NAME
Alexandra Del Gaudio, Daniela Del Gaudio

LOCATION
The Wild Plum – Holistic Spa and Yoga Center
1032 N Maclay Ave,
San Fernando, CA 91340
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YEAR FOUNDED
2017

THE WILD PLUM

OUR PURPOSE

Our purpose is to make the practices of yoga and mindfulness accessible to all people, to create a healing environment where people of all backgrounds (shape, size, race, identity, socioeconomic status, and age) can find respite and self-renewal.

THE PROBLEM

Our business fulfills a deep void in our community of promoting health and alternative healing services and challenging the norm of our culture that has made health and wellness a luxury and only made accessible to a privileged class.

WHY WE DO IT

We spent many years observing the degradation of health in our own family as well as our greater community, with the shameful disparity between classes in access to quality of food and health promoting programs.

MY STORY

There was a night over a decade ago, Daniela and I were lying in bed having one of our many sister pillow therapy sessions, talking about how tired we were of watching our family struggle, of seeing the people we loved the most stressed, overwhelmed and falling apart, of watching our parents damn near work themselves to the bone to just simply survive.

We come from an immigrant family of some of the hardest working, honest and selfless people you’ll ever meet. People that live with integrity and would give the shirt off their backs to help someone in need. But we were ALL broke and BROKEN! We were told the poor can’t help the poor. You’ve got to make your moves in life and take care of YOU. The objective being – get out of the hood as best you can.

We’ve spent our whole lives witnessing what social and economic disparities have done to our community and lived it first-hand. Cancer, chronic disease, mental illness…trauma runs deep in our family – and deep in our hood.

Daniela and I made a promise to each other that one day we would create a wellness center for our community – a place where ALL people of ALL backgrounds and abilities were welcomed with open arms. The Wild Plum was born that night in our hearts – though we had NO IDEA how we would make it happen!

WHY WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

It is where we grew up. It is our home. It is so full of rich Latin culture and connects us closer to our roots.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE WE FACED

Finding access to capital and business mentorship. Coming from a low income, working class background, friends and family had very little to offer and investors were not exactly in our ecosphere. It took us 10 years of personal savings to get enough money to self-fund our business (banks nearly laughed in our faces when we applied for business funding).

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“Daniela and I made a promise to each other that one day we would create a wellness center for our community – a place where all people of all backgrounds and abilities were welcomed with open arms.”

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