Hallelujah Ranch

Where life is lived abdundantly!!

The Vision

Hallelujah Ranch will ultimately be a beautiful place where active seniors live.  There will be a strong focus on fostering connections between peers, families, and all who desire to be part of the ranch community.  Days will be filled with options and most importantly, life!!  Basic daily activities available will include: interacting with animals (feeding chickens, gathering eggs, petting and/or grooming horses, games with horses,being entertained by farm animal antics, etc.);  cooking/barbequing (helping to prepare meals, bringing favorite  recipes and helping/instructing on preparation); gardening; exercise/dance classes; woodworking; arts, crafts, and music;  prayer times.  This is a good start, but this is about abundant life, so there’s a bit more!

Lots of seniors enjoy the simplicity of sitting near someone and watching activity; so, we’ve envisioned the ranch to be bustling with activity from visitors to the ranch.  Families and folks of all ages will come for horseback riding lessons, equine therapy sessions (horses serving as the therapeutic intervention for people), dance classes, gardening classes, woodworking, art and music lessons, auto mechanics, etc..  Can you imagine your loved sitting and smiling as they watch a little one ride a horse or shuffle step in a dance class?!?

Families of ranch residents will be offered discounted rates for classes so that they are around regularly and the residents get to watch them learn.  In addition, family members will always be welcome on the ranch and will come to experience it as grandma and/or grandpa’s personal ranch!  They’ll be able to interact with the animals and play on the property.  This will support rich interactions as there will be plenty to do together and talk about.  

We also place a high value on the wisdom seniors possess and will provide a place for them to pass it on.  We envision our members (residents and non-residents) teaching/leading peers and younger generations in their personal areas of expertise and/or interest.  We delight in knowing that integrating this piece, along with other service opportunities, will fill them with a deep sense of purpose.  

 

The Backstory

My name is Paige and as a person of faith, I will tell this as I experienced it!  Here’s how it all came to be…God moved me here to Reno in 2012 to simply BE with my then 92-year-old grandmother.  We had always been close and she was actually in great health.  Her home would become the setting where God not only gave me His eyes, but also His heart.  I experienced, first-hand, the loneliness, isolation, and purposelessness that too many of our Seenagers fall into.  Between 3 grandparents and over the next 5 years, I was able to spend time in all levels and varieties of senior care and while none of them were bad experiences, none of them were good enough for God’s heart, and now mine!

It was actually early in my time of caring for Nana, that He gave me this vision for Hallelujah Ranch.  We hope that people’s response to it will be, “Hallelujah that a place like this exists”!!   We want to be a place where people come and go as they please, but always know that there will be people there to connect with, animals to watch play or to interact with, and people who are enjoying living life doing the things that they love to do!  That’s where the Seenagers who are members of our ranch shape the environment, you get to bring your passions and share them…be it through helping to create and maintain a beautiful garden to actually teaching gardening classes…or maybe cooking is more your thing and you’d find it fun to teach others some of your culinary skills!  Whatever your passions, skills, or interests are, we want to embrace them and empower you to share them with others of all ages.  See, the ranch won’t only be used by Seenagers, our activities and lessons/classes will draw people of all ages…who here wants to watch little girls take dance class?!  Who here wants to a take a turn on the dance floor yourself?!  See, the beauty of this vision is that it serves to connect us across generations and lets you pass your wisdom on to the younger ones.

 

Next Steps

We don’t know when all the pieces will fall into place for the fullness of the ranch vision, but we decided that NOW is the time to start working to develop a community.  Until we have the actual ranch, we are moving forward as Hallelujah Events!

If you’d like to be part of developing the ranch or have further questions, please contact us at HallelujahEvents@gmail.com!