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Hampton Inn Gives LIWMS $20,000 

The LIW Society became the 37^th landmark to be refurbished by the Hampton Hotel’s Save-A-Landmark Program.

This is the first landmark project scheduled for South Dakota.

The hotel provides man-hours of help and funding to communities in three countries – United States, Canada and Mexico.

Gina Valenti, spokesperson for Hampton, didn’t know who nominated the LIW historical site for recognition.  She said the program was developed nine years ago by corporate employees wanting to give back to the communities.

About 25 volunteers from Hampton and many from the De Smet area came on June 13 and spent the day preparing to scrape and paint buildings and do lots of landscaping, which included moving plants and shrubbery, planting trees and many, many new shrubs and grasses and mulching the entire area.  Much of the work was completed that day.

Cheryl Palmlund, executive director of the LIW Society said her group was contacted in February about the program.  She said the grant funds will be used for a variety of projects including repairs to the gift shop, the first schoolhouse of De Smet, landscaping and the Surveyors’ House where the Ingalls family lived their first winter in De Smet.

Volunteers and LIWMS staff plant and landscape around new sidewalks.