Crowd Gathers at Elders Day Event in Lawton

On Friday, December 9, Elders Day occurred at the Comanche County Expo Center in Lawton, Oklahoma.

The event featured catering from the Expo Center, vendors and entertainment, including Comanche Nation Academy speaking Comanche, Travis Komahcheet playing the flute, Prevention and Recovery singing Christmas Carols, and Comanche Nation Youth Dancers performing.

Alice Kassanavoid said as a Comanche Business Committee (CBC) member it’s one of her favorite days of the year.

“It's a day we celebrate our elders, and they're just all so happy,” she said. “Everybody here is in such a great mood, and it's, you know, coming out of COVID. It's really refreshing to see everybody's smiling faces and just excited.”

Kassanavoid also said the Comanche Nation hosts several events throughout the year, but this one is special to elders. She said the CBC enjoys helping with celebrating tribal members.

“A lot of our CBC members are elders, and so they are also, you know, partaking in the celebration today,” Kassanavoid said.

She said giving back to her people is important.

“They help pay for my education and, you know, my Kaku, my grandparents, they're all Comanche,” Kassanavoid said. “And so, I just, it's my people, and that's what I love to do is, you know, serve my Comanche people.”

She was also at the event celebrating with family.

"I absolutely love it. I was able to go and help my grandma get her check and then just help her walk her around,” Kassanavoid said. “And we even got our picture taken together. And so, it feels really good to be able to celebrate with my Kaku and my parents.”

Comanche Nation’s Acting Enrollment Director Shandel Wesaw said the event took a lot of work to put on the occasion.

“One of the main things, main concerns we had this year was the venue. Unfortunately, we have outgrown the Coliseum,” she said. “So, we decided to choose another venue and we were so thankful that the Expo Center had availability and it was large enough to accommodate our elders and their families.”

Wesaw coordinated the event with fellow employees.

“We made sure that the venue was available. We made sure that the venue could accommodate our amount of elders that we have and we service,” she said. “We had to make sure that they could provide us with a meal, entertainment, and that they could accommodate City National Bank to hand out the elder payment along with cashing their elder payments.”

Wesaw said her day was hectic.

“Me and my team worked very hard to get everyone situated to make sure the event was very successful,” she said.

Wesaw said it’s an honor to coordinate Elders Day, which is a day to celebrate Comanche Nation elders.

“I have been working here for 14 years, and it has to be one of my favorites,” she said.

Wesaw said her favorite part was watching the Comanche Nation Academy and Youth Dancers Perform.

“I feel like that was the highlight of the event,” she said.

Wesaw said those who didn’t attend the event should receive their checks in the mail.