Going to South Dakota to work with Native Americans has changed Miguel Rothe’s life. The Palmer Trinity junior has participated in the Palmer-sponsored mission trips to La Plant, South Dakota since their inception. While there, the Palmer delegation works with the Simply Smiles organization to help the Lakota tribe.
“This summer will be my third,” he says. “I hope to do this for the rest of my life.”
Rothe says the mornings are spent building houses and the afternoons are dedicated to summer camp type activities with the kids.
He claims not to be great with kids, so he makes himself useful as support staff. However, he gives kids piggy back rides and makes sure they have the supplies they need to make bracelets or they have hula hoops to play with.
The Simply Smiles program was started by Bryan Nurnberger, who began volunteering after he ran out of funds while mountain in Mexico.
He also stayed with monks in Greece and worked and volunteered in other areas of the world. He used his experiences to create Simple Smiles, which approaches helping others in unique ways. The Lakota tribe asked Nurnberger for help in improving conditions in La Plant.
“They listened to what the community wanted,” Rothe says. “They found these pre-fab homes. They were originally hurricane shelters, but they make great family homes.”
Tribal members also receive a parcel of land which helps relieve overcrowding in the public housing. Rothe says that helps families that are currently raising children next to people who are struggling with drug habits.
Rothe says the reservation has a public school that is understaffed and public housing that hasn’t been repaired since the 1970’s.
“I knew that Native Americans had been oppressed, although I didn’t realize the full scale until I went there,” he says.
Rothe’s other big volunteer project is Breakthrough Miami. Again, he’s support staff and works to ensure that everything is ready for the Saturday sessions at Palmer.
“I get there early in the morning,” he says. “I unpack the office and make sure the room is set up. I sometimes help check people in. I move on to making the drinks for lunch.”
He staffs the computer labs and helps the kids as tech support if they have computer problems and he keeps them on task.
Rothe volunteers with Breakthrough Miami both during the school year and during the summer sessions. He decided to volunteer for Breakthrough because he was looking a for a consistent means of being useful.
At Palmer, he’s played trumpet since sixth grade. As a member of the concert band, he performs in a variety of locations, including Orlando to do music workshops.
“We partnered recently with one of the movie studios,” he says. “They provide these workshops so we understand what goes into the underscore of a movie.”
He’s a member of the Music Honor Society, the Spanish Honor Society, the National Honor Society, and Mu Alpha Theta. He’s also a member of the Eco Club and the Compost Initiative. Rothe is treasurer of the Junior Class SGA and is on the Prom Committee.
For college, Rothe is considering majoring in engineering. His list of colleges includes MIT and Dartmouth. Dartmouth has a humanitarian engineering initiative similar to Doctors Without Borders that he likes.
“At least when I’m younger and can travel, that’s what I’d like to be doing,” he says. “I’d be interested in building roads, improving houses, civil engineering type stuff.”
He’d like to intern at Simply Smiles through that program.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
