Whetstone Boys Ranch

06/01/2026

🎶🇺🇸 BIG thanks to First Bank – West Plains for helping make this year’s Fourth of July Concert at Pine Meadows possible! 🇺🇸🎶

We are grateful for Community First for being a generous contributing sponsor of this patriotic evening featuring the incredible Ha Ha Tonka.

Local partnerships like this matter. They help us do more than host a concert - they help us reach more hearts and minds, strengthen our community, and instill hope for the future.

Proceeds from this event support the ministry of Whetstone Boys Ranch and our mission of sharpening the character of young men.

Thank you, Community First Bank, for believing in what we do and for standing beside us as we work to help boys and families find healing, growth, and purpose.

Come celebrate with us at Pine Meadows this Fourth of July, enjoy an unforgettable night of music with Ha Ha Tonka, and support a cause that changes lives.

🎟️ Tickets are on sale now! Use the link below to reserve your spot today.

https://events.whetstoneboysranch.com/july4th?fbclid=IwVERDUASJphFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeiJrd1QAgZzgkEyKzB0y2nTPL5joEOBshmRqFUgCsbDegsRejH_EX0m2p7Xg_aem_Ui61aEDXtr -u1wJ6kWawRMQ

05/29/2026

Beale Street is the kind of experience that broadens a young man’s mind and gives him new ways to see himself, others, and the world God made.

For 13 years, we’ve been bringing boys and staff to Memphis - not just to get off campus, but to step into a wider world. Music. History. Culture. Food. Conversation.

This year gave us great weather, great food, great tunes, and a lot of good miles together.

Trips like this are enrichment, yes, but they are also relationship.

Boys and staff share tables, walk streets, hear stories, listen to music, and make memories that stick. Years later, many of our former students still talk about trips like this as some of their fondest memories from Whetstone.

That matters.

Whetstone is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many of these guys. It is school, structure, counseling, work, faith, adventure, and community all braided together into one long, patient process of growth. Sometimes the most important lessons happen in a classroom. Sometimes they happen over ribs in Memphis with music in the air.

Huge thanks to the staff who worked hard to plan, drive, supervise, feed, guide, and make the whole thing happen. It takes a lot to pull off a trip like this.

But it’s worth it!

Learn more about life, education, and growth at Whetstone:
https://whetstoneboysranch.com/boys-boarding-school/
https://whetstoneboysranch.com/school-for-troubled-teens/
https://whetstoneboysranch.com/about-whetstone-academy/

05/21/2026

Sharpening our bodies. 💪
Sharpening our minds. 🧠
Sharpening our faith. 🙏

At Whetstone, we believe growth takes work—sometimes sweaty work, hard conversations, and people willing to walk beside you.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
— Proverbs 27:17

We work with boys and families seeking structure, healing, mentorship, and Christ-centered guidance.

Learn more:

https://whetstoneboysranch.com/

What helped shape you most growing up?

05/19/2026

This weekend was Men’s Weekend at Whetstone Boys Ranch. It is one of two weekends each year when fathers, mentors, pastors, coaches, grandfathers, and friends step away from their busy lives and step fully into the lives of their boys.

A whole lot of healing happens in moments that don’t look dramatic at all.

A ride in a canoe.
A shared meal.
A difficult conversation finally spoken out loud.
A father staying present instead of checking out.
A mentor saying, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Thank you to every man who came and gave your time, attention, patience, wisdom, and presence. Thank you for choosing relationship over convenience.

This is the real reason Whetstone exists.

Not just behavior management.
Not just rules and consequences.
But reconciliation.
Restoration.
Helping families heal.

Special thanks to the Olsen family for feeding everybody so graciously all weekend long; to Tami Duncan for jumping in and helping serve behind the scenes; to Rob and Boston Duncan for leading sessions, conversations, devotions, and reflections with honesty, humility, and encouragement; and to Dylan Tucker for coordinating reservations, events, speakers, transportation, communication, and all the unseen dirty work behind the scenes to make the weekend happen.

There were a lot of moving (and floating!) parts, and it takes a team of people to make it happen successfully.

We'll do it all again this fall.

05/14/2026

A lot of boys are anxious, worried, and scared when they first get here. Who can blame them? Some of our boys decided to help put together a video welcoming future residents to our ranch to help give them an idea about what they felt like when they first came here, and what they've learned during their time here. Here's what one young man had to say:

“It’s a community. It’s an actual community. It’s a group of people that are coming together, spending time together, building relationships… Staff and residents here, we’re pretty much like a big family… This place is pretty amazing; you have no clue.”

Hearing those words shook me to my core. We're so proud of these young men for taking the time to share their words and experiences in order to help people who they may never meet.

05/07/2026

BIG thanks to Joey at Right off the Bat in West Plains for donating these cardboard classics for the boys to dig through. This equals many evenings of wholesome/screen-free entertainment. Just like the good old days. ⚽️🏀🏈⚾️ Go visit his shop in the square! Warning: You’ll probably find something you can’t live without.😀

05/05/2026

So this is the last installment of WBR FAQ’s. (That’s a lot of letters.) We hope that these 4 episodes prove useful to anyone with questions about what we do, how we do it, and why. It would really help us if you could pass them along to someone you know - whether that’s a family that needs help, a potential employee, or someone looking to get involved as a volunteer or donor. Everyone knows someone who is affected by the problems we address here everyday, and together, we can make a difference.

Below are the Spotify and Apple links to this most recent episode.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6VpGChLigDDALorCTTYJag?si=39b23b7ef1234d2c

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faqs-part-4/id1613788844?i=1000764152744

04/30/2026

Moving on up! This is our latest resident to level up from our Foundry House to our Forge House. It ain't easy to level up to the Forge. You've got to have good grades, put in a lot of community service hours, and consistently demonstrate the critical character traits of Honesty and Kindness.

But this teen has risen to the challenge and is moving on to the next phase of our program. We're so proud of this young man's growth, and excited to see what is still to come!

04/30/2026