YOU can help Ranch boys and girls succeed in school
08/01/2016

As the summer winds down, the boys and girls who live at the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches are soaking up the sunlight and enjoying swimming, fishing, and riding their bikes around our beautiful campuses. They have also been busy caring for our cattle and working in the fields to earn some extra spending money for the fall. Soon, our Ranchers will begin preparing for the new school year.

Mathew2Back-to-school is an exciting time at the Ranches with fresh haircuts and shopping for new school clothes. You can only imagine the number of backpacks, notebooks, pens, pencils, paper, and crayons our children go through in a school year!

In 2015, the National Retail Federation estimated that families with school-age children spent an average of $630.36 on clothes, shoes, and school supplies. Because the Ranches are more than 90% funded through donations from friends like you, we work very hard to be good stewards of our resources. We are able to keep the cost of sending one of our Ranchers to school at just $285.00, less than half of that national average! But when you are working to outfit all of our Ranchers for school, that amount can quickly add up. That’s why we need YOUR help!

With YOUR support, we will see lives changed this school year.

•We will see children succeed in school for the first time in their life because they are not worrying about where their next meal will come from.

•We will see children not live in fear of riding a school bus home because they may be abused by a loved one when they get there.

•We will see children go back to school with confidence because they have their first ever pair of new shoes that fit them.

•We will see children’s eyes light up when they receive their very first new backpack.

YOUR gift today shows that you believe every child deserves a home where they can feel safe, secure, and loved. It shows that you believe every child deserves a home where they don’t have to go to bed hungry at night. It shows that you believe every child deserves a chance to succeed in school and receive a quality education.

YOU give our boys and girls that chance. YOU give them that kind of home. The Ranches have been home to more than 1,300 boys and girls for 40 years, thanks to friends like YOU! And to continue to provide Arkansas children with a safe, healthy, and loving home, we need your help.

YOU can help outfit one or more of our children for school with a tax deductible gift to the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches.

Sending a child to school can be expensive, especially when you have as many as we do! However, the reward of seeing boys and girls learn and grow and succeed in their classes is far greater.

grad 1 smallWe know that a quality education is one of the best ways we can prepare our boys and girls for life after they leave the Ranch. Education is also the key to breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect that has plagued so many of our children’s lives.

This May, we saw one of our young women graduate from high school. For many of our boys and girls, graduating high school and going to college seemed an impossible dream. But that was before coming to the Ranch. Now that they are here, YOUR support makes that dream a reality. Because YOU make the Ranches possible, some of these children will be the first in their family to graduate from high school, and many will go on to attend college.

With our Ranchers going back to school in August, we need your generous support now more than ever. To you, your gift may seem like only a small monthly or annual contribution. But to our boys and girls, YOU are changing their lives and making their dreams come true. We are truly very grateful for your investment in these young, deserving lives.

What would YOU be willing to give to see Ranch boys and girls succeed in school this year?

Even though back-to-school is a busy and expensive time at the Ranches, we need your help all year longPlease consider becoming a Hope Builder by making your gift a monthly contribution. By becoming a Hope Builder, we will automatically process your gift each month with a debit or credit card. It is a safe and simple way to support the children at the Ranches. Just click here to set up your monthly gift today!