Playin' in Carolina Benefit Concert

Dear Family & Friends,

There will be a benefit concert for the Native American student project, "Playin' in Carolina," on Sunday evening, August 10, 2008, at 6:30 PM, at Holland Avenue Baptist Church, 801 Twelfth Street, Cayce, SC.29033. *Phone #: (803)794-9133.

Performing will be: Higher Ground, a mixed adult ensemble from Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church
Carroll Crawford
The Brothers IV
Joeli Mulligan
The Broome Sisters ( Carolyn Sosebee & Cathy McGill), Piano Duo
Michael Sosebee, Guitar
Levon Stack
...and more.

Please come and enjoy a night of musical praise!

We thank you for your continued prayers and support!
The McGill Family

P.S. At 6:15, there will be a special PowerPoint presentation of the students from Montana and their "Carolina" experiences.

A love offering will be received to help with the remaining costs from this summer's project and to, hopefully, begin raising the funds for next summer's students.

Native American Students Tour USC's Stadium

Columbia (WLTX) -- Students who live on the Northern Cheyenne and Croix Reservation in Montana took a trip to Columbia to learn all about college life and Gamecock football.

Learning about Gamecock football had a group of students from Montana pumped. The students toured and tested equipment and they check out the Gamecock's locker room. All the students live on the Northern Cheyenne and Croix reservation in Montana.

Lashon Two Two said, "My dreams are to get off the reservation. I want to go to college and play college basketball. I'm hoping I'll make it to the WNBA."

Lashon is only 14 years old, but she realizes there are major problems on the reservation. She said, "There are drug and alcohol problems right now.

We're trying to get rid of meth problems. "Many young girls are also becoming mothers. Lashon said, "My older sister who is 15 is pregnant. My friend, Linda is pregnant. They all got pregnant."

To help them beat the odds, their teacher Marcus Mcgill has taken them to several colleges this summer.

To qualify, they had to have good grades, good behavior and play at least three sports.

Marcus said, "We visit college campuses so hopefully when it's time for them to make a decision about school, things like this will make a big difference to them." It's already impacting Lashon.

She says college isn't an option. It's a must. Lashon said, "Now, I know I want to go to college, so far, the college I want to go to is North Carolina State."

Steaming video of this story available here.

Dear Friends,

First, let me say “thank you” to everyone who helped my students get to participate in last year’s Playin’ in Carolina Project. In case anyone wasn’t sure just how big of a difference your contribution made, on a daily basis I have personally witnessed the changes in these guys due to the experiences they had last summer.

In June of last year, four young men were able to participate in the following activities:

1. They attended basketball camp at the University of South Carolina.
2. They made a presentation at Virginia Tech for the victims of the shooting last spring.
3. They visited Atlanta, Ga. where they went to a Braves game, toured the CNN Center, the World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, and visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Center.
4. They visited Charleston, SC where they toured Ft. Sumter, went to the beach and toured a plantation.
5. Before leaving Columbia, SC, they toured the state capital building and the football facilities at the University of South Carolina.

This year we are hoping to make the trip even bigger. The four students from last year will be returning along with two new male students. We are excited to be adding two female students to the trip this year as well. We will be in the Carolinas from June 14-July 2, 2008.

The details have yet to be finalized but right now we hope that each student gets to do the following:

1. Visit Atlanta and Charleston and enjoy some of the same things we did last year.
2. Boys will attend football and basketball camp.
3. Girls will attend basketball and volleyball or track and field camp.
4. Perform some type of community service/cultural awareness activity.
5. Students will visit a minimum of three college campuses during their visit.

Participants range in grade level from rising 8^th-10^th graders. The students who were chosen are children that do pretty well in school and have shown a commitment to athletics. These students seldom have behavior issues and all have shown a willingness to serve our school community. The final factor considered was that I tried to choose kids that I felt might otherwise not have the opportunity to travel very far out of our state or region.

Because we are expanding in numbers and activities this year, we will need even more help to make all this happen. This year’s estimated budget is between $18,000 - $21,000. Each returning participant will contribute $350 towards the cost of the trip. New participants will contribute $250. This contribution, combined with funds we already have due to last year’s kindness will get us off to a solid start. However, we can’t get this done without you. Every single gift received last year went a long way in making the project possible. I really hope that we are able to make it even better this year. Thanks again for your support and prayers.

Sincerely-

Marcus McGill

BASKETBALL: MONTANA YOUTHS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

The State (Columbia, SC) - June 15, 2007

Ron Morris, Columnist

WHILE ON THE SURFACE it appears Marcus McGill simply wanted to expose four of his Native American students from Montana to a higher level of basketball, their participation this week in Dave Odom's camp goes far beyond that.

For most born and/or reared on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, life seldom leads them beyond the borders of the site's 445,000 acres in southeast Montana. Most are schooled there and remain there to raise their own family. They venture out for the two-hour drive to Billings, where shopping malls and movie theaters expose them to mainstream America.

Otherwise, they face a life certain to include addiction, whether it be to drugs or alcohol. Poverty is generational and has been the way of life for the Cheyenne tribe since the reservation was established in the late 19th century.

McGill, a Columbia native who teaches on the reservation, took a step this week toward changing those patterns. He raised the $5,000 necessary for four of his students to make their first airplane ride, attend an Atlanta Braves game, participate in Odom's camp, make a presentation at Virginia Tech and see their first beaches, near Charleston.

"The biggest thing I want for these guys is to be exposed to different things," says McGill, a Clemson graduate who is studying this summer to earn his master's degree. "We want kids going into the military, going to college. We want kids to go into some sort of certification program in whatever field. We want to make sure they are looking for something to do after high school."

Talon Lonebear is a 12-year-old seventh-grader. Tyrell Emerson is 14 and headed to eighth grade. Arlin Bordeaux is 15 and Theron Adams 14. Both will be ninth-graders this fall. All were selected to make the trip because of their strong academic performances as well as their basketball ability.

Each also was required to raise $150 toward financing the trip. Typical of the bunch was Bordeaux, who branded cattle on his family's ranch until he earned the necessary funds.

Typical also is Lonebear, a wide-eyed youngster who seemed to have more awareness of the world's ways than most high school graduates. He is part Crow, part Cheyenne and part Sioux. He proudly wore a sleeveless T-shirt during Thursday's camp that proclaimed in bold letters across the front, "War Against Meth."

Almost before the conversation got started, Lonebear informed me of the drug problems that afflict his reservation. He recently participated in a 400-mile relay run designed to raise money for reservations across the country and their war against drug abuse.

Lonebear, like his three classmates at the Catholic mission school on the reservation, St. Labre Academy, aspire one day to play in the NBA. At the very least, they all dream of playing basketball in college as a way to further their education. The odds are extremely long, but that is OK with McGill and his fellow teachers at the school.

"What I want them to know is how hard they have to work, and that the chances of that happening are not great," McGill says. "But the chance to play basketball and possibly get a free education exists."

Lonebear is no dummy, though. He has a secondary set of goals that include attending the two-year Chief Dull Knife College, which is located on the reservation. He would like to get certification as an auto mechanic and remain on the reservation with his family.

The fact is most Native Americans do not want to leave the reservation, according to McGill.

"Family is such a huge deal out there," says McGill, who at age 30 returns this fall for his fourth year of teaching as well as coaching basketball. "They want their families to stay near them."

Even those who go off to college often return as soon as immediate family has failing health. St. Labre Academy has one student at Dartmouth and another at Stanford, but those are hardly the norm.

Part of the problem is many Native Americans are leery of American education. McGill says much of their culture has been stolen from them, such as not being allowed to speak their native tongues in schools.

"I'm not sure how many of the kids' grandparents would be happy about me telling their grandkids to leave the reservation," he says.

Despite their concerns about the influences of the outside world, McGill says his students adapted well to their environment during the past week. Odom echoed that.

"It has been a really, really good experience for the entire camp, and hopefully for the kids," says Odom, who helped the cause by knocking down the camp fee for each of the four.

For McGill, the experience was not a one-shot deal. He plans to bring in three or four boys next summer along with three or four girls. The experience, he says, is once in a lifetime, and he hopes one that affects each one for his lifetime.