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Hometown HeroJ l :>:-• jMMBMSRM I' 1 R||MBH Jpf J - ; 9h ■ ■r W&&~ fl Kfl IRPI ./ HjJl Jfi| ~ *3? ~r. r OTip '-V. - a ... t|M Michael McMeel, 57, remembers one of the first places where he gained self-confi dence, learned respect and experienced magic. It was on the back of a horse in rural Colorado. So in 1992, after widespread televised riots tore apart south-central Los Angeles, where the former rock musician was directing TV commercials, McMeel conceived an alternative to gangs and violence by giv- ■ ing inner-city kids 1 that same positive J experience. J “I watched L.A. burn from an office where I was work- J ing,” says the for- J mer drummer for L the 1970 s group * Three Dog Night. “I felt a need to do something to help.” Seeing the movie City Slickers sparked an idea uw^vjlj^Hy*/ ,w-/ /rittit&fcßiki JfHHH * *.*\*v. r '%'. J* i •'; ■).' rw ■' MT '9 MLJ| y sm^^t ■"*-£ m .fvj ~ • .'‘ »-,*■ f .x Founder Michael McMeel for Inner City Slickers, a ranch where “the street kids” could meet “the cowboys.” “I saw it as a place where we could instill Old West values of perseverance, responsibility, cour age and hard work,” McMeel says. He asked a few friends to act as wranglers for troubled inner-city kids referred by communi ty leaders. Soon he was offering day and weekend camps on his 10-acre ranch in Agua Duke, Calif., 50 miles north of Los Ange la les, where kids saddled up v, Ins horses and learned to ijll.-'Mr trust and respect the animals, themselves ■KjgJi and each other. Ssßr, Now, almost 15 years later, he esu- mates nearlv 10,000 iBBr 9 kids, ages 10 to 18, have attended his program. EoaNjjj which he is launching nationwide from his new . home base in New Taze- well, Tenn. (pop. 2,871), plus scouting for addi tional sites in other states. For the Inner City Slickers, lessons in hard work and responsibility often begin at the end of a shovel, where they start by cleaning horse stables. Then they learn to conquer their fear of riding an animal that’s more than twice their size. McMeel has seen tough, tattooed teenagers terrified of get ting onto a horse. But soon they are grinning ear to ear as they twirl lariats, run relay races and ride trails—all on horseback. “We purposely set up situations which make them afraid so they can’t act cool and aloof, and they forget about race and color,” McMeel says. “Then we support them though their fear, which builds their self-confidence.” He recalls one girl who was terrified of rid ing his homemade mechanical bull, a barrel, attached by springs to four posts, that can bounce to 15 feet in the air when wranglers pull on the control ropes. “I told her, ‘You just have to sit on it and we’ll take however long it takes,’" McMeel recalls. “Finally we could move it a foot up and down. Page 4 •www.americanprofile.com At Ihner City Slickers, kids from areas ■get ,to expgrierice “the “"Wvw City