College-bound Ventuleth has what it takes to succeed

April Ventuleth strides confidently through the small barn. As she does, lambs and goats look her way and begin to bleat.

“They’re hungry, I feed them,” she says, quickly measuring out a small can of food and pouring it into a trough. A lamb bumps against her.

“This is my lamb, Sherlock. I have to walk him and he doesn’t like it.” She touches his soft face with its big brown eyes. He nuzzles her hand.

She talks to the lamb, soothing it, then reaches into a worn wooden box and pulls out a green halter and leash.

April slips the halter over Sherlock’s velvet ears and tugs him into a gentle walk. “Come on, Sherlock, let’s go.”

April talks candidly about the years before Wayne and Shannon Ventuleth became Mom and Dad, but that part of her life is over, she says. Her brown eyes twinkle as she speaks in the rapid cadence of a teenager anxious to live life to the fullest. She’ll be 18 next month and in August off to Humboldt State University to study to become a wild animal vet.

“I want to work with wolves,” she says, a fitting category of animals for a girl with the canny resilience of a wild animal.

Today, 17-year-old April shows no evidence of the horrific events that marked the first 11 years of her life. Few other people know how tough those early years were, except for Wayne and Shannon, who adopted her into the fold of their family and discovered in April a girl with tremendous potential.

That she chose a university near the sea, on the verge of ancient redwoods in Northern California, where small classes celebrate learning with hands-on experience, suits April perfectly. She’s a “hands on” person. For four years, she’s raised lambs in FFA at Fallbrook Union High School, nurturing them, loving them, discovering the reward of what unconditional care means to a living thing. Like the love and nurturing she receives from Shannon and Wayne, a discovery in itself for her.

On June 4, April received a $20,000 scholarship from the Sean Salisbury Foundation, the first ever awarded to a Fallbrook student, and she’s thrilled. It seems she takes the honor in stride, but her attitude is deceiving.

She’s put the excitement aside for a week or so, because Sherlock is her last lamb and she’ll be taking him to the San Diego County Fair soon. He’s a market lamb – short-lived but a healthy handful and a commitment she reckoned with firmly from the time he came into her care.

“All my lambs have been market lambs,” she says. Sherman, Sheridan, Sherly and Sherlock – the first named for “Sherman the Sheep,” a book Shannon read to April when she first became part of the Ventuleth family.

“You have to exercise lambs because their leg muscles need to develop right.” She stops to feel Sherlock’s front legs, his back legs. Her touch is practiced. She explains how the lamb must brace to place its legs just so for show, how its weight has to be 120 to 130 pounds. He’s a Hampshire Cross, she says, about 125.

April inspects Sherlock carefully, then a wide bright smile of satisfaction lights up her face. Self-confidence propels her forward in every way: managing her lambs, four years of a busy high school life, the cheerleading team and volunteer service to the community, where she logged in 750 hours.

It wasn’t always that way. When she came to the Ventuleth family, the first of three sisters to their two biological sons, she didn’t like anyone or anything; she was wary of everyone. April thought she was afraid of animals, and they her, until one day when a small dog was placed in her arms for safekeeping.

“From then on it was dogs, dogs, dogs,” Shannon says. Then dogs and cats, and lambs, then ultimately wolves, which April vows to work with.

April’s happy demeanor now, the one that she finally discovered within herself, is learned, says Shannon. She’s made the jump from someone who didn’t feel wanted to someone who knows what she wants: herself.

Shannon Ventuleth is clearly proud of her daughter. She and Wayne take in stride their roles as April’s mom and dad. But their efforts are heroic.

Wayne’s a little embarrassed when he says, “We have this calling to do this, and I’ve always had this notion that I had to help children.”

He pauses, then says with the conviction of a man who knows right from wrong, “And, we’re good at it.” Now one of April’s younger sisters is showing a lamb at the fair, too.

The Sean Salisbury Foundation scholarship isn’t the only one April received. Her first year of college she will receive $13,500, which will include the first $5,000 contribution from the foundation. The remainder of that scholarship is paid out over the next three years.

“At first she didn’t want to apply for scholarships,” says Shannon, “but we advocated for her and all our kids, with teachers and organizations that help them, because it’s the right thing to do. Now every door is open to her, and what surprises me is that it doesn’t scare her.”

That she earned the scholarships didn’t surprise April at all. “I worked my butt off,” she says. The big scholarship, the $20,000, and the fact that the foundation awarded it to one student, surprised its board of directors, though.

Jimmy Wilson, one of the three board members of the Sean Salisbury Foundation, says they received 200 applications from students in high schools all over the county. But when they opened April’s letter, the board member who read it got goose bumps. It was then the board knew April would be a recipient.

The foundation usually awards eight or so scholarships of $5,000 each year, but Jimmy says April’s letter was so compelling, they decided to give out fewer this time and make her the recipient of a larger amount.

“She simply rose above the others,” he says. “She captivated our group.”

The foundation’s mission is: “It’s all about the kids.” It rewards those who face adversity and make their life better.

“We look for kids we can help make a difference,” Jimmy says.

Once the fair ends, taking Sherlock with it, April will have time to be excited about summer and college. She moves in to her dorm August 14, leaving the safety of her family and friends for a new adventure in discovery, now armed with self-confidence and the love and devotion of a family who knows she will succeed in every way possible. What an amazing transformation, this girl.