Meet Me Outside: Alone Together No Mo’
From left to right: Aaron Clark, Manny Almonte and CJ Goulding, at a Boyz N The Wood retreat in Northern California
In a time when connection feels harder to come by, nature reminds us we were never meant to carry it all alone.
I wrote this piece reflecting on my journey with Camping to Connect, and as a proud member of Boyz N The Wood. It’s a story about healing, community, and why we need to rethink our relationship with the outdoors; because what’s at stake isn’t just our health, it’s our humanity.
Let’s talk about what it really means to be nurtured by nature.
I. The Silence That Speaks Volumes
Around a fire ring in the Rockies, a 13-year-old boy told us he feared dying alone. Another wondered if World War III would reach his doorstep. One feared dying without purpose. A fourth had just lost a friend to suicide, AND a parent to COVID-19 not long ago.
These were not college freshmen or combat veterans. These were middle schoolers; Black and Brown boys navigating a world weighed down by algorithms, climate anxiety, political vitriol, and the ghosts of a global pandemic. Their words came not from rebellion or melodrama, but raw, fragile truth.
That weekend, as part of a collaboration between the Sims-Fayola Foundation and Camping to Connect had brought them to a sanctuary in Bailey, CO, called The Refuge at Lost Creek. But the real refuge wasn’t the pine-scented air, the sky full of stars or mountain silence… it was each other.
What they needed wasn’t distraction. It was meaningful connection.
II. A Different Kind of Trailhead
Day Hike with Girl Unleashed
I’ve spent the past decade walking with men and boys, literally and metaphorically, through forests, up ridgelines, and across the internal terrain of masculinity, trauma, and self-worth. Recently, I used my resources and connections to help my friend and fellow Camping to Connect board member, Liz Bacelar, launch Girl Unleashed, the sister organization to Camping to Connect that uses nature to empower girls of multicultural backgrounds.
These organizations don’t just teach how to start a fire or follow a trail. We explore the deeper wilderness: how to listen, how to share, how to be vulnerable without fear. We’re not here to toughen these boys or soften these girls to "deal" with the world around them. We’re here to teach them that strength and softness can coexist, and that they can walk around the world standing tall, dealing with whatever comes their way.
But what we’re learning in return is even more profound: loneliness isn’t a symptom. It’s a crisis. And the outdoors might just be the most overlooked solution.
III. The Loneliness Epidemic Isn’t a Buzzword—It’s a Diagnosis
FromFrom Left to Right: Ryan V., a 6-year Camping to Connect alumni turned mentor, and year 1 mentee, Jeremy L.
In recent years, multiple U.S. Surgeon General advisories have confirmed it: we are lonelier than ever. Especially men. Especially young men. Especially young men of color.
Why? Because connection has become a commodity. Because algorithms reinforce isolation. Because masculinity has too often been defined by stoicism, not softness.
Coming together in nature won’t cure loneliness overnight. But it gives us what our cities, schools, and social media feeds often can’t: quiet. Perspective. Room to speak and be heard. Space to see and be seen.
IV. What Healing Looks Like
Earlier this year, Boyz N The Wood posted something that hit home for me: “When a Black man finds clarity, care, and connection—he doesn’t just return home lighter. He returns home different.” That’s what we see every time we go outside, whether we’re Camping by the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey, hiking the Flatirons in Colorado, or canoeing in Harriman State Park, NY.
Sometimes, healing looks like a 17-year-old leading a meditation circle for the first time.
Sometimes, it’s a 14-year-old saying “When I'm in Nature, I feel safe and warm... I feel new.” (see video above)
Sometimes, it’s a mentor finally breaking down his own walls, because the boys went first.
Healing is a muscle. We build it together. Outside.
V. A Conversation by the Firelight
Conversations around the campfire with Camping to Connect
Our group was on a night walk recently at Harriman State Park when New York State park rangers stopped us. We were exactly where we had permission to be, on a gated road within a campground. Despite one of our mentors, an attorney by day, explaining our presence as part of a youth program and identifying us as guests of the private campground, the rangers kept questioning the group with an accusatory tone under the flashing blue and red lights of their patrol vehicles. They claimed it was "illegal to hike at night," even though we were simply taking a night walk and having a conversation on the private half-mile road, not on a public trail.
The incident rattled the students, but it led to a transformative circle discussion on policing, fear, and survival. No therapist’s office or classroom could’ve sparked that kind of conversation. But the trail did. The campfire did. The open sky did. In that moment, the forest became more than a backdrop; It became a bridge.
VI. Rethinking the Outdoors, Reimagining Connection
@Maestro, one of them Boyz N The Wood, letting his inner child play in the Redwoods of Northern California
To be “nurtured by nature” means understanding that nature is not just for recreation; it’s for restoration. And reclamation.
It’s about redefining who belongs outside. (Spoiler: all of us.)
It’s about moving beyond survival mode.
It’s about equipping our young men with a new compass to navigate life.
Programs like ours aren’t just filling a gap. We’re building a pathway. From loneliness to community. From anxiety to agency. From silence to story.
When we rethink our relationship with the outdoors, we are remembering something older than the trail beneath our feet. We are remembering a way of living that values connection over control, community over isolation. Ubuntu—the African philosophy that reminds us “I am because we are”—speaks to this truth. Our well-being is interwoven. Healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it happens in relationship. The land teaches us that. It always has.
VII. Legacy in Motion
The first thing we do at a Camping to Connect weekend, is ask the teens to connect with nature
Long before trails were mapped or fences raised, people lived in harmony with the earth and each other. The village was not just a cluster of homes; it was a living system of care, reciprocity, and reverence. Indigenous communities around the world honored the land as a teacher, as an ancestor, and as a gathering place.
That wisdom still lives. We see it every time someone shares a story around the fire. Every time a young person feels seen in the quiet of a forest. Every time strangers walk into the woods and leave as something closer to kin.
This work is not about drawing lines between us. It’s about remembering that we’ve always been part of the same circle. No one is outside of this invitation.
We walk into nature not to forget the world, but to see it more clearly. We gather outdoors not to escape each other, but to find one another in ways that feel whole and honest. The woods give us room to lay down what we’ve been carrying and pick up something better. Something shared.
Let’s honor that. Let’s continue the walk. Not backward, but forward. Rooted in respect. Guided by care. Reconnected to what matters. Nurtured by Nature.
VIII. Help Us Grow What Heals
Camping to Connect mentors and mentees invest a weekend in Bailey, CO
Manny Almonte is the founder of Mastermind Connect and Camping to Connect, creating transformative experiences that empower men of color to connect with their passions and higher selves. His work, including the award-winning short film Wood Hood, promotes leadership, mental health advocacy, justice, equity, and inclusion in the outdoors. Manny has been recognized by the NYC Department of Education and the Brooklyn Borough President for his dedication to empowering Black and Brown men, and received the 2023 Robert W. Crawford Achievement Prize from the National Recreation Foundation for his creativity and steadfastness in increasing outdoor access and inclusion for youth from underserved communities.
