.” This program enables companies and organizations to provide their employees or members with meaningful volunteer experiences that create memories – and won’t go unnoticed.

A “Day of Giving” also provides an opportunity to work together in a neutral environment fostering amazing interactions among your team members and with our partner families. This is a wonderful venue to perform community service and have a lot of fun. It also can be the perfect team building exercise for your work groups.

Select a day of service, raise a donation, provide a team of volunteers,
and join in on the fun.

Typical Day of Giving scenario: Call us to schedule a day. By the end of our conversation you’ll be well informed and excited for the next step. Recruit the volunteers. Share the excitement, pass around the signup sheets, order some T-shirts and hype it up. Raise or provide a donation to help share building costs with Habitat, and then a week or so before the event, communicate with Habitat to determine tasks and tools. Arrive on your “Day of Giving” ready to have a good time and get a lot of work done!

For 20 years the Dacotah Tipis Habitat affiliate has been the only organization building privately purchased homes on the Crow Creek Reservation. Every house we build is the miraculous result of generous gifts-in-kind and monetary donations, leveraged with volunteer labor and the sweat equity hours of the partner families.

As Dacotah Tipis grows to serve more families, our mission to eliminate poverty housing remains constant, and volunteers remain essential to our success. We are committed to providing meaningful volunteer experiences that truly engage our volunteers, and ultimately serve more families. To find out more about a “Day of Giving” or volunteering with Dacotah Tipis HFH, give us a call, or send us an e-mail today.

Respectfully, James J. Huntley Executive Director Habitat for Humanity Dacotah Tipis P.O. Box 487 Fort Thompson, SD 57339 605-245-2450 Office/Fax 605-680-0402 Cel

Would you like to repair or build your own house, but have no construction skills? You could enroll in a tech school to get some training — or quit your job and become a construction worker. But if you’re not ready for a career change, you can help yourself while helping others as a volunteer with Dacotah Tipis Habitat for Humanity.

We are a nonprofit organization with the goals of eliminating poverty housing and providing decent shelter. Homeowners who will live in Habitat houses contribute to the construction and work along side our volunteers.

As a volunteer, you can learn about framing, masonry, siding, roofing, painting, finish work and more. You’ll learn standard construction methods used in the great plains where seasonal temperatures run in extremes and the winter winds never quit. Our crew leaders are experienced teachers accustomed to a variety of skill levels including people with no skills at all. One of the great things about Habitat houses is that they’re fairly simple structures so that volunteer crews can build them, and owners can maintain them, easily.

The first time you volunteer you may feel a little awkward in the new environment, but that’s part of the fun and that’s what we enjoy. We not only want you to dedicate yourself to learning and becoming a productive volunteer, we want you to have a good time. Every day you volunteer you’ll learn something new and gain more trust from the experienced leaders/coordinators. And you’ll meet and learn from people with diverse skills and interests.

Dacotah Tipis Habitat for Humanity offers several plans for volunteers, from a one-day experience to a one-week experience, or maybe a two-week “work vacation”. We’re a small affiliate in a very interesting area and we understand flexibility. So give us a call and we’ll design your adventure together. When you serve the Crow Creek community, you will enjoy the Native American culture and see some of the South Dakota sites along the way.

Ready to learn?
Contact Jim Huntley at:
Dacotah Tipis Habitat for Humanity
P.O. Box 487
Fort Thompson, SD 57339
605-245-2450 Office/Fax
605-680-0402 Cel
hfhtipis@midstatesd.net

Lamont (Monty) Cain was born in Palo Alto California in April of 1942, not long after the start of WWII. In January of 1945 he was orphaned to his mother, when his father was killed in action in Belgium during the “Battle of the Bulge”. In 1948 his mother remarried and the family moved to South Dakota. Monty’s stepfather was an itinerant ranch hand from the Fort Pierre, SD area, and Monty attended school in and around Pierre, SD. He attended high school in Agar, and Pierre. For several of those years, his father had worked jobs great distances from schools, so Monty would return to northern California to a stable location with his grandparents to remain in school. His grandfather was a millwright with a wealth of construction knowledge, who took Monty under his wing and taught him the basics of electrical, plumbing and carpentry at a young age. When he wasn’t involved in farming and ranching, Monty used the background he received from his grandfather and worked as a carpenter, and equipment operator. After high school, he joined the U.S. Army and served three years of active duty service in Kansas, North Carolina, in Korea, and in Alaska.

After his service in the Army, Monty married his wife Shirley Goehner and settled down. He attended and graduated from Barber College, and barbered in Redfield, SD at the Hotel Barber Shop, until 1966 when he joined the police department in Pierre. Four years later in 1970, Monty moved his family to Kulm, ND. There he took the position of Chief of Police until 1974, when he moved to Yankton, SD and attended Yankton College. In July of 1975, Monty’s wife of 23 years passed away unexpectedly so he switched gears and went to work for the Yankton College maintenance department. In 1981, Monty moved to the Black Hills Playhouse with his second wife of 35 years Lynne Gillen and his two children, working as director of maintenance and the playhouse liaison with Custer State Park. In 1984 he moved to Springfield, SD where he began his career teaching buildings maintenance, and construction technology at Mike Durfee State Prison. Monty taught at the prison for over twenty years educating prisoners in construction practices, as well as supervising state construction projects of all types until his retirement in June of 2004.

Monty currently stays busy as the proprietor of Monty’s Barber Shop in Chamberlain, SD and lives in White Lake, SD with his wife Lynne, their two dogs, and their four cats. He has recently accepted a position of Director on the Dacotah Tipis Board of Directors to continue teaching his extensive construction knowledge to the Habitat partner families and volunteers. Monty will also serve as Chair of the Dacotah Tipis construction committee for his first three year term with our organization.

Welcome aboard Monty!

Happy New Year to you! Happy Anniversary to Dakota Tipis!

The Dacotah Tipis affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International began 20 years ago on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation and has operated “in good standing” without interruption since 1992.  We are proud of that – and we are just as proud that we were the very first Habitat for Humanity affiliate on any Native American reservation.

We have a lot planned for 2012 and we would like to think that we are every bit as energized as our founders were when the began our mission, but we can say that with your help, this will be a big year for us. Here’s a taste of what’s going on:

• Volunteers are signing up for the spring and summer builds. Due to a generous grant from Google for Non-profits we’ve expanded our on-line volunteer recruitment worldwide.
• We’ve added 3 new board members and each have unique skills and networks which we can put to use immediately.
• We’ve begun our Winter Fundraising which includes the “$20 for 20 years” campaign, in which we are generating funding by promoting $20 donations in honor of our 2012 Twentieth Anniversary.
• Our new organizational newsletter will be released in the first quater of 2012 as a mailer, and will be part of our direct mail campaign. We will also be identifying our mailing list members that would like to receive a greener E-version by e-mail.
•  A yet-to-be-announced event will take place where we will combine a major fundraiser  with a 20th anniversary blast.

So, thank you for your support. Oh, did we for get to mention the “$20 for 20 years” campaign? Well, please consider making a $20 donation in honor of our Anniversary. We’re a small grass-roots organization on a small reservation. $20 goes a long way here, and your donations will add up to significant funding to help us continue the fight. Donations of any amount are always appreciated, and can be made on the Donate Page or by using the Donate button on the sidebar.

Those interested in personally getting involved, maybe taking a Volunteer Vacation, etc. please join with the rest of our wonderful volunteers who are already schedualing their 2012 journeys    to Crow Creek

Contact Jim Huntley at:
Dacotah Tipis Habitat for Humanity
P.O. Box 487
Fort Thompson, SD 57339
605-245-2450 Office/Fax
605-680-0402 Cel
hfhtipis@midstatesd.net