HERBALISTS WITHOUT BORDERS INTERNATIONAL
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • HWB VISION & VALUES
    • HWB BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    • CORE COORDINATORS
  • OUR WORK
    • PEOPLE'S CLINICS >
      • INT'L BORDERLESS MEDICINE
      • VETERANS RESILIENCY HOLISTIC CLINIC
    • COMMUNITY SUPPORTED HERBALISM
    • HWB SEED GRANTS >
      • HWB 2023 SEED GRANTS
    • NOURISHING COMMUNITY GARDENS >
      • HWB Gardens Project
    • MEDICINAL SEED SAVING
    • TRAUMA TRAININGS
  • OUR MEMBERS
    • ABOUT OUR CHAPTERS >
      • FIND A CHAPTER
    • SCHOOL MEMBERS
    • A-G BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • H-P BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • Q-Z BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • DONORS & SPONSORS
  • GET INVOLVED
    • DONATE >
      • DONATE SUPPLIES
    • JOIN AS A MEMBER TODAY
    • RENEW TODAY
    • VOLUNTEER
    • OTHER WAYS TO GIVE
  • BLOG
  • News/Media
    • HWB NEWSLETTERS
    • eGUIDES
    • HERBAL ACTION WEBINARS & PODCAST
    • HWB IN THE NEWS
    • MEDIA INFO/DOWNLOADS
    • RESOURCES & LINKS
  • Member Portal
    • Full Member Portal Home >
      • Member Portal Resources
      • Members Only Blog
      • HWB Member Seed Grants 2023
    • Coordinator Portal Home >
      • Coordinator Materials
      • Coordinator Templates
      • Coordinator FAQs
      • Coordinator Calls
      • HWB Seed Grants 2023
      • Quarterly Report
      • Coordinator Calendar 2023
    • Core Volunteer Portal
    • 2nd Fridays Volunteer Hangout
    • Clover Member Level Portal
    • HWB Board of Directors Portal

HWB Iowa City.

10/16/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
In a flurry of words, spoken like an old friend you’re catching up with over tea, chapter coordinator Stephany Hoffelt will paint you a clear picture of Iowa City. When we speak, Iowa City has the hue of a college town with a passionate civically-engaged populace forced to take risks with little guidance.

“Iowa is the only state that didn’t have a mask mandate at one point and the Governor refused to allow online schooling. Within the Midwest people know that Iowa is a mess, especially Iowa City.”

Over the summer the state of Iowa and Iowa City were in the throes of a dual-sided crisis. Almost half of all admissions at UIHC tested for Covid were positive and unrest triggered by the May killing of George Floyd saw increasing numbers of people gather in the streets to protest systemic racism and police brutality, increasing the risk of widespread transmission. Then a derecho hit Eastern Iowa causing serious damage and widespread power outages.
Picture
But by that time, Stephany was no stranger to chaos. With a large family, her teaching garden, and business of her own to run, Stephany responds to these challenges with familiarity and a matter-of-fact kind of humor. “There is literally always something going on,” she laughs.

The Iowa City chapter had already been providing medic training for area activist groups when the local BLM protestors called for medic support. “It’s hard to enforce precautions among protestors even though the organizers try,” Stephany shares. “One of my medics tested positive recently. It definitely adds a layer of difficulty to what we’re trying to do.”

In a place where the lines are more blurred and the dilemma of choice many young people are facing across the US right now, the choice is between stand up to injustice and risk exposure or stay inside.

Medics also risk arrest by police officers who in recent times have been less discriminating with their targets. “We’re not sure what’s gonna happen because police are going to be authorized to enforce arresting organizers that aren’t distancing.”

The medics coordinate regularly with marshals of the Iowa Freedom Riders - the group organizing protests in Iowa City with a goal of making sure those marching in the streets have support. The medic group uses a buddy system and medics are trained in first-aid and CPR to help people dealing with sprains, tear-gas, and heat exhaustion.
Picture
The Iowa City chapter of HWB does more still. At the start of the pandemic they came together to make an empty house available as a quarantine location for frontline workers who didn’t want to risk their families being exposed to the virus.

"The mutual aid collective and food projects sprung up as needs arose,” says Stephany.

Members have also kept their gardens going, contributing their herbs to herbal first aid kits and the chapter’s apothecary project. Others have been saving seeds as part Iowa City HWB's seed bank project while introducing new plants to their gardens.

The chapter still makes herbal learning available by hosting herbal teach-ins over Zoom and nearly half participate in the local Mutual Aid Collective they organized. As the season changes and we get prepared for flu season, the chapter will have their herbal preparations ready to go.

Stephany's great grandmother was a midwife who used herbal preparations to take care of her community and Stephany followed that tradition before she went to Goddard College where she studied clinical herbalism. She still thinks of herself that way, despite her degree.

“I felt a little undereducated when we moved to Iowa City and just wanted the letters behind my name,” she chuckles. A researcher, her name can be found listed as a resource in the course work of many herb schools throughout the country.


HWB Writer: Shari Shepard

Picture
Shari Shepard has had a love for wild things since her first summer spent in her grandmother's garden in Alabama. She is a writer, wanderer, teacher, ritualist, and musician. She comes from the sea spray and redwoods of the Ohlone lands, now widely known as the San Francisco Bay Area by way of the Chattahoochee River Valley once stewarded by the Muscogee. Her herbal learning is influenced by the Wise Womxn tradition, western herbalism, the root workers of the southeastern United States, and West African traditional medicine. She credits the plant world for opening up a doorway to deeper understanding about her ancestral lineage and for helping her step on the hard yet rewarding path of healing the traumatic loss of cultural identity caused by the colonization and captivity of her ancestors.

Her favorite medicine food is ginger, her favorite tea is Tulsi, and her favorite tree is the Sweet Gum.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    HWB Blog

    Keep up with the latest!

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2015

    Categories

    All
    About HWB
    Allergies
    Apothecary
    Articles
    Beginner Level
    Books
    COVID-19
    Desktop Calendars
    Downloads
    EDUCATION
    EGuides
    Featured Business Member
    Featured Chapter
    Featured Member
    Featured School Member
    Feature Friday
    Feature Writers
    Free People's Clinics
    Healthy Living
    Herbal Action Podcast
    Herbalism
    HWB Board
    HWB Events
    Hydrosols
    Key Issues
    Learn About Herbalism
    Level 0: Good For All Levels
    Level 1: Beginner
    Membership
    MONOGRAPH
    Monthly Book Review
    News
    Newsletter
    Seed Companies
    Stories
    Tips Tuesday
    Trauma Events
    Wellness Wednesday
    YouTube

    RSS Feed

    @herbalistswithoutborders

    Tweets by hwbglobal


    Please note that if you post a comment just to share your own personal links or spam, your comments will not be approved. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF HWB.

HWB is a 501c3 NGO nonprofit. Our nonprofit is a global member network of of herbalists, medicinal plant growers, herbal educators, alternative holistic modality practitioners and others dedicated to herbal health access for all, medicinal plant conservation, health justice and more. 

Our international headquarters office is in NY and our US Donation Distribution Network is based in Wisconsin. Please email for our mailing address to ship donations.

Find us

Contact Us

HWB: Serving Communities Since 1995. 
Herbalists Without Borders™
Herbalists Without Borders©

©1999-2023, all rights reserved.

SEARCH

Home
About Us
​Our Work
Find a Chapter
Join as a Member
Donate
Newsletters
​
Main Blog
Privacy Policy
Password Protected Areas (must be logged in to access): 
Members Only Page
Members Only Resources
Members Only Blog

​Clover Member Page
​Coordinator Home Page 
2023 Seed Grant Kits
Google Translate
Visit the Herbalists Without Borders™ Bookshop Page (affiliate link).
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • HWB VISION & VALUES
    • HWB BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    • CORE COORDINATORS
  • OUR WORK
    • PEOPLE'S CLINICS >
      • INT'L BORDERLESS MEDICINE
      • VETERANS RESILIENCY HOLISTIC CLINIC
    • COMMUNITY SUPPORTED HERBALISM
    • HWB SEED GRANTS >
      • HWB 2023 SEED GRANTS
    • NOURISHING COMMUNITY GARDENS >
      • HWB Gardens Project
    • MEDICINAL SEED SAVING
    • TRAUMA TRAININGS
  • OUR MEMBERS
    • ABOUT OUR CHAPTERS >
      • FIND A CHAPTER
    • SCHOOL MEMBERS
    • A-G BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • H-P BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • Q-Z BUSINESS & NONPROFIT MEMBERS
    • DONORS & SPONSORS
  • GET INVOLVED
    • DONATE >
      • DONATE SUPPLIES
    • JOIN AS A MEMBER TODAY
    • RENEW TODAY
    • VOLUNTEER
    • OTHER WAYS TO GIVE
  • BLOG
  • News/Media
    • HWB NEWSLETTERS
    • eGUIDES
    • HERBAL ACTION WEBINARS & PODCAST
    • HWB IN THE NEWS
    • MEDIA INFO/DOWNLOADS
    • RESOURCES & LINKS
  • Member Portal
    • Full Member Portal Home >
      • Member Portal Resources
      • Members Only Blog
      • HWB Member Seed Grants 2023
    • Coordinator Portal Home >
      • Coordinator Materials
      • Coordinator Templates
      • Coordinator FAQs
      • Coordinator Calls
      • HWB Seed Grants 2023
      • Quarterly Report
      • Coordinator Calendar 2023
    • Core Volunteer Portal
    • 2nd Fridays Volunteer Hangout
    • Clover Member Level Portal
    • HWB Board of Directors Portal