Brandon Lee
Note: On this trip, the Health Science Academy and Gundersen Team had a mission of delivering over 100 pumpkins to the Kyle Youth Center. Hail storms ruined the pumpkin crop on the reservation so our mission was to deliver 50-100 pumpkins so the children could still have their Halloween celebration complete with pumpkins.
The pumpkin’s journey began at 6:30 AM when our vehicles were loaded with the pumpkins. We then departed for Pine Ridge.
Our first stop was at Blue Earth, Minnesota, where Kaity had her picture taken with the pumpkin and a little minion on top from Despicable Me (a travel companion of Monica from the Gundersen team). After the picture was taken we traveled for about 3 hours then stopped at a rest stop at Chamberlain. There the pumpkin saw the mighty Missouri River. While we were taking pictures of the beautiful landscape of the river, we all got together to take a group picture and Mr.Kammer had the pumpkin to show how far the pumpkin’s journey has gotten. Right after we were done taking pictures Mr.Kammer hands over the pumpkin to me right away and sprints away with a laugh.
We finally got off the interstate and stopped to see prairie dogs. The prairie dogs were all over the field roaming around and waiting for anyone to feed it anything that was unsalted. We held out our hands and the prairie dogs would come out to see what we had in our hands. After a while the prairie dogs came out and ganged up on Mr. Kammer! We took out the pumpkin to take a picture with the prairie dogs! That was the last picture taken on our first day.
The pumpkins’ journey will end tomorrow when we deliver them to the Kyle Youth Center.
Pine Ridge Reservation 
Always enjoy reading the Global Partners travelogues. Thank you all for doing what you do to make the world a better place! Cute photo of the pumpkin & the prairie dog, too.