Donate to Leo's Mushroom Cultivation Education in Guatemala

Hello friends and family, I’m Leo Freshwater Megaa and I’m in quite an exciting time in my life. 18 months ago, I was let go from my corporate IT career of 10 years in NYC. What I perceived, at the time, as an ego-bruising blow and a provocation into the most tumultuous depressive episode of my life, has turned out to be a crucial pivot in my emotional and physical life and the mental health wellness breakthrough I so desperately needed after burning out for years in my career.

In the 18 months I have been laid off from my former IT career, I have found nature’s original fruit: mushrooms. Mushrooms have come into my life carrying emotional clarity, brain focus, biotherapy, joy, and a cultivation of my inner acceptance of the world and its impact on my intersections. Truly, I’ve experienced a total mental health transformation.

I am in a very humbled place, and I’d like some help in getting to the next part of my personal plan:

The organization Fungi Academy is offering a 7-day enrichment course in Guatemala at their mushroom farm in the rain forest in October. The week-long stay at the Guatemala campus has a concentration in Mushroom Cultivation and will allow me 7 uninterrupted days to forage, hike in contemplation, make medicines, learn mushroom cultivation technologies, gaining perpetual support from the Fungi Academy facilitators, even after I leave campus.

If you know me, you know I am ever a student of knowledge. Hence, this course will not be the beginning of my mushroom growing journey. I have taken 2 free online classes with Fungi Academy and I enjoy their facilitation. So far, I’ve grown Lion's Mane (the brain gain mushroom), Reishi (Traditional Chinese Medicine calls this the mushroom of immortality for good reason), attempted at Turkey Tail (t. versicolor for anti-cancer properties), and made tonics and tinctures to sell at farmer’s markets. My 2024 goal had been to grow my own medicines. By fulfilling this promise to myself, by using research to make mushroom medicine, it has replaced my SSRI dependency. I feel more emotionally present than I have in all my 34 years. My mental health has vastly improved, and because of this, I’d like to take a deeper step into mycology and keep my mental health in tact.

Being in Guatemala at Fungi Academy, I will have a chance to learn from facilitators I have followed and that I respect, like Jasper Degenaars, Darren Le Baron, William Padilla Brown, and Acacea Lewis. Many of the students participating in these cohorts go on to build mushrooms businesses, find work at mushroom farms, become mushroom teaching staples in their communities, etc. If you want to know more about this course, you can find the details here!

How can you help? By donating any amount, you are actively and directly supporting my mycological education and mushroom cultivation at the Fungi Academy week-long Mushroom Cultivation course, October 20-27, 2024. I will engage in standard mycological practice such as cloning spores into fruiting mushrooms, and making my own substrate medium under the guidance of experienced scientists, things I can’t so easily do in my kitchen but are important to my educational journey. A few years ago, I took a few herbalism courses and they are serving me as foundational knowledge for this fruiting passion as it concerns mycelium. The total cost of the accommodations package is $1,877 with $500 needed upfront to secure my spot in this October’s cohort. I would really appreciate if you could open a door for me by donating to this GoFundMe as I attempt to shape my life into one free of BigPharma medications, a life that im proud to live out under my mycological umbrella of passion, healing, and enrichment. No donation is too insignificant, I swear and I’m thankful for each one.

I’m hopeful that you, like me, see the value in this opportunity. Thank you for reading and thank you for donating. Undoubtedly, my mycological journey impacts us all, becasue we are one, so, thank you for being in this with me. Every supporter will receive a digital package containing a virtual post card from Guatemala and an album of photos detailing my mycological adventures in October. Additionally, receipts for the purchase of the course and accommodations will be posted here, in the 'updates' section for transparency of funds placement and a return on the good faith you have in me.

I have a well of ideas blooming in my mind about how to create artistic, symbiotic relations with mushrooms, who are brilliant beings in their own right. The Fungi Academy course is, for me, a step in the right direction.