Equine Outreach receives pair of grants for community efforts

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Equine Outreach Inc. received two new grants for community outreach and to work with the art communities in Bend and Deschutes County.

Equine Outreach Inc. a local equine rescue and sanctuary, received a $20,000 grant from Art4Moore/The Tides Foundation, entitled “Art on The Range,” that will connect local professional artists of all mediums and students of all ages with local rescue horses.  The grant will share experiences that highlight the mission of horse rescues and the plight of at-risk horses in Central Oregon.

EOI is excited to be continuing the work first supported by the Oregon Community Foundation to increase awareness of why horse rescue is important to the local community and how interaction with horses benefits a wide swath of individual and community groups: seniors, at-risk youth, court-ordered community service participants to name just a few.  

Equine Outreach will be supporting Christine Elder (a local artist and naturalist) who has been doing online art classes with students worldwide during the pandemic.  Her classes often have as many as 2500 students a day.

As reopening continues during the pandemic, we know many people will want safe and educational opportunities to be outdoors, and rescue ranches are an ideal setting for this to occur.  

Art4Moore/Tides believes that art is a way for non-profits and schools to connect with their communities and that art programs are often the first to be cut during a crisis such as the one we are currently experiencing.  Both art and equine therapy are proven ways to help reduce stress and boy do we need stress relief now.

EOI also received a second related, $1,500 grant from the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners to continue its broader work doing community outreach via social media and at community functions.  EOI recently worked with Bend Horse Talk to launch a statewide website https://loveoregonhorses.org/ to help answer questions about horse rescue and connect adopters with horses needing new forever homes.

All of these activities will be tied to fundraisers to support the restructure of the ranch that is in progress and will help replace all EOI’s fundraisers that have been canceled due to the pandemic.

EOI Volunteer Outreach Coordinator Arie Pilz said the organization also just made a pass-through grant to the Oregon Hay Bank for $5,000 from an estate to help individuals trying to keep their equines at home (rather than give them up for adoption or sell them for meat) due to the pandemic.

Pilz noted, "The grant money is restricted and cannot be used to help us recover from missing all of our biggest annual fundraisers due to the pandemic.  So we must continue fundraising online and via email for our daily operations at the ranch.  EOI is 100% operated by volunteers.