Volunteering at Sheltering Tree Ranch

Sheltering Tree RanchThis is my 4-H speech for 2016.

Hi I’m Alesha Dodd, I’m 15 years old and in 10th grade. I’m going to talk about my favorite thing to do which is volunteering. I love to volunteer at many places like dog shelters and soup kitchens and many other places. But there is one place I love to volunteer at the most – it’s called the Sheltering Tree Ranch.

What is the Sheltering Tree Ranch? Well my friends it’s a school! An amazing school for autistic children or children with a disability of any kind. I started to volunteer there when I was 14 and I loved it so I wanted to keep going back, so here I am a year later and I still love it.

The ranch is a beautiful place; it has an amazing stream and a beautiful barn. They have horses and even more. The future for the ranch is big and bright. We would like to have animals like chicken and sheep and pigs, all kind of animals.

They would also like to have a big pool for water therapy for the kids that are in wheel chairs. I think my favorite thing that they would like to do is build a house for the adults with autism, just a small studio apartment, and have a general store that adults with disabilities will run so they can learn to be independent. I even asked them to build me a small house because I plan to live, work and do everything on the ranch.

The school is the best part of the ranch because that is where all the magic happens. All the teachers are such a blessing, because the school couldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for them taking time and teaching these children and giving their time to the school. They really inspired me to take a part of it and that’s why I can’t wait to get my degree in special education. I think the most rewarding thing about volunteering there is to see the children grow and learn. Children will come to the school not knowing how to say a single word and after a year at least have a vocabulary of 100 words or more!

Now you might be wondering what the Sheltering Tree Ranch has to do with 4-H. Well, it has a big part in 4-H. Because 4-H isn’t just about forestry or wildlife or speech; it’s about the community coming together, helping each other and donating anything – time, money, supplies – it doesn’t matter how you give your time, it matters how you help. 4-H is something that brings family, friends, and even strangers together. It’s about building the community and making a difference in the world.

Thank you for listening, hope y’all enjoyed.

~Alesha

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