by Bish Curtin

Danny Baird, now 28 years old and a resident of San Antonio, graduated from the Youth Ranch and Ingram Tom Moore High School in 1989. As a senior he wrote, "The Ranch has helped me through many, many problems. In my time here I have learned how to live with others, maintain in high school and to respect myself."

These seemingly ordinary and everyday realities were mountains for Danny. He was a good person, and he had never been in trouble with the law. He had just had a difficult home life. He also had cerebral palsy.

During the three and a half years Danny lived at the ranch, he grew into a wonderful young man who learned to challenge himself and feel good about his successes. He learned that he could physically do things that he had believed for years were beyond his capability. He noted with a certain amount of pride that the campus gazebo he helped build back in 1987 was still standing.

A defining moment in Danny’s life came when he was part of a Youth Ranch summer trip in 1986. We went to Colorado and climbed the 12,000 foot mountain called Elk’s Tooth. At base camp, the staff expressed doubts that Danny could make the climb to the summit, a full-day’s journey that included roping up to climb cliff faces and steep glacier slopes, not to mention navigating through large rocks and deep crevices!

The staff decided to put the issue to Danny, and he expressed determination to go. He joined a team with Director Gary Priour and his wife Carol, five other youths, and two professional mountain climbers. Leaving before dark at 3:00 a.m., the team began the long and arduous climb that would take until sunset the next day. The team moved together, sometimes slowly, sometimes waiting on one or the other of the team to rest or nurse a blister.

Carol remembers the approach to the summit. "The team chose Danny to lead us across a narrow ridge to the final assent. I’ll never forget watching from behind as he led us, all roped together, to the top, and then helped each climber take the last step up.

In the daily journal that was kept on the trip, Danny wrote the following: "In the past 15 days I’ve gotten to know myself better. There was something to learn about my limits. Most people, including myself wouldn’t have bet a dollar on my being able to climb a mountain. Well, I’ve proved myself and a few others wrong."

"It was an amazing feat for someone like me with CP." He said, twelve years later, during a recent visit to the Ranch. "I walk better now than I did back then and I think that hike in the mountains helped."

After Danny graduated from high school, he went to Texas A & M Engineering Extension Service and studied electronics and learned how to repair TV’s and VCRs. What he does now is work on computers, "and I taught myself almost everything I know about them."

Currently he lives in San Antonio and works for Convention Decorating Service Inc. It is a company that decorates for the Rodeo, RV shows, conventions, trade shows and the like. They do shows nationwide and it’s up to Danny to keep all their computers up and running. He also does free-lance work, getting referrals through word of mouth.

He is looking forward to new horizons. He either wants to work for a larger company with more computers or start up his own computer repair business.

As a senior in 1989 Danny gave this advice to the residents. "I’ve spent a lot of time here and surprisingly enough, I’ll miss it. People realize when they get here that this is the finest place in the state. I will say on an ending note that if you get a chance to live here, don’t blow it."