By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Get ready for a stomping good time at the Circle 9 Ranch on Sunday, May 7, as some of New England’s most thrilling country acts, an acclaimed children’s entertainer and a local country radio personality raise the roof at the third annual For Kids’ Sake event.

The day will benefit Goffstown’s UpReach Therapeutic Riding Center, a nonprofit education program for challenged children and adults using horsecentered therapies.

Most of the entertainers featured at this year’s event are clients of Rowan Wildfire Enterprises, the country music booking and promotions company that hosts the annual For Kids’ Sake events.

The performers were all delighted to contribute their talents to such a cause, said Becky Saad, president of Rowan Wildfire Enterprises.

“You ask these bands to do anything for kids, and they’re all for it,” Saad said.

Bands featured at the event will include Stampede, a group from Massachusetts Saad described as “high-energy country,” and whose Web site hails their “Driving beats, edgy vocals and a song list comprised of unique twists on old favorites, original tunes made for dancin’, and covers showcasing all that’s best and fun about country music and its closest cousins – new and old.”

Also taking the stage will be Country Felix, who won Band of the Year from North American Country Music Awards International 2005, and has won several New Hampshire Country Music Association awards as well.

The Jonathan Scott Band, winner of a NACMA Horizon Award for male vocal, will also perform at For Kids’ Sake. The band will play courtesy of Urban Express Productions from Jaffrey, and Saad said a performance by this rising star is not to be missed.

“I saw him perform before, and he just blew me away,” Saad said.

Craig Kendall, a favorite of New England country fans, will sit in as a guest performer with Country Felix. The day will also include children’s entertainment from Simplicity the Clown, and the host will be WOKQ’s Mark Ericson from the Morning Waking Crew.

Rowan Wildfire Enterprises has hosted For Kids’ Sake events twice before, with proceeds previously going toward the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that works to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Saad said she decided to make UpReach the benefactor of this year’s For Kids’ Sake event because she finds the work it does so important to the lives of its young riders.

Saad recalls walking into the UpReach riding arena once to see a teenager circling the grounds on a horse. When he had finished, the youth proudly asked her, “Did you see me?”

The boy’s mother later told Saad that was the first time he had ever spoken to a stranger.

“UpReach is addictive. Such wonderful things can happen there,” Saad said.

Karen Kersting, executive director of UpReach, said the center provides therapy to 84 riders who come to ride the center’s 15 horses on a weekly basis.

“In a nutshell, through the use of the horse, UpReach provides therapeutic programs for children and adults with disabilities,” Kersting said.

“For someone in a wheelchair, riding the horse allows them to use the muscles that humans use in walking. It lets the riders work on their balance and counterbalance; it helps them mentally and physically” she said.

For more information about UpReach Therapeutic Riding Center, visit www.upreachtrc.org.

For Kids’ Sake ’06 will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 7, and is open to people of all ages. Tickets cost $10 (free admission for children under 12) and can be purchased by contacting Saad at 497-4785 or by calling UpReach directly at 497-2343.

The Circle 9 Ranch is located on Windymere Drive off Route 28 in Epsom.