Broken Grounds auction will provide ‘Christmas on the Res’

When Herschell Hargrave, co-owner with wife Charity of Broken Grounds Coffee Company in Millersburg, heard artist Kevin Poor Bear speak about life on the Pine Ridge Reservation several years back, he and several others knew it was time to act.

“We didn’t know what or why. We just knew we wanted to go serve,” Hargrave said. “Pine Ridge is such a beautiful place, but there is so much pain, so much poverty.”

Five years ago groups from his church, Broken Grounds Church, began making trips out to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota — part of the Sioux tribe and descendants of Crazy Horse — has three counties located inside of it, two of them being the poorest counties in the United States. The people that live in the Pine Ridge Reservation, with an 89% unemployment rate and 80% poverty rate (inside the reservation), have a life expectancy of 66 years.

“The only comparable area, in terms of poverty, is Haiti,” Hargrave said. “There are lots of people that help and send money outside the states, and that’s fine. Folks need help. It hit us that these are people right here in our own country.

“Groups from Broken Grounds Church have been going out to the reservation for the last five years. Our base camp is about 10 minutes from Wounded Knee. When we first went out there, and what is still our primary mission, we cut firewood for the elderly and folks in need. Last year we distributed 400 pickup loads.”

They also do a monthly food distribution on the reservation that feeds 500 families, with a future vision of building a food distribution center there. The past three years they’ve been holding a program called “Christmas on the Res” that distributes gift boxes to children.

On Friday, July 16 at 6:30 p.m. — with a 6 p.m. preview — Broken Grounds Coffee Company, partnering with One Spirit — an organization that assists the Lakota — will hold a benefit auction at the coffee house for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to benefit the “Christmas on the Res” program.

“One-hundred percent of the proceeds will go to the reservation. We will have burgers and fries with a suggested donation of $12, which is also part of the fundraiser,” Hargrave said. “The coffee house will be open for drinks only.”

In 2007 there was a fire on the reservation that burned a big section of land including cedar trees. When Hargrave learned they were burning the cedar as firewood, he offered to bring them other wood in exchange for the cedar. The tables, trims, counter and more in the coffee shop are made up of cedar that comes from the reservation.

“There will be lots of items at the auction,” Hargrave said, “including items made with cedar and other things that the tribe has crafted and sent to us. One of the biggest things we’d like to tackle now, and the biggest issue on the reservation, is housing. This is why we’d like to reach our own community at large.”

Hargrave said once you leave the town proper of Pine Ridge, many of the homes don’t have running water or septic.

“We put in a community shower and restroom the second year we went out,” he said. “It is heartbreaking to me to see families pull up in vans so their families can take a shower.”

There have been local Holmes County businesses that have helped the effort over the years, but Hargrave is seeking more help — and wanting to get the word out.

Focusing on the vulnerable is their focus. In the late ‘60s, the government put up FEMA trailers to help the housing situation on the reservation, and it’s what many families still reside in. Many of those trailers are in disrepair and in need of fixing.

“When we go out in August, we plan to build a cabin for someone in need, fix roofs and talk with One Spirit about building a buffalo processing plant,” Hargrave said. “There is no industry to speak of, so jobs are scarce. The meat plant would provide eight jobs, and we want to add a tannery for the buffalo hides — which would add another 10 jobs — as well as build a place for the workers to live onsite, a multi-purpose building.”

The benefit auction is a big fundraiser for Broken Grounds and “Christmas on the Res.”

“Our church has a 30-foot trailer that we load up with the gift boxes,” Hargrave said. “We do the distribution ourselves because we want to keep that connection.”

Three out of five women and children on the reservation have been sexually exploited. “Because resources are so limited, they get the least,” Hargrave said. “They don’t have a lot of reasons to smile, so we focus on women and children for the Christmas boxes.”

Last year Broken Grounds distributed 400 boxes. This year they are hoping to distribute 1,000. “We’re hoping the auction goes well,” Hargrave said. “We want people to know that this is what’s happening and that they can help. Again, 100% of the proceeds goes directly to the reservation.

“It took us about three years to earn their trust. The tribe realizes we don’t want anything from them, and even though we are a faith-based organization, we don’t push our beliefs on them. We’re here because we care.”

For more information on the benefit auction or to donate items, call or email Herschell and Charity Hargrave at 330-621-1694 or brokengroundschurch@gmail.com. They are asking businesses to donate items, gift cards or monetary donations. Checks can be dropped off or sent to Broken Grounds Coffee House, 214 W. Jackson St., Millersburg, OH 44654, and made out to Broken Grounds Church. Write “South Dakota Missions” in the memo.