MARINETTE, Wis. — Raven Wood Gardens had its first annual two-day Caregiver Retreat on June 17-18.

Owner and founder Lou Anne Bates hosted a small group of community members and local business owners at the gardens. Veterans Amanda Brisette and Bethany Raber demonstrated how to start a fire with kindling, dryer lint, a knife and flint and steel. After successfully lighting a small flame, all attendees continued to light their own fire with flint and steel as well. As a sweet treat, there was a s’mores-making station with strawberries and fixings to dip it in. The end of Friday was spent singing karaoke, dancing with light-up wings and visiting with community members.

The headquarters of Saturday’s events was the scenic outdoor kitchen surrounded by planted herbs. Bates welcomed the approximately 60 participants to the retreat with a gift bag filled to the brim with free goodies and local business literature. Included was a therapeutic veterans’ wallet kit, seeds, lanyards, beer koozies and much more.

Vendors had booths set up right next to the second greenhouse. Princess Bjorkman and Ryan Krog represented The Wellness Way and had several of the natural supplements they prescribe to patients available to sample. Brittany Mans of Sage Gardens sold handmade jewelry, dried herbs and flowers for tea, bath salts and body oils. Stacey from 35th and Coffee provided coffee with chagaccino, which is a mushroom that naturally supports your immune system and is sugar-free. Amy from Lume in Escanaba provided educational materials on cannabis products and samples of topical CBD lotions (none for sale).

The first speaker was Christine Pada, a practitioner of Laughter Yoga. Pada is a certified counselor with multiple degrees in psychology and counseling. She explained that the beginnings of Laughter Yoga started in the early 1990s with people telling jokes to an audience, which didn’t last long because they eventually ran out of material. Pada instead encourages people to laugh at nothing. There are numerous health benefits to laughing for a 10- to 15-minute period daily. The act releases serotonin and dopamine in the brain, tricking the person into being in a good mood, so she encourages laughing at unfortunate situations instead of becoming angry or sad.

After, Dr. Ryan Krog gave an informational presentation on his practice The Wellness Way. “Inflammation underlies 95% of all chronic diseases regardless of symptoms or diagnosis,” Krog said. Inflammation is caused by toxins, trauma and thoughts — the three T’s. From the harmful chemicals people intake daily to the physical injuries sustained and the negative thoughts, the body is often receiving harm that isn’t being paid any attention. Krog explained that medical doctors will diagnose and try to keep the problem from worsening, while a wellness doctor will go straight to the root cause and create a long-term plan to heal the whole body from there. They determine how to treat patients by testing minor food allergies that don’t cause anaphylactic shock, but rather gastrointestinal tract problems.

The first workshop started with Carrie Jo Martin from CJ’s Glass giving a tutorial on how to make a small lotus-shaped mosaic. All participants enthusiastically completed their project with ease.

Lunch was served by Chelsea Alyn, owner of the Halfway Bar and Grill. The choice of grilled chicken, salmon or marinated tofu was given along with a side of rice and a fresh-picked salad. All salad ingredients were picked that day from Bates’s own garden.

After lunch, Penny Mullins of Penny’s Plants & Pots showed a group how to plant and take care of succulents. One of the easier plants to take care of, succulents don’t require water daily. A variety of echeverias, peperomias and others were provided.

Lume Manager Amy Conner represented her Escanaba cannabis store. She was invited to dispel the stigma around marijuana. Lume is a store that serves 21-plus-year-old adults and medical card holders for cannabis. This is where patients prescribed medical marijuana will pick up their prescription. All sales are tracked by the Cannabis Regulatory Agency, or CRA. Additionally, she explains that the cannabis plant has different parts that create different substances. THC is the psychoactive chemical compound, or cannabinoid, commonly associated with the “high” that marijuana is known for, coming from the flower. CBD is the cannabinoid also from the plant that can be derived from the flower, leaves or stalk but has no psychoactive agent. Marijuana is commonly used by veterans and sufferers of chronic pain due to its effects that can calm anxiety, stop night terrors and sustain a good night’s sleep.

Veteran’s spouse Sandy Wolf taught a group how to make lotion bars from scratch. With a recipe using beeswax, vitamin E oil, shea butter and more, the lotion is easy to make and good for the skin.

Brittany Mans of Sage Gardens also gave a presentation on how to make a tea mix. Dried herbs and flowers put into a tea bag and steeped in hot water can transfer healthy, helpful nutrients.

The final presentation was given by Bates herself. She spoke about the benefits of incense making and burning. The creation of incense blends together natural ingredients into a form that can be slowly burned and emits a comforting smell in the smoke.

A survey was given out to every attendee about what their favorite workshop, speaker, garden and memory was from the retreat. Prizes were given out to those whose survey was pulled by random. George Anderson won a case of Nooma’s coconut energy drink, Kim Fornier a pack of resistance bands for exercise, Martha Anderson a Raven Wood Gardens T-shirt, Princess Bjorkman a Lume bag with freebies inside and Alex Bournonville Arbonne AgeWell skin care and eyeshadow palette.

Some vendors and speakers at the last minute were unable to make it to the event –Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center employee Dr. Haven Bain as well as Jaime Parrett from Exercise in Movement. While it caused some organizational mishaps, Raven Wood Gardens still was able to pull it off.

Bates plans two to three more events for the public during the rest of the year. The “Let’s Grow Together” contest is still running. Call 715-923-9362 if you or someone you know would like to purchase and decorate a garden.

She also reminds people that they are not only open to veterans and their spouses, but are also to hosting weddings, photo shoots and other events and looks forward to doing the Caregiver Retreat again next year.