TRUCKEE, Calif. — Gateway Mountain Center announced that longtime mental health practitioners Fred and Barbara Ilfeld, have donated $1.1 million toward Gateway’s acquisition of a lodge on Donner Summit to serve as a nature healing center for youth from around northern California and beyond.

“What sets Gateway apart from other mental health services is founder Peter Mayfield’s vast outdoor experience, his enduring dedication to developing an effective nature-based therapeutic experience, and his relentless efforts to expand this program, culminating in the recent purchase of the High Mountain Lodge in Soda Springs,” the Ilfelds said in a joint statement. “This lodge at 7,000 feet elevation will provide a home base in an exquisite mountain setting for the nature-connected healing activities of Gateway Mountain Center.”

Gateway Mountain Center’s mission to support the emotional, mental, physical, and social well-being of all young people deeply resonates with the Ilfelds, trained mental health professionals themselves, who note today’s pressing need for behavioral health services for our youth, particularly those who are underserved. Both were in private practice doing psychotherapy in Sacramento and later in Olympic Valley. Fred, as a psychiatrist, taught at UC Davis Medical School for 25 years and then at the University of Nevada Reno Medical School for 15 years. Barbara, as a clinical nurse specialist was on the supervisory staff in the adolescent unit at Langley Porter Psychiatric Unit at UCSF Medical School. She subsequently taught at UC Davis and the University of Nevada Reno medical schools.

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“With the purchase of High Mountain Lodge, despite significant grant monies from the state of California, Gateway is encumbered with a mortgage of $1.1 million,” the Ilfelds said. “Our intent is to donate sufficient funds in 2025 and 2026 to completely retire this mortgage. Funding that otherwise would have gone to mortgage payments will now directly benefit the youth Gateway serves in its Truckee and San Francisco locations.”

The Truckee-based nonprofit has been working toward the 23-acre property’s acquisition and is preparing to launch a fundraising campaign to offset the costs of associated renovations, which include upgrading the kitchen, bringing the electrical system up to code, a new roof and other general repairs, and the addition of a fully ADA-accessible wing. Included with the lodge is a three-bedroom, two-bath staff house, which will serve as much-needed housing for behavioral healthcare workers.

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The Ilfelds strongly endorse the healing power of Gateway’s “Four Roots” approach: Authentic Relationships with trusted and compassionate adults and peers for growing youth’s self-awareness and self-efficacy; Immersive Connection in Nature providing a sense of calm, observation skills, and mindfulness; Embodied Peak Experiences through a variety of mountain/outdoor experiences to create a “flow” of highly rewarding mind/body/environment connections; and the value of Helping Others, creating a sense of belonging with others through service and volunteering.

The Olympic Valley couple’s transformative gift, made primarily through their donor-advised fund (DAF) at the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, provides Gateway with a solid foundation on which to build as its lodge fundraising campaign gets underway. The nonprofit has also been awarded two grants totaling $190,000 from the Tahoe Truckee Airport District to support the employee housing opportunity for Truckee-based behavioral health care staff, as well as a $1.8 million grant from the California Department of Health Care Services toward ADA accessibility.

“Words cannot express our gratitude to the Ilfelds for their support in helping us attain full ownership of what will now be known as the Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge,” said Gateway founder, Peter Mayfield. “Precious funds that would have gone toward the mortgage payments will now be able to be redirected back to our programs to help young people learn, heal, and thrive by integrating the transformative power of human connection and nature immersion.”

To learn more about the campaign for Ilfeld High Mountain Lodge and how it serves the youth Gateway Mountain Center works with, go to gatewaymountaincenter.org.