 PERSONAL
PONIES began with
the
dream of our founder, Marianne Alexander
(and just two ponies) to do something special for special children. As
a breeder of Connemara Ponies and Irish Sport Horses, for more than 3
decades, she wanted to give something back. She discovered the
incredible sensitivity of the UK Shetland Pony to children with
disabilities, and saw first hand how they changed children's lives. She
knew what she had to do. Our
mission is
to
make MAGIC in children's lives,
to bring smiles and joy in a most unusual way. We believe (and we've
seen it happen over and over again!) that the lives of children with
special needs are immeasurably enriched by having a small equine
companion to love and care for -- so this is what we do! Our ponies are
uniquely suited in temperament and size to small children, and we
provide them to families completely without charge. Our version of the
Velveteen Rabbit.
Thanks
to the
tireless energy of Marianne, PPL has
grown into an international organization involving hundreds of
volunteers
throughout the country. We now have programs in almost every state,
have place d
ponies with many
hundreds of children and hundreds more
are on our waiting lists. We depend on both the hearts and hands of
hundreds of volunteer breeders, promotors, and sponsors, as well as
those who support us financially, so that we can continue to grow and
serve children who need something special in their lives.
Please
spend
some
time with us. Find out why we
breed UK Shetlands and read stories about our
kids and their
ponies. Join
our e-mail chat list
and get to know the people who are active in our community to find out
more about our program and it's activities. Read about our volunteer program and our unique breeding
program. Check out our list of State
Directors and contact
us to see how you can get
involved in
your community.
If
you
are
able to make a financial contribution you
can be assured that 100%
of your funds will go directly to supporting
our program because our program is 100% volunteer with not
single paid employee. The demand for ponies far exceeds our ability to
provide
them and our list of children with special needs waiting for their very
own "Personal Pony" continues to grow.
| ~PERSONAL
PONIES wishes to acknowledge
that while "disabled" is the most commonly used word to describe
children and adults whose abilities may be different, we believe that
it carries a negative tone--implying that our children are NOT-able. We
much prefer terms like "DIFFERENTLY-ABLE" "SPECIAL NEEDS," and
"HANDI-CAPABLE" because they more accurately reflect the truth: that
while the children we serve may have SPECIAL NEEDS, they are ABLE to do
many, many things. However, because "disabled" IS the most commonly
used term used to search for a site like ours, and because if we did
not use the term consistently it is likely that you would not find us,
we have reluctantly chosen to conform to common usage. We hope,
however, that this note will encourage others to use alternative terms
so that one day soon, terms like "DIS-abled" and "DIS-ability" will no
longer be the standard descriptors. |
|
