February 2025
First Nature Notes: With Love in Our Hearts

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Dear Friends of First Nature Foundation,

The first two months of the year have flown by. We hope they’ve been happy and successful for you. More good things are bubbling for us at the ranch and I’m delighted to share them with you below…but first a cute pic.

While we had some almost-summer-warm days earlier this month, we also continued with chillier than normal weather. It’s been mostly dry, but yesterday we had our first big rain of the early spring here. And yes, for those of you who don’t live in Florida, nature shifts toward spring in February. It rained all day and most of the evening, with temperatures in the 60s, which was not pleasant! Believe it or not, that can be a recipe for hypothermia here, because most people suspect is has to be near freezing, but hypothermia can happen in much warmer temperatures. Our oldest horse, Dakota, has suffered from it several times when temperatures dropped below 65 degrees in rainy conditions. The opossum in the photo, which was taken this morning, found a warm, dry, sheltered, snack-filled bed in Dakota’s feed bucket. It couldn’t have been a more ideal spot for him! He was sent off unceremoniously when our Ranch Manager dumped the bucket in the pasture, and our little friend was unhappily evicted from his comfy nest.

Volunteer Spotlight:

Our Volunteer of the Month has only been with us about 6 months, but Andrea Sonnenfeld is a steady, sweet, kind soul who really enjoys interacting with the horses and helping us with our programs.

“Volunteering at First Nature Ranch, to me, is a rewarding experience. It allows me hands-on experience to care for horses with different needs. Learning how the horses communicate and putting horse skills to use, such as grooming, feeding, and training tips. I also enjoy the ranch’s partnership with different programs. They enhance participants self-esteem and confidence by working with the horses.”

VOLUNTEER

After doing some tallying for our some of our records, we realized that we had 750 volunteer hours logged in 2024 alone! We have an amazing group of volunteers who help us keep the facility beautiful and help us keep programs running smoothly. If you’re interested in becoming a regular volunteer at the ranch, click the button and fill out an application!

Our 4th Wine Tasting Fundraiser, Wine Down With Us, is just over a month away! These are some of our best-loved events since the energy is fun and relaxed and we get to see new faces inside of our fences. Our favorite wine rep from PRP Wine International, Kim Stonesifer, is back to bring a beautifully curated list of exclusive wines. We’ll sample at least 6 wines while she gives us all sorts of entertaining education about the wines and where they come from. There will also be enticing appetizers to snack on, plenty of good company to mingle among, time with our horses, and peaceful evening views of our 26-acre little slice of paradise. We’re fundraising for our growing Horse Sense for Teens program, and all applicable proceeds go right to the program.

We promise you’ll have an incredible time, and maybe even find a new go-to wine! There’s even an all new VIP experience available this time. Check it out!

Wine Tasting Tickets

VIP Experience Tickets

We cannot say thank you enough to those who have donated toward our Lighting Capital Campaign! We are more than half way to our goal, but have stalled a bit. Our hopes are to be fully funded before Summertime so we can purchase and install the equipment before it’s needed in the short Fall evenings. The lighting campaign is to add outdoor lighting at the ranch so we can run additional evening programs for survivors of domestic violence, teens, veterans and others.

This campaign is critical to extend our availability and meet our community’s needs.

More visibility for our little nonprofit means that we are getting more requests for additional programming, but many potential participants either have work or school during the weekdays, and our weekends are already filling up. We need your support to get to the next level by adding lighting inside and outside our covered arena so we can run evening programs.

The estimated costs of the inside and outside lighting for our covered arena are $15,000.

We are 60% of the way there!

Donate to Our Capital Campaign

Our Wild Harmony: A Mother-Daughter Retreat…With Horses sold out in less than a week, so we’ve scheduled another date for Saturday May 3. You can get your tickets for the new date by clicking the button below! But if you can’t make that date but want to come for a visit and hang out with the horses on your own you might want to book a Serenity Session, a sweet, supervised hour with the horse of your choice. Book one soon and get your ideal date on the calendar!

Wild Harmony Retreat Tickets

Last week I was interviewed by neighbor Debra Gaskill, who is an accomplished author and podcaster, with almost 9000 followers across the globe. While we had some technical issues, we were successful in getting a great interview recorded, one that has been very well received. While watching the video we saw positive responses from Cameroon, Nigeria, and elsewhere, with over 1000 views in just the first few hours. You can check out the interview here!

Last Wednesday we celebrated the 100th session of our virtual PASOS program, which continues to serve people who have lost spouses/partners/children to suicide. Do you know someone who fits this description and may be struggling with their grief? The program is free for those who would like to attend, and is supported by donations from folks like you, as well as a sponsorship from Advent Health.

We are now looking forward to the last two sessions of our first 2025 cohort of our Horse Wisdom for Heroes program. We are talking with other organizations that support Veterans to expand our ability to reach other Veterans in the community. In our Horse Sense for Teens program, we had the Rebuild Yourself kids out last Sunday. We are looking forward to hosting them for the program next month, as well as ranchers from Edgewood Ranch. Do you know a local teen group that could use our program? We are looking for groups of 10-12 teens to schedule dates for this program, as we have a grant and want to give additional local teens the experience and benefit of this special program before the Summer.

Well, we were a finalist, didn’t end up winning the Lake Nona Chamber of Commerce’s Nonprofit of the Year again. It was given to another very worthy local nonprofit that feeds the hungry. But we did get verbal recognition at the event, as well as a lovely donation from the chamber from their Chamber Swing golf fundraiser. We won this accolade last year, and we were still thrilled to be honored to be a finalist for this year.

A note from Allyn, our Assistant Executive Director: We are so grateful that you open and read our newsletters each month. Your support means the world to us! We are actively looking for sponsors to partner with us to reach the community. Leadership is essential in everyone’s lives, whether it’s self or shared leadership, and especially in the groups we serve like Veterans and homeless men, disadvantaged teens, and women survivors of domestic violence. We’d love to build relationships with other generously minded businesses who want to sponsor our events, like the wine tasting, our individual programs, or our organization as a whole. If you are someone, or know someone, who would like to make an impact with us, please contact us for next steps.

While we don’t host parties or weddings (there are plenty of other venues around Central Fl for that), we DO offer space for events like retreats, meetings, clinics, etc. Last month we hosted a meeting about a proposed roadway that will impact our immediate area. Everyone who comes to the ranch praises the beauty and serenity of our space. Many events and retreats we’ve hosted are private, and our rates are affordable, with discounted prices for nonprofits and governmental organizations, as well as for individuals. If you are looking for a venue for an event replay to this email or contact me at kerul@firstnaturefoundation.org.

From Our Hearts to Yours,

Kerul and Crew

First Nature Ranch / First Nature Foundation

“Where the past, present, and future of leadership come together for the dignity and benefit of all.”

A big thank you to our sponsors! (1640 × 800 px) (1640 × 924 px) (3).png

A CENTER FOR 21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:

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February 2025
First Nature Notes: With Love in Our Hearts

February 2025 First Nature Notes: With Love in Our Hearts

February 2025
First Nature Notes: With Love in Our Hearts