March 2024: Rachel Brewer & John Ann
Rachel Brewer & John Ann
This month Stride Ahead is spotlighting two of our dedicated volunteers, Rachel Brewer and John Ahn, our Sunday afternoon dynamic duo.
Rachel is a true “horse girl,” having ridden since she was a child, and loves being around horses more than anything.
Through high school and college, she had the opportunity to work with a program similar to Stride Ahead and learned she’s passionate about working with horses in a therapeutic setting. She feels sharing the healing power of horses has helped her so much in her own life. When she moved to Georgia, she started volunteering with Stride Ahead in the summer of 2022, and she says it’s been the highlight of her week ever since.
On Rachel and John’s first date, she told John how much she loved volunteering at Stride Ahead and working with the students. He was all-in and started volunteering along with Rachel in August 2023. They’re always up for anything but mainly they help with mash making and lesson help. Rachel has also helped with rainy day walks, health checks, blanketing, and horse meds.
There are many moments that each volunteer feels make the experience of volunteering at Stride Ahead special.
When asked about his memorable experiences John says the most impactful ones are the little moments that happen during a lesson when riders share their hobbies and passions, and talk about family. It gives him an immense amount of personal fulfillment. For him, Sunday afternoons feel like spending time with dear family.
For Rachel, it’s the small as well as the big moments of connection with volunteers, watching students with their horses burying their face in a warm mane, a student having a hard time but giving their horse a huge hug and inhaling that special horsey smell. Those are treasured times for horse people everywhere.
Having been with Stride Ahead for a while, Rachel has been with a few of our riders since they started. She recalls young riders frightened to even be close to a horse that now confidently groom, tack, and ride. For her there’s nothing like seeing the triumph in a student’s eyes when they try something for the first time and then succeed at something they’ve been working towards.
John says volunteering allows him to impact people in ways that are very rarely found in professional work settings. It offers opportunities to make a difference in students’ lives. The other side of that, John says, is that students enrich his life in ways beyond what words can describe, and every second spent at Little Creek feels peaceful, meaningful, and beautiful.
Rachel and John came from very different parts of the world before they landed in Atlanta.
John was born in South Korea and grew up down the road in Montgomery, Alabama. Born in Michigan, Rachel has also lived in the Midwest and Southeast plus a time in Switzerland.
John went to Notre Dame and studied finance. After graduation he moved to Chicago to start a career in mergers and acquisitions. He currently works as a private equity advisor for a Chicago-based company while enrolled in the Evening MBA program at Emory. Rachel studied International Business, Management and Marketing at the University of South Carolina. She now works in tech helping people access the food they love.
Besides being horse lovers both Rachel and John have pets at home, Rachel with three wonderfully goofy cats Freddie (after Freddie Mercury), Stevie (after Stevie Nicks) and Archie (after a song by Alvvays) and John with his two beautiful dogs, Penny and Toast. Both have very interesting hobbies. John loves to exercise and study about wristwatches and fountain pens. Rachel has the traveling bug and most recently visited Ireland, traveling by horseback from Clare to Galway. Not only does she love horses she’s an avid opera fan which she says is magical.
Both Rachel and John feel that Stride Ahead allows all participants rare opportunities to step away from the stress and burdens of school, work, appointments and treatments, and simply slow down and connect with both people and horses in ways that are not measured by performance and milestones. Every step can be a cause for celebration and an emotional haven of a kind critical in any community.
Rachel and John’s smiling faces and delightful enthusiasm brighten every day they come to volunteer at Stride Ahead. Thank you very much for your support and love of our program!
Thank you, Rachel & John!
If you would like to make a donation in honor of Rachel, John, and all of our wonderful volunteers who make Stride happen, thank you.
