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Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…
Karen Dalton overcame obstacles to help military Veterans at her facility.
The pandemic has brought on many challenges on professional and personal levels. Business is conducted much differently than it was at this time last year. Not being able to see loved ones or attend large social gatherings such as either sporting events or concerts has made fundraising for non-profits more of a challenge.
Now, what if on top of that, you served your country and have little or no support system in place to control those demons? There are active and retired military personnel who fall under those sad categories that don’t know where to turn or who to ask for help. However, there is a place these heroes can go to get back on their feet and have a new lease on life.
The Dare To Dream Ranch, located on 12 Snagwood Road in Foster, is a 501 © (3) nonprofit organization on a 11-acre facility that offers alternative therapy programs to service members, Veterans and their families. Founder and Executive Vice President Karen Dalton said the purpose of the Ranch is providing outlets to build up their ability to become productive. The end game is empowering their clients to live productive, meaningful lives.
“These Veterans suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression and other challenges from their time serving,” she said. “They had mission, purpose, structure, and comradery in their lives in what they were doing. Now that they are back to civilian life, many can’t make the smooth transition from one life to another. Being on the Ranch gives them a sense of purpose while giving them a second chance to make a difference.
“I know what it’s like to be in this situation, so I understand what these Veterans are going through.
She grew up as the daughter to a Marine dad who suffered from anger management issues. Her first husband also dealt with anger management issues that affected Dalton’s emotional and physical health. Her goal is to break the cycle by utilizing alternative therapy programs that helped her, and programs that have helped others.
Now, Dalton has the Ranch to help others going through tough times. The facility has many programs to help with mission, purpose, structure and comradery. For those who may not have a place to stay, the Ranch will start to offer an opportunity to work there in exchange for a place a stay as availability allows. This enables them to save money to purchase their own home, she said.
Among the activities provided at The Ranch include equine-facilitated coaching, woodworking, fly fishing, beekeeping and gardening, among others. Dalton herself utilized gardening, working with horses, time in nature and surrounding herself with positive like minded individuals to help overcome her emotional and physical health challenges and now wants to use these to help others.
“Nobody has to go through this ordeal alone. That is a major reason why this Ranch is critical to the health and wellbeing of those who kept the rest of us safe. They don’t want a hand out; just some way of contributing and feeling better about themselves and being a part of something more,” she said.
One of the best things coming out of the last 12 months is the incoming contributions to support the Ranch. Dalton said did not have as many volunteers but were able to raise their largest amount ever. However, they want to raise $5 million to purchase more land, build a gift store, and make other renovations to help more people.
One of the ways they hope to reach their goal is the 401Gives Challenge. Happening on April 1st and sponsored by The United Way of Rhode Island, the organization that raises $50,000 first will receive a matching $50K from the Rhode Island Foundation. It’s a one-day, 24 hour event to raise money for various organizations and charities. Dalton said that money would do a lot of good.
Starting at 6:00 AM on April 1, anyone may donate at: www.401Gives.org/organizations/dare-to-dream-ranch-inc.
“Without question, we are all facing a different kind of world,” she said. “What these Veterans have seen and done should never be forgotten. We should make a concerted effort to ensure that every Veteran and their family receives the care and help they need. Our Ranch works to accomplish those goals.”
For anyone interested in helping out in terms of contributing or volunteering, please call Karen at (401) 919-2059 or email her at Dare2DreamRanchRI@gmail.com.
More details about the Ranch may be found by visiting their website at www.daretodreamranch.com.
Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara Celebrates 15 Years of Legal Excellence
For information, contact:
Clare Eckert at ceckert@pldolaw.com
401-855-2601
Rhode Island – March 1, 2021 – Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC (PLDO) announced that the firm is commemorating its 15th anniversary, marking a significant and proud milestone achieved through innovation in the practice of law, teamwork, and collaboration in delivering quality legal services for clients despite the challenges, including last year’s unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our success as a law firm is rooted in a commitment to excellence by our attorneys and staff, and we thank our loyal clients for their support and confidence through the years,” said Gary R. Pannone, a founder and Managing Principal. “Fifteen years ago, we decided to form a new entity that would combine business principles to the practice of law by encouraging collaboration by and among all of our lawyers and staff with a focus on building strategic alliances with other businesses and professionals in an effort to pool resources and develop creative and cost-effective solutions to complex business and legal issues. We are extremely proud of our accomplishments and thank our entire team and our clients for being a part of this success story.”
Pannone added, “Last year was uniquely challenging with the unprecedented pandemic; however, we were prepared for this type of event by making significant investments in technology and training our lawyers and staff to effectively discharge their responsibilities through the use of technology while working remotely. All the credit goes to the lawyers and staff for being prepared for the challenges that we have all faced and we are humbled and grateful to our long-standing client relationships.”
Founded in 2006, PLDO has become a highly respected, multi-state law firm with a business platform that is innovative, incorporates advanced technology in servicing clients, and relies upon a team approach to problem-solving for clients. In addition to Attorney Pannone, other founding members are PLDO Principals Matthew A. Lopes Jr., William P. Devereaux, and William E. O’Gara. All of the principals were formerly partners in an international law firm and collectively have more than 140 years of experience in the practice of law.
Over the years, PLDO has distinguished itself as one of the top-ranked law firms in the region and is annually selected as among the “Best Law Firms” in America by U.S. News – Best Lawyers®. PLDO attorneys are consistently recognized by their peers as Best Lawyers in America© and many of the firm’s lawyers have been recognized by their peers and judges with the Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent rating, which is the highest level of achievement for professional skill and integrity.
The firm is also dedicated to being involved in the community and has supported hundreds of nonprofit organizations over the years in charitable giving, volunteerism and pro bono resources. It has been honored with several awards for its service such as being recognized for its volunteerism by the American Cancer Society at its Rhode Island “Toast To Hope” event and its contribution to the business community by being named “Corporation of the Year” by the Rhode Island Black Business Association. PLDO is also one of the law firms that is part of the Roger Williams University School of Law Pro Bono Collaborative.
The day the firm opened its doors it consisted of the four principals, two lawyers and a few staff members. Today, it is a prestigious, full-service law firm with over 60 attorneys and professional staff and a geographical footprint that includes offices in Rhode Island, Florida and Massachusetts. PLDO has thrived in spite of the economic downturn in 2008 and the pandemic of 2020 to become a highly respected full-service law firm.
PLDO clients include closely-held businesses, public companies, health care providers, public finance entities, nonprofit organizations, municipalities, software developers, universities, developers, construction companies, high-net-worth individuals, as well as emerging businesses including the cannabis industry. The attorneys have extensive experience in the areas of administrative law, business law, special masterships, civil litigation, public finance, estate planning, probate administration, white collar, health care, trust litigation, employment law, real estate development and commercial lending. The firm’s latest initiative is the creation of PLDO Strategies LLC, a consulting arm that provides services in the areas of legislative strategies, government affairs, lobbying, grassroots advocacy, strategic communications and crisis management.
As part of its anniversary celebration with the community, PLDO has created a multimedia “15th Anniversary” web page that includes a video and other material highlighting the firm’s growth and success. Please click Celebrating 15 Years of Legal Excellence to access the information. To learn more, visit www.pldolaw.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
About Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC
The core values of Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC include integrity, providing quality service and responsiveness. In addition to practicing law, the firm is committed to supporting the community in a meaningful way. The firm has offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Florida. For more information, visit www.pldolaw.com.
Berg’s Eye Communications
Leading by Example
Mary T. O’Sullivan’s new book examines the thread between how executives implement their corporate mission and the state of employee morale.
Anyone working at a job or having a career has dealt with management. Some people who lead do so primarily with the company’s interest in mind. Others put themselves first over everything else. The way people in charge perform impacts company morale and employee productivity. When executive behavior matches company and employee values, we achieve positive results for all parties.
In many cases, stories about horrible bosses far exceed those who are giving and inspirational. After all, there was a movie made called “Horrible Bosses” (two of them, actually) that depict some of bad or inappropriate behavior and tactics used to keep employees down or “in line.” Also, can we ever forget the 1980 movie classic “Nine to Five,” starring Dolly Parton, Jane
Fonda and Lily Tomlin? They tied their horrible boss up in a chair and left him there!
Mary T. O’Sullivan, an executive business coach based in North Kingstown, decided to do something about that: namely, chronicle examples of bad bosses and toxic workplaces in print. Her new book, “The Leader You Don’t Want to Be,” talks about those instances of poor judgment and bad decisions that seriously jeopardized the careers of the hard-working people in large organizations. With several decades of dealing with some heavy hitters throughout corporate America, O’Sullivan demonstrates the differences between an effective leader and one who fails are profound.
“Most people have been around bosses who play favorites, give preferred projects to ‘their’ co-workers, or dump undesired work on others. Those are all easy examples of being ineffective,” Sullivan said. “Management styles vary from industry to industry, business to business, and person to person. The way one deals with those around them has profound consequences—good and bad. It becomes evident when someone in authority doesn’t have the knowledge of the job and begins sinking.”
Her book details the good, bad and ugly stories of bosses in ideal and less than ideal circumstances. Some leaders dealt with the problems head on and with grace and dignity leading to a successful conclusion. Often times, the situation went the other way and led to feelings hurt, egos bruised and ultimately, personnel changes.
The book details some of the well-known cases of bosses doing the wrong thing. One such case was the Boston Archdiocese Child Abuse scandal. The Church sought to silence those coming forward accusing priests of inappropriate behavior and not addressing the problem. Instead, they
kept quiet and, in some cases, moved the accused priests to other parishes. The Church leaders reasoned that this would solve the problem and the issue would go away…
…or so Church Leaders thought.
Instead of the scandal being “swept under the rug,” more people spoke out against the Church and their blind eye to what happened. Confidence in the Catholic Church and their leaders took a massive hit. It ended with the Church having to pay out millions of dollars to abuse victims and the head of the Boston Archdiocese, Bernard Cardinal Law, to resign. The Church has still not recovered from their missteps in the form of fewer parishioners, donations and mistrustful feelings about the Archdiocese.
O’Sullivan said those leadership lessons need to be learned for future generations on what not to do in handling such a delicate and life-shattering issue.
“One thing that we learned from this example was to not hide information because it will eventually come out,” she said. “The Boston Archdiocese made a critical mistake in keeping everything internal and not addressing the problems when they came to light. When they did, they did little to nothing to do the right thing. The results of their decisions were swift and drastic in the eyes of the public.”
“Leaders who choose to skirt the truth staring them in the face are going to meet severe repercussions in the process,” O’Sullivan added.
Mary is the owner of Encore Executive Coaching in North Kingstown. Her work involves helping individuals and firms determine the right road in gaining traction toward workable solutions. Her years in corporate America, at Fortune 100 companies, have given her the backstories involving the internal workings of management machinations. Mary has seen and experienced first-hand what works and what doesn’t. She can support the career professional who is stuck in their job or the company that wants to encourage teams in growth and achieve an improved bottom line.
She has spoken extensively at numerous conferences and workshops about today’s workplace and its many complex issues. Some of her favorite topics include gender equality, the “glass ceiling” and uniting women together, rather than undermining each other. She has also written many articles on these and other workplace-related topics.
For more details about Mary and her services, please contact her directly at
mary@encoreexecutivecoaching.com or call her at 401-742-1965.
You may purchase O’Sullivan’s book on www.Amazon.com.
Devereux MA/RI staff appointed to Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology board
Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health Massachusetts and Rhode Island Director of Clinical Services Ashley Warhol, Psy.D.. and Coordinator of Diagnostic Services and Clinical Training
Rachel Schein, Psy.D., HSP, were recently appointed to the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology’s (SCCAP) Acute, Intensive and Residential Service (AIRS) executive board. SCCAP is a division of the American Psychological Association.
AIRS, a special interest group within SCCAP, is dedicated to the promotion of policy, practice, research, training, consultation and leadership related to the psychological assessment and treatment of individuals in acute, intensive and residential behavioral health settings.
Warhol was named co-chair of the AIRS executive board’s practice committee, which provides a forum for members to exchange ideas about clinical practices and respond to real-time challenges, such as mask-wearing compliance. Schein was appointed secretary of the board and is responsible for assisting with communications and other tasks. Warhol and Schein were selected to serve on the board as a result of their 10-plus years of behavioral healthcare experience.
“I am thrilled and honored to be appointed to the AIRS executive board,” said Warhol. “For the past decade, I have worked in residential care settings and, over time, I have learned about the challenges related to providing support and interventions that are unique to these settings. I am excited to share my experiences, observations and ideas with other clinicians, researchers, educators and administrators as we strive to improve the quality of care for the individuals and families we serve.”
Improving acute, intensive and residential services
AIRS develops, implements, measures and disseminates treatments and knowledge to improve the delivery of psychological services to youth and adults in acute, intensive and residential treatment settings. Specifically, AIRS aims to:
- Educate others about acute and intensive treatment settings
- Promote awareness of the services offered in these settings, and across levels of care
- Implement evidence-based assessments and treatments
- Support research related to the psychological assessment and treatment of youth
- Develop models of service delivery
- Define best practices for use
- Disseminate information about the psychological assessment and treatment of youth
“Being on the AIRS executive board is a fantastic opportunity,” Schein noted. “At Devereux, we are committed to providing innovative and evidence-based trauma-focused care to youth and adults with emotional, behavioral and cognitive differences. I am excited to discuss the great work we are doing with my fellow board members and learn about other trends and advancements in the field of behavioral healthcare.”
Learn more about Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health.
