An upcoming holiday event in memory of Ray Hillenbrand

The Performing Arts Center is proud to present “A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION: Songs and Stories to Celebrate the Season” as a benefit for ONEHEART: A Place for Hope and Healing in memory of Ray Hillenbrand who was the visionary for the facility. Featuring holiday music by Kenny Putnam, Boyd Bristow, and Jami Lynn, as well as holiday tales read by local author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, and actors Justin Speck, Jason Knox, Joyce Jefferson. The show offers a more contemplative approach to Christmas and how we should be in relation to one another – regardless of faith, race, and/or any other differences between us.

Ray Hillenbrand was most known to the public as the owner of Prairie Edge and Sioux

Trading Post. He was also recognized through his involvement with the creation of Main Street

Square and the Sculpture Project in the heart of downtown Rapid City. He was tireless in his contributions of time to projects that improved his community. But this humble man’s financial assistance to so many projects were most often done anonymously. Consequently, many of the results of his involvement and support of projects in and around Rapid City and the Black Hills will never be known to the public. “He did more for Rapid City in the last several years than most people do in lifetimes,” said Dan Senftner, president of Destination Rapid City.

In the last few years, Ray Hillenbrand’s focus was on a venture designed to bring together resources for the homeless. He formed a group called Rapid City Collective Impact (RCCI) to research what services were already available in the community and to envision how they might be brought together under one roof. This effort resulted in a community-supported initiative involving members of local government, non-profits, faith-based communities, businesses, and grassroots citizens who share the common goal of improving the quality of life in Rapid City.

The result of the RCCI initiative was ONEHEART, a grassroots organization, the goal of which is to build a service campus on four acres of property on Kansas City Street close to the downtown area. With purchase of the property complete, the staff, board of directors and volunteers are moving forward with planning and building the facility. The mission of the facility is to ultimately elevate the human spirit individually and the spirit of the Rapid City community collectively. By providing transitional housing and co-locating a variety of services – from addiction and mental health counseling to life skills and job training – providers can more efficiently, effectively and collectively help our neighbors without homes move into permanent housing and achieve a better quality of life. The campus will offer person-centered, trauma informed, recovery-oriented care. To receive services, each adult resident will be expected to create a self- directed income and housing plans and agree to live clean and sober.

There is already a long list of organizational partners committed to leasing space at

ONEHEART to provide on-site services. To date, these include Behavior Management Systems,

Black Hills Special Services Cooperative/Career Learning Center of the Black Hills, Catholic

Social Services, Dress for Success Black Hills, National Alliance on Mental Illness South Dakota, Rapid City Area Schools’ McKinney-Vento Program, Western Dakota Tech, Working Against Violence, Inc., Youth and Family Services and the Rapid City YMCA. The enlistment of organizations continues and those that choose not to lease office space will have opportunities to rent meeting space on campus for programs or classes that serve ONEHEART guests as well.

Ray was a true visionary and he had a clear vision of the community he wanted Rapid City to be.

In an editorial after his death, Deb Wagman, a friend who worked for Ray several years ago, alluded to his “uncommon democratic value system.” She noted that he clearly believed “that all human beings are created equal in a fundamental sense — the belief that certainly fueled all of his philanthropic work in the Black Hills.” She went on to state that “wealth seldom whispers” and concluded, “How fortunate we all are that Ray Hillenbrand whispered in our community.” It is hoped that this benefit for ONE HEART, presented in Ray’s memory, will be a whisper of gratitude back for all he’s done for our Black Hills community.

The Lakota teach “Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ” – that we “all are related” – and there is a song that says, “the secret of Christmas is not the things you do at Christmas time, but the Christmas things you do all year through.” There is not a more appropriate way to honor Ray Hillenbrand than by supporting his dream of a facility that operates with these two precepts. He believed that, together, we can build a more caring community.

“A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION: Songs and Stories to Celebrate the Season” will be presented at the Performing Arts Center in Rapid City on Friday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, December 21 at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students. Tickets at the door are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and students.

A Family Pass that admits an unlimited number of members of a family is also available for $65

in advance and $85 at the door Tickets are available at the Performing Arts Center Box Office, by calling 605-394-1786 or online at performingartsrc.org. For further information contact producer, Anna Marie Thatcher, productions@periaktos.com.

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