I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner for the first time for Show Us Your Life Friday, and today it is about favorite charities. I felt like this would be the perfect time to talk about a place very dear to my heart, the
Big Oak Ranch in Gadsden, Alabama.
The Big Oak Ranch was founded by Alabama football legend John Croyle in 1974, with the Boys' Ranch in Gadsden, and the Girls' Ranch in Springville, Alabama was added in 1988. I had the privelege as a teenager to go to the ranch three times for service trips with my church, Big Sandy Baptist Church. Our youth group, led at the time by the University of Alabama's Director of Athletic Photography Kent Gidley, spent a week there each summer, and while we were there we did the most physical labor any of us teenagers had ever done. We built a barn, tore down a building by hand (using sledge hammers), painted miles upon miles of fencing around the horse pastures, and various other types of work.
On our first trip to the Ranch, we took along a writer and a photographer from The Tuscaloosa News, who were friends with Kent Gidley, and they did a huge
article about it for the paper. We thought we were celebrities!
This is one of the pictures from the article
But really, it was an amazing experience each time I got to go, where we were able to really put ourselves and our own needs aside and really focus on the needs of others. I would love a chance to go back and do more work.
It's a working ranch, so there is always work to be done. If you would like more information, visit their website. It gives their amazing story and tells of all the opportunities to help.
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