YogaFlex is host­ing a series of Karma Yoga ses­sions to ben­e­fit Mitey Riders! If you love yoga, or know oth­ers who do, please pass along the infor­ma­tion below!

Karma Yoga for Mitey Riders at YogaFlex, Sunday July 18 5:30–6:30
Join us at YogaFlex this Sunday, July 18 at 5:30 for Karma Yoga ben­e­fit­ing Mitey Riders at Misty Meadows Farm in Waxhaw.  The beau­ti­ful horses and 2-legged vol­un­teers at Misty Meadows pro­vide ther­a­peu­tic rid­ing for spe­cial needs chil­dren.  Sunday’s class will be a one hour mixed-level Power Yoga class, and the entrance fee is a dona­tion of your choice.100% of money col­lected will go to the Mitey Riders.  Come flex, stretch and sweat with us for the Mitey Riders!

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Thank you YogaFlex for sup­port­ing our Mitey Riders!

Happy Summer MR Community!
We hope you are enjoy­ing your sum­mer so far. The horses and staff are already gear­ing up for the next sea­son of Mitey Riders, as well as enjoy­ing a break from the reg­u­lar day-to-day action. Be sure to visit our web site reg­u­larly for updates and news both through­out the sum­mer and dur­ing the pro­gram sea­son. Also, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact us via , Twitter and Facebook!

ATTENTION — Please Change Your Email Address Books!
As we con­tinue to stream-line our tech­nol­ogy efforts for Mitey Riders, we are chang­ing our email address as well! The main email address for the Mitey Rider pro­gram will now be — please send all emails to this address, and update your address book so you can receive infor­ma­tion from us as well. The old email of miteyriders@carolina.rr.com will NO LONGER BE USED. Thank you!

Safety Training Dates
All vol­un­teers (new, return­ing and par­ents) must choose one of the fol­low­ing ses­sions to attend before the start of classes:
– August 4 at 7pm
– August 7 at 10am
– August 18 at 7pm
– August 28 at 10am
– September 1 at 7pm
– September 25 at 1pm

All vol­un­teers inter­ested in a leader posi­tion or to work in the barn must attend an *addi­tional* train­ing ses­sion from the list below. Leaders must be at least 16 with horse expe­ri­ence, and barn work­ers must be at least 15. Please RSVP to one of the fol­low­ing ses­sions IN ADDITION TO one of the above All Volunteer Safety Training Sessions.
– August 7 at 11:30am — Leaders Only
– August 7 at 12 Noon — Barn Only
– August 18 at 8pm — Leaders Only
– August 28 at 11:30am — Leaders Only
– August 28 at 12 Noon — Barn Only

There will NOT be addi­tional Safety Training Sessions held through­out the sea­son. Please RSVP to one of these dates as soon as pos­si­ble. Safety Training is required EVERY YEAR and for every indi­vid­ual (par­ent, vol­un­teer and staff alike) in order for our pro­gram to main­tain NARHA Premier Center sta­tus. Thank you for your coop­er­a­tion. To RSVP, please con­tact Amanda at 704.841.0602 (farm office) or ridewithus@miteyriders.org.

Summer Projects
We have many sum­mer projects going on around the farm — from refresh­ing the sen­sory trail to rebuild­ing a cou­ple of our pas­ture barns, and giv­ing the indoor arena a bit of a make-over. If you are inter­ested in help­ing us with any of these sum­mer projects, please email us at — thanks!

Harris Teeter VIC Cards — #5317
Just a friendly reminder to link your Harris Teeter VIC card to the Misty Meadows Mitey Riders, Inc. account — num­ber 5317. When you link your card, and pur­chase Harris Teeter brand items, Mitey Riders received 2% back on every pur­chase! You can have up to 5 organizations/schools linked on your card, and any­one can do it! VIC cards must be re-linked EVERY August. Visit www.harristeeter.com to link your card online, or have a cashier do it for you in the store. We will also have a com­puter set up to link VIC cards for you at all Safety Training ses­sions.

Stay in touch via , Twitter and Facebook!

Click HERE to check out infor­ma­tion about our 2010 Mitey Rider Spring Festival tak­ing place on Saturday, May 1^st! In addi­tion to watch­ing all of our rid­ers strut their stuff, attrac­tions include a bake sale, face paint­ing, mer­chan­dise, food, and a pet­ting zoo! Don’t miss out on this fun-filled, family-friendly day and learn more about our Misty Meadows Mitey Riders!

Click HERE for an At-A-Glance of the updated Rider Schedule!

ATTENTION RIDERS AND VOLUNTEERS — If you have any ques­tions about your par­tic­i­pa­tion this day, please con­tact us by or phone — 704.841.0602.

March 21^st marked the last per­for­mance of the Playing For Others (PFO) ren­di­tion of “There’s A Monster in My Closet” at Actors Theatre Charlotte, but it’s just the begin­ning of a life­long friend­ship between Playing For Others (playingforothers.org) and Mitey Riders. Over the last nine months, PFO has bud­died up with our rid­ers and our orga­ni­za­tion, offer­ing a unique expe­ri­ence for all involved. And to cul­mi­nate the sea­son, PFO pre­sented Mitey Riders with a dona­tion of $15,000 at their final per­for­mance on March 21^st. Tears were shed, kinds words were spo­ken, and mem­o­ries were made that will never be forgotten.

Mitey Riders offers its sin­cer­est grat­i­tude to the PFO teens and advi­sors, who have not only changed the lives of our rid­ers, but also the future of our orga­ni­za­tion. Look for our invited guests from PFO at our Spring Festival on May 1^st and be sure to extend a hug, and hand-shake, and a Mitey big thank you!

Mitey Riders plans to use the money in sup­port of a new ther­apy horse for the pro­gram, and new horse trailer — to help spread the word about Mitey Riders (and PFO!) and offer more oppor­tu­ni­ties for our riders.

For more about PFO, visit: www.playingforothers.org

Playing for Others (PFO) is a nine-month vol­un­teer oppor­tu­nity for teens who have a love for the arts. Each year, PFO part­ners with another non-profit in Charlotte that directly impacts chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties. Teens learn the power of pas­sion, the impor­tance of civic respon­si­bil­ity and the accep­tance of oth­ers. For the 2009–2010 school sea­son, Mitey Riders is grate­ful to have been cho­sen as PFO’s non-profit partner.

Each teen in PFO is part­nered with a buddy from our part­ner non-profit.  Through our fall retreat, teens receive pro­fes­sional train­ing about the dis­abil­ity and how to inter­act with their buddy. They quickly learn that a child is just a child, dif­fer­ence and all. Following the retreat, teens meet their bud­dies and begin monthly buddy events.  Each buddy event is themed in the arts; music, sto­ry­telling, pup­petry, pho­tog­ra­phy and visual art.  Buddy events are designed for all teens and bud­dies to par­tic­i­pate in together. Beyond the once a month planned buddy event exchange, teens and buddy fam­i­lies can opt to spend out­side time together.  Past buddy pairs have gone pump­kin pick­ing, saw a show together, went roller skat­ing, had a pic­nic and played at the park.  These extra out­ings allow bud­dies to develop an even deeper relationship.

To read one Mitey Rider parent’s per­spec­tive on the PFO/MR Buddy rela­tion­ship click HERE.

Because PFO reaches out to teens who love the arts, they wrap up the year with the oppor­tu­nity to par­tic­i­pate in one of three inten­sive arts expe­ri­ences dur­ing: Theatre, Music or Visual Arts. Experiences are led by pro­fes­sion­als in the field who offer an avenue for teens to give back to their com­mu­nity through the use of their artis­tic tal­ents. As a cul­mi­nat­ing cel­e­bra­tion, PFO hosts an annual Arts Festival Weekend. This year the event begins March 12^th and runs through the 21^st. All Arts Festival events are tick­eted and open to the public.

Highlights include:
▪ Multiple per­for­mances of the musi­cal, “There’s a Monster in my Closet” at the Actors Theatre of Charlotte — start­ing Friday, March 12^th
▪ Red car­pet event for our bud­dies, with limo rides, paparazzi & front row seats to the musi­cal — Sunday, March 14^th 3:00 pm
▪ Songwriting Competition finals & per­for­mance of the newest PFO theme song by the PFO teens at the McGlohan Theatre — Saturday, March 13^th 8:00 pm
▪ Juried Art Show & the reveal­ing of the col­lab­o­ra­tive sculp­ture by the PFO teens at Amelie’s French Bakery & Café — Saturday, March 20^th 10:30 am
▪ Check pre­sen­ta­tion to Mitey Riders — Sunday, March 21^st 3:00 pm

To pur­chase tick­ets, please click HERE.
To view com­plete a com­plete sched­ule for Arts Festival Weekend, please click HERE.

Remember, sup­port­ing Playing For Others sup­ports Mitey Riders and other like-minded orga­ni­za­tions in our com­mu­nity. Please join us and expe­ri­ence this amaz­ing part­ner­ship first-hand! Look for more infor­ma­tion and updates on the Arts Festival as we get closer to the date!

This week (Feb 24–27) at Mitey Riders is our Annual Volunteer Appreciation Week! Over the years, we have had hun­dreds — lit­er­ally, hun­dreds — of vol­un­teers take part in Mitey Riders as indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, busi­nesses and local youth groups. Volunteers are an inte­gral part to the suc­cess of Mitey Riders. Without ded­i­cated, weekly vol­un­teers, Mitey Riders would not be able to help as many chil­dren as we do each year. Below are some facts about the valu­able hours donated by volunteers…

Our Mitey Riders ben­e­fit from:
• Over 250 vol­un­teer hours each week
• Over 50 hours each week vol­un­teered by stu­dents earn­ing high school or scout­ing ser­vice hours
• Over 6,750 vol­un­teer hours each sea­son
• Over 2,100 hours vol­un­teered by par­ents of our rid­ers
• Over 100 hours vol­un­teered by Church and School groups
• Over 1,200 hours vol­un­teered by indi­vid­u­als and groups on projects and tasks out­side of nor­mal rid­ing class hours each year

RIDERS & FAMILIES — Please take a moment to thank your won­der­ful vol­un­teers this week, and every week mov­ing for­ward. It is because of them that we can con­tinue to offer high qual­ity ther­a­peu­tic rid­ing to a large num­ber of chil­dren and teens in our community.

VOLUNTEERS — Thank you for all that you do and all that are!

A big thank you to Heather Lopina and the Volunteer Appreciation Committee of the Mitey Rider Council.

Hello all Mitey Rider fam­i­lies and vol­un­teers! This week — February 17–20 — we are on Winter Break from classes. Classes will resume Wednesday, February 24^th! Hopefully we will see some sun­shine and warmer weather com­ing soon! Enjoy the break and see every­one next week!

ATTENTION ALL FAMILIES & VOLUNTEERS! All classes (9am-1pm) for SATURDAY, FEB 13^th have been can­celed due to extreme cold and inclement weather. Please con­tact your Volunteer Coordinator with any ques­tions or concerns!

ALSO AS A REMINDER! Mitey Riders is on February Break all next week. Regular classes will resume Wednesday, February 24^th! Stay warm and safe!

ATTENTION Saturday fam­i­lies and vol­un­teers — the early morn­ing Saturday classes (9am & 10am) have been CANCELED due to extreme cold and poten­tial inclement weather. Please stay tuned to our web­site or your Volunteer Coordinator for updates on the 11am, 12pm and 1pm classes. Thank you!

Mitey Riders is gal­lop­ing ahead into the Social Networking era — uti­liz­ing Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to help keep our com­mu­nity informed and gain sup­port across the globe. Click on the fol­low­ing links to net­work and stay up to date on all of the new, excit­ing and inspir­ing things hap­pen­ing at Mitey Riders!

> Mitey Riders on FACEBOOK

> Mitey Riders on TWITTER

> Mitey Riders on FLICKR (new pho­tos posted today!)

Tell your friends and fam­ily to fol­low us as well!