Cuddle Sanctuary used to be just me – Jean Franzblau – having monthly events at friends’ houses. Since those days we now offer several sanctuaries per week, have been featured in the national media, and now teach two – 3-day courses. How did we get so far so quickly?
The answer is people. Cuddle Sanctuary’s philosophy of human kindness has attracted some amazing human beings like Mark Donham, Tate Ashley and Louis Carvalho. This blog is a spotlight on a volunteer who has provided unparalleled support to our training efforts – Ahuva Novak.
Here’s Ahuva with Fei Wyatt.
Ahuva first attended Cuddle Sanctuary as a way to break free from the isolation she felt having newly moved to Los Angeles. Within weeks she went from being an uncertain newcomer to a full-fledged cuddle advocate. Ahuva attended Cuddle Sanctuary weekly, brought friends to the events and could be counted on to instigate conversation and fun. She volunteered to greet people and relished the chance to make attendees feel at home. She brought food to our special events and showed up early to help set up. And every time we needed cuddlers for a media event, Ahuva was there ready to share her voice and experience with the world. She even showed up at 6:00am for a TV news segment – that’s dedication!
Ahuva wasn’t satisfied with her level of commitment. She wanted to be trained to lead cuddle events herself, but we had no such training. Ahuva requested, then lovingly nagged and then demanded that I create a program.
I was interested in the idea, but knew that finding an affordable location for the training would be a challenge. I had next-to-no budget and Ahuva knew that. Even though she didn’t yet have a place of her own in Los Angeles, she was determined to provide me a venue. So she hosted the world’s first Cuddle Sanctuary Workshop Leader training at her Mom’s house.
Thrilled with the success of that experience, I wanted to offer the training again. This time Ahuva convinced her sister to host us! Twice!
Ahuva also was inspired to offer partial scholarships to a few talented students who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to come. I am so grateful that they could attend due to these generous gifts!
Within weeks of settling into her own apartment, Ahuva opened it up to us to provide training. It was fun to be at Ahuva’s place!
We felt really cozy there.
With Ahuva’s help incubating Cuddle Sanctuary training, we are now on our feet enough to offer our first training at a rented venue in September. I want to thank Ahuva for all of the support and officially announce her as a Cuddle Sanctuary Ambassador!
If you haven’t met Ahuva, let me introduce you. In this video, Ahuva shares what her first experience was like at Cuddle Sanctuary and the biggest lesson she learned.