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.
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.”
Retired couple visits every continent
Only pack a carry-on bag. No matter how long the trip.
Book guided tours.
Don’t eat the fruit.
Pack Band-Aids.
Only buy trinkets for souvenirs.
And definitely take a Rhine River boat cruise.
Jan and Joyce Wright are residents of Touchmark at All Saints in Sioux Falls, but they’re hardly there. They’re out often out of the country instead, wearing out the soles of their shoes and having a beer on yet another international vacation.
You want to know how best to travel? Join them for a glass of wine and story time at The Vine Bistro in their retirement community commons.
“People are so drawn to their kindness and energy and inspired by their adventurous spirit,” says Touchmark executive director Amanda Snoozy. “Jan and Joyce are warmly embraced.”
After their next trip to Antarctica in December, the Wrights will have officially traveled to all seven continents. Their passports tell the story from more than 80 countries; all 50 states in the U.S.; about 40 river tours, like to the Seine and the Danube; and three different working farm tours to Cuba, Chile and Egypt.
There’s a story for every stop.
“There were armed guards on our tour bus in Cairo, police with sirens going behind us and military with AK-47s out their windows,” said Joyce about a hydroponic farm tour in 2019.
Sure, they’re pretty popular at The Vine, but all that drama for two traveling Americans in Egypt?
“It was all our travel agent,” she says.
For more than 20 years, the Wrights have been working with Tiffiny Trump-Humbert of family-owned Trump Tours, a custom traveling agency that specializes in ag tours worldwide.
No, she’s not that Trump, but law enforcement in Cairo wasn’t taking any chances.
“They didn’t want an incident with our president,” Joyce says.
Sioux Falls is home, the globe is their playground
Joyce is 75, Jan is 78. They’re from White Lake and both worked for regional insurance companies while raising their daughter in Indianapolis. After they retired, they moved to a beach in Florida then to Albuquerque, New Mexico, after they got spooked by hurricanes on the East Coast. They “settled down” in Sioux Falls in 2022.
The Wrights don’t even have any connection to town but appreciate the healthcare, the culture and all the amenities at Touchmark, Joyce says. With town outings, live music, Mah Jongg and cards, it’s no wonder they need a vacation from their busy life in Sioux Falls.
“We travel freely, knowing our home is secure,” Joyce says. “And when we return, our friends and neighbors are eager to hear about our adventures.”
Like the one schoolmate who got to go to the Taylor Swift concert while everyone else had to stay home, Snoozy says friends and neighbors of the Wrights live vicariously through their memories.
“There is always a new energy at happy hour when the Wrights return from their latest adventure,” she says. “You can usually hear the laughter spilling down the hallway as stories are swapped and photos are shared.”
Jan and Joyce have been married for 56 years, but they still vacation together wonderfully, she says. They make friends on cruises and such but almost always book a table for two, and it’s their tradition to sneak into a local bar wherever they are so Jan can have a beer.
He loves the Guiness in Ireland the most but skipped out on kissing the infamous stone at Blarney Castle.
“If I want to kiss a rock, I can go to our place in White Lake,” Jan says.
For their 50th wedding anniversary, forget an open house. They planned a cruise in Alaska, but friends at The Vine got word. Soon there were 16 people coming along, in which Trump-Humbert had to step up and plan all their accommodations as well.
But traveling the world wasn’t always a long-lost dream to work toward. Joyce just happened upon a 12-day private tour to take in China more than 15 years ago, with her sister as her travel companion.
She got to meet the manager of the General Motors plant in Wuhan, fly into Beijing and then Nanjing and sneak into a private purse sale in Shanghai.
“After that, I was on a roll,” she said. “I kept looking for the next place to go.”
In 2020, they were stuck at sea among 600 others on an Oceanic Cruise heading toward Machu Pichu. After stocking up on provisions and setting sail from Chile to Lima, the country had closed down overnight because of what was then a novel Covid virus.
They reverted to Chile, spent eight extra days at sea until Panama let them through the canal and into Miami.
The airport was empty when they arrived.
Clean diets, few injuries, no jet lag
With merely a carry-on bag at their side – “we do laundry on the ships” – they come back with only photos they took or small gifts as décor for their home. On their shelves is a Moka pot from Argentina and Delft blue pottery from the Netherlands. There are napkin rings from Africa on the dining room table, art from a local painter in Paris on the wall and a replica of the Lily of the Valley, Lithuania’s national flower.
In their photo albums are pictures of the salvaged Vasa ship in Stockholm, an ox-drawn wooden plow on a tobacco farm in Cuba, Whirling Dervish dancers on a riverboat tour down the Nile, a manic Secretarybird in the Eastern Cape – “he was hilarious to watch,” Joyce said – and a cloudy day along the Amazon River’s Rio Negro blackwater tributary.
They stick to a strict meat and potatoes diet, “or anything that’s cooked,” and have a pretty strong stomach for as much as they’re on the water. Joyce says they’ll be the only ones in the dining hall when everyone else is seasick in their rooms. Jan says the largest wave they faced was 26 feet high just north of Iceland.
“The Pacific is calmer than the Atlantic,” he says.
They don’t deal too much with jet lag either, Jan says, although they once were “down for a week” returning from Europe.
“If you’re flying into the sun, jet lag is usually worse,” he says.
They’ve succumbed to very few injuries. Joyce has a left knee and right hip replacement but only complains about backaches or maybe blisters on her feet.
She once did quite literally fall off the plane after landing in Istanbul while on their way to Italy.
Instead of pulling into the concourse, around 350 passengers had to take airstairs onto the runway, but “they were crooked,” Joyce said. She was the second to disembark, and down she went, landing on her hip on the lip of the plane and hurting her ankle and knee.
After an urgent visa to sleep for a few hours at a Turkish hotel, she hobbled her way to the Vatican in Rome and up the limestone hill to the Acropolis in Greece.
“I think it was a sprained ankle, but I got over it,” she said.
The Wrights set out to sightsee, not to sit at the beach or wade in the ocean. You won’t find them at an all-inclusive resort, and you won’t run into them along the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
“Parisians are not very nice,” Joyce says.
But do endure more than 20 hours of flight time toward Australia to meet the locals, Jan says.
“If you can get on a ship with Australians and New Zealanders, you’re going to have a good time,” he says.
Stateside, you’ll find them in the Black Hills. They’ve got a motorhome for U.S. travel and spend most winters in the south, but they otherwise don’t make it much further than West River.
“I always tell anyone who wants to travel, every American should go the Black Hills of South Dakota,” Joyce says.
After Antarctica over Christmas, they’re off to East Asia in March for a monthlong trip to South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan, all new countries for them to visit.
Still, there is more to come. They take big trips at least twice a year and book no less than two weeks per vacation.
“We’re retired,” Joyce says. “We’re just embracing our independence.”
Former newspaper carrier brings Taskrabbit to Sioux Falls, SD
She’s a famed senior manager with AirBnB and UberEats, a former eCommerce leader with Walmart and a well-known ex-strategist for Expedia.
But before all that, tech business mogul Ania Smith was an early-morning newspaper carrier for the Argus Leader at 12 years old.
Today, as CEO of the worldwide home service marketplace Taskrabbit, her heart is home again.
Taskrabbit launched in Sioux Falls last month.
“I have been pushing this for a long time,” Smith says.
Her parents, Les and Agnes Pietruszkiewicz, still live here today and still receive the daily newspaper.
“People in Sioux Falls truly care about one another and the community,” she said. “Sioux Falls is going to be a great win for Taskrabbit.”
A family reunion in Sioux Falls
Smith was on the cover of the Argus Leader on Feb. 11, 1986, when she and her family momentously arrived to Sioux Falls from Poland.
A reporter came to the house, she said, and asked questions about her family’s arrival.
“It was so surreal to be in the newspaper," she said.
Her father fled their homeland first, in hopes of relocating his family anywhere else “from a hard life in Poland” before receiving a visa to move to the states.
“When I came to America, I had $10 in my pocket and spoke no English,” Les says today.
Although “retired” now, he still runs his own taxi and realty companies in Sioux Falls.
It took three long years, but on the morning of Feb. 6, 1986, his wife, Agnes; 12-year-old daughter, (then) Anna; and 11-year-old son, Adam, got off the 20-hour flight from Warsaw to see Dad again.
“I’ve waited for this day a long time,” Les told reporters then. “It’s like being married a second time.”
Smith, who also didn’t yet speak English but had the same work ethic as her father, was quick to put her innate sales acumen to work.
She and her brother ran a paper route for a couple years while also selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door, where she learned to “accept rejection with grace” and “get to know your customer.”
By age 14, she was helping at her family’s restaurant, Polish Plate, and had begun a job at Burger Time on the east side before serving at TGI Fridays and Applebee’s.
Les says he watched her daughter seek more and more experience, never slowing down.
“I wanted to figure out how to make money quickly,” Smith says. “I loved having that control and being able to afford anything I could call my own. It was really powerful.”
Business related: Breadico returns to downtown Sioux Falls with cafe.
While Smith’s dad was working at John Morrell's pork processing plant (now Smithfield Foods), and her mother at the former Falcon Plastics, she and her brother went to St. Therese Catholic School and then O’Gorman High School. After finishing her undergraduate work at the University of South Dakota, her global career went from Philadelphia to New York City, Kenya to Chicago, and London to Northern California, just to name a few stops.
Smith was head of courier operations at UberEats and a senior leader at AirBnB before becoming CEO of Taskrabbit in 2020.
“I came from a lot of experience in global business operations and strategic planning, but this was my first time as CEO,” Smith says. “It was a lot of learning and excitement.”
She lives in the Bay Area today with her husband and three children.
A leader in mobile service connects ‘taskers’ with errands
Taskrabbit is an online, dual-sided marketplace – just like UberEats or AirBnB, which offers more than 700 homes in Sioux Falls today – that connects folks who need help with daily tasks. You want your lawn clipped, your house cleaned, your walls painted, your faucet fixed or your belongings packed up before a move?
Smith said some customers even hire “taskers” to stand in line for cupcakes in NYC.
Maybe not here, but the school pick-up line could even seem an apropos time for Taskrabbit to save the day.
South Dakota is one among nine of the last states to launch Taskrabbit, which began in 2008 and is otherwise in thousands of cities among eight countries and the sole furniture assembly provider at IKEA.
“Sioux Falls is one of the fastest-growing metros in the Northern Plains,” Smith says. “It makes perfect sense for us.”
For taskers, they have the autonomy to work however much they want, on whatever skillset they want and get to keep all their hourly earnings. There are more than 200,000 independent workers today.
“Looking back at my childhood, there weren’t businesses like Taskrabbit providing an opportunity for people like my parents to earn an income with that flexibility,” Smith says. “I’m very excited to provide that opportunity now for people in Sioux Falls.”
How Sioux Falls recognizes Suicide Prevention Month
Four of Fabre Sullivan’s siblings have died by suicide.
Their names matter: Cory died in 1999. He was 27 years old. Candi died in 2010 at 43 years old. Chad died in 2019 at 51 years old. After her sister Samantha died in 2022 at 35 years old, Sullivan spoke up.
Today, the sibling among seven and now 35-year-old mother of six helms the South Dakota chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and will host the 15th annual Out of the Darkness Walk this month.
“A simple conversation can save a person’s life,” says Sullivan, who expects to gather more than 1,000 people Sept. 13 at Fawick Park.
There will also be community walks Sept. 6 in Aberdeen and Sept. 20 in Belle Fourche.
“I want to be the person in my community to start that conversation,” Sullivan says.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, an oath to be there for families, friends and community members who might be struggling. Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day.
And the world needs to reduce the stigma, not hide from it, Sullivan says. The walk is part of a nationwide effort to support those who have experienced suicide in some way and to provide reassurance for someone who feels alone.
There are more than 550 walks nationwide, which last year alone raised $21 million. The South Dakota chapter raised $60,000 in 2024 and has already put $30,000 toward their $90,000 goal this year.
By the numbers
The American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP) reported that 1.5 million people attempted suicide in 2023, and an estimated 12.8 million adults reported having thoughts of suicide.
With the help of crucial fundraising efforts, like the Out of the Darkness Walk, Sullivan says the AFSP can invest in research, programming, public policy changes and support services.
“The research has shown us how to fight suicide,” says AFSP CEO Robert Gebbia. “If we keep up the fight, the science is only going to get better, and our culture will get smarter about mental health.”
Earlier this year, Sullivan traveled to Pierre for “eye-opening” State Capitol Day events on behalf of AFSP, advocating for the 988 suicide and crisis hotline and improved coverage for mental health.
But according to South Dakota Searchlight, a report released last month showed “significant slashes” to staff and funding for federal agencies offering mental health support.
Today, only a dozen states have offices or state coordinators focused on suicide prevention. That excludes South Dakota, which saw 192 deaths by suicide in 2024. There were nearly 50,000 nationwide – an average of 135 suicide deaths per day.
In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control reported that, according to federal guidelines, 67% of communities nationwide did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents.
How to get involved in Sioux Falls
Sullivan is all over town. She and her committee members have set up resource tables at restaurant fundraisers, car shows, neighborhood block parties, mental health awareness events, basketball tournaments and last month hosted an open mat jiu jitsu fundraiser for AFSP.
But she is not singular. From Sept. 25-28, there’ll be a dozen well-known community members, like Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, running across the state to support suicide prevention.
Beginning in Rapid City, and making stops in Pierre and Mitchell before finishing up in Sioux Falls, the 437 Project will complete a relay-style journey to raise money for The Helpline Center’s suicide crisis programming.
Helpline’s CEO Janet Kittams says the partnership with The 437 Project allows them to host an annual speaker series, welcoming this year TV and movie actor Sean Astin.
Astin, well-known from “The Goonies,” “Stranger Things," "Lord of the Rings" or “Rudy,” grew up with a mother who had bipolar disorder and now advocates for mental health support programs and awareness.
“The draw is to come and see him, but the message is what’s most important to me,” Kittams says. “People will walk out that night knowing there is help, there is hope and it’s OK to talk about mental health.”
Sullivan says many people worry that talking about suicide would “just put the idea into people’s minds, but that could not be further from the truth,” she says.
“The more we talk about it, the more we recognize those signs in ourselves and others and create a safe space for getting help,” Sullivan says.
To participate in awareness efforts, Helpline COO Amy Carter says the community is welcome to pick up yard signs at the Helpline offices for free. Her team also partnered with nonprofit Lost&Found and the Sioux Empire Suicide Prevention Task Force to place magnetic ribbons on more than 80 Sioux Falls Police Department patrol vehicles this month, a pilot endeavor that also will mark over 500 patrol vehicles statewide.
More than half of suicides in SD were by firearms
Suicide is a “public health crisis” and the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S.
According to the CDC, it was the ninth leading cause of death in South Dakota in 2023 and the second leading cause of death specifically for ages 10 to 34.
In the same year, 181 people died by suicide in the state.
Sullivan says the mission of the AFSP is to “save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide,” with the goal to reduce the nation’s annual rate of suicide by 20%.
The latest rate recorded was 14.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2023, the highest it’s been in 10 years.
Sullivan says her hope every day is to keep other families from experiencing a suicide loss.
“I miss my siblings dearly and remember how I felt the exact moment each time finding out they had passed,” Sullivan says. “This is why I am in the fight to prevent suicide.”