Volunteer

Volunteer:

Volunteers are the lifeblood of non-profit organizations and ours is no exception. We need volunteers for our equine assisted therapy program; and we also need a few volunteers to help feed and groom horses, clean stalls, train horses and spend time enjoying the companionship of horses.

The photos below show some of our volunteers:

Volunteer: Savannah Marten

Savannah is a natural horsewoman at 13 years of age. We made her head trainer of the miniature horses, because she takes horses with issues and turns them into compliant animals who want to do anything that we want them to do.

It’s common for Savannah to come out and work with horses for 12 or more hours a day. If she had her choice, she’d train horses all day long every day. She’s an excellent athlete who loves animals. And she works hard doing any task we ask from mucking stalls to worming horses or running the obstacle course training horses or cart driving minis. She does it all in addition to being an integral part of our therapy program.

Volunteer: Terri Swirczynski

Terri is the person who shows up at Mike Lewis every Saturday at 7 AM to set up the obstacle course for the day. Then she stands in the hot sun for another 6 hours doing therapy sessions before breaking down the obstacle course and leaving for the day.

Terri is only with us once in awhile now that she’s started working full time, but she’s with us in heart and spirit.

Volunteer: Kate Conatser

Kate is a teacher at Lamarr Middle School in Irving. She brings so much to the program. Her enthusiasm and genuine compassion for children enables her to make the program fun. It feels like recreation to the children when it’s actually therapy; and Kate knows how to help children improve their skills from week to week.

Volunteer: Leanna Andrews

Leanna is a second grade teacher in Arlington ISD; so she spends her career working with young children. She’s an enormous asset to our program; she knows how to engage the children in the more complicated elements of the program and helps all of the children advance in their skills from week to week.

Volunteer: Angela Poudrier

Angela is pure love. There’s no way to know Angela and not love and adore her. Angela makes it a point to do whatever is necessary for the program to run smoothly. She puts 100% effort into everything that she does.

If we need a side walker to run beside the cart, Angela runs as if she’s training for a marathon. If we need someone to be on the obstacle course, she immerses herself in challenges and makes them fun and interesting for the children.

Volunteer: Patti Chiles

Patti is by and far the best adult equestrian volunteer that we have. She understands the importance of building a bond between the children and the minis; and she incorporates horsemanship skills into every aspect of the program.

Patti is also a teacher in Irving at Lamarr Middle School; so she brings her teaching expertise to the White Bridle program and is taking our program to new and exciting levels.

Volunteer Rebekah Newman

Rebekah is a special education teacher in Grand Prairie ISD. She also serves on our Advisory Board.

Volunteer Heather Ballard

Heather is a special education teacher’s assistant and works with a vision impaired student in Grand Prairie ISD. She also is studying for her teaching degree.

Volunteer Terrence Lewis

Terrence Lewis is the strong man of our operation. He is a disabled verteran from the Gulf War who helped us with our upcoming veterans’ equine therapy program. But now that we need manual laborers at the stables, he does a lot of hard work for us. He leveled all of the stalls and put stall mats in each of them. He carries all of our hay and most of our grain. When we moved from the stable in Arlington to other locations, he loaded an entire truck with the help of a couple of our teen volunteers and moved everything. There is no task to heavy for Terrence. He has a big heart and strong arms.

Volunteer Carolyn Sandstrom

Carolyn is a photographer from Canada who discovered us through the internet and contacted us to volunteer for us. She now creates art quality ‘thank you’ cards for us and canvas prints that we auction off at events. She’s turned out to be a great friend even though we haven’t ever met. We’re thankful for Carolyn’s help and support.

How to Volunteer:

If you’d like to volunteer, click the icon at the top of the page to download a pdf form. Fill it out and mail it back to us or email it to brook@whitebridle.org.

White Bridle Society

P. O. Box 177643 Irving, TX 75017-7643 972.740.0900

Savannah in 2009 training horses for therapy as an 11 year old

Savannah in 2011 driving horses as a 13 year old