What started as a nonprofit group to raise money for positive-thinking classes for local kids has blossomed into an organization that is uniting people of all ages and backgrounds. WonHeart, the brainchild of Joelyn Lutz, aims to empower everyone in the community by showing them that they are loved and special.
Right now WonHeart is preparing a reboot to its Women’s Walk that happens in the spring by offering a special event geared toward women and girls at the Santa Maria Public Library.
“Women, typically around this time of year, tend to run themselves ragged,” Lutz said. “And with the holidays, there’s the sweets, and before you know it, the combination of the overstress and the sweets combines and it’s why people end up getting sick.”
Scheduled for Nov. 16 at the library, “How to Stay Happy, Healthy, and Whole During the Holidays” will feature talks by local entrepreneurs Alejandra Mahoney and Tia Walker and live music by Lutz.
“Tia is going to talk about how to love yourself,” Lutz said. “It’s a great way for women to go away feeling that they can empower themselves during the holidays.”
Lutz is a big advocate of proper nutrition. That’s why she invited Mahoney—co-owner of Mahoney Organics, a local organic garden on Blosser Road in Santa Maria—to speak at the event.
“I have a passion around nutrition and just healing ourselves with food, especially organic food,” Lutz said. “I have used myself as a guinea pig and I want to let the women in the community know they can heal themselves and their families by changing the way they eat.”
WonHeart’s website has information regarding diet and nutrition so everyone can empower and heal themselves with knowledge, she explained.
“It’s an old quote: ‘When you know better, you do better,’” she said, “and when women don’t have the time to cook things and are overworked and overstressed, eating poorly can be easy and dangerous.
“We’re going to give them recipes to go with the information,” she added. “We’re going to talk about the ‘dirty dozen’—those … particular [items] you don’t want to buy unless they are organic—and the ‘clean 15’ that you can buy.”
The event will also include a musical performance by Lutz, who also organized several youth choirs to perform during Peace Week.
“I am an advocate of the arts,” she said. “I will play a little music and provide a mantra.”
WonHeart is also inviting the community to attend a HopeDance Films event at the Unity Chapel of Light on Nov. 20. The event will feature a screening of the film Girl Rising, which shares what girls and women are doing across the globe.
“I just really want everyone empowered, starting with women,” Lutz said. “The women always want more. They always want to know more about their well-being.”
Another upcoming event is a non-violent communication class for children and parents, as well as single adults.
“The children’s programs that I love doing, they’re about empowering kids to take responsibility for their own feelings,” she said. “They’re about emotional maturity.”
“That’s what I love about the arts,” she added, “they’re so emotionally based.” m
Arts Editor Joe Payne isn’t afraid to get emotional. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 14-21, 2013.