Northenors Donate Funding For Magical Meadows Barn
Northenors Donate Funding For Magical Meadows Barn
Posted
Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
Northenors Donate Funding For Magical Meadows BarnThe Magical Meadows, 3386 E. CR 525N, Warsaw, now has a hay barn thanks to a donation from Jim and Jean Northenor.
Tammy Stackhouse, founder of The Magical Meadows, said the hay barn was built over a two-day span in February.
“In September of 2020, we had an online fundraising event. And we also mailed out information to the community and on that information was part of our wish list,” Stackhouse said. One of the things on the wish list was a hay barn.
Stackhouse said Jean was out at The Magical Meadows for a horse ride for a bucket list she had and she saw the information that was sent out to people.
“So she called us up, and her and her husband met with Carl (Adams, executive director of The Magical Meadows) and I and wanted to talk a little bit about it and let us know at that time that they wanted to put up that hay barn for us, which was so generous,” Stackhouse said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Stackhouse said it took until February for someone to build the barn because “materials are hard to come by and people are busy and the price went up 50%, so all those things went into it.”
Jean said the amount given by her and Jim was $30,000, which Stackhouse said was the full amount to build the barn.
Jean said The Magical Meadows had an old bid of $24,000 to build the barn. She said she and Jim took Stackhouse and Adams out to breakfast one day and gave them $25,000 for the barn. When The Magical Meadows started getting bids again to build the barn, the amount “wasn’t going to work,” Jean said, so they gave $5,000 more.
Jean said she wanted to give the money for several reasons, including the fact she “absolutely adores horses.” She also said it’s something to see what The Magical Meadows does for the kids that go for their services.
The Magical Meadows provides therapeutic horseback riding for children and adults with physical and mental challenges, according to its website.
Stackhouse said the barn is for hay storage.
“It takes a lot of hay to feed 15 horses,” Stackhouse said. In 2017, The Magical Meadows was able to buy additional land due to a matching grant through the K21 Health Foundation. They were able to put in their own hay field.
By having the barn, The Magical Meadows will save money because weather would ruin about one-third of the hay that was laid out to feed the horses, so The Magical Meadows is now able to put the hay inside and save it, Stackhouse said.
Jean said the barn was beautiful. When asked what she hopes The Magical Meadows gets out of the barn, Jean said she hopes they get better known because she’s not sure enough people know The Magical Meadows is there and what they can do for children.
