Local Weddington resident Harry Swimmer has just been named a top 10 global finalist for CNN’s Hero of The Year Award (you can vote for him here).
20 years ago Harry met a girl with cerebral palsy and offered her a free ride on one of his horses.
“I wondered what might happen if I put her on a horse,” commented Swimmer. “She just lit up like a candle. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do.”
Soon after that initial encounter, he and his wife decided to turn their lucrative for-profit horse farm into a nonprofit getaway for children with special needs:
Since 1994, the Swimmer’s farm has hosted over 700 children with special needs, if you’d like to volunteer, you can visit the Misty Meadows Mitey Riders website to find out more.
The Swimmer family also hosts the globally televised DrumSTRONG event on the same Weddington farm each year to raise money to fight cancer.
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