An Absolutely Awesome Summer of 2016
Our founder John Pierre (JP) and the team at Living With Harmony have had quite a busy and exciting summer!
Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown, PA
At the beginning of July, JP celebrated his 21st year of participation at the Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown, PA while the festival itself celebrated its 42nd year.
Vegetarian Summerfest is the annual conference of the North American Vegetarian Society. It’s a gathering of over 700 people of all sorts: physicians, fitness experts, chefs, entrepreneurs, nutritionists, biologists, dancers, families, musicians – but they all have one thing in common: they are all happy, compassionate people advocating for a cruelty-free and kind world!
John Pierre and his assistant, Marina, always bring a bright and positive attitude to their participation in VegFest events with JP’s conference presentations and talking with people at the Living with Harmony booth.
Educational Outreach at Vegetarian Summerfest 2016
To help you build a strong foundation of movement and health, at our booth, we demonstrated exercise and food preparation equipment including exercise bands, instant pots, water bottles, blenders, including water filter jugs from Clearly Filtered.
To help you build a strong foundation of nutrition, we sampled many food items, such as camper and travel-friendly meals from Backpacker’s Pantry.
Some of our favorite Backpacker’s Pantry instant meal flavors are Chana Masala, Pad Thai. and Louisiana Red Beans and Rice! I kid you not, these instant meals taste just as good as meals we spend 2+ hrs cooking at home!
We also sampled mouth watering artisan vegan cheeses from Miyoko’s Kitchen. We’ve found that artisan vegan cheeses can help people who say “I’d go vegan, but I just can’t give up cheese.”
At our booth we also educated people about healthy, nutritious and animal friendly products from Beet Boost, Vega, and So Delicious Dairy Free.
Educational Outreach at VegFest Colorado 2016
JP and Marina continue their exciting educational outreach at all VegFests they attend, with the most recent event being at VegFest Colorado 2016.
VegFest Colorado is an annual health & environmental fair coordinated, planned and managed by Animal Action Network. This event is was held near Denver in Golden, CO on July 23–24, 2016.
Educational Outreach to Women About Their Safety!
JP does the difficult, but important outreach to women about their safety. Having spent over 30 years of his life working with battered women and children, JP has gone beyond the scope of being a helping hand in a time of sorrow and pain.
JP decided to use his knowledge of mental and physical abuse and teach women how to identify it, avoid it if possible, and defend themselves, as well as their children, against it.
That is why JP wrote and published his newest book, Strong, Savvy, Safe: Empowering Tools for Self Protection and Vibrant Healthy with co-author Marina Alexander.
In this book, JP and Marina discuss how the fitness and nutrition industries can make women believe they need to look a certain way.
These impossible standards grow into reality and JP works hard each day to turn that ‘reality’ back into falsehood. JP and Marina also discuss car and home safety, and protecting your child from dangerous predators and pedophiles. They have seen the pain and learned the best defenses against it.
Through this new book and lectures throughout the country, JP and Marina share JP’s wisdom on this topic. They have taught 2 seminars so far this summer and JP plans to teach a four-week boot-camp for women in the fall for local Colorado residents. This popular and sought after boot-camp will also be a fundraiser for Living With Harmony.
Our Search for a New Home Continues This Summer
JP and his team recently toured a beautiful, 25-acre property that catalyzed their excitement. The property looks and feels like a sanctuary designed to heal!
It starts with a soft yellow, 2 story home. This gorgeous and newly remodeled house would be a future home to a magical retreat! People would plan a few days to stay at the sanctuary, love the animals and learn new activities, such as gardening, how to compost (and what compost is) and how to better care for themselves.
They would eat delicious food, learn about the power of plants and enjoy spending time with the animals and taking part in gentle exercise. I’m not sure about you, but that sounds a lot like my version of heaven! But the house is only the beginning.
The property has numerous horse stalls, a home for pigs, a place for the chickens and fields and fields of greens on which they may nibble and nibble, jump for joy and spread their wings at the celebration of freedom!
Did I mention the beautiful 8 plot raised garden near the house? While this is all still a fantasy, JP and his team have been working hard to find a location and I have no doubt, we will find Zen, wonderful food and animals in need of care no matter where they finally settle!
Check back soon for more updates! We continue to work diligently to raise funds so this dream can become a reality.
If you can help us with donations or if you know of a property please let us know.
Until next time,
JP and the team at Living With Harmony!
