Member Highlight: Sunrise Retreats

Sunrise Retreats designs professionally facilitated wellness retreats to give those navigating the death of a partner a landing pad for grief surrounded by nature, creativity, good food, healing touch, compassionate people, and opportunities to replenish, rejuvenate and re-ignite the whole being while honoring the journey of grief as widows and widowers.

Thank you to Executive Director and founder Marni Henderson for your incredible service and continued devotion to your community!

Interested in highlighting your organization? Tell us your story and we'll share it all year long.

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How has your organization evolved over the years?

​Our nonprofit has evolved from working under River Discovery into our own entity. We were able to establish our retreat with their support and then realized that we had a resource that was meeting the needs of a unique population. Two years ago we became our own nonprofit and have since then continued to establish a strong foundation to allow further opportunities to enhance the well-being of our widowed community and their children.

What are the biggest rewards or what do you enjoy most about the work you do?

​The biggest reward for the work we do is to witness a woman finding hope and inspiration to continue healing through her deep grief and devastation. Knowing that the life of not only our participants, but their families as well, receive the support and tools to continue navigating and creating new life after such profound loss.

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What are some of the biggest challenges you face day-to-day? 

Some of the biggest challenges we face day-to-day are funding and reaching our potential audience. Much of our society is uncomfortable with the thought of a spouse dying. Understandably. However, this makes it hard for us to network, share and promote our message. Finding financial funding happens when you have experts in that field and we are continuing to work on that. My expertise is in facilitating group workshops and retreats focused on personal development, growth, healing, and whole-person wellness. So, we have an awesome offering established but are now trying to find stable funding as well as reach our target population so that we can serve them.

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What is one thing you wish your donors/general public knew about nonprofit work?

I wish that our donors and the general public knew more about what we offer and how much of an impact in makes on the lives of those we serve.  And, our retreats are facilitated by professionals who have experienced the death of their spouse as well.  I wish they knew how impactful the retreat and class experiences were to their lives.

What have have you benefited most from with your INC membership?

We have benefited from the INC membership by participating in Idaho Gives.

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