Everyone was shocked when our dear friend, Christine, was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Chris flew up to Boston this month and has begun treatments at the Dana Farber center. Her husband is with her and they are both remaining strong and positive about the process. Chris's birthday present this year was learning that her cancer was localized only to the throat and had not spread anywhere else in her boday.

While the island misses her greatly, she can feel our love and support and is ever grateful for true friends and family. We all look forward to her return to health and return to St. John.

There will be a fundraiser at the Lime Inn on June 11th- a Saturday Night Fever Extravaganza! Please contact Chris Meyers, Judy Whitley, or Susan Stair for details and tickets.

It was like "Service Industry Day" at the spa today! As we started a birthday party celebration for a special group we came to realize that every one of them was related to our industry. Ali Phillips was our organizer and birthay girl extraordinaire, who just happened to also be an event planner with destination weddings on St. John in the months ahead. Along with her were friends who were photographers, caterers, event planners and family to celebrate the special occasion on our lovely St. John.
Wedding season approaches! For all those Chicago gals looking to plan their special day- what a wonderful team to choose from. Ali, Steph, Sarah and Kristin were a great group to work with and I hope they have many fond memories of Drift Away to look back on.

Holiday Happenin's

Alas, I guess it can't always be Full Serenity at the spa. Busiest week of the year, spa full of families relaxing together...
and...
the fire alarms decide it is time for them to announce their need for new batteries.
LOUDLY.
ALL AT ONCE!

Aye, aye, aye.
If that weren't bad enough- if you can only imagine- turns out our lovely clients had their own home burn down 2 years ago so their daughter was not so able to relax for her massage after the alarms quieted. :o(

A special thanks to the massage therapists at Drift Away tonight for making a rough start to an evening end with a smile.

A month of Plenty

Today as I enjoyed a holiday meal with my small family I reflected on the many blessings available to enjoy. Along with the aforementioned 'small family' I am blessed to have the larger family of our talented spa staff. Larger than that still is our ever-supportive island family.

This month our island certainly had its share of abundances! First to mind comes the rain... then more rain... and more again. How nice it is to be able to take a long hot shower without the water worries of our dry season!

Then there was an incredible amount of crystal clear days and cooler weather to remind us that we will yet pull out of the summer season, with our in-season being closer than we think.

And who does not have pictures of those dazzling sunsets? There were certainly about two weeks solid of photo-op sunsets.

At the end of another Thanksgiving Day I am so grateful for many, many things. Thanks to all our customers who took advantage of our October Groupon Savings. They were a smashing success and as a result you can look for them again in promos to come!

I am happy that our busy season is starting again and invite you to take advantage of our December promotion- 10% off of all gift certificates sales over $150. Break this up however you like- 15 $10 gifts, 3 $50 gifts, etc for an easy gift idea for friends, employees, coworkers and yourself.

Groupons On St. John?

Our October promotion is very exciting. We are building on the new marketing concept of Groupons. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term- Groupons are incredibly discounted deals offered online for various businesses in a particular city. While St. John is too small to be on their list, we are a resourceful island community and Drift Away brings you its own flavor of St. John Groupon.

During this month, we will offer incredible savings on services through the sale of gift certificates online. There will be many different types of offerings posted, each with its own limited time available so you will want to check our website often to take full advantage.

Savings to keep an eye out for will be 2-for-1 massages, 50% off certain services, free service couplings and so on. Just purchase the gift certificate online through a secure site and your gift will be emailed to whomever you select to receive it- don't forget one for yourself! This can be printed at home and brought in for use at the time of the appointment.

We do sell gift certificates in this manner year round on our website- keep your eyes open for our yearly December gift certificate promotions. Such an easy way to purchase last minute gifts when you've been too busy working to make it out shopping.

Takin' care of a Baby's Momma

On August 22nd we held our second Prenatal Seminar at the spa. Building on requests and feedback from our first seminar in January, the lovely expectant moms started out with mango smoothies, blueberry spice bread and a morning yoga session designed to relieve the common aches of pregnancy while enhancing the muscle tone needed for the upcoming event. A light lunch of quinoa and salad bar led into the seminar portion with Erin Witbeck. The moms always love Erin's warm and thoughtful approach. Her training of the Birthing From Within techniques gives her many ways in which to discuss topics such as fear, expectations, pain management, disappointments and much more.
Rounding out the day with a spa service and some take-home products was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

Drift Away is excited to have plans for more prenatal seminars in May and November of 2011. We've been discussing all kinds of fun ways to design the day- let us know of any special requests! And if you're not pregnant and feeling left out of all this fun- never a better time to start trying! ;o)

Hurrican Earl brushes St. John

While St. John is an old pro to hurricanes, this was the first major exposure for Drift Away and the Greenleaf Commons Building- they did fabulous!
Everyone on island locked things up tight Sunday no knowing what to expect in the next 12 hours. Earl was expected to pass us around 8am Monday, so we expected that winds might be crazy in the early hours of morning. When I left the spa Sunday, I pulled some rugs off the floors near the doors but had to keep my fingers crossed about all else. This was a new experience to the building and it had not shown us its weak points yet.
Monday morning opened up gloriously. Winds and seas were high and boats were already starting to show up onshore, but it wasnt until Monday night that things really started to get spicy. Many residents lost power Sunday night, and I think I can safely say that ALL residents were thinking Monday night "How much longer is this going to last?" Wind gusts were recorded on STT at close to 70mph. When Earl passed us it was 300 miles wide, the wind just kept coming hour after hour all night long.
Anyone who could sleep awakened on Tuesday to the sounds of chainsaws and generators. It is a beautiful thing to see neighbors pulling together to clear roads and offer assistance where needed. Our little island was fortunate for the most part, tree damage was what most people had to report.
And as for Drift Away- after the curfew ended my husband, son and I drove down with baited breath to see if the roof remained intact- there were about 5 leaves that had managed to sneak in. NO OTHER DAMAGE AT ALL!! Another day to give thanks for our many blessings.