Major expansion at McCrossan hopes to ‘spur success’ for boys in need

Most of the boys who live at McCrossan Boys Ranch come here because of circumstances outside their control.

“They’re sent here because of nothing they’ve done,” said Christy Menning, director of development. “It’s abuse, abandonment, neglect, parents are incarcerated. People think of McCrossan as a home for troubled kids, really naughty youth.”

In reality, only 10 percent are referred through the South Dakota Department of Corrections, and those are mostly kids with drug and alcohol-related offenses who also are provided chemical dependency counseling at McCrossan.

Over the course of a year, up to 200 at-risk boys and young men are served by McCrossan. They all live on the 110-acre campus in northwest Sioux Falls. And while the cottages there can accommodate a licensed capacity of 72 kids, the school most of them attend on-site was built to hold only about 40.

“We don’t send kids to public school, which was common at McCrossan 20 years ago,” Menning said. “Right now, they all go to school here. And we have a number who have graduated and live at McCrossan. They can go into the workforce, into higher education or into the military.”

To enhance the ranch’s capacity for teaching and extracurriculars, McCrossan is kicking off a $3 million “Spur Success” fundraising campaign.

It includes multiple additions to the school, “basically expanding every single classroom on campus,” Menning said. “We’re taking out a lot of walls and adding a big addition.”

That includes a new science lab – the campus has never had a lab – and an art room with sinks, as well as room for hands-on career and technical education.

“We have one class where kids can get dual credit at Southeast Tech through construction trades, so we have a lot of kids interested in that, and we hoping to expand,” Menning said. “We just put up a greenhouse, and I think we’ll have dual credit in horticulture and technology.”

Other additions include a large, open area for indoor events and additional room for staff offices and meeting and break room space.

Outdoors, an athletic complex will include a 400-meter, eight-lane rubberized track and a recreational field for soccer and other sports. This will allow the McCrossan Wranglers to host meets and events.

For some kids there, “it’s the first time they’ve ever been on a sports team,” Menning said, adding the school’s cross-country team recently qualified for state competition.

The McCrossan experience

McCrossan is licensed to serve boys age 9 through 20, including many “who maybe haven’t gone to school in two or three years,” Menning said. “They just haven’t gone. So they are literally so far behind it’s a tough job to get kids caught up, and no one wants to be a 15-year-old in a class of 12-year-olds.”

While the campus was founded 67 years ago and primarily served the Sioux Falls area, it’s now seeing more kids coming from rural districts.

“We’re seeing more public school referrals that ever before,” Menning said. “We average one call a day.”

As kids graduate – and there are graduations every other month – others can be admitted. However, “there’s such a lack of funding,” Menning said. “We get service fees through the government, but that only covers 75 percent of the cost of care, just to keep the staff here and the lights on, so we have to fundraise 25 percent, which is over $1 million a year to keep things going.”

That also doesn’t count the extras that define the McCrossan experience. There are 40 horses used in equine therapy because “our founder knew the healing properties of horses out here,” Menning said.

“I get to deal with a lot of alumni who have been here 20, 30 years ago, and they can all tell you the name of their favorite staff and their favorite horse. It works very well with kids coming through DSS (Department of Social Services) because they don’t trust adults. They’ve been let down, hurt, abused, so if they can build trust with an animal and transfer it to people, that’s one of the main goals of the therapy program. And you have to see it for yourself to believe it.”

There’s also a newer herd of cattle, supporting vet technician programs at Southeast Tech, along with sheep, goats, a llama, donkeys, and “we share a lot of those with the community and do a lot of petting zoos and parades, and we have a 4-H Club, and the kids do a lot of showing horses,” Menning said.

There’s also a chapel on campus and cultural diversity programs, especially for Native American kids.

“Sioux Falls has really supported the ranch, and we’re grateful for that because they see the good,” Menning said. “Our goal is to help more kids.”

What’s next

The Spur Success campaign officially kicks off  at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 2. It’s part of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce appeals campaign, which will end April 1.

Most of the projects are expected to take six to nine months, and the school will stay open throughout construction with kids learning in temporary facilities.