“Clap along if you feel like Happiness is the Truth” Pharrell Williams – Happy

I’m pretty disconnected from the world of pop music. I learn about what’s popular from my students, their hip families and our teen and millennial volunteers.

I had however, fallen in love with Lorde’s “Royals.” So when a six year old student started belting out his own lyrics while cantering around the arena in my lap, I laughed and squealed with him as he sang “We can never be ROYALS, You can be a green bean!”

I lead a charmed life full of joy.

This week’s pop song might be my favorite of all time. One of our families visited and I won’t lie, this little guy can be a challenge.  Sometimes, he just needs to destroy things and the trick is finding a space and an activity where he can work through his struggles and keep himself, others, critters and equipment as safe as possible. He’s broken rocks, jumps, helmets, toys, our fire pit, earthworms and more.  We’ve had some ingenious ways to help him channel energy and anger and we’ve had to repair and replace some stuff. He’s also one of the brightest and neatest kids ever and a smile from him can make your entire week

When he and his sister visited we met him in the parking lot with Rickie, our feisty pony.  He wanted to head straight to the campsite, a 600 yard hike from his car so off we went, his dad and little sister in tow.  We’d had a week of rain and the campsite was soggy and our raft, which we’d forgotten to flip over, was pulled ashore and full of water.  He hopped from the pony and was in the raft, calling it his swimming pool before we could intervene.  It’s April and it’s the Coastside, so a warm day is about 62F.  In a few more moments, he was naked in his “swimming pool” and face down in the water blowing bubbles and licking the sides.  I gathered up his clothes and hung them to drip while he played.

Clap along if you feel like that’s what you want to do.”

Both his dad and I realized about 15 minutes in that he was getting chilled and we started thinking about

strategies to get him back to some dry clothes and warmth.Nothing seemed to work, he was loving the feeling of the water on his face and on his body, even if his lips were turning a little bit blue. We both looked at his wet clothes dripping on the fence and knew that getting him back in them was going to be a sensory nightmare. I squatted next to him while the pony grazed and started talking about Lady Godiva, the 11^th century noblewoman who rode her horse naked through the streets of the village to oppose the oppressive taxes her husband had waged against his tenants.  Our little swimmer was still lolling in the raft but I knew he heard me.  His little sister offered to be the mayor of our village if her brother, who we now called “Lord Godiva” would ride naked through our imaginary town and back to the barn.

Rickie our pony was wearing a wool square pad with a navajo blanket on top and I removed the navajo and told Lord Godiva that it was a warm and royal robe for his highness.  We lifted him like the nobleman he was onto his awaiting steed and covered his chilly shoulders with his royal robe and proceeded to ride back to the barn, with his sister the mayor telling everyone to “make way for the naked Lord Godiva.” We marched and pranced our way back to the barn.

I realized that Lord Godiva was singing quietly under his breath.  I leaned in and this is what he was singing “Because I’m happy. Because I’m happy.  Because I’m happeeeeeee.”

I really do lead a charmed and joyful life.  I’m so grateful for the trust and love of our families to trust us to follow their children and the beautiful and amazing places they take us. A simple reminder to stay present, stay joyful and “Clap along if you feel like Happiness is the Truth!”

For the last several days, email to squarepegfoundation.org has been down. Email coming in to our server was therefore delayed, and in some cases failed.

As of this morning, email to squarepegfoundation.org is restored and is working properly, but it may take some time for any delayed email to get delivered.

Any new email to a squarepegfoundation.org address will be delivered promptly.

It would help us if you would please do two things:

1. Resend any email that you have sent to us in the last week.
2. If you receive a mail delivery status notification of email you sent to squarepegfoundation.org, please forward it to darius@squarepegfoundation.org so that I can check the details and ensure that we don’t have any remaining problems.

Thank you, and I apologize for any trouble this has caused.

Anyone who would like to know more of the technical details can read on…

Our server developed a very strange problem with its RAID array, which we thought at first would be easily resolved, but it wasn’t. Ultimately, we had to get new hardware to replace the old, and then go through a laborious process of rebuilding the RAID. As of this morning, this server is still not up and running.

Other than email, our lesson scheduling database is also effected. As of this morning (April 2, 2014), that system is still not running.

We fixed our email by adding the squarepegfoundation.org domain to our Google Apps account, where everyonefits.org has been for several years.

Your email server may not re-try to contact our email server for many hours, so any delayed email may not be delivered to us right away, even though our new Google-powered email is in place and ready. It’s also possible that your email server has already given up, in which case you should receive a notification that delivery failed. Different email servers are configured differently in this regard, so you may see different notifications, including some saying that email delivery has been delayed.

This is all frustrating, of course, despite heroic efforts by our volunteer IT team. Thank you all for your patience!

Darius

—
Darius Christopher Dunlap
co-Founder, Board President
Square Peg Foundation
darius@squarepegfoundation.org
https://www.squarepegfoundation.org

Students and parents shine!

And you know what that means?  It’s time to start planning your outfit for the best Kentucky Derby Party in the West!  Plan your day  now for the first Saturday in May!

click here to buy your tickets!

See photos of last year’s party. It was a feast for all the senses with polo, fashion and food!  Read some of the write ups:

Horse & Style Magazine

Sail Couture Blog

Half Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce Blog

It’s the spring party you don’t want to miss!  Click here to join us in our most important fundraiser of the year.

 

 

The New Year has us waxing nostalgic.  I’m famous for being a “non-holiday person” but I admit to using the short days and the long nights of December as a time to think and reflect and plan.What became clear as I thought about the amazing 2013 Square Peg had and the challenge and excitement 2014 will bring is that I, as Executive Director of Square Peg, need to answer the essential question  “What do I believe?”

A cup of tea at hand and a sleeping kitten on my feet, I pitched the reins at my heart and this is what appeared on the page.

 

 

 I believe that laughter gives us strength.

Thank you to all who are joining us in our Revolution of Kindness. Happy 2014.

One late night my tear stained cheeks and trembling body fled to the barn and poured my soul out to my favorite old thoroughbred. He quietly ate the saltine crackers I had brought him, and at that moment was when I realized that without him, I probably wouldn’t be here today.

Many places make me happy; beaches, my best friend’s house, and of course my favorite tea shop. But when someone asks where I am content, everyone knows my answer. It’s a place where I teach but also learn. I spend six days a week there, but it’s never enough. I don’t get paid, yet I spend over one hundred dollars a month to just be there. Square Peg Foundation is my home, and is the one true place where my heart aches to be. Square Peg is a barn that rescues horses from the race track and retrains them to use in a program which helps and teaches kids with special needs how to ride and care for an animal five times their size.

The reason it means so much to me was because four years ago I was a complete beginner, and over these past four years I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am today, and I am proud of that. Now, I am teaching lessons and retraining the horses, both of which I plan on doing full-time after college. The great thing about our barn is that no matter how much I teach the kids about riding or horse care, they manage to teach me more. These kids have so much depth to them and I often remind myself how lucky I am to be the one working beside these mini intellectuals. They really make me open my eyes, live in the present, and just enjoy this beautiful life I have created for myself. I love that now I am able to open doors for kids who were in my shoes four years ago, and hopefully help them find their passion in horses too. Although being 17 and knowing that this is exactly what I want to be doing for the rest of my life is a bit scary, I am grateful that I have found my passion so early on in life.

High school has been a roller-coaster, but the barn has kept me sane by providing a haven and an opportunity, and letting me be the one to choose my part in it. Being a part of this organization has taught me an abundance of lessons, through both riding and volunteering, and has made me who I am today. If there is ever a day that I am stressed, exhausted, or just not myself, spending a few hours with the kids will brighten up my entire upcoming week. The barn has opened opportunities for me, such as training jobs and grooming for a professional 3Day-Eventer, and has connected me with people who have now become mentors to me, and their passion for horses and kids has luckily been shared with me. It’s crazy to think that one place, just 15 minutes from my house, could change my entire life, but it’s true.

Without the kids, or the horses, or my close-knit barn family, I would not be the driven, accomplished, passionate, and sometimes completely silly 17 year-old I am today. So in all, this is the place I am content. A small barn nestled upon a hill, with amazing horses and amazing kids; a place that provides space for someone to find themselves and to save these unwanted but incredible wise animals. This place, Square Peg Foundation, is a place that I need in my life.

Please donate to Square Peg to support this work.

December snuck up on us with beautiful weather and short days.  It’s been an amazing year.

In March, we moved to our dream location. Tucked into a coastal canyon with ocean views, forests, a private pond, and beautiful facilities it’s perfect for the families we serve and for our animals.

In May, we built an eight-acre pasture for our retired horses.  They can live out their days as a herd on natural terrain.  While we can’t turn back the clock for our older horses, we see significant improvements in the movement and arthritis management.

In June, we conducted our biggest surfing and riding special needs family day ever!  Over 25 families joined us at the beach for a day of riding and surfing.  The local surfing community and the Boys & Girls Club – including the Junior Lifeguards – helped the kids in the ocean.

In July, we piloted a program to give first job experience to high school juniors and seniors. We hired interns from the local Mid-Peninsula High School to help us run the barn.  Each intern not only learned basic job skills, but by the end, showed real leadership.

By August, we had built our own onsite campground next to the pond.  In the late summer, we hosted three campouts for 13 families and for a very special group of at risk girls. The experience was transformative.  Families enjoyed riding, hiking, kayaking on the pond, fireside music, and first class food.  Children had breakthroughs in sleep patterns, cognitive and social behavior and – most importantly – family fun in nature.   All of the camps were provided free of charge. Words cannot express how important  this is for families.

2013 was a pivotal year for Square Peg.  We exceeded everyone’s expectations.  We have shown national leadership in the areas of recreation for autism families, in horse rescue and in developing meaningful job experiences for young adults with developmental and learning disabilities.  Our new facility gives us the opportunity to grow and continue our simple but important mission to turn “I wish” into “I can” for kids and young adults who know what it’s like  to be a Square Peg.

Question: “If I donate to Square Peg, where does the money go? Answer – here

 

We speak about tribe a lot.  As homo sapiens, we live best in community groups of 12 to 30 people.

When a new family arrives at the ranch, we usually see a family isolated, lonely, and frustrated.  Barraged with advice and declarations of how to “fix” their special needs child, they get advice from everywhere. The grocery store (“if you were just more strict with him”) and from well meaning relatives (“have you thought about military school?”). Even therapists, specialists, and teachers chime in with opinions.

What kind of a world would we occupy if these families could just be?  What if there was a place to celebrate being family, to feel encouraged, and to offer support? A meal eaten with other families while children played nearby.  Sound Utopian?

Most definitely not.

When we gather our magical family camps atop the ridge at Square Peg, we create tribe.  We eat together, play together, and tell stories together.  We sit at the water’s edge, let our guards down, and rely on each other.  Every single time, these tribal gatherings create something amazing.

Several weeks ago, another tribe invited me to screen a film entitled “Horse Boy” and to lecture on the Horse Boy Method, Rupert Isaacson’s technique for working with autism.  You should know that I will talk to anyone who offers me a microphone or a soapbox (or both).  So what did I do?  I packed up the film and some brochures and headed out knowing only that I would speak to a group of Chinese parents at a church in Saratoga.

When we arrived, several young adults with special needs were milling about.  It took them a minute (maybe less) to look me in the eye and call me “auntie.”  I felt at home.  I provided a brief introduction, dimmed the lights, rolled the film, and took a seat in the back while parents trickled in.  All too soon, the time was up and parents rushed out the back door to take their children out of class. Our host approached us with an honorarium, a plaque, and an invitation to join the group for dinner.

We accepted all three.

In the cafeteria across the courtyard from the church sanctuary, all of the families gathered together for a community cooked meal.  The food was simple and delicious and was served on brown McDonald’s trays.  Kids ran, played, and ate while banging on instruments and dancing.  Announcements were made, birthdays acknowledged, dish-washing assignments made, and plans formalized for the next meeting.

We learned that the group started in Fremont in the 90’s and now boasts several hundred families.  This Saratoga group is the original group’s first satellite and is growing quickly. As dinner wound down and the tables put away, groups formed—groups for mothers, for older kids, for fathers, and more.

I was astounded to the soles of my dusty boots.

Some of us perceive Chinese culture to be punishing toward special needs families.  Shame often isolates these families even more so than in the US.  How did this group engage the best of Chinese culture to form a community of caring, celebration, and tribe?  A tribe that clearly responds to the needs of each member.  Here’s my real question—why aren’t we all doing this?  Why is this special?  Celebrating family with food and music, song and dance, art and support, is surely the best of who we can be. It happens every other Saturday in a cozy little church in Saratoga.

I’m honored to be part of this community.

Let’s start more tribes.  Let’s honor the family and create communities to break the spell of isolation. Help Square Peg be that blessed space for families to celebrate tribe.  Parent groups come and go.  Groups where moms can “get away” are terrific but I’ve seen power struggles and overworked organizers cause most to crumble.  What about groups that include the whole family—siblings and fathers—and offer something for everyone as well as celebrate community all while not trying to fix something?

I’ve lived it, I’ve seen it, and I’m here to tell you it’s very, very good.