Today we’d like to introduce you to Deedee O’Brien.
Deedee, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In 1960, Dick Donovan, a young man from Somerville, saved his money teaching science at Billerica High School to fulfill his dream of buying a farm. At 29 he bought 11 wooded acres in Andover when the town was quite rural, and proceeded to clear the land himself with a chain saw, an old Cadillac and chains. Throughout the next decade he designed and had built his home and designed and built the original main barn himself using wood from the Unadilla silo company in NY and recycled materials from various sites throughout our area. In May 1972 I knocked on his door asking to rent a stall for two months to move my horse from my planned permanent home in NH so I could return to Lowell where my father had become ill. Dick gave me room and board for nothing in return for helping out with his Thoroughbred horses – including galloping them in preparation for racing. My father died the following February and my mother needed me so I never returned to New Hampshire. I was fascinated with the work at Ironstone and became fully immersed in Dick’s breeding, foaling, raising and training Thoroughbred horses – supporting myself by waitressing and later teaching at the vocational school in Lowell. My summer job was working with children with special needs at the Lowell Rec Dept.
One summer, in 1976, we brought those kids to Ironstone for a field trip. Dick opened his doors and his heart that day to helping people with disabilities, and thereafter he never said no to a person or idea that would help them! Word of mouth brought other organizations for field trips, which led to a Saturday morning program – all the while never charging a penny. To support it we also started teaching riding lessons to people without disabilities, we both continued teaching school and continued raising and racing the Thoroughbreds.
In 1983 Dan Leahy, a local attorney, became involved. His daughter rode in the program and he and his friends wanted to invest in race horses. With Dan’s advice and expertise, we incorporated the program for children with disabilities as a non-profit organization, Challenge Unlimited – not having a clue what that meant! In 1983 we held our first fundraiser in the form of a small horse show for children with and without disabilities with a goal to raise enough money to buy some equipment. The event yielded a “net negative $19”! In 1984 we planned a second horse show and this time went to Dan to ask if he knew where we could get a porta potty donated. Dan laughed – with us – and took charge by bringing in his friends and starting a cook-out to accompany the show. That was our first successful event, yielding a $1,400 profit!
In those years we started recruiting volunteers to help – and met the people who would later influence the course of the organization – amazing people who worked for nothing because they believed in what we were doing to help individuals transcend their obstacles in life. Many are still with us, some started as students in those years and work for us now – some of these have disabilities and have found a life at Ironstone Farm. Some we have lost with their passing. It became a family born of heart and spirit and it continued on a shoestring, dependent on a teachers’ salaries, training a few people and horses and hard work by many. It was then that we began the terms “Ironstone Family” and “Ironstone Spirit”. Both have been true and used every day since. In addition, we began the Working Student Program, with doors opened for teens to work in return for lessons and an education in equine care and management. This was begun by Dick’s 13 year old paper girl who begged to be able to work and learn about horses. Hundreds of teens have benefited from that program over three decades, many so influenced by their experience at Ironstone to go on to careers as therapists, special education teachers – and full time riding instructors at Ironstone.
In the beginning our program was opened to children with cognitive disabilities and with hearing and visual impairment – all coming to us through word of mouth. Several families came to us with children who suffered physical disability, but we had no therapist and so wouldn’t put them on a horse. One such family were my old neighbors in Lowell who had a 14 year old daughter with cerebral palsy named Kathy. It broke my heart to say no. Murray Feingold of WBZ’s Medical Minute fame sent us many kids from his National Birth Defects Center – most with cognitive impairment. One day a young man was with his group – a lanky teen with cerebral palsy. I refused to put him on the horse because I was afraid he would be hurt. He looked fragile and breakable! His father was very upset – insisting that he ride. At the most heated moment Dick walked by and asked what the problem was. I explained and the father very passionately said “All those other children are taking a chance when they ride – risking getting hurt. Why shouldn’t my son be able to take that same chance?” Dick looked at me and said “He’s right.” With his help we put David on and I sat behind him for support as he had no sitting balance. His was very spastic with his legs tucked up like a jockey. Dick stayed on one side and his father on the other and they said they wished I could see his face his grin was so wide! We started walking the horse and in 15 minutes David’s legs started to relax and in a half hour they were dangling! I couldn’t believe it! It was my lesson that that magical movement of the horse truly does normalize the body! Now almost 50 years old, David still comes to ride every week as he has for the past 30 years! That day, after the lesson, I ran to the phone and called Kathy’s family and said “bring her over!” So thus our physical therapy program began.
By the mid 1980’s we were serving close to 100 individuals weekly – still not charging for those with disabilities. Services were – and are – year round in all weather. We would tell our riders that “it never rains at Ironstone Farm” – and they believed us! In winter we would bring kids who were wheelchair bound in sleds from the parking area down the hill to the riding area, with six sleds always parked by the parking lot ready to transport. We rarely cancelled for any reason. One evening – in blizzard conditions – I called the scheduled lessons to cancel them. One father of a teen-aged girl with cerebral palsy said “Why?” I said driving was dangerous – everything else was closed! He said: “Well, she’s ready. You’ll have to tell her!” I let her come. But the vagaries of our climate were not good for therapy – inconsistent and the need to wear so many clothes was inhibiting. We needed an indoor arena.
In 1985 Dick purchased the MDC skating rink that was being torn down in Neponset Circle for $15,000 to move to Ironstone to re-build as an indoor arena. He and I went there at 4:00 every morning for a month to drive two Wide Load vehicles to save money as a crane company moved the building piece by piece to Andover. When we went to get the building permit three neighbors objected. Dick fought that battle in board room after board room for nine years! It was truly a “Not In My Back Yard” situation. It took nine years and high costs in legal fees, but ultimately we did win the war! Ironstone Farm became the test case along with one other farm for a facility raising, training and using horses to qualify as an Agricultural Exemption in Massachusetts. But the win was bittersweet, as there was no money left to build the building. Also, during that time the rafters rotted on the ground and, so, lost their integrity to support such a structure. In 1994, during the fuel cost hikes, Dick advertised for free firewood and the rafters were given away, piece by piece. The remainder of the building has been used for various farm projects and continues to be used today. With the agricultural exemption Dick designed and built a small 4,000 sq. ft. structure that would provide our children receiving physical therapy heated indoor space. This was possible because he did most of the work himself. The building – now our Therapy Building – gave programs like the Lowell Public Schools the consistency they needed for beneficial therapeutic intervention using that magical movement of the horse.
The observed benefits of the physical therapy for the children spread throughout the community and the benefits of that movement began to be recognized by physicians. I spoke with one such doctor – a pediatrician from Childrens’ Hospital named Allen Crocker – about the possibility of documenting progress of the children for evidenced based support of the therapy. Allen was the founder of the Developmental Evaluation Clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston in the 1950’s and was nationally known for his work with children with Down syndrome. Allen brought in Jim Gleason, P.T; M.S. – Associate Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center – and together they brought in others to form the Therapeutic Riding Research Committee. They worked with UMASS Lowell Physical Therapy Department graduate school to encourage research projects using our kids and horses. Also during that time another physician came into our lives – Dr. Peter Raffalli, a pediatric neurologist specializing in autism. Peter called me one day and introduced himself, asking if he could come to the farm on a Saturday morning dressed as a clown to practice his new-found endeavor of becoming a compassionate clown. His comical figure flopped down the driveway as a French mime – big shoes, pockets full of kerchiefs and funny red nose! His presence was so well received by our families that he spent three hours every Saturday for four years delighting our people!
In 1996 we began to look into the feasibility of insurance reimbursement for physical and occupational therapy to support our children. Allen Crocker put us in touch with consultants who guided us through all the options for third party payers. We learned that we needed to have a “therapy room” – which was clean and had heat, a real floor, a mat table, and other tools for testing functional skills. Dick stripped the inside of his 5-horse van, I disinfected it, he installed lights and heat and we got a grant for a mat table, furniture and other tools. We hosted a “ribbon cutting” of the new “Therapy Room” – on a miserable, freezing, rainy day in November. Allen, Jim, Peter and a few others came – and had to walk through mud to get to the van! I was so upset! I cried before they came and shook as we opened the door. They walked in, there was an uncomfortable silence, and Allen Crocker – one of the most respected pediatricians in Boston – said one word: “Ingenious”! This was the blessing we needed to launch a bonafide medically-based physical therapy program – dubbed Ironstone Therapy. Ironstone Therapy, Inc. was incorporated as a non-profit subsidiary of Challenge Unlimited in 1998 when we successfully applied to MassHealth, Blue Cross, Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts, Aetna and others to become a provider of PT and OT. Later we were approved for speech/language pathology as the benefits of the movement of the horse for improving children’s speech became evident. The Therapeutic Riding Research Committee became the Ironstone Therapy Board of Directors and the entire organization brought Ironstone Farm to new levels of recognition throughout Greater Boston. Today Ironstone Therapy is a licensed physical therapy clinic with the MA Dept. of Allied Health. In 2001 Ironstone Therapy became an Early Intervention provider and today we have contracts with twelve EI organizations throughout northeastern Massachusetts, serving close to 100 children under three years old each week. At the same time, we found ourselves faced with a dilemma. While we were happy to become a provider for MassHealth, their reimbursement levels were so low and slow that the Ironstone Therapy program became a financial bleeder for the overall organization. When we talked with Allen and Jim about no longer accepting MassHealth, they cautioned us to not become elitist. We needed to be able to offer our services to everyone who needed them, regardless of their ability to pay. I brought the dilemma to the Challenge Unlimited board and one member offered a solution. He put up a matching gift challenge to the rest of our board to raise the funds equal to the cost of the children in MassHealth. The board rose to the challenge and we established our first Sponsor-a-Child fund. We stopped accepting MassHealth in 2001 and covered the cost of all the children involved with contributed funds so no one missed a therapy session. That fund still exists today and we still do not turn away children who have no other means of support.
In the late 1990’s we began to plan for a sustainable future for Ironstone Farm. With Dick’s help we established a capital campaign to raise the down payment, and negotiated bank financing, enabling the non-profit Challenge Unlimited to buy the 12 acre Ironstone Farm in 2001.
With the purchase of the farm, we went from a “benevolent landlord” who would forgive monthly lease payments to mortgage obligation that became hard to meet. Being a little-known organization, fundraising was a challenge. So we turned to special events – to both raise operating revenues, and to open the doors of awareness of what we do.
In 2003 we developed our first signature event – the Spirit of Giving – so named for Dick Donovan’s generous dedication to the people we serve. The first was held that October at the Andover Country Club and we honored George and Margo Behrakis, local philanthropists that have been very supportive over the years. The day of the event a generous volunteer donated mums as the table centerpieces, bringing in 50 plants. As the plants warmed up – about 4:00 – bees started rising out of them! Hundreds of bees! We had to whisk the flowers outside and quickly ran and bought 50 pumpkins. We laid the last pumpkin down as the first guest arrived! (There were still a few bees buzzing in the chandeliers) And we coined the phrase “That’s why we call it Challenge Unlimited!” Because of the generosity of George and Margo, and the supportive community we were building, that event raised over $100,000! We were on our way! In 2004 we were able to honor the New England Patriots’ Offensive Coach Charlie Weis, whose daughter was in our program. It was the late Joann Weber, owner of the Lowell Spinners baseball team with her husband Drew that came up with the theme idea and that event became a tailgate party – again very successful. Today we are planning our 15th annual themed Spirit of Giving Gala! In 2016 we moved it to the Lowell Memorial Auditorium with Tony Orlando as our featured guest and “Las Vegas” our theme – and raised over $350,000! The Spirit of Giving has brought us to new levels of contacts and fund development potential and has been our financial savior since its inception by a small group of volunteers fifteen years ago! We have honored such celebrities as Jack Williams, Susan Wornick, Drew and Joann Weber, John Henry, Doug Flutie, Paul Sullivan, Tony Orlando and, this year, Bob Lobel and Dennis Eckersley. All of our honorees have been supportive and generous, helping us bring our mission to broader audiences.
In 2004 it became evident that we actually wouldn’t make it without being able to offer consistency year round. So we began fund raising to build that long dreamed of indoor arena. Although Dick had bought his dream farm in New Hampshire, he had stayed on for a seamless transition. He took the responsibility of managing the project – at no cost. By 2006 we had raised enough to get the structure up and doors opened in 2007. In 2009, as we continued to raise money, they closed again to add insulation and walls and in 2011 we added heat. The heat was donated by David’s father – the man that insisted his son ride with the other kids so many years ago! The indoor arena changed the picture enormously – and we were able to stabilize our revenues throughout the winter months. The total cost was $750,000 – 100% raised through contributions.
Also during the 1990’s Dick bought two abutting homes as they came on the market -to protect the farm from future NIMBY encroachment. Both houses became rental properties, making those purchases possible. In 2004 Dick moved into one of those houses while he worked on the arena project. In 2008, we negotiated a MassDevelopment tax exempt bond issue, refinanced the whole property, and bought one of the houses and four acres. Right after the purchase, the economy plummeted. It would be six years before we would have the funds to renovate that house for use by our programs.
During those early years of this century we learned so much! While we struggled with finding the money to stay afloat, we saw more and more how important Ironstone Farm had become for so many people. We were now serving over 400 individuals a week with the help of more than 200 volunteers! Our staff needed to grow and our way of doing things needed to evolve with our new responsibilities. But the organization never lost its heart and spirit. We were there for everyone who needed us and we determined to remain that safe haven for all our people – clients, families, volunteers, staff, friends – our ever growing Ironstone Family. An example – a young girl came to us in the early 1990’s as a 4 year old receiving physical therapy. She had cerebral palsy and was wheelchair bound. It was her mother who bought the sleds for winter transport – so her daughter would never miss! When she was 10 the family moved to Hawaii. She wrote to me every year and every other year they made summer visits and she would ride. When she was about 16 she started saying that when she grew up she wanted to work at Ironstone Farm. I would reply “Sure Mika! That will be great!” When she was 19 she said “Only two more years!” And again I replied enthusiastically – never dreaming she would come back. Then one summer she visited – and she was 21. She said she was ready and when could she start? She wrote me a letter with a planned timeframe of when she could move. It was in 2008. We were struggling with the changes the arena brought about and Dick was working with kids from the vocational school to build a small Welcome Center – to have a central location for people to check in. We were also struggling financially. I couldn’t justify a full time hire! But I showed Dick Mika’s letter and he said – “You’ve been telling this girl for years that there is a place for her here – you have no choice!” So he re-designed the Welcome Center to accommodate her disability and we hired her to be our receptionist. She found an apartment in Lowell and we took turns giving her rides back and forth five days a week. Then another beautiful thing happened. We had also hired Meredith – a woman who had also come for physical therapy as a child, grown up here, and who we employed to help with feeding the horses every day. She has Apert’s syndrome – a condition causing deformities. Meredith had a car. Perfect! Since then Meredith has been Mika’s transportation and the two – and their families – are good friends! There are many Mika’s and Meredith’s at Ironstone Farm – people whose lives have been changed – who have been given a chance at independence and have found friendships in a place that accepts and celebrates them for who they are. They do not get any breaks or allowances. They are treated like everyone else on staff. Which is exactly what they want! Both Mika and Meredith are valuable employees who have risen to their potential and live completely independently because we gave them the chance to show us they could do it. It is not a gift – they earned it and continue to do so every day!
In 2009, a new kind of service opened up at Ironstone. We were approached by a young scientist at Dana Farber who is also a horse person. She believed that horses could help people with cancer by addressing the emotional issues they face. My colleague, Carolyn, and I are cancer survivors, so we attacked this one on a personal basis. We brought in two very talented facilitators and together we designed a full day retreat program addressing emotional and mental health issues for people with cancer. I couldn’t believe it when the people were introduced to our horses and the bonds started to form! A horse mirrors a person’s feelings – so the facilitators would give them time together “at liberty” in the horses’ paddock environment. The responses of the horses to the people were remarkable! Some would walk away, some would nuzzle, some would show aggression. Afterward the facilitators would ask what happened and the patients would self-reflect and face their own issues – of anger, loneliness, and difficulty in relating to others because of the cancer diagnosis. It was amazing! So much so that since starting the program many of these patients and/or their families have remained involved at Ironstone – after just one day! We now host Sunday cancer retreats for patients from several hospitals throughout Greater Boston, the North Shore and the Merrimack Valley each year.
In 2012, in conversation with an Army veteran, I talked about our cancer program – and he said “Would that work for veterans with PTSD?” A few weeks later he organized a meeting with some people in Lowell who then organized a meeting with the VA in Bedford and in 2013 we held our first pilot retreat for veterans at no charge. A whole new door opened at Ironstone! Ten men participated – all from the Domiciliary Program at the VA, meaning they had all been homeless and most were in recovery from some kind of addiction. The day was amazing! Since then the results for many veterans have been so profound that we are expanding the program to include first responders, and to offer weekend retreat opportunities for vets and their families. We have hired three veterans – two full time who live on and manage the property. Today our veteran program, like our cancer program, is 100% grant funded and, so, offered at no cost for the people who can benefit.
Also in 2013 we were approached by a social worker from Atria Marland Place in Andover. She asked if we would be amenable to trying a Touch Therapy program – a new term for us. The concept targets seniors with memory impairment. Atria brought four seniors from their Alzheimer’s unit for a half hour of just connecting with and patting the horses. Again we were amazed! One woman just put her head against the horse and breathed deeply, enjoying the smell. One started to dance in front of the horse! And another sang to her horse in a whisper with her face against the horse’s face. Again a new door was opened! Since then seniors have been coming from several nursing home facilities including the Lowell Health Center, which also brings individuals with Huntington’s disease for similar therapy. One story to share is about a man whose son would meet him at Ironstone every week and work with him grooming and talking with the horse. After a visit the man’s son called our office to thank us for providing the service. His words were: “Thank you for giving me my father back.” Whatever it is about that horse/human connection we don’t really know. But we do know that it is bringing joy to many lives here at Ironstone!
In 2014, we receive a grant from a Women Working Wonders Fund in Lowell which launched a retreat program for the teens at the Lowell Girls’ Inc. It was a four day retreat that was enormously successful! Since then we have enjoyed a wonderful collaboration with Girls’ Inc., with their teens not only coming twice a year for retreats, but also contributing as valued volunteers at our special occasions. We now call all these new programs bringing horse and human together “Equine Encounter”, our adaptation of Equine Assisted Mental Health and Learning, combining the teachings of practitioners nationwide into what works for our people, with the hopes of growing and contributing to this new, emerging intervention.
In 2012 we came to a juncture – with one house sitting in disrepair, the original Farmhouse having never been renovated, and the need to purchase the third abutting house – and with wonderful ideas for helping more populations, but no feasible way to execute them, we started plans for a capital campaign, which we launched in 2013. As a wrap-around campaign we used 50% of the funds to meet operating expenses – and counted all our fundraising efforts toward the effort. To date we have raised 88% of our goal. With funds raised so far we renovated the home we had purchased in 2008 to be our “Clubhouse”, supporting new programs for children from the inner city with and without disabilities; purchased the other abutting home on two acres, and renovated our arenas and main barn. Left to do is renovate the Farmhouse to become a Center for Veterans and First Responders, build a tack room and new herd shelters, and launch new activities to fill these spaces with the exciting new programs we have planned.
Interspersed throughout this story are other programs that have developed over the years. For 15 years from 1984 to 1999 Dick and I co-led a 40 member 4-H Club which brought kids to national recognition for public speaking. Since 2010 we have enjoyed an annual collaboration with the Mass Adoption Resource Exchange for whom we host an annual Adoption Party (44 children with disabilities have found permanent families through this annual event!). We work with the MA Department of Agriculture to offer an Instructor Apprentice Program. In the mid 1990’s we established the Ironstone Farm Summer Camp – an opportunity for young people to immerse themselves in the farm for week-long programming. To meet our ongoing demand for volunteers we host a Volunteer Workshop twice a month, year round, with volunteers coming through affiliations with area schools, churches, companies and agencies. In 2017, with grant funding, we started to raise our own Haflingers by purchasing two mares in foal, with Elliot – our first colt – born in June. In 2017 Ironstone’s outreach extended beyond our US borders to Israel. Pam McPhee, professor at UNH and Prescott College in Arizona, and Facilitator of Ironstone’s Equine Encounters, and I went to Red Mountain Therapeutic Riding Center in Groffit Israel where we now have a collaboration. Our first Israeli intern spent the summer 2017 at Ironstone.
We have the place, the animals and the people who want to help anyone who can come through our gates. Most program ideas have come to us, and we have been blessed with the determination of our board and staff – that “Spirit of Ironstone” started by Dick – to make them happen.
Dick Donovan passed away in 2015 at the age of 84. Following his passing our board named the farm and its programs after him – everyone entering the farm today goes by the sign “Richard A. Donovan Center for Therapeutic Riding”. His legacy is that he would never let our people with disabilities walk away from a challenge. When anyone said something couldn’t be done, he would be more determined to do it! With the support of his family, who always worked with him, and countless volunteers and dedicated staff, Ironstone Farm has developed into a unique place that has influenced the lives of hundreds of people over four decades. It is his legacy and will continue to be as we help people overcome life’s issues and achieve their greatest potential for many years to come!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Money. Always. We need to raise $700,000 annually to meet our operating budget. We do this through grants, special events, sponsorships, and individual donations. This is for operating only. Capital funding is separate. We currently have a $50,000 matching gift challenge that, if met by December 7th 2017, will be matched 100%. Funding is targeted to our capital campaign – specifically to support renovations of our farmhouse to become a Veterans Center.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Ironstone Farm is opened to anyone who needs and can benefit from our help. The quality that the organization is best known for is it’s “never say never” spirit – for our organization, for the people we serve, and for ourselves.
Pricing:
- It costs $2500 to sponsor one child for one year at Ironstone Farm. Many of our children depend on sponsorships!
- We can renovate our Farmhouse a a Center for Veterans with another $50,000 raised.
- It costs us $700,000 a year in contributed/raised revenues to meet our operating budget. All donatons in any amount are needed – and very much appreciated!
Contact Info:
- Address: Vontact Executive Director Deedee O’Brien
Ironstone Farm
450 Lowell Street
Andover, MA 0810 - Website: www.ironstonefarm.org
- Phone: 978-502-0916
- Email: ironstone1960@gmail.com
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