Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope today is your LUCKY day!
As we sit here on pause from programs and service, I am thankful for a moment to reflect on Sprout. Ask any of our staff, students or volunteers and they will tell you that magic happens on this farm and that here the IMPOSSIBLE is made POSSIBLE.
So, I suppose it’s safe to say that Sprout is a pretty LUCKY place. Over the years, we’ve served more than 5,000 individuals – we’ve celebrated first words of a child on the back of a horse, we’ve watched first steps taken without assistance down our aisles, we’ve brought teens out of the judicial system and back to school we’ve worked alongside young adult’s eager to gain job skills and united people from all walks of life under the conviction that community is powerful…that believing in something is powerful…and that we RISE by lifting others.
I can tell you that these outcomes DIDN’T happen by chance.
I believe that Sprout’s luck is the outcome of action. And there are a few UNDENIABLE factors that have influenced Sprout’s luck over the years. These factors laid the foundation of our success as a young organization and will permeate the culture and director of this place as we move into our future.
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU SHOW UP
The body of Sprout is comprised of 18 horses, 15 staff and a continuous flow of a hundred weekly volunteers that give over 6,000 hours of service to this mission each year. We come together regardless of the weather or convenience, when we’re stretched too thin, or going through personal crisis… We show up because we care deeply for the people we serve and about being there to for them ….because luck comes when you show up.
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU DECIDE TO FIND IT
We set our sights on CHANGING LIVES – and we push to make this goal a reality…because replacing despair with joy matters…replacing limitations with potential matters…replacing isolation with the love of friends matters…
The vision of Sprout is to provide HOPE, HEALING, EMPOWERMENT and RECOVERY to members of THIS community….
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE
We, at Sprout, are POSSABILITARIANS – a unique breed of people that cling to the philosophy that every person on this planet has something to offer. That for every challenge, set-back or struggle there is also an ABILITY. We use this view every day in our lessons and therapy as we work to find the spark in each student…and set it ablaze.
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY
Sprout now offers 4 and soon to be 5 areas of programming – not because we chose to from the start but instead as response the growing diversity in needs of our students….
Seeing limitations as opportunity and meeting them head on has helped us grow and made us stronger and better.
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU TAKE RISKS
At Sprout, we appreciate and celebrate INNOVATION. We are excited and inspired by challenge and change. We are the creators, we are the do-ers. It’s this mindset that allows us to create adaptive tack for riders that gives them independence, to stay on the cutting edge of therapy and to push the boundaries of what “traditional” therapeutic riding looks, acts and feels like.
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU LOVE HARD
We work hard not because we are told to…not because we have to…we work because it comes from the heart. I can honestly say that PASSION has kept Sprout afloat through our beginning years and knowing that this organization has a soul that will never be stifled gives me the confidence that the best is yet to come.
- LUCK COMES WHEN YOU SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE
And this might be the most important one…I believe each person that comes to Sprout is here for a meaningful reason…and that there is no coincidence that we are together in this community.
The fact of the matter is that Sprout’s “LUCK” is ALIVE and it’s STRONG. Sprout’s “LUCK” comes from you and It comes from me and it comes from anyone whoever selflessly gives to change the life of someone who needs it…
It’s the realization of GOOD, it’s a LIGHT in times of trouble and it’s a HOPE that the best is yet to come.
So, with that let’s “WALK ON” together – it’s our LUCKY day!