Joanne's legacy

    Today Augustana University President, Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, accompanied by local Augie representative, Paul Rasmuson, stopped by the OFH for breakfast. When Joanne was president of Lutheran Social Services, SD., Herseth-Sandlin was South Dakota’s Representative in Congress. They became friends, working together on several issues. One of the vice presidents at Augie is Pam Hohman, who was Sioux Falls Superintendent of schools while Joanne was at LSSSD.

     LSSSD resettled several of the Lost Boys of Sudan. (See the articles below.) Not surprisingly this was a controversial issue in Sioux Falls. Joanne found the support of Hohman as Superintendent of Schools very helpful. Hohman and Joanne became good friends.

    Breakfasting with Herseth-Sandlin I requested that she greet Hohman from me, after relaying how Joanne and Hohman had worked together to accommodate the Lost Boys. Herseth-Sandlin reported that some of the Boys settled permanently in Sioux Falls, have families and are well integrated into the community. In fact one of Boys’ son is on Augie’s basketball team.

    The good Joanne did continues on.👍

“The Lost Boys of Sudan refers to a group of over 20,000 boys of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups who were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Two million were killed and others were severely affected by the conflict”. Wikipedia

“Motivated by the loss of their parents and their need to find food and safety from the conflict, an estimated 20,000 boys from rural southern Sudan fled to bordering Ethiopia and Kenya.[11] Much of the travel took place by foot in large groups with the boys traveling in single file lines.[12] The journey from South Sudan to the nearest refugee camp could be up to thousands of miles. Travel ranged from a span of weeks to two or more years. Often, the children traveled with no possessions besides the clothes on their backs.[13] The Boys often depended on the charity of villages they passed for food, necessities, and treatment of the sick. However, most of their travel was in isolated regions with very little infrastructure. Groups of Boys were often organized and led by the oldest boy in the group, who could be a young adult or sometimes as young as ten or twelve years old.” Internet

Takk for alt,

Al

Sikorsky H-34, helicoper we'd ride from the aircraft carrier to land. It beat nets and landing crafts as a form of transportation. It 2 pilots, crew chief and could carry 18 Marines.