The Magical Meadows celebrated 18 years of helping people in the community Thursday.
Tammy Stackhouse, founder and program coordinator at The Magical Meadows, said when she started the organization, it was with a goal to help one of the children on her school bus get more out of his life as a young man with autism.
Stackhouse thanked the area foundations for helping to support The Magical Meadows along the way.
Within the past month, K21 Health Foundation, Kosciusko County Community Foundation and the Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation awarded grants to The Magical Meadows for a combined total of $50,000, Executive Director Michael Kuhn said.
Alex Hall, vice president of programs at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, said with its most recent grant, the Community Foundation has awarded $100,000 to Magical Meadows since 2010. He said KCCF looks forward to partnering with The Magical Meadows in the future.
Rich Haddad, president and CEO of the K21 Health Foundation, said it all started with Stackhouse’s passion for horses and it turned into a purpose to help people. To see hundreds of people helped through The Magical Meadows is gratifying and “we had a small, small part in that. It’s truly gratifying to see how far they’ve come and how many people they’ve helped.”
He said a few foundations are in the community to do their part, but if there’s not people stepping up and doing their part in donating and advocating, it’s hard for the nonprofits and good work of The Magical Meadows to move forward and succeed. He encouraged people in the community to learn more about The Magical Meadows and get involved.
Haddad said the recent grants The Magical Meadows received will help the organization in its future.
There are more Magical Meadows needs to fulfill for the community, Stackhouse said. With more guidance, help and through lifelong partners, she said she believes Magical Meadows will be able to accomplish that.
Stackhouse said she wants Magical Meadows to be around forever. When there are over 8,000 people in Kosciusko County with disabilities, there’s a lot of work to do.
Kuhn said 10% of the county’s population identifies as having a disability. Meanwhile, there’s at least another 4,000 veterans and hundreds of first responders also working and living in the area.
“While we’re all extremely grateful to all the major service providers we have in our community, the reality is that many of the needs of the people” who need help are going unmet or underserved in the area, Kuhn said. The Magical Meadows has worked to fill that gap. He said the people in the community believe in what The Magical Meadows is doing.
Stackhouse said there are a lot of exciting things on the horizon for The Magical Meadows and the community.
“We don’t do things small and we don’t do things slowly here,” Kuhn said.
In the next year, Kuhn said, The Magical Meadows will be launching a seven-figure capital campaign to expand their physical and internal infrastructures of the campus and team. Kuhn said more details will be shared at a later time.