This past year, Ride On St. Louis was thrilled to be the chosen charity of the Southern Gateway Association of Realtors in Jefferson County. When elected as the 2018-19 Southern Gateway Association of Realtors President Kim Sebaugh chose Ride On St. Louis as the association's charity of the year. Kim, who is also a member of the Ride On St. Louis Board of Directors, has seen the benefits achieved through Ride On St. Louis firsthand, as her family member is enrolled in the programming. Kim also has a special spot for horses as she had been involved in breeding and showing Arabian horses through her family business.
A very special guest client attended the event and helped accept the check of $5,429. Tim, who was accompanied by parents David and Linda, has been a client with Ride On St. Louis since 2014. Tim uses a device to communicate not only with his family and friends, but also with his therapy horse Pharma. Through his device Tim was able to share the following words with the audience at the Southern Gateway Association of Realtors banquet this past Friday. "Thank you for the donation to Ride On St. Louis. I love riding Pharma and feeding her apples. I can play games while riding and riding backwards! I tell Pharma what to do using this talker. Riding helps my muscles get stronger and gives me confidence. Thank you!" Tim has been working on improving his coordination, sensory processing, and communication skills with the help of his Occupational Therapist Kat and horse Pharma, and has made great progress. With Pharma and Kat, Tim is advancing in his ability to following multi-step directions, pronounce sounds and is even fine tuning his skills to better his handwriting.
We are so grateful to the Southern Gateway Association of Realtors, Kim Sebaugh and all the members for supporting our mission and helping us help others!
(Pictured is David F., Tim F., Linda F., Marita Wassman and Kim Sebaugh)