Christmas At the Juvenile Detention Center

My name is Celestine and I‘m the director of the Juvenile Detention Center Education Program (JDCEP) on the Pine Ridge Reservation. On average we have between 10 and 30 students in our program and this year an estimated 25 kids will spending Christmas in jail. They are all very eager students, and absolutely wonderful young humans. They have already been judged, they are being punished, but our job is to show them that they are still of great value and very much loved. The kids expressed that they would love to build ginger bread houses and our 4 teachers and I would love make this come true. But we would also like to give them a Christmas party and get them presents to open on Christmas day. They won‘t be able to keep them after opening them, but once they are released they get to take them home.

We are hoping to raise $2,500 to make them feel like they are not forgotten, that they are the center of our hearts, and that we will not only spend Christmas day with them but also give them presents that were specifically picked for each and one of them. Your help is greatly appreciated and matters so much to us and the students.