Hermosa up for Elders’ Wisdom program

Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song (EWCS) is coming to Hermosa Monday, Feb. 24, to honor two more elders in the community, Linda Hasselstrom and Bill Kelly. The program will take place at the Hermosa School Gymnasium at 6 p.m.
“The EWCS brings so much pride and joy to our school and community as we celebrate the elders who have helped to build Hermosa into the special place it is today,” said Hermosa School Principal Forrest “Frosty” Paris.
In 1998, the idea for this program came about after Hank Fridell became the principal of East Elementary in Spearfish and met Larry Long, who was a singer, songwriter and community activist.
“What he would do is he would interview elders from the community with kids. And then with the kids, he would write a song about the elder, and then he would hold a community celebration,” said Fridell.
In the fall of 1999, Fridell invited Long to come to Spearfish, and four classrooms were involved in interviewing elders and putting on a community celebration. Afterward, Fridell and his wife Marianne, who are also songwriters, decided the program was something they could continue.
“I talked to Larry and got some advice from him, and he encouraged us to do it. So we’ve just been rolling with it ever since,” said Fridell.
When Fridell moved to Custer in 2005, he brought EWCS with him and convinced the teachers that it was a good program. Meanwhile, the program continued in Spearfish in Fridell’s absence.
“Between those two schools, it’s been about 160 elders that have been honored, impacting about 3,800 kids. So it’s kind of an amazing thing,” said Fridell.
Then, Fridell said, “In 2015 and 2016, here in Custer, it was the National Park’s 100th anniversary. So we decided that rather than honor an elder in the community, we would honor National Parks in our area.”
They traveled to Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore National Memorial with children from a couple of different schools and wrote songs about them.
For the EWCS program, elders are selected by schools and teachers based on the recommendations of community members. These are often collected on the night of the performance for the following year. Then, the school invites the honoree’s friends and family to attend the celebration.
“We’re not looking for the mayor of the town or the political people necessarily or the wealthiest people in town. We’re just looking for people that have lived good lives. People who have tried to make a difference. People who have worked hard in their lives,” said Fridell.
The songwriting process starts with an interview. For this, the honored elder comes to class, and the children ask all kinds of questions.
“Part of what’s a little bit funny is they ask in-depth questions, but they also ask questions like, ‘What’s your favorite color?’ or ‘What’s your favorite song?’” said Marianne.
Typically, elders share what it was like growing up, their experiences as children, their families as well as their passions. Other times, elders get insightful and share advice like study hard and listen to your parents, Fridell said.
“This isn’t just a this is your life type of thing. We’re trying to capture what’s in this person’s heart. What do they really hold true today?” said Fridell.
Many of the children do not have older people in their lives because their families are dispersed throughout the country.
“They really don’t get to experience that whole life process,” said Fridell. “Most kids, they can’t imagine past high school. They really can’t do that. So this gives them a glimpse into what life looks like.”
This goes the other way, too. Fridell said many of the elders are not around children regularly. They are retired and often their family is far away.
“So they get a chance to see what kids are like in school, and I think that that really informs them about, ‘Oh, so this is what schools are about now’ because they’re different now than when they were in school. But kids are kind of the same,” said Fridell.
After the interview, the songwriter gets together with the children as soon as possible to start processing the information into a song. Fridell said the process is twofold. They write a song based on what is in the elder’s heart, but they also write a narrative with the information collected about the elder’s life, including where they were born, significant experiences, careers, family and so on.
Sometimes, Marianne will give what she has written about the elder to the children.
“The kids go through, and they have some really good ideas, and we work from that and start the music,” said Marianne. “What I always hope for is getting something that can be a chorus because that repeats and comes through in that first time we get together. Then we talk about what are the main things that we want in the song because you can’t put everything in.”  
Once the song is ready, they record it so the children can practice the song. The day of the performance, Fridell records the final songs beforehand. These are later posted on the EWCS website along with a narrative of the elder’s life.
This year, Erica Venhuizen and Kayden Kursave’s fourth-grade class wrote a narrative and song to honor Linda Hasselstrom.
“Linda Hasselstrom is well-known in the Hermosa area. She has an extensive resume of books that she has published as an author and has lived an adventurous life as a rancher on the South Dakota plains,” said Paris.
Upon hearing she had been selected for the EWCS program, Hasselstrom said her first thought was, “What is the Elders’ Wisdom program? How do school kids know anything about me when Hermosa School and most Hermosa citizens don’t seem to?”
According to Marianne, Hasselstrom is a poet and writer well-known throughout the world. In 1952, Hasselstrom moved to the ranch where she now lives after her mother married rancher John Hasselstrom of Hermosa. Seventy-two years later, Hasselstrom said she has been a resident of the community for most of her life.
“I have been mostly outside the community, writing books about western South Dakota, which attracted attention from other areas of the country. Within the past 20 years, I have been a member of Hermosa Arts and History Association, which attempts to bring regional arts and history to the area,” said Hasselstrom. “I have kept a low profile, writing and publishing books about ranching and the environment that have heartily offended some of the community ranchers.”
During the interview, the students focused on all of Hasselstrom’s favorites. They asked questions about her favorite color, book, movie, TV show, candy, food and so on. When they asked which of her books Hasselstrom liked writing the most, she said “Windbreak” because it was the first one, and its publication was such a surprise.
Hasselstrom also talked about the importance of writing things down to help you remember, writing every day and never destroying journals. When it came to questions about her favorite childhood activities, Hasselstrom talked about riding horses on her ranch or as a leader of a horse drill team giving performances.
Songwriter Marianne said, “There’s two big things in her life—ranching and writing. So we were looking at those aspects of her life because we want to have verses about that.”
Hasselstrom said, “I’m glad to have had a chance to talk to children that young about reading, about knowing their own community and the people in it. All of my teaching has been to graduate students with the exception of some appearances in high schools when I worked for the SD Arts Council.”
Looking ahead to the performance, Hasselstrom said, “I’m intrigued to see and hear what the children have made of my long and varied history.”
Although most of her relatives live elsewhere, Hasselstrom is expecting some friends from the Hermosa Arts and History Association to come celebrate with her along with her assistant, Tamara Rogers.
Meanwhile, Amber Snyder’s fifth-grade class wrote a narrative and song with songwriter Sally Svenson to honor Bill Kelly.
“Bill Kelly is a veteran of the United States Military. Throughout his career, he has held many positions within the military but also served as a staff member at Hermosa School,” said Paris.
More specifically, Kelly served in the United States Air Force for 21 years of active duty and six years under a contract. During his career, Kelly primarily went back and forth between Cheyenne, Wyo., and Ellsworth Air Force Base.
“When I retired from the Air Force, I received an award from Cheyenne that was called the ‘Chrome Wrench Award’ for maintenance, and I was the first non-colonel, non-chief master sergeant to receive that award. And I’m proud of that award,” said Kelly.
He also received two Meritorious Service Medals and two Commendation Medals. Kelly was primed to go to Europe, but his wife was in a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis and taking care of her was more important to Kelly than staying in the Air Force.
One day, Kelly ran into a teacher outside of the post office who asked if he was looking for work.
“I said, ‘Yes,’ and I contacted the school district because they told me there was an opening,” said Kelly.
Soon after, Kelly was hired as a maintenance man for the Custer School District at Hermosa for 18 years and had custodians working under him. The position allowed him the flexibility to take care of his wife until he retired at 62.
“The school district was fabulous for me. You couldn’t ask for a better employer,” said Kelly.
Since moving to Hermosa after the flood of June 1973, Kelly has been active in the community as well as the American Legion and knows a lot of people in the area. He has attended EWCS programs over the years but never thought he would be selected.
“It means I’ve done something right in the past. My wife’s been gone five and a half years now. We raised two kids. They gave me eight grandkids, and I now have nine great-grandkids. And the 10th great-grandchild will be born this coming March,” said Kelly.
Kelly is looking forward to having all his great-grandchildren and six of his grandchildren celebrate with him at the program, although he misses his wife of 52 years.
Of the interview with the students, Kelly said, “Wow, it was excellent. The kids asked some really different questions. For example, one of the questions asked of me when we were talking about my military service, ‘Did you kill anybody?’ ‘No,’” Kelly said with a laugh.
“You can imagine every question in the world they asked, and I told them stories,” said Kelly.
One of the most important stories Kelly shared was about when he joined the Air Force in 1963.
“The man that became my supervisor in the Air Force, he told me quote unquote, ‘If you’re coming to work for me, you do the best job you can for me, and the rewards will come your way,’” said Kelly.
This is still the best advice Kelly said he can give anyone.
Fridell said one of the biggest impacts of the EWCS Program is it creates a bond between the school and the community.
“The students are able to give something to the community that they can’t provide themselves, and that is to honor them,” said Fridell.
It also creates a bond between friends, neighbors and family members.
“We get a lot of neighbors and friends and family to come because they learn things too,” said Fridell. “Families just don’t sit down and talk to their kids about the history of the family a lot of times. So this gives them insight into what that’s about.”
Community members are invited to attend this free event Feb. 24. Through the program, Fridell said, “You get a chance to get to know your neighbors. You get a pretty intimate look into someone’s life. You really end up valuing the people that are here.”
There will be a reception following the performance. To learn more about EWCS, go to elderswis
domchildrenssongsouth
dakota.com.