At worship services on Oct. 27 and 28, our latest crop of FUUSE interns, will share their experiences. FUUSE, or Fairfax Unitarian Universalist Summer Experience, is a program for UU youth to live out their values in the larger community. This past summer, UUCF interns served a variety of educational, social justice and social services organizations in Fairfax County. The goal of FUUSE internships is to broaden each intern's awareness of social justice issues and values; to reach out to the broader community; and to deepen the interns' connections to their faith, their community and each other.

One of our most recent interns, Tyler Treakle, son of Carol and Kirk Treakle, will not be able to participate at the FUUSE worship service. These excerpts of his reflections give a glimpse of the value of this program for the interns and the organizations they serve.

2012 FUUSE Intern Tyler Treakle at NVTRP

"For my FUUSE internship, I volunteered at the Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program (NVTRP). Due to family vacations and other commitments, I wasn't able to start volunteering until late July. Because of this I ended up volunteering every day of the week as opposed to having a more spread schedule. I am glad I chose this route for I was really able to connect with the people who worked there and the campers.

"NVTRP is a beautiful horse farm that has camps throughout the summer for young kids to come in and learn about and ride the horses. There are two different kinds of camps that I helped with: The therapeutic riding camp and the regular Fairfax riding camp. The difference is that the therapeutic camp has kids from the ages of approximately 4-12 who have sensory issues, who [require] a much simpler approach than the Fairfax riding camp, focusing on very basic horse-riding skills and horse care. I was involved in three therapeutic camps and two Fairfax riding camps through my volunteering there.

"When I first arrived in the mornings at 8, before the campers arrived, I was given jobs that focused mainly on the horses such as feeding, grooming or tacking them. I was also sometimes given the grueling job of mucking the horses' stalls or the fields where the horses sauntered throughout the day. Those jobs would go on for an hour until the campers arrived at 9. For the therapeutic camps, every volunteer was assigned to a camper to watch after to make sure that they stayed with their group throughout the day and take care of any personal problems that arose. Along with this, often it meant side walking with the camper when they rode their designated horse. Side walking is simply walking on the side of the horse during the ride to make sure the camper doesn't fall off and to help keep them on task. The campers would have three basic parts of their day: Riding, horse care and an art-based station.

"As for the regular Fairfax riding program, my job was much different. These riders were much more self-sufficient and did not need any volunteers to watch over them as they went through their days. Therefore, I was asked to do a lot of cleaning and organizing around the barn. I also continued with some of the jobs from the morning such as mucking stalls and fields and also bathing and grooming horses.

"Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. I learned a lot about horses through the experience, including hands-on practice that I never would have gotten otherwise. I am also glad that I got to work with the kids and do barn work. I was able to see how they efficiently ran the farm, and I love working with kids, so being able to work during both of the camps was a real positive for me. It fascinated me how well riding the horses calmed down and soothed some of the more rowdy kids in the camps. All of the workers at the camp were kind and helped to make it a great experience for me."

- Tyler Treakle