Balancing Monkey Yoga Studio is honoring a year of serving the community at 7 p.m. Friday with a free celebration, including an hour of yoga followed by light refreshments and an open mic night. The studio opened its doors in the Hilo Shopping Center last year under the direction of Rachel Calvert and Danielle Lucia.
Balancing Monkey Yoga Studio is honoring a year of serving the community at 7 p.m. Friday with a free celebration, including an hour of yoga followed by light refreshments and an open mic night. The studio opened its doors in the Hilo Shopping Center last year under the direction of Rachel Calvert and Danielle Lucia.
During the past year, the two worked to grow their business with an underlying goal of also growing community. They developed a special offering called Yoga For a Cause, a weekly class that donates all of its proceeds to a chosen charity or community organization each month.
“We opened our studio a year ago with two goals in mind: the love of practice and (creating) a place for our community. Yoga for a Cause is a big part of our mission,” Calvert said. “It’s a way to give directly back to the community, to recognize these amazing organizations that help and serve our sweet town. We have big plans to continue this partnership with our community service organizations.”
During the past six months, $927 was raised and donated to the organizations Let’s Grow Hilo, Neighborhood Place of Puna, Hospice of Hilo, Office of Social Ministries, Habitat for Humanity and The Arc of Hilo. In addition, three bags and two boxes of food were donated to a food drive.
Teaching the class has been a collaboration of many teachers, including Cortney Preuss-Greene, Le‘a Gleason, Heather Heintz, Danielle Lucia and others.
The public is invited to join in the free birthday celebration. Donations are welcome and will be used toward buying more props for the studio.