The People and Animal Learning Services organization is nearly done rebuilding, after sustaining extensive damage from the tornado last May. 

The organization on the west side of town provides equine-assisted learning programs and riding lessons for children, adults and veterans, serving 100-200 people a week. It lost most of its buildings, including a 30,000-square-foot indoor arena, to a tornado last May. There were no human or horse injuries.   

Executive Director Christine Herring said since the tornado, the group has been able to continue some services by repurposing a small storage barn as an indoor facility. The rebuilding includes an outdoor learning pavilion and a new barn facility with quarantine space for horses. It will upgrade the sensory trail and include new features in the bigger indoor arena, including classroom space and counseling rooms.  

“We will have more space in the arena dedicated to our (horse) programming and our adaptive riding,” she said. “We will be able to have both going on at the same time, so essentially doubling the amount of clients that we can serve.”  

Read more: Bloomington equine facility rebuilding after tornado

About 90 percent of the construction is complete, with finishing work still going on in the office and classroom spaces.  

“Its focus is on accessibility for all of our clients, improved space for our classes and for our staff,” she said. “We have better, bigger office space, and we have a designated area for our equine-assisted learning programming.” 

The main barn has new features. 

“The old building didn't have very good ventilation,” she said. “The building is actually two feet taller, and each of the stalls have ventilation, have a sliding window, so that helps increase ventilation, and we also have a large fan.” 

It cost nearly $1.4 million to rebuild the main barn; insurance covered most of that cost, and the rest came from community support. Herring hopes construction will be completed by mid-June. 

“We know how much our clients depend on these services,” she said. “In some cases, they are life changing, and so one month after the event, we were back in the arena on some capacity, serving the clients that we could, so we know it impacts quality of life. We know that it brings joy and happiness to the people we serve, and the community has shown that in their support after the disaster. So, we just hope to continue growing.”