The Big Red Barn Retreat

The Big Red Barn Retreat (BRBR) is a non-profit in Blythewood, SC, designed to help our military members find peace and healing when they return to civilian life. They began operation in 2014 to honor the memory of Leon Irons, who served in the Navy on the USS Independence out of high school. When Leon passed away from cancer in 2009, his family purchased land and decided to open BRBR to honor Leon's deep love and respect for his country as well as the brave men and women who serve to protect it.

The BRBR sits on 75-acres of beautiful woods and is designed to offer therapeutic services to our service members, both active and veteran, and their immediate families suffering from military or combat-related stress issues in a non-clinical environment. The programs they offer include therapeutic yoga classes, equine-assisted psychotherapy, healing art workshops, peer-to-peer mentorship, and coffee groups that meet weekly, among many other programs. In addition to these programs, the BRBR property is home to over five miles of trails, a fishing pond, an outdoor pavilion with a fire pit, and a large vegetable garden.

Broadstreet met with the BRBR in the fall of 2019 to redesign their website and work to develop a digital marketing strategy to reach both the communities in need and the communities in a position to support their work. Through the generous donations of private citizens and grants such as the Dorothy Smith Foundation and The Cheerful Giver, the BRBR can offer these therapeutic services to Veterans and active-duty service members at little to no cost.

As BRBR expanded the services they offered, the expectations of their web presence grew significantly, causing them to look for support to craft a professional online presence. Broadstreet was chosen as that professional team willing to join in the cause, and we are excited to see their new site take off!

Due to existing partnerships and the ability to take donations online through PayPal, BRBR wanted to build their website with Squarespace, with which Broadstreet has experience. Our team worked with BRBR to curate content designed to get the best search engine optimization (SEO) for Squarespace. Making BRBR number one on Google is critical to ensure our military family members can easily find their services.

Ongoing support for BRBR looks like continued enhancements to the website as their programs change and grow and social media support and technical expertise to help expand their reach and grow in their mission to change lives.