During the first Yoga in the Park fundraising event held Sunday, 290 people participated.
With the invitation for the public to come to Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park every Sunday of the summer, Chinook Yoga co-owner Carla Wainwright said she wants to give back to the community.
The event makes yoga accessible for all and those willing to donate will see proceeds from the sessions go to non-profits like St. Vincent de Paul Society of Prince George who will be receiving the donations collected at the park Sunday.
The number of people at the park surprised even Wainwright, who in past seasons has seen between 100 and 150 people in attendance. Not even the threat of clouds opening up kept people away this week.
“This is the most people we’ve ever had,” Wainwright said. “This is definitely something the community looks forward to and I think word-of-mouth is spreading because it’s just such a fun event. People bring their kids and elders come. It’s accessible for everybody to spend time in a great location. This is Prince George showing up as community and it’s really beautiful.”
For first-timer Cecelia Armstrong, it was surprising to see so many people at the park doing yoga. Armstrong injured her back for the first time in her life recently and her daughter, Vanessa Laing, thought doing the stretching that is part of the yoga practice would help her mom.
“I wasn’t able to really do anything for the last three or four weeks and I’m just getting back into it and it was really good,” Armstrong said. “The stretching was really good.”
There were some things Armstrong couldn’t do but that’s OK because during a yoga session people are encouraged to do only what is comfortable – the no pain, no gain attitude is left out of the yoga equation.
Laing is a big fan of crossfit training and has been participating for a couple of years now. She finds yoga to be a nice complement to the vigorous exercise she’s used to doing.
“It was awesome,” Laing said about Yoga in the Park. “I think it’s a good mix for people who maybe have never done yoga before and this instructor (Wainwright) is really good.”
Yoga in the Park takes place every Sunday at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park from 10-11 a.m. until Aug. 26. Suggested donation is between $5 and $10 but is not mandatory and everyone is welcome.
