(Wind River Reservation, WY) – MI3 Petroleum Engineering was back at it again this year and delivered 800 boxes of food to Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho elders last week with the help of the senior centers on the reservation, Safeway, Wyoming Catholic College and the Lander Tiger Tough Wrestling team.
President of MI3 Carlos Pereira and Vice President Mahmood Ahmadi have made this project a priority and generously covered all food box expenses.
“We want to give back to the community again this year as we feel a part of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho community,” they shared. “This project is coordinated and led by our Office Assistant, Dana Rosales. Dana’s hard work and efforts along with the help of MI3 team member, Kathryn Schuller ensures that once again we are meeting our goal to bring as much food as possible to fill the pantries of and serve those elders who are most in need for the winter season.”
This wouldn’t have been possible without the help and coordination of the senior centers. Alicia Cook and her team at the Warm Valley Senior Center, along with Elma Brown and Brenden Harjo at the Ethete Senior Center and the Black Coal Senior Center.
As previously mentioned, Safeway, Wyoming Catholic College and Lander Tiger Tough Wrestling team also supported the project.
“Darren Orton, Store Director of Safeway on Main Street in Lander, was pivotal in the success of our food contribution project. As we were planning our food purchases, we came across dead ends and an inability to provide the quantities we needed for the boxes. We contacted Darren to ask if Safeway could help us with our food purchases. Safeway went out of its way and immediately offered to help provide shelf-stable staples to our Wind River elders.
“They not only provided the food, but they also delivered on time and helped us load the food into our trucks for transport to our Main Street office in Lander. Without Darren and his team at Safeway, we would have been much more challenged to provide the food boxes this year. We hope to work with Safeway for future projects. They really came through for the elders.
“On Tuesday, November 15, approximately 30 student volunteers from Wyoming Catholic College led by Kent Lasnoski (Associate Professor of Theology) showed up at our MI3 Lander office on Main Street enthusiastic to help. They helped us unload almost a thousand cases of food. They used carts and carried several cases each in a constant stream to unload food into our office in preparation for an assembly line of filling boxes with food. Once the loads of food were put in place, they worked as an effective team and completed filling over 500 boxes in 3 hours.
“On Wednesday, November 16, the Lander Wrestling Team helped to complete the project. They used their strength and teamwork to complete the boxes by closing them, putting the label on the box, and restacking the boxes in the office. The team worked to make sure everything was neat and organized and set up for delivery to the Senior Centers. With their help we were able to finish the job in just a few hours.”
