The senior class of Dakota Adventist Academy chose to spend their spring break/senior class trip at Holbrook Indian School, an accredited grades 1-12 Adventist boarding school for Native American students in Holbrook, Arizona. The trip from Bismarck, North Dakota took the seniors through a stadium, a candy factory, a petrified forest, the Grand Canyon and many more adventures throughout Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
The seniors finally arrived at the HIS campus, enervated but excited to help wherever needed. On Monday they recarpeted a few sets of bleachers for the gymnasium. They also began to clean out the shop for Mr. Andrew Boaz. A few seniors worked on a new building being constructed for classrooms and meetings. This group had to sift dirt in order to have smooth dirt around pipes in the ground. A small group also enjoyed using a sledgehammer to demolish a set of stairs in order to make a handicapped ramp. These jobs lasted through Tuesday.
On Wednesday the seniors began putting up sheetrock, insulating the walls, and pouring concrete in the new building. A few students enjoyed a slight reprieve from hard labor by having a pottery lesson. During this time they picked out small pots, set them onto a wheel, and painted them by spinning the wheel and touching the paintbrush to the pot. After they made rings of color they used a scraping tool to make designs. Many chose the traditional designs, while a few got creative.
On Thursday some of the students again got a break by helping the younger classes with either reading or career poster boards. After lunch a few helped with carpentry work in the shop, while others helped move bikes and did manual labor on the building behind the school cafeteria. They also had the opportunity to participate in a horsemanship class before supper.
The seniors intentionally tried to interact with all the students. A few seniors with gymnastics training were helping the Holbrook children learn simple moves; piggyback rides were given often; and many of the seniors enjoyed playing volleyball, basketball and dodgeball with the kids during their rec time.
Overall, the main mission was being a help and a guide to the children of Holbrook. This is why the class decided to donate $6,000 for purchasing new desks for the classrooms in the new building. The seniors wanted to show God’s love to the students.
This was also the focus of the worships for the week. They touched on friendship factors such as trust, approachability, and caring for others (based on Dakota Adventist Academy’s catchphrase: Building Friendships for Eternity). However, the seniors were definitely the ones touched during this week as they learned to care for the teachers, students and faculty at Holbrook.
This article is also being published in the May 2015 print edition of OUTLOOK. It was written by Jessica Hunold, a senior at Dakota Adventist Academy.
