Veterans focused equine-therapy group at risk of closure

ProMedica does not directly address whether a proposed partnership with the group was dropped

By Alexandra Mester / The Blade
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 17:33:35 GMT

SWANTON — A local nonprofit that uses equine-assisted therapy to help veterans is in danger of closing.

Healing Of Our Veterans Equine Services, or HOOVES, needs to raise $100,000 in the next few weeks to secure its Swanton Township retreat center property on Wilkins Road. Amanda Held, executive director, said during a news conference Wednesday that a significant financial partnership fell through.

"We have to raise this funding or we're done," she told The Blade.

Mrs. Held said the nonprofit started serious discussions in December, 2017, with a major organization that offered the partnership. The two entities jointly discussed the need for a larger space when the 30-acre Wilkins Road property was offered to HOOVES on a lease-to-purchase agreement.

The property meets all of the program's needs, so the nonprofit went for it in October, 2018, with repeated assurances funding would be provided when the partnership was finalized, Mrs. Held said.

"Two weeks before Christmas [2018], we were told they would keep us in mind but they couldn’t move forward with the partnership because they had to lay people off and didn’t have the money," she said.

Mrs. Held said the would-be partner never gave any indication things wouldn't work out. They had regular meetings, had signed a memorandum of understanding, and a formal contract was in the works. The organization enlisted a "gift officer" to be a liaison and help fund-raise for HOOVES, and also assisted the nonprofit in surveying potential new properties, Mrs. Held said.

“Everything was right, as it was happening," she said. "It was right until it wasn’t. Then all of a sudden, it just wasn’t.”

While Mrs. Held declined to name that organization, Tristan Mohler of Stockbridge, Mich., a veteran with the program, told The Blade it was ProMedica that had offered and then rescinded its support.

A ProMedica spokesman did not directly address whether it or an affiliated group was in discussions to partner with HOOVES. Instead, the spokesman said that the ProMedica Foundation helped the nonprofit’s leadership with initial fundraising guidance and that it featured it in its Giving Tuesday campaigns and other events.

“Both of those efforts are aimed at helping to raise awareness of various local nonprofits and encouraging support,” the spokesman’s statement reads. “HOOVES is one of many nonprofit organizations doing great things in our community.”

Mr. Mohler said ProMedica’s actions left HOOVES in crisis, leading him to believe the organization does not care about veterans.

“How else would you explain it?” he said. “You say you want to help people out, then go and pull the plug after they’ve gone through all the hoops and leave them standing with their hands in their pockets.”

HOOVES has been able to pay rent in recent months primarily because Mrs. Held gave up her salary to do so. She worked out a three-year land contract with the property owner and now needs to raise $75,000 for the remainder of the down payment, plus $25,000 to cover six months of mortgage payments.

Mrs. Held said she already has funding agreements in place to provide $75,000 in 2020 and again in 2021, but those dollars cannot be used for the down payment the nonprofit needs to secure financing.

“This place allows us to give our veterans the best experience," she said. "I've got other funding lined up, we just need to get there."

Doug Hancock, a HOOVES board member, said the veterans will suffer the most if HOOVES closes.

“I know four people directly who had guns in their mouths before they came here,” he said. “It’s just such an amazing program. I’ve been praying all night long and all morning long that this works.”

Mr. Mohler attended a HOOVES retreat in April and it changed his life, he said.

“I connected with the horses," he said. "I have a sense of purpose where I didn’t before.”

Mr. Mohler said he was raped during his service in the Navy. Following that trauma, he transferred to a combat unit of the Marines, specifically hoping to be killed, and was deployed for 13 months.

“After 14 years of reckless behavior, drug addiction, and every other symptom of my self-induced prison, I found the key to my freedom through the HOOVES program," he said.

He said he tried counseling through Veterans Affairs, but getting a diagnosis and a prescription wasn't enough.

“That’s great for short term, but it’s just a Band-Aid on an arterial bleed," Mr. Mohler said. "It’s not going to work for the long term.”

He stays at the HOOVES retreat center four days per week, volunteering to help care for the animals. Its existence is crucial for his continuing healing, he said.

“Every day is a battle," he said. "There are days where it’s harder than others and I want to fall back into the ways I used to be because it was easier to numb the pain instead of deal with it. ... [HOOVES] helps me focus elsewhere.”

Mrs. Held started the nonprofit in 2009 to provide free services to area veterans in need. She has put in more than $100,000 of her personal funds, she said in the news conference.

“I’ve exhausted my own resources to make this service available for the veterans, and now, I need your help,” she said.

HOOVES has established an online fundraiser at gofundme.com. Donations may also be made through its website, hooves.us. Checks made payable to HOOVES may be sent to 4055 Wilkins Rd., Swanton, OH, 43558.

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