Fundraiser sends yoga to Africa

Thirty-five people gathered on McCorkle Place Saturday and performed the same set of yoga poses more than a hundred times, celebrating summer and raising money to teach Kenyans yoga.

The Franklin Street Yoga Center sent 35 teachers and students to gather in a circle on McCorkle Place where they practiced 108 sets of poses called sun salutations, a traditional custom that honors the changing of seasons.

The ceremony took about two hours.

The Summer Solstice celebration, held outside for the first time, was also a fundraiser for the Africa Yoga Project, a foundation that works to better Kenyans’ lives through the joys of yoga.

“The Africa Yoga Project creates an opportunity for Kenyans to learn to teach yoga,” Franklin Street Yoga owner Lori Burgwyn said.

Created by Paige Elenson, the Africa Yoga Project provides living wages to more than 40 yoga teachers in Kenya who provide more than 100 free classes to 2,000 people in Nairobi.

Celebration participants donated money to help send a group of yoga instructors to train more Kenyan teachers in July.

Amanda Hale, who cited the unity of Franklin Street Yoga as her reason for becoming a teacher there two years ago, said she believes the Africa Yoga Project is beneficial to the people of Kenya.

“I think yoga is one way to bring unity to people,” she said. “It’s another way to create a community and serve something greater.”

Proof of the uniting powers of yoga can be seen in Franklin Street Yoga itself, Hale said.

“(Lori) created an amazing community. Everyone here knows your name. I love the brightness and positivity — it’s infectious.”

Another Franklin Street Yoga teacher, Mike Lyons, said that yoga is a way to discover more peaceful love, your body and your breath.

“I think it’s a great and wonderful opportunity to come together and share something that we all love doing,” he said.

In that way, the Franklin Street Yoga community came together in unity Saturday, helping each other through the marathon of sun salutations, said Erica Brody, a member of Franklin Street Yoga since February.

She decided to participate in the summer solstice celebration because of the new challenge it posed — one that didn’t prove to be difficult at all.

“It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be,” Brody said. “The energy of the other people around me really helped me.”

In Burgwyn’s point of view, the Summer Solstice celebration was a huge success.

“It was a beautiful day to come together to honor the changing of the seasons and to support an organization that is trying to make a difference in Kenya,” she said.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.