Pearlstone’s Learnings
The journey through the pandemic has often been a hazardous one for retreat centers. In this community call, Eve Wachaus, the COO of Pearlstone and Hazon, shared with the RCC community the successes, challenges, and realities they’ve experienced throughout the pandemic that have held lessons for her and her team.
A central question asked during the past two years for Pearlstone and Hazon was ‘what are our pandemic crisis objectives, and how do we hold on to them?’ Through a collaborative approach, they determined to focus on organizational resilience, including supporting staff, and community service and impact, including supporting other organizations to provide a strong community response.
Through nimble innovation and magical thinking that they believed they could, Pearlstone and Hazon created resilient programming by partnering with local organizations. An example of this was utilizing their team and other organizations to create and provide 115,000 meals through an emergency food crisis response.
Pearlstone's farm-to-table food services team, with the help of some generous donors, transitioned to several new outlets for their food products.
They began donating nutrient-dense soup and casserole meals to schools, hospitals, and community centers by 1) harnessing their community’s volunteer energy and 2) partnering with over a dozen nonprofit orgs already delivering food in those communities
They launched a full-price meal delivery service
They began selling their fresh farm produce straight to individuals - farm market style
The team purchased and converted two nearby houses into Airbnb spots for private, intergenerational gatherings. The Pearlstone team could still deliver meals, but the families were able to enjoy a no-contact stay.
Radically expanded their onsite summer camp offerings so campers could remain in smaller, safer pods throughout their stay. They welcomed a 400% increase in campers in 2021.
These changes didn’t come easily. The staff is tired, many changes were difficult and time-consuming to implement. Pearlstone’s staff vaccination policy, campus-wide mask mandate, onsite testing policies, etc., involved a steep learning curve, but things have gone well, and the organization has stayed on mission. Many of these accomplishments were made possible through a trusting organizational environment where leadership and staff were encouraged to experiment with new ideas and test them out.
What ideas does this bring up for other centers in the RCC? What half-baked idea is waiting to be tried at each of our centers? What might be possible?
Click to see the notes from this call, or listen to the audio recording.