Corey Lane, Founder and Ranch Chief of the Nature Fun Ranch.
If all goes well the Nature Fun Ranch will have a new home soon and they will introduce a residential programme to help young people who are considered most at risk.
That’s the word from Corey Lane, Founder and Ranch Chief of the Nature Fun Ranch. Lane, in a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate, disclosed that back in March of this year the Ranch won the bid for the old Todds Plantation in St. John and will need in total about $4.8 million, inclusive of renovation and move in cost, to make it the charity’s new home.
Lane went on to reveal that the Ranch is set to get some assistance from Britain’s Prince Harry and his foundation. He said too that there is at least one other individual from the United Kingdom, who has expressed an interest in helping the Ranch. While he remained mum on those details, he said that the potential donor, who is a woman, is set to take a tour of their current facility soon as well as the Todds property.
“We are working in faith and are hoping that with Prince Harry and the lady I mentioned, we would be able to garner enough resources to pull this off. But we may have to call on the public when things get a little better, or from those who can afford, to be able to make this dream a reality, because that’s how we are going to be able to do even better work than the good work we are doing now,” he stated.
Lane added, “The property carries about three buildings that we are hoping to convert into the type of facility for live-in and more long-term intense help and so we would have more social workers. And there are workshops which we are hoping to use to produce more. We are hoping to have a youth climate change demonstration site where young people, even schools, can come and learn about climate change and renewable energy”.
The Ranch Chief, noting they have looked at the international projections for 2030 relative to jobs, said they are on a mission to ensure that this country’s youth are properly prepared for that future.
“We see where the jobs are going and we want to make sure that even if the education system fails to do it, that we do it, in terms of preparing our young people for the future – to face, to match, to be ahead in the future and to be global citizens,” he stated.
Noting that the Ranch has an already thriving agricultural arm, Lane said they are trusting that with the new property they will be able to expand that as well.
“There is an adjoining 267 acres of land that we hope to be able to lease from Government to be able to do agricultural production on a scale that can help feed Barbados and also to export niche products in the way that they should have been marketed years ago. So it is a very exciting project and it is an ambitious project, but it is one that I can see in five years rolling smoothly and producing the kinds of things we need in this place,” he stated.
In that vein, the Ranch Chief aid was referring to the employment, empowerment and upliftment of young people.
“All the things we talked about as a nation, I want the young people to lead the way, because the future is theirs and the future is now. We don’t want to bite off more than we could chew but we know where the excitement and passion of our members and participants are and we are going to use that to create a fantastic project,” Lane stated. (JRT)