At the end of last month, Catholic Charities Head Start and Early Head Start of Carroll County joined us at the farm for their beginning of year staff wellness day. They began their day at our beautiful timber-frame lodge to discuss “why what we do matters and why self-care is so imperative to our work/ life.” From there, the leaders of the event opened up the morning workshops, where participants could opt into one of the four 45-minute workshops. While some folks did yoga with the lovely Kim Wilson in the pavilion, others came along with me for a forest therapy walk, did self-care journaling with Sara Reich, or had time to ‘chat and create’ with Pat Foley.
Group nature art project created along the Forest Therapy Walk
After a casual interactive lunch with Kim Wilson, everyone came over to the farm-side of things for a second round of break out sessions. Here, participants were invited to paint our horses with farm team Mattie and Clare, explore the mud kitchen and tipi with me, or go on an epic scavenger hunt with Kelsey Lineberger.
After a good deal of silliness in these stations, we all moved together into the pine cathedral to hear about the ‘Benefits of Farm-Based Programming’ with me. Here, I shared what our nature and animal programming is all about, as supported by research studies and our own farm-based observations. All told, it was a lovely day for all and we can’t wait to do it again in the future!