Jail Chaplains Hosts 19th Annual Dessert Social

The event is intended to help fundraise but also to highlight some of the impactful work the organization has done over the past year.

MOORHEAD, MN – Over 300 bodies filled the main space at the Armory Events Center on the evening of October 16 to celebrate the work of Jail Chaplains. It was the 19th Annual Dessert Social for the Fargo-based nonprofit.

Staff say it’s their biggest event of the year, and that none of this would be possible without community support.

“We’re not an island. We work with so many different partners and community organizations. It really takes a whole village,” explained Jail Chaplains executive director Mike Little.

Cass County Jail Chaplain Rev. Mike Sonju has been served in his role since 2007.

He says he’s seen the transformative power of religious outreach time and again.

“I’m just there, to do whatever God wants me to do. But I absolutely have seen a difference made,” he said.

One such person who has been impacted is Dyllan Peltier.

He’s gone from incarceration to being the keynote speaker for the program at the Dessert Social.

Peltier now hopes to use his position as a volunteer with Jail Chaplains to reach others who are in his former shoes.

“A lot of people in the community, they know me,” he explained. “I can tell them that I trust people that work in Jail Chaplains . . . And they’re like, ‘Well, I’m gonna trust them too.'”

The organization has one main message regarding the incarcerated population it serves.

“People who commit crimes and are in jail, they’re not our enemy,” said Little.