When you’re building a community, you need more than one brick.
For more than a decade now, Touchstone Farm has provided programs for veterans. But this year, with an added partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Home Base and continued outreach to veterans, director Isabella “Boo” Martin is able to provide veterans with a safe space, whether it be for therapy or camaraderie.
“We’re trying to find lots of ways to build a healthy community for veterans,” said Martin.
There are several parts to Touchstone’s veteran services, which all fall under the Operation Horse Power program.
Some attend veteran specific riding or driving lessons. Some spend a weekend on the farm with their family members for veterans retreats. There is a day camp for children of military parents. And, most recently, Touchstone has partnered with Home Base to host a therapeutic recreational weekend as part of a clinical intensive program for veterans with traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder.
Bradford Volz of Wilton, a Desert Storm vet who has also worked as a civilian provider for the Department of Army deployed in the Middle East, said that the farm and the time he spends there acting as an assistant driving instructor for children with disabilities has become a balm for him.
“It’s about being able to drop some of those false walls,” said Volz. “Horses are not going to put any stigma on you. They’re judgment free.”
Mark Costello of Brookline, who served as a Marine gunner in Iraq from 2002 to 2006 returned home with a brain injury and PTSD that severely affected his quality of life, he said.
“I ended up in a situation where I’d just be trying to speak out loud just to beat back the memories,” said Costello. “I was losing my mind. Talking about this now – even a year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to.”
But attending veterans riding lessons and a weekend retreat at Touchstone has gone a long way for Costello, he said. Having grown up on a horse farm, he was able to rekindle his love of horses and the camraderie of being around those with shared experiences.
“For me, it was about finding some kind of balance,” said Costello. “I’d go to work 100 hours a week or kill myself at the gym so that I’d never have to stop and think. I know personally, I get stuck in the extremes. This place gives me the opportunity to get release. I get to talk to other veterans, and that helps a lot.”
“Finding that balance is very important,” agreed Volz. “And coming here provides that.”
Costello’s mother, Wendy Krupicka of Brookline, said she saw a change in her son when he began attending riding lessons for veterans at Touchstone.
“When my son started to come here, he was elated with it,” said Krupicka. “It was the first time I’d seen him look forward to something in a long time.”
It was a relief, said Krupicka, after watching her son struggling. “As a mother, your son goes off to war, and it’s mostly Marines in the limelight and that you hear about being killed. You play the waiting game, constantly. And when they get home, they’re nothing like they were when they went in, and you can’t help them.”
It’s that high cost that some veterans have to pay that has made Martin determined to provide services for veterans without costing them anything.
“They’ve already paid too high a price,” said Martin.
But that’s sometimes a tall promise to fill, she said. Veteran riding and driving lessons were once funded by the Wounded Warriors Project, but cutbacks have required the farm to find other ways to cover their costs – usually though community generosity, which is not lacking, said Martin. Most of the horses and equipment used with the veterans is donated.
On Oct. 1, Touchstone will be holding a FarmTastic Fall Fundraiser for the farm to help fund its various programs, including veterans programs, including a barbeque dinner and live auction. Tickets are $50 and are available at Touchstone’s website.
The Military Day camp was funded by the Daisy Hale Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. The Boston Home Base weekend and local family weekends are funded by the Manton Foundation and the Michael Kidder Family Foundation. For more information, visit www.touchstone-farm.org.