At Campowerment in Malibu, women find joy, inner strength or simple relaxation
Mary Olson, a 59-year-old IT executive from Falls Church, Va., scaled to the top of a 40-foot high pole and perched there for 10 minutes, trembling, summoning the courage to make the next move. Below, clusters of women shouted encouragement. Finally, Olson began slowly shimmying 40 feet across a horizontal beam to the other side. Then she jumped, gently swinging from a rope, yelping in delight, the Pacific Ocean her backdrop.
The ropes course was a star attraction at Campowerment, a three-day women’s retreat in the hills of Malibu. One hundred fifteen women had signed up for the hikes, yoga classes and workshops centered on relationships, parenting and career goals.
“I wanted to do something for me and just to be outdoors,” said Olson, still on a high from her jump, which was set up and overseen by the Los Angeles-based company Fulcrum. “I was really scared up there just now. I wanted to come down. But I knew I couldn’t. Now I feel amazing.”
That moment of exhilaration is something that Campowerment founder Tammi Leader Fuller is used to witnessing in the thousands of women who have gone through the program since she launched it 2 1/2 years ago. The most recent was the 14th edition and took place at the Gindling Hilltop Camp in Malibu, 800 feet above the Pacific with views of the Channel Islands and Santa Monica Mountains. Leader Fuller, a former television producer, aspired to re-create the joyful summer camps of her childhood while also providing a forum for education and personal growth.
“Some women sit and read and stare at the trees all weekend, and that’s fine,” she said. “Others want to take part in everything.”
Certainly, in addition to camping conventions like s’mores around a campfire, there is a new age element to the proceedings. As part of the welcome, campers are invited to have their auras smudged with sage and can make vision boards to illustrate what they would like their lives to look like. There were moonlight meditations and workshops with titles like “What’s Your Jam and How to Spread It.” There were also facials and massages. Leader Fuller asks that the women refrain from talking about work for the first 24 hours.
“So much in the world is about power — who you are, what you do — that when you don’t allow people to talk about that, you disarm them and they can be known for who they really are,” she said.
While fitness is not the focus of Campowerment, there’s plenty there — which, combined with the fresh air and healthful meals, makes it a rejuvenating girlie getaway.
“When are we ever out in nature this much as grown women?” asked Alyson Khan, who teaches at TruYoga in Santa Monica and was leading the Hi-Yo (hiking/yoga) workouts. “This reminds me of being myself as a child, when being out and going to camp was where my fun came from.”
The campers, who ranged in age from 21 to 79, had a multitude of reasons for being there. Orange County-based writer Christina Lerchen was about to sell her beauty blog and wanted some time to figure out what to do next; for her the workshops on changing careers and body language were invaluable. Many women flocked to the outdoor cooking class helmed by chefs/authors Dana Slatkin and Hedy Goldsmith, during which they showcased a kale and quinoa salad and a sesame seed-coated banana bread. Advertising executive Sasha Wolfe, 41, from Mar Vista, joined Campowerment to “get some space and think about how I’ve been wanting to live my life.”
“It’s an opportunity for me to meet with women in different stages and places in their lives, and it’s nothing like my home routine,” she said.
Jolie Schooler, who works for Google Fiber in Austin, Texas, and is the mother of two small children, said she needed a break.
“I love being outdoors with my family, but this is a different experience,” she said. “It’s not often you get to open up to all these different women who are smart and supportive.”
There is, without a doubt, a “you go, girl” sentiment. A third of the women at the most recent Campowerment had been before. Many stay in touch long afterward.
“People are walking around with such heavy burdens,” said Leader Fuller. “We find that at the end of the weekend, women go home more grateful for what they have, that the things they found irritating no longer look so important after they’ve sat next to someone who has had some really horrible heartache. Some people don’t even know why they come until they get here, and then they have an aha moment and their perspective completely shifts.”
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Campowerment info
When: Nov. 19-22 in Malibu. Tammi Leader Fuller also plans daylong sessions in an L.A.-area park next year, with many of the same activities.
Cost: $1,199
Info: campowerment.com
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