Birch Creek Service Ranch

Civic and Social OrganizationsUtah, United States2-10 Employees

Birch Creek Service Ranch is a certified 501(c)3 public nonprofit organization operating programs on an 80-acre ranch near Spring City, UT. The purpose of the ranch is to provide rural, character-building experiences to participants through ranch work, community service, creative projects, and challenging outdoor activities.

This is not a reform camp or treatment program. It is a camp for good kids who have not had serious behavioral problems in the past. Each session of our summer service ranch,  provides opportunities for 30 participants (ages 12-15), 15 seasonal staff, as well as volunteers, to engage with each other in daily community service projects, and challenging, creative, and educational activities. As we help an elderly couple with yard work or stack hay into a farmer's shed, we learn to value community, relationships and hard work. The community we serve, in return, benefits from our help and the interaction with the young participants. 

WE WORK HARD and WE PLAY HARD in the outdoors, and we discuss the process with all involved throughout the experience. We focus on principled living, demonstrating integrity, respecting nature, being mindful of the needs of the community—how our actions and decisions can have positive or negative consequences for others, and how facing and overcoming challenges, especially when we are helping others, can help us to feel better about ourselves and our own capabilities and goals.

Since 2002 we have nurtured traditions and focused our program to maximize positive outcomes for participants. We have tried to build on the tradition of the Bennion Teton Boys Ranch, started by Lowell Bennion in 1963, in Teton Valley, Idaho. The Bennion Ranch operated for over 40 years before the nonprofit dissolved in 2005. We rely on generations of participants in the Bennion Ranch tradition to take ownership in our program and support BCSR, so we can continue to provide a similar, rural, character-building experience to young people.

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