Morning Star Boys’ Ranch is a residential treatment facility that provides services to as many as 30 boys at any given time divided between its two locations: Murphy House and St. John Bosco House.

The primary recipients of the organization’s services are boys, ages 10 to 18, who are having significant problems getting along in their families, schools, and communities. Some of the boys have been orphaned, abandoned, neglected, or abused.

Morning Star’s main goal is to reunite the boy with his family or another relative, but in some cases, a parent is incarcerated or denied access to the boy by Child Protective Services or the boy has no one who can care for him. In those instances, the boy will remain at the Ranch until he turns age 18 or finishes high school.

Morning Star, which employs 35 people and relies on the help of 300 volunteers, does everything possible to help residents complete high school, get established in a job, and find an apartment.

The facility’s impact on the lives of the boys who have spent time there—1,273 in all during its nearly 50 years of service—has prompted judges to select Morning Star Boys’ Ranch as the 2005 Business Excellence Award winner for a non-profit.

“The Ranch’s director, Father Joseph Weitensteiner, known to the boys as ‘Father Joe,’ encourages staff to help every boy find his own uniqueness, something he can ‘hang his hat on.’ If it’s not horses or sports, then maybe its science or math, or maybe he’s got an artistic side,” Agora judges say. “The possibilities of these youth are sought, found, and realized at the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch.”

Murphy House, which currently is home to 18 boys, is nestled in the foothills of Browne’s Mountain—a setting that allows the boys access to the Ranch’s horses, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, and chickens.

Morning Star’s equine program sets it apart from other treatment facilities in the area. All residents participate in the equine-assisted psychotherapy program, which allows boys to experience the challenge and success of managing a 2,000-pound horse, and in doing so, learn to manage their own behavior. Those boys who exhibit good behavior can earn the privilege to participate in the Ranch’s equine program, which involves 12 weeks of book lessons, riding instruction, and overnight horseback camping trips in the summer.

When the boys who live at Murphy House reach age 15 ½, they can apply to move to the St. John Bosco House, a triplex on Spokane’s South Hill that can house up to six boys. At Bosco House, boys practice managing their own apartment, budget, menu planning, and grocery shopping.

Morning star soon hopes to launch a capital and endowment campaign to secure funding to construct a barn and a sheltered riding arena where boys can work with horses year-round; convert the Ranch’s farmland to pastureland and a hay crop to provide the boys with meaningful work, such as cutting and baling hay for the horses; and increase it financial capacity to support the expanded program.