Help Disabled Vet #savethefarm for vets like her

**UPDATES WILL BE POSTED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY** Hey everybody! My name is Angel and I am a disabled Army Veteran and single mother. My goal for these funds that you are helping me raise is to save a horse farm that is in danger of being repurposed. I would like to open a horse therapy program, Operation Freedom Rides, for Veterans with PTSD and other disabilities like myself. The vision for Operation Freedom Rides (OFR) is to open up to the community not only for people like me, but also to adults and children suffering from autism, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disorders. Read below for my full story. Even 1 dollar makes a difference!

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I got out of the service in 2016, 8 weeks pregnant with my first daughter. I was coming back home without a shred of an idea on what to do now that my life as a soldier was done. I experienced trauma while I was in and unfortunately, being a female veteran, there aren't many resources where I was living to help me. To receive certain services for my pregnancy and otherwise, I had to be outsourced to civilian doctors, but they didn't know how to deal with my PTSD. My pregnancy was ROUGH.

I decided to go back to school because I was having a hard time holding a job, but I knew I had to go to therapy soon; my daughter needed me to get better. We were crashing on the floor of a relative's house. My partner and I struggled. We were both veterans with PTSD and trying to cope in our own ways instead of together, which made things harder. My little family was my only support system, so off I went to a male-heavy presence at the VA to get the care I needed.

I started seeing my doctor in September of 2018, when I just had my second daughter. That was when I learned about Flying Manes, my inspiration for my project. It is a therapeutic riding program for people with emotional, cognitive, and developmental disabilities. It was a dream. But being caught up with school, parenting, and riding a rollercoaster of highs and lows, It would be too long before I could take advantage of the program.

It was a beautiful program and it helped so many people. It inspired me to change my major from Psychology to Recreation Education. And right there, the dream for OFR was born. I worked harder than ever at school. I brought my kids to school with me. I got a job to pay for daycare. I worked long nights, did school online, and let nothing get in my way. In 2020, I graduated from Lehman College with a 3.8 GPA in Recreation Education with a subspecialty in Administration.

I got on my feet, got my kids into a good nursery, and started working with the US Census. They were paying very well. But we continued to live frugally because I was saving every dime I could to buy the farm that would bring OFR into fruition. But when COVID hit, everything I'd been saving for over a year took a hit. With no one to watch my girls, I couldn't work as hard as I wanted to. Their program shut down. the stress was triggering my breakdowns, and no longer could I do in-person therapy or go to the farm. I found myself pregnant again and my resources, all my savings depleting before my very eyes. I lost my job three months before giving birth, and under extreme duress gave birth 2 weeks early.

Two days after giving birth, I started a work-from-home job. Once again, I took the reigns back of my life and started building again. With a newborn in hand, and toddlers wreaking havoc, I started saving again. I paid down all the debt that piled up during my unemployment. Two months after sleepless days and nights, and crazy times with 3 children, I'm back on the mend and saving.

Last week, I learned that the farm I had my eye on is being looked at by another buyer who wants to tear down the farm and use it for something else. They had to open up to other offers because I lost a lot of my start-up capital. It broke my heart. My credit took a hit with unemployment and debt; it's rising back up but too slowly for their taste. In order to get my program on the road and running, I need to put down double what I have now. That's where the help from my community comes in.

The farm is already functional, I have a 1, 5, and 10-year business plan laid out and income is already in place. I have spent YEARS putting this dream together and striving and starving to give my kids the life they deserve because the guilt of them being stuck with a mom that isn't all the way okay gets me every time. Working is the only way I know how to fix it. My kids are my world, and they're the only thing that makes me better. I want to help others who need my kind of help. I'm matching all donations up to my goal because that's all I have saved after years of working and not spending time with my babies. The farm will be going under contract with the new person on June 1st, please help me make my dream come true and help those in need 

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