Style Folsom & El Dorado Hills; September 2018

cause & effect
Cody Ames and Ramz Dixon
4 Directions
Farm to Purpose
A
small farm in Latrobe
is helping disabled
students acquire
marketable skills that
could change their
futures. That’s no
small order. Disabled individuals are at
a disadvantage when it comes to finding
work. According to a 2018 Bureau of Labor
Statistics survey, fewer than 20 percent of
adults with disabilities were employed in
2017, in contrast to more than 65 percent
of non-disabled people who held jobs.
4 Directions Farm wants to help close
that gap. Cindy Keller and Starranne
Meyers, special education teachers who
founded Guiding Hands School in El
Creating Pathways
by LINDA HOLDERNESS
Dorado Hills, opened the 57-acre working
farm last year to teach skills that will help
disabled youth earn a living doing work
they enjoy and reap the fulfillment of
contributing to their communities.
At 4 Directions, students who may
become uneasy in restrictive classrooms
are able to flourish in open space with lots
of movement, fresh air, and natural light.
These youngsters, who face challenges
ranging from physical to developmental
to emotional, learn to care for the
farm’s alpacas and goats and tend to its
agriculture, including two new ventures:
a 4,000-square-foot lavender field and a
fledgling Christmas tree farm, which the
students helped plant (thanks to a recent
donation of evergreen saplings)
and will care for as they mature.
Along with farming, budding
entrepreneurs and craftspeople
can work in or make products
for the nonprofit’s boutique,
Soul Filled Creations, housed
at Guiding Hands. Resembling
a charming country store, the
shop is stocked with organic
soaps, sachets, lip balms,
greeting cards, T-shirts, tote
bags, and much more, all
made or decorated by students. The
children learn to manage the store, wait
on customers, run the cash register, and
even develop products. Many of the items
contain lavender, which will come from
the farm’s lavender field once it’s ready
to be harvested. The store is open to the
public from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays,
and all money raised supports the farm’s
projects.
The farm also operates during the
school year and invites visitors; the
interaction allows students to feel pride
in what they’ve accomplished and
develop interpersonal skills. Volunteers
and donations are welcome too, as the
organization seeks more venues to sell
the students’ wares and plans to build a
new barn.
The name 4 Directions is intended to
evoke the four directions on a weather
vane, which can point anywhere and
represent the unlimited choices these
kids should be able to make for their lives.
“When people with disabilities have jobs
and can contribute to their community,
they show others they are so much
more than their disability,” says Program
Director Quynn Meyers-Keller. “Here
we give them tasks they actually want
to be doing.” The organization’s motto
wraps it up perfectly: Everyone deserves
the chance to find direction in life.
4directionsfarm.org
Top left and bottom photos courtesy of 4 Directions Farm. Other photo by Dante Fontana.
44 stylefedh.com // SEPTEMBER 2018 // /stylefedh /stylemediagroup /stylemediagroup /stylemagfedh