"I am Marita Wassman Director and of Ride On St. Louis. My husband and I founded the organization in 1998. Because everyone watching this is such an important part of Ride On St. Louis, I want to provide this update to keep us connected socially while we remain physically apart.
"Over the past year, our center has been working towards relocating to a flood-free forever home. The project continues to move forward during this time, and involves many outside parties, processes, and actions dependent on complex timelines and schedules. Because those we serve remain a priority during our relocation, we have been operating on a small scale and offering some limited services through our move, like our Barn Buddies vocational program and camp collaboration with DASA, as well as continued offerings through our school, college, hospital and healthcare partnerships. Because of our own safety standards, we have not been able to offer mounted activities at our temporary location.
"Due to Covid-19, we have canceled group volunteers and service days, and have had to postpone Nag’s Head Trivia, and another event supporting Ride On St. Louis this spring. These two events typically raise funding that is critical to our programs, as most of our services are offered at no-cost or through financial aid awards. Last year Ride On St. Louis served 74 children and adults through our programs and only sought $1,500 in program fees. We will be participating in Give STL Day on May 7, and encourage you to support us or another St. Louis non-profit through this virtual event if you are in a position to do so.
"God has blessed us to be able to continue providing care for our horses at a small private barn near Cedar Hill, MO so we continue in our duty to care for each other and His wonderful creatures. With this, we still have critical expenses to meet for the horses’ basic needs and so that we can continue staffing our equine and program professionals. At this time, we ask for prayers for each other, for yourself, and the world. We know many businesses and nonprofits in the community are asking for assistance at this time, but we do hope you’ll consider Ride On St. Louis now or for Give STL Day, and hope that you know that you will be making a big difference. If you would like to talk, have any questions, or just want a video update on your favorite horse just let me know what we can do for you. God is good, so good, and we are offering all our work for peace, love, strength, joy and health."