Meet Our Team
April Blair
April Blair has been teaching in the Cascadia bioregion (NW US) for the past 18 years, weaving Waldorf Philosophy, Deep Nature Connection, Ancestral Skills, Permaculture, Diversity Awareness, and various Sensory and Therapeutic Healing Arts, including a resilience-based trauma-informed perspective into her work with children. She has also raised two unique children of their own.
Laura Mayer
Laura is a village herbalist and Innate Postpartum Practitioner, who is passionate about food as medicine, herbs as allies and connection as guidance. She is the creatrix of Backyard Harvest, creating herbal medicines, based on the inspiration of the seasons and the abundance of the harvests! She is dedicated to offering mama’s and their families support and inspiration through holistic healing that nourishes mind, body, soul, and the Earth and honors intuition.
Daniel Newman
I would like to take a moment and introduce myself. My name is Daniel Newman. I've grown up in the PNW. This is the place I love to be and feel that my spirit has been held so well in its wild spaces. I've grown up camping and playing in these waters and on these mountains. They are my home. I'm a father of two beautiful daughters at their 10 and 16 yr thresholds. I've been so blessed to have these elementals to call friends and aids in my parenting journey. They have held us so deeply helping us to remember older simpler ways. How to be happy beyond things and stuff. Finding the calm within. As most of us know, these are some challenging times to raise wee ones. So many distractions and influences. So to return to the basics in the beginning of a path renewed.
I've been on quite a journey creating a place and space of resilience. Gathering skills along the way to use in times of need. I was certified as an rescue diver over 20 yrs ago. We sailed a bunch in the San Juan islands growing up. Pouring over maps studying topography, currents, tides and weather. Workung with knots and the elementals. Before that it was scout, camping and skills. Along the way I've taken multiple first-aid courses. Being their isn't anybody but ourselves in the backcountry or remote islands. Its good to be skilled up and be able to take care of your fellow travelers. In the last 10 or so years I've attended. The Art of Mentoring on Salt Spring Island, BC with Wilderness Awareness School. A beautiful family friendly village/mentoring weekend. The Coyote Mentoring also with WAS, a deeper look into the settle and simple pieces of Mentoring. The unseen and natural ways to communicate. Multiple skill shares, working on bushcraft and primitive skills (friction fire, wild harvest, back country first aid, tracking, orientation, blacksmithing, hide tanning and many more). Multiple week long backcountry trips, ranging around the Casacde and Olympics ranges. I do love being outside and finding ways to get out there more and more.
I'm very grateful for this opportunity to be with our youth out there in nature. To help as best I can to create these deep connections with nature and self. To hold a safe place for them to have the time to arrive in a new way.