HELLO!

Flowstone has been a "thing" since 2006 when Brad and I started a small community newspaper in Grants Pass, Oregon after a road trip conversation about how we can play a part in helping our planet and the people on it be more connected.

As cave explorers, we loved the metaphor of Flowstone; water turning into rock and information turning into community building blocks. Flowstone ran for two years and in that time we had over thirty local authors contributing stories on anything from how to use essential oils to the history of the area. We hosted community connection events and concerts. It was such a great glimpse into what you can do when you reach out and ask people to share about what they love.

When the economy collapsed in 2008 we could just no longer print and distribute papers all along the I-5 corridor.

Flowstone morphed into a website, and we started selling books and collectibles online. It was so much fun to track down old books that were full of knowledge that we seem to take for granted. We often sold books to schools and teachers, but more often we sold books to prisons. We loved what we did, but we found working hand in hand with Amazon was not really working out for us. And at that time, by 2013, Flowstone just kind of went to sleep.

A lot has changed since then; we started a successful chimney sweep business, and I became a teacher. We helped organize the 2017 Women's March on Denver and connected with hundreds of super cool people. We traded our kids in for dogs and in 2020 we moved to the mountains and built a tiny home. And then, in 2022, Flowstone woke up.

Flowstone has grown up to be an educational organization that offers opportunities to kids ages 12 -17 to explore topics and learn skills that most would deem old-world, or traditional. Skills and topics that we most likely take for granted, or just skim the surface when we teach in the mainstream classroom. (Think ART, travel, camping, woodworking, metal work, looms, herbs, storytelling, and foraging.)

Living off the grid has taught us so much about the importance of being in sync with the world around us. We are working tirelessly to bring these kinds of off-grid opportunities to all kids, but especially kids from marginalized communities. (You'll hear a lot more about this!)

All of these learning opportunities are FREE to the kids, but we need help covering the myriad of costs related to taking a dozen students on regional road trips and local adventures.  So, how can you help? We are 501c3 organization, so any donation is tax deductible and we also have a Flowstone Shop where you can purchase cool items to help support our mission.

We also need people to spread the word that we are looking to connect craftspeople, tradespeople and artisans of all kinds with kids.  We will also eventually need people to be "camp counselors" and board members, so please reach out if you are interested in that.

Finally, you can engage with our posts and blog which will be focused on the ways that we can all live a more creative and sustainable life. Share what you learn with your friends and neighbors and we just might save the world yet!

With love, 

Naomi Lindquester (aka Cheetah McClellan)

(Baxter, Pearl, Ruby and Bandit, too)