ROCK Celebrates Groundbreaking for New Arena
Every day, ROCK Ride On Center for Kids celebrates miracles that happen in the dirt. Perhaps it is an autistic child who hugs and kisses his parents for the first time, or a veteran with PTSD who finds peace through the healing power of horses. Through its Miracles in the Dirt campaign, ROCK will provide new space for many more miracles to come to fruition. “In many ways, this expansion is really for the future. There are children who have not been born yet, adults who might need us one day, and veterans who have not yet even enlisted. This is for them,” ROCK CEO and Founder Nancy Krenek says.
GROUNDBREAKING
The groundbreaking for the Sport Clips Heroes Arena in July marks another milestone in ROCK’s 23-year journey—providing equine-assisted services to children, adults, and veterans with physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges. In 2014, as the demand for services continued to grow, ROCK launched the Miracles in the Dirt campaign. The initiative was inspired by the late Charles Avery, a board member who challenged the nonprofit organization to buy more land and build a second arena. Miracles in the Dirt’s first phase added 40 acres to the north and south of the facility at 2050 Rockride Lane, bringing the campus’s footprint to roughly 60 acres.
The estimated $4 million expansion is expected to be complete in late 2022 and will feature:
- 29,250 square foot covered arena
- outdoor arena
- makeover of the Cecile Autrey Ham Family room
- additional tack space,
- veterinarian horse stall
- additional land improvements
- renovations to the Patti Colbert Learning Center, fellowship kitchen, and existing office spaces.
“The expansion will provide improved independence and life skills—in partnership with the horse—for children, youth, adults, and veterans on ROCK’s current waiting list, plus that growing future waiting list of those in need of equine-assisted services,” says George Brightwell, ROCK’s board secretary and campaign co-chairman.
George remembers the windmill that inspired ROCK’s home in the ‘80s. He and his wife, Barbara, have always been drawn to windmills and they fell in love with a windmill they saw while driving on County Road 110 in Georgetown. They bought 20 acres of the 117-acre tract just for that windmill, with no plans for the land other than perhaps building a house there or selling it later for their retirement fund. They soon discovered God had a bigger plan for the land.
HOW IT BEGAN
It all started with a news story the Brightwells came across about a child’s life that was transformed by a horse named Miss Prissy Texan. Through a series of providential events, the couple met the woman behind the life-changing equine-assisted services, Nancy Krenek, who asked if they would sell her about five acres for her therapeutic horseback riding clinic.
The Brightwells told her they wouldn’t sell her the land, but they would lease the entire 20 acres to her for one dollar a year. After ROCK became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the land was converted into a donation from the Brightwells and later evolved into a challenge to build an arena for all the miracles in the dirt that have since taken place.
ROCK’s original 42,000 square foot covered area went into service in 2006, and today, 340 participants receive equine-assisted services. Since then, 27 staff members and more than 300 volunteers have come on board to further ROCK’s mission.
To help meet the growing need for equine-assisted services, ROCK has raised 82 percent of the funding necessary for the Miracles in the Dirt campaign, and there are plenty of giving opportunities still available. To learn more, contact Karah Powell at [email protected], or click here for more information about ROCK.