(Arnolds Park)– Today (Tues.) was a special day for seniors at Graettinger-Terril & Ruthven-Ayrshire, as they returned to the Abbie Gardner Cabin in Arnolds Park to reflect on a major project they started working on as 5th graders.
Shayla Hunefeld was their teacher at the time, and just so happens to be their Science teacher now. She says the students toured the site as 5th graders when they learned of a mass grave on the site of where the Spirit Lake Massacre took place…
“And word started just slowly spreading with this class about what was going on and I just remember some of the girls over here were very angry because they thought like how can there be people buried here and there’s nothing to say who they are? It just bothered them. For me, it was like, okay, so now what? You saw something that you don’t like, how are you going to change it? And it also teaching them that no matter how old they are they can make a difference and their input matters. And they were like, very like, we need to do this and we went forward from there. It was a long process though with covid and raising the funds, and them leaving and going over to junior high at the time.”
From there, she says a massive research project evolved…
“So it started with contacting the state department. That’s what really started it. I contacted them, I was put in touch with Michael Plummer and started asking questions about what we could do, and then slowly started working through the process. The research was looking through a lot of really old documents, comparing information that was found on the monument here as well as Abbie’s book as well as other historical documents and just going through and trying to figure out what we can find out and figure out, because it was really important we knew who was buried here.”
She says it was Ed Purdy who was a docent at the cabin at the time, who told them about the grave. She says through a lot of persistence, they were able to complete their task…
“One thing Ed always told us when we would hear about Abbie Gardner was her perseverance, and so we have that word in our 5th grade classroom. It’s now in my high school science classroom above my door, same thing, and it was just a great way for them to see that in action. And we had been talking about legacy and what a legacy is and what that means. To see them here now as seniors and to think about how young and little they were when they took on this adventure is pretty cool.”
Cecelia Mielke is one of the students who was involved in the project…
“It’s really nostalgic and it makes me proud to know that we did something that made such a difference. You know back when we started this project it seemed like it would be something just kind of like a fantasy, you know, the idea that you can make a change in the world but being able to do it. It’s really like, it really inspired me for my future because it makes me realize that, you know, I helped with something this big so young that I can do great things later on in my future.”
Hunefeld says in addition to the research, the students also got a lesson in fundraising. She says they had most of the money needed for the project raised after just one event.
Hunefeld thanks the community who donated to the project and those who assisted in the research. She also expressed appreciation to Ruthven Rocks from whom they purchased the stone and did the engraving and installation.
