September 9, 2008

SMSC Awards $136,421 in Grants to Support Educational Programs

Prior Lake, Minnesota - The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announces $136,421 in grants to support educational programs.

The largest grant is $75,000 to the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center (AIOIC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for general operating expenses. Working primarily with American Indian students, AIOIC is an educational institution that prepares people for their first jobs or for better jobs.

The SMSC made a grant of $25,000 to the Central Wyoming College within the exterior boundaries of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to assist with the construction of its new Intertribal Education and Community Center. The project is endorsed by both the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho Tribes.

A grant of $9,421 went to the District 930 Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative in Minnesota for a hearing instrument fitting system for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program.

A $5,000 grant went to each of the following: the A.H. Brown Library Foundation to expand a library in Mobridge, South Dakota, which serves the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations; the Science Museum of Minnesota for general operating costs for core programs and educational outreach; Na-Way-EE Center School of Minneapolis for capital improvements; the South High Foundation of Minneapolis for revitalizing and adding amenities to their athletic fields; and the National Indian School Board Association for reprinting of curriculum guides and source material.

A $3,000 donation went to the Jordan High School Media Center to help purchase new computers for their computer lab.

Donations of $1,000 each went to the St. Francis Indian School on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota for girls volleyball shoes and to The City, Inc., of Minnesota for scholarship sponsorship.