Nicole Lovato doesn't know where she'd be without the Santa Fe Mountain Center, a Tesuque-based nonprofit that provides therapeutic wilderness experiential learning and adventure-based programs for youth and adults.

Lovato, 28, was a freshman at the Santa Fe Indian School when she first visited the center.

"I got suspended a couple times at school," Lovato said. She was placed in a program that included taking a field trip to the Mountain Center.

"It was winter, and we were outside playing games. The facilitators were awesome, and I asked them, 'You guys get paid to do this? How do I do this?' Over the years, I kept in touch with them," she said.

As a senior, she took another field trip to the Mountain Center, but because she was more familiar with it than the others, she was able to act as a facilitator. She knew that's what she wanted to do with her life.

"After I graduated, I applied and got hired," she said. "It was a pretty huge investment on their part, with all the training and everything. Everything I know now is because of the Mountain Center. I grew up at the Mountain Center — professionally as well as personally."

Lovato is now a full-time employee, and except for a few years she took off to travel abroad, has been working there about 10 years.

Lovato is one of countless people who has been touched by nonprofit, which celebrates 30 years today. The Mountain Center is open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. so people can see what its programs are all about, said executive director Sky Gray.

"Some of our high-ropes course elements will be open for people to experience our adventure in action," Gray said.

"We are really looking to have the community understand better what it is the Santa Fe Mountain Center does," said Cecile Lipworth, a board member. "This is a wonderful opportunity to come to the grounds and do some of the activities that the center offers to underserved youth and the communities."

Then and now

When Rocky Kimball founded the Santa Fe Mountain Center, it was a wilderness experience program for only kids who were on probation, on parole or in a correctional facility.

"Young people had the opportunity to look at behavior and patterns and make changes," Gray said. The programs were conducted at various sites in the wilderness and lasted 21 days. "Since then, we have diversified our programming and our approaches."

Since it was founded, it's won several awards — including being named the Organization of the Year by the Association of Experiential Education in 2008.

The center now has a permanent home, where it conducts a majority of its diverse programs. It serves more than 1,000 kids statewide and has done work in Las Cruces, Taos and Albuquerque.

It has also worked with 19 pueblos through its Native American Emergence Program.

"We are a strength-based organization," Gray explained. "We focus on people's potential, not their pathology, and in doing so, young people and adults alike feel like they are able to take risks with their ability to share and expand their comfort zones and make needed changes and blossom."

No two people have the same experience; the 11 full-time staff members adapt the program to fit the individual.

Over the years, the center has developed programs in the areas of harm reduction; positive youth development; and adult-health services.

In each of those areas are programs like HIV/AIDS education; the anti-bullying initiative; and working with the New Mexico Gay Straight Alliance.

Recently, the Mountain Center partnered with the University of New Hampshire and Santa Fe Public Schools to research the effect of its anti-bullying program in three Santa Fe elementaries, and found that children who participated had "increased empathy and increased connection to self and others," Gray said.

"The pervasive issue of bullying across the nation is significant, and we are working really hard to make an impact and reduce the incidences of violence and suicide," Gray added. "Kids as young as 10 and 11 years old are committing suicide because they're being bullied."

The future

The old chicken coop of the Santa Fe Mountain Center — formerly a farm — is in the process of being renovated. Late on a Friday afternoon, staff members were busy painting. Parts of the chicken coop, where Gray's office is, are up to building codes. Other parts are not.

The McCune Foundation funded the renovations, led by Palo Santo Designs of Santa Fe, but the Mountain Center still needs donations to bring the whole building up to code.

"What was a drafty old barn will now be insulated, with energy-efficient appliances and heating systems," Gray said. "We built it as green as possible because of our ethics and values."

The building will also soon be ADA accessible, Gray said. In December, the Urban Adventure Center in Santa Fe, a project in collaboration with the Mountain Center and Santa Fe County, will open. This four-year project was funded by capital-outlay money.

"It's going to have a state-of-the-art climbing wall and training and activity center," Gray said.

The Mountain Center also needs donations for its programs. It raises funds by doing team-building services for local businesses, government agencies, teams and schools and by simply asking.

"We want to promote that now more than ever," Gray said. "Because of the economic downturn, we've been impacted just like everyone else."

Life-changing work

Gray opens the drawer of her desk in her newly renovated office and shuffles through some papers to reveal a few thank you cards.

"People come back and visit. People e-mail us telling us, 'I was a part of your program and now I'm doing this.' I get cards from people all the time," Gray explained as she picked out the "unbelievable card" she was looking for and begins reading. "'I don't know if you remember me, but I am the one who discovered himself on the ropes course. ... I still remember my beautiful, spiritual experience in Santa Fe.' "

Gray said the Mountain Center provides a safe place where people can discover themselves and face no judgment or disrespect from the staff members.

Lovato, who is from Kewa Pueblo, said she enjoys sparking change in others.

"For me, it's really rewarding to be able to share my story — especially with the teens that are at risk, to give them something to strive for," she said.

"People don't realize how much (the programs) help people internally," Lovato said, noting that although they play games and hike, the important thing is "just to be with Mother Earth, especially for the Native people that we work with. We help our students reconnect back to the Earth."

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.