The Gathering Thunder Foundation will hold its annual fundraising Spring Gala at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on Saturday, April 26, 2014. This event will include live music by flutist Douglas Blue Feather, catered hors d’oeuvres, a video presentation, presenters, a Silent Auction followed by a Live Auction and a Raffle. Tickets for adults will be $45, tickets for students including college students will be $25, and children up to age eight will have free admission.
Included in the auctions will be such outstanding handcrafts as a basket of woodland animals with a forest floor blanket, beautiful Lenca pottery, an oil painting titled “Tree of Love”, a candle box with a mosaic hurricane and pillar candle from Partylite, and so much more.
The Gathering Thunder Foundation in Rockford, Michigan, is dedicated to the preservation of the Native American customs, culture, language and spirituality. In addition, their programs and fund raising efforts assisted by local hard-working volunteers and added to by generous contributors provide money for food, clothing, electricity, propane, wood supplies and education. Every year elders die from hypothermia caused by their homes not being equipped with proper heating capabilities in the extreme winter temperatures and not being able to afford to adequately heat their homes. The loving help creates aid and hope for Native American sisters and brothers on tribal reservations across Turtle Island, which is North America, who are in need of such help.
Begun as an informal network of families and friends who came together to support Lakota families in need, the Gathering Thunder Foundation has served the needs of the Native American population since 2006. The year 2009 marked receipt of their official 501(c)(3) non-profit status.
As an example of the wonderful projects that members work on constantly is the organization collecting donations all year long and then twice a year delivering the ‘Truckload of Miracles’ by their ‘Nice Road Truckers’ to residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation located in South Dakota. Included has been non-perishable food, fruit juices, soup and crackers, clothing including winter coats and warm boots, baby supplies, buckets and pails, ropes, electrical cord, health and beauty aids, household goods, pots and pans, paper goods, plastic silverware, bedding, furniture, washer and dryers and much more including a brand new outhouse!