Why I Love This Photo
After hosting more than 3,000 guests at hundreds of Sauna gatherings over the past three years, I have a lot of good Sauna photos. Despite the unflattering flash effect, THIS photo from last week’s Sauna Meister gathering is one of my all-time favorites. But you have to know a little backstory to understand why…
The people in the photo earned the title Sauna Meister by spending hundreds of hours building, transporting, cleaning, coordinating and hosting our Kickstarter supporters at Sauna residencies this winter.
When I look at the photo above, I remember Darrin Gee (far left) standing for hours in single digits cutting boards for our build team.
Garrick Yoong (next left) stacking 700 pieces of firewood by himself to make sure we were ready for opening day at Surly Brewing Company…
Sara Hill (next left) volunteering to drive 8 hours to pick up our Kuuma Sauna stove so we could have heat while we finished the build…
Lee Sarkela, a.k.a. Sarks, (second in on the right) earned his rank as Meister last winter during the most difficult mobile sauna move in history…
And Teke O’Reilly (far right), the mastermind behind our successful Kickstarter campaign, keeping us on course for this month’s Membership campaign…
This is just a tiny glimpse of the contributions and involvement that have gotten us this far, but I hope it gives you an idea of why it was so special to share the bench with this crew last week.
The Meisters are a special group, to be sure. Their generosity, however, is not uncommon when it comes to Sauna Society. I can look at almost any picture from the last three years of Sauna gatherings and feel similar shades of admiration and appreciation.
But the reason I love THIS photo is because it reminds me of the core reason I’m so excited about the 612 Sauna Society Cooperative. As Member-Owners, not only do we ALL get the credit we deserve for making this healthy oasis available to our community—we also get to appreciate the contributions of our fellow benchmates. When you’re melting your stress away on the Sauna bench at The Forge, it’s because the people you’re sharing the space with have made it possible, and this appreciation and kinship takes the experience to a new level.
I’m elated to share this experience with the 130 people who have already signed up to be Member-Owners. I received an email from one of these Founding Member-Owners yesterday. Haley Cureton is a local artist, and gifted storyteller. She wrote:
Yesterday at the March for Science I was walking behind a woman carrying a sign that read “the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it,” and I was thinking about how true that is for community too — that the greatest threat to community is the belief that someone else will create it. I love hanging around people that are NOT waiting for someone else to do the work, but rather actively showing up to build and sustain a community of learning and practice and personal/collective growth together, right now. The Sauna Society is really special and I’m looking forward to staying involved as a member-owner. And hopefully spending more time inside the Forge next fall/winter!
We hope you’ll join us too! Please get involved. Here’s how:
- ) Sign up to be a Member-Owner. We have 70 spots left. We’ll close the campaign April 30th, or as soon as all the spots are gone—whichever happens first. Sign up and Reserve your spot now!
- Help us get the word out by sharing a link to this post. Tell your peeps: “One week left to join the nation’s first Sauna Co-op!”
Thanks—and see you on the bench!
-John
