2000

REFERENCE:  GRANT REQUEST FOR APACHE CREEK DEAF & YOUTH RANCH, INC.

          My name is R. Dean Lang, Founder and Director of Apache Creek Deaf and Youth Ranch, 18 miles from Reserve, New Mexico in the western part of the state.  We are 80 miles south and 120 miles west of Albuquerque.  We are a 501-C3 nonprofit organization #74-2570092.

A DESIRE FOR EDUCATION STARTS FOR MANY POOR CHILDREN AT CAMPS:

We offer a wide variety of camps to young people here on the western slope of the Continental Divide high in the mountains of western New Mexico.  Many of the young people who come to our camps come free of charge and some pay a token fee of $20.00 only if they can afford it.  The most anyone pays is $70.00 per week.  There are many poor and underprivileged young people in the southwest.

CAMPS FOR THE DEAF

Deaf children and adults from all over the United States and many foreign countries come to our camps each year.  We have had campers from Canada, Mexico, Japan, Africa, Brazil, Uruguay, Taiwan and many other countries.  We also have deaf campers that are also blind.  I wish you could see how eager the "seeing deaf" are to sign into the hands of the deaf and blind that they can know what is going on around them.  You might wonder how a deaf and blind person could enjoy going to camp.  I wish you could see the expressions on their faces light up when they understand what the other deaf are telling them and they truly love it.  This is something that most of them have never had an opportunity to do.  Many people do not understand that the biggest handicap of the deaf is education.  We have lots of deaf kids that come to camp and when we ask about their families and the names of their brothers and sisters they shrug and say, "I don't know.  No one has ever told me".  A hearing child going into first grade knows and understands 5,000 words.  They might be able to read them and not spell them but they know the words.  The average deaf child graduating from high school is fortunate if they know 800 words.

CAMPS FOR INNER CITY CHILDREN

Most of these young people come from the projects in larger cities.  (The closest cities around us are two to three hundred miles).  These young people are for the most part gang members and for the most part do not have anyone who really cares for them.  Our first break through with these young people is the therapeutic horse rides.  Right away they begin to bond with their horses by names.  Most of these young people have never been out of the city and certainly never been on a real western horse ranch.  All of our buildings here at the camp look like the Old West.  It is a thrill to see how these tough, don't trust anyone young people's shell begins to melt in just a week's time.  Soon they begin to see that they can go on in school and make a good living on their own.  When it is time for us to take them home they have become like other boys and girls and begin crying that they have to leave and go back to their homes.  All of these children come to camp free of charge.

MOUNTAIN CHILDREN CAMPS

We live in an area that is mountainous with large Ponderosa pines and mostly dirt roads.  It is not uncommon to have an area 100 miles on each side with not a paved road in it.  Each Spring we send out $50.00 gift certificates to all of these homes within 100 miles or so in all directions from our Ranch.  Since the logging industry was forced to shut down most of these families are very poor.  The cattle ranchers are having a very difficult time as well.  There is very little work in this area thus the $50.00 gift certificate.  If the family does not have $20.00 (normal camp fee is $70.00) we invite them to come free.  The school bus rides are so long that they only have school 4 days a week here.  Yet, many of these children have to be home schooled by their parents.  For many of them they don't have opportunities to be with other young people.  They get excited when we encourage them to be educated in a field where they can find work when they grow up.

CAMPS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

We have a lot of Indian Reservations in New Mexico and Arizona.  Most of these come to our camp free of charge but a few pay $20.00 for a week of camp if they can afford it.  After so many years of living on government aid, so many have lost self-respect and given up on themselves.  We teach them to hold their heads high as their ancestors did.  Also that they can get a good education and make a good life for themselves and make a real mark in the world.

LOTS OF OTHER CAMPS

We have other camps for Junior Youth ages 6-12 and Teenagers 12-19.  We also hold a Family Camp.  Since there are a lot of Spanish speaking people in this area of the country we also have a week of camp in the Spanish language.  These young people come from southwestern United States and northern Mexico.  Most of these have no money and come free of charge.

EDUCATION

Education plays a big role in all of our camps.  So many young people who come from poor homes just take it for granted that they will live on welfare as their mother did.  We teach them to stay in school and try to make good grades.  These children are just as smart as any children are but many of them lack any role models or encouragement to go on and make something of themselves.  We tell them how important it is to make good grades and study hard and then they can go to junior colleges and then finish up in local universities and work their way through.  One day they can have good jobs and a good living.  Their eyes get big when we tell them they can go to college and meet their mate there.  They could each start out making $27,000 a year and could afford a nice home and two cars and not need any welfare.  They are so surprised and get excited that they could actually do this.  Over the last 25 years we have seen so many who after spending just a week at camp have had their entire life and destiny changed.

WE TEACH SIGN LANGUAGE SCHOOLS AROUND THE WORLD

Each May, here at the Ranch we teach ASL (American Sign Language) I, II, III and IV.  We can go on to teach up to VII.  We also teach MSL (Mexican Sign Language) I and II.  Many colleges and universities pay to have their students attend our two weeks sign language courses.  It is very concentrated and each week we can cram in a whole semester of sign language and can offer college credit for extra fees.  Universities tell us they know of no other place in the United States where people can learn the Mexican Sign Language or where they can learn such a concentrated course in the American Sign Language so quickly.  We also teach courses in the art of interpreting.  Besides the college students who come we have people in law enforcement, medical facilities, parents who want to learn to talk to their own children, teachers and the list goes on and on.  We also have teams that go out and teach Sign Language all over the United States and in numerous foreign countries.  We have a team in Brazil now and our son and his wife were planning on going to Uruguay for January and February but were unable to raise the airfare and expenses for the trip.  If they had been able to go they planned on developing a sign language for the deaf there and from that be able to print books for the country to use for their deaf.

          As I mentioned, we urge all of our campers to stay in school and to go on and get a college education.  We would also like to be able to offer scholarships to many of these campers but the funds have not been there.

          Though we do offer scholarships to college students who really care about young people and want to learn to work with them.  We give these young people scholarships so they are able to return to the colleges in the Fall as by coming here for the summer they are unable to have a summer job.  They tell us they learn as much working with these various young people throughout the summer months as they do in a whole year of college.  They return to college challenged to study harder and now find real purpose in getting their education.

APACHE CREEK DEAF AND YOUTH RANCH HAS BEEN IN OPERATION FOR 25 YEARS WITH VERY LITTLE BACKING

In the beginning we had a good-sized group of individuals who backed us financially.  There were people like Bing Crosby and little unheard housewives who cared about young people.  However, 25 years has been a long time in the lives of these people and many of them have died.  Our work continues to grow and our finances continue to drop as our group of givers grow older and pass away.  We are badly in need of grants to be able to keep this work going.  Over the years my wife and I have personally put our life savings into this work.  Down through the years we have only had one salaried worker, being the secretary.  My wife is now doing the secretarial work.  We have paid our secretaries $150.00 a week but most weeks there is not enough money to pay her salary.  All of our permanent staff are responsible for raising their own support which is very little.  Everything that comes into the Ranch goes to helping these young people unless it is specifically stated that it is for one of the workers here.  A good part of what has come in for myself I have used to make up my wife's salaries that she has not been able to draw.  We furnish housing, gas and electric for our permanent staff.  My wife and I own our own home.  We have struggled for 25 years this way.  The time has come if we are to get the staff that we so desperately need we are going to have to be able to offer them salaries.  We have lots of people with big hearts but they also have to eat.  As we all know education requires building, people to care for the buildings, teachers, etc.  People have always said that I can stretch a dollar further than anyone they have ever seen.  Over the last 25 years we have built some 25 buildings here at the Ranch doing the bulk of the work ourselves by buying a few boards at a time until the buildings are complete.  This is a fantastic work that has helped thousands and thousands of young people but we have stretched ourselves to the limit.  Perhaps you would like to have a part in this great work.  We are desperately in need of grants of $10,000.00 to $100,000.00.  I am sure you will send for our past 990 Exempt Tax Forms for the past several years.  You will see what little we operate with and wonder how we could possibly do it.  To the best of our knowledge our deaf camps last summer were the largest in the United States.  Yet, I am burdened that we are able to do so little when there is so much to be done.  We have given ourselves 100% to this work but the time has come that we have to ask for your help.  THE HOPE OF OUR NATION IS IN ITS YOUNG PEOPLE.  WE HAVE HAD A GREAT RECORD HERE OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS - WOULD YOU LIKE TO BECOME A PART OF IT?  YOU WOULD BE HELPING THE KIDS AND NOT A LOT OF OVERPAID EXECUTIVES.  PLEASE CHECK US OUT!

Sincerely,

R. Dean Lang

Founder and Director of

Apache Creek Deaf and Youth Ranch

RDL/jll

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