An Open Letter from “Farmer Lolly”

💔 Our World Is Hurting

We’re in the middle of a mental-health crisis — everywhere I look, I see a world that’s hurting.

Violence, anxiety, depression, and loneliness — especially among kids — are at an all-time high. Families are stretched thin, faith is fading in too many homes, and children are growing up in a culture where empathy and genuine connection are slowly being lost.

💖 Why I Felt Lead to Try and Make a Difference

I’ve seen how easily compassion can disappear in a world that rarely slows down long enough to feel. In today’s economy, it’s rare when both parents aren’t forced to work long hours, and screens end up raising kids instead of families sharing quality time — causing emotional turmoil and leaving generations starved for real connection.

I couldn’t just stand by wishing things were different. I prayed hard, then felt led to build something different — using my sweet farm animals to help heal hearts. Knowing how deeply they’ve touched mine, I knew I was on to something… and that God would approve.

What started as a simple hope for healing soon grew into something much bigger.

🐑 The Dream: Valais Hideaway™

Valais Hideaway™ is more than a farm — it’s a movement of hearts returning to what matters. A place where caring takes root again, where kindness is powerful, forgiveness is brave, and faith still matters.

Here, families can slow down, breathe fresh air, and remember what it feels like to truly connect — with each other, with animals, and with the quiet beauty of God’s creation.

📚 How It Works

Valais Hideaway is a living storybook that turns the Golden Rule from words on a page into experiences that shape lives. Through our Golden Rule Books™ (a choose-your-path storybook series), the Farmkins Fun!™ companion app, and hands-on farm adventures, kids learn compassion, self-awareness, and responsibility in ways that feel like play.

It’s a complete ecosystem of social-emotional learning (SEL), where stories and good choices come to life through real-world rewards — like meeting the real-life Farmkins, the very characters from the books — all reinforcing what truly matters:
👉 empathy
👉 courage
👉 connection

In addition to stand-alone books, we’re launching The Golden Rule Book Club — a monthly subscription that brings the storyverse to life with books, stickers, activities, coloring books, wall art, and more.

VIP members (subscribers to both the monthly Book Club and companion app) can even be featured as a character in an upcoming storybook — a special way to be woven into the world they’re helping build. They’ll also receive exclusive limited-edition collectible Farmkins™ plushies twice a year.

🌾 What We’re Building

Read & Play to Earn & Stay at Valais Hideaway™

Together, these experiences form a full circle of learning, play, and connection — bringing the Golden Rule to life beyond the page and into the hearts and homes of families everywhere.

📚 The Golden Rule Books™ (READ) — hardcover interactive choose-your-path children’s stories that teach kindness, empathy, and faith through choices that shape the story.

📱 The Farmkins Fun!™ App (PLAY & EARN) — additional CYP stories, quests, and mini games where kids earn Farmkins Points for kind choices and redeem them for real-world rewards like meeting the animals they’ve read about. Unlike most apps, it’s built for intentional use — not endless scrolling or mindless gaming. Parents have full control over screen time, and every interaction encourages positive choices that carry into real life.

🐑 Valais Hideaway™ (STAY) — a real working farm and agritourism destination where families stay, learn, and meet the very animals from the stories. It’s where imagination becomes experience, and kindness takes root in the real world.

👉 Next Steps

I’ve already invested over $90,000 of my own funds to get this labor of love off the ground. The next step in bringing this dream to life is completing construction at Valais Hideaway — finishing fencing for the animals, adding sheds for storage, hay, and a small gift shop, and preparing guest cabins for Sheepovers™ (built-in cabin stalls for ).

We’ll also fund our first print run of Valais Hideaway’s Golden Rule Books: Frodo & Friends Series, the beta release of the Farmkins Fun!™ app, the first Golden Rule Book Club Box contents (stickers, bookmarks, wall art, activity pages, coloring books), and the next run of collectible Farmkins™ plushies.

Once this phase is complete, we can open our doors to families, schools, and community groups ready for something good — something grounded — something hopeful.

But hope alone isn’t enough — it takes hands, hearts, and help to make it real.
Every dollar you give helps open our doors to families, schools, and children who need a safe, joyful place to reconnect.

You’re not just funding lumber or feed.
You’re helping build hope.

💪 Why It Matters

This mission isn’t just about children — it’s about parents, too. Families today are exhausted, stretched thin, and worried about the world their kids are inheriting. Too often, children are being raised in survival mode — missing the emotional closeness and spiritual grounding that help them thrive.

I see it, I feel it, and I understand it — because I’ve lived it.

That’s why everything I create — from our books to our farm experiences — supports parents as much as it teaches children. The goal is to give families heartfelt tools that nurture empathy, kindness, and faith during the most impressionable years of a child’s life.

We’re living through a time when mental-health struggles and school violence are rising at alarming rates. Children are growing up feeling unseen, unheard, and unsure of who they are. I believe that loss of empathy — and the fading of faith — are at the root of this crisis.

We may not be able to fix everything overnight, but we can start planting the seeds of change — one story, one act of kindness, and one child at a time.

But those seeds can only grow if we give them a place to take root.

💫 Be Part of the Story

If your heart has ever whispered, “Someone should do something,” this is your chance to be that someone.

Please visit https://givebutter.com/FARMKINS
to learn more or give today. Every gift, no matter the size, helps open our doors and bring this dream to life.

Together, we can help raise a generation that feels deeply, loves freely, and chooses what’s right — even when it’s hard.

Thank you for believing that kindness still has the power to change lives.

With gratitude and hope,
Lolly Winne Clough
(“Farmer Lolly”)
Valais Hideaway™ — Where Storybook Adventures Come to Life, One Good Choice at a Time
Norwich, NY

P.S. If we don’t teach our children empathy now, the world will teach them indifference later. Let’s choose better while we still can.

🌱💖Growing Kinder Hearts & Minds — One Good Choice at a Time

By Valais Hideaway LLC

🌱💖Growing Kinder Hearts & Minds — One Good Choice at a Time

Help build Valais Hideaway™, a storybook farm where kindness, faith, and family connection take root again.

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