Roots

It's time that I took a moment to tell you a little bit about how it is that I now find myself in the home of Jessica Feltz, Community Acupuncturist Extraordinaire, embarking on a fairly unique journey.

I'm terrible at knowing when in time a story begins (because something always came before), but let's start with three years ago. Philadelphia Community Acupuncture is located in the same old firehouse as Satellite Cafe, my barista job. One day, with my partner, I went upstairs to try acupuncture. Jakey and I started going in for weekly treatments together.

Without going too deep into details, some factors in my life at the time included: I had recently taken a month off work to hitchhike across the states (didn't quite work out), and as a result, I was working very little. I also decided to go to group therapy around this time, and knew that I couldn't afford both that and weekly acupuncture. So I stopped going to acupuncture. Ellen, the owner of PCA, asked Jakey why I had stopped coming in for treatments, learned of my financial plight, and inquired as to whether I might be interested in volunteering. I was!

I started volunteering as a receptionist. I volunteered four hours each week. I received free acupuncture as a token of appreciation for my volunteerism. It was great. During this time, Korben, the other then-owner of PCA, managed volunteers--on top of being an acupuncturist and then a new dad. Ellen had also previously managed volunteers. One day, (we have now fast-forwarded a year and some months) the two of them sat down, said they wanted to talk. I got terribly nervous. They asked me if I was planning on going anywhere any time soon. "Like, on vacation?" I was confused. They proposed that they wanted to pay me to be their volunteer coordinator. I was into it. Details were hashed out.

I coordinated volunteers. I helped implement new systems to help with organization and communication amongst volunteers and between acupunks and volunteers. At the second CANference, Ellen and I led a break out session on using volunteers in your CA clinic.

Now, I'm traveling around the country, helping clinics set up volunteer systems. I'm like the CANference that comes to you, and I have very reasonable rates.

Please email me at arrangingtapestry@gmail.com if you'd like to discuss a visit to your clinic.

P.S. Another post will eventually follow for those of you who have no idea what community acupuncture is. Stay tuned.