Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgia Rauch
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Sometimes it’s hard to know where a particular story really begins and ends. But I can tell you that where I am today, isn’t where I expected to be. It was never my dream to have an event space, yet all the things I’ve dabbled in over the years have certainly led me down this path.
I graduated from John Carroll University with my BA in communications and a minor in philosophy with a special focus on creative writing. I went on to get my Masters from The Ohio State University in clinical Social Work.
I began my footing with counseling — helping Individuals with depression and anxiety, as well as, being an “emotional advocate” at a nutrition center where I developed a 12-week program, alongside a nutritionist, to help people with the mental health components to weight loss. From there, my life took an unexpected turn when my late father was diagnosed with lung cancer. I ended up becoming his full time care taker while raising my daughter McKinley, who was 13 months old at the time.
I should mention I’ve always done random things on the side – from homemaking herbal salves to custom making dreamcatchers. At one point along the way, I became ordained and even participated in a level-1 reiki training. To this day, I still officiate about one wedding each year, and it truly brings me such joy. I guess you could say that innate with in me, there always seemed to be a knack for crafting and artistic endeavors along with a passion for herbalism and spirituality. But, I digress.
Anyway, after my dad passed, I was raising my family in Gahanna (now with two little girls) while my husband was working full time in the corporate law world. This was a stressful time for us and I definitely felt lost. Then, a close friend at the time came to me with a business idea that we ended up running with. We created an influential platform (back before people were even called influencers). In 2016 we created “Columbus Stories” where we travelled around Columbus telling the stories of local businesses, people, and places. We worked with companies like Goldfish Swim School, City Barbeque, Cameron Mitchell, Lifeline of Ohio, Sitting Made Simple, and Katalina’s to help in marketing and brand recognition. It was great while it lasted, but there came a point when our ideas for what we each wanted no longer aligned, and my mental health was suffering. So, I officially walked away in 2019 and refocused my energy on my family and healing myself.
After doing yoga for 3 years, I decided to deepen my practice by getting my 200-hour yoga certification from Columbus Yoga Trainings with Trisha Drewyor. This training definitely was a big shift for me. Not only was I able to do some major life reflecting and healing, but I met lifelong friends, too. It’s an experience I still can’t fully put into words.
In January of 2020, my husband Jordan and I decided to homeschool our children. (This was before the pandemic even happened in March, which only solidified our answer.) For me, it honestly felt like a soft but persistent whisper finally became a voice. And after learning my late father wrote his doctorate on homeschooling families in the 90’s – it just kinda hit me. This was my calling. Or well, one of my callings. I’ve been homeschooling my two girls ever since, and we are in our fifth year now. McKinley is in 7th grade and Cora is in 4th. I wouldn’t trade this time with them for anything. We love learning alongside each other and hiking the local metro parks with our nature group during the week.
Jordan and I have both cherished the outdoors – so we are a big into nature kind-of-family and care about the environment. We’ve always wanted to have land, and planned for it in our future down the road. But you and I both know none of us are promised tomorrow. And although we thought we’d end up somewhere in North Carolina or Tennessee, when our parents found a slice of heaven right in town—we fell in love and ended up with land sooner than anticipated. Why live for tomorrow when you can live for today, right?
In January of 2022 my husband and I moved into an old home built in the 1800’s on a 7-acre property in Blacklick. The Blacklick Creek running through our property is filled with crawdads, and it is where we now spend warm spring days collecting rocks and searching for arrowheads. There is a beautiful hillside for sledding in the winter and now annual slip n’ slide parties in the summer; there is a pawpaw lane that calls to us in the evenings for walks; and the wide variety of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers bring new sights, creatures, and obstacles with each passing season.
Our family named the property Wildflower Ridge. Mainly because of all the wild things that grow, but also because years ago when my daughters were much younger, they wanted to name our homeschool adventures. They choose the name “Wildflower Warriors.” So, it’s paying homage to that as well.
With an extra building on the property, we knew that it was the perfect place to begin a different kind of journey. But what? We had so many ideas for what the building could be. A storefront? A storage unit? A man cave or she shed? A school house? The girls were pushing for a restaurant at one point, but I’m not sure who they thought would be doing all the cooking. Ha!
For a while now, I have been curating experiences. For me, making something ordinary into something magical and being super “extra” – is my jam. Helping people is my jam. But making people feel moved, inspired, and better about the world and themselves — that’s always been my heart’s mission. And that is the ultimate goal in the experiences, classes, and workshops I teach. Sometimes I’m a guide, teacher, or facilitator, it just depends on the experience. I’ve offered foraging classes, writers’ workshops to other homeschooling children, guided yoga workshops, and even a community circle on grief. My interests, passions, and education are varied – thus my offerings are varied.
My husband Jordan is big in the disc golf community and so for the past two years we have used the property and event space to host a charity disc golf tournament. Jordan has played disc golf for 24 years and competitively for 20 years now. It’s one of his greatest joys in life, and so we knew we wanted a way to incorporate the disc golf community into this space.
So yeah, I know this is long winded, but Jordan and I decided we wanted to share the beauty of our property with others. Renovating that second building was the way to do it. What would we turn it into? Ultimately, the idea for the space was inspired by my experiences in the yoga community, especially when my home studio was sold to a more corporate feeling brand. It gave us that final push to actually begin the renovation process, and turn it into a yoga studio. Or well, that was what I initially thought. It’s also why I’ve made sure to collect and accommodate yoga prop amenities for anyone who chooses to teach in the space. But the space isn’t necessarily a yoga studio. It’s a multi-purpose event space where people can feel comfortable. A place to explore in nature, to grow and learn, to foster community, and just have fun.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The renovation of the building’s interior was pretty smooth and only took about a month. However, the process of getting a bathroom in the space – now THAT has been an obstacle since February. But we knew to be a fully functioning space it was needed. We worked with three different companies: multiple meetings, discussions, emails, quotes, etc. Because the new bathroom would be so far away from any of our existing water and sewer lines, there was not an obvious way to complete the project. We finally found a company proposing a solution for the project that made the most sense to us. Like with most construction, there has been multiple setbacks. I for one wasn’t expecting a trench, 300 feet long, to be dug across the yard. Or for the excavation process to create new problems for our geothermal and electrical systems. We knew there would be hiccups, but it’s definitely felt like a long process for something that initially seemed so simple.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
please see full story for response.
What’s next?
I have no idea what the future holds for our family and the Wildflower Ridge, but I definitely foresee more classes, workshops, events, and disc golf tournaments. I’d love to curate with my friends a monthly space for community circles and gatherings to discuss hard topics, and for yoga to be offered more consistently.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildflower.ridge/
