Sept. 10, 2015, marked a day in history for the FCP community. This date marked the day that the new Gte Ga Nes Preschool had its grand opening and blessing in a ceremony led by Billy Daniels Jr.
The day started with parents and relatives having the opportunity to tour the new facility. Following this, the ceremony started with FCP Cultural Education Advisor Brooks Boyd introducing Daniels, along with the rest of the speakers for the day. Before Daniels’ blessing, the Fire Nation Singers opened the floor with a welcome song. They were an excellent group and certainly represented their culture well. Daniels then proceeded with his blessing in his native Potawatomi language and then explained in English what he had said in his prayer.
Next, Boyd introduced FCP Tribal Administrator Eugene Shawano Jr. Shawano explained the significance behind Daniels’ prayer and emphasized that Daniels relaying those words to the audience and the children present was indeed a great blessing. He said, “It is great to have our elder here to speak to these children and to give them this blessing for them and for this new building.”
Following Shawano was the introduction of the Education Division Director, Thomas Boelter. Boelter thanked everyone in attendance for taking the time to attend the ceremony on this special day. He spoke about how this new building is a great addition to this community for the younger generations. He also spoke very highly of the newest member of the Gte Ga Nes staff, Director Trisha Stefonek. Boelter listed her many credentials as he introduced her to the group. Stefonek’s history has primarily been in child welfare, child development and family therapy, and she is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She worked in the inner city of Chicago and then moved back up to the Northwoods and managed a county mental health case management program. This program primarily included adults but also children and families, and served residents of Oneida, Vilas and Forest counties.
Stefonek comments, “I am very excited to be back working with children and families as a primary focus because it is something I am extremely passionate about. I feel honored and blessed to be working with this community and look forward to working with my team to give the children the most academically progressive, culturally enriched, and fun learning environment a school can offer.”
Following this introduction of Stefonek, the Fire Nation Singers then sang an honor song followed by a feast prepared by the Gte Ga Nes staff cooks.
Seeing parents, friends and relatives all under one roof for these children was truly heartwarming. After all, it will be these children who will one day be running this community to the best of their ability. It will also be these children who keep the traditions in this community alive. What better way to do that than to have a place where they can be safe and learn all they can about themselves and their culture?
[PDFDownloadButton url=”https://www.fcpotawatomi.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/October-1-2015.pdf” title=”October 1, 2015 – Download this issue”]