Smoking ban killed bingo hall, board pushing forward
Washington State’s nearly year-old smoking ban could have been the end of the trail for the Silver Buckle Youth Equestrian Center.
Washington State’s nearly year-old smoking ban could have been the end of the trail for the Silver Buckle Youth Equestrian Center.
Instead, it was the greatest blessing the at-risk youth program’s 11-member board could have asked for, say its leaders.
The 29-year-old program that teaches life skills through equine therapy had been funded by Rodeo Bingo. But within a matter of weeks of the onset of Initiative 901, the bingo hall found itself in red ink.
In March, it closed its doors forever.
"It would have been really easy to pack up and quit," said Julie Olson, the board’s head of strategic planning. "But (the smoking ban) may be the best thing that happened to this organization, and I think we are at our finest moment."
No longer under constraints of the state’s gambling commission, the center is poised to become a tremendous asset to the entire community, added Olson, who owns Battle Ground-based Olson Management and Marketing.
With the bingo operation out of the way, the board is now to able focus all of its attention on the program. Plus, some board members had issues with a youth program being funded by gambling, said new president John Grogan, who is senior vice president of credit administration for First Independent Bank.
"Sometimes it seems like a daunting task, but now we have everyone pulling in the same direction, and that really does make a difference," said vice president Nancy Grengs, who is vice president of Vancouver-based Grengs and Assoc.
In the wake of the closure, the board was forced to take stock of its assets.
Twenty of the ranch’s 60 acres were put up for sale, and brought in "plus or minus $1 million," Grogan said.
The ranch’s arena is occasionally rented out and there are a few students who pay to take part in the program, but those ventures bring in less than $1,000 a month. This is a far cry from the on-average $225,000 on sales of $6 million the program brought in from the bingo operation each year.
"Right now, we’re operating without a revenue base," Olson said. "We have money in the bank, but we can’t do it forever."
Grogan added there was a perception around town that the center was raking in money and had millions in the bank.
"That’s not true," he said.
The center has a bare-bones annual operating budget of $150,000. It is operating without an executive director, a position that had to go with the bingo hall. It costs an average of $3,000 for each of the 50 children who participate in the 30-week course.
The center’s ultimate goals are for more children to complete the course, reduce its operating costs and become an integral part of the community, Grogan said.
The business plan will address the concerns.
"We’ve got kids whose parents beat each other, who beat them," Grogan said. "Some of their families are on drugs, there are kids less than 11 years old who have been raped. There are so many people who need help, and you and I are the closest to normal they may see in a day.
"It makes me feel like crying. It’s almost as though we can’t do enough."
Starting from ground zero
The board has not been afraid to ask for help to stay afloat.
"This board is willing to do anything it needs to do to make the program survive," Grogan said.
Members contacted the Small Business Development Center of Washington State University, which connected it with a small business policy class taught by adjunct instructor Calvin Meek. Students in the class are currently working to create a comprehensive business plan for the Silver Buckle.
The service is of no cost to the business, and provides invaluable experience to the students, Meek said.
The Silver Buckle has been working one-on-one with five students from the class, and will receive its full business plan at the end of November.
And this month, board members traveled to central Oregon to check out a similar program’s operating structure.
Now, the board is in the midst of a heavy brainstorm of ways to bring in the bucks.
Some ideas on the table include hosting an annual cattle baron’s ball fundraiser – the equivalent of a big formal barn dance – holding equine clinics by experts, workshops for scouts or the Boys and Girls Clubs or planting pumpkin patches or corn maize for harvest activities.
The ranch itself is a tremendous asset, and one that is grossly underutilized, Grengs said.
It’s set on serene grassy acreage surrounded by trees that are now tipped with rusty fall foliage. The arena is spacious, and a small pond that could be stocked with fish sits quaintly to the side.
"There could be people here all day long," she said.
As part of the marketing strategy, the ranch will get a face lift to make it look more welcoming, so that guests feel as if they’re at a retreat.
"We’ll be investing money in creating this vision," Olson said.
"We’re almost lucky in that we get to create what we want to be from here on out – the premier equine center in the Northwest," Grogan added.
Part of the strategy is increasing visibility.
On Oct. 14, the Vancouver Rotary hosted a "dog day" at the ranch, and on Nov. 11, some of the children involved in the program will ride in Grogan’s 1958 Chevrolet pickup truck in the Veteran’s Day Parade. Silver Buckle’s Lin Isom Ferber may also enter one of the center’s seven horses.
"We never needed to do things like that in the past," Olson said. "But we have a grander vision now."
