Our Board Member, Nick Ippolito, will be competing this Saturday in the yoga championship. He has been coming to juvenile hall EVERY tuesday night since we started to share the gift of yoga. The boys in the unit are rooting for him to place and learn so much from him! He is a true mentor to them.

We hope to have one of our boys from juvenile hall demonstrate a posture at this event. He really took to the yoga and developed such strength, focus and confidence while we brought yoga on Tuesday nights.

Also, our Board member Rajashree Choudhury is passionate about getting yoga into the Olympics. Please read for further information.

USA Yoga is a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of developing and promoting Yoga Asana (yoga postures) as a sport.

Yoga Asana competitions originated in India hundreds of years ago and are still being conducted there today. USA Yoga is now bringing this spirit of healthy competition to the United States, where, according to the most recent study by SGMA, more than 22 million people practice yoga in the US today.

USA Yoga believes that the sport of Yoga Asana will inspire many of these practitioners to improve their practices and encourage many newcomers to take up the practice of yoga and the sport of Yoga Asana. More Info at http://www.usayoga.org/

Bikram Yoga Marina Del Rey is having a fundraiser 30 Day Challenge to raise awareness and help us bring yoga to juvenile hall. I am so excited especially because this is what a yoga community does: cares about the people around them, offers insight on how yoga can be such a strong tool in healing trauma. Doing a 30 Day Challenge is an investment in you. I always say that you start out doing yoga for yourself but you are actually are helping the people around you. Inspiring them, joining their energy in class, and becoming a part of a community. This is part of my dream for at-risk youth- to be able to find a yoga community and studio open to them when they get out of juvenile hall or wherever they can find the peace of yoga wherever they are.

I am so happy to see one of my students Gary Mark take the plunge!
Go Gary Mark! Go!