Fort Pierce Celebrates Easter With a Spring Fling

By Felix DoBosz

FORT PIERCE — The morning started out cool and rainy, but as luck would have it, the sun finally came out. The cloudless sky turned bright blue, the birds were chirping in the trees, and the kids were smiling and laughing — what a beautiful picture perfect day for the Spring Fling on April 6.

Seminole families from the local Fort Pierce community at Chupco’s Landing gathered at the nearby Chupco Youth Ranch to share a beautiful day with their kids. The families enjoyed fun-filled educational activities in celebration of the upcoming Easter holiday.

Various Tribal departments, including human resources, education and health, helped make the first Fort Pierce Spring Fling memorable and successful. It is expected to become an annual event.

The Seminole Police Department, along with McGruff the Crime Dog, attended to greet and amuse the little kids, all the while promoting an antidrug message.

Tribal Emergency Services Department personnel brought a fire truck to demonstrate how they extinguish a small fire. The department also showed an impressive short video, produced by Seminole Broadcasting, telling kids and their parents to always be aware of the dangers of a fire.

Chupco Youth Ranch has lots to offer — the serenity of tall shady trees and plenty of space for horses to graze on while soaking in the surroundings of nature’s tranquility. There’s a freshly painted log cabin surrounded by a beautiful, meticulously manicured tropical landscape, and there was fresh sod for the kids to run crazy on while they hunted for Easter eggs. Young Jason Hayling won first prize for the most Easter eggs collected.

Hope Sneed, Fort Pierce community involvement coordinator, shared some of the hosting and general welcoming duties with Fort Pierce Liaison Sally R. Tommie and Sharon Thomas of the Family Services Department. They took turns introducing different segments of the day’s agenda’s and directing some of the fun-filled activities.

Tommie, reading from one of the pamphlets that were displayed on one of the booths, said, “’Let’s put our minds together and seek what kind of life we can build for our children.’ That was a quote from Sitting Bull, and this facility today and this event today, Spring Fling, is designed just for that. Though it states for our youth and our children of tomorrow, it’s also to educate our Tribal members as to some of the Tribal programs that are available.”

After the buffet-style meal, Tommie announced that it was time to have some fun by making frybread. Lorene Gopher, Jennifer Chadwick, Jade Braswell, Martha Jones and Jennie Osceola Billie from the Culture Department demonstrated and taught the youngsters how make frybread. They molded the flour to make the dough then dropped it into a pan of boiling oil and fried it to a golden yellow color for a delicious crispy treat. They made the frybread the traditional way — over a burning campfire.

Future motocross star Josh Sneed of Fort Pierce stopped by to say hello and let everyone know how well he’s doing, especially in his sport. He said he qualified for the prestigious Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Championships, held in August at the country singing legend’s ranch in Tennessee.

Sneed also found time to make some frybread and supervised some of the children while helping his sister Hope and the rest of the family celebrate the Easter holiday.

Little kids enjoyed eating their fried creations and learned a little more about their unique culture. Everyone agreed it was a fun-filled afternoon.