The nonprofit yoga center, Asheville Community Yoga, will host a 24-hour yogathon beginning on Saturday, Aug 8. The event will feature yoga classes and workshops designed to accommodate all fitness levels. In a related event, ACY board member Chris Lechner will be swimming across Lake Michigan and donating his sponsorship funds to ACY. Both events are fundraisers for a construction project to expand the capacity of the center. See the full release below.
From Asheville Community Yoga
Press release
Asheville Community Yoga is hosting a yogathon and swimathon event next month in hopes of raising $100,000 needed for the nonprofit’s upcoming expansion later this year.
From noon Saturday, Aug. 8 until noon Sunday, Aug. 9, Executive Director Michael Greenfield will lead 24 hours of yoga practices at Asheville Community Yoga, at the same time that one of the center’s board members, local hand surgeon Dr. Chris Lechner, simultaneously uses the focus he attained through yoga to swim 80 miles in 48 hours across Lake Michigan. The concurrent events will both raise money for Asheville Community Yoga’s expansion.
To make the event accessible to all levels, the 24-hour period will incorporate a wide variety of movement styles, from active flow to passive restorative poses, as well as breathwork, meditation, live music, a movie screening, time in nature, mindful eating and a fire circle. Participants will be sponsored by donations from family and friends for their commitment to the event, with all proceeds benefitting the center’s upcoming expansion.
Dr. Chris Lechner credits the yoga practice he has cultivated at Asheville Community Yoga for his ability to accomplish this longtime goal of swimming across Lake Michigan. He will be toting his paddle board along with him on the 80-mile swim, so that he can take yoga breaks to refresh his body and mind. He planned to take on this challenge in hopes of increasing awareness for the benefits of yoga he found through Asheville Community Yoga as well as raising money for the center’s expansion by being sponsored with donations for the swim.
The doctor recently accomplished a mighty feat in May by paddling the entire French Broad River, a 227-mile adventure that took two weeks and may have been the very first time anyone has endeavored a full through-paddle of the French Broad. He paddled eight to 12 hours per day, and says that practicing yoga on his board three times a day was a major part of what helped him get through, both physically and mentally.
In the five years since opening as a nonprofit donation-based center in 2010, Asheville Community Yoga has grown into an organization of more than 5,000 members and 50 teachers offering up to 16 classes a day.
Despite the rapid pace of the community’s growth in recent years, demand continues to outpace the amount of resources the organization has available to devote. With more than 50,000 visits by students each year, the nonprofit has experienced such incredible interest in affordable yoga that current staffing levels and space capacity can no longer meet the growing demand. Though more than 80 classes a week are offered, there are times in the week when the two studios are at capacity and the nonprofit is forced to turn away people.
The organization’s plan to buy its building and expand into the other half later this year will not only double the center’s space in the near term, but also make the nonprofit sustainable and capable of serving a larger number of community members with a greater variety of needs long term. Since beginning the capital campaign in early 2015, the nonprofit has raised $56,000 of its $150,000 expansion budget. Organizers hope the upcoming Yogathon-Swimathon fundraiser will help the community reach its goal by the end of this year.
To get involved in the Yogathon, visit www.classy.org/yogathon. For the full event schedule as well as more information about the upcoming expansion and fundraising efforts, visit www.ashevillecommunityyoga.com/news/yogathon. For more information and a full schedule of classes, or to make a tax-deductible donation to the expansion fund, visit www.ashevillecommunityyoga.com.
ABOUT ASHEVILLE COMMUNITY YOGA:Asheville Community Yoga is a 501(c)3 nonprofit donation-based center, with the mission of making yoga accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Asheville Community Yoga is located at 8 Brookdale Road in North Asheville, less than a quarter mile off the Elk Mountain Road exit from I-26. Since its inception in 2010, Asheville Community has been recognized with the Best Yoga Studio honor in Mountain Xpress’ Best of WNC readers’ poll for the past four years running. For more information, visit www.ashevillecommunityyoga.com.
So good for promoting yoga around the world! I wish we had something like this in my town, I probably would’ve got into it sooner! I love Yoga and it really changed my life for the better. I was in such a bad place before. I wrote more about how here if you’re interested in learning more: http://youryogahub.com/the-yoga-that-changed-my-life/
Good Luck ACY!