Our community organization is led by a dedicated group of volunteers that believe in the heart of our mission: Richard Quiroga & Elisa Quiroga of R.O. Indigenous Embrace, Stephanie Rios of Watsonville Wetlands Watch, and Heath Braddock of Bright Futures Solar Energy.
About Growing True Leaves & The Governing Board
Click here to meet our Director ↓
Mission Statement
Vision Statement
Growing True Leaves (GTL) is a community-rooted organization dedicated to connecting children and families with the natural environment by offering varied programs for youth and family, focused on environmental learning experiences and land stewardship in Monterey & Santa Cruz County.
We envision a future where all children, especially those in under-resourced communities, grow up with direct access to nature, natural history, education in the natural environment, and opportunities to nurture the land and themselves. Over the next decade, we envision a thriving community center offering a co-operative preschool, educational gardens, holistic health resources, as well as conservation programs led by children and their families.
Going outside to be in nature I think is ESSENTIAL for being healthy. Being outside is especially important for mental health for children. I do think that children need to go outside to be mentally healthy. I take care of so many children who are having trouble with mental health, and these children commonly are children who don't go outside much, as they prefer to be doing electronics such as being on their phone or playing video games. Being outside reduces anxiety, depression. Going outside to nature helps kids find their way in life. Going outside is soooooo sooooo important. It is difficult for many many people to grasp this concept.
In the olden days, people were outside a lot more. Mental health problems really escalated when cell phones/social media came to our lives. On our medical health questionnaires, children check if they do < 2 hrs, 2-4 hrs, or > 4 hrs; I see a common correlation of <2 hrs , the kids are doing well emotionally. I see when >4 hrs, the kids commonly struggle with anxiety /depression/substances.
Outdoor activities like surfing, skate-boarding, hiking, walking, running, swimming, going to the beach, and gardening make for a MUCH MUCH happier life as compared to being indoors.
Being outside helps with sleep, gives Vitamin D, and leads to using our muscles. So, nature is physically healthy too. Nature also gives people a healthy glow, a healthy appearance.
Life is soooooo much better with nature.
~ Susan Borba, MD pediatrics, Sutter Health
Ocean Connection is an annual gathering born from the generous spirit of the Moss Landing community where a dedicated group of local surfers joins in collaboration with R.O. Indigenous Embrace to host children and their families for a day centered on connection — with the ocean, with each other, and with the land.
Community
Events
With 25 years of working in different plant and animal systems, as well as 10 years of gardening with children - we pride ourselves in being able to walk into a garden system and lend a helping hand.
Food Sovereignty will only be attained when our children are equipped to grow their own food organically.
Garden
Classes
Nature Journaling is a class series offering an opportunity for children and families to spend time outside in open space in the northern central coast of California. We split the classes according to their natural ecosystems: the first class starts on the beach, the second class visits the wetlands and the third class is placed in the redwoods.
Nature
Journaling
Visions of Hope
Three years ago, I sat in this very office mapping out a 3, 5, and 10-year path for my future and the future of my family. The seed for this vision was planted in grief.
At the time, I was deep in one of the most transformative human experiences — raising and weaning a one-year-old while trying to fully be there for my three-year-old, too. My heart struggled to find its way back together as genocide unfolded in Gaza once again, streamed live through our phones for the world to witness.
In the depths of motherhood, I began to see a solution.
For months, I wrote late into the night while my family slept.
Since then, I’ve shared this vision with only a select few, slowly building the first close partnerships of Growing True Leaves. Establishing our offerings and business is only the beginning of a long road ahead. Publishing this website required me to deeply reflect on everything the board and I have built over these past few years — and to step, sure-footed, into the future.
Every step of this plan has been examined hundreds of times: through meetings, emails, conversations, and the quiet moments when the vision returns in daydreams.
I want the good in humanity to survive.
I want my children to know REAL music and art — created with instruments, real paint, and hand-sized paintbrushes. I want them to grow up rooted in unity, kindness, and community. I want them to know how to live from the land and face difficult moments with resilience and joy. Most importantly, I want them to experience and protect the beautiful ecosystems we are so lucky to witness today.
Becoming a mother during the past five years of international and national polarization in this era of endless information made something clear to me: I want this for all children, and I want to help make it possible.
So I am taking this seed and planting it into the universe.
Growing True Leaves is working toward creating a center that uplifts people from the very beginning of life — supporting entire families through open spaces, skills-learning classes, outdoor childcare, and access to holistic health resources.
Have a beautiful day,
Celine
GTL 3, 5, and 10 year plan
Celine Cohen
Celine comes from a family of economists and grew up between two worlds—traveling through Europe while calling the East Bay of California home. She later earned her B.A. in Organic Agriculture and Economics from UC Santa Cruz, where her love for plants, food, surfing, and big dogs really took root. After graduating, she began growing plants professionally, co-owning Kaprielian Growers, a succulent nursery in Salinas, and later learned the rhythms of chicken and goat ranching in Hollister.
While Growing True Leaves has evolved into a holistic, multi-layered organization, its earliest seeds were planted in the garden. The garden program is where the vision first came to life, and Celine’s connection to land and food systems shaped its foundation.
After seven years in agriculture, Celine followed a calling into early childhood education. She took courses in ECE at Cabrillo College while working as a garden teacher, building school gardens and toddler programs for local preschools. She was mentored at the Santa Cruz Toddler Center and later hired as the lead toddler teacher at Tara Redwood Preschool. During this chapter, she deepened her understanding of herbalism, child development, and the importance of health in the earliest years of life.
Becoming a mother at 30—right in the midst of a global pandemic—brought the mission of Growing True Leaves into sharp focus. Navigating modern obstacles as a new parent, while witnessing the challenges facing children and families today, turned this work into something even more personal. For Celine, GTL is a life vest of hope: a project that has brought joy, connection, and possibility to countless children, families, and students since 2016.
Celine comes from a family of economists and grew up between two worlds—traveling through Europe while calling the East Bay of California home. She later earned her B.A. in Organic Agriculture and Economics from UC Santa Cruz, where her love for plants, food, surfing, and big dogs really took root. After graduating, she began growing plants professionally, co-owning Kaprielian Growers, a succulent nursery in Salinas, and later learned the rhythms of chicken and goat ranching in Hollister.
While Growing True Leaves has evolved into a holistic, multi-layered organization, its earliest seeds were planted in the garden. The garden program is where the vision first came to life, and Celine’s connection to land and food systems shaped its foundation.
After seven years in agriculture, Celine followed a calling into early childhood education. She took courses in ECE at Cabrillo College while working as a garden teacher, building school gardens and toddler programs for local preschools. She was mentored at the Santa Cruz Toddler Center and later hired as the lead toddler teacher at Tara Redwood Preschool. During this chapter, she deepened her understanding of herbalism, child development, and the importance of health in the earliest years of life.
Becoming a mother at 30—right in the midst of a global pandemic—brought the mission of Growing True Leaves into sharp focus. Navigating modern obstacles as a new parent, while witnessing the challenges facing children and families today, turned this work into something even more personal. For Celine, GTL is a life vest of hope: a project that has brought joy, connection, and possibility to countless children, families, and students since 2016.