Message from the ceo
We are all very excited to start the year of 2021. I want to give you an update about what has been going on since my last letter and let you know what we are planning for this year.
First, we are so proud to have Southern Linc be our new tenants and neighbors. They have been great supporters of our organization throughout the years, and we are blessed that they decided to come share our building with us.
In order to get ready for our new neighbors, our entire staff spent endless hours painting the office and updating what we could. We want to especially thank our Tallapoosa Ranch Director Candice Gulley and her husband Tommy as well as the Church of the Highlands volunteers for helping us plan and execute our updates. Also, thanks to the State of Alabama, we were able to install new LED lights at the Admin Office as well as new HVAC systems at the Tallapoosa Ranch. We still have a few projects that need to be done, but we are diligently working to get them done while still focusing on our Ranchers.
Soon, we will have completed the updates and repairs at our beach house in Gulf Shores. The beach house gives our Ranchers a great place to visit along with bring in extra revenue throughout the year to support our Ranches. We have been so blessed by the Carpenters for Christ of East Alabama and Sheriff Sid Lockhart for all the help and support they have given us with this project. It was so amazing to have these men want to hear all about the many success stories that we have at each of our Ranches. I told them a different story at each meal. While it was a blessing to them, it was also a blessing for me to remember the good that we do and see how passionate these men were about helping us. God has been working through this entire project, and I cannot wait to see what He does next.
Recently, we had our first board meeting of the year. Because of Covid-19, we were not able to all meet in person. However, we were able to make many plans that will guide us for this year. We approved our 2021 budget, discussed how each department is doing, and walked through our goals for the next several years. We are blessed by our board members, and thank them for their support of the Ranches.
We also have been approved to change our name back to the Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches. We felt like it was time to get back to our roots and are so thankful to have the Sheriffs of Alabama so involved again. We are so glad that the Sheriffs are supporting this change and our goals.
Special Events for this year are already being planned and executed by our team. We are excited to be offering a clay shoot, multiple golf tournaments, cornhole, etc. These events will be advertised soon on our social media and website.
Thank you all for reading our Ranch Update and supporting the Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches. We could not do this without you.
Michael Smith
Chief Executive Officer
Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches