O’Keefe Ranch needs help
Darren Handschuh - Aug 06, 2020 - Biz Releases

Photo: Instagram/historic_okeefe_ranch

O’Keefe Ranch has been operations more than 150 years.

It survived the Great Depression, two world wars and everything before and since, but a nasty little virus is putting tremendous financial strain on the historic ranch 10 minutes from Vernon on Highway 97.

The ranch not only opened much later than usual this year because of COVID-19, but it has had to limit tours and other activities to maintain social-distancing protocols.

In a normal year, 35 schools would visit the ranch, but for 2020 that number has dropped to zero.

Travel restrictions have all but stopped international visits as well.

While the number visitors has dropped dramatically – along with much-needed revenue – the ranch still has numerous animals to care for and heritage buildings to maintain, coronavirus or not.

To help keep the ranch afloat, a fundraising campaign has been launched.

Tim Gibson, with O’Keefe Ranch, said the Fill the Steer fundraiser has a goal of $250,000 that will offset the drastic decline in revenue.

“We need community support to keep going. I’m not going so sugar-coat it. The reality is we need help to keep going,” said Gibson. “We need community support to make it through to next spring.”

There are a variety of ways people can support the ranch and more information can be found on the O’Keefe website.

“We just launched it on Saturday and we’ve already seen a huge response, so I’m hopeful that support from the community, we can get through this,” he said.

Donations can be made online, in person or over the phone.


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