Today we’d like to introduce you to Martie Kaus.
Hi Martie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Circle the Earth Recreation Organization (CERO), is a nonprofit. We started it in January 2023. We are close friends with similar goals and ideas so it just made sense to jump into this new journey together. We want to provide new and unique recreational opportunities to the Greater Mankato Area.
We focus on using recreation to improve mental health. I have Bachelor’s degrees in Recreation Parks and Leisure Services (RPLS) from Minnesota State University, Mankato. My emphasis was Therapeutic Recreation. Especially in the wintertime. One of the pieces of our nonprofit, that helps fund it, is our Nordic Exposure events. These are guided sauna and cold bath cycles. We currently have 3 saunas in our fleet, and the two of us built all 3 of them. One is for 2-4 people, one is for 4-6 people, and our newest one is for 10-12 people with a changing room.
All 3 are wood burning. We do most of our events at the Hub food truck park in Old Town Mankato (which we lease so we are also in charge of all events and food trucks that come there). Our saunas are on trailers, which makes them very mobile. We do off-site private events at homes, businesses, gyms, etc. We also rent out our saunas (and cold tubs) and we deliver them right to someone’s home and set it up for them. We also took over Mankato Solstice Outdoor Music Festival which is an annual event where all proceeds go right back to CERO. We are working on getting more groomed cross-country ski trails and are working with Le Sueur County on the Lake Washington Project.
We are expanding and improving some existing trails there and received donations and grants to buy new grooming equipment. We have been clearing new trails and widening existing ones to be ready for winter. We also recently came into an agreement with the City of North Mankato to utilize one of the ice rinks for a pop-up skatepark in the off-season. We’ll be able to use that annually. It’s been extremely popular and have to credit the Northstar DIY crew for their hard work in setting it up. We are in the process of raising money for a permanent free outdoor public skatepark as well.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We’ve had some vandalism (one that even included a sauna starting on fire) so have had to utilize insurance a couple of times already, unfortunately. When we have to pay for things such as insurance claim deductibles, that takes away funds from the other things we’re trying to do for our community.
While that does slow things down, it hasn’t stopped us. We have received tremendous support from our community and have been very welcomed; especially by those that already have their business footprint in Old Town Mankato.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Circle the Earth Recreation Organization?
I think I covered a lot of it in a previous section but we are a 501(c)3. Our website is www.ceromankato.com. We have Facebook, Instragram and Tik-Tok (@CEROMankato).
Pricing:
- 2-4 person sauna rental: $175/day
- 4-6 person sauna rental: $225/day
- 10-12 person sauna rental: $600/day
- cold tubs: 2/$25 per day
- Nordic Exposure Events: $45/person
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ceromankato.com
- Instagram: @ceromankato
- Facebook: facebook.com/ceromankato
- Tiktok: @ceromankato
