Ramapough Family Day 2024

Our Ramapough Family Day opens up celebration to the lives of our people, and the life of our Nation. A wonderful day to connect to promote and protect our individual and shared life experiences, Family Day brings us together in a massive way, to create an experience that lasts on and on. Family Day is a reflection of creator which permeates through each of us; not only is it shared that the spirit of creator is felt as present within us, but together we rejoice in the conscious and unconscious (or subconscious) recognition of our deep spiritual connections, like roots that go deep and intertwine, while a tree (we) may flourish, and we awe.

Inaugurating in 2023, Family Day was launched with a backpack drive that provided over 100 backpacks to kids amongst our community for the upcoming school year - nonetheless each backpack was PACKED with study supplies! ❤️ We also had free food, entertainment, activities, and giveaways for Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation tribal members. All made possible by the generous help of donors and sponsors.

Since the kickoff, we aimed at surpassing our inaugural achievements in an experience-based way - exceeding the number of kids and youth amongst our community served with tools to support their studying and learning, and constructively providing food, entertainment, and activities that we find serving for the frequency and vibration of our collective, our people, our spirit, and our Nation.

Family Day 2024 was a blast from the past, connecting and grounding in the present, while serving our futures collectively! This year, our backpack drive was extra-diligent to recreate and expand success, so much so that we provided more than 130 backpacks filled with supplies to children in our community. Beyond the backpack drive, tents, a commercial grill, a $1000 food drive, and diverse activities from sports to crafts all culminated together for all members to be served experientially who were able to attend.

We are grateful with so many engagements: from Magic and Medicine for creating space to honor our loved ones through grief and providing lactation support for families, Rockland Center for the Arts for sharing information on art programs and the newly established Ramapough summer scholarships, Buffalo Jump NYC for cooking up some delicious food and keeping us well fed throughout the day, Grinding Stone Collective and First Foods for donating plenty of food and corn and squash giveaways, Rhode Island Indian Council for donating hotdogs and resources, Bergen Maker Space for letting our community members create custom keychains on the Makerbus, Ramapo College of New Jersey for sharing information on courses and Ramapough scholarships, to the Hillburn NCAAP chapter, our Nation's sister nonprofit Ramapo Munsee Land Alliance, and photographer Giovanni Martinez from MZ Portrait Photography, for showing up for all of us! While abundantly grateful for generosities: from The Gordon Center for Black Culture and Arts, Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow, Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp, Elias Foundation, and St. Bartholomew's Church. We benefited from so much collaborator engagement that programs are forming for a continuation of bilateral benefit and reciprocating energy that opens up pathways for taking our mission forward.

We extend a massive THANK YOU to all partners, sponsors, supporters, volunteers, and all other stakeholders, along with all members and people that came out this year! It is only possible because we organized our spirits and came together. Bless you all. ANUSHIIK. See you at the next one!