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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula December 5, 2004 Text and photo © 2004 MTU Lutheran Campus Ministry, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church press release.

MTU's Lutheran Campus Ministry to receive grant for leadership program

HOUGHTON -- Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has announced a $50,000 grant to Lutheran Campus Ministry (LCM) at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Houghton under the Youth Leadership Initiative. The funds will allow a student project team, supervised by Michigan Tech University engineering and design faculty and the LCM project manager, to design ecologically low-impact dwellings to be built on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

LCM has committed to raise an additional $12,500 over the two-year period of this pilot program. A beautiful Star Quilt, made by a member of the Lakota Nation and given to students four years ago as a gift for work done for the reservation community, is being raffled to help cover expenses for a 2005 Spring Break trip to Pine Ridge. Only 250 tickets are available; the raffle will be held December 12. Tickets are $5 and are available from the Rev. Bucky Beach, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church pastor.

This quilt, made by a member of the Lakota Nation and given to students four years ago as a gift for work done for the reservation community, is being raffled to help cover expenses for a 2005 Spring Break trip to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. (Photo © 2004 and courtesy MTU Lutheran Campus Ministry, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Reprinted with permission.)

The vision of this pilot Service and Leadership Enterprise at Michigan Tech is to train a new generation of student leaders prepared to find appropriate solutions to basic human needs in diverse cultural settings.

In the pilot program, the design of these low-impact dwellings will honor cultural heritage, use concepts and construction techniques that maximize energy efficiency, explore alternative energy sources and employ regional natural building materials appropriate to the equipment and skill level currently available on the reservation. 

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