First visit to the ranch

The EY Ranch, as it has come to be called, is the home of local non-profit, Empower Youth, and soon to be the site of our project, SOIL SERIES: A Social Drawing. The previously foreclosed 15-acre ranch was recently gifted to Empower Youth by Community Savings Bank of Bethel in order to aid in the organization’s efforts to fight generational poverty in the area through programming, mentorship, and their Weekend FoodPack program for students experiencing food insecurity. As Sheila Vilvens states in her article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Bank gifts horse farm to Empower Youth”,”in Clermont County, with a population of just over 203,000, there are about 15,000 residents served by the food assistance program SNAP and 40,000 on Medicaid, according to Shonya Agin, assistant director of public assistance for Clermont County Job and Family Services.”

Now the site of an enormous community revitalization project, we visited the ranch and met our generous hosts, Empower Youth founders Lori and Scott Conley, as soon as we arrived in Bethel.

Having just packed up our lives in New York and moved out to Hillary‘s hometown in rural Ohio, we were encouraged by the warm welcome we received from Lori and Scott. Walking through the farm’s outbuildings, we could see Lori and Scott’s vision and the immense potential of the site, but making this place a functioning center of community healing and nourishment would require a nearly overwhelming amount of work. While Lori and Scott listed all the projects in progress and those still to come, we noticed exhaustion in their faces – but more noticeable were the gratitude and excitement we saw there, too.

Lori and Scott explained how far they had come with the help of community members, local businesses, and hard-working students. They had already carted out three dumpsters’ worth of garbage and burned just as much in the fields behind the barnyard.

We left feeling energized, overwhelmed, and moved by such generosity and possibility.