01/02/2026
Happy New Year!
We would like to thank every family who allows us to work with your children. They bring life and joy into the walls of this barn. We would also like to thank our wedding couples for having your beautiful day here. What a wonderful year it has been and it is ending with a bang! Here are some of highlights from 2025:
*Circus in the Barn! We held our first therapeutic camp in the summer (this has been a goal in the process for many years). Circus in the Barn was a huge success! Around 20 children came to weekly camp and worked on performance, circus acts, and animal assisted therapy. We turned the barn into a Big Top and the circus performance was in August. Our audience watched our children perform their amazing acts and the crowd cheered and clapped and even cried for the performers. The growth and pride in the accomplishments of these children was beyond our wildest dreams. We partnered with Merrit Spicer of Yoga on Go to make this happen. She was fabulous! When you combine therapists and performace professionals, magic happens!
*New partnership with University of Illinois speech pathology graduate program. Roxy became a clinical instructor and our site is now a clinical rotation for students. Here, they learn how to incorporate animals and nature in the therapeutic process. The students worked with us at Circus in the Barn and did a fabulous job all summer!
*In January, we had the second preschool therapy group in partnership with Parkland Occupational Therapy Assistant program and UIUC speech grad students The students all got an opportunity to work with the animals as well as learn to cotreat with another therapy discipline.
*We partnered with Two Roads Wellness and welcomed them to our facility to provide social/emotional therapy and counseling services here.
*We planted our first pumpkin patch and wildflower field! This provided endless nature based therapeutic activities.
*We received a generous grant from the Vermilion Healthcare Foundation that was vital to our continued work with children and animals. Thank you!!!
*We hosted several weddings, birthday parties and field trips.
*The daily healing and growth that we see in the therapeutic process with the client, therapist and our animals provides mini miracles that are too numerous to list. This bullet point right here- it is our WHY!
*We welcomed Jen Hoskins, COTA and equine specialist to our team.
*Marcy Wright continues to work as the Office Administrator and keeps us organized and moving forward.
*Izzy Reed continues to return from college to work in the barn. She clean pens and stalls, cleans the clinic, worked as a camp counselor for Circus in the Barn, and helps Roxy take care of the animals. AND helped with The Great Barn Cleanout!
*We welcome Rip the mid mini cow to our family. Whenever we add a new species, it comes with its own set of challenges and rewards and learning curves. Rip’s giant, long cow kisses make it all worth it!
*When we experience loss, we grieve and thank God for the time they were there. We said goodbye to Lib the peacock, 2 chickens, and a sweet little kitten named Sweetheart.
*We are almost finished with THE GREAT BARN CLEANOUT! Cleaning and organizing 11,000 square feet has been an enormous job that left Izzy and Roxy with sore backs, calloused hands and dirt from head to toe! However, you have to clear out old energy to make room for new! Bring on the new!
*We started our GREAT BARN REMODEL! Thank you to Larry Gebhart and Mike and Carol Crawley for the loan and opportunity to do this! We are so excited to transform our site into a beautiful, premier therapy facility and weekend event center Beautiful wood and metals walls, lighting fixtures, a new deck, a custom stage and more! We are launching a for profit wedding event center “The Stables”, to support our not for profit “Roxy’s House”.
Thank you to every single person who has supported this mission. We have big dreams for 2026!
