The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Kate Purnell And Dana Ainsworth Joined Michael Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Kate Purnell, Owner of Central Virginia Swim Services, LLC, and Dana Ainsworth, Owner of Wonder Table, joined Michael Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today and the Manana. I'm Michael, happy to be joined by Xavier on a beautiful fall day, a day that Alex would say, you know, kind of grab your cafe con leche. You can grab a warm today. I guess today, yeah, today you can have it a little warmer. Lately, yes, we've been having very – today's a much nicer, cool morning. I like it when you wake up, it's in the 50s or like high 50s, low 60s. There was a couple days, it at sunday night or monday

night it was like drop in the 48 i woke up like you'll go outside and you see your breath i'm like this feels like winter i don't want this like this is way too cold but luckily it looks like it's kind of got more back to normal fall weather which is much nicer you know i'm not technically it was still in summer season i'm still holding on to a bit of summer, but I don't want it to slip away that fast that it's like you're waking up and it's like 50 degrees. No, I agree. I agree with you. I mean, let's face it.

I mean, summer ends on September 21st, so to me it still should be a little warmer, but hey, you know, I mean, most people like it, you know, in the sense that it's not that, it's the humidity and the heat that gets to people, and this has certainly been a... Listen, fall is great weather, let's be honest, to do anything. Like anything you want to do outside, you can, because it's the humidity and the heat that gets to people and this has certainly been a listen fall fall is great weather let's be honest to do anything like anything you want to do outside you can't because

it's nice weather if you want to run you can run because you know i get a little sweaty but you're not drenched in sweat like you are in the summer and if you want to have a picnic you can do that go for a walk but i mean i i happen about swimming at six o'clock in the morning no swimming swimming is not is not happening lately at 6 o'clock in the morning. I'll tell you that much. I go outside and it's freezing. And I'm like, listen, even sometimes when I'm trying to swim in the afternoon, it's like, the water's cold now.

It's like, you've got to really be like, okay, one, two, three. Okay, wait, hold on again. All right, one, two, three. It's like, you're kind of waiting there. It's like, for five minutes, you're like, okay, I'm about to go in. I'm ready. I'm ready, okay. It's like, another, I'm about to go in. I'm ready. I'm ready. Okay.

It's like another minute goes by. All right. Now I'm ready. Well, speaking of swimming, we have somebody today, right? Yes. Yes. We're going to be joined shortly by Kate Prenal from Central Virginia Swim Services. And then after that, we're going to have Dana Ainsworth from Wonder Table.

Wonderful. So, yeah, we've got a wonderful lineup. And I know probably for you every time we have this running joke with Pops, because he's a big Wonder Woman fan, right? We have this running joke with him that one day when he gets like really old, and he begins to have like memory loss, what we're going to do is get Wonder Woman, which he loves, the movie, and then just kind of play for him. Like, Pops, did you see this new Wonder Woman movie they made? And be like, no. And then we'll play it for him. He'll be like, oh, that that was amazing and then the next day we'll be like hey pops did you

see the new wonder woman movie and they'd be like no and then we'll play wonderful it's perfect we only have the one movie we just keep repeating over and over um you got my you got my retirement all planned out exactly yeah we already got the the home that we're going to put you in we've already planned out the whole thing for you yeah but i don't know about you i'm ready to kind of jump in you want to just want to you know i just want to obviously say thanks to uh um emerged financial services oh yes i'm sponsored okay hold up i forgot to do that okay yeah so we are a sponsor list we're always happy to be presented by Merger Financial Services and powered by Cratic Series Insurance, Matisse Young Realty, and Forward Adelante. And what's your duo? Oh, so, and don't forget to like and share.

Okay. Perfect. Like, share, and subscribe. And subscribe. Yeah, subscribe. I forgot. Okay, yeah. You can do that too. Now we are happy. Absolutely. Take the cold plunge. We wanted to do that so much, right? Get can do that too. Now we are happy to be joined. Take the cold plunge. We wanted to do that so much, right? Get that cold plunge.

Yeah, you know, I always hate the sponsor list. Alex does it so seamlessly to me. It's like, oh man, you know, it feels very mechanical and robotic sometimes. I guess the MLB announces a very good edit. They're almost seamless. It's like, yeah, and this highlight was powered by this. And I'm like, well, I didn't even realize

that that highlight was powered by some sort of company. It's like, yeah, and this highlight was powered by this. And I'm like, well, I didn't even realize that that highlight was powered by some sort of company. It's true, yeah. Exactly. The poor Kate's waiting for us to introduce her. So let's get started. So we're happy to be joined by Kate Purnell from Central Virginia Swim Services. Kate, wonderful to have you back. Hi. Happy to be here. Yeah. Kate's a veteran. Yeah. It's been a little over a year, right? Since we had you?

I think so, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it little over a year, right? Since we had you? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it feels like yesterday, but I know it isn't. I know. I think, well, actually, I think I did your show and it's been a few years maybe. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. I think it was almost the first year that we were on. Really? Yeah. Oh, we didn't have you a second time? I thought. Yeah.

I think I've been on. Yeah. No, you've been on twice. That's right. Yes, twice. That's right. Yep. Okay. Mm-hmm. So, a lot's going on.? Yes, twice. That's right. Yep. So lots going on.

Lots changing. Yes, I know you've been busy. So what's new with you? Just wrapped up our summer season. Wow. So that was great. We've been doing swim classes at Fairview Swim and Tennis Club. We still have some classes all september long it's

nice and heated so you don't have to plunge into a cold pool uh and uh we've been doing classes at key west swim and tennis club uh year round at fork union um we've been doing classes for residents at forest lakes and then we still have our backyard mobile classes and I've been working on opening up a storefront pool so lots been going on a lot's been changing so we are going to have we're putting an above ground pool in a storefront so we'll have year-round swim lessons oh yeah so we're we're in the home stretch here so uh we've got a great space in mind kind of keeping the fine details under wrap and so we've got an opening date but looking forward to that happening this fall so that means like kids during during the winter

right can actually go there and and and take swimming lessons also yes exactly they're ready for the summer to jump into their own pool or something kids and adults yes so you do so you do classes for both yes okay yeah and what's the age range for the children again that you offer classes um we start at six months and then we go to adult yeah so we've got some great parent taught classes and now that we've you know we're kind of working on having this own facility where we can control the water temperature and things like that we're going to add more of those uh infant and toddler classes so interesting so so i'm not curious so what is the water temperature for i assume when you say infants that's where you need to have a certain water

temperature more specifically for yeah i would say that infants are happy if it's like 84, 85 at least. Yeah, that's where we want to see it at. We don't want those little lips getting blue. 84 and 85 still sounds too cool for Mama Earpie. She needs it like 95. Sometimes she complains. It's like the water was like 89, and she's like, it's still too cold. I said, this is as hot as a pool is ever going to get without a heater.

I said, what you want is a hot tub, not a pool. Yes, I know. We don't want to be sweating while we're teaching, which did over the summer with those hot days. I know some of the instructors were sweating out there when the water starts to get warm with the heat and everything. So can you kind of give me a quick rundown? So I'm kind of curious because six to like 12 months how do you how does the teaching go for a toddler like

how do you get them to kind of figure out the swimming movements uh so it's well so at that age especially six months until they get to about two years it's really a nice introduction to the water um at that age it's know, it's so important for kids to start developing that relationship. So we do a lot of parent and talk classes where we can teach the parents to be the coach and show them things to do. So, you know, that exposure helps and things like, you know, just getting proper breath holding. We will submerge infants at six months. I know it freaks parents out, but it's great. The kids, they can really start to get that breath holding, which is so important.

That's a great first step for that life-saving skill. And so with those ages too, it's a lot of repetition and repeat. So when they start to repeat movements and get into rhythms, you'll really see skills progress quickly over time. So it really starts that lifelong relationship with the water when you start early and getting that exposure. So it's interesting because, and I'm curious how you look at this, but I remember when I used to take all three of them for swimming lessons, right? And this was, we were in California, so this was during the summer, we'd go out

in a place where it was about 90 degrees out there, and so the water felt really good. The one thing I always noticed, every single one of them, every single person, little person there that was in the water, the hardest thing for them to do was person there that was in the water, the hardest thing for them to do was to put their face in the water, right? And the challenges. So how do you approach that? I mean, I suspect that, I mean, if you're starting from six months, by the time they get to like five years old, they're much more comfortable. But let's say you get a five-year-old that's just never had that. How do you do you approach that yeah that's a great question

because that happens a lot and that's kind of why it's so important to have that early water exposure um so even if you're not in lessons i always say go to your you know you can go to the smith center drop that's a great winter activity to just drop in and get exposure but you know when those kids every kid is different i've never taught one kid that's exactly like another. So personality plays a factor in learning to swim, and especially those strong-willed and fearful kids. But what we, you know, we like to do, we never want to really force anyone to put their face in the water,

especially, you know, if they're, you know, with the wrong kid, they're going to shut down and they're not going to want to come back so we like to build trust so the kids will build trust and develop a relationship with their instructors and then we also like to focus on what they can do rather than what they can't do okay so there's a lot of things that we can still do in the water while we work up to getting that face in so you back floating, treading water, kicking, love to see if you can have a strong kick, you can do anything in the pool. So it progresses naturally as they go through the lessons.

Yeah, I would think so. Yeah, but that's a big piece right there. And your swimming class is for adults. How does that go? I'm assuming it's probably not. Is it the same thing? So with adults, you know, we see, so like if you think back even 30 years ago, you know, the only swim programs were, you know,

you either went to your Parks and Rec or your YMCA. And so if you didn't have any of those near you and you just didn't learn how to swim. So I mean, I saw something there's, you know, it's a crazy statistic that, you know, over half of the adult population doesn't know how to swim. So we do see a lot of adults come in, but most of that when you come in as an adult is you're coming into fear. So you've got that fear in the back of your mind when you're learning to swim, especially if you're starting from beginner. So what we do, we kind of just break it into steps and we work on breaking down those fears and showing you that,

yes, you can do this. You know, I've taught a lot of adults and I'll see them have that moment where they get stuck and I'm like, it's in here. I'm like, you can do this, like you're capable, but it's all right here. And so once they kind of get that, get out of their head, then they really excel at it and have a great time. And when people say like they don't know how to swim, does that like definition of kind of just, I don't know how to doggy paddle? Or does swim kind of encompasses doing like breaststroke or, you know, freestyle? What's kind of the kind of definition of actually swimming? So everyone has their own definition of that. You know, some people, they, we would call them like fearful beginners and, you know, you're starting out and you're not putting your face in, you can't

float or lift your feet up. And then we also, we've got adults that come in and we had one man come this summer and he swims with us. He does lap swimming with a snorkel and he wanted to learn how to swim freestyle with side breathing without the snorkel. So we get a good mix and we've got, you know, some adults that just want to advance their skills for lap swimming or prepare for a triathlon. And then some that are just kind of starting out. And, you know, they want to be able to enjoy the pool with their kids and summer vacations. And we've even had, like, college students that they've got spring break trips coming up,

and they want to, you know, brush up on their skills and become stronger so that way they can enjoy their trip. Interesting, interesting. Yeah, I mean, those are things that, um, he, you know, you, you, I realized if you grew up in the city, for example, having, you know, grew up in New York city, for example, access to a pool is, is minimal. I mean, it's so difficult unless, yeah, you join a particular club that has a swim pool. And, but then of course, then you there, and if you don't know how to swim, it's like, okay, so what do I do with this water?

What am I doing, right? Because unless you get private lessons or whatever. So I would imagine that, and you see that sometimes there are people out there that, you know, they're swimming, but, you know, their head's going left and right. Their arms are wailing all over the place. It's like that's surviving, but it's not really swimming. So it's nice to be able to go to a place and say, okay, I'm not afraid of the water because I'm in it, but I really need to learn how to properly swim. And, you know, obviously the, you know, whether it be the breaststroke or the, you know, freestyle and, you know, how to do the proper breathing, which is at first not easy.

You know, it takes at first not easy. It takes time. Yeah, for sure. There's definitely a few layers that go into learning how to swim, and one of those is exposure and being comfortable. So the more that you're at the pool and around the water, even if you're just going for rec swim, it's a great time. Exposure is great, especially for kids too,

because if you're just going to the pool to play and you're taking the pressure off of that lesson, you know, kids will try to keep up with their peers. And I call it positive peer pressure because you'll, you know, they'll see what their friends are doing and they'll kind of copy them or tag along. And eventually kids will want to keep up. But, you know, so that exposure is that one layer. Personality is another layer. So I've never met two kids or two adults that are alike, so that kind of plays a role. And then lessons, so your swim lessons that go along with that. So they all kind of work together.

And so I'm curious because my cousin has a 2-year-old daughter, and when they were visiting we would kind of put her in the pool we would hold her up and she was all excited to kind of you know move her hands and kicking her like she was kind of slowly starting to learn kind of doggy paddle what age do you recommend that like a kid when it's like okay you know you have to kind of move past doggy paddle when you can start introducing kind of breaststroke or free stroke like what what age do you think it's good for a child to kind of begin to experience those kind of movements yeah so two years old is definitely a great time to start um classes and getting your face in

but two-year-olds they don't have the the fine the same fine motor skills that a four-year-old has so it's going to take a lot a lot longer for them to be able to lift their face out of the water when they're swimming. They have small bodies and things like that, but they can float on their backs. They can build endurance. Something that I like to do with two-year-olds a lot at Fork Union is we've got a teaching dock so they can stand on it and I'll put rings on the dock. They can dive down, get a ring, swim with their face into the wall, put the ring on the wall, swim back. So that's just a really good way to kind of build endurance

with breath holding and kick strength and things like that. And then as kids get older, so brush, you know, they'll start to form arm strokes. And around four, four years old is pretty typical uh five years old uh for swim team uh summer swim team and competitions uh kids start to do breaststroke and butterfly at seven years old um during swim meets so that's really when those fine motor skills pick up but we can still start teaching those skills at five years old. What are your thoughts on, because one of the things that most people do is, you know,

they'll buy those kind of little life jackets for their, you know, their one-year-old, two-year-old, and put them in the pool, and, of course, they feel safe, and the parents feel safe. At what point do you say, you know, no jacket, because they have to learn that, you know, you've got to learn how to float on your own. Yeah, so not all life jackets are created equally. I can imagine. So I'm not a big fan of, and a lot of some instructors, most you'll say, like avoid the puddle jumpers, but they have the vests in the front and then the arms wings

because they keep kids in an upright position and that's a drowning position so we want kids to be able to be in that horizontal swimming position okay um so but you know and and i always like to say like if you're going to the pool it's great to take that life jacket off especially if it's you and one kid but realistically you know if you're a parent and you've got a few little ones it's hard to keep track of all that so if you've got a few little ones, it's hard to keep track of all that. So if you've got a few non-swimmers, go ahead and put them in the life jacket. I would say that the exposure is more important. But any time that you're in the pool, especially if it's just you and one other kid, take that life jacket off.

Make them work. And I always say, too, if you take that life jacket off and you see them bob under you know where it goes over their head and covers their mouth don't panic you know that's gonna scare your kid more than it scares uh you know it's you're probably more scared than they are just go and grab them praise them like hey good job but let's you know figure out how to like bop off the bottom like bob to jump back to safety and things like that so um but it good. I think it's good when kids kind of test those boundaries too because they know, like, okay, if I go this far, I'm going to have that water in my mouth. I can't breathe.

Like, I need to be able to get to the side. So it helps set those boundaries too. And that's important. I mean, it's almost like bicycle riding. You put your kid on the bicycle, and, you know, first you're holding him, then you let go, and then he falls. And it's like, okay, you fell, but, you know, know we got to keep going until you find the balance right and that's and it's the same thing you you got to get over that fear and and eventually you say i can do

this i'm i'm learning and same thing what i guess with with with the water with the swimming is like you know the the the toddler has to feel comfortable like okay i'm in the deep but and yeah i'm i'm the water's above my mouth but i know that i can walk a little backwards on my pool and be so they can they themselves can you know feel and comfortable with with learning how to deal with that yes exactly so um you know those kids under four especially those two-year-olds they don't really have those fears yet. That's why I always say it's a great time to kind of hop in if you haven't had water exposure yet. But, you know, once you kind of hit that four-year-old mark, then, and if there hasn't been a lot of exposure, those are when those fears come in as well.

Right, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not going to match. Yes, yeah. Like, wait a minute, I'm drowning here. Yeah. What about, like, when you have, like, two-year-olds,

do you have a problem with them trying to drink the water sometimes? Yes, in the beginning, there's definitely some, like, water. You know, every kid is different. Like, some kids will get the hang of that breath-holding a little bit quicker. But, you know, if they're swallallowing water a lot we kind of take a pause catch your breath let's try again like we like to say hold a bubble so big breath in i like to use sounds with it because kids associate sounds with doing it so i'm like eat a bubble and then let it go so that kind of helps them uh get the hang it. We'll practice a lot above water, just making those noises, and then try it underwater.

Yeah, because we had a couple moments with Anissa. It was constantly like, we could tell she was like, don't drink the water, don't drink the water. Don't swallow when you've got water in your face. Yeah, but now you know. So show her those. The bubbles. The bubble in the mouth.

And then show her when you put your face in and blow bubbles out. Yeah. Well, the one time that, because a couple of times when I was trying to hold her up, every once in a while, you know, she'd dip forward. Yeah. It happens, right? But every time she comes, she'd be like, I'm like, it's okay. You know, you're okay.

Yeah, exactly. Don't be afraid. Like, let that. I know. That's the problem. But I get more afraid than she probably is. I'm like, oh, crap. Her face went in the water.

Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? Yeah, if we're teaching those, you know, like infant classes, it's six months to three years. And when we submerge, if they're coughing a lot when they come up, we only do submersions three times in a 30-minute class. But they catch on. So keep getting that head underwater.

Just have her jump in right to you. I know, but you get so nervous because it's like, you know. That's when the swim instructors come in hand. Absolutely. We'll do it for you. As parents or as uncles or whatever, it's just so hard to do that because you're so fearful, right? Yes. You're so afraid.

But, yeah, when you have a third party, it's always easier because you're an expert. You're good at what you do, right? And, again, I mean, again, I saw them when they went swimming. There was a trust factor. I mean, little by little, they became more comfortable with the instructor to the point where it was like, okay, are you ready to do this? And it's like, okay, you know? Like the first day, they said no.

But now they know the instructor. They feel good with you, and you've got that calmness and understanding, and boom, they feel it. With a parent, I think they probably sense the nervousness of the parent, and it's different. Yeah, so it's about trusting the process. Exactly, exactly. I have to admit, the scariest moment for me swimming was the diving board because where we used to swim, they had a really, really deep end. How deep were you, say, was it 10 feet?

How deep was that? Probably, yeah. Yeah, and they had a really high diving board. And one of the things you have to dive on, man, I'm telling you, it looks so, like maybe as an 8-, 9-year-old, but it looks so far, and I was at the top of the diving board, I was like, you were shaking. It was like there was nothing scarier than jumping off that diving board. But I'll tell you what, the exhilaration, when you jump,

and then you kind of land, you're exhilarated. But then there's like a little fear because you sink so far, suddenly you're like, I got to start swimming. I got to start swimming. You know? Yeah. It's a good lesson. The diving board is the best part of swim lessons and being able to jump in.

So I hear that from, like, my adults a lot. Like, I've always wanted to be able to jump in. So I hear that from like my adults a lot, like I've always wanted to be able to jump in the pool. So like two years ago, I taught an adult and she jumped in and she thought she would hit the bottom and push herself off and be able to resurface and she never did. And she was in her 70s when she took lessons a few years ago and uh when she jumped in for the first time since that happened she did it over and over and over and over again that's just something that i hear i just want to jump into the pool so that's just such a um a huge highlight of swim lessons and learning how to swim it's just so freeing yeah and the great thing about instructors too is that they do inspire you because one of the guys, I remember

this way back when I was a kid, one of the guys was like the cool swimmer dude and he would go to the diving board and he'd like jump and do these like flips into the water. So it was so cool. You're like, oh man, I want to do that. Right? So, you know, obviously I wasn't flipping off the diving board, but it kind of, all the boys were like,

wow, that dude, I don't remember his name, but he was so cool because he would get the diving board and do all these really cool dives and just kind of inspired the kids. He's like, oh, I want to go off the diving board, even though you're afraid, because you're like, it looks so cool, I want to be able to flip one day, which you can't right now, but it was good to kind of push those kids into, you know, that inspiration to kind of get them to do that. Yeah, the first step is just, yeah, just jump in.

Positive peer pressure. Exactly. Exactly. That's a great way to phrase it, great way to do that. First step is just, yeah, just jump in. Yeah. Positive peer pressure. Exactly. That's a great way to phrase it. Great way to phrase it. So Kay, I know you said your classes are winding down. If someone's interested, what kind of classes could they kind of be looking forward to if they want to kind of bring their two-year-old, five-year-old, or even as an adult? Yeah. So we have a lot of drop-in classes right now. We have small group drop-ins, so you can join a small group class. We cap it at four, so you can join that. We have classes for six months up to 12 years old for those age groups.

Okay. And then we have drop-in private classes right now for ages two to adult that you can register for. So you just look online, find a slot with an instructor that works for you, and just book it. And what's the website that people can kind of look? CentralVirginiaSwim.com Got it. Is that the

best way for people to book? Yes. Got it. Alright. So they can go online and book their appointments there. Yes. Fantastic. Yeah, and then I also recommend subscribing to that newsletter so you can get that announcement when we launch our opening date and set that out there. We'll have a nice open house and everything.

Good. We can have you back so you can kind of tell us where it is. Tell us where it is. Yeah. I'm excited. I'm really excited. I wish I could share more, but it's still... No, no, no.

Don't worry. Yeah. Until everything's signed, it's not final yet. Exactly. But it's been a long no don't worry yeah yeah till everything's signed it's not final yet exactly but it's been a long time coming i'm so excited good for you that's wonderful yeah we're excited all right well thank you so much so much wonderful to see you again and good luck yeah thank you for having me no it was a pleasure okay so as we expect memories though right doesn't it when you when you when you yeah i start talking about swimming and I remember when I was a little kid and the things that I went through.

They all are so elastic memories. I mean, I still remember my swimming classes and where it was. I remember your swimming classes too. Yeah, but that's different. I mean, I was a kid when that happened, but I still remember. I still remember the lessons.

I still remember the diving board. I still remember an instructor doing backflips or whatever off the diving board. Probably for your children, it's kind of a memory that lasts forever. Not only that, swimming is also... To be honest, I think you memorize even more than riding a bike. You literally just kind of...

Once you kind of learn how to swim, especially the basics, you never actually forget that. You could just jump in the water. It's just like instinct. It's like walking, really, in reality. You could just jump in the water. It's just like instinct. Exactly. It's like walking, really, in reality. You don't forget how to walk. The thing is, the thing what I realize is it's just the comfort level.

It's like for people that know how to swim well, they jump in the water, there's never any fear. You just jump in the water and you're in complete control of yourself, right? Which people that don't know how to swim well, they jump in the water and you can see that they're panicking, oh, I got to get up, you know? And the nice thing, too, about learning how to swim is that, I mean, it also opens up a lot of opportunities. If you go to a nice beach

and you want to go swim in the ocean, trust me, swimming in the ocean is a totally different experience than swimming in the pool. But you need to know how to swim. It's the ocean. This isn't a three-foot pool where it's like, okay, yeah, I can probably walk. You have to learn how to swim, but it's a really cool experience. And if you don't teach your children how to swim,

they may never get to do that because, trust me, I'm sure swimming is like everything else, so much easier if you learn young than when you kind of learn older. I agree. Because like Kate was saying, there's also that fear factor. I mean, it's like once you start hitting four or five, your brain actually starts registering fear. Exactly.

If you can start when they're two or three to not be afraid of the water, it's probably a lot easier to teach them how to swim. Absolutely. Absolutely. But from one fantastic guest to another now, we're very happy to be joined by Dana Ainsworth, the founder of Wondertable. Dana, thank you so much for joining us.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. Good morning, Dana. So before we kind of get started, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started Wonder Table. Yeah, so I grew up in a large Italian family, right? So Sunday pasta, you know, sometimes upwards of 50 people. And I missed that tradition a lot when I entered adulthood. So I've been doing these dinners for years with friends. And then over time, as they grew, realized that people were not connecting well.

Just because there are so many people around the table, you end up having pocketed conversations. So I started sliding questions under dinner plates. And that kind of moved things into the evolution of what is now wonder table um in 2020 I lost my brother which was you know unexpected and tragic and um but but in that loss in that state of grief it was like my life you know the lens of the camera just just focused in on what was really really important and I also experienced life, just things seemed more poignant to me. You know, you're focusing on what matters.

And I felt like there was a vibrancy to life that I hadn't experienced before. And I just had the sensation that I've been living life, you know, to a fraction of what I could have been. Right. So there was this real sense of wonder that came as I was working through this grief of experiencing things differently and really vibrantly. And I thought, my gosh, how do I make sure that I keep this in my life moving forward?

How do I make sure I don't reach another point in my life where I say, wow, I wasn't living as fully and as richly as I could. And so these dinners, that was the moment where I was like, okay, I'm going to make these dinners an invitation to living very fully and very deeply. And the questions became much more focused and directed to help guests go deep for a little bit, kind of go inward, reorient themselves within their own lives,

and just ensure that we are awake to the wonder that's around us all the time and living as fully and richly as we can so that's kind of how things happened I eventually opened them up to the public and we're just kind of growing from there. That's wonderful I mean I remember reading on your website about how

I think you mentioned kind of your grandfather and the family tables and it kind of struck us because on my mom's side we're Sicilian you know so kind of the same thing and I remember her telling stories of you know kind of growing up she lived in Brooklyn and they would have these small apartments but you know my grandmother had like um my nonna had like three sisters right so they would all come over for dinner and they would have like a little apartment but they would have the table from one end of the apartment to the other and i don't know maybe 30 40 people there eating dinner every sunday night it was like incredible you know exactly and we've tried to replicate that too sometimes at home you know or if we

you know we got family over it's like you know we got you know 10 12 people you know at table so that's kind of wonderful um because could you kind of go into detail exactly so how does one like do one of these Wonder Table events? Yeah, what is Wonder Table? What is, yeah. That's the question I get asked all the time. So we don't tell people where they're going ahead of time. You sign up not knowing where you're going.

And we're always trying to source really unique off-the-beaten-path locations that are also really beautiful. When possible, when weather permits, we try to have them outside. And part of that is just reconnecting to the beauty of nature. You know, we live in an extraordinarily beautiful place. I agree. But I think we're so busy, and I live downtown, and I don't often actually get to enjoy the landscape that surrounds us.

So that first step is just getting us in a really beautiful setting where we can appreciate how incredible nature is. And, you know, and there are tons of awesome venues in Charlottesville, and I've looked at a bunch of them, but I find that many of our venues are very manicured. They're very put together that, you know, that Southern kind of stated feel. So getting outside of that and getting something that's a little more raw and a little more wild is always the challenge, that we can also host a dinner in. So that's step one. Find really beautiful locations.

You sign up. You don't know where you're going. You know the theme. The invitation is really part of what starts to set the feel for things. And there are kind of hints within the invitation as to what the question might be directed toward um we're also now trying to partner with local chefs to have a really like a sustainable

mindful uh approach to the culinary experience when we started we're like how what's the most inexpensive way that we can feed people but now you know um as i'm understanding more about how many resources go into you know getting food for a catered dinner, we've really tried to make this a more sustainable experience. Plus, there are a lot of really cool chefs in Charlottesville. So we've been really excited to partner with them. And I swear, like, even when Kate was in here, she was like, oh, my boyfriend, you know, cooks. He's a chef. So we're always getting, you know, recommendations from new people, which is is really fun so we're partnering with local chefs you get your invitation you sign up right before

the event you receive the location you also get kind of a dress code so you're not blindly going what am i supposed to wear to this dinner um and you know we're trying to reclaim this sense of how do we gather i think this this generation, especially in culturally, we're really losing the art of gathering, right? So we're providing all these tools along the way. Here's how you can dress. Here's where you're going to show up. So you arrive, you're going to get your welcome cocktail. And then we have a series, we just have a little card you can pick up that has a few questions on it that helps you eliminate small talk.

We don't want people standing around awkwardly talking to strangers that they don't know, and we want anybody to be able to show up without a partner, without a date. If they want to come alone, we want them to come and feel really comfortable right away. So we've got these question cards if you choose to use them. I'm actually surprised that people, I think because of the way, the nature of how we've kind of professed the dinner to be, people end up just talking really well on their own and making friends very quickly.

And then they're either, we've invited guests to bring some special pieces of writing or poetry, or we've preselected it, but we invite guests to just read a few pieces of something that's really beautiful. When's the last time you were out with people and somebody just read a poem out loud? It doesn't happen a lot. You're like, all the time. But that also helps invite people deeper into this theme, into the feeling that we're trying to evoke for the evening. And I think we've strayed so far from the power and the beauty

of sharing written word and just sharing words in general. So before we even seat to the table, people are already getting their feels on and moving deeper into this space that we're trying to the table, people are already getting their feels on and moving deeper into this space that we're trying to invite them into. And then as people are being seated, we introduce the question for the evening. We seat tables of eight so that people can feasibly get around the table and everyone has the opportunity to answer the question if they choose. And the questions are really meant to help you think very deeply about where you are

in your life, what you're asking of life, where you can be heading in the future, what you're still carrying from the past, various pieces that just, again, try to awaken you to that sense of, oh yeah, I want more of this. So that's kind of the flow of the evening. Wow. So basically when you sign up, the only thing you know at first is the particular day that it's going to happen, right? So you know that day you're going to be somewhere. And you don't know where you're going to be until literally like the day before or something like that? Yeah, we usually let people know a week in advance.

A week in advance. So they have a little time to kind of map things out. And then you let them know kind of the dress code, where they're going to be, et cetera, et cetera. And then, now you mentioned when you get there, there are some questions. So there's the one question that you mentioned is there for them to think about. And then there's other questions. So the other questions have anything to do with the one main question or they're just you know here's things that you might just want to be able to ask

the person you're seeing yeah your meeting for the first time they're not usually connected okay it would take a lot of work to yeah no no i was curious whether the theme yeah yeah you mentioned theme so so when when you say theme do does the person that signs up have an idea as to what that theme is going to be? Usually, yes. There's a real intent to the invitation itself. I don't know if anyone's read Priya Parker's, I think her book is called The Art of Gathering. I encountered her book in 2020, and she talks about how the invitation is the beginning of a gathering. It really starts right then.

So the invitation has those thematic tones to it. Well, generally, I think the last theme was truth and beauty. So that was put out there before people gathered. They had a kind of good sense of what they were getting into. Okay. All right. Oh, fantastic. So they already know the theme. You picked a day and then

the rest is, is so, so everybody that's gathering there, right. Already has been perked by the fact that this is of interest to me in the first place. Right. You know, because the theme is, wow, you know, this is something I'd like to explore. Right. As opposed to, you know, if you're a sports fanatic and they say, I'm not interested in that, but if it's sports, you might go there, but you might say, this is exactly what I'm looking for. So you have an idea. So that's great. And so then again, there's eight people. Usually it's eight.

Is there any more? Or typically it's just eight? It's maximum eight? No, no, eight to a table. So we usually have about 32 guests at a dinner. And who decides how those eight? We let people make that decision. We really encourage people.

They don't have to. Some people buy tickets together as a date, and that's their experience. But we encourage people to come and sit without the person that they came with. And part of that is because I think there's a gift to being anonymous. We don't get to do it a lot, especially when you're asking a question about yourself. And when you are known by someone else, we tend to answer in a way that reflects how people know us. And when you have the ability to be completely anonymous and answer in a way that might be completely off-brand for you, there's a real beauty to that. So yeah, we let people figure that out and we get mixed responses on how people do it. There's no pressure. We want people to feel really comfortable and not feel

anxious when they're in the moment. And where do you seek inspiration for your kind of like different themes great question um it they just kind of come along as life happens so we do four dinners a year right now and I just feel like in having amazing conversations with amazing people things will come up where I'm like oh I want to remember that I want to remember that question and I'm really fortunate to have really cool people in my life who are great at asking questions and sometimes I hear them say something and I'm like okay I'm really fortunate to have really cool people in my life who are great at asking questions. And sometimes I hear them say something and I'm like, okay, I'm cataloging that one. That's a great one. And, you know, we're getting to the place now where we can start repeating some of these, especially the ones that we know have really resonated.

We have a lot of faithful followers, which is amazing. And also we're starting to get you know more new faces and and the more diversity we get in around the table the the more we can begin to repeat some of those things so and the unique locations how do you kind of seek them out how do you kind of try to differentiate them so challenging this is the challenge of my life I spend a lot of time just driving through the countryside in Charlottesville and noting private farms that look really cool, paying attention to what other people are doing around town, who's running a farm, who might have some land,

and then just reaching out to people and kind of begging them to let us bring a bunch of strangers onto their property. We're very self-sufficient, so we've got our own tables, chairs, and everything. We just pack it all in and pack it back out. You have to settle that up. Yeah, and we also work with, I mean,

two of our next two chefs are able to work entirely off the grid. They just bring all of their stuff on, you know, grills. And, you know, we're working with Two Fire Table in February. She just shows up. It's really incredible. So that helps, you know, working with people who are really flexible in how they're able to do things.

Wow, that's fantastic. Yeah, I would assume that, I mean, I know that there's a lot of wineries out here that, you know, there are beautiful ones, but I suspect maybe if you make a deal with them that's like, you know, I'm going to bring all these people and, yeah, we're going to use your wine. They might be more susceptible to letting you use that space. But it has to be, it's got to be difficult to find places, you know, out in the wilderness out there and say, anybody own this? No, okay, this is a great spot.

Yeah, it's challenging. Yeah, and we're also competing with the wedding industry in Charlottesville, which is huge. So, you know, when you're looking at events, you know that this is the norm that people expect. So just trying to be aware of that as well. It's an adventure. So for our viewers, let's say they're interested kind of in doing a WandaTable. What's kind of the process like? Where do they go?

What do they do? Yeah, just our website, wondertable.co, and they can view upcoming events there. We generally open tickets about 30 days in advance of the dinner, so they can sign up there. But the best thing to do is to sign up for our newsletter so that they receive an invitation when we send them out. And just out of curiosity, though, so what happens, you get everything set up, and it's an outdoor event, and Mother Nature has different opinions. Well, we keep a very close eye on the weather. And if, you know, almost always we have a backup spot. If we don't, then we just have to, you know, postpone with a rain date.

But we've been pretty lucky so far. So we try to schedule it in times when, you know, we're not at the height of weird weather seasons but you know we are also to um starting to do more private events as well in this style and and so i think something that's really fundamental to what we're doing in the dinners but also in gathering is that um we really want to reclaim the way we get together so that it's meaningful and intentional. And especially because this is such a rich environment for weddings. You know, it's a destination area. I've moonlighted in the wedding industry for almost 15 years now.

And the thing that I see again and again is that we've gotten very oriented toward making the Instagram-worthy event. That we almost kind of forget what it is that we're doing and the rituals and the traditions that bring us together. I'm sure you guys have been to plenty of weddings where you know it's almost a plug-and-play kind of thing. You know what to expect. You know what songs are going to play on the dance floor. You anticipate that weird, awkward time during cocktails

when you have to stand around with a bunch of strangers. You're waiting for the bride and groom to finish their pictures. We're really trying to shift back to how we did weddings for centuries before, you know, to this ritualized, intentional way of bringing your guests. They're contributing to the union of two people, right? Those are the people that are going to support you through the years and they should be there, you know, on that first day to really mark that occasion. So we're offering these services and a lot of other ways to help bring that meaning back into these events and these ways that we gather, you know, anniversaries, birthday dinners. But I think we're also used to

doing it a certain way. We're going to have the birthday cake. We're all so used to doing it a certain way we're gonna have the birthday cake we're all gonna gather around we're gonna sing but there are just tons and tons and tons of ways that other cultures other you know families have been doing it for thousands of years that we've sort of let fall by the wayside so we're trying to reclaim some of those make things really interesting again and just at the heart those, make things really interesting again, and just at the heart of things, make it really meaningful. I think that's an excellent point, because our culture did seem to used to have more times

when they would try to get people to gather and kind of join together. I mean, you know, in Europe they used to have like festivals for like the fall or summer, like a harvest celebration, right? Because you wanted to try to get people out to kind of celebrate stuff, especially like, you know, during Christmas time, you know, you try to get celebrations. And then we kind of moved into kind of doing dance events

and stuff like that. But it feels like in today's society, everything is so digital that it feels like nobody actually goes out to kind of do these celebrations. It's just sort of like, oh yeah, online, I like this post. It's like, that's not really a celebration type but it's interesting when you mention that because it did bring me back like sometimes

just watching old movies and they'd have these kind of things. I mean a wedding was not just a family event, it was almost like a town event. It was sort of like everyone from town came to go see this wedding. So it's kind of interesting how we used to, we've kind of fallen away a bit from that. Absolutely. And I think it's, you interesting how we've kind of fallen away a bit from that. Absolutely.

And I think the other thing was the digital world, unfortunately, and that's what I like about the fact that you have these themes and you have the questions that forces people to think, right? As opposed to how many times I see people, they go to restaurants and they're all on their phones. And I'm saying there's five people there, they're all on their phones and not even talking to each other. It's like, what was the point of going to dinner together? You know, and I had made a point when they were growing up,

I said, we always have dinner together. When we come to dinner, no phones, nothing. Because that's when it's family time, that's when you're supposed to talk. And, you know, I remember he was talking about, you know, my wife's family. That's exactly right right after sunday church you know everybody would begin to show up and you know from two o'clock to about eight o'clock at night i mean it was at the dinner it was a meal i mean yeah we all sat at a table and sat there for the rest of the time eating chatting talking playing cards whatever

and it was just a it was a celebration of Sunday, right? But you just spend time with family and sometimes there will be friends there. So I think what you're doing is really fabulous. But I know you were going to say something. I kind of interrupted. No, no, no, not at all. No, I'm agreeing.

I think that we just don't have the tools anymore to converse the way that we used to. And to your point, what you were saying about festivals and rituals or, you know, harvest, things like that, I think the key piece to that that we're missing today in the digital age is the need to rely on each other. So the reason we used to have these big celebrations and these festivals is because

preceding it, generally speaking, people needed to come together and help each other, whether it was to bring in the harvest from a field or, you know, build a barn or, you know, something had just burned down in the town, you know, people really had to rely on one another and you had to get along in order to do that because you never knew when you were going to need your neighbor. So those celebrations, those festivals and those gatherings are really a time of gratitude and you know thanking each other for being there and just reminding one another that you know this was a really important thread that carried all of you together and we have become so individualized and independent of one another that we've lost that ability to connect on that

level because we don't really need to. We don't need to rely on anyone else. So there's an implicit thread of vulnerability that runs through Wonder Table that we're asking people to trust, right? That's kind of why you don't know all the details ahead of time. We want you to feel a little vulnerable because that's the only way for us to connect, truly to connect with one another, is to be vulnerable. So I love that you brought up those historical pieces because that's the only way for us to connect truly to connect with one another is to be vulnerable so I love that you brought up those historical pieces because it's really important you know we're just at this place where we've lost it and we need

the tools again so that's the heart of what we're getting at we want to re-equip folks with the tools to gather well we are on this mission to just reclaim the culture of gathering and I think it's just really important in this particular cultural zeitgeist where we are. And if someone's interested in Wonder Table, what are some upcoming events you have? Yeah, so really excited.

We have a few tickets left this month. We're doing Golden Hour with David Wax Museum and Lowland Hum. So that's kind of not our dinner series, but we've had so many people say this is a really cool wonder-inducing experience. So that's September 21st. They can get tickets on the website. Our next dinner is November 9th. I have not yet opened tickets to that, but I will be.

So the best thing to do is to just get on the website and get on the newsletter, and then our dinner after that will be February 9th. I think February, somewhere in February. So we're really excited. So November and then February. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, Dana, quickly in February. So we're really excited. So November and then February. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, Dana, quickly, website.

Website, wondertable.co. Wondertable.co. Dana, thank you so much for coming on. It was wonderful to have you. This is great. Thank you. This was great. Yes, good luck.

Great. Thank you. Fabulous. Yeah, interesting concept. And it kind of really connected, too, because when she was mentioning, I remember reading on the website she used to have family dinners and coming from an Italian family and all that stuff. It was kind of like, I'm sure you were getting flashbacks and everything too. Oh, absolutely.

And again, I remember when I would go to Spain and go on vacation with the family, it's like the same thing on Sunday. I mean, granted, we were there so it became a special event anyway but you know on Sundays I mean we got dinners were and even on the regular day dinners you know usually around three or four o'clock right and from three o'clock and on Sunday since there's nobody work till like till about six seven o'clock you just sat around the table then you know some people would have their siesta, of course. And then again, around 10 o'clock, it would start all over again.

And then the dinners were a little smaller. But then you still walked around, enjoyed the town. And in walking around, that's what people did, is they met their friends, sat down, and had a cup of coffee or a drink or lemonade or whatever it was that they wanted to drink. And they would talk. And it's just, it feels like in today's world, like I said, our best friend is our phone as opposed to somebody where you can talk to other people. And I think this is a great idea. Yeah. Well, it also think this is a great idea. Yeah.

Well, you know, it also reminds me of family dinners. I mean, we used to watch the show Blue Bloods a lot. Yeah. And that was kind of like a staple of the show. Remember, every episode had their, you know, Sunday dinner. That's right. Exactly. You know, with Tom Selleck leading the charge.

Exactly. So it was kind of like, yeah, it kind of reminded me of that too. But thank you so much, Pops, for joining me. I know. This is fun, as always. It's a good show. It's a good show. Good thank you so much, Pops, for joining me. I know, this is fun as always. It's a good show. Good show. Good being here with you. Thank you.

Yeah, so next week we're going to have actually Dixie Aiken on, who is the integrative wellness coach from North Acre. We also might have another guest, I want to say, because right now there's some negotiation going on. There's negotiation going on, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, hopefully we'll have another guest on. I don't know if it's going to be you's negotiation going on, you know what I'm saying? Hopefully, we'll have another guest on. I don't know if it's going to be you or me or whoever, but we'll

keep that surprise to you. It'll be an ERP for sure. It's got to be, right? It's got to be. As always, we are very happy to be presented by Emerging Financial Services and powered by our wonderful sponsors, Craddock Series Insurance, Matisse Young Realty,

and of course, Forward Adelante. Thank you, of course, to all our viewers who make this possible. Thank you to all those who liked and commented. Again, I always apologize. I don't have Facebook or Instagram, so I'm never monitoring that. I should have.

But if you did, thank you very much for watching and liking. Big thank you, as always, to I Love SIVO for having us, for Judah, his fantastic work behind the camera. Thank you again, Pops, for being here. We look forward to seeing you next week. But until then, hasta mañana. Gracias.