Ranch Hands : Corporations’ Donations Make Expansion Possible for Anaheim Hills Home for Abused Children

When the Canyon Acres Residential Center adds new stables this fall, it will have room for another horse. The problem is that it won’t have money for one.

So its operators plan to breed Calamity, one of their own four horses, at a nearby stable, and at the same time help the center’s 20 sexually and physically abused children learn about the beauty of nature.

“I want the kids to find out about sexuality in a healthy way,” said Dan McQuaid, the center’s executive director. “They’ve learned about sex in all the wrong ways.”

This is just one benefit from the $600,000 expansion project, which includes the new stables, two bunkhouses and a parking lot. The project, being funded entirely by corporate donations, will enable the center to take in 10 more residents at the 4.5-acre ranch in Anaheim Hills.

2,269 Sexual Abuse Cases

If the latest figures are indicative, Canyon Acres will have no trouble filling the place. Of 9,992 cases of child abuse reported the first half of this year in Orange County, 2,269 of them were sexual abuse, a 10% increase over the same period last year, according to the county’s Child Abuse Registry.

Of the 20 children at Canyon Acres, 95% have been sexually abused. Many of their parents are substance abusers, are mentally ill or were once sexually molested themselves.

Canyon Acres, a nonprofit organization, has been at the ranch since 1980. The organization leased it until 1987, when it bought it for $760,000. It now includes a cottage and a three-story ranch house, which includes living units and offices. About 75% of Canyon Acres’ $1-million operating budget comes from county, state and federal grants.

The expansion was due largely to the initiative of Barratt American, the Irvine-based home-building company, which has donated contracting services and $10,000 for new furnishings. The company also persuaded 25 subcontractors to contribute manpower and materials, including grading, concrete and plumbing.

Mark Frazier, president of Barratt and a member of the board of directors of Canyon Acres, said that when he heard about the center’s need to expand, he offered the company’s services.

Right Thing to Do

“It was obvious to me that someone was going to have to step forward and get this project going,” he said. “It just seemed like the right thing to do. It wasn’t just cash going to some foundation.”

Completion of the project is scheduled for Sept. 18, even though ground was broken just a few weeks ago.

“It’s being done at breakneck speed,” said Scott Woodard, the engineering coordinator from Barratt who is working on the project. He said he was surprised at the subcontractors’ support at a peak time in the construction season.

“They’re also sacrificing the crew by putting them here rather than in payable fields,” Woodard said. “To have these guys out here at the times we have them is unbelievable.”

This isn’t the first time that Orange County corporations have helped the center. Last year, the Corporate Combined Volunteer Project built two gazebos, a baseball field, a parking lot, playground and corral there.

“That sort of set the tone for community involvement,” McQuaid said. “Barratt has taken it to its pinnacle.”

McQuaid said the community has begun to recognize the urgent need for help.

Community More Sensitive

“There are more kids being abused and more of them being sexually abused,” McQuaid said. “The community as a whole is becoming more sensitive to it, they’re becoming more aware of it and they’re reporting it more.”

Orangewood Children’s Home, the county’s emergency facility for children, sends some referrals to Canyon Acres. But because space there is limited, the county often must send children to residential facilities outside the county.

“We have a constant need for a place appropriate for these children,” said Bob Theemling, the director of Orangewood. “We’ll have no problem filling the new space” at Canyon Acres.

Children who come to Canyon Acres, all aged 5 to 12, are those who need special, round-the-clock supervision and care.

“They have severe emotional and behavioral problems,” McQuaid said. “They are self-destructive, sexually aggressive and physically aggressive. They aren’t going to be able to make it in a foster home.”

The children often have more exaggerated feelings, McQuaid said.

“When they’re afraid, they panic,” McQuaid said. “When they’re excited, you can’t calm them down.”

Watching Them Play

Mary Booth Istance, one of five counselors on the center’s professional staff, said one way to spot the children’s problems is by studying the way they play.

“Play is the child’s way of talking,” she said. “They don’t have a way of assessing their situation with words because they don’t know the words.”

For example, McQuaid said, a child playing with soldiers might make his figure the victim rather than the victor.

“Most kids would sense themselves as omnipotent,” he said. “If they’re not He-Man, they’re getting beat up by He-Man.”

The counselors at Canyon Acres try to help the children build their self-esteem and learn appropriate behavior by giving them role models, new experiences and rewards.

The children stay at the ranch an average of 18 months and then are returned to their families, to long-term foster care or to small group houses or adoptive homes. Canyon Acres hopes to raise $400,000 to provide more services to the families and follow-up treatment for the children.

For now, McQuaid has his fingers crossed that the project comes in on time and without extra expenses.

Woodard is confident it will happen. After all, he said, they are all working for a cause.

“We’ll be able to help those kids,” he said.

McQuaid added, “And we’ll get a new filly for it.”