1st South Frontenac Holistic Health Fair Set For Centennial Park

Jeff Green | Sep 13, 2023

Ellie Steele is a Holistic Nutritionist and an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)* practitioner living and working in Harrowsmith.

“I grew up in Verona, and now live here,” she said in an interview with the News last week, “and I know quite a few holistic practitioners who live in South Frontenac. A lot of us have two offices, one in Kingston and one at home, and there is definitely a different vibe in the country than in the city. A lot of clients find us in the city, and we learn that they live out here as well, but we are sort of hidden here.

That got Ellie thinking that it would be worthwhile to introduce the community of holistic practitioners to the South and Central Frontenac community as a whole, and that is where the idea of holding a Holistic Health Fair came from.

She started putting it together 6 months ago, and next Saturday, (September 23) all that effort will culminate in the inaugural South Frontenac Holistic Health Fair: Welcome Home to Wellness from 10am-3pm at Centennial Park.

“When I first started out, I contacted people who I knew in the local area, including Morgan Warren from Deep Rooted Massage (Sydenham). She told me of a few practitioners that she knew, and it kind of snowballed from there. There are a lot of people working out here, who I did not know anything about before now. It’s almost overwhelming what is available in our own backyard.”

There will be 32 vendors on hand at the Fair, including a few product vendors such as Anne Madden from North Cross Farms, who makes soaps and salves, but the vast majority are a wide variety of practitioners.

Some, such as Morgan Warren and Allison Montgomery from Back to Health Massage and Wellness, have storefronts in South Frontenac, but others such as Amanda Hall from Willow Family OT in Battersea, and Sandra O’Grady from Gentle Wellness Homeopathy from Sydenham, may be better known as practitioners in Kingston than in their own communities.

In addition to the information and vendor style booths, the health fair features a series of workshops in the small pavilion.

These include a welcome meditation at 10am, Kitchen Cupboard Herbalism by Melanie Saunders at 11:30, Breathing Optimization with Alexanda Clinton from 1pm-2:30pm, and more.

As well, weather permitting, there will be Qigong Meditation (10:45 am) with Marilyn Picard, Hatha Yoga with Maria Teglas (11:30 am, BYO mat) an introduction to Forest Therapy with Claire Beach (12:15) on the grass.

The Health Fair is a free event, and donations to the South Frontenac Food Bank are appreciated, but pre-registration is encouraged at Eventbrite (Search South Frontenac Holistic and it will come up) and includes an entry for prize draws on the day.

*”EFT is a type of counselling intervention that stimulates acupressure points by pressuring, tapping or rubbing these points while focusing on situations that represent fear or trauma” - Wikipedia definition