10/18/2026
What does Mission Trails become over the course of a lifetime?
For Vanessa Dimalanta, it started when she was 6 years old, exploring near Old Mission Dam with her father, catching crawdads and horned lizards and catching her first fish in the San Diego River.
Decades later, she returned to Mission Trails Regional Park with a friend who was training to become a Trail Guide. Then Vanessa began sharing the park with her granddaughters, Lily and Ariel.
This year, Lily earned first place in the Teens category of the Mission Trails Photo Contest and Ariel received an honorable mention in the Kids category.
“I am nearly 73 now,” Vanessa told us. “A beautiful life and a lot of memories in the park.”
That is what Mission Trails can become: part of a childhood, a friendship, a family tradition and eventually another generation’s story. 💚
The nonprofit Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation (MTRP Foundation) works every day to help make sure those stories can continue by protecting land, restoring habitat, improving trails and connecting thousands of young people with nature.
One-time gifts make an important difference. Becoming a monthly supporter gives us something especially valuable: dependable support we can count on as we plan for the park’s future.
Monthly gifts help us say yes to the field trip, restore damaged habitat, improve a trail, protect another piece of land and pursue the next opportunity to make Mission Trails better.
You don’t have to give a lot to make a difference. A gift at a level that feels right to you adds up month after month.
If Mission Trails has given you a favorite trail, a quiet morning, a spectacular view or memories that have lasted for years, consider becoming a monthly supporter and helping make sure future generations of San Diegans get to build their own memories here.
Together, we are Mission Trails.
Become a monthly donor here: https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/mission-trails-regional-park-foundation/mtrpf_email_general
