Sarasota Manatee Association for Riding Therapy

Community involvement and financial support are essential to our SMART program. We are partially supported by the United Way of Manatee County. The rest of our support comes from the tax deductible donations and gifts from private individuals and groups, fund raising events, and program fees.

Our funds are used to cover a wide range of operating costs including the care and maintenance of our horses, insurance, purchase and maintenance of equipment, and supplies and veterinary/farrier care.

We are extremely grateful for all donations to our program as these gifts enable us to continue to serve all of our riders, regardless of their ability to pay. If you'd like to help us out, please fill out the Donation Form and mail to the address indicated. Florida Registration # CH4398

 

Thank you to the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch for your recent grant for over $5000 to purchase 11 new extra small saddles for our extra small riders! We can't thank you enough for all of your support, past and present! These saddles are going to make our small riders muich safer and able to reap the full benefits of their therapeutic riding sessions. Thanks for caring about our SMART Riders!!

 

The Lakewood Ranch Women's Club has been amazing to us over the years and this year has been no exception. Pat Eilender, Pres. of the Lakewood Ranch Women's Club presented a check for $8000 to SMART Board Members Ron Clark, Nick Drizos and Becky Miller. The LWR Women's Club works very hard throughout the year to raise the funds to support their charities of choice and we are proud and honored to be one of them. Thank you, Lakewood Ranch Women's Club!! Your continued support of our program and Riders means the world to us. We simply can't thank you enough!

 

The West Coast Chapter of the Diva Angels honored SMART by selecting us as their charity. Their dedication and hard work at their annual Poker Run in October raised $7,126.00 for SMART! Thank you Diva Angels!!

 

SMART has been the lucky recipients of a grant award for $9,600 from the All-Star Children's Foundation! This foundation, formerly known as the Sarasota Sports Foundation, is a not for profit organization that was formed in January of 2005 to raise funds to prevent child abuse, neglect and abandonment. SMART has received this grant to provide 12 Rider Scholarships for children in foster care. The Foundation awards grants to agencies committed to their mission of breaking the cycle of child abuse, neglect and abandonment --- and we are SO grateful to be one of them!

Thank you All-Star Children's Foundation!

Birthday Party Donation

Nicholas Drizos and Cara Reilly celebrated their 1st Birthday by having a party together---and having all gifts to them be donations to SMART! Now that's a pretty philanthropic team of One Year Olds! They had a great party with Face Painting, Horse Riding (complements of Carly and Punkin and an awesome team of SMART Volunteers) and a Bouncing House and Games. What Fun! Thank you, Nicholas and Cara for raising over $1000 for SMART!! We were honored to be a part of your first birthday celebration!

SHOP SMART

You can be an extra SMART shopper by shopping at Albertson's! Have them swipe your Community Partners card when checking out. Albertson's then donates a percentage of your bill to SMART! It's their way of giving back to the communtiy.

Now you can shop smart and help SMART at the same time! Get your Community Partners Card by calling Linda Clark at (941)746-1493. There's no charge and no cost to you ... just $$$$ for SMART!