An 18-hole golf tournament will once again be held at the Timberlake Golf Club, this one a fund-raising event to help abused, neglected and sexually trafficked kids to heal.
The Janice Faye’s Ranch annual golf event will take place Saturday, Sept. 12. There will be a breakfast at 8 a.m. before tee time commences at 9 a.m. The tournament will be in a shotgun-start format, with other contests, including a $5,000 hole-in-one, as part of the day’s events. There is a registration fee.
“My husband and my son played golf for years, my son since he was two years old,” noted Joy Canady, founder of Janice Faye Ranch, about how the fundraising golf tournament got started “It was their suggestion to do this as a fundraiser. We’ve had some golfers that have been with us since the first year, and they play every year, and we appreciate that.”
Other contests throughout the day will include putting, closest to the pin on all Par 3’s, and a Longest Drive. A cash payout will be handed out to the Flight winners. The event is one of two the ranch holds yearly in order to raise funds for operational expense at the non-profit, whose staff works with children in crisis by partnering them with rescue horses during an eight to 12-week program.
“We assist them in recovering from the trauma they experienced by moving forward to a more healthy and successful life,” Canady said. “We offer activities that provide life lessons, like setting and sticking to boundaries, trust issues, healthy communication, anger management, and self-care.”
Children are referred to the ranch from a variety of agencies including the Department of Social Services, the Child Advocacy Center and many others.
Another way the ranch staff assist children is through talk therapy, where the youngsters share their feelings with the rescue horses on the ranch, a proven healing method across the country.
“I think we’ve all experienced trauma in some way or another in our lifetime,” Canady said in talking about the method of therapy.
“For some, talk therapy is an easier way to recover, working with horse versus ordinary therapy. One of the reasons why is because horses don’t live in the past or the future, they’re in the present moment. If a coyote is out in the pasture one night, and the horse gets scared, the next morning the horse is going to go right back to grazing. It’s not going to worry about whether the coyote is gonna come back, whereas we, as humans, we tend to get stuck in the past.”
In that way, and so many others, horses become the example for youngsters on how to heal past wounds and fears.
But the work doesn’t end there for some of the kids seek assistance at the ranch. Many of them participate by volunteering at the facilities when opportunities arise.
“We do encourage the kids to participate in chore activities as a way of giving back while they’re at the ranch, and some of them are excited about it.” Canady said.
“Some offer to volunteer, and we take them through the program so they can see what it’s about. That way, they have a better understand as to what we need as far as volunteer assistance.”
To see the same volunteers that have participated in the program want to give back, means a lot to Canady.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to know that there’s a kid that was troubled who wants to come back and help,” she attested. “Most of these kids, once they start sessions here, if they’re having trouble with the juvenile justice system or just their family in general, we’ve watched their whole demeanor change within two sessions.
“We see the change when they come back as mentors for the new kids; it’s amazing to watch. We’ve had teachers, counselors and parents that tell us that the lessons the kids learn at the ranch, they get carried back home or to school with them. It’s life changing.”
On the ranch, there are a few rules the kids follow, she pointed out.
“We don’t allow negativity, and there’s certain words we don’t allow.” the ranch founder stressed, ticking off a list of things staff simply don’t tolerate.
“Of course no profanity, and there’s things I don’t allow the children to say, because I didn’t allow my own children to say them. Words like stupid, can’t … I’m not saying that word,” she said, spelling out “bad words.”
“These words are not allowed here. If they break those rules, the consequence is that they have to give me three positives. If they say something negative about themselves or another person, they have to give us three positives. We ask them to hold us accountable as well as staff or volunteers. If we break the rules, they’re supposed to call us out as well, so we’re walking this journey with them.”
A typical session time can vary depending on a multitude of factors from the participants.
“It depends on the child’s attention span, but it’s (usually) from 45 minutes to two hours,” Canady said. “We try to incorporate giving back at the end of the portion as well, so we’ll offer tutoring, which is a free service. If we’re helping them with schoolwork, horse time and chore time, then we need at least two hours, but it depends on the child’s attention span.”
The golf tournament, now in its seventh year, is one way, staff raises money for needed items, including hay to feed the horses and materials to help with upkeep and supplies for the children.
“We hope people across the county will see the value in what we do and help in any way they can. We would love to have folks come be a part of our golf tournament,” Canady said.
For additional information regarding the golfing tournament, you can contact Janice Faye’s Ranch.