THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2022 A5
Veterans
Continued from A1
Being around other veterans,
he said, made him realize he
was not alone.
“I’ve gone from (Veterans
Affairs) putting me on five dif-
ferent pills to try and keep me
sane, to now I’m not on any-
thing anymore, because I’ve
been able to work through the
trauma,” Shaw said. “It’s really
helped me to let go of my anger.”
‘MONASTERY FOR VETERANS’
According to the Ameri-
can Psychological Association,
veterans are 1.5 times more
likely to die from suicide than
non-veterans.
Reasons for this may include
exposure to trauma, stress and
difficulties reintegrating into ci-
vilian life, leading to greater so-
cial isolation and loneliness. The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported 130
suicide deaths per day in 2019,
of which 17 were veterans — a
rate of about 13%.
Alison Perry, a licensed pro-
fessional counselor, founded the
Central Oregon Veterans Ranch
in 2014. She summed up her
vision as “regenerating soil and
souls.”
“I kind of describe the ranch
as a monastery for veterans,” she
said. “When you are constantly
hyper-vigilant and constantly
activated, it’s exhausting. When
veterans come here, they are
able to let their guard down.”
Perry, a licensed counselor,
comes from a military fam-
ily. Her brother, Todd, was an
Apache helicopter pilot for the
Army during the 2003 invasion
of Iraq. His job was to support
ground troops with gunships
from the air.
When Todd Perry returned
from his first deployment in
2004, Alison saw her brother
struggle with “moral injury,”
referring to actions that violate
one’s moral values leading to
guilt, shame and psychological
trauma.
That is when Alison said she
felt called to work with veter-
ans. She spent three years as a
trauma therapist for the Port-
land VA Medical Center and
later transferred to the Bend VA
Clinic to work for another three
years.
Veterans returning home of-
ten struggle with sleeplessness,
recurring nightmares and other
symptoms of post-traumatic
stress disorder, Perry said.
But she noticed some-
thing happening on
a deeper level. Her
patients were com-
ing home without an
identity or a mission,
disoriented and dis-
connected from civil-
ian life.
In one case, Perry said a
22-year-old Iraq veteran who
had been drugged and sexually
assaulted by a combat buddy
was being held in the psychi-
atric ward at the Portland VA
hospital under lockdown, where
he was throwing furniture and
threatening staff.
Perry said it hit her in a flash,
how this environment was actu-
ally re-traumatizing her patient.
“I looked at my colleague,
and I said, ‘I wish we had a
sheep ranch out east where we
could send these guys when
they got home, where they
could work on the land, sleep
under the stars and be in a com-
munity of other veterans,’” Perry
said.
RESTORATION OF PURPOSE
As a newly formed nonprofit,
the Central Oregon Veterans
Ranch had just $1,600 in the
bank in October 2014 when
Perry signed a contract to buy
the 19-acre former sheep ranch
roughly 9 miles outside Red-
mond.
The sellers wanted $10,000 in
non-refundable earnest money
to take the property off the mar-
ket while Perry and her board
of directors searched for an in-
vestor.
What happened next was as-
tonishing, Perry said. In a mat-
ter of months, the group was
able to raise $40,000 entirely
from community donations.
“That’s what showed me this
was going to work,” Perry said.
Today, Central Oregon Vet-
erans Ranch owns the land out-
right. In recent years, veterans
have worked to rehabilitate 12
acres of irrigated pasture, plant-
Nick Rosenberger/EO Media Group
Robert Shaw takes apart an irrigation pump Nov. 2 in preparation for winter at the Central Oregon Veterans Ranch outside Redmond.
ing native grasses and installing
new sprinklers with financial
support from the USDA Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service.
The ranch is also home to a
community garden, greenhouse
and several types of livestock,
including chickens, pigs, sheep
and llamas.
All services provided at the
ranch are free. Veterans can
drop in every Thursday for
volunteer days from 8 a.m. to
2 p.m. Children are allowed at
the ranch on Saturdays only,
from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registra-
tion is required in advance to at-
tend support groups.
Eventually, Perry said she
hopes to adapt the farmhouse to
specialize in end-of-life care for
veterans.
Adrian De La Rosa, opera-
tions and program manager,
said the ranch specializes in
regenerative agriculture, using
methods to improve the health
of plants and soil.
By regenerating the land, it
also helps to regenerate the vet-
erans themselves, he said.
Adrian De La Rosa, operations
and program manager at the
Central Oregon Veterans Ranch,
with a chicken. The ranch has
chickens, pigs, llamas and sheep
as part of its animal husbandry
program.
George Plaven/Capital Press
“You can see that restoration
of a purpose again,” De La Rosa
said. “When you have a veteran
and you put them in a situation
where they’re growing life again,
it does something transforma-
tive to them.”
FARMING AS THERAPY
Orion Carriger, a career hor-
ticulturist and greenhouse man-
ager at the ranch, works with
veterans to grow lettuce year-
gap in services for his fellow vet-
erans transitioning out of the
military.
Programs offered at the Cen-
tral Oregon Veterans Ranch are
“vessels,” he said, to connect vet-
erans with their peers and build
networks of support.
“Inevitably, what happens is
they start to open up about their
traumas,” he said.
HELPING TO SAVE OTHERS
For Shaw, his trauma started
with a devastating physical in-
jury.
In late 2009, when he was 20,
Shaw was stationed at Schofield
Barracks Army Base in Hawaii
as a heavy equipment operator.
One day, while working on a
dozer, he shattered his knee in
an accident, causing him to no
longer be physically fit for duty.
While waiting to receive a
medical discharge, Shaw said he
became the “punching bag” of
his unit. It started with mental
George Plaven/Capital Press
Orion Carriger, greenhouse manager at the Central Oregon Veterans
Ranch, displays the vertical farming and hydroponics system, funded by
a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the state Department of Agriculture.
round using a hydroponic, ver-
tical farming system.
The system — paid for by
a Specialty Crop Block Grant
awarded by the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture — has
240 towers, each 5 feet tall and
spaced 6 inches apart. It takes
just six weeks from seed to har-
vest, Carriger said, even in the
dead of winter.
The ranch produces 30-50
pounds of lettuce per week,
sold to Newport Avenue
Market in Bend.
“This is the best let-
tuce I’ve ever had in
my life,” Carriger said.
“This stuff just melts
in your mouth.”
The nearby “Victory
Garden” offers additional
outdoor space where veter-
ans can grow their own food,
including melons, peppers, cu-
cumbers, tomatoes, onions and
carrots.
Oct. 8 was the ranch’s annual
Harvest Festival, where veterans
and their families came to reap
their bounty. Fresh produce
from the gardens is also gath-
ered by the High Desert Food
and Farm Alliance in Bend, and
donated to local food banks.
Carriger said he sees a grow-
ing interest in gardening as a
form of therapy for veterans
who visit the ranch.
For some, they might come
with no farming background,
but find calm and happiness in
caring for life.
“Maybe the destruction they
were involved in (in the mil-
itary), the natural healing for
that is creation,” Carriger said.
De La Rosa served four years
in the Marine Corps as a motor
vehicle operator before decid-
ing he wanted to get involved
with nonprofits. He saw a large
abuse that became physical and
sexual.
“I had that mentality that
I deserved it,” he said. “It de-
stroyed me.”
After being discharged at
20% disability, Shaw said he
retreated into himself. He
quit talking to people, and be-
gan drinking heavily when he
turned 21. For five years, Shaw
said he drank a fifth of Jack
Daniels every night, trying to
block the painful memories.
The VA put Shaw on five dif-
ferent types of medication, try-
ing to manage his depression
and the pain of four knee sur-
geries.
The cocktail of medicine left
him looking and feeling like a
zombie, he said.
By his own count, Shaw has
attempted suicide seven times.
The last attempt, sitting in his
truck with the pistol, was what
led him to the Central Oregon
Veterans Ranch. He now comes
3-4 days a week to work in the
pasture, or just sit and reflect by
the irrigation pond.
“It settles me down,” he said.
“I can put a lot of things in per-
spective during that time.”
Watching the pasture come
alive with green grass fills him
with a sense of pride, he said.
And being around other veter-
ans has also helped him to open
back up, knowing he can talk
about what happened without
being judged.
“I’d like to say, for any veteran
who’s hurting, you’re not alone.
There is a place for you to come
heal,” he said. “I’ve gotten to the
point in my life where my goal
anymore is to help save other
veterans. That keeps me going
every day.”
A documentary about the
Central Oregon Veterans
Ranch, titled “Cover Me: The
Path to Purpose,” directed by
Dale Fabrigar and featuring
Shaw, will premiere in early
2023.
Perry, the ranch’s founder,
said she is now hearing from
veterans in other states who
are interested in adopting her
model.
“This environment facilitates
growth,” she said. “It’s trans-
forming lives.”
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