Bold Red Tent: Review

 

We first want to thank all the lovely ladies that came out to be a part of the day although we were in the midst of a gas crises! We also want to give a huge thanks to all of the sponsors and helper’s listed at the bottom of this review!

 

After much planning, buying material, finding the retreat center, advertising and all else that goes along with planning an event such as this, finally the day of our event was upon us.

 

The night before the event we cooked, set up, did some finale shopping and sent out a few reminders. Bright and early Saturday morning we arrived at the Cherokee Retreat Center to do some finale preparations and make sure we were there in time to heat water for tea, make coffee, set out name tags and bags, check the video, get the drinks cold and to be available as the vendors arrived. The vendors started arriving right around 12:30 PM and seemed to have no problems finding and setting up their tables. We had two vendors that finished setting up a little early and offered to prepare, wash, chop and peel some of the veggie’s and fruit for us, which was very much appreciated!

 

Attendee’s started arriving just after 1:00 PM and all seemed to be very relaxed and glad to be at the event, there was lots of chatter about waiting in long lines for gas earlier in the day. Everyone chatted and talked with old friends and met new friends. At 1:30 PM when the video Orgasmic Birth was supposed to start it seemed like we should wait as there was approximately 25 woman in attendance and all the attendee’s that were there seemed to not be to upset about the film not starting yet as they were still enjoying chatting and looking over the information/Vendor tables. At 1:45 PM we seemed to have about 33 of the 40 we were expecting in attendance so we went ahead and started the video.

 

Orgasmic Birth was 1 hour and 28 minutes, it was in my opinion a bold and eye opening film that seemed to be enjoyed by all in attendance. During the film a very sweet local midwife that had already seen the film kept me company in the kitchen and helped to prepare the rest of the food, again – very much appreciated!

 

As the film ended we had almost two full tables full of food including quiche, black bean casserole, chicken salad, veggie and more. We served lemonade, water and apple juice throughout the day.

 

After everyone enjoyed food, friendships, more chatting, sitting outside, the picnic tables and rocking chairs, then we all gathered to head into the Bold Red Tent.

 

We introduced ourselves while holding a ball of red yarn and stating that we are a daughter of (our mother’s name) and mothers to (our children’s names) and grandmothers (Grandchildren’s names) after we had introduced ourselves we threw the yarn to someone else. By the time all the introductions had been done we had a huge web of red all across the room. I think the web of Red added quite a bit of ambiance and intimacy to our Red Tent and symbolized the connection that all of us are givers of life or have the ability to be, that we are nurturers, we all have cycles and that our ability as woman needs to be valued.

 

After introductions we asked who wanted to start the stories and hop into the story chair and after only about 1 minute we had a taker!

 

We had some amazing stories in my opinion, some were empowering, some were lessons, some were of heartache, some had taught personal strength and lessons, some had motivated the woman to make different choices the next time around and some just needed to be told so that the woman telling the story could own her experience! In some cases even the second or third pregnancies and births taught them lessons to do it yet differently again and again until they had an empowering experience. All the stories were heartwarming, filled with strength and some were funny or humorous. All the woman that shared seemed to enjoy sharing their stories and everyone listening to each story was so respectful and listened attentively, it was truly wonderful. I felt like it was a beautiful and wonderful time shared between all the women present in the room. We even had a woman who brought some great memorabilia with her to share with us and she played a drum for us and shared very candidly her experiences with us. It was nice seeing the mom’s that were so comfortable with mothering that they shared their stories while caring for and in some cases breastfeeding their baby!

 

During the Bold Red Tent we had a few very large spiders that tried to join us and one baby spider. This was very odd because I had been at the retreat center for about 45 minutes one time, 3 hours the night before setting up and 5 hours that day before the Red Tent started and I had not seen any spiders there until we entered into the Red Tent! We had one attendee who wrote in a recap of the day that the spiders must have thought our Red Web of yarn was for them. We had another attendee that was in the middle of her story when one large spider decided to show itself and scare a different attendee almost off her cushion. The woman sharing her story shared with us that it is not surprising to see spiders in the room because the Indian’s believe that spiders will show themselves when something is webbed well so her thoughts were that we were a well webbed group of woman, I thought that was very sweet. The same woman wrote after the event and also said “I'm not surprised to see spiders coming out to validate your hard work today. Spiders teach us that if you spin of well crafted, hard earned web, then you thrive and gain rewards. I know you both brought together a fantastic web of women today and the message was powerful and clear. Today did make a difference in a beautiful way.” Debbie and I thought the event turned out well and were pleased with the turnout but the comment above just validates the reason we wanted to do it.

 

During the Bold Red Tent we had heard that one attendee was afraid she would not have enough gas to get to a gas station that may actually have gas when she left the event so the retreat center manager brought a can of gas to the center so that she would be able to make it to a station. The retreat center manager was so nice and very helpful with anything we needed.

 

After it seemed that there was no one else who wanted to share their story it was very close to the time the event was to be over yet we still had dessert, belly dancing and door prizes planned. So we picked up the pace from our nice easy day a bit and had a beautiful, fun and enlightening belly dance lesson then enjoyed cake and chocolate and all attendee’s were able to receive a door prize!

 

We then cleaned up, packed up, and said goodbye to the retreat center pretty much exactly 12 hours after our day had begun.

 

We had a total of 43 name tags missing so throughout the day we had 43 people attend. It was a beautiful, enlightening, community building, fun day full of heartwarming and encouraging stories. We are pleased with how our first Bold Red Tent turned out!

 

In The Moment Photographs (Catherine Warren) Set up at our event and was so kind to also take some pictures. feel free to see the pictures available here:

 

http://www.pictage.com/client/eventPhotos....icPlaying=false

 

Debbie Schneider and I (Sonya) also have pictures posted on our facebook sites, on Homebirth meetup.com site and on The Bold red Tent Atlanta http://thepailes.com/BoldRedTent.html

 

Again thank you for any vendors, sponsors and participants that contributed to our event!

 

 

If you would like a detailed account of funds used and spent for the event and funds raised for the event please let us know and we will be happy to provide this info. This will also be posted on the meetup site and The Bold red Tent Atlanta site.

 

Also again I want to thank:

 

Sleepy Wrap – They donated a beautiful sling

 

Products of Purity – Gave away a gift basket at the event and donated cash.

 

Preggie Pops – Donated door prizes and gift bag samples

 

GladRags – Donated 4 regular pads and 4 panty liners

 

Comfy Cozy diapers – Donated 5 cloth diapers and 1 cover

 

Dr. Pam Stone – Donation

 

Amy with Carroll Woman’s Center donated a free belly dance lesson at our event

 

Dr. Natasha Reaver - Donation

 

Sweet Earth organic Chocolate – 1 box of chocolates and $20.00 gift certificate

 

The Pregnancy Massage Center - Orgasmic Birth Film Screening

 

Miracles supply and Childbirth Services – Sonya Pailes – Rebozo Video, Chinese stones, Red Tent book, Child's play sling, Be Bold Stamper, Red Tent pen, bags and donations in bag, GFOM postcards

 

Debbie Schneider – For helping with everything physically and financially and for the beautiful decorations, fabric, pillows you brought as well as the slide show and display of the breast to learn self examination.

 

Sally Duffy – Thank you for all your advertising and networking efforts as well as the donations you gathered for the bags.

 

Beatriz – Donations for bags and Thank you for helping us clean up!

 

Claudia C. Thank you for helping to prepare the food during the video!

 

Thank you to all of those who set up at our event

 

In The Moment photographs – Catherine Warren

 

Birthing Joyously - Joyce Gale

 

dagobachocolate.com - information for bags

 

productsofpurity.com

 

Carroll Woman’s center – Setting up, henna and belly Dance lesson

 

Discovery Toys – Mel Williams

 

Rebecca Walton - Donation

 

Honeysuckle Doulas

 

Thanks again to everyone! If you enjoyed the Bold Red Tent, Please share that with everyone you know and spread the word about next years event! We are anticipating that next year’s event will also be on the fourth Saturday of September 09.

 

If you have any comments (negative or positive) or idea’s to make next year better please don't hesitate to email Sonya at miraclstor@aol.com

 

 

Sonya Pailes