A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were walking on a sidewalk that ran along a beachfront. We came across a stretch where roses were climbing their way up and over a fence. A middle-aged woman in a rain jacket was leaning on the fence and smelling a rose.
As we got closer, she asked, “Have you smelled these roses? This is what real roses smell like! The ones we buy have been tinkered with so much that they don’t smell like real roses. These aren’t big and flashy, but these are real roses.”
She smiled, handed me a blossom, and went on her way.
The children who come to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch have lived lives where things are not what they seem. People who should have protected them hurt them. "Friends” lured them into drugs or sex. Teachers who should have seen their potential found them too “hopeless” to teach. They have been hungry in a land of plenty. They have been abandoned when they should have been cherished. Their lives are not what children should experience.
Here, at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, they find people who really are what they seem. Psychiatrist Dr. Wayne Martinsen truly believes every person has a right to live a healthy life. Superintendent Tina DeGree believes every child has the right and the capacity to learn. Randi Streff, VP of Clinical Services, believes every child is doing the best they can, and strives to ensure that what they can do increases each day! The people who work with the children at the Ranch are here for only one reason… to help at-risk children and their families succeed in the name of Christ.
It takes the children some time to learn that it's real.
I remember a discharge survey comment from a young man named Marco. He said, “I thought this place was weird when I came because everybody acted so nice. Then I figured out that they weren’t acting. They really cared about me and the other kids.”
Sometimes you find a rose that smells like a rose.
Please keep our children and staff at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in your prayers.
In His love,
Joy Ryan, President/CEO
Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch
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