Two South Dakota moms write books on pregnancy and infant loss
Nobody likes to talk about miscarriage, Chelsey Schnell says.
And for those who don’t experience it themselves, it can be easy to forget that it happened to someone else.
But for those who’ve been through such an instance, she says, it’s a mark on life like a child raised.
For October’s Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, Schnell is one of two mothers in Sioux Falls who wrote a book about losing a child. Both will be released this month.
Schnell, a mother of four, experienced an early pregnancy loss in 2015 and again in 2017. She says she often has to “defend her feelings of grief” as if there’s no need to acknowledge a loss long gone.
But their names are Ava Grace and Orion Job, Schnell says, and they are two among more than 750,000 other “children in heaven” annually lost to miscarriages nationwide.
She mourns them all.
“Miscarriage might be common, but that doesn’t make it easy,” Schnell says. “My hope is just to see the moms who feel invisible in their grief and remind them: All experiences matter.”
More on Infant Loss Awareness Month: Sanford Health to open a birthing and bereavement suite.
Before writing a book about her pregnancy losses, Schnell founded Evermore Blooms in 2020, an online boutique that sends free flowers to miscarriage mothers nationwide.
The humble effort began for anyone in Sioux Falls to anonymously nominate a mom for flower delivery. Maybe that mother had just experienced a loss, Schnell says, or maybe she was facing a difficult anniversary or due date. Evermore would take it from there, scheduling a delivery with a local florist and including an encouraging note.
But after going viral on Instagram in 2021, Evermore has grown into a national community that has delivered nearly 1,000 bouquets in 49 states. The nonprofit organization is averaging 22 bouquets a month – totaling $1,300 in monthly expenses – and has also distributed more than 50 care packages to five different states.
It’s evolved into a “community of women supporting one another,” Schnell says. “We hope to bring comfort and remind mothers that their babies are never forgotten.”
Jaime Dix is the owner of Thistle and Dot, a Sioux Falls florist that Schnell works with for local deliveries. The thistle flower symbolizes perseverance, Dix says, and is “a reminder that overcoming difficult situations is possible for us all.”
Last year, Dix helped to deliver 64 arrangements for Evermore. This year, she’s already delivered 68.
“I’m just blessed to have watched Evermore Blooms become what it is today,” Dix says. “I want every woman to feel loved and heard with every arrangement I design.”
More from Sanford: Sanford Children's Gala raises $1.5M for new pediatric emergency department.
Schnell pens children’s book on understanding miscarriage
Schnell’s children are ages 13, 9, 7 and almost 2, and they often ask questions about the two siblings they never got to know.
Because “miscarriage is a family loss,” Schnell says, she’s releasing a children’s book on how parents can talk with their kids about it.
“Still Blooming: A Hopeful Promise for Families After the Loss of a Sibling During Pregnancy” uses the analogy of a flower that was planted but never fully bloomed. There are prompts at the end, Schnell says, and helpful tools for families to connect on their collective loss.
Local mom recalls loss of 2-day-old infant and the fight for her twin
For the Vandrovec family in Sioux Falls, they have photos in their home and a footprint mold of the daughter and sibling they lost in 2010.
Fifteen-year-old Kailey Vandrovec was born at 24 weeks old with her twin, Breley Ann, who died two days after birth.
Mother Jessica Vandrovec also published a book in honor of her lost daughter and will release it Oct. 15, on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.
“There is not enough information on infant loss or premature birth,” says Jessica, who also teaches at George McGovern Middle School. “Nobody wants to talk about it. But when you live that, you need to know there are people who understand it and feel what you’re feeling.”
Jessica says her “reflective” memoir, called “Held,” shares intimate details of losing Breley and then the fearful journey that followed with Kailey. When she and Breley were born, they weighed less than 3 pounds combined. Kailey then stayed in the NICU for nearly five months after birth, was on life support at two years old, endured several procedures and survived off a feeding tube till age 8.
Jessica writes in her book that Kailey is “healthy, vibrant and full of life” today but that her story of a “family forever changed” needed to be told.
“Trauma is central to this book, as it is to the human experience. We all carry it,” writes Jessica’s husband, Terry, in the forward to her memoir. “But damage does not have to define us. Love does, and that’s our story.”
Jessica and her husband, Terry, welcomed twins Ty and Taylor a few years later, who also spent time in the NICU but are healthy 12-year-olds today, and also have a 21-year-old daughter, Mya.
“My mom’s (story) makes me think differently of loss,” says Kailey, a freshman at Roosevelt High School. “I didn’t know how my parents fully felt about losing my twin, but I feel like I’m a little bit closer to my mom than I was before.”
Jessica calls Breley “an inspiration.” Schnell says all babies lost “are a real part of the family.”
And Dix says learning from Schnell on how families should keep loss alive has at times “brought me to my knees with tears streaming.”
“The absolute beauty in showing a woman that her baby is loved and remembered gives me hope for the world,” she says.
'Everyone leaves empowered': Event creator shows disabilities in a positive light
When Kendra Gottsleben was growing up, she wore dresses made by her grandmother.
Many grandmothers care for their grandchildren this way, but Gottsleben was born with Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects fine motor difficulties and can cause skeletal abnormalities or cardiac problems. Her family's effort to sew clothing that was easy for her to put on was providing her an essential need that generally could not be found elsewhere.
Gottsleben’s grandmother died in 2020, but today her kindness lives on in Rare by Design, a nonprofit organization founded by Gottsleben that each year hosts a fashion show in the spring and a film festival in the fall to “celebrate the rare that makes us unique” and empower minority communities through fashion, arts and events.
Earlier this month, Gottsleben hosted her fourth annual Style Show: A Runway to Empower -- her largest yet -- to a sold-out crowd of nearly 300 guests, an ever-growing event that will move to the Sioux Falls Convention Center next year. Now she has begun planning for her efforts to expand even more as she prepares for her second annual film festival in September at the Sioux Falls State Theatre.
“This is a true representation of people with disabilities and rare diseases,” Gottsleben said. “If you aren’t exposed to people with disabilities, you don’t know what you don’t know, but we are amazing people! We do good things for our communities, and we belong in every single space. Whether or not you have a disability, we’re here to celebrate beauty in every form, and everyone always leaves the style show empowered.”
From New York to a pink carpet in Sioux Falls
Gottsleben was first introduced to the idea of adaptive clothing when she modeled in 2016 for Runway of Dreams, a nationwide organization from New Jersey that equally works to advance disability inclusion through fashion and has participated for many years in New York Fashion Week.
With no prior experience in modeling, Gottsleben flew to New York City and wore an outfit styled by Tommy Hilfiger that was adaptable to her needs. She smiled for big names in the audience like Neiman Marcus and modeled alongside other adaptive clothing lines from JCPenney, Steve Madden, Target, Victoria’s Secret and Adidas.
“The feeling I had as a model and to be on the runway and then feeding off the energy of the event, I knew I wanted to do something like that in South Dakota,” said Gottsleben, who also works full time as the marketing communications specialist for the Center for Disabilities at University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine.
Her first Rare by Design Style Show was in 2022, when she partnered with The Event Company founder Addie Graham-Kramer to design a show that would introduce her dreams of an inclusive platform and would show an audience “all the possibilities and capabilities we have” in a positive light.
“It’s a learning opportunity for the community,” Gottsleben said. “We have had to adapt our whole life and innovate on how we want to accomplish things, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. I want to help businesses, restaurants and boutiques understand that if you also innovate or adapt so everybody can belong, you have a customer for life because it’s otherwise hard to find businesses like that.”
This year, Gottsleben welcomed 32 models, ages 4 to 72, on a bright pink carpet to showcase 16 boutiques in Sioux Falls. These models spent the day together, had their hair and makeup done for the show and got to network together over lunch and fittings before “the champagne entrance and to the final strut.”
“I really love what Kendra is doing,” said 19-year-old model Cara McGary, a South Dakota State University nursing student who was born deaf in both ears and wears a cochlear implant. “She is making such a big impact in helping people with disabilities and rare diseases feel more comfortable in who they are.”
The Event Co.’s director of events Krista Vandersnick said working with Gottsleben through the years has empowered her in their own event planning to always think about accessibility and accommodations for guests.
“I truly feel like a partner in Kendra’s mission,” Vandersnick said. “I have learned so much about the community she brings together. This is truly inclusion for all.”
Similar reporting: Fun & Friends hosts resource expo in Sioux Falls for individuals with disabilities.
ADA film festival coming this fall
Gottsleben’s fashion show is only half the work. She is on many advisory groups statewide and helps with the Levitt’s annual ADA Festival, celebrating this year on July 26 the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Gottsleben has been on the TEDx stage twice, written three children’s books and supported the South Dakota Governors Board of Vocational Rehabilitation as well as the Sioux Falls Disability Awareness Commission.
“I create a space for people to learn more about rare diseases,” Gottsleben said.
While a disability is a physical or mental condition that might make for functional limitations, a rare disease is a medical condition that only affects 1 in 10 Americans. Gottsleben has both.
As part of Rare by Design, the second annual film festival invites people of all abilities to celebrate anyone behind the camera or actors on film who also have a physical or developmental disability, like actress Marissa Bode, who played a character in “Wicked” that uses a wheelchair but also does in real life.
Last year, Gottsleben had more than 400 submissions within two weeks, only 11 of which she screened for 100 attendees at the Sioux Falls State Theatre. This year’s event will be in September, and submissions will be accepted in June.
“I’m a person who loves to give experiences to people,” Gottsleben said. “That night of the style show, I love being in the back of the room, watching audience reactions and watching the models smiling. It makes me feel so blessed and so proud of how things have been going. I can’t wait to do more.”
Blind jazz pianist to join Black Hills trumpeter for Frank Sinatra performance
Sioux Falls music lovers will have the privilege of witnessing a “musical savant” in September.
Jazz musician Tony DeBlois was born premature, blind and autistic. Yet by age 15, he was offered a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music and diagnosed with the rare syndrome that presents as “people with developmental limitations who exhibit brilliance in some other aspect of life.”
Today at 51 years old, DeBlois can perfectly play 20 instruments, knows nearly 10,000 jazz pieces by heart and has played piano with famed orchestras in Singapore, Thailand, Dublin, China, Nigeria and, most recently, for the United Nations in New York City.
He’ll perform Sept. 27 at the Washington Pavilion for “Come Fly with Me: A Frank Sinatra Tribute,” both to sing and play piano for 50 years’ worth of Sinatra tunes.
DeBlois can play Bach’s fugues on command and Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues” or Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night in Tunisia” by ear. He says he’ll play you whatever you want.
“I just love being up on a stage,” DeBlois says. “If someone shouts a song, I play the song.”
During an interview with the Argus Leader, DeBlois even performed Lil’ Bow Wow’s “Basketball” 2 minutes after never having heard of the song or even playing rap music before.
“Tony’s ear is impeccable,” says Black Hills trumpeter Alex Massa, also a nationally known jazz musician. He’ll perform with DeBlois for the tribute show.
“It’s a joy and a learning experience to watch someone you’re performing with listen so well and so fast,” Massa said.
Massa is the artistic director of the re-established South Dakota Jazz Orchestra, based in the Black Hills and considered the state’s flagship jazz ensemble.
He’s spent the past few years combining big band musicians from both sides of the state and last year hosted their first show in over a decade to a sold-out crowd in Rapid City.
The SDJO will join Massa and DeBlois during the Sinatra tribute next month.
DeBlois leans into the imperfection of jazz
Jazz is improvisational. It’s not meant to be perfect, Massa said, which is why he believes DeBlois’ prodigious effort fits so well into the spontaneous genre.
“Tony brings a different energy on stage than you’d get with anyone else, because he doesn’t have any expectation that usually surrounds music,” Massa said. “When something doesn’t go the way we rehearsed it, he turns it into a masterpiece.
“With him, it’s never crash and burn,” he said. “It’s lift off and fly.”
Massa said jazz music reminds him “that I don’t need to be perfect. I just need to be real and present” and that DeBlois exhibits that same kind of engagement.
They’ve known each other for two years now.
“Every now and then, you’ll see someone on stage having the time of their life,” he said. “But Tony does that every time he enters the room until the time he goes to bed. His energy is infectious.”
‘The joy of my life’
DeBlois’ mother, Jan DeBlois, says Tony didn’t learn conversational speech until adulthood, so music “was his language.”
She began studying and then teaching special education to support her son and developed lesson plans around what she was learning as a mother raising a musical savant. She attended hearings and mediations to enact the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and in 2005 wrote a book about Tony, titled “Some Kind of Genius.”
The two of them live together in Rapid City.
“Tony is the joy of my life,” she says. “God knew what he was doing when he put the two of us together.”
Jan says when performers join Tony on stage, she notices “they really up their game” and connect with him, “wanting to be better.”
Massa will direct the SDJO’s 18-piece big band while Tony’s on the piano for “Come Fly With Me.” The two of them have played together many times before.
“What Tony brings to the stage is an uninhibited joy I have never seen,” Massa said.
Sioux Falls record stores prep for nationwide Record Store Day
Dan and Liz Nissen ordered nine dozen donuts for Saturday.
There’ll likely be a line of folks outside their downtown record store when they arrive to work, wrapped around the building and even stretching into the Sunshine Foods parking lot.
Some will show up as early as 2 or 3 a.m., giddy with their blankets, camping chairs and snacks so they can be the first inside Total Drag, one of Sioux Falls’ most beloved music stores.
And it’s not for the donuts.
Saturday is Record Store Day, an annual holiday for vinyl collectors nationwide.
“It will be a madhouse in there for hours,” says Cain Rotert, a local musician and regular at Total Drag. “But a special day.”
Record Store Day is known nationwide for its first-come, first-served limited-edition releases.
This year, nearly 400 titles have been announced, the most sought-after including Charli XCX’s silver vinyl edition for “Number 1 Angel,” The Cure’s 40th anniversary picture disc, Taylor Swift’s 7-inch “Fortnight” single, Post Malone’s Nirvana cover, MJ Lenderman’s “And the Wind (Live and Loose!)” double-LP, Kendrick Lamar’s “GMX” and Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”
There’s buzz over Olivia Rodrigo, Chvrches, three LPs from Wilco and a turntable from The Beatles. And each of these exclusives will only have a few thousand copies nationwide, so how early can you make it in line?
'The inventory is all in his head'
The frenzy is no surprise. Despite streaming and downloads, physical media is doing just fine, as is secondhand and vintage. And a lot of that is a testament to the shopping experience.
Inside a record store are owners like the Nissens serving as borderline-obsessive, savvy encyclopedias of artists and genres, down to curation per customer. You walk into Total Drag and Dan is either excited to help you discover new music or share with you what he already knows you’re looking for, the way a barista knows your order.
“Dan is better than any Spotify algorithm I’ve ever encountered as far as recommendations and showing me a crazy underground world of bands I never would have heard of otherwise,” says Rotert, who’s most excited to nab a live album from rock band Frankie and the Witch Fingers on Saturday morning. “I learned all about music through him.”
Liz Nissen says her husband is most often a one-man show behind the counter, tracking indie or underground releases always with his customers in mind. He screens all his own merchandise, puts out little to no advertising, carefully cleans each record by hand and handwrites every price tag.
“You have to understand, the inventory (hundreds of thousands of albums) is all in his head!” she says. “We are a mom-and-pop shop, and that’s how we like it.”
The two have been married for 15 years and opened Total Drag in 2014. Liz Nissen is a full-time massage therapist out of her home, but they needed music in their lives more than just putting on records in their living room.
What did he have crackling the morning we met? Dan Nissen says he put on British psych rock band 10,000 Russos for breakfast.
But to open Total Drag was just fate. Dan has been biking to record shops since he was 10 years old and going to basement punk rock shows since the ’90s.
“Music has always been the most important thing,” he says. He also is a prolific musician in town who currently plays keys with Meriwether Raindelay and the Original Star Band. “It is a universal language, and everybody is touched by music in different ways, even if they don’t notice it.”
Dan and Liz met while they lived together in what was then called the 605 House in Sioux Falls, booking their own basement shows as roommates.
Total Drag is their new basement now, a record store that also hosts all-ages, alcohol-free live shows every month. It’s an intimate corner of Total Drag with no chairs and can hold less than 100 people.
And it’s the place to be.
“I have met every friend I have in Sioux Falls today through Total Drag,” says Rotert, who also met his wife, Tianna, there and in 2023 performed an album release show at Total Drag with his band Thought Patrol. “Total Drag has been totally influential to the way my life has gone.”
Local concert promoter Andy Howes has gone to Total Drag every week since it opened and “looks forward to browsing” on Saturday.
“I have visited record stores around the world and would put Total Drag up there as one of the best record stores I’ve ever been to,” Howes says. “Dan does a fantastic job getting a real diverse sampling of what’s out there. You never know what is going to be in those crates.”
Whatever’s in there will dwindle down in a hurry on Saturday, but the Nissens are just excited for the family reunion.
“People tell me how Total Drag has changed their lives, and that means we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing,” Liz Nissen says. “We are so thankful for our community and the experiences that have come from this little store.”
What are you buying on Record Store Day? Let’s get out there.
Ollie you need is love: Skate shop nurtures all-ages skater community
The kids call her the “Skater Whisperer,” “Our Skateboard Parent," or they greet her every afternoon with a “Hey, homie!”
She calls herself a “street teacher,” but today, let’s call her Laura Lutz, co-owner of The Siouxer Sk8 and Shop indoor skate park and founder of The Boardega, a summer pop-up across the street from the Barb Iverson Skate Park. The park hits its one-year anniversary next month.
She opened The Boardega in May, where a tight-knit group of kids “hang” in between skate sessions. They grab bottled water or bottled iced coffee (“Remember to recycle those!”), Freeze Pops, a Twix bar or Jessup grip tape for a new board.
These skaters will hang out all afternoon during the warm summer days, maybe well into the evening until Mom calls asking them to come home.
“Honestly, we’re a family,” Lutz said. “I love it when these guys come down. I love it when we can play Uno outside. These kids are just looking for a safe place to go.”
Let’s Skate and The Siouxer strengthen skating community
The skateboarding culture in Sioux Falls is thriving right now. After the Let’s Skate nonprofit, formerly known as the Sioux Falls Skatepark Association, spent years fundraising for the Barb, skaters have flocked to the 30,000-square-foot, professional-grade concrete park, one of the largest in the country that includes bowls, grind rails, stair sets and railings.
On Friday nights, at least 50 to 100 riders will be dropping their boards.
The Barb has indefinitely changed the scene, but The Siouxer Sk8 and Shop did that, too.
Years before, families were “dusting off their skateboards,” taking lessons and attending open skate nights at The Siouxer, which opened in 2013 and is north of 12th Street and Kiwanis Avenue.
DJ Paronto, Lutz’s partner and co-founder of the indoor park, has been formally teaching summer camps and weekly lessons for two years now. Parents bring in ages 4 and older for Skater Tots, Big Critters or Belladonna Seedlings.
Much like Lutz’s Boardega, these students come to a special place where they feel seen, encouraged and safe.
“This is the most positive environment of any other sports that we do,” said Ann Kolbrek, who brings in her two daughters ages 8 and 5 to classes every Thursday. “It’s so supportive, everybody gets along and the parents cheer on everybody’s kids.”
Paronto, who built all the quarter pipes and banks at The Siouxer warehouse himself, said the skateboarding community affords personal growth and nurtures confidence, resilience and determination “needed to navigate the real world.”
“Remember, you control the skateboard,” he told his student Nora, 8, who was next in line for her turn at a drop-in. “Just give it one attempt.”
She bit her nails in hesitation, then nailed it.
“See? Of course, you just did that. Now get back in line, and let’s do it again,” Paronto said.
He has created a pastime that can last a lifetime here.
What’s next for the skating community?
The Let’s Skate nonprofit was founded in 2017 with a mission to foster a “vibrant and inclusive community.” The group raised more than $2.5 million for The Barb and are now hoping to install shade structures, increase community outreach, to distribute free skateboards to schools and to work with the City of Sioux Falls to create more “skate-able” options at neighborhood parks.
“Barb’s Park is just the beginning of what could be possible for skateboarding in Sioux Falls,” said Let’s Skate board president Andy Howes.
Lutz, who also is on the nonprofit board and was once a student of the late Barb Iverson, said she’s seen many new faces at the Barb this past year and more recently at the Boardega. Seasoned riders bring their friends from school or their soccer team, or they show up with a sibling in tow. It’s growing so “naturally,” Lutz said.
And she mothers them all.
Brothers Travarious and Truveen Robinson, ages 11 and 12, started visiting The Boardega recently and have settled in for the summer.
Eleven-year-old skater Sawyer Putnam, who met his new friend Edgar “Edgnar” Hate, age 15, at Barb’s, comes for the jokes and fun in between “sending” tricks.
“I’ve started taking skating really seriously,” said Putnam, who recently mastered kickflips and will attend Edison Middle School in the fall.
“I love it here,” he said. “Laura always makes sure we’re OK.”
About Go Skate Day
Paronto and Lutz, along with their two teenage daughters Scout and Willow Kneip, will attend Go Skate Day (now rescheduled to a later date due to heat on June 21), a global celebration of skateboarding. At the Barb, there’ll be vendors, live music by Soulcrate’s DJ Absolute, food trucks and skate competitions held by Paronto and fellow coaches from The Siouxer.
The Boardega will have a pop-up, selling top brands like Anti-Hero, Real, Zero, Spitfire and Primitive. Lutz will have hugs and high-fives, too.
“Skateboarding in the ’90s did not have the best reputation,” Lutz said. “But now so many more organizations (like The Siouxer and Let’s Skate) are creating awareness around mental health support, addiction recovery or depression.
“You don’t know what background these kids are coming from, but there is perseverance behind all of this,” she said. “It’s very hopeful here.”
After daughter’s death, mother fights for mental health protection law
Larissa Strong believes in the Second Amendment.
She appreciates South Dakota gun laws, used to own a firearm herself and, “as a South Dakotan through and through,” loves to pheasant hunt.
But after her 21-year-old daughter killed herself last year with a handgun the young woman bought immediately after being released from a 24-hour suicide watch, Strong is asking for a tweak in an existing state law that could have saved a life.
“This isn’t a gun law,” says Strong, who recently returned from Washington, D.C., to informally present “Hailey’s Legacy Bill.” “This is a crucial suicide protection law to temporarily prevent those with a mental illness from obtaining firearms."
Strong says her daughter, Sioux Falls resident Hailey Barrick, had been cutting herself as early as 16 years old. As young as age 7, she was showing signs of mental stress. Doctors “chalked it up to bad behavior,” Strong says.
By her teenage years, she had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.
From 2022 and until her death on Feb. 23, 2024, Hailey attempted suicide four times. After each attempt, she was taken to a mental health treatment center, in all occurrences sent home within a day, Strong says.
For that final visit, from Feb. 18-19, police officers were first called to her apartment after Hailey and her boyfriend had gotten in an argument. She had destroyed property, tried to take “handfuls” of medication, asphyxiate herself in her car and cut herself with glass chards from a bathroom mirror she had broken. After making threats to “buy a gun” and “end her life,” Strong says her boyfriend called law enforcement, who took Hailey to a treatment center and determined she stay on a 24-hour, involuntary hold.
Medical records continued to lay out that day that Hailey “had stabilized” upon arrival, “denied events that occurred prior to admission” and possessed “adequate capacity to make appropriate decisions for her future.” She was receptive to outpatient care, records state.
But no, she wasn’t, Strong says Hailey’s roommate told medical staff.
“She knows what to say so you’ll release her,” the roommate said. “She’s not good. She needs help.”
After being released the next day, Hailey filled out the federally required paperwork from a federally licensed firearms dealer “with no trouble.” On Feb. 21, she shot herself in her locked car parked inside her garage while her roommate was home trying to stop her.
Hailey died in the hospital two days later.
Only inpatient stays require a ban on firearm ownership
But here’s the thing.
If Hailey had been “committed” the day police officers brought her in due to suicide threats – mandated to an inpatient treatment program that would have provided more comprehensive care – Hailey wouldn’t have been able to purchase a gun upon release, Strong says.
According to the Gun Control Act of 1968, supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA) since 2008, federal law permanently bans individuals who have been determined by a lawful authority as “committed to a mental institution” or are “a danger to themselves or others” from purchasing firearms.
In South Dakota, there is then a two-step process: Officials in mental health facilities must first report individuals to the state’s attorney’s office, then the state’s attorney’s office reports those records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), all within 48 hours of a patient being admitted to a mental health treatment center.
As it reads in federal law, that report would remain indefinitely on a background check, unless, according to state law, the patient “can obtain relief from the disability” or “show a period of demonstrated recovery.”
Because Hailey was only put on a 24-hour hold – of which there is no waiting period in South Dakota and no ban entailed – she was spared from any federal rule prohibiting a purchase.
She also checked “no” on the mandated ATF Form 4473, which according to the paperwork asks whether a potential buyer has “ever been adjudicated as a mental defective or has ever been committed to a mental institution,” giving her double lawful clearance to take home a firearm.
Strong says “Hailey’s Legacy” could change that. The draft is a bipartisan bill that would amend state law so that, just like the reporting of an involuntary psychiatric hold, even a 24-hour suicide watch ordered by a legal official would need be reported to NICS as well.
‘It’s important to engage one another respectfully’
Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum says it’s about “responsible gun ownership.”
Last month, the South Dakota Department of Health released their 2025 Suicide Surveillance Report, citing suicide as the 10th leading cause of death in the state for 2024 and the leading cause of death for ages 20 to 39.
In the same year, the Centers for Disease Control reported that firearms were involved in more than half of suicides in South Dakota, with 80% of overall firearm deaths being from suicide.
“We have to be open to objective conversations about how we can do things better when it comes to individuals struggling with mental health issues,” Thum said. “It’s important that we engage one another respectfully and see what it is people are trying to protect rather than just getting mired into arguments.”
Suicide Prevention Month: How Sioux Falls rallied around awareness, support.
But Brad Tunge, a private gun dealer in Sioux Falls, says it’s difficult not to make it political.
“This is such a big, broad topic that really deserves a debate and nitpicking,” says Tunge, who sells to customers nationwide. “If you want to put a law in the books, it needs to be extremely specific and with rigorous guidelines for not allowing someone to express their rights through buying a firearm.”
Thomas Otten, vice president of Avera Behavioral Health, says he “recognizes” that gun ownership is “an important part of life in our state” but that a critical part of suicide prevention is regulated access.
“Suicide prevention is about protecting people during their most vulnerable moments,” Otten said. “That’s why taking steps to reduce access to lethal means of harm is an act of care that can save lives.”
What would this updated mandate look like?
Strong says if her proposed change passes, not all reports would be equally permanent.
Unlike the existing federal law, Strong says if someone is only put on a 24-hour hold like Hailey was, the firearm purchase barrier would be for point-of-sale only and temporary, maybe 18 months to two years, Strong says.
“This is not a Red Flag Law. It’s a preventative measure to regulate medications, give people time to want to live again and to protect people around them, too,” she says, noting research from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center that states individuals who leave 24-hour holds are “300 times more likely” to complete suicide compared with the general population “in the first week after discharge.”
Tunge says he wants more information on statistics like that so an amendment on gun access doesn’t feel like a “blanket statement” discriminating against treatment center patients.
“Suicide is nothing to play around with,” Tunge says. “It hurts my heart to see suicide rates climb the way they are, and I don’t want any part contributing to such an act.”
So as much information should be shared as possible for a bill like this to be supported, Tunge says.
“Just because someone went to a mental health facility doesn’t mean they are a menace to society or need their rights revoked,” he says. “We’ll need more information than that.”
For the past year, Strong has been working with Reps. Kadyn Wittman and Erik Muckey, both serving District 15 in Sioux Falls, to “precisely” draft Hailey’s bill “until it’s perfect” for South Dakota residents like Tunge. Wittman and Muckey were not available for comment about the work.
After completion from the Legislative Research Committee, the hope is to present the bill during the legislative session in January.
Strong says she’s also introduced the bill to “federal constituents” at the Whitehouse and last month chatted about it with U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson.
“He is a strong defender of the Second Amendment and also vocal about improving mental health in America,” spokesperson Kristen Blakely said on behalf of Johnson.
In 2021, he introduced a bipartisan bill to use unspent pandemic relief funds for suicide prevention, crisis counseling and addiction treatment.
“Every time our nation faces a tragedy, debate starts over about the need to invest in mental health to prevent future tragedy, but action has yet to come at a federal level,” Johnson said on his website in 2021.
Hear out those who have experienced loss
Strong will host a rally on Oct. 4 to honor her daughter and others in the region who have died by suicide. It’s a continued effort to “increase public awareness” on the grave intersection of mental illness and gun access, along with her proposed legislation, Strong says.
Thum calls for “patient” engagement.
“We as a state are very clear on our rights to have firearms,” he says. “But when it comes to the death of young people and talking with the families who are left behind, we should hear their call to action and listen to the ways they want to help others. It’s worth a healthy dialogue and maybe something we can all learn from, on how to best serve our community.”
Day 1 at the 85th Sturgis Rally brings skulls, dancers and 'escapism'
STURGIS — DJ Hulio says day one of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the most “tame.”
Like the jitters of a first date, folks attending the largest motorcycle rally in the world quietly line the bar tops taking photos as more than 100 Ultra4 rigs roar into the Buffalo Chip, some even with 3-year-olds in their laps. There are lines for the lemonade stands and ice cream shops, foot massages, mattress sales and buffalo skin rugs at the art shows.
But tame is a relative word for the 85th anniversary of the rally, where an estimated 700,000 or more are expected to descend upon the town of roughly 7,000 for the next week.
Before 8 a.m., there were also bikini washes on Lazelle Street, a man wobbling on stilts on Main Street, a chorus of revs in the pit during ZZ Top and no one even noticed the two-hour thunderstorm that drenched the campgrounds and showed up as strobe light-like lightning in the sky.
Rally-goers were just getting started.
Albert and Sylvia Diaz arrived two days ago from San Antonio, Texas, excited to see the Budweiser Clydesdales for the rally’s opening ceremony Aug. 1. They’ve lodged at Creekside Campground for nearly 25 years, the “best friends they’ve got” also there for what is their annual reunion.
Albert will saunter his way through downtown Sturgis for the next week with a skull necklace the size of his fist atop his neatly shaved big belly. His biker name is “Skull” and so appropriately he has a skull ring on every single finger, like knuckle dusters to intimidate you. But he’s jolly.
Albert is at the rally after all.
“I’m retired now, so I get to grow out my mustache and dye my beard,” he says. “I’m Hulk Hogan in New World Order while I’m here one week out of the year.”
Performers and a DJ in between concerts
“Escapism” is what Buffalo Chip performer Trish Rodgers calls it.
She moved to South Dakota two years ago and now makes more than $10,000 in a week dancing at Club Chip, a lit-up elevated bar that cranks its music in between sets on the Chip’s main amphitheater.
“We’re hype girls,” she says. “We want people to know it’s OK to dance and let loose.”
Ryan “DJ Hulio” Horan has been working the Chip for 14 years now and has been camping in the same spot there for nearly 25. He manages four dancers at the rally, each of whom needs compression socks and ice packs at the end of each night.
Rodgers had to be carried to her campground around 2 a.m. last year after fear of a hairline fracture on her swollen left leg. She danced the next night.
Horan, who’s a plumber when he’s not a DJ, takes care of them.
“This is my family,” he says.
He used to DJ at Creekside in the back of his camper, “shutting down the night” before running Club Chip all on his own. “It gets so wild, but there is zero mess here. If it wasn’t for the amazing security they have, I wouldn’t do this job. They’re fantastic.”
International Bikini Team founder Michelle Caton says she ensures the safety of her Miss Buffalo Chip contestants at the rally, too, who must stay together and not leave the grounds.
There are preliminary rounds every night, the top three of which will go onto finals Aug. 10. When they’re not competing, they bartend, wash bikes and take photos with the riders.
“The Buffalo Chip is an entire city in itself,” Caton says. “If you’ve never been to Sturgis, it’s unlike any other vacation you’ll have.”
Mayor, grand marshal welcome bikers
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Grand Marshal for the 85th anniversary was “whipper-snapper” Gloria Tramontin Struck. She turned 100 last month and can attest to the safe environment: She has eagerly returned to the rally as a “two-wheel traveler” since 1941.
“I’ve been a member of the Motor Maids since 1946 and am in the (Sturgis Motorcycle Museum) Hall of Fame,” said Struck, who was introduced Aug. 1 by Mayor Kevin Forrester during the rally’s opening ceremonies.
“Enjoy life, and don’t waste a day of it!” Struck said. “Make each day count a lot, and have a good time this week.”
The rally will continue through Aug. 10, with the Mayor’s Ride having taken place through the Black Hill on Aug. 2, performances by Gene Simmons and Saliva on Aug. 3, Military Appreciation Day on Aug. 4 and the Biker Belles Women’s Day on Aug. 5.
Wyatt's Lemonade at Sturgis rally donates more than $100k to St. Jude
PIEDMONT – Bikers come to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to party, but they might stop for some lemonade first.
Rally regulars have likely seen the yellow billboard and big yellow flag while heading west on Interstate 90.
When the Dennis family moved into a new home in 2019 off Sturgis Road in Piedmont, South Dakota, then 7-year-old Wyatt told his parents he wanted to give away lemonade to bikers the following year.
The young entrepreneur knew a parched audience when he saw one. Within five years, Wyatt’s Lemonade has donated more than $101,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one cup of Country Time lemonade at a time.
‘So many life lessons in saving and giving’
Wyatt, now 12, just wanted a $100, 500-piece Lego set.
Mom Robin and Dad Devin told him if he worked hard at his lemonade stand that first year, they’d buy it for him.
The Legos were paid for after the first day. Then, he made $700 that week.
The family decided to save some of that money for his college fund and then donate $200 to his charity of choice, St. Jude, a nonprofit pediatric research center where families receive free treatment.
“The stand has taught so many life lessons in saving, giving and spending,” said Robin, who sits with Wyatt every day at his stand, 8 miles outside Sturgis. Otherwise, “it’s his to run.”
“He’s carried over things he has learned into school, like public speaking or problem solving,” she says. “It’s fun to watch him be his own unique person.”
By year two, after the stand gained extreme traction on social media and made national news, Wyatt finished up with $32,500 in donations.
“Our busiest day ever was in 2021,” Robin said. “We poured 80 gallons of lemonade in six hours.”
Famous visitors
In 2022, he donated $21,000. In 2023, he donated $21,568; and last year, he donated $26,000, surpassing $100,000 in overall donations to St. Jude.
This year, he’s including four new charities to also support: Mission22, combatting veteran suicide; Dogs Inc., which trains service dogs; Piedmont Fire and Ambulance; and Western Hills Human Society.
“I think it’s cool that my stand continues to grow,” said Wyatt, who still has the original Lego set today and now is hoping for a vacation to Missouri.
He wants to visit the original Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World in Springfield and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
“This wouldn’t be possible without people coming to see me,” Wyatt said. “I’m always open to talk to anybody."
In 2021, he had a chat with former Gov. Kristi Noem. This week, Gov. Larry Rhoden came to say hello.
They’ve already served over 2,000 bikers and have gone through 165 gallons of lemonade. Wyatt’s stand will continue through Aug. 8.
“Sometimes we get so busy making sure things run smoothly that we don’t reflect on what’s happening here,” Robin said. “I’m just amazed at what my son has accomplished in six years. I’m a lucky mom that I get to experience this with him.”