Cornerstone hopes to offer retreats for wounded warriors, caregivers
By Karen Brainard
Tears well up in Judy Beckett’s eyes as she recounts how a brain-injured servicewoman found comfort from the touch of a horse, and the joy a soldier experienced when he discovered he could still ride a horse despite the loss of his legs.
That’s why she and Julie Melia, a co-founder of the Wounded Warrior Project, want to expand Cornerstone Therapeutic Riding Center’s Operation Saddle Up program by offering fully-funded three-day weekend retreats for three different groups: wounded servicemen, wounded servicewomen, and the caregivers of wounded military members.
“The caregivers are often the forgotten ones,” said Beckett, founder and executive director of Cornerstone, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals living with disabilities.
The retreats would build upon the healing process that Operation Saddle Up already offers injured service members through four-hour equine-assisted therapy sessions at its riding center in southeast Ramona.
“We’re like a big family,” said Beckett. “This is a safe haven. This is a place of rejuvenation and healing.”
They hope to start the retreats in the first quarter of 2015, but it depends on funding. The nonprofit is financially dependent on private donations and grants, said Beckett.
Cornerstone is at a donated 10-acre ranch in the Barona Mesa area that provides spectacular views and a peaceful, quiet environment, said Beckett.
“Because of the environment, people want to hang out and stay longer,” she said.
The three-day retreats would include accommodations, meals, travel expenses, small group therapy facilitated by a psychologist, equine therapy, relaxation and possibly spa time. Beckett and Melia estimate the cost would be $5,000 for six people partaking in a three-day retreat.
Melia, who works with Beckett as program development/community outreach manager, said she would like to keep the retreat groups small — no more than 15.
“You get that one-on-one time. You get to know each other,” Melia said.
Beckett started Operation Saddle Up in 2008 and has since served 451 injured servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan by working with Armed Services YMCA and the San Diego Naval Medical Center Balboa. Patients’ injuries have included lost limbs, traumatic brain injuries from bomb blasts, and severe Post Traumatic Stress (PTS).
“It is so profound. It is beyond measure what these people go through,” said Beckett.
She has seen that the wounded warrior is not the only one suffering — the injuries affect the whole family.
Melia knows what it’s like to be a caregiver. Her ex-husband, John Melia, was burned on his face and upper body during a Marine Corps helicopter crash in 1992 at the end of Desert Storm.
“It’s hard to know what to say and what to do,” said Melia.
After John Melia retired from the military, he worked for Disabled American Veterans in Washington, D.C. Between recovering from his injuries and from his work with veterans, he became knowledgeable about the unmet needs of the wounded, she said.
“He was incredibly knowledgeable about what the missing links were,” she said.
That led them to start the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization that helps injured servicemembers. Julie Melia said they stepped away from the program in 2011, after it had expanded.
Beckett said Melia brings “extraordinary expertise” to Cornerstone and its Operation Saddle Up program.
Melia, who lived in Ramona as a child, recently returned. She and Beckett met through a mutual friend and said they instantly hit it off.
The two said anyone who is interested in donating or in volunteering with Operation Saddle Up is welcome to schedule a tour and see the program in action.
Contact them at 760-788-2872 or judyb@cornerstonetrc.org. or see www.cornerstonetrc.org.