GOFFSTOWN — Supporters of UpReach Therapeutic Riding Center gathered for its annual Diamonds and Denim benefit at the Manchester County Club this weekend and also celebrated the center's 20th anniversary.

Past and current clients, volunteers and community members attended the “cocktail party with a purpose” to raise funds for UpReach, which started with a borrowed horse and one volunteer in 1992.

“The energy in the room is full of thanksgiving,” said Barbara Miles, director of development at UpReach, who described the event as a night of discovery and making friends.

UpReach's mission is to improve the development, both physical and emotional, of challenged children and adults through progressive therapies, all revolving around the horse.

Those attending the event gave the non-profit a financial boost in its biggest fundraiser of the year.

Ticket sales alone brought in about $7,500, and roughly $35,000 worth of silent auction items were up for bid, which included a broad range of offerings from L.L. Bean clothing to gift baskets to trips to Myrtle Beach and Jackson Hole.

Many attendees expressed their gratitude to UpReach.

Deanna Sheldon attended the party with her high-school age son, Dean, who donated a watercolor painting for the silent auction.

“I'm here just to thank them,” Sheldon said. “If it weren't for his time at UpReach, I don't know if he'd be an artist today. … I totally believe in the therapy they provide.”

Sue Kannenberg, who escorted her client Barbie Piecuch to the party, began volunteering at UpReach 12 years ago and is now an ambassador for the center.

“An UpReach ambassador is someone who praises and speaks publicly about UpReach,” she said. “My original draw was the love of horses, but now it's the love of my clients.”

Piecuch said she loves to take care of the horses, and Kannenberg said Piecuch tells everyone she knows that she rides at UpReach.

Cathy McDonald's son has been a client at UpReach for 10 years, since the age of two.

“He needed the physical therapy at that age, and why not make it in a fun environment?” she said. “We were lucky to have found it.”

Both McDonald and her husband, Alex, have become actively involved with the center; she is the treasurer, and he is responsible for the center's website.

Cathy McDonald said that despite financial ups and downs over the past two decades, the challenges have been worth it, and that people truly enjoy supporting the center's endeavors.

“People like to help people, and you get to see the results, see clients getting better and stronger — who would want to be a part of that?” she said.

Miles said the center would not be able to function without its volunteers, now numbering about 120.

Randy Pierce was honored at the event as epitomizing the essence of UpReach. Pierce, who is blind, has climbed all of the mountains in New Hampshire's Presidential Range, and echoed Miles' sentiments about the importance of volunteers.

“Volunteers — they're not paid because they're worthless, they're praised because they're priceless,” he said.