Happy New Year to you and your family! We have HOPE and are OPTIMISTIC that 2017 will be our best year ever!
Mark your calendars NOW for our 30th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION ON FRIDAY NIGHT MAY 12, 2017 AT WOLF LAKES! Our theme is “An Evening with the Stars”. We ended this year with a fantastic Feature Article the Fresno Bee did on Valley Teen Ranch. Click here to read the article. It was published 12.19.16 and the reporter Carmen George did a fantastic job! This was my favorite Christmas Gift. Carmen called ME!!!!And we made it on the front pages of section 1 and Section 2!!!! Unbelievable and awesome! We had 2 of our young men successfully complete the program and our Christmas party for one of the houses the day she came to do her “reporting.” In addition the 2 boys in the article will be successfully completing the program in January and one of them will also receive his HS diploma!!! These are HUGE accomplishments for these young men. WE are very proud of them. One of the things we ask them to do when they complete the program is to write a letter that goes to the Juvenile Judge, their Probation Officer and to me! Here is a little part of one of their letters. The part that says it all is as follows, “We all make mistakes but the one thing that comes out of these mistakes, is we usually learn a lesson. I’m here because of wrong choices I’ve made in the past. I took responsibility and I don’t want to make the same mistakes in the future. The staff at VTR has helped me. They have done stuff my father couldn’t teach me. When I first got to VTR I was angry and disappointed with my situation, but now I’m glad God put me here. I’m thankful for the different people I have met and for the places I had the opportunity to visit that I had never been before. Thank you VTR and God!” This young man has truly seen, heard, felt, tasted, touched, and smelled a new way to live. Continue to pray for him as he went home to his family, in the same neighborhood and is only 15, so he has a few more years to go before he can receive his HS Diploma! He has lots of challenges as he leaves us and goes back home. Now we are accepting new young men to take their places and the process starts all over with each of them. My dad used to tell me, “Plan your work and work your Plan!” God says, “For I know the Plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are Plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 & “We know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his Plans.” Romans 8:28. Plan to have a wonderful 2017 and thanks for your continued support to Valley Teen Ranch.
Stay Strong and have Courage,
Connie R. Clendenan, CEO Valley Teen Ranch