www.towntimes.com
Volume 23, Number 29
Friday, October 18, 2019
SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP
HOLISTIC ESTHETICIAN
New friends say so long, for now By Everett Bishop Town Times
Host families, friends, faculty and classmates were mistyeyed at a farewell reception for Tongji students last week. The Coginchaug community gathered to say goodbye to their new friends from Ningbo, China. Lisa Catherine is the newest addition to the Red Barn in Durham. Catherine offers holistic skincare services as well as energy work. Photo by Everett Bishop, Town Times
Fresh face at The Red Barn By Everett Bishop Town Times
The Red Barn in Durham welcomed a new face at its open house last weekend. Lisa Catherine, a certified holistic esthetician, is launching her “holistic organic skincare services” under the name Facets Skincare. According to Catherine, this venture “is a realization of a 30-year vision” that began around the time she was pregnant with her daughter, Lindsay Suprenant. “When I was pregnant with her was when I became fascinated with nutrition and went to college for nutrition for two years,” Catherine said. “When she was two, I went to college for nutrition and when I was done with that, I knew I didn’t want to be a registered dietician.”
Instead, Catherine sought to become a naturopathic physician, a doctor who looks to holistic methods of healing, with pharmaceuticals being a last resort. However, Catherine quickly realized that all the naturopathic schools were located on the west coast. “I was a single mom, so nutrition sounded like the best thing, but I wasn’t feeling the registered dietician program,” she said. “So I found esthetics, which was really special to me because I had very bad skin.” Catherine said that she felt that she had “come out of the womb with acne.” “I figured why not go into a line of work where I could benefit personally and then I could also integrate all of my nutrition because I really believe that what was going on with my skin had
something to do with what was going on inside,” she said. What resulted became the building blocks for Facets Skincare. Research into CBD and a commitment to a holistic lifestyle even led Catherine to launch her own line of skincare products. “I cherry pick, but I’m very strict that there’s no toxic ingredients, and when possible, they’re all organic,” she said when talking about the various products she uses in her facials and treatments. However, Catherine added that there are some products that she “loves” that aren’t organic. For those who might have blemishes or other skin See Face, A19
“It was a great two weeks. I think it changed the lives of many of these kids, changed their perspectives,” said Board of Education Chair Robert Moore. “I think the school recognizes that this world is very small and these kids are kids just like us.” Twenty-two students and two educators traveled from China to the U.S. to participate in a school partnership program between Tongji and Coginchaug high schools. The foreigners stayed with host families in Durham and Middlefield and shadowed Coginchaug students in order to experience American culture.
for the Tongji students. Regional School District 13 School Superintendent Kathryn Veronesi, Moore, Board of Education Secretary Norm Hicks, Coginchaug Principal Brain Falcone, and World Language Teacher Kate Germond visited Ningbo last December with a consultant from ACES International to facilitate this partnership. Upon the group’s return, Veronesi wrote in Town Times: “While there, we learned about Chinese history, culture and the educational system … At our partner school we met school leaders, teachers, food service staff and students. We toured school buildings and grounds, observed classes, discussed lessons, and finalized and signed a ‘Friendship and Partnership’ memorandum of agreement.”
Last week, Falcone said, “When we went to China last year, I couldn’t have hoped for such an amazing experience. To know that we One Tongji student, Wang Jing, spoke before her peers have friends on the other side of the world that we about her experience at Coginchaug. “We’re glad and communicated, talked to thankful that we are blessed and had in our homes is absolutely unbelievable.” with parents and families and shadow students that Vice Principal of Tongji High trust us and love us,” said School, Zhu Wei, said the Jing. “It’s you who gave us a partnership was “a very home in U.S.A. Thanks for good beginning” to the “fuyour hope, care and love.” ture connection” of the two schools. For some Coginchaug students, the farewell was clos- “We hope the connection er to a: See you later. In the and all this friendship will spring of 2020, Coginchaug last a long long time,” he students and faculty will said. travel to China for two weeks ebishop@record-journal.com to see what life is like