Various wellness booths, ranging from sound baths to martial arts, lined up at Plum Canyon Park recently during the inaugural JCI Santa Clarita Wellness Expo.
Hosted by JCI Santa Clarita, a junior business chamber for adults ages 18 to 40, the event allowed guests to participate in fitness classes, learn about local businesses and purchase wellness-related items.
In the event spearheaded by Cindy Castillo, co-chair of the Wellness Expo and owner of La Paz Wellness, Santa Clarita residents could learn more about the local resources available to better their health.
“The vision behind this was to bring all of the businesses in Santa Clarita that represent wellness, but to also bring out people in the community who may not necessarily know that these people are available for them,” Castillo said. “We have a Spartan DEKA race going on, where we have athletes who have been training today. We have licensed therapists, kung fu, saunas, and strength training.”
Along with 22 vendors available, residents could also take a free tai chi class, as well as yoga and a self-defense class.
“I’m very passionate about wellness. People were very receptive to this from JCI, and we’ve been planning this for six months now, and it started from an idea of wanting a free wellness event,” Castillo said. “I’m just so grateful that so many people also believed in the idea, even without any money. It’s our first event, which can be difficult at times, but I think we had a great turnout.”
Co-chair of the event Kennedy Gelnette, who is also a director of membership for JCI, had only moved to Santa Clarita from Florida nearly a year ago, before taking on the planning for the expo a few months later.
“Our goal was to bring together the SCV wellness community and bridge the gap for people to understand what resources are available in our local community. We wanted to provide that visibility to these resources and give people options for things they may need in their lives,” Gelnette said. “This experience has been really cool and eye-opening, just to see everything that exists in our community, and Cindy’s taught me so much about what we have available to us.”
Lindsay Robles, yoga instructor at Rise Mindful Healing in Old Town Newhall, said that with the overall climate, seeking wellness shouldn’t be a privilege, but rather a priority.
“We offered a yoga session this morning for everyone. There’s a lot of really cool wellness booths here, anywhere from infrared saunas to senior support with a lot of nice people out here offering their free services. It’s a beautiful day in a beautiful space,” Robles said. “I think a lot of people consider wellness a luxury nowadays, so they don’t take the time to give themselves the self-care. They think pausing is not only a luxury, but even lazy. In this day and age, and overall stress, it’s something necessary to be healthy — mind and body.”
JCI hosts first Wellness Expo
