Welcome to My COKANNA Coffee Shop

It all began when I started a new chapter in my life and moved into a place of my own with my daughter. In keeping with the starting afresh theme, I decided to try something new with my COKANNA clothing line and came up with the Coffee Shop idea. I hosted my first one back in April 2019. It was an experiment really but it turned out to be exactly how I imagined it. Women coming together for some coffee and dessert, some good company and conversation, with the added bonus of shopping.

Then at the start of the pandemic, I opened up the COKANNA Virtual Coffee Shop online as a means to stay connected within the community and provide a safe place to check in and see how everyone was doing.

It quickly evolved into weekly coffee shop gatherings on Zoom featuring a special guest. We had many interesting guests including alpacas on an Alpaca farm and writing, drawing & craft workshops on the fun side; to meditation, yoga and somatic movement on the health & wellness end; and to more serious discussions on End of Life, Unconscious Bias on our Journey to Inclusion, and a special reading from a Father’s Memoir of his Time at the Mohawk Indian Residential School. That’s just to name a few.

After 14 months of weekly coffee shops, we moved to monthly get togethers in the Fall of 2021. And now in 2023 we are changing it up once more and doing live, in-person coffee shops. I couldn’t be more delighted to finally be meeting in person again. The format is still the same, once a month, with a special guest, and still free to attend.

How the coffee shop works

Every month a special guest joins us in the coffee shop at Richardson House in Kanata. So far in 2023, we’ve had an Empowering Guided Meditation for the New Year. The COKANNA Coffee Shop is a way to bring people together and introduce new ideas, activities, people and businesses in a safe and supportive environment. It also creates awareness and support for local artists, entrepreneurs, and small business owners. And, you get to enjoy coffee/tea and dessert as well as good company and conversation.

You can participate by signing up for the monthly coffee shops, free of charge, and I highly recommend you request to join the private coffee shop group on Facebook. By doing so, you’ll get to connect with other like-minded people, and enjoy interesting, inspiring, and often humourous posts and conversations. And, you’ll get advance notice of the coffee shop guests coming up.

Yes, I’d like to join

Here’s the schedule for upcoming coffee shops. Mark your calendar and sign up early by clicking on the date. You’ll be taken to Eventbrite to register and get your free ticket to the event.

I’m taking a long coffee break…for the whole summer! Last year, Brené Brown was my super hero. She and her entire staff took a 3 month sabbatical. She led by example and gave us all permission to disappear for a while. This creates space to rest and rejuvenate. It gives us time to reflect, get curious, connect with others in real time, be inspired, and let our creativity bloom.

Enjoy your summer and I’ll see you in September!

Photo of white florescent tube coffee break sign on dark wood wall by Mindspace Studio on Unsplash

Check back often for updates to the schedule. If you have any requests, ideas or suggestions for future coffee shops, I would love to hear from you. Send me an email at colleen@cokanna.ca.

See you at the next coffee shop!

~ Colleen