Resources for All!
Our First Event
Now legally founding our team of Harold Dean Langley (Vice President/ Founder and Director), Maria Morris (President/Pastor/ Founder and Director), and Andrew Farnan (Secretary/ Founder and Director), we embarked on making all goals become a reality. Starting just short of our legalization, we had our first-ever event at Lake of Three Fires in Bedford Iowa in August of 2022. This began a series of events called Pagan Campout. The first-ever Pagan Campout came with no schedule and just 10 people, however, we quickly grew after that. Our online community on Facebook called Midwest Pagan Community was at around 300 members at that moment.
The Start of Online Services
Aside from the Midwest Pagan Community, we also wanted to expand our resources and provide to the Pagan and Omnist communities. Our first service initiated was our Spiritual Lending Library. This was originally only local as we did not have the funds or a way we could ship books around. Once we had more experimenting done and help from a friend from states away, we were able to test ways to ship books with minimal cost. The price was set to $11.11/ month which provided those in the US to borrow up to 5 books a month while only paying for shipping.
Our next service that we started was utilizing our Uteach platform which gives free courses on metaphysical topics. Aside from the Dream Analysis Survival Guide (a course created by Maria Morris and later published as a book), the first course was to provide minimal training and ordination to those wanting to be ordained as a minister in their own right.
More Events and More Community
A year later, it marked our second annual Pagan Campout. This year's theme was Shamanic Nights where we centered on Shamanism and practices anyone can connect to. Our Activities included Altar offerings, Smoke House Invocation, Intro to Shamanism, Welcoming our Power Animals, Drumming Journey, and swimming. During our swimming activities, we also incorporated cleansing baptism where an old faith was washed and a new one began. This event hosted about 15 people. Our online community "Midwest Pagan Community" grew to about 800 at that time.
The next event we held was our 1st annual Winter Solstice Celebration in December. This event had 26 people join and we shared traditions of the season such as Yule Log Creation and Tossing, a Wassail Toast. Kids enjoyed crafts, mini edible chocolate Yule Logs, and a Holiday movie. We even had time for an afternoon nap before the Solstice Feast. Midwest Pagan Community grew fastly to 3.5K during the Solstice.
The year following provided some silence when it came to events. A Beltane Celebration, Metaphysical Fair, and Mabon Celebration came into planning, however were not finalized. The next event to happen would be our 3rd Annual Pagan Campout with a theme of Magic by Midnight. We celebrated the New moon and Participated in rituals and activities such as our journal reflections and making moon water. Our attendance count was 13 and Midwest Pagan Community soared even higher to 11K.
Later in the year, we had our 2nd Annual Winter Solstice Celebration. We had a big group this year during our family-friendly Winter Solstice Celebration! We had crafts, a fire burning, and a story of the old ways. We had 40 booked and 30 confirmed arrivals. Midwest Pagan Community Skyrocketed to 35K!
The Organization
Throughout this time the organization had changed between board members and the start of adding moderators, local reps, spiritual teachers, and committee members. Added to the board between 2023-2024 was Katie Quick who served as our Advocacy Director following her retirement in 2024. Also, 2024 was the addition of Cory Ashford as the chief operating Officer and Director. Beginning in 1/8/2025, Andrew Farnan was retired and replaced by Kim Lyons who took over as secretary. More about our team can be found on the About tab.
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