Hang from a flying trapeze. Learn to belly dance. Go dog sledding. Hold a baby tiger.
For many, these activities are entries on the bucket list – some of which may never be crossed off. But for Michele Rapp and a growing group of women, these are monthly activities, thanks to the Ladies Explorer Club.
Rapp, 43, is the founder of the organization, which strives to get women to bond and do outside-the-box activities, all while increasing self-confidence and self-worth.
It all started just over a year ago when Rapp and a group of five of her girlfriends got together for a “no fish, no fowl, no meat” dinner party. The idea was that each participant would plan an adventure as a way to bring balance to the group’s busy, working-mother lifestyles. Rapp’s dinner was their first adventure.
The meal included exotic vegetarian foods from Whole Foods and other natural, organic places. The women didn’t know they weren’t eating chicken. But when it was the other women’s turns, they were stumped as to what they should plan. Rapp started getting phone calls asking for help planning the next big adventure.
“I love planning; I could see it coming to fruition,” says Rapp, who lives in Upper Arlington with her husband, Dave, and her sons, Hunter and Jake.
She figured that if her close friends needed this release, there had to be scores of other women who did, too.
The Ladies Explorer Club came to life with about 20 core members traveling south to the Cincinnati Circus Company, where 15 women took to the ropes and did the flying trapeze – including Rapp’s 72-year-old mother, Sondra Slone of Dublin.
“I got the most lovely e-mails after that saying how empowered they were,” Rapp says.
She immediately saw a change in herself, too.
“I was stepping outside of my comfort zone,” she says. “I was a better mom and a better wife. It was almost like a gift to be able to escape for two hours and have nothing else to think about but the task at hand.”
Since that first outing, Rapp and her group, which has grown to number more than 200, have only gotten more adventurous.
The group averages about 10 outings each month, which range from cooking classes and painting to curling and exotic pole dancing.
Members of the group, who pay an annual $99 fee, get discounts on each event, as well as a discount to return to each of the adventure locations on their own. Any woman can attend any of the events, regardless of membership. One of the best features of the club, Rapp says, is that women can schedule the activities they want to attend and ignore the others.
In February, 10 members of the group will take a long weekend trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to go dog sledding. Plans also are in the works for a trip to an elephant rescue sanctuary in Thailand.
“I said, ‘One day, I want to do this,’” says Rapp, who has been a lifelong animal lover.
Rapp is having the time of her life, she says, and feels she is being called to help these women find themselves.
“You know when you know?” she says. “I had one of those ‘a-ha’ moments. Just to see these women smile; they’re pulled in so many directions. You only have one life to life, and you have to make the most out of it.”
And she hopes to inspire even more women this year.
Rapp’s 2012 goals include expanding to the Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton areas, in which she already has heard from a number of interested women.
She recently filed for and received limited liability company status and hopes to spread her business model around the country.
“I see it as a tree with branches,” she says.
For more information about the Ladies Explorer Club, visit www.ladiesexplorerclub.com.
Upper Arlington resident Gail Martineau is a contributing writer. Comments and feedback welcome at laurand@pubgroupltd.com.