Society

At the August 14, 2024, meeting of the Gregory County Historical Society, Richard and Juanita Peterson of Wewela, SD were there to donate items to the Gregory County Historical Museum in Dallas, SD. The couple donated a Lakota Sioux peace pipe, and tokens from Lucas.

Olivia Lou Reiser of Gregory, SD, was among 569 graduates who received degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln during a combined graduate and undergraduate commencement ceremony on August 17, 2024, at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Girl Scout Troop #40623 has been busy this summer working on earning their Bronze and Silver Awards. After completing our Outdoor and Media Journeys last summer, the girls started discussing options that could educate and impact our community. They finally decided on their project titled “Get off Gadgets and Go Outside”.

The South Dakota State Square, Folk, and Round Dance Association, is sponsoring the Fall State Square Dance Festival in Hermosa, SD. The event will be held on September 13 and 14, 2024, and will be hosted by the Southern Hills Promenaders Square Dance Club. The theme of the festival is 'Circle Left to Hermosa'. The Fall Square Dance Festival activities will begin with a Trails End Dance Friday evening, September 13, 2024, with Dan Hopper, Gillette, WY as the caller and Lurita Fugier, Hermosa, SD as round dance cuer for the evening. The Trails End dance begins at 8:00 p.m. All sessions will be held at the Hermosa School Gym at 11 4t Street in Hermosa, SD. On Saturday, September 14, 2024 there will be a Plus Dance beginning at 9:30 a.m. with Dan Hopper calling. The Fall Festival begins at 1:30 p.m. on September 14. The South Dakota Square Dance Association callers will do the calling for the afternoon. Mike Erk, Hot Springs, SD will be the afternoon Master of Ceremonies, and Lurita Fugier, Hermosa, SD will be the afternoon round dance cuer. There will be business sessions before the 7:30 p.m. Grand March. Mike Erk, Hot Springs, SD, will be the evening Master of Ceremonies and Lurita Fugier, Hermosa, SD, will be the evening round dance cuer. The public is invited to view any and all sessions.

More than 2,300 students at the University of South Dakota are being honored for their high achievement during the fall 2022 semester. Full-time undergraduate students are named to the dean’s list if they received a 3.5 GPA for courses they took in the fall 2022 semester, and had no incomplete or failing grades.

More than 3,200 students were recognized for their academic performance over the fall 2022 semester at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD, by being named to the dean’s list. To earn dean’s list distinctions in SDSU’s colleges, students must have completed a minimum of 12 credits and must have earned at least a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale.

A total of 594 full-time and 195 part-time students qualified for the president’s academic honors list for the 2022 fall semester at Dakota State University (DSU) in Madison, SD. Local full-time students achieved a grade point average of 3.5 to 4.0 to qualify for the honors list: Lahna Matucha, Burke, SD; Benjamin Witt, Burke, SD; and Gavin York, Burke, SD..

Douglas L. Anderson, PsyD I know, this is South Dakota, and in this state we have generally done our best to look away from COVID and its impact. But since it is the beginning of a new year, it is worth putting COVID into perspective, particularly from a psychological point of view.

David Scotton doesn’t remember finding out that he was adopted his parents told him from the time he was a baby in a crib. His world was turned upside down, however, when his birth mother unexpectedly reached out to him, longing to meet the 18-year-old son that she had only held once.

Lindsey McCarthy was recently honored with the Ann Schumacher Rural Clinic Practice Award at a conference in Boulder, CO, for her efforts in rural mental healthcare. Since December 2018, Lindsey McCarthy has been the executive director of Southern Plains Behavioral Health Services, a community mental health center in south-central South Dakota. Lindsey continues to provide therapy as a dialectical behavioral therapy skills trainer while working to advance services and outcomes through the executive director role. Lindsey has been a member of the Mountain Plains MHTTC advisory board since 2020, and an active member of the leadership academy cohort since 2021. She plans to use skills gained from her participation in these groups to continue expanding resources and training for rural communities located in HHS Region 8 states.