Barbara Williamson was born in the Midwest in 1939. From a very early age, she realized there was something wrong with women’s rights.

She graduated High School and moved to the West Coast to create her own path, rather than one dictated for her by society at large. Williamson began working at a male-dominated Fortune 500 company, where she quickly moved up the ranks. But upon reaching the “American dream,” she felt unfulfilled.

That is when she met her life partner and founded the Sandstone Retreat, a rebellious, sexually charged commune where sexual freedom and expression were encouraged and celebrated.

Upon retirement from the Principal Financial Group in 1996, she felt a calling to work in wildlife conservation – specifically, lion and tiger preservation.

With the help of her partner, John, Williamson built a wildlife sanctuary and research facility for endangered wild cats, naming it Tiger Touch Sanctuary.

She currently lives with and cares for wild cats at the Tiger Touch Sanctuary, studying how the animals bond with humans and where both species’ futures lie.

Phone: (775) 423-8277

Homer’s love of dance started in his native St. Thomas Virgin Islands watching dance classes through the window on his way home from the playground. Now the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center is celebrating its 25th year in existence! All the while people were saying it couldn’t be done.

The mission of Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center is to provide students of every race, creed, color, and gender the opportunity to learn the elegant and spiritually edifying discipline of dance.

From Classical and Contemporary Ballet, to African Dance and Hip Hop, Homer Bryant along with all of the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center instructors is committed to finding and developing the very best in each and every student.

Meet a few of our students and faculty, and learn a bit more about CMDC in this excerpt from the documentary “The Art of the Possible”.

As a not for profit they are always looking for donations. The funds go to changing the lives of everyone that steps through their doors.

Contact Homer and the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center:

Sometimes the most impactful organizations come from a place of  sadness and personal tragedy.  Transforming Youth Recovery is a one of those organizations.

The Stacie Mathewson Foundation creates and brings together innovative and sustainable scholastic recovery communities.

We work with these communities to increase recovery success for students struggling with addiction. We use the real world experiences of students in recovery to educate the public about addiction and recovery and to erase the social stigma that blocks students and their families from seeking help.

In 2013 we created the non-profit charity, Transforming Youth Recovery.

Through this organization, we support educators, parents and community members in helping students in recovery thrive in the fullness of everyday life.

Our vision is to transform youth recovery—one community, one school, one student at a time.

Their website is a treasure trove of useful information and tools to help families and youths dealing with the plaque of addiction.

Phone: (858) 350-1111

Listed by Steinway as a teacher of Piano.  Kenn Gartner, debuted as both pianist and accompanist, at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco in September of 2008.  He jokes by saying he was basically born under a Steinway.  Born into musical household, his mother who was a music teacher, he began playing piano at the age of 2 and a half years old and by the age of eight was playing at Steinway Hall.

Kenn has taught Master Classes in Piano Technique (based upon Ph.D. dissertation wherein compositional innovations forced changes in the piano technique needed to perform these compositions thus changing a player’s approach to pianism) The Shanghai Institute, People’s Republic of China, San Rafael, CA, and other venues.  He has also conducted many large-scale choral works.

March 2010, included a performance in the Concerts Grand series, San Rafael, CA (3/21); Flushing Town Hall, Queens, NY (3/23); Salle Cortot, Paris, France (3/28); with a return engagement in NYC 4/6.  Coached several students to great success:  Zachary Franczak (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Best Actor Award, 2009); William Zhao (Marin Music Chest Scholarship, 2010), et al.

Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia, ISSofBC, provides services to government assisted refugees and immigrants that arrive to British Columbia such as job placement, temporary housing, language training, as well as a number of community projects.  Patricia joined ISSofBC after close to 30 years in the social services arena.  The staff is as diverse as the people they help, representing between 70-80 different countries.  She can be quoted saying that, “…it’s like walking a tiny little globe everyday”.  She very engaged in the community.  She sits on boards and committees outside of ISSofBC as well as volunteering with various organizations.

Learn more about ISSofBC by visiting the website: issbc.org.

They also encourage community involvement and volunteering.  Visit http://issbc.org/prim-corp-nav/volunteer-with-us to find out more, or if you or someone you know is need of the services they provide all that information is also located on their website.

Email: [email protected]

VSI, Inc. founded by Diana Richards in December 1994 after meeting with a retail clothing store chain experiencing vacuum cleaner maintenance issues with their onsite vacuum cleaners.

The Vacuum Helpline Sustainability Program was conceived by Diana in the parking lot after that meeting. Before starting VSI, Inc., Diana owned a vacuum cleaner shop for 20 years working on all levels from repair, sales and marketing.

Vacuum Systems International, Inc. (VSI) was founded in 1994 to manage national chain stores’ floor care equipment. What started out as a single client wanting a resource for store associates to call and troubleshoot vacuum repair issues has grown into North America’s largest vacuum cleaner remanufacturing facility. Today, VSI assists nearly 72,000 facilities in 16 countries to manage their floor care equipment keeping them safe, clean and in a customer ready environment.

VSI’s service process is what sets them apart. VSI does not repair, they remanufacture. Every unit is completely disassembled so that the VSI technicians are able to replace broken and worn parts. It is because of this extensive process that their clients are getting 10-12 years out of their equipment!

Phone: 800-997-VACS (8227)

Internationally qualified as a medical doctor with additional health certifications in related fields. Dr. M. Murad’s interest in natural therapies, with the opportunity to travel. Live in different countries. Make friends and meet their families. Multi-cultural knowledge with the experience of international study and living. Provides the foundation for the “Movement is Blessed” Program. An all-natural therapy based on the Timeless Basic Principles of Science. The MB Program is proven by over twenty years of development.

MB exercises were assembled by Dr. Marium Murad, for her mother. With a heart condition and confined for a prolonged period to ‘complete rest in bed’ for her bad back. Extended rest by immobility is favorable for the back but can lead to potentially dangerous heart consequences. ​With the MB Program, her mother did not suffer a single episode of chest discomfort, during the months of complete bed-rest. In fact, her mother found these toe and finger exercises very soothing. She would fall asleep while Dr. M. Murad continued with the toe and finger exercises for her mother. The MB advantage, assist circulation for a loved one, even while they’re asleep! De-stress weak hearts, especially in sickness…

For those individuals who would like to try a natural approach, use the MB Toes’ and Fingers’ Program. Feel the Power of Nature’s Principles. This program is custom designed for those with healthy minded individuals who are unable to exercise. Either they cannot physically exercise or do not find the time in their busy day.

Remember the fundamental Rule of Life,

Email: [email protected]

Jason has served in many facets of the military and US Public Health Service. This candid interview follows his transition throughout his career and after his retirement as a consultant with ADT security.

Email: [email protected]

Gina started her career as a counselor after completing her undergraduate degree in theater and dance. While she was completing her masters degree in counseling, she noticed the lack of funding. Gina went to the elected officials to change the system and soon became a county commissioner to oversee and create the budget. From her desire to work with clients again she began The Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care.

We connect the passion of private philanthropy with the world’s top researchers and programs to bring recovery–based care and supports to every community.

The change we seek begins with standing by those who need us, seeing hope where others see despair. It takes daring to speak up when systems fail us. It can thrive only when research is unbiased, dialogue is open and healing is an often-achieved goal. It takes respect, compassion and the sure knowledge that recovery is more than a possibility: It is what we expect.

Email: [email protected]

Jen­nifer Hansen has always been inter­ested in under­stand­ing money, how the var­i­ous inter­est cal­cu­la­tions work and how banks actu­ally make their prof­its. After work­ing in a bank for five years, dur­ing the mid to late 70’s, she real­ized she would not learn what she wanted to know from the banks them­selves because they were only look­ing after their own inter­ests. They were not about to edu­cate, even their employ­ees, with any infor­ma­tion other than what they wanted the employ­ees to know so they would direct clients to behave in the man­ner that made the banks more prof­its. She also real­ized the main­stream edu­ca­tional sys­tem did not pro­vide this information either.

It wasn’t until 2007 that she found the resource she had been look­ing for for so many years; a group of out-of-the-box thinkers when it came to finances. She has been enjoy­ing this jour­ney of dis­cov­ery ever since as it has lead her to meet­ing many other finan­cial pro­fes­sion­als who have under­stood a whole new par­a­digm from what is ‘nor­mal’ in regards to money and finances. These men­tors have been in the finan­cial indus­try for 20 and 30 years but have been own­ing and uti­liz­ing their own pri­vate finan­cial sys­tems for up to eleven years.

Jen­nifer was born and grew up in Aus­tralia, has been mar­ried for 31 years (as of March 2012) and has 4 suc­cess­ful chil­dren. Her fam­ily is in their third year of own­ing their own pri­vate bank­ing sys­tem and can attest to it chang­ing their finan­cial lives. It has done so so much that her mis­sion is to share this infor­ma­tion with as many oth­ers as pos­si­ble. Nel­son Nash, the man whose book ‘Becom­ing Your Own Banker’ started it all,  is a true life hero and she shall always be grate­ful to him.

Jennifer’s forte is help­ing peo­ple under­stand how to refi­nance their debts into their own pri­va­tized bank­ing sys­tem and  to track all the parts of this finan­cial strat­egy in a soft­ware pro­gram that truly helps peo­ple grasp how money and inter­est works in their own lives with their own money and this pro­vides a real sense of being-in-control for them. Debt is an asset to a bank. Jen­nifer coaches you on how to con­vert your  lia­bil­i­ties  into your assets.

Website: http://debtdiagnosis.com