On Monday night, December 19th, Sid Bryd’s 93rd Birthday was celebrated with a Birthday Potluck Dinner at Eastman Hall from 6 - 9 p.m. The event was hosted by his children Sam Byrd, Pam Byrd, grandchildren and great grandchildren. There was live entertainment and games and prizes for kids and adults.
Paula Armstrong, tribal elder and Commissioned Lay Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, gave the meal blessing and introductions. Bruce Weigel, Pipestone, MN provided flute music for the entertainment.
Christine Weston Prairie Chicken’s grandchildren from Pine Ridge came for Sid’s birthday. Ed Breck and wife came from Sioux Falls. Ed was the project superintendent for the construction project for Tatewin Apartments. He made great friends with the tribal elders during his 2 ½ years of being on site at Flandreau. 
Sid’s grandchildren decorated Eastman Hall with balloons, table cloths and colorful paper ribbons.
Pam Byrd, daughter, made word puzzle games which all pertained to Sid’s Indian name, parents names, branch of service he served in, favorite foods, fishing, favorite sports, etc. A grand prize of a $25 Walmart gift card was won by Annie Garcia. The guests had to look under their paper birthday plates to see if it read “You are lucky” to see if they won the gift card prize.
After the meal and the Happy Birthday song to Sid, everyone enjoyed birthday cake. Sid’s grandsons and great grandchildren served the elders birthday cake. Sid opened numerous gifts with the help of his grandchildren and daughter Pam.
Pam thanked everyone who came to honor their father and grandfather for his 93rd Birthday. Pam asked the guests to take food home since there was so much potluck food brought in by all the guests. It was a great fun time.
The community has enjoyed Sid’s humor and great stories. Sid is called on often to give the blessing in the Dakota language for opening and closing at conferences and meetings and always there to help. He is a World War II veteran and participates in Veteran events, grand entries and conferences. At a Veterans Conference at the Royal River Casino, he translated the Marine Song into Dakota and sang it for the Veterans there. Congratulations Sid on your 93rd Birthday! -Editor
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