About Freedom’s Purchase Ranch
Freedom’s Purchase Ranch is a social enterprise and self-sustaining community founded by Michael and Abbe Baird. Our mission: provide a replicable pathway to long-term independence for veterans, individuals experiencing homelessness, and anyone who needs a genuine second start.
7.53 acres are secured in Pound, Virginia. The land is deeded, fenced, and operational. Phase II construction is underway.
Our Guiding Values
Four principles drive everything we build:
- Sovereignty — Residents own their outcomes. Independence is the product, not dependency.
- Restoration — Land, body, and community heal as one system.
- Replication — Every structure, system, and protocol is documented to be rebuilt anywhere in America.
- Accountability — Social Return on Investment is currently 7.2:1. Every dollar tracked, every outcome measured.
The Story Behind Our Mission
The pandemic unraveled a lot for a lot of people. For Mike and Abbe Baird, it meant losing their home and spending months living in their RV, finding temporary ground at a horse camp in Indiana. That season of stripping-down brought clarity.
Mike’s friendship with Rich “Doc” Hendrzak — a battle-tested veteran carrying multiple combat tours, 100% disability, PTSD, and traumatic brain injuries — became the catalyst. Doc didn’t need charity. He needed a system: a place with the right environment, the right community, and the right tools to build forward on his own terms.
That conversation became Freedom’s Purchase Ranch.
Doc’s resilience — navigating a broken VA, rebuilding identity after service, finding purpose beyond the uniform — proved the founding premise: given the right conditions, people heal themselves. The Ranch is those conditions, built to scale and designed to replicate.
Where We Are Now
Phase I is complete. The land is ours. Phase II is active: Ridge Nexus hub, the first cottage, and a food forest are in progress. Nature Heals botanicals and the Ridge Collection apparel line fund the build — commerce, not charity.
SROI: 7.2:1. Every purchase is a brick.