Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GLOBAL VOLUNTEERS
help out on the blackfeet reservation
BROWNING, MONTANA
Occasionally in life, you get to do something amazing.
—Michele Gran, cofounder of Global Volunteers
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The Native American story is full of tragedy, as various tribes were pushed onto reser-
vations to subsist and generally be forgotten. Global Volunteers offers a unique weeklong stint
to learn more about these disregarded cultures and peoples. Specifically, every year, the organ-
ization sends nine or ten teams to the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana. Each
project is different—“We try to do what the communities ask us to do,” says Barb DeGroot,
spokesperson for Global Volunteers—but you can know that you're helping out a strong and
resilient Native American tribe that faces geographic and social isolation, poverty, and loss of
cultural traditions. “In many respects,” DeGroot says, “volunteering on the Blackfeet Reserva-
tion is like experiencing the struggles of a developing country right here in the United States.”
Since 1999, Global Volunteers has done all sorts of things on the reservation, from land-
scaping and making playgrounds to building community centers and befriending at-risk youth.
And the Blackfeet warmly welcome the Global Volunteer participants to partake of their herit-
age. Volunteers are often invited to participate in sweat lodges, powwows, and other Blackfeet
ceremonies. You can even swim in their beautiful, pure rivers.
Global Volunteers organizes international volunteers in 20 countries. And it all started be-
cause of a honeymoon. In December 1979, Michele Gran and Bud Philbrook were planning a
barefoot honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean. “It was the era of the Vietnamese boat people,”
Philbrook recalls. “Michele didn't want to play while people were on the same water, fight-
ing for their lives.” So they compromised: five days at Disney World, Philbrook's childhood
dream, and five days in rural Guatemala, helping villagers obtain funds for an irrigation pro-
ject.
WHILE YOU'RE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
