MANDAREE – A public ribbon cutting ceremony and community celebration will be held Wednesday, July 17, for the opening of the new Crestwood Maagarishda Center, the new home of the Head Start Program in Mandaree.

The ribbon cutting will start at 2:30 p.m., followed by the community celebration at the new facility. The new center is located next door to Water Chief Hall in Mandaree.

The new state-of-the-art building is an educational facility for children of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arkara Nation to grow, learn and receive comprehensive health, nutrition and parent involvement services, according to a news release from Crestwood Equity Partners based in Houston.

Crestwood, a midstream operator in North Dakota with a gathering system on the Fort Berthold Reservation, donated about $2 million to build the facility and partnered with the MHA Nation to raise additional funds for on-going programs at the center.

“This state-of-the-art-facility marks a new era for the Mandaree Head Start program and Crestwood is excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the MHA community and the development of its children,” said Robert G. Phillips, Crestwood chairman, president and chief executive officer. “The Maagarishda Center will allow more children in the community to benefit from Head Start programming, as well as give them the education, health and nutrition needed to thrive during the critical early development years and on into adulthood.”

Crestwood has significant midstream energy operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and is committed to building resilient relationships in the communities where its employees live and work. This project gives Crestwood the opportunity to make an impactful contribution to the MHA Nation and its people.

History of Head Start

& MHA Nation

Head Start was founded in 1965 with the mission to promote the development and school readiness of pre-kindergarten aged children. The MHA Nation was an early provider of Head Start programming in North Dakota. Since the 1970s, the Mandaree Head Start Program had been housed in a modular building. The Maagarishda Center will allow more children to attend the program, and strive to eliminate the wait list for additional students who were previously unable to participate due to the modular building’s limited capacity.