20070827 A dream come true: Feather Fund helps girl purchase the pony she has always wanted By Carrie Ann Knauer, Carroll County Times Staff Writer
Carroll County Times
A dream come true: Feather Fund helps girl purchase the pony she has always wanted
By Carrie Ann Knauer, Times Staff Writer
Monday, August 27, 2007
Skylar Hull, 9, pets her Chincoteague pony, Nevaeh’s Precious Angel, given to her by the Feather Fund, at her Manchester home Thursday.
Skylar Hull wrote in her Feather Fund application essay that she has wanted a pony since she was 5 years old.
“Every time I had a birthday, I’d ask ‘Is there a pony in the pasture for me?’ ” said the 9-year-old Manchester resident.
Skylar’s dreams came true this month when a local charity, the Feather Fund, helped her purchase a Chincoteague pony.
Each year, the Feather Fund receives about a dozen applications from children who want a Chincoteague pony, said Lois Szymanski, a member of the board of directors. The organization sees distributing the ponies as a way for children to learn responsibility, care and respect, as well as teaching the concept of “giving back” that was embodied by Carollynn Suplee, who inspired the creation of the organization.
The applications are evaluated by the board of directors. They are looking for children who can’t afford to buy a pony by themselves and for evidence of a strong work ethic.
Skylar was chosen for her efforts to raise money on her own, and for her passion for wanting a pony, Szymanski said.
“She eats, sleeps and dreams ponies,” she said.
Skylar’s mother Barbara Hull said her daughter had always loved ponies, but when she started helping their neighbor muck out horse stalls and clean their hooves, she and her husband realized it was more than a fleeting interest.
[…]
Read the entire article here: A dream come true: Feather Fund helps girl purchase the pony she has always wanted
Reach staff writer Carrie Ann Knauer at 410-857-7874 or carrie.knauer@carrollcountytimes.com.
HISTORY OF THE CHINCOTEAGUE PONIES
The legend is that these ponies swam ashore from a Spanish vessel that had capsized off the coast, around the year 1600. Once on the islands, they became stunted under the harsh environment. To keep from starving, they ate coarse saltmarsh cordgrass, American beachgrass, thorny greenbrier stems, bayberry twigs, seaweed and even poison ivy. The horses bred down to the unique breed known today as the Chincoteague Pony.
There are two groups of these ponies descended from the original Arabian horses that survived the legendary shipwreck.
The Virginia Herd consists of approximately 130 ponies and is owned by the Chincoteague volunteer fire department. The ponies graze in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, located on the Virginia portion of Assateague Island.
The Maryland Herd consists of approximately 140 ponies and is owned by the Maryland Park Service.
The famous annual “Pony Round-up” and “Pony Swim” is held each year during the month of July. The Chincoteague Volunteer Firemen herd the ponies off their island at slack tide, through the seawater channel to Virginia. On the last Wednesday of every July, the ponies are gathered for the sale the next day.
Source: The National Chincoteague Pony Association
THE FEATHER FUND
The Feather Fund was created in 2003 to carry on the memory of Carollynn Suplee, a woman who purchased her first pony to donate to Lois Szymanski’s daughters in 1995, even though they were strangers.The two families met at the annual Chincoteague Island Pony Swim and Round-Up sale. For the Szymanskis, it was a tradition, but Suplee, then a resident of Herndon, Va., was there for the first time on a visit to her husband’s mother.
Szymanski’s daughters, Ashley and Shannon, had saved $500 and wanted to buy a pony, though their parents knew that the ponies sold for much more. After watching 40 ponies sell at the auction at prices well over the girls’ savings, the girls started to give up hope, when they were introduced to Suplee.
Suplee had come to the auction to purchase a pony and donate it back to the island, part of her way of “giving something back” after recently surviving brain tumor surgery. Suplee had missed the opportunity to purchase the ponies that were set aside to be re-released, so she had decided to buy a pony for a child that couldn’t afford the price on their own.At first the family resisted, but then saw how much the act meant to Suplee and accepted. The girls bought a brown foal with a white feather-shaped mark on its shoulder and named him Sea Feather.
The Suplees continued to return to the island for several years to purchase ponies for children or to release them into the wild. But in 2003, her cancer returned, and she passed away that November. The Szymanskis, Suplee’s family and friends, decided to honor Carollynn Suplee’s memory by continuing her mission. They named the organization the Feather Fund because Suplee believed feathers were signs from God, as referenced in the Bible’s Psalm 91.
Source: www.featherfund.org
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2007/08/27/news/local_news/newsstory1.txt
20070827 A dream come true: Feather Fund helps girl purchase the pony she has always wanted By Carrie Ann Knauer, Carroll County Times Staff Writer
Labels: Annual events Chincoteague Pony Auction, Non-profits-charities The Feather Fund, Animals horses Chincoteague Pony, US state Virginia Delmarva Chincoteague, Media journalists Knauer - Carrie Ann Knauer
Related:
People Carroll County Szymanski – Lois Szymanski
US state Virginia Delmarva, Non-profits and charities Carroll Community Foundation, Animals horses, Non-profits and charities, US state Virginia, Maryland county Eastern Shore Delmarva
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