Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
A podcast about practices to promote healthy lives featuring experts, businesses, and clients: we gather to share our stories about success, failure, exploration, and so much more. Our subscription episodes feature some personal and vulnerable, real-life stories that are sensitive to some of the general public.
Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
From Volunteer Dreams To Sustainable Nonprofit: Building Gardens Of Hope That Truly Heal
A desert hillside turns brown each summer, but tucked inside it is a living stream, layered shade houses, and a nonprofit garden built to calm the nervous system. We walk you through how Gardens of Hope grew from a family project into a community resource where people heal by planting, pruning, and simply breathing near water. The message is simple and radical: nature works, and it belongs in our mental health toolkit.
We get candid about what it takes to keep that toolkit open. Nonprofits are businesses with bills, and relying on goodwill alone isn’t sustainable. You’ll hear lessons from years of volunteer organizing, the hard pivot toward grants and events, and why a stable website or small paid staff can multiply impact. Then we dive into the programs making a difference right now: county-funded ecotherapy sessions that pair garden tasks with coping tools, a Pathways for Adult Life Skills partnership that builds real-world job habits for special needs participants, and youth mentorship tracks that turn service hours into confidence and skills.
The garden itself is expanding with purpose. A registered monarch waystation greets visitors with host plants, nectar species, and self-guided learning, while a planned field of 2,000 lavender plants anchors sensory therapy and culinary use. We’re launching microgreens workshops—free for veterans, donation-based for others—so people leave with knowledge and a kit they can use at home. Cultural retreats and a traditional Temascal sweat offer deeper reset experiences, and farm-to-cup tea events will bring fresh herbs, simple food, and live music together under the trees. If you’re curious, local, or just ready for something restorative, there’s a path here for you.
Want to help this work reach more people? Visit thegardensofope.org to volunteer, donate, or explore upcoming programs. Share this episode with someone who needs a breath of green, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your support keeps the stream running and the gates open.
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Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbind. And uh today we're gonna talk a little bit more about Gardens of Hope. And for those of you who are just tuning in, uh Gardens of Hope is a two and a half acre botanical garden located in Southern California, Paris, Riverside County. And my wife and I have been running this since the beginning, uh almost three years ago. But we've been working this property for over 30 years, and it's a very unique spot. It's really people refer to it as an oasis in the desert. The surrounding landscape is uh hillsides, typical Southern California, dry, arid, um, you know, green in the winter and the spring, but as soon as summer comes along, it's just grassland and sagebrush, and maybe a few junipers, um, just brown as hell, fire hazard the whole deal. Um, we got a seasonal stream bed through the property, and uh we've developed it to where it flows year-round, and um it's really added uh an element to the landscape that is extremely unique and extremely healing and extremely beautiful. So uh over 30 years we planted hundreds of trees and um created different gardens, uh greenhouses, shade houses really more than greenhouses. And in 2023, in January, we launched a 501c3 called Gardens of Hope. And the idea of it is that these gardens are healing, and for over 30 years we've had people come and go, friends, family, uh, even people that through another nonprofit we were doing fundraisers that would come out, events, all kinds of things. And everybody would always have comments about you know how they felt better just by being there. And we had many, many people over the years that had suffered from depression, anxiety, uh, losses, grief, uh, addiction, um, every kind of stressor, and they just come sit out in the gardens for a little while or come out and help out even. And they felt better. And after going to a number of arboretums and botanical gardens and looking around at what was out there, I realized that this place has everything that you know another type of a garden might have, unique to this area, of course. But I never really saw a lot of opportunities for what we're talking about, the therapeutic horticulture. Ultimately, I learned of a group called the Horticultural Therapy Society, and they are an organization that has a program that you can, if you're a therapist or you know, you're there's certain qualifications, you can become certified to be a horticultural therapist, but that really wasn't what we were about. This is more about the gardens, not about you know, certifying a person to understand the principles of this. And the principles are really simple, you know. Um, there are places like Japan where you can go to a doctor for an ailment that might be aggravated by stress or maybe insomnia or some kind of an autoimmune situation, and the doctor will actually prescribe what they call a forest bath. And it's the idea is basically get out in nature, go outside and be among the trees and the water and and and all of that. And in Norway and and those Scandinavian areas where it's um you know dark in the wintertime for long periods of time, and depression and anxiety run pretty rampant. They they do the same thing, they prescribe you to go outside in the open air. And excuse me, there are cultures that really recognize the value of of this, and I just think it's so simple and so effective that why wouldn't you know we create a place where this was the focus? And so we did, and we got our 501c3 certification in I don't know, I think February 2023, and we launched really, you know, this is my wife and my labor of love, and you know, we have this property, so we we loaned it to the nonprofit. You know, people don't understand what a nonprofit is, they think somehow, you know, it's just this thing that gives you stuff, or maybe that you donate stuff too, you know. The one of the things, really the only reason why you would go through the trouble of being certified with the IRS as a 501c3 is because you're able to give a tax write-off for the value of any donation. So if somebody comes and donates money or um time that is specifically valued as a service or uh expertise, um equipment, um plants, items, anything that that has a value that can be assessed, we can actually give a receipt for the full value of that item, and the client can write it off on their taxes. So that's people don't realize it, but that's really the only reason why a nonprofit group would get a 501c3. And so in doing so, if you really think about it, every nonprofit, if you watch TV, listen to the radio, uh, even on the internet, any reference to a nonprofit is generally with a handout, meaning put something in my hand. So you go to the Red Cross or you see an ad for the Red Cross or any veterans organization or any even a church for the most part, they're always gonna say, please donate, you know, just$19 a month, and look at what you can do. You can help the elephants or you can help feed some starving kid, or you can, you know, save uh uh the ecology or or whatever. There's all these different things that a nonprofit does, but they're always asking for donations. And I ran a nonprofit called the Human Solution International for 15 years, and I thought, well, we're gonna be different, we're just gonna be volunteer and we're going to just help people, and everything we get in, we're gonna turn it around, and everybody's gonna just it's gonna be real kumbaya, and and it's such a great mission that everybody will want to help and and all of that. And for 15 years, essentially I carried it on my back, and it was through my own personal enthusiasm that I was able to get people to support and help. But in the end, when I got diagnosed with cancer a year ago, it crumbled to dust because I couldn't carry it on my back anymore. And I realized, you know, there's a reason why all these other nonprofits operate the way they do. And it's really simple. A nonprofit is a business, it's a type of business where um instead of selling a good and service a good or a service, as most standard businesses do, uh, they offer a service, or sometimes it's goods, but usually it's a service of some sort. And they make it possible through donations that people can support it, but that doesn't take away from the need of a business to operate. Uh, there are bills, there's you know, rent and utilities and staffing and and you know the cost of a website and and all this stuff. And you know, my original thought of you know, the whole kumbaya, people will see how great it is and they'll just want to help. It's true to a point, but there's such limitations to that. The reality is volunteers generally are not able to commit the kind of um time and level of service that'll keep a business running. And volunteers, you know, are good one weekend and then they can't show up the next weekend. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's you know, whenever somebody can donate their time, it's it's awesome. We love it. But the reality is every functional nonprofit has a staff, they pay for a website, they pay for their rent, their utilities, their advertising, whatever it is, you know, they get some donations, but generally they have some kind of funding. And sometimes it's things like grants or um, you know, government programs, sometimes it's private donations, sponsors, uh, fundraisers, you know, there's always the gala event. You know, you think about um the hospital, the foundation, the uh, you know, the Metropolitan Opera, for God's sake. There's a nonprofit there. Most museums are nonprofits, and they all have these gala events. And what's the point of it, really? Well, they raise money so they can operate. And people will come and they'll spend, you know,$200 a ticket, and they'll come to this event, and and they'll have some sort of entertainment and a nice fancy meal. Everybody gets to get up, dressed up in their black tie and their little red dress and whatever. And um that's how these organizations operate, but make no mistake about it, they're all businesses, and in many cases, uh, the administration, the the executive side of things, um, they're they make good good livings. You look at the you go into GuideStar or um any of the nonprofit directories, and they'll disclose the salary of the CEOs and and the higher end of the you know the the team, and you know, there's six, seven-figure salaries. So Gardens of Hope thus far is all volunteer, and we're we're working at raising ourselves up out of that because clearly there's a weakness there, and our ability to offer services is limited to the ability of our volunteers to manage these things. And, you know, as much as I would like to, you know, have all kinds of things for all kinds of people, I'm still battling cancer and trying to make a living and all of that. And so I I donate 30 to 40 hours a week to this nonprofit, but um, you know, I have to donate or not donate, I have to, I have to allocate elements of my time so that I can actually make a living and pay for all this stuff. That's just sort of some background um as an update. I really want to start doing more regular updates here on the podcast. I have more and more people um as a result of the podcast asking a lot of questions about you know how to get involved and how to, you know, where can I find the information? That's really the biggest issue. We have a website, and you know, we had such a nightmare with this website. And originally I had used a Wix site and managed it myself, and then we had a number of people that said, well, you know, that's only gonna be good for a period of time, and you need to upgrade. And and uh we had somebody that agreed to, you know, was a web host and a webmaster and knew how to do all this stuff and was gonna, you know, make this happen, but you know, it's gonna have some cost. So we ended up spending some money. I thought that was what it was gonna cost, but just like always, um, you know, I get hit with, well, it should cost this much, and I'm donating all this time, and you know, it's like this super, super expensive, valuable thing, and the thing barely works, you know, it's it's finally been resolved, and now we have a functioning website, but in my opinion, it's not a whole lot better than the original Wix site was. However, it has a lot more potential, and as we're able to get contributing partners, or I'm able to, you know, have the resources to put to it, it will become really a nice world-class resource. But there's been so many issues where you know the site went down and we had to recover it. And it's just it's it seems like there's one drama after another when you're dealing with volunteers and donated time and things like that. So, my goal again is to through grants and and fundraising and events and whatever it is, how what by whatever means necessary, we're gonna raise up the funds to have a professional uh team work on this website and manage it, and it won't be this, you know, constant drama that it is right now. Um that being said, we've got some amazing programs that have launched, you know, some as long ago as th almost three years ago. And the concept of this therapeutic horticulture has really taken off. Everybody that has come in contact with it has had a positive experience. So for a while we were involved with the uh local chamber of commerce, and again, my health issues kept me from being able to really put in the time and even have the money to pay the dues. So we backed off on that for a little while. It had some value, um, some specific value, but the reality is, you know, it's a networking tool that if you're gonna use it, you have to be out there networking and schmoozing doing all that. Um that's not really for me. Um, but there's a place for it, and hopefully one day we'll have enough people involved. Through the years, we've had a number of individuals and families come through for a period of time, and you know, they say people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and the breakdown probably is like this maybe 60 is a reason, meaning anything, you know, you meet somebody once and they introduce you to somebody, or they come out and do a thing that has some value, or you spend some time and learn a thing, whatever it is, it's a reason. It generally is very short-lived, you know, uh, a day, a week, a month, whatever. The seasons I would say are probably uh 30%, maybe 35%, maybe a little more. And these are people that come in for a month or more, usually less than a year, but could be a year or so. Um, and they come in with usually a lot of enthusiasm initially, but often there's some kind of a drama or um a personal issue, could be a health issue, could be a transportation issue, a lot of times it's a financial issue, whatever it is, doesn't matter. It's not judging it, it's just laying it out how it is. And for whatever reason, um they're after this season is passed, they're not able to continue, or they aren't willing or don't want to continue for whatever reason, doesn't matter. And then there's the lifers, the very small handful that you know the how many people do you know in your life that you've known for more than 10 years or whatever. Um, usually it's not very many, but they're the the unicorns, they're the ones that get the the vision and the mission and are committed like you are. They they carry the project as their own. And so I think it's hard to say, you know, we're only three years into it, but I believe we found a few lifers. Um we've had a number of of seasoned that are volunteers and many, many, many uh reasoned volunteers. And through this whole three years, we've had always at least some people that would come out regularly and be a part of the program. And you know, at one point we had a guy that was so into it, brought his daughter, and came out here virtually every day and helped us build some of the initial gardens and was really hustling, talking about us, and and launched, even got um somebody to donate a few t-shirts. We had an initial um person that was even on our board in the beginning and was very gung-ho, and um even went so far as to get uh a corporate sponsor donating a bunch of t-shirts and and the printing and all of that, and then had some personal issues and wasn't able to stick around. Through the whole project, though, we've developed relationships and we've been able to keep enough of a volunteer team together where we've stayed moving forward, even going through all the health issues. We slowed down some programs, but we've been able to manage, maintain, and and even keep a steady growth going forward. And I think that speaks to the project, to the mission, the value of it all. Uh, we have a program called ecotherapy that is um with the Paris Valley Family Behavioral Center, and it is funded by the Riverside Mental Health Department, or it might just be the health department, I'm not sure. But we're registered as a vendor through Riverside County, excuse me, and they bring out patients and they have therapy sessions, and we offer uh programs, uh, projects, uh, tasks, all kinds of different activities where they might come out. Some some weeks they don't need us at all. Some weeks they ask to be given some kind of a of a project, whether it's planting seeds or transplanting plants or uh working in the garden in some way, shape, or form. And we generally tie together the value of that action or activity with some sort of a mental health tool. And they love it. It's actually in our third year, we were we didn't have to slow that project down, even with my health. They were able to manage on their own. My wife stepped in and helped out, and we're really looking to expand that right now. There are a number of clinics now that are connected to this original project, and even a high school mentor program that just came out, did a tour, I don't know, about a week or so ago, and they're real excited to start working with us. And uh, they've got a program by which high school kids that are dealing with family issues or might be behavioral issues or grade issues or whatever it is. They have a program that's kind of like a counseling um scenario, and they're always looking for activities or places to go to take these kids where they can be productive and and get some kind of skill training, uh guidance. And I love that. I think that you know, my kids are all grown up, my grandkids are a couple of them are somewhat interested in what we're doing, but the reality is we offer something that can benefit anybody of any age, families, especially. And I think kids are lacking in guidance. There are so many distractions and so many obstacles, and I think parents generally suck nowadays. Either they're too um engaged, like too helicopter, too overbearing, or they don't give a shit and they just let the kids do whatever. And somewhere in between is I think where you know good guidance, good leadership happens. And this is an opportunity for something like that to happen. Plus, kids will respond in a lot of times with somebody they don't know, or somebody that they maybe respect for some reason or another that's not just because they're older or just because they're a relative. And so we're looking forward to building that. Also, we have a program with uh a partnership with uh a group called the PALs, and that's an acronym for Pathways for Adult Life Skills. And this is a special needs group. Um, a lot of these kids are on the spectrum, or I don't know, there's various reasons why they're in the program. But I guess they have a grant through the state of California, and they pay them or they receive funds to um get job and life skills training. And so there's a number of businesses that partner up with the with this program, and the kids come out usually five or six kids with uh one or two um administrators or facilitators, and we offer them a number of different activities where they're learning and participating in real-world activities that they could use as a skill. And they work with a number of different partners, restaurants, and other companies, and they get given various tasks, probably things like inventory and janitor work, cleaning up and and and whatnot. We try to give them activities that are varied and interesting, and most of all, they're outside and they're breathing the fresh air and they're uh experiencing things in nature that um have a value, and we see their engagement as being real, and a lot of times kids will come out or you know, kids will get in a situation and they'll fake their way through it. They'll do the least amount possible to complete a task or or you know get the thing done. And I watched a lot of these, because not all of them, some of them are you know, it's like in any scenario, you get enough people together, you're gonna have different groups of engagement and enthusiasm and whatnot. But these kids, as a rule, they find themselves, they might come in struggling or or with some sort of a barrier, but after a little while, a little one-on-one, they they find um confidence, they find enthusiasm, they find curiosity, all the kind of things that stimulates the the brain and the spirit to want to do something. So we've had a very positive experience, and we just recently met with administrators of a couple of additional programs through the Paris High School District. That it looks like we're gonna be setting up some new partnerships coming soon. One of the things that we've always done is we've got volunteer programs. So as a 501c3, we are able to offer uh community service hours, whether it's for a school, you know, a lot of high schools have mandatory community service hours or extra credit, whatever it is, but they offer where if a kid will come and volunteer at an organization, generally a nonprofit, uh they can get credit for that time and use it towards their schooling. And sometimes it's court-ordered where somebody will go and get a ticket or have some problem with the law, or maybe it's uh juvenile system or whatever it is. And the court, rather than giving them a fine, or maybe in addition to a fine, will give them community service. And you'll see people alongside the freeway picking up trash. That's all court ordered community service hours, and you know, that's a state-run program where they say, Well, you can do that, you get your DUIU, you get your whatever your ticket is, and you got a hundred hours of that walking along the freeway, breathing in smog and picking up other people's trash, or people go and work at a place like Goodwill or Salvation Army or whatever, or they can come to a garden and uh become part of a program where people heal and learn and and get better. And so we have offered to this date, we've really only done one event that was specifically targeting that, and that was one of our volunteers had a high school daughter who needed to get some community service hours. So they actually organized the event, and uh, we had, I don't know, 20 or 30 kids come out and parents and Home Depot came out and donated some tools and some volunteers, and we had a nice day of it, and we were able to sign off all these hours, and it's been good. Colleges also have programs by which uh certain programs will require community service hours or even intern programs. We're working, we were working with uh somebody in the Parasite School District. I don't know that that's still in motion, but um we're working on getting the website set up to where I think we have already uh uh an intake form for somebody who's interested in being an intern. We have currently one intern from a student who actually graduated and she's working on some graphic work for us. And you know, I'm I'm figuring the intern thing out. I had difficulty in maintaining connection with some of these people, but I was also going through um, you know, my health issues. So we're working on on establishing a more solid program for the interns so that the interns will have more reason to come out. I know a lot of intern programs actually have a paid salary, uh, it might just be minimum wage or whatever, but there's actually some kind of a payment involved. And well, we can't offer that. Yet. That's part of my hope is that we'll get funding that will allow us to do an intern program by which there can be some kind of a of an exchange. We've also not that recently, probably a year ago or so, we started hosting retreats. And uh a lot of times it involves indigenous groups where there's either Native American or uh South American or just different um regions, indigenous groups where they have activities and um events, and they will host them here on our property. And you know, we have a big teepee that gets put up sometimes, sometimes they're open-air ceremonies, a lot of times it's camping involved, sometimes it's just a day or overnight, sometimes it's a weekend or even longer. And you know, right now we're we have a pretty simple facility, but people have, I don't know, I think we've had a couple of dozen of these things for various reasons and various uh various groups and organizations, and we're building more and more of a following, and people are wanting to know more about these programs, and um different groups are making inquiries. We've even got a potential investor that wants to help us to upgrade our facility so that we can offer more for this type of activity. So I'm kind of excited about that. We'll see where it all goes, but you know, that's sort of part of this program. Now we're only two and a half acres, but there is a hundred-acre parcel adjacent to us that we're hoping to um secure or even secure the use of and um expand the things that we offer, but obviously that's gonna involve expanding staff and resources and everything, too. So uh it's part of the future, and you know that's part of what I'm trying to lay out what we got going on. We have a fundraising team that recently sort of organized. We've been hosting weekly meetings more often than not, and um we did get one grant funded to offer uh microgreens to veterans, and we're getting close to launching our first workshop where we're gonna offer free for veterans and then for a donation uh to other folks, and it's gonna be a program where we're gonna teach you how to grow microgreens, we're gonna give you some microgreens, and anybody that's taking the uh the workshop will leave with a kit that they can actually be able to grow their own tray of microgreens, and we'll have those kits available, so that's gonna be part of that. With fundraising, you know, there's multiple prongs. There are things like classes and workshops where people can um make a donation in exchange for learning a skill or or or some kind of uh uh of an action. There are events like the retreats, or we've had hosted a number of different types of events, like even a wellness fair or birthday parties or um workshops, all different kinds of things. That's another way that funds can be raised, and then there's also um merchandise. So we have t-shirts, and um, and then our other company, uh Willow Creek Springs, has donated uh a couple of natural products, a salve and a lip balm that are available for a donation. And as a garden, we produce a lot of plants, plants that are ultimately going to be put into the gardens. Uh, vegetables, herbs, um, ornamentals, cactus succulents, all kinds of different plants. And all the plants, if there's more than a couple, are available for a donation. So people that come out here and volunteer generally we offer, you know, some kind of an exchange. So you know you can take take a few plants home with you. Take some soil home. We manage, we we mix our own soil out here. Um, take some vegetables, some herbs, all the things that we make, microgreens. You come and help us out, we offer these things to you in exchange. But sometimes people want to help out just by donating. And we say, Well, you want to donate? You know, you can also um instead of going to a nursery or a home center and buying a plant for whatever, uh, you can come to our little garden. And if we have a plant that you like, you know, take it and make a little donation, and everybody wins. So that's another element. We've got a couple of new programs that we've just recently launched. Uh, one is a butterfly garden, and uh, we've had a volunteer who's very knowledgeable about butterflies and has been teaching us, and we just got recently registered as a waste station for the monarchs, and we're in the process of getting our certification and a plaque and everything, but uh we're planting a lot of plants that um are food for butterflies and pollinators of all kinds and hummingbirds, and we've established a garden right when you enter the property, and we're putting in walkways and and features, and you know, these are all things that we're looking for donations, things like stepping stones and um maybe a water feature, solar-powered lights. Um there's so many different art pieces, signage, all sorts of things that can make this be a better resource and tool. But our goal is uh through grants and donations to be able to create a workshop by which we can teach people how to create an environment that can nurture and stimulate uh pollinators like this, and specifically plants that butterflies or caterpillars um eat as a rule. And so this is all something that's currently in the works. We also are starting a lavender garden. So we've been uh we've received some donations and been able to purchase a bunch of lavender starts, little plants, and uh I don't know, we got three or four hundred. I'm hoping to put about 2,000 lavender plants on the property. And uh it's part of a sensory experience as far as well as an herb that can be used uh for teas and food and aromatherapy, all sorts of things. And we're also uh planting uh tea herbs and other medicinal and edible herbs that will be available to people. We're gonna be hosting um teas and we'll be offering uh tea herbs that we actually grow, the plants, uh fresh cut and dried herbs, as well as an event where by which we'll be featuring a tea, maybe some salad or some sort of uh soup or some food that we harvest, farm the table, and hopefully offer something like some musical um entertainment or or some other sort of uh entertainment involved to have a nice little event. Obviously, it'll be a fundraiser to support the gardens and and that sort of thing. So and we also have built a sweat lodge called a Temascal, and uh we have a number of indigenous uh groups that come out, and we will host a sweat for uh sometimes it's specific groups, a men's sweat or a woman's sweat, or sometimes it's open uh co ed and different reasons, different ways, different uh situations, but it's another activity that we have offered here. So uh if you're interested in participating, uh really reach out. The website is uh thegardensofope.org, and there's a volunteer sign-up uh form on the site and also ways to donate and all that good stuff. So it's coming up on end of the year, and we just had a flyer made, and it's for that end-of-the-year donation targeting mostly businesses, and it's gonna be going up on the website, it's gonna be going up on social media, we're gonna be printing and handing this thing out and looking for people that are interested in participating and helping us. I know that as we gain more resources, it's it's our goal isn't to have a giant staff or pay anybody a whole bunch of money, it's to have a fundamentally sound working business that can offer a lot to the people who need it and a lot to anybody who makes a donation to an organization instead of getting a little token. Um, we want to be able to offer substantial resources in exchange. And I believe we're really a giant asset to the community, and we've really only began to explore the value of what we have to offer. So um that's sort of my update. I want to thank everybody that's made this podcast possible, and thank you for listening. And remember, um, there's a subscriber option if you want to support the podcast and have access to subscriber only content. Um, I think there's a link on the on the podcast platforms, and I would just want to thank everybody for making this all possible, and we will see you next time.
