ELT Practicum Abstract
Meghan Kubala
College Park Scholars Program: Earth, Life and Time Major: Neurobiology and Physiology Location/Organization: Life Horse at Breezy Hill Farm, Inc. Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727 This charity is a new organization that is trying to expand its outreach program beyond the Frederick area. For this project, my job was to give assistance anywhere I could; including the training and exercising of horses, research for organizations that would be interested in Life Horse support, volunteering and helping organize events, grant research and writing, as well as dealing with the IRS and LifeHorse’s location change. One of the biggest issues facing Life Horse was the relocation from Covenant Farm to Breezy Hill Stables, Inc. and getting the appropriate paperwork filed to ensure the continuance of monetary government assistance. Activities For the most part, activities include Open Houses and Information Sessions. I was both a face-painter and pony walker, as well as an information person/LifeHorse representative because of my extensive horse knowledge and its impact on the human condition. I also exercised, groomed and bathed horses, walked ponies for hours on end, and attended information sessions to explain about LifeHorse and horses in general. The organization is run by a very small and close-knit community, which made it hard finding the time to locate more sites to offer their services to. They also had trouble dealing with the local government and the IRS with name and location changes. To alleviate some of this, I was given the task of finding more localities to offer services to so they can branch out to the community more. I also got to write grant letters and help with IRS-related paperwork. The IRS paperwork needed to be done every so often because LifeHorse is currently trying to change locations which jurisdiction changes and problems with charity money.