Our Origin Story

The idea for a women's retreat may not be new, shiny and original - but there was a very apparent need for one in the Magic Valley. 

However, rather than create a similar version of the many other women's self-development retreats out there, we wanted to create an experience that would not only fill your cup, but would warm your heart with the knowledge than not only are you working to improve yourself - you're coming together with other like-minded women to serve those in the community who are in need.

Thus, the service project.

Relief has a double meaning for these retreats - not only did we want to provide the women who attend our retreats with their own much needed relief from the literal and metaphoric aches and pains of daily life, we wanted to reach further out into the community to provide relief to others. 

Each year we partner with a different local non-profit for our service project - the heart of each retreat - and each attendee is invited to participate. Many hands make light work!

During Relief Retreat 2020, we partnered with the Twin Falls Optimist Youth House. Together we stuffed Easter eggs and filled beautiful baskets with colored raffia, candies, eggs and other goodies, wrapped it all up in cellophane and a big bow and delivered them to kids in the foster care system who would otherwise have gone without. We even had a few leftover to donate to our local refugee center! 

Relief Retreat 2021 saw us going virtual! At the height of the pandemic we decided it would be best to not gather together in person - but didn't want to lose out on the special experience of collaborating on a service project. We reached out for volunteers to put together dinner kits for the Twin Falls chapter of CASA - which stands for "court appointed special advocates." These good-hearted people are part of a national nonprofit program that recruits, trains, supervises, and supports community volunteers who advocate for abused and neglected children in the child welfare system.

Our friend at CASA suggested it would be nice to have ready-to-go meal kids for recently reunited families to take home with them :) Strengthening family bonds through preparing and eating a meal sounded absolutely perfect - and would be a great way to give people the opportunity to help! 

At the beginning of the week, we dropped off bags, recipe cards and instructions and our volunteers took to the stores searching for, preparing and packaging the ingredients for both dinners and desserts. At the end of the week, we drove around town collecting the meal kits and dropped them off at CASA. 

Relief Retreat 2022 is going to be an event to remember! This year we are partnering with the Jerome School District Distribution Center, who provide clothing of all kinds to anyone in need - at no cost!

We will be having a clothing drive for new and gently used items for men, women, children and infants. Anyone can donate, but attendees are especially encouraged to collect and bring items. During the service project portion of our retreat, we will be sorting through all the donations, organizing them into categories and spot cleaning, mending and ironing as needed. We want everything to look as good as new before we package them up and the volunteers with the JSD take them to the distribution center!

We are pretty excited for this year's retreat, and we appreciate all of those who work together to make each event happen. 

We hope to see you at the Brickhouse on February 19th! Doors open at 9:00am :)