Darien Depot Smiles for South Dakota club raises money for needed dental work
Jan. 10, 2021
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Dr. Maryann Lehman with Claire Hannigan, left, Chapin Pfifle, bottom row, Annelise Finn.Contributed photo
DARIEN Darien Depot’s “Smiles for South Dakota” club recently raised money for the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Chapin Pfiefle, a current senior at Darien High, heard about the reservation from local Dr. Lehmann, who heard about the reservation through an ad in the Journal of American Dental Association. Chapin immediately told a few friends, who together started a club dedicated to helping.
The money raised by this club goes directly towards this mission. Anyone interested in donating towards this mission is asked to write a check directly to : St. Francis Dental Clinic and mail c/o Dr. Maryann Lehmann 5 Brook Street Darien CT 06820, St. Francis Mission Among The Lakota in memo. Questions may be directed to Chapin Pfifle chapin.pfifle8@g
So the other day, a friend asked me a question that boiled down to this: Does Christmas have to be a religious holiday?
My immediate response as a person of faith who follows Jesus and as an Episcopal priest was, âWell, yeah â¦â
I mean, what else would it be?
And then immediately I thought of all those people who are not believers who celebrate Christmas because society does, and do so without too many worries because, well . society celebrates it.
We have sales. We have singalongs. We have trees. We have presents to give and to receive. We have parties.
Initially the death and suffering driven by the COVID-19 virus seemed far away from the Plains of South Dakota.
Like the news of wars and natural disasters from distant foreign places, it seemed like a big city problem where people live chock-a-block in high rises and ride densely packed mass transit.
“It was hard to fathom what people went through back in the spring,” says Angel Wilson, nurse practitioner at the Rosebud Hospital on the Rosebud Reservation. “I could read about it and say how horrifying it was for them, but it was still far away.”
Now, however, the virus has arrived on South Dakota’s eight reservations, in a state that in recent weeks routinely tops the list of COVID-19 hotspots. And it has hit hard, overwhelming hospitals and requiring some patients to be flown out of state, often with limited means for returning home.