Today we’d like to introduce you to Sanna Roling.
Hi Sanna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
After 13 years of pilot projects, on August 23, 1999, Dream Catcher Stables Inc was born. The mission has always been to help people with disabilities embrace and succeed in the ordinary world. On June 4, 1999 a real estate investment broker took away the final pilot project and told me it would never work. How wrong he was, having no real idea of the desire and dedication I had helping youth, especially those with disabilities gain genuine entry and acceptance in the community and world of work.
Dream Catcher Stables Inc was established (by three women) as an all volunteer charity with just 4 athletes, 4 volunteers, 1 horse, and a $5000 debt. As we enter our 27th year we are debt free, have 9 horses, 73 volunteers, 83 athletes, just over $31,000 in cash, $312,088 in fixed assets, and have set our sights on a capital campaign to acquire a permanent program home.
Perhaps the best kept secret, our marketing expertise is basically non-existent and this program has truly evolved by word of mouth. People find us.
What’s so important about Dream Catcher Stables Inc? Our real goal is to serve those who need our services most and can least afford them. Program components include teaching the disabled to ride and care for horses (must be at least 5 years old); helping at-risk youth (especially those who get tickets at school) to choose the better life path by weeding, cleaning stalls, and doing other necessary jobs on site; giving parents a few moments to relax, and revel in their child’s accomplishments; providing teenage volunteers a place to embrace and positively assist those with disabilities; and providing a place where veterans can give back, deal with their own health issues, and be welcomed and honored for their service.
Today our board of directors includes 8 women and 1 man. Ethnically diverse (3 hispanic, 1 black, 1 mixed race, 3 caucasian) we cherish and welcome volunteers of every race, religion, and socioeconomic group.
Just of sampling of our athlete and volunteer success stories
* Ben is an entrepreneur
* Jordan is a certified corrections officer revered by his colleagues
* Ulises is a competitive Mariachi dancer with Ballet Folklorico
* Juan has a career in vocal music
* Diego, excited at winning awards for his horsemanship skills, took his awards to school and spoke two full sentences telling his classmates about them. This was his first time to socialize with his class. Today he is a freshman at UTSA in film editing.
* Blake, labelled dangerous to his 1st grade class, graduated high school #42/572 students 9 credits short of his LoneStar degree. That Fall he gained an internship in cybersecurity with his school district and today is completing his Bachelor’s degree at U of H in Business with emphasis on cybersecurity.
* Avery H, through riding, was improving at a time when peers with the same disability were sliding downhill.
* Avery S graduated high school in the top 5% of her class, already with her LoneStar degree in hand, and had early acceptance to Baylor University Honors College (as a Junior) where she has her sights set on becoming a Neonatologist.
* Edward lives on his own in Colorado installing highway safety cones.
* Makayla is a sophomore at A&M Galveston majoring in marine biology.
On the volunteer side
* Yarely came to complete high school volunteer hours and figure out her career. Today she is a full fledged Speech Therapist and our Vice President.
* Nathan had been bullied all his life before volunteering with us. At the age of 20 he became a home owner and has a solid career with United Airlines.
* Rodrigo was brought by his sister. Volunteered from 7th grade through high school and now has a career in diesel mechanics.
* Lt. Col (ret) Carl came to give back and relax in retirement. He fed our horses and helped with program 3 days a week until this year when God called him home.
* Kep came to live life to it’s fullest until his stage 4 cancer sent him home to God.
* Debi came with Kep and still helps occasionally as she works through her grief.
* Rachel came to learn and then take her knowledge back to Maine – her childhood home.
* Annie volunteered as a teen, went off to college, and returned when she entered McGovern Medical school. In May she will become an M.D. planning to practice in Emergency Medicine and continuing to volunteer with us to relieve her stress.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The 13 years of pilot projects taught SJGS how to include their scouts with disabilities in all activities. SOTX Area 4 added and grew the equestrian sport. I also piloted weekday in-school horse programming, and horse programming for students with behavioral challenges. This all led to pleas to include adults and boys – a final pilot – Rainbow Spring Stables was born. Putting the wrong person on that board of directors lead to that charity’s demise and to the founding of Dream Catcher Stables Inc which is now in it’s 27th year of operations.
We started life at one of our founders homes, then moved to a family horse facility in Brenham, TX, before acquiring a lease and building a simple facility on Greens Road (where we actually ran program for 14 years). Then forced to move in 2018, we were gifted with an incredible grazing license on 22 acres of IAH land – our current home. It took 3 years to complete the respectable facility (built by volunteers) which we now truly enjoy.
Covid impacted our ability to raise funds, so we secured an EIDL loan. In 2023-24 school year, Klein Oaks Student Council chose us as their charity and in May of 2024 handed our founder a check for $38,000 which paid off that EIDL loan with a bit extra to take us forward.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I always loved horses but my family did not have resources for me to own one. Volunteering at a stables during my high school years became the template for Dream Catcher Stables Inc. I had always wanted to be a Veterinarian but flunked out of my first year of Veterinary Medical School, then parlayed all my D’s into credits and graduated 2.5 years later with a degree in Biological Sciences from Michigan Technological University and went on to complete a Masters degree in Organic Chemistry at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Meeting and marrying my husband there for the next 10 years we would move 5 times and have our 2 children. Arriving finally in Spring, TX, we put down roots and are now in our 43 year of residence. My parents were very active in the Masonic fraternities ( I am a life member of the Eastern Star). They taught my brother and I to give back, help others, and be non-judgemental.
A homemaker for the first 25 years of marriage, I found ways to volunteer. When my husband was downsized at the age of 54.5 I went to work. Not fluent in computer, I landed a job as a substitute teacher and teachers encouraged me to join the profession. At the age of 58 I became a Texas Special Education Teacher (K-12) also certified in Mathematics (6-12). Continuing to volunteer with Special Olympics as a coach, one thing lead to another and eventually Dream Catcher Stables Inc was born.
Anyone and everyone who drives through the gates is welcomed. While I see the color of their skin and the shape of their face and body, I really only see their “heart”. Can’t and Don’t are NOT in my vocabulary. That can do spirit makes our Dream Catcher Stables Inc “world go round”.
Summer of 2023 a lady drove up as we were closing the gate having fed the horses. La’Creatia was looking for a place to start a PTSD program. I asked if she had done the paperwork and she said “No”. So I replied, no need to do the paperwork, you have a place, just come. Today La’Creatia is our lead instructor on the way to taking my Program Director hat. Dream Catcher Stables Inc has given this Staff Sargent (retired) Marine a place to thrive, raise her family, resolve her PTSD, and start a new life.
I create the opportunity, through horses, for people with disabilities to thrive, their parents to relax and feel both pride and hope, and teenage and adult volunteers a place to help and embrace the true persons who are capable but differently because of their personal life challenges.
In October I received the Lifetime Achievement Award form Certified Horsemanship Association – a huge honor, even larger surprise, and in a sense culmination for the work of a lifetime of sharing my knowledge and giving back to my community.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
The ability to accept everyone for who they are – “warts and all”- and see and grow the inner beauty and peace that they all possess.
Pricing:
- Sponsor a horse – $2,500/year
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dreamcatcherstables.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamcatchertx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamcatchertx
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dream-catcher-stables-inc
- Other: https://greatnonprofits.org/org/dream-catcher-stables-inc
