Beth Bannister
Beth Bannister has been a long time friend of Camp Earth Connection. Beth has been an Outdoor Educator for CEC children’s camps as well as a Presenter for Healing Hearts. Beth has extensive experience as an outdoor educator and enjoys being out in Nature and sharing her experience and knowledge about the Natural World with others. Healing Hearts welcomes Beth’s return.
Susan Rausch
Susan Rausch is the owner and director of Camp Earth Connection(CEC) and will be your host for the weekend. Susan designed the Healing Hearts Program and introduced the first retreat for women in the Fall of 2010. In addition to the Fall Weekend Retreats, there has also been a Fall Day Retreat, a Winter Weekend Retreat and a Winter Day Retreat. Susan is pleased to welcome you to either your return to Camp Earth Connection or your first visit. Susan is also happy to announce some wonderful facility improvements! CEC now offers additional lodging which includes beds in her Cabin on the Hill, 2– One Room Cabins w/electric, 3- Rustic Cabins w/out electric, and a Cozy Pop-Up Camper w/electric. Tent and Lean-To camping is also available. The Camp now has a newly constructed Shower House w/hot showers (YAY) and Compost Toilets. During this retreat Susan will lead a special hike to visit some of the sacred Trees around the forest of the camp, as well as lead walks through the trails of Hammond Hill.explore the fields and forest of Camp Earth Connection as well as the trails of the Hammond Hill State Forest. Susan is pleased to introduce new instructors and welcome returning instructors to the retreat.
Susan designed Healing Hearts Retreats to provide a safe space for women to support one another in their individual and collective journeys in healing and growth. Through the exploration of the arts, healing practices, and connection to the earth through workshops, performances, and activities, women share their knowledge, expertise, and experience so that each may heal more deeply and stretch into living her truth more fully. The aim is to deepen the sense of community among women, increase personal peace and well-being, and empower women to be more effective in whatever service they offer the world. Healing Hearts welcome a richly diverse population of women who vary in culture, age, sexual preference, socioeconomic status, and persuasions of all kinds.
Sherron Brown
Sherron Brown is a seasoned returning instructor who started offering her writing workshop for the first time at the Healing Hearts Fall Retreat in 2011. The women who attended loved the workshop and loved Sherron. Healing Hearts is excited to have her as a returning presenter! Sherron studied English Grammar and Composition at Binghamton University and has extensive experience working with troubled teens. She has helped herself and young people to write through some of life’s challenges. Sherron states “I am a lover of the process. I have learned that wherever my writing takes me is exactly where I am supposed to be. I enjoy surrendering to the process of learning about who I am and how I can support my sisters in becoming who they are. My medium is writing. What’s yours?”
Susie Gutierrez
Susie is an Entrepreneur, businesswoman and vegan chef. “I love to Salsa! Being Cuban means that Latin music is playing in my heart , and Salsa is running through my veins. Susie attended Healing Heart Fall Retreat for the first time last year. Since then has also participated in the Fall and Winter Weekend Healing Heart Retreats and has joined Camp Earth Connection as a volunteer for the Healing Hearts Retreat program. We welcome Susie and her love for Salsa to the Healing Hearts Fall Retreat!
Sue Brightly
Sue Brightly received a BA in Art Studio from UC Santa Barbara in 1986. A graphic designer and writer, Sue works as a communications specialist for Cornell University. She has taught painting to beginners for Pinot’s Palette in Texas, as well as paint ‘n sip classes at wineries in Ithaca. In 2015, Sue exhibited a painting for the “We Step Into The Light” project, a collaboration between artists and survivors of sexual violence. She also presented a painting session for Project Star Women’s Creative Workshop in Ithaca, NY. Sue attended the Healing Hearts Fall Retreat in 2014 and we are happy she will be returning this year as a first time presenter. Sue has been re-creating her life since 2012, and chose the name Brightly as the way she wants to live. She hopes to brightly support others in fearless creativity!
Anne Rhodes
Ann Rhodes has worked with many local groups on anti-bias issues over the last 30 years; She has also helped teachers and artists design curriculum to develop critical and creative thinking in young people. She has been more recently been working to help people become more engaged in our local food system, energy efficiency and economic development. Anne has been a long time mentor and consultant for Camp Earth Connection programs, assisting with diversity training, education and staff development. Anne will be returning for the 6th year to lead the women of Healing Hearts in developing the “Living and Working in Peace” agreement and will be offering a Workshop Presenter for the first time at the Retreat.
Sereanda Lourdes
Sareanda Lourdes is a mother and a holistic women’s health nurse with a practice in Maya Abdominal Therapy, Holistic Pelvic Care, Botanical Medicine, Wild Feminine Circles, and Kundalini Yoga. Every woman has access to the power, spirit, and joy nested in the root of her body; Sareanda is devoted to helping women remember this power and thrive, physically, energetically, and spiritually. Sareanda presented her workshop at Healing Hearts last year with great success receiving many positive reviews. Camp Earth Connection is excited to welcome Sareanda back as a returning instructor.
Cha Roberts
A Certified Holistic & Clinical Aromatherapist, Cha is an educator in the field of Aromatherapy and brings many years of aromatherapy education and teaching experience to her students at AromaEducators, School of Essential Oils Studies. She teaches one and two day workshops and also, a 235 hour Aromatherapy Certification Program that is approved as a Level 1 and Level 2 curriculum by NAHA Standards for Professional Aromatherapy Education.
She is both enthusiastic about her vision and dedicated to offering awareness of using essential oils with aromatherapy through research and practical hands-on use in her classes. Her passion is to educate “One Drop at a Time”, about the chemical constituents of essential oils that offer therapeutic properties. With this base, students are able to formulate wisely and knowledgeably with an emphasis on safe use for creating products professionally and personally. She currently lives and teaches in Ithaca, NY. Camp Earth Connection welcomes Cha as a first time instructor at the Healing Hearts retreat.
Kellie Lamoreau
Kellie graduated from Keuka College with a BS degree in Nursing in 1997. After years of working on medical-oncology floors as permanent staff and then as a traveling nurse in several states, I began international humanitarian aid work with Doctors Without Borders in Darfur, Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia. Through these missions, I was exposed to “Eastern views” of medicine and life. I immediately noticed the difference in “our” (U.S.) relationship with death verses many other cultures. After returning from my first mission in 2006, I decided to not return to “hospital nursing” and the “pill pushing/knife cutting” philosophy of western medicine and began working as a hospice nurse. I am often witness to the struggles and anguish people experience with embracing mortality and death and seek to soften this. I believe that through opening discussions about this topic in times of relative calm and awareness, we can prepare ourselves and embrace mortality. Kellie is a past participant at the Healing Hearts Retreat, and is welcomed this Fall as a first time Presenter.
