Jefferson Award recipient Bobbie Boroughs receives chance for national award

JACKSON, Tenn. — Community heroes were honored at the Jefferson Awards Wednesday afternoon, and one woman is receiving a special honor.

“I’m still trying to process it, and take it in, and it was not what I expected at all,” founder of The Sheltering Tree Ranch Bobbie Boroughs said.

For Bobbie Boroughs, the Sheltering Tree Ranch started out as a simple idea. The school tutors kids and adults with special needs and helps them using therapeutic horseback riding.

“We want them to feel like they have a place, and they have a plan, and it gives them hope, and it gives them a place to be in the community,” Boroughs said.

Thanks to their work, Boroughs and 11 others were recognized by the Jefferson Award Foundation at a luncheon Wednesday afternoon.

As part of the Jefferson Awards, sponsored by WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News and Leaders Credit Union, Boroughs was selected to go to Washington D.C. to be the representative for a National Jefferson Award.

President of the ranch and husband to Bobbie, David Boroughs, was happy for his wife.

“She deserves it. She is the greatest woman that a person could ever be married to, and the kids that we have–she’s a part of their life,” David said.

Bobbie Boroughs will be part of 52 nominees from across the country. Five will win the National Jefferson Award.

For the Boroughs family, it’s been an incredible journey.

“We didn’t get in this for recognition, and we have work to do and a job to do and that’s why we do what we do, is to help people,” Boroughs said.

You can see Bobbie’s full story, as well as the stories of other winners, on the Jefferson Awards tab on our website, www.wbbjtv.com.