August Newsletter: Summer Recap & NEW programs

Sally Ann Cheyne — July 30, 2023

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Cheyne Ranch is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that provides a safe, inclusive and accessible way for people of all abilities to learn about animal care and connection.

We are SO EXCITED about our line-up of fall classes!

first, a summer recap…

We had an AMAZING summer!

6 teen volunteers | 4 workers | Over 400! appointments slots between Nature Clubs, PALS, Riding Lessons, & 4 weeks of Summer Camp | 8 weeks of Friday Treasures for 6 spectacular teen girls | 25 family visit appointments | 20 speech therapy appointments | over 80 appts donated for FREE as part of our scholarships | 10! horses, 3 goats, 3 dogs, 4 cats, 14 bunnies, 30ish chickens | a NEW kitten | + all the Cheyne family adventures, fishing for Evan, theater for Sophia, Law camp! and horseback riding for Anna and… 40 days of roundtrip drop-off and pick-ups downtown Orlando for our ballerina Graci (over 4,000 miles!)

and it isn’t even August yet!

++ a BIG Thank you to our workers and volunteers! Thank you for showing up! Thank you for sharing your ideas and your enthusiasm, taking photos, having fun together and most importantly - working so diligently and keeping everyone SAFE!

• THANK YOU to our hardworking staff (in order of hire date - I think): Preston, Kayla, Tatiana & Kai

• THANK YOU to our incredible volunteers: Gabriella, Abby, Julia, Giana, Emilyse (and Jamie! for showing up with no notice to teach for an entire week!)

• THANK YOU to our students who stepped up so much this summer and I can’t wait for you to be “official” volunteers: Skyler, Eva, Kate, Miranda & Harrison

• THANK YOU to the Philip & the Cheyne kids - you work 7 days a week helping to take care of our animals and how quickly I forget to thank you for all your hard work, patience, and support

• I love this beautiful orchestra of talent and fun that I get to conduct - I’m probably forgetting some names - but THANK YOU!

+++ a BIG Thank you to the families: moms, dads, grandparents who donate their time, money, ideas, food, encouragement, hard working selves & driving kids, and keep showing up to be an incredible part of this Cheyne Ranch community. I’m so thankful for all of you.

Now, back to our fall programming…

Drumroll please…………………………….. It’s BACK!! 10 weeks this fall!!

Social Skills Class!

Julia Gerhard, CCC-SLP, DMA, Speech Therapist will guide our kids in communication and connection with peers while having fun at our farm!

Please email or call Julie with any questions: Juliadgerhard@gmail.com | (215) 767-9455

This is NEW! This is so exciting!!

FARMYARD EXPLORERS with SHAWNA!

Interested in joining us? Please complete the interest form

Cheyne Ranch programs…

Heading into our 4th fall this August 2023. They just keep getting better... PALS, Nature Club, Riding Lessons

Our fall semester is 2 sessions of 8 weeks each:

• 8 week session: Aug 17 - Oct 11 | $400

• 8 week session: Oct 19 - Dec 20 | $400

Interested in joining us? Please complete the interest form

PALS

Learn animal care and connection with our 2 feet on the ground (not riding). We will gain valuable life skills as we push ourselves to grow taking care of the horses, chickens, goats, bunnies, cow and pig.

Nature Club!

Choose either Wednesdays afterschool (3pm - 6pm) or Friday mornings (9am - 1pm). We are starting our 4th school year offering Nature Clubs and it is outdoor small group learning at its best!

Students have option to participate in Rainbow Learning Levels for UNmounted curriculum!

Horseback Riding Lessons

Horseback riding lessons are so fun! We offer them every week, for 1 hour in small groups of 2 - 3 students of a similar level. We are so excited about our new curriculum! Combining the best from CHA, USPC and HSLL - we have a google classroom with more learning at home! (optional)

Students have option to participate in Rainbow Learning Levels for the riding / mounted curriculum!

Small group lessons of 2 - 3 students at a similar level.

Donation considerations:

• We strive to be INCLUSIVE and ACCESSIBLE to ALL students - we have 75 students each week joining us!

• We offer over 20% of our lessons FREE to the community members who might not otherwise be able to experience this!

• We spend hundreds of hours each year training and mentoring teenagers as volunteers as they develop real job skills for their future

• We adopt and care for animals in need - all of our 10 horses have been specifically placed with us because their owners knew our high standard of care and knowledge would be the right lifetime home for their animals

Please Donate:

• Sponsor a student! Sponsor a program! Each class is $200 for 8 weeks, a program like Treasures is $2,000 for 8 weeks. When making your donation, write “scholarship” in the comments

• Donate money to Cheyne Ranch, Inc chra.us/pay (we take money almost every way you could possibly pay it) for our farm upkeep, there is always a long list of repairs and improvements. Fences, water pipes, drainage improvements, a need for loads of sand, it just keeps going.

• Find out how your employer might match your donation

• Purchase a Lowes, Home Depot, or Tractor Supply gift card for our animals.

• Call Horstmeyer’s in Sanford and add money to our account - this is where we buy a lot of our hay & feed.

• Purchase anything from our Amazon wish list

FEELING LOW ON FUNDS?

Here are some ways to support Cheyne Ranch that are not monetary donations:

• REFER US! WE love offering family visits, birthday parties and meeting new people. Tell your friends and neighbors about us so they will come see us too!

• REVIEW US! One of the primary ways small businesses gain new customers is by having a lot of positive online reviews! Please write us a positive review us on google, facebook, or anywhere else you visit on the web

• FOLLOW US! By following us on Facebook / Instagram, you help keep our sporadic posts in other people’s news feed. More views creates more views. Interacting with a photo or a post on social media (like, comment, share) is even better!

• VOLUNTEER! If you are an existing family who is part of our Cheyne Ranch community, please reach out to me and let me know if you want to come clean some stalls, sweep the floor, fill some waters or even organize anything! Email me for more info

  That’s about all for now! There are more programs and developments in the works - I am so excited to be on this journey with you all.

Interested in joining our classes or lesson programs? Please complete the interest form

Nonprofit News:

We have made so many big connections this summer:

1. We have partnered with Ladies327, a nonprofit that exists to support other nonprofits. The founder, Kim Colegrave and I connected right away over our shared love of horses, our motivation to help others and our similar stories of finding ourselves the founder and president of nonprofits while we wade our way through the buerocracy (her nonprofit is 8 years ahead of Cheyne Ranch - I have so much to learn.)

2. We have implemented a new curriculum for both our riding and (some of) our ground programs. It is called HorseSense Learning Levels and it has been so exciting to try out so many new games, patterns, and ideas. Also, the founders of HorseSense Learning Levels are like-minded in their emphasis that horse care and connection are the primary focus of lessons - not to be overshadowed by the physical skills. This fall semester, we are rolling out an option for students to earn a ribbon for passing each level - IF they want to do some additional learning away from the barn. More details coming soon…

3. We are in talks with Glorious Hands, Inc, a nonprofit in Sanford, Florida that seeks to provide mentoring opportunities for teenage girls, and we hope to come up with opportunities to host fun and learning classes for their organization.

4. Cheyne Ranch is beginning volunteer advocacy work to help other providers and families who utilize the Family Empowerment Scholarship. Our goal is to utilize this website to help others understand some of the technical nuances and possibly create short manuals / guides for providers and families.

5. We are navigating through insurance liability options so we can provide services for families the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida.

6. We welcome Jenine Moore, an Occupational Therapist with over 10 years of experience working with special needs kids! Jenine is available for in-home and farm! OT appointments.

And the list of connections keeps growing, our momentum is exciting. And the need for these kind of services is big. So big that every time we add a new lesson time slot or a new class, it gets filled and there is a waiting list. So big that I don’t have time to return voicemails. So big I am finding myself sharing our philosophy and approach with others in hopes they will open up their businesses with the same accessible and inclusive mission that we have. We are offering something big. But the need is still bigger.

Interested in joining our classes or lesson programs? Please complete the interest form

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