Tag Archive

accessible labyrinth

World Labyrinth Celebration at Earle Baum Campus May 3, and there’s Transportation from San Francisco!

04/15/2025 Christina Daniels

`The World Labyrinth Day celebration at Earle Baum Campus (EBC) is May 3. Labyrinths are winding circular paths that lead from a beginning point to a center and are designed to be spaces for meditation, mindfulness and stress reduction.

We chatted with Patricia Jefferson, Adult Program Specialist at EBC, and who also is a certified Labyrinth Facilitator, about her own history with labyrinths. She said, “In 2014 I was given a book, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice, by Lauren Artress. I started thinking that with all the training and functional work with rehabilitation at EBC, there wasn’t a place for the emotional inward work of adjusting to vision loss. That got me started on a plan that took the next four years to complete: to get a labyrinth at EBC. I considered the accessibility issues in design, such as choosing the right materials and size of the path. I worked to secure outside funding to get it built, and on September 7, 2018, we had the EBC labyrinth dedication day.”

In addition to time for everyone to walk the labyrinth, the Laguna de San ta Rosa Foundation, a longtime community partner of EBC, will have a table at the event. The Laguna Foundation works to restore and conserve the Laguna de Santa Rosa, a wetland complex in Sonoma County. Because the land at EBC contains vernal pool wetlands and is often home to the endangered Sebastopol meadowfoam flower and other native plants, the Laguna Foundation has worked with EBC on projects to conserve the land. Additionally, with a grant from the Sarah K. de Coizart Perpetual Charitable Trust, EBC and the Laguna Foundation collaborated to build a 0.83-mile vernal pool trail that winds through the intact vernal pool wetland complex at EBC. The celebration will also have live music from the Sonoma County based Batachá Latin Band. Their keyboardist Joel Bennett’s mother once received services at EBC.

The EBC Labyrinth is accessible to white cane users, dog guides, wheelchair users and two people walking side by side.

World Labyrinth Day at EBC Schedule

11:00 am

Sign in at the curb at EBC. Light breakfast items will be served. There will be information tables for LightHouse and the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, an organization that works to conserve the Laguna de Santa Rosa, a wetland in Sonoma County.

12:00 to 12:30 pm

We’ll migrate to the labyrinth bench and a speaker from the Laguna Foundation will recognize the projects completed on the EBC property.

1:00 pm

Labyrinth walking begins and continues until everyone is finished.

2:30 pm

Migrate back to the quad for music and dancing. Light refreshments will be served. Music will be performed by the Batacha Latin Band, a Sonoma County based band, which plays a variety of Latin music from jazz to salsa.

Details

What: World Labyrinth Day at Earle Baum Campus
When: Saturday, May 3 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: Earle Baum Campus, 4539 Occidental Rd, Santa Rosa, 95401

RSVP to World Labyrinth Day with transportation from San Francisco.

RSVP to World Labyrinth Day without transportation.

Or RSVP to Patricia Jefferson at PJefferson@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7692 or 707-775-7153.

LightHouse News

Come Celebrate World Labyrinth Day at EBC on May 4!

04/29/2024 LightHouse Staff

Saturday, May 4, is World Labyrinth Day! Come celebrate this peaceful holiday at Earle Baum Center of the Blind (EBC) in Santa Rosa. We invite the BVI community to enjoy EBC’s uniquely accessible Labyrinth, specifically designed by EBC staffer, Patricia Jefferson, to accommodate travelers using white canes, guide dogs, human guides and most wheelchairs. The path is a 39-inch-wide smooth concrete surface with a four-inch brick curb. In the center there is a Peace Pole as part of the right-side curb to orient the travelers.

The walk will be procession-style and there will be guides provided if assistance is needed. Join us for this meditative, peaceful gathering as our community walks together as one!

What: World Labyrinth Day Walk
When: Saturday, May 4, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Where: Earle Baum Center, 4539 Occidental Road in Santa Rosa, 95401
RSVP: Please contact Patricia at PJefferson@old.lighthouse-sf.org

What is a Labyrinth?

A Labyrinth is an intricate network of passages or paths in which it can be difficult to navigate upon first observation. They are typically formed as a circle with a singular path leading to the center, almost like a maze. The practice of designing and walking Labyrinths is an ancient spiritual tool meant to foster contemplation, spiritual transformation, and philosophical ideals. Many find inner peace and solace while walking a Labyrinth, leaving their worries outside the paths and letting their mind and bodies wander freely through the Labyrinth.

LightHouse News

Come for the Improv Dance Class, Stay for the Labyrinth Walk

04/25/2023 Christina Daniels

On Saturday, May 6, LightHouse is bringing you two exciting in-person community programs, facilitated by Adult Programs Coordinator extraordinaire, Maia Scott, right at our San Francisco headquarters.

Improvisational Dance Performance Workshop with Jess Curtis/Gravity

The partnership with Jess Curtis/Gravity continues with this double shot of improvisational dance classes held over two consecutive Saturdays.

Choreographer and director Jess Curtis, and blind and sighted members of his dance/performance company, Gravity, will offer two accessible classes in Improvisational Dance Performance. Using techniques developed in their own accessible performance work such as tactile wayfinding, goal-ball style tactile floor markings, touch-based partner and group dancing, verbal movement self-description and group audio location, they will introduce you to a world of possibilities for moving joyfully and freely in playful space with other bodies.

So, what is improvisational dance? As Maia explains, “If you’ve ever turned on your favorite song in your room by yourself and cut loose without planning any steps or actions, that is the very basic form of improvisational dance. As an art form, it can start with an intention, an idea, a prop, a basic set of gestures, or some other choreographed score. From there, dancers, and non-dancers alike, are invited to work from their heart, intuition, and physical sensibilities and abilities and then create either solo performance or a response to others sharing space with them.

“I am excited to host Jess Curtis, to see what improvisational techniques, exercises, prompts and constraints he offers to us, allowing each of us within our own body, sensibilities and comfort levels to create dances from the heart.”

No experience is necessary for this class!

What: Improvisational Dance Performance Workshop with Jess Curtis/Gravity
When: Saturdays, May 6 & 13, from 10:00 am to noon
Where: LightHouse San Francisco at 1155 Market
RSVP: Maia Scott at Mscott@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7608

Note: This event and related materials are made possible in part by a grant from The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that also is supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

World Labyrinth Day – Meditation Walk at One, as One (in-person)

Maia continues to bring new and innovative programming to LightHouse with a tactile labyrinth walk. What is a labyrinth? A labyrinth is a symbolic pattern with one path that winds its way to the center and back out again on the same path. In modern times, many walks utilize them as a walking meditation for peace of mind, community healing and solidarity.

Maia is a Veriditas certified Labyrinth Facilitator who will share her experience with the practice. She details how she got started with labyrinths.

“Quite a few years ago, I participated in a labyrinth walk at a facility where I worked. They say you can’t get lost in the labyrinth, but I did. I kept returning to the entrance until finally after trying four times, I made it to the center. To make a long story short, I realized that I was the lucky one, having the opportunity to walk around on this beautiful pattern longer than everyone. I realized that doing things a bit slower than everyone else isn’t always a bad thing. The journey is the reward. From there, I realized that there was more for me to learn from this walking in circles meditation thing. So, I started going to Grace Cathedral for a regular labyrinth walk, joined their guild as a volunteer, and, because of my work, and the parallels to things I love to do, decided to become certified as a facilitator.”

She then went on to describe why walking labyrinth is a good meditation:

“It is a good meditation tool because of the requirement for the walker to really focus on the path in front of them, taking one step at a time, and really being in the moment. Being in community with others is also a great perk.”

So, join Maia, who will explain the labyrinth process and offer a walk with chimes and other sound healing instruments

What: World Labyrinth Day – Meditation Walk at One, as One
When: Saturday, May 6, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Where: LightHouse San Francisco at 1155 Market
RSVP: Maia Scott at Mscott@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7608