Via Community News Service, a VTSU-Castleton internship, for Rutland Herald
A sprawling campus sits on 700 acres of beautiful mountainside scenery. The location is peaceful and out-of-the-way, and in the winter months, it glistens white with snow. But behind that idyll, Spring Lake Ranch Therapeutic Community has been undergoing renovations for years and is still looking to improve its facilities and residential housing with support from the Shrewsbury community.
The residential nonprofit treatment center, located in Cuttingsville, is now in its final year of a capital campaign for facility updates and program expansion. The original farmhouse, known as Elizabeth House, concluded its renovations this winter, according to Rose McCracken, director of development and communications.
“We’re expanding and updating our infrastructure to provide the best care,” said Executive Director Rachel Stark. “We’re at a critical moment and we’ve got to expand to meet the growing need for care.”
The expansion project doubled the square footage of the existing building, making room for new apartments, an expanded dining area, a new kitchen and a teaching kitchen, where residents practice culinary skills using produce from the garden.
The long-term residential mental health and substance use treatment facility completed significant renovations to Elizabeth House, thanks to early capital campaign donors, Stark said. But the organization is still seeking $3 million to reach its $18 million goal.
McCracken said the new Banks Transitional Living Program in the heart of campus is under construction, and three additional projects are seeking funding. Anna Sutton, development and communications manager, said these include a renovation of the gymnasium, farm program barn upgrades, and a sustainability initiative to address climate change and the ranch’s own long-term self-sufficiency.
“With just one year left to raise the remaining $3 million, we’re asking for everyone’s help to cross the finish line,” McCracken said. “This is not just about the future of the ranch; it’s also about creating a world where people experiencing mental illness and substance use can thrive.”
The ranch was first opened in 1932 by Wayne and Elizabeth Sarcka as a therapeutic community and offers something different for people with mental health needs than other facilities, Stark said. She said Spring Lake Ranch’s approach to mental health combines robust psychiatric care with a distinctive agricultural work program.
“We’ve been doing long-term, community-centered care for nearly 100 years,” she said. “We’ve never had a capital campaign of this size. Now is the time.”
Stark said residents choose their own specialty and work with their clinicians and support staff to reach their goals. Each day at the ranch offers farming, forestry, cooking, crafting, woodworking and gardening.
At a time when the country is seeing a shortage of beds, a focus on short-term treatment modalities and nearly 1 in 4 Americans who experience mental illness — according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — Spring Lake Ranch offers a different approach, Stark said.
She said people from the program have built successful careers and developed the tools to live on their own long-term, including one resident who now buys and sells cheeses for a living.
“Mental health touches everyone. When our residents leave the ranch, they are returning to families, friends, workplaces, schools and communities,” Stark said. “Reaching our goal in this campaign will help us send them off to their next steps as the best version of themselves, and that benefits all of us.”