Dear supporter of the Community Sauna Baths, We would like to invite you and your friends to a very special Christmas event - including plenty of authentic sauna - on the weekend of 18th and 19th December 2021. We’ll be hosting it at the new home of the Community Sauna Baths, at the Old Baths in Hackney Wick, London E9, and we’ll be firing up their two wood-fired saunas for the whole weekend. We’re particularly excited to be hosting sauna legend Mikkel Aaland on the Saturday, who will be sharing a special preview of his upcoming TV series Perfect Sweat with a talk and Q&A. There will be a host of other talks and performances, as well as a special sauna raffle Tickets start from £10 and are available to purchase on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/british-sauna-society-xmas-event-with-mikkel-aaland-community-sauna-baths-tickets-224041081907 More details at our website https://www.community-sauna.co.uk/

Please sign up at https://www.community-sauna.co.uk/ – we have exciting news! Thanks again for your pledging your support and donations to our crowdfunder this year: raising £30k was an incredible achievement. It gave us a reason to keep on with the project even though we weren’t able to access any of the funds. There are clearly enough people out there who are, like us, passionate about bringing authentic community sauna to the UK. And where there has been a will, we’ve found a way. As of January, we’ll finally have our Community Sauna Baths project up and running in Hackney Wick and we’d love to invite you to once again be a part of it. Over the next month, we’ll be clearing, digging, sawing, hammering and planting our socks off and we need your help. If you pledged money to us back in the summer, please do so again over at our new website - community-sauna.co.uk. And to thank you for your kindness, you’ll earn all sorts of rewards - from free sauna sessions and membership, to your very own sauna hat. Or, you can get ahead of the game and help us out by buying sauna vouchers that can be redeemed against sauna sessions when our booking system opens. They’ll go a long way: you’ll be able to book your spot in our community sauna for the same price as a yoga lesson. We truly believe that this could be the start of a Great British sauna movement - we hope that you join us as a sauna pioneer!

Community Sauna Baths CIC Purpose- It is clear that the UK has not done Sauna well in any current form available up until recently. Sauna is a bathing space that brings people together to share in bathing rituals and customs that aid a healthy body, mind and soul. Sauna is a life affirming activity not a fear based, uncomfortable endurance test. Mission- Sauna needs to revisit its roots and reeducate an unenlightened UK public into the simple and effective pleasures of an activity done well and under instruction. By working with existing businesses, social prescribers and local authorities. We will bring the wealth of knowledge already here in the UK and from further afield into the mainstream through events, workshops, talks and pilot schemes. Vision- Sauna will be understood as an activity that enhances Health and Wellness and will be sought weekly as a means to greater happiness, health and socialisation. Sauna will be seen as an affordable option and investment into the individuals responsibility for health and well being maintenance. This company has a board of five Directors, three of whom sit on the board of Trustee's for the British Sauna Society. This is to oversee the integrity of the projects and to use the vehicle to further the aims and objectives of the small charitable organisation. We want to thank you all for your support through these last six months and would like to ask for your continued financial support. All monies received will be used to further the aims of the group through the CIC. Please make your donation to Lloyds Bank, The British Sauna Society, sort code-30-91-91 Acc No: 30675468 with the message CIC donation. Incentives will be honored with your donation and to a reply email that would have been sent to you when you made the pledge, please check your spam folders. Warm wishes and Cold plunges, Victoria Maddox Campaign Manager Vice-Treasurer and Fundraising Officer British Sauna Society.

As our crowd-funder ends a long way off its target mark. We reflect on the past six months that has led us along this path to pursue funding from the initial #makelondon fund and its associated crowd funder. We had no plan, just a desire to bring true sauna to a wider audience. We took a risk in a time when so many businesses and people were highly risk averse and because of this we were met with many challenges in many forms. The opportunity to highlight Sauna as a helpful tool to many areas in humanities quest for better health, we seized with enthusiasm. Our first hurdles with Spacehive and the verification process required lot from the newly formed team in a short period of time but we made it through thanks to a very patient Locality. It was thrilling to listen to feedback from two communities that we felt we would serve best from our offer, the London Boaters and our very own group of Sauna enthusiasts. The pledges started to roll in along with offers to be involved in many different ways. As with all campaigns there is a point where donations cease and the pivot point must be employed to reach out to backers of a more influential nature. The Mayoral pledge wasn't forthcoming and lowered the hopes of the team to reach for the end. The refusal to throw in the towel yielded some new interest and an offer was made to meet the target but with a caveat that the brand would change. We felt that this was not something we were happy to compromise on and so we continued on. We have knocked on many doors in a short space of time and whilst we have been ignored by some, others have offered their time and expert knowledge generously, believing that the idea has good legs to stand on, we just need a plan. The development and requirement of a CIC to take control of a potential project away from the BSS small charitable organisation, meant that we had to consider new factors and find a core group that was willing to dedicate their time and energy to set up. Delightfully we found those people through the process of the crowdfunder, proving it to be a great way to reach out to potential collaborators.It also provided a good source of information that we could tap into when needing market research. We now have a business plan and the notion to pivot. This project we had hoped would be grounded in the community of Hackney Wick but a tantilising lead has led us up a dead end. Because of this we are looking at how we can change our idea to one that will work with existing businesses, perhaps with takeovers and residencies. This will allow us to be free of assets and locations until we can see a clear and supported road ahead. We are grateful to everyone who has assisted us in so many ways, from pledges to post shares. From you we have learned so much and will continue to en devour to make sauna more accessible and community driven. If you wish to continue your support we will be releasing details on how to do so in the coming days. Until then enjoy the heat ! 🔥💦🌿🙏

"The Silver Birch is a hardy tree, a pioneer species and one of the first trees to appear on bare or fire swept land. Many species of animals and birds can be found in Birch Woodland, the tree supports a wide range of insects and the light shade it casts allows shrubby and other plants to grow beneath its canopy." "The silver birch is Finland's national tree. Leafy, fragrant bunches of young silver birch boughs (called Vihta or Vasta) are used to gently beat oneself while bathing in the Finnish sauna." Like the pioneer plants that move into new, unfamiliar territory, the HWSB's team came together with a shared desire to bring the life affirming benefits of the authentic Sauna experience to more than the sum of its parts. Sauna is elemental, brings together the basic ingredients to sustain life and assist it to thrive. Whilst we are still to bloom into the fullness of our expression, a powerful seed has been sown. Like the sapling we have some way to go before we can bring people beneath our shade and invite them into our world of Sauna practice. We have only days to go before our crowd funder ends, but this is just the beginning. 🌿💦🔥

As we are days away from the end of our crowd funder and eventual finish line, here is a little inspiration from some of our best team players as to why authentic Sauna has links to the Olympics and how we had hoped to continue the story in the heart of our most recent Olympic legacy. https://youtu.be/fB-6kJewIHA

It’s not everyday that you stumble upon a Banya loving Harpist and a Roof top bar that has two rather fabulous Sauna offerings, both conveniently located in London. With the generosity of both Ben Revill and Valeria Kurbatova we threw together a Sauna first in the UK, bringing classical music and Lithuanian Bath Mastery to the East London skyline. As with much of this campaign we have been limited to time constraints and the team pulled off a fabulous event that uplifted the spirits of those that were brave enough to venture out with the easing of restrictions. The event turned £862.77 and after expenses and revenue share to Netil360 to cover theirs we are left with £316.27 to put towards the aims and objectives of the BSS to bring more Sauna to the people. We have only 46 days left on the Spacehive campaign and although it looks unlikely that we will make the deadline on donations alone, we now have two rather attractive offers of investment that need some serious consideration. So please watch this space and carry on pledging to show your support.

Come Sunshine ☀️or Rain 💦Our Roof top event WILL still be going ahead.🌈 Netil360 has plenty of indoor space to socially distance up to 50 people, so grab your tickets while you still can and come and see why Sauna is a great social activity whatever the weather. Link to tickets in the description or in events on Facebook.