STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Meg Stamper found Swiftsure Ranch a healing place to decompress from the stress of college when her parents bought the horse ranch south of Bellevue.
Now, she’s back at the ranch as executive director of the therapeutic riding center, tasked with providing a myriad of kinds of healing to adults and children with physical, mental and emotional challenges.
“I remember coming home from college and feeling so relieved as I turned down the gravel road to the ranch,” said Stamper. “Horses have such a therapeutic effect, and I think it’s so interesting to employ horses in therapy, whether you’re working with people with PTSD, or handicapped people or at-risk kids.”
Stamper was introduced as the center’s new director Monday afternoon at the annual meeting of the Wood River Women’s Foundation. The organization of 300-plus members had awarded Swiftsure Ranch $25,000 to purchase four new horses.
She will start work Aug. 7.
“We are so grateful to find the likes of Meg—we have no qualms about our future under her,” said Swiftsure’s Board President Jeffra Syms. “Her family owned the ranch so she’s coming back to her roots. And the staff adores her. They were very definitive in what they were looking for in an executive director—someone with integrity who was collaborative with strong organizational skills, someone who would not be a dictator. And Meg fits all of that.”
Stamper grew up in Seattle where her father Kevin Stamper practiced law and her mother Colleen Stamper was a neurotoxicologist, studying the effects of chemicals such as serotonin on the brain.
Meg and her family spent much of their time in Sun Valley—Meg even spent her freshman year at Community School while competing on Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s alpine team.
Her parents purchased the former Calypso Ranch and renamed it Swiftsure after a sailboat race they’d just won. Meg learned to ride and compete there. And, in time, she organized large, multi-faceted events at the ranch, hiring vendors, entertainers and caterers and recruiting volunteers.
Meg got a Bachelor degree in environmental studies with a focus on economic policy at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Then, armed with an MBA from Columbia University, she spent the next 15 years designing and launching marketing campaigns, developing web-based enterprise software, helping start-ups and helping entrepreneurs create business plans from concept to funding.
She launched a successful catering company that catered private events, such as weddings, and corporate events.
“I tend towards comfort food. If I could have one meal for the rest of my life, it would be enchiladas,” she said.
She launched Propelle, a not-for-profit entity to help women grow their businesses and advance in politics. And she secured partnerships with companies like Albertson’s and the Dallas Cowboys for an App program that enables students to earn funding for their schools.
“I hope to bring that to Swiftsure, to create some consistent revenues so we don’t have to rely solely on the generosity of the community,” she said of the ranch, which offers free lessons to 120 people a week, while serving many more through Camp Rainbow Gold, the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind and other organizations.
“She’s a proactive innovator, eager to support the mission to advance equine-assisted therapy and expand the scope of Swiftsure’s donor base so the team can continue to change lives,” said Staffer Kate Nelson.
Stamper comes to the Wood River Valley from San Francisco. Her 15-year-old daughter Samantha is a guitar and piano player, a dancer and an actor with a penchant for musical theater.
Her 13-year-old son Kelly, a competitive swimmer, is looking forward to honing his skills on the area’s mountain bike trails.
“It’s just really neat for us to come back to my family’s former ranch and be a part of something that’s having such amazing positive effects on so many lives,” said Stamper.
For more information, visit www.swiftsureranch.org or call 208-578-9111.