50 People for 50 Years: Carol Ferris, former Volunteer, Instructor, and 1st Volunteer Coordinator
Carol Ferris first began at SHHRC (now Mane Stream) as a volunteer when the program was housed at Octavia Brown’s (our founder) farm. With a lifelong love of horses and an educational background in Speech Pathology, Audiology, and a M.S. in Education of the Hearing Impaired, this volunteer opportunity was “the perfect blend of my lifelong love of horses and my experience with & interest in working with individuals with disabilities.”
At that time there were no formal training sessions for volunteers, so training was “on the job”, which proved a bit daunting for Carol at first. She remembers, “Although I had some experience with horses, I never had the opportunity to learn how to tack up, and remember the first time putting the halter on upside down under Octavia ‘s watchful eye.” Of course, Octavia set Carol straight, and before long Carol caught on to things and quickly fell in love with volunteering. “I was thrilled to be a part of improving riders’ confidence in themselves and loved the fact that increasing their strength & dexterity through riding carried over into their daily lives. And being responsible for someone’s safety was a responsibility I took very seriously. I loved being around the horses and was really pleased that the volunteers were encouraged to take riding lessons from Octavia. She felt that this helped us to get to know the horses on a deeper level, enabling us to work more effectively with them.”
As sometimes happens in growing non-profit organizations, Carol was asked to help out in the office for a few hours twice a week. From there, as Octavia had done with others, she encouraged Carol to become an instructor. She took classes at Centenary College under the direction of Octavia and achieved the goal all while watching her daughters play sports, and studying between games. Carol always felt that being an important member of the team, consisted of the horse, rider, instructor, and volunteer in equal parts. The more knowledge and experience the team had, the better.
This concept and model helped Carol to create Mane Stream’s volunteer program as the first Volunteer Coordinator (eventually becoming a full-time employee). Carol knew how important it was to put a good team together in order to provide the safest and most beneficial environment for the riders. “I felt it was vital to develop a more structured and comprehensive volunteer orientation and training program, stressing the importance of safety, the responsibilities of being a volunteer, combined with the knowledge and support a new volunteer needed in order to become a confident member of the team.”
Carol remembers a spook incident while she was volunteering. “As the rider slid off towards me, the only thing I could think of to do was to break her fall, so I managed to position myself underneath her & down we both went. Luckily, she was just fine, and as we both got over our shock, we began laughing hysterically and it was several minutes before we managed to untangle ourselves, and retrieve her prosthetic leg (which was still attached to the horse) & get off the ground.” These types of learning experiences resulted in the creation of a training video (created in partnership with HRH (Health and Recreation Through Horses of New Jersey) which is still being used at some NJ affiliates today. (take a peek at Carol’s “cell phone” at 2:50min and guess who makes an appearance at 22:06 and 22:18?)
When asked what was the most challenging parts of being our Volunteer Coordinator, she replied, “Putting together a schedule that had volunteers with the necessary experience and skill level to fill the right spots. I always felt like I was working a giant jigsaw puzzle with constantly changing puzzle pieces.”
In the following years, Carol valued ALL of her volunteers and celebrated their efforts by hosting an annual Volunteer Appreciation Party with a different creative theme each year. “It was so much fun to see how pleased the volunteers were to receive their little plastic trophies, ribbons, certificates, and sashes and to have their photos taken on the podium.”
Being a part of the Mane Stream team for so many years was a very special time in Carol’s life. Each of her daughters volunteered as well as her husband helped with special events. Carol reflects, “Life-long friends were made and everyone shared the common goal of helping individuals who faced challenges in their daily lives. It made all of us realize how fortunate we are.”
We honor Carol’s many years of service this week on National Volunteer Appreciation Week 2022. The processes put in place years ago are the bedrock of what is used today at Mane Stream. Thank you, Carol!
