At the Chamounix Equestrian Center in downtown Philadelphia’s sprawling Fairmount Park, a nonprofit aims to bring a sense of stability to kids growing up in challenging circumstances.
Lezlie Hiner founded Work to Ride in 1994 to help kids living in the city relieve stress by playing polo and learn responsibility by taking care of horses. “Horses are nonjudgmental,” she says. “Kids go through things. They have good days, good weeks, good months, bad days.”
Hiner, who has a psychology degree and a lifelong love of horses, added, “We want them to learn that there’s someplace outside of their six-block radius of home.”
Students form bonds with the horses and with other students along the way. Some go on to compete in horse shows or play for the center’s polo team, which, in 2011, was the first all-black team to win the United States Polo Association National Interscholastic Championship.
One of the center’s goals is to make sure kids finish high school and go on to college.
“Kids are kind of private,” she says. “But it’s not real difficult to figure out which kids are growing up on their own versus which kids have a lot of support.”
Once they enter the program, they are in it for the rest of their childhood.
Mosiah Gravesande started riding when he was 5 years old. Now a freshman in high school, he plays on the center’s polo team.
Work to Ride operates year-round with camps in the summer and after-school programs the rest of the year. Students usually spend about eight hours a week at the center. Some students and alumni even modeled for a recent Polo Ralph Lauren campaign.
“We preach that you’re not just responsible for yourself, your actions have an impact on everybody else,” she says. “It’s a super tight-knit group of kids.”
Students from 25 years ago will stop in and say hi. “I think for some kids, the fact that we’re still here is of comfort to them.”
Ariella Phillips is a web producer at the Chronicle. She often writes the monthly Face of Philanthropy column, which focuses on small nonprofits around the world. She recently wrote about a charity helping poor people living in the rainforest. Email Ariella or follow her on Twitter.
