We’re excited to share our latest Saddles in Service Newsletter with you and are certain you’ll enjoy reading all of the happenings on the ranch!
February 2021 Newsletter PDF
A message from Tammy, our CEO
As the first month of 2021 comes to a close, I am thankful for the continuous growth and support of SIS. We experienced the highest growth during 2020 and the trend looks to be continuing. The need for a program such as ours has become extremely evident as the number of Hero applications continues to climb. I am very thankful for our volunteers who have continued to give their all for our heroes and horses. Because of the rise in applications, we have added a new program which focuses on groups of veterans and first responders. This program is a team building activity that partners each person with a horse and a wrangler in a group setting. The feedback from our first program for ICU nurses was truly heartwarming. These nurses were experiencing depression, stress and anxiety. Our program allowed them to reset and enjoy a little respite while laughing and enjoying time with their colleagues and horses. It was such a success that we have three additional hospitals that have asked for our support. We have expanded this to our partners in law enforcement and fire as well. We are extremely excited to do what we can to provide wellness and healing to our veterans, first responders and horses.
With the increased number of heroes we are serving, we are going to be changing our program hours. We will have 2 sessions every Saturday and a few extra sessions during the week. We will be in need of extra wranglers on these days so if you have horse experience and would like to help our veterans and first responders, please fill out our volunteer application on our website. We are also looking for a volunteer who has Grant writing experience. With our growth in heroes, we need to keep up with infrastructure upgrades. A Grant writer is an immediate need. Please contact me if you have experience and would like to join our family.
I am also very excited to announce that we have two great cowgirls, Suzanne and Megan, who will be hosting training clinics for all of our wranglers. They both interned under Bob King, who learned under horsemen such as Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance. We continue to learn and grow here at SIS so we can best serve our heroes that go through our programs.
Lastly, I want to welcome Cheryl Erpelding to our SIS family! Cheryl is our Chief Operations Officer, COO. She comes to us with a wealth of experience in the corporate world, non-profit sector and she is a true Cowgirl! Her horsemanship knowledge has made a huge difference here at SIS. We are blessed to have such amazing volunteers!
I look forward to updating y’all next month. Thank you for your continued support of all of us at SIS!
Tammy
