Farm Therapy for Veterans and First Responders
Therapeutic gardening, group and individual activities, and vocational training programs offered by the WeAreOne Alliance in partnership with Apotheosis Farm.
Join Operation Thriving AcresT
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A Family of service & sacrifice
I grew up in a family of farmers, veterans, and laborers.
My maternal grandfather got a Purple Heart in World War II and my father, Dale, fought in Vietnam. Grandpa Lynch worked at a rock quarry and Dad was a union factory welder. Grandpa Mizeur was a butcher, a farmer, and a father of twelve. My grandmothers and mother tirelessly managed the family households.
My dad loves nature and has quite the green thumb. While proud of his gardens over the years, his deep connection to trees is what has always had such a strong imprint on me.
What is Therapeutic Horticulture?
Research supports nature as an effective therapeutic modality. Operation Thriving Acres creates experiences that utilize plants, gardening, farming, and nature to empower individuals and groups of veterans and first responders whose lives have been affected by service-connected illness, injuries, disabilities, and post-traumatic stress to achieve improvements in their cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Veterans have spoken eloquently to me about their need for more opportunities to experience sacred grounding - putting their hands in the dirt and reaping the therapeutic benefits of nurturing something that brings forth life.
In 2023, I enrolled in the renowned Therapeutic Horticulture Certification Program at the New York Botanical Gardens, where they specifically focus on serving veteran populations as a core constituency. This rigorous program requires 200 educational course hours and 100 field hours of supervised work for certification.
Join Our 2025 Planning Activities
Veterans, First Responders, and community volunteers who are interested in engaging with our preparatory work are invited to join our 2025 planning activities.
Join OTAWho and what inspires this work?
In 2022, I was a candidate for Congress in Maryland's First District. For the two years I traveled through the eleven counties of this expansive district, I often met Veterans along the way. Over and over, our initial points of connection were about our shared family histories of service, sacrifice, and often, farming or a love of gardening. This allowed us to transcend our political differences to find common bonds in our shared humanity. But it wasn't always easy.
Sometimes I had to first knock away the resistance and work through contentious political assumptions to make progress on forging these alliances. Some Vets just don't trust politicians. Others don't like Democrats. Being a Queer woman didn't help sometimes either. But in the end, with my genuine heart and desire to serve them, many of these men became true friends and confided some of their deepest secrets with me. A disturbing connection became more clear -- for those in particular who had seen combat, their experiences had left a wound on their souls, separating them from an internal moral code that left them feeling depressed. They were surprised to find how often those symptoms were relieved when they had an opportunity to nurture and grow plants. And they asked me to find more opportunities for them to engage in that work with each other.
Operation Thriving Acres is a place for Veterans to grow, heal, nurture, thrive and serve each other in community again. We have answered the call to include First Responders in this important work as well. Dirt therapy is good medicine for the mind, body, and soul. We look forward to your partnership in our nature-based community model of wellness.
What makes our programming unique?
In addition to the therapeutic benefits, participants in this program will learn skills in herbal medicine-making. We will create a veteran-made label for their product brand. Sales of these items will support program expansion and vocational training and job opportunities for local veterans and first responders.
To achieve this, we are in the process of expanding our growing operations into the farm’s front field and undertaking construction of a new barn to create an herbal medicine processing facility, commercial kitchen, and teaching space. 2025 is our year for infrastructure upgrades to support the launch of formal programming in 2026.
Veterans, First Responders, and community volunteers who are interested in engaging with our preparatory work are invited to join our 2025 planning activities.
Program Location: Apotheosis Farm
New Building
$300K Construction Grant
We are thrilled to announce that Operation Thriving Acres was awarded a large grant from the state of Maryland to support our critical programs and operations. In partnership with private investments from Apotheosis Farm, our host site, we are constructing a new barn to create a processing facility, commercial kitchen, and teaching space for our programs.
With the addition of this dedicated space for OTA work, our facility will be open to the public for participating in our programs and events, visiting our store to purchase products, and volunteering in our gardens.
Can you help with operating costs?
While we have crossed the big financing hurdle necessary to create a permanent home for Operation Thriving Acres, we are undertaking a large fundraising campaign to establish an endowment fund to seed job opportunities for veterans and first responders. First on the priority list is our need to hire an OTA farm manager and program director for this work. Would you consider a charitable donation to our endowment fund to support this great vision?
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Community Impact
FAQ
What is farm therapy?
What are Therapeutic Horticulture Activities?
Who are your facilitators for this program?
Why are you calling 2025 a year of infrastructure for OTA?
When will you launch OTA programming?
How has the State of Maryland supported this program?
Where is Apotheosis Farm and OTA located?
Is this just for Veterans and First Responders?
Is OTA associated with the Farmer Veteran Coalition?
If I already signed up for the WeAreOne Alliance, do I need to sign up separately for OTA?
How do I donate to support the program’s operating costs?
Dirt Therapy - the sacred grounding that comes from putting our hands in the soil - is good medicine for the mind, body, and spirit.
Eager to join us on the farm?
Sign Up To Receive News About OTA
And please help us spread the word about this opportunity among Veterans, First Responders, and their families in your community! All are invited to volunteer in our gardens. Some of the therapeutic benefit is received by gathering in community to participate in a joint mission.
