Latest / Classic Hitz with Hitman / Hitman Talks to Shannon Murphy of Agape Ranch (PSA)
Transcript
- 0:00Corpus Christie's classic hits Big ninety three nine. Hey, what's going on?
- 0:03It's hit Man with you and I have Shannon Murphy, who's the community relations
- 0:07director for a Goppy Ranch with me right now. How are you? I'm
- 0:10great, Thanks for having me. Now. May is a very special month
- 0:14for Goppy Ranch, right, tell me a little bit about it. So,
- 0:16May's Foster Care Awareness Month. It's actually a national month to recognize foster
- 0:22children and anyone else that supports foster children. Yeah, so we have it's
- 0:27a really big month for us. We have a lot of awareness events going
- 0:30on. We have an adoption event that we have coming up, and just
- 0:36a lot of things out in the community. So we're just trying to bring
- 0:38awareness to foster care and how our community can support. And you guys are
- 0:43going to be doing something very soon also with the Corpus Christie Hooks. Right.
- 0:47Yes, we have been selected for the fifty fifty Raffle the Hooks all
- 0:52next the first week of May. So if you're at the Hooks, please
- 0:56contribute. You get a chance to win yourself and you're supporting got Bay Ranch
- 1:00right right now, tell us a little bit about a Gopy Ranch in general,
- 1:03tell us a little bit more about that. I mean, if people
- 1:07want to, people can volunteer for this or yes, tell us a little
- 1:11bit about that. So, a got By Ranch is a nonprofit here in
- 1:15the Coastal Bend. We've been serving foster families and foster children since twenty fourteen.
- 1:21We have numerous programs and we also are building a neighborhood where foster children
- 1:27and foster families can live together. So as far as volunteer opportunities, we
- 1:32just had a bed build event last weekend. They built fifteen beds. We
- 1:37had about forty volunteers. We have another one coming up in May, and
- 1:42then we've got coffee Sleeves of support. That is something that we're doing with
- 1:48a bunch of coffee shops here in the Coastal Bend. So if you're out
- 1:53buying a cup of coffee starting the second week of May, it's going to
- 1:56have a special sleeve on the cup and you'll you can click on the QR
- 2:00code and learn more on how you can support foster kids here in the Coastal
- 2:05Bend. Wow, that's great. Yeah, that's really cool. Now,
- 2:07if people want to find out more details online, do you have a website
- 2:12we do. It's a gotp A ranch dot org, agape ranch dot org.
- 2:15Always tell people the easiest way to find out what's going on is sign
- 2:20up for our newsletter. It goes out once a month. But if we
- 2:23are in need of volunteers, for example that bed build, we need to
- 2:27volunteers. We always need volunteers. For Foster Parent Night Out, we do
- 2:32that. I think we started doing it. We've increased it a couple more
- 2:37times. I think it's about six times a year now. That's one of
- 2:39our foster parents most favorite events, is basically a night out, so they
- 2:45bring their kids, biological and foster kids. We set it up at different
- 2:50locations around the city and the foster parents can go have a date night or
- 2:54just go home and take a nap, whatever they need. Right, So,
- 2:58the reason that got by Ranch really exists is number one, we want
- 3:01all these kids to feel unconditional love. Many of them come from trauma and
- 3:08they feel unlovable and we need them to know that someone cares about them.
- 3:14And we do that, you know, either through our respie care program.
- 3:17We do that through Foster Parent Night Out. We do that at our adoption
- 3:21event. You know, we have about sixty kids coming to our adoption event
- 3:24in May that are looking for forever homes. So we are asking our community
- 3:30to be in prayer for those children. You know, their ages range from
- 3:35ten to sixteen years old. That's a really tough age when you're looking for,
- 3:39you know, to adopt and wondering is there going to be a family
- 3:43that's going to pick me? Wow, So just be in prayer for these
- 3:46kids. Someone is out there for them. And even if it's not our
- 3:50event, we just hope that it's another event this year so these kids can
- 3:53find their forever family. Now, you can sign up for the net letter
- 3:57on the website right absolutely, so you go to got By Ranch or sign
- 4:00up for the newsletter. The newsletter will let you know what events we have
- 4:04coming up. It'll definitely whenever we're in dire need of volunteers, we definitely
- 4:10send an email out we're looking for volunteers. We have a five K every
- 4:14February, we always need volunteers for that. We have a big gala in
- 4:17September. We're looking for sponsors. If you just want to buy individual tickets,
- 4:24just you know, there's just so many ways that you can support.
- 4:26I always say, we kind of have, like, you know, the
- 4:30low level commitment, which is a monetary donation, right, and then a
- 4:35high level commitment is maybe you've been thinking about being a foster parent and you
- 4:41don't really know what the next steps are. So I encourage you to go
- 4:46to our website learn more about how you can support them as a respite care
- 4:50provider, as a volunteer. And if you think you might want to be
- 4:53a foster parent, then we have several agencies in town. Many of them
- 4:58have informational meetings ten one just no commitment. Just go check it out,
- 5:01see what it's about, and you might, you know, you might be
- 5:05taking that next step that a foster kid really needs a loving home to be
- 5:10in. Okay, so give us the website one more time, a gop
- 5:13a ranch dot org. So that's ag ape ranch dot org. Now you
- 5:17guys also are on social media, right, Yes, we're on Facebook and
- 5:20on Instagram. And a little bit about the neighborhood that we're building. It's
- 5:27going to have up to twenty four homes. It's a gated community. The
- 5:30idea behind that started because a lot of sibling groups get separated. Right,
- 5:35If you can imagine you're in a family three or four siblings, but you
- 5:41don't all fit at the same foster home, right, So sometimes these kids
- 5:46get sent out to different cities, so they don't really get to see their
- 5:49siblings. So the idea, the dream about this neighborhood is even if they're
- 5:55not in the same house, maybe there are two houses down or across the
- 5:59street. So this neighborhood will have up to twenty four homes. It can
- 6:02have up to one hundred and thirty two kids at any time. We have
- 6:05a couple of homes set aside for aged out youth, so kids at age
- 6:11out of the foster care system. We have some homes for the respite care
- 6:14providers, so you'll have respite care on site, you know, maybe your
- 6:17brother's sister across the street from you. And then we even have you know,
- 6:23the homes for the kids at age of foster care. So that is
- 6:28going to take some time to build, but it's happening and we're really glad
- 6:31to be able to make that happen here in the Coastal Bend. That is
- 6:34so cool. Like again, if you want to find out more details,
- 6:38you can always check it out on their website. They'll probably also have it
- 6:40on Facebook and Instagram, and of course sign up for the net letter.
- 6:44That'd be great. You can always see see monthly updates on what's going on
- 6:46at a gopy ranch. Well, thanks a lot for coming in today and
- 6:49appreciate you taking the time. As of course, May is a special month
- 6:54if you want to find out more details. What's the website again, gotpe
- 6:57ranch dot org. All right, there we go on the way. We
- 6:59got more music coming up and just a little bit on Big ninety three nine