South Dakota! A state I have yet to see, until two weeks ago that is! Not only is this a small beautiful state that experiences all 4 seasons but it is the home to Mount Rushmore. Since I was taking a trip to SD and staying just 30 minutes from Mt. Rushmore I made it a priority for me to see such an amazing creation but not until after I had delivered my speech to White River High School and Middle School.
Joyce Glynn, a teacher at White River High School is also the founder of the Michael Gylnn Memorial Coalition, which helps spread the anti-substance abuse message across White River. If you have never been to South Dakota or you are from California and haven't seen to many other places, you may be shocked at just how small White River is. I've seen some small communities but this one was right up there with the smallest i've been too. I don't say this in a bad way because when it's small, everyone knows everyone and people like Joyce have the ability to make quite the noticeable impact on their communities. You almost wonder how such a small community gets infiltrated with substance abuse addiction because it requires a bit of traveling for someone to be bringing drugs there. This goes to show, it doesn't matter how large or small your community is, substance abuse exist amongst us all.
There is a large population of Native American Indians in White River and this was very interesting to me. It's not something I grew up seeing a lot of, so naturally I asked the principle lots of questions. The students were fully engaged during my presentation and had lots of questions afterwards, which I love hanging around for! Afterward I went to see Mt. Rushmore and I must say that it is absolutely something every person in the U.S.A. should see, it's crazy big! I still can't wrap my head around how the heck you do something like that.