Camellia Mountain

We need a new home.

August 19, 2019August 18, 2019 csmaxwellconsulting

Transparency is very important to us so we wanted to keep all of our supporters up to date on the decisions we’ve made and the recent changes.

Recently, Camellia Mountain has decided to move off of Gloria’s House Ministries property, leaving our MOU. Our two groups continue to support the mission of working with individuals recovering from addiction, but we are planning on working with people in different phases of recovery. We believe that both programs will be an asset to West Virginia in the future. Camellia Mountain hopes to keep our relationship open and we wish them luck in their endeavors.

Leaving the farm means we have no home! We do however have over 1,000 tea plants living the good life in a church in Athens. The issue is these babies are getting big and need to be repotted, so we are looking for a new and hopefully permanent home that can hopefully offer us space for our tea farm and the sober living society we want to build.

We refuse to give up! We know we can make this happen.

Support Our goal! – 60,000

May 3, 2019May 3, 2019 csmaxwellconsulting

Yesterday we launched our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign with a tea tasting party. Over half way to our first goal already we are incredibly excited. Doing a crowdfunding campaign can be scary. You are exposing your project baby to the world WHILE asking for money. But, we are incredibly excited to share our mission with the internet world and we are touched by the support we have already received.

This campaign has some sweet perks! From a massage to organic coffee to a tea tasting party, we have so many perks and over half were donated by local West Virginia businesses.

Please consider donating to our campaign and be sure to share it with your social media pals. We need funding, but we need awareness just as much!

If you aren’t already following us on Facebook go check it out! Give us a like and invite your friends.

We’re Legit! – and other good news.

April 18, 2019 csmaxwellconsulting

This project has felt very real to the board and our supporters for a long time now, but as of April 16th (which happened to have been our Secretaries birthday) we are 5013c legit! This is a really big deal for Camellia Mountain because we are launching a crowdfunding campaign in May and there are grants we had to hold off on applying for because they wanted us to have non-profit status first.

In other good news, a birthday party was held as a fundraiser by Candice, our Secretary of the Board, to share what we at Camellia Mountain are trying to accomplish and to raise a little bit of money for the cause.

We will be sending out more about the crowdfunding campaign in May. We are getting all the details together. Until then we are excited and as always, raring to go!

If you haven’t seen our Facebook page yet, check it out!

Successful Farm Day!

March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 csmaxwellconsulting

Today over 15 people came out to the Camellia Mountain farm for a volunteer work day. It was beautiful weather and we accomplished so much!

We had several groups taking on different tasks, including trash pickup across the farm and painting a basement.

Here two Bonar students from Concord are planting our second round of tea seeds and different kinds of herbs.

Another crew hauled tires up the hill to make flower beds in front of the cabin and seating for a fire pit. Those same guys then dug a hole and moved rocks to build a fire pit.

Even the kids had a blast. They ran, played, ate great food, and got dirty!!

We want to thank everyone who volunteered today and are supporting our efforts.

Try This Tea Workshop

February 7, 2019 csmaxwellconsulting

We received a the Virginia-Higgens grant in June of 2018 for $3,164.00 and a Try This grant in October for $500. Using these grants we purchased 2,400 seeds and mulch to host a planting and tea education workshop at the SAFE domestic violence shelter in Welch, West Virginia.

These grants also allowed us to purchase a hoop house for our farm and provide occupational therapy sessions to the women at SAFE which are led by our founder, Rachael Porter. Rachael helps her clients develop numerous life skills including stress management, time management, self-care to support abstinence, and social skills for sobriety.

During the first portion of the workshop, the women learned a lesson on tea from our Board Secretary, Candice Maxwell. We covered the origins, uses, and benefits of drinking tea. They learned the difference between tea and tisane and were able to try a few different kinds like black tea from Eygypt and a blood orange smoothie flavored tisane blend.

After trying some tea with their provided healthy snack of oranges and apples, the women got to learn hands-on how to plant tea seeds! Below is Rachael mixing the mulch and fertilizer.

First, they mixed together their soil. Then they broke into small groups and filled trays. Each group was given a certain number and a type of seed. They planted the seeds in their trays and then marked them with popsicle sticks. We all got a little dirty and had a lot of fun!