CURRENT minnlocal.com
Burnsville Lakeville
April 21, 2011 • V36.16
Spring sports are here. Page 31
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In the Community, With the Community, For the Community
Horse therapy changes lives at Majestic Hills BY JENNIE OLSON • SUN NEWSPAPERS
Lakeville resident Ryan Kane rides a horse at Majestic Hills Ranch in Lakeville with the assistance of volunteers David and Nancy Pinke. (Submitted photo)
Ryan Kane didn’t come to Majestic Hills Ranch only for a new hobby. As a child who was born 10 weeks prematurely with Cerebral Palsy, the Lakeville boy came to Majestic Hills Ranch to engage in therapeutic riding so he could live a more normal life. He was two years old when he first began riding horses the ranch. “He’s had the same volunteer for three or four years and just loves him,” said Ryan’s mother, Luann Kane, about her son, who is now 11 years old. “They have whole conversations and are just laughing and laughing. He really does have a good time.” The benefits have gone beyond laughter, though, she said.
“There’s just a whole range of therapy, and horseback riding is another portion of that therapy that helps with balance, coordination and socialization,” Kane said. “His balance has improved over the years, his walking has improved, his speech, communication, and overall growth has all improved over the years, and it’s something fun for him to do that’s not the normal therapy.” The Majestic Hills Ranch therapy program was founded in 1997 and offers therapeutic horseback riding lessons to people with special needs. Individuals come to the ranch with disabilities like Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Down syndrome, cancer, MAJESTIC HILLS: TO PAGE 14
Mourning the curtain call for Envision Academy of Fine Arts Magnet school closes due to low enrollment BY JENNIE OLSON • SUN NEWSPAPERS Eagan resident and Burnsville High School senior Patricia “PJ” Glover has
been honing her dance skills since she was two years old. When she found out about Burnsville’s Envision Academy of the Arts, a performing arts magnet school in District 191, she eagerly enrolled to help improve her modern dancing techniques. In time, Envision became more than just a school to PJ.
“I fell in love with the place; it really took me by surprise,” she said. “All my life I’ve been taught dance in a very technical way and that one way’s right and one way’s wrong, but this is a place where I’ve really grown artistically and emotionally as an artist, dancer and performer. It opened my eyes to a brand new way of looking at dance.”
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Now, students who have had their eyes opened will have to look for new direction. After two years in existence, low enrollment is causing Envision Academy to close at the end of the current school year. “It’s heartbreaking,” PJ said. “It feels ENVISION: TO PAGE 26
Richard Tucker. Caring dad. Strategic thinker. Real estate leader.
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