Ramona Farm Gets $75K for Youth Retreat, Nature Camp

Foundation grant will allow Surprise Farm to hold 9-month series

The Surprise Farm Retreat Center has received a $75,000 grant from The Conrad Prebys Foundation for its new Nature Quest program, which will give inner-city youths an opportunity to connect with nature and expand their horizons.

About 16 teens ages 15 to 18 years old have enrolled in the nine-month retreat series that will begin in February and feature daylong nature, art and meditative retreats, and two overnight stays at the farm in Ramona, about a mile from Old Julian Highway. The same groups will participate throughout the year.

Surprise Farm co-founder Donald Eulert said Surprise Farm has collaborated with nature schools and camping groups in the past to hold their own retreat activities, but this is the first time they will organize their own.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to put into practice the mission of the retreat center,” Eulert said.

Surprise Farm is partnering with the nonprofit Youth Empowerment, located in City Heights. The program has a mission to empower individuals to break cycles of poverty, gang involvement and incarceration, fostering pathways to success and self-sufficiency, officials said.

At the camps, the teens will plant and cultivate their own herb and vegetable gardens, Eulert said. Then they will have the responsibility to weed and maintain their gardens and will harvest the produce and celebrate together with a Thanksgiving-style meal, Eulert said.

“They’ll be given the tools not just for the plants, but for themselves and their personal growth,” he said. “It’s a development of skill sets and personal identity.”

The center offers educational programs in a camp setting. They can discuss topics such as meaning and purpose in workshops and by gathering around a fire pit, Eulert said.

Seminars, discussion groups and meditation activities also are held at the center, which opened a few years after Eulert purchased the 17-acre parcel in 2017. A house that had been on the site was destroyed 10 years earlier in the Witch Creek fire.

Ute Jamrozy, co-founder of the farm, joined Eulert, Ramona resident and art therapist Ana Ruth Castillo and the late Angelina Sanchez in crafting the concept for the new Nature Quest program.

Sanchez was involved in the program until she was killed in a trailer fire in Ramona on Nov. 16. A landscape designer, the 40-year-old was expected to be the leader of the program.

“As irreplaceable as she was, we are very lucky that Talia Morales and Wes Chester … will be bringing their passion to co-leadership of the program,” Jamrozy said.

Surprise Farm was on the lookout for grant opportunities when Castillo discovered San Diego-based Prebys Foundation’s Healing Through the Arts and Nature Initiative, according to Eulert. The foundation awarded $5.2 million in grants to 59 nonprofits across San Diego, according to the organization’s website.

“A growing number of health care providers, researchers and community advocates recognize the importance of not only treating illness, but also promoting mental, physical and social wellness through non-clinical experiences in the arts, culture and nature,” the website said. “These grants will empower programs that serve youths, veterans, justice-impacted individuals and historically underserved communities.”

Youth Empowerment teens participating in the Nature Quest retreat will engage in an “outdoor experiential education that activates personal growth and well-being,” organizers said.

Jamrozy said the Nature Quest program is designed to give teens a sense of place, culture and heritage by exposing them to nature on the farm property that was once occupied by the Kumeyaay tribe.

In addition to the gardening activities, teens will have events such as “circleup gatherings” — sometimes around a fire pit — where they can share and reflect on their experiences during the day.

Organizers say a few of the daylong programs can be extended to overnight campouts to encourage the teens to engage with each other and bond.

“This will also allow for evening activities, including sharing music and stories around the fire, educational star-gazing, listening to and appreciating the night-life nature sounds, and sleeping in an environment free from noise and light pollution,” Jamrozy said. “This activity may foster awareness of place in the universe — perhaps the experience of awe.”

About 21 other organizations have received a Healing Through Arts and Nature grant and they all plan to meet once a month to discuss the benefits of the programs for youths, she said.

Currently, the retreat center offers programs such as meditation, excavating for gems and hands-on art lessons, which can help facilitate an understanding that humans are not only a part of nature but humans are nature, Jamrozy said.

These programs can be used in the Nature Quest program. One example is that teens can learn to use meditation practices to relax at home, she said.

“This program will also be a lot of fun for the youth to just be out in nature,” she said. “For the Surprise Farm Retreat Center, it will be an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of our programs and, hopefully, create plenty of excitement to support all of our services to the community.”

By Julie Gallant | January 29, 2025 | San Diego Union-Tribune

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