CORRAL Holds Annual Showcase as They Begin County-Wide Expansion
Cary, NC – This year is CORRAL Riding Academy’s tenth anniversary and the Cary non-profit is showcasing their ridership as part of their fundraiser to help expand across Wake County with plans to quadruple services in the next decade.
10 Year Anniversary
The CORRAL Classic takes place on Saturday, October 26, 2019 from 10 AM to 2 PM. The Classic is an annual demonstration and fundraiser by CORRAL, the Cary-based non-profit that works with local girls in high-risk situations, often on track to be court-involved.
“This is an open event for the community and it’s a showcase of our girls’ skills with the horses,” said Neyra Toledo-Osorio, CORRAL’s director of corporate operations. “They can celebrate their accomplishments and show their family the progress they’ve made.”
CORRAL started in Cary in 2008 and bought their current Cary farm in 2017, providing horse-assisted psychotherapy as well as tutoring and mentoring. CORRAL reports 70 percent of high school seniors who participate are enrolled into college and 69 percent of girls pass all their classes after one year in the program, compared to 33 percent at the time they first joined.
At this family-friendly event, Toledo-Osorio said people not familiar with CORRAL will be able to tour the 10-acre farm at 3620 Kildaire Farm Rd. and see the interactions between the girls CORRAL works with and the horses they have been taking care of.
“They will get to see firsthand the relationship between the girls and their horses, while showing what they have learned from their time there,” Toledo-Osorio said. “The showcase will be narrated so people can understand what skills are being shown.”
Fundraising for the Future
The CORRAL Classic is free to the public but they are asking for donations, with a fundraising goal of $2,000. All this comes as CORRAL expands to a new farm in Southeast Raleigh.
“Programming at the new farm starts the same day as the CORRAL Classic,” Toledo-Osorio said. “Our goal is $2,000 for this event but our goal is $1.2 million for the entire year.” In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, CORRAL raised $758,000, nearly two-thirds of that from individual donations.
The new Raleigh farm will be able to serve 25 girls by February 2020 but as the need for services grows, Toledo-Osorio said plans for expansion are even larger than that.
“We want four farms in Wake County by 2028,” Toledo-Osorio said. “We’d be able to see more than 200 girls per year.”
In 2018, CORRAL worked with 57 girls through both the riding academy and their Join The Herd program, and worked with 284 girls since starting in 2008.
The CORRAL Classic takes place Saturday, October 26, 2019 from 10 AM to 2 PM at 3620 Kildaire Farm Rd.
Story by Michael Papich. Photos courtesy of CORRAL Riding Academy.
