Wednesday, January 22
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
Lawrence Business Magazine LLC
2013 First Quarter - Community Banks

2013Q1 Non-Profit: Midnight Farm

By on 126 Comments
NON PROFIT: MIDNIGHT FARM
| First Quarter 2013 | story by DAISY WAKEFIELD | photos by STEVEN HERTZOG |

Midnight-Farms

By most accounts, a 40-acre tract of land that sits between Eudora and Baldwin City shouldn’t be seeing much traffic coming through its gates.

By most accounts, a 40-acre tract of land that sits between Eudora and Baldwin City shouldn’t be seeing much traffic coming through its gates. But from morning till evening of most days, Midnight Farm is host to constantly revolving groups of people, some as near as the house just up the path, and some as far away as Japan.
Midnight Farm, an offspring of Community Living Opportunities (CLO), is a multi-purpose facility that serves the clients of CLO and individuals with developmental disabilities. Although there are numerous uses for the Farm, the therapeutic horse riding program for children and adults with special needs is the most visible, operating out of a stable and arena that is attached to the main facility.

The eight or so horses stabled at the barn are acquired through donation or purchase. The riding program is accredited by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH), and trainers and horses go through a continual regimen of training to be able to work with the special-needs population and equine. Horses that cannot be trained or who develop medical issues are re-homed, as Midnight Farm cannot maintain more than a few horses.

harness“Our animals must be very calm and unexcitable,” says Colleen Baker, Director of Midnight Farm. “They must tolerate sporadic, uncoordinated movements, a rider’s unequal balance, and careless excitement of riders in the walkways and stalls. For the safety of riders, the horses must be relatively shy-proof and indifferent towards objects moving nearby, overhead or touching them.”
For the children and adults who ride the horses at Midnight Farm, the weekly outing is a delight. Some of the riders are non-ambulatory, spending most of their time looking up from a wheelchair. For them, the experience of being mounted on a horse allows them to see the world from an exhilarating angle. Other riders are non-verbal, but have been able to express their first speech when they command their horse to walk or to trot. Volunteers lead the horses, as well as walk along the sides, providing safety on three sides of each rider.

Midnight Farm was built from a desire to have a rural setting as an option for children and adults to live in, work in, or just experience. The dream of the Farm involved horses, so Michael Strouse, CLO CEO, toured numerous therapeutic riding facilities around the country in order to learn from their successes and challenges. What he learned was that therapeutic riding programs are often in the red, as it is difficult to sustain the cost of a standalone riding program.

When CLO purchased the 40 acres in 2005, Strouse and CLO’s Board designed a plan for Midnight Farm that would layer multiple business plans together in order to make the Farm sustainable. Besides the riding program, the Farm is home to three, soon to be four, of CLO’s residences. These house two to three adults with developmental disabilities, along with their extended family teaching caretakers. CLO has numerous of these residences in Douglas and Johnson Counties, but the ones on the Farm are always in high demand.

“A lot of Kansans grew up rurally,” says Strouse, “And when they had kids with special needs, they ended up having to move to town to access services. Midnight Farm gives options to people who want to be in a rural setting. Some people want to live here, some want to work here, and some want to just have a piece of it every so often. We have a menagerie of options.”
That menagerie of options includes day services, with daily classes and activities for adults with special needs. These, along with the residence services, are billable to Medicaid, providing much of the Farm’s income. However, Kansas Medicaid pays average state costs, and costs in Douglas and Johnson Counties, where CLO serves, are consistently higher. Midnight Farm is also dependent on grants and donations, which they used to build the initial main facility and barn.

shoesOther operations at the farm are being created or expanded in order to make them income contributors. Clients produce some plant products in a greenhouse, which are currently sold mainly at fundraising events on the Farm. While these provide activities for CLO clients, they do not generate much income. Strouse hopes this will change with the hiring of a consultant to identify product lines that can eventually be marketed at farmer’s markets and to landscaping clients. A variety of vegetables will be sold at the town farmer’s markets, and half-whiskey barrels filled with flowers will be sold to landscapers. Plans are in place to build high tunnels on the grounds, extending the growing season with less need for herbicides and pesticides. Besides a heftier income stream, developing the garden-to-market lines will also create supported jobs and activities for CLO clients.

Other activities that also add to the Farm’s strata of incomes include field trips, fundraisers, summer horse camps, and special events, including Midnight Farm’s first wedding.
Though Midnight Farm currently receives mostly planned visitors through clients, field trips, and fundraisers, Strouse envisions a day when it will serve as a common destination outing. People might see a play at the rustic amphitheater that is currently on the drawing board, and then browse the greenhouse and pottery barn, and then take a ride in the wagon pulled by Ricky, the massive Belgian draft horse. He wants people to recognize the connection between Midnight Farm, the products they produce, and the clients that produce them.
This makes for busy days and nights at an otherwise bucolic piece of property. But the multiple income streams make Midnight Farm sustainable, and enviable. Organizations in other states and other countries are coming to look at CLO and Midnight Farm as a model.

“What differentiates Midnight Farm as a model is that we have 40 acres of land and multiple activities that make it sustainable, versus having just a therapeutic riding program,” Strouse says. “Midnight Farm is a hodge podge of funding strategies because that’s what works. We visited a lot of therapeutic riding programs before building ours, and we found that if you do any one thing, it’s not going to support it. But if you do six things, it’s financially viable, and it’s also fun.”■

Share.

Related Posts

126 Comments

  2. christmas wall art canvas on

    Many thanks for this article. I will also like to convey that it can often be hard when you are in school and simply starting out to initiate a long credit rating. There are many individuals who are only trying to live and have a good or favourable credit history is often a difficult thing to have.

  6. アドレナリン 薬 on

    As long as you are willing to study the stocks traded in exchanges carefully and determined enough to reach your goal there’s no reason why you shouldn’t profit from stock market investing.

  8. パンくわえて走る on

    As I write this, we’re discussing whether we wish to danger making some fairly radical changes to the AI in a patch for a game that most individuals seem to like, and by which NPCs principally behave as very similar to real folks as they ever have in any sport.

  16. Guardian on

    Hello there, I do believe your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. Whenever I look at your blog in Safari, it looks fine however when opening in I.E., it has some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other than that, great site.

  20. seroburn official website on

    I am really loving the theme/design of your blog. Do you ever run into any web browser compatibility issues? A couple of my blog audience have complained about my website not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Chrome. Do you have any solutions to help fix this issue?|

  26. mindquell official website on

    Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specifically the last phase 🙂 I care for such information much. I used to be looking for this particular information for a long time. Thank you and best of luck. |

  29. 메이저사이트 on

    Greetings, There’s no doubt that your site may be having web browser compatibility issues. When I look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however, if opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other than that, excellent site!

  32. SEO BACKLINKS on

    Next time I read a blog, I hope that it won’t fail me as much as this particular one. After all, I know it was my choice to read, however I really thought you would probably have something helpful to say. All I hear is a bunch of crying about something that you could fix if you weren’t too busy looking for attention.

  34. vnsi4hcom on

    Hey there! I simply would like to give you a huge thumbs up for your excellent info you’ve got here on this post. I will be returning to your website for more soon.

  36. vnsi4hcom on

    Everything is very open with a clear description of the challenges. It was definitely informative. Your website is useful. Thanks for sharing!

  38. dentasmile pro on

    It’s the best time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy. I’ve read this post and if I could I wish to suggest you some interesting things or tips. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article. I desire to read more things about it!|

  47. 受理 する on

    Interest rates, which began a major series of decreases in 2002 would reduce the cost of borrowing and increase the ability of private equity firms to finance large acquisitions.

  50. KS79 on

    Oh my goodness! Incredible article dude! Thanks, However I am encountering difficulties with your RSS. I don’t understand the reason why I am unable to join it. Is there anybody getting similar RSS issues? Anybody who knows the solution will you kindly respond? Thanx.

  51. 電気脱毛 on

    Hi! I simply wish to give you a huge thumbs up for your excellent information you’ve got here on this post. I am returning to your web site for more soon.

  58. tylekeo on

    Having read this I thought it was really enlightening. I appreciate you spending some time and effort to put this content together. I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worthwhile.

  61. bong88 on

    I blog often and I truly thank you for your information. This article has really peaked my interest. I’m going to take a note of your site and keep checking for new information about once a week. I subscribed to your Feed too.

  62. bk8 on

    I was pretty pleased to uncover this site. I wanted to thank you for ones time due to this fantastic read!! I definitely appreciated every part of it and i also have you book marked to check out new stuff on your blog.

  66. 68gamebai on

    Spot on with this write-up, I actually believe this website needs a great deal more attention. I’ll probably be returning to read through more, thanks for the info!

  74. betvisa on

    This excellent website certainly has all of the information and facts I wanted concerning this subject and didn’t know who to ask.

  76. jeetbuzz on

    Oh my goodness! Incredible article dude! Thanks, However I am experiencing issues with your RSS. I don’t understand why I can’t subscribe to it. Is there anybody else getting similar RSS issues? Anyone who knows the answer can you kindly respond? Thanx!!

  78. jeetbuzz on

    Your style is very unique in comparison to other people I’ve read stuff from. Thank you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I’ll just book mark this web site.

  80. Baji Live on

    Hi there, I do think your website could be having web browser compatibility issues. Whenever I look at your site in Safari, it looks fine however, when opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues. I merely wanted to give you a quick heads up! Besides that, wonderful blog!

  82. 79kingg.cc on

    Aw, this was a really good post. Taking a few minutes and actual effort to create a great article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.

Leave A Reply

Contact to Listing Owner

Captcha Code