admin
The night was an emotional one for Rick Schemel on Wednesday. The founder of the Hope Center in Perryville, along with his wife Claire, recently completed a transaction that sold The Hope Therapeutic Horsemanship Center, Inc. to its board of directors.
“Today has been bittersweet,” Schemel said, who has been with Hope Center for the last six years, “I look back and think of everything we have accomplished here and it’s sad in a way. But tomorrow is a better day knowing that the Hope Center will be open and continue to be here, and that’s what we really want. Our shadows are getting long and I feel like we have a strong community and board to take this place to where it needs to be.”
The purpose of the deal is to make sure the Hope Center will remain an equine therapy center in perpetuity. It was made possible through the efforts of the United States Department of Agriculture, the board of directors and the Schemel family.
“It was a non-profit company before, but as you walk in you see Schemel Stables and Rick and Claire ran it everyday,” board member Veronica Kirn said. “Now it’s owned by the non-profit itself.”
Kirn noted that the Hope Center will be “growing up” and intends to have new programs and hope to keep the core mission of the center of its focus.
[ads:3496 limit:1]
“We are going to be offering some different workshops in the future,” Kirn said, “We have some ideas on how we want to continue to improve the quality of the community, which s what the Hope Center is all about.”
Kirn hopes to continue building the Hope Center in the future, and that started last week as the ceremony was considered the Hope Center’s soft opening.
Kirn was just named to the board of directors this year s she moved back to the area and said that while the thought is that the Hope Center services just children that is not true. Equine-Assisted Therapy helps with a variety of physical, behavioral and mental challenges as an alternative to the traditional clinical setting.
The mission of Hope Therapeutic Horsemanship Center is to improve the quality of life for children and adults with special needs by providing horsemanship experiences in a warm, safe and compassionate environment.
“That was definitely my perception of the Hope Center when I came aboard, but that is not the case as I quickly found out,” Kirn said. “We want to help anybody and everybody. We have a lot of families that come in and engage through lessons and volunteering. It’s a compassionate space and that’s what we want to continue to be going forward. There are a lot of inspiring stories in here.”
However, that will take some time as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Hope Center to cut back on the number of clients they can take on at any one time. The center closed in March and only recently started taking on select clients early last month. It has been challenging for the Hope Center to say the least.
“In the past you can come in and have this arena be full with individuals, instructors, and volunteers” Kirn said. “But for now we are intentionally keeping numbers low and monitoring things going forward. This is probably as clean a horse barn as you will ever see.”
As for the Schemels they will continue to be around and helping out where they can, “This has been our baby,” Claire Schemel said. “But this gives us time to step away a little bit and live our lives to the fullest while we still can.”
