Powder River Energy Foundation recently presented a $3,000 donation to CHAPS Equine Assisted Services to assist with its mission of providing a resource for empowerment & healing as well as physical & mental well-being through equine assisted services. A Sheridan-based organization, CHAPS serves community members ages 4 to 90+ through four programs: adaptive (therapeutic) riding; adaptive (therapeutic) carriage driving; equine assisted learning; and equine facilitated psychotherapy, according to CHAPS Executive Director, Kristen Marcus.

“Clients come to learn, grow and heal while improving balance, seated posture, core strength, focus, problem solving, spatial awareness and decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety,” Marcus said.

CHAPS serves a multitude of diagnoses including ADD/ADHD, autism, anxiety, cerebral palsy, depression, Down's syndrome, genetic disorders, intellectual developmental delay, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and suicidal ideation.
CHAPS served 165 people in 2022. Clients pay for a portion of the services, but donations such as these ensure that the program can be offered regardless of financial hardship. Marcus said that rising costs of care and feeding of the horses in the program make the Foundation’s support even more important for 2023.

“The PRECorp Foundation supports groups like CHAPS because they fill one of the Foundation’s general tenets which is to give a hand up to those in need in northeast Wyoming.  We appreciate CHAPS’ ability to bring therapeutic horsemanship to northeast Wyoming,” said Foundation Board President John Flocchini.

The Foundation is a self-sustaining giving organization that gets its funding from a variety of sources. Some funds are made possible in part by the PRECorp Operation RoundUp Program, fundraisers, and large matching grants. When PRECorp consumer-members sign up for the Operation RoundUp, PRECorp rounds up their electric bill to the next dollar, and the difference goes to the Foundation.

The Foundation focuses its giving to charitable organizations in Campbell, Crook, Johnson, Sheridan, and Weston counties.