Restoration Ranch offers respite for first responders and their families

When Kathryn Severns Avery’s husband, Chris, was killed in a car accident by a group of suspects fleeing a robbery on December 4, 2020, she didn’t know what had happened until officers arrived at her house that evening.

Chris, who had been on his way to get groceries, was pronounced dead at the scene; Lakewood Police, bystanders and other first responders were the only ones around him when he died.

Avery says the gratitude she felt for those first responders sparked her relationship with what she calls the “traumatic event life cycle” – encompassing every person, from 911 dispatchers to medical personnel to police officers, who are responsible for responding to traumatic events.

“After Chris was killed, I made a conscious choice,” Avery said. “I can’t tackle the judicial system, that will only make me old and bitter. But what can I do?”

For her, the answer was getting to know the people who were with Chris that day, and as she learned more about first responders and the grim realities of their day-to-day jobs, she says she grew alarmed by the apparent lack of resources available to them. While there are some mental health initiatives for first responders in Colorado that have met with success and proven popular, many agencies, like the Denver Police Department continue to suffer from low morale and high turnover rates.

Avery saw this and dedicated herself to helping.

“I went to Stan Hilkey, who’s the [Colorado] Director of Public Safety, and I said, ‘I want to tackle recruiting and retention and make Colorado number one in the nation using health and wellness as a recruiting and retention tool,’” Avery said. “He was like, ‘Kathryn, if you can figure out the secret sauce of that, go for it.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going for it.’”

That secret sauce took the form of her Restoration Ranch, a 40-acre ranch in Jefferson County, built solely to provide a reprieve for first responders and their families, with priority spots for those involved in crisis situations. She started the nonprofit organization and purchased the ranch using all of her savings and an inheritance from her father, who passed away four months after Chris.

But it’s not an Airbnb. Since August 2022, Avery has hosted more than 100 first responders and their families at the ranch for free. The main lodge includes two bedrooms, a gourmet kitchen with a fully-stocked fridge, and a sunlit great-room for gathering. If her guests prefer not to cook, she offers menus of home-cooked meals inspired by the dinners she used to make with Chris. There’s also plenty of outdoor space for hiking in the summer, lounging and snowshoeing in the winter.

“You got almost 40 acres to roam around and do whatever you want,” Avery said. “If you want us to cook for you, we’ll cook for you, so we take that stressor off. Chris and I loved to cook. We’re doing all of our recipes.”

Among the challenges of operating the ranch, which she runs with one other staff member, Avery faces apprehension when talking about Restoration Ranch to prospective guests.

“I don’t blame them for their skepticism,” Avery said. “By the grace of God, I was given the wherewithal to buy this place and start this. We’re doing it because otherwise, it won’t happen. But for a private citizen to step up and to do something like this, I think there’s a little head-scratching.”