Could you think of a better way to spend your Friday afternoon than stretching under the warm sun in the field behind the VMFA?
Could you think of a better way to spend your Friday afternoon than stretching under the warm sun in the field behind the VMFA? I don’t think so – and now Project Yoga Richmond, or PYR, wants to give you the opportunity to do so.
PYR came into being late in 2010 as a continuation of a dream that was sparked by Arlene Bjork and 4 other yogis to have yoga classes financially available to anybody who wanted them.
The program is donation based, and asks students to give what they can when attending classes.
Whether you can donate one dollar, five dollars, or twenty, all are welcome to share in the calming and healthy practice for both body and mind.
“Several of the founding members of PYR were dedicated students of hers. I think there were about five people and they just loved her,” says Natalie Gianninoto, Studio Manager and Co-director of PYR. “Her hope was always to do five dollar yoga classes at her studio, but she suddenly passed away […] so those five people came together and brought her idea to life.”
Not only does PYR make “yoga accessible to everyone”, as Gianninoto puts it, it has a “unique component that a lot of nonprofit or donation based studios don’t have.”
“The donations from the classes actually support these off-sight outreach programs that we have. So we aim to make yoga accessible in many ways. Through the classes at our studio… and then through the outreach programs that we generally partner with underserved populations and communities.”
These programs include classes at the Dominion School for Autism, yoga for seniors at the Marywood Apartments, and even yoga for young women who are housed within the Department of Juvenile Justice.
With this accessibility, PYR hopes to help people “come together as a yoga community to create something bigger than ourselves”. It creates events such as the almost-weekly group classes occurring at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this summer called Friday Salutations. The first class of this summer happened on July 11, and the next is this Friday, July 25, and then the class moves to Saturday mornings for the fall.
“The class at the VMFA is essentially a program that we offer to the community. I think it’s really, really special because how often do you have the chance to sit in silence with over 200, just under 300 people out there,” says Gianninoto. “It’s really powerful to come together as a community like that.”
Maggie Mayes who attended a past Friday Salutations said the event was something she would recommend to others. “It helps to get you more involved if you want to continue doing yoga in RVA,” after her first class with PYR at the VMFA,” she said.
Because the VMFA is on state property, Project Yoga cannot take donations on site. They do ask people attending to sign in and sign up for their email list so attendees will know what’s going on at the actual home building of PYR.
One of the ways this donation based group can continue is through their Amazing Raise donating site.
“We participating in the Amazing Raise with the Community Foundation, it’s a 36-hour online giving challenge. We did this last year, what we’re doing again this year. We’re doing a 36-hour yoga-thon in honor of our participation in it, last year we raised $21,000… It was amazing and it’s a huge part of our budget.” This event will be starting at 6:00 AM on September 17th and will end at 6:00 PM on September 18th. In order to donate, you must go on the site within these times.
And you can catch PYR at the VMFA for the next Friday Salutations this friday at 5:45 PM behind the VMFA.
