News | Sky Ranch for Boys

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2010 is a very exciting year here at Sky Ranch For Boys! It marks our 50th year of helping troubled boys. I am writing to ask you to come help us celebrate this momentous occasion. We have several days of activities planned and we hope you can join us.

Friday, June 4, 2010 - Open House

On Friday, June 4, 2010, we will have an open house at Sky Ranch. We will begin with a program at 10:00AM in the Gym, followed by lunch and tours. We would love to have you present for this! This event is free of charge, but we would appreciate you calling us at 605-797-4422 or emailing jduttenhefer@skyranchforboys.com to RSVP.

10:00AM	Program at Gym
11:30AM	Lunch
12:30PM	Tours
1:30 PM	Storytelling Time/Open Mic Book Signing by Jolene Philo

Saturday, June 5, 2010 - Fly-In for South Dakota Pilots’ Association

11:00AM	Tours
12:00PM	Lunch
1:00PM	Reserved for meeting

Sunday, June 6, 2010 - Hall of Fame Dinner

On Sunday, June 6, 2010, the Sky Ranch Foundation will be holding their annual Hall of Fame dinner in Deadwood, SD. Tickets for this event can be purchased through their website at www.skyranchfoundation.org.

10:30AM	Harley Davidson Riders Arrive/Tours
11:30AM	Lunch
6:30PM	Hall of Fame Dinner at Deadwood www.skyranchfoundation.org for details/tickets

Our 50 years of service has only been possible because of wonderful supporters such as you! We continue to be a nonprofit organization that relies heavily on private donations to keep our facility up and running. We use donations to provide much of the upkeep needed on buildings and programming for the boys. We are constantly in need of recreation equipment, horse tack, etc. Your donations make this possible.

This celebration is our way of saying “thank you” for helping us make it 50 years! We can only hope that another 50 years is in front of us.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Hoping to see you in June,
Jodi Duttenhefer, LSW, MS Jodi Duttenhefer, LSW, MS
Executive Director
jduttenhefer@skyranchforboys.com

HOW CAN I HELP SKY RANCH:
There are a number of ways you can help Sky Ranch every day. Examples include:

SKY RANCH LOOKING TO EXPAND HORSE PROGRAM
With the start of a new year comes changes for Sky Ranch For Boys. As many of you already know, I took over as the Executive Director of Sky Ranch on July 1 of last year. One of the major charges I had was to evaluate our programming and see where improvements or additions could be made. Over the last six months, I have gathered a lot of information and, together with our Program Director and Board of Directors, we have prioritized the changes we think are important.

The first major improvement on our agenda is to make our horse program better. There is a lot of evidence out there that confirms horses are valuable in therapeutic environments. So, after a lot of research, we have decided to join the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, also know as EAGALA. EAGALA provides education, standards, innovation, and support to professionals providing services in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy.

In September of 2008, we sent two people to part 1 of the EAGALA training. One person learned to work mainly with the horses while the second person focused mainly on the mental health aspects. The two people who attended came back and are convinced that the equine therapy could be very effective with the boys at Sky Ranch. They learned some things they will begin implementing with the boys this spring. They will also attend part 2 of the EAGALA training and, upon completion, Sky Ranch will become fully recognized members of the association.

While we are very proud of our staff for beginning this process, we are also faced with new challenges. Sky Ranch has not fully utilized its horse program for a few years, which means that we are in need of several items before we can be up to where we would like to see our program. We are asking for your help in finding some of these items. Any items that are donated to Sky Ranch can be used as a tax deduction. The following is a list of items we need, but we would be willing to accept other tack as well. Please call if you can help us at 605-797-4422. Thank you!