Sacred Mountain Retreat Center’s Winter Gala hopes to further help veterans and first responders with their programs
Sacred Mountain Retreat Center
Sacred Mountain Retreat Center is an organization that focuses on saving lives, saving marriage and saving careers.
It’s a seven-day all expense paid retreat for veterans and first responders to get away and go to a quiet place south of Deadwood and just enjoy equine therapy, blacksmithing and massage therapy.
The organization works a lot with PTSD, TBI and substance abuse.
5th Annual Winter Gala
The 5th Annual Winter Gala will be held at The Lodge in Deadwood Feb. 11. Doors for the event will open at 5 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6 p.m.
There will be silent and live auctions with all proceeds going to benefit active military, veterans, first responders and Gold Star Families. The event is Sacred Mountain Retreat Center’s biggest fundraiser.
Sonya Orr, alumni and mentor at Sacred Mountain Retreat Center, will be one of the guest speakers, along with Craig McNally, former Rapid City Police officer and keynote speaker Jessica Lynch, first female P.O.W.
“With the experience that all of the attendees get, we take care of their airfare if they’re flying, we take care of their gas if they’re driving, all of their meals, all of the activities, you know, and unfortunately, it just costs money. It costs about $3,000 for a seven-day program per attendee to come to the program,” said Jerrid Geving, Sacred Mountain Retreat Center President, Founder and Director. “So we literally, we say when we take care of everything from the time they leave their home till the time they return, Sacred Mountain does their very best to accommodate.”
The event is open to anyone who wants to come and learn more about suicide prevention.
Puppies Healing Heroes
In 2020, Sacred Mountain Retreat Center started the Puppies Healing Heroes program. To date, they have given 15 puppies out to veterans and first responders at the gala.
“We’re going to be placing four more. So we’re going to be very close to the 20 puppies in basically three years,” Jerrid said. “They fill out the application we go through. We have a committee that kind of reviews everything. We try to place the puppies in the best hands possible.”
It has become a big part of their program and it’s growing every day. According to Jerrid, 78% of the suicide rate drops with a service animal in a veteran’s hands, so their goal is that the program will continue to grow and they’ll be able to get 20 puppies a year in veterans’ hands.
Contact
You can learn more about Sacred Mountain Retreat Center’s services and the 5th Annual Winter Gala here, and you can also email them at info@sacredmtnretreat.org.
“I’m going to give eight tickets away to a veteran, a first responder, if they reach out to us either on Facebook or through the info page,” said Jerrid. “If they just want to tell us, ‘Hey, I was in the military for three years, I’d like to visit with someone,’ myself or Sonya, someone will reach back out to them and we’ll get them a ticket.”
