Camp offers healing for horses and children
A unique summer camp offers children battling cancer the opportunity to experience life on a ranch.
Nighthawk Ranch is located in Guffey, about 30 miles west of Cripple Creek.
Tom and Dorothy Evans started designing the ranch 20 years ago, always with a bigger purpose in mind.
Tom Evans lost his mother and brother to cancer. A cancer survivor himself, he says his time on the ranch and bonding with the horses was key in his recovery.
So he and Dorothy worked to open the doors of their ranch to children with cancer who have the first stages of their treatment behind them.
“We do things that they accomplish with their hands, with their minds, with their team. So at the end of the week they can say, ‘Look what I did! Look what I did,'” Tom Evans said.”We preach to them all week long, ‘You can be anything you wanna be. You can do anything you want to do, if you just work hard and never ever ever give up.'”
The Evans teamed up with Justin Dunn four years ago. Dunn trains wild mustangs and abused or abandoned horses.
“The BLM horses that I get are untouched, so they’ve never been touched by a human. Just like any wild animal, they’re apprehensive, they’re not sure so we have to earn their trust,” Dunn told KRDO NewsChannel 13.
The rescue horses are more difficult to train, according to Dunn.
“They’re on guard. They don’t like humans. They’ve associated humans with something bad,” Dunn said.”I was paid to take one horse. The others were free. I took them, put them in our training program and here we are today .”
One of the campers, Taylor Jones, 10, told KRDO NewsChannel 13 she found it easier to connect with the girls at her camp. Jones battled a form of blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia.
“I kind of connect with them better than I do with kids at my school,” Jones said.”Sometimes I think I’m different from other kids but I realize that I’m not and it’s just a sickness and I’m the same.”
The camp is free for the children who attend. To learn more about the Nighthawk Ranch, click here.
