Wild About The Child.
Mary Lou Garcia, Executive Director of the Ranch and in her sixth year there, explained the program. She told us they focus young people on learning and practicing skills as well as behaviors in the areas of character, leadership and teamwork. They have children from the ages of 8-16 years in three different programs. She explained that the programs are progressive. Mary Lou said the participants start out at 8 years of age with a one week program. Following this first program, the children come back for longer, more advanced programs. The children in the more advanced programs work with the children in the beginning program. Mary Lou told us in conversation after the meeting that as many as 70% of the children at the camp at any given time are back for more advanced training.
The program is based on the premise that, in Mary Lou’s words “… children have everything in them they need to be successful, but they don’t have a chance in their environment.” She went on to describe the dysfunctional family environments we are all too familiar with that these children live in. At the Ranch, the children learn to break the cycle of dysfunction‖.
It works. Mary Lou quoted statistics from 40 children from the Des Moines schools involved in the Ranch for the past three years that showed a strong improvement in their behavior. The metric is Time Spent in the Principal’s Office. The first year they were involved in the Ranch program these 40 students were in the Principal’s Office 3,500 hours. The second year, 1,300 hours and 300 hours the third year.
L to R: Lori McConville, Mary Lou Garcia and Jodi Verbraken
