Friends, family, and faeries! This is the moment I've been waiting to announce for about 12 years now. I will FINALLY be opening my tea shop, Alchemy of Avalon, as a brick-and-mortar space!! It will be here in downtown Greenfield, MA, and I have signed a lease on a beautiful space, slated to open in early August.

So very many of you have been with me every step of the way on this journey...from the moment I decided to leave NYC and the singer life to study Herbalism in Arizona, to my first website and those first few sales, to my relaunch in 2017 which brought huge growth and international attention...to now.

Last year, my family and I found our heart's home, Western Massachusetts - a phenomenal place to be an Herbalist, with a charming downtown area in need of a tea shop and apothecary. Plans and dreams finally began to take root and bloom.

During this time of Covid, support for my online business reached an all time record. For those of you who supported this in whatever way you could - THANK YOU. Seriously, thank you.

And here we are today, in spite of ALL the craziness of this last year and a half, and I am SO close to finally attaining this dream.

I have created this fundraiser to open up to receiving any support, however big or small, that the amazing people who have gotten me this far on my journey may want to send my way. I have spent the last year and a half saving every dollar that I could (both in my business and personal accounts), and I have spent the last two months working with my local Chamber of Commerce and Community Development Center gathering numbers and documents to submit for consideration for small grants and loans. I have been at home, remote-schooling my two children (Sebastian, 15, Selene, 6), while also teaching online classes, working at the local Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings whenever possible, and of course, fulfilling more online orders than ever.

I would be using this fundraiser to purchase some of the key equipment that would keep my tea shop running smoothly every day: a commercial grade hot water heating and tea brewing system, an espresso machine for tea lattes, a Square register system, new tins and teapots, and so forth.

With the right foundation laid, I know I can turn this business into what it was always meant to be: an "Avalon" for modern times...a place of healing, herbal wisdom, of music and dance, of ritual and divination. A place of SANCTUARY.

If you have any questions at all about my plans, use of funds, the location itself, or anything at all, please feel free to email me here through Go Fund Me, or check out my website, www.alchemyofavalontea.com.

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

Suzanne O'Gara

Owner, Alchemy of Avalon LLC