aylor Bear is a special education paraeducator at Marshalltown High School and also volunteers with the Special Olympics. In 2022, she formed Marshalltown LGBTQ+, which has hosted Pride in the Park since 2024. With a lifelong interest in the spiritual and metaphysical, she launched Soul Magick in 2016, offering Oracle/Tarot readings, event planning and more. A deep connection with food led her to start Crowley’s Kitchen catering service in 2024. You may even see her ringing up orders at the Flying Elbow. And if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she’s also YogaFit certified and leads Yoga in the Park in the 13th Street District alongside Heidi Draisey and Hilary Powell. Her mindset: be a creator.

Bear graduated from MHS in 2007 then attended Kirkwood Community College with the ambition of becoming an interior designer. She decided to instead move back to Marshalltown and took a job at Family Video.

“I was there in its entirety from 2010 to the last day we closed in 2020,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve always worked in the public. Somewhere.”

She got certified in yoga, Reiki healing and crystal therapy, offering these services either at home or meeting clients out in public.

“I did a lot of events with the Fiddle & Whistle when it was open. I’ve worked with October Embers,” she noted. “I’ve always thought about a brick and mortar. Being someone who does do things solo, it felt like beyond my scope to manage, since my son Axel is autistic and nonverbal, and he is my priority and I am his main caregiver.”

In her home, she offers intimate gatherings for meditation and readings, plus through her Crowley’s Kitchen, is a private chef for small groups.

“Food is such a connector for people, and it’s also such a way to share tradition and history and love,” she explained. “Just personally, I love having people over at my home to enjoy a snack or something I’ve made…you can share food with anyone.”

She lost her father about 10 1/2 years ago, saying using her maiden name for the business name just felt right.

“Part of the reason I love food was my dad, Edward Crowley. I have very vivid and regular memories of him taking me to local, small business restaurants here in Marshalltown,” she said. “He knew the people who worked there. He would talk me through the menu. He would share his experience of the food with me, which then, in turn, made me enjoy it. He was a fantastic cook. Both my grandmothers were fantastic cooks, so was my mother Lana Knickerbocker, when she was alive. It’s always been a thing and I wanted a way to share it.”

Bear’s gatherings can incorporate her food, meditation and yoga. The recent Spring Goddess Gathering drew a diverse group of women.

“I got to pull an Oracle card for everybody and share a positive message with all of them, which amplified the community that we were building,” she said.

Bear established Marshalltown LGBTQ+ out of a desire to create a safe and welcoming space for people of all sexual orientations. Her group holds community cleanup events, hosts the Quiet Hobby Club (formerly Silent Book Club), and a Walking Club held Wednesdays April 1 through Oct. 28 at Riverside Cemetery, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.

‘It’s a lot of duties: creating flyers, creating the events, creating the descriptions, posting the things. It’s managing finances, when it comes to Pride in the Park,” she said. “That event is probably my biggest learning curve in these last couple years just because it’s the largest one I’ve been in charge of.”

The third annual Pride in the Park will take place from noon to 4 p.m. July 11 at West End Park.

Yoga in the Park will be every Saturday May through August from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. with the three instructors trading off. Bear’s first session will be May 16. Classes are freewill offering. Yoga in the Park started in 2015 through joint efforts between the board of the 13th Street District and the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA. Draisey, who is the current president of the district, was then employed at the Y. She recruited Bear to teach yoga with her.

“That’s how I really stepped my foot into yoga. It was something that I had practiced personally, but it had never crossed my mind to instruct,” Bear recalled.

She taught a weekly yoga class at the Y before branching out on her own.

“I really wanted a way to share more yoga, share more spirituality, share more connections, just share more. So that’s really what created Soul Magick,” she added.

But, says Bear, as much as she loves preparing food, teaching yoga, organizing Pride events, and offering spiritual healing, her heart belongs to the special needs community. She volunteers with Special Olympics and is a member of MHS’s Social Emotional Behavioral Health Committee.

“If I could encourage people to do anything — get involved with your Special Olympics or special needs communities, because there is no purer love. There is no group of people that are going to have more fun,” she said.

She spends her free time with husband Joshua Bear and creating balance in her life.

To learn more about Bear’s yoga, healing and catering services, text her at: 641-840-2423 or via her social media pages.