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Equine Program Donor Travels to Costa Rica to Meet Program Award Recipient
You never know where you’ll go, when you provide financial assistance for individuals. In the case of Roy Dye ‘39, his reaching out to help others took him all the way to Costa Rica.
You never know where you’ll go, when you provide financial assistance for individuals. In the case of Roy Dye ‘39, his reaching out to help others took him all the way to Costa Rica.
Roy Dye ‘39, of Houston, Texas, provided funds to CAPSO’s Equine Facilitated Activities & Therapy (EFAT) online professional development program for its development and for financial assistance to qualifying individual participants. This program is designed for those who want to become more knowledgeable about the benefits of equine assisted activities to help those with physical, cognitive and sensory, emotional, or psychological disabilities.
Deb Draves-Legg (owner of Leaves & Lizards 
, a therapy facility and stables, in Costa Rica), a registered nurse, took CAPSO’s online therapeutic riding program, and was a recipient of the Roy Dye assistance award. While a participant in the program, CAPSO connected her with Dr. Warren Evans who was helping her with her new horse facility and a possible internship. Evans talked to Dye about her connection to our program, then Dr. Michelle Cunningham, Dye’s doctor, talked to them about Costa Rica (she has been there several times), and planned the trip.
Dye, his friend Ed Hughes, as well as Hughes’ daughter and Dr. Michelle Cunningham (Hughes’ granddaughter), traveled to Costa Rica for a 6-day visit and to meet with Draves-Legg and tour the facility. Dye was delighted to meet Draves-Legg and stated, “I am so proud to have a role in helping others achieve their dreams as a partner in this equine program offered through Texas A&M University Continuing and Professional Studies. That, and my love for horses, go hand-in-hand.”
Many of Dye‘s friends at The Buckingham, where Dye lives, thought he was crazy for going. After all, he is 91 years old, and Hughes is 87 years old.
On May 19, Jan Fernandez, Director, and Karen Berg, Assistant Director, CAPSO, joined over 70 friends and family members to oooohhhh and aaahhhh at the beauty of Costa Rica and to hear the highlights from their excursion. Not so crazy after all! We all wished we could have been in Costa Rica, too!