As the first Nature Quest program comes to a close at Surprise Farm Retreat Center near Ramona, organizers say the teen participants experienced benefits from spending time outdoors.
The program at the 17-acre retreat center demonstrated to about 16 teens from San Diego how people are a part of nature, said Ute Jamrozy, executive director of Surprise Farm.
“It’s good for them to get a glimpse of that idea,” Jamrozy said. “Hopefully, they realize that nature does bring them peace and they will try to seek out nature closer to home during stressful times. Maybe they’ll decide to go camping sometime, who knows?”
Teens 16 and older spent the first Saturday of the past eight months engaged in nature-based exercises such as gardening at Surprise Farm. They traveled from Youth Empowerment, a separate program in City Heights that helps challenged youths navigate the legal juvenile system, Jamrozy said.
“They were fabulous youths,” she said. “They were really delightful to have at the retreat center.”
Nature Quest was funded with a $75,000 grant from the Prebys Foundation’s Nature and Healing grant initiative. The grant paid for the program’s directors who led the activities, farming-related costs, and transportation for the teens to visit Ramona, Jamrozy said. The one-hour transportation each way from City Heights was a big part of the expense, she added.
During the eight retreats, the teens spent part of the day farming at a garden near Surprise Farm’s entrance.
Courtesy Surprise Farm Retreat Center
Nature Quest participants spent their monthly visit to Surprise Farm Retreat Center gardening and engaging in other nature-based activities such as hiking and camping. (Courtesy Surprise Farm Retreat Center)
Jamrozy said it was a good experience for the teens to experience growing fruits and vegetables throughout the year. They planted seeds in the winter, tended to the plants in the spring and summer, and then harvested some of the produce within the last few months, she said.
“They …went through the whole process to help them understand how nature works throughout the year and the seasons and saw what is involved,” she said. “During the summer months they could see the resilience of the plants and feel resilience of themselves when it was 95 degrees in August.”
Volunteers contributed to the program. Among them were the owners of Kit Fox Outfitters, an outdoor recreation store in Ramona, who taught lessons about safety outdoors.
The Macdonalds have taught a similar course for the San Diego River Conservancy’s watershed program. The Nature Quest lesson was geared more toward teens though, they said.
The lesson Colin Macdonald taught on June 7 involved trail safety lessons that focused on day hikes in San Diego’s backcountry. He said he explained how to avoid heat- and cold-related injuries, what to do if stranded outdoors and how to improvise with creating a shelter.
“We discussed preparing for the trip, having the proper equipment and letting people know where we were going,” he said.
Courtesy Surprise Farm Retreat Center
Kit Fox Outfitters co-own Colin Macdonald, center, led teens through an outdoor safety class during one of the Nature Quest activities. (Courtesy Surprise Farm Retreat Center)
The training is important for teens because they don’t often have early exposure to the outdoors and the backcountry can be a dangerous place, he said. And helping teens with decision-making and providing useful knowledge helps them stay safe.
“Plus it gets more people outdoors responsibly by being realistic with risks and removing the fear of the unknown,” Macdonald added.
He said the compensation he received for teaching the class allowed him to pay for some of the class’s equipment and to give the students shelter supplies and signaling tools. The kit included a large bag, space blanket, mirror and whistle packaged with a user’s guide.
“The benefits are immediate in being able to make good decisions before stepping on the trail and practicing risk mitigation,” he said, noting that the students would be prepared to protect themselves and others from the environment.
Ramona photographer Roy Toft also gave a presentation on “Wild Ramona,” which is the title of his book with photos of local wildlife such as coyotes and mountain lions.
“That gave (the teens) a good idea of the wild outdoors that they were surrounded by,” Jamrozy said. “It was good for the kids and youths to see what the wildlife in Ramona looks like, which they don’t see in City Heights.”
Along with digging for quartz crystals in Surprise Farm’s own gem mine containing tourmaline and garnet stones, the teens also conducted a tea ceremony.
The ceremony involved gathering native plants and making tea from them, then sharing the hot beverage with a tea-tasting. The educational experience also taught the teens about Native American traditions such as the meaning of “grandfather fire” and other indigenous belief systems, Jamrozy said.
“It was beautiful,” she said.
The teens had unique experiences they wouldn’t ordinarily find at home, such as two overnight camping retreats where they hiked at night and slept in tents.
They relaxed and learned to trust the outdoors as a safe place, she said. It was rewarding to see their transition from hesitation to enjoying the outdoors, she added.
“The emphasis of this program is on nature and healing and we definitely felt that the teens became more relaxed,” she said. “But a lot of the impact may come in years in the future when they think about their past experiences.”
Surprise Farm Retreat Center, about five miles outside Ramona on Old Julian Trail off Old Julian Highway, is seeking donations and grants to continue offering another Nature Quest program with other teens starting in February.
Sometime this November, Surprise Farm will host a celebration dinner with the first set of Nature Quest teens to recognize them for completing the program. One of the highlights will be a slideshow of the activities they participated in these past eight months.
“We hope to continue the program and hope to expand it to Ramona’s disadvantaged youth,” Jamrozy said. “We’ll see if we can raise funds for that.”