SPRINGFIELD – On a cold Sunday morning, the residents of Pineywoods Avenue saw something one does not usually see in the city: two beautiful Shire horses being hitched to a cart loaded with Christmas presents ready for a special delivery.

The delivery was collaboration between two non-profit groups: I Found Light Against All Odds and Blue Star Equiculture. The former is an organization to help at-risk students, while the latter is a draft horse sanctuary. In November 2017, the two nonprofits joined forces to launch an equine therapy program for inner-city youth with special needs and at-risk teens enrolled in Springfield Public Schools.

Wearing a Santa Claus hat and watching the Blue Star team led by founder Pam Rickenbach finishing the hitching process, Stefan Davis, Fresh Start Program Coordinator/Educator at Springfield High School of Science and Technology (SciTech) and founder of I Found Light Against All Odds told Reminder Publications his mission today was to help a single-parent family of whom one of the children was his student at SciTech.

Davis and his cargo of presents were headed to an apartment on White Street about a mile and half away. There his student lived with her other siblings and father. Her mother recently passed away.

“We got to do something for this family,” Davis said.

Davis said the donations that made the bounty of gifts possible came from donations both locally and from New York and Pennsylvania.

As the team left Pineywoods Avenue, it was accompanied by Springfield police officers to handle the traffic detail. It took only about 20 minutes to make the short journey where it was greeted not only by the family, but also by neighbors as well surprised to see the two massive horses.

Davis explained only the father knew they were coming.

He hopes to expand the program next year to assist more families and said that families such as this one appreciate the fact that most of the donations came from their own community.