service

We got our first taste of fundraising at breathe on Thanksgiving 2006 when we held a benefit yoga class to support our fellow yogi, Michael Shields, and his passion for H.O.P.E - an outreach program he helped start in Haiti. From that time forward, it was clear that our yoga community could reach far beyond the borders of the Village of Pittsford.

Deciding where to focus our fundraising efforts was definitely more a decision of the heart than a calculated decision. Seane Corn, Suzanne Sterling and Hala Khouri founded Off the Mat, Into the World Seva Challenge as a way to use the collective power of the global yoga community to make a difference in the world. (The global yoga community is now 25 million yogis strong!!). Being a part of this collective tribe and working with Off The Mat is something that breathe is committed to.

SEVA CHALLENGE: GLOBAL CONTRIBUTIONS
In 2008, we committed to our first Seva Challenge to help the underserved children in Cambodia. Breathe was the first to meet the $20,000 goal out of over a hundred people who took the pledge. Abby Weis was among the nineteen activists who traveled to Cambodia to work in the orphanage and helped put the funds to work.

In 2009, we again took the Seva Challenge pledge to raise $20,000 for the underserved women and children in wartorn Uganda. This cause really hit home in that the main project is to build and support a birthing center in Uganda were over 150 women are dying weekly due to childbirth related causes. The money that is being raised will change this unacceptable statistic. We completed our $20,000 pledge with our Thanksgiving Benefit Class.

View photos of 2008 Seva Challenge dollars at work in Cambodia
View photos of 2009 Uganda Seva Challenge fundraiser with Julia Butterfly Hill

LOCAL FUNDRAISING:
After completing the Seva Challenge in May, 2008, with the help of our yoga community we went on to raise close to $15,000 for children's charities in Rochester. Bivona Children's Advocacy Center. Sojourner House, and Catholic Family Services were among the organizations we helped to support.

In 2009, breathe was a supporter/contributor of the AidsRochester Red Ribbon Ride and catered a benefit dinner for the Night of 1000 Parties to benefit this local organization.

View photos from the Soujourner House fundraiser where breathe raised $2500 to
fund the back-to-school back pack program.

Yoga is about union. People supporting people. Integrating that connection into breathe has become a major part of the lifeblood of who we are.