An open house preview of Honor Ranch took place Thursday at its 3974 County Road 104 location, near Bangs.
Honor Ranch, sponsored by American Legion District 21, is a project for individuals to connect and socialize while engaging in various forms of arts and crafts, according to its mission statement. The goal of Honor Ranch is to provide a source of structure and belonging to all people in need, especially veterans and their families.
The first aspect of the ranch that will officially open in February is the arts and crafts therapy area. Plant and equine therapy will be additions in the future.
“The first portion of it, because there’s so much that we are working on, is with arts and crafts,” Wade said. “My wife is a trained art therapist, she worked with the Red Cross in Singapore, and she’s won awards at Stars of Texas.”
Christine Brisley-Wade is an artist of international renown who has been painting while developing and teaching creative art projects for over 30 years. During that time, she has traveled the world from Europe to Asia to America to Canada selling her works, while learning new and different types of art techniques and styles.
Sharing her art and artistic knowledge with the handicapped and disadvantaged while also supporting artistic programs in halfway houses and women’s prisons have provided her with a strong working knowledge of how to develop and present artistic programs for people of all ages and backgrounds.
A former Brownwood Art Association Artist of the Year, Brisley-Wade, a native of England, told those who attended the open house Thursday, “I’ve always worked in this type of field, but it was time for us to give back and do some things for people. What annoys me is seeing veterans out on the streets, getting nothing. I prayed about it, and the only thing I can do, and really know about, is art and people. That’s my life, so we started getting this idea together.”
Arts and crafts classes will be held the first and third Wednesday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Wednesday classes will be structure based. Then each Thursday of the month from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. will be a day of fellowship and arts and crafts development. Each participant will be able to work on their own efforts and at their own pace.
The current art studio on site can potentially hold 9-10 people per session.
Upcoming art activities include, but are not limited to:
Painting
- Watercolors/all subject matters
- Acrylics/impressionist and fine art
- Drawing
3D Painting
- Sculpture/plaster 3D painting
- Simple stained glass
- Mosaics/different mediums
- Collage
- Mixed media
- Abstract/all mediums
Art classes and materials will be free to all veterans in gratitude for their service and commitment to this country. All others need to pay a small fee of $10 per class session to cover all initially required materials.
Next on the agenda for the Honor Ranch is completing the Texas garden as well as the meditation garden. There are also rescue horses on site, and an orchard is planned for the future as well.
Wade reiterated, “We want to save a life, feed the hungry and provide a place of rescue,” adding that an average of 28 veterans nationwide take their own life daily, and including four in Brownwood area in 2025.
Honor Ranch is also welcoming all forms of assistance.
“There’s people willing to help,” Wade said. “The community seems to be very interested. We’re actually starting to work on the Texas garden. That’s a probably a month or two out, but if people wanted to right now they could help us build it, put the dirt in. One local garden company here gave us 84 cubic yards of top soil. We don’t have a website yet, either, and I’m not the greatest at creating one. If there’s anyone that wants to work with us to make a website, that would be great.”
For more information about Honor Ranch, contact 512-963-7032.
