Rapid City came to prominence several times in the past. In 1927 a man called Gutzon Borglum began carving the faces of four of our past President’s into the face of Mt. Rushmore. That same year, President Calvin Coolidge relocated his White House staff to Rapid City, why is anyone’s guess. I would guess it was for an extended working vacation of sorts.
During WWII, the ‘Rapid City Air Base,’ was founded, later renamed Ellsworth Air Force Base, and is still there today. In 1972, an event which as one author put it, ‘began with single raindrop,’ which became a monster storm which led to what is known now as the ‘Rapid City Flood. This took place in June of that year and became the worst natural disaster in all of South Dakota’s history. Rising from the proverbial ashes, or should we say, ‘drenches’, Rapid City set about rebuilding and rebuild they did! The city created a 12-mile-long bike path along Rapid Creek as a memorial to those who lost their lives but also as a way of enticing tourists to enjoy the town.
Today, Rapid City is also known as the ‘‘City of President’s’ for its life-size bronze statues of 44 of past US Presidents. Intensely proud of being ‘American,’ Rapid City is a wonderful place, and the community Impact Cares had the opportunity to come and bless as well.
Coming to a community such as Silverleaf proved to be a great joy! Impact Cares came into contact with a variety of folks, people who love their community and were willing to pitch in and help beautify their own neighborhood and bless the community along the way. Impact Cares staff ran into a number of hard-working, caring neighbors who pitched in to clean yards, paint homes, rebuild or replace decks and do a number of those things that many of us have on our ‘honey-do’ lists!
This is a community with some very long-term folks. Some have lived here over 50 years and are still going strong. We ran across others who many neighbors recognized as needing help and so we did. We were even able to beat our own ‘deckbuilding’ record by completing a deck in under two hours! Normally we have a community dinner during our stay there and this community was no exception. Over 90 folks showed up for our ‘get to know your neighbor’ dinner night which will no doubt help strengthen this community even further. We also had many great volunteers come, even from other states! What a great time and absolutely beautiful place to live and a great community to be a part of!