ACCESS ADVENTURE VOLUNTEER

My journey to Access Adventure has been a long one, but with one consistent element – my love for horses. My dreams came true when I received my first horse, a rescue from an Iowa “glue factory”. From there I graduated to showing American Saddlebreds in 5-gaited and fine harness classes. In college for my horse fix I used my electives for Animal Husbandry classes. Officially I majored in Merchandising, with minors in English, Speech and Sociology.

John and I were married after my graduation. While he pursued a career in pharmaceutical sales I was a social worker for a children’s home/adoption agency. Horses were put on hold while we started our family. Eventually, as a reward for throwing away my 2-pack-a-day cigarette habit, I purchased a half-Arab, former endurance horse. My beautiful horse and I had twenty wonderful years on trails throughout California. With his sudden death at age 31 my need to be with horses returned.

In July 2005 I read about Access Adventure in the newspaper. Two things jumped out at me: the horses and the fact that Michael Muir was confronting the same disease that my brother has. I volunteered to do whatever the program needed…as long as I could touch the horses. Most of the time my fingers are touching my computer keyboard instead of horses, but since my retirement from the Orinda School District in 2007, I have more opportunities to connect with these magnificent animals.

I invite everyone to join us as Access Adventure volunteers. We are a multi-talented team and participate in many different ways. The benefits are priceless when we see the joy in the faces of the people we serve!