CBS Evening News Special:
Signature shot of Roswell
April Amadon, Record Staff Writer
Roswell Daily Record

CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker watched as the camera man focused on the white chapel at Roswell’s Assurance Home early Wednesday morning.

“That’ll be our signature establishing shot,” Whitaker said. “That chapel sure is pretty.”

Whitaker and a team from the “CBS Evening News with Bob Schieffer” visited the Assurance Home Tuesday and Wednesday, filming a segment for the national news show about the home’s Mustang Project.

The Assurance Home, a United Way Agency, provides a safe environment for abused, neglected and homeless children. Through the Mustang Project, kids staying at the home are given the opportunity to help train mustang horses to become service animals for the handicapped.

The project was featured in an Albuquerque Journal article on March 7. Sally Garner, a “CBS Evening News with Bob Schieffer” producer based in New York, saw the article and contacted Ron Malone, executive director for the Assurance Home, to do the segment.

“Of course, we were thrilled,” Malone said. “It’s wonderful when new people hear about our program. We’re very fortunate.”

The last time the home got national coverage was in 2002, when the Mustang Program was featured in Western Horseman Magazine.

“We got calls from people all over the world,” Malone said. “I never expected that to happen.”

While Whitaker and his team didn’t get the chance to see all of Roswell, he said he’d covered “every inch” of the Assurance Home.

“It’s really such a nice, homey place,” he said. “There are good homes all over the country like this, but I’m not sure any of them have a project like this.”

The scope of the program and its end results have been impressive, he added.
“The children help to rescue and heal the horses, and in the process the horses help to rescue and heal the children.”

Whitaker met and interviewed all 13 of the children currently living at the home. He said their stories touched him.

“Strong, I think, is the word that comes to mind first,” he said. “Many of them have been through a lot. Being young, they have this resilience, this way to bounce back.

This place has given them the opportunity to bounce back. ...You just see in them and hear in them all they are doing to turn their lives around.”

Malone said the kids were very excited to meet Whitaker, who has been the CBS lead reporter on many national stories, such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the 2000 presidential campaign and most major news stories in the western U.S. for the past nine years.

“The kids were very excited. They all think they’re movie stars now,” Malone said.

“They were asking about every famous person he’s ever known.”

The producers and camera crew were pleasant and respectful, he added.

“They’ve been very, very kind,” he said. “Very respectful to the kids, and very aware to make sure all the kids felt important.”

Since opening its doors in 1979, the Assurance Home has grown from a one-building installation to a farmhouse surrounded by a chapel, library, art facility, ropes course and barns and stables. More than 1,000 children have passed through the home so far.

The Mustang Project began five years ago. Malone explained that because the Bureau of Land Management has to thin herds of wild mustangs, many horses end up in a “prison” in Colorado, where they are saddle-broken. The Mustang Project brings some of these horses to the Assurance Home, where the kids teach them to be gentle and to respond to humans.

“It’s a tremendous benefit for the horses, and it’s a huge benefit for our children,” Malone said. “These horses will go to benefit handicapped people for the rest of their lives.”

The children, who can be withdrawn after coming from violent and abusive homes, come alive when they’re with the horses, he said.

“They learn trust,” he said. “Having control of such a large animal gives them confidence. It helps them in a lot of ways.”

Malone said the program would not work without Lee Kyser, who is in charge of coordinating it. Kyser is a former principal of Roswell High School.

“He’s a real blessing for our program,” Malone said. “He’s good with the horses and he’s good with the kids.”

So far, 12 horses have been placed after going through the program. The program currently has two horses at the home, Hercules and J.C., who were named by the kids.

“We hope to get another horse soon,” Malone said.

The segment will air on “CBS Evening News with Bob Shieffer” sometime within the next two weeks, Whitaker said. For now, he is headed back to Los Angeles to work with producers on editing the final piece.

“When you see how quickly the piece goes by, you’ll go, ‘They spent the whole day?’” he said.

For more information about the Assurance Home, call 575-624-1780.

The video can be watched here: HERE