Do you know somebody in your community serving and helping others? Nominate them as a Community Pioneer! These individuals are people who work or volunteer at a Idaho non-profit organization within our field of membership.

From community nominated individuals, Pioneer will select one winner every month and award them $1,000 for the organization they represent. Each winner will also be highlighted on our website and social media in order to spread awareness for their organization's cause.

Nominate a Community Pioneer!

Official Community Pioneer Rules

June Winner: Denise F. with the Rising Stars Therapeutic Riding Center
 

Our June Community Pioneer winner is Denise F. with the Rising Stars Therapeutic Riding Center in Twin Falls, ID! Denise is a long-time resident of the Magic Valley and loves the small-town mentality of our area. She has volunteered with Rising Stars for the last seven years and also volunteers four days a week with the Senior Center helping provide support for their Meals on Wheels program for the last 11 years! In her down time when she is not giving back to her community, she loves fishing with husband, gardening, knitting and reading.

Rising Stars is an Idaho non-profit offering equine therapeutic riding and equine assisted therapy to children and adults with disabilities throughout south central Idaho. They provide both hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. Hippotherapy is therapy conducted on horseback by a licensed, speech, physical, or occupational therapist. It utilizes the same goals set for patients in the clinic but challenges them further by employing the 3-dimensional movement of the horse. Therapeutic riding is conducted individually or in a small group session by a PATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor. These sessions focus on increasing individual riding skills while gaining a wide range of therapeutic benefits. The organization on average serves about 50-80 participants in the off-season sessions per week and host more than 100 participants/week during the summer sessions. They can serve our community with the help of 60 program volunteers such as Denise.

In the next year they hope to complete their facility and continue to open the doors to year-round operations. They would love to see more cooperative involvement with programs in nearby schools and one day start a veteran’s program. All of this is possible through support from the community and donations such as this Community Pioneer award!

Donate to Rising Stars

Previous Community Pioneer Winners

	January Winner: Stephaniee M. with SergioStrong Corporation
	February Winner: Coral S. with The Wardrobe: Treasure Valley
	March Winner: Amy C. with Volunteers Against Violence
	April Winner: Stephanie J. with Dae Lou Foundation
	May Winner: Cina Z. with the Boise Timber/Thorns Soccer Club Inc.