Festive Women’s Event Saturday: WWW’s 50th

YOU are invited to our 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday, October 18th from noon-4pm. We’ll have a cookout lunch, slideshow, and fun classes for everyone to try out. For those who haven’t been to the Episcopal Conference Center, this is a great opportunity for you to check out the beautiful house and property too. Even if you’ve never been to a weekend, now’s your chance to come meet us out and celebrate with us. All the information has been added to this “Save the Date” event description.

Founded in 1975, Women’s Wilderness Weekend of RI is a non-denominational, non-profit organization offering weekend retreats for all women, 18 and over.  Our weekends allow women to refresh their inner spirit in a natural setting through education and camaraderie.

Saturday evening entertainment is provided by local professionals.  We’ve had comedians, musicians, line and square dancing, and storytellers.

A diversified class list is provided so that participants can choose up to 3 educational classes for their enjoyment. Each class session has at least three classes and includes indoor and outdoor classes with activity levels ranging from leisure to active.  Some examples of classes include a hike with high tea, canoeing and kayaking, jewelry making, dream interpretation, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, winter navigation and survival, wild medicine hike, soap making, folk music and dance, drawing, and a wild woman challenge.

Finally, reflexology and massage practitioners as well as tarot and intuitive readers are provided (at an extra cost) for your enjoyment and total relaxation.

Our weekends are alcohol and drug free.

Mission Statement:  Women’s Wilderness Weekend of RI provides women the opportunity to reconnect with themselves, other women, and nature through several annual, women-only, non-denominational weekend retreats.

A brief history of the Women’s Wilderness Weekend women’s event:

2016 – URI decided not to rent the Environmental Education Center to adult groups, so we had to find a new home

2017 – Started with us trying other retreat centers that were affordable so we could keep our rates down (we’re still the least expensive women’s retreat around!)

2017 – January weekend was at Aldersgate

2017 – October weekend was at the Episcopal Conference Center

2018 – March weekend was at Camp Canonicus

2018 – We polled all participants who went to at least one of the last three weekends to see which location they wanted for our new home

2018 – October weekend was at the Episcopal Conference Center – our home!

2019 – October weekend, little did we know that would be the last one for a while

2020 – February, we held a hike in Big River

2020 – September, we had a kayak trip on the Narrow River (it was so windy and quite chilly, but smiles abound!)

2020 – October, we held an all day, outdoors, labyrinth walk/hike/craft day in Big River Management Area

2021 – May, we held a Tri-State Marker Hike & Flower Essence Class

2021 – June was Wilderness in the City where we walked around Swan Point Cemetery, learning about the plants and fungi that grow there

2022 – We took a break, with dwindling numbers at our day events, we weren’t sure if we could keep Women’s Wilderness alive (spoiler, we did!)

2023 – May, we came back and it was spectacular!

2024 – Both the May and October weekends sold out, for the first time ever

2025 – And here we are, our 50th year!

2025 – October 18 – our latest women’s event – 50th Anniversary Celebration at noon at the Episcopal Conference Center – Sign up here!