COVER STORY: INSIDE THE ROOM WHERE WELLNESS IS HEADED
Left to right: Melissa Terranova, Christi Durant, Jenna Leveille, Maggie Litchney, and Tammy Stingone of SpaFinder
announced.“ We know the former Surgeon General identified loneliness as an epidemic,” Michaelis said.“ But it’ s easy to sit in a circle in zero gravity chairs, or wearing compression boots, and destress together, doing something healthy as a group.”
No conversation about the event’ s history would be complete without SpaFinder, this year’ s Diamond sponsor, celebrating its 40th anniversary. Flexzone Life Magazine spoke with Tanya Stringone, Business Development Manager at SpaFinder, at their activation on the show floor.
“ SpaFinder is a wellness brand that’ s been in business for forty years,” Stringone said.“ Forty years of acquiring wellness guests, through our gift card, which is sold in forty thousand retail locations.” That reach is exactly what SpaFinder brings to its spa and wellness partners: a built-in guest base looking for their next destination.
For the anniversary, SpaFinder debuted a first-of-its-kind activation.“ This is the first time we’ re doing an activation like this, and it’ s really exciting,” Stringone explained. Attendees wrote a letter to their future selves, to be mailed back in forty days, with the option to seal it for even longer if their goal was a five or ten year one. Guests also left with an engraved wallet, a small keepsake from a milestone year. SpaFinder also hosted a cocktail celebration on day one to mark the anniversary in style.
That kind of full-circle, personal touch is what defined this year’ s event. Between the trend data, the founder’ s twentyyear perspective, and activations built to last well past the show floor, National Wellness Month made its case for what it’ s always been about: small, intentional choices, repeated, shared, and revisited, that add up to something lasting.
Follow Live Love Spa at LiveLoveSpa. com or NationalWellnessMonth. com. Registration details for next year’ s event will be released January 2027.
Adrienne Dawkins-Smith is the founder and E ditor-in-Chief of Flexzone Life Magazine.
Photos courtesy of Live Love Spa FlexzoneLifeMagazine. com 19