Cari Gatto, a Port Washington resident for 16 years, has recently opened Commune, located at 307 Main St. Commune is a beautiful space that offers a variety of wellness classes in the most intimate and peace-provoking environment. Commune offers classes like yoga, guided meditation, reiki healing and other workshops.
Gatto runs a consulting business which keeps her very busy, but during the pandemic, she had an idea to help serve the community. Commune works as a platform for instructors to build their businesses. Instructors rent space by the hour and promote their classes on their own social media or websites. In addition, Commune uses its social media to help advertise courses and workshops.
“We have about 14 classes a week, and we’re adding new classes all the time,” said Gatto. “We have a lot of different interests being offered, anything from yoga and pilates to people who do workshops on nutrition. Some classes are weekly or bi-weekly.”
“We have an upcoming workshop on fall nutrition,” said Gatto. “The woman [running the workshop] is from Manhasset, and she is a nutritionist and yoga instructor. She has a lot of different certifications, but she will be doing a very cool two-hour workshop at Commune.”
The Commune website provides a full schedule of the different classes and workshops offered with a link to sign up. Each instructor provides their own link to sign up and pay for the class. The website has an ‘Our Instructors’ page where brief profiles of each instructor are posted so people can get to know their instructor before diving into a class or workshop. The instructors at Commune are from all across Nassau County.
Commune is a great place for your favorite local yoga instructor or meditation guide to host sessions and grow their following. While most of the people coming to attend classes are from Port, some come from other places in Nassau County, and Gatto is looking forward to expanding Commune’s reach.
“We’ve been talking to massage therapists and hair stylists, any people with a profession where they could come and rent the space by the hour,” said Gatto. “Our space can really be used for anything. Recently, we had a girl’s night out where some women came, and they did something called a soul circle, which is like a meditation and storytelling session.”
With the holiday season approaching, Commune has been doing some fundraising and donating to charities.
“For many of those events like girls’ night out where it is us and a yoga instructor, we’ve been fundraising,” said Gatto. “We will get together a charcuterie board and a couple of bottles of wine donated, and we can put together a girl’s night out package that people can do here.”
Gatto encourages anyone with a fun idea or class to host to check out the Commune space and what it offers.
“There are two parts to my objective,” said Gatto. “One is to create a kind of platform for these instructors to build a business and be successful as entrepreneurs. And the other piece is to bring wellness to the community.
Since the space opened in September, women have been the primary participants signing up and attending the different classes at Commune. While the spot is not ideal for young children, Gatto hopes Commune can attract more young girls, like middle and high school teenagers.
“We know that our teens need [these wellness courses] now more than ever,” said Gatto. “I would love it if we could offer something for teens and middle schoolers. We did have a former Schreiber student teaching meditation courses. He has left town for a little while, but he will come back. He did speak to the district about promoting the classes because it’s really important for kids.”
Commune is always adding more classes and is looking forward to growing its influence. Visit communepw.com to check out the different classes and learn more about what is offered.
