Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Mason Tate.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In April of 2016 I turned 30, and over the course of my thirtieth year, my entire life changed. I survived a near-fatal car crash and recovered from a traumatic brain injury at the same time that my first business was exploding, and about as soon as I’d recovered, my husband left me. Soon after my mother moved in. So, I was faced with supporting my son and my mother on my own for the first time ever, and I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do that.
At the time, I owned a thriving baby and parenting services business, but to be honest it was really difficult to be in the happily families biz after what I’d experienced. In the fall of 2017, I began to open myself up to the possibilities of what was beyond that industry and what my capabilities were beyond being someone’s wife or someone’s mother or someone’s daughter. It occurred to me that I wanted to help people and had always wanted to help people professionally, but it was time to pivot to a different way of helping.
On December 3, 2017, I made a Facebook post, and to make a long story short, that Facebook post catalyzed me creating an online challenge for women, and then subsequently a group, which then became a truly unique online community, whose members are so amazing that they inspired me to create Camp Hecate.
Camp Hecate is now registering campers for its second session and is preparing to open registration for a third.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One difficult part of doing what I do is that it isn’t really being done. I’m a Reiki master, I curate an online community, do private consulting, run a summer camp-style retreat…what’s that job called? How is it possible to sum that up succinctly?
Along those same lines, it’s difficult to obtain funding or sponsorship with what you’re doing is a bit ineffable!
Working with the small residual effects of my TBI can be really challenging as well. Sometimes I experience headaches, fatigue, disorientation, and memory problems.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Camp Hecate story. Tell us more about the business.
Camp Hecate honors the goddess of the same name, and she often represents crossroads. We at Camp Hecate believe that the crossroads in 2019 are the intersections at which women are meeting each other. For this reason, it is in Camp Hecate’s mission to be fat-positive, queer and trans affirming, dedicated to continued work on antiracism, and welcoming to people with chronic and mental illness and well as disabilities.
All of our programming is designed with Christine Miserandino’s Spoon Theory of chronic illness in mind. We have strategically placed rest and nutrition. All the activities have variable levels of physicality/exertion. We even have one bunk totally dedicated to a low stimulation environment–earlier quiet hours, gentle lighting, no fragrances allowed, etc.
Additionally, Camp Hecate uses each session to complete a service project in service to women and disenfranchised populations. In 2019, we sent over 40 letters to Betsy DeVos regarding the need for menstrual products available to all students and created 50 packages of menstruation products for the benefit of the Atlanta Mission.
We are most proud of how people feel when they leave camp. It is our goal to replenish women, and we do that really beautifully and in a totally unique way.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
In the summer of 2018, we had secured a camp to rent for the inaugural session of Camp Hecate. With shaking hands, I clicked “publish” on the registration page on the website, and the site went live for the first time.
Within literally five minutes, I received an email from the camp we’d contracted. They told me that it was evident to them that we weren’t a population they wanted to host and canceled our contract.
So there I was, with a live registration page and people actively registering…for a camp that I didn’t actually know if I’d be able to host because I didn’t have a space!
After a trip to Enchantments, the oldest occult shop in NYC, and some serious magic, I received an email from Blue Ridge Camp in Mountain City, GA. They said they would LOVE to have us, that they totally “got” our mission and were behind it. To this day, they are some of our loudest cheerleaders–we are truly blessed to be able to work with them, we LOVE our host camp!
That first camp canceling our contract is the best stroke of luck we never could have anticipated.
Pricing:
- $1200 = transportation to/from camp (from drop site in ATL), all meals and snacks, lodging, all programming, bracelet, t-shirt, and more!
Contact Info:
- Website: camphecate.com
- Phone: 470-366-1191
- Email: mmt@camphecate.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/camphecate
- Facebook: facebook.com/camphecate
Image Credit:
Bebe Vadou Photography, Mark Tioxon
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