While some kids are playing video games and others are attempting to finish the homework they procrastinated on, senior Elena Mazza spends her Wednesday afternoons volunteering at the Ride On Center for Kids.

ROCK is a therapeutic horseback riding place for kids and adults with disabilities. They also allow veterans to ride.

“It’s a place for people with physical and mental disabilities,” Mazza said. “If you have a physical disability, we have a therapy room as well, so you horseback ride, then you go to physical therapy. If you have a mental disability you can do the same thing. There’s not really a limit on what you can do at ROCK for the kids and the adults. It’s just wonderful because everyone that works there has such a caring and giving heart and they just want to help others. That is their goal every single day, and it’s just so wonderful.”

Mazza works as a side walker at the center, and walks alongside horses as instructors help kids. She has to memorize different holds they can do to keep the them on the horse and to keep them safe at all times. Though, her main priority is the kid and their safety, she also takes on other roles as a side walker.

“The kid that I work with on Wednesdays has a speech disorder and does not have full mental capacity,” Mazza said. “He rides HippoTherapy, which is where you can do physical therapy on the back of a horse, and still include occupational therapy and speech therapy at the same time. So we have him ride and tell him to make sentences using certain words. It tests our hearing too by the instructor saying ‘Can you give a sentence using this word?’ and she’ll show him the card and not me, and he will say a sentence, and usually he speaks really slow and his sentences will be very choppy, so sometimes we’ll have him sing it as if it were a song to help it flow better. Then I have to repeat what I heard and it helps him to understand ‘Oh, she heard that so I need to pronounce my words a certain way or this letter better.’”

Mazza’s interest in horses sparked when she was 5 after she had rode horseback for the first time. Her former nurse recommended she look into ROCK once she quit her nursing job and begin working at the center.

“She told my mom ‘I think Elena would really like this’,” Mazza said. “I checked it out and thought it was super cool, and I love it so much. She still works there and we’re super good friends.”

Not only is there the benefit of helping others, but plenty of learning opportunities and experiences.

“I’ve definitely grown more patient,” Mazza said. “In order to do anything with the kids and the adults you have to really kind of understand where they are coming from. I also get to hear stories from our veterans and it’s just fantastic.”

One of Mazza’s main goals is to make an impact on the kids she helps on a weekly basis.

“I hope to help them as much as I possibly can and as much as my abilities can help,” Mazza said. “I know for sure that everyone at ROCK is doing their utmost ability to help them because those people basically dedicate their entire life to helping people no matter what.”

From her love for horses to helping others, Mazza keeps in mind the reasons as to why she began volunteering at ROCK in the first place. Not only does it hold significant value in the hearts of the kids and adults, but in hers as well.

“It’s important to me because my brother has autism and I just got him riding at ROCK this past summer and he just absolutely enjoys it,” Mazza said. “He loves the fact that he can get away from all the troubles of life and just sit on the back of a horse and just worry about steering his horse and answering the questions the instructor is giving him. I feel like it does that for the other kids too. I like to watch people grow and help people as much as I possibly can and that’s what I’ve wanted to do my entire life really is just to help people and I’m glad to be doing just that now.”