Trailblazers Deirdre & Don Imus
Every summer Deirdre, Wyatt, and Don Imus host groups of kids with cancer and other illnesses at their 4,000-acre Imus Ranch in New Mexico. Doing good works is something Don and Deirdre always had in common: Before they met, Don had hosted an annual radiothon to benefit the Tomorrows Children's Fund and the CJ Foundation for SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Deirdre was committed to the environment see Rules for a Healthy Home , a passion that eventually led her to start the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology—which replaces toxic cleaning products with green ones in hospitals, homes, and businesses across the country.
During June, July, and August groups of 10 kids stay for nine days at a time and spend the time doing chores and learning the basics of handling horses. The young ranchers might gather eggs, groom horses, mend a fence, or move stones. "They have a blast," says Erika Leeuwenburgh, who coordinates the child-life program at the Imus Ranch. "They work, but it's very fulfilling, and there are art projects every night and lots of raiding the refrigerator. It's a community experience in an incredibly beautiful, wide-open space that most of the kids are in awe of."
The roll-up-your-sleeves aspect of the ranch seems to be deeply beneficial. "This is not a place where kids get a pat on the head and are told 'everythings okay,'" says Jurist. "They are responding to the realness of it." Deirdre confirms this and adds: "Don and I run a very tight ship. We're very businesslike with these kids." (But after dinner and chores, Don will play hide-and-go-seek.)
Doing good works is something Don and Deirdre always had in common: Before they met, Don had hosted an annual radiothon to benefit the Tomorrows Childrens Fund and the CJ Foundation for SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Deirdre was committed to the environment, a passion that eventually led her to start the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology—which replaces toxic cleaning products with green ones in hospitals, homes, and businesses across the country.
Clockwise from top left: one of the longhorn cows on the vegetarian ranch; a roping lesson; riding with Charly and Gibson, the ranch's dogs; harvesting veggies in the greenhouse.
The idea for the Imus Ranch began to take shape in early 1998 after Don brought Deirdre out to the ranch in northern Arizona where he had grown up. Deirdre recalls: "My husband says, Those were the best days of my life. We were working hard, and we had all these chores to do every day. We had a tremendous sense of purpose and responsibility.'"
That sense of purpose, they thought, was in marked contrast to what they noticed about the kids they met during the radiothons, many of whom seemed to have low self-esteem and little  self-confidence. "I remember the day it came together," Deirdre writes of the ranch in her forthcoming cookbook, The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys , which will be in stores next month. "Don was in his office preparing for an interview. I was pregnant with Wyatt and working out on a treadmill. Suddenly, Don burst in, yelling, 'I've got it!' If you know Don, you know he's not the type to get terribly worked up over things."
The couple put up about $1.5 million of their own money for the land, and private and corporate sponsors joined in with $25 million. Listeners who gave $5,000 got their names etched in stone tablets in the foyer of the ranchs adobe hacienda, the jewel in an eco-friendly compound in which a barn, general store, and "saloon" are built of wood that's recycled or salvaged. The main house is insulated with bales of straw. "It's the most efficient way to save energy," notes Deirdre. "It's naturally fire-resistant, it doesn't allow air between the walls, and it's totally nontoxic."
The air in the hacienda is UV-filtered, eliminating 99 percent of germs, and the pool water is purified through solar-powered pods, drastically reducing the amount of chlorine needed. Playful features are as important to the design as technological advances: There's a dance hall with a jukebox and a pool table, for instance, and the general store is where the kids get outfitted in jeans, silver-buckled belts, boots, and cowboy hats. A medical infirmary was designed to look like a saloon; it has a genuine 1860s bar and swinging doors. Hospital rooms were "decorated to look like a bordello," Deirdre says, chuckling.
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