Outstretched hands

Yoga seems to be everywhere in Portland, with dozens of gyms and institutes offering courses around town. Numerous Portland State students take classes from Campus Rec or for credit, believing that if they attain physical wellness through the sequences and controlled breathing of the practice, yoga can help them lead a more mindful and healthy life.

COURTESY OF STREET YOGA

Striking poses: Street Yoga is always looking to attract new volunteers to mentor underprivileged youths.

No one is more invested in this idea than Street Yoga, a group of yoga devotees who believe that yoga can be a source of positive change for communities undergoing hardship.

The organization has been putting on clinics around the city for a decade now, and this Saturday they will host the Street Yoga 10th Anniversary Benefit, an event that renews the members’ dedication to the program and showcases Street Yoga to potential supporters and volunteers.

Street Yoga caters its yoga programs to “youth and families and their caregivers struggling with homelessness, poverty, abuse, addiction, trauma and behavioral challenges,” according to its website. At the benefit, teachers and volunteers will share stories from their time working with Street Yoga.

The benefit will also feature a dinner, a silent auction of donated items and a chance to dance to the music of DJ Anjali, all in order to raise funds for 2013. The benefit has a few changes this year, after being pushed back to kick off the organization’s winter fundraising campaign, but Street Yoga Executive Director Alice Puckett says that there won’t be a change in the liveliness.

“There’s always lots of energy,” Puckett said, referring to previous fundraising campaigns that have been overwhelming successes: The last Street Yoga fundraiser surpassed its goal by $5,000.

Street Yoga is looking to increase this amount, and after a transitional period earlier in the year, the organization will finish up 2012 with an event that proves they haven’t lost a step in that transition. Puckett believes this season’s goal of $30,000 is reasonable and that Street Yoga will experience the support she’s always seen from Portland.

While this is her first turn as executive director during a benefit, Puckett has been involved with Street Yoga for more than four years, beginning at teacher training in 2008. Her first site placement was at a juvenile detention facility for girls, an experience that still resonates with Puckett and exemplifies the success of the organization.

“I was unsure how the girls were feeling about the yoga,” Puckett said of her time at the juvenile detention center. “One day I came in with hand soap, provided by a donor, for anyone who wanted to lead a session. Every single girl raised [her] hand, and they all had the ability to lead.”

Anecdotes like these help Street Yoga attract volunteers who desire a teaching experience that is rewarding on a number of levels. The training for these instructors involves more than just learning yoga postures and sequences: Street Yoga instructors must be able to understand and explain the ways that yoga can benefit the at-risk youth and victims of unfortunate circumstance they will be teaching.

But even with the extra effort Street Yoga expects from their instructors, people continue to join the organization.

“It’s always humbling to see the volume of people coming out to volunteer,” said Chrissy Becker, Street Yoga’s volunteer coordinator. Like Puckett, Becker is also a yoga instructor for the program, and she considers her challenging initial placement at David Douglas High School an important experience.

David Douglas, the largest high school in the state of Oregon, has long tried to shed the title of poorest high school in the Portland metropolitan area. Becker had a unique experience there as a substitute instructor.

“There were a variety of challenges,” Becker said. But “most of [the challenges] were really great experiences in the end—opportunities to move through something together. Whenever we had a challenging day, the group was closer when we left.”