Breathe Joy Yoga Information

Read all about Breathe Joy Yoga and scroll all the way down for links:As seen in the Sharon Advocate & Easton Journal on June 9, 2006: Reach out to children while reaching your body and mind0-4256Friday, June 9, 2006 While local children may be winding up the school year, the wheels never stop spinning and the school work never ends for School on Wheels, an Easton-based nonprofit organization which provides school supplies and tutors for area homeless children. To help generate money and much-needed school supplies at a time when most area residents have summer vacation on the mind, School on Wheels and Breathe Joy Yoga of Sharon have teamed up to offer a fundraising yoga class on Saturday, June 17 from 8:45-10 a.m. The all-levels Hatha yoga class will be held at Breathe Joy Yoga studio in Sharon and the suggested donation is $10. All proceed go to School on Wheels. The studio will also be collecting school supplies - such as new backpacks, colored pencils, one-subject notebooks, and paperback dictionaries - during the months of June and July. Breathe Joy Director Robyn Parets first became aware of School on Wheels when she and her children started noticing school supply collection boxes, decorated like school buses, in area libraries. When School on Wheels Executive Director Cheryl Opper started taking yoga classes at Breathe Joy Yoga, Parets asked if her children could help by making a collection box for the studio. One thing led to another and the studio and non-profit decided to offer the class on June 17. "It seemed like a natural as Breathe Joy Yoga is dedicated to offering classes that will not only enhance the lives of its students but the lives of others in our community. In the yoga community, this is known as SEVA or the act of selfless service," says Parets. Opper, an Easton resident who founded School on Wheels of Massachusetts in the spring of 2004, is likewise looking forward to the class as it will help raise awareness for the organization and its cause. "Many people don't know that the average age of a homeless person in Massachusetts is 8 years old and approximately 10,500 families per year become homeless in Massachusetts. School on Wheels helps give these families and children the jump-start they need to succeed in school and in life," says Opper. "Our mission is to support the academic achievement of homeless children in pre-kindergarten through grade twelve with after school tutoring, needed school supplies, and educational assistance for families," she says. School on Wheels also provides summer enrichment programs; preschool reading readiness programs; and educational resource centers, complete with computers, printers, reference materials, workbooks, and flashcards. The organization currently provides services and one-on-one tutoring for school age children at the David Jon Louison Family Center in Brockton, the Evelyn House in Stoughton and the Conway House in Middleboro.