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30-40 new volunteers showed up in a spring blizzard to learn how to help Zuma’s
Spa Day for Kennedy
Dedication at it’s finest, Zuma’s was host to 30-40 new volunteers Saturday April 24th! In spite of the horrible spring storm packing high winds, sleet, snow, hail and rail this dedicated group of folks cam out to help Zuma’s mission move forward.
Funding
In order for a non-profit organization to focus on the mission, the community must embrace the mission and ultimately fund the mission. Zuma’s is seeking a cracker jack sales person to fund our four million dollar endowment. This endowment will provide sustainable funding for our program operations.
As you might imagine, running an operation that cares for 25+ equine therapy partners and provides Experiential Learning for 30+ families per week has a large operating budget, $187,000 to be exact. Four million dollars in our endowment earning 6% would provide the operations income so necessary for Zuma’s program directors to focus on the mission of helping at risk youth.
As things are today at Zuma’s far too much time is spent chasing those operations funds, leaving less time to focus on the needs of our designated population in need of service, children in the foster care system. 80% of these children end up in prison with the current mode of interventions, Zuma’s programs over the past two years have proven themselves very successful in helping these kids have hope to become well-adjusted members of our society.
If you feel you have what it takes to sell our endowment to the community please contact Zuma’s Executive Director Jodi Messenich 303-346-7493. Become part of a mission that protects the futures of the 6000 children in foster care today.
Healing Horses ~ Changing Lives
Please Get Your Tickets Today, Support A Child or Horse at Zuma’s
Wines Of The Pines
French Wine Tour Charity Event
Please join the Castle Pines Chamber and Wines of the Pines at
The Ridge at Castle Pines North
Great French wines and tasty hors d’oeuvres
Friday, April 9th – 5:00 to 7:00 pm
The Ridge at Castle Pines North
Included in the French Wine Tour:
A selection of French wines Hors d’oeuvres paired with each wine
Music by Michael Kotik Opportunity to help others
Ticket Price: $35.00
Tickets must be purchased by Monday, April 5th, 2010
. Charities . Women’s Crisis and Family Outreach Center – Douglas
County Veterans Monument - Zumas Rescue Ranch
. Sponsors . Insurance Solutions Inc. – Shelley Hawthorne BYG Promotions – Yolanda and Greg Bruce
Independent Business Management Services Inc. – Jim Hawthorne RE/MAX Elite – Mary Anne DeYoung – Elizabeth Owens Mark Robertson Visiting Angels Living Assistance Services Stuart and Rhonda Van Kooten Renovations Landscaping, Inc. – Dan Farley
For ticket information contact the
Castle Pines Chamber 303-688-3359
or Jim Hawthorne winesofthepinesinc.com or winesofthepines@comcast.net
A Letter To Our Mentors~Without Them There Would Be No ELP
Hello everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the March session of ELP! I think we have seen great progress with many of our kiddos. I see our little ones starting to push some boundaries and test a bit. Our teen group challenged us for the first few weeks, but I think things fell into place on Monday and the documentary is going to be amazing!
You guys are doing a great job with data collection. I know it is hard, but it really is the way to show the insurance companies and funders that what we are doing works. We will become Medicaid providers as of the May session, which may change a few things. For the most part we already take all the data in information they will need. It is exciting- it should help with funding for a lot of our kids.
Thank you for being on top of the sign in-sign out. As we get more organized and progress we will add and subtract protocol. We will start monitoring who picks kids up in the May session and each kid will have a list of who is allowed to pick them up. We will also be doing a communication log starting in May. I am not sure what that will look like yet, but we will go over it prior to the May session starting.
Other news:
We have 2 kids being paid for by the county and one of them is court ordered. All steps forward to the counties recognizing that kids are getting so much from this and that it is worth funding!
We are going to start a weekly mentor training. It will be every from 12:45-1:30. We will role play and work on various scenarios as well as go over questions you guys have. Monday night mentors-you are welcome at the Saturday training. If we need to add a training on Mondays we will look into that. Let me know. That training will start this Saturday!
May session sign ups… it is that time again to sign up for the next session. If you are not continuing, please, please please try to find someone to take your place. The Teen group will be May 3rd, 10th, 17th, 27th, June7th and 14th. The Preteen group will be May 8th, 15th, 22nd, June 5th, 12th, 19th. We will be off the weekend of Memorial Day (May 29th and 31st). Let me know by April 10th if you are returning or who is replacing you. We will have a New Mentor Training on May 1st.
We are going to add ELP Volunteer Hours. Right now the Teen group comes and works from 3-5. It has been a challenge but we have worked most of the kinks out. A lot of the kids have expressed interest in volunteering, but they can’t come whenever they want and we can’t offer supervision throughout the week. So, we will continue the Teen Volunteer Hours on Mondays from 3-5. Typically this group cleans stalls and then plays a game. We will be adding a second work task as they can handle it. The Pre-Teen Volunteer Hours will either be on Saturdays following ELP or on Sundays. Are any of you interested in supervising the kids? The pre-teens would be dusting the arena, washing buckets, etc. There would be little horse involvement to keep the need for supervision ratio down. If you are interested talk to me.
We will also be having an ELP Summer CAMP!!! Summer Camp will be the week of June 14 to 18. It will be between 5 and 6 hours a day with a mix of equine activities, games, hiking and possible field trip. We are looking volunteers who can help out with the kiddos. If interested, talk to me.
Finally- We need to do a Mentor Melting Pot Night. Coordinating 20 mentors and 6 facilitators calendars is insanity, add on top the Colorado weather… So April 12th at 8:00. Email me if you are going to attend so we can make a reservation.
I can’t thank you all enough for what you are doing for these kids and what you have done for me. Starting this program is an amazing experience and has helped me to settle into my new home.
Maura Stack-Oden, MA, BCABA
Behavior Analyst
Zuma’s Rescue Ranch
440-840-9146 (cell)
720-344-8971(fax)
Zuma’s Volunteer Of The Month
Meet Dan Schlachtenhaufen, Zuma’s volunteer of the month for February.
Volunteer Of The Month of February
Dan only started volunteering at Zuma’s in late January and since that time he has consistently volunteered between 20 to 25 hours a week. No job is too difficult for Dan, he cleans paddocks/pastures and the stalls. He even feeds breakfast and lunch to our herd and is by far the earliest volunteer to arrive at the ranch at 7:30am.
Due to Dan’s dedication he has learned all about the horses and knows them all by name.
Zuma’s Rescue Ranch is very lucky to have Dan and all our other volunteers, we couldn’t do this without you all.
Thank you to all the Zuma’s volunteers and congratulations Dan!
Join Zuma’ this weekend at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo.
Equine Assisted Learning
Volunteers Needed!
Zuma’s operates with a skeleton crew supplemented by its cherished volunteers. Volunteers are the backbone of Zuma’s Rescue Ranch, as they are of any non-profit organization–especially any program that involves animals. Programs like ours never rest: there are no days off when caring for heartbeats.
Volunteer opportunities at the ranch are fun, varied, outdoor learning experiences; a chance to get out of the office, out of the house and outdoors. Most of our volunteers would rather clean a barn than their own homes, and for that we love them.
The Ranch has no prerequisites to become part of our volunteer family, just a love for children and/or horses and the outdoors. You need not have horse experience. We can teach you everything you need to know to care for them, a lesson well worth learning.
Volunteer Training : Every 1st and 4th Saturday from 9:00 am-12:00 pm, volunteers can come and learn the ropes. Once you have successfully completed the volunteer training, we offer flexibility in volunteer opportunity scheduling.
Volunteers who have completed the training session are always needed for help with the following:
- Early morning feeding crew (7:30 am)
- Late morning pasture and stall cleaners (9-10 am)
- Lunch time feeding crew (12-1 pm)
- Early evening feeding crew (4-5 pm)
- Early evening pasture and stall cleaning crew (3-5 pm)
- Any time of day for the following; horse groomers, riders, mane pullers, body clippers.
Electricians, plumbers, framers, handy men, excavators & roofers are always needed for projects.
We are always looking for groups that need corporate work days. We have the work and need the help.
Please contact our volunteer coordinator for opportunities:volunteers@zumasrescueranch.com
The Morning Poo Stomp
Dedication ~
Dan The Man
Once in a blue moon an organization becomes blessed with a dedicated volunteer that commits to “be there” and really mean it.
Zuma’s has been blessed with a big-hearted man, giving 20+ hours per week in service to helping care for our herd of rescue horses. Dan shows up every Wednesday morning anxious to get busy feeding the horses. In addition to the Wednesdays Dan is arriving on Monday and Fridays often times to assist with the endless barn chores. It is the dedication of folks like this that allow the founders, Jodi and Paul time to work on other things needing attention around the 146 acre property.
On Sundays Zuma’s is blessed with another loyal and committed volunteer Jean, Jean arrives promptly with Starbucks in hand each and every Sunday morning ready to put in her 5-10 hours of service. Knowing that Jean will be there every Sunday allows special projects to be planned for Sunday knowing there will always be the extra set of hands to get things done.
There are several volunteers like this at Zuma’s , far too many to mention them all, we could not do what we do for the horses and the kids without these very special people.Volunteers have hearts of gold with selfless ambition to give back and make the world a better place.
All of our volunteers make Zuma’s world a better place, and for that we are eternally grateful!
Three Cheers for Volunteers!
If you would like to become one of Zuma’s Volunteers click the volunteer link.
Beacon Center for Family and Children
Wow, how an organization entrusted with the care of at risk youth be so careless. Seems they are very good at back pedaling when staff make mistakes, not so good at placing the child’s mental health in front of their own corporate agendas. If organizations providing care for at risk youth do not step out of the box when it comes to providing solution…… we will continue with the same alarming statistics of 54% of children removed from their homes do not graduate from high school and 80% end up in prison at some point in their lives.
unconditional acceptance, just what they need!
Beacon Center newly appointed Executive Director has not clue number one what goes on in the house which became boldly clear in a meeting with him today.
Zuma’s offered five wonderful young women the opportunity at no cost to take part in our $460.00 per person sensational experiential learning program. While the young women were benefiting greatly from the experience, a fact agreed upon by all involved, sadly the powers that be at the Beacon Center pulled the girls from the program mid-stream with 1.5 hours notice.
This road was rocky from day one, the program coördinator from the Beacon Center did not read or fill out the necessary paper work prior to the first day of the program. Zuma’s staff asked repeatedly to have the paper work completed prior to the programs start day, obviously this fell on deaf ears. So here we are week 5 of a six-week program…… and five of our eight program participants pulled with no justification. Vague statements of clinical boundaries, licensing regulations and the sort were stated. Though the fact that we are not a therapy center nor are we bound by therapy red tape were ignored…. We are not obligated to the same broke standard, we offer an experiential learning environment, and we do not let policy dictate our educational plans. Out of the Box if you will.
In our collective opinion removing the girls from their mentors and their horses without so much as a good-bye was sadly the wrong thing to do. Putting the clients of Beacon Center first should be of the utmost importance, not protecting exposures allowed by Beacon House staff members. What happened here was not congruent with the mission statement at the Beacon Center. This was in no way in the best interest of the young women participating, these young people have already had so many people walk out of their lives, this was just one more disappointment for them, re-enforcing their fear of attachment.
Zuma’s Rescue Ranch along with The University of Denver have developed a better method of reaching these at risk youth, which was sadly ignored by the Beacon Center.
Breaking the mold is what really needs to happen, the status quo is failing our children.
Won’t you join Zuma’s in making a better path for these kids, Don’t stick with a failed system just because “this is how it is done” or” This is how we keep our license” If it is broken…… FIX IT!
Zuma’s has fixed it, Zuma’s has a better way and it is time to be” out with the old and in with the new.”
Mentoring Part 5
An Effective Mentoring Relationship
Equine Mentors
Mentoring is work of the heart. It offers personal rewards, but it is also about building community, inspiring hope, sharing success, enriching life. You don’t need special skills to be an effective mentor. Patience, empathy, and a generous spirit are the greatest gifts a mentor can offer a child.
Older men and women bring a special quality to mentoring. Young adult mentors tend to be more goal-oriented. Older people, with more living under their belt and many personal goals already achieved, tend to be more relationship-oriented. An emphasis on relationship is often the key to making mentoring work. Research shows that the best mentors are those who take their time, who listen to children and get to know them. Mentors in a hurry – “efficient” mentors who have a set goal or are determined to change a young person – usually fail.
Mentoring is not a quick fix. There’s no express route to making a difference and building real trust. In a seemingly “inefficient” approach to mentoring, older adults do things at their own pace. They aren’t in a hurry. They don’t expect kids to do things quickly or correctly at the first try. Mentoring is best performed patiently, and patience is one of the great virtues of age. Also, older people have a different relationship to time than young adults. They can be acutely aware of their life time running out and yet, paradoxically, this awareness makes them take things more slowly so that they can focus on what’s meaningful and essential. If you’ve ever watched a child marvel over the seemingly smallest crack in the sidewalk, you come to realize that in many ways young and old are in the same “time zone.” That’s a big benefit in a mentoring relationship.
Mentoring involves a one-on-one relationship of mutual commitment, caring, and trust between a more experienced person and a younger person. One of the things young people are often desperate for is a stable, ongoing relationship. A mentor provides this relationship as they teach, challenge, and support a young person. They also serve as a role model and companion. But both mentor and mentee have to enter into the relationship willing to learn from each other. Mentors who become students of their own experience use reflection to inform what they do and how they do it. In reflecting on their experience, they learn something about themselves and as a result are more effective in the relationship. The relationship grows and matures, and mentor and mentee grow with it.
