re: kismet, community, connection, and keeping good company
The word that has been used repeatedly to describe the creation of Keep Good Company is kismet. Connections that feel like coincidences; one conversation that sets off a chain reaction; occurrences that feel small in the moment; pieces that build until it all becomes clear in hindsight, that “the end was built into the beginning.” This story begins in 2019. In the Hudson Valley, a family would purchase their great aunt's used bookstore after she passes away. Soon after in 2020, a global pandemic would stop the world, and in November of that same year, that family would lose their 19 year old daughter Cassidy, a young bright light that struggled with her mental health. Saturated in grief, the mother planned to keep the doors shut, sell everything on ebay, and keep to themselves—and for a while, they did. It wouldn’t be until a conversation with a stranger about cold plunges that they found a reason not to.
In 2022, the mother wanted to celebrate Cassidy’s 21st birthday. They remembered the conversation of a cold plunge and decided to honor Cassidy by running into the Hudson in March. Their friends wanted to join them and donate to their cause. They learned of a family that recently moved to Woodstock and had a non profit organization that offered trauma informed yoga and mediation. They decided to raise money for that nonprofit, United We Om, who would provide yoga and mediation for the next 2 years in the partial hospitalization program Cassidy had attended. The family realized quickly how critical community was to connection: the energy at the plunge that they called “Go All In for Mental Health" was contagious, and they realized they had the perfect space to put that energy. Since that plunge, the family opened a thrift store called Rewind Kingston where their mission is for people to have fun, have a space to talk openly about their mental health, and leave hopeful.
Across the world, a musician named Ginger Winn taught herself how to produce and began creating music for others on platforms like Upwork. A woman named Tina would commission the songwriter to turn her husband Matthew's poetry into a song. The song—though they didn’t know it at the time—would end up being the first single for an album called Stop Motion, on a record label the couple would start as a branch of their creative consultancy Keep Good Company. In 2024, Ginger would perform a show in the Hudson Valley that the daughter attended. After the show, the daughter would ask the singer to headline their mental health music festival Heart of Midtown. Tina, Ginger’s manager, offered to donate the performance, sponsor the festival, and create a merch line of self care kits that included a journal, mental health zine, and postcards. After learning that the daughter and her sister wrote poetry, Tina had the idea to collaborate on a song with Ginger to play at the festival, with all proceeds from the song donated to mental health. As Ginger began to play the song, Every Time It Rains, complete, double rainbow appeared over the festival stage as she sang the words “I still see your face in the reflection of the pavement every time it rains.” Looking at the reflection of the rainbow in a puddle on the pavement, they knew what was happening was not a coincidence.
In 2024, the daughter would apply for a grant with the same nonprofit, but they shifted their model to funding the passion projects of good-hearted individuals that offered free services to their community. She would host a biweekly mixed media journaling workshop in the very same adolescent program her sister went through years ago, and would receive such a positive response that their store Rewind would begin to offer free weekly Wednesday journaling. They rip paper, talk about how they are feeling, and even become close friends with people who attend. Without even realizing it, they created a community, and every day, they watched their community give back to them.
Since that first cold plunge, the family would raise $35,000 from various fundraising to support local mental health initiatives. Their daughter would land a full time job working for the creative consultancy and the singer she met after making a last minute decision to go out instead of staying in. Had she chosen to stay home; had that mother chosen to keep the doors shut; had Ginger decided to stay in her comfort zone and move onto other projects; had Tina hired a different songwriter or used a different platform, where would they be? If you take nothing else from this story, let this be evidence that every action taken and choice made has potential to not only change your life, but the lives of the people surrounding you, too. Community is a constant exchange of giving and receiving, and this project is no different: we want to share the art, music, poetry, resources, and the light that our community has given us. Nourish is a curation of the glimmers in life that make all the pain and suffering worth it—the fleeting, everyday moments that elicit a rush of happiness, gratitude, calm, peace, safety. It’s an ode to what community does for us, as well as a gift returned to you, our community. You must be vulnerable to create change—to ascend beyond a life focused on money, status, and material items. If you do this, you will find something bigger: a life of meaning, fulfillment, and community; a life of keeping good company; of putting good into the world no matter how small it may feel in the moment; of making your own kismet until it finds you.