Dear Families, Volunteers and Friends,

On behalf of the Board of Circle of Hope, I am reaching out to share some upcoming changes to Circle of Hope’s programs.  In order to make better use of resources and streamline our programming at Circle of Hope, we will be transitioning to a “weekend-only” program in October.  This change will help us to reduce overhead costs including insurance, facilities costs, and salaries.

Circle of Hope, like all non-profits, provides services to its community at less than the actual cost of those services (the fee currently charged covers about 50% of the cost of the program).  The balance of operating costs are made up through fundraising events, charitable contributions and grants which, in recent years, have decreased substantially due to economic challenges being felt by our community and the country as a whole. This, coupled with the increasing cost of insurance, veterinary care, and feed for our horses, has left us facing a difficult choice – raise prices or restructure to cut costs – and we have chosen the latter.

We want to ensure our community that Circle of Hope will still be providing the same high-quality programming with sessions planned to focus on each participant’s needs and goals using both mounted work and groundwork to build skills, physical strength, confidence, and self-awareness.

Our Annual Appeal letter will be going out in the next month or so.  Please feel free to share our request for donations with your friends, family, and neighbors.  Whether you are a participant, family member, volunteer, or member of our community in other ways, Circle of Hope can always use more supporters and fans! If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Sincerely,

Phil Buckberg

Board President

Changing Lives One Stride at a Time

The mission of Circle of Hope is to provide equine assisted activities and therapy for persons with physical, mental, emotional and developmental disabilities to enhance their quality of life.