On Friday, the group starts the day with a visit to the CRS food bank in Eagle Butte, SD.  Here, the group learns about the triumphs and challenges the food program has experienced while serving the entire Cheyenne River Reservation.

On Friday, the group tours the Cheyenne River Youth Project^® (CRYP) in Eagle Butte, SD.  After visiting CRYP’s new teen center and organic gardens, the group enjoys the fresh produce that the CRYP garden makes available to the local community. 

On Friday the tour group gets the chance to experience the Cheyenne River Youth Project^®’s new teen center first hand.  The group got creative painting tiles and enjoying the artwork in the new art room. 

On Friday night, Running Strong and the Cheyenne River Youth Project^® held their second annual wacipi (or pow-wow) in the gym of the new teen center in Eagle Butte, SD.  The event brought the community together and let tour participants see some great dancing.

On Friday night, Eileen Burkhardt dances with Cheyenne River community members at the second annual Running Strong Wacipi in the new CRYP teen center.

On Friday night, Jack and Linda Clark get to dance and enjoy themselves at the second annual Running Strong Wacipi.

On Thursday, Nancy and Dick Sheaffer enjoy the beautiful views at Badlands National Park, SD.

On Thursday, Dave Trosko, Paul Karstetter, Laura Stitely, and CRSC Board member Frank Stitely explore the Badlands National Park, SD. 

On Thursday, the tour visits the Takini School on the Cheyenne River Reservation, SD.  Here, CRS has a backpack feeding program where children, who would otherwise go hungry, take home bags of food to eat over the weekend.  Hubert Kranich talks to children receiving their backpacks. 

On Thursday, Pat and Patti Connor visit with children at the Takini School.  These children receive backpacks of food from CRS so they will not go hungry over the weekends.

On Thursday, Loretta Richardson helps a student from the Takini School put on a CRS backpack of food.

On Wednesday, the tour gets a chance to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota before heading back to Rapid City, SD for the night.

On Wednesday the tour is lucky enough to spot buffalo roaming free in Oglala National Forest , SD.

On the road again!  The Running Strong tour is at home on our trusty bus that carries the tour across the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations and back again.

Returning tour participant Marion Kranich and first time participant Helen Silva are all smiles at Fort Robinson, NE on Wednesday morning.

Long-time Running Strong supporter Fred Hepler (center) has been on the Running Strong Reservation Tour ten times in the past eleven years.   Here he catches up with old friends, Running Strong's longtime volunteer Ken Lone Elk (left) and field coordinator Tom Cook (right).

The tour's first stop on Wednesday morning is the Fort Robinson, NE museum.   Participants get a chance to explore the museum and see the site where Crazy Horse was killed.

On Tuesday night, Rudy and Betty Ulfstam enjoy a leisurely dinner and catch up with old friends Charlotte and John Driscoll at the Old Main Street Inn in Chadron, NE.

Christian Relief Services Charities Board Member CB Richardson and his wife Loretta enjoy lunch with the most recent homeowner to receive assistance and counseling from the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing.

On Tuesday, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing greets the Running Strong Tour with a warm welcome and a delicious lunch.

On Tuesday morning, Tour participants get the chance to pay their respects at the burial site of the Massacre at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, SD.

On Tuesday morning, the Tour gets to see the Running Strong water well program in action.  Well driller Eldon Cassidy answers questions from participants about his important work.  You can see the current well he is drilling for a family on Pine Ridge Reservation in the background.

Stephanie and Floss Augustine check out the bountiful harvest at the Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Program.  The program provides organic gardens to families on the Pine Ridge Reservation so they can have fresh produce and healthy food.

The group starts Monday morning with a Lakota language lesson at the Little White Buffalo Project in Rapid City, SD.  The Project's founder and director, Susana Geliga, speaks to the tour group about the work she does with Lakota youth and teaches tour participants traditional Lakota greetings and phrases.

On Monday afternoon, the tour group visits the Wild Horse Sanctuary in the Black Hills of South Dakota and sees wild mares running free on the plains.

Margaret Lerner and CB Richardson enjoy the view at the Wild Horse Sanctuary.

Tour particpants get up close to ancient petroglyphs and cave drawings in the Black Hills.

The tour group explores the base farm at the Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Program and even gets to see the inside of a tipi.

On Sunday night, Olympic gold medalist and Running Strong's National Spokesperson Billy Mills welcomes tour participants.  Billy spoke candidly for more than an hour about his Olympic victory, his childhood on Pine Ridge Reservation, and described his message of hope, pride, and dignity that he brings to American Indian Youth.

Two Olympic champions meet in Rapid City, SD.  Running Strong tour participant Lian Kuebler is an athlete in the Special Olympics and when Billy Mills heard about her achievements, he asked to have his picture taken with the other gold medalist in the room.  

Running Strong tour participants (from left to right: Pat and Patti Connor, Elton Hess, and Helen Silva) enjoy speaking with Billy Mills and getting their copies of his best-selling book Wokini personally autographed.

The 18th Running Strong Tour Group takes a group picture with National Spokesperson Billy Mills and Running Strong staff.