Join us at the Fun Show & Family Day on Saturday, April 27!

Rainbow Riding will be hosting our annual Fun Show & Family Day on Saturday, April 27, 2019 from 10 am to 2 pm.  It will be an incredibly fun day for families from across our larger community.  In addition to a petting zoo, crafts and activities, and a raffle, you encourage you to support and be a part of this very special and important day for our riders. It is so meaningful to have a crowd cheering our athletes on as they showcase their skills. 

New this year, to promote our Fun Show & Family Day, we are also hosting an Online Horse Race on Facebook! Check out this video from Finny to learn more about how it all works.

Over the next two weeks, you’ll be hearing from each of our horses on Facebook. (If you haven’t already, like our Facebook Page so you can stay up-to-date!) Please help the horses WIN the race by liking and sharing their videos, and donating! You can vote for as many horses and as many times as you like! We will announce the winners with the most likes and donations at the Fun Show & Family Day.

Thank you for being part of the Rainbow family.  We hope to see you on April 27th and, as always, thank you for your continued support.

JOIN IN THE FUN: A LETTER FROM BOB FINI ABOUT OUR FUN SHOW

Dear Rainbow Students, Families, and Friends of the Program,

I am a parent of a disabled child who rode at Rainbow Center for over 20 years. My family has seen Rainbow transform from a small, seasonal, outdoor program on a leased farm to the wonderful full-time program at its beautiful permanent home. I really understand what an impact it has had on my child’s life, as well as all the other riders Rainbow has served including children, young adults, at-risk youth and wounded services personnel coming from Walter Reed Medical Center. We are truly lucky to have such a wonderful organization in our community. Recently Inside NOVA announced Rainbow Center as the best equestrian facility in Prince William County again, for the third year in a row.

I would like to talk to you briefly about the Rainbow Therapeutic Riding Center Fun SHow scheduled for April 28th, 2018. As most of you know, the tuition we pay for lessons covers only a portion of the total costs. In fact, less than half of Rainbow Center’s revenues come from tuition and other program income. The remainder must come from donations and fundraising. In some cases, Rainbow Center provides scholarships to offset tuition costs for riders who otherwise could not ride, and that too requires fundraising.

Rainbow Center holds several fundraisers a year to help make up the difference. But only one, the fun Show, is really specific in asking the Rainbow Families to solicit help. Rainbow is in more need of a successful Fun Show than ever in order to sustain existing programs and grow new ones. So I would like to urge you to do two things:

1. Come to the event with your rider and have fun!

2. Please try to get pledges to help support the fundraising goal of the event.

The intent of this fundraiser is not to place an additional burden on our families to contribute money who simply cannot afford it. There are some who can and are welcome to, but the success of this fundraiser lies elsewhere. The goal of the Fun Show fundraiser is for you to seek help from friends, family and especially professionals and businesses that you know to sponsor your rider’s participation. Please emphasize how important Rainbow Center is to you and the disabled individuals that benefit. Please sign up as many sponsors are you can. Thank you for helping make this a successful Fun Show. It is very important to our program. And please don’t forget to come and enjoy the special events of the day.

Yours Truly,

Bob Fini

CAN WE COUNT ON YOUR SUPPORT?

Dear Friend of Rainbow,

Will you make a Holiday donation so Rainbow can continue serving local disabled children and wounded soldiers?

To keep the doors open, I count on kind and generous friends like you — friends who understand the magic that occurs when a cognitively disabled, autistic, or otherwise impaired child
bonds with a horse…

… or, when a soldier suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI) spends time with a gentle animal that offers unconditional love…

… or, when a young soldier missing his right arm and lower leg received a boost to his confidence as he straddled a horse (imagine that for a second)… Every week, I see little miracles — and I wish you could too! Like the young student who made the transition from life in a residential facility to independent living — partly thanks to the confidence he gained from riding…

And, that moment when an autistic child realized his horse was “listening” to him…

I’m sure you know that horse ownership is expensive. A bale of hay costs $6.25 and lasts a horse about two days, the farrier comes every five weeks to trim hooves and replace shoes, insurance must be paid, and there are a hundred other costs.

Knock on wood, we will have no serious medical issues, but, with ten horses now in the barn, I know I’ll have to spend what averages out to about $75 per horse each month over the course of the coming year for routine immunizations, dental care, supplements, their state-mandated
blood test, and other veterinary expenses.

But here’s an amazing fact: We’ve been able to enroll 38 more children to the program over the last 12 months and, today, we serve about 70 children each week! And, in the same period, 24 service members from Walter Reed have participated in our program!

There is no way we could pass along the true cost of the service we provide to the families and soldiers we serve; they simply could not afford it. So, both our growth and the cost of maintaining the program are only possible because friends like you donate the funds needed to keep our doors open and help enrich the lives of these children and soldiers through their bond with the horses and they therapeutic work they do with them.

Today, we are running in the black — but, as we end one year and enter the new one, I’m asking for your continued support.

Almost every day, your gift will produce small triumphs and incremental progress.

To continue supplying these services I need your help!

This is our most important fundraising appeal of the year, and your gift goes right to the bottom line. Every penny you donate goes directly towards feeding and housing our wonderful, loving horses and other essential expenses.

Fact is, we are 100% dependent on donations to make ends meet — a humbling and sometimes precarious existence that requires me to ask you for help as we close the year…

I hope I can count on you to make a special year-end holiday gift of $25, $50, $35 or even more.

Regardless, I want to wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season and the warmest thanks for your past support!

Sincerely,
Inga Janke,
Executive Director

P.S. Remember, most of the children and soldiers we help would not be able to benefit from this program if we passed along the full cost to them. You can see how a gift of $25 or $30 or even $100 can really help — and why we need continued support in order to keep our doors open.

Your gift will help provide the services that benefit so many local children — and the wounded veterans who find this program so helpful in their recovery. I’m counting on your help!

NEW BARN CONSTRUCTION AND BULL RUN OBSERVER ARTICLE

We’re excited about construction beginning on our new 11-stall barn. The new barn will have a large, climatized tack room, a feed room, a wash stall, and an upstairs loft that will be used as a meeting room and for seminars and education.

While we have begun construction, we are still raising money. Especially for items like landscaping, a washing machine, a dryer, and stall mats, etc. Our need is about $15,000 for these important odds and ends. Please consider a donation to help make the barn the best it can be for our therapy horses and their riders.

Read the article written by our own Mary Vardi for the Bull Run Observer, below.