Seasonal Outdoor Yoga Deck & Canopy

After four incredible years of building a thriving community in our Yoga-studio-with-walls at Stepping Stone Yoga,

the pandemic hit, and, it hit our services hard.

With the transference of Yoga practice to virtually all virtual(!), I quickly realized that the nature of this forced evolution would be depleting both to social aspects of health and the energetic feel of in-person Yoga for all involved, no matter how many benefits were gained from the surge to online Yoga. So I saw a vital need for the deck and we shifted our offerings outdoors.

Due in large part to my original Sacred in the Round GoFundMe campaign when I first opened SSYS in the summer of 2016, as well as, a small co-led Yoga class fundraiser with Leigh Gregory Smith and I to help kickstart the project, I was motivated to dig down deep into my personal funds as well (and from the generous time/labor my partner put into building the deck). Thus, we were finally able to finish this 30-foot outdoor octagonal deck just outside of our "studio with walls".

Now, after the 2020 jump through online Yoga, the loss of our studio-with-walls, another season on the deck but only on the deck and without a canopy, a maternity leave from the '22 season, my feelings about practicing together in-person feel even more applicable than ever. What felt like a very necessary "stepping stone" in opening our "studio-with-walls" in 2016, now feels more in alignment with our sacred "container" and safe practice space at our Seasonal Outdoor Yoga Space "without-walls". To erect a very special and functional, yet, hardy canopy to keep us out of the glare of the hot VT Summer sun or rain showers is the goal. To practice outdoors, grounded during practice together on a solidly built octagonal deck birthed out of the love we had for our Stepping Stone Yoga community, is truly an extraordinary experience. Breathing fresh air as the mountains in the backdrop hold our "drishti" and the nearby sheep lift our laughter in the midst of a long holding "asana", we come together again laying out our stepping stones in community once more yet in a different way.

Please help us continue to raise the funds it has taken to get the deck & canopy built, the canopy shipped, and our octagonal deck refurbished for the upcoming Season.

The metaphor continues: By breaking down barriers that agendas, divisiveness, inequalities, and confinement create for us, we are creating a Yoga studio-without-walls. A vision for this space is to include all economic systems so that no one is left out from this practical step toward health and wellness: in essence, to function not just solely on the market economy in the form of rates set by overhead costs, donations, patronage, and sliding scale, but also, with Barter and the Gift Economy as all viable forms of "payments" for deck offerings.

As we continue to build our Yoga community together and place value on in-person Yoga, come join our vision for this Yoga-Studio-Without-Walls!  

Thank you in advance for either contributing funds or spreading the word.

With sincere Gratitude,