The Center for Yoga is proud to be a part of "awakening the spirit" of the Metro Detroit yoga community by offering our many yoga classes, retreats and workshops. It is our mission to create a sense of community not only through yoga practice and meditation, but by supporting the community-at-large.

Community EVENTS

108 Sun Salutations YOGATHON ~ Nov. 17, 2007
Saturday, November 17 ~ 1pm - 4pm
@ the Center for Yoga Birmingham studio

BREATHE FOR OUR CHILDREN

Support the ORCHARDS CHIDLREN'S SERVICES with each breath at the 108 Sun Salutation YOGATHON at the Center for Yoga!

Center for Yoga will host a 108 Sun Salutation Yogathon at the Birmingham studio. Our teachers will be present to instruct, encourage and be a part of the fun!

How to be a part of the Yogathon - raise $108 to participate in the Sun Salutation event.
All pledge donations will go to the ORCHARDS to support their effort to protect and nuture children and youth by providing shelter, sustenance, life- and educational skills and opportunities. Pledge donation envelopes are available at the studios.

**Questions? Call 248-646-7054 or email events@centerforyoga.com
**Visit our studios to see the poster and pick up your donation pledge envelope!
**See our promotional flyer here

Gilda's Comedy Walk
@ the Detroit Zoo
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Walk for a great cause & enjoy a day at the zoo!
The walk begins at 8:45am
Onsite registration starts at 8:00am or register online at http://www.gildasclubdetroit.org/

Come see us at the Center for Yoga Booth!

Gilda's Club is a free cancer support community named in honor of late comedian and former Detroiter Gilda Radner. Her dream was to create places where people living with cancer and their families and friends could gather to support one another and celebrate life.

Community INVOLVEMENT

Mat Donations
Practice your Karma Yoga!! Bring in your used mat to be given to our yoga volunteering projects for yogis without a mat of their own! Share your loving kindness and help grow the community of yogis! It's a great way to encourage new yoga students and keep your old mats out of the landfills! We'll be giving mats that are too worn for use to the Humane Society to be put in the animals' kennels. So there are many ways to make a difference! Mats can be given to the front desk at the Birmingham and West Bloomfield studios. Namaste!

CFY Teachers volunteer with Gilda's Club
Center for Yoga teachers are helping to support the Detroit Gilda's Club in Royal Oak, Mich. Teachers volunteer their time to teach yoga classes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, along with breathing classes to the cancer support groups once a week and a chair yoga class three times a month.

We thank our teachers for their loving kindness.

For more information about the Gilda's Club and how you can become involved, visit:
http://www.gildasclubdetroit.org/

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CFY Teachers share their hair to show they care
Jane James, Shawn and Abby Broida donated her hair to Locks of Love.
Locks of Love is a not-for-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children 18 and younger with medical hair loss. visit www.locksoflove.org for more information.

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Thank you to everyone for your love and kindness in supporting our community!
With your help, we were able to make donations to:
Yad Ezra
Oakland County Food Bank
Detroit Rescue Mission
and keep many toes warm with our sock drive!

Past Community EVENTS

BE A TIGER FOR KIDS
Tuesday, August 21 @ Commerica Park!
Center for Yoga is honored to support the efforts of Cornerstone Schools in their effort to change Detroit, one kid at a time. We invite YOU to join us!

August 21st is the biggest ball game of the year, because it's an opportunity for all of us to join the Detroit Tigers and provide scholarships to more than 1,000 students at Cornerstone Schools.
http://www.beatigerforkids.com/

Thank you for making this such a successful event!! Cornerstone Schools surpassed their goal to raise over $1.2 million!!

Relay for Life

Saturday, June 9 - Sunday, June 10 ~ 10am-10am
at the West Bloomfield High School track

Join us to represent the Center for Yoga team at the 2007 W. Bloomfield Relay for Life!! Create awareness and support for the American Cancer Society!

Yoga for A Cause

Thursday, April 26
7-8:15pm at Center for Yoga West Bloomfield

Join us for a special Vinyasa Yoga class taught by Jonny Kest - featuring a performance by singer, songwriter, Steve Acho to benefit the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

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CENTER FOR YOGA - RELAY FOR LIFE TEAM

THANK YOU to everyone for your generous support of the Relay for Life June 10-11, 2006!! The event was a huge success. A total of more than $235,000 was raised by all the teams involved.

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relay for life benefit concert with steve acho

special guest - Karen Newman!

Saturday, May 13 at 7 p.m. at the Center for Yoga - West Bloomfield studio

THANK YOU to everyone who attended the concert and so generously supported the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life!!! A special thank you to Steve Acho and Karen Newman for their energetic performance that had everyone dancing in their bare feet!!

Also, thank you to our gracious sponsors for the delicious refreshments:

Chipotle, Trader Joes and Picasso of Pizza

The Center for Yoga is committed to supporting the community. Because we receive numerous requests for donations and appearances, please fill out the form below so that we can review and fulfill your request in a timely manner.

Donation Request Form: http://www.centerforyoga.net/pdf/CFYDonationRequestForm.pdf

Community NEWS

Center for Yoga Brings Karma Yoga to Detroit!

On June 22, 2005, the Center for Yoga played a key role in helping Habitat for Humanity Detroit revitalize an impoverished Detroit community to provide a secure and healthy family living environment for 30 deserving families.

In the spirit of loving kindness and service, a Center for Yoga volunteer team including Jonny and Milla Kest, Jane James, Michael Chudnow, Jeff Friedland, Colette McLogan and Lisa Yamin, took their yoga off the mat, to contribute a full day of service to build a fitness/walking trail as part of a children's park in the new community. Funding for the trail was sponsored through a donation by Jonny and Milla, on behalf of the Center for Yoga.

This one-day history making community revitalization project was the focus of the 22nd Annual Jimmy Carter Work Project. Every year, former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter, along with his wife, Rosalyn, join an estimated 3000 volunteers and sponsors from across the United States and around the world, to build houses in partnership with families in need.

For 2005, Habitat for Humanity Detroit was honored to be selected by President Carter and Habitat for Humanity International as one of the host sites. During the one-week project initiative, June 18-24, 2005, Habitat Detroit constructed 30 homes and a beautiful community wellness park, with the help of Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, dozens of area dignitaries, corporations, churches and organizations, including the Center for Yoga!

Through a desire to model and share a message of health and community outreach, the Center for Yoga was honored to contribute to this incredible day of service and be a part of the positive energy and change that will continue to revitalize the City of Detroit and all Metro Detroit communities!

Testimonials

Jonny,
I have just finished a second season of triathlon, and wanted to thank you for the excellent experience I have had through your studio and your classes. It transformed me as an athlete and has changed my in a way hard to describe. I learned that success has everything to do with being at peace and remaining steady and absolutely nothing to do with finish lines.
Namaste ~ Kate

vvv

Center for Yoga and Jonny have helped to save my life from the grip of depression. Something no doctor or prescription had ever been able to do. Thank you. Namaste, Jill

vvv

To Jonny and the teachers at Center for Yoga Birmingham:
When my mother was dying of cancer, I let my yoga practice slip--first I was going rarely, then not at all. In retrospect, I see that I'd decided on "self-sacrifice"--my thinking was that more time caretaking was the way to be most useful.

I became angry--and felt robbed. It seemed unfair that she was dying so young and so hard. It took me these past three years to realize that my loss is not unique and even if we resist it, life does go on.

I recently learned that my father is dying of the same disease. I've tried to continue my practice (though I could be more consistent)--making time where there seems to be none. I know that I need this or stress will win (and when this happens self-pity and resentment are sure to follow).

Yoga and meditation have helped me find acceptance for what is and an understanding that "staying in the day" is essential. I try to have gratitude for ordinary moments. I think I also have a more postive presence at work and with my dad. I still have bad days, but to find serenity in times of adversity is a gift.

Thank you

vvv

Breathe
By Center for Yoga Student MIDGE URE

With every waking breath I breathe,
I see what life has dealt to me,
With every sadness I deny,
I see a chance inside me die.
Give me a chance for something new,
To touch, to hold, to pull me through,
Send me a guiding light that shines,
across this darkened life of mine.
Breathe some soul in me,
Breathe your gift of love to me,
Breathe life to live for me
Breathe to make me breathe.

For every man who built a home,
a place of promise for his own,
he fights against an open flow,
of lies and failures we all know.
For those who have and who have not,
How can you live with what you’ve got?
Give me a touch of something sure,
I could be happy evermore.

Breathe some soul in me,
Breathe your gift of love to me,
Breathe life to live for me,
Breathe to make me breathe.
Breathe your honesty,
Breathe your innocence to me,
Breathe your world and set me free,
Breathe to make me breathe.

This life prepares the strangest things,
The dreams we dream of – what life brings,
The highest highs can turn around
to sow the seeds on stony ground.

Breathe
Breathe
Breathe some soul in me,
Breathe your gift of love to me,
Breathe life to live for me,
to see to make me breathe.
Breathe your honesty,
Breathe your innocence to me,
Breathe your world and sent me free,
Breathe to make me breathe.