What Winslow means to a volunteer!

Our Spring Newsletter will be coming out this week but here is your sneak peak look at one of the articles writen by one of our amazing Volunteers Amanda Coyne!

For me, summers have always meant volunteering. Both of my parents work for most of the daylight hours, so I have spent most of my sweltering summer days in Warwick not relaxing or sleeping in, but rising at what feels like the crack of dawn to spend the day bringing toddlers to the bathroom or talking to Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes. Last summer was the first summer that I had planned not to volunteer and to get a job instead. Thankfully, Winslow Therapeutic Riding thwarted my plan. What I didn’t expect, though, was for Winslow to change me as a person.

After a very difficult first year away at school, I was home for the summer. I hadn’t been planning on doing any volunteer work because I needed to earn money for the coming year at school, but my grandmother, a secretary at Winslow, told me about the volunteer opportunities there. I had always loved working with children and animals, so working with them together seemed like the perfect opportunity for me.
Volunteering at Winslow has turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. Not only have I met amazing people and made great friends, but Winslow has genuinely helped me grow as a person. Working with the riders has given me a greater perspective on my own life. So many of these amazing people are persevering despite major disabilities, whether they be physical, mental, or both. They don’t let their disabilities get in their way and they definitely don’t let their disabilities keep them from being happy. I have seen these people living their lives to the fullest and taking every opportunity they can.
The riders at Winslow are an inspiration for me to live my life to the fullest; I have realized that any day spent feeling sorry for yourself or letting something get in the way of what you want to do is a day wasted. Working with the riders has turned me into a more determined and driven person; if they can overcome their major obstacles to do something that they love, surely I can as well.

Winslow is advertised as a therapeutic riding center, but it is much more than that. For me, it has been a therapeutic volunteering center. The “Healing through Horses” is not exclusively reserved for the riders—working with the horses and riders at Winslow is extremely rewarding. Whenever I am not in the greatest of moods, a few hours at Winslow can quickly remedy that. If I’ve had a difficult week at school, I always look forward to coming home for the weekend and seeing everyone at Winslow. It is extremely hard to put into words what Winslow has done for me, but I hope that anyone who reads this can get an inkling of what I am trying to convey.

Picture: Amanda and Neil spending quality therapeutic time together!

What does volunteering at Winslow mean to you?!