Needs List

Zuma’s can ALWAYS use your tax-deductible cash donations. But if you can’t donate cash, have you considered all the non-cash things you could offer to help the rescued horses? Here is a list of some things the Ranch needs NOW:

• Volunteer labor
• Grass Hay 12 tons per month
• Round bale attachment for New Holland Skid Steer
• Grain: Nutrena Senior 50 lb bags
• Grain: Nutrena Youth 50 lb bags
• 29 Quest Plus wormers
• Water hose and spray nozzels (always breaking!)
• Manure forks
• 3-sided loafing sheds
• Horse-friendly fencing (labor and materials are needed for horse fencing construction. We have 146 acres…mostly unfenced. More fence= more horses that can be saved)
• Fence gates for new pastures
• Horse bedding (shavings)
• New feed wagon (the bottom fell out of ours!) 😦
• Cobb-sized halters
• Lead ropes
• Horse shampoo & conditioner
• Mane & tail spray
• Hoof oil
• Licensed Psychotherapists who will volunteer their time
• Brushes
• Muck Baskets
• Feed troughs for outdoor shelters

Your donations help turn unwanted horses into useful, loving companions that can help heal the wounded hearts of the foster children in our program. Click below to watch a video about how these horses, once rehabilitated, can give back:

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 Experiential Learning Program

Michael Hogland of Littleton Colorado first appeared at Zuma’s as a volunteer November 1st, 2009. The weather that day was snowy and freezing cold, but that did not keep Mike and his friends from attending Zuma’s volunteer training. That is true dedication! As a new member of the Zuma’s family, Mike jumped in head first coming out in the worst weather, traipsing through deep snow and slick mud to help care for the equine therapy partners.

This past Sunday November 8th, Mike became the first person to step up and sponsor a child for the upcoming Experiential Learning Program to begin at Zuma’s in January 2010. The program cost per child is $220.00 and Mike wrote Zuma’s a check for the full amount. With this donation, he will be making a difference in an at risk child’s life.

The program will focus on many obstacles faced by the children in our community dealing with emotional challenges. Please join Mike in sponsoring these children. We have scheduled 16 slots for children ranging in age from 7-17. Gather your friends your companies together to get these 16 kids sponsored. You will receive the age and gender of the child you sponsor along with progress reports from their parents and teachers.

We will also need 16 adults to commit to be mentors with the kids in the program for the 6 weeks. Recruit a friend to mentor with you and come be part of the change you want to see in our young people. The programs will run either Monday evening 5-7:30 or Saturday Mornings 10-12:30

Please join us in providing these experiential programs to help these at risk youth. Contact: Jodi Messeinch 303-346-7493 or jodi@zumasrescuernahc.com to sign up.

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE    UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE

Mike Hogland passed away this week in his sleep. A rare treasure among volunteers. Mike will be missed by both the 2 and 4 legged Zuma family members.

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!

Did you know?

Child Protective Services is not taking care of their charges. These facts have been gathered from many sources. The reporting organization is listed at the end of each paragraph.

There are more than half a million children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, a 90% increase since 1987. Three of 10 of the nation’s homeless are former foster children. A recent study has found that 12‐18 months after leaving foster care:

• 27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
• 33% were receiving public assistance
• 37% had not finished high school
• 50% were unemployed

*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support

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

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.”

Zuma’s is New, join us. Donate, Sponsor, Volunteer,

Support Zumas’ Mission with every email you send

You can support the Ranch by adding the picture and text below to your email signature. Copy and paste it into your signature for all outgoing emails, and become part of our Mission by spreading our name to everyone in your circle of contacts. Send us an email (info@zumasrescueranch.com) and let us know you’ve joined the mission! Thanks for your support!

If you have and interest in donating to support the Mission at Zuma’s please visit our donate page.

Zuma’s Rescue Ranch supports foster children and rescued horses so that they can help one another heal the wounds in their hearts and minds. At the Ranch, horses who were destined for slaughter are rescued, rehabilitated, and trained, so that they can help children who have been similarly discarded by our failing system in equine-assisted psychotherapy sessions. To learn more and find out how you can help, please email Jodi Messenich (Jodi@zumasrescueranch.com) or visit http://www.zumasrescueranch.com or https://zumasrescueranch.wordpress.com today.  Zuma’s is an approved 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible.  Please support these children and horses. Lives are not disposable.

Zuma’s Current Needs List

Zuma’s can ALWAYS use your tax-deductible cash donations. But if you can’t donate cash, have you considered all the non-cash things you could offer to help the rescued horses? Here is a list of some things the Ranch needs NOW:

• Volunteer labor
• Grass Hay 12 tons per month
• Round bale attachment for New Holland Skid Steer
• Grain: Nutrena Senior 50 lb bags
• Grain: Nutrena Youth 50 lb bags
• 29 Quest Plus wormers
• Water hose and spray nozzles (always breaking!)
• Manure forks
• 3-sided loafing sheds
• Horse-friendly fencing (labor and materials are needed for horse fencing construction. We have 146 acres…mostly unfenced. More fence= more horses that can be saved)
• Fence gates for new pastures
• Horse bedding (shavings)
• New feed wagon (the bottom fell out of ours!) 😦
• Cobb-sized halters
• Lead ropes
• Horse shampoo & conditioner
• Mane & tail spray
• Hoof oil
• Licensed Psychotherapists who will volunteer their time
• Brushes
• Muck Baskets
• Feed troughs for outdoor shelters

Your donations help turn unwanted horses into useful, loving companions that can help heal the wounded hearts of the foster children in our program. Click below to watch a video about how these horses, once rehabilitated, can give back:

YouTube

A Little Snow Doesn’t Slow the Zuma Crew Down

Despite the snow and cold weather expected to hit again this weekend, the work at Zuma’s is never done.  There are always hungry horses to be fed and stalls to be cleaned and Zuma’s ALWAYS appreciates a helping hand.  The Saturday Volunteer Training will be held – sun, rain or snow, so bundle up and bring your thermos full of hot cocoa! Please drive safely if you plan on joining us this weekend!

Here are some pictures from our last snow storm, courtesy of Maura Stack-Oden.