My name is Matson Sewell, and I’m a co-trustee and grants manager for the Arata Brothers Trust.
I’m so glad to have the chance to talk about why the Trust has made a commitment to the capital campaign to purchase the Grizzly Creek Ranch. We first learned of Sierra Nevada Journeys through our sister, Elfrena Foord, a much-appreciated philanthropist in Sacramento. Elfrena was moderating the Social Venture Partners Fast Pitch program. After we heard Eaton’s pitch, my brother, Mark Sewell, the senior trustee at Arata Brothers leaned over to me and said, “That’s the nonprofit I want us to check out this year.” I agreed and lined up a visit to the Grizzly Creek Ranch.
Mark had been speaking for many months about a strong desire for us to do some grant awarding that invested in a lasting legacy for the Arata Brothers Trust. We are proud of the programming that over $15 million has funded in Sacramento education programs, informed by the practical insights from my niece, our third trustee, Lisa Malvini, a Sacramento elementary school teacher. But I understood what Mark meant about a lasting legacy for future generations. When I returned from the camp visit I contacted Mark and said, “I think I’ve found our legacy.”
We grew up in Reno, visited Sacramento each summer to see our grandfather and his two brothers, whose grocery business formed the Arata Brothers Trust after they died. We also spent August of every summer at our grandfather’s cabin in the woods off of Highway 50. My brothers attended Mohawk Boys camp when they were a little older which used to be just a few miles from the Grizzly Creek Ranch. We thrived in the Sierra natural environment, treasured the memories of those experiences and wanted to preserve the Sierras as well as expose the next generations to a landscape they will love and want to cherish and preserve as well.
At this time of tremendous competition for funding dollars, especially in support of STEM and workforce readiness, Sierra Nevada Journeys stands out as an especially effective, scalable, and impact-driven organization. By their purchase of the Grizzly Creek Ranch, they can take their training of next-generation environmental scientists and land stewards to a new level.
Both the physical landscape as well as the mission and vision of Sierra Nevada Journeys checks off every box for us to provide substantial financial support to something that will serve future generations. The physical layout is extraordinary with its full accessibility and multiple natural habitats for hands-on natural science education. The processes and systems in place are exceptional — I came out of decades in patient safety in healthcare and wish the medical centers I’d worked in could claim this organization’s level of exquisite attention to regulatory compliance and safety detail as well as their open welcome to everyone.
There is one additional factor in our commitment, and that is to honor the memory of our brother, Andy, who we lost in the surprise snowstorm of October 2004. He went for an end-of-season mountain bike ride off of Highway 50 near our grandfather’s cabin. A dozen small groups were stranded for three days by this surprise blizzard, including the two visitors from Japan who froze on the face of El Capitan. All the others were rescued except our brother. Eighteen months after he went missing, a Sierra Search and Rescue training exercise repelled down a cliff face near where his bike and backpack were found. A recovered vertebrae confirmed the DNA match. The next summer Mark, Elfrena and I hiked to the location at Scout peak and noticed the wild, electric blue and yellow threads of shiny cloth woven into the bird and squirrel nests in the trees. We smiled imagining these came from Andy’s first layer of the Lycra leggings and shirt he must have worn that day. It helped to recognize that he became woven into and a part of the landscape he loved more than any place on earth. It helps, even more, to honor his memory with supporting the purchase of this property for future generations to love this area as much as we have.
Sierra Nevada Journeys has exceptional programming but that can’t be secured if it could be disrupted by a change in landlords. They need to own the property to secure the future of their work. This property will be sold. I have a sense of urgency about the situation because imagining this remarkable landscape being purchased and re-purposed to any other use, such as… a golf club and resort would be an unbearable loss to the science and environmental education of young people in our region. And this gorgeous land will go that route if we don’t preserve it for its best and highest use. It’s up to us.
Come and visit the Grizzly Creek Ranch — I think you will never forget it.
