Horses & Horizons holds year-end celebration

Horses & Horizons Therapeutic Learning Center Inc. held its year-end celebration Nov. 5 at the fellowship hall of Zions Stone Church of West Penn.

This annual event marked the completion of another successful season of therapeutic horseback riding lessons for children and adults with disabilities. The purpose of the event was to show appreciation of the learning center’s many volunteers and also to recognize the achievements of its riders.

The organization named Julie Bannar as Volunteer of the Year. This was Bannar’s third year of serving as a lesson volunteer and her second year on the board of directors. She was instrumental in obtaining foundation grants, which allowed the riding program to award full scholarships to all of this year’s riders.

This was the first time since the center’s inception in 1993 that sufficient grant money was obtained to make this possible. A lifelong animal lover, Bannar resides in New Tripoli with her husband and two dogs. She is employed as a nurse in the Whitehall school district.

Executive Director Harvey Smith and his wife, Elaine, the center’s program director, awarded the organization’s nearly 50 volunteers with certificates of appreciation and its 20 riders with certificates of achievement.

Tom Ostroski of H.T. Lyons presented the Smiths with a check for $500. The money was raised at his employer’s Joe Sommer Memorial Golf Tournament fundraiser, which Ostroski helped to organize.

Horses & Horizons is a registered nonprofit organization. It operates from Harvey and Elaine Smith’s Helping Horse Farm, located between Tamaqua and New Ringgold. The therapeutic horseback riding program is staffed entirely by volunteers. It serves riders ranging in age from 3 to 70 with a wide variety of physical, mental and emotional disabilities.

Horses & Horizons holds riding lessons from the end of April through October. During its months of operation, in addition to lesson volunteers, it also needs volunteers to assist with grounds maintenance, cleaning saddles and bridles and fundraising.

For information on becoming a volunteer or enrolling a rider in Horses & Horizons visit www.horsesandhorizons.org or call the Smiths at 570-386-5679.