THIS Cares…2ND
ANNUAL RIDE AT NATCHEZ TRACE STATE PARK, WILDERSVILLE, TN ---HUGE
SUCCESS---RAISING OVER $16,000 FOR EQUESTRIAN FAMILIES WITH ILL CHILDREN
A weekend
filled with all sorts of fun & exciting
happenings!! Riding horses,
camping with your family, gathering around the campfire listening to great music
with both old & new friends, having a fantastic massage by massage
therapists at the end of a ride, and attending both the silent auction and live
country auction. This is our main
fund raising event of the year which is all about helping raise money for THIS
Cares…which enables us to continue down the road that leads us to our ultimate
goal of helping those among us with children less healthy than ours.!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Trail
Rider Magazine has been such a blessing to our organization!
Because of them, we have been able to reach across the United States to
touch people’s hearts who otherwise would have never heard of us.
We have had so many phone calls and many, many
donations from different
states including letters and
testimonials which have not only blessed us but have made our journey even more
meaningful.
THIS
cares…was founded in 2001 and it was the face of Austin, who was diagnosed
with ALL Leukemia, that you saw in our first article. I am so happy to tell you that Austin ended his chemo
treatments in June of 2004 and is now in remission.
As you know from reading our articles that the faces have grown.
Our hearts overflow with happiness for this family but we are deeply
saddened because we know there are so many others that need our help.
Hunter, who is our poster child, was born with Vater Syndrome and will
need a kidney transplant, scoliosis surgery, & more surgeries, Mikenzie, age
3 born missing the tip of her spine, and
Misha diagnosed with Cystic
Fibrosis & is on the waiting list for a double lung transplant. These faces
have been seen and their stories have been told since 2001.
In order to help financially, we must be able to raise funds. This is our main fund-raiser for the year and as you know
this money will only go so far .We never dreamed we would be able to help so
many families that don’t ask for
help / they just want their child
to be healthy & better. We deal
directly with each and every family and yes, when we talk, tears get in our eyes
as we pray that we have the funds to help them through
so they can concentrate not on worrying about paying bills and going
bankrupt but on taking care of their beloved child.
We are asked the question, “Where do you find the children and families
to help?” We only can say in all
sincerity that GOD is the key that
opens the door as Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,
forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.” Luke 18:16
We wonder each
and every day where the funds will come from to help these families????
We can only tell you that the doors have started opening and contacts
that we never thought possible are starting to happen in order to raise funds to
help these families. We met two
wonderful people at our
1st trail ride
last year.—Mike Autry & Penny Stuart from Watertown, TN.
They have now come on board with the organization
with Mike as Vice-President &
Penny as a board member. Mike did
not know Hunter last year and when he saw him on Sunday when his family came up
and gave a testimonial his heart was also touched deeply.
Mike told us that when he first got to the ride he saw a little boy on a
bicycle and he asked him, “How are you?”
The little boy replied as he always does, “I’m doing fine.”
When Mike realized who Hunter was he couldn’t believe this was the same
child that had so many problems. It
goes to show that you never know when your heart will be touched
as it happened to Mike & Penny & as it happened to us by Austin.
More amazing events have occurred since meeting Mike
& Penny. They just
happened to know other contacts to help our organization further.
They put us in touch with this person who knew somebody else and things
seem to be snowballing. We were
invited to come to East Fork
Stables for their Golden Leaf Ride
Sept. 23-26. Phil Hopson is the
general manager and a super nice person. We
met with him & introduced THIS Cares… and our mission to him. We just found out today as I am writing this article that
East Fork Stables is going to have a ride in the spring for our organization.
We are so excited because this is not only an opportunity to ride but
this is an opportunity of a lifetime as East Fork Stables is going to be a
SPONSOR for THIS HORSE IS
SILENT Cares… They were so
gracious with their hospitality, great food, entertainment, & amazing trails
to ride. We rode the trails, and
they were well marked with signs for easy climbs, some steep climbs, and very
steep & long climbs for
experienced riders. We were very
impressed as the trails were very clean & we had
been told that you had to have special shoeing on your horse but that was
not true. We went to places like
Owen’s Homeplace, Stone House,York Gap, Raccoon Gap,
and many others with beautiful views.
You must make this ride!!!!!!!!! Mark
your calendars now for our spring premier ride & WATCH for the dates at
EAST FORK STABLES !!!!!
Thanks so much
to the readers for your support in the past and we hope you will continue that
support for us in the future. We
desperately need funds to help these families in need.
With you donations, BIG or SMALL, every donation counts and God will
bless you abundantly.
We would also
like to include our SPONSORS-----The Trail Rider Magazine, Genuine Billy Cook
Saddles –Sulphur, OK, Sundowner Trailers or Nashville,
TN, & Nesbit, MS, Bear Hollow Stables & Cabins-Townsend, TN, D
& D Trailers –Brighton, TN, Cowboy Corner- Southaven, MS, Hewlitt &
Dunn, Collierville,TN, The Hide Group- Sardis, MS, Bancorp South- Collierville,
TN, Tennessee Tack & Feed-
Cordova, TN, and new sponsors, The River Kings Ice Hockey League-- Southaven,
MS, and East Fork Stables-Jamestown, TN. And
a special thanks to the new owners of The Trail Rider Magazine.
And a
heart-felt thanks to those individuals that joined in this year to help make
THIS Cares…a success!!!!!!!!! We
are also working on a new ride at Woodbury, TN sometime next year.
If you know of an equestrian family with an ill child or would like to
join up or send a donation, please call LARRY OR JOANNA STEWARRT AT 901-827-4251
or MIKE AUTRY or PENNY STUART at 615-237-3125.
PLEASE HELP US
SO WE CAN HELP THESE FAMILIES
GOD BLESS YOU
Joanna
B. & Larry D. Stewart
Founders of THIS Cares…