Founder, Dana Ainsworth

Every Sunday, for as long as I can remember, my grandfather prepared a huge pot of pasta sauce and assembled the family. I missed that tradition terribly when I moved away. To compensate, I found myself gathering friends and strangers around makeshift tables wherever I happened to be. In India, plates were set over a discarded door while sauce simmered on a camp stove. In Costa Rica, card tables were draped with sarongs while my friends tried out the newest recipe taught by the Frenchman up the hill. Those moments have come to define my life.

In 2021, I simultaneously launched Wonder Table, took a job as the Event Manager for a statewide book festival, and began a doctoral degree in Education. I’d set out to study the impact of childhood trauma on development and behavior in schools and was certain my future was in academia. But alas, bearing witness to the powerful effects of gathering changed the trajectory of my life. By the time I graduated, I was entirely and irrevocably smitten with the world of experiential event design. Thankfully, the educational wisdom I'd gleaned hasn't been wasted. I now apply that knowledge to design containers that allow for deep connection and transformation. I beleive the most profound impact I can have on the world around me is to build an accessible practice of gathering, one that mirrors the rhythms by which we historically marked our lives.