Sat 6/21 @ 9:30am – 12:30pm
By John Benson
After spending a decade living between New York City, Los Angeles and Boston, Sonya Patel returned to Northeast Ohio with an idea to give back the community. Her passion was yoga, but how exactly does someone effect change with downward facing dog and warrior pose?
What the 2000 Solon High School graduate came up with was Zenworks Yoga, which has evolved in recent years. This includes its “Summer Solstice Celebration,” which takes place 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sat 6/21 at Edgewater Park. The inaugural fundraiser ($20 donation recommended) includes a yoga class with live music from FireSideLive and free henna tattoos from Fusion Henna Studio.
Cool Cleveland talked to Patel, a mother of a 2-year-old, about this flexible and core-strengthening endeavor.
Cool Cleveland: First of all, what is the idea behind the “Summer Solstice Celebration”?
Sonya Patel: This event is a fundraiser for Zenworks Yoga, which is a 501c3 in Cleveland that provides free yoga [for] underserved children and families. So we go into schools, rec centers, after-school programs and residential facilities in the city of Cleveland. We work with organizations to do free yoga programs for kids and families. All of our funding so far has been through donations. With “Summer Solstice Celebration,” we want people to follow this do-good, feel-good model. So we ask them to come do yoga with us and provide a donation. That way we can raise money for our school program. We’re hoping to have 200 to 250 people come to the event.
Wow, that’s a lot of lotus positions. How did you get started teaching kids yoga?
I was involved with Teach For America about four years ago in New York City, where I taught second and third grade in a very urban school in Brooklyn, New York. My kids were super stressed out with a lot of anxiety. I noticed they didn’t really have an outlet for all of that, so I started doing a little bit of yoga in the classroom during transitions and gym. They loved it.
What exactly is Zenworks Yoga?
When I moved back to Cleveland, I actually started Zenworks but it wasn’t a non-profit. We were approaching different organizations and facilities to see if they wanted to do yoga for kids. As the year progressed, I noticed a lot of schools we approached really liked the idea but didn’t have funding. Half the schools can’t pay for an art program let alone have a yoga teacher. So I decided to make it a non-profit, which would really allow access to the community that wouldn’t necessarily be able to go to a yoga studio or take a yoga class unless it would be provided to them for us.
How are Cleveland kids taking to Zenworks?
We’ve been around for almost a year, and we served over 600 children and families. We have six programs scheduled for this summer that will be happening at different Cleveland rec facilities. Families and the kids are really excited. We want to do 20 programs this fall.
Finally, it wasn’t too long ago the mention of yoga to basically anyone was followed by eye rolling. Is that still the case today?
No. Almost four years ago when I started Zenworks, I’d be educating people on the benefits of yoga for kids, why kids can do it and it would be great for them to do it. But now, it’s like a household name. Yoga isn’t weird. It’s not this mystic theme that people don’t get. There’s a studio at practically every corner and people love it.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.