20
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Veterans retreat founded in Central Oregon
By Diane goble
Correspondent
It has been the dream of
Alison Perry for six years to
create a place where veter-
ans could come to heal, and
find purpose and meaning in
their lives. Perry, a licensed
professional counselor and
military family member, has
a vision for a working ranch,
evolved out of her six years’
experience working directly
with veterans working on
the PTSD clinical team at
the Portland VA Medical
Center and Bend VA Clinic in
Central Oregon.
Perry has had several fam-
ily members in the military
over the years, including her
brother who deployed for the
invasion of Iraq in 2003 as
an Apache helicopter pilot,
completed two more tours
as a MEDEVAC pilot, and
still active duty Army. But it
was one young man in par-
ticular she encountered who
was severely traumatized
by his experiences in com-
bat and struggling with psy-
chotic symptoms, hospital-
ized in the psychiatric ward
of a large medical center, that
caused her to envision a dif-
ferent approach to healing
our veterans: “I wish we had
a sheep ranch out east where
we could send these guys…”
In 2007 Perry began work-
ing at the Bend VA Clinic,
where she collaborated with
a psychologist, Ron Kokes,
who implemented a com-
munity-oriented approach to
healing, including the cre-
ation of four groups of com-
bat veterans, comprised pri-
marily of Vietnam veterans.
“I saw how critical com-
munity was for veterans,” she
said.
She began to see differ-
ences in the ways people han-
dle the trauma of war experi-
ences depending on their age
group.
“It’s very different for
people in their 60s and
people in their 20s,” she
says, “so treatment can’t be
one-size-fits-all.”
Traumatic experiences can
erupt at various points across
an individual’s lifespan.
Perry often got to be the
first person to hear veterans’
stories upon returning home
from war, and often Vietnam
veterans talking about their
experiences for the very first
time in forty or so years. This
had a significant impact on
her understanding of how dif-
ferent generations have been
affected by their experiences.
photo by Diane Goble
A Central oregon ranch will help form a sense of community for sisters Country veterans.
It was during her tenure at
the Bend VA Clinic and her
close work with combat vet-
erans of all ages that Perry
developed an interest in end-
of-life care for veterans. She
began studying, and com-
pleted programs with Sacred
Art of Living Center in Bend
and expanded her dream to
combine her idea of a work-
ing ranch, or “PTSD ranch,”
with supportive housing for
terminally ill or aged veterans
in need of specialized care.
This week that dream to
restore purpose and spirit for
veterans of all ages is coming
to Central Oregon. With the
help of a private investor, and
with a loan approval in hand,
the nonprofit Central Oregon
Veterans Ranch is ready to
move forward with its plans
for renovating existing struc-
tures and developing a work-
ing farm and ranch on 19
acres between Redmond and
Bend, off 61st Street.
Veteran contractors are
lining up to help remodel and
build other needed structures.
There is an existing home,
garage, barn, greenhouse,
cross-fencing and 12 acres of
irrigation. The group intends
to raise a heritage breed of
sheep called Navajo Churro,
which veterans will care for
while helping to preserve the
breed. Products will be cre-
ated from the sheep, includ-
ing wool and meat, which
will be sold to raise money.
Veterans will take part in
developing and maintaining
See retreAt on page 31