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Video: Montana Blackfeet Reservation

May 3, 2012

Take a look inside VISIONS youth volunteers' experiences on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana.

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TOP 10 Reasons to do Community Service in the U.S

Apr 13, 2012

1. To live among and befriend descendants of America’s indigenous people, hear their stories firsthand, discover their traditions in real time, learn how and in what ways their cultures have survived

2. To come under the spell of the Deep South without even realizing that you are being enchanted, so that when departure day approaches, it suddenly strikes you: “I’m so homesick just thinking about leaving here!”

3. To wake up in the morning, walk out into the crisp air and see nothing but nature, no buildings or houses, just wildflowers, a sparkling creek, and in the distance the Rocky Mountain Front and majestic peaks of Glacier National Park

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“I want the simplicity of the town pump being a special treat.”

Mar 20, 2012

I find myself struggling to adjust to a life I left only two and a half weeks ago, and I think I’ve been fighting the adjustment. I don’t want to be surrounded by malls and traffic. I want to be around mountains. I don’t want “work” to mean school work or my job. I want “work” to be something more meaningful and rewarding. ...I want the simplicity of the town pump being a special treat. I don’t want to spend my nights out drinking or partying. I want to sit around and talk…maybe play cards…and have that still be a fun time. I don’t want to be surrounded by my [life at home]. I want to be with the family and support system I lived with in Browning [Blackfeet Indian reservation]. 

Although I have a new appreciation for clean clothes, my bed, my shower, and my food, I would probably trade these comforts in a heartbeat for more time in Montana.

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“Loren Pope should write...Service Programs That Change Lives. Visions...meets the criteria.”

Jan 17, 2012

A letter from a VISIONS (two-season) parent:

Dear Visions,

I am so pleased with Jordan’s experiences in the two summers he’s been in your program. It really clicked for him this year. He’s still in bed, but we stayed up all night talking about his trip. His eyes teared up twice over leaving Montana and the kids, and he actually cried as he was telling me about different incidences (not because he was sad, but because he was feeling so good about it).

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Remembering Elouise

Nov 16, 2011

REMEMBERING ELOUISE

by Katherine Dayton, Executive Director

I first met Elouise Cobell in 1999 at an event in Montana for The Nature Conservancy. My parents were Nature Conservancy trustees, as was Elouise. As the saying goes, she “had me at hello.” Elouise and I talked awhile by the Blackfoot River, a focal conservation project for the Conservancy. What struck me then, and in every subsequent encounter with Elouise, was her graceful diplomacy and quiet, steadfast conviction. She was a listener, too. She did not seek to dominate a conversation, but was genuinely, reciprocally engaged.

VISIONS has worked on the Blackfeet reservation since 1992, and throughout the nineteen nineties our teen community service projects usually intersected with organizations that Elouise founded. Soon into the conversation with Elouise that day by the river, we both recognized the potential for a direct partnership between VISIONS and a couple of the nonprofits under her leadership.

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Summer Program Staffer Remembers Montana Cheyenne

May 30, 2011

Another summer community service season on the Northern Cheyenne reservation draws near, after a few seasons' hiatus, and we could not be happier. We found this in our archives of staff and student volunteer writings. Haviland Staggers spent many seasons directing VISIONS summer programs in Montana. She wrote the following reflective piece when she was in graduate school completing her Masters in Education.

~ CHEYENNE SUMMERS ~ Northern Cheyenne Powwow

In May 1992 I graduated from college and became, suddenly, an adult with a fuzzy plan to move to Missoula, Montana. Before the actual move to Missoula, I accepted a job that would take me to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation where, with a group of teen volunteers, I would help build a playground and do other community service projects. My employer was a relatively newly established organization called VISIONS.

After staff training in Pennsylvania in mid-June, all the Montana staff piled into three 15-passenger vans and headed west to the St. Xavier Indian School on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. We drove straight through for two days until we landed on the reservation. After a poor night's sleep, two staff teams continued farther west with the vans. (There were four teams of six staff each destined for four different Montana reservations.) The other two teams stayed behind, one on the Crow, the other to work on the Northern Cheyenne. We leased small buses for both programs from the Crow tribe.

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VISIONS Middle School Passage Programs - Summer Travel Abroad

Feb 11, 2011

Middle school students transition into their teens today against a very different backdrop from middle-schoolers of 10 or 20 years ago. Social media has changed the growing-up landscape decisively and dynamically. The notion of middle school travel abroad, apart from traditional summer camps or family vacations, was relatively uncommon a decade ago. Today, however, more parents are open to letting their 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds go farther--and further--away from home alone if the experience promises to bolster the transition to adolescence and can assure their children's safety and well being.

VISIONS offered our first middle school travel program, Northwest Passage, in 1998 in Montana. It was a three-week experience uniquely created for middle school girls. They lived with their leaders in a tiny, quiet Northern Cheyenne village on the Tongue River in a closely knit, family-like setting. They explored their new environment and way of life within the framework of service, cultural immersion and friendship.

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Thank You from the Parent of a "DC Scholar"

Oct 23, 2009

Dear Visions Program Directors & Staff,

I have been meaning to write you to tell you what an impact your programs has had on my children. My son David, did the Peru program in 2003 and the Alaska program in 2004, both of which he enjoyed tremendously and benefited him greatly.

My daughter Anna, did the Montana (Blackfeet reservation) trip in 2007 and the Vietnam trip in 2008. She had nothing but wonderful things to say about both programs; she said they were amazing experiences, and she made many wonderful friends that she still keeps in touch with. She said to me the other day that she misses Vietnam. I know she would like to return there.

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Community Friends in the Northern Cheyenne

May 18, 2005

She is an elegant woman, calm and composed, soft-spoken and thoughtful. When she smiles, her strong wide face lights up, she laughs easily, and her eyes twinkle.   Since our first summer on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Florence Running Wolf and her husband, Mike, Florence’s sisters and their families, have been welcoming, generous hosts to VISIONS since 1992.  They are our extended family on the Cheyenne with whom we take sweats, learn how to bead, come to understand some of the history and traditions that are the Cheyenne way.

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Student Alum Creates Education Opportunities

Sep 25, 2000

When I was a VISIONS participant in 1994 I taught math and reading to Crow children in Lodge Grass, Montana. I felt great about my experience and still talk about it today. Sometimes I wonder, though... What happened to the children? Could they still use my help? How could I continue to be of assistance?

No doubt many VISIONS alumni have even more to teach now as adults, but just can’t spend another summer in Montana. Can we still positively impact children’s education and futures by sharing what we’ve learned? I am now an investment banker in San Francisco and wouldn’t have the first clue how to contact the boy I tutored. I’d love to be able to send him an email. How can we introduce children like him to the powerful tools offered by modern technology? I think one answer lies in the Internet. In my career, I rely heavily on the Internet for information and communication. I would be greatly limited without it. I can’t help but think that children growing up without Internet access are at a critical educational and information disadvantage.

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