“The retreat brings people together, builds community in the forest, gets participants outside and off their screens, and uses nature sustainably to heal and inspire minds and souls,” stated Great Mountain Forest Executive Director Michael Zafros. Retreat registration closes on July 30.
“I was born a writer. I wrote in prison camp, and after the war I worked at a newspaper in Singapore. I’ve always written. I’ve never stopped writing.”
-- Loet Velmans
Sheffield resident Loet Velmans, survivor of a daring escape from Holland in a lifeboat, aptly named The Seaman’s Hope on May 14, 1940, compared his own plight to that of today’s boat people in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, risking their lives for a chance at freedom.
When asked how he achieved professional success, he credits luck and being at the right place at the right time. Yet, as he tells his story, it becomes clear that Velmans had other traits – courage, resourcefulness, determination, a willingness to take risks, an instinct for what might work, and a capacity for friendship and collaboration.
