Alabama Power volunteers transform Mustangs and Heroes property into haven for veterans

Horses are majestic creatures.

Their beauty, their strength, their grace are remarkable. Their innate ability to flee danger, their resilience in taking on challenges and the work in front of them.

Horses are in many ways what we hope to be.

Bill Schwenk is well aware of this truth.

The founder and president of Extended Hearts Foundation started its Mustangs and Heroes program after seeing what time spent with a horse did for him.

After seeing a mustang during a trip to Nevada with his wife, Schwenk’s wheels were turning.

“As she puts it, we had a mustang by the time we got home,” he said.

When they got that first mustang, they had to spend time with it every day to build up some trust.

“After about a month, I looked at my wife and said, ‘Man, I get more out of being with that mustang than I do my therapist at times.’ So, I got another mustang,” Schwenk said.

That therapist (and the horses) helps Schwenk, an Army veteran, deal with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) developed during his service.

Schwenk left the military during the pandemic and was struggling to find a job while also struggling with PTSD.

He ended up starting a food truck with his Ranger battalion buddy and then bought a catering company.

Veterans groups started approaching them to provide food for veterans events and even for funerals.

Schwenk said he had a problem charging veterans for food and even charging a veteran for a funeral when his mother had died.

“I started the foundation so I could provide food for those people,” he said. “One Thanksgiving we fed over 560 first responders who were working on Thanksgiving.”

That would lead Extended Hearts to support other veteran causes.

After things were going well for Schwenk – his company, his job, enough money – Schwenk ended up losing his company and his job. He ended up asking God what was happening.

“The Lord just kind of put it on my heart and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a job for you, man. I’ve got something for you,’” Schwenk said. “This is the first time I’ve talked to God in probably five to seven years. I knew how to talk the talk and I knew how to love people, but I wasn’t talking to God at all. And I didn’t have a relationship with him.”

It’s been a personal journey for Schwenk but one that is building a ministry for fellow veterans to have their own journey to wholeness.

“With Mustangs and Heroes, I just wanted to give other veterans a community to walk with when they’re transitioning and when they’re struggling,” Schwenk said. “The horses are an avenue to get them here, but they all end up loving them.”

The challenges haven’t ended. Earlier this year, when heavy rains washed out a road to the property, Mustangs and Heroes reached out to the Alabama Power Foundation for help.

Rod Cater, a Community Relations manager with Alabama Power, responded to Schwenk, letting him know that because the charity was so young, it did not qualify for a grant. However, Cater believed in the work Schwenk was doing and advocated for it being a community service project for Alabama Power.

Alabama Power’s Southern Division Eastern Operations – which includes the Auburn/Dadeville/Opelika areas – selected Mustangs and Heroes as its big project.

Cater said Alabama Power crews from Auburn, the Lake Martin/Dadeville area and the Valley area worked along with Alabama Power Service Organization. They spent several days last month digging holes, emplacing posts, cutting up framing and siding for fences and installing them on the property. In all, more than 1,200 feet of fencing was installed along with the framing for new stalls and other work. A makeshift cross made out of poles stands at the entrance.

But Cater said the most impressive thing is what takes place on the property.

“It’s available for veterans in the area that have a complex PTSD, which just means they’ve had two or more traumas in their life,” he said. “It’s a place for them to come out and be with the animals to find a place of purpose and of hope. It’s very welcoming. It’s just a good place for them to come and reconnect and kind of get their feet back on the ground.”

Watching the work take place around him, Schwenk teared up.

“That’s what God’s willing to do, man; what God is willing to abundantly give to the people who trust him,” Schwenk said.

Alabama Power line supervisors offered to cut up broken utility poles to make posts. Schwenk and his business partner bought some other posts. Like a biblical miracle, the posts sort of multiplied.

“We thought we had 50 poles coming and I think we’ve got 200 in the ground here today. We’ve got enough posts to do all of the fencing on the entire property now,” Schwenk said in amazement. “That’s just how God operates when we finally trust him and give it to him.”

Schwenk would love to see the 26-acre ranch become a haven for veterans, a place for Bible study and outdoor worship or any number of things.

“But if I’m being honest, what God wants is that one person who needs to hear and see his love,” he said. “I think that’s all he’s worried about.”

As a military man, Schwenk said he recognizes the service project being done by local lineworkers and volunteers comes from a spirit that can be traced to the top.

“I just can’t thank the (Alabama Power) leadership enough for having the vision of being a part of Alabama and giving back to that community,” he said. “If the leadership doesn’t instill that in the company, this never happens. Then, if the people at the mid-level don’t understand that and grab on to it, this doesn’t happen.”

Pausing again to watch what was being accomplished around him, Schwenk again became emotional.

“Can I say, ‘Thank you!’ enough? How do you thank people for that?”