Meet An Exceptional Volunteer: Nancy Town

Nancy Town started volunteering in April of 2013.  While she did not have previous horse experience, she possessed a large appetite to learn as much as could about the horses.  This desire to acquire equine knowledge was largely from her warm, compassionate soul and her dedication to service.  It didn’t take her long to absorb all of the necessary skills to lead, groom, tack and tend to the horses.  Nancy has an innate intuition about all animals and she feels she was meant to have horses in her life.

Volunteer CJ describes Nancy as a hard act to follow: “if Nancy was moving, she was working.  Sometimes, when I was looking for her, I knew immediately where she was by the cloud of dust blowing from the corrals.  It was Nancy -- sweeping the boards inside the shade covers during breaks.  If she wasn’t cleaning stalls, you could find her scrubbing the water troughs, or raking the cross ties.  Whatever the task, she was always working hard”.

“Nancy is exceptionally compassionate towards ALL animals.  I remember one day, as we were walking towards the big arena and I had a rake in my hand.  Suddenly, a gopher popped out of his hole and I started to 'bonk' him on his head.  Nancy yelled, ‘Oh no, stop CJ, they're all God's creatures!’  Due to Nancy’s compassion, we have more gopher holes at Hearts than a piece of Swiss cheese”.

Sadly, Nancy has now moved to Bend, Oregon to be closer to her family, leaving a hole in all of our HEARTS.  Nancy embodied the enthusiasm, drive, and compassion we look for in volunteers.  She was an exceptional part of our organization and IS an exceptional woman.  We honor Nancy this month as our Volunteer of the Month and are sad to see her go.  We wish her the best of luck in her new adventure and are thrilled to know she will be volunteering in a Therapeutic Riding program in her new town.

Cheers, Nancy!

We will miss you.