No quantity of mosquitoes will dampen Sarah Preston’s enthusiasm for practicing yoga at Kingswood Park this afternoon.
“We’re bringing bug spray,” she promised, although there is no alternate venue for inclement weather.
The office manager with the Gateway Association for Community Living is also the organizer of the special event — Yoga in the Park. She hopes it will do as much to boost people’s spirits as raise awareness and some funds for the 36-year-old organization.
Started by a group of likeminded parents looking for educational alternatives for their children, it focuses its work on people of any age with all degrees of intellectual and developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorders and Down syndrome. Now it is mainly a family resource centre that provides education, family support and mentorship while promoting understanding and inclusiveness within the community at large.
“We want everybody who has a developmental disability to basically be respected in their community — have a job that matters and have friends that care about them, not just people that are paid to be there.”
Gateway provides its programs and services free of charge. The yoga event is being held here because the organization facilitates a family support group in the city and it supports an average of 60 St. Albert families each year.
According to their statistics, more than seven per cent of the entire population lives with an intellectual disability.
The session will be led by local instructor Kari De-Champlain Pipella. She and Preston came up with the idea after considering different publicity and marketing campaigns.
“We’re trying out new ideas of fundraising,” Preston said. “Everybody does the golf tournaments so we decided to try this.”
Later, she added, “A lot of people haven’t heard of us and we’ve been around for quite some time now.”
Yoga in Kingswood Park goes from 1 to 2:30 p.m. today. The cost is $20 per person. The park is located along the north side of Sir Winston Churchill Avenue, just opposite Kingswood Drive.
All proceeds will go towards funding Gateway’s annual women’s retreat to be held at the Star of the North Retreat House.
Gateway has plans to conduct two more Yoga in the Park sessions on Aug. 13 and Sept. 10.
For more information, call Gateway at 780-454-0701 or visit www.gatewayassociation.ca.
