OMG we have fun at the Academy – and learn tons of things. The most recent course started on Tuesday evening, February 19, with a home-cooked dinner of Garbanzo Curry, Massaged Kale Salad, and exquisite Vegan Chocolates (not home-cooked, but better…). Then we got acquainted and I lectured about what it means to be a Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator.
This group was different from the earlier ones in that we didn’t have a single person from the local (NY/NJ/CT) area and instead welcomed students from California, Montana, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida, South Carolina, and Massachusetts.
We learned about nutrition from Marty Davey, RD; fashion from Joshua Katcher and Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart, “Supporting Mixed and Transitional Families” from Jen Gannet, VLC; and vegan pregnancy from Sayward Rebhal, VLC, also a participant in the course.
Michael Parrish DuDell taught Environmentalism and Vegan Business; Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan, JD, of Our Hen House, taught “Essentials of Animal Rights and Animal Law”; Fran Costigan deliciously delivered “The Art of the Food Demo” and “The Sweet Dilemma”; Sharon Nazarian, VLC, regaled us with the fine points of social media; a panel of graduates, Dianne Wenz, VLC, Alicia Leeds-Meyers, VLC, and Jamie Karpovich, VLC, shared on coaching techniques; and historian Rynn Berry finished us off with a fascinating exploration of vegetarian/vegan/raw-food history from antiquity to the present day.
I filled in with Public Speaking & Media Training; The Client Questionnaire; Working with the Overweight and/or Food-Addicted Client; Elements of Ayurveda; and The M-E-N-D Program (meditation, exercise, nourishment, and detoxification); and the class was present for my live radio show, with two students having the opportunity to co-host with me (that was the Feb. 20 show, which you can check out at Unity.FM, on Stitcher, and iTunes).
Not to leave out my favorite activities of all: our fabulous field trips in NYC – to Vaute, MooShoes, High Vibe, BabyCakes, and more – around and about this magnificent and utterly vegan-friendly city. Students who arrived early made it to Chloe Coscarelli’s book signing at Candle Café West, and the rest of us were there the next evening for dinner. We also had a divine luncheon at Pure Food and Wine (thanks to Sarma Melngailis and her staff for paradise on plates), dinners at Mana and Café Blossom, and graduation lunch at Peacefood Café.
Main Street Vegan Academy is a heaping helping of magic four times a year. It’s an adventure, an education, a vacation, and a game-changer. If reading about it makes you tingle, I hope you’ll be able to attend one day. I feel so incredibly lucky that even though it’s a lot of work and organizing and details and energy going out, it’s delight and amazement and gratitude and new friends coming in. In other words, if getting to be part of it every time doesn’t make me the very luckiest person on earth, it’s gotta put me in the top 5.