1914 Polk St, #201 San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 962-7654 info@pathstar.org
PATHSTAR is tax-exempt under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c) 3, and your contribution is tax-deductible.
Donate to Pathstar
OUR 2024 PATHSTAR ALCATRAZ SWIM will be October 14, 2024!!
Richard Iron Cloud and Armando Black Bear made history in Sept 2003 as the first PATHSTAR Lakota swimmers to do the swim from Alcatraz to SERC. Now, 21 years later, we’re preparing once again for our PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim Week. We are getting ready to welcome alumni PATHSTAR participants for our PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim Week: October 6-14, 2024—focusing on healthful life style and nutritional habits, culminating with the swim from Alcatraz to the South End Rowing Club Monday, October 14.
“I firmly believe we as people—and I mean all people of all beautiful races—must stand together in each of our individual personal pursuits of a better quality of life. We must not only dream of positive change but we must take action— with every step we take, every challenge we meet, every event we promote, every person that we involve—every individual, group, and community. The key to a healthier future is to keep succeeding in opening one door at a time and to never to give up, because this is a never ending process.”
From Tamatane I’atala, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 2009 PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim Week Participant: “Always strive to be a better person than you were yesterday.”
A few years ago I began developing a different type of attitude—a philosophy that doesn’t simply rely on the traditional thought that there always has to be a winner or a loser. I began to redefine my long established interpretation of success. “Always strive to be a better person than you were yesterday.” It was through this simple motto that life changed for me, and I began to use it with my varsity football players. I didn’t want our success measured by the final score of a game but instead by the impact that we left within our community.
I wanted these young men to find a perspective that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, to honor the best in themselves, to find–not the light that shines on us– but the light that shines within us, to have their attention on what’s right with the world rather then bathe in what’s wrong with it. I began stressing the importance of pushing yourself –not to be the best IN the world but to be the best FOR the world.
To take the pride we have as Lakota people and pay it forward. To consciously think “what choice can I make today that I didn’t make yesterday that will help me improve on a personal level?” Honoring what is good in my community gave me the motivation to change what is wrong in my community.
It is for this experience I am truly grateful for PATHSTAR. The goal and mission of “living healthy lives of meaning and purpose, reclaiming the best of indigenous practices, augmenting these with the cultivation of wholesome ‘new traditions’ and serving as a catalyst for inspiring self-reliance and optimism among families and communities” gave me a sense of empowerment. The investment they made in me and the challenge to invest in myself was something I wanted to share with my community.
We request that team mates complete the application together and encourage support from family, friends, and local community groups, churches, agencies, or employers. PATHSTAR requests letters of recommendation that describe the values, character, commitment to follow through, and reputation for community involvement of an individual team member and/or the team as a whole. PATHSTAR encourages team members to be sponsored and supported as representatives of the community before they attend the Alcatraz Swim Week.
Your team will partner with PATHSTAR in community education, preparation for and participation in the Alcatraz Swim Week, including swimming from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco, implementing healthy change in your life, sharing your experiences and learning with your family and community, and speaking to community groups and conferences.
Why PATHSTAR?
If present trends continue, one of two AI/AN children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes. It doesn’t have to be this way. Healthy life style and nutrition practices can alter this horrific disease trajectory, and PATHSTAR is committed to inspiring and revitalizing these by recognizing influences (both health-affirming and unhealthy) and supporting wholesome practices that will reverse the present dire health predictions and restore sustainable health to children, families, and communities.
The preparation for and participation in the PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim Week (PASW), the core PATHSTAR program, includes experiential nutrition education, goal-setting, meal preparation, physical activities (including open water swimming), with attention to ways in which family dynamics, cultural practices, community resources, and policies all impact health outcomes related to nutrition and lifestyle. The week culminates with a swim from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shore.
Participants set goals that reflect deepening their own commitment to sustainable health and well-being practices and serving as catalysts for inspiring self-reliance and optimism within their families and communities.
“We were surrounded daily with amazing people who really cared about our overall health and well-being. I can honestly say I have continued a lot of what I learned as a part of my life and routine…food shopping, food prep, healthy meals, daily exercise, meditation, and living mindfully. I feel like I was able to progress in my emotional healing and thinking. Relating life to swimming really helps. PATHSTAR has changed my life! I will be forever grateful for the experience and will continue teaching and sharing my experience with my family and community. Thank you so much for the opportunity!!!”
Do you know someone who would like to receive our PATHSTAR emails? Invite them to email us at info@pathstar.org, and we’ll add them! If you no longer wish to receive these messages, hit reply and write ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line.
