REFUGE Talks: Katie Kennemer with Kelly Wynne Handbags

Our latest REFUGE Talk was with Katie Kennemer, Head of Design and Production for Kelly Wynne, an Austin-based lifestyle brand specializing in quality handbags and accessories.

During her talk, Katie told the girls at The Refuge Ranch how she got her start in the fashion industry and took them behind the scenes on the Kelly Wynne design process, including showing a sneak peek of upcoming collections. Several of the girls in our care are very interested in fashion, and they even had some design suggestions for Katie to take back to her team!

Through their Beyond the Bag program, Kelly Wynne gives a portion of sales toward organizations that make a positive impact on women’s lives, including The Refuge Ranch. (Enter code REFUGERANCH at checkout and $5 of your purchase will go back to The Refuge.) Additionally, every girl who graduates from our program at The Refuge receives a handbag from Kelly Wynne to carry into her new life.

Kelly Wynne has been in our corner for a long time, and we were so honored to have a member of her team chat with the girls.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Ginna Claire Mason & Mary Kate Morrissey

For our latest REFUGE Talk, the girls at The Refuge Ranch met Broadway stars, Ginna Claire Mason & Mary Kate Morrissey, who played opposite one another as Glinda and Elphaba in the Wicked National Tour.

This talk was special, not just because the girls got to learn about a career in musical theatre, but also because of the friendship Mary Kate & Ginna Claire formed while performing on the road together for an entire year—that’s over 400 shows! Just like their characters from Wicked, MK and GC have opposite personalities, but they compliment each other in a way that is evident to everyone. Meeting this duo was magical!

Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the theaters down, Ginna Claire was on Broadway as Glinda in Wicked and Mary Kate was starring as Janis in the Mean Girls National Tour. When their in-person jobs were put on an indefinite pause, the friends decided to start their own virtual musical theatre school, Double Name Witches, where aspiring performers of all skill levels have the opportunity to be coached by this dynamic pair.

During their REFUGE Talk, Ginna Claire and Mary Kate shared memories of their time on the road (including what it was like to be painted entirely green), advice on sisterhood and friendship, and how music speaks when words are not enough.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Kendall Antonelli

Kendall Antonelli is the Co-owner & President of Antonelli’s Cheese, a beloved cheese shop in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Austin, Texas. Kendall and her husband John founded the shop in 2010 with a simple mission: “Do Good. Eat Good.” As cheesemongers, they source cheese from hundreds of artisanal producers around the world, and they dedicate themselves to learning and retelling their stories.

During Kendall’s talk, survivors living at The Refuge Ranch got to taste and hear the stories of three cheeses from Dripping Springs, Spain, and Austria!

Kendall also spoke openly with the girls about being a survivor of depression and how that life experience spurs her to be raw and real with everyone she meets—even when she’s talking about cheese! She said many people are surprised to learn about her struggles because of the success she has experienced through her cheese shop. “Success and struggle are the same coin. You can be both at the same time; it doesn’t have to be one or the other,” she shared. Her positive energy in the face of real issues helped her make a great connection with the girls!

Watch her talk now, and get ready to be hungry for cheese!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Liza Donnelly

Liza Donnelly is a cultural and political cartoonist who is best known for her work at The New Yorker. In her forty year career, Liza has contributed, both drawing and writing, to CNN, CBS News, The New York Times and many other publications. In 2005, she published a book called Funny Ladies that chronicles the contributions of female cartoonists at The New Yorker from the magazine’s beginnings in 1925.

Liza is also known for live drawing events. Using her tablet, she draws what she sees and uploads it straight to social media. In 2016, she was the first cartoonist to be granted entry to the Academy Awards. Since then, she has returned every year as the official Oscars cartoonist, and has live drawn many other events, including the Women’s March, presidential debates, The Emmy Awards and The Golden Globes.

When asked about the importance of cartoons as a form of journalism, Liza said, “Sometimes cartoons speak without words, so you can connect to people without words, and I think that’s pretty powerful.”

During her conversation with the girls at The Refuge Ranch, Liza shared why she started drawing, how it helped her find her voice, and how she began her career as a cartoonist.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Stephany Powell

Stephany Powell is the Executive Director of Journey Out, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that helps empower adult survivors of sex trafficking to leave a life of abuse. Through street outreach and running a drop-in center, Journey Out is able to meet adult survivors where they are and offer services. They employ survivors on their crisis response team, so victims are able to talk to someone and seek services from someone who deeply understands their situation.

Journey Out also works directly with law enforcement in LA to provide care once a victim is identified, which gives Stephany a unique capability to lead the organization, as she served as an officer with LAPD for over 30 years, working in many different departments. During her time as Sergeant of the Vice department, Stephany began to see that women working as prostitutes had more complex situations than police officers at that time were trained to understand. Today, she is better equipped to help victims of sex trafficking because she can collaborate with and provide training to police officers with an authority that comes from a firm understanding of their experience as law enforcement.

We first met Stephany last year when she came to Austin for a Links Incorporated regional conference that began with an anti-trafficking march and rally at City Hall.

See this Spectrum News story, for their coverage of that event, plus their interviews with Sophia Strother and Allie Franklin.

In Stephany’s talk with survivors living at The Refuge Ranch, she shared details about her journey, from a being a teen who got kicked out of two high schools on the same day, to earning her PhD while performing her duties on the LAPD Vice squad, to her career advocating for others now with Journey Out.

“Our kids are not for sale. No, they’re not,” chanted members of The Links, Incorporated, at rally they organized at Austin City Hall in June 2019, to raise awareness around sex trafficking.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Meredith Harper Houston

Meredith Harper Houston is the Founder and Chair of The Swan Within, a nonprofit that teaches therapeutic ballet to empower incarcerated teen girls who have experienced trauma, abuse and sex trafficking. Founded in 2015, The Swan Within now brings therapeutic dance classes to every juvenile detention center in Los Angeles. Through the program, girls are empowered to find strength and grace in their bodies.

As a survivor of childhood abuse, Meredith’s goal in founding The Swan Within was to help girls like herself have the coping mechanism that she used as a child—dance. Dancing was a way to get out of the house and away from her abuser, and it also helped her cope with her physical trauma. Many victims of sexual assault experience a bodily disassociation as a way to survive trauma, and reconnecting with their own physicality is challenging, but healing work. As a classically trained ballerina, Meredith learned to focus attention into every muscle, allowing her to feel present in her own body.

In this joyous talk with all the girls living at The Refuge Ranch, Meredith shared parts of her story, and explained how dance helped her to become resilient.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Wande

Our latest REFUGE Talk was with hip hop artist Wande, the first female artist to be signed to Reach Records, joining the Christian rap ranks of Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Tedashii and more.

The girls at The Refuge Ranch loved hearing Wande’s story of how she started rapping because of a biology assignment in high school. Since then, she’s been chasing her goal of becoming a hip hop artist. Her first album, EXIT, was released in April and is available everywhere.

Some of the girls at The Refuge Ranch who are interested in writing their own music asked Wande about her writing process and if she would rap for them. On the spot, she dove straight into several verses:

I'm going somewhere farther than I can imagine // Living proof that when you got faith anything can happen // Yeah I know you shocked // And didn't expect to hear me rapping // But I bet in a few seconds // You gon' really feel like clapping

After that, two of the girls confidently volunteered to sing for her on the call. To protect their identities, we can’t play that part for you, but both girls blew us away with their powerful voices. After belting out her song, one girl then asked Wande if she would sign them to her label! Wande encouraged them to keep pursuing their goals and gave them practical advice for writing and recording.

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Watch Wande’s full talk now!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Laura Boykin

Our latest REFUGE Talk is with a scientist who helps farmers in East Africa. Laura Boykin is the Co-Founder and Director of the Cassava Virus Action Project, an organization that brings compact DNA testing out to farmers in the field. With this technology, farmers are able to find out what is making their crops sick and how to re-plant for a healthier harvest that can feed their families and bring in an income.

Laura told the girls at The Refuge Ranch that she was never interested in science until she was required to get a job to maintain her college basketball scholarship. The job she landed was in an herbarium, gluing dead plants to paper. As she dove further into the work, she fell in love with the team-aspect of science because it reminded her of basketball. Now, she champions the importance of diversity in science.

“So many cool innovations come when everyone is at the table… More diverse teams are more productive, solve bigger problems, have bigger dreams!”

She gave advice for any girls who would like to pursue a career in STEM, encouraging them that the work is so much more exciting once you’re out of school, and to push through because “nobody can ever take your education away from you.”

We hope her words of encouragement help the girls at The Refuge visualize their future and see all the opportunities that could be available to them!

Watch Laura’s talk now!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Simidele Adeagbo

Photo Courtesy of Getty Sport

What happens when your big dream is dashed? Just for example, say your goal in life was to participate in the Summer Olympics, but you don’t ultimately qualify to represent your nation at the upcoming games -- what do you do? Do you just let the dream die, then tuck your medals into your scrapbook with your junior prom photos?

If you are Simidele Adeagbo you learn a new sport in 100 days so you can compete in the Winter Olympics. And the sport she chose, the skeleton, involves jumping onto a small bobsled, then barreling face down, head-first through an ice chute down a mountain side at 80-100 miles per hour. In 2018, Simidele made Olympic history at the Winter Games, as the first Nigerian Winter Olympian, and the first African and black woman to compete in skeleton at the Olympics.

She is also our next guest speaker on REFUGE Talks!

During her chat with the girls, Simidele shared that first place isn't always the "first" that matters. Sometimes, the first that matters most is the one that blazes a trail for others.

Watch Episode 5 of REFUGE Talks!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Preston Gorman

In 2015, Preston Gorman volunteered to fight Ebola in West Africa. After less than two weeks in Sierra Leone, he contracted the virus. He battled for his life for over a month, and though he survived, he still carries the trauma he experienced.

This trauma, he says in this Washington Post story, “…forced me to dig deep, find out who I really was, and rely on God’s direction in the healing process that is still ongoing to this day. There were many mistakes and dark moments. But a journey that, I hope, in the end will be worth it.”

In his REFUGE Talk, Preston spoke about how losing everything helped him find something to believe in. He calls his life now a “work in progress,” and shared with the survivors living at The Refuge Ranch what it is like to regain dignity and fight for community even when no one can understand the trauma you have been through.

The girls living at The Refuge Ranch connected with his story in a way maybe no one else can, and asked questions Preston deemed the most insightful he has ever been asked. Watch the full talk below!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: The Chicks

Our third installment of REFUGE Talks was with one of the top-selling female groups of all time: The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks)! Sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire and lead singer Natalie Maines each joined our video conference from their separate homes to bring hope and healing to the survivors recovering at The Refuge Ranch.

Their talk was full of joy and laughter as The Chicks shared advice on sisterhood, reminisced over one another's most embarrassing moments from touring and rejoiced in the opportunity to speak to the girls at the ranch. The girls asked them some pretty great questions, including if Goodbye Earl—the song about killing an abusive husband—was based on a true story! See how they reacted in this outtake from our episode:

The girls also asked The Chicks if they would sing for them. While we've seen some thrilling shelter-in-place concerts, the band immediately knew what a feat it was to harmonize from three separate rooms via video chat. But that didn't stop them from trying. Natalie belted powerfully through the opening lines of “Not Ready To Make Nice,” and Emily and Martie did their best to join in without knowing if they were in sync. The Chicks didn’t think it worked, but it brought a lot of joy to all the rest of us on the call.

After their quick out-of-sync performance, one of the girls whispered to a staff member that she wanted to sing for The Chicks. So, she shyly moved up to the computer in The Chapel, where one of the small groups of girls had gathered to watch, and crouched down just off screen to hide her face while she performed. Her brave, beautiful voice filled The Chapel and rang out from the other computers across the ranch that were tuned in to the talk. While we can't show you this moment in order to protect her identity, you can rest assured that everyone listening was moved to happy tears. We hope being able to add, “I sang for The Chicks” to her story will have a positive impact on her life’s trajectory.

The Chicks new single, Gaslighter, is out now, and they are set to release their first album in 14 years at the beginning of next month. Ahead of the release, The Chicks announced The Refuge for DMST as one of the causes they support—we are so grateful for their continued support and for the time they spent encouraging the girls.

The Chicks may not be ready to make nice, but they sure were sweet on their Zoom call with the residents of The Refuge Ranch!

Watch the full episode below!

Watch Episode 3 of REFUGE Talks now!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Kimi Culp, Film Producer, Podcast Host

Meet our second guest on Refuge Talks, multi-media producer Kimi Culp, who Zoomed in with the girls living at The Refuge Ranch to talk about the power of story telling.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers, thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

The Refuge is in the hope business and there is now a worldwide demand. So we’ve asked great storytellers like Kimi to help increase the supply of hope.

Kimi’s resume is packed with TV producer roles including work with ABC, NBC and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Now, she hosts and produces All The Wiser, a podcast that shares hard truths, personal struggle, and stories of hope that will leave you all the wiser for listening. For every story they tell, All The Wiser donates $2,000 to a charity chosen by their guest storyteller—and that’s how Kimi connected with us!

If all the coronavirus news is getting you down and you need some inspiration, click over right now and listen to her latest episode with Ebola-survivor Preston Gorman.

Preston will be giving a REFUGE Talk of his own in the coming weeks and we look forward to meeting him. On Kimi’s show today, he said, “I want people to realize that healing is a process. It’s not a destination. Sometimes it has an endpoint and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s a process. Everybody’s process looks differently.” Preston gets it.

Kimi does, too. With her All the Wiser podcast, her goal is to create, “a place for great people to find great stories. On darker days, these stories have helped me rewire my thoughts towards hope and possibility. It is my greatest hope that you will be inspired by these conversations too; that you will hear how others faced struggle, survived, thrived... and that you will grow all the wiser for listening.”

During her REFUGE Talk, Kimi told the girls what it was like to work for Oprah, how she developed her passion for telling stories of hope and shared her own story of struggling with bipolar disorder.

Check out this highlight from her talk!

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.

REFUGE Talks: Valorie Kondos Field & Ariana Berlin

We want to share something amazing that happened during a trying week for everyone.

The girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch had some big plans for Spring Break last week before COVID-19 precautions began rolling out. One by one, all their plans were canceled, including meeting a famous coach who was coming to Austin for a SXSW panel.

We still put on a talent show and rodeo, with a BBQ, of course. But we couldn’t go out for a field trip to hear an inspirational chat in a gym with tumbling mats, balance beams and Olympic dreams. 

As cabin fever was beginning to affect The Refuge Ranch and the entire world, we realized that the girls could use a pep talk. What if the coach would do a Zoom call with the girls? Would a Pac-12 Coach of the Century and four-time National Coach of the Year, with seven NCAA national championships and 19 Pac-12 Conference championships be open to imparting some online inspiration to the girls at The Refuge Ranch? Maybe, now that everyone knows a little more now what isolation, fear and trauma feels like, the whole world needs a pep talk.

So we wrote to Valorie Kondos Field, former head coach of the UCLA Women’s Gymnastics Team and asked if she would help with our collective cabin fever. “Miss Val,” as she is affectionately known, has had a storied career of inspiring young people, both as a dancer and coach, plus as the author of Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance, and a TED Talk speaker.

Not only did she jump at a chance to do a REFUGE Talk with the girls, she invited one of her most celebrated athletes, Ariana Berlin, to join her on the Zoom call.  

The indomitable Ariana was a promising gymnast on track to be an Olympian when a major car wreck at 14 changed all her plans. Her doctors told her that her gymnastics career was over. Refusing to quit, she became a hip hop and breakdancer as she healed, then walked on to join Miss Val’s team at UCLA. Ariana then helped lead Miss Val’s team to their sixth NCAA championship, and she was the first gymnast in history to incorporate hip hop into her floor routine. 

Sounds like a great movie, right? They made one, and Jennifer Beals plays Miss Val. While sheltering in place, you and the kids need to watch “Full Out: The Ariana Berlin Movie” on Netflix. Here’s the trailer. We watched the film at The Refuge Ranch before the Zoom call and the girls had great questions about what Ariana was thinking and feeling as she faced a seemingly impossible comeback.

So what inspiration did Miss Val and Ariana share with the girls? Watch our first ever REFUGE Talks about courage and getting back up when you’re knocked down. 

Thank you both so much for sharing your passion with everyone.

REFUGE Talks is a series of uplifting video conference calls between great performers, doers and thinkers and the girls in our care. We hope these segments from our series will not just inspire the girls recovering at The Refuge Ranch, but will help the whole world find a place of hope and healing.