8th Annual Victorian Tea, Forks over Knives & Bragg... PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!!

The Berry Manor Inn

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, from 3 to 7 p.m., I represented the Food for Life Program at the eighth annual Victorian Tea & Breast Health Fair  at the Berry Manor Inn in Rockland,  Maine. This event, sponsored by the Picker Family Resource Center was open to the public and FREE! It was a HUGE success.

The tea, in its 8th year, was held in a setting evocative of the Victorian era, and is a wonderful opportunity for the Midcoast community to learn about breast health from knowledgeable healthcare professionals. I was proud to be one of those professionals asked to be present to talk with (mostly) women from all over Knox County as they wandered from room to room in the beautiful Inn, discussing a wide variety of ideas and services that encourage and support their well-being, including stress reduction, lymphedema prevention and management, blood pressure checks, healthy eating, weight management for youth, maintaining fitness (this is our specialty!)and more. 

I placed this poster at the door to drawn in the crowd

Room Number 1, my station for the event

Participants where also encouraged to schedule a "mini-session" choosing from disciplines such as  reflexology, reiki, Bowen therapy or jin shin jyutsu and shavasana (yogic breathing and relaxation) and a wide variety of workshops. In addition to my station in one of the beautiful guest rooms (literally Room 1), I presented a workshop in the Carriage House Kitchen where I prepared Green Goddess Smoothies and Dairy-Free Soft Serve. I talked with nearly 100 interested parties between 3 and 5 p.m. then ran to the Carriage House to whip up a batch of Smoothies and Banana Soft Serve for a full workshop, WHEW! I was hoarse by the end of the evening from all of the chatting but it was time well spent for sure. I was lucky to share Room 1 with my sister, Donna Ames, RN...(plus lots of other letters after name) who represented the ZING! program of Pen Bay Pediatrics which is a program aimed at energiZING kids to a healthy weight.

There were many door prizes and among them, participants who visited my room were entered into a drawing for a FREE copy of The Cancer Survivor's Guide. We will announce the winner at the end of this post! The Cancer Survivor's guide is the book which accompanies the series of Food for Life Cooking classes. We give a loaner copy to anyone who takes the course or you can purchase your own copy from me, on the website  OR there is a downloadable FREE PDF version, all on the link above. The great information and delicious recipes in this book make it a "must-have" for everyone, even if you are not concerned about cancer.

Also among the special treats (besides the fabulous Traditional Tea goodies offered by the fantastic Kitchen staff of the Berry Manor, Dr. John Westerdahl of the Bragg Company sent me an assortment of Bragg Product samples to give away at the Tea. These included Bragg Nutritional Yeast, Kelp, and the famous Liquid Aminos.

One of the Food for Life Info Tables placed around Room 1

Some of the Bragg Products we gave away, THANKS Dr. Westerdahl!!

The 8th Annual Victorian Tea is a great service to the community, I was proud to be a part of this event and hope to continue to do so in the future. This was the 2cd event this month where I did a community out-reach event. On Oct. 19th I was honored to be present at the screening of the award-winning documentary Forks over Knives presented by the Belfast Peace and Justice Group in the Belfast Free Library  where I also collected names for the prize drawing and participated in the Q & A forum after the film. These events combined with two FFL classes specific to Breast Cancer Awareness really helped to spread the good word of disease prevention and achieving optimal health through a Whole Foods, Plant-based diet, all in all reaching hundreds of people in the Knox & Waldo County Communities of Maine!

I have one more "lunch & learn" event at Athena Health on November 3 then I head south taking the Food for Life Nutrition and Cooking classes to Southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida, can't wait! We'll be starting the Plant-based Supper Club Feasts as soon as I arrive at 1008 so stay tuned for more info on what's cooking in the soon-to-be southern Leafy Café Kitchen!
And now for the moment you've all been waiting for (I know some of you have jumped ahead to find out without reading this post :-)
The Winner our prize, The Cancer Survivor's Guide is (drum-roll please) Robin C. Bray!! Robin, please contact me to claim your prize!