Spring Lake Ranch completes $4.5MM renovation and seeks funding for additional projects

Spring Lake Ranch completes $4.5MM renovation and seeks funding for additional projects

Final year of Capital Campaign for facility updates and program expansion seeks additional $2.8MM to reach $18MM goal.

[Shrewsbury, VT] In 1932, Wayne and Elizabeth Sarcka opened Spring Lake Ranch (SLR) Therapeutic Community, a residential treatment facility for adults experiencing mental health challenges. Ninety-three years later, significant renovations were completed on the original farmhouse—known as Elizabeth House—thanks to early donors to SLR’s $18MM Capital Campaign.
“We’re expanding and updating our infrastructure to provide the best care,” says Executive Director Rachel Stark, “while also staying true to the deep-rooted origins of what the Sarckas created. We’re at a critical moment and we’ve got to expand to meet the growing need for care.”
According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ most recent survey, nearly one-in-four Americans is experiencing mental illness. At the same time, the country is seeing a shortage of beds and a focus on short-term treatment modalities.
Stark says the Ranch offers something different. Stays average seven-to-nine months, though residents often stay for more than a year. SLR’s approach combines robust psychiatric care with a distinctive agricultural work program. Each day is structured around farming, gardening, woodworking, cooking, crafting, and forestry. Residents choose a specialty and work side-by-side with their clinicians and other support staff to accomplish their goals.
“We’ve been doing long-term, community-centered care for nearly one hundred years,” says Stark, “and we’ve never had a capital campaign of this size. Now is the time.”
Elizabeth House renovations concluded this winter. Among other improvements, the project doubled the square footage of the existing building, adding new apartments, an expanded dining space, a new commercial kitchen, and a teaching kitchen where residents will practice cooking skills using produce from the garden.
Construction is ongoing for the new Banks Transitional Living Program at Spring Lake Ranch—a micro-neighborhood in the heart of campus that will provide a vital step for residents transitioning from the core Ranch Program toward independent living.
Three additional projects are still looking for funding—a renovation of the gymnasium, Farm Program barn upgrades, and a sustainability initiative to address both the changing climate and SLR’s long-term self-sufficiency.
“With just one year left to raise the remaining three million, we’re asking for everyone’s help to cross the finish line,” says Rose McCracken, Development & Communications Director and Chair of the Capital Campaign Committee. “This is not just about the future of the Ranch. It’s also about creating a world where people experiencing mental illness and substance use can thrive.”
“Mental health touches everyone,” says Stark. “When our residents leave the Ranch, they are returning to families, friends, workplaces, schools, and communities. Reaching our goal in this campaign will help us send them off to their next steps as the best version of themselves—and that benefits all of us.”
Donations can be made at springlakeranch.org/capitalcampaign.
For questions, contact Rose McCracken, Development & Communications Director: rosem@springlakeranch.org, (802) 772-8342.