With our sincerest gratitude… THANK YOU!
Wow we did it! We reached our initial goal! Thank you, thank you, thank you. In just 20 days we’ve raised over $4000 to help us start our food forest here on the rez. This means so much to us, and you all are responsible for making this happen. It is truly a blessing… thank you again.
But wait! We’re not done… we still have 11 days to keep raising money and we want to tell you about the other projects connected with the food forest. $4000 will only take us so far to get started with buying saplings, starting a nursery, and getting our young fruit trees established in the ground. Every dollar that we raise above this will only help to make this project better – a greater diversity of species, a bigger nursery, better tools and supplies, etc. There are also other projects, which form a symbiotic relationship within our system. Bee Hives, Wind Power, Rainwater Catchment, Solar Cookers… these are a few of the main projects, which will work with our food forest to make sustainable food security a reality on the rez.
Take a look… there’s much more to do! Increase your pledge, tell a friend, give a donation in honor of someone as a gift, post it on your blog/facebook/etc. Please continue to show your support in anyway you can!
Continuing Support
If we continue to raise additional funds above and beyond our target… you can help us support these other projects:
1. Beekeeping business. We can get lumber at wholesale to build top-bar hives. A local Lakota beekeeper would like to partner with OLCERI to start a beekeeping business. Getting started, we will host anywhere from 3-10 hives on our site. Bees are vital pollinators for our fruits trees! approx. funding needed: $350-1400
2. Wind towers. Six turbines are already up and our battery bank in place. We need to hire an electrician to hook it up and buy supplies to connect the towers to the batteries. Off-grid energy is essential for running our kitchen, for preparing and storing our harvest. approx. funding needed: $1000
3. Rainwater catchment. We have several tin roofs that we can catch rain from. We would like to purchase 8 250-gallon tanks and associated hardware – in addition to the free materials we are recycling/repurposing (e.g. rain gutters, piping). Sustainably sourced, fresh water will make our trees grow. approx. funding needed: $500
4. Solar cooker/food dehydrator. This is part of our food security plan; we want to dry and store food, a traditional Lakota practice. We’d like to build several of these and make them available to other groups including community garden groups and a coalition of sustainable organizations on the rez. This will ensure that the yield from our food forest can be enjoyed year-round. approx. funding needed: $500
These are not all or nothing projects… any amount raised will get us started! We can do a lot with very little, but your additional support helps us fill in the gaps. To contribute you can visit our kickstarter page or donate here on olceri.org through paypal (just click the donate button on the right – donations through either, both link to the same place).
We are thrilled to get things moving around here… please keep up with us to stay informed about our progress (we will continue to update this page, but you can also find us at facebook.com/olceri).
From everyone at OLCERI and people all across Pine Ridge, Thank you.
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
